On Saturday Night (April 2nd), Dierks Bentley headlined the second night of the 4th ACM Party for a Cause® Festival at the Las Vegas Festival Grounds. The three-day event continued with an all-star lineup of performers on the Ram Trucks Main Stage including Chris Stapleton, Frankie Ballard, Lee Brice, Chris Janson, Dustin Lynch and Chris Young.
Highlights from the second day and night included:

• Lady Antebellum’s Charles Kelly and Eric Paslay joined headliner Dierks Bentley on stage to perform Kelley’s debut solo single, “The Driver.”
• Chris Stapleton performed a duet with his wife, Morgane, as the sunset over the Las Vegas Festival Grounds.
• ACM CEO Bob Romeo presented Chris Stapleton with his ACM Award for New Male Artist of the Year

The morning kicked off with the ACM & Cabela’s Celebrity Tic-Tac-Toe Archery Tournament. Cabela’s Ambassadors Luke Bryan and Justin Moore returned to host the fan-favorite event held at the Cabela’s Stage at the Las Vegas Festival Grounds. Country music stars Luke Bryan, Chris Janson, Dustin Lynch, Justin Moore, Eric Paslay, Chris Rice, and Granger Smith, former MLB player Adam LaRoche, plus Cabela’s pro staff Wade Middleton and Kristy Titus participated in the archery tournament featuring Cabela’s state-of-the-art archery equipment.

“LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – APRIL 02: Singers Justin Moore (L) and Luke Bryan attend Cabela’s & Academy of Country Music Celebrity Archery Tournament during the 4th ACM Party for a Cause Festival at at the Las Vegas Festival Grounds on April 2, 2016 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Isaac Brekken/Getty Images for ACM)”

“LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – APRIL 02: Singers Justin Moore (L) and Luke Bryan attend Cabela’s & Academy of Country Music Celebrity Archery Tournament during the 4th ACM Party for a Cause Festival at at the Las Vegas Festival Grounds on April 2, 2016 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Isaac Brekken/Getty Images for ACM)”

o   HIGHLIGHTS:

• Team Luke and Team Justin competing head-to-head for the trophy:
• Team Luke included country music artists Chris Janson, Chase Rice, and Granger Smith plus Cabela’s pro staffer Wade Middleton.
• Team Justin included artists Dustin Lynch, Eric Paslay, former MLB player Adam LaRoche and Cabela’s Pro Staffer Kristy Titus. Country artist Lucas Hoge and bow hunting athlete Cameron Hanes also competed at the event during half-time.
• Team Luke was leading the competition when host Storme Warren suggested that Luke and Justin make a sudden death deal: the two artists shoot one last game of tic-tac-toe and whoever wins would take home the trophy. In spite of Team Luke’s commanding lead, Justin surprised the crowd with a victory!

On Sunday (April 3rd), Kenny Chesney will close out the festival with a full set after his performance on the 51st ACM Awards. Earlier in the evening, Brett Eldredge, Sam Hunt, Kip Moore, Chase Rice and Old Dominion will perform on the Ram Trucks Main Stage.

The Academy of Country Music Awards will air live from the MGM Grand Garden Arena Sunday at 8pm ET/delayed PT on CBS.

Dierks Bentley and Luke Bryan have been pre-gaming for Sunday night’s ACM Awards. They joke that there’s not a lot of preparation, though, that goes into doing the monologue of a big awards show.

“What he’s told me was that there is actually no monologue. Backstage, you just have like six drinks,” says Dierks. “Hopefully, we’re gonna find one in a little bit, but for now Luke’s just said, ‘Yeah go out there, have some drinks and have fun.So, hopefully he’s not messing with me.”

You can catch the action for yourselves when the 51st Academy of Country Music Awards will air live from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas Sunday (April 3rd) at 8pm ET/delayed PT on CBS.

In a surprise presentation on Friday (April 1st), Eric Church and his manager John Peets won the ACM Award for Video of the Year for “Mr. Misunderstood.”

Eric, who is also nominated for Entertainer of the Year, Male Vocalist of the Year, Album of the Year (Mr. Misunderstood) and Vocal Event of the Year with Keith Urban for “Raise ‘Em Up,” is set to perform on the show.

The 51st Academy of Country Music Awards will air live from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas Sunday (April 3rd) at 8pm ET/delayed PT on CBS.

Check out the video of the presentation here.

Mickey Guyton will make a guest appearance on CBS’ The Talk as the Top Talker of the day on April 1st (2pm ET 1pm PT/CT).  Mickey was nominated for her first ACM Award for New Female Vocalist.  She will be attending the 51st Academy of Country Music Awards on April 3rd at 8pm ET/delayed PT on CBS.

The Texas native who Billboard calls the “best female voice to come along since Carrie Underwood” and NPR touts as the “kind of voice that gives people hope,” will release a new single in May.

In the last year, Mickey has been featured in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and Essence.  She made her television debut on ABC’s Good Morning Americawhere she performed her powerful debut single “Better Than You Left Me” and was most recently profiled for an in-depth interview with Gayle King on CBS This Morning. NPR, Billboard, Rolling Stone and Time Out NY have touted Mickey on Best Of and Who To Watch lists. After wrapping up her first tour on Brad Paisley’s Crushin’ It World Tour last fall, Mickey recorded and released her version of “Do You Want To Build A Snowman?” from Disney’s Frozen.

“Better Than You Left Me” is featured on Mickey’s self-titled EP and powerful performances of the single and “Why Baby Why” can be viewed here and here.

Mickey is currently in the studio putting the finishing touches on her debut album which will be released later this year.

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From The Tennessean:

Luke Bryan, who will co-host the 51st Academy of Country Music Awards on Sunday with Dierks Bentley, had a different sidekick Tuesday night — R&B star Jason Derulo.

The pair filmed “CMT Crossroads: Jason Derulo and Luke Bryan” at The Factory in Franklin. On the show, country music stars and singers from outside the genre take turns singing lines in each other’s songs.

“I can’t express how hard it is to come in and learn these songs in a day and a half,” Bryan said from the stage. “(Jason) is crushing it.”

Bryan said he already knew Derulo’s songs because his children listen to his music.

“They don’t listen to Dad,” he quipped.

Hundreds of fans piled into Liberty Hall at The Factory for the show. The men, both charismatic entertainers, started the taping with Bryan’s hits including “Country Girl (Shake it For Me),” “That’s My Kind of Night” and “Strip It Down,” which took a couple of tries to perfect. Derulo added his signature vocal acrobatics to the sexy ballad, which prompted Bryan to ask, “How you do that?”

When Derulo’s music was showcased, Bryan confidently and comfortably covered his parts on Derulo’s “Talk Dirty,” “Trumpets” and “It Girl.”

“This is crazy,” Derulo said of their performance. Then he told Bryan: “Take us on the road.”

Saving the tour conversation for later, the singers opted to take the audience south — to Georgia for their cover song. They performed a stripped-down version of “Georgia On My Mind” — twice because Derulo said it was fun to sing.

“CMT Crossroads: Jason Derulo and Luke Bryan” has yet to be assigned an air date.

Fans can watch Bryan when he co-hosts the ACM Awards at 7 p.m. Sunday on CBS.

As the excitement mounts for Keith Urban’s May 6^th release of RIPCORD, and for his subsequent June 2^nd launch of his “ripCORD World Tour 2016,” details of his eighth studio album are revealed. RIPCORD features a virtual who’s who of creative collaborators for an album that Urban says was his “most exhilarating album to make, both musically and creatively.”

“This album’s journey began back in January, 2015 and took me to a lot of unexplored people and places.” added Urban.  “The end result was the recording and exploring of more songs then I’ve ever done before and carving that down to what I felt constituted RIPCORD.”

For the 12-track album, which has already produced his 19^th and 20^th No. 1 songs, Urban amassed an eclectic group of Grammy, CMA, ACM Award-winning writers and co-producers, who that have collectively worked with the likes of Adele, Jason Aldean, David Bowie, Luke Bryan, Kelly Clarkson, Brett Eldredge, Fun, Lady Gaga, Jay-Z, Madonna, Daft Punk, Pink and Taylor Swift.

They include new collaborations with Jeff Bhasker, busbee, Greg Wells and Nile Rodgers, as well as those who Urban has worked with before, including Shane McAnally, Ross Cooperman, Dann Huff and Nathan Chapman all of whom worked with Urban on his previous No. 1 album FUSE.

“Getting to work with people like this was unlike anything I’ve envisioned before,” said Urban. “It’s the result of writing, reaching, imagining, and following the muse every step of the way.”

Album pre-orders are available at iTunes and Amazon.  Special album bundles are available directly from Urban’s website at http://smarturl.it/ripCORDpreorder.  From Keith’s website, fans can buy exclusive packages including t-shirt, poster, lithograph, and even a one-of-a-kind vinyl version, which includes the buyer’s name in the album credits.

RIPCORD Track Listing

“Gone Tomorrow (Here Today)”

Written by Jeff Bhasker, Samuel Tyler Johnson, Keith Urban

Co-Produced By Jeff Bhasker, Tyler Johnson & Keith Urban

“John Cougar, John Deere, John 3:16”

Written by Shane McAnally, Ross Copperman, Josh Osborne

Co-Produced by Dann Huff & Keith Urban

“Wasted Time”

Written by Greg Wells, J Hart, Keith Urban

Co-Produced by Greg Wells & Keith Urban

“Habit Of You”

Written by K-Kov, Jackson Morgan

Co-Produced by K-Kov & Keith Urban

“Sun Don’t Let Me Down”

Written by Nile Rodgers, busbee, Armando Christian Perez, Keith Urban

Co-Produced by Nile Rodgers, busbee & Keith Urban

“Getting’ In The Way”

Written by Emily Weisband, Jordan Reynolds, David Hodges

Co-Produced by Dann Huff & Keith Urban

“Blue Ain’t Your Color”

Written by Steven Lee Olsen, Hillary Lindsey, Clint Lagerberg

Co-Produced by Dann Huff & Keith Urban

“The Fighter”

Written by busbee, Keith Urban

Co-Produced by busbee & Keith Urban

“Break On Me”

Written by Jon Nite, Ross Copperman

Co-Produced by Nathan Chapman & Keith Urban

“Your Body”

Written by busbee, Keith Urban

Co-Produced by busbee & Keith Urban

“That Could Still Be Us”

Written by Jason Duke, Jesse Lee, Jonathan Price

Co-Produced by Jonny Price & Keith Urban

 “Worry ‘Bout Nothin’”

Written by Chris Tompkins, Rodney Clawson, Josh Kear

Co-Produced by Dann Huff & Keith Urban

You can catch Keith performing his new single “Wasted Time” this Thursday, March 31^st on American Idol, as well as on The ACM Awards, which air on Sunday, April 3^rd.

Urban launches his “ripCORD World Tour 2016” with Brett Eldredge and special guest Maren Morris on June 2^nd in Kansas City and thus far will play more than 50 shows in amphitheaters and arenas through the U.S.

For more official Keith Urban news and ticket information go to www.keithurban.net.

Little Big Town are up for a handful of awards at this year’s ACM Awards, including Single, Song and Video of the Year for “Girl Crush,” which was written by Liz Rose, Hillary Lindsey and Lori McKenna.

“We knew when we first heard this song that it was incredibly special. It literally took my breath. I gasped when I realized what this song was actually about,” says LBT’s Kimberly Schlapman. “These three women poured their heart and soul into an incredibly special once in a lifetime song, and the fact that we were able to cut it is an incredible gift, and we’ll always be thankful to them for letting us do it!”

The members of Little Big Town are also up for Vocal Group of the Year and Vocal Event of the Year – with Miranda Lambert on “Smokin’ and Drinkin’,” with Karen Fairchild scoring another nomination in the Vocal Event category with Luke Bryan for the No. 1 song, “Home Alone Tonight.”

The band is set to perform during the 51st Academy of Country Music Awards, airing live from the MGM Grand in Las Vegas April 3rd at 8pm ET/PT delayed on CBS.