• NEWS AND NOTES: LBT’s Karen Fairchild, Mickey Guyton, Sam Hunt, Dierks Bentley, Eric Church and Kacey Musgraves

    Little Big Town’s Karen Fairchild is unveiling her fall line at evine.com today (September 20th) at 5pm and 6pm ET and tomorrow (September 21st) at 10am ET.

    Mickey Guyton will perform her single, “Heartbreak Song” on NBC’s Today show on Wednesday (September 21st).

    Sam Hunt earned a bunch of heavy metal by the R.I.A.A. (Recording Industry Association of America), including multi-platinum certifications for “House Party,” “Take Your Time,” “Leave the Night On” and “Break Up in a Small Town,” as well as platinum certification for “Make You Miss Me” and gold for “Ex To See.” Little Big Town’s “Girl Crush” was certified triple-platinum, while Dierks Bentley’s “Somewhere on a Beach was certified platinum. Eric Church grabbed a gold single award for “Record Year,” while his album Chief was certified multi-platinum, Carolina went platinum and Mr. Misunderstood went gold.

    Tune in to CMT on Thursday to catch Kacey Musgraves give her opinions to the new crop of ladies at training camp for the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders. Check it out at 9pm ET/8pm CT on CMT.

    Video / Kacey Musgraves DCC: Making the Team

  • DIERKS BENTLEY, ERIC CHURCH AND KEITH URBAN ARE AMONG THE INITIAL PERFORMERS AT THIS YEAR’S CMA AWARDS.

    Dierks Bentley, Eric Church and Keith Urban, along with Brad Paisley, Carrie Underwood and Maren Morris, are the initial performers announced for this year’s CMA Awards.

    Dierks has four nominations going into next month’s CMA Awards, including Male Vocalist, Album (Black), Music Video for “Somewhere on a Beach” and Musical Event of the Year for “Different for Girls” with Elle King.

    Eric’s nominations include Male Vocalist, Album (Mr. Misunderstood); Single, Song and Music Video of the Year for “Record Year.”

    Keith picked up four nominations this year, including Entertainer, which he took home in 2005); Male Vocalist, Album (Ripcord) and Musical Event of the Year for “The Fighter,” featuring Carrie Underwood. While Keith only receives one nomination for Album of the Year, he could receive an additional trophy as producer.

    The 50th Annual CMA Awards, Hosted by Brad and Carrie, will broadcast live from Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena November 2nd at 8pm ET on ABC.

  • DIERKS BENTLEY SCORES HIS 15TH NO. 1 SINGLE FOR “DIFFERENT FOR GIRLS.”

    Dierks Bentley climbed to the top of the country charts with his 15th No. 1 single, “Different for Girls,” from his latest album, Black.

    “’Different for Girls’ just looks at the different ways guys and girls both handle breakups and what they do to manage the heartbreak and the pain, and just one perspective on how it looks from my perspective,” he says.

    Dierks, who will continue his 2016 Somewhere on a Beach Tour on Wednesday in Spokane, Washington, has four CMA nominations, including Male Vocalist, Album of the Year for Black, Musical Event for “Different for Girls” with Elle King and Music Video of the Year for “Somewhere on a Beach.” The 50th Annual CMA Awards will air live from Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena November 2nd at 8pm ET/PT on ABC.

    Audio / Dierks Bentley talks about the song, “Different for Girls.”

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    Dierks Bentley (DFG perspectives) OC: …perspective. :13
    “’Different for Girls’ just looks at the different ways guys and girls both handle breakups and what they do to manage the heartbreak and the pain, and just one perspective on how it looks from my perspective.”

    Video / Different for Girls video

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  • NEWS AND NOTES: The Band Perry, Chris Stapleton, Luke Bryan, Jon Pardi, Dierks Bentley

    The Band Perry will perform their single, “Comeback Kid,” on the Ellen DeGeneres Show on Monday (October 10th).

    The Band Perry are set to perform at the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Championship November 20th. Before the race begins at the Ford EcoBoost 400 at the Homestead-Miami Speedway, the trio will perform a live show. The championship race will be broadcast on NBC, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio at 2:30pm ET.

    Chris Stapleton’s Traveller album has been certified double-platinum for two-million albums by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

    Luke Bryan’s “Strip It Down” and “Kick the Dust Up” and Jon Pardi’s “Head Over Boots” have been certified platinum by the RIAA. Dierks Bentley’s “Different for Girls” featuring Elle King goes gold.

  • FOREVER COUNTRY: DARIUS, DIERKS, BROOKS & DUNN, JASON, JOSEPH AND MORE

    “Forever Country” made its international premiere on radio stations across the world Friday morning (September 16th). The star-studded single is now available for download.

    Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the CMA Awards, the song and biggest music video in Country Music history includes the following CMA Award winners: Alabama, Jason Aldean, Dierks Bentley, Brooks & Dunn, Luke Bryan, Eric ChurchBrett Eldredge, Vince Gill, Faith Hill, Alan Jackson, Lady Antebellum, Miranda Lambert, Little Big Town, Martina McBride, Tim McGraw, Ronnie Milsap, Kacey Musgraves, Willie Nelson, Brad Paisley, Dolly Parton, Charley Pride, Rascal FlattsReba, Darius Rucker, Blake Shelton, George Strait, Randy Travis, Carrie Underwood, Keith Urban, and Trisha Yearwood.

    “Forever Country” is a fresh take on three Country classics: John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads,” Willie Nelson’s “On the Road Again,” and Dolly Parton’s “I Will Always Love You.”

    As part of the U.S. radio roadblock, CMA’s radio partners (except for CBS) launched a “Forever Country” sweepstakes allowing fans to enter for their chance to win the “Ultimate CMA Awards Experience.”

    The winner of the sweepstakes will be granted two tickets to “The 50th Annual CMA Awards,” round trip coach airfare to Nashville, two nights of hotel accommodations, the opportunity to walk the CMA Awards Red Carpet, sit in the Red Carpet fan section, present an official CMA Broadcast Award at the pre-broadcast Awards ceremony, and more. Fans can get additional information and enter to win at ForeverCountry50.com.

    In other news, a portion of the video will premiere in an exclusive sneak peek during ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars” Tuesday, September 20th. “Good Morning America” debuted a 90 second behind-the-scenes video teaser that will live exclusively on GoodMorningAmerica.com on Yahoo for 24 hours.

    Immediately following the sneak peek on “Dancing with the Stars,” fans will be directed to ForeverCountry50.com to see the full-length YouTube version of the music video.

    “Forever Country,” the single was produced by CMA Award winner and CMA Board member Shane McAnally and the video was directed by Grammy Award-winning director Joseph Kahn.

    The 50th Annual CMA Awards will be hosted by Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood and broadcast live from the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Wednesday, November 2nd (8:00-11:00 PM/ET) on ABC.

    For more information on “Forever Country” visit ForeverCountry50.com.

    A radio special about the song, hosted by Luke Bryan (as well as an unhosted version), is available to download on ForeverCountry50.com. A second radio special about the video will be available in the coming days.

    Audio / Dierks Bentley talks about the video for "Forever Country."

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    Dierks Bentley (Forever Country video) OC: …mind blown. :27
    “You can tell Joseph’s a real pro. I mean the guy’s awesome so I put my faith in him and the green screen stuff’s always a little weird, but he just really seems like he knows what he’s doing. Plus there’s like 80 people out there so someone must know what they’re doing. So, yeah, I would just do what I was told to do and sing along to the lines that I already sung in the studio and I’m excited to see the results. Man, it’s gonna be crazy. I mean, I kinda don’t wanna see anything until I see the final product and just have my mind blown.”

    Audio / Darius Rucker talks about the video for "Forever Country."

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    Darius Rucker (Forever Country video) OC: …cool video. :09
    We had a great crew and I got to see some after we finished I got to see some of the stuff on the green screen and stuff and it’s gonna be a really cool video.

    Audio / Kix Brooks talks about the origin of the “Forever Country” video.

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    Brooks & Dunn (Forever Country) 1 OC: …something cool. :40
    “You know, I think this was kind of patterned after the Brian Wilson song that the BBC did a video on as well, and it was inspirational, so…that was the pop guys doing that, you know? This isn’t copying that at all, but the 50th Anniversary of the CMA, which was kind of the creation, certainly in our world, you know? An association and a TV show that led to everything else we’re at now. Fiftieth anniversary is a big deal. You need to figure out a way to celebrate it and uh, it seems like a pretty cool way to get a handful of artists together and try and do something cool.”

    Audio / Jason Aldean, won the trophy for Album of the Year at the 2011 CMA Awards, says his kids and someday his grandchildren will think he’s cool because he is in the video for “Forever Country.”

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    Jason Aldean (Forever Country video) OC: …down the road. :38
    I love it you know I mean getting to be in a video and on a song with all those people, I mean Ronny Milsap’s one of my favorite singers ever. It’s cool to have these little videos like this and even things I do on my own but especially things like this for down the road to be able to show like your kids and your grandkids one day, I mean right now they’re kinda they’re like whatever they don’t really care but at some point it’s cool to have these things where you can show it to them and be like hey I wasn’t always like old and weird you know I was cool and somewhat young at one point so it’ll be nice for them to go back and to have these things to see down the road.

    Audio / The video’s director, Joseph Kahn, has been at the helm of some pretty mind-blowing videos for such artists as Taylor Swift, Katy Perry, Kelly Clarkson and more. He feels the clip for “Forever Country” is basically a time capsule for the last 50 years of country music.

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    Joseph Kahn (Forever Country time capsule) OC: …thing ever. :35
    “This is a time capsule. This is a 50th Anniversary of Country Music time capsule. And to have the responsibility of putting that together, it was exciting. And I feel honored and I’m just so into it. I just can’t wait to do something amazing. I mean look, you may look at it and go it’s not…but that’s what I want. I want something really spectacular, something awesome, something that feels like a time capsule that can last for, you know, forever. And that’s the ambition. And I’m having such a blast seeing everyone and working on it and being a part of it. It’s just the coolest thing ever.”

    Audio / LINER Brooks & Dunn (Forever Country video)

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    Audio / LINER Brooks & Dunn (Forever Country) 2

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    Audio / LINER Dierks Bentley (Forever Country video)

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    Audio / LINER Darius Rucker (Forever Country video)

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  • DIERKS BENTLEY AND ELLE KING CELEBRATE THEIR NO. 1 SUCCESS FOR ‘DIFFERENT FOR GIRLS’ WITH A PARTY AND AN APPEARANCE ON THE GRAND OLE OPRY.

    Dierks & Elle No. 1 party Dierks & Elle on GOO 2 Dierks & Elle on GOO 3 Dierks & Elle on GOO

    Current four-time CMA nominee Dierks Bentley celebrated his 15th career No. One “Different For Girls” on Tuesday (10/4) during an intimate sit-down lunch at Nashville’s Moto’s with close friends and family alongside collaborator and friend Elle King. After celebrating the chart-topper with co-writers JT Harding (ASCAP) and Shane McAnally (GMR), Bentley and King performed the CMA nominated song at the Grand Ole Opry, where King made her Opry debut. Paying homage to legendary collaborations, the pair gave the audience a bluesy performance of “Jackson.”

    To watch Bentley and King perform “Jackson” on the Grand Ole Opry and backstage here: http://bit.ly/2cV7dRj

    Known for “traveling his own path…Country music’s most relatable star” (Esquire) shows his depth and diversity as an artist with four CMA nominations in the Male Vocalist of the Year, Album of The Year, Vocal Event of the Year and Video of the Year categories. “The  bluegrass  picker,  the  love  song  singer  and  the stadium rocker all packaged together” (Associated Press) has been a Grand Ole Opry member for over a decade and is currently set to head into the second leg of his headlining 2016 SOMEWHERE ON A BEACH TOUR on October 13. Recently announced Bentley will embark on his 2017 WHAT THE HELL WORLD TOUR launching Jan. 19 in Dayton, OH, with Cole Swindell and Jon Pardi. For more information and a full list of tour dates, visit www.dierks.com.

    Video / Dierks Bentley and Elle King perform "Jackson" on the Grand Ole Opry

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  • NEWS AND NOTES: Darius, Luke, Chris, Dierks, Eric

    Darius Rucker will sing the national anthem at New Era Field as the Buffalo Bills play host to the New York Jets for Thursday Night Football.

    Luke Bryan and Chris Stapleton, as well as Carrie Underwood, Thomas Rhett and Florida Georgia Line, will be honored as CMT Artists of the Year 2016. The 7th Annual CMT Artists of the Year will air from Nashville on Thursday, October 20th.

    Dierks Bentley and his wife just added to their family. It seems ever since the country star’s beloved Jake passed away, their other dog George, has been very lonely. So, Dierks, his wife and two daughters, Evie and Jordan (son Knox wasn’t with them), went to the Nashville Humane Association and picked out a beautiful female dog. Dierks, who is poised to hit the top of the country charts with “Different for Girls,” caught the family leaving with their new as-yet-to-be-named pup on video and posted it to Twitter.

    Speaking of Dierks, he recently partnered with LyricLink for an app that features more than 100 Dierks emojis and also pulls direct quotes from his songs.

    Eric Paslay is hitting the road this fall for the Angels in This Town 2016 Tour, and he’s taking along his special guest, Lindsay Ell. Go to ericpaslay.com for tour dates and info. He made the announcement on Twitter and Facebook on Wednesday (September 14th).

     

    Video / Eric Paslay and Lindsey Ell announcing the Angels in This Town Tour

  • DIERKS BENTLEY ANNOUNCES HIS 2017 WHAT THE HELL TOUR!

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    Dierks Bentley has announced his 2017 What the Hell Tour, and he’s taking along his buddies Jon Pardi and Cole Swindell.

    Dierks will take the first leg to 23 cities through April in both the U.S. and Canada, making a notable stop its first weekend with a career-first for him – headlining Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena January 21st.

    Pre-sale tickets for select dates including Nashville go on sale tomorrow (10/4), with the first public on-sales scheduled for this Friday, Oct. 7 at www.dierks.com and www.livenation.com.

    “Coming off the electricity and emotion of two nights at Red Rocks last week, it felt right to just go ahead and announce plans for next year and keep this thing rolling,” said Dierks. “There’s a song on my album called ‘What The Hell Did I Say’ and it seemed like an appropriate title for a tour with Cole and Pardi. I have a feeling I’ll be asking myself that question the morning after many of our shows and late night hangs because you really don’t know what will happen when the three of us get together. There has been a lot of drunk calls and texts between all of us over the last year trying to make this tour happen, and I’m excited we were able to pull it off.”

    The What the Hell Tour is set to kick off in Dayton, Ohio January 19th.

    Dierks, who recently hit No. 1 with “Different For Girls,” has four CMA nominations, including Male Vocalist, Album of the Year for Black, Musical Event for “Different for Girls” with Elle King and Music Video of the Year for “Somewhere on a Beach.”

    The 50th Annual CMA Awards will air live from Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena November 2nd at 8pm ET/PT on ABC.

    In the meantime, Dierks has extended his Somewhere on a Beach Tour 2016 with dates through October 29th with opening acts Randy Houser and Drake White. Cam finished up her run with Dierks a couple of weeks ago.

    2017 WHAT THE HELL WORLD TOUR Cities:

    Dayton, OH

    Louisville, KY

    Nashville, TN

    Hamilton, ON

    Oshawa, ON

    Ottawa, ON

    London, ON

    Winnipeg, MB

    Saskatoon, SK

    Calgary, AB

    Dawson Creek, BC

    Edmonton, AB

    Penticton, BC

    Vancouver, BC

    Cedar Rapids, IA

    Sioux Falls, SD

    Columbus, GA

    Tupelo, MS

    Knoxville, TN

    Billings, MT

    Rapid City, SD

    Fresno, CA

    Reno, NV
    *Support may vary, check local listings

    Audio / Dierks Bentley says a tour coming to an end is similar to graduating high school and leaving your group of friends.

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    Dierks Bentley (wrapping up 2016 tour) OC: …summer vacation. :31
    “It’s always sad. It kinda feels like high school coming to an end when you’ve got a great group of people like I have. It starts within my own camp. The guys in my band and my crew, everyone really goes out there wanting the summer to feel great, not just for the audience, but also for us. It’s our summer on the road…it’s our summer too, so we wanna have a lot of fun. We work really hard to create a fun atmosphere backstage for us and all of our crew. And then obviously, the guys that tour with us – having Randy [Houser] out there and Cam and Tucker [Beathard] – want to really make it feel like summer break, summer vacation.”

    Audio / Dierks Bentley talks about wrapping his 2016 tour and how he’ll miss his opening acts Randy Houser, Cam and Tucker Beathard.

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    Dierks Bentley (wrapping up 2016 tour) 2 OC: …like crazy. :51
    “I think when I first stepped on the road this summer I realized it’s like, gosh, this is like summer camp for us. It’s so fun getting to see the same people day in and day out and having stories to talk about the next morning from the night before of the crazy stuff that happened on stage or if there’s a little party that went on after the show. It’s just been so fun. And for me to have the songs stacking up the way they have been and the hits piling up, and to have new material to go out there and sing every summer and some summers have multiple songs come out while we’re on the road, makes it exciting, keeps it fresh for us; it feels like we’re really building something great. It’ll be sad when it’s over. We’re rockin’ so hard, it’ll probably come to an end when it needs to, ‘cause it’s gotta recoup a little bit to get ready for 2017. But, we’ll miss Randy and miss Cam and Tucker like crazy.”

    Video / Dierks Bentley Tour announcement

  • CMA ANNOUNCES “FOREVER COUNTRY” SINGLE AND MUSIC VIDEO IN HONOR OF “THE 50TH ANNUAL CMA AWARDS.”

    In celebration of The 50th Annual CMA Awards, the CMA has created the biggest video in Country Music history. Titled “Forever Country,” the single and accompanying music video features 30 CMA Award-winning acts. This single was produced by CMA Award-winning Board member Shane McAnally and the video was directed by Grammy Award-winning director Joseph Kahn.

    The song and music video weave a medley of John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads,” Willie Nelson’s “On the Road Again,” and Dolly Parton’s “I Will Always Love You” together. All of the artists are former CMA Entertainers of the Year.

    In another historic move, the single will be unveiled to the public Friday, September 16th in a global roadblock across Country radio, premiering on hundreds of radio stations simultaneously at 8:30 AM/ET across the U.S., in addition to premiering in key international markets. But fans will have to wait a few more days to see the full length music video; the video will make its worldwide premiere on Tuesday, September 20th.

    For the past week fans have been buzzing across social media platforms trying to guess what the “Forever Country” project might be as the 30 acts featured in the video have been posting mysterious teasers created by CMA tagged with #ForeverCountry and driving fans to the website ForeverCountry50.com to see all of the artist teasers as they are released. Social teasers will continue to roll out this week until CMA announces the full list of participating artists.

    “’Forever Country’ is a moving tribute to Country Music, Country Music fans, and the artists who have built this format into what it is today,” said Sarah Trahern, CMA Chief Executive Officer. “This music video is the product of the CMA Board of Directors who came together in support of this project as a celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the CMA Awards, a statement on the heritage and future of the Country Music industry, and a reflection of this year’s Awards theme — ‘Then. Now. Forever Country.’”

    “The 50th Annual CMA Awards” will be hosted by Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood and broadcast live from the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Wednesday, November 2nd (8:00-11:00 PM/ET) on ABC.

    For more information on “Forever Country” visit ForeverCountry50.com.

    **Suggested Tweet**
    : JUST ANNOUNCED: CMA (@CountryMusic) reveals epic all-new #ForeverCountry music video & single with 30 #CMAawards winners!

    A radio special about the song, hosted by Luke Bryan (as well as an unhosted version), will be made available on Friday (September 16th). A second radio special about the video will be available at the end of next week.

    Audio / Dierks Bentley talks about "Forever Country."

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    Dierks Bentley (Forever Country)
    “I looked at the lyrics and I thought this is pretty cool, and I just figured a mashup meant they’d kind-of put the songs back-to-back I didn’t realize they’re kind-of woven together into one song. So I was in the studio with Shane [McAnally] and some folks from the CMA when I heard what they’d done, and I was like, ‘Wow! This is so cool.’ I could tell right away this was gonna be a huge moment in the CMA history. I was really excited to asked to be a part of it, and it was really cool to hear a lot of the vocals in there or almost all of the vocals in there…you know, McGraw and Reba and Keith Urban and Carrie and Brad and it’s just starting to come alive, and as a fan I think it’s gonna be an amazing thing to watch, and I’m on it so it’s pretty good. I get to be a fan and a singer, so it’s pretty cool.”

    Audio / Brad Paisley says “Forever Country” is an epic and historic song.

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    Brad Paisley (Forever Country) OC: …a part of. :16
    “I remember hearing that we needed to record pieces of these songs, so I went into the studio and did that. And they said it would work, and I said, ‘Alright, we’ll see,’ and they’re right! It works! It’s great. It’s so epic. It’s just really…it feels like a piece of history to be a part of.”

    Audio / Blake Shelton said he was happy to be a part of "Forever Country," celebrating the CMA Awards 50th Anniversary.

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    Blake Shelton (Forever Country) OC: …magical. :42
    “I got the call as an artist to be a part of this special mashup song that Shane McAnally I was told was producing the thing, and I really didn’t even ask what the song was, I just said sure I’d love to be a part of whatever you guys are doing. It’s just one of those that you’re just honored to be at all of these other artists company and be a part of a project like this and when I went to the studio and they said it was ‘On The Road Again,’ ‘Country Roads Take Me Home’ and ‘I Will Always Love You,’ and I was like, ‘What the…? How the…? How’s this gonna work? There’s no way these songs are gonna work together.’ Should’ve known, you know? Shane McAnally’s brilliant and came up with this really cool mashup. It’s magical.”

    Audio / Faith Hill said hearing "Forever Country" put together, she got pretty emotional.

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    Faith Hill (Forever Country song) OC: …make me cry. :44
    “I think the idea came from the CMAs to find a way to celebrate 50 years of the CMA Awards, which is mind-blowing to think you know that they’ve been around for so long but to bring some of the most iconic songs together is kind-of like, I guess you would call it like a mashup with all of these artists from the past, present it was amazing. The idea was such a great idea, then it was an honor to be asked to be a part of this group of people that I’ve admired and learned from and listened to my entire career and continue to do so but then once I heard the song all put together, the three songs put together, it did make me cry.”

    Video / Dierks Bentley Forever Country

    Video / Brad Paisley Forever Country

    Video / Blake Shelton Forever Country

    Video / Faith Hill Forever Country

  • NEWS AND NOTES: The Band Perry, Dierks Bentley, Brothers Osborne, Darius Rucker

    The Band Perry will be featured on a new episode of All in With Cam Newton, the show starring the Carolina Panthers quarterback, tonight (Friday) at 8pm ET on Nickelodeon. In the series, Cam enters the worlds of different kids and helps them fulfill their dreams.

    For the first time ever, a group of artists, including Dierks Bentley (Arizona) and Florida Georgia Line (Tennessee), have created unique, official NFL gear that represent their favorite NFL teams and cities. These limited edition shirts are perfect for NFL fans to show pride in their city’s football team and favorite local musicians. Shirts will be available for a short time only – never to be sold again. Eminem (Detroit), One Republic (Denver) and ZZ Top (Houston), also participated.

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    Darius Rucker came off his Good for a Good Time Tour, and he’s taking today (Friday) to watch the Ryder Cup golf tournament. The Ryder Cup, which is being held at the Hazeltine National Golf Club in Minnesota, has become one of the world’s greatest sporting events. Every two years, 24 of the best players from Europe and the United States go head-to-head in match play competition.

     

    Brothers Osborne recently performed “Down Home” from their debut album, Pawn Shop, which wouldn’t be so unusual had they not being sitting on a curb in the Deep Ellum neighborhood of Dallas, Texas. The CMA Awards-nominated duo filmed a video of the performance, which Rolling Stone Country recently debuted. Watch the video below.

    Video / Brothers Osborne acoustic "Down Home"