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Big Kenny donned a costume of a different sort when he was given the honor of being accepted into the Blackfoot First Nation Tribe recently.  At the tribe’s annual Pow Wow in February, Kenny was officially accepted into the tribe and given his Blood name, Miistakiis Skomaatii, which means Mountain Boy.

Kenny joined the Blackfoot Confederacy Drum Group to collaborate on their album “Wake Up” and then returned the favor by featuring the group on his own album, “The Quiet Times of a Rock and Roll Farm Boy” where the Drum Group’s Wake Up chant also appears in a song by the same name that Kenny wrote. The group is hoping that collaborating with Kenny will help to bring awareness about Native tribes and show them in a more positive light than normally seen in the media.

“This was a real important thing for (the Blackfoot Confederacy). . . and it was incredibly important to me,” he says from his Nashville home. “I felt the camaraderie and the beauty and the love of their culture — and I was moved by it. . . . I want people to see what I saw.”

“They make music like none I’ve heard anywhere in my entire life,” Alphin says. “I can’t tell you how emotionally moved I was the first time I heard them sing along with my song. . . . That war cry is sung with such passion you just have to pay attention. . . . When I’m heavy of heart, (powwow) brings forth a strength in me that I sometimes forget I have.”

The Blackfoot Confederacy will take a more visual roll when Kenny features video of them performing on the official video he’s putting together for Wake Up.

Taylor Swift has broken down barriers and shattered long-standing records held by her fellow musicians. And now she’s made history once again with her sophomore album, ‘Fearless.’ It wasn’t that long ago when a fresh-faced 16-year-old burst onto the scene with her tender ballad, ‘Tim McGraw,’ and now just a scant four years later, she is ruling the roost with more awards and plaques than she could possibly display on her mantle, or even in her home.

During a private dinner at a popular Italian eatery in Nashville this week, it was a night of reflection for Taylor, her record label and a handful of key industry executives, who celebrated, among other things, the fact that the six-times-platinum ‘Fearless’ was officially recognized as the Most Awarded Album in the history of country music. It is the only album in country history to be named Album of the Year at the Grammys, plus Country Album of the Year from the Grammys, the Country Music Association, the Academy of Country Music and the American Music Awards!

Brad Paisley is a man of many talents: singer, songwriter, guitar player, pancake maker. Pancake maker? According to Brad’s wife, actress Kimberly Williams-Paisley, Brad has a unique gift that makes him a hero at home with their two sons, 3-year-old Huck, and 11-month-old Jasper.

“He can make pancakes in any shape you can imagine!” Kimberly says.

“[Huck] will say, ‘Dad, today I want a diplodocus.’ Brad knows what that is,” Kimberly says. “Brad’s gotten really good at making pancakes in the shapes of dinosaurs.”

Brad Paisley recently wrapped up his eight-month, nationwide American Saturday Night tour. Playing an astonishing 74 dates for almost 1.2 million fans, Brad is now giving us a by-the-numbers look at what it takes to make a tour of such magnitude come together!

Not for the faint of heart, the tour boasts 45 stage jumpers, 17 people arrested for lewd behavior — nine in Charlotte, S.C. and eight in Tampa, Fla. — two births and one Las Vegas wedding.

Throughout his career, Brad Paisley has made a number of celebrity friends, including Andy Griffith, Jason Alexander and Captain Kirk himself, William Shatner. All three TV icons have made many cameo appearances in Brad’s music videos including in ‘Waitin’ on a Woman,’ ‘Celebrity’ and ‘Online.’ In return, Brad has helped write a song, ‘Has Been,’ for William Shatner’s acclaimed album of prose-poems set to music.

When it came time for William to head to the Nashville Film Festival last year to introduce ‘William Shatner’s: Gonzo Ballet,’ a well-received documentary inspired by ‘Has Been,’ Brad invited the actor to his farm outside of Nashville to spend some down time. And the visit could have just as easily been something right out of ‘Star Trek.’

“I’ll tell you one of the strangest things I’ve ever seen,” Brad says. “I came home from the recording studio, and he was already over at the house playing with my two-year-old son in the basement … with light sabers. I walked in to see my son and Captain Kirk dueling with light sabers! I looked over at my wife and asked ‘What the hell kind of bizarre universe have I just walked into here?’”

Carrie Underwood will take her Play On tour to Ontario next week, and while she acknowledges that the homeland of her boyfriend, hockey player Mike Fisher of the Ottawa Senators, is “another world” from her Oklahoma upbringing, she’s getting used to it — except for one thing: snow. Well, make that two things. Snow and Mike’s loyal fans!

On March 24, Carrie will ‘play on’ at Kanata’s Scotiabank Place, where she first met Mike Fisher backstage at her concert in March 2008, but not before the KIX 106 Party Bus takes a crew to her show in Hamilton March 23rd.

The Academy of Country Music has announced additional artists scheduled to take part in the all-star concert tribute special, ‘ACM Presents: Brooks & Dunn — The Last Rodeo,’ which airs Sunday, May 23 on CBS. Brad Paisley, Taylor Swift, Jason Aldean, Lady Antebellum, Jennifer Hudson, Miranda Lambert, George Strait and Sugarland will join previously announced performers Kenny Chesney, Rascal Flatts, Reba McEntire, Carrie Underwood and Keith Urban in the concert filmed at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.

The event will tape the day after the 45th Annual ACM Awards and tickets are still available to the public. Priced at $150 and $100 and available through Ticketmaster, proceeds of all sales will benefit Lifting Lives, the charitable arm of the ACM which works to improve lives through music.

When Carrie Underwood rolled into Mobile, Ala. last month with her road crew to rehearse for her Play On tour, it was kept under under very tight wraps. No one was allowed inside during the top secret rehearsals, and the country superstar kept a low profile around town. The last thing they wanted was for tour information to leak, spoiling that most thrilling moment of surprise on opening night!

Civic Center Manager Jay Hagerman says that Carrie arrived at the arena with 40 road crew members on Feb. 21, and ended up hiring 80 professional riggers, stage hands and loaders — all from Mobile, Pensacola, Fla. and Biloxi, Miss. The venue’s catering team also scored paychecks, serving up three meals a day for an average of 60 people.

Don’t forget, Carrie is bringing that show to Hamilton march 23rd.

When two people have been dating for a lengthy period of time, talk inevitably turns to engagement. Miranda Lambert and Blake Shelton say they have not really discussed getting married, but their fans and the press have certainly been more than interested in finding out when they are going to make it “official.”

“We’ve had our high points and low points, but I do think that we’re stronger together now than we’ve ever, ever been,” Blake says. “For the first time, I can see that engagement happening, and she can too … So who knows?”

Twenty years ago, Alan Jackson signed with Arista Records and became one of the fledgling label’s first artists to break through into Billboard’s Top 20 with ‘Here in the Real World.’ Over the years since, Alan has scored 50 more Top 10 hits for Arista, 25 of them chart-topping smashes.

“This is actually my last album for Arista,” Alan says. “My contract is up after this, so I guess I’ll be doing something for somebody, or on my own. I don’t know yet … I guess it’s time to start thinking about it now.”