I added some pictures from Kellie’s appearance at the Grand Rally:

Performing

Candids

By DAVE PAULSON
Staff Writer

Henry Baah, a seventh-grader and future student of Thurgood Marshall Middle School, couldn’t say what was more exciting for him: receiving a new snare drum to play in the school band, or getting to meet Kellie Pickler.

The country star and former American Idol contestant was at the future Thurgood Marshall site, along with Mayor Karl Dean and Country Music Association Chief Executive Officer Tammy Genovese, to help deliver more than 75 new instruments for the school’s music program.

“I should have hit the gym before I came,” Pickler said, while passing along one of six tubas unloaded from a truck.

‘We are Music City’

Thurgood Marshall is one of 30 Metro Nashville public schools receiving instruments as part of CMA’s “Keep the Music Playing” partnership with the Nashville Alliance for Public Education. CMA donates half of the net proceeds from its annual CMA Music Festival to the program, and to date has raised more than $1.1 million for instruments and musical equipment.

“We are Music City,” Dean said. “We have a rich history of all types of music in Nashville … we’ve got it all, and we need to have more music in our schools. It’s important that we be a leader in terms of musical education, and CMA has really helped make that possible.”

Pickler emphasized the program’s importance to the students themselves, explaining to them while passing instruments that her school system didn’t provide for a school band until high school.

“I love music, and I know with you guys, it’s so dear to your hearts as it is mine,” she said. “It’s awesome that CMA Music Festival gives half the proceeds to you guys so that you can have the best equipment possible, because you are the best and you deserve the best, and I’m honored to be a part of it.”

Thurgood Marshall is the largest recipient of instruments for this year’s program, which raised $655,624 through proceeds from the 2007 CMA Music Festival. In addition to the instruments, HCA is donating 800 tickets to Metro high schoolers for a concert during the CMA Music Fest.

“This is one of the most fun things that we get to do,” Genovese said. “We love being part of the community. It’s what we are, it’s who we are.”

The Tennesseean

 It was announced that the first single off of Kellie’s sophomore album will be “Don’t You Know You’re Beautiful?” You can listen to the song here.

The ACM Top New Female nominee and 3-time CMT Award winner is thrilled to be introducing new music from her forthcoming album. “I’m so excited to be performing on the show and doubly so, to be debuting the new single. It’s such a great song, with a positive message and it’s different than any other song I’ve recorded before,” said Kellie.

Written by Aimee Mayo, Chris Lindsey and Karen Rochelle, “Don’t You Know You’re Beautiful” is the first single from her sophomore album, which will be released later this year. The single will be available to country radio in June.

source: Kellie’s official site 

photo credit: Gordon Freed

CMT.com is collecting fan photos from past CMA Music Festivals and we want your help! 

 Like last year, we are collecting these to put up on our CMA Music Festival microsite in a fan photos gallery.  It could be from a concert, at a private fan club party, or just hanging around downtown.

SEND IN YOUR PHOTOS!!

Toby Keith, Kellie Pickler and LeAnn Rimes lead the list of musicians set to perform live on the 43rd Annual Academy of Country Music Awards.

In a special performance, Kenny Chesney will duet with George Strait on the May 18 telecast. The two will sing their “Shiftwork” from Chesney’s album Poets & Pirates, live for the first time. The two will also face off against each other in the Entertainer of the Year category.

Chesney leads the pack of nominated artists, earning 11 nominations this year, including top male vocalist. Other big nominees include Rodney Atkins, who nabbed six nods, and Big & Rich and Sugarland with four nominations each.

Previously announced performers include: Carrie Underwood, Brad Paisley, Garth Brooks, Taylor Swift, among others. The Academy also announced that Criss Angel, Jewel and Dr. Phil and Robin McGraw are expected to make appearances.

Fans may vote in all categories at www.voteACM.com. The awards, hosted by Reba McEntire, will air live on May 18 (8 p.m. ET, CBS) from Las Vegas’s MGM Grand Garden Arena.

Source: People.com

Kellie Pickler will sing on Capitol Hill Wednesday afternoon to help honor grandparents who raise their grandchildren.

It’s a deeply personal issue to Pickler, who was raised by her grandparents in North Carolina after her parents separated and her mother left when the country star was only 2-years-old.

The Idol alum will perform her song “My Angel,” written for her grandparents, Faye and Clyde Pickler, at the AARP’s third National GrandRally. The event hopes to raise awareness of and support for “grandfamilies” like the Picklers.

“I know the struggles they face,” said the singer, who has donated nearly $50,000 to the AARP’s Grandparent Foundation.
–Eileen Finan

source: People

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By Rodney Ho | Monday, May 5, 2008, 04:04 PM

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Kellie Pickler did graduate high school. (Really!) But she readily admits: “I’m no role model.”

Dr. Kellie Pickler or attorney Kellie Pickler doesn’t quite sound as apropos as country singer Kellie Pickler. And she’s built an impressive fan base - especially at Etowah High School in Woodstock.

And for kicks, Kicks 101.5 and her record label at Sony BMG took an idea that worked in Philadelphia: kids from the high school who sent the most text messages got a free concert from said Pickler.

Etowah High School principal Ron Dunnavant heard from his brother that Etowah a few weeks back was in third place in the contest. So he went on the P.A. system that Monday and told kids to push them to No. 1. He wanted to celebrate a great year in which Etowah was named a “School of Excellence” by the state, one of only four schools this year.

His students did not disappoint. They ended up texting more than 500,000 times, averaged out to 227 per student. Junior Cole Arnold (right), a Pickler fan, contributed 120,000 all by himself by hooking his phone up to automated text messaging software for an entire week. Overall, metro Atlantans sent a whopping 2 millon texts (more than doubling Philly.)

“It’s like American Idol all over again!” she said.

Originally set up as an acoustic set in the gym, the label was so impressed by the response, they drove from Nashville an entire band and set the concert up in the football field for 4,000 Etowah middle and high school students.

With a sea of posters (including “I love Kellie like a stalker” and another shaped like a pickle with her head on it), she sang for 40 minutes, including a couple of new tunes and she even teared up after “I Wonder.” “I feel like I’m singing to my peers,” said Kellie, who graduated in 2004. The cheerleaders presented her an Etowah Eagles football jersey, a megaphone with her name emblazoned on it, plus a yearbook signed by hundreds of students.

Pickler has been running almost nonstop for two years. The sixth place “Idol” finisher was the first one out of the box with a CD before anybody else from the Class of 2006. After the show and the tour, she began promoting her album with a radio tour that led her to a Douglasville mall. She generated three top 20 hits over the next 18 months with almost nonstop touring, including stints opening for Brad Paisley and Rascal Flatts. She has sold more than 740,000 albums, more than Taylor Hicks and all the other Class of ‘06ers except Daughtry.

I spoke with her for a few minutes in the media center. (I guess they don’t call them libraries anymore.).

source

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