• NEWS AND NOTES: LBT, Brothers Osborne, Luke, Strait, Kip

    Little Big Town will perform their latest single, “Better Man,” on NBC’s Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon Monday (November 14th).

    Little Big Town was recently surprised with a double-platinum plaque by the RIAA for their award-winning song, “Girl Crush.”

    The members of Little Big Town were in L.A. last week at the City of Hope Gala to perform in honor of their good friend, Entertainment Attorney Joel Katz. Katz, whose company reps more than 50 artists including LBT, Willie Nelson and many more.

    Brothers Osborne’s No. 1 hit, “Stay a Little Longer,” was recently certified platinum for more than one-million sales and streams.

    Luke Bryan’s “Play It Again” was certified three times platinum for more than three-million sales and streams.

    “Forever Country” will soon be released on vinyl. The A side of the record will contain the single, featuring 30 CMA-winning artists, while the B side will include the original versions of the  songs that make up the collaboration – John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads,” Willie Nelson’s “On the Road Again” and Dolly Parton’s “I Will Always Love.” The vinyl record will be released December 16th, and you can pre-order it here.
    George Strait’s 6th Annual Vaquereos Del Mar Golf Tournament and  Auction raised $1.1 million for wounded warriors earlier this month. George and his longtime friend Tom Cusick hosted the event, held at Tapatio Springs Hill Country Resort. The Country Music Hall of Famer and Jamey Johnson performed at the tourney.

    Kip Moore has been tapped to perform during a tribute to R&B legend Smokey Robinson on Wednesday (November 16th). The evening, hosted by Samuel L. Jackson, will also feature appearances by the Eagles’ Joe Walsh, Berry Gordy and many more. You’ll be able to see the show February 10th on PBS.

  • LUKE BRYAN HITS THE TOP OF THE COUNTRY CHARTS WITH ‘MOVE.’

    Luke Bryan’s “Move” spends a second week at No. 1 on the Billboard country chart and moves to the top of Country Aircheck’s chart this week. It follows “Kick the Dust Up,” “Strip It Down,” “Home Alone Tonight” and “Huntin’, Fishin’ and Lovin’ Every Day.”

    Reportedly, Luke created a new record on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart. “Move” is the fifth chart-topper from his Kill the Lights album, which is big news in itself, but it’s the second time he’s scored five No. 1s on the country charts from the same album, which has never happened before (his previous handful came from Crash My Party with the title track, “Drink a Beer,” “Play It Again,” “Roller Coaster” and “I See You.”

    The Georgia native wrote the song with Michael Carter and Jay Clementi “about a girl that moves to the south…and then she gets in with these kind of rebel crowd girls and they teach her how to let her hair down.” Luke was hoping it would be a great song to perform live, which it has on his Kill the Lights Tour. “‘Move’ is all the fun you could want to have in a song in my opinion,” says Luke. “It’s what I envision, big ole country dance clubs across the country playing that and it filling up and everybody having a great time.”

    Luke is nominated for two American Music Awards, including Favorite Male Artist-Country and Favorite Album-Country for Kill the Lights. For more information, go to AMA.com.

    Audio / Luke Bryan talks about the song, “Move,” which he co-wrote with Michael Carter and Jay Clementi.

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    Luke Bryan (Move) OC: …off on it. :38
    “‘Move’ is all the fun you could want to have in a song in my opinion. It’s what I envision, big ole country dance clubs across the country playing that and it filling up and everybody having a great time. And when you talk about there’s a little inside story about a girl that moves to the south and she’s kind of shy and then she gets in with these kind of rebel crowd girls and they teach her how to let her hair down and all that, it’s pretty fun. A lot of imagery in that. Kind of a cool picture painted in that, and [I’m] really proud that I got to write that song with Michael Carter and Jay Clementi. We worked out butt off on it.”

    Video / MOVE video

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  • THE STAGE IS SET FOR THE 50TH ANNUAL CMA AWARDS.

    Eric Church and Chris Stapleton, along with Maren Morris, top the list of final nominees for this year’s CMA Awards with five nominations each.

    Chris is technically nominated for six awards, which includes single and he could win as both artist and producer. Keith Urban technically is up for five as both artist and producer of his album, Ripcord. Dierks Bentley and Carrie Underwood received four nominations, while Luke Bryan and Brothers Osborne each picked up two nominations.

    Eric Church picked up five nominations for this year’s CMA Awards. The nods include Male Vocalist and Album of the Year for Mr. Misunderstood (produced by Jay Joyce and Arturo Buenahora, Jr., as well as Single of the Year for his recent No. 1 hit “Record Year,” Song of the Year for “Record Year,” which was written by Eric and Jeff Hyde and Music Video of the Year for “Record Year,” which was directed by Reid Long and John Peets. He now has a total of 22 career nominations since his first in 2011 for New Artist of the Year.

    After Chris’ breakout year in 2015 when he had three nominations and went home with four trophies for Album (including producer), Male Vocalist, and New Artist of the Year, he is back in 2016 with five nominations, including his first for Entertainer of the Year. His list of nods this year also includes Male Vocalist; Single of the Year for “Nobody To Blame,” which was produced by Stapleton and Dave Cobb and mix engineered by Vance Powell; Music Video of the Year for “Fire Away,” which was directed by Tim Mattia; and Musical Event of the Year with life and stage partner Morgane Stapleton (her first nomination) for “You Are My Sunshine.” Stapleton only receives one nomination for Single of the Year, but can receive an additional trophy as producer.
    Dierks, a 20-time nominee and two-time winner including the Horizon Award in 2005 (now New Artist of the Year) and Music Video of the Year in 2014 for “Drunk On A Plane,” will vie for Male Vocalist; Album for Black, which was produced by Ross Copperman and Buenahora; Music Video for “Somewhere On A Beach,” which was directed by Wes Edwards; and Musical Event of the Year for “Different for Girls” with Elle King (her first CMA Awards nomination).

    Keith, who has been a nominee every year since 2004, received four CMA Awards nominations in 2016 including Entertainer of the Year, which he won in 2005 when the show went to New York City. Urban’s other nominations include Male Vocalist; Album of the Year for Ripcord, which was produced by Urban, Dann HuffJeff BhaskerTyler Johnson, Greg WillsNile Rodgers, busbee, K-KovNathan Chapman, and Jonny Price; and Musical Event of the Year for “The Fighter,” featuring Underwood. Keith only receives one nomination for Album of the Year, but can receive an additional trophy as producer. Keith has won the Musical Event category four times including “Start A Band” with Paisley (2009); “Highway Don’t Care” with McGraw and Taylor Swift (2013); “We Were Us” with Miranda Lambert (2014); and “Raise ‘Em Up,” featuring Church (2015).

    Luke, who is the reigning Entertainer of the Year, is nominated again in 2016 (he received his first nomination in the category in 2013). He is also nominated for Musical Event of the Year for “Home Alone Tonight,” featuring Karen Fairchild of Little Big Town.

    Brothers Osborne are nominated for Vocal Duo and New Artist of the Year.

    Little Big Town and Lady Antebellum vie for Vocal Group of the Year.

    Kacey Musgraves, who won New Artist of the Year in 2013 and Song of the Year in 2014, is also nominated for Female Vocalist of the Year.

    Several of your favorite country artists – then, now and forever country – will take to the stage to perform at Wednesday night’s CMA Awards. Universal Music Group is representing with performances by George Strait, Alan Jackson, Luke Bryan, Keith Urban, Dierks Bentley, Little Big Town, Chris Stapleton, Eric Church, Vince Gill, Kacey Musgraves and Vince Gill.

    The 50th Annual CMA Awards will be broadcast live from Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena Wednesday (November 2nd) at 8pm ET on ABC.

    The Final Nominees for “The 50th Annual CMA Awards” (by ballot category order):

    ENTERTAINER OF THE YEAR
    Garth Brooks
    Luke Bryan
    Chris Stapleton
    Carrie Underwood
    Keith Urban 

    SINGLE OF THE YEAR
    (Award goes to Artist, Producer(s), and Mix Engineer(s))
    “Die a Happy Man”
    Thomas Rhett
    Produced by Dann Huff and Jesse Frasure
    Mix Engineered by Justin Niebank
    The Valory Music Co. 

    “Humble and Kind”
    Tim McGraw
    Produced by Byron Gallimore and Tim McGraw
    Mix Engineered by Byron Gallimore
    Big Machine Records 

    “My Church”
    Maren Morris
    Produced by busbee and Maren Morris
    Mix Engineered by Dave Clauss and busbee
    Columbia Nashville/Sony Music Nashville 

    “Nobody To Blame”
    Chris Stapleton
    Produced by Dave Cobb and Chris Stapleton
    Mix Engineered by Vance Powell
    Mercury Nashville/Universal Music Group Nashville 

    “Record Year”
    Eric Church
    Produced by Jay Joyce
    Mix Engineered by Jay Joyce and Jason Hall
    EMI Records Nashville/Universal Music Group Nashville 

    ALBUM OF THE YEAR
    (Award goes to Artist and Producer(s))
    Black
    Dierks Bentley
    Produced by Ross Copperman and Arturo Buenahora, Jr.
    Capitol Records Nashville/Universal Music Group Nashville

    Hero
    Maren Morris
    Produced by busbee, Maren Morris, and Brad Hill
    Columbia Nashville/Sony Music Nashville 

    Mr. Misunderstood
    Eric Church
    Produced by Jay Joyce and Arturo Buenahora, Jr.
    EMI Records Nashville/Universal Music Group Nashville 

    Ripcord
    Keith Urban
    Produced by Jeff Bhasker, Tyler Johnson, Dann Huff, Greg Wells, Nile Rodgers, busbee, K-Kov, Nathan Chapman, Jonny Price, and Keith Urban
    Hit Red Records/Capitol Records Nashville/Universal Music Group Nashville 

    Storyteller
    Carrie Underwood
    Produced by Jay Joyce, Mark Bright, and Zach Crowell
    19 Recordings/Arista Nashville/Sony Music Nashville 

    SONG OF THE YEAR
    (Award goes to Songwriter(s))
    “Burning House”
    Camaron “Cam” Ochs, Tyler Johnson, Jeff Bhasker

    “Die a Happy Man”
    Sean Douglas, Thomas Rhett, and Joe Spargur 

    “Humble and Kind”
    Lori McKenna 

    “My Church”
    busbee and Maren Morris

    “Record Year”
    Eric Church and Jeff Hyde 

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

    MALE VOCALIST OF THE YEAR
    Dierks Bentley
    Eric Church
    Tim McGraw
    Chris Stapleton
    Keith Urban 

    VOCAL GROUP OF THE YEAR
    Lady Antebellum
    Little Big Town
    Old Dominion
    Rascal Flatts
    Zac Brown Band 

    VOCAL DUO OF THE YEAR
    Brothers Osborne
    Dan + Shay
    Florida Georgia Line
    Joey + Rory
    Maddie & Tae 

    MUSICAL EVENT OF THE YEAR
    (Award goes to each Artist)
    “Different For Girls”
    Dierks Bentley feat. Elle King
    Capitol Records Nashville/Universal Music Group Nashville 

    “Home Alone Tonight”
    Luke Bryan featuring Karen Fairchild
    Capitol Records Nashville/Universal Music Group Nashville 

    “The Fighter”
    Keith Urban (featuring Carrie Underwood)
    Hit Red Records/Capitol Records Nashville/Universal Music Group Nashville 

    “Think of You”
    Chris Young (duet with Cassadee Pope)
    RCA Nashville/Sony Music Nashville 

    “You Are My Sunshine”
    Morgane Stapleton with Chris Stapleton
    Low Country Sound/Elektra Records 

    MUSICIAN OF THE YEAR
    Jerry Douglas (Dobro/Lap Steel Guitar)
    Paul Franklin (Steel Guitar)
    Dann Huff (Guitar)
    Brent Mason (Guitar)
    Derek Wells (Guitar) 

    MUSIC VIDEO OF THE YEAR
    (Award goes to Artist and Director(s))
    “Burning House”
    Cam
    Directed by Trey Fanjoy 

    “Fire Away”
    Chris Stapleton
    Directed by Tim Mattia 

    “Humble and Kind”
    Tim McGraw
    Directed by Wes Edwards 

    “Record Year”
    Eric Church
    Directed by John Peets and Reid Long 

    “Somewhere On A Beach”
    Dierks Bentley
    Directed by Wes Edwards 

    NEW ARTIST OF THE YEAR
    Kelsea Ballerini
    Brothers Osborne
    Maren Morris
    Old Dominion
    Cole Swindell 

    Video /

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  • LUKE BRYAN WRAPPED HIS KILL THE LIGHTS TOUR WITH BACK-TO-BACK SOLD-OUT STADIUMS.

    Two-Time CMA and ACM Entertainer of the Year Luke Bryan wrapped his “Kill The Lights Tour” with two back to back sold-out stadium dates, October 22nd in Dallas’s AT&T Stadium and October 29th at Detroit’s Ford Field. Luke has performed for a total of 1.6 million fans in concert in 2016, including more than 100,000 fans during his eighth annual “Farm Tour.” The tour is named after Luke’s Platinum-selling Kill The Lights album which just launched its fifth consecutive No. 1 single with “Move.” This is Luke’s 17th career No.1 single.

    During the “Kill the Lights Tour,” Luke sold-out all six of his stadium shows this summer including a double play in Boston’s Gillette Stadium due to high ticket demand.  The tour also performed back-to-back concerts in five additional cities. 
     
    Known for his enthusiastic performances, Luke captured the attention not only of his fans but music critics alike during the tour’s 58-city run.
     
    “Bryan’s appeal is his unflappable energy.”- Houston Chronicle
     
    “It was also easy to see why Bryan has connected with such a large audience since his career began in 2007. Like so many other stars in genres like rap, pop and electronic dance music, Bryan’s take on country offers pure escapism. Having a good time was the theme.” – Baltimore Sun 
     
    “The Georgia native had a masterful stage setup which catered perfectly to his playful, energetic personality.” Toledo Blade
     
    ”It was the kind of night that underscored why Bryan is the Country Music Association’s reigning Entertainer of The Year.  He’s a first rate showman who worked hard at connecting with his audience…He’s likeable, charismatic and comes across as quite genuine.”- San Jose Mercury News
     
    “Bryan is a solid performer, with great charisma and stage presence, and an ability to create intimacy with an audience of tens of thousands of people.” – Sacramento Bee
     
    “The country music superstar who has scored CMA’s coveted entertainer of the year award two years in a row, definitely proved worthy of that honor.”- Orange County Register
    On Wednesday, Nov. 2, Luke will perform on the 50th Annual CMA Awards where he is the reigning 2014 & 2015 Entertainer of the Year and is nominated again for the night’s top prestige award as well as in the Vocal Collaboration category with Karen Fairchild for “Home Alone Tonight.” 
  • HALLOWEEN 2016

    Halloween is Monday, and the holiday has some of your favorite country stars getting into costumes and recalling memories of Halloweens past.

    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 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 / Brothers Osborne (Halloween candy) OC: (John) …go stale. [laughs] :34

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    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 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 / 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 / David Nail talks about his favorite part of Halloween.

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    David Nail (favorite part of Halloween) OC: …it better. :14

    “My favorite thing about Halloween was just the excitement about picking out your costume and talking to your friends and fighting over if you’re going to be this or if they stole the idea from you and if you can do the idea better.”

    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 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 / Lady Antebellum’s Charles Kelley reveals one costume he’s always wanted to wear on Halloween.

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    Lady A (Charles costume) OC: …an apple. :19
    CHARLES: “I want to be a banana. I think there’s something so funny and understated about a banana, especially when you’re 6’6” and like your little head’s popping through and you’re a banana.” DAVE: “Do they make ‘em your size?” CHARLES: “I’ve been known to sew a thing or two.” HILLARY: “That’s really random.” CHARLES: “I know. I’ve always wanted to dress up like something, just kind of funny like a banana or an apple.”

    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 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.”

  • LUKE BRYAN CELEBRATES SEVEN CHART TOPPERS.

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    Luke Bryan, along with his co-writers, celebrated seven consecutive No. 1 songs, including “Roller Coaster,” “Play It Again,” “I See You,” “Kick the Dust Up,” “Strip It Down,” “Home Alone Tonight” and “Huntin’, Fishin’ and Lovin’ Every Day,” at the Country Music Hall of Fame on Monday (October 24th). Two-Time CMA and ACM Entertainer of the Year Luke and the writers spoke to the press before taking the stage to perform all of the feted songs in front of family, friends, fans and members of the music industry.

    “It’s an amazing situation that I’ve been blessed to be in,” says Luke. “I truly do appreciate what’s going on and understand the rarity of having success to where your number-ones are kind of outrunning the abilities to have the parties. [We] had an album listening party for Kill the Lights and we celebrated that and we had fun. Now we get to celebrate here going on I guess 16, 17 months later, we get to see the product of everybody’s hard work and the product of everybody’s dreams coming true and moving to Nashville and doing everything we dreamed we’d do when we get here – have success in the music business. I don’t think anybody in these chairs, they clock in every day and we’re all clocking in every day and we don’t take a second of it for granted. It’s the best job in the world.”

    At the close of the performances, Mike Dungan, UMG Nashville’s Chairman & CEO, surprised Luke with two sales plaques- one commemorating the seven #1’s have sold over 7 million tracks and over 600 million total combined streams and the second is the official RIAA Platinum certification of Kill The Lights album including 3.5 million tracks sold and over 400 million streams.

    Play It Again (Dallas Davidson, Ashley Gorley)
    Roller Coaster (Michael Carter, Cole Swindell)
    I See You (Luke Bryan, Ashley Gorley, Luke Laird)
    Kick The Dust Up (Dallas Davidson, Chris DeStefano, Ashley Gorley)
    Strip It Down (Luke Bryan, Ross Copperman, Jon Nite)
    Home Alone Tonight (Tommy Cecil, Jaida Dreyer, Jody Stevens, Cole Taylor)
    Huntin’, Fishin’, and Lovin’ Every Day (Luke Bryan, Rhett Akins, Dallas Davidson, Ben Hayslip)

    Luke is currently nominated for two CMA Awards as Entertainer of the Year and Vocal Collaboration with Karen Fairchild for “Home Alone Tonight,” one of the above #1 hits, and also for two American Music Awards as Favorite Male Artist-Country and Favorite Album-Country for Kill The Lights.

    Luke is poised to enter the top of the charts – again – with his latest hit, “Move,” which is from his Kill the Lights album.
    Photo credit: Alan Poizner
    Cindy Mabe/ President, UMG Nashville, Luke, Mike Dungan/UMG Nashville’s Chairman & CEO, Kerri Edwards/ KP Entertainment

    [[audio-player-1]]

  • LUKE BRYAN, CHRIS STAPLETON AND SHANIA TWAIN WILL BE HONORED AT THE CMT ARTISTS OF THE YEAR SPECIAL THURSDAY.

    The CMT Artists of the Year special airs Thursday (October 20th), and will include performances by Little Big Town’s Karen Fairchild, Kelsea Ballerini, Meghan Trainor, jill Scott and Zara Larsson. They’ll pay tribute to honorees Luke Bryan, Florida Georgia Line, Thomas Rhett and Carrie Underwood. Karen is expected to sing with Luke, while Kelsea, Meghan and Jill will honor Shania Twain, who will receive the Artist of a Lifetime Award.

    Taped live at Nashville’s Schermerhorn Symphony Center, the CMT Artists of the Year special will air Thursday (October 20th) at 9pm ET/PT on CMT.

     

    Video / CMT Artists of the Year promo

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  • NEWS AND NOTES: George, Luke, Chris, Sam, Keith, Eric

    George Strait is a grandfather once again. His son, Bubba, and daughter-in-law, Tamara, welcomed their second child Jillian Louise Strait on September 10th. She joins big brother Harvey, who was born February 2nd, 2012.

    Luke Bryan is up for Favorite Male Country Artist and his album, Kill the Lights, is nominated for Favorite Country Album, along with Chris Stapleton’s Traveller, at this year’s American Music Awards. The AMA’s will air live from the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles November 20th at 8pm ET on ABC.

    Sam Hunt’s “Break Up in a Small Town” and Keith Urban’s “John Cougar, John Deere, John 3:16,” along with Eric Church’s “Like a Wrecking Ball” and “Record Year” are among “The 10 Songs I Wish I’d Written”  as voted on by NSAI members.

  • LUKE BRYAN WILL WRAP HIS ANNUAL FARM TOUR THIS WEEKEND.

    Two-time reigning CMA Entertainer of the Year Luke Bryan will wrap his “Bayer Presents Luke Bryan Farm Tour 2016” this Saturday and a portion of the proceeds from the eight year run will bring his total of awarded college scholarships to 50. The “Luke Bryan Farm Tour Scholarship” is granted to a local college student from a farming family within the communities the tour has played.

    The tour resumed in Batesville, Mississippi last night, the first concert back since his collar bone surgery over the weekend to repair a break from a mountain bike accident. The ever-positive Luke upheld ‘the show must go on’ attitude not missing a beat and continued with the remaining three shows scheduled last week. Fans unable to attend a farm tour show were able to tune-in for a livestream on Luke’s Facebook page last Friday from Greenback, Tennessee.  Sounds Like Nashville was along for that show too. Watch their story here- https://youtu.be/0qX02ox5SYg .

    “Bayer Presents Luke Bryan Farm Tour 2016”

    October 13       Prairie Grove, Arkansas          Ogden Ranch

    October 14       Centralia, Missouri                  Stowers Farm

    October 15       Effingham, Illinois                   Mid America Motorworks

     

    Luke’s first-ever Farm Tour EP, Farm Tour…Here’s To The Farmer is available digitally now

    Luke’s arena and stadium tour, “Kill The Lights Tour,” will come to a close this month with two remaining stadium shows, the AT&T Stadium in Dallas on October 22 and October 29 at Ford Field in Detroit.

    The “Bayer Presents Luke Bryan Farm Tour 2016” is sponsored by Bayer, Chevy, Green Giant, Miller Lite, Cabela’s and Polaris.

    About Luke Bryan

    Since the debut of his first album in 2007, Luke has placed 16 singles at No. 1 and sold nearly eight million albums with 30 million digital tracks from his five studio albums. He has twice been named Entertainer of the Year by both the Academy of Country Music and the Country Music Association. His fifth studio album, Kill The Lights, debuted at No. 1 on both the Billboard Top 200 (his third to do so) and Top Country Albums charts and closed 2015 with the best-selling country album of the year and the 10th biggest selling album on the all-genre Billboard Top 200 Year-End list. In Luke’s stellar 2015 year, he performed for 1.5 million fans in concert, had three albums on the Top 15 Year-End Country Albums list- Kill the Lights (#1), Spring Break…Checkin’ Out (#10) and Crash My Party (#15), was the most streamed artist of 2015, placed six songs in the Year-End Top Country Streaming Tracks list, had his own exhibit at The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum (“Luke Bryan: Dirt Road Diary”), performed live during halftime at the Dallas Cowboys game on Thanksgiving and wrapped up the year with a live Times Square performance on ABC’s “New Year’s Rockin’ Eve.” Luke recently co-hosted the ACM Awards for a fourth consecutive year and is performing in venues and stadiums across the U.S. on his “Kill The Lights Tour” through this fall.

    For a one-stop shop for everything Luke Bryan, his community of fans have unparalleled access to his life through Luke Bryan’s official App. Launched in June 2015 in partnership with Disciple Media, the app offers everything from exclusive live streams to updates from the road, competitions to video premieres, exclusive merchandise and more. The App is available now on the Apple App Store and Google Play.

    Visit www.LukeBryan.com or follow Luke on Twitter @LukeBryanOnline, Instagram and Facebook.

    Luke also is helping families in need.

    https://twitter.com/LukeBryanOnline/status/786353559998763009

    Audio / Luke Bryan says he loves giving scholarships to college students interested in farming and agriculture.

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    Luke Bryan (education on farming) OC: …roots. :34
    “Anytime we can take a step to help facilitate dreams and agriculture and be smarter in how the food’s being made and being safer and stuff like that, the awareness of that can never be undermined….If I can educate some people on it and that can be my platform, I think I’ll always, the farmers out there and the people in that world will appreciate and they’ll know I’ve kinda stayed true to my roots.”