• DIERKS BENTLEY FAN’S ‘RISER’ STORY GOES VIRAL.

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    Multi-Platinum singer/songwriter Dierks Bentley’s epic anthem “Riser” has an everyman quality and powerful message that continues to resonates with fans. Night after night on the road, fans share their personal stories on what being a “Riser” means, but this week, it was a letter from a fan named Gihee Chang that caught Bentley’s attention.  
     
    “I cried the first time I heard your song ‘Riser.’ I’ve never had that reaction from a song,’” wrote Chang.  “The lyrics reminded me so much of my dad. My dad brought us to America from South Korea, so his family could have a better life. When we arrived to this country, no-one in my family could speak, read or understand English…my dad never let us know how scared he was, having to provide for his family of five. He never gave up…his hard work paid off. Ten years later he was offered a great job as an Engineer at Boeing. His three daughters all graduated from college…he achieved his American dream. My dad has Alzheimer’s now. He can barely speak and his once strong body is now frail. But in my eyes, he is still a Riser.”
     
    Chang’s colleagues at CBS2/KCAL9 noticed Bentley posted her letter on social media this week and surprised her with an opportunity to meet Bentley at his SOUNDS OF SUMMER TOUR stop at Save Mart Center at Fresno last night (8/20). To watch Chang share her inspiring story with Bentley, click here:http://cbsloc.al/1LocyLx 
     
    “Riser” serves as the new single and exclamation point to Bentley’s CMA, ACM and GRAMMY nominated album by the same name, which has already spawned three consecutive No. one’s at country radio. Bentley is set to continue on his headlining 2015 SOUNDS OF SUMMER TOUR this weekend in Mountain View, CA (8/21), Sacramento, CA (8/22) and Stateline, NV (8/23). For a full list of upcoming tour dates, visit www.dierks.com.

    Video / Viral Letter From CBS2's Gihee Chang Prompts Meeting With Dierks Bentley

  • CLARE DUNN ANNOUNCES HEARTLAND TOUR TO ASSIST FARMING COMMUNITIES.

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    NASHVILLE, Tenn. (August 21, 2015) – Clare Dunn announces her inaugural Heartland Tour, an initiative to benefit and highlight small farming communities. Raised on a farm in Southeast Colorado with a population of approximately 30, Clare hopes to shine a light on deserving communities similar to her own. Clare established the Heartland Tour as an annual event providing exposure to a select number of struggling farming communities in the Heartland of America.

    The debut Heartland Tour will be held near Clare’s hometown of Two Buttes, where her family still resides, on September 19 at The Sand and Sage Rodeo Pavilion in Lamar, CO. Tickets are available now for $15 and can be purchased here:http://claredunn.com/heartland-tour/. All net proceeds go directly back into the surrounding farming communities.

    “I couldn’t be more excited to go back to Colorado and perform for the deserving farm communities near my hometown” says Clare. “My farming upbringing has been integral in shaping who I am as an artist and I am passionate on giving back to the great, hard-working people that make up these communities.”

    The Heartland Tour is the first initiative of Clare’s “My Love Gives Back Fund” of The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee (CFMT) and will be produced by Big Hearted Babes. The “My Love Gives Back Fund” will focus on Clare’s many philanthropic interests including farming families and communities.

    Clare’s debut single “Move On” continues to climb the country airplay charts and will be featured on her self-titled EP out September 18. Fans can catch the singer/songwriter this fall as part of Miranda Lambert’s Roadside Bars and Pink Guitars Tour as well as Chris Young’s I’m Comin’ Over Tour.

    For information, music, tour dates and more on Clare Dunn, please visit,www.ClareDunn.com.

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  • KIP MOORE’S NEW ALBUM, WILD ONES, IS NOW AVAILABLE.

    Nashville, TN – Aug 21, 2015 – MULTI PLATINUM Singer/ Songwriter Kip Moore’s highly anticipated sophomore album WILD ONES is available today (8/21.) Moore will kick off next week with a live performance on ABC’s Good Morning America on Tuesday, August 25th.
    Ahead of its release today, WILD ONES is already an established critic’s pick for 2015.
    “The album consistently serves up clever roots-rock riffs and rhythms that separate Moore from the rock-meets-rap focus of his Nashville peers” – Associated Press
    “Tip[s] his signature ball cap to traditional country, but as a whole it’s bigger and blessedly, Wild Ones is louder.”– Entertainment Weekly 
     “One heck of an album… set to produce hit after hit after hit” – Huffington Post 
    “With raspy, echoing vocals and songs … Moore pays homage to the troublemaking days that built him” – Paste
    “A record that’s inspired as much by Bruce Springsteen and Ray Charles as Willie Nelson, and showcases loud whirls of guitar and distinct, boogie baselines” – Rolling Stone
    “Kip Moore’s Wild Ones is a commanding album“ – Taste Of Country 
    “Moore avoids the mold of the Nashville machine” – Village Voice 
    Moore will continue the week proceeding with his “Comeback Kid Skatepark Project” visiting skateparks in Annapolis, MD (8/26) and San Marcos, TX (8/28) as part of the charitable initiative overseeing the construction of a series of skateparks to benefit communities and “comeback kids.”
    The highly anticipated WILD ONES follows Moore’s debut album “UP ALL NIGHT” which spawned three No. One hits including “Hey Pretty Girl,” “Beer Money” and “Somethin’ ‘Bout A Truck.” With Chicago Sun Times heralding Moore’s live show as “carving his own niche in country music…that sets him apart from the flock of country music rockers,” Moore also recently announced his headlining 2015 WILD ONES TOUR kicking off 10/8.  For a full list of tour dates and more information visit www.kipmoore.net.

    Audio / Kip Moore talks about the differences in making his previous album, Up All Night, and his new project, Wild Ones.

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    Kip Moore (differences between 2 records) OC: …finished. 1:13
    “The first record, my only record, Up All Night, was a very, most all of those songs were written before I had a record deal. It was every day I’d go in at 9 o’clock in the morning, I’d write two songs a day, and I’d leave at six. It was a very regimented process. I was a machine. I’m gonna write something – it was that kind of thing. Wild Ones, which is the title of the new record, is one of the most difficult and elating things all in one. It was painful, for many reasons, for some of the things that I touched on in the record that I was going through, and for the simple fact of how long it’s been between this record about to come out and the first one. The songs were written in such a different manner for this record than the first. They were sporadically all over the place where in the last two years mainly when I started focusing on this record because I thought the record was going to be released a year ago. So, a year before that, I was focusing on it, and it kinda morphed into one thing the first time around, because that’s where I was at that time in my life, and it’s morphed into a whole ‘nother thing for this, you know, what it actually has become. So, I would say it’s been a two year span of agony for me trying to get this thing finished.”

    Audio / Kip Moore talks about his hopes for the new album, Wild Ones.

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    Kip Moore (hopes for new album) OC: …can do. :34
    “I’m truly hoping that people just simply love the project that I’ve worked so hard on. I hope that people take the time to actually listen to this record as a whole, as a whole body of work and appreciate what we’ve done as a band. And I hope that it puts us to the next level. We want to continue growing as a band, and I hope this record achieves what I have in my mind. I like to keep those things in my mind. I don’t like to say them out loud, but I hope this record does what I have in my mind thinking that it can do.”

  • LITTLE BIG TOWN PREMIERE THE VIDEO FOR ‘PAIN KILLER’ THIS WEEKEND.

    Little Big Town premiere the video for their new single, “Pain Killer,” this weekend. The group had such a great time filming the clip in the Virgin Islands.

    “We truly did have a good time, and I think you really see it,” says LBT’s Phillip Sweet. “You see just our natural energy and interaction. Who couldn’t have fun in that location, first of all?”

    As you can see in the sneak preview below, the quartet spent time “singing” underwater, which was a first for them. “We’ve done so much over the years, it’s hard to find something new that we’ve never done before, and this we’ve never done before. We’ve never sang all glammed up under water,” says the band’s Kimberly Schlapman. “It is a little more difficult. The hardest part is staying underwater instead of poppin’ up and floatin’. That was the biggest challenge.”

    The video will premiere Saturday (August 22nd) on CMT’s Hot 20 Countdown beginning at 9am ET.

    Audio / Little Big Town talk about the new video for “Pain Killer.”

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    Little Big Town (Pain Killer video) OC: (Karen) …creative director. :48
    PHILLIP: “The video’s so fun. We truly did have a good time, and I think you really see it. You see just our natural energy and interaction. Who couldn’t have fun in that location, first of all?” KIMBERLY: “We’ve done so much over the years, it’s hard to find something new that we’ve never done before, and this we’ve never done before. We’ve never sang all glammed up under water.” JIMI: “Who knew you could sing underwater? It is challenging.” KIMBERLY: “It is a little more difficult. The hardest part is staying underwater instead of poppin’ up and floatin’. That was the biggest challenge.” KAREN: “Especially when you have on full gowns in the water. You might not be able to tell that, but…Kimberly and I had on like full gowns and then we got into the water. Roger Pistole did such a great job. He’s a great, creative director.”

    Video / Pain Killer video clip

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  • SAM HUNT IS A ‘MAN OF STYLE.’

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    NASHVILLE, Tenn. (August 20, 2015) – Breakout country star Sam Hunt is this week’s Billboard cover artist for Music’s Men of Style issue out today. This week also found Hunt performing his latest hit, “House Party,” on NBC’s “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” with an exclusive online performance of “Break Up In A Small Town.” Additionally, news came that Hunt’s second No. 1 single, “Take Your Time,” is officially RIAA-certified Double Platinum with sales topping 2 million.

    One year and one week ago, this up-and-coming Georgia-native released a four-song album preview while his debut single, “Leave the Night On,” was just making its way up the country charts. Since then, Hunt has had a near meteoric rise to the country music forefront. The Platinum-selling “Leave the Night On” quickly topped sales and airplay charts, and Hunt delivered country music’s best-selling debut album since 2011 with MONTEVALLO (MCA Nashville). He became the fastest debut country artist to earn a Gold album since 2012 when MONTEVALLO reached the 500,000 unit sales benchmark in April. MONTEVALLO remains one of the top-selling albums and is currently the all-genre No. 10 Best-Selling Digital Album year-to-date. Per Billboard, “Hunt, Ed Sheeran, Sam Smith and Taylor Swift are the only artists who have remained in the top 30 of the Billboard 200 since the start of 2015.”

    Since making his TV debut on NBC’s “Late Night with Seth Meyers,” Hunt has since performed on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” ABC’s “Good Morning America,” “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” and “Live! with Kelly & Michael,” CBS’ “Late Show with David Letterman” and “The Ellen DeGeneres Show.”

    Early on, Hunt proved his universal appeal when named the Cycle 5 winner of Spotify’s Emerge program – a first for a country artist in the all-genre competition. Hunt joins Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Atlas Genius and Bastille in the ranks of former winners. Hunt is consistently one of Spotify’s top-played artists in the U.S. across all genres. Following that lead, the newly-dubbed Double Platinum-selling “Take Your Time” is currently making waves at Top 40 radio standing in the Top 15 of both the AC and Hot AC charts.

    Another impressive feat for a newcomer, Hunt’s first-ever headlining tour sold out within minutes of going on sale. Also taking notice of Hunt, Taylor Swift recently surprised her Soldier Field fans with a guest appearance by the Billboard cover artist, calling him “the coolest thing country music has going on.”

    Hunt is currently out on tour with Lady Antebellum on the Wheels Up 2015 Tour with upcoming stops in Omaha, Neb., Bonner Springs, Kan. and Chicago, Ill.

    For more information, touring news and updates on Sam Hunt, please visit www.SamHunt.com.

    www.SamHunt.com | facebook.com/SamHuntMusic | twitter.com/SamHuntMusic | instagram.com/SamHuntMusic

  • LUKE BRYAN’S ‘KILL THE LIGHTS’ DEBUTS AT NO. 1.

    Luke Bryan’s Kill the Lights has debuted at the top of the Billboard Hot 200 album chart with more than 345,000 copies sold, according to Billboard. The collection, Luke’s fifth studio album, is the third-largest week of 2015 for album sales (the only one’s larger are the debuts of Drake’s If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late at 535,000 in overall units and Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly at 363,000 units).

    Kill The Lights’ is also the largest sales week for a country album in three years — since Luke’s last full album, Crash My Party, which bowed at No. 1 with 528,000 in August of 2013. This is Luke’s third consecutive album to debut at #1 on the Billboard Top 200.

    Kill the Lights was produced by Jeff Stevens and Jody Stevens and contains 13 songs, six of which were co-written by Luke including the title track.

    Luke’s latest single, “Strip It Down,” is climbing the country charts.

    Audio / Luke Bryan says he started working on Kill the Lights even before Crash My Party.

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    Luke Bryan (Kill the Lights album) OC: …an album. 1:35
    “What’s funny about Kill the Lights is I had some ideas that are on Kill the Lights, song ideas that we wrote so I almost started some songs on Kill the Lights before I made Crash My Party. And I mean like, yeah, that happens. When did I start preparing for Kill the Lights or getting my thoughts around it? I don’t know. Probably before Crash My Party. You never know when an old song that you’ve been working on if you sit back down and work with it if it will be something that makes an album and that was – we had that happen on this album. My producer, Jeff [Stevens], is constantly taking meetings and letting songwriters know ‘Hey! This is where we’re at’ and we’re real vocal with all that. So, we start finding songs and you put them on hold and then you put them in a little file in your computer. I will make a little file that says ‘next album,’ and I’ll start dragging those songs over into it and listening to them. So, we start that – I don’t know if we ever stop it. I don’t think you can ever be truly prepared enough going into an album. I’ve always tried to make my albums to where the label can single anything they want to whether if they need to, but obviously I have a lot of control in that. So, that’s the main thing. I mean, we get ready for our albums the same way, listen to as many songs as we can, write as many songs as we can, come up with great ideas to push the envelope on stuff and there you have it and then you have an album.”

  • CANAAN SMITH HITS THE AIRWAVES WITH NEW SINGLE, ‘HOLE IN A BOTTLE.’

    Canaan Smith is following up his recent chart-topper, “Love You Like That,” with his new single, “Hole in a Bottle.” Both songs are from his debut album, Bronco.

    He kicks off his live show with “Hole in a Bottle,” and feels it sets the tone for the rest of the night. “It sets the tone for, ‘Here we go y’all. I hope you came to party because we did.’ It’s Friday night and the whole idea of a hole in a bottle, a never ending – you’re not going to get to the bottom of it, that’s a pretty cool thing especially if you’re out to party. So I think it sets the tone for a great night.”

    Canaan is currently on the road with Dierks Bentley‘s Sounds of Summer Tour. The next date on the trek is Thursday (August 20th) in Fresno, California. For further information on Canaan, go to canaansmith.com.

    Audio / Canaan Smith talks about setting the tone for his shows with “Hole in a Bottle.”

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    Canaan Smith (Hole in a Bottle) OC: …for that. :37
    “I kick off the show with ‘Hole in a Bottle.’ It’s an amazing…it’s like it sets the tone for here we go y’all. I hope you came to party because we did. It’s Friday night and the whole idea of a hole in a bottle, a never ending – you’re not going to get to the bottom of it, that’s a pretty cool thing especially if you’re out to party. So I think it sets the tone for a great night and this album it found a good spot on the album too for that same reason. Just it sets the tone for them to feel like they can dial it up when the moment feels right and when they’re in that kind of mood to just tie one on, here’s a song, here’s a soundtrack for that.”

    Video / Canaan Smith Hole in a Bottle

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  • KIP MOORE WILL DEBUT 5 DIFFERENT MUSIC VIDEOS ON CMT AND VEVO THIS WEEK.

    Nashville, TN – Aug 17, 2015 – MULTI PLATINUM singer/songwriter Kip Moore is bringing his sophomore album WILD ONES to life in a series of music videos debuting exclusively on CMT and VEVO  as the Fri., Aug. 21 street date approaches.  The series kicks off with the album’s fierce title track today on VEVO and available to watch now here.  The video for fan-favorite track “Backseat” will premiere tomorrow (8/18) on VEVO and then CMT will jump in to premiere “Comeback Kid” (8/19), “Girl of Summer” (8/20) and “Lipstick” (8/21) each day for the rest of the week.  Fans can preorder WILD ONES here.

    “We had some fun with my fans this weekend, giving them a little teaser of what to expect from the videos, and they freaked,” said Kip Moore. “The videos were a great way for me to express some of my favorite songs off the album, and each one is so unique from the other, that I feel like they really encapsulate the different layers of this record.”

    With Rolling Stone commending WILD ONES’ “unique blend of heartland rock and blue-collar twang” ahead of its release on Aug. 21, Moore’s sophomore album captures the feeling of his live show, ranging from poignant to anthemic. Often heralded for his live show, with Chicago Sun Times recognizing Moore as “carving his own niche in country music…that sets him apart from the flock of country music rockers,” Moore recently announced his headlining 2015 WILD ONES TOUR kicking off 10/8 in Bethlehem, PA. For more information and a full list of tour dates visit www.kipmoore.net.

    Video / Wild Ones

  • SCOTTY McCREERY RELEASES HIS NEW SINGLE, ‘SOUTHERN BELLE.’

    NASHVILLE, Tenn. (August 17, 2015) – Multi-Platinum-selling country music star Scotty McCreery releases his brand new single, “Southern Belle,” to the masses today. Produced by Frank Rogers and written by Sean McConnell and Jason Saenz, “Southern Belle” is the lead single off of the ACM and CMT Award-winner’s upcoming third studio album on Mercury Nashville / 19 / Interscope Records due out early next year. Fans can preview and purchase “Southern Belle” by visiting umgn.us/SouthernBelle.

    “‘Southern Belle’ is a unique sounding song that, while still country, offers something new and different from what people might expect coming from me,” explains McCreery. “It’s a fun song and I am excited to share this with my fans!”

    In addition to the Platinum-selling fan-favorites including “See You Tonight,” “I Love You This Big,” “The Trouble With Girls,” and his most recent Top 10 Gold-selling hit, “Feelin’ It,” McCreery has been introducing his new music to fans while on the road as the Special Guest on Rascal Flatts’ Riot Tour 2015. He also debuted “Southern Belle” on the “FOX & Friends” All-American Summer Concert Series last month.

    “Southern Belle” officially goes for adds on country radio Aug. 31.

    For more information, images, tour dates, music and more, visit www.ScottyMcCreery.com.

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  • NEWS AND NOTES: Chris Stapleton, Sam Hunt, Lady Antebellum, Eric Church

    Chris Stapleton is set to perform on NBC’s Late Night with Seth Meyers on Tuesday (August 18th).

    Sam Hunt
     will perform on NBC’s Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on Tuesday (August 18th).

    Sam Hunt‘s previous No. 1 single, ‘Take Your Time,’ has been certified double platinum by the R.I.A.A. for sales of more than two million.

    As announced last week, Lady Antebellum’s Charles Kelley will soon become a daddy. The baby is due next Spring. Charles and his wife Cassie (who has a lifestyle blog Womanista, which broke the news of the preganancy) were married in 2009.

    Eric Church made a surprise appearance at Charlie Daniels’ 40th Anniversary Volunteer Jam last week in Nashville. “Charlie Daniels was a giant influence in my musical DNA,” Church said after the performance. “What he has done with the Volunteer Jam is honorable. What he has done in music is iconic. He is a gentleman and a patriot, and it was my honor to be in his presence.” The show, which also featured performances by Ted Nugent, Billy Ray Cyrus, Wynonna, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Alabama and Tracy Lawrence, was a benefit for U.S. military and veterans through The Journey Home Project.