Willie and Merle Start Strong; The Dixie Chicks Return; Remembering Jim Ed Brown

• Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard’s Django and Jimmie sold 30,000 copies in its first week to debut atop Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart.
• The Dixie Chicks are (almost) back with some European shows set for next April and May.
• Tim McGraw has a role in faith-based drama The Shack, which hopefully won’t have anything to do with The B-52s.
• Brian Kelley’s favorite part of making the “Dirt” music video was standing in a barn. So let’s just put all those questions about the country bona fides of Florida Georgia Line to rest, shall we?
• Farce the Music rounded up more TwitterFAILs for you. Also some TwitterWINs.
• That Nashville Sound posted a special prayer request for Joey Feek of Joey + Rory, whose cancer has returned. She starts chemotherapy and radiation this week.
• Grand Ole Opry star and inveterate gentleman Jim Ed Brown passed away last Thursday, June 11, of lung cancer. Here’s a New York Times obituary for the “Pop a Top” singer.
• Fellow Opry star Bill Anderson posted a nice story about a special visit to the hospital to induct Brown into the Country Music Hall of Fame once it had become clear that the ailing singer would not live to see his formal induction ceremony in October.
• Juli Thanki reported on Jim Ed Brown’s funeral service for The Tennessean.
• The Guardian’s Grady Smith considered why country music is such ‘political catnip’ for presidential candidates on both sides of the aisle.
• Writing for NPR, Jewly Hight used CMA Music Festival and Country Radio Seminar as windows into the state of the genre.
• People Country’s free summer playlist includes songs from Ashley Monroe, Kristian Bush, and Love & Theft. You’ll need iTunes to download it by July 4.
• Hal Horowitz reviewed The Steeldrivers’ Muscle Shoals Recordings (out today) for American Songwriter.

Today’s album releases:

• The Steeldrivers – The Muscle Shoals Recordings
• Various Artists – Dylan, Cash, and The Nashville Cats: A New Music City
• Cory Morrow – The Good Fight
• The Lonesome Trio – The Lonesome Trio (that’s Ed Helms’ bluegrass band)
• Yonder Mountain String Band – Black Sheep
• Amos Lee – Live At Red Rocks With the Colorado Symphony
• Tim McGraw – 35 Biggest Hits
• Hank Williams Jr. – 35 Biggest Hits

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