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  • LITTLE BIG TOWN MAKE HISTORY WITH SOLD OUT “LITTLE BIG TOWN AT THE MOTHER CHURCH” RYMAN RESIDENCY SHOWS.

    Press
    Little Big Town
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    Special guest Andra Day joins Little Big Town on stage during the February 25th show of “Little Big Town at the Mother Church” at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville. Photo 1: L to R:  Jimi Westbrook, Karen Fairchild, Andra Day, Kimberly Schlapman and Phillip Sweet. Photo credit :Becky Fluke. Photo 2: L to R: Jimi Westbrook, Kimberly Schlapman, Andra Day, Karen Fairchild and Phillip Sweet. Photo credit: Reid Long.
    Grammy Award-winning vocal group Little Big Town launched their unprecedented year-long artist residency, “Little Big Town at the Mother Church,” from Nashville’s famed Ryman Auditorium this weekend with back-to-back, sold-out shows on Friday and Saturday evening. The reigning CMA and ACM Vocal Group of the Year earned numerous standing ovations as they showcased their award-winning vocals during each nightly performance of their new album, The Breaker. The launch of “Little Big Town at the Mother Church” coincides with the world-wide release of Little Big Town’s seventh studio album, released February 24th, and marks the only time in the venue’s 125-year history to host a year-long artist residency.

    Band members Karen Fairchild, Phillip Sweet, Kimberly Schlapman, and Jimi Westbrook’s took to the Ryman stage following support acts Brent Cobb (2/24) and Ashley Monroe (2/25) to debut their first, and only, live full-length album performances of The Breaker.  After opening the show with the album’s “optimistic standout” (Sounds Like Nashville) “Happy People,” the band went on to perform every track on their new album from top to bottom– including their current chart-topping #1 song at country radio, “Better Man”–before later trading off lead vocals for several songs including “Beat Up Bible,” “When Someone Stops Loving You,” and the album’s title track, “The Breaker.”

    The packed set list had the audience on their feet, singing along to every word of the band’s biggest hits, from “Pontoon” to “Girl Crush,” the thirteen week #1 Grammy-winning crossover hit that recently propelled Pain Killer to RIAA-Platinum-status, earning the group their third RIAA-Platinum album certification as a band.
    Each evening’s special surprise guest appearances–an expected staple of future “Little Big Town at the Mother Church” dates—solicited enormous audience applause as breakout Country artists Sam Hunt and Chris Stapleton (2/24) and powerhouse vocalist Andra Day (2/25) joined Little Big Town on stage. At the close of each show, in contrast, the band earned a different reaction—complete reverence in the form of uninterrupted silence- as the band launched into an unexpected, completely acoustic encore, sans mics, aimed at paying homage to early Ryman Auditorium performances.
    Saturday’s show also included an additional on-stage surprise, with the band’s announcement from the Ryman stage that a 10th “Little Big Town at the Mother Church” Ryman Residency date has been added for July 30th due to popular demand. Previously announced dates include May 19&20, July 28&29, September 15&16, and November 27th. Pre-sale tickets for the newly-announced date are available now through March 2nd at 10pm CT by visiting here: www.ticketmaster.com/event/1B005258D765823D. Tickets for the concerts will be $90.50, $60.50 and $50.50. Each ticket purchased to see Little Big Town at the Ryman includes one (1) physical album of Little Big Town’s new album, The Breaker, released February 24, 2017 on Capital Nashville. Visit www.littlebigtown.com/tour for more information.

    Little Big Town continue to earn early critical praise for The Breaker, having “expanded their audience beyond Tennessee” (USA Today) as well as “the definition of country music from the inside” (Newsday). The Los Angeles Times recently declared The Breaker “excellent” before highlighting Little Big Town as one of “only three acts that performed more than once at this year’s Grammy Awards. Reviewed as “a 21st century revival of Fleetwood Mac” (Goldderby), critics have identified The Breaker as a sweet spot, with Paste noting the album as “the band’s wheelhouse…they sound great” and Entertainment Weekly sharing high praise for the band’s latest studio project, giving the album an “A-” rating and noting “Little Big Town soar with new album…LBT’s glistening harmonies beam.”  Following the launch of “Little Big Town at the Mother Church,” the Associated Press also raved “Little Big Town momentum grows with Ryman residency.”
    Little Big Town can next be seen performing on the Ellen DeGeneres Show on March 1st, and on The Talk on March 14th.

  • NEWS AND NOTES: Darius Rucker and Little Big Town

    Press
    Darius Rucker / Little Big Town

    Darius Rucker will appear on NBC’s Today Show to perform “Love Do What It Do” with Robert Randolph on Tuesday (February 21st) in the 10am hour.

    Darius Rucker will guest star as “Desmond Abati” on this week’s episode of Hawaii Five-O. Catch the show on Friday (February 24th) at 9pm ET/PT on CBS.

    Little Big Town is taking their music to the small screen this week, including performances on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon (Thursday) and the Today Show on Friday.

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  • LITTLE BIG TOWN HITS THE TOP OF THE CHARTS WITH ‘BETTER MAN’ AND HITS THE TV CIRCUIT TO PROMOTE THEIR NEW ALBUM, ‘THE BREAKER.’

    Audio
    Little Big Town

    The Platinum-selling, GRAMMY Award-winning Little Big Town scored their latest No. 1 single, “Better Man,” which is also their fastest-rising radio single to date, on both the Billboard and MediaBase country airplay charts this week. The Taylor Swift-penned tune has over 35 million combined streams and nearly 500,000 digital downloads. Additionally, Little Big Town’s previous album Pain Killer, featuring the history-making “Girl Crush,” is now RIAA-certified Platinum.

     The band releases its seventh studio album The Breaker this Friday, February 24th on Capitol Records Nashville.

    The band kicks off a week of media appearances starting with performances on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon this Thursday (2/23) and the TODAY Show this Friday (2/24) before returning to Nashville for the first of nine Ryman Auditorium residency dates – “Little Big Town at the Mother Church” –on Friday evening (2/24). The reigning CMA and ACM Vocal Group of the Year will also perform on Ellen Feb. 28 and will take their award-winning harmonies to The Talk, airing March 14.

    Little Big Town, consisting of members Karen Fairchild, Phillip Sweet, Kimberly Schlapman and Jimi Westbrook, recently earned its 23rd career Academy of Country Music award nomination with a nod for Vocal Group of the Year. The group was awarded the same category last year along with Vocal Event of the Year and the ACM’s prestigious Crystal Milestone Award. 

    Fans can still pre-order The Breaker and instantly receive “Better Man” along with album tracks “Happy People,” “We Went to the Beach” and “When Someone Stops Loving You.” To pre-order The Breaker, visitHttp://umgn.us/LBTBREAKER .

    For more information on Little Big Town, The Breaker and “Little Big Town at the Mother Church,” visit www.LittleBigTown.com.

    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.”


  • LITTLE BIG TOWN’S ‘THE BREAKER’ IS AVAILABLE ON FRIDAY.

    Audio
    Little Big Town

    Little Big Town will release their brand-new record, The Breaker, on Friday (February 24th). The collection, which features their now No. 1 single “Better Man,” was written and recorded during one of their busiest and most successful years to-date, so they weren’t able to write as many songs for it as they have for previous albums.

    “We had an incredibly like creative year last year. I mean, we went from starting this record to making the Pharrell record, which was unexpected but such a joy and so creative in a different way than the records that we make with Jay [Joyce],” says LBT’s Karen Fairchild. “And so, we were writing, and then we were writing with Pharrell and then that ended up being a record. And then we were planning the tour and we went out on the road with Luke for 70 shows, and it just never stopped. And it was like all year long output, output, output of creative. And so yeah, the writing scenarios on the record might not look like they have on past records, but it was just the way it was going to happen. I mean, when you’re that busy it’s like the success also makes it difficult to like write all the time, because writing on the road is not the easiest thing in the world. You have a million distractions, and so there’s all kinds of things like getting focused. But we had also the blessing of having all of these incredible songs sent to us and they seemed to be piecing themselves together.”

    The reigning ACM and CMA Vocal Group of the Year will begin their residency at the Ryman on Friday (February 24th). They’re expected to perform every song on their new album.

    Little Big Town will perform on NBC’s The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on Thursday (February 23rd).

    Audio / Little Big Town’s Karen Fairchild explains why they didn’t write as much for The Breaker, as they have for previous albums.

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    LBT (songs for the album) OC: …together. 1:20
    “We had an incredibly like creative year last year. I mean, we went from starting this record to making the Pharrell record, which was unexpected but such a joy and so creative in a different way than the records that we make with Jay [Joyce]. And so, we were writing, and then we were writing with Pharrell and then that ended up being a record. And then we were planning the tour and we went out on the road with Luke for 70 shows, and it just never stopped. And it was like all year long output, output, output of creative. And so yeah, the writing scenarios on the record might not look like they have on past records, but it was just the way it was going to happen. I mean, when you’re that busy it’s like the success also makes it difficult to like write all the time, because writing on the road is not the easiest thing in the world. You have a million distractions, and so there’s all kinds of things like getting focused. But we had also the blessing of having all of these incredible songs sent to us and they seemed to be piecing themselves together.”

    Audio / LINER LBT (available Feb. 24th)

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    Audio / LINER LBT (available this week)

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  • ACM AWARDS 2017: Some Reactions

    Audio
    Brothers Osborne / Chris Stapleton / Dierks Bentley / Eric Church / Jon Pardi / Kacey Musgraves / Keith Urban / Lady Antebellum / Lauren Alaina / Little Big Town / Luke Bryan

    The members of Lady Antebellum were in New York City this morning (February 16th) to announce several of this year’s ACM Awards nominations live on CBS This Morning.

    Keith Urban leads leads with seven nominations in five categories, including his seventh for Entertainer of the Year and 10th nod for Male Vocalist of the Year. Keith’s nominated twice, as both artist and producer, in the Album of the Year category for Ripcord.  He received an additional two nominations, for both artist and producer, in the Single Record of the Year category for “Blue Ain’t Your Color,” which is also nominated in the Song of the Year category.

    “I’ve been a musician since I was 6 years old,” says Keith.  “I just love writing songs, making records and touring.  So, for the ACMS’s to recognize RIPCORD in such a big way today is humbling.  I share these nominations with everyone in my life who made it possible – and a BIG shout out to all of our fans, who came out to see us on the ripCORD tour.  Can’t wait to play for you all again soon.”

  • FIRST LOOK: The initial ACM Awards nominations have been announced…more to come.

    Press
    Brothers Osborne / Chris Stapleton / Dierks Bentley / Kacey Musgraves / Keith Urban / Lady Antebellum / Little Big Town / Luke Bryan

    The members of Lady Antebellum were in New York City this morning (February 16th) to announce several of this year’s ACM Awards nominations live on CBS This Morning.

    Luke Bryan and Keith Urban are among the Entertainer of the Year nominees, along with Carrie Underwood, Florida Georgia Line and Jason Aldean.

    The 52nd Annual Academy of Country Music Awards, hosted by Luke Bryan and Dierks Bentley, will be broadcast live from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas April 2nd at 8pm ET/delayed PT on CBS.

    ENTERTAINER OF THE YEAR
    Jason Aldean
    Luke Bryan
    Florida GeorgiaLine
    Carrie Underwood
    Keith Urban
    MALE VOCALIST OF THE YEAR
    Jason Aldean
    Dierks Bentley
    Thomas Rhett
    Chris Stapleton
    Keith Urban

    FEMALE VOCALIST OF THE YEAR
    Kelsea Ballerini
    Miranda Lambert
    Kacey Musgraves
    Maren Morris
    Carrie Underwood

    VOCAL DUO OF THE YEAR
    Big & Rich
    Brothers Osborne
    Dan & Shay
    Florida Georgia Line
    Maddie & Tae

    VOCAL GROUP OF THE YEAR
    Eli Young Band
    Lady Antebellum
    Little Big Town
    Old Dominion
    Rascal Flatts

    Video / LADY ANTEBELLUM ANNOUNCE THE INITIAL ACM NOMINEES.

  • VALENTINE’S DAY AUDIO 2017: AJ, Billy, Canaan, Dierks, Eric, Josh, Lauren, LBT, Luke

    Audio
    Alan Jackson / Billy Currington / Canaan Smith / Dierks Bentley / Eric Church / Josh Turner / Lauren Alaina / Little Big Town / Luke Bryan

    Each year on February 14th, many people exchange cards, candy, gifts or flowers with their special someone. The day of romance we call Valentine’s Day is named for a Christian martyr and dates back to the 5th century.

    Over 150 million Valentine’s Day cards are exchanged annually, making Valentine’s Day the second-most popular greeting-card-giving occasion. (This total excludes packaged kids valentines for classroom exchanges.) (Source: Hallmark research)

    2.2 million marriages take place in the United States annually, which breaks down to more than 6,000 a day.

    Tuesday is Valentine’s Day (February 14th), and we’ve got some thoughts and feelings more about love, romance and marriage from several of your favorite country artists. Some are new and some have become our favorites over the years. Which country stars are romantic? Which ones aren’t? Which ones have a good reason to celebrate the holiday that’s all about love?

    Audio / Alan Jackson talks about his love for wife, Denise, over the years.

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    AJ (Valentine’s Day) OC: …continue to. :24

    “We got a lot of history together now, and we’re happier than we’ve ever been. So, she’s still beautiful, and she’s always inspired songs. I mean, one of my early hits was a song called ‘I’d Love You All Over Again,’ I wrote for her for our 10th anniversary. I mean, there’s been a zillion songs that have pieces of our good days and bad days inspired, and they continue to.”

    Audio / Billy Currington recalls his first real Valentine’s Day.

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    Billy Currington (Valentine’s Day memory) OC: …took off running. :21
    “Yeah, I remember my first girlfriend. I was in first or second grade, but anyway, I remember it was Valentine’s Day and your mom going, ‘You’ve got to give your girlfriend something, and you’ve got to go give it to her.’ I’ll never forget — we got her a box of chocolates or whatever it was. I remember going down to her classroom and knocking on the door, getting her to come to the door. I remember handing it to her, and then I took off running.”

    Audio / Canaan Smith says he tries to show his wife how special she is every day.

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    Canaan Smith (Valentine’s Day) OC: …get lucky. :25
    “I bet I’m just like 99.9% of the rest of the men in the world who could really care less about that holiday. I want my wife to feel special, so I’m gonna take part in it. I’m gonna do my part to make her feel special and loved, but is it necessary? Shouldn’t we do that every day? I mean, it kinda is just another way to get a bunch of money out of us, but oh well. We’ll go see a movie or something. Maybe I’ll get lucky.”

     

    Audio / Dierks Bentley explains the realities of Valentine’s Day.

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    Dierks Bentley (Valentine’s Day realities) OC: …that’s awesome. :53
    “I’m gonna be the voice of truth and honesty for Valentine’s Day for a lot of the guys out there listening and for some of the girls listening, as well too. You may like this; you may not, but Valentine’s Day is a really difficult day for guys. When you’re single, it’s stressful for like a month leading up to it, and inevitably, you do something wrong. You don’t get the wrong thing or you say too much, and she’s wanting to get engaged faster than you want to get engaged. I don’t know. It’s just a very stressful holiday. I’m at a time in my life where I got a five-year-old, a three-year-old and a zero-year-old, and we’re just really trying to survive on a day-to-day basis. I mean, we get about four hours of sleep, and we’re literally in survival mode. So, I think there should be a hall pass for guys in that phase of their life. It doesn’t take much at this stage for us to get excited. A dinner alone is heaven. I mean, if we can just have a dinner and a glass of wine, that’s awesome.”

    Audio / Dierks Bentley says so far his ultimate romantic gesture was when he proposed to his wife, Cassidy, and with three children in the house, it’s a little hard to get away together.

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    Dierks Bentley (Valentine’s peak) OC: …48-hour party, you know? [chuckles]
    “I kind of peaked when I dropped the engagement ring on her and surprised her with that and took her to Mexico and eloped. I spiked early. I peaked early. Now we’re in our eighth year. I need to find something special to do, but we keep having kids. It’s like, we can’t be away from them. We’re gonna find a week when they’re all in school and everything is set and we’ve got somebody. We have no family in town. We just have some folks that we really count on. When we get everyone locked in place, we’re gonna go somewhere for like two days and get away and have like a two-day, 48-hour party, you know?” [chuckles]

    Audio / Eric Church says his wife, Katherine, loves him in spite of everything.

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    Eric Church (Valentine’s) OC: …love song is. :18 “True love to me is when you love a person in spite of all their fallibilities, and for me, I have a lot of ‘em. I’m definitely at times hard to love, and that’s what’s great about Katherine and the way she loves me. She loves me in spite of those things and really for those things.”

    Audio / Josh Turner says his wife would call him a romantic, but now that they have four children, it takes a bit of work to make time for each other.

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    Josh Turner (Romantic) OC: …long time to come. :26
    “If you ask my wife Jennifer if I was a romantic, she would definitely say, ‘Yes,’ but she knows that sometimes my hectic schedule and our busy lifestyles can kind of interfere with the romantic side of things. But we do try to make efforts towards being together and having adult conversations and taking time away from the children and doing things that husbands and wives do, so we’ll definitely try to continue that for a long time to come.”

    Audio / Lauren Alaina recalls her first, and potentially disastrous, Valentine’s Day with her longtime boyfriend, Alex.

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    Lauren Alaina (Valentine’s Day) OC: …pretty embarrassing. 1:51
    “I think my first Valentine’s Day with Alex, I was trying to be super cute and cook him a Valentine’s Day dinner. I was 18 at the time, and I’d just moved into this brand new apartment in Chattanooga. I was trying to get used to not living with my parents before I moved to Nashville, so I did like six months in Chattanooga in an apartment. And [giggles] my mom makes these really great mashed potatoes, which I’ve modified the recipe, but they’re delicious and I wanted to make him these potatoes, because I knew I could make these potatoes. Well, I did not grow up with a very updated kitchen, so I didn’t have a [garbage] disposal, it was very new to me. So, I peeled the bag of potatoes and put the potato peels in to the sink and tried to use the disposal and it broke it before he got there. Annnd, I turned the water on, and I was baking chicken and I was cooking broccoli and mashed potatoes, and just turned the water on and then I forgot I had the water on, so I overflowed the kitchen sink with the potato peels, and it looked like something died in my sink and my sink was like spitting it up. It was horrible. I was panicking and trying to get it all cleaned up before he got there, and he knocked in the middle of it, like knocked on the door. He was early, of course. He’s always early, and he freaking knocked. I had like potato peels flying through the air, my potatoes were boiling over. I was still boiling the potatoes. I was running behind and he was running early, so it was just crazy. But, we’ve had some great Valentine’s. Last Valentine’s, he cooked for me and everything was smooth, so maybe he should be the cook. Uh, I’m a great cook, I just was trying to use a disposal for the first time, and that was pretty embarrassing.”

    Audio / Little Big Town’s Karen Fairchild and Jimi Westbrook had a chemistry performing together, but it wasn’t until they each found themselves single…at the same time…that sparks flew romantically. The pair, who wed in 2006, have a son, Elijah.

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    Little Big Town (Jimi & Karen fell in love) OC: (Kimberly) …to be together. :48 JIMI: “We were in the band a long time before there was ever anything which is interesting. I think there was always something underlying there that we were kind of trying to ignore. And then when the opportunity came, when all of us, ended up single kind of at the same time, a very strange turn of events for the band in a lot of different ways. And those feelings, you were able to come out with them finally. It was like, we’re single. Let’s get together. And, you know, she has a beautiful heart and she’s absolutely gorgeous and I just love her dearly.”

    PHILLIP: “Get a room!” [laughs]

    KIMBERLY: “They’re a perfect match. They really are. They were meant to be together.”

    Audio / Luke Bryan says Valentine’s Day is for him and his wife, Caroline.

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    Luke Bryan (Valentine’s Day) OC: …full day. :11
    “Well, I mean Valentine’s Day is, it’s kinda me and Caroline’s day just to go and just being with one another for a full day.”

     

  • VALENTINE’S DAY LINERS 2017

    Audio
    Billy Currington / Brothers Osborne / Canaan Smith / Charles Kelley / Clare Dunn / Darius Rucker / Dierks Bentley / Eric Church / Eric Paslay / Gary Allan / George Strait / Jon Pardi / Josh Turner / Kacey Musgraves / Keith Urban / Kip Moore / Lady Antebellum / Little Big Town / Luke Bryan / Sam Hunt / Shania Twain

    Audio / LINER Billy Currington (Valentine’s Day)

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    “Hey! This is Billy Currington. Hope you have a very Happy Valentine’s Day.”

    Audio / LINER Brothers Osborne (Valentine’s Day)

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    “Hey, this is T.J., and I’m John, and we’re Brothers Osborne. Happy Valentine’s Day.”

    Audio / LINER Canaan Smith (Valentine’s Day)

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    “Hey, what’s up guys? I’m Canaan Smith, wishing you a very Happy Valentine’s Day.”

    Audio / LINER Charles Kelley (Valentine’s Day)

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    “Hey everybody! I’m Charles Kelley from Lady Antebellum. Happy Valentine’s Day.”

    Audio / LINER Clare Dunn (Valentine’s Day)

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    “Hey! This is Clare Dunn, hoping you have a very Happy Valentine’s Day.”

    Audio / LINER Darius Rucker (Valentine’s Day)

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    “What’s up y’all? This is Darius Rucker, hoping you have a very Happy Valentine’s Day.”

    Audio / LINER Dierks Bentley (Valentine’s Day)

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    “Hey, it’s Dierks Bentley, hoping you have a very Happy Valentine’s Day.”

    Audio / LINER Eric Church (Valentine’s Day)

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    “Hey! This is Eric Church, hoping you have a very Happy Valentine’s Day.”

    Audio / LINER Eric Paslay (Valentine’s Day)

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    “Hi! This is Eric Paslay, hoping you have a very Happy Valentine’s Day.”

    Audio / LINER Gary Allan (Valentine’s Day)

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    “Hey, this is Gary Allan, wishing you a Happy Valentine’s Day.”

    Audio / LINER George Strait (Valentine’s Day)

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    “This is George Strait, wishing you a Happy Valentine’s Day.”

    Audio / LINER Jon Pardi (Valentine’s Day)

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    “Hi! It’s Jon Pardi, and I hope you have a very Happy Valentine’s Day.”

    Audio / LINER Josh Turner (Valentine’s Day)

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    “Hey! This is Josh Turner, and I want to wish you and your sweetheart a Happy Valentine’s Day.”

    Audio / LINER Kacey Musgraves (Valentine’s Day)

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    “Hi, this is Kacey Musgraves, and I hope you have a Happy Valentine’s Day.”

    Audio / LINER Keith Urban (Valentine’s Day)

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    “Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone. This is Keith Urban. Make the day special for your ‘Once in a Lifetime’ love.”

    Audio / LINER Kip Moore (Valentine’s Day)

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    “Hey! What’s happening, everybody? This is Kip Moore. Happy Valentine’s Day.”

    Audio / LINER Lady A (Valentine’s Day)

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    “Hey everybody! We are Lady Antebellum, wishing you a very Happy Valentine’s Day, you love birds.”

    Audio / LINER LBT (Valentine’s Day)

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    “Hey! We’re Little Big Town. Happy Valentine’s Day!”

    Audio / LINER Luke Bryan (Valentine’s Day)

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    “Hey y’all, it’s Luke Bryan. Happy Valentine’s Day.”

    Audio / LINER Sam Hunt (Valentine’s Day)

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    “Hi! This is Sam Hunt, wishing you a very Happy Valentine’s Day.”

    Audio / LINER Shania Twain (Valentine’s Day)

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    “Hi, this is Shania Twain. Happy Valentine’s Day.”

  • GRAMMY AWARDS 2017: Keith, Dierks, Hillary

    Audio
    Brothers Osborne / Dierks Bentley / Hillary Scott & The Scott Family / Keith Urban / Little Big Town / Vince Gill

    The GRAMMY Awards will be handed out on Sunday (February 12th), and several of your favorite country artists may be walking away with a trophy.

    Keith Urban has nominations in three categories, including Best Country Solo Performance for his recent multi-week No. 1 song, “Blue Ain’t Your Color,” which is also up for Best Country Song. His record, Ripcord, competes for Best Country Album.

    Dierks Bentley with Elle King are nnominated for Best Country Duo/Group Performance for “Different for Girls,” while Brothers Osborne are also up for Best Country Duo/Group Performance for “21 Summer.”

    Vince Gill scored a couple of nominations, including Best Americana Roots Song for penning “Kid Sister,” which is also the title of his Best Americana Album with his band The Time Jumpers.

    Hillary Scott & the Scott Family are nominated for Contemporary Christian Song for “Thy Will” and Best Contemporary Christian Album for Love Remains.

    Keith Urban will perform his latest single, “The Fighter,” with Carrie Underwood. Little Big Town will also perform on the show, in addition to previously announced performers Maren Morris, Adele, The Weeknd, Alicia Keys, as well as Sturgill Simpson, Gary Clark, Jr. and Chance The Rapper.

    The 50th Annual Grammy Awards, hosted by James Corden, will air live from the Staples Center in L.A., February 12th at 8pm ET on CBS.

    Best Country Solo Performance:
    “Love Can Go To Hell” — Brandy Clark
    “Vice” — Miranda Lambert
    “My Church” — Maren Morris
    “Church Bells” — Carrie Underwood
    “Blue Ain’t Your Color” — Keith Urban

    Best Country Duo/Group Performance:
    “Different For Girls” — Dierks Bentley Featuring Elle King
    “21 Summer” — Brothers Osborne
    “Setting The World On Fire” — Kenny Chesney & P!nk
    “Jolene” — Pentatonix Featuring Dolly Parton
    “Think Of You” — Chris Young With Cassadee Pope

    Best Country Song:
    “Blue Ain’t Your Color” —  Clint Lagerberg, Hillary Lindsey & Steven Lee Olsen, songwriters (Keith Urban)
    “Die A Happy Man” — Sean Douglas, Thomas Rhett & Joe Spargur, songwriters (Thomas Rhett)
    “Humble And Kind” — Lori McKenna, songwriter (Tim McGraw)
    “My Church” — busbee & Maren Morris, songwriters (Maren Morris)
    “Vice” — Miranda Lambert, Shane McAnally & Josh Osborne, songwriters (Miranda Lambert)

    Best Country Album:
    Big Day In A Small Town — Brandy Clark
    Full Circle — Loretta Lynn
    Hero — Maren Morris
    A Sailor’s Guide To Earth — Sturgill Simpson
    Ripcord — Keith Urban

    Audio / Keith Urban talks about recording the song, “Blue Ain’t Your Color,” from his album Ripcord.

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    Keith Urban (Blue Ain’t Your Color) OC: …of space. :50
    “With this record, I think I was also trying to find songs and write songs to what I had done in the past, just that felt different for me. This song called ‘Blue Ain’t Your Color’ came along, and again, it was just one of those that I loved immediately. I loved the lyric. I loved the melody, the feel, and it’s basically a waltz, you know, like a one, two, three, two, two, three, a one, two, three, two, two, three. But I didn’t want it to feel like a waltz, you know? So, when we recorded the song at Starstruck Studios here in Nashville, we kept it a little more robotic sounding, so it wasn’t a straight band. It was a little more machinery, rhythmically, and I think it kept, hopefully for me at least, it kept it in a unique place to allow the story to have a lot of space.”

    Audio / Keith Urban talks about the correlation between the adrenaline rush of pulling a ripcord from a parachute and the hope that those feelings are captured in the diversity of the songs on his new album, Ripcord.

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    Keith Urban (Ripcord album) OC: …this record. :37
    “There’s songs on the record that probably feel, having not skydived myself, but my wife has done it many, many, many times. There’s definitely songs that sound like that free falling at an incredibly rapid speed. The adrenaline rush of that. The pulling of the cord and suddenly just sort of cruising and coasting and floating and the combination of all those speeds, energies, exhilarations, euphoria, the view, how that changes, all of it, I think, hopefully will be captured in the diversity of songs on this record.”

    Audio / Dierks Bentley talks about having Elle King sing on the song, “Different For Girls” on his new album, Black.

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    Dierks Bentley (Elle King) OC: …new place. :36
    “Well, I love Elle King’s voice. I mean she has such a unique voice, and you never know if her voice is going to blend with your voice. I didn’t found out until I went down to the studio in Austin, and right away it was just a really natural sounding blend. Her voice just lifted up this song. The lyrics of this song are pretty strong and her voice on this particular song really takes the song to a whole other level. I really wanted to find a way for her not to just be background vocals. I wanted to find a way to really get her included in the song, so I gave her the second verse and made the song more of a conversation as opposed to just background vocals. And it really, it just took the song to a whole new place.”

    Audio / Hillary Scott is so excited to be nominated for two Grammys for her faith-based song "Thy Will" and the album she made with her family, Love Remains.

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    Hillary Scott (Grammys 2017) OC: …incredible year. 52
    HILLARY: “Over the moon excited, and never expected it, because honestly when we set out to make the record we weren’t sure how many people would get to hear it. To be able to share this with my family is, it makes me cry. So, it’s gonna be a really special day. The whole experience has been amazing.” CHARLES: “I expected it. The first time I heard ‘Thy Will,’ it blew my mind. I asked her if she could hold it for Lady Antebellum’s record. I knew it was special. I told her after I heard it, ‘This is gonna to blow up. It’s gonna be huge.’” HILLARY: “And just to see, that song in particular coming from such a difficult thing, I think we all hope that the things that we go through in our life, at some point being able to look back and say, ‘Okay. Alright. I still would never want to go through it again, but I see why, a piece of why even.’ So, this is just, it’s just been an incredible year.”

  • LITTLE BIG TOWN WILL CHANNEL THE BEE GEES DURING GRAMMY LIVE CONCERT EVENT.

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    Keith Urban / Little Big Town

    The members of Little Big Town are among the artists paying tribute to The Bee Gees during a live concert taping that is scheduled to take place Tuesday (February 14th). The event, which is titled Stayin’ Alive: A Grammy Salute to the Music of the Bee Gees, honors the 40th anniversary of the soundtrack to Saturday Night Fever. The group are scheduled to perform “How Deep is Your Love” on the show.

    “Our first choice from our brainstorming was like ‘How Deep is Your Love,’ and we thought well somebody probably already took it. You know, I mean it’s such a great song, but they didn’t and so that’s going to be our moment,” says LBT’s Karen Fairchild. “And we’ve been working it up, you know, for the last week or so and we’ll go into rehearsals like right around the Grammys and get it all worked out. There’s a string section and everything it’s really, really going to be beautiful.

    Keith Urban, Celine Dion, John Legend, Demi Lovato, Nick Jonas, Tori Kelly, Nick Jonas and Pentatonix, as well as Barry Gibb, one of the co-founders of the famous brotherly trio, are also scheduled to perform during the concert, which will be broadcast at a later date on CBS.

    Audio / The members of Little Big Town talk about performing during the GRAMMY tribute to the Bee Gees.

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    LBT (Bee Gees Grammy event) OC: (JIMI) …the parts. :40 KAREN: “We worked with Ken Ehrlich and the team over there at the Grammys just to kind of brainstorm about songs. But it was our first choice from our brainstorming was like ‘How Deep is Your Love,’ and we thought well somebody probably already took it. You know, I mean it’s such a great song, but they didn’t and so that’s going to be our moment. And we’ve been working it up you know for the last week or so and we’ll go into rehearsals like right around the Grammys and get it all worked out. There’s a string section and everything it’s really, really going to be beautiful. I mean we hope… [laughter] as long as we sing this beautifully [written] song, you know.” JIMI: “Oh my gosh, the parts.”