• LITTLE BIG TOWN SCORES BIG AT THIS YEAR’S CMA AWARDS.

    Little Big Town picked up their sixth consecutive trophy for Vocal Group of the Year at this year’s CMA Awards, tying wins by The Statler Brothers and Rascal Flatts, and the achievement has made them even more humble than they are already.

    “I was looking out at Randy Owen from Alabama and thinking of all the groups that have come before us and for us to be standing up there, we are truly humbled by it,” says LBT’s Phillip Sweet. “It’s just amazing to be in that category because there’s so much talent in that category. So, we’re just very thankful.”

    During the show, the group performed a tribute to the late Glen Campbell by singing his hit “Wichita Lineman” with the song’s writer Jimmy Webb. See a clip below.

    As for the gentle and loving tone of this year’s CMA Awards, LBT’s Karen Fairchild gave a personal perspective of harmony and unity.

    “It just struck me when I was up there, we’ve been together because we might not agree on everything, but we talk about them across the table and fellowship together and we just say, ‘I love you. I might not agree, but we’re friends,’” says Karen. “We need more of that community in our lives and maybe we can put the differences aside or just agree to just disagree. I think harmony for me, I don’t know, it just struck me like that’s really what we need. It’s the ability to have a conversation without anger. It’s okay to love people you disagree with.”

    The group, who will launch The Breakers Tour in February, just released the music video for their latest song, “When Someone Stops Loving You.”

    If you can’t wait for their tour, they will be performing at Nashville’s historic Ryman Auditorium November 14th, and they’ll also perform during the CMA Country Christmas Special airing November 27th at 8pm ET on ABC.

    Audio / Backstage at this year’s CMA Awards, LBT’s Karen Fairchild and Phillip Sweet talked about their sixth consecutive win as Vocal Group of the Year.

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    LBT (6th win) OC: (Phillip Sweet) …very thankful. :18
    KAREN: “What an honor. Gah.” PHILLIP: “I was looking out at Randy Owen of Alabama and thinking of all the groups that have come before us and for us to be standing up there, we are truly humbled by it, and it’s just amazing to be in that category because there’s so much talent in that category. So, we’re just very thankful.”

    Audio / Backstage at this year’s CMA Awards, LBT’s Karen Fairchild says we all need more harmony in our lives these days.

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    LBT (focus on important things) OC: …you disagree with. :48
    “I think we all need to focus on the things that are important and we’re a harmony band. I don’t know. It just struck me when I was up there, we’ve been together because we might not agree on everything, but we talk about them across the table and fellowship together and we just say, ‘I love you. I might not agree, but we’re friends.’ We need more of that community in our lives and maybe we can put the differences aside or just agree to just disagree. I think harmony for me, I don’t know, it just struck me like that’s really what we need. It’s the ability to have a conversation without anger. It’s okay to love people you disagree with.”

    Audio / Backstage at this year’s CMA Awards, Little Big Town talked about Taylor Swift winning the Song of the Year for “Better Man,” which they recorded.

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    LBT (Better Man win) OC: (PHILLIP) …won’t miss it. :54
    PHILLIP: “We got an email from Taylor [Swift], and she was very kind and sweet and humble, and said, ‘Hey! I know you’re making a record, you guys. I’m gonna send you this song. I can hear your harmonies on it. Please consider it for your record.’ And we considered it, and we recorded it, and thank you, Taylor, for that.” JIMI: “And I think that just speaks, that song just shows what an amazing writer, beyond the unbelievable pop star she is, it all comes back down to an amazing writer, and we’re just, we feel privileged to cut that song. It’s a beautiful song, and I think it’s a lyric that everybody can identify with, so cheers Taylor. Thank you.” PHILLIP: “I think Taylor tweeted that she loves us and she’s happy that it happened and she’s rehearsing SNL.” KAREN: “…sad that she isn’t here.” KIMBERLY: “And we’ll take her award and put it on our shelves.” KAREN: “She’s got enough.” KIMBERLY: “She’s got plenty.” PHILLIP: “Maybe she won’t miss it.”

    Video / LBT Wichita Lineman

    Video / When Someone Stops Loving You

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  • NEWS AND NOTES: Luke, Lady A, LBT, Alan, Darius, Shania

    Luke Bryan, Lady Antebellum, Little Big Town, Alan Jackson, CB30 will all perform during this year’s CMA Country Christmas. The show, hosted by Reba McEntire for the first time, will air November 27th at 8pm ET on ABC. Dustin Lynch, Brett Eldredge, Kelsea Ballerini, Trisha Yearwood, Chris Young, Dustin Lynch, CeCe Winans and Dan + Shay will also perform during the show, which will be held at the Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville.

    Darius Rucker will perform “Winter Wonderland” during ABC’s The Wonderful World of Disney: Magical Holiday Celebration this year. The show will premiere November 30th at 9pm ET, as well as “Home for the Holidays” during Disney Parks Magical Christmas Celebration on Christmas Day.

    The new revamp of American Idol, starring Luke Bryan, Lionel Richie and Katy Perry as judges, will premiere Sunday, March 11th on ABC.

    Shania Twain is featured in the new free mobile game Home Street, as an in-game character throughout the month of November. The international superstar, who recently released her new album NOW, is the first guest character to appear in the game.

  • LITTLE BIG TOWN PREMIERES THE VIDEO FOR ‘WHEN SOMEONE STOPS LOVING YOU.’

    Little Big Town kicks off CMA Awards week today with the release of the music video for their critically-acclaimed single, “When Someone Stops Loving You.” The Grammy Award-winning band will stop by VEVO Live’s official CMA Awards Special live from Nashville for a special interview and Q&A at 5:15pm CT followed by the “When Someone Stops Loving You” music video world premiere on VEVO. Tune in via: vevo.ly/VevoLiveCMA.

    ‪Little Big Town‪ is celebrating their 26th career CMA nomination this year with multiple nods in CMA categories including Album Of The Year for their No. 1 debuting album, The Breaker, as well as Single Of The Year and Music Video Of The Year for their platinum-selling multi-week No. 1 hit, “Better Man.” The five-time CMA Vocal Group of the Year and current reigning ACM and CMA Vocal Group of the Year are also nominated for CMA Vocal Group of the Year.

    Written by Hillary Lindsey, Lori McKenna and Chase McGill, Little Big Town first debuted their critically-acclaimed single “When Someone Stops Loving You” during Good Morning America’s Summer Concert Series. The band can be seen next performing on this week’s 51st Annual CMA Awards, airing Wednesday, Nov. 8, and during the final performance of their historic sold-out, year-long artist residency “Little Big Town At The Mother Church,” from the Ryman Auditorium on Monday, Nov. 27.  Little Big Town’s highly-anticipated The Breakers Tour featuring special guests Kacey Musgraves and Midland kicks off early next year.

    For a full list of tour dates and more information, visit www.LittleBigTown.com.

  • LITTLE BIG TOWN WILL PREMIERE THE VIDEO FOR ‘WHEN SOMEONE STOPS LOVING YOU’ ON MONDAY.

    Little Big Town will premiere the video for “When Someone Stops Loving You” on VEVO live at 5pm ET/4pm CT on Monday (November 6th).

    LBT 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.

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

     

  • CMA AWARDS 2017: Little Big Town

    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.”

    Audio / EARLIER THIS YEAR, LITTLE BIG TOWN'S KAREN FAIRCHILD EXPLAINED WHY THEY KEPT SECRET THAT TAYLOR SWIFT WROTE THEIR NO. 1 SONG, "BETTER MAN."

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    Little Big Town (Better Man-Taylor) OC: …wrote it. [laughs] 1:05
    “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. 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. And we did that, and it had like the biggest add day in our history with the guys at Universal that we ever had, and so we were like, ‘Damn, we were right! This is a good song! You know? Nobody even knows!’ So, for all the people that we told little white lies to, we didn’t really lie. We said a young girl from Nashville, Tennessee wrote it.”

    Audio / LITTLE BIG TOWN’S JIMI WESTBROOK TALKS ABOUT “BETTER MAN,” THE FIRST SINGLE FROM THEIR NEW ALBUM, THE BREAKER.

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    LBT (Better Man) OC: …beautifully. :46
    “This song, first of all, I love the melody. The chorus just kind of soars when it comes in and it feels like one of those classic country melodies on a chorus that we just fell in love from the first time we heard it. The message, I think everybody can identify with the sentiment of this song. A lot of times in life, there’s a lot of things you have to walk away from that don’t necessarily feel like the greatest decision to have to make in your life, but sometimes you just know that it’s time to move on and no matter how hard that is, you just know that down in your heart that it’s time to do that. Those are very difficult decisions that we face sometimes in our lives, and I think this song talks about that beautifully.”

  • NEWS AND NOTES: Carrie, Lauren, Darius, Luke, George, LBT, Kacey

    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 91st 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.

  • 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).

  • 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.

  • NEWS AND NOTES: Keith, Sam, Carrie, LBT, Chris, Jon, Luke

    Keith Urban, Sam Hunt, Carrie Underwood, Little Big Town, Chris Stapleton and Jon Pardi earned nominations for this year’s American Music Awards. Keith leads the country nominees with three nods, including Favorite Male Artist – Country, Favorite Album – Country for Ripcord and Favorite Song – Country for “Blue Ain’t Your Color.” Sam picks up a pair of nominations, including Favorite Male Artist – Country and Favorite Song – Country for “Body Like a Back Road.” Chris earns a nomination for From A Room: Volume 1, while Jon picks up a nod for Favorite Song – Country for “Dirt on My Boots.” The 45th Annual American Music Awards will be broadcast live from the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles on November 19th at 8pm ET on ABC.

    Luke Bryan’s Crash My Party and Tailgates and Tanlines albums were certified 4X platinum by the RIAA. Several of his songs, including “Drunk on You,” “Crash My Party,” “Play It Again” and “That’s My Kind of Night” were also certified 4X platinum, while “Country Girl [Shake It For Me]” was certified quintuple platinum. Luke’s “Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye,” “Home Alone Tonight” and “All My Friends Say” was certified platinum.

    Keith Urban is set to appear on a new television special, Grammys Greatest Stories, which will take a behind-the-scenes look at the past 59 years of Grammys performances and history. The two-hour show will include appearances by Paul McCartney, Elton John, Bruce Springsteen, Aretha Franklin, Bruno Mars, Ed Sheeran, Celine Dion and U2, among others. Grammys Greatest Stories: A 60th Anniversary Special will air Black Friday, November 24th beginning at 9pm ET on CBS.

  • COUNTRY RISING CONCERT EXPANDS TO INCLUDE LAS VEGAS AND ADDS KEITH URBAN TO THE LIST OF PERFORMERS.

    Country Music’s star-studded benefit concert COUNTRY RISING announced today that in light of last week’s tragedy, it will now support victims of the Las Vegas shooting in addition to those in Texas, Florida, Puerto Rico and additional Caribbean islands who have been impacted by the recent hurricanes. Tickets and VIP packages for the event will now go on sale next Friday, Oct. 20 at 10:00A CT on www.Ticketmaster.com. Citi® is the official presale credit card of Country Rising. Citi® cardmembers will have access to purchase presale tickets beginning Wednesday, Oct. 18 at 10:00A CT through Citi’s Private Pass® program. For complete presale details visit www.citiprivatepass.com.

    Keith Urban is the latest mega-star to add his name to the bill, which also includes Jason Aldean, Dierks Bentley, Sam Hunt, Lady Antebellum, Little Big Town, Martina McBride, Reba McEntire, Chris Stapleton, George Strait and Carrie Underwood. Due to a scheduling conflict with additional tour dates being added in Spokane, WA, Garth Brooks will no longer be part of the event in Nashville and will instead donate all proceeds from his two added concerts on November 12th to The Country Rising Fund.

    COUNTRY RISING will benefit The Country Rising Fund of The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee, which was established to support charitable initiatives to help victims of the September 2017 hurricanes — Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, Jose and Maria. Additionally, the fund will now also envelop victims of the shooting in Las Vegas last week. In the course of rebuilding lives disrupted by these devastating events, there are immediate needs and there also will be long-term needs. This fund will strategically support both as they emerge.

    For more information, visit: www.CountryRising.org.