NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Country Music Hall of Fame member and MCA Nashville recording artist George Strait has released “I Believe” as the new single from his current album Love Is Everything and the follow-up to his 60th No. 1 “Give It All We Got Tonight” which named Strait the first musician in music history to achieve the milestone. The May 2013 release is his 40th studio album, produced by Strait and Tony Brown.

Strait co-wrote the new single with his son, Bubba Strait, and legendary songwriter Dean Dillon after watching the news coverage of the tragic school massacre in Newtown, Conn. last December.  Having lost his daughter at a young age, George felt as if it was a song he needed to write.  Yet, when he was working on the album, he didn’t initially record the song.  After listening to the playback of the album, Strait’s wife Norma insisted that he record the song so at the end of the session he asked the band to record one more.

“Like everybody, I was watching the coverage on TV,” said Strait in an interview that can be viewed HERE. “I know what these parents are going through. It’s the worst thing that can happen to you in your life. To lose a child….there’s nothing worse than that. So I started thinking about saying something about it.” He continues, “It’s a statement of faith, is really what it is. It turned out beautiful.”

The critics agree:

• “Carefully rendered and unabashed in optimism, ‘I Believe’ is as personal as anything Strait has ever recorded.” Los Angeles Times 
• “’I Believe’…puts his faith on display as never before. On this album, Strait shows a few different moods, and it’s kind of rare to hear him at such a despondent place. At the same time, that fear is lifted by his faith in a higher power – which helps get him through the rough waters.” – Billboard
• “‘I Believe’ is a strong ballad about faith – a rare moment of variety – and the message will leave many with goosebumps.”  – Taste of Country

Earlier this year Strait kicked off in high gear during the first leg of his The Cowboy Rides Away Tour. The tour earned Strait the title as the highest ranked country act on Pollstar’s 2013 Worldwide Tickets Chart, and he is expected to announce details and dates for the 2014 leg of his tour, kicking off early next year, later this fall.

For more information on Strait, Love Is Everything, The Cowboy Rides Away Tour and more, visit www.GeorgeStrait.com.

Drake White premieres an acoustic version of his video for “The Simple Life” at American Songwriter’s website. The single is currently making its way up the country charts.

Drake returns to Toby Keith‘s Hammer Down Tour July 19th in Cleveland, Ohio.

Gary Allan’s latest single, “Pieces,” is a positive way to look at past relationships and perhaps a very constructive way to reflect on who you may be as a person. “It’s what you’ve been through that makes you, and to me, that’s what ‘Pieces’ is,” says Gary. “I always believe that no matter who you meet, you take something from that person. You meet them for a reason, especially anybody that’s in your life for any length of time. Whether it’s a positive or a negative, you always end up taking something from that person.”

He co-wrote the song with Sarah Buxton and Odie Blackmon, which was the first time the three of them had written together…and also marks the first time he’d written with a woman.

Check out more of the “Pieces” from Gary’s life when GAC’s Backstory: Gary Allan airs this Sunday (July 14th) at 10pm ET/9pm CT.

Gary Allan (Pieces) 2 OC: …everyone I’ve met. :23
“It’s what you’ve been through that makes you, and to me, that’s what ‘Pieces’ is. I always believe that no matter who you meet, you take something from that person. You meet them for a reason, especially anybody that’s in your life for any length of time. Whether it’s a positive or a negative, you always end up taking something from that person and to me, that’s what that song is about, pieces. It’s pieces of everything I’ve been through. It’s pieces of everyone I’ve met.”

Nashville, TN – July 9, 2013 – Multi-Platinum selling singer/songwriter and Arizona native Dierks Bentley will make a special trip to his home state this month to headline the Country Cares Concert, benefiting The Granite Mountain Hotshots on July 22nd at Tim’s Toyota Center in Prescott Valley, AZ. The New KMLE Country @ 107.9 and 92.9 KAFF Country have organized the concert to raise money for the families of the 19 firefighters who lost their lives in last week’s wildfires. Tickets will go on sale this Friday, July 12th at 12:00P CT at KMLE1079.com and at Tim’s Toyota Center box office.

“I want to help honor the memory of these 19 brave firefighters, to be part of the healing process for the community and to raise money for the families left behind,” said Bentley. “I was and still am devastated by this tragic event in my home state. I certainly can’t imagine what these families are enduring, but I do believe in the healing power of music and hope as many Arizonans as possible can come out and be part of this event.” 

“We hope this benefit concert gives everyone affected by this tragedy the opportunity to come together and heal,” said KMLE Country @ 107.9 Program Director Tim Richards.  “We want to raise as much money as possible to help the families of these amazing heroes.” 

Fans and community members will have the chance to purchase tickets to the concert and special VIP packages with all proceeds going to the United Phoenix Firefighters Charities who will distribute directly to the families of the 19 fallen firefighters. Fifty-one children were left without fathers in the wake of this tragedy. 

Arizona native Dierks Bentley has forged his own artistic path in an industry built predominantly on formula. He has mixed elements of modern country, classic country, bluegrass and rock, maintaining an unmistakable identity while constantly reinventing his sound. His album HOME debuted at No. 1 and spawned three consecutive chart-topping hits, marking 10 career No. 1 songs for Bentley as a singer and songwriter. His five previous studio albums have sold more than five million copies, garnered 11 GRAMMY nominations and earned him an invitation to join the Grand Ole Opry. Bentley is currently in the studio working on his upcoming album RISER due out this fall and will pick back up later this month on the Miranda Lambert and Dierks Bentley: Locked & Reloaded Tour through October. 

Additional artist announcements and more information can be found on dierks.com and KMLE1079.com. 

About The New KMLE Country @107.9
The New KMLE Country @107.9 is the leading country station in Phoenix, AZ.  KMLE Country @107.9 is owned and operated by CBS RADIO, one of the largest major-market operators in the United States.  A division of CBS Corporation, CBS RADIO operates 130 radio stations throughout the nation’s top 50 markets.  For more information on CBS RADIO, please visit www.cbsradio.com. For more information on the New KMLE Country @107.9, please visit www.kmle1079.com. 

About the United Phoenix Firefighters Charities
The United Phoenix Firefighters Charities is an association of professional firefighters from Chandler, Glendale, Peoria, Phoenix, and Tempe that works to better the communities in which we live by delivering excellent Fire and Medical Services, performing charitable works, and by doing whatever they can do to make the cities that they serve a better place to live. For more information about the United Phoenix Firefighters, please call 602-277-1500.

About 92.9 KAFF Country
92.9 KAFF Country is the leading country music radio station in Flagstaff, AZ, and serves the Arizona cities of Flagstaff, Prescott, Sedona, Williams, Cottonwood, Camp Verde, Prescott Valley, and Winslow.  92.9 KAFF Country is owned and operated by GuyAnn Corporation of Flagstaff, AZ.  For more information about 92.9 KAFF Country, please visit http://kaff.gcmaz.com/.

Luke Bryan‘s “Crash My Party” has climbed to the top of the Country Aircheck chart and is spending a second week at number-one on the Billboard country singles chart, marking the Georgia native’s seventh chart-topping hit. The single is the first release from the ACM Entertainer of the Year’s forthcoming album, also titled Crash My Party, due in stores and at all online retailers August 13th.

By the way, “Crash My Party” has set the record for largest single week audience total at BDS! Billboard switched from “spins” to “audience i”n 2005 and this week’s total of 45.5 million is the largest total since 2005.

Luke continues his Dirt Road Diaries Tour Thursday in Birmingham, Alabama.

George Strait is getting ready to hit the airwaves with his latest single, “I Believe,” which is a song he co-wrote with his son, Bubba, and hit wordsmith Dean Dillon. The superstar was moved to write something after watching news coverage of the mass murder at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut in which 20 children and six adults lost their lives to a lone gunman last December. “I was actually by myself at the ranch, and I’m watching and thinking how terrible it is, the parents losing their children and the other people that lost their lives there. Man, it’s such a sad thing,” says George. “Having been through something like that before myself, I just knew I kinda wanted to say a little something.”

“I Believe” is from George’s new album, Love is Everything.

George Strait talks about “I Believe,” which he wrote with his son, Bubba, and songwriter Dean Dillon.

George Strait (I Believe) OC: …stronger song. 1:05
“It is a special song. Like everybody else, I was captivated by what went on in Newtown, watching the news. I was actually by myself at the ranch, and I’m watching and thinking how terrible it is, the parents losing their children and the other people that lost their lives there. Man, it’s such a sad thing. Having been through something like that before myself, I just knew I kinda wanted to say a little something. And so I called Bubba – I wrote a few things down, and I called Bubba, and I started talking to him. He said, ‘Dad, I was actually thinking the same thing.’ Bubba actually came up with the title. I wrote a bunch of stuff down that night and he did too, and I said, ‘Look, I’m gonna send this to Dean, ‘cause this song really needs one of those good ole Dean Dillon melodies and some finishing touches that I knew Dean could make it what it came out to be. I sent it out to Dean, and when Bubba went to write with him, they started tinkering with it and Dean came up with that melody and they changed a few things too and made it a stronger song.”

Kacey Musgraves “sees” things – not in a Sixth Sense “I see dead people” kind of way – but more of a creative, visual way, most likely when she’s in the midst of writing songs. For her latest single, “Blowin’ Smoke,” Kacey envisioned what kind of video she’d like, while she was in the process of writing the song with Luke Laird and Shane McAnally. “I’m kind of a big picture person, as in like I see the video. I see like, I’m just visual. I love all those aesthetic parts of music,” says Kacey. “So, after we wrote this, I kind of pictured this like hazy-like diner noise kind of in the background. It’s like you’re there. You can just hear like plates clinking and people coughing and orders being called out.”

“Blowin’ Smoke” is from her album, Same Trailer, Different Park.

Kacey is locked in as one of the performers at this year’s Farm Aid concert September 21^st in Saratoga Springs, New York.

Kacey Musgraves (Blowin’ Smoke visuals) OC: …we left it. :47
“When I’m writing a song, I’m kind of a big picture person, as in like I see the video. I see like, I’m just visual. I love all those aesthetic parts of music. So, after we wrote this, I kind of pictured this like hazy like diner noise kind of in the background. It’s like you’re there. You can just hear like plates clinking and people coughing and orders being called out. So I told Luke and Shane that I think it’d be cool to have some sort of something back there, and one day Luke went to, I believe it was Waffle House, and just put his iPhone on the counter and just recorded his whole time there, and that’s what made it on the record. It’s funny because you can hear a Waffle House lady in the background calling out an order, and she’s like, ‘Bacon and scattered!’ and we left it.”

Luke Bryan and the guys head to Canada for Dauphin’s Countryfest 2013! GAC-TV’s Storme Warren makes a guest appearance and some of Luke’s crew guys explore the campgrounds and see how the fans in Canada party at a country concert.

In the latest Urban Chat, Keith Urban wishes everyone a Happy Fourth of July and looks forward to rehearsals for his Light the Fuse Tour.