Week Ending 6/6/2009

Hot Country Songs: 15 (up from 16)
Hot 100: 54 (up from 62)

Keep requesting the song to your favorite radio stations!

Click Here to see Reba's new video, "Strange"!

There is a blurb about Reba on the current issue of Country Weekly with George Strait on the cover that says "Reba McEntire - So Why Is She Getting Sassy?" On the inside it quotes what was printed in USA Today and has a live photo of Reba on stage performing.

Week Ending 5/30/2009

Hot Country Songs: 16 (up from 18)
Hot 100: 62 (up from 67)

Keep requesting the song to your favorite radio stations!

Reba McEntire readily admits she took the title song to her upcoming album from her buddies Brooks & Dunn. But there's no finger-pointing going on. She laughs as she makes that statement to us about 'Keep on Loving You,' so it doesn't seem to be a source of contention!

"Brooks & Dunn recorded it, but they were trying to put more uptempo songs on their album," she explains to The Boot. "When Ronnie told me that I said, 'Man you missed it, that's a killer song.' He said he liked it too."

Then Reba dropped the bomb on her friend Ronnie Dunn: "I said, 'Let me have it.' He looked at me and said 'What?' I said, 'Why don't you let me have it? I'll record it!"

Once Ronnie realized Reba was serious, he agreed, but she told him to sleep on it to make sure that was what he wanted for the tune. "The next morning I called him," Reba remembers. "And he told me again that I could have it. So I went in and recorded it quick!"

Reba explains that she named her album 'Keep on Loving You' as a tribute to her fans. "I always will love them, they are so good to me. They stayed with me whether it was radio, television, Broadway; they stayed with me and I just keep on loving them."

The first single from the upcoming project is 'Strange' -- Reba's fastest rising single to date. She has just wrapped up filming a video for the song in Nashville.

"I've seen two or three versions of it so far, and I love it," she says of the video. "I hope everyone else likes it, too."

Future singles form 'Keep On Loving You' just may have somewhat of a different sound than Reba's fans are used to. She admits that touring with Kelly Clarkson last year taught her a lot about music and influenced her judgment in some of the songs she recorded for the new project. "When she [Kelly] was doing songs like 'Miss Independent' and her other hits, it was like wow! I had more of an open mind when I listened to songs this time. I seemed to gravitate to sassy women's songs with an attitude."

Reba say she and Kelly wrote together but none of the songs made it onto this album. "I'm gonna hold on to some of them, and we're still working on some of them," she explains. "I think she's gonna put one of them on her album."

Choosing different kinds of songs was a challenge to Reba when it came to her vocal performance in the studio. "When I am attempting to hit what Kelly Clarkson hits, that does take you to a different place!" she says.

'Keep On Loving You' will be in stores on August 18. Reba says she probably will not start touring to support the album until early 2010.

The studio audience learned a few things about Reba McEntire on Saturday at the taping for her installment of CMT's Invitation Only series.

For starters, the svelte redhead isn't afraid of spiders but she's petrified of snakes, and she's not too fond of liver. She can also rock a pair of black leather pants better than most women half her age.

Because of the structure of the show, Reba spent a good chunk of time answering questions from the audience. Other lighthearted revelations included her thoughts on her hair (which she has never considered dyeing a different color), her early desire to be a champion barrel racer (her dad encouraged her to sing instead), and her one-time plans to teach second grade.

"When the second-graders found out about that, they started buying all my records so that wouldn't happen," she joked.

During the 90-minute taping, Reba also performed a few of her past hits and gave her fans a generous sampling of her upcoming record, Keep on Loving You. Due in stores Aug. 18, the collection is Reba's first solo studio album in six years and her debut release on her new record label, The Valory Music Co.

"It's a very eclectic group of songs," the singer says of the new CD. "There's lots of up-tempo and there's a love song. I had a friend who said they wanted to use one of my songs in their wedding. I said, 'Good luck — (most of) my songs are sad.' "

Hear more from Reba when her episode of Invitation Only makes its debut on CMT in August.

For the week ending May 23, Reba's "Strange" jumps two spots to land at number 18! Way to go Reba and make sure you all keep requesting the song to your favorite radio stations!

On the most recent Billboard charts dated May 16, Reba's 'Strange' continues to march right on up the country charts. In it's fourth week the song jumped 3 spots to land at number 20! Way to go Reba! Be sure to keep requesting the song at your local country radio station!

Reba McEntire credits last year's tour with Kelly Clarkson for changing her perspective on choosing songs for her album, due Aug. 18.
"I think that my song selections are a little more hip," she says. "I know they're more uptempo. They're funky, they're sassy, they've got attitude."

McEntire recorded the still-untitled album with Tony Brown and Mark Bright, best known for his Carrie Underwood and Rascal Flatts productions.

"Tony did the country swing, the more bluegrass song, and the funkabilly I Want a Cowboy. Mark did the more contemporary songs that I think are stupendous."

The album will include Keep on Loving You, co-written by Ronnie Dunn of Brooks & Dunn.

"They didn't put that on their album, and I said, 'Good Lord! Why not?' " McEntire says.

"I said, 'Ronnie, if you're not going to put that on your album, would you let me have it?' He thought about it for a long time, then he finally said, 'You can have it.' "