A Great Week in Matewan!!!

Hats off to the Matewan Rotary Club for another great Magnolia Fair! The Tri-States Coal Country broadcasted each night of the fair from 7pm till 9pm and I had a blast...I can't wait until 2009 and the 60th Annual Magnolia Fair! Before we get into the country music news, don't forget that the Belfry Vol. Fire Dept. will have their 4th of July Celebration tonight (7/3/08) at 10:05pm, yours truly will be in the dunkin' booth at 8pm to help raise money for the Belfry Vol. Fire Dept! Now on to my favorite thing...COUNTRY MUSIC! Taylor Swift and Kenny Chesney bestride Billboard's country albums and songs charts, respectively, for another week, while Dan Tyminski and Rascal Flatts boast the week's top new CD and single.Also signing in with new music are Carter's Chord, Rebecca Lynn Howard, Marcel and Lee Brice.In its 87th week on the charts, Taylor Swift sold 27,000 albums to keep its perch at No. 1. By contrast, Tyminski's new CD, Wheels, moved a mere 2,700 copies to seize the No. 32 berth. (Tyminski, you may recall, is the steady sideman in Alison Krauss' band, Union Station, and lead singer of the O Brother, Where Art Thou? hit "I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow," a tune officially attributed to the mythical Soggy Bottom Boys.)Chesney's self-abnegating "Better as a Memory" continues its reign as the nation's most-played country song.Carter's Chord self-titled collection comes aboard at No. 59, while Howard's No Rules bows in at No. 69. Re-entering albums are Whiskey Falls (No. 46), Little Big Town's A Place to Land (No. 62), Clay Walker's Fall (No. 65) and Rodney Carrington's King of the Mountains (No. 75).Rascal Flatts lead the new-song arrivals with "Bob That Head" (No. 56), followed by Marcel's "I Love This Song" (No. 58) and Brice's "Upper Middle Class White Trash" (No. 60). (Marcel, whose last name is Chagnon, last graced the charts in 2002 with "Country Rock Star," when he was on Mercury Records. He is now signed to Lyric Street.)After Swift, the Top 5 albums, in descending order, are Toby Keith's 35 Biggest Hits, Jewel's Perfectly Clear, Emmylou Harris' All I Intended to Be and Carrie Underwood's Carnival Ride.Directly behind Chesney on the songs chart are Blake Shelton's "Home," Montgomery Gentry's "Back When I Knew It All," Underwood's "Last Name" and Alan Jackson's "Good Time."Coming up fast is Keith Urban's "You Look Good in My Shirt," which flaps from No. 22 to No. 14.Stay cool. Somewhere somebody's recording a Christmas album. Until next time,

Uncle Rock

--"if you wanna make it, you can't fake it...you gotta LIVE IT!!!"