Dierks Bentley is readying a new album for release, and he's about to give fans their first taste of what's to come with the release of his new single, called "Bourbon in Kentucky," which heads to radio next week.

Dierks tells us the overall sound of the new project, called Riser, won't necessarily be what fans are expecting. 

["Actually, there's certainly a new sound to the album. But I think 'new' is what is exciting about country music, you know? 'New' is what got me into country music. Hearing Hank Jr. sing when I was 17 years old was totally new to me. It might've been old to somebody else, but for me that was a brand new sound, and it just was . . . exciting. So, I think with all my records, I'm always searching for 'new'."] 

Riser will be in stores later this year.

FAST FACTS

• Dierks' Memorial Day weekend will include a performance at Riverfest in Little Rock, Arkansas on Sunday (May 26th).

Blake Shelton is working with NBC to organize a benefit for the victims of this week's devastating Oklahoma tornado. Blake, who hails from Ada, Oklahoma, has not named any superstar talent just yet, but he told Billboard, "I can call in some really big favors." Blake also said the event will be televised, and it "will happen really quickly."

Blake and Miranda Lambert opened this week's live episode of The Voice on Tuesday night (May 21st) with a poignant performance of "Over You" in tribute to those affected by the tornado.

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Tim McGraw is a proud supporter of the men and women in the military. With Memorial Day coming up, Tim tells us we should all remember exactly who ensures our freedom. 

["We get to do a lot of things in this country. We have a lot of freedoms and no matter ups and downs, or good or bad or whatever, it's still the best country in the world to live in. It's only that way because we have these guys that are out there looking out for us. It doesn't matter what your politics are, it doesn't matter what your religion is or any of those things. If you're an American, you're proud to have those guys out there and they sacrifice quite a bit; they sacrifice everything. We just need to vocalize that as much as possible."] SOUNDCUE (:27 OC: . . . much as possible.)

This summer, Tim has once again teamed up with Chase and Operation Homefront to award a mortgage free home to a military veteran at each of his stops on his Two Lanes of Freedom tour. He gave away 30 homes last year on the Brothers of the Sun tour and will give away 31 more this year.

For more information about the program visit OperationHomefront.net.

FAST FACTS

• Tim is nearing the top of the charts with "Highway Don't Care," featuring Taylor Swift and Keith Urban.

Part of Eric Church's Memorial Day weekend will include performing for thousands of fans at FedEx Field in Landover, Maryland during Kenny Chesney's No Shoes Nation stadium tour stop.

Eric is grateful for the freedoms he's able to enjoy -- including getting the opportunity to be an entertainer -- because of those fighting to protect our rights everyday.

He tells us: 

["It's about, especially the soldiers I come in contact with on the road, and not only that, to be able to make the music that I'm able to make, to say what I want to say, and that freedom to be able to do those things and to be in a country where we're able to do that and to be in a country where we're able to play that stuff on the radio. I don't think you're going to have any American argue that America isn't the best place to live, and I'm certainly one of them. I'm very proud to be from here and very proud that we have the soldiers. I know there are a lot of other countries out there in the world that don't want to live the way we do, and that's fine, they can keep living the way they are, but I'm very proud of it. I think that's a time to celebrate being proud to be an American and celebrate those freedoms . . . and celebrate the people that are over fighting for those freedoms."] 

QUESTIONS WE PONDER - AND HOPE YOU'LL ANSWER USING YOUR FACEBOOK LOGIN BELOW:

• How will you celebrate Memorial Day weekend?
• Do you head to the beach/pool/elsewhere?
• Is grilling part of your weekend festivities?
• Do you have a member of the military in your family? How do you honor them on Memorial Day?

Tim McGraw will be releasing live tracks from his Two Lanes of Freedom 2013 tour for the first time ever this summer as part of his new program, "McGraw Overdrive Series Live." The first track, "Southern Girl," will be available starting on Friday (May 24th) exclusively at timmcgraw.com, with four other live songs to be released on June 7th, June 21st, July 12th and July 26th. Fans will be able to purchase tracks individually or all five together. All of the songs featured will be from Tim's Two Lanes of Freedom CD. 

Tim said, "The sound and energy from a live show gives an entirely new perspective to any song. I'm always looking for ways to give the fans something extra. If you're at the show, it's a cool memory to add to your playlist. And if you couldn't get a ticket to the show that night, you can still hear some of what happened and maybe feel like you were there. It's a first for me to release live tracks this way, and that's exciting."

Tim's tour continues this weekend with stops in St. Louis tonight (Thursday, May 23rd); Chicago on Friday (May 24th); Cincinnati on Saturday (May 25th) and Darien Lakes, NY on Sunday (May 26th).

QUESTIONS WE PONDER - AND HOPE YOU'LL ANSWER USING YOUR FACEBOOK LOGIN BELOW:

• Do you like live tracks versus studio tracks?
• Do you think most artists sound as good live as they do on the CD?
• Which artist(s) do you think sounds the best live?

Love Is Everything, the new album from George Strait, debuted at Number One on the Billboard Top Country Albums Chart this week, selling 119,843 units in its first week. That also earned George the Number Two spot on the Billboard Top 200.

The album contains the hit single "Give It All We Got Tonight," which Mediabasenamed as the most played song on country radio this week, earning "King George" an unprecedented 60th Number One song.

The singer, who turned 61 last Saturday (May 18th) said, "This has been a fantastic birthday week. I'm thankful that my fans are excited about the new album and enjoying the music."

Love Is Everything is George's 40th studio album.

FAST FACTS

• George co-produced Love Is Everything with Tony Brown.
• Dates for the second leg of his The Cowboy Rides Away tour, taking place in 2014, will be announced later this year.
• George is the highest-ranked country act on Pollstar's 2013 Worldwide Tickets Chart.

Last night (May 21st) on the finale of Dancing With The Stars, the winner of season 16 was country singer Kellie Pickler and her partner Derek Hough.

The show featured many guest performances including Wynonna Judd singing "I Wanna Know What Love Is" and Psy performing "Gentleman". Pitbull also made an appearance and performed "Manos Pa' Arriba" and Jessica Sanchez performed "Feel This Moment".

Alexandra Raisman and her partner Mark Ballas made fourth place, and Jacoby Jones with his partner Karina Smirnoff placed third. The runner up was Zendayaalong with her partner Val Chmerkovskiy.

Our thoughts and prayers are with these folks. You can immediately help by texting "Red Cross" to 90999. Your phone bill will be charged $10 which is given to the American Red Cross to assist tornado victims.