Big Machine Records

• To kick off her big weekend in Nashville this week, Taylor Swift stopped by the Bobby Bones Show and NASH-FM’s America’s Morning Show on Friday to do radio interviews. See photos of Taylor and the crews below, plus hear her interviews with Bobby Bones and Blair Garner here. Then on Saturday, well ahead of schedule, The Taylor Swift Education Center officially opened at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.  Last year, Taylor made a $4 million donation to the Hall of Fame to help build the education center, which is the largest individual artist gift in the Hall of Fame’s history.  The brand new, state-of-the-art education center will be housed on two floors in the museum and will feature three classrooms, a learning lab and a children’s exhibit gallery. Go here to see what Taylor had to say about the opening. To end the exciting weekend, tonight Taylor Swift notched another impressive achievement in her career, when she was presented with the Nashville Songwriters Association International Songwriter/Artist of the Year award for a sixth time.  She has now won this award more times than any other songwriter/artist, and she remains the youngest artist ever to earn the award.The Songwriter/Artist of the Year Award recognizes the “most prolific and productive Nashville writers who achieved Top 30 singles during the past year.” Taylor’s latest album, RED, has reached number one in 50 different countries and sold more than six million copies to date, and 14 songs off the album have landed in the top 30 on the charts from July 2012 through June 2013.

• Tickets for the first four dates of the UK leg of Taylor Swift’s blockbuster THE RED TOUR sold out within hours of going on sale on Friday 4th October. Due to popular demand seven-time Grammy winner Taylor Swift announces today that she will be adding a fifth date to the UK leg of THE RED TOUR next year. London’s The O2 will now host Taylor Swift’s THE RED TOUR on 11th February in addition to the 1st, 2nd, 4th and 10th February 2014. Tickets will be available to purchase from 9am on Tuesday 8th October via axs.com, ticketmaster.co.uk, gigsandtours.com.

• Tim McGraw will perform a special concert in Jacksonville, Florida on November 10th for military members and their families at U.S. Naval Station Mayport to celebrate Veterans Day.  “Chase Presents Live From The HomeFront: Tim McGraw” will also be broadcast live on the Pentagon Channel and online at TimMcgraw.com and on Tim’s YouTube channel starting at 8:45 PM EST, so that fans worldwide can watch the concert. As Tim did throughout his Two Lanes of Freedom Tour and on the Brothers of the Sun Tour, he will be teaming up with Chase and Operation Homefront to award a mortgage-free home to a wounded warrior or military member in need at his November 10th show.  To date, Tim has given away more than 70 mortgage-free homes through the HomeFront Program. See the full press release here.

• Season 4 winner of The Voice Danielle Bradbery returned home this week for a surprise performance on the NBC singing competition. She performed her debut single, “The Heart of Dixie” to a national television audience of millions. See the full performance here.

The Valory Music Co.

• Justin Moore, Rodney Atkins, Phil Vassar and Sawyer Brown will join The Charlie Daniels Band for the annual Christmas 4 Kids benefit concert at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville.  For over 25 years the Christmas 4 Kids organization has provided underprivileged children with Christmas shopping sprees as part of a day-long celebration hosted by Santa and Mrs. Claus.  Without the concert, which will take place on November 25th, the over 400 children who will benefit this year would otherwise not likely have a Christmas.  You can get more details at Christmas4kids.org.

Republic Nashville

• Kimberly Perry dated her fiancée, J.P. Arencibia, for about a year and a half before he proposed to her last week, which gave her brothers Reid and Neil plenty of time to get to know their future brother-in-law.  They give the Toronto Blue Jays catcher their stamp of approval and Reid tells Country Weekly that from a professional standpoint he’s a great match for their sister because “his schedule complements ours, so when we’re on the road, he’s on the road doing his thing, and when we have time off, it’s all great to spend time together.”The guys plan to spend some time bonding when Reid and Neil take J.P. hunting later this month.  Reid jokes, “It’s probably a good thing, the brothers-in-law Neil and I having a gun in our hands, in case we need to just pass on a little friendly advice.” Read the full story here.

• Cassadee Pope released her debut Country album this week. Frame By Frame shot to #1 on the iTunes Country albums chart and into the Top 5 overall albums. To celebrate the release, Cassadee spent her week traveling the country, starting with a trip to Target in Brooklyn, NY to purchase her own album. Between radio interviews and media appearances, she carved out time to meet and perform for fans at in-store events in D.C. and Baltimore, as well as at the Mall of America in Minneapolis. Fans were treated to a special online StageIt performance from Cassadee on Friday night, and you can see videos of her Yahoo! Music’s Ram Country feature here, here, and here. She also stopped by Billboard for an exclusive performance, which you can watch here.