Luke Bryan, Lionel Richie and Katy Perry will be featured in a new half-hour American Idol special on ABC to air ahead of the 91^st Oscars on Sunday (February 24th). In American Idol: A New Journey Begins, Seacrest sits down with judges Luke Bryan, Katy Perry and Lionel Richie to discuss the Season 2 return of the series and share a preview of this year’s crop of new talent. The panel also will answer fan questions and share behind-the-scenes secrets. It will air at 4pm ET Sunday. In addition, ABC will air a musical performance featuring some of the auditionees from the upcoming premiere episode to air during the live broadcast. The new season of American Idol will premiere March 3rd at 8pm ET.

Speaking of the Oscars, don’t forget to tune-in on Sunday to watch Kacey Musgraves present at this year’s Oscars. The 91st Academy Awards will air live from the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood on Sunday (February 24th) at 8pm ET/5pm PT on ABC.

Kip Moore will be featured in a new special on the Audience Network on DirecTV/UVerse on March 1st, which will include performances from his show at L.A.’s Wiltern Theater, as well as footage from his Journey to Slowheart documentary. The special will air at 9pm ET/PT.

Darius Rucker has been announced as the recipient of the Music Business Association’s Harry Chapin Memorial Humanitarian Award for his years of charitable contributions, including St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and MUSC Children’s Hospital in Charleston, South Carolina (Darius’ hometown). He will accept the honor during the annual Music Biz 2019 Awards & Hall of Fame Dinner May 7th in Nashville. Previous recipients of the Humanitarian Award include Martina McBride, Melissa Etheridge, Annie Lennox and Bonnie Raitt, among others.

Luke Bryan, Keith Urban, Little Big Town, Lauren Alaina, Clare Dunn and Kassi Ashton are among the artists playing the first annual Hometown Rising Country Music & Bourbon Festival September 14th and 15th in Louisville, Kentucky. Tim McGraw, Dwight Yoakam, Brett Young and Jake Owen will also perform. For ticket information, go to hometownrising.com.

Kassi Ashton, Travis Denning, Clare Dunn and Caylee Hammack are on the bill for the “Next From Nashville” stage at this year’s Country LakeShake Festival in Chicago June 21st-23rd.

After hosting sold-out crowds across Canada during the launch of his 2019 BURNING MAN TOUR, multi-Platinum singer/songwriter Dierks Bentley is extending the full-throttle run into the summer with 31 additional dates. “The show that delivers” (Country Aircheck) will continue with special guests Jon Pardi, Tenille Townes and the Hot Country Knights, and its final weekend will include Caylee Hammack. Fans can purchase tickets now for select cities as part of Live Nation’s Country Megaticket at www.Megaticket.com or beginning Friday, February 15th in select cities. Additional dates will continue to rollout over the coming weeks.

“The Burning Man Tour is off to a killer start…I’ve loved standing side stage to watch Pardi and Tennille and to feel the energy bottled up in these arenas before we go on,” said Bentley. “We are making the most of every minute out there – on stage and off – and I’m excited to announce we are going to roll it through the summer.”

Bentley “is stealthily one of Country music’s most adventurous artists” (Billboard) and his live show has long been applauded by critics as “he presents himself and his work with such genuine enthusiasm” (Winnipeg Free Press). The 2019 BURNING MAN TOUR will run through September and kicks it up a notch this weekend with its first run of shows in the U.S. (Ontario, CA, 2/14, Fresno, CA, 2/15, and Reno, NC 2/16). He will continue to make notable stops throughout the country including his return to Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena next week after making a sold-out headlining debut in 2016.

Upcoming 2019 BURNING MAN TOUR Dates:
2/14/19  Ontario, CA
2/15/19  Fresno, CA
2/16/19  Reno, NV
2/21/19  Lexington, KY
2/22/19  Nashville, TN
2/23/19  Columbia, MO
2/28/19  Sioux Fall, SD
3/01/19  Wichita, KS
3/02/19  Omaha, NE
3/07/19  Moline, IL
3/08/19  Duluth, MN
3/09/19  Grand Forks, ND
3/28/19  Toledo, OH
3/29/19  Columbus, OH
3/30/19  Grand Rapids, MI
5/30/19  Cincinnati, OH
5/31/19  Indianapolis, IN
6/01/19  St. Louis, MO
6/13/19  Brandon, MS
6/14/19  Alpharetta, GA
6/15/19  Orange Beach, AL
6/29/19  Clarkston, MI
6/30/19  Syracuse, NY
7/18/19  Jacksonville, FL
7/25/19  Cleveland, OH
7/11/19  Raleigh, NC
7/12/19  Virginia Beach, VA
7/13/19  Bristow, VA
7/19/19  West Palm Beach, FL
7/20/19  Tampa, FL
7/26/19  Holmdel, NJ
7/27/19  Burgettstown, PA
8/01/19  Darien Center, NY
8/02/19  Wantagh, NY
8/03/19  Scranton, PA
8/08/19  Charlotte, NC
8/09/19  Tuscaloosa, AL
8/10/19  Dallas, TX
8/15/19  Hartford, CT
8/16/19  Boston, MA
8/17/19  Philadelphia, PA
8/22/19  Kansas City, MO
8/23/19  Chicago, IL
9/06/19  Irvine, CA*
9/07/19  Mountain View, CA*
9/08/19  Sacramento, CA**

*with Jon Pardi, Caylee Hammack and the Hot Country Knights
**with Caylee Hammack and the Hot Country Knights

Bentley “has built a reputation as an authentic artist who often takes fearless stylistic detours with his music” (Music Row) and continues to be a dominant voice for the genre with over 8.6 billion overall digital streams. Reaching a new creative high as a co-writer on 10 of 13 tracks off THE MOUNTAIN (Capitol Records Nashville), Bentley earned the highest debut sales of his career as the record now boasts over 245 million streams. Critics continue to applaud his seventh chart-topping album as it was featured as one of “2018 Best Albums” by Esquire, USA Today, Rolling Stone, The Tennessean and more, while it was one of the only Country albums on Billboard’s all-genre year end list. Bentley has amassed countless nominations from the  ACMs, CMAs, Billboard Music Awards and more, while earning 13 GRAMMY nominations. For more information, visit www.dierks.com.

Newcomer Caylee Hammack has “a voice to move mountains” (Rolling Stone), and she is releasing the soulful “Family Tree,” as the first track from her forthcoming album today to all digital partners http://strm.to/FamilyTree. She co-wrote AND co-produced the song that takes an honest look at her own small-town Georgia upbringing and the quirky cast of characters that riddle the branches of her own family tree.

“I think family is the best way to introduce yourself to people,” Hammack said. “My mama is crazy about tupperware and my daddy hasn’t made it through a whole football game without falling asleep in his easy chair since I can remember. My sister smokes too much and she knows it. Every family has their quirks. This song is about the people I love the most, and the ones who made me who I am…and unknowingly, they have given me more song ideas than I can count just by being themselves. Real life can be real funny like that.”

Standing out for her “mix of clever lyrics and haunting melodies” (Music Row), Hammack was recently named as one of The Bobby Bones Show’s Class of 2019. Fans can get to know Hammack as she returns home to her tiny home of Ellaville, GA in the lead installment of a new introductory video series.

Caylee Hammack constantly felt like a self-described “hippie in a hillbilly town.” “I used to pray every night as a kid, ‘God, just please make me different. Don’t make me like everyone else,’” she remembers. Hammack is indeed refreshingly different. She’s a country expressionist, a grungy firebrand and a spiritual seeker. And at only 24, she has already packed a full life into just a few years, using fake IDs to get gigs around South Georgia, turning down a college scholarship for a love that burned out just a few months later, sleeping in her car when she arrived in Nashville and then losing her home in an electrical fire. “My dad has always said that the most beautiful and strongest things are forged in the fire,” she says. “Iron is nothing until you work it in a fire. Glass cannot be blown without intense heat. You can’t make anything beautiful or strong without a little heat.” Tested by the fire, Caylee Hammack has been molded into an artist with incredible depth and a powerhouse voice that can effortlessly veer from fiery and demanding to quiet and vulnerable. Her life experience and relentless curiosity have coalesced into a country cocktail that’s rooted in tradition but expands with shards of modern pop and rock. Her self-penned songs tug on her own life story – bad decisions, secret affairs, broken hearts, a quirky family lineage – as she invariably turns the lemons of her daring life into sonic lemonade. Hammack is currently opening for LANCO on their headlining 2019 HALLELUJAH NIGHTS TOUR. For additional information, visit cayleehammack.com.