September 24, 2014 (New York) –Multi-Grammy, CMA, and AMA Award winners round out the line-up for the new season of public television’s acclaimed music series Front and Center. This season marks the series’ most diverse line-up to date, including its first Country Music performances, and one-of-a-kind shows with Dierks Bentley, Counting Crows, The Fray, John Hiatt, Lady Antebellum, Paul Rodgers, Richie Sambora, Joe Satriani, Richard Thompson, and Keith Urban.

“This season could be our best,” said Executive Producer Don Maggi. “We’re featuring some of the finest names in pop, rock and country music, who have collectively sold millions of albums, won numerous awards and are easily some of the best live entertainers in the business.”

The ten all-new shows will begin feeding to public television stations starting September 30^th. Check local listings for air dates and times in each market and for a sneak peek at the new season click here http://tinyurl.com/l89ywor.

Counting Crows            (September 30)

John Hiatt                    (October 7)

Dierks Bentley              (October 14)

Joe Satriani                  (October 21)

Lady Antebellum           (October 28)

Keith Urban                  (November 4)

Paul Rodgers                 (November 11)

The Fray                       (November 18)

Richard Thompson        (November 25)

Richie Sambora             (December 2)

          The season includes a new collaboration with the Country Music Association (CMA) featuring a 10^th Anniversary celebration of the CMA Songwriters Series with CMA Award winner Dierks Bentley. Other performances include Grammy nominee Paul Rodgers (Free, Bad Company), performing music from his first studio album in nearly 13 years, The Royal Sessions, as well as seven-time Grammy Award Winner, and six-time CMA Award winner, Lady Antebellum, with new music from their highly anticipated upcoming album 747. Grammy nominee and instrumental guitarist Joe Satriani performs an exclusive 99^th birthday commemorative concert for celebrated guitar pioneer Les Paul, and legendary songwriter/guitarist Richie Sambora, co-creator of some of the most instantly recognizable songs today, performs his first solo concert in New York City in nearly 25 years, paying tribute to his mentor and hero Les Paul.  

Country superstar Dierks Bentley said, “The core of Country Music is its songs, and the CMA established the CMA Songwriters Series 10 years ago to recognize a really important part of our genre, the songwriters. We don’t typically take the time to thank the songwriters, so collaborating with the CMA and Front and Center was the perfect place — a night with five guys on stools sharing stories, songs and whiskey.”

“My Front and Center special was special indeed,” said British rock singer Paul Rodgers. “They provided a dazzling setting for all the Royal Session musicians from Memphis, and myself, to dig into the tracks from the album. Visually and aurally the show came off beyond my expectation. Everyone worked together to capture the same magic that we captured and recorded on the album. Absolutely a night in my life to remember and I’m thrilled that we can share it with the fans.”

All episodes of Front and Center are directed by Pierre and François Lamoureux of FogoLabs.

 For more information on the Front and Center music series please visit www.frontandcenter.com and check out the YouTube page at www.youtube.com/frontandcentertv.

The members of Lady Antebellum really stretched outside of their comfort zone for the band’s new album, 747, which included  working with a new producer in Nathan Chapman (Taylor Swift, The Band Perry, Keith Urban).

“We took a breath last year, had a chance to reset, came back, and said, ‘Let’s try a new producer and let’s try coming at this from a different angle and see where it leads,’” recalls Lady A’s Dave Haywood. “I think once we got in there and really clicked with [Nathan], immediately we were all like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is amazing. Let’s keep going, keep recording with Nathan and see where we end up.’ We kind of hit that writing spree right there in the spring of this year, and we were kind of recording right at the end of that time. He worked so fast and we had everything ready, and we had ‘Bartender’ ready, so he said, ‘Let’s put that out.’”

The just celebrated two weeks at No. 1 with “Bartender,” the lead single from 747, which bows Tuesday (September 30th).

Lady A (changing it up) OC: …with Nathan. 1:20
We took a bunch of stuff in – we didn’t walk in saying, ‘We’re gonna have a record on September 30th, guys! We’ve got to make a date.’ We took a breath last year, had a chance to reset, came back, and said, ‘Let’s try a new producer and let’s try coming at this from a different angle and see where it leads.’ I think once we got in there and really clicked with him immediately, we were all like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is amazing. Let’s keep going, keep recording with Nathan and see where we end up.’ We kind of hit that writing spree right there in the spring of this year, and we were kind of recording right at the end of that time. He worked so fast and we had everything ready, and we had ‘Bartender’ ready, so he said, ‘let’s put that out.’ And we obviously had a couple other ones that were ready that we were choosing amongst, and put that out…It’s just a year, year and a half after the deluxe release of Golden. For us, I don’t think any kind of timing matters. I think fans are always ready for new stuff. I’ve laughed before when we put out a new record, and I see people online that week, say, ‘Cool! Can’t wait for the next one!’ You guys are unbelievable. I think that’s the mentality. People wanna hear something new, the newest thing you’re working on. So, we feel great and just amazing about these 11 songs that we got with Nathan.

Eric Paslay is featured on the soundtrack for the new Nicholas Sparks’ film, The Best of Me. He actually wrote “Rain From Heaven,” the song that appears on the soundtrack and in the film, nearly four years ago, but says it fits the movie perfectly.

“It’s just a beautiful song that says when things aren’t going the way you’re want it to, a lot of times God’s just kinda just resetting everything for you,” says Eric. “I think it works perfect, especially in the scene in the movie. I’ve seen the scene that they’re using it in, and it’s a pretty dramatic scene that it happens in, but I’m glad it fell out of heaven like rain.”

The soundtrack, which also features songs by Lady Antebellum, Kacey Musgraves, David Nail, Kip Moore, Thompson Square, Hunter Hayes and Colbie Caillat, among others, will be released October 7th, while the film, which stars James Marsden and Michelle Monaghan, arrives in theaters nationwide October 17th.

Luke Bryan is set to appear on ABC’s Nashville next Wednesday (October 1st), and he plays himself. During his recent appearance on ABC’s Good Morning America, he filmed a scene for the popular series, along with the show’s star Connie Britton (who plays Rayna James). While he doesn’t usually watch television, he has caught an episode or two of Nashville.

“I was glad to do the Nashville show. I know that it embodies Nashville for the most part, and I like the way they incorporated me into the show,” says Luke. “I went and performed at GMA in Central Park concert, and then they set up a script around that, and we kind of built it around that and made it happen. So, you’ll kind of understand it if you watch.”

Luke, who is nominated for three CMA Awards including Entertainer of the Year, Male Vocalist and Album of the Year, is poised to top the country charts with his latest single, “Roller Coaster,” from his double platinum album, Crash My Party.

Luke Bryan (Nashville TV show) OC: …if you watch. :24
“I was glad to do the Nashville show. I know that it embodies Nashville for the most part, and I like the way they incorporated me into the show. I went and performed a GMA in Central Park concert, and then they set up a script around that, and we kind of built it around that and made it happen. So, you’ll kind of understand it if you watch.”

Luke Bryan (Nashville TV show) 2 OC: …beautiful woman. :03
“Yeah, I got to hug up on Miss Connie Britton. She’s a beautiful woman.”

Kip Moore, Jake Owen, Joe Nichols and Rascal Flatts’ Joe Don Rooney will join Lady Antebellum at the Kelley Brothers & Friends celebrity golf tournament and concert October 27th in Augusta, Georgia.

Lady Antebellum will perform as the Grand Ole Opry as the famed institution celebrates its 89th birthday on October 10^th. They’ll be joined by Trace Adkins, Keb’ Mo and Nashville’s Claire Bowen among others during the birthday weekend.

Vince Gill tops the list of Golf Digest’s top 100 golfers in music with a handicap of +0.3. Other country artists who made the list include Lady Antebellum’s Charles Kelley, Darius Rucker, George Strait, Eric Church, Kip Moore, Jake Owen, Toby Keith, Thomas Rhett, Rascal Flatts’ Joe Don Rooney and Randy Houser.

Little Big Town will celebrate the release of their new album, Pain Killer, October 21st with a pre-tour concert at New York City’s Best Buy Theater. The album features their current Top 15 hit, “Day Drinking.” Little Big Town will kick off The Pain Killer Tour November 8th in Youngstown, Ohio.

Sam Hunt makes his debut appearance on NBC’s Late Night With Seth Myers on Wednesday (September 24th).

Eric Church has been tapped to honor the legendary Mavis Staples at an all-star concert November 19th in Chicago. He’ll be joined by Grace Potter, Gregg Allman, Michael McDonald and Patty Griffin at I’ll Take You There – Celebrating 75 Years of Mavis Staples. Tickets go on sale Monday (September 29th).

Nashville, TN – September 23, 2014 – Platinum Selling singer/songwriter Kip Moore is kicking off his headlining CMT On Tour 2014 : Up In Smoke this Thursday (9/25) with a sold-out show at New York’s Best Buy Theatre.  Advance sell outs are stacking up including the stops in Nashville, Boston, Minneapolis and a two night stand in Chicago.  Moore will hit over 20 cities through November and is bringing newcomers Charlie Worsham and Sam Hunt along for the ride. 

“We’ve been working toward this moment for a long time,” says Moore.  “To headline our own tour has been the ultimate goal for us.  What we do on stage best describes who I am as an artist.  I’m floored that dates are already sold-out.  We’ve been working hard to make sure that the fans get their money’s worth and we’re going to put everything we have on stage every single night to do just that.” 

To build anticipation for the tour, the MCA Nashville artist has released a live streaming EP, SOUNDCHECK, which is available via the Spotify CMT ON TOUR stream and here.  The EP features five live tracks, including Moore’s smash No. one hit single “Beer Money,” and the never released songs “Heart’s Desire,” “Come And Get It,” “Hang A While” and “Lipstick,” all of which Moore recorded during a rehearsal session in Nashville.  Additionally, CMT is exclusively debuting a music video for “Heart’s Desire” today on-air and at KipMoore.CMT.com, which was captured during the recording of the live EP. 

Moore’s live show has consistently garnered attention with Washington Post heralding him as “one of Nashville’s breakout stars,” St Louis Post Dispatch calling his set “fast-paced and high energy” and San Diego Union-Tribune noting he “is the most promising member in a growing group of up-and-coming male country rockers.”   For a full list of dates and ticket information, visit:  www.kipmoore.net.  

Dierks Bentley filmed the video for his new single, “Say You Do,” in Canada over the summer. The clip, directed by Wes Edwards, helps Dierks realize kind of a bucket list item — flying a seaplane.