Taylor Swift's Work Ethic

(www.gactv.com)

Taylor Swift's parents taught her early on to put her heart into her work, and she learned that lesson well.

Taylor tells the Colorado Spring Independent that her parents stressed: "Have high hopes, but never expectations about what you're going to get in life," and now she says, "I still can't believe [my success]. I'm just trying to work so hard."

Taylor has already opened on tour for Rascal Flatts, George Strait, Kenny Chesney, Brad Paisley and Tim McGraw & Faith Hill. She's been able to bring her live music performance to more than a million fans.

"I'm really, really lucky to be able to tour with all these people," she says. "I've had five major tours in a year and a half. I don't take vacations. I don't take weeks off. I'm so lucky; I should play every night."

While fans won't see a new album from Taylor until this time next year, she will sing in 33 states in just three months this fall. And Target stores have already released her six-song holiday exclusive, for which she wrote two new songs and rewrote the melody for "Silent Night."

"I like the holidays a lot," she says. "I grew up on a Christmas tree farm, so the holidays for me were about helping Dad lug trees up a hill, putting them on people's cars."

If Taylor keeps it up, it's likely she'll reach just the future she's hoping for. "In 10 years, I'll be 27," she says. "I hope I'm still doing this. I'd love to be headlining."

Carrie Underwood Hosts CMA Radio Preview Show

(www.gactv.com)

Premiere Radio Networks' 2007 CMA Awards Preview Special, hosted by reigning CMA Female Vocalist of the Year, Carrie Underwood, begins today.

The four-hour radio special, which airs in advance of The 41st Annual CMA Awards, will feature music and interviews with top stars including Kenny Chesney, Brad Paisley, George Strait, Keith Urban, Brooks & Dunn, Martina McBride, Rascal Flatts, Miranda Lambert and Sugarland, among others. The special will be broadcast to stations nationwide.

Carrie is nominated for three awards at this year's CMA's, including Female Vocalist of the Year, as well as Single and Music Video of the Year, both for "Before He Cheats." The song also received a nod in the "Song of the Year" category.

Carrie performed on the CMA Awards in 2005 — on the day her debut disc, Some Hearts, was released — and in 2006 took home two awards in her first year of eligibility. She will perform again on this year's show.

Garth Brooks Takes Over SIRIUS' Prime Country

(www.gactv.com)

SIRIUS Satellite Radio will celebrate the release of Garth Brooks' The Ultimate Hits by turning over the reins of its Prime Country channel to him for two weeks beginning Nov. 5.

Garth Brooks Radio will air on SIRIUS channel 61 and will feature Garth's music with his own personal introductions. He will also play some of his favorite country acts and discuss what each means to him.

"Garth Brooks is an unparalleled worldwide star, and we are excited to have him take over an entire SIRIUS channel, bringing his unique blend of creative energy and singular charisma to our airwaves," said Scott Greenstein, president of entertainment and sports for SIRIUS. "In keeping with SIRIUS' tradition of creating exclusive, artist-branded channels dedicated to the most iconic figures in music history, the launch of Garth Brooks Radio will give our listeners an innovative and direct connection to a country legend."

Lonestar Plans Christmas CD, Tour

(www.cmt.com)

Lonestar will release a new album, My Christmas List, through Cracker Barrel stores on Tuesday (Nov. 6). The project is the first featuring the band's new lead singer, Cody Collins. It features nine Christmas classics and two new songs written especially for the album. In addition, the band will embark on a Christmas tour on Nov. 29 in Dubuque, Iowa, with tour stops planned in Connecticut, Rhode Island, Maryland and North Carolina.

Ronnie Dunn's Answered Prayer

(http://www.gactv.com)

Brooks & Dunn's Ronnie Dunn is known as a religious man, and Country Weekly recently asked him if there had ever been a moment when he knew with certainty that God heard his prayer.

"I went to my knees — the only time I've done it — I dropped to my knees in a field in Oklahoma years ago," Ronnie says. "I said, 'I've come to the end of my rope. This is it. I've done it.' And I had. I was with a weed-eater a mile out in the middle of some 106-degree prairie. I said, 'I'm either gonna make it in this business or I have ruined my life. I don't know where to go, what to do.' "

Ronnie says as he got up and started walking back home, his wife, Janine, drove up and said, "A guy named Tim Dubois just called and said for you to call him."

Ronnie says he knew who Tim was but hadn't been talking to him. "I went and picked up the phone, and he goes, 'I want to take 'Boot Scoot' and cut it for a single with Asleep at the Wheel.' I'm like, 'Ahhh, that's not what I wanted to hear.' But at least someone on the end of the line liked it.

"It happened that quick — just like that," Ronnie continues. "All the religious training I had, the one thing I remember them teaching that really stuck with me was when it is truly the end of the line, and your pride and everything you have is washed out of the picture — when you could never doubt that it's coming from some other place [he snaps fingers] just like that lightning striking right where you are, that happened. And it started all this...it started it."