Round Up

JENNIFER NETTLES

FLYING SOLO

THE SINGER TALKS MOTHERHOOD, MAKING MUSIC ON HER OWN AND THE FUTURE OF SUGARLAND

There’s big news at Jennifer Nettles’s house: Baby Magnus, who turns 1 on Dec. 6, has stood up on his own – “on the tile floor in the kitchen!” Nettles says. “That elicited a bit of panic. But he doesn’t want to hold my hand. He’s independent.” Magnus, it seems, takes after Mom, who – after a decade as the voice of Sugarland – is taking her own first steps as a solo artist. “I look at my experience in Sugarland fondly and love that, but I’m in such a love affair with being able to do something new,” says the singer, 39, who promises a “supersparse” sound on her upcoming album. While the future of her Sugarland partnership with Kristian Bush is “open-ended” (“We didn’t want to put parameters on things. I don’t know how much this will feed my soul and what else I’ll need to explore”), she’s looking forward to a theater tour with her new material. And to more time with her “sweet little cuddler” Magnus, who’s already inspired one song, “This Angel.” “I don’t think I could have gone through an experience as beautiful and life-changing as becoming a mother and not included it on the album.” But, she notes, “it is not an album of lullabies.”

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TIM McGRAW CELEBRITY Dream ANALYSIS

TIM DREAMED IT; WE HAD IT ANALYZED!

THE DREAM

“I’ve had this dream ever since I was a kid about being on the space shuttle and going into space and doing space walks. I don’t know what that’s about. I don’t want to dig too deep into it because I might discover something I don’t want to know!”

THE ANALYSIS

“Recurring dreams occur whenever a similar emotional experience is happening for us, to alert us that we are in that place and ‘space’ again,” says dream coach Paula Scardamalia of diviningthemuse.com. “Since he’s actually in outer space, if his dream were my dream, I would think it’s showing up to let me know that I feel I am heading into unknown territory or that I am really out there with my ideas or actions. How he feels when he wakes from this dream is important. If he’s excited, I’d guess that when this dream shows up, he is feeling a sense of adventure and of pushing his limits – ‘going where no man has gone before.’ ”

COUNTRY ON TV

Mark Your Calendars!

WITH HOLIDAY SPECIALS, CONCERTS AND MORE, NASHVILLE STARS ARE ALL OVER THE SMALL SCREEN

THE AMERICAN MUSIC AWARDS

Sunday, Nov. 24, 8 p.m. ET on ABC

Luke Bryan, Taylor Swift and Florida Georgia Line are among the nominees.

RICH AT NIGHT

Monday, Nov. 25, 8 p.m. ET on TVGN

John Rich celebrates the season with a 90-minute variety special featuring Wynonna Judd and Gretchen Wilson.

CMA COUNTRY CHRISTMAS

Monday, Dec. 2, 9 p.m. ET on ABC

It’s an all-star Christmas with performances by Jennifer Nettles, Rascal Flatts, Darius Rucker and more.

CMT ARTISTS OF THE YEAR

Tuesday, Dec. 3, 8 p.m. ET on CMT

This year’s honorees: Jason Aldean, Tim McGraw, Hunter Hayes, Bryan and FGL.

THE SOUND OF MUSIC LIVE!

Thursday, Dec. 5, 8 p.m. ET on NBC

The hills are alive with Carrie Underwood as Maria von Trapp in a three-hour live event.

THE GRAMMY NOMINATIONS CONCERT LIVE!

Friday, Dec. 6, 10 p.m. ET/PT on CBS

Keith Urban is among the performers as the nominations get announced.

AMERICAN COUNTRY AWARDS

Tuesday, Dec. 10, 8 p.m. ET/PT on FOX

Trace Adkins and NASCAR’s Danica Patrick host the fourth annual awardsfest from Las Vegas.

FINDING CHRISTMAS

Sunday, Dec. 15, 8 p.m. ET on Hallmark Channel

JT Hodges makes his acting debut as an unlucky-in-love musician who moves to New York in the holiday season.

PASSAGES

FIRST LOOK

If you peek at Hillary Scott’s Twitter page, you can see what the Lady Antebellum singer, 27, and husband Chris Tyrrell, 27, are truly proud of. On Oct. 14 Scott revealed the first pictures of daughter Eisele Kaye (inset), who was born July 22. “Taking a break at rehearsals,” she tweeted, “LOVING my new normal & our little family!”

EXPECTING

Crooner Lee Brice, 34, wants everyone to know that he and his wife, Sara, 31, are expecting a baby. “The only thing more beautiful than my Sara, is my Sara carrying my second little baby boy!” he tweeted Sept. 25 and included snaps of a pregnant Sara playing with their son Takoda, 4. • Husband and wife duo Joey, 38, and Rory Feek, 48, are expanding their act. The down-home “Born to Be Your Woman” musicians announced that they are expecting their first child together in February. • Chris Janson, 27, and his wife, Kelly Lynn, 42, are also expecting. The baby is due April 2, which happens to be the singer’s birthday.

BABY

Dierks Bentley and his wife, Cassidy, welcomed their third child with the arrival of son Knox on Oct. 9. The baby joins sisters Jordan Catherine, 2, and Evalyn “Evie” Day, 5.

ENGAGED

Nashville star Hayden Panettiere announced her engagement on Live with Kelly & Michael on Oct. 9. The actress, 24, plans to marry world heavyweight boxing champion Wladimir Klitschko, 37.

AWARDS

Taylor Swift must be running out of mantel space. On Oct. 13 the singer received a record sixth Songwriter/Artist of the Year Award from the Nashville Songwriters Association International.

ACTOR, ACTOR

Swift will also be showing off her acting skills in the film The Giver, due next year. The movie, based on the popular young adult novel, will costar Meryl Streep, Jeff Bridges and Katie Holmes.

Jason Aldean made his big-screen debut as an ornery henchman in Sweetwater, a gritty western costarring Ed Harris and Jason Isaacs. While Aldean, 36, has little screen time in the film, which opened Oct. 11, he noted that “I get to shoot a couple of people.”

Tim McGraw plans a return to the big screen next year in the sci-fi adventure Tomorrowland, starring George Clooney. “I can’t say much about the script,” said McGraw of the film, but “it’s gonna be a really cool movie.”

AILING

Ray Price, 87, was rushed to a cardiac intensive care unit in Houston on Oct. 8 with sepsis. The singer, who has been battling cancer, which he announced in February is in remission, is best known for the 1970s hits “For the Good Times” and “You’re the Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me.”

DIED

Cal Smith, whose warm baritone scored him a 1974 CMA award for “Country Bumpkin,” died in Branson, Mo., on Oct. 10. He was 81.

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