COUNTRY QUICKIES: 1/31/13

~~ Tim McGraw is off the sauce.

Tim has been clean and sober for five years. He told People magazine, "I drank a lot from my point of view, and I needed to stop. I felt quitting was something I needed to do. I didn't feel I had any moral high ground with my kids in the long run."

Tim added, "I'm in a good place right now. I really feel like this new album is not a culmination of the things I've done, it's a new beginning of the things I am going to do. I want to enjoy my career and having my family. I have a busy life, but it is a fulfilling life."

His "Two Lanes of Freedom" album will be released next Tuesday (Feb. 5).
People

~~ Emmylou Harris has been charged with misdemeanor hit-and-run related to an accident last year.

The Grammy-winning singer was charged Wednesday for failing to exchange information with a driver whose car she hit on an L.A. freeway on Oct. 1.

A lawyer for Emmylou entered a "not guilty" plea on Emmylou's behalf.
TMZ

~~Jason Aldean and Train's Pat Monahan have joined the All for the Hall concert in New York City on Feb. 26. They will perform with previously announced artists Vince Gill and Emmylou Harris at the Best Buy Theater to raise funds for the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville. The concert will be held as a "guitar pull" with artists taking turns playing their songs.

~~Gary Allan grabbed his first number 1 on the Billboard 200 chart as "Set You Free," his ninth studio album, debuted with 106,000 sold.  Gary will be first on the Country Airplay chart with his hit single "Every Storm (Runs Out of Rain)".

Taylor Swift's "Red" is the only other country disc in the top 10, dropping from fourth to ninth with 32,000 units sold, down 21 percent.

The charts will be officially released today.

~~Luke Bryan will release "Spring Break ... Here to Party", his latest spring break-themed album, on March 5. The 14-song collection features many of the songs featured on his previous spring break albums, along with two new originals he wrote for the release.

Luke will take a break from his Dirt Road Diaries tour to play two informal shows at the Spinnaker Beach Club in Panama City, Fla., on March 12-13. He resumes the tour on March 14 with a concert at the Amphitheatre at the Wharf in Orange Beach, Ala.

~~Carrie Underwood is teaming up with Tickets-for-Charity.com to offer fans some of the best seats in the house on her "Blown Away Tour" while also benefiting the Academy of Country Music's ACM Lifting Lives and the C.A.T.S. Foundation at www.TicketsforCharity.com/ACMLiftingLives.

Carrie joins artists like Zac Brown Band, Brad Paisley and Toby Keith in giving fans access to seats in sold-out sections for concerts nationwide. Fans pay the same or better price they will find elsewhere – the difference is that their purchase through Tickets-for-Charity.com supports causes important to artists and fans, rather than ticket resellers.

~~ Army vet Brendan Marrocco became the first U.S. serviceman to survive a quadruple amputation, after his armored vehicle was bombed in Iraq. He has since become the first person to have a double-arm transplant performed at Johns Hopkins Hospital.

The soldier says it would be "great" if his first handshake was with Blake Shelton. A fan tweeted the story directly to Blake. 

Blake's response: "Wow.. Speechless. I will make this happen!!"
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