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Tim McGraw performs "My Best Friend" on CNN Showbiz Today Full audio performance: 1.8Mb MPEG-3 Audio clip: 285k WAV Video clip: 1.6Mb QuickTime

May 6, 1999
Web posted at: 3:58 p.m. EDT (1958 GMT)

HOLLYWOOD (CNN) -- Tim McGraw has been at the top of the country music scene for the past five years. He's had about a dozen number-one hit singles to his name. Wednesday night, he performed at the Country Music Awards and went home with an award as best male vocalist and for best vocal event of the year -- an award he shares with his wife, Faith Hill.

He also has a new album out, "A Place in the Sun."

"I hope it does good," he told CNN Showbiz Today's Sherri Sylvester, because "I've got two kids to put through college."

In compiling the 14 songs for the album, McGraw said he looks for things that "fit you ... that you have an idea in your head what kind of album you want to make and the sounds that you want on the album. And you try to find songs that fit: songs that fit the mood you want to create, and things that you feel like you can have fun with."

On the touring front, McGraw is preparing to go out with a bus specifically equipped for young charges; daughters Gracey and Maggie are two years and nine months old, respectively. "We just let them roam," McGraw says. "Gracey learned to walk on the bus, so she has good balance."

McGraw performed music from "Place in the Sun" live on Showbiz Today.