Trisha Yearwood doesn't relish the possibility of relinquishing her position as the Country Music Association's top female vocalist. "It's kind of like you're Miss America," says Trisha, who's up against Martina McBride, Lee Ann Womack, Patty Loveless and Faith Hill this year.

The Dixie Chicks were ready to fight to play on their album, the label executives actually insisted they play. "They were saying 'Well of course you can play on the album, that's why we're signing you because you can play on your album," says Natalie Maines.

Junior Brown, recently spotted in Gap and Lipton Tea commercials, has landed a meatier role on this season's The X-Files. "I'm playing a scraggly-looking farmer who's purchased a bunch of fertilizer," says Junior. "Scully and Mulder are checking me out to see if I'm making bombs."

Garth Brooks will make $54 million this year, estimates Forbes magazine in its annual ranking of entertainment's top moneymakers. Garth is 14th on the list, up from No. 21 last year.

Dwight Yoakam says Vince Vaughn, Billy Bob Thornton and Peter Fonda are tentatively slated to appear in a Western movie the singer has written and will direct. Yoakam jokes that Thornton, who encouraged him on the project, "is going to pay the price for being a co-conspirator."

Linda Davis says every tour singing backup for Reba McEntire is like a honeymoon -- because Linda's husband, Lang, is Reba's guitarist. On the bus, Linda says, she and Lang each have a bunk. "But when we get to the city where we're playing, we get a hotel room. "

Several Nashville production companies recently have hired female video directors. "There are more women in the business," says Arista Records video commissioner Scott Rattay. "Like men, they are moving from producing or art direction into direction."

Vince Gill's annual celebrity basketball game and concert will take place Nov. 2 at Nashville's Belmont University. In eight previous years, the event, which brings in some of country music's biggest names, has raised $400,000 for Belmont's music-business and athletic departments.

Maybe you can teach some Old Dogs new tricks. Waylon Jennings, Bobby Bare, Mel Tillis and Jerry Reed, are now calling themselves Old Dogs.

Mark Collie will host his fifth annual Celebrity Race for Diabetes Cure Oct. 7 at the Nashville Speedway. Faith Hill, Tim McGraw, Brooks & Dunn and others will join Mark for the event, which has raised more than $1.5 million in previous years.

Melodie Crittenden may not have a record deal, but her self-titled debut is the biggest selling album by a new female artist in 1998, according to Billboard. The "Broken Road" singer asked for her release from Asylum Records in June after a change in management at the label.

The Dixie Chicks' Wide Open Spaces has gone platinum faster that any debut album in Sony Music Nashville's history. The album, released in January, is still selling 35,000 copies a week.

Garth Brooks wowed some 50,000 Brazilians with his first concert in their country. He got one of his biggest ovations when, just before singing "Standing Outside the Fire," he ripped off his shirt to reveal a Brazilian National Soccer team jersey.

Alabama sold more that 5,500 copies of their double-disc compilation, For The Record: 41 Number One Hits, when they appeared on QVC, the day the album came out. For The Record contains all of the group's chart-topping hits plus three new songs.

Whether you love or hate Alan Jackson's "I'II Go on Loving You," don't expect the rest of High Mileage, out now, to sound like it. "There may be a stretch or two on there but nothing that takes me as far as 'I'l1 go on Loving You' does," Alan says.

Deana Carter's new album, Everything's Gonna Be Alright, will contain a remake of folk-rock singer Melanie's 1971 pop hit "Brand New Key." Deana recorded the tune when representatives at her label felt her album needed one more song.

Dolly Parton performed on the Today Show and sang songs from her new album, Hungry Again.

Garth Brooks' double-CD live album is scheduled to come out Nov. 17. The album, tentatively titled Garth: Double Live, will contain at least 25 songs. Garth is planning two TV specials to promote the album.

A Nashville production company is developing a music-industry soap opera. "The style is somewhere between The X-Files and Evening Shade," says co-writer Elaine Warford. Entertainer/actor Sheb Wooley stars in the six-minute trailer that's being produced to pitch to Hollywood.

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