Rascal Flatts accepts the award for favorite country band, duo or group title during Sunday’s American Music Awards in Los Angeles. (Associated Press photos)

Michael Jackson won a record four posthumous awards at Sunday night’s American Music Awards, while country starlet Taylor Swift won five trophies, including the top award, entertainer of the year.

The 19-year-old country music star was named the year’s favorite artist, giving Jackson his only loss of the night, according to the Associated Press. She also was awarded favorite female pop/rock artist, favorite female country artists, favorite country album…

The song that has been on my brain the most this week:

- “Monsters,” Hurricane Bells, from “The Twilight Saga: New Moon Soundtrack.”

When the lineup for “New Moon” soundtrack was announced, the inclusion of indie-rock stars such as The Killers, Thom Yorke, Grizzly Bear, Bon Iver and St. Vincent drew tons of attention. One of the names that few recognized: Hurricane Bells.

But Brooklyn musician Steve Schiltz, the sole member of Hurricane Bells, has contributed my absolute favorite song on the soundtrack, the rollicking, fuzzy-guitar-filled “Monsters.”

For better or worse, the “New Moon” soundtrack fits…

From Friday’s Weekend Look section of The Oklahoman.

Rock

Trans-Siberian Orchestra “Night Castle” (Atlantic Records)

Trans-Siberian Orchestra makes its theatrical return to new music with the double-album “Night Castle,” a rock opera about hope and hate, love and war, redemption and forgiveness.

Since the symphonic-rock holiday harbingers have continued to tour often, especially around Christmastime, it may seem that TSO never left. But “Night Castle” is the orchestra’s first new album since its 2004 best-seller “The Lost Christmas Eve” and its first non-holiday offering since 2000’s “Beethoven’s Last Night.”

For diehard fans, the long-awaited “Night…

Carrie Underwood performs at her induction into the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame in September. Underwood has donated original sheet music of her song “I Ain’t in Checotah Anymore” to the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame and Museum. (Photo by Bryan Terry/The Oklahoman Archives)

A version of this story also appears in Friday’s The Oklahoman.

Carrie Underwood’s gift hits write note with museum
Checotah native donates original sheet music of a song she co-wrote

MUSKOGEE — Country music superstar Carrie Underwood has donated original sheet music to her song “I Ain’t in Checotah Anymore”…

Nickelback

TULSA – Nickelback, along with special guests Breaking Benjamin and Shinedown, will return April 24 to the BOK Center, the venue announced today.

Tickets will go on sale at 10 a.m. Dec. 5. Price are to be determined. They will be available online at www.bokcenter.com, www.livenation.com, Arby’s Box Office, all Tickets.com outlets, or by phone at (866) 7BOKCTR.

Nickelback also played an April show this year at the Tulsa arena.

The Grammy-nominated, multi-platinum rock band has announced the 2010 North American leg of their “Dark Horse World Tour,” a Live Nation-produced event. The tour…

Jack White (Associated Press photo)

Rocker Jack White talked this week to MTV.com about producing a recent recording session for Oklahoma’s own Queen of Rockabilly, Wanda Jackson. He said the sessions have already been completed.

“I just finished recording with Wanda Jackson in Nashville. It was just supposed to be a seven-inch (single), but we did a lot more songs, so maybe it will be something bigger,” White told MTV.com. “There was a lot of good stuff. It’s a wild record.”

Jackson (pictured left), a 2009 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, told…

Lady Antebellum won single of the year for “I Run to You” and vocal group of year at last week’s CMA Awards. (Associated Press photos)

Country Music Association Vocal Group of the Year Lady Antebellum are enjoying their biggest sales week ever – even after an astounding 83 weeks on the Billboard country albums chart.

The group sold 45,228 albums this week (a 130 percent increase from last week) beating their self-titled platinum-selling debut album street week number of 43,384 albums sold.

After the group’s passionate CMA Awards performance of “Need You Now,” their…

Lee Ann Womack

The “King of Country Music” George Strait has added award-wining and platinum-selling country artist Lee Ann Womack to his previously announced arena tour with Oklahoma superstar Reba McEntire. The tour kicks off in early 2010 and continues through late spring.

“’Does Fort Worth Ever Cross Your Mind’? ‘Whoever’s In New England’? ‘The Fireman’? ‘Little Rock’? ‘Wrapped’? ‘The Last To Know’? We’re talking classic country from the source,” says Womack in a news release. “I can’t imagine a better tour to be on than George Strait and Reba McEntire –…

The William Blakes

Pop-rockers The William Blakes, who hail from Copenhagen, Denmark, are releasing today their debut album, “Wayne Coyne.”

Yes, the album is named for the frontman of Oklahoma City-based psychedelic rock band The Flaming Lips. Coyne is featured on the cover art and is apparently the subject of the title track.

In a news release, The William Blakes frontman Kristian Leth explains why the band decided to pay such a tribute to Coyne:

“The reason we chose the title ‘Wayne Coyne’ for our debut album, is that he embodies so much of…

J.J. Abrams’ hit reboot “Star Trek” warps onto DVD and Blu-ray today, just in time for Christmas shopping.

In honor of its 70th anniversary, the film classic “Gone with the Wind” gets an “Ultimate Collector’s Edition” release on DVD and Blu-ray.

Several recording artists are releasing CDs today, again to coincide with the holiday gift-buying season. Among those releases are the self-titled first album from 2009 “American Idol” winner Kris Allen and an expanded re-release of runner-up Adam Lambert’s pre-”Idol” debut record. (Lambert will put out his new album “For Your Entertainment”…