Archive for January, 2009

With the breakout success of her rowdy 2004 hit “Redneck Woman” and quintuple-platinum debut album, Here for the Party, small-town girl Gretchen Wilson had to learn how to be a country star. She didn’t realize at the time that she’d also have to learn how to be the head of a small business.  “It’s been an adjustment,” admits the Pocahontas, Ill., native, who keeps 27 band and crew members on salary year-round. “Going from being a little girl…

For more than 30 years, Tom and Ray Magliotti have provided listeners with information on car repair and car care on their National Public Radio series Car Talk. In 2008, the Magliottis, under their radio nicknames “Click and Clack, the Tappet Brothers,” became stars of their own television show, an animated spoof of their radio series. The 10 episodes of Click & Clack’s As The Wrench Turns is now available on a two-disc DVD from PBS Home Video.  In addition to the T…

The best way to get Tony Stewart to do something is to tell him it can’t be done. One of the most talented — and temperamental — drivers ever to strap himself inside a cockpit, Stewart will wear two racing hats in 2009 as a co-owner of the car he’ll try to pilot to a third NASCAR championship. He realizes that the skeptics doubt that he can juggle both jobs at once. “I like challenges,” he says. “I can’t guarantee that I’m going to [succeed…