Here's the EPK made for Kristy Lee Cook's new album "Why Wait."

The CMA announced their first round of performers today.  Keith Urban, a 3 time Male Vocalist and one-time Entertainer of the Year winner, leads the pack of performers.  Other artists scheduled to perform include Taylor Swift, Brooks & Dunn and George Strait.  Click the image to find out whomelse is performing.

Like six other people, Kristy Lee Cook has used the American Idol platform to realize her dream of a country music career.  From the beginning of the show it was obvious that Cook was one of the most commercially ready packages of the seventh season, after only the winner David Cook and runner-up David Archuleta. While commercially viable, does "Why Wait" succeed in making Kristy Lee relevant?

The list of nominees for the 41st annual CMA Awards was released and there were few surprises.  Kenny Chesney leads the nominees with 7 nominations including top noms for entertainer, male vocalist and album of the year.  Who else was nominated? click to find out.

The latest Soundscan numbers are out and once again Kid Rock finds himself high on the charts with his nearly year old (non digitally released) album.  The new releases last week included Jimmy Wayne, The Lost Trailers, Jason Boland & The Stragglers and the Now Country compilation.  How did it all go down? read more to find out.

Carrie Underwood has become a star in a short time by recording emotional and fun songs.  Here's one of the emotional ones. 

Here's another special acoustic version of a Carrie Underwood track from "Carnival Ride." This one's "The More Boys I Meet"

Here's a video from Carrie Underwood's song for the "Enchanted" soundtrack.

With a lack of new releases during last week's holiday week there wasn't much movement on the Billboard Hot 200 Albums chart. Taylor Swift, for the 23rd week, leads the pack with her triple-platinum self-titled debut album. Over on the singles chart, Blake Shelton reigns supreme with "Home."

Why do country music labels decide to sign and foster reality show contestants at the expense of nuturing and promoting talent organically? We come up with a couple reasons and a solution to the problem.