Randy Travis

Randy Travis' matinee on Sunday at Valley Forge Music Fair - the last of his three sold-out shows there this weekend - came with all the trappings of an appearance by a firmly entrenched country superstar. There was the souvenir booth selling "RT" key chains, T-shirts, calendars, forms to order the cookbook Randy's Favorite Recipes, refrigerator magnets and watches. There was the prerecorded voice of Ralph Emery, host of cable's Nashville Now, wishing the crowd a safe trip home, after Travis' grand finale of "Dixie" and "The Battle Hymn of the Republic.

A tour bus transporting smoldering country singer Randy Travis crashed Sunday afternoon in the Pocono town of Lakeville in Wayne County, causing nary an injury. Travis, his wife, Elizabeth, and driver Jeff Davis were the only people in the 45-foot customized bus, which careened into a driveway and then went into a ditch on State Road 590. Two trucks pulled the bus out, and Travis went on to do a show at a Caesars resort. "We want to thank all the folks who helped us out," Travis said.

Having become one of the most important new country-music artists in the space of a year, Randy Travis follows up his initial success with a strong album, Always and Forever (Warner Bros. ) that deepens his appeal as a singer of old-fashioned country. If there's no song here as powerful as his last album's "On the Other Hand," new tunes such as "Forever and Ever, Amen" and the western swing-influenced "Too Gone, Too Long" are strong enough to sustain comparison with Travis' greatest influence, Merle Haggard.

In 1986, Randy Travis helped push country music back in a traditional direction with the success of his debut album, the instant honky-tonk classic Storms of Life. Since then, of course, the pendulum has swung back, with country losing much of its soul in its bid to embrace pop. Travis, thankfully, has changed little. That was made clear during his headlining gig Saturday night at WXTU-FM's 15th-anniversary bash at the E-Centre. He injected a little rock edge into some of his newer material, and the volume of the band occasionally overwhelmed his vocals, but the deep-country style that seemed fully formed at the start of his career remained firmly in place.

The queen and king of contemporary country music took up the throne at the Philadelphia Civic Center last night. K. T. Oslin and Randy Travis, who have taken home enough honors in recent years to fill the largest of country parlors, gave the near-capacity crowd a lot to cheer about, despite playing through a meager sound system. Travis, the lanky, lantern-jawed country giant, played a nonstop hit parade of a dozen and a half songs that lasted slightly more than an hour. Perhaps the best indication of how popular Travis is comes when glancing at the country charts, where all three of his albums are still in the top 40. Last night, the singer mixed in a little from all three, throwing out straightforward versions of "Deeper than the Holler," "Forever and Ever, Amen" and "On the Other Hand.

He was naked. He was taking a nap. He was freakish. Spooky. Weird. And drunk. Yes, it has been confirmed by dozens of tireless journos and hours of sleepless reporting, research, and probably even a few seances: Randy Travis was nakedweirdnappingfreakydrunk when he was arrested and charged with DUI after running his 1998 Pontiac Trans Am into barricades in a construction zone in North Texas. In the latest news, the 911 call that led cops to the singer has been released.

Country singer Randy Travis behaved like he was in a country song. Near his home in Tioga, Texas, Travis has been charged with drunken driving and threatening law officers after running his Pontiac Trans Am off the road Tuesday night and striking several construction barricades. And he was naked. Darn stick shift. A mug shot released by the Grayson County Sheriff's Office shows a battered-looking Travis in a gray T-shirt, with a black eye and dried blood on his face. When he left jail, he was wearing scrubs, a University of Texas ballcap and no shoes.

In a tale of woe that sounds like a country song, Randy Travis is accusing his ex-wife, Elizabeth Travis, of divulging confidential information about him in order to damage his reputation and career. The accusations were made in a countersuit he filed this month against Elizabeth in a federal court in Nashville. The countersuit is the latest salvo in their ongoing feud. The couple divorced in 2010 after 19 years of marriage. Elizabeth had been Randy's manager for more than three decades and continued to work with him after they divorced.

Last fall, Paul Overstreet, suddenly successful writer of two Randy Travis hits and member of the fast-rising pop-country recording trio SKO, was sitting in a Bible-study class hearing a comparison of the temporal and the eternal. It was a comparison, Overstreet says, between what will live forever and what will "burn. " "As a Christian believing in Jesus, I believe that I have eternal life after I die in this life," the Mississippi minister's son explains, "so all the things I do on this earth that bear spiritual fruit will live eternally after I die - they will be my treasures forever - and everything else will burn.

Barbara Mandrell and Frankie Avalon have just videotaped co-hosting roles in an Opryland USA one-hour musical variety TV special to be syndicated next March and April as a preview to the Nashville theme park's 1988 season. The show, Opryland Celebrates 200 Years of America's Music, also stars Randy Travis, Charley Pride, Minnie Pearl and several other headliners of the Grand Ole Opry, plus comedian Arte Johnson, gospel singer Bobby Jones and his New Life Singers, the U.S. Marine Drum and Bugle Corps, and the Tennessee State University Marching Band.

The Los Angeles County coroner's office Friday said it had yet to establish the reason for director Tony Scott 's suicide. Scott, 68, left two notes before jumping off L.A.'s Vincent Thomas Bridge on Sunday, but they contain no clues. One lists emergency contact numbers. The other is a brief farewell to Scott's wife, Donna , and their 12-year-old twins, Max and Frank , says TMZ. Rufus Wainwright weds Quebecois baroque popster Rufus Wainwright on Thursday wed his long-term beau, Jorn Weisbrodt , in his fave town, the Long Island beach community of Montauk, People says.

He was naked. He was taking a nap. He was freakish. Spooky. Weird. And drunk. Yes, it has been confirmed by dozens of tireless journos and hours of sleepless reporting, research, and probably even a few seances: Randy Travis was nakedweirdnappingfreakydrunk when he was arrested and charged with DUI after running his 1998 Pontiac Trans Am into barricades in a construction zone in North Texas. In the latest news, the 911 call that led cops to the singer has been released.

Country singer Randy Travis behaved like he was in a country song. Near his home in Tioga, Texas, Travis has been charged with drunken driving and threatening law officers after running his Pontiac Trans Am off the road Tuesday night and striking several construction barricades. And he was naked. Darn stick shift. A mug shot released by the Grayson County Sheriff's Office shows a battered-looking Travis in a gray T-shirt, with a black eye and dried blood on his face. When he left jail, he was wearing scrubs, a University of Texas ballcap and no shoes.

In a tale of woe that sounds like a country song, Randy Travis is accusing his ex-wife, Elizabeth Travis, of divulging confidential information about him in order to damage his reputation and career. The accusations were made in a countersuit he filed this month against Elizabeth in a federal court in Nashville. The countersuit is the latest salvo in their ongoing feud. The couple divorced in 2010 after 19 years of marriage. Elizabeth had been Randy's manager for more than three decades and continued to work with him after they divorced.

Have any doubts that Bart and Homer Simpson have totally defined the culture? Consider this: Fox's animated social satire (and hilarious 'toon) will air its 500th episode , "At Long Last Leave," on Sunday. Ay caramba! It's a feat. Only two other prime-time scripted series have reached this milestone, Gunsmoke (635) and Lassie (588). "I never imagined this," Matt Groening , the wigged-out genius behind the show, tells USA Today.

Every man, woman, child, household pet, and domesticated farmyard animal on the planet (with the exception of yours truly) watched Sunday's Super Bowl game, which saw the New York Giants fell the mighty New England Patriots, 21-17. It was the most-watched program in U.S. TV history, drawing an average of 111.3 mil domestic viewers, according to Nielsen SoundScan ( Madonna 's halftime show drew 114 mil). Global numbers aren't in, but we imagine they are spectacular.   Twitter-twitter-twitter the NFL Sunday's game also broke the Twitter record, indicating that many, many people tweeted about the contest, an indication, says Inc.com, that it was a most important cultural phenom.

A tour bus transporting smoldering country singer Randy Travis crashed Sunday afternoon in the Pocono town of Lakeville in Wayne County, causing nary an injury. Travis, his wife, Elizabeth, and driver Jeff Davis were the only people in the 45-foot customized bus, which careened into a driveway and then went into a ditch on State Road 590. Two trucks pulled the bus out, and Travis went on to do a show at a Caesars resort. "We want to thank all the folks who helped us out," Travis said.

In 1986, Randy Travis helped push country music back in a traditional direction with the success of his debut album, the instant honky-tonk classic Storms of Life. Since then, of course, the pendulum has swung back, with country losing much of its soul in its bid to embrace pop. Travis, thankfully, has changed little. That was made clear during his headlining gig Saturday night at WXTU-FM's 15th-anniversary bash at the E-Centre. He injected a little rock edge into some of his newer material, and the volume of the band occasionally overwhelmed his vocals, but the deep-country style that seemed fully formed at the start of his career remained firmly in place.

Candy is dandy and roses melt toesies. But to truly heat the heart of your sweetheart today, think about gifting him or her with a compact disc chock-full of yearnin' burnin' love songs. Truth is, more than 50 percent of pop music is devoted to the subject of l'amour. What's new in record stores is a heap of greatest hits collections for lovers only, some timed precisely for Valentine's Day giving and getting. While there's nothing just yet for the decidedly anti-social and anti-romance punk, grunge and rap devotees, demographic groups ranging from dance-poppin' teens to soul-steeped septuagenarians will find lots of "60-minute-honeymoon" sets to spark the memories and rekindle the flames.

Larry Gatlin has never had a problem with performing. "Turn the light on, show me where I stand, and I'll do it," says the 45- year-old Texas-born singer-composer, who first set foot on a stage with his family vocal group when he was age 6. "But what I'm doing now is something else. And my butt is really on the line. " You know Gatlin as the front guy of the popular Gatlin Brothers country music band and as the star of "The Will Rogers Follies" on Broadway (after Keith Carradine and Mac Davis)