Nashville, Tenn. – Capitol Records Nashville recording artist Darius Rucker will release his third country studio album, True Believers, on May 21.  Darius wrote ten of the twelve tracks on True Believers, produced by Frank Rogers, and the album features the Top 20-and-climbing critically-acclaimed single “Wagon Wheel” written by Ketch Secor of Old Crow Medicine Show, based on a sketch by Bob Dylan.

“I’m very proud of this record,” Rucker reveals.  “The songs, the co-writes, the vibe – it’s all really different from what we’ve recorded and released on the past two albums, and I hope that difference resonates with the fans.”

Rogers, who also produced Learn To Live and Charleston, SC 1966, shares, “When we were recording True Believers, we had Darius record a lot of the vocals for this album in his hometown of Charleston. I think as a result of that relaxed setting he was more experimental vocally, and honestly, he sang better than ever before.”

Rucker’s first two country albums, Learn To Live and Charleston, SC 1966 both topped the Billboard Country album chart and produced five No. 1 singles including “Come Back Song,” “This,” “Alright,” “It Won’t Be Like This For Long” and “Don’t Think I Don’t Think About It.”

In 2009 Rucker was named New Artist of the Year at the CMA Awards.  Most recently, he achieved a personal goal and childhood dream when he was inducted into the Grand Ole Opry on October 16, 2012.  Rucker will kick off his True Believers Tour on May 9 in Estero, Florida, visiting more than 20 cities across the U.S. before wrapping up in Clarkston, Michigan on June 30th.

True Believers Track Listing:  

1. True Believers (Darius Rucker, Josh Kear)
2. Miss You (Darius Rucker, Frank Rogers)
3. Wagon Wheel (Bob Dylan, Ketch Secor)
4. Love Without You (Brandy Clark, Shane McAnally)
5. Radio (Darius Rucker, Luke Laird, Ashley Gorley)
6. Lost In You (Darius Rucker, Mark Nesler, Phillip White)
7. I Will Love You Still (Darius Rucker, Josh Kear)
8. Take Me Home (Darius Rucker, Frank Rogers, Monty Criswell)
9. Shine (Darius Rucker, Frank Rogers)
10. Heartbreak Road (Darius Rucker, Dallas Davidson, Rhett Akins)
11. Leavin’ The Light On (Darius Rucker, David Lee Murphy, Phil O’Donnell)
12. Lie To Me (Darius Rucker, Rodney Clawson, Bob DiPiero)

For more information, please visit www.dariusrucker.com.

AUDIO: Darius Rucker says he was going for a slightly different sound for his new album, True Believers.

Darius Rucker (new album) OC: …going for. :46
“This third record we wanted to take a step different. We wanted to sound a little different – that was the big thing with me and [producer] Frank [Rogers]. The most important thing this time was the songs. This is the most important record of my career. This record is either going to make me a country superstar, or make me just another country singer. I mean, it’s really that simple, so we knew we had to go do something special. We had to have some songs that were going to connect with people and people are gonna want to hear over and over and over again and want to go buy, and so we took our time and we worked on it. I got the best compliment ever when I played three songs for friends of mine who are DJs down at country radio in Charleston. And the first question he asked me is who is my new producer? And I thought, ‘That’s a great question.’ I said the same guy. He said, ‘It doesn’t sound like it.’ That’s what we were going for.”

Check out all the fun and craziness Lady Antebellum and special guest star Beth Behrs (Two Broke Girls) had while making the video for the band’s latest single, “Downtown,” in the latest installment of Webisode Wednesday…below.

By the way, “Downtown” is Lady A’s first single from their new album, Golden, due in stores May 7th.

Kacey Musgraves’ debut single, “Merry Go Round,” has just been certified gold by the R.I.A.A., for selling over 500,000 copies. The Texas native wrote the Top 10 song with pals Josh Osborne and Shane McAnally, and she says she is truly grateful for the song and its success. “I’m so thankful for this song,” says Kacey. “I love ‘Merry Go Round’ so much, and I can’t believe where it is right now.”

You can catch her performing the song when she hits the road on Kenny Chesney’s No Shoes Nation Tour in Tampa on Saturday. She’ll also perform the tune when she appears on NBC’s Today Show Tuesday – the same day her album, Same Trailer, Different Park, is released.

AUDIO: Kacey Musgraves says she is grateful for her debut single, “Merry Go Round.”

Kacey Musgraves (thankful for Merry Go Round) OC: …it’s awesome. :30
“I’m so thankful for this song. I wrote it with Josh Osborne and Shane McAnally, one of my favorite writing combos. A lot of it was inspired by the surroundings that I had growing up, you know, just from being from a tiny little Bible-belt town, conservative. I’m just observing. I don’t want anyone to think with this song that I’m pointing a finger or being cynical. I love ‘Merry Go Round’ so much, and I can’t believe where it is right now. I mean, it’s awesome.”

Nashville, TN – Mercury Nashville singer/songwriter Kacey Musgraves is set to perform her top-10 hit single “Merry Go ‘Round” on NBC’s TODAY, Tuesday, March 19; a song that has now sold over 500k digital downloads making it eligible for GOLD certification from the RIAA.

That same day, she will release her debut album, Same Trailer Different Park, an album that the Washington Post calls “magnificent” and admits “contains some of the most straightforward storytelling you could ever ask of a dozen country tunes.” The feature goes on to say that Same Trailer Different Park has “No bells, no whistles, no throwaway lyrics — just 12 pithy singalongs, often beautiful, sometimes brilliant.” 

USA TODAY also recently featured the 24-year old with a headline that read “On the Verge: Country goes crazy for Kacey Musgraves” and declared her “country music’s newest ‘it’ girl.” 

Fans who pre-order Same Trailer Different Park at http://smarturl.it/8ilzgd will receive an instant download of Kacey’s “Follow Your Arrow.”

The latest episode of Dierks Bentley‘s DBTV gets kind of lonely for the singer-songwriter, because all he wants to do is play his banjo and fill the world with music.

Darius Rucker is set to host the ACM Lifting Lives Celebrity Golf Classic for the second consecutive year as one of the events leading up to this year’s ACM Awards. The event will take place April 6th at TPC Las Vegas and will benefit ACM Lifting Lives’ Diane Holcomb Emergency Relief Fund, which provides immediate relief to those in need in the music industry.

To say Darius is an avid golfer is an understatement — he loves the sport, and not just for the athleticism. “I love being outside. I get outside so little, really, if you look at the whole thing,” says Darius. “It’s me against the course. I love that.”

The 48th Annual ACM Awards will air live from the MGM Grand Garden Arena April 7th on CBS.

The South Carolina native is currently making his way up the country charts with his latest single, “Wagon Wheel,” which is from his upcoming album, True Believers.

AUDIO: Darius Rucker talks about just a couple of reasons why he likes to play golf.

Darius Rucker (golf) OC: …I love that. :09
“First off, I love being outside. I get outside so little, really, if you look at the whole thing. I mean, it’s me against the course. I love that.”

In the latest episode of LBTV, Luke Bryan and the band take fans behind-the-scenes of such popular TV shows as the Ellen DeGeneres Show, Chelsea Lately and Jimmy Kimmel. The ACM-nominated Entertainer of the Year was out on the West Coast last week promoting his new Spring Break…Here to Party album.

Luke Bryan returns to Panama City, Florida to put on his annual Spring Break concert at the Spinnaker Beach Club on Tuesday (March 12th) and Wednesday (March 13th). He’ll perform songs from his Spring Break…Here to Party album, which will was released last week. Luke loves performing for the scores of kids having a good time on the beach during Spring Break, and while he sees some wild and weird things, he says last year was probably the best. “Last year was pretty amazing when we were on stage at the Spinnaker and we were seeing the helicopters fly over, like the Sheriff’s Department,” says Luke. “They said people were on roofs of hotels and stuff, and I didn’t know there was like 45,000 people on the beach. I just could kinda see what was going on right there at Spinnaker, so that was probably the wildest Spring Break I’ve ever seen.”

You can catch the music video for “Buzzkill,” which is featured on his Spring Break…Here to Party album, on CMT.com.

• Luke played to nearly 90,000 people in two days last year, and he’s expected to exceed that this week.
• Luke’s ability to draw huge crowds in the Spring Break mecca caught the attention of the Panama City Convention & Visitors Bureau, who tapped Luke as a spokesperson last year.
•  Luke’s Here to Party album includes songs from 2009’s Spring Break…with All My Friends followed in 2010 with Spring Break 2…Hangover Edition, 2011’s Spring Break 3…It’s A Shore Thing and last year’s Spring Break 4…Suntan City.
• Luke is also set to perform at Orange Beach, Alabama on Thursday (March 14th)

Luke Bryan (Spring Break-high school) OC: …survived it. :43
“My Spring Breaks in high school were, you know, we’d hide beer in the woods and we hid it under an old oak stump or something, you know, and we’d roll out there and load up the tool box full of some old skunky beer after it’d been sitting in the woods for a month, but we took it down Panama City. One of my buddies, I’ll leave names out of it, but he got us banned from all of Thomas Drive in Panama City. He threw a couple of TVs out of the hotel room. If it wasn’t bolted down, he relieved it from the room. We had a great time, though. It was all part of being a kid, all a part of growing up – drinking and partying for the first time, and somehow we survived it.”

Luke Bryan (Spring Break & beer) OC: …on the beach. :2
“Spring Break and drinking beer is definitely, I mean, you’re down on the beach, you’re drinking beer all day, and it’s just kind of a college way of life. So, when you write Spring Break songs, it’s kind of a no-brainer that drinking beer and partying and staying up all night is gonna be in the theme. But, definitely, I don’t think you can have Spring Break without good cold beer on the beach.”

Luke Bryan (wildest & weirdest Spring Break) OC: …wild and weird. :48
“Yk, it’s hard to say what the wildest or weirdest thing I’ve seen. I mean, last year was pretty amazing when we were on stage at the Spinnaker and w2e were seeing the helicopters fly over, like the Sheriff’s Department. They said people were on roofs of hotels and stuff, and I didn’t know there was like 45,000 people on the beach. I just could kinda see what was going on right there at Spinnaker, so that was probably the wildest Spring Break I’ve ever seen. As far as weird, heck, it’s all weird at that point. It’s fun just being there and watching what crazy new drinking game is gonna happen or what crazy new dance song, what’s the biggest song of the year that year. But we love it, and hey, it’s all wild and weird.”

[[4]]
VIDEO: Luke Bryan tries to recall some of his wildest — and weirdest — Spring Break memories.

Little Big Town scored their second consecutive number-one single with “Tornado,” which tops this Mediabase country chart this week. This number-one follows up their first chart-topper, “Pontoon,” which scored a two-week number-one last fall.

The video, which stars actor Jonathan Schaech (That Thing You Do), is a favorite of the fans, but not necessarily the fam. “It’s scary, and I will have to say compared to ‘Pontoon’ – our children loved watching the ‘Pontoon’ video,” says LBT’s Karen Fairchild. “This one, the fans seem to love, but our kiddies don’t like to watch this one that much.” The “Tornado” clip is nominated for the ACM Video of the Year, and the band scored three other nominations including Vocal Group of the Year, Album of the Year and Single of the Year for “Pontoon.”

Little Big Town are headed to London to perform at the O2 Arena in London this week, but they’re set to continue their Tornado Tour when they return.

AUDIO: Little Big Town says the fans love their ACM-nominated video, but their own children are a little bit spooked by the dark and formidable clip.

LBT (Tornado video-kids) OC: (Jimi) …little dark. [laughs] :17
KAREN: “Yeah, it’s scary, and I will have to say compared to ‘Pontoon’ – our children loved watching the ‘Pontoon’ video. This one [JIMI: “Not so much.”], the fans seem to love, but the kiddies don’t like to watch this one that much. [KIMBERLY: “They don’t care for it much.”] It’s a little spooky.” JIMI: “It’s a little dark. [laughs]”

Lady Antebellum’s Hillary Scott apparently confirmed with Us Weekly that she and husband Chris Tyrell are expecting a baby girl. She recently said she loves sharing the news of her pregnancy with family, friends and fans, and just can’t keep any good news to herself. “We were very comfortable with everyone sharing in our joy very, very early, and so we have faith that this baby’s gonna be healthy and beautiful and perfect, and so let’s just kind of let everybody in on our excitement,” said Hillary Scott. “We’re gonna find out what it is, and it won’t be a secret. I’m not good at keeping secrets!”

Lady A’s “Downtown” is headed uptown on the country charts. It’s the first release from their upcoming album, Golden, which is scheduled for release on May 7th.

AUDIO: Lady Antebellum’s Hillary Scott says she has loved sharing the news of her pregnancy.

Lady A (baby-can’t keep a secret) OC: …I’m excited. :39
“We found out the day before Thanksgiving, my husband and I, and we were up at my in-laws in New York. And we were very comfortable with everyone sharing in our joy very, very early, and so we have faith that this baby’s gonna be healthy and beautiful and perfect, and so let’s just kind of let everybody in on our excitement. We’re gonna find out what it is, and it won’t be a secret. I’m not good at keeping secrets! [CHARLES: “No, you’re not.”] I don’t know. I just really have faith, I knew that everything was going to be okay, and that this baby was sent to us for a really special purpose, and it’s a huge blessing, so I’m excited.”