Three-time GRAMMY Award-winner Darius Rucker was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Monday (December 4th).

Rucker’s star is the 2,766th since the completion of the Walk of Fame in 1961, and it will be just a few feet away from the star belonging to his mentor and friend Charley Pride.

After being introduced by former Universal Music Group Nashville Chairman/CEO Mike Dungan, Rucker shared, “This is stuff you don’t even dream about when you’re from South Carolina…all I ever wanted was to be a singer, but you never dream that this stuff is going to happen.”

“Usually, you’re going record to record or tour to tour, and when this happens, you get to sit down and think about the whole thing,” Rucker shared with Variety as he reflected ahead of receiving the Hollywood Walk of Fame honor. “You think about when the band started, in a dorm at University of South Carolina, and then all the hard work, playing for seven years before you got a record deal. You think about going to Nashville and being told it was never going to work. You think about the first No. 1 [record] you ever had.

“You think about all that stuff, and you have to believe in fate, because one step to the left or one step to the right, and I’m not here talking to you. So you just thank God everything happened the way it did.”

Praised by People for having “never left his humble roots in the rear view,” Rucker recently released his latest album Carolyn’s Boy, an homage to his late mother, a woman he celebrates as the sole reason for “who I am, how I am, what I am.”

Hootie & the Blowfish will hit the road in 2024 for the Summer Camp with Trucks Tour. It will feature special guests Collective Soul and Edwin McCain. It’s slated to start on May 30th and continue until September 28th.

Rock and Roll Hall and Country Music Hall of Famer Brenda Lee’s iconic holiday hit “Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree” tops the Billboard Hot 100 chart for the first time ever, 65 years after the song’s debut. By hitting the No.1 spot, Lee breaks several records, many of which were held by Mariah Carey and “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” whom Lee beat out for the top spot this week. Lee claims just the third holiday No.1 ever on the Hot 100.

This is also Lee’s third No. 1. She now holds the record for the longest gap between an artist’s first and most recent week at No.1 on the Hot 100, as her first No.1 was her single “I’m Sorry” in 1960, 63 years ago. Lee and “Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree” now also hold the record for the longest climb to the top of the Hot 100, as the Johnny Marks-written hit was released 65 years ago, when Lee was just 13 years old. Now, at almost 79-years-old, Lee is also the oldest woman to top the Hot 100, surpassing previous record-holders Cher (“Believe,” age 52) and Carey (“All I Want for Christmas is You,” age 53).

“This is amazing! I cannot believe that ‘Rockin’’ has hit No. 1 65 years after it was released, this is just so special! Thank you to the team at UMG/UMe who worked so hard to celebrate the song’s anniversary this year. But most importantly, thank you to the fans who keep listening. The song came out when I was a young teenager and now to know that it has resonated with multiple generations and continues to resonate – it is one of the best gifts I have ever received. Keep on Rockin’ and Merry Christmas!” – Brenda Lee

This year for the song’s 65^th anniversary, Lee released the first ever music video for “Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree,” featuring cameos by country stars Tanya Tucker and Trisha Yearwood. She also released a new EP, A Rockin’ Christmas with Brenda Lee, featuring “Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree” and other holiday favorites including “Santa Claus Is Coming To Town,” “Jingle Bell Rock” “A Marshmallow World” and “Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree,” reimagined by Filous.

LISTEN TO A ROCKIN’ CHRISTMAS WITH BRENDA LEE | HERE

Lee will perform “Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree” on the upcoming NBC television special “Christmas at the Opry” which airs Thursday, Dec. 7 at 8 p.m. ET/PT and streams next day on Peacock.

About Brenda Lee:Brenda Lee signed with the legendary Decca Records label before her 12th birthday and went on to record such landmark hits as “Sweet Nothin’s,” “All Alone Am I,” “Break it to Me Gently” and “I’m Sorry.” Though she had success in multiple genres including rockabilly, pop and rock, Lee found her home in country music. Lee’s best-loved hit, “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree,” is celebrating its 65^th anniversary and continues to top the charts year after year. Not only has Lee sold more than 100 million albums globally, throughout her career she shared stages and earned the respect of the world’s most revered performers. The Beatles opened for her and the lads from Liverpool became good friends with the Southern belle from Atlanta, and Elvis Presley and Lee made their Grand Ole Opry debut on the same night. Lee had nine consecutive top 10 Billboard Hot 100 hits from 1960 to 1962 and set a record for a female solo artist that was unequaled until over two decades later. Lee churned out country hits such as “Sunday Sunrise” and “Big Four Poster Bed” and continued to have country hits into the 80s, including “I Love Her So,” a duet with George Jones. Lee was the first woman inducted into both the Rock and Roll and Country Music Hall of Fames and she is a recipient of the Grammy Lifetime Achievement award. Her hit song “Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree” was certified 5x Platinum by the RIAA.

Parker McCollum grew up in Conroe, Texas and he and all of his family and extended family would go to his grandmother’s house on Christmas. One of his favorite childhood memories on Christmas Day was playing football in the front yard. “Every year, we would all play football in my Grandma’s front yard probably until the time I was 15 or 16 years old, every Christmas morning,” he says.

Some of his favorite Christmas movies growing up would have to include Christmas Vacation and surprisingly, Annabelle’s Wish. “This is gonna sound kind of goofy, but one of them is definitely Annabelle’s Wish, because Randy Travis narrates it. I used to watch that when I was really little with my mom, but I mean, Christmas Vacation is a phenomenal movie,” Parker says. “And I always really liked the Santa Clause series with Tim Allen. I always thought those were really good, even the newer ones.”

One of his favorite Christmas gifts as a kid would have to be a deer rifle he received when he was around 11 or 12 years old. “It would be a Browning 270 Deer rifle I got when I was 13? So, I wanted it so bad, and I’d always had to use my older brothers’ or my Dad’s gun, you know? They wouldn’t even let me shoot anything then. So, I was probably 11 or 12 years old and a Browning 270 Deer rifle…bad son of a gun.”

Parker is climbing the country charts with his latest single, “Burn It Down.”

Chris Stapleton earned three new heavy metal certifications from the Recording Industry Association of America (R.I.A.A.). His latest single “White Horse” and “The Devil Always Made Me Think Twice” from his Starting Over was certified Gold, while “I Was Wrong” on his 2017 From A Room: Volume 2 has been certified Platinum.

Little Big Town‘s “Boondocks” is now three-times Platinum. The foursome co-wrote the song with Wayne Kirkpatrick and released it in 2005 as the first single from their second album, The Road To Here, and it became their first Top 10 hit.

Sam Hunt‘s current single, “Outskirts,” is certified Gold. The Georgia native co-wrote the song with Zach Crowell, Josh Osborne and Jerry Flowers.

Kacey Musgraves‘ “Rainbow,” “High Horse” and “Butterflies” have all been certified Platinum.

Maddie & Tae just released the Extended Version of their We Need Christmas EP earlier this year with three new songs, including “It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas,” “The Christmas Song” and “White Christmas.” These three new songs round out the track list for the nine-song project, that features both holiday favorites and festive original songs.

Since Maddie Font has been together with new husband Jonah Font, whom she started dating in high school, the pair have a handful of Christmas traditions already. “We always get a real tree every year, because Jonah’s a stickler for a real tree thing. We always shave off a little part of the bottom of the tree and make an ornament out of the little thing, so we’ll put the year on all of them and collect them,” says Maddie. “We’ve actually just started collecting nutcrackers, which is super weird, but we name them all. Oh, and White Elephant. We play White Elephant on the Font side of things, and I always end up with the best gift somehow, because Jonah and I tag team White Elephant.”

Taylor Kerr (Tae) says her parents – especially her father – would make Christmas so special for her and her two brothers. “My family has always done Christmas to the nines. My dad is a very big Christmas decorator. He would have the entire house decorated. We had this like life-sized, giant nutcracker, and at one point, we had like a talking Santa at our front door that my dad would talk through,” says Tae. “But the decorations were always just like so much fun, really got us all in the Christmas spirit. And every Christmas, one of our traditions was the kids – me and my two brothers – we would all stay in the same room on Christmas Eve and then we’d wake up when it was time to wake up, and we’d go down the stairs my parents would have a sheet at the bottom of the stairs so we couldn’t see all the presents; not that we weren’t going to see them in two seconds, but to them it was just the magic of the big reveal, them showing us all the gifts that Santa had gotten us. I’m just so thankful that my parents really kept that magic alive. And for me, I’m already thinking about Elf on the Shelf. I’m going to do all of the fun stuff.”

Tae is also very excited to see the magic of Christmas through her daughter Leighton’s eyes. “Leighton is such a happy, energetic, like cheerful child, and so just to even think about her at Christmastime, it’s going to be so special to see it through her just wonderment eyes, that new lens of life through her,” she says. “I’m excited to experience that, and you know, just to wake up and have a Christmas with us as a family. This is our second Christmas as a family, but this is the first Christmas that Leighton is really like aware and she’ll be able to help open her presents, she’ll get to play with her toys and really understand what’s going on. It brings a whole new level of excitement for me and my husband.”

Especially with the release of the Extended Version of their We Need Christmas EP, Christmas music has always played a big part in their lives. “Christmas music is so joyful without even trying,” says Tae. “I think, for me, listening to it personally, it reminds me of sitting around the piano at my Nanny and Papa’s house and my Nanny would play on the piano and sing Christmas carols and all of us grandkids would sing along, and my Papa was a fantastic singer, as well. So, it really just brings up a lot of great nostalgic memories and makes me think of my family. And with the very busy, crazy, chaotic life that we lead, Christmas is always a place for home, for rest, for those traditions, and it feels so good.”

Both Maddie and Tae have their favorite Christmas movies, and they are planning a Christmas movie night sometime soon, so Tae can see one of Maddie’s favorites. MADDIE: “Favorite Christmas movie? I know Tae’s.” TAE: “What?” MADDIE: “Polar Express!” TAE: “I do love me some Polar Express. Every time the kids do the duet, my heart breaks.” MADDIE: “I would say my favorite Christmas movie – I love Polar Express. I love Arthur Christmas.” TAE: “Arthur Christmas is great. People sleep on that one.” MADDIE: “And The Holiday! Ahhhhhh.” TAE: “I’ve never seen that one.” MADDIE: “Jude Law-It’s a rom-com, but it’s so heartwarming.” TAE: “Christmas movie night.” MADDIE: “YES!”

If Maddie could play one character in a holiday film, it would be Clark Griswold’s wife Ellen (played by Beverly D’Angelo) from “Christmas Vacation.”  “If we could be any movie character, who would we be? I think I would want to be a part of Clark Griswold’s vibe. Like, he’s so funny. I don’t know. I’d want to be Clark Griswold’s wife ‘cause I feel like Jonah is Clark Griswold, and that would be really funny, and she just allows his Christmas chaos happen and just embraces it.” Tae pipes up and agrees. “And you would totally do the fork thing where ‘Oh, this is so yummy.’ (laughs) It’s so you.” (both laugh)

Check out their favorite Christmas gifts growing up and their must-haves at their holiday meals below.

The duo is climbing the country charts with their smash hit “Heart They Didn’t Break.”

Sam Hunt revealed to PEOPLE Magazine the identity of his second-born child. He and his wife Hannah Lee Fowler welcomed a baby boy named Lowry Lee on October 24th. His name comes from his parents’ middle names — Lowry is Sam’s, while Lee is Hannah’s.

Lowry Lee joined 18-month-old big sister Lucy Louise (Lu).

Sam is making his way up the country charts with his latest single, “Outskirts.”

Mercury Nashville / Range Music recording artist Luke Grimes today released the song “Clay Pigeons,” a cover of famed Texas artist, Blaze Foley’s song “Clay Pigeons,” which originally was released in February of 1989.

LISTEN TO “CLAY PIGEONS” | HERE

“In my opinion, Blaze Foley is one of the more underrated singer songwriters in the history books of country music,” said Grimes. “He truly was outlaw country in every sense, and he practiced what he preached. Clay Pigeons is not only my favorite song from Blaze, but one of my favorite songs of all time. The structure, melody, and lyrics are all so simple, yet they come together to say something so profound. The songwriting is masterful. There has always been something so comforting to me about the melancholy feel of this song.”

Grimes is currently on tour and has more dates throughout the end of the year.

Upcoming Show Dates:

Tickets Available HERE

Rock and Roll and Country Music Hall of Famer Brenda Lee is our own Queen of Christmas, as she celebrates the 65th Anniversary of her signature holiday classic, “Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree.” She recorded and released the song in 1958 when she was just 13 years old. The song, which received a huge resurgence in the ‘90s film Home Alone, has been at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart during the holidays since 2019, and it could take over the top spot in the coming weeks.

Songwriter Johnny Marks (Rudolph, The Red-Nosed Reindeer, Frosty The Snowman) wrote the song and Brenda was his first choice to record it. Brenda asked Marks how he came up with the idea of the song, and it was just by watching pine trees sway in the wind on a beach in New York. “It was written by a gentleman who has written just about every Christmas standard,” she says. “His name is Johnny Marks, and I asked him one time, I said, ‘How in the world did you write ‘Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree?’ And he said, ‘Well, I was laying on the beach (in New York) and I went to sleep,’ and he said, ‘I woke up and the pine trees were kind of swaying in the breeze.’ And he said, ‘All of a sudden, I thought about Christmas, and I watched them begin and they were kind of rockin’ and I thought about rockin’.’ And he said, ‘I just thought about a rockin’ Christmas, and then I changed it to where people might want to rock around the Christmas tree.’ And that’s kind of how it was born, and I’m lucky, so lucky that I was able to get that song.”

We asked her what it feels like to have one of the biggest holiday songs ever recorded, and she said, “I don’t know how to answer the question of what’s it like to have one of the biggest holiday songs ever. I’ll tell you what it’s like. It’s a feeling that’s indescribable. It’s a thankful feeling to the writers, to the musicians, to the producers and most of all, to the audience that went out and bought that song and still go out and buy that song, and you all have made it what it is. I sang it, but I had to have you to help me make it what it become, so I thank you from the bottom of my heart.”

Brenda has always been drawn to Christmas music, which dates back to when she was a little girl. “I guess what drew me to creating holiday music was when I was a little girl, that was the time that we got candy,” she says. “I was from a very poor background and my daddy would always bring home these little taffy things with four little things in it called kits, and we loved it, and then we decorated our tree with pictures out of the Sears catalog. And boy, did we have fun, and we played the radio and we listened to the music, and I just thought we were in Heaven.”

Besides her own Christmas recordings, her favorite holiday tunes include those by Nat King Cole and Bing Crosby. “I love to listen to Christmas music, and I’m so fortunate that I was able to have a Christmas song myself. But I love to listen to the classics, like Nat King Cole and Bing Crosby and those people that were first and foremost in having the Christmas hits, so I feel lucky that I’m somewhat in their company.”

Some of her holiday traditions include making new memories and reminiscing about previous Christmases with her husband and daughters…but does NOT include her cooking in the kitchen. “My girls always say, ‘Mom, what are we doing for Christmas? Please don’t cook.’ So… (laughs) And they don’t mean it kindly. They mean, ‘Mom, please don’t,’” she says. “I’m not your greatest cook in the world, but we all get together and we sing, and we talk about our prior Christmases. We talk about people that we’ve lost and loved, and we wished that they were here, and we give thanks to our Lord. It’s a wonderful time. The gifts are secondary. It’s the getting together, and even though you get together the rest of the year, something magic happens at Christmas. And it’s just like, I don’t know what it is because I can’t explain magic, but I can tell you it is magic.”

Her favorite Christmas gifts are her family and friends, but she did say her engagement ring was probably her favorite present, even though she hid the fact she was engaged for several months. “My favorite Christmas gift, I think it was my engagement ring that I carried around in my purse for six months, because I didn’t want my mom (laughs) to know I was thinking about getting married, but it all wound up good. But I’ll tell you what – I think my favorite Christmas gift are my children, my husband, my friends, but most of all my God.”

Check out the official music video for “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” below. She just released the clip, featuring Trisha Yearwood and Tanya Tucker, THIS year.

Mickey Guyton and Maddie & Tae performed during Thursday night’s (November 30th) National Christmas Tree Lighting on the Ellipse, on the grounds of the White House in Washington, D.C. Mickey, who hosted the ceremony, also helped President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden flip the switch to light the tree. The ceremony dates back to President Calvin Coolidge in 1923 to kick off Holiday celebrations in the Nation’s Capital.

Kacey Musgraves performed an achingly beautiful rendition of “Can’t Help Falling In Love” during the NBC special, Christmas at Graceland, in the first-ever live concert from Elvis Presley’s iconic home earlier this week. Other performers included Post Malone, Lainey Wilson, Kane Brown, John Legend and Lana del Ray, and also featured never-before-seen home movies and photos. Elvis’ granddaughter, Riley Keough, hosted the event.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiypVETI_50

The War And Treaty (Michael and Tanya Trotter) performed a powerfully stunning version of “If I Can Dream” during the special. Elvis performed the song at the end of his famous ’68 Special to honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who was killed in Memphis just a few months prior.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpboikuKQu4

Graceland, you are so magical for more reasons than one. We were so honored to sing “If I Can Dream” – a song not really known as a traditional Christmas classic, but one that is very dear to our hearts.

Many may not know that Elvis decided to sing this song to close his …

— The War And Treaty (@warandtreaty) November 30, 2023

Alan Jackson, Brothers Osborne, Chris Stapleton, Jordan Davis and others have donated items to The ASCAP Foundation’s annual online auction. The charitable organization is dedicated to supporting American music creators and encouraging their development through music education and talent development programs. Carly Pearce, Old Dominion, Kelsea Ballerini, Olivia Rodrigo, Selena Gomez, Travis Barker, Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre and Chicago also donated items to the auction which runs through December 14th. Click HERE to make a bid.

A handful of country artists will be in Las Vegas during the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo (NFR) next month, including Carrie Underwood who will continue her Reflection residency at Resorts World. The NFR returns to the Thomas & Mack enter December 7th – 16th for its 65th anniversary. Garth Brooks will perform seven shows at the Colosseum at Caesar’s Palace beginning November 29th. Also performing in Vegas will be Jon Pardi (December 9th), Toby Keith (December 10th and 11th), Miranda Lambert, Cody Johnson, Lainey Wilson, Ryan Bingham and more.

Mickey Guyton has been added to the list of performers at this year’s All For The Hall benefit show next week. Hosts Keith Urban and Vince Gill will perform, as well as Trisha Yearwood, Patty Loveless, The War And Treaty, Kelsea Ballerini, Brooks & Dunn, Riley Green and Hardy, among others. The theme for the show is “The Song Remembers When,” and each artist is expected to perform a song that is personal to them, as well as one of their own. The event takes place Tuesday (December 5th) at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena.