On the heels of winning ACM Video of the Year Award for “Mr. Misunderstood” earlier this month, Eric Church has premiered his new music video for current single, “Record Year,” on Vevo earlier today with a broadcast debut on CMT’s Hot 20 Countdown this Saturday, April 30. The music video again enlists directors John Peets and Reid Long and features teenager McKinley James who starred in the music video for “Mr. Misunderstood” and appears on the cover art of Church’s highly acclaimed album by the same name.  Also making an appearance in the 3:09 video is Church’s new uniquely designed and distinctively customized signature edition of the world famous Gibson Hummingbird acoustic guitar, aptly termed by Church as Hummingbird Dark. Church –who joins artists such as Bob Dylan, Jackson Browne, Emmylou Harris, and Pete Townshend who have also constructed their own signature guitars – is seen playing the model throughout the video shot in an abandoned schoolhouse on the outskirts of Nashville, Tenn.

“…a standout of Church’s latest album…” raved Rolling Stone rejoicing it “…makes the case for losing oneself in music to get over a break-up. Specifically, it’s the warmth of vinyl albums…” and Los Angeles Timesdubbing it one of his more “deeply felt heartbreak songs.” Church co-wrote the track, #9 on Mr. Misunderstood, with longtime banjo player and guitarist Jeff Hyde. With poignantly clever lyrics, “Record Year” is Church’s ode to a lost-love who instead of finding solace in another’s arms finds consolation in a three-foot stack of vinyl albums. Iconic albums and artists are namechecked in the song, including Stevie Wonder’s Songs In The Key of Life, Willie Nelson’s Red Headed Stranger, John Lee Hooker’s One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer as well as artists James Brown, Waylon Jennings, George Jones, and New Grass Revival, reflecting the diversity of influence on Church and his music.

Throughout the video, Church and his band members are seen marking time by listening to vinyl records on turntables as well as performing. In several key visuals, vinyl records are stacked horizontally to become a 3-D audio waveform reflecting the sonic intensity of the song.

Next up Church will be seen performing with his new Gibson Hummingbird Dark acoustic guitar at Stagecoach Festival on April 29 in Indio, California.  He will then perform two shows at The Joint in Las Vegas at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino on April 30 and May 1, but until then, fans can see the customized acoustic guitar here in the music video for “Record Year.”

About Eric Church
The two-time Country Music Association and four-time Academy of Country Music Award winner cemented his reputation as a maverick by releasing his 2015 album Mr. Misunderstood as a surprise, delivering it to fans before announcing its existence and putting it on sale. He is rising up the country charts with “Record Year,” the second single, which Rolling Stone dubbed “the most moving moment” on the widely lauded album.

The North Carolina native’s previous album, The Outsiders debuted at No. 1 on both the Billboard Top 200 Albums Chart and Top Country Albums Chart with the highest debut and sales of any release in the format that year, making Church 2014’s top-selling country music artist. The album garnered GRAMMY, CMA and ACM Album of the Year nominations and featured his No. 1 hits “Give Me Back My Hometown” and “Talladega,” as well as multiple nominee “Like A Wrecking Ball.” The Outsiders was the follow-up to Church’s Platinum-certified CHIEF, named the 2012 Album of the Year by both CMA and ACM, and GRAMMY-nominated for Best Country Album. The LP featured five Top 20 singles: “Homeboy” (certified Platinum for sales in excess of 1 million); the Top 10 “Like Jesus Does” and the Top 5 “Creepin’” (both certified Gold for sales in excess of 500,000); and two No. 1 hits “Drink in My Hand” (certified Platinum) and “Springsteen” (certified Double Platinum for sales in excess of 2 million singles). Church’s 2006 debut album, Sinners Like Me, and his sophomore album, Carolina, (2009) are both RIAA Gold certified.

About Gibson Hummingbird Dark Signature Acoustic Guitar
Hand-crafted in Gibson’s acoustic facility in Bozeman, Montana, Eric Church’s groundbreaking new acoustic guitar, Hummingbird Dark, is a result of Church’s personal artistic vision with its translucent ebony- burst lacquer finish, dark mother of pearl fingerboard inlay, black body binding, and a matching new Hummingbird Dark pickguard. Upgraded performance features include a more slender body depth for a superior tonal balance and an LR Baggs VTC pickup for completely natural acoustic sound reproduction when amplified. Retail information will be available beginning in mid-May on Gibson.com as production of the Hummingbird Dark signature guitars is rolled out from Montana.

photo credit: Reid Long

Known for building one of country music’s most loyal fan bases in the U..S,  Kip Moore looks to have emulated this fervent following in the UK and Ireland in the wake of his headlining stint across the pond this past week.  Moore’s return was “eagerly anticipated” (Think Country) with the majority of shows selling out months in advance, prompting the move to bigger venues.  Fans and critics agree he “cemented that special bond between crowd and performer…daring to be different, daring to take a risk, he is able to take the crowd further than most artists can by the sheer force of his performance” (2 Country Radio).

Kicking off in Dublin on Friday (4/22), Moore set the pace with a raucous show that led to an impromptu after-show performance at the stage door for fans who weren’t ready to call it a night, followed by a sold-out crowd in Glasgow (4/23) where he again took to the historic streets of the city after his performance to keep the party going.  Rowdy shows in England beckoned as Moore played to packed houses in Birmingham (4/25), Manchester (4/26) and he closed out the triumphant run with a sold-out show in London last night (4/27).

Moore will head back out on the road next month for Miranda Lambert’s Keeper Of The Flame Tour, which kicks off in St. Louis, MO on 5/13 and also features Brothers Osborne. His current single, “Running For You,” continues to climb the charts and was taken from the critically acclaimed sophomore album WILD ONES that VICE declares “sprinkles a little late-night Bonnaroo magic…that’s made to be witnessed live.” WILD ONES follows Moore’s debut album UP ALL NIGHT which was recently certified GOLD by the RIAA and spawned three No. One hit singles including GOLD certified “Beer Money,” PLATINUM certified “Hey Pretty Girl,” and the DOUBLE PLATINUM breakout hit “Somethin’ ‘Bout A Truck.”

Today marks the release of Keith Urban’s new video “Wasted Time,” for the song that is one of the fastest rising chart singles of his career. The video marks the second from Urban’s new album RIPCORD (“John Cougar, John Deere, John 3:16), which will be released on Friday, May 6th, and the third directed by John Urbano (“Cop Car” and “Somewhere In My Car”).

Of “Wasted Time” Urban says, “I worked with a lot of new people on Ripcord, and Greg (Wells) was one I’d wanted to work with for a long time.”  “He’d been writing a lot with J (James) and so the three of us spent a couple days at Greg’s studio to jam and see if we clicked. Greg had this cool chord progression and I grabbed my guitar and started singing a melody.”

“J suggested the title, and before we knew it, we were talking about growing up and all the things you do, no matter where you are in the world, and the song just took off from there.” “Wasted Time” was co-written by Greg Wells, J Hart and Urban and was co-produced by Urban and the Grammy Award winning Producer of the Year Greg Wells (Adele, Katy Perry, Pharrell Williams, etc.).

The much-anticipated eighth studio album RIPCORD, the result of Urban’s nearly 18-month musical journey, features some of the music industry’s most celebrated and influential musical collaborators from Pitbull to Nile Rodgers to Carrie Underwood and Dann Huff to Jeff Bhasker, Greg Wells and busbee.

Its release coincides with the June 2nd launch of the four-time Grammy Award winner’s “ripCORD WORLD TOUR 2016” with Brett Eldredge and special guest Maren Morris.

For more Keith Urban news and information go to www.keithurban.net.

In just one week, Keith Urban will release his new studio album, Ripcord. The collection has already spawned two No. 1 singles – “John Cougar, John Deere, John 3:16” and “Break on Me,” as well as a new hit, “Wasted Time.” Keith wrote the song with Greg Wells and J. Hart, and found out the three of them, while growing up in completely different places, had many of the same experiences.

“I have a lot of that formative years memories from sort of ten to 16, 17 right through there. So, that’s a big coming of age, right of passage period in a boy’s life,” says Keith. “And there was a place we had to I think it was called Lime Rock was the name of the little water hole we would go down to and there was a big rope swing that someone had put in a tree and it was a horrendously long drop to the river below and we would often just cut class and go down there and hang out. And I have such great memories of that. It was an exhilarating, exciting time. You know, girls and skipping class and finding somebody that owns a car on a Friday night and pile into that and drive around with nothing to do except hang out at the gas station act important and be somebody that you’re not. And it was crazy, you know. I get here to write with these two guys and Greg’s [Wells] from Canada and J. [Hart] is from Atlanta, Georgia and yet the three of us had the exact same memories, pretty much the same. Different names of drinks, different names of cars, different names of towns, but pretty much all the same things. So, this song really took off when we started writing it.”

The video for “Wasted Time” has just premiered on Vevo, while Keith’s new album, Ripcord, is available May 6th.

Dierks Bentley is just a month away from releasing his new album, Black, and he says it’s pretty much a relationship-based record.

“Whenever I’m moving forward into a new album, I’m definitely looking for a new sound, some new idea to kind of like start writing to wrapping the album around. So, it’s either a sonic thing or a lyrical thing or an idea,” says Dierks. “On the last record it really came from, I had some personal stuff going on in my life with people passing away and people being born. On this record, it really came from the song ‘Black,’ which is the album title. Just these milestones were passing me by, and I didn’t really get a chance to celebrate them or honor them. My wife and I had our 10 year anniversary, and it just kinda came and went, so I kind of started thinking about that and relationships in general and how crazy it is to be with someone for 10 years. And that really sparked the idea for the song ‘Black,’ and really from there that’s kind of the cornerstone of the record, that song, and that’s where the idea for this kind of relationship-based record came from and trying to do it in a way that’s a little bit different than just a love song, all love song-based album.”

The first single from the album, “Somewhere on a Beach,” is sitting inside the Top 3 on the country charts. Black is set for release May 27th.

Dierks is receiving a lot of praise and acclaim for Black…even his friend Keith Urban, who received an advanced copy of the album, had great things to say about Dierks’ new album, and so…he tweeted him: “…really proud of u brutha. ‘Different For Girls’ – THAT’S a song!!”

Dierks Bentley announced plans today to celebrate Memorial Day (5/30) with a concert on the beach, inspired by the scorching lead single from his upcoming studio album BLACK (Capitol Records Nashville), out May 27th.  Dierks’ “Somewhere On A Beach Bash” will hit Panama City Beach, Florida’s favorite hangout, Spinnaker Beach Bar, as Bentley’s fanclub members and Citi card members will have first access to presale tickets on Tuesday (4/26) at 10:00A CT through Thursday (4/28) at 10:00P CST at DierksSomewhereOnABeachBash.com. General public tickets are available this Friday (4/29) at 10:00A CT. Citi is the official credit card of the event.

“Memorial Day is the official kick off to summer, and this will be a great way to celebrate the current single and the new album,” said Bentley. “We’ll pack as many people on the beach as we can…probably need to start icing the beer down now!”

Fans across the country have already propelled “Somewhere On A Beach” into the Top 3 on the Billboard Country Airplay, Mediabase and Country Digital Songs charts, making it the fastest rising single of Bentley’s career. The relationship rebound track also notched the No. One spot on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart.

The country superstar will set sail on his 2016 Somewhere on a Beach Tour with Randy Houser, Cam and Tucker Beathard beginning May 12th in Holmdel, New Jersey.  For more information on the new album, upcoming appearances and tour dates, stay tuned to www.dierks.com.

On a balmy Friday night in April in Las Vegas, the heat only added to the excitement as George Strait packed the new T-Mobile Arena and captivated a record-setting 19,222 fans during the opening night of his Strait to Vegas exclusive concert series. With his Resistol cowboy hat on his head, his signature Wrangler shirt and denim with a well-worn acoustic guitar and the expert Ace in the Hole Band backing him up, Strait proved once again that he is the undeniable “King of Country Music” and consummate entertainer. As he churned through hit after hit, he lived up to the Las Vegas Review Journal‘s bolstering observation, “George Strait is someone you can legitimately say is in a league of his own.” George performed a second night on Saturday (April 23rd), as well.

“I’ve missed you guys and I’m looking forward to being here a few more nights this year,” Strait told the crowd early on in the night before performing for over two hours. In addition to playing a selection of his illustrious 60 career No. 1’s including “Give It All We’ve Got Tonight,” “Ocean Front Property,” “All My Ex’s Live in Texas” and more, Strait also took a moment to pay tribute to Merle Haggard who was not only an icon for Strait but also a friend. “We’ll never get to hear Merle play live again, but his music will live on forever,” Strait said before performing a medley consisting of “Mama Tried,” “Fightin’ Side of Me,” and “My Life’s Been Grand,” with Strait pausing at the end in remembrance.

GRAMMY, CMA and ACM Award-winning singer/songwriter Kacey Musgraves opened the show.

Strait first announced his plans to perform a series of select shows at T-Mobile Arena last September, immediately selling out every date in the Strait to Vegas concert series for 2016 and 2017. Musgraves will join Strait as support for all 2016 dates.

Upcoming Strait to Vegas dates are as follows, with more likely to be added in 2017:

Friday, Sept. 9, 2016
Saturday, Sept. 10, 2016
Friday, Dec. 2, 2016
Saturday, Dec. 3, 2016
Friday, Feb. 17, 2017
Saturday, Feb. 18, 2017

For more information, visit www.straittovegas.com.

About George Strait
George Strait is the undeniable “King of Country Music.” His music career spans more than 30 years; includes 60 No. 1 singles, more than any other artist in any genre; and boasts 33 platinum or multi-platinum-selling albums, more than any country artist and third across all genres behind only The Beatles and Elvis Presley. Strait is the only act in history to have a Top 10 hit every year for over three decades and has sold nearly 70 million albums and earned more than 60 major entertainment industry awards.

Strait, whose name has become synonymous with “real country” since his 1981 debut, was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2006. He has since released five more albums, including the GRAMMY Award-winning Troubadour and his latest chart-topping release, Cold Beer Conversation. In 2014, he shattered the North American indoor concert attendance record by drawing 104,793 concertgoers to his The Cowboy Rides Away Tour finale at AT&T Stadium in Dallas. Strait will perform six sold-out shows at the Las Vegas Arena in 2016 as part of his “Strait to Vegas” exclusive concert series, which has been extended into 2017 due to overwhelming demand.

Early Friday morning (April 22nd), Lady Antebellum’s Hillary Scott sent out a letter to her fans via social media introducing her latest musical endeavor and describing the story behind her amazing first single, “Thy Will.” It’s the debut from the upcoming album, Love Remains, by Hillary Scott & The Scott Family, and it is being sent to both Country and Christian radio.

“I’m so excited the day is finally here that I get to share with you all what I’ve been up to,” says Hillary. “I have made a faith-based album entitled Love Remains. The best part about this collection of songs is that it is featuring my mom Linda Davis, my father Lang Scott and my little sister Rylee Scott, all produced by Ricky Skaggs. So ladies and gentlemen, I would like to introduce to you Hillary Scott & The Scott Family.”

“I wanted to first share ‘Thy Will.’ I wrote this song about a very recent experience that left me heart broken, asking why, and facing some of my most difficult days. This song is my letter to God. As I ask some really hard questions, I hold much of the story of my life that I can’t see, but that I still choose to trust Him.”