Little Big Town will be featured on NBC’s Today Show on Wednesday (December 19th). The segment was shot during their annual Christmas program at Blackberry Farm this past weekend.

Kacey Musgraves’ Golden Hour album, which was named CMA Album of the Year last month, has made it onto several Best of 2018 album lists. The latest include AP (Associated Press) and GQ.

Maddie & Tae have been added to the Country Thunder lineup in Kissimmee, Florida March 22nd – March 24th.

UMG Nashville is pleased to bring you a unique holiday special to help you program your stations. The three-hour program is spot-free (includes 10-14 minutes of local avails per hour; non-exclusive).

Click here to download the special.

A Country Christmas is a three-hour, multi-artist special hosted by Lauren Alaina, and features classic holiday tunes, as well as Christmas thoughts, memories and more from many of your favorite country artists, including Luke Bryan, Carrie Underwood, Darius Rucker, Keith Urban, Little Big Town, Alan Jackson and George Strait, among many others. We’ll also give you some bonus content and liners, as well.

CLEARANCE WINDOW:

Friday, December 14th – Sunday, December 25th

The nominations for 2019’s GRAMMY Awards have been announced, and Kacey Musgraves leads the list of UMG Nashville’s artists with four, including overall Album of the Year for Golden Hour, as well as Best Country Album. Her song “Butterflies” picks up a nomination for Best Country Solo Performance, while “Space Cowboy” earns a nod for Best Country Song.

Chris Stapleton is nominated for three awards, including Best Country Solo Performance (“Millionaire”); Best Country Album (From A Room: Volume 2) and Best Pop Duo/Group Performance with Justin Timberlake for “Say Something.”

Brothers Osborne has a pair of noms for Best Country Duo/Group Performance (“Shoot Me Straight”) and Best Country Album (Port St. Joe).

Little Big Town competes for Best Country Duo/Group Performance for their song “When Someone Stops Loving You” – the song is also nominated for Best Country Song (award goes to the songwriters).

Keith Urban grabs a nod for Best Country Solo Performance for “Parallel Line,” which is from his latest album, Graffiti U.

Vince Gill gains a Grammy nomination in the Best Country Duo/Group Performance category for the duet “Dear Hate” with Maren Morris.

And Restoration: Reimagining the Songs of Elton John and Bernie Taupin captures a nomination for Best Country Solo Performance for Maren Morris’ version of “Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters.”

The 2019 Grammys will air live from the Staples Center in Los Angeles February 10^th on CBS.

Album of the Year
Invasion of Privacy — Cardi B
By the Way I Forgive You — Brandi Carlile
Scorpion — Drake
beerbongs & bentleys — Post Malone
H.E.R. — H.E.R.
Dirty Computer — Janelle Monae
Golden Hour — Kacey Musgraves
Black Panther: The Album — Kendrick Lamar

Best Pop Duo/Group Performance
“Fall In Line” — Christina Aguilera Featuring Demi Lovato
“Don’t Go Breaking My Heart” — Backstreet Boys
“‘S Wonderful” — Tony Bennett & Diana Krall
“Shallow” — Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper
“Girls I Like You” — Maroon 5 Featuring Cardi B
“Say Something” — Justin Timberlake Featuring Chris Stapleton
“The Middle” — Zedd, Maren Morris & Grey

Best Country Solo Performance
“Wouldn’t It Be Great?” — Loretta Lynn
“Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters” — Maren Morris
“Butterflies” — Kacey Musgraves
“Millionaire” — Chris Stapleton
“Parallel Line” — Keith Urban

Best Country Duo/Group Performance
“Shoot Me Straight” — Brothers Osborne
“Tequila” — Dan + Shay
”When Someone Stops Loving You” — Little Big Town
“Dear Hate” — Maren Morris Featuring Vince Gill
“Meant to Be” — Bebe Rexha & Florida Georgia Line

Best Country Song
“Break Up in the End” — Jessie Jo Dillon, Chase McGill & Jon Nite, songwriters (Cole Swindell)
“Dear Hate” — Tom Douglas, David Hodges & Maren Morris, songwriters (Maren Morris Featuring Vince Gill)
“Space Cowboy” — Luke Laird, Shane McAnally & Kacey Musgraves, songwriters (Kacey Musgraves)
“Tequila” — Nicolle Galyon, Jordan Reynolds & Dan Smyers, songwriters (Dan + Shay)
“When Someone Stops Loving You” — Hillary Lindsey, Chase McGill & Lori McKenna, songwriters (Little Big Town)

Best Country Album
Unapologetically — Kelsea Ballerini
Port Saint Joe — Brothers Osborne
Girl Going Nowhere — Ashley McBryde
Golden Hour — Kacey Musgraves
From A Room: Volume 2 — Chris Stapleton

Kacey Musgraves’ CMA Album of the Year, Golden Hour, has been named Apple Music’s Album of the Year, as well.

If you’re visiting downtown Nashville and stop by Luke Bryan’s 32 Bridge Food + Drink, Dierks Bentley’s “Whiskey Row,”  Alan Jackson’s AJ’s Goodtime Bar and Blake Shelton’s Ole Red, among others, you’ll be helping out the local Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt. The country stars and other businesses are taking part in the Jingle All the Broadway initiative to help raise money and awareness for the hospital. It continues through Christmas Day.

Lauren Alaina will make her late-night TV debut with her latest song, “Ladies in the ‘90s,” on NBC’s Late Night With Seth Meyers on February 19th.

Esquire magazine released its list of the Top 10 Best Country Albums of 2018, and UMG Nashville has several on the list including Brothers Osborne’s Port Saint Joe (No. 7), Dierks Bentley’s The Mountain (No. 5), Kacey Musgraves’ Golden Hour (No. 4) and Eric Church’s Desperate Man (No. 2). Ashley McBryde’s Girl Going Nowhere, John Prine’s The Tree of Forgiveness and Pistol Annies’ Interstate Gospel were also on the list.

Kacey’s CMA Album of the Year, Golden Hour, summed up the last chapter of her life. “The title Golden Hour just seemed to sum up this chapter of my life perfectly. I mean not only am I from a town called Golden, Texas, but leading up to making this record, there’s been a lot of beauty in my atmosphere and in my world. I love the picture that pops in my head when I hear that title. It’s also an actual song on the record, but it’s just this warm, golden feeling that I’m really happy to have in my life, and I found it to be the perfect title for this record.”

Dierks took to the Rocky Mountain resort town of Telluride, Colorado, which every summer plays host to a celebrated bluegrass festival. Owing to his well-documented love of the genre, Bentley has attended the festival multiple times over the years, always making a point to slow down and tune back in to the world around him. But after performing on the festival’s main stage in 2017, the beautiful surroundings became more than a much-needed getaway, it reflected where he is in life; his past, present and future and the album reflected the happiness he felt.

“I think the unifying thread that runs through The Mountain would be just happiness and positivity, just a real kind of vibe of being grateful in the moment that you’re in, you know? The album really started off just as a tiny idea of something to do with the West,” says Dierks. “The album kind of wrote itself to be that story of just songs like ‘Living,’ ‘Can’t Bring Me Down’ and ‘The Mountain,’ just the vibe of just being really grateful and inspired by your surroundings and not just the mountain vibe, but the surroundings on the road too. The people that I meet on the road that are climbing their own personal mountains and the stuff they’re trying to overcome. I hear so many stories backstage at the Meet-and-Greets, and I was unknowingly inspired by those stories, and I think that gives the whole Mountain [album] a great metaphor between the actual mountains and the mountains people are pursuing in their own lives.”

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Little Big Town paid tribute to the legendary Cher at the Kennedy Center Honors on Sunday night (December 2nd). This year’s honorees include Reba McEntire, Cher, composer and pianist Philip Glass, jazz saxophonist and composer Wayne Shorter and Lin-Manuel Miranda and the creators of Hamilton. The Kennedy Center honors will air December 26th at 8pm ET on CBS.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bq6SHTkB5o3/

Shania Twain is scheduled to appear on Live With Kelly & Ryan on Friday (December 7th).

Keith Urban, Luke Bryan, Chris Stapleton, Kacey Musgraves, Shania Twain and Vince Gill are among the artists vying for tour awards at the Pollstar Awards, which will be handed out February 13th in Los Angeles. Keith, Luke, Chris and Shania are up for Best Country Tour, alongside Kenny  Chesney and Thomas Rhett. Kacey is nominated in the all-genre Best Support/Special Guest category for opening Harry Styles’ tour, while Vince up for Best Touring Musician for his stint with the Eagles.

Dierks Bentley and Jon Pardi are among the artists who will pay tribute to the late Troy Gentry (Montgomery Gentry)at a benefit concert, C-Ya on the Flip Side. Lee Brice, Tracy Lawrence, Justin Moore, Rascal Flatts and Dustin Lynch, among others will also perform at the event taking place January 9th at the Grand Ole Opry. Proceeds will go to a handful of organizations including the Troy Gentry Foundation, the Opry Trust, T.J. Martell Foundation, Make-A-Wish and many others.

Kacey Musgraves really appreciates homemade gifts that come from the heart. Two of her favorite presents have come from her mother, who is a gifted artist and painter.

“I’ve gotten several really great handmade presents from her that really touched me and you know I still really appreciate. One of them was a portrait of my dog, Pearl, my 3-legged dog, and it was just the most realistic, beautiful painting of her, and then another one was this beautiful guitar,” says Kacey. “It’s a guitar made completely out of found objects, and so like the tuning keys are skeleton keys, old skeleton keys…It’s just there’s something about someone using their hands and their brain to like come up with something that like no one can buy. It’s really special to me.”

Kacey has a couple of favorite Christmas traditions that her family does every year.

“My grandpa has a scavenger hunt puzzle that he does every year. Even though I’m like too old for the puzzle, he’s like, ‘You’re still gonna do it.’ So, every year we do that, and it’s funny ‘cause sometimes you’ll find your present in the bathroom or in a tree or out behind the shed,” says Kacey. “He does a little trail of like either corn or a string to it. It’s very imaginative, and it’s something I look forward to every year.”

Another one of her beloved traditions is the Christmas stocking. “They’re kinda my favorite, ‘cause it’s like all the little goodies in there just are fun.”

A couple of years ago, Kacey released her first holiday collection, A Very Kacey Christmas, which includes several classics and a few originals, including “Present Without a Bow,” featuring Leon Bridges.

KACEY MUSGRAVES will embark on her first ever Australian headline tour in May. Musgraves’ anticipated dates will begin at Brisbane’s The Tivoli on Friday 10th May, before heading through Sydney’s Enmore Theatre on Sunday 12th May and Melbourne’s Palais Theatre on Tuesday 14th May. Tickets go on sale Friday (November 30th).

For the first time since 2015, when Kacey played a one-off sold-out show at Sydney’s Oxford Art Factory, the stunning hit-maker will bring her distinctive pop-country songs and crystalline vocals to local audiences.

This year has been an epic journey, which has seen Musgraves release her third studio album, ‘GOLDEN HOUR‘, achieving the perfect blend of country and pop in what Pitchfork describes as “her most accessible record and her most ambitious”. The album debuted at #1 on Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart in the U.S., and has been hailed as of the best albums of 2018 by outlets across all genres from NPR, TIME, Rolling Stone, Variety and Entertainment Weekly to Consequence of Sound, Complex, Stereogum, and BuzzFeed. USA Today asserted “‘Golden Hour’ may be 2018’s best album yet,” Noisey declared, “it’s clear that the Texan is still the most talented songwriter in mainstream pop-country,” and Vanity Fair proclaimed “Musgraves is a country star through and through.” 

Earlier this month, ‘GOLDEN HOUR‘ picked up the coveted award for Album of the Year at the 52nd Annual Country Music Awards in Nashville, distinguishing Kacey as the first female in 4 years to win the award, and only the sixth in the show’s history to do so. Kacey was additionally nominated for Female Vocalist of the Year. Delivering a dazzling live performance of ‘Slow Burn’ at the star-studded event, Musgraves is a star on an incredible trajectory.

Golden Hour follows the massive success of Kacey’s critically-acclaimed albums Same Trailer Different Park, Pageant Material, and her Christmas album, A Very Kacey Christmas. Both Same Trailer Different Park and Pageant Material debuted at #1 on Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart, with Kacey becoming the first solo female in 5 years to top the chart with a rookie release.

With a live show known for its sense of intimacy, Musgraves invites audiences into her world. Following her tours earlier this year with Little Big Town and Harry Styles, and her highly-coveted second slot at this year’s Stagecoach after headliner Keith Urban, Kacey has recently completed the European leg of her headlining Oh, What A World: Tour, including a sold-out night at London’s iconic Wembley Arena. 

The Telegraph awarded Kacey’s live show a 4-star review, stating “The whole event unfurled with this kind of blissed-out languor… Musgraves filled that big stage with a serious confidence…,” and The Guardian pronounced “… her full-blown pop moments are frequently fabulous. High Time sounds utterly blissful tonight, a megawatt cinematic torch song about remembering who you are.”

Kacey will go on to perform at Global Citizen Festival: Mandela 100 in Johannesburg, South Africa on 2 December and will be honoured at Billboard’s Women In Music event as “Innovator of the Year” on 6 December before kicking off her 2019 Oh, What A World: Tour dates. The North American leg of the tour will begin 9 January, with dates already sold out in major cities across the U.S. and Canada including Toronto, Boston, Washington, DC, Chicago, Seattle, 2 nights each in New York City and Los Angeles, and 4 nights in Nashville.

In addition to making her debut on Saturday Night Live, Kacey performed music from Golden Hour on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, TODAY, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, The Late Late Show with James Corden, Late Night with Seth Meyers, Jimmy Kimmel Live! and Austin City Limits.

Kacey will be joined by prolific Canadian singer-songwriter BAHAMAS on her upcoming dates.

Here are some holiday liners from UMG Nashville artists, including Adam Hambrick, Alan Jackson, Billy Currington, Brandon Lay, Brothers Osborne, Carrie Underwood, Clare Dunn, Darius Rucker, Dierks Bentley, Eric Church, Gary Allan, George Strait, Jon Langston, Jon Pardi, Jordan Davis, Josh Turner, Keith Urban, Kip Moore, Lauren Alaina, Little Big Town, Luke Bryan, Sam Hunt, Travis Denning and more!

Billboard announced this week it will honor Kacey Musgraves, as well as SZA and Hayley Kiyoko at its 13th annual Women in Music event in New York City December 6th, in conjunction with the release of its “Women in Music” issue.

Kacey will be honored with the innovator award, which recognizes female artists who challenge musical convention, create positive change and contribute new ideas both in and outside of their creative work. With her third No. 1 Country Albums release, Golden Hour, she has evolved her traditional country sound with daring vision, becoming an in-demand live act while serving as an advocate for inclusion and tolerance.

They will join Billboard’s Woman of the Year, Ariana Grande, Janelle Monae and Cyndi Lauper.