Sam Hunt has a pair of CMA Awards nominations for Single and Song of the Year due to his huge hit, “Body Like a Back Road.” The song remained at the top of Billboard’s Hot Country Songs for 34 Weeks, breaking records and being certified 4x platinum by the RIAA.

Sam, who co-wrote the song with Zach Crowell, Shane McAnally and Josh Osborne, explains that “Body Like a Back Road” all started with a phrase.

“I try to think of titles or lines that’ll cross my mind and I’ll put ‘em in my phone, and this was one that I wanted to write for a while – the title ‘Body Like a Back Road’ – or use it as a lyric, do something with it. I didn’t have a melody, but one night this melody got stuck in my head and the phrase ‘Body Like a Back Road’ sang perfectly to it and the chorus came out pretty quick,” said Sam. “And then we went in and started working on the song with the producer and a couple of writing buddies, and I wanted to write it because I thought it was a fun song, but I didn’t know for sure if I wanted to put it out. I didn’t want it to come across as objectifying women or be too, to lack depth and just, I don’t know. So, anyway, I had some concerns, but I tried to make it fun to offset any risks of those things happening, which made writing it fun, and I think that came across in the lyric and in the way we recorded it and everything else. When we finally finished it, it finally hit me as ‘Ok. Wait a minute. Maybe I underestimated the potential of this song. I think this could be a fun song and it will connect with folks.’”

The 51st Annual CMA Awards, hosted by Carrie Underwood and Brad Paisley, will be broadcast live from Nashville’s Bridgestone Area November 8th at 8pm ET on ABC.

Sam is also nominated for two American Music Awards for Favorite Male Artist – Country and Favorite Song – Country for “Body Like a Backroad.” The American Music Awards will air live from the Microsoft Theater in LA November 19th at 8pm ET on ABC.

Little Big Town scored a handful of CMA Awards nominations this year, including Vocal Group of the Year, Album of the Year for The Breaker, Single, Song and Music Video of the Year for “Better Man.” The Song of the Year award would go to Taylor Swift, who wrote the song and sent it to the band.

The band kept the fact that Taylor wrote “Better Man” a secret for a while, because they wanted people to hear the song on its own merits. “We just played it for her after we finished it, and she was really, really excited. We said, ‘Hey, you know we’re not just gonna blab this that you wrote this immediately.’ She said, ‘You know what? That’s the greatest honor as a songwriter you could ever give me is that you don’t want anybody to know that I wrote this.’ We knew we would tell eventually, but and it was a hard question to dodge for a while,” said LBT’s Karen Fairchild. “The only reason why we didn’t say is because we wanted you to hear the song for what it’s worth, and it’s a beautiful song. And at her heart, she is the biggest pop star in the world, but she’s a songwriter from Nashville, Tennessee, and she likes to tell a story, and we didn’t want you to have any subtext there, other than to hear this song.”

You can see Little Big Town during this year’s CMA Awards, which will air live from Nashville’s Bridgestone Area November 8th at 8pm ET on ABC.

The band is making their way up the country charts with their latest single, “When Someone Stops Loving You.”

Carrie Underwood and Brad Paisley appear on ABC’s Good Morning America and The Chew on Thursday (November 2nd) to talk about next week’s CMA Awards, which will air live from Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena November 8th beginning at 8pm ET on ABC.

Lauren Alaina will perform during the 91^st Annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Dustin Lynch, Sara Evans, Cam, 98 Degrees, Andra Day and Common will also perform. The parade will air from New York City beginning at 9am ET on Thanksgiving Day on NBC.

Darius Rucker is scheduled to perform the National Anthem as his beloved Miami Dolphins play host to the Oakland Raiders on Sunday (November 5th) at 8:30pm ET on NBC.

Luke Bryan has teamed up with Chevy in designing a custom 2018 Chevrolet Suburban. “Chevy has been part of our family and a part of our work life on the farm for as long as I can remember,” says Luke. “If you were a Bryan, you drove a Chevy—and I’m a longtime Suburban owner. This partnership is a natural fit for me and this unique Suburban represents everything I and my family want for our outdoor adventures.”

Don’t forget to watch or set your DVRs as Robin Roberts takes an intimate look at the career and personal life of Luke Bryan in her new ABC special, Living Every Day: Luke Bryan on Monday (November 6th) at 10pm ET.

George Strait is set to headline the 2018 Bayou Country Superfest, taking place at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome May 27th in New Orleans, Louisiana. Little Big Town, Kacey Musgraves and Midland will also perform.

Kip Moore is out with his third studio album, Slowheart. Live in the TODAY studio, he performed its lead single, “More Girls Like You,” which just hit No. 1 on the country airplay chart.

The members of Lady Antebellum have had a very busy year with releasing their new album, Heart Break, as well as launching and concluding their You Look Good World Tour. Their hard work has paid off with a pair of CMA nominations for Album of the Year for Heart Break and for Vocal Group of the Year.

Charles, Hillary and Dave rented places in Florida and in California to just write songs for their new project. “We were just thinking about how to get back to that spot, you know how we wrote and started for the first two records. It’s ‘cause we didn’t have any responsibilities. You could write a hundred songs a year, and we haven’t been able to do that since then,” says Charles. “So, Dave had the idea, he goes, ‘Let’s just get out of Nashville, man.’ We went down to Florida early in the fall and took a bunch of writers with us, and then we had this idea to move out to L.A., and we rented a house out there for like a month and found like another house with a home studio and called up our buddy busbee and the songs just kinda poured out like really fast. I bet we wrote the majority of this record in like what, a span of a month really. I mean just all these songs kinda just came out and ‘Heart Break,’ specifically, the title track, was when we felt like, okay, now we have kinda the hero song, so to speak, of the record and we can base everything around it.”

The 51st Annual CMA Awards, hosted by Carrie Underwood and Brad Paisley, will be broadcast live from Nashville’s Bridgestone Area November 8th at 8pm ET on ABC.

The group is currently climbing the country charts with their latest release, the title track from their album, Heart Break.

Lauren Alaina will be celebrating her birthday in style next week as she attends the CMA Awards on her special day as a nominee. She scored her very first CMA Awards nomination this year for New Artist of the Year.

A few days after the nominations were announced, she was still amazed about being nominated. “I’m in shock because it’s like something that no one can ever take away for me like forever now for the rest of my life I can say that I was nominated for a CMA Award,” she says. “I’ve never had a nomination so when the Brothers Osborne said my name on Good Morning America, I was standing next to them, which is pretty crazy that I was on national television when I found out I had the nomination, and I love those guys. It was just this moment of like what is my life? What has happened in my life and whose life am I living? Everything that I’ve ever wanted has started happening, and it’s crazy.”

Catch Lauren at the 51st Annual CMA Awards, which will be broadcast live from Nashville’s Bridgestone Area November 8th at 8pm ET on ABC.

Lauren is currently making her way up the country charts with her latest hit, “Doin’ Fine.”

Jon Pardi is nominated in a couple of categories at this year’s CMA Awards. He’s up for New Artist of the Year, as well as Single of the Year for his multi-week No. 1, “Dirt on My Boots,” which is also nominated for CMA Song of the Year with the trophy going to the tune’s writers

“I’d love to have all of it and I’d love to get it, but you know how it is,” says Jon, who picked up the New Artist of the Year Award at the ACM Awards this past spring. “Man, there’s a lot of guys doing good, and I want everybody to get the award, so I try not to be like just dreaming about it. ‘What if I got it?’ ‘It’d be so awesome.’”

Catch Jon at the 51st Annual CMA Awards, which will air live from Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena November 8th at 8pm ET on ABC.

Jon recently released “She Ain’t In It,” the follow-up to his three No. 1 singles — “Head Over Boots,” “Dirt On My Boots” and “Heartache on the Dance Floor,” which are all from his sophomore album, California Sunrise.

Imagine celebrating your recent nuptials with family and friends, and all of a sudden Luke Bryan walks in when his song, “Crash My Party,” is playing?  That’s what happened to newly wed McKenna and Austin when the American Idol auditions were being held down the street from their wedding reception in Georgia over the weekend.

Watch the video below to check out all of the action.

Luke is currently sitting inside the Top 10 with his latest song, “Light It Up,” which is the first release from his upcoming album, What Makes You Country.

Luke has a handful of tour dates left on the books. He’ll take his Huntin’, Fishin’ and Lovin’ Every Day Tour to Concord, California on November 2nd, followed by dates in Wheatland, California November 3rd and Mountain View, California on November 4th.

Eric Church goes into this year’s CMA Awards with three nominations including Male Vocalist of the Year, Musical Event of the Year for “Kill a Word” with Rhiannon Giddens AND Entertainer of the Year.

The North Carolina native launched a solo outing, titled Holdin’ My Own Tour, which he did hold his own for more than three-and-a-half hours. His fans stood cheering, singing along and feeling a part of something they’ve never experienced in their life.

When Eric was mid-tour, he mentioned that the Holdin’ My Own Tour was pretty special. “I believe it’s exciting because I think it’s special, and I think when you look out there, it’s a special moment and it will be frozen in time. I do believe that when we look around at each other. I really believe that,” said Eric. “They realize that I’ve give everything I have and I realize, I’m telling ya, there’s many nights, I realize they give everything they have, because the fact that they stand all the way to the top wall and do not sit down for three-and-a-half hours; the only time they sit down is in half-time when I take my break. I have such respect for the fans for that that, yeah, if I die out there, I die out there but I’m gonna give ‘em everything I got.”

Eric is sitting inside the Top 15 on the country charts with his latest song, “Round Here Buzz.”

Catch Eric at the 51st Annual CMA Awards, which will air live from Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena November 8th at 8pm ET on ABC.