Darius Rucker has been busy writing songs and spending time in the studio with his Hootie & the Blowfish bandmates. Recently, Darius was hunkered down in a studio in London with a bunch of songwriters, including superstar Ed Sheeran.
The South Carolina native posted a couple of photos on his socials, saying, “Had a blast writing with these boys. Too much fun!!!”
Had a blast writing with these boys. Too much fun!!! pic.twitter.com/H1qfgEuHU9
— Darius Rucker (@dariusrucker) March 14, 2019
Adam Hambrick, who is heating up the airwaves with his song “Rockin’ All Night Long,” went to Capitol Studios in L.A. to record sessions for One Mic One Take. Find the video below of “Your Side of Town.”
Adam heads to your side of town when he plays The Fillmore Auditorium in Denver, Colorado on Thursday (March 14th), followed by a three-night stand at The Novo in Los Angeles beginning March 23rd .
The initial list of performers for this year’s ACM Awards have been announced and some of your favorite country artists will take to the stage, including Brothers Osborne, Chris Stapleton, George Strait and Little Big Town. Reba McEntire, Maren Moris, Thomas Rhett, Miranda Lambert and Kane Brown will also perform, as well as previously announced Jason Aldean.
The 54th Academy of Country Music Awards, hosted by Reba, will air live from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas April 7th at 8pm ET/delayed PT on CBS.
Just announced to perform at the 54th #ACMawards are artists @brothersosborne, @kanebrown, @mirandalambert, @littlebigtown, @reba, @MarenMorris, @ThomasRhett, @ChrisStapleton, @GeorgeStrait + previously announced @Jason_Aldean! Tune in Sunday, April 7 at 8/7c LIVE on @CBS. pic.twitter.com/jmFylx0SKd
— ACM Awards (@ACMawards) March 12, 2019
Absolutely love being a part of this show-see you guys in Vegas! #ACMawards pic.twitter.com/MX5W9gfC9a
— Little Big Town (@littlebigtown) March 12, 2019
The track list has just been announced for the new edition of Now That’s What I Call Country, Volume 12. The collection includes 10 No. 1 songs, as well as several of today’s hottest country hits from some of your favorite country artists, including Luke Bryan, Dierks Bentley with Brothers Osborne, Carrie Underwood, Kacey Musgraves, Keith Urban, Jon Pardi, Jordan Davis, Thomas Rhett, Luke Combs and many more.
The latest installment in the popular NOW series will be available March 29th and can be preordered here.
Now That’s What I Call Country Vol. 12 Track Listing:
NOW That’s What I Call Music is a joint venture from Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment. The multi-platinum NOW That’s What I Call Music! compilation series is the world’s best-selling multi-artist recorded music brand with sales topping 103 million in the U.S. Now That’s What I Call Country Vol. 12 is distributed by Universal Music Group.
Kacey Musgraves (Space Cowboy inspiration) OC: …include that. 1:20
“The inspiration for ‘Space Cowboy’ was actually triggered by something that my horseback riding teacher, Lori, said to me one day. We were out at the arena and we were watching this stallion go totally crazy in the arena just galloping from one end to the other, just kind of losing its mind and being really reckless and really powerful. I watched it come charging toward me, and I was standing on the other side of the gate, and Lori was screaming at me, ‘Back up, back up! Move out of the way!’ And I really didn’t think anything of it. I said, ‘I’m on the other side of the gate. The gate’s closed. It doesn’t matter.’ She said, ‘Girl-when they wanna go, they’re gonna go. There ain’t no sense in closing the gate.’ That made a big impression on me and I wrote it down, and then ‘Space Cowboy’ came a couple of days later when I wrote it with Shane McAnally and Luke Laird. It just seemed to kind of apply itself in a metaphorical sense to a narrative that I’ve found myself in many times in my life. It’s a narrative that a lot of people I know can relate to. So, this song was very important song for me to include on the album, because though I am in a really happy place now, it’s not always been that way and it was important for me to include that.”
Luke Bryan (what makes him country) OC: …small town. :37
“I think that what makes me country is where I was raised — Leesburg, Georgia — how I was brought up saying ‘Yes sir,’ ‘No sir,’ ‘Yes, ma’am,’ ‘No, ma’am,’ hopefully with manners and raised with a work ethic and raised in the outdoors fishing and hunting and playing sports. But yeah, I would say definitely it starts with my small-town upbringing and how we were raised; church on Sundays as much as we could. But just enjoying life and living life in a small town.”
The CMA Foundation, a national music education nonprofit and the philanthropic arm of the Country Music Association, will hold its fourth annual Music Teachers of Excellence Awards April 30th in Nashville and will be hosted by three-time CMA Awards winner Dierks Bentley.
The invite-only event will honor 10 music educators from districts across the state of Tennessee, 10 from Metro Nashville Public Schools and 10 from across the United States. Award recipients are selected because of their dedication to bringing a high-quality music program to their students and the impact they’ve had on their school community through music. To date, the CMA Foundation has invested over $575,000 to ensure music educators have the support and funding needed to create a thriving program within their school and community.
“These teachers have gone above and beyond in their classrooms to really bring music to life and their commitment and determination has not gone unnoticed,” said Dierks. “As a parent I have seen first-hand the importance of music in my children’s lives and its importance in school programs. Every child deserves the chance to feel the power of music and it’s not possible without supporting these teachers.”
Dierks co-wrote 10 of the 13 tracks on his current album The Mountain (Capitol Records Nashville), including his poignant new single “Living,” which follows two back-to-back No. 1s: “Woman, Amen” and “Burning Man.” The Mountain earned Bentley the highest debut sales of his career and became his seventh chart-topping album. For more information on the Burning Man Tour, go to dierks.com.
2019 Music Teachers of Excellence Tennessee Award Recipients:
2019 Music Teachers of Excellence National Award Recipients:
Join our staff and @DierksBentley in celebrating this year's Music Teachers of Excellence recipients! Without them, we wouldn't have high quality music education. Learn more: @CMAFoundation or visit: https://t.co/IhbpRSYeUE pic.twitter.com/wein7Az0jV
— CMA Country Music (@CountryMusic) March 11, 2019
Multi-PLATINUM singer/songwriter Kip Moore kicked off the second leg of his highly-praised headlining ROOM TO SPARE: ACOUSTIC TOUR, with a weekend of sold-out shows. The opening stint began with sellouts in Chicago, IL and Indianapolis, IN, wrapping with an electric show in Bowling Green, KY on Saturday (3/9.)
Showcasing Moore’s more vulnerable side with an “acoustic show that sees him playing songs across his entire discography albeit in a stripped-down fashion” (Chicago Tribune), fans passionately sang back every lyric each night, as Moore took requests for fan-favorite deep cuts including “Backseat” and “Magic,” as the crowds never missed a beat. Moore was also able to switch gears throughout the weekend, especially ramping up the performance stakes for his “jangly, energetic” (Radio.com)
new single “The Bull.”
Carrie Underwood is nearing the Top 10 on the country charts with her latest smash, “Love Wins,” and the soaring notes at the end feature a choir made up of her, songwriters Brett James and Dave Barnes, as well as producer-writer David Garcia and vocalists Perry Coleman, Vicky Hampton and Wendy Moten and some pretty amazing strings.
Carrie says it “felt right to have a choir” on “Love Wins.” “There’s something that’s heavenly about it and how it all comes out and you’re like, ‘Ahhhhh,’” she says. “There’s just something that makes my heart jump when I hear this. Yeah, a choir just felt right.”
Love certainly wins this week! Congrats to @carrieunderwood for taking the No. 1 spot of the countdown 💛 https://t.co/v95rHPdfjq pic.twitter.com/IMMcMneBMv
— CMT Hot 20 Countdown (@cmtHot20) March 10, 2019
Carrie, who is nominated for ACM Female Artist of the Year, is set to launch her Cry Pretty Tour 360 May 1st in Greensboro, North Carolina.
Carrie Underwood (choir on “Love Wins”) OC: … felt right. :31
“Musically with this song, just the more it was like building, it just felt so right to have a choir on it. There’s something, and you can overdo it for sure, and you can needlessly put a choir on a song, but…there’s something that’s heavenly about it and how it all comes out and you’re like, ‘Ahhhhh.’ There’s just something that makes my heart jump when I hear this. Yeah, a choir just felt right.”
Kacey Musgraves is set to perform on the iHeart Music Awards airing this Thursday (March 14th) on FOX beginning at 8pm ET.
Jordan Davis, Adam Hambrick and Caylee Hammack have been announced to perform during the ACM Party for a Cause events leading up to this year’s ACM Awards in Las Vegas on April 7th. They’ll be joined by Jimmie Allen, Brantley Gilbert, Scotty McCreery, Tracy Lawrence, Carly Pearce, AJ McLean and Cassadee Pope among others. Previously announced artists include Darius Rucker, Lauren Alaina, Maddie & Tae and many others. The events support ACM Lifting Lives, the charitable arm of the ACM. Tickets are on sale now. For more information, go to PartyForaCause.com.
Keith Urban has been overseas playing the C2C Festival on his Graffiti U World Tour. He documented his stops in Berlin and Amsterdam, as well as Glasgow, and the crowds seem to be just as crazy about the reigning CMA Entertainer of the Year as North America. Check it out below.
https://twitter.com/KeithUrban/status/1104536998772117505/video/1
Keith plays Dublin, Ireland Sunday night (March 10th), and he’ll return to the states to play fairs and festivals beginning with the Sun Fest in West Palm Beach, Florida on May 5th.
Keith is nominated for Entertainer and Male Artist of the Year at this year’s ACM Awards, which will air live from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas April 7th at 8pm ET on CBS.
Adam Hambrick is featured on the star-studded soundtrack for the new film, Breakthrough, which includes music from and inspired by the highly-anticipated motion picture. He saw the film and only had a few days to come up with a concept, write and record the song and submit it to the film’s producers. He even finished up the song during some adverse conditions.
“We were doing some radio shows and we were doing some out of town stuff, so I was, it was very go, go, and I didn’t have a lot of time. I spent about three hours one afternoon in my office in Nashville coming up with concepts and kind of sifting through ideas, and then the deadline was coming up to submit the song if I wanted to be a part of the soundtrack,” says Adam. “And so, I was running out of time. I was in Minneapolis in the middle of a snowstorm, and I Ubered in the middle of a snowstorm to the guitar store, it was a place called Twin Town Guitar, a really cool little guitar shop in Minneapolis. I picked up an old Gibson in there, and I just went in the back to one of their amp rooms and I just didn’t come out until I finished the song, and it came out super fast too, because I finished the song that afternoon in Minneapolis; Two days later, I recorded it with my producer Andrew DeRoberts, and then another three days later it was mixed and mastered. And so, we turned the song around really fast, but it still felt natural. It didn’t feel like it was rushed. It felt like it was just sort of supposed to happen.”
Adam, who is performing during the C2C Festival in the UK this weekend, is currently making his way up the country charts with “Rockin’ All Night Long.”
Adam Hambrick (writing Looking Out for Me) OC: …fell out that way. 1:05
“So around the time I started writing ‘Looking Out for Me,’ it was super busy. We were doing some radio shows and we were doing some out of town stuff, so I was, it was very go, go, and I didn’t have a lot of time. I spent about three hours one afternoon in my office in Nashville coming up with concepts and kind of sifting through ideas, and then the deadline was coming up to submit the song if I wanted to be a part of the soundtrack. And so, I was running out of time. I was in Minneapolis in the middle of a snowstorm, and I Ubered in the middle of a snowstorm to the guitar store, it was a place called Twin Town Guitar, a really cool little guitar shop in Minneapolis. I picked up an old Gibson in there, and I just went in the back to one of their amp rooms and I just didn’t come out until I finished the song, and it came out super fast too, because I finished the song that afternoon in Minneapolis; Tnd two days later, I recorded it with my producer Andrew DeRoberts, and then another three days later it was mixed and mastered. And so, we turned the song around really fast, but it still felt natural. It didn’t feel like it was rushed. It felt like it was just sort of supposed to happen. It just sort of fell out that way.”