CMA Fest 2011 - Quotebook

Here's what some of your favorite country music stars had to say about their CMA Music Festival experience:

Quotebook: Heard behind-the-scenes during the 2011 CMA Music Festival:

"You're asking me to do math, which is dangerous. My first Fan Fair was in 1992." -Martina McBride

"It's such an amazing experience being surrounded by 50,000 people who are all singing the same thing. You look out and it's this never ending sea of people for as far as you can see." — Taylor Swift

"Can you sign this for me?" — Clay Walker to Dierks Bentley, who signed a notebook for Walker's daughter.

"My house burned down. I've felt like Rain Man for the last few weeks every time someone asks me a question, 'Trace, what do you want to eat?' 'My house burned down.'" — Trace Adkins

"I have a little video of my daughter's reaction when I sent Jay the picture of me with Justin Bieber. I made a complete fool of myself going up to meet him, but it was so worth it." — Sara Evans who showed press cell phone video of her daughter's reaction.

"The thing that really amazes me is not only the loyalty of the fan but the loyalty of country music back to the fan. You couldn't pull this together in rock n' roll, not so much because of the bands, but the egos of their managers. They'd go, 'Oh, my guy's too big to play that.' But you don't have that here." — Darius Rucker

"Happy birthday to you." — Media singing to Chris Young backstage for his 26th birthday, which was Sunday (6/12)

"These die-hard country fans come from all over the world. It's not just here in the US. It's the least we could do. We love going and signing and seeing familiar faces and being able to look them in the eyes and say thank you." — Lady Antebellum's Hillary Scott

Courtesy of Country Aircheck

Chris Young, Kenny Chesney, Luke Bryan Talk Number 1 Parties

There's only one No. 1 song each week, but Nashville's seen more than its share of parties this week honoring chart-topping songs. A houseful of Luke Bryan's relatives came to town for Monday's bash (3/21) honoring "Someone Else Calling You Baby." "They have been in town since Thursday (3/17)," Bryan explained at the invite-only event. "It's been fun. It's been a zoo. Beau [Bryan's son] and my little nephew have been beating the fool out of one another all week, but other than that, all's well."

A week into the "Goin' Coastal" tour, Kenny Chesney flew to Nashville to thank songwriters JT Harding and Shane McAnally during Wednesday's (3/23) celebration honoring "Somewhere With You." "I hope you guys get to see what it's like when 50,000 people hear the intro of this song," Chesney told the songwriters. "Just to see the groundswell is a pretty amazing thing ... you created it."

Chris Young celebrated the history-making chart-topper "Voices," which was the first re-released hit to go No. 1 since Randy Travis' "On The Other Hand" in 1986. "I bought [Travis'] whole anthology collection as a kid and was listening to all his records," Young told media Monday (3/21). "It's pretty cool to be in the record books next to someone who's really a huge musical influence."

(courtesy of country aircheck)

Alan Jackson's "Freight Train" tour announced!

Alan Jackson will be hitting the road again this year. He has decided to include Josh Turner and Chris Young as opening acts! There are 15 dates scheduled through May 23rd. To see the dates/ cities, click the headline to go to www.alanjackson.com.