Kik Axe Music and Entertainment

KENNY ROGERS has announced a 30th Anniversary Edition of his annual Christmas & Hits Tour for 2011. The festive show will feature Rogers performing a set of Holiday Classics and his Greatest Hits. Special Guest BILLY DEAN will be along for support. The tour gets started on November 25th in Columbus, Ohio and wraps up on December 23rd in Westbury, New York.

"Thirty years is a long time to do anything, but a Christmas show seems to get easier every year, especially when I get a chance to work with friends like Billy Dean," says Rogers. "He always brings a great energy and beautiful music to the event. Have a Merry Christmas, and enjoy the show."

GIVE ME MY XXX! has just issued the third volume in their SOUTHERN INDEPENDENT Series. As revealed by Shooter Jennings on Twitter just moments ago, ''the Rebel Soundtrack to the  Summer of 2011'' has entered the Fall with 15 more tracks - all available 100% Free. For those who haven't heard, 'XXX' represents the bands and artists often dubbed ''too rock for country'' or ''too country for rock''. There's a whole movement going on, one that you can learn more about at http://www.givememyxxx.com/. Check out the tracklisting for Volume 3, then head over there to snag this one and the first two, all for the price of nothing (provided you register for a  free account).

Big Machine Records has announced a November 21 release date for the SPEAK NOW WORLD TOUR - LIVE by TAYLOR SWIFT. Set for release as a CD/DVD or CD/Blu-ray combo, the release comes the day before Taylor's U.S. Tour wraps with the second of two sold-out shows at New York's Madison Square Garden. A short announcement video for the release can be seen below, along with all the details on the set.

I would imagine that the same type of Walmart shopper that picks up a Toby Keith CD while snagging one of those ''U.S.A.'' t-shirts (likely made by a child somewhere in Asia) will be the target audience for this. I received a press release informing me that AMERICAN IDOL winner Scotty McCreery has his own baseball cards. No, they're nothing near as cool as the ones that THE BIG 4 rolled out for METALLICA, MEGADETH, ANTHRAX, and SLAYER in the Bronx, because they actually show the youngster playing baseball. They're included with a 72-page Walmart Exclusive Magazine about McCreery. What better place to plug some Corporate Country than through the Corporate Cowboys of Bentonville?

The third time's the charm for the country single Like My Mother Does.  Having first appeared on Season 7 AMERICAN IDOL contestant KRISTY LEE COOK's 2008 album WHY WAIT and then released as a non-album single from JESSE LEE in 2010, American Idol Season 10 runner-up LAUREN ALAINA has become the first artist to chart with the song, a video for which was released last month. Now, Alaina is hoping to ride that single success into the October 11th release of her Interscope/Mercury Nashville debut, WILDFLOWER. The cover art can be seen below.

Earlier this month, Kik Axe Music™ pointed you in the direction of SOUTHERN INDEPENDENT VOLUME 1, a free collection of tracks from artists falling into the 'XXX' realm of being too rock for country, too country for rock. Now, GIVE ME MY XXX! has made available SOUTHERN INDEPENDENT VOL. 2. This new set features 14 more great tracks, including a rarity that features Waylon Jennings on guitar, The Memphis Horns, and was recorded at SUN Studios. Take a look at the tracklisting below, then hit this link to download yours (free registration required).

After announcing his diagnosis with Alzheimer's Disease and the plans for his final album this past June, legendary country artist GLEN CAMPBELL has begun a series of appearances that will culminate with a Goodbye Tour. In support of GHOST ON THE CANVAS (out August 30th via Surfdog Records, pre-order now on iTunes), Campbell made a stop this week at ABC for appearances on WORLD NEWS WITH DIANE SAWYER, followed by NIGHTLINE and GOOD MORNING AMERICA.

Additionally, the official video for A Better Place has been released and can be viewed below, right here on Kik Axe Music™.

I've been meaning to post something about the XXX Movement (no, it's not porn) for the past few months. In fact, I feel bad that I haven't gotten around to it by now, but seeing SHOOTER JENNINGS share a couple of Kik Axe Music™ items on Google+ tonight reminded me that I needed to help spread the word about this. You see, there's long been a huge problem for artists that are considered too rock for country and too country for rock - the XXX artists. As I've noted repeatedly, radio is still influential and important, and as genre definitions become tighter and less stations exist, the squeeze for a lot of artists gets worse. To combat this habit of exclusion, Black Country Rock has set up http://www.givememyxxx.com/ where you can learn more about the movement and get involved. One of the first steps you can take is to download a copy of their FREE compilation album SOUTHERN INDEPENDENT VOL. 1 - a 12-track collection of XXX artists you should know.