Numerous country artists performed, met with and signed autographs for hundreds of thousands of fans from around the world. On Friday, not only did Eric Paslay, Clare Dunn, Canaan Smith, Mickey Guyton, Easton Corbin, Alan Jackson and Lauren Alaina take part in CMA Music Fest, but at Nissan Stadium were performances by Eric Church, Sam Hunt and Chris Stapleton, among others.

Eric Church made a surprise appearance at the Ernest Tubb Record Shop following his stadium performance and performed The Band’s “Ophelia” with Charlie Worsham.

Chris brought the crowd to his feet performing songs from his award-winning album, Traveller. “It’s a remarkable thing to get to be a part of a mass of people who wanna listen to music,” says Chris.

Sam Hunt says coming to CMA Music Festival years ago inspired him to move to Nashville. “I was here several years ago for the first time for CMA Fest as a fan. I came out to the show, did the full experience, and it really was one of the big reasons I decided to move to Nashville,” he says. “It kind of made the idea of being a songwriter more tangible and realistic, and also I fell in love with the city, Nashville, so I knew it’d be a place I’d be happy living, and also because of the music. So, yeah, that week here really inspired my move here, and it was a significant part of my life.”

Chris  is currently on the airwaves with his latest single, “Parachute,” while Sam is making his way up the charts with “Make You Miss Me.”

Dierks Bentley surprised a stadium full of fans with his “Different for Girls” duet partner, Elle King on Thursday (June 9th).  The pair performed the new single during CMA Music Fest (as well as on the CMT Awards), and the pop singer with country sensibilities said she never wants to leave.

“I was talking to someone outside, and I was saying how I just don’t ever want to go back to pop or rock, and I think country is way more rock ‘n roll than the rock ‘n roll world anyways. I can barely keep up with everyone, and like that is really saying something,” says Elle, as Dierks laughs. “So, I have had so much fun, and I have had such a warm welcome. I think maybe because everyone is drunker than me, and that’s great.”

Dierks, who Elle calls “dreamy,” has been having fun introducing her to the country music community. “It’s been fun having Elle King, introducing her to this audience, ‘cause I don’t think, people who come from outside this genre just don’t know what Nashville’s like, what y’all are like, what the fans are like, how appreciative they are of people,” he says. “Like Minnie Pearl said, ‘Love ‘em, and they’ll love you back,’ and that still holds true to today. So, it’s been fun watching her be around all this, and I don’t think she can believe it, how cool everyone is.”

Dierks and Elle are making their way up the country charts with “Different for Girls.”

Dierks Bentley surprised fans when he made a stop at the Country Music Hall of Fame to see his Every Mile a Memory exhibit in full swing. He went inside the exhibit and fans who were touring the museum suddenly started taking photos of the star who popped his head up over a mannequin and kissed one of his most cherished items – his guitar with signatures of George Jones, Merle Haggard, Garth Brooks and more. He then ended up downstairs signing autographs and visiting with numerous lucky folks.

Dierks, who considers himself a huge country music fan, enjoys spending time and being present with his own fans. “I love this music. I love listening to country radio. I love listening to records,” says Dierks. “There’s people I get star-struck being around, so I understand what it’s like to be a fan. It’s unbelievable what they do for waiting in line like that. Whenever I’m signing stuff like that, I don’t use a chair. I don’t use a table. I stand up just like they do, and I’ll stand for six hours as long as they are, and try to be present with everyone I talk to. It might only be for 10 seconds, maybe it was longer than that, but I try to get as much out of that interaction as I possibly can, because it’s special.”

He also feels that CMA Music Festival is a time to give thanks to the fans. “I always feel like today’s like a day of Thanksgiving for us country singers to go out there and say, ‘Thank you for being you and having that passion, so we all get to do what we love to do.’”

Dierks is making his way up the country charts with his latest single, “Different for Girls,” featuring Elle King.

Chevrolet announced it is expanding its country music ties by teaming up with the reigning CMA Entertainer of the Year Luke Bryan.

Bryan will work with Chevrolet as a brand ambassador on a variety of projects over the next three years including his participation during this year’s CMA Music Festival.

“Chevy has been a part of our family and a part of our work life on the farm for as long as I can remember.” said Luke Bryan. “If you were a Bryan, you drove a Chevy. I am so excited about this partnership and I’m honored to be representing such a wonderful brand.”

Chevrolet will also be a sponsor of Bryan’s Farm Tour. The 8^th Annual Farm Tour is a multi-city tour in which Bryan makes stops in rural areas of the country, sets up stages on farmland and performs for thousands of fans. A portion of ticket proceeds are granted for local college scholarships (“Luke Bryan Farm Tour Scholarship”) to students from a farming family within the communities the tour plays.

“Partnering with Luke Bryan is a natural fit for Chevrolet,” said Paul Edwards, Chevrolet U.S. vice president of marketing. “Our customers love country music, and Chevy has always held a special place within the genre.”

Earlier this year, using his broad reach on social media, Bryan helped Chevrolet use the extra 24-hours of Leap Day to #DayItForward by recognizing the daily hard work and sacrifice of the firefighters of Firestation #2 in Franklin, Tenn.

“We’re proud to build a relationship with an artist as authentic and talented as Luke.” said Edwards.

About Chevrolet
Founded in 1911 in Detroit, Chevrolet is now one of the world’s largest car brands, doing business in more than 115 countries and selling more than 4.0 million cars and trucks a year. Chevrolet provides customers with fuel-efficient vehicles that feature engaging performance, design that makes the heart beat, passive and active safety features and easy-to-use technology, all at a value. More information on Chevrolet models can be found at www.chevrolet.com.

About Luke Bryan
Since the debut of his first album in 2007, Luke has placed 15 singles at No. 1 and sold nearly eight million albums with 30 million digital tracks from his five studio albums. He has twice been named Entertainer of the Year by both the Academy of Country Music and the Country Music Association. His fifth studio album, Kill The Lights, debuted at No. 1 on both the Billboard Top 200 (his third to do so) and Top Country Albums charts and closed 2015 with the best-selling country album of the year and the 10th biggest selling album on the all-genre Billboard Top 200 Year-End list. In Luke’s stellar 2015 year, he performed for 1.5 million fans in concert, had three albums on the Top 15 Year-End Country Albums list- Kill the Lights (#1), Spring Break…Checkin’ Out (#10) and Crash My Party (#15), was the most streamed artist of 2015, placed six songs in the Year-End Top Country Streaming Tracks list, had his own exhibit at The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum (“Luke Bryan: Dirt Road Diary”), performed live during halftime at the Dallas Cowboys game on Thanksgiving and wrapped up the year with a live Times Square performance on ABC’s “New Year’s Rockin’ Eve.” Luke recently co-hosted the ACM Awards for a fourth consecutive year and is performing in venues and stadiums across the U.S. on his “Kill The Lights Tour” through this fall.

Little Big Town has released Wanderlust, a special digital project produced by Grammy Award-winning producer Pharrell Williams. Little Big Town gave fans a preview of what to expect with a performance of the featured track “One Of Those Days” with Williams on The Voice finale.

Little Big Town’s Karen Fairchild acknowledges to Billboard, “It’s not a country record and it’s not like anything we’ve ever done,” however “it’s fun to be spontaneous and put it out there to the fans because we want to, and not to overthink it, but just because it has brought us a lot of joy, and we think it will for them as well.”
Wanderlust Track List:

1. One Dance
2. C’mon
3. One Of Those Days
4. Work
5. Skinny Dippin’
6. Will Power
7. Miracle
8. The Boat

While working on Wanderlust with Williams, the band was also splitting time in the studio with Jay Joyce, producer of Little Big Town’s Platinum-selling albums Pain Killer and Tornado.  New country music from the reigning ACM and CMA Vocal Group of the Year is expected later in the year.
Grand Ole Opry members Little Big Town treated fans in the night’s first show to a surprise as Pharrell joined the group on stage to sing “C’mon,” a song he wrote and produced for the group’s forthcoming album Wanderlust. “He’s from Virginia and he loves country music!” group member Karen Fairchild cheered as Williams took the stage to a standing ovation.

Brothers Osborne started off the week by making their first-ever awards show performance on Wednesday night’s (June 8th) CMT Music Awards, playing a portion of their No. 1 song, “Stay a Little Longer.” The pair will perform at Riverfront on Thursday (June 9th) at noon, followed by their fan club party in East Nashville at 3p.

The guys are thrilled to be able to be a part of CMA Music Fest and are proud to be able to celebrate their fans. “CMA [Music Festival] Week, I think, in a way embodies what country music is all about. It’s all about fan engagement. It’s all about meeting your fans; getting to know them as they get to know you,” says John Osborne. “Thousands of people show up to Nashville. We all stay in town and we play for the fans. It just gives us a chance to get back in touch with the people that, you know, this is what we play for, this is what we play country music for is the fans, so we’re definitely very, very honored to be a part of it.”

Catch Brothers Osborne on the road on Miranda Lambert’s Keeper of the Flame Tour performing their latest single, “21 Summer.”

Little Big Town picked up their very first CMT Music Award during last night’s show for Group/Duo Video of the Year for their huge hit “Girl Crush.”

Chris Stapleton also picked up his very first CMT Music Award for “Fire Away,” which was named Breakthrough Video of the Year.

Last night (June 7th), Gary Allan performed to over 1,000 adoring fans at his annual Fan Club Party. The event took place at Rocketown and an intimate performance, requests from the audience, and a touching moment in memorium of a dear friend.

In the middle of his performance, Allan stopped the show to remember his longtime friend, the late Sharon Eaves. Eaves, who passed away in October of last year was the President of Allan’s Fan Club for almost twenty years and a well-respected music row veteran and humanitarian. Allan took a moment to explain what Sharon meant to him and what she meant to so many people, including those touched by her work at St. Jude Children’s Hospital. He was then joined by Bob Parks’ Dale Nichols who took on the task of auctioning off the first ring Gary designed from beginning to end for his new jewelry line. The silver skull designed ring featured three diamonds and Gary’s initials inside the band. The lucky winner got the ring for $7500. In addition to the live auction at the Fan Club Party, Allan also hosted an online auction in Sharon’s honor last week wherein he auctioned off early admittance and front row seats, a signed guitar, a signed drum head as well as meet & greets at Allan’s shows for a year. Through the generosity of his fans, the event raised over $25,000 for St. Jude in Sharon’s honor.

In addition to the auction and taking requests from the audience, Allan performed a two-hour set that included chart-toppers “Watching Airplanes” and “Every Storm (Runs Out Of Rain).” He also performed several selections from his new studio album, including the first ever live performance of his new single, “Do You Wish It Was Me?,” which will be available for digital on-sale this Friday, June 10th.

Seven tour buses, carrying 96 crewmembers, nine semis housing, amongst other things, an 8’ by 66’ high definition video screen, enough wiring to crisscross the United States (twice) and more than two dozen guitars, rolled into Kansas City, St. Louis and Indianapolis this past weekend for the debut of Keith Urban’s “ripCORD WORLD TOUR 2016.”  If the weekend’s performances, all of which received rave reviews, are any indication, “ripCORD WORLD TOUR 2016” will be one of the hottest concert tours of the year.

Keith’s two-hour plus set featured live performance premieres of new songs, collaborations with both Brett Eldredge (“Somebody Like You”) and Maren Morris (“We Were Us”), an all-new, state-of-the-art stage production, stinging guitar solos and “in-audience performances” which only added to the party-like atmosphere that is synonymous with all Keith Urban concerts.

Keith rocked through a set that featured 16 Top 5 songs, including nearly a dozen #1s, as well as brand new songs from his recently released #1 album RIPCORD.  The album, Urban’s fifth #1, debuted simultaneously in the top spot on the U.S., Canada and Australia album charts, the second consecutive time that the four-time Grammy Award winner has achieved the historic milestone – something that no other male Country artist has done (even once).

For more official keith urban news and information go to www.keithurban.net or follow him on www.facebook.com/keithurban or @keithurban

Immediately following the television premiere of “The Only One Who Gets Me” on ABC’s The Bachelorette last night (6/6), seven-time GRAMMY winner Charles Kelley has become one of the most buzzed about topics on social media. As his debut solo record THE DRIVER (Capitol Records Nashville) jumped to the Top 10 on iTunes Country Albums chart, its autobiographical track simultaneously skyrocketed into iTunes’ Top 5 on the Country Songs chart where it continues to be a trending search.

Written about his wife, the track features Kelley’s signature gritty vocals in this stripped-down version of “The Only One Who Gets Me” here: http://bit.ly/215ww1e

As Kelley “continues to stay true to himself — all while telling stories” (Albuquerque Journal), the singer/songwriter’s latest single “Lonely Girl” has been praised for its “soulful direction” (Rolling Stone). It succeeds his first-ever debut track “The Driver” which earned a GRAMMY nomination for “Best Country Duo/Group Performance” ahead of the album’s release. Produced by Paul Worley, THE DRIVER explores new territory with a raw sound that pushes his vocals into a lower, grittier key. Along with his success as part of multi-Platinum award-winning trio Lady Antebellum, Kelley has also penned No. one hits recorded by Luke Bryan and Darius Rucker. It’s Lady Antebellum’s universal appeal that continues to resonate across the globe, as they continue to headline festivals throughout the summer on the LADY ANTEBELLUM 2016 SUMMER TOUR. For more information on new music and for a full list of tour dates visit www.charleskelley.com