Tickets now on sale for Sound & Speed concert

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Tickets are on sale for the 2008 Sprint Sound & Speed Presented by SunTrust festival, which for the third consecutive year will bring together stars of country music and NASCAR and concludes with a concert extravaganza headlined by Grammy-winning, multi-platinum-selling recording artist Alan Jackson, with special guests Taylor Swift and Jason Michael Carroll, and other top country-music performers at Nashville's Sommet Center.

Fans of country music and racing have two blockbuster events on Jan. 12 in the Sommet Center: the annual Backstage Garage Pass festivities, where they can get up-close-and-personal with NASCAR and country-music stars for autographs, story-telling and question-answer sessions from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. CST, and the concert at 8 p.m. headlined by Jackson and special guests Swift and Carroll. Tickets are available through TicketMaster (www.ticketmaster.com) and the Sound & Speed Web site (www.soundandspeed.org). Tickets are $39.50 for the concert, $20 for the Backstage Garage Pass event, or $54.50 for both events.

Jackson is one of the most compelling performers/songwriters in country music -- a favorite of critics and fans alike. Jackson has sold more than 49 million albums, has penned 21 of his 31 No. 1 records, and is the most-nominated artist in Country Music Association (CMA) history. As everyone in Nashville knows, Jackson is an avid car collector with a garage full of classic cars, including his first set of wheels, a 1977 Thunderbird.

His 1997 video for Who's Cheatin' Who was filmed at the Concord (N.C.) Motorsports Park and featured some of NASCAR's hottest drivers such as Dale Jarrett, Rusty Wallace, Mark Martin, Brett Bodine, Ernie Irvan, Jeremy Mayfield, Bobby Hillin Jr. and Bill Elliott. The three-time CMA Entertainer of the Year topped the album charts not once, but twice, in 2006, with the success of Precious Memories and Like Red on a Rose.

Swift was named "Country's Hottest Female Artist of 2007" by AOL Music. She burst into country music at the age of 16 with her smash top-five debut single, Tim McGraw. She is the first female solo artist in country-music history to write or co-write every song on her platinum-selling debut CD, which produced three consecutive top-10 singles and remained at the top of the Billboard Country Album Chart for eight weeks. She won the Country Music Association's Horizon Award, as well as the American Music Award for Favorite Country Female Artist.

Carroll's first Arista Nashville album, Waitin' in the Country, has launched back-to-back top-five singles with Alyssa Lies and Livin' Our Love Song. Released Feb. 6, the album debuted at No. 1 on Billboard's country album chart and No. 8 on the pop chart, with a whopping 57,608 units of first-week sales.

Celebrities already scheduled to participate in autograph and question-answer sessions during Spring Sound & Speed Presented by SunTrust are:

• Country artist and recent inductee into the Grand Ole Opry Josh Turner (Long Black Train sold more than a million copies, garnering multiple nominations from the Country Music Association and the Academy of Country Music. Your Man attained double-platinum status and earned two Grammy nominations).

• Diamond Rio (more than 10 million albums sold to date, whose hits include Meet in the Middle, Norma Jean Riley, Unbelievable and One More Day).

• Danielle Peck (most-played debut female country artist of 2006, whose hits include I Don't, Isn't That Everything, Findin' a Good Man, and the new single Bad for Me).

• Bucky Covington, whose self-titled CD opened at No. 1 on Billboard's Top Country Albums chart with not only 2007's biggest unit debut from a new country artist, but also the best first-week sales and highest Top 200 debut for any new male country artist since Billy Ray Cyrus in 1992. Covington's new single It's Good To Be Us, is climbing the country radio charts on the heels of the top-five success of his first single A Different World.

Among the NASCAR celebrities already scheduled to appear are Richard Petty, Kyle Petty along with his wife, Patty, Darrell Waltrip, Ryan Newman and Jamie McMurray. Joining them from the sports car racing ranks will be Max Angelelli and Wayne Taylor.

More drivers and country-music performer appearances will be added to the star-studded line-up weekly.

The blockbuster event also will feature show car and sponsor displays, as well as a charitable auction with memorabilia from the racing and entertainment industries. The first two Sprint Sound & Speed Presented by SunTrust events drew an estimated 25,000 fans and raised more than $500,000 for its designated charities, Victory Junction Gang Camp and the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.

For more information, fans are welcome to visit www.soundandspeed.org. Media can find a complete rundown of event information and backgrounders, performer and racer bios, and information regarding event sponsors and charities in the Media Center at www.truespeedcommunication.com.