Jason Alean's "My Kinda Party" has knocked Taylor Swift's "Speak Now" from the #1 slot on the country charts. According to Nielsen SoundScan, My Kinda Party sold 26,875 copies last week, compared to Speak Now's 26,879. Overall, Speak Now has sold 3,136,084 units and My Kinda Party 818,770.

Congratulations Jason!

CMT special CMT Artists of the Year aired last night but you can watch it in it's entirety here (above) or online at CMT.com.

Jason Aldean has announced his 2011 My Kinda Party tour with special guests Eric Church and the new duo the JaneDear Girls. The tour will comprise of 32 cities and will begin on January 21st in Little Rock, Arkansas.

Dates announced so far:

Little Rock, Arkansas - 01/21/2011
Fayetteville, Arkansas - 01/22/2011
Columbia, Missouri - 01/28/2011
Tulsa, Oklahoma - 01/29/2011
Lubbock, Texas - 01/30/2011

More cities will be announced at a later date.

"This is the tour I've dreamed about putting together my whole life," Aldean said. "My band has never been tighter, and I finally have enough material and the kind of production to really take the songs to that next level for the fans. This one is for my mom, who used to drive me to clubs when I wasn't even 16 yet, wait on me to play the same Alabama, John Anderson and George Strait covers every night, then drive me home and make me do my homework before bed. We've come a long way."

That he has!

Country superstar Jason Aldean wowed the audience of the 44th Annual CMA Awards last Wednesday night, performing "Don't You Wanna Stay" from his new album My Kinda Party with Kelly Clarkson. The demand from radio was so great after the performance that Aldean's label, Broken Bow Records, released the song the next morning to Play MPE, the service that provided radio stations with singles.

“If there’s one thing I’ve learned in my years in the record business, it is always give radio what they want,” said SVP Promotion Carson James. “Our entire promotion staff has spent all night fielding calls and returning texts about getting this song, so we decided it best to release it on Play MPE first thing this morning.”

You have to feel a little bad for Jason Aldean because his album just happened to hit the week after Taylor Swift's Speak Now just crushed the album charts. Aldean's new album, titled My Kinda Party, debuted with strong numbers, selling 192,973 copies according to Nielsen SoundScan. It was not good enough though to topple Taylor, who sold another 318,701 copies of Speak Now. Bringing the total up to approximately 1,366,000. units sold.

Swift and Aldean also rank Number 1 and Number 2 on the Billboard 200 list, which includes all music genres. Sugarland comes in Number 3 on the list with their new release The Incredible Machine. So much for that country music not being popular thing. The top three releases are all in the country music camp!

Looking at the country songs chart we see the Zac Brown Band's song "As She's Walking Away," which features Alan Jackson, moves up from number 4 to number 1. I guess the CMA performance of the song paid off!

Taylor Swift and Kid Rock, both off performances at the 44th Annual CMA Awards, will both be performing on the upcoming American Music Awards. The show will air on Sunday, November 21st on ABC.

Taylor Swift is up for Favorite Country Music Female Artist along with Miranda Lambert and Carrie Underwood.

The other country music awards on the show include Favorite Country Music Male Artist which has nominees of Jason Aldean, Luke Bryan and Brad Paisley. Favorite Country Music Band, Duo or Group which has nominees of Zac Brown Band, Lady Antebellum and Rascal Flatts. Favorite Country Music Album which has nominees of Jason Aldean's Wide Open, Lady Antebellum's Need You Now and Carrie Underwood's Play On.

Kid Rock will be releasing his new album, Born Free, on Tuesday, November 16th.

For more information and to vote please visit: http://abc.go.com/shows/american-music-awards/vote

The 44th CMA Awards are happening this week and it just reminds me of just why I think that country music award shows are actually bad for the industry. The CMA's are nothing more than a study in politics and what artists can generate more votes from the Academy. The best act doesn't always win, or may not even be nominated, and the country fan base knows this and just doesn't understand why.

The questions of who get nominated or claims victory in the coveted CMA Entertainer of the Year category seem to run rampant even through the artists themselves. This year's nominees are Miranda Lambert, Lady Antebellum, Brad Paisley, Keith Urban and the Zac Brown Band. A lot of shiny new contenders in a category that is normally dominated by long running heavyweights. Even megastars like Reba McEntire seem a bit confused.

"I have heard they are looking for a new regime, wanting to turn things around and to kind of mix up the shuffle," said Reba McEntire, the 1986 CMA entertainer of the year. "Well, they definitely did. This has sure gotten everybody to talk about it."