Playing tribute to the USA
			Aaron Tippin is not the only country artist to rush topical or patriotic songs to radio: • Randy Travis releases a single this week called America Will Always Stand, written two days after the attacks. • Charlie Daniels released a new version of his In America — also a Gulf War hit — from his forthcoming live album. • Sony Music Nashville quickly decided to release BR549's cover of Anne Murray's 1983 hit A Little Good News as the group's next single. • Monument Records is again promoting to radio stations a recent Billy Ray Cyrus song called We the People, as well as an acoustic version of Some Gave All, Cyrus' tribute to American veterans, which had been recorded for the Veterans Day episode of his Pax series, Doc. • Country trio Blackhawk will release Day of America, a heartland rocker about community and cooperation, next month.

Tippin and Lyric Street Records plan to donate the proceeds from the single's sale to the American Red Cross. It shipped 100,000 copies last week.

Nearly a month after the attacks, some country stations are playing The Star-Spangled Banner three times a day. "If we put it in there," says Radio & Records country editor Lon Helton, "Faith Hill's Star-Spangled Banner would be in the top 30 of our chart. I had a programmer tell me the other day, 'If you know any other artists, tell them to go in and cut it — we need more versions.' "

The Dixie Chicks have done just that, posting the song on their Web site.

"People are writing songs, and artists are looking for songs that say something, that address the feelings of the nation," says Woody Bomar, a senior vice president at Sony ATV Music in Nashville.

"In the week that followed, we must have had 50 or 60 (such) songs come in," says RCA Label Group chairman Joe Galante. He says none of RCA's artists recorded any of that material. "We would have been playing on the moment, and it wouldn't have felt right."

That's less of a problem for artists such as Tippin, who are expected to comment in times of national crisis. "That's germane to who (Tippin) is," says Lyric Street Records president Randy Goodman. "If there's anybody who's going to say it, Aaron should say it."

Stars and Stripes already has become an emotional high point in Tippin's shows.

At a recent show in Georgia, Tippin recalls seeing "a big ol' burly guy, sitting right down in the front row. You could tell he'd slap your teeth out of your head if you looked at him crossways. I start to play this song, I get into the first verse, I look down and that big gopher's crying. I have to look somewhere else, because I start getting choked up."