A country boy can survive!

Late last year we learned that Tim McGraw's "Something Like That" was the most popular song of the decade, so it wasn't all that surprising to hear this week that McGraw has also been declared the Artist of the Decade.

According to Nielsen, which tracks these things, McGraw's music received an astounding 7,965,000 radio spins between January 1, 2000 and December 31, 2009, most of any artist from any genre.  Nearly a half-million of those were for "Something Like That," one of four chart-toppers off his 1999 album A Place in the Sun.  Snoop Dogg and Usher, pay attention.  Country rules!

When we saw McGraw's noteworthy performance in "Blind Side," which won an Oscar for Sandra Bullock, we figured the country boy had given up music for the silver screen.  No chance of that.  He are some  U.S. tour dates before he heads to Australia:

Aug. 21: Louisville, Kentucky State Fair, Freedom Hall
Aug. 28: St. Paul, Minnesota State Fair
Sept. 3: Syracuse, New York State Fair
Sept. 4: Bangor, Maine Bangor Waterfront
Sept. 10: Dallas, Cowboys Stadium

We're thinking that keeping wife Faith Hill happy while he's doing all this other stuff, well, he has our vote for Multitasker of the Decade as well.  We can't wait to see how McGraw and Gwyneth Paltrow do in Country Strong, now scheduled to hit theaters in December.