McGraw said in an earlier interview with The Associated Press that he and Borchetta sealed the deal May 9 at the Greyhound bus station in Nashville, marking the anniversary of McGraw’s arrival in Music City with a guitar in one hand and a suitcase in the other.

“So 23 years after I arrived to town, I’m sort of in the kickoff phase of my new career,” McGraw said.

McGraw enters that second phase as one of country music’s leading men. The heartthrob in the black hat, the 45-year-old has reigned on the charts and in album sales for years and remains a force in the genre despite what he considered shenanigans by his longtime record label. He accused Curb of trying to prolong the length of his contract by releasing a string of greatest hits packages that frustrated fans and artist alike.

He’s been recording new music and hopes to release a “landmark” album late this year or early 2013 “that’s just going to sort of turn the knob over to 11.”

“I feel like that I’m at a point now in my career I think there’s more ahead of me than behind me,” McGraw said. “It’s time for me to look forward. It’s time for me to look at my new partner in the business of making records and radio, and just sort of step on the gas. I think I’m at a great spot in my career and there’s nothing but great things ahead of me.”

There was much speculation about where McGraw might land. He remains a bankable star with more than 37 million albums sold, 30-plus No. 1 singles and strong touring numbers that will soon include his stadiums-only “Brothers of the Sun” tour this summer with old friend Kenny Chesney. He’s also carved out an acting career, receiving favorable reviews for performances in “The Blind Side” and “Country Strong.” And his marriage to Faith Hill adds its own star power.

In some ways, Borchetta had an inside track all along, however. Their lives have been intertwined since Borchetta’s father, Mike, persuaded Curb Records to sign McGraw before the release of his first album in 1993.

“Nobody wanted anything to do with me, but he had a feeling about me and sort of stuck his neck out for me,” McGraw said. “He actually threw me a party at his house when I signed with Curb Records, and I’m not even sure that anybody over there knew that he’d signed me.”

McGraw and the younger Borchetta remained friendly and over the last several years McGraw has stopped in to sit and chat from time to time.

“And we just talk about things — ‘What would you do here? What do you think about this? I want to play this for you,’ you know?” Borchetta said. “We’ve been friendly for 20 years almost. So the conversations over the last few years and him hoping that this opportunity could happen have obviously been a little more pointed — ‘Wouldn’t it be cool IF we could work together and what would we do if we got that chance?’”

McGraw fills a hole on the Big Machine roster, which was in need of a headlining solo male star, and continues a trend of signing mid-career acts looking for a reboot. McGraw’s arrival follows that of Rascal Flatts and Martina McBride.

The label’s flagship artist is Taylor Swift — whose first single for Big Machine was “Tim McGraw” coincidentally. But Borchetta’s label group also has helped break The Band Perry, the Eli Young Band and Brantley Gilbert recently as well and is home to Reba McEntire.

McGraw says that success was hard to ignore.

“You want to have a great partner when you’re in this business,” McGraw said. “You want to have someone you trust and are family that you trust, and a family that’s got your back and a family that you know has sort of the same artistic goals that you have, and I feel now I have that. The past is the past. I’ve had a lot of success. I’m looking forward to more success. … I feel like in a position now to even jump higher.”

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Online:

http://www.timmcgraw.com

http://www.bigmachinemusic.com

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Follow www.twitter.com/AP_Country for the latest country music news from the Associated Press. Follow Entertainment Writer Chris Talbott at www.twitter.com/Chris_Talbott.

The new education center is part of the museum’s $75 million “Working on a Building” expansion project that will increase the space more than 200,000 square feet to 350,000. The expansion is part of the new convention center project in downtown Nashville and will include a new concert theater, more room for exhibits and archives, and a shared entrance with a new hotel.

Swift’s education center will have its own exterior entrance and is 7,500 square feet-plus spread over two stories. It will include three classrooms and exhibit space and will allow the museum to add to its youth education programs. The new space will house interactive activities such as a musical petting zoo and a “wet” classroom space to make concert posters and other art projects. The expansion also would allow the museum to start new programs and workshops and for teens and senior citizens as well as continuing workshops.

The 22-year-old singer-songwriter is country music’s top-selling artist and current ambassador to the world. The six-time Grammy winner is a two-time winner of both the Country Music Association and Academy of Country Music entertainer of the year awards and has taken the genre to Asia, Europe and Australia as well as the top of the U.S. pop charts.

She has a long history with the museum. One of her first public performances was on the building’s plaza. She signed her record contract there. And she has donated her time to the museum’s “All For The Hall” fundraisers.

“For Taylor to want to engage herself in the life of this place in such an appropriate way … every way you slice it and dice it, it’s great for this place,” Young said.

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Online:

http://www.countrymusichalloffame.org

Jones didn’t set out to put a piano in her kitchen, of course. Much like her collaboration with the producer Danger Mouse on “Little Broken Hearts,” it just kind of happened naturally. And by going with the flow, making little decisions in the moment, she arrived at something delightful she never expected.

“I just like how it’s turned into sort of a bit of a concept album without any intentions of that’s what we were going to do,” Jones said. “I’m proud that it ended up being what it is, going in knowing so little about what would happen. I love it.”

“Little Broken Hearts” little resembles Jones’ previous four solo albums, from the vampy cover photo to its lyrical content and vaguely psychedelic sound. It’s edgy, effects-laden and deeply personal. She’s written a few songs she felt were this personal before, especially on her 2009 album “The Fall.” But much of “Little Broken Hearts” centers on her life and the emotions you run through during relationship problems — from betrayal and indecision to healing and moving on.

The 12 songs on “Hearts” represent a true collaboration between Jones and Brian Burton, who produces under the name Danger Mouse. They mainly focus on a difficult breakup Jones went through, but she says Burton’s fingerprints are all over the place and his ideas and lyrics transformed songs in unexpected ways.

The two met on Burton’s musical ode to Italian cinema, “Rome,” and formed a friendship, agreeing to work together. They initially met for a five-day “get to know you” session and cemented their partnership. But it wasn’t until last summer that they were able to commit to the two months it would take to write and record the album at Burton’s Los Angeles studio.

Jones said she didn’t set out with a specific goal in mind and is surprised “Hearts” morphed into something of a breakup album. Rather than a gloomy summation of a difficult time, though, the album offered Jones a surprising catharsis.

“It just kind of came out when we were writing,” Jones said. “I think Brian is very drawn to darkness in music and I am drawn to melancholy — not necessarily darkness as much as he is. I think when we just kind of put that together, this is what came out. I’d definitely just gone through a breakup and I felt like I was coming out really well on the other side. … A lot of it’s personal, dramatized and tweaked, and both of us were talking about, ‘Oh, what if this?! What if that?!’”

Jones talked about the experience and the unintentional career path that’s made her one of the best-selling artists of the 21st century in an interview during the South By Southwest Music Conference in Austin, where she nervously performed the album for several hundred fans, and in a follow-up phone interview weeks later.

In a sense, Jones has grown up in front of her fans’ eyes. She sold 25 million copies worldwide of her first album, 2002′s “Come Away With Me,” at 22, and earned herself a creative freedom she’s taken full advantage of ever since. She collaborates fearlessly with everyone from Willie Nelson to Q-Tip to Mike Patton, has a side band that plays country music, and she’s grown from a beautifully expressive interpreter to a deeply thoughtful singer-songwriter who’s unafraid to experiment.

“When I hear a song Norah is singing or playing on I can hear her spirit and her soul very clearly,” singer-songwriter Ryan Adams said of his friend in an email. “There is an elegance to how guarded she is in her timing and there are a lot of dimly lit corridors in her musical passages. It’s a lovely trap she sets for the listener. Also you would never mistake her for someone else or someone else for her. She is completely giving in that sense. I adore that.”

Danger Mouse helps her explore those dark places more deeply than ever before. Burton, who declined an interview request, is known for bringing something very different out of the artists he works with, including Cee Lo Green (the two formed the duo Gnarls Barkley), The Black Keys, James Mercer of The Shins and Beck.

Eli Wolf, the vice president of A&R at Blue Note, says “Little Broken Hearts” is another example of Burton’s ability to find hidden facets.

“What’s remarkable to me is you have the meeting of two singular musical personalities in Norah and Brian and they kind of took from each similarities and differences to make a true musical marriage,” said Wolf, who has worked with Jones her entire 10-year career. “For example, Norah has a talent for giving wonderful space and breadth to her music while Brian has a tremendous knack for these amazing layers of production. And they sort of took this yin and yang to find a harmony and musical middle ground.”

And now that “Little Broken Hearts” has been released, Jones finds herself in a much happier mood than she posits on the album. She’s got a new boyfriend and is happy to be taking five album’s worth of songs on tour. She’s content to focus on the now and she’s not really thinking about what comes after that.

She might move back to Texas for a while and make a country album. Who knows? Wouldn’t be that strange of a move for someone who has a piano in her kitchen.

“I really have no idea, which is fun,” Jones said. “I’m totally happy that way.”

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Online:

http://www.norahjones.com

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Follow Entertainment Writer Chris Talbott at www.twitter.com/Chris_Talbott.