The Show That Never Ends...CMA MusicFest/Fan Fair Week...

Jimmy Carter in his homebase Nashville

Starts on Monday calmly with a Lonestar charity bowling tournament ... then goes into fan club parties and some special events. Then the official CMA Festival begins with a 10a concert and its 20 hours a day until midnight Sunday. Take one day off for clean-up and travel and you have the CMT Music Awards on Tuesday the 16th.

Publicists, for one, are walking dead. Many of the artists lose their voices and Blake Shelton told Larry King he would probably be getting the swine flu.

One radio bunch always goes on vacation this week ... a tradition. I did that a few times. Can't really go now, but it is a crazy week.

Fain Fair Week is not exactly my idea of fun but the fans that show up do seem to love it. The sweat and $20 dollar parking multiple times is aggravating.

The autograph areas seem more popular this year and that's a good thing for fans. The weather is still awful ... as it is every year. So far this year the threat of tornadoes shut the big stadium show down for a few hours with Rascal Flatts never going on. The humid and heat of the opening parade was Africa-like. It's an iron-man fan competition with every kind of corporate sponsor you could imagine.

You could see a bit of the economy with the radio remotes, but many still made it and every new act with a record deal were in front of the microphones. You have to force yourself to remember Garth and Shania were once no-names, too. Reba got busy this year and she got a good bit of coverage.

What's all this Garth Brooks Vegas talk? He's going to the Encore for some special shows? What about all the other Fall special events he is rumored to do? Maybe just that rumor. The Vegas thing does appear to be real in some way.

The Bonnaroo festival would be fun to check out if you could. Can't afford the $1,400-a-pair VIP-level tickets. Jimmy Buffett, The Boss and Phish top the bills just down I-24 from Nashville in Manchester.

Went downtown this week to visit the Ernest Tubb Record Shop. A trip down memory lane for sure -- visited with Larry & Steve Gatlin and Donna Fargo. The walls are filled with vintage album covers. Too-cool reminder of a simpler time.

Carrie Underwood took care of her fans this week, as did many other stars. Carrie used the big Opry House for her thousands. WWW.askjimmycarter.com has her in full running mode at the celebrity softball game. I do blog now, too, at the top of the website and it has a B for blogger -- updates several times a day.

Blake Shelton's music keeps getting better. He was a funny guy on Larry King Live from Nashville Thursday night. CNN did shows Thursday and Friday night. Impressive effort with LIVE stadium cut-ins, etc. Where was CMT during all this? The building sits in the middle of the event and not even a live camera out the door. Maybe the talking heads were unacceptable.

The mysterious, quiet Gary Allan talked a bunch at this fan club show held at Rockettown. Gary said no one asked him to play the stadium shows and his new CD would be in the Fall. Dale Jr. and Chevy were supposed to use his song "Like It's a Bad Thing" and they cancelled due to economy.

R.I.P. Barry Beckett! Great session guy who played with everyone from Dire Straits to Hank Williams, Jr. Played on Paul Simon's "Kodachrome" and hundreds of others.

Twitter is better used by some stars than others. Miley is all over it ... Billy, too. Martina and Dierks are two of country's best tweets. Several others just plain stink.

Looking forward to heading north to Camrose, Alberta, Canada for the Big Valley Jamboree in late July. Tim McGraw is the headliner. Still working on my Country USA plans ... those festivals are a blast!

Now back to more CMA MusicFest as a regular person this year. Wanted to try with no special favors or passes ... It's pretty hard ... lots of walking and heat. Took my 12-year-old ... not sure what she thinks of all this ... will advise....