The finalists for this year’s People’s Choice Awards have been announced. Keith Urban leads the list of country artists with two nominations – one for Country Artist of the Year, alongside Luke Bryan, Carrie Underwood, Blake Shelton and Thomas Rhett; as well as all-genre Male Artist of the Year, in which he’ll face Drake, Bruno Mars, Shawn Mendes and Ed Sheeran.

Final round voting for the @PeoplesChoice Awards starts today!! ✨ #PCAs
MALE ARTIST OF 2018: https://t.co/kR2R9Gxqdt
COUNTRY ARTIST OF 2018: https://t.co/mlGkOqvdpf pic.twitter.com/s8y1Ce2Uuj

— Keith Urban (@KeithUrban) September 24, 2018

Other categories include movies, television, social media and other music formats. Voting is live now and will run through October 19th. Fans can either vote at pca.eonline.com or through Twitter and Facebook.

The People’s Choice Awards will be telecast for the first time on E! on November 11th at 9pm ET/PT.

After a 20-plus city, sold-out U.S. tour, Grammy-award winning foursome Little Big Town will extend The Breakers Tour into Canada. The highly-anticipated ten-city run begins February 14^th in London, Ontario and will conclude March 2^nd in Abbotsford, BC. All shows will feature special guests, Midland and Ashley McBryde.

Tickets for The Breakers Canada Tour go on-sale Friday, October 12^th at 10am local time (excluding London and Winnipeg). London and Winnipeg will follow at 12pm local time.

Pre-sale tickets and a special VIP package launch NOW on www.littlebigtown.com (password: BETTERMAN). The VIP experience, offered throughout the tour, will include a private, pre-show acoustic performance from the band, limited edition merchandise, and more.

The Breakers Canada Tour Dates and Markets:

FEB 14                 LONDON, ONT

FEB 15                 OSHAWA, ONT

FEB 19                 WINNIPEG, MB

FEB 20                 SASKATOON, SK

FEB 21                 REGINA, SK

FEB 23                 CALGARY, AB

FEB 24                 EDMONTON, AB

FEB 26                 LETHBRIDGE, AB

MAR 1                  PENTICTON, BC

MAR 2                  ABBOTSFORD, BC

About Little Big Town:

GRAMMY, ACM, CMA, and AMA Award-winning group, Little Big Town — consisting of members Karen Fairchild, Phillip Sweet, Kimberly Schlapman, and Jimi Westbrook — first entered the music scene over 20 years ago with hit songs “Boondocks,” “Bring It On Home,” “Good As Gone” and the GRAMMY-nominated “Little White Church.” Their breakthrough albums Tornado and Pain Killer produced multiple #1 singles, including “Pontoon,” “Tornado,” and “Day Drinking,” as well as the history-making, best-selling country single of the year (2015) “Girl Crush.”  Released February 24, 2017, Little Big Town’s last studio album, The Breaker, debuted #1 on the Billboard Country Charts and Top 10 (No.4) on the Billboard 200 to critical acclaim, marking the group’s fourth Top 10 debut on the Billboard 200 chart. The album features their GRAMMY-winning, multi-week #1 single, “Better Man,” as well as “When Someone Stops Loving You.”

Little Big Town has earned more than 40 award show nominations and in the past five years has taken home nearly 20 awards, including multiple GRAMMY, AMA, People’s Choice, CMA, ACM awards, and an Emmy award. Currently the reigning CMA and ACM Vocal Group of the Year, the Country Music Hall of Fame inductees (2014) went onto receive their star on the Nashville Walk of Fame in 2017. Also in 2017, Little Big Town hosted a sold-out, year-long artist residency at the famed Ryman Auditorium in Nashville — marking the venue’s first-ever, year-long residency in its 125-year history. The band also recently launched 4 Cellars wine, their first non-musical project as a band, with Browne Family Vineyards. On July 26^th The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville launched their new, yearlong exhibit called LITTLE BIG TOWN: THE POWER OF FOUR showcasing the bands powerful and storied 20-year history within the country music community.

For more information on Little Big Town visit LittleBigTown.com or follow them @littlebigtown.

Keith Urban, who recently received three CMA Award nominations, will host the 32nd Annual ARIA Awards, Australia’s GRAMMY Awards. It has been over a decade since Urban last graced the ARIA’s stage when back in 2007 he joined John Butler for an unforgettable performance.  Keith’s unprecedented history as a multiple ARIA and Grammy Award-winning artist and recognition as the steward of Country music in Australia make him the natural choice as host of the 32^nd annual ARIA Awards, a role he is undertaking for the first time.

Earlier this year, Urban’s first studio album in nearly two years, GRAFFITI U debuted at #1 in Australia along with #1 positions in Canada and the United States. Urban remains the only male country artist to debut at the top of the all genre charts simultaneously in three countries (U.S., Canada and Australia), a feat that no other male country artist has achieved once, no less twice.

With Urban’s 2018 GRAFFITI U WORLD TOUR now completed in Canada, it’s back in the States where it’s seen critically hailed, sold-out performances across the country.  The tour heads to Australia in February where it’s already seen sell-outs in Newcastle, Melbourne and Brisbane.

Urban’s last album, the #1 Platinum selling RIPCORD, was the second highest selling album in Australia 2016 and spent 27 weeks in the Top 10 and 46 weeks in the Top 20 of the ARIA Albums Chart.  The singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer is no stranger to the ARIA charts with a total of 14 ARIA Platinum-selling singles and albums, earning him a total of five ARIA Awards.

Dan Rosen, Chief Executive ARIA said: “ARIA is honored and excited to welcome back superstar Keith Urban to join us in Sydney to celebrate the 2018 ARIAs. To have one of Australia’s biggest stars host this year’s ceremony is just phenomenal. Australian music fans are in for a real treat.”

This year’s ARIA Awards will take place November 18th in Sydney Australia.

In August’s candid Rolling Stone cover story shortly after Eric Church announced his sixth album was in the works, readers learned exactly what the North Carolinian has been shouldering since his Holdin’ My Own Tour wrapped last May. It was the first time the songwriter had spoken out regarding the turmoil and angst of the last year, his processing of it all and the outcome: a collection of 11 songs that tell a broader story with today’s release of Desperate Man. 

His longest stretch amid albums, Church’s pause between Mr. Misunderstood and Desperate Man was intentional. “I still felt shook up pretty good,” he says of the time he took following a serious health scare and having performed at Route 91 Harvest festival in Las Vegas, where dozens of country music fans lost their lives. “I wasn’t ready yet, wasn’t settled from all that happened – I was still reeling from Vegas, I felt displaced and not really connected to anything. I had to get back to enjoying what we were making and finding refuge in the music as a bit of an anchor.”

But then came a breakthrough for the man Music Connection declares “a frankly magnificent songwriter,” in the form of two songs that represented an entirely new direction.

“The Snake” – the first song greeting listeners on the album described by Esquire as “brilliant” – is a menacing, spoken-word parable with a political undertone. “The rattlesnake and the copperhead—that’s left/right, blue/red, however you say it,” says Church. “They sit there and fight all day to rile people up and then go get a drink. They’re working together while the whole world is burning down.”

Then, immediately after, he wrote a simple song called “Hippie Radio,” an acoustic meditation on the ways that music is there to mark different phases in your life. And suddenly, Church started to get a notion of where this project might be headed – to a place Rolling Stone dubs “classic Church: expertly crafted and country radio-friendly, while also pushing boundaries in a way that sounds natural and unforced.”

His songwriting prowess serves as the backbone of the project, with Vulture noting that his “devastating pen is pushed to center stage” as “Desperate Man weaves excellence out of ordinary threads.” Church, who had a hand in writing all 11 songs on the album, is also praised by the LA Times as “one of Nashville’s most forthright truth-tellers,” resulting in “a warm, appealingly ragged collection infused with wisdom and reassurance” which American Songwriter declares as “his most adventuresome album yet.”

NPR opines in this week’s First Listen, “On Desperate Man, Church embodies his heroic image even more completely and convincingly than he has on the five albums that came before it.” As the New York Times acknowledges, “Church has never been an easy fit into Nashville’s familiar boxes – his music is as much rock as it is country” with Stereogum observing that this renegade spirit is what sets him apart: “Church is someone who’s at the top of his genre because he breaks its rules in big, exciting, arena-filling ways. If that’s not a rock star, I don’t know what is.”

The three-time Country Music Association and seven-time Academy of Country Music Award winner confessed to American Songwriter in their September/October cover story, “For how far we have evolved, we still have the same basic problems. We are all broken, and we are all going to break. It doesn’t matter how far we’ve come or how many pills we come up with or how much technology distracts us; we still want the same things. And you can get through anything in your life with a jukebox, and a bar,” [“Jukebox And A Bar” is one of three songs Church penned solo on the album].

And its closing track, “Drowning Man,” addresses the state of our times and the ways artists have (or haven’t) responded. “With what’s going on in the world, I felt forgotten, left behind,” says Church. “And if you go to any bar or concert in America, there are whole groups of forgotten people who are very much alike, who have more in common than not. There’s a lot of madness in the world that makes no sense, and it’s not all high tides and yachts.”

Desperate Man and tickets to Church’s 2019 Double Down Tour are available today, October 5. Get the album here and visit EricChurch.com for ticketing information.

Desperate Man Track List:

1. The Snake (Written by Eric Church, Jeremy Spillman and Travis Meadows)
2. Hangin’ Around (Written by Eric Church and Jeff Hyde)
3. Heart Like A Wheel (Written by Eric Church)
4. Some Of It (Written by Eric Church, Jeff Hyde, Clint Daniels and Bobby Pinson)
5. Monsters (Written by Eric Church and Jeff Hyde)
6. Hippie Radio (Written by Eric Church)
7. Higher Wire (Written by Eric Church, Casey Beathard and Scooter Carusoe)
8. Desperate Man (Written by Eric Church and Ray Wylie Hubbard)
9. Solid (Written by Eric Church and Anders Osborne)
10. Jukebox And A Bar (Written by Eric Church)
11. Drowning Man (Written by Eric Church and Casey Beathard)

Produced by Jay Joyce
Executive Producer Arturo Buenahora, Jr.

Kip Moore kicked off his highly-anticipated headlining AFTER THE SUNBURN TOUR with a string of roof-raising shows on the east coast this weekend. Beginning in Silver Springs, MD and wrapping with a sold-out show in Huntington, NY, a highlight from the opening weekend saw Moore play a personal bucket-list show at Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City on Friday night (9/21.) Moore, who has “cultivated an extensive international touring base… quickly becoming one of country music’s most tireless and powerful live draws” (Rolling Stone), has a fiercely loyal following in New York City, returning each time to play bigger headlining rooms, often doubling the capacity size, since 2012. The unforgettable evening had Moore’s notoriously passionate fans singing back every song, single or album track, unwaveringly to the very last note of his set.

Each night across the high-energy weekend saw Moore give fans a sneak peak of upcoming new music and he will continue his stacked headlining tour this weekend with stops in Birmingham, AL and Louisville, KY, as well as joining Lady Antebellum for a night in Alpharetta, GA. Moore has invited a combination of special guests including Jordan Davis, Jillian Jacqueline, The Wild Feathers and Caroline Jones to join him across the dates this fall. For a full list of tour dates and to purchase tickets visit: kipmoore.net.

Kip is making his way up the country charts with his latest song, “Last Shot,” from his current album, Slowheart.

Multi-award-winning singer-songwriter and one of the hottest rising female artists in country music, Lauren Alaina, releases her new single “Ladies in the ’90s” today (October 5th) after teasing her new song last month on Instagram, creating a firestorm of anticipation with her fans. “Ladies In the ’90s” has shipped to country radio and goes for official radio adds on October 15th.

To purchase/stream “Ladies In the ’90s” click HERE.

Lauren co-wrote “Ladies In the ’90s” with Jesse Frasure and Amy Wadge. The fun upbeat song pays homage to the era and inspiration for her career path and namechecks some of her favorite 90s songs from mentors and artists who played a role in her journey to today including “Strawberry Wine” (Deana Carter), “…Baby One More Time” (Britney  Spears), “Fancy” (Reba), “Genie In a Bottle” (Christina Aguilera), “Vogue” (Madonna), “Man, I Feel Like A Woman” (Shania), “Breathe” (Faith Hill), “Cowboy Take Me Away” (Dixie Chicks) and more.

Known for her fun, high energy personality, Lauren is hosting ’90s themed VIP Parties as part of Cole Swindell and Dustin Lynch’s Reason To Drink … Another Tour.  The VIP packages include a special Q&A session with Lauren, an autographed poster, commemorative VIP Meet & Greet laminate, crowd-free merchandise shopping and more. Click HERE to purchase ’90s VIP ticket packages with Lauren. Tour dates and cities below.

Lauren, a 2018 CMA New Artist of the Year nominee, has been riding a wave of career highlights this year including multi-award wins, national tv performances and continuing her rise in country music as part of some of this year’s biggest tours in country music. Lauren recently wrapped with Jason Aldean’s High Noon Neon Tour 2018 and just joined Cole Swindell and Dustin Lynch for the Reason To Drink…Another Tour which kicked off last night in Tuscaloosa, AL. The tour is slated to run through the end of 2018.

In addition to hitting the road with five major tours in the past 12 months alone (Luke Bryan, Alan Jackson, Cole Swindell, Jason Aldean and now, Cole Swindell/Dustin Lynch), Lauren has also earned back-to-back major awards for ACM New Female Artist of the Year and CMT Collaborative Video of the Year, she co-hosted the prestigious 12^thAnnual ACM Honors, and she performed on the 38^th annual broadcast of the top-rated PBS special “A Capitol Fourth” alongside music legends like CeCe Winans, the Temptations, The Beach Boys, Pentatonix and more. For ABC’s CMA Fest TV special, Lauren joined her good friend Kane Brown for an electric performance of their now TRIPLE Platinum® selling No. 1 hit, “What Ifs,” which went to No. 1 simultaneously topping five Billboard charts.

For Lauren’s “Ladies In the ’90s” Playlist click HERE.

Reason To Drink… Another Tour with Cole Swindell and Dustin Lynch

Oct 4               Tuscaloosa, AL                       Tuscaloosa Amphitheatre

Oct 5               Simpsonville, SC                     Heritage Park Amphitheatre

Oct 6               Huntsville, AL                         Von Braun Arena

Oct 11             Wallingford, CT                       Toyota Oakdale Theatre

Oct 12             Worcester, MA                        DCU Event Center

Oct 13             Richmond, VA                         Richmond Coliseum

Oct 19             Sugarland, TX                         Smart Financial Center

Oct 20             New Braunfels, TX                 White Water Amphitheatre

Oct 25             Missoula, MT                          Adams Center

Oct 26             Bozeman, MT                         Brick Breeden Fieldhouse

Oct 27             Bismarck, ND                         Bismarck Events Center

Nov 1              San Jose, CA                           SJSU Event Center

Nov 2              Bakersfield, CA                       Rabobank Arena

Nov 3              Phoenix, AZ                            Comerica Theatre

Nov 8              Minneapolis, MN                     The Armory

Nov 9              Kearney, NE                            Viaero Event Center

Nov 10            Wichita, KS                              INTRUST Bank Arena

Nov 29            Duluth, GA                              Infinite Energy Arena

Nov 30            Jackson, MS                            Mississippi Coliseum

Dec 1              Tupelo, MS                               BancorpSouth Arena

Dec 6              Evansville, IN                           Ford Center

Dec 7              Moline, IL                                 TaxSlayer Center

Dec 8              Highland Heights, KY              BB&T Arena

Dec 13            Bossier City, LA                       CenturyLink Center

Dec 14            New Orleans, LA                     Champions Square

About Lauren Alaina:
Country star Lauren Alaina’s critically-acclaimed sophomore album, Road Less Traveled, landed on multiple “Best Of” lists including Billboard, Rolling Stone and Amazon, and it became the top-streamed female country album release of 2017. Praised as “full of life lessons and uplift” (PEOPLE), the collection of 12 songs all written by the young star includes Lauren’s first No. 1 smash, “Road Less Traveled,” the Top 25 hit “Doin’ Fine,” and the deeply personal and inspiring, “Three.” The “sassy Southerner with killer pipes” (PARADE) has shared the stage with superstars including Alan Jackson, Carrie Underwood, Luke Bryan and Martina McBride, Jason Aldean and the Georgia native is currently on tour with Cole Swindell and Dustin Lynch. In addition to earning nominations for ACM Vocal Event of the Year and Billboard Music’s Top Country Song awards, Lauren took home this year’s ACM New Female Vocalist of the Year Award and CMT Collaborative Video of the Year Award for “What Ifs,” the triple-platinum selling No. 1 hit with childhood friend, Kane Brown. Lauren is one of CMT’s Next Women of Country and she received her first CMT Music Award for Breakthrough Video of the Year with her No. 1 hit “Road Less Traveled.”  Following the release of Road Less Traveled, Lauren has received nominations for the ACM Awards, CMA Awards, CMT Music Awards, Teen Choice Awards, Radio Disney Awards and Billboard Music Awards.

For more information and tour dates, please visit http://laurenalainaofficial.com/and follow Lauren at @Lauren_Alaina on Twitter, @laurenalaina on Instagram and on Facebook. For videos go to her YouTube (@LaurenAlainaAIVEVO)

Carrie Underwood‘s new album, Cry Pretty, has debuted at the top of  Billboard’s Top 200 Album chart today.  The collection is the biggest all-genre debut by a female in 2018, topping Cardi B’s Invasion of Privacy (April 6, 2018). The album debuted at No. 1 on both the Billboard 200 and Top Country Album Charts with 265,654 equivalent album units, making Underwood the only woman in history to land four country albums at the top of the all-genre Billboard 200 chart. The critically-acclaimed album is the best-selling Country album debut of 2018, as well as the biggest Country album debut since August 7, 2015 (Luke Bryan’s Kill The Lights) and the biggest female Country album debut since October 22, 2012 (Taylor Swift’s 2012 Red).

Cry Pretty’s debut week also marks the most first week streams by any female in Country music. This is Underwood’s seventh consecutive album to debut at No. 1 on the Top Country Albums chart, representing all of her first seven albums including her Greatest Hits: Decade #1.

Check out the Billboard article here.

NPR declares that Cry Pretty “pushes her creative boundaries and leans into modern R&B, while retaining the Oklahoma singer-songwriter’s country roots” and “Underwood’s voice owns pretty much anything it touches.”

Rolling Stone lauds Underwood as “Arena country’s mightiest voice, as Cry Pretty reaffirms.”

Entertainment Weekly has called the album “Her most emotionally accessible work to date.”

Underwood was recently featured in a profile on CBS Sunday Morning, as well as performances on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and The Ellen Show. She received her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Sept. 20 and performed at the iHeart Radio Music Festival in Las Vegas. Nominated as Favorite Female Artist – Country, Underwood will perform at the 2018 American Music Awards on Oct. 9 following her promotional tour in Australia, which will include an appearance at the iconic Deni Ute Muster festival. Fans will get the chance to watch multiple performances from Carrie that night as she is also set to appear on Jimmy Kimmel Live! at 11:35pm ET / 10:35 CT on ABC immediately following the 2018 American Music Awards live broadcast.

Cry Pretty is Underwood’s first release on Capitol Records Nashville and her first time co-producing alongside David Garcia.  She co-wrote nine of the songs on the album including her current single, “Love Wins,” with David Garcia and Brett James.  She recently released the official music video for “Love Wins,” which was directed by Shane Drake. View HERE.

Underwood returns this fall for her sixth season as the voice of primetime television’s #1 program, Sunday Night Football. This November, she and Brad Paisley will co-host the CMA Awards for the 11th consecutive year.

In spring 2019, Underwood will launch a new arena tour, The Cry Pretty Tour 360. Sponsored by CALIA, the new tour will kick off on May 1 in Greensboro, NC, and will play 55 arenas across the U.S. and Canada and be promoted by AEG Presents.  She will be joined on tour by special guests Maddie & Tae and Runaway June.

Adam Hambrick just released his debut song, “Rockin’ All Night Long,” to country radio. Written by Adam along with Kelly Archer, and Pete Good, the nostalgic tune was inspired while the Arkansas native was rocking his daughter to sleep one night and thinking about how many of his favorite memories happened late into the night.

“I wrote ‘Rockin’ All Night Long’ with my friends Pete Good and Kelly Archer. I actually had this idea because I was staying up all night with my daughter, half-delirious, when she was very, very young,” says Adam. “And it’s really special for me to have this song as my first single, because I think it’s one of the most autobiographical songs I’ve ever written. It’s one of the songs that is most uniquely me I feel like that I’ve ever written.”

The song tells a reminiscent story marking the milestone moments from young adulthood to parenthood and pays homage to Don McClean’s 1971 hit “American Pie.”

It's always been my dream to make music, and today the dream is even more real. My first single #RockinAllNightLong is out, and I'm thrilled to be joining my label family at Capitol Nashville/Buena Vista. Thanks for listening and sharing: https://t.co/sou3Zoxjp0 pic.twitter.com/Sa2ULHqdyV

— Adam Hambrick (@adamhambrick) September 27, 2018

Adam will perform to a sold-out Ryman Auditorium, opening for Brett Young on October 10, marking the first time he will play the historic venue. Adam has had numerous cuts for other artists including Miranda Lambert and Eli Young Band, as well as No. 1 hits for Dan + Shay (“How Not To”) and Justin Moore (“Somebody Else Will”).

Adam is currently in the studio working on his debut album with producers Andrew DeRoberts (James Blunt) and Paul DiGiovanni (Blake Shelton).

Newcomer Jon Langston is experiencing a lot of firsts lately, including releasing his first single — “When It Comes to Loving You” — on a major record label. When he heard it on the radio for the first time, he went a little crazy.

“Hearing my single on the radio for the first time was surreal. It was a dream come true,” says Jon, who co-wrote the tune with Dan Isbell. “I was in a van with my whole band, and I was listening to an interview and they said, ‘Here’s his debut single ‘When It Comes to Loving You’,’ and I freaked out. I had no idea they were going to play it, and it was a full circle moment and something I’ll never forget.”

All the long nights, miles, and drives in this van, I wouldn’t change a thing. Such a sweet moment hearing “When It Comes To Loving You” on the radio for the first time.. pic.twitter.com/XF6lATKaIi

— Jon Langston (@JonTLangston) June 3, 2018

The Georgia native will open Luke Bryan’s 2018 Farm Tour beginning Thursday (September 27th) in Irwin, Ohio. He’ll follow up those dates with his own Prob’ly at a Bar Tour October 12th in Indianapolis, Indiana.

For more information on Jon’s tour dates, go to jonlangston.com.

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