• NEWS AND NOTES: Eric, Keith, Brothers Osborne, Kip, Tyminski, Luke, Sam, Shania

    Eric Church and Keith Urban will headline next year’s Tortuga Music Festival, along with Florida Georgia Line. The three-day event, taking place April 6 – 8 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, will also feature performances by Brothers Osborne, Kip Moore, Tyminski, Snoop Dog, Lucie Silvas, The Cadillace Three, Lee Brice, Dan + Shay and many more. Tickets for the festival go on sale December 1st at 10am ET at TortugaMusicFestival.com.

    In addition to the headliners Luke Bryan, Sam Hunt and Blake Shelton, Luke’s Crash My Playa event will also feature Maren Morris, Brett Young and Dustin Lynch. The annual festival will take place January 17th – 20th, 2018.

    Shania Twain’s “Man! I Feel Like a Woman” music video has reached over 100 million views on Youtube.

  • THANKSGIVING LINERS 2017

    Audio / LINER AJ (Thanksgiving)

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    “Hi! This is Alan Jackson. I hope y’all have a very happy Thanksgiving out there.”

    Audio / LINER Billy Currington (Thanksgiving)

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    “Hey Guys, I’m Billy Currington. Have a great Thanksgiving.”

    Audio / LINER Brandon Lay (Thanksgiving)

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    “Hey y’all! This is Brandon Lay. Happy Thanksgiving.”

    Audio / LINER Brothers Osborne (Thanksgiving)

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    “Hey! This is TJ, and this is John, and we’re wishing you a very Happy Thanksgiving!”

    Audio / LINER Canaan Smith (Thanksgiving)

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    “Hey! What’s up, guys? I’m Canaan Smith, wishing you a Happy Thanksgiving!”

    Audio / LINER Carrie Underwood (Thanksgiving)

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    “Hi! I’m Carrie Underwood, wishing you a Happy Thanksgiving.”

    Audio / LINER Clare Dunn (Thanksgiving)

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    “Hey! This is Clare Dunn, wishing you a very Happy Thanksgiving!”

    Audio / LINER Tyminski (Thanksgiving)

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    “Hey everybody, I’m Dan Tyminski, wishing you a Happy Thanksgiving.”

    Audio / LINER Darius Rucker (Thanksgiving)

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    “Hey y’all! What’s up? This is Darius Rucker, wishing you a Happy Thanksgiving!” “

    Audio / LINER Dierks Bentley (Thanksgiving)

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    “Hey! It’s Dierks Bentley! Happy Thanksgiving!”

    Audio / LINER Easton Corbin (Thanksgiving)

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    “It’s Easton Corbin here, and I want to wish everybody a Happy Thanksgiving!”

    Audio / LINER Eric Church (Thanksgiving)

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    “Hey folks! It’s Eric Church, wishing you a Happy Thanksgiving.”

    Audio / LINER Eric Paslay (Thanksgiving)

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    “Hey! This is Eric Paslay, wishing you a very Happy Thanksgiving.”

    Audio / LINER Gary Allan (Thanksgiving)

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    “Hey guys! Gary Allan here. I just want to wish everybody a Happy Thanksgiving, and have a Happy Holidays and make sure you’re safe out there. Drive safe. Party your butts off, but do it safe.”

    Audio / LINER George Strait (Thanksgiving)

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    “Hi! This is George Strait, wishing you a Happy Thanksgiving.”

    Audio / LINER Jon Pardi (Thanksgiving)

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    “Hey! It’s Jon Pardi, wishing you a very Happy Thanksgiving.”

    Audio / LINER Jordan Davis (Thanksgiving)

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    “Hey! I’m Jordan Davis. Happy Thanksgiving, everybody.”

    Audio / LINER Kacey Musgraves (Thanksgiving)

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    “Hey! It’s Kacey Musgraves, wishing you a Happy Thanksgiving!”

    Audio / LINER Keith Urban (Thanksgiving)

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    “Happy Thanksgiving everybody. It’s Keith Urban here. I just wanted to take this opportunity to thank you all of you listening for your incredible love and support that I’ve received over the last year, and to wish you and all of your family all the very best for this holiday.”

    Audio / LINER Kip Moore (Thanksgiving)

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    “Hey what’s up guys, this is Kip Moore wishing you a very happy Thanksgiving.”

    Audio / LINER Lady A (Thanksgiving)

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    “Hey everybody! We are Lady Antebellum, wishing you a Happy Thanksgiving.”

    Audio / LINER Lauren Alaina (Thanksgiving)

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    “Hey! This is Lauren Alaina, wishing you a very Happy Thanksgiving!”

    Audio / LINER LBT (Thanksgiving)

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    “Hey, we’re Little Big Town. Happy Thanksgiving!”

    Audio / LINER Luke Bryan (Thanksgiving)

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    “Hey! It’s Luke Bryan, wishing you a Happy Thanksgiving!”

    Audio / LINER Mickey Guyton (Happy Thanksgiving)

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    “Hey! It’s Mickey Guyton here, and I want to wish you a very Happy Thanksgiving.”

    Audio / LINER Sam Hunt (Thanksgiving)

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    “Hey everybody! This is Sam Hunt, wishing you a Happy Thanksgiving.”

     

     

  • ERIC CHURCH WILL ‘HOLD HIS OWN’ AT THIS YEAR’S CMA AWARDS.

    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.

    Video / Round Here Buzz video

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  • KEITH URBAN, ERIC CHURCH, LADY ANTEBELLUM AND DARIUS RUCKER ARE ADDED TO THE LIST OF PERFORMERS AT THE CMA AWARDS.

    Keith Urban, Tim McGraw and Faith Hill and pop superstar Pink have been added to the list of performers at this year’s CMA Awards, in addition to a star-studded opening collaboration with Eric Church, Lady Antebellum, the 2009 New Artist of the Year Darius Rucker and Keith Urban.

    Previously announced performers include Carrie Underwood, Luke Bryan, Chris Stapleton, Little Big Town, Jon Pardi, Brothers Osborne Thomas Rhett, Garth Brooks, Miranda Lambert and Old Dominion, as well as duet partners Dierks Bentley & Rascal Flatts, Kelsea Ballerini & Reba McEntire, Maren Morris & Niall Horan and Brad Paisley with Kane Brown.

    Keith is a 10-time CMA Awards winner, including the 2005 Entertainer of the Year Award, and has been nominated 45 times since 2001 – one of the most consistent streaks of nominations over that time. He’s up for four awards this year, including Entertainer of the Year again.

    Church is a rare two-time winner of the prestigious Album of the Year Award for CHIEF and Mr. Misunderstood. He’s been nominated 25 times since 2011, and is up for three awards this year, including Entertainer of the Year for the second time.

    Lady A, featuring Dave Haywood, Charles Kelley and Hillary Scott, have won seven CMA Awards beginning with New Artist of the Year in 2008. The trio also has taken Single of the Year twice and Vocal Group of the Year three times. Lady A is up for two Awards this year, including Album of the Year for Heart Break.

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

  • HALLOWEEN 2017 AUDIO

    Audio / Billy Currington reminisces about his childhood Halloween memories.

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    Billy Currington (Halloween) OC: …Halloween. :17
    “You know, when I was a kid, I loved the trick and the treat. I loved dressing up. I was always wanting to be Dracula. That was my favorite guy. But, of course, who doesn’t love going door-to-door and getting these buckets of candy? [laughs] So, love, love Halloween.”

    Audio / Brothers Osborne’s John Osborne talks about carving pumpkins with their dad when they were growing up.

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    Brothers Osborne (carving pumpkins) OC: …or something. :25
    “With our dad every year, we would go looking for pumpkins, and we would all get our own pumpkin to carve, and he would buy the biggest pumpkin that they had. It was huge. I mean, it was way too big for any one person, but he would love carving. He’s kind of an artsy guy. He was a great drawer and stuff, and he would carve the most terrifying, vicious looking, scary pumpkin you’d ever seen in your life, and it would be massive. It would be like on a 50-pound pumpkin or something.”

    Audio / John and TJ Osborne talk about their favorite Halloween candy.

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    Brothers Osborne (Halloween candy) OC: (John) …go stale. [laughs] :34
    TJ: “I would say, Snickers, Baby Ruth, Kit Kat and Reese’s too.” JOHN: “I always hated those houses that would give you bad candy, though. You’re like, ‘C’mon. Step it up.’ Spend the extra dollar on a bag, you know?” TJ: “A house when we were growing up used to give out whole candy bars. It was the best. You were like, ‘That house – that’s the honey hole of candy.’” JOHN: “I love it, and I love like at the end, like three or four days after Halloween you would see what candy was left, and it was always like those crappy cheap candies, and they would just go stale.” [laughs]

    Audio / Brothers Osborne’s TJ and John Osborne talk about dressing up like zombies for Halloween.

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    Brothers Osborne (zombie costume) OC: (John) …was so fun! :29
    TJ: “Literally, you can dress up like a zombie and drag your foot behind you all day and make weird noises, and everyone finds that completely acceptable.” [laughs] JOHN: “One year I dressed up as a ‘90s redneck zombie with a mullet wig and an Alan Jackson denim coat. I never once broke character. That’s part of the thing — you can actually not break character and get away with it. And everywhere I went, even when I ordered a drink, I ordered it like a zombie that was falling apart. [laughs] It was so fun!”

    Audio / Canaan Smith says his Halloweens of today have changed dramatically since he was a child.

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    Canaan Smith (Halloween) OC: …cornfields. :37
    “I grew up in a Christian family. We went to a private Christian school for a while, so they didn’t allow us to celebrate Halloween like I do now. We did what was called a Hallelujah Party instead, and you still dress up and still get all the candy, but you go to the high school gym. You play games, you just do, like cornhole and the dunking booth and all kinds of stuff and win prizes, but it was nothing ever scary. I think they had like rules about what outfits you could and couldn’t wear. But now I just love freaking myself out and going to, I love going to haunted houses and haunted cornfields.”

    Audio / Darius Rucker loves Halloween, especially because it’s his kids’ favorite holiday.

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    Darius (Halloween) OC: …I’m into. :06
    “Halloween’s big for me, because the kids love it. It’s my kids’ favorite holiday, so anything they’re into, I’m into.”

    Audio / Dierks Bentley talks about the Halloweens of his childhood.

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    Dierks Bentley (Halloween) OC: … …around home. [laughs]  :23
    “Oh, when I was a kid, I was all into fireworks. Growing up in Arizona, we couldn’t get ’em, so we’d have ’em shipped in illegally. I still remember the name of the guy we’d call. His name was Joe, and he’d bring in, ship ’em in a package with no writing on ’em. We were all about M-80s in the mailboxes and bottle rocket wars. To me, as a kid, Halloween was fireworks, was blowing up stuff around home. [laughs]”

    Audio / Easton Corbin says one of his favorite costumes as a kid was made by his grandmother.

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    Easton Corbin (Halloween) OC: …pretty warm. :26

    “My grandma made a werewolf outfit for me, and I wore that one year. She got this fake hair and glued it to sweatpants and a sweatshirt. That was a hot outfit. I mean, it got pretty warm.”

    Audio / Eric Church recalls his favorite Halloween costume.

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    Eric Church (Halloween) OC: …Franklin Street. 1:18
    “My favorite Halloween costume really came, I remember when I got a little older my first year of college, there’s this thing they do every year in Chapel Hill, North Carolina – Halloween on Franklin Street. We drove down from Boone, North Carolina. I had a bunch of friends that went to University of North Carolina, and we didn’t have costumes and didn’t realize until we were on the way that we had to have costumes. So, we stopped at a costume place in Greensboro, North Carolina. It’s Halloween, so there’s a run on everything and couldn’t find anything. And we end up getting sent around, driving around town. We end up finding this hole in the wall place, but they had the full costume, Sesame Street outfits. The real deal. The real ones [with] feathers and fur. We were Elmo, Cookie Monster and I was Big Bird, and the Big Bird was the actual Big Bird. It’s about 7-foot-4, and yiou looked out of the body and then you had these straps that went on since the head was a lot higher. There’s a lot of beer involved in Franklin Street, so we get down there and as the night went on, my straps broke, so the head would pivot. And so, I would be walking one way and the head would be facing the other, and it just became this funny…I didn’t know the head was on backwards. I had no idea. I see out of the body, so I’m just kinda walking around and people were talking to my ass-end. [laughs] The whole time peiople’d come up and start talking and go, ‘Hey, turn around.’ And I’d turn around, and they’d go, ‘No turn around.’ It was a mess. That year, there was no other Big Bird on Franklin Street.”

    Audio / Jon Pardi reveals his favorite Halloween candy.

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    Jon Pardi (Halloween candy) OC: …during Halloween. :06
    “Man! The candy corn is pretty good, and that’s seasonal, so it only kinda pops out during Halloween.”

    Audio / Jon Pardi talks about his favorite Halloween costumes as a child.

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    Jon Pardi (Halloween) 1 OC: …the Superman. :15
    “Man, I went through phases of costumes – the Superman costume, then it was a ninja, then I was a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle one year. I remember rockin’ the Superman.”

    Audio / Jordan Davis talks about his favorite Halloween costumes over the years.

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    Jordan Davis (Halloween costumes) OC: …jet black. :49
    “I can remember being really big into Power Rangers. I always liked the Red Ranger. I remember being Red Ranger one Halloween. I remember me and my br4other being big into the Ninja Turtles. I was Donatello one year, which I think was the purple turtle. I think, though, my favorite Halloween was I was in college and I went as Luigi from Mario and Luigi, and I actually grew a legit mustache and dyed it jet black and ran into an e-girlfriend at the costume shop and completely forgot I had the mustache on. So, when Is saw her, she was like, ‘So, you’re going with a mustache nowadays, huh?’ [laughs] I remember being like, ‘I swear this is part of my Halloween costume.’ [laughs] When I dyed my mustache, my top lip was black for a week. Like I really did dye it jet black.”

    Audio / Jordan Davis talks about his favorite Halloween candy.

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    Jordan Davis (Halloween candy) OC: …some Starbursts. :21
    “My favorite Halloween candy [is] probably Reese’s or M&M’s, although I love the variety of Starburst. It’s one that I feel like I only eat at Halloween, because I feel like at Halloween one of the popular ones is the two-piece Starburst things. So, probably Reese’s, M&Ms and throw in some Starbursts.”

    Audio / Candy Corn is a pretty polarizing candy that only comes out around Halloween. Some love it; some hate it and neither opinion is wrong. Jordan Davis sides with the haters (don’t blame him), since he’s just not that into candy corn.

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    Jordan Davis (no candy corn) OC: …they’re awful. :05
    “You know what I never got? The candy corns. I’ve never been a candy corn guy. I think they’re awful.”

    Audio / Lady Antebellum’s Dave Haywood recalls one of his most embarrassing Halloween costumes.

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    Lady A (Dave Haywood costume memory) OC: …50 feet. :20
    “I was a die (1/2 of a pair of dice) for Halloween. I had a big cardboard box that I had painted white and had the polka dots and stuff. And I remember I was walking up this hill to go to this hill and literally fell back down the entire hill [laughter], rolling in this giant cardboard box that I couldn’t do anything about, because I rolled down about 50-feet.”

    Audio / Luke Bryan says wife Caroline always picks out their Halloween costumes.

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    Luke Bryan (Halloween costumes) OC: …always has. :20
    “Me and Caroline did one year where I dressed up as the old lady, and she dressed up as, she called herself a dirty old man. So, she went around acting like an old man saying snide comments to everybody. That was a fun one. The main thing is Caroline is big, she loves Halloween and always has.”

    Audio / Luke Bryan says you can tell a lot about your neighbors from what kind of Halloween candy they hand out.

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    Luke Bryan (Halloween) OC: …your teeth. :21
    “You can find out a lot about your neighbors by what kind of candy they put out. So, well, like full bars of Snickers bars, that’s what, and Reese’s cups, [but] the old chocolate popcorn ball of stuff, that’s no good either, like Dots – you get Dots one time of year and they pull your teeth.”

    Audio / Luke Bryan talks about his Halloween tradition.

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    Luke Bryan (Halloween) 2 OC: …with all that. :33
    “My tradition for Halloween is Caroline picks the outfit. I never know what I’m wearing. So that day, I’ll talk to the neighbors ‘cause I have a tractor back there and I’ll go get my tractor and get a big long trailer, and then I’ll run down to…a couple miles from the farm, we’ve got a big hay farmer that keeps hay and you run in there and pay him for his hay bales. And I’ll load the hay up and get the hayride ready and we’ll take all the kids behind the tractor and have a fun Halloween with all that.”

  • NEWS AND NOTES: Shania, Darius, Luke, LBT, Sam, Dierks, Jon, Church, Strait, Stapleton, Kacey

    Darius Rucker will appear on ABC’s The View on Wednesday (October 25th).

    Shania Twain is featured on CBS’ The Talk on Wednesday (October 25th).

    Luke Bryan is a special guest on the Ellen DeGeneres Show on Thursday (October 26th).

    During the Nashville Songwriter Hall of Fame celebration earlier this week, the NSAI presented the 10 Songs I Wish I’d Written Awards. The honorees included Little Big Town’s “Better Man (written by Taylor Swift), Sam Hunt’s “Body Like a Back Road” (written by Sam, Josh Osborne, Shane McAnally and Zach Crowell), “Different for Girls” by Dierks Bentley, featuring Elle King (written by JT Harding and Shane McAnally), Jon Pardi’s “Dirt on My Boots” (written by Ashley Gorley, Jesse Frasure and Rhett Akins) and Eric Church’s “Kill a Word,” which he co-wrote with Jeff Hyde and Luke Dick.

    George Strait, Chris Stapleton, Little Big Town and Kacey Musgraves have been announced as performers at next year’s Bayou Country Superfest. The festival will take place at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Oreleans over the Memorial Day weekend. Tickets go on sale next Thursday (November 2nd).

  • HALLOWEEN LINERS 2017: Billy, Brandon, Brothers O, Canaan, Carrie, Clare, Darius, Dierks, Easton, Church, Paslay, Kacey, Lady A, Luke, Sam

    Audio /

    Download

    LINER Billy Currington (Trick or Treat)
    “Trick or Treat, baby.”

    Audio /

    Download

    LINER Brandon Lay (Halloween)
    “Hey everybody! This is Brandon Lay, wishing you a Happy Halloween.”

    Audio /

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    LINER Brothers Osborne (Halloween)
    “Hey! This is TJ, and I’m John, and we are Brothers Osborne. Happy Halloween.”

    Audio /

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    LINER Canaan Smith (Halloween)
    “Hey! What’s up guys? I’m Canaan Smith. Happy Halloween.”

    Audio /

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    LINER Carrie Underwood (Halloween)
    “Hi! I’m Carrie Underwood, wishing you a Happy Halloween.”

     

    Audio /

    Download

    LINER Clare Dunn (Halloween)
    “Hey! This is Clare Dunn, wishing you a very Happy Halloween.”

     

    Audio /

    Download

    LINER Darius Rucker (Halloween)
    “Hey! What’s up, y’all? This is Darius Rucker, wishing you a very Happy Halloween.”

    Audio /

    Download

    LINER Dierks Bentley (Halloween)
    “Hey! It’s Dierks Bentley, wishing you a Happy Halloween.”

    Audio /

    Download

    LINER Eric Church (Halloween)
    “Hey! This is Eric Church, wishing you a very Happy Halloween.”

    Audio /

    Download

    LINER Eric Paslay (Halloween)
    “Hey! This is Eric Paslay, wishing you a very Happy Halloween.”

    Audio /

    Download

    LINER Jordan Davis (Halloween)
    “Hey! I’m Jordan Davis, wishing you a Happy Halloween.”

    Audio /

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    LINER Kacey Musgraves (Halloween)
    “Hey! It’s Kacey Musgraves, and I hope you have a Happy Halloween.”

    Audio /

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    LINER Lady A (Halloween)
    “Hey everybody! We are Lady Antebellum. Have a safe and Happy Halloween.”

     

    Audio /

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    LINER Luke Bryan (Halloween)
    “Hey! What’s up, y’all? I’m Luke Bryan, wishing you a very Happy Halloween. Boo!”

    Audio /

    Download

    LINER Sam Hunt (Halloween)
    “Hey everybody! This is Sam Hunt. Happy Halloween!”

    Audio /

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    LINER Tyminski (Halloween)
    “Hey everybody! I’m Tyminski, wishing you a Happy Halloween.”

  • ERIC CHURCH RELEASES THE VIDEO FOR ‘ROUND HERE BUZZ.’

    Eric Church has released the video for his latest hit, “Round Here Buzz.”

    The music video for “Round Here Buzz” again features lead Mickey Smay, the teenager from the “Mr. Misunderstood” music video as well as Church’s “Record Year.” The music video was directed by Reid Long who received an ACM Award for Video of the Year for “Mr. Misunderstood.”

    Eric is nominated for three CMA Awards, including Entertainer, Male Vocalist and Musical Event of the Year (for “Kill a Word”) with Rhiannon Giddens. The 51st Annual CMA Awards will air live from Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena November 8th at 8pm ET on ABC.

    Video / Eric Church Round Here Buzz

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  • ERIC CHURCH ANNOUNCES THE ’61 DAYS IN CHURCH’ 15-VINYL BOX SET.

    When Eric Church announced 61 Days in Church, a collection of live recordings currently streaming on Apple Music, fans demanded physical releases of the music. On October 27, demand will be met. 61 Days in Church limited-release will be available as a massive 15-LP box set, along with a commemorative tour book and an original poster encased in a custom road case. With the initial shipment on December 15, fans will receive the road case with the book, poster and the first three LP’s, which will include music from the first 12 shows of Church’s 2017 Holdin’ My Own Tour. The remaining 12 pieces of vinyl will be shipped out once a month starting in January of 2018, signing purchasers up for a Church “record club” for the year. Church Choir members, Eric’s die-hard fan club, will exclusively have the option to add-on a t-shirt, at no additional charge with their order. The box set will be released direct to consumers and can only be purchased at 61daysinchurch.com.

    Additionally, the Church Choir gets the exclusive first look at the music video for Church’s fourth single from his album Mr. Misunderstood, “Round Here Buzz,” today. Fan club members will receive an email with details on how to view. The video will premiere worldwide on Vevo Tuesday, Oct. 24.

    The music video for “Round Here Buzz” again features lead Mickey Smay, the teenager from the “Mr. Misunderstood” music video as well as Church’s “Record Year.” The music video was directed by Reid Long who received an ACM Award for Video of the Year for “Mr. Misunderstood.”

    The 61 Days in Church collection was recorded on Church’s 2017 Holdin’ My Own Tour, which was a record-breaking five-month, two-set show where Church played more than 200 hours of music–foregoing an opening act—across 61 stops. The 61 Days in Church compilation will hold songs from each city that include a variety of catalogue cuts and singles as well as cover songs inspired by each tour stop. Church has already released some of these covers on the 61 Days in Church including a Memphis medley that combines Marc Cohn’s “Walking in Memphis” with Bobby Bare’s “How I Got to Memphis” and a cover of “Screw You, We’re From Texas” featuring the song’s originator, Ray Wylie Hubbard.

    With 60 songs already released via streaming from the 61 Days in Church, releases in batches of 30 songs will continue, exclusively with Apple Music for a two-week window before going wide to all streaming platforms, until the full 100+ song project is complete.

    Church’s Holdin’ My Own Tour sold 930,000 tickets at the end of its run notching his as Pollstar’s top music tour in the first quarter of 2017, but as Dave Brooks of Billboard Magazine noted, “Fans will remember that tour by another metric: the marathon three-and-a-half hours Church played nightly as he crisscrossed the United States and Canada.”

    Information on 61 Days in Church can be found here: 61daysinchurch.com.

  • THE FIRST ROUND OF CMA PERFORMERS HAS BEEN ANNOUNCED.

    The first round of performers has been announced for this year’s CMA Awards. Luke Bryan, Carrie Underwood, Eric Church, Little Big Town, Brothers Osborne, Chris Stapleton, Jon Pardi and new Country Music Hall of Famer Alan Jackson will perform, as well as Garth Brooks, Miranda Lambert, Old Dominion and Thomas Rhett.

    Luke is a two-time consecutive CMA Entertainer of the Year (2014, 2015), returning to compete for his fifth nomination in the category. He has garnered 15 CMA Awards nominations since 2010.

    Up for three nominations this year, Eric is a three-time CMA Awards winner with 25 total career nods. He returns this year with recognition in the Entertainer of the Year category, in addition to Musical Event and his sixth consecutive nomination for Male Vocalist.

    Little Big Town claims four nominations this year including Vocal Group, Album for The Breaker, and Single and Music Video for “Better Man.” They are seven-time CMA Awards winners with a career total of 26 CMA Awards nominations.

    Stapleton is a five-time CMA Awards winner nominated for Entertainer of the Year, Male Vocalist, and Album for From A Room: Volume 1. He receives one nomination for Album, but can receive an additional trophy as producer. This is his third consecutive nomination for Male, which he’s won the past two years. He was also nominated for Entertainer last year and won Album for Traveller in 2015. He is an 11-time CMA Awards nominee.

    The reigning CMA Vocal Duo Brothers Osborne received their first Music Video nod for “It Ain’t My Fault” and will once again vie for Vocal Duo, their third nomination in the category.

    First-time nominee, Jon Pardi, vies for two categories with nominations for New Artist of the Year and Single for “Dirt On My Boots,” which he co-produced. He receives one nomination for Single of the Year, but can receive an additional trophy as producer.

    With six CMA Awards to her name, Carrie, who is also co-hosting the CMA Awards with Brad Paisley, returns to vie for Female Vocalist, a category she’s won four times (2006-2008, 2016) and nominated for consecutively since 2006.

    With 81 career nominations, Alan is the second most nominated artist in CMA Awards history. This year marks Jackson’s 24th CMA Awards performance since debuting in 1990 with “Chasin’ That Neon Rainbow.” He will receive Country Music’s Highest Honor, induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame, on Sunday, Oct. 22 during the official Medallion Ceremony at the CMA Theater.

    The 51st Annual CMA Awards will air live from Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena November 8th at 8pm ET on ABC.