Country Music News

TODAY IN COUNTRY MUSIC HISTORY

(Tues., Feb.26)

Early Grand Ole Opry fiddler Sid Harkreader was born in 1898.

Johnny Cash was born in 1932.

Poco guitarist Paul Cotton was born in 1943.

The Louvin Brothers debuted on the Grand Ole Opry in 1955.

The Desert Rose Band gave their final concert in Indio, Calif., in 1994.

MUSIC AND MORE

COUNTRY GOES TO L.A.

The Dixie Chicks, Emmylou Harris, Trisha Yearwood and Dwight Yoakam will perform Tuesday night at the Universal Amphitheatre in Los Angeles. The show is one of four being staged by the Recording Artists Coalition around L.A. to raise money to support artists' issues, CMT.com reports.

On Monday night, Garth Brooks saluted Billy Joel as part of the Recording Academy's star-studded tribute to the Piano Man in L.A.

Meanwhile, at the Staples Center -- site of Wednesday's Grammy Awards ceremony -- the "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" troup (Harris, Alison Kraus, Gillian Welch, Ralph Stanley and the Soggy Bottom Boys) rehearsed their Grammy appearance Monday night. On Tuesday morning, Alan Jackson is scheduled to do a run-through for "Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning)." In a break with Grammy tradition, Jackson has been asked to perform his reflective song on the show, even though he has no nominations -- and has never won a Grammy.

The 44th Annual Grammy Awards are set for Wednesday night (8-11:30 p.m. ET/PT) on CBS. The Dixie Chicks and Yearwood (with duet partner Don Henley) are among the artists who'll be presenters.

LEANN RIMES

LeAnn Rimes has tied the knot with 21-year-old dancer Dean Sheremet.

Rimes, 19, walked down the aisle last Saturday in Dallas, her publicist confirmed to E! Online. No other details of the nuptials have been made public.

Rimes met Sheremet last May at the Academy of Country Music Awards in Nashville -- not long after the singer broke things off with actor Andrew Keegan, whom she had been dating since she was 15. She and Sheremet have been inseparable ever since. They announced their engagement in December.

KASAY CHAMBERS RESTING AFTER COLLAPSE

Singer-songwriter Kasey Chambers, who is six months pregnant, is resting at home in Australia after collapsing on stage from heat exhaustion in San Francisco last Wednesday.

"She is fine and her baby is fine," her spokesman at Warner Bros. Records told country.com.

Chambers, 25, was on a mini-tour of the United States in support of her second solo CD, "Barricades & Brickwalls," when she fell ill and fainted three songs into her set at Bimbo's 365 Club in San Francisco. Two doctors in the audience examined her. The singer performed one more song and the left the stage. She flew home the next day, canceling a show in Seattle.

Chambers is planning to return to the United States in the fall, after her baby is born.

LORETTA LYNN'S UPSET TUMMY

Loretta Lynn was checked out at a Fort Worth, Texas, area hospital last Saturday night after experiencing severe abdominal pains before a scheduled concert at Billy Bob's Texas. She was released the same night and her own doctor examined her when she returned to Nashville Sunday, country.com reports.

"He said it was just an intestinal virus -- something a little bit of time and rest will take care of," Lynn's spokeswoman said.

Lynn, 67, did not cancel any other dates, and she plans to attend her induction ceremony into the Kentucky Music Hall of Fame this Thursday. Lynn's postponed appearance at Billy Bob's Texas will be rescheduled.