Get ready for the new EP Spring Break 6…Like We Ain’t Ever from the reigning ACM Entertainer of the Year, Luke Bryan, on March 11th. 

NASHVILLE, TN – (February 19, 2014)  – ACM Awards Show co-host and reigning Entertainer of the Year Luke Bryan will release his next Spring Break themed digital EP on Tuesday, March 11, 2014, SPRING BREAK 6…LIKE WE AIN’T EVER. The album contains six original songs, all co-written by Luke. 

“The songs for this project came together so fast,” said Bryan. “These special EP’s all began as a way to get new music out to the fans between studio projects.  I feel like year after year we get a little bit better at writing for this.  I think with these new songs I would be proud to put them on any album we release.” 

Luke will once again play two free concerts at Spinnaker’s Beach Club in Panama City, Florida on March 11 and 12 for the sixth consecutive year.  Last year’s shows saw a 2-day crowd total of 120,000 fans.  

SPRING BREAK 6…LIKE WE AIN’T EVER Track List:

1. She Get Me High

2. Like We Ain’t Ever

3. Night One

4. Are You Leaving With Him

5. Good Lookin Girl

6. The Sand I Brought To The Beach 

Luke’s previous five Spring Break releases have sold over 750k copies.  Last year’s album debuted at #1 on the Billboard Country sales chart and earning him his first #1 album on Billboard’s Top 200 chart, selling 149,515 units its first week.

Luke Bryan (Spring Break 2014) OC: …with this one. :14
“I love how the songs came together. I feel like year after year we always get a little bit better on the Spring Break albums, and it’s just all about trying to make the music better each and every year, and I feel like we’ve done that with this one.”

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – One week after the release of Eric Church’s critically acclaimed new studio album, The Outsiders, he sits at the No. 1 spot on both the Billboard Top 200 and the Billboard Top Country Album sales charts with album sales of nearly 288,000 (287,688), according to Soundscan. With this news, Church has nearly doubled his previous 2011 album, Chief’s, first week sales.

Fans and critics alike have been anxious for the North Carolina singer/songwriter’s fourth studio album, produced by Jay Joyce, that was released via EMI Nashville on February 11th; an album that Entertainment Weekly gave a Grade A and says is “the still-rising star’s most brazen, brilliant disc yet, and the first great album of this year,” while NPR Fresh Air’s critic Ken Tucker announced “Eric Church is working on a level that few other country artists of his generation can touch.”

In advance of the release of The Outsiders, Church was recently profiled on CBS Sunday Morning with footage taken at Church’s remote cabin in the mountains of North Carolina. That same week he graced the cover of SPIN where the magazine claims “He’s the most exciting, sonically fearless singer in Nashville,” adding “The guy [is] so divisive he’s a uniter.”

USA Today listed The Outsiders as its Album Of The Week on February 11, giving the release FOUR out of FOUR Stars, touting “It’s adventurous and outrageous, full of metallic guitars and funky country skronk but also expresses vulnerability and pain.” The Tampa Bay Times says that the singer/songwriter is “Giving you something new and unexpected: That’s how Church scores his high.”

For more information on The Outsiders and Eric Church, please visit www.ericchurch.com or follow on Twitter @EricChurch and Facebook at www.Facebook.com/ericchurch.

Check out an in-depth piece with RollingStone.com here. 

Eric Church (comparing new album to last) OC: …got over that. :48
“I don’t judge an album on, ‘Did it sell more than the last one? Did it have more No. 1’s than the last one?’ That’s not the way I view success. That’s the commercial side. The way I view it is creatively, does it go somewhere the one before it didn’t go? And with this album, I can absolutely say, it beats Chief in that regard, if we’re trying to beat it, you know? I don’t like viewing it that way. I think every record’s its own thing. But from a creative standpoint, this is a more creative album. This is a more artistic album than we’ve ever done. for me and Jay, as the person that have made the albums, I can very easily look at somebody and go, ‘Yeah! It’s the best record we’ve made,’ on that basis. Will it sell as many? I have no idea. [laughs] See, I can’t control that, but I can control the creative bar, and we got over that.”

Luke Bryan’s “Drink a Beer” is spending a third week at the top of the charts. The track from his latest album, Crash My Party, is having a huge effect on his audiences out on his That’s My Kind of Night Tour. “It’s really special to be on stage and look out in the crowd…and you can tell when somebody’s really, really affected by it emotionally,” says Luke. Performing the song also has an emotional effect on the Georgia native, as well. “It’s an emotional ride for me every night to perform it, and I love having that aspect to my show too, where I can just sit down and be real raw and real emotional.”

The reigning ACM Entertainer of the Year is up for three awards at this year’s ACM Awards, including Entertainer, Male and Album of the Year. He’ll return as co-host of the show, along with his buddy Blake Shelton, when it airs live from the MGM Grand in Las Vegas April 6th on CBS.

Luke Bryan (Drink a Beer stories) OC: …for the fans. 1:14
“I’ve had tons of people walk up and say, ‘Gosh, I used to go fish with my Dad, and we would drink a beer, and my dad’s passed away. And I drink a beer when I’m fishing, I think about my Dad.’ There’s tons of those stories. It’s really special to be on stage and look out in the crowd…and you can tell when somebody’s really, really affected by it emotionally, and they’re thinking about a lost loved one and stuff, and I think that’s special for me to have in my show. Obviously, my show has a lot of big fun moments where everybody’s kind of letting their hair down and dancing and having a great time, but it’s nice to have that real, real surreal moment in my show too. We played a real big indoor arena that had about 24,000 people in it, and a lot of ‘em had their cell phones lit up during ‘Drink a Beer.’ It was a real magical kind of deal. It was very powerful, and it’s an emotional ride for me every night to perform it, and I love having that aspect to my show too where I can just sit down and be real raw and real emotional with a song for the fans.”

As he gears up for the release of his new album, Riser, Dierks Bentley and his crew get into the Olympic spirit by visiting the Niagara Falls Curling Club. They got to try out their skills at the sport in the latest episode of DBTV below.

Nashville, TN – February 18, 2014—Today, Mountain Dew® welcomes Grammy-nominated country artist Dierks Bentley to the DEW family, creating a dynamic new partnership that pairs the iconic brand’s one-of-a-kind flavor and heritage as a cultural instigator with Bentley’s trailblazer attitude and authentic sound. 

The partnership names Mountain Dew as a tour sponsor, helping Bentley take the personal and genre-bending tunes featured on his seventh studio album, RISER, across the nation this summer for his headlining tour. The tour will also feature special guests Chris Young, Chase Rice and Jon Pardi.

“Fans know that they are getting something real when they listen to Dierks Bentley – he expresses who he is through his music and that’s a trait that vibes really well with the Mountain Dew brand,” said Greg Lyons, Vice President of Marketing, Mountain Dew.  “We’re so excited to welcome him into the DEW family, and know that DEW Nation will be a big supporter of his.”

“I’m fired up about the tour this summer and happy to have Mountain Dew and the DEW Nation joining us out on the road,” said Bentley. “Dew is a brand that encourages individuality and doing things your own way, and that’s something I can definitely identify with and get behind.”

Join the conversation about Bentley and DEW @mtn_dew #DierksJoinsDEW. A list of RISER tour dates and cities is available at www.dierks.com. The RISER album is available beginning February 25, 2014. 

About Mountain Dew 
Mountain Dew, a product of PepsiCo Americas Beverages, is the No. 1 flavored carbonated soft drink in the U.S. With its one-of-a-kind citrus taste, Mountain Dew exhilarates and quenches with every sip. In addition to original Mountain Dew® and Diet Mountain Dew®, the permanent DEW product line includes Mountain Dew Code Red®, Mountain Dew LiveWire®, Mountain Dew Throwback®, Mountain Dew Voltage® and Mountain Dew White Out®. For more information, check out www.mountaindew.com, www.facebook.com/mountaindew or follow on twitter @mtn_dew. 

About PepsiCo
PepsiCo is a global food and beverage leader with net revenues of more than $65 billion and a product portfolio that includes 22 brands that generate more than $1 billion each in annual retail sales. Our main businesses – Quaker, Tropicana, Gatorade, Frito-Lay and Pepsi-Cola – make hundreds of enjoyable foods and beverages that are loved throughout the world. PepsiCo’s people are united by our unique commitment to sustainable growth by investing in a healthier future for people and our planet, which we believe also, means a more successful future for PepsiCo. We call this commitment Performance with Purpose: PepsiCo’s promise to provide a wide range of foods and beverages for local tastes; to find innovative ways to minimize our impact on the environment by conserving energy and water and reducing packaging volume; to provide a great workplace for our associates; and to respect, support and invest in the local communities where we operate. For more information, please visit www.pepsico.com.

About Dierks Bentley 
Seven albums into one of country music’s most-respected and most-unpredictable careers, award-winning singer/songwriter Dierks Bentley continues to grow. His latest evolution comes in the form of RISER out Feb. 25, Bentley’s first album since the death of his father and the birth of his first son. Throughout his career, Bentley has mixed elements of modern country, classic country, bluegrass and rock, maintaining an unmistakable identity while constantly reinventing his sound. His last album HOME debuted at No. one on the Billboard Country Album Charts and spawned three consecutive chart-topping hits, marking 10 career No. one songs for Bentley as a singer and songwriter. His five previous studio albums have sold more than five million copies and earned 11 GRAMMY nominations, countless CMA, ACM and CMT nominations and membership at the Grand Ole Opry. Bentley will kick off his headlining RISER TOUR on May 9th in Charlotte, NC. For more information on the upcoming tour and new music, visit  www.dierks.com.

Granite Falls, North Carolina is a small town is western North Carolina, nestled against the Appalachian Mountains. It’s also the town that gave us Eric Church…and his roots there permeate his music, including his latest hit, “Give Me Back My Hometown.” “At a young age, I learned that hard work’s important…a man’s word’s important…family’s important…God’s important…and community’s important,” he says. Those values are so deeply instilled in Eric that they shine through whether he’s onstage or in the studio. “That’s the foundation that I lean on when I’m out here on the road, and I’m out here doing shows,” he adds. “It’s definitely that upbringing that you can hear in the music and that we take to the stage every night.”

You can hear those influences for yourself on Eric’s new album, The Outsiders, which is headed to the top of this week’s album charts.

Eric will head overseas  for a tour of Europe beginning February 24th in Dublin.

AUDIO: Eric Church says his small town upbringing plays a big role in his life and his music.

Eric Church (hometown) OC: …every night. :23
“I think you can hear it in the music. You know, at a young age, I learned that hard work’s important…and a man’s word’s important…and family’s important. God’s important. I think all that stuff…and community’s important. I think all that stuff you can hear in the record. And I – I still…that’s the foundation that I lean on when I’m out here on the road, and I’m out here doing shows. I mean, it’s definitely that upbringing that you can hear in the music and that we take to the stage every night.”

“Me Without You” is Jennifer Nettles’ new song from her solo album, That Girl, which debuted at the top of the country album chart a few weeks ago. It’s one of the Georgia native’s favorite tunes from the project. Jennifer says the song has its roots in “the fear and loss of a relationship.” As she explains, “It’s about those co-existing emotions and having been afraid and thinking like, ‘Oh, man – what’s going to happen?’ And then realizing, ‘Wait a minute! This ain’t so bad!’”

Jennifer is currently making her way across the country on her That Girl Tour, which makes a stop in Nashville at the historic Ryman Auditorium on Thursday (February 20th).

AUDIO: Jennifer Nettles talks about “Me Without You,” the brand new single from her chart-topping album, That Girl.

Jennifer Nettles (Me Without You) OC: …so bad. :25
“One of the things that I love about the song ‘Me Without You’ is that it is about the joy within both the fear and loss of a relationship. It’s about those co-existing emotions and [about] having been afraid and thinking like, ‘Oh, man – what’s going to happen?’ And then realizing, ‘Wait a minute! This ain’t so bad!’”

With a new season of American Idol underway, it’s hard to believe that three years have passed since we first saw Scotty McCreery auditioning for the show…and that it’s been two-and-a-half years since he was crowned the tenth season winner on the show. “I’ve grown up a heck of a lot in the last couple years,” Scotty admits, pointing out that he was just 17 when he first landed on the world’s radar. “I did a lot of growing up because I’m in an adult world now,” he explains. “I’m out there on the road, hanging with my band, and hanging with my managers…and different artists.” That maturity can be heard in Scotty’s music…and seen in his outlook. “I’ve learned a lot about myself…and [about] what’s out there – what the world has to offer,” he acknowledges, adding, “And that’ll be showing in my music.”

Scotty’s climbing the charts with “See You Tonight,” the Top 10 title track from his current album. It’s one of five songs he co-wrote for the collection.

Each year on February 14th, many people exchange cards, candy, gifts or flowers with their special someone. The day of romance we call Valentine’s Day is named for a Christian martyr and dates back to the 5th century, but has origins in the Roman holiday Lupercalia.

141 million Valentine’s Day cards are exchanged annually, making Valentine’s Day the second-most popular greeting-card-giving occasion. (This total excludes packaged kids valentines for classroom exchanges.) (Source: Hallmark research)

2.2 million marriages take place in the United States annually, which breaks down to more than 6,000 a day.

Friday is Valentine’s Day (February 14th), and we’ve got some thoughts and feelings more about love, romance and marriage from several of your favorite country artists. Some are new and some have become our favorites over the years. Which country stars are romantic? Which ones aren’t? Which ones have a good reason to celebrate the holiday that’s all about love?

AJ (Valentine’s Day) OC: …continue to. :24
“We got a lot of history together now, and we’re happier than we’ve ever been. So, she’s still beautiful, and she’s always inspired songs. I mean, one of my early hits was a song called ‘I’d Love You All Over Again,’ I wrote for her for our 10th anniversary. I mean, there’s been a zillion songs that have pieces of our good days and bad days inspired, and they continue to.”

Billy Currington (Valentine’s Day memory) OC: …took off running. :21
“Yeah, I remember my first girlfriend. I was in first or second grade, but anyway, I remember it was Valentine’s Day and your mom going, ‘You’ve got to give your girlfriend something, and you’ve got to go give it to her.’ I’ll never forget — we got her a box of chocolates or whatever it was. I remember going down to her classroom and knocking on the door, getting her to come to the door. I remember handing it to her, and then I took off running.”

Darius Rucker (wife) OC: …her and country music saved my life. :43
“I don’t know what it was about her. I mean, it was EVERYTHING about her. I knew, I told her I was going to marry her on our first date, [laughs] yeah. Beth’s a strong woman. It takes a strong woman to be married to a musician, especially a musician who was drinking and partying as hard as I was, and I think life for us is where we are now. It took a long time for us to get to where we are now, and we say to each other all the time, ‘I love us. I love our family. I love us.’ And I thank her every day for staying with me and being the strong woman she is, because with Hootie & the Blowfish, I could be gone for three months and then I’d come home for two days and then I’d be gone again for a month, and she put up with all that crap. You know, her and country music saved my life.”

David Nail (Valentine’s Day 2014) OC: …line for me. :47
“Very early on when we first started dating, the fact that I was a songwriter actually worked against me, because anytime I would say anything or write a letter, it was ‘Oh, you’re a songwriter. This just comes natural.’ So, I’ve always had to really watch what I say and how I say it and try to make it sound as genuine and regular Joe as possible. So, I definitely think as a creative person I have that romantic side that most creative people do. Sometimes I can get a little carried away and head into cheesy land a little too far, so I try to keep it as regular as possible. [Valentine’s Day] pretty traditional with us. She’s a big chocolate person, so you obviously can’t go wrong there, and a nice dinner. It’s pretty straight down the line for me.”

Dierks Bentley (Valentine’s Day realities) OC: …that’s awesome. :53
“I’m gonna be the voice of truth and honesty for Valentine’s Day for a lot of the guys out there listening and for some of the girls listening, as well too. You may like this; you may not, but Valentine’s Day is a really difficult day for guys. When you’re single, it’s stressful for like a month leading up to it, and inevitably, you do something wrong. You don’t get the wrong thing or you say too much, and she’s wanting to get engaged faster than you want to get engaged. I don’t know. It’s just a very stressful holiday. I’m at a time in my life where I got a five-year-old, a three-year-old and a zero-year-old, and we’re just really trying to survive on a day-to-day basis. I mean, we get about four hours of sleep, and we’re literally in survival mode. So, I think there should be a hall pass for guys in that phase of their life. It doesn’t take much at this stage for us to get excited. A dinner alone is heaven. I mean, if we can just have a dinner and a glass of wine, that’s awesome.”

Dierks Bentley (Valentine’s peak) OC: …48-hour party, you know? [chuckles]
“I kind of peaked when I dropped the engagement ring on her and surprised her with that and took her to Mexico and eloped. I spiked early. I peaked early. Now we’re in our eighth year. I need to find something special to do, but we keep having kids. It’s like, we can’t be away from them. We’re gonna find a week when they’re all in school and everything is set and we’ve got somebody. We have no family in town. We just have some folks that we really count on. When we get everyone locked in place, we’re gonna go somewhere for like two days and get away and have like a two-day, 48-hour party, you know?” [chuckles]

Eric Church (Valentine’s Day) OC: …love song is. :48
“True love to me is when you love a person in spite of all their fallibilities, and for me, I have a lot of ‘em. I’m definitely at times hard to love, and that’s what’s great about Katherine and the way she loves me. She loves me in spite of those things and really for those things. That’s what’s so neat about the song is it’s not getting around those things, that’s a part of who the person is and it can be challenging at times, and that’s what the song talks about, but it’s what true love is. I think if you ask Katherine, I mean her favorite song on the record is ‘Like Jesus Does.’ Wonder why that is? [chuckles] But it’s something that I’m proud that it’s on the record. And again, I just think it’s a great, realistic version of what a true love song is.”

Josh Turner (Romantic) OC: …long time to come. :26
“If you ask my wife Jennifer if I was a romantic, she would definitely say, ‘Yes.’ but she knows that sometimes my hectic schedule and our busy lifestyles can kind of interfere with the romantic side of things. But we do try to make efforts towards being together and having adult conversations and taking time away from the children and doing things that husbands and wives do, so we’ll definitely try to continue that for a long time to come.”

Keith Urban (Valentine’s Day) OC: …just me or… [laughs] :60
“I mean for me, I think a lot of it has to do with just staying present, because you know, when we start relationships, we’re so capable of honoring each other at the beginning off a relationship with cards and flowers and chocolates and attention and affection and priority. And then all of that all too many times starts to drift away, and it drifts away because it’s easy at the beginning. It just happens naturally. You’re almost overdoing it sometimes in the beginning. I was listening to the radio, [and] they’re talking about when is a relationship too soon to give Valentine’s gifts? [laughs] If you’ve been dating a guy six days, and it just started before the 14th…[laughs] and some woman said, ‘I was dating this guy three weeks and it was Valentine’s Day, and he gave me an iPad for Valentine’s Day.’ [laughs] That’s a ridiculous gift for Valentine’s Day. Is it just me, or…[laughs]”

Little Big Town (Kimberly falling in love) OC: …healed me. 1:20
KIMBERLY: “Well, I wasn’t planning on falling in love, at all. I didn’t want to…I wasn’t sure that I ever would.  So, my husband now and I were just really good friends, and after my late husband died all my friends were calling me, all the time. Just checking up on me. He was just an old friends. We had known each other for about six years, and he started calling me just like everybody else did.  But, he started calling me more than everybody else did [laughs]. We had both been through similar losses, he hadn’t lost a mate but he had lost a close friend, so we kind of bonded over that. I grieved, kind of, at him a lot. He took my grief, I had a lot of grief left, and he just took it and listened and accepted it and was so understanding and let me talk about my late husband all the time. We still talk about him a lot, and he’s totally fine with it. He says that, that made me who he fell in love with and he never minds if I bring anything from the past up which is just really sweet. I was shocked, I remember when I first realized that I was having feelings. I just thought, OK, this is so weird.  What is this?  I haven’t felt this in a long, long, time. This is weird. But, eventually I allowed myself and it’s been the most beautiful gift of my life. It pulled me out of the deepest hole that I’ve ever been in and healed me.”

Luke Bryan (Valentine’s Day 2014) OC: …so romantic. :24
“Caroline’s gonna fly out to Wilkes Barre, P-A, so she’s flying in to Scranton/Wilkes Barre. I’m never home on Valentine’s, so we always try to have some fun. We’ll go have a dinner or something like that, have a little fun for Valentines. I’ll light some scented candles on the bus. It’ll be so romantic.”