Sound Matters As CMA Fest Ends

Nashville's Tennessean has complete recaps of each day of the amazing 2009 festival.

Behind the scenes, a team of Starkey Hearing Foundation staff, Nashville area volunteers, celebrities and sponsors from Big Machine Records and Music City Merchandise brought the Gift of Hearing to Nashville children in need during the CMA Music Festival yesterday (6/14), who then went to the closing performances.

More than 100 children and adults were fitted - at no cost - with digital hearing instruments at the Nashville Renaissance Hotel Ballroom.

CMA CEO Tammy Genovese, Big Machine Records President/CEP Scott Borchetta, and artists including Chuck Wicks, Sunny Sweeney, and Kate & Kacey were on-hand to encourage these children as they were fitted with digital hearing instruments and began hearing clearly, some for the very first time. (thanks to Big Machine's John Zarling for the photos)

Starkey partners with local hearing professionals, school districts, and special education centers to identify and aid local children with hearing loss. Since 2000, the Foundation has distributed nearly 340,000 hearing instruments to those in need around the world.

Chuck And Julianne Dance Well On Dancing With The Stars

Chuck Wicks was already nervous about appearing on Dancing with the Stars with his girlfriend, Julianne Hough a week before his debut last night. "I feel funny enough doing it in a small room with a camera, let alone how I'll feel Monday with a studio audience and millions of people watching...not to mention my friends, all my buddies that will be watching and laughing," Chuck told A&O's buddy Neil Haislop last week.

Sure enough Chuck was nervous, and had a little trouble adjusting to having his girlfriend become his teacher, but he did well during the show thanks to Julianne's experience as a two time champion on the show. His dancing wasn't flawless, but he did good on the ballroom show. After the dance, Chuck and Julienne were both relieved, Chuck was sweating bullets, but they ended up with one of the higher scores of the night.