Kenny Chesney's name was called seven times this morning, as Carrie Underwood and Brad Paisley read the list of nominations for the 43rd annual Academy of Country Music Awards. Among Chesney's nods is the coveted Entertainer of the Year Award, which he has won the past three years in a row. This year, you will decide whether Chesney takes home that honor for a fourth straight year as, for the first time in ACM history, the night's top award will be voted on by fans. Other contenders for Entertainer of the Year are Brad Paisley, Rascal Flatts, George Strait and Keith Urban.

Competing for the ACM's Female Vocalist of the Year award are Carrie Underwood, LeAnn Rimes, Miranda Lambert, Martina McBride and Taylor Swift. Male Vocalist of the Year nods go to Chesney, Paisley, Urban, Strait and Rodney Atkins. Rascal Flatts will try for their sixth win as Top Vocal Group. Other nominees in that category include the Eagles, Diamond Rio, Emerson Drive and Little Big Town.

See the full list of ACM nominations after the jump.

NBC has tapped an eclectic group of musicians to star in a new reality-competition show, 'Clash of the Choirs.' Patti LaBelle, Nick Lachey, Blake Shelton, Kelly Rowland and Michael Bolton will try to create "America's greatest choir" on the live show, each of them picking 20 singers from their respective hometowns to join their team. LaBelle will return to her hometown of Philadelphia for auditions; Lachey will be going home to Cincinatti; Shelton will return to Oklahoma City; Rowland will audition in her native Houston; and Bolton will be going back to his hometown of New Haven, CT.

Cameras will follow the artists from the hometown auditions through the choir competition in New York. Viewers will be able to call in to vote for their favorite choir, and the winners will get to choose a prize that will benefit their city -- anything from renovating a school gym to building a community playground. 'Clash of the Choirs' is set to air live over four nights, December 17-20.

Kellie Pickler's career started when she finished sixth on Fox's 'American Idol,' and she has since catapulted to stardom, garnering multiple awards and a slew of hits. During Wednesday night's 41st Annual CMA Awards, it all caught up with Pickler, who gave a tearful performance of 'I Wonder,' a song she wrote about her estranged mother Cynthia Malone, who abandoned her when she was just two years old. Nashville's audience rose to applaud not only Pickler's performance, but her struggle -- and ultimate triumph -- to rise to the top. Watch the touching performance after the jump.

Jessica Simpson's been spotted in Nashville quite a bit lately. The pop starlet is in Music City to explore the notion of recording a country album. According to Nashville ABC affiliate WKRN, Simpson is in talks with some of country music's heaviest hitters to collaborate on her new project, including John Rich (Big & Rich), Vince Gill and Simpson's co-star in 'The Dukes of Hazzard' movie, Willie Nelson. The singer's also reportedly met with executives at CMT (Country Music Television) and Nashville's Sony/BMG record label.

Other news outlets are reporting that Simpson actually moved to Nashville, though she was also recently seen apartment-hunting in New York. Simpson has said that she is making the move to the Big Apple to be closer to her record label. She also has an upcoming gig in New York, co-hosting 'The View' on November 15 and 16.

Country star Joe Nichols is getting treatment for a longtime substance abuse problem. "As Joe has alluded to in interviews over the past year, he has struggled with the issue of substance abuse," a posting on his Web site by Nichols' management team reads. "In order to become a healthier person and deal with long standing issues, he has entered into a rehabilitation program for consultation and treatment."

This announcement comes just one month after Nichols married his girlfriend of 12 years. The couple honeymooned in Florida before the singer hit the road to promote his new album, 'Real Things.' He canceled a concert Saturday in Waco, Texas, so that he could begin his treatment.

Country Hall of Shame

It's pretty much guaranteed that if you cheat on a country singer, you're going to end up the subject of a song. Someone should have told that to Kellie Pickler's now ex-boyfriend, Nashville Predators star Jordin Tootoo. Pickler and Tootoo ignited a romance earlier this year, but that seems to be over now, allegedly thanks to Tootoo's infidelity.

"Jordin knows what he did," Pickler said Monday, according to the Tennessean. She told her audience at a concert in Michigan a lot more, explaining to the crowd that Tootoo cheated on her and that her new "theme song" is Carrie Underwood's 'Before He Cheats.' She even joked on stage that she hoped her ex's teeth were knocked out during that night's hockey game. But the jokes soon subsided to tears as she sang her song, 'Didn't You Know How Much I Loved You.'

Keith Urban escaped injury Monday during a minor motorcycle accident near his home in Sydney, Australia. The country star was en route to an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting when a photographer, also riding a motorcycle, allegedly started to chase him. When a car approached the two bikes, Urban was forced to drop his motorcycle, skidding about 10 yards along a concrete gutter.

"Today's incident was the result of one person's desire to do his job and my desire to maintain my privacy," Urban said in a statement. "Some have already attempted to inflate the facts, but the reality is this: While out riding to an AA meeting, a time when my privacy is especially important to me, I felt myself being pursued. I sped up, and in an effort to elude an oncoming car which was making an illegal U-turn, saw no choice but to drop my bike. In actual fact, my pursuer came to my assistance, without taking photos, and helped me from the road."

The photographer denies that he was following Urban. Police are now investigating the accident.

Keith Urban Talks Paparazzi

Patrick Bourque, former bassist for the country band Emerson Drive, died Wednesday under undisclosed circumstances. Bourque quit the band in August, and was living and working in Canada. His body was found at his home in Montreal just days before his 30th birthday.

Bourque's former band mates learned of their friend's death Thursday while en route to a show in Nebraska, and are "shocked and grieving," according to a posting on Emerson Drive's official website.

Bourque joined the Canadian country group in 2002, and played on their first No.1 single, 'Moments.' He was set to join them at this year's CMA Awards, where Emerson Drive is up for Vocal Group of the Year and Video of the Year.

Emerson Drive 'Moments' video


More Country News

It was just three weeks ago that Garth Brooks announced he was coming out of retirement, and the country icon has already made history -- again. The first single off his upcoming 'Garth Brooks: The Ultimate Hits' compilation has debuted at No. 1 on both the Billboard and R&R charts. The song, 'More Than a Memory,' is the first-ever country song to make its debut at the top.

Kenny Chesney was the previous record holder, but he didn't have the bragging rights for very long. It was just two weeks ago that Chesney's new song, 'Don't Blink,' broke the record for the highest debuting country single ever ... but it only entered the charts at No. 16.

This feat is just another ring in Brooks' record-breaking belt. He's already the top-selling country artist of all time, second only to Elvis Presley and the Beatles in all genres. 'Garth Brooks: The Ultimate Hits' is set to hit stores on November 6.

Faith Hill is defending the heated lecture she gave a fan who grabbed hubby Tim McGraw's crotch during a live concert in July. And she wasn't the only one furious about the incident.

"He was livid," the country star says of her hubby and tour-mate on Wednesday's episode of 'The Ellen DeGeneres Show.' "I mean, he was red and fuming."

Hill says her first instinct was to leave the incident be. But then, she says, the woman "gave me this look like there's nothing you can do."

So, the 'Mississippi Girl' in Hill just couldn't keep quiet. "What I really wanted to do is kick her you-know-what ... I mean, how disrespectful! And plus, it's like sexual harassment. I mean, if a man was to do that to a woman?"

George Strait and Brad Paisley lead the list of nominees for the 2007 Country Music Association Awards with five nominations each. The stars are both up for Top Male Vocalist, Album of the Year, Single of the Year and the coveted Entertainer of the Year Award. Kenny Chesney took home the Entertainer honors last year and is nominated again this year for the sixth year in a row, along with three other nominations.

Martina McBride and Alison Krauss lead the ladies with four nods each. Carrie Underwood, the reigning Top Female Vocalist, scored three nominations. She'll defend her title alongside fellow nominees McBride, Krauss, Miranda Lambert and Reba McEntire.

Fred Durst is going behind the camera to help out country crooner Dwight Yoakam. The Limp Bizkit bad-boy is directing Yoakam's new video for 'Close Up the Honky Tonks,' the first single from 'Dwight Sings Buck' -- a new tribute album to the late Buck Owens.

The pairing was Yoakam's idea after seeing the Durst-directed fim, 'The Education of Charlie Banks.' "I was so blown away that I called my manager and said, 'I think Fred Durst should maybe direct my video,'" Yoakam tells Nashville's Tennessean newspaper. "She said, 'Whaaa ....?'"

Yoakam admits it may seem like an unlikely pairing, but he insists it's actually quite logical. "As much as there is a whiplash effect of Fred Durst doing a Dwight Yoakam video on the surface, if you go just beyond that, it will make sense," he tells the Tennessean. "It certainly did to the two of us once we met."

Yoakam and Durst have since become fast friends, with the country star now signed on to star in a future film directed by the rocker/fimmaker. Yoakam has acted in several movies including 'Wedding Crashers' and 'Panic Room.'

Country crooner Kenny Chesney is taking his career in a whole new direction -- he's playing for the NFL's New Orleans Saints. OK, so he's not exactly going to be catching passes from Drew Brees on 'Monday Night Football,' but the 5'6" former wide receiver from Luttrell, Tennessee's Gibbs High School will practice with the team as a free agent tomorrow, the day before the Saints pre-season game against the Cincinnati Bengals.

"I first met Sean Payton when he was the assistant coach of the Dallas Cowboys -- he came out to a show," Chesney explains of his relationship with the Saints' head coach. "Over the years, we'd become really good friends, because there's a mutual respect for what the other one does ... He's told me he loves how driven and focused I am about what I do; he loves the intensity I have when I'm onstage ... and how passionate I am about what he does, too."

Country crooner Billy Currington is parking his tour bus for the rest of the year in order to concentrate on therapy. The 33-year old tells PEOPLE magazine, as first revealed by Nashville's Tennessean newspaper, that he endured more than a decade of abuse from his stepfather. He says the childhood trauma has ultimately resulted in his own issues with anger that linger today.

"When you are taught to hate, you carry that with you," he tells People in the issue that hits newsstands this Friday. "Even today, I call myself 98% laid back, but 2% is Little Billy -- my inner child that's hurt, sad and furious because he was never taken care of."

Currington recently completed a 30-day treatment program in Arizona. Now, he's packing his bags for Hawaii, where he will meet with two therapists who specialize in childhood trauma. He has canceled 83 shows in favor of therapy but hopes the break will ultimately help his career.

"My challenge in life is my anger," he says. "I'd be little Billy for two seconds, yelling and blowing up. And in those instances, that rage can destroy relationships, whether it's with a girlfriend or a business partner or a fan."

Currington has immortalized his pain in the 2003 hit 'Walk A Little Straighter,' a song he wrote about his ordeals with his stepfather. He recently released the single 'Tangled Up' from a new album due later this year.