God Bless Dolly!

Tennessee saw what Hell looks like this week when the hometown area of Dolly Parton went up in flames. A blowtorch-like fire came out of the Smoky Mountain National Park taking out some 700 buildings and killed at least seven.

Dolly Parton's famed Dollywood was spared, but many homes and businesses were not.

The pictures out of the area were shocking. The tires of cars in the way of the fire melted off their wheels. The wind at times was over 80 MPH and the land was dry from 200-plus days with little to no rain.

Dolly was predictably the first star to step up to help the victims. Her Dollywood foundation is paying out tens of thousands to the local county families who lost everything. Dolly has always helped her hometown people in many ways. And she is doing so again. The My People Fund at dollywoodfoundation.org.

Another Tennessean recognized this crazy week is Charlie Daniels. The long-scheduled Volunteer Jam went off as planned Nov 30th. A quarter-million dollars was raised for veterans, and the stars and fans had a great time. Randy Travis was a show closer when he was brought out to give Charlie a humanitarian award. Eighty years young and already off to Vegas to work the rodeo crowd.

Garth Brooks up early today to call radio stations to pump up sales for his Memphis shows going on sale this weekend. He never stops ... One night at the NY Christmas tree lighting and the next calling folks and talking about the tour. He has two life speeds ... ON and OFF. It is clear everyday why he is reigning CMA Entertainer of the Year.

Very interesting interview in Rolling Stone with Jason Aldean. Jason is almost opposite of Garth Brooks. He is a shy, private kind of guy. His career has been on fire since 2005. He lives a quiet life at home and a loud life at work. Gives you a good snapshot at the former Pepsi truck driver.

The tour year of 2017 is coming together for some big Classic Rock artists, but the biggest Country tours of 2017 seem to still be in the hatchery. Garth will be wrapping his three-year tour and has already announced Edmonton in early Feb. Luke is extending his tour through the Spring, as is Blake. Miranda has plenty of dates through late Spring with Europe in August 2017.

The others are coming. Reba and Brooks & Dunn booking more Vegas 2017 dates, as is George Strait. Kenny is going light in 2017.Going to see what the rest are going to do.

The Grammy nominations are coming December 6th ... "Humble and Kind" will be nominated maybe even in the all-genre Song of the Year. Maren Morris should be a lock in New Artist. Remember it's about the nominations for so many ... just get my team in the game. The win is fantastic, but multiple nominations are great, too. Keith Urban is a Grammy favorite. We will see very soon.

Take a look at Guitars.com, the home of Nashville's Gruhn Guitars. George Gruhn is friends with all the great pickers. On and off the Row. Pal Eric Clapton has Gruhn selling 29 of his guitars. Check them out online. Pretty cool!

Did you see where Taylor Swift got her own channel on the new AT&T mobile TV Streaming service? Mobile is the future, or so they say. Taylor on the cutting edge should surprise no one; $170 million gross according to Forbes from June 2015 to June 2016. Ma Bell and Uverse ... hmm ... but in mobile this $35 dollar-a-month cord-cutter service sounds like this might be big. iHeartRadio making some big streaming announcements this week. Everything in tech changing very, very fast.

I hear local radio did good in the East Tennessee wildfires. I hope so. This is where radio saves lives and becomes the must have product. I hope someone writes about this in the coming days.