Universal Universal Music Group Nashville Pressroom

Reigning ACM and CMA Vocal Duo of the Year, Brothers Osborne, debuts the music video for their raucous current single “Shoot Me Straight” today, watch HERE. The unconventional video serves as part mockumentary around the very real difficulty of creating a music video concept.

“This idea genuinely spawned out of us not being able to come to agreement on what we wanted the video to be about,” says TJ.  “After weeks of back and forth emails, conference calls, treatment pitches, etc., we came to the conclusion that we needed to make a video about, well, not making a video. It turned out to be so damn fun,” adds John.

The GRAMMY-nominated duo again partnered with directors Wes Edwards and Ryan Silver, the same team from the ACM and CMA Award-winning video for their Top 10 hit “It Ain’t My Fault”.

The story kicks off with Brothers Osborne rejecting one bad idea after another before the “directors” take matters into their own hands, plotting how to get this video done whether John and TJ like it or not.

Climbing country radio’s Top 25, “Shoot Me Straight” is Brothers Osborne’s current single off their critically-acclaimed sophomore album, Port Saint Joe. The infectious track continues to win over both critics and fans alike with All Access noting it “doubles-down on the badassery and toe-tapping tunes we’ve come to expect.” Industry critic Bob Lefsetz calls it a “Straight Up Jam” while Billboard says it’s “epic” and Rolling Stone notes it’s an “underrated barnstormer”.

The singer/songwriter siblings recently announced a headlining U.S. leg to their world tour that includes stops in Canada as well as the U.K. this fall.  Brothers Osborne are currently on the road as part of Dierks Bentley’s Mountain High Tour and will perform at the upcoming Seven Peaks Music Festival in Buena Vista, Colorado on Sept 1. This weekend, fans can catch the Maryland natives with Kenny Chesney at Gillette Stadium in Boston, MA. For a full list of tour dates, news, images and more, visit www.BrothersOsborne.com

Keith Urban has released his new single, “Never Comin’ Down,’ the follow-up to his recent No. 1 smash, “Coming Home.” The song is from his latest album, Graffiti U. Keith co-wrote the song with Josh Kerr, J Hart [aka James Abrahart] and Shy Carter while in a writing camp set up by his publisher.

“Those three guys were mixing up some sort of various cocktail environment. [laughs] figuratively and literally upstairs, and there was just such a great thing happening up there,” he says. “I had this drum beat that I had carried around for a bit, and I presented that, and we started building on that. It really started with a tribal rhythmic feel.”

Keith is coming home to Nashville with his Graffiti U World Tour on Friday (August 24^th), followed by dates in Orange Beach and Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

Multi-platinum-selling global superstar Carrie Underwood released the track listing and songwriters for her upcoming studio album, Cry Pretty, available on September 14th.  Her first time officially in the Producer chair, Underwood co-produced Cry Pretty alongside David Garcia and she co-wrote nine of the songs featured on the album making it one of her most personal albums to date.

Can’t wait to share these songs with you on September 14th!!! #CryPretty 😭 pic.twitter.com/tOgkYacPTS

— Carrie Underwood (@carrieunderwood) August 20, 2018

Underwood wrote the title track and lead single, “Cry Pretty,” with Hillary Lindsey, Lori McKenna and Liz Rose (The Love Junkies). Underwood, exposing pure, raw emotion earned critical praise for her powerful debut performance of “Cry Pretty” at the Academy of Country Music Awards in Las Vegas.
“She brings dignity and drama to being broken. And in her power-vocal relentlessness, Underwood shatters conventional wisdom with a potent few words and a squealing guitar.” – Hits

“…a classic country song with soul at its cathartic heart” – NPR

“…channeled her inner country-soul diva” during the “knockout rendition.” – Rolling Stone

Cry Pretty includes a bonus track also co-written by Underwood featuring Ludacris, “The Champion” which opened NBC’s Super Bowl LII and was incorporated into the 2018 Olympic Winter Games coverage earlier this year.

Album Pre-order

Cry Pretty Track List:

1. Cry Pretty (Carrie Underwood, Hillary Lindsey, Lori McKenna, Liz Rose)
2. Ghosts On The Stereo (Hillary Lindsey, Tom Douglas, Andrew Dorff)
3. Low (Carrie Underwood, David Garcia, Hillary Lindsey)
4. Backsliding (Carrie Underwood, David Garcia, Hillary Lindsey)
5. Southbound (Carrie Underwood, David Garcia, Josh Miller)
6. That Song That We Used To Make Love To (Hillary Lindsey, Jason Evigan)
7. Drinking Alone (Carrie Underwood, David Garcia, Brett James)
8. The Bullet (Marc Beeson, Andy Albert, Allen Shamblin)
9. Spinning Bottles (Carrie Underwood, David Garcia, Hillary Lindsey)
10. Love Wins (Carrie Underwood, David Garcia, Brett James)
11. End Up With You (Hillary Lindsey, Brett McLaughlin, Will Weatherly)
12. Kingdom (Carrie Underwood, Chris DeStefano, Dave Barnes)

Produced by David Garcia and Carrie Underwood

Bonus Track – The Champion (Carrie Underwood, Brett James, Chris DeStefano, Christopher Bridges PKA Ludacris) Produced by Jim Jonsin

In Spring 2019, Underwood will launch a new arena tour, The Cry Pretty Tour 360. Sponsored by CALIA, the new tour will kick off on May 1 in Greensboro, NC, and will play 55 arenas across the U.S. and Canada and be promoted by AEG Presents.  She will be joined on tour by special guests Maddie & Tae and Runaway June.

THE CRY PRETTY TOUR 360:

*Tickets on sale Friday, Aug 24 for Wichita, Kansas City and Sioux Falls

About Carrie Underwood:
Carrie Underwood emerged from the promise of her 2005 American Idol win to become a true multi-format, multi-media superstar, spanning achievements in music, television, and film. A seven-time GRAMMY® Award winner, she has sold 64 million records worldwide and recorded 26 #1 singles, 13 of which she co-wrote.

She will release Cry Pretty, her first studio album on Capitol Records Nashville on September 14, marking the first time she has co-produced her own album.  The title track and lead single was released worldwide on April 11. Co-produced and co-written by Carrie, it has already topped the iTunes Top Songs charts in 12 countries. In Spring 2019, Carrie will launch The Cry Pretty Tour 360, which will kick off in May and will play 55 arenas across the U.S. and Canada. Earlier this year, she released the hit event anthem she co-wrote, “The Champion” featuring Ludacris, which opened NBC’s Super Bowl LII and was incorporated into the network’s coverage of the 2018 Olympic Winter Games.

In 2013, Carrie starred as Maria von Trapp in NBC’s three-hour holiday blockbuster, the Emmy®-winning The Sound of Music Live!, whose airings attracted 44 million viewers.  She is lead designer for her fitness and lifestyle brand, CALIA by Carrie Underwood, which launched in 2015 and is exclusively available at DICK’S Sporting Goods nationwide and online at www.caliastudio.com.  This Spring, Carrie celebrated her 10^th anniversary as a proud member of the Grand Ole Opry and will return this Fall for her sixth season as the voice of primetime television’s #1 program, Sunday Night Football. This November, Carrie and Brad Paisley will co-host the CMA Awards for the 11th consecutive year.

Keith Urban joins an all-star cast for the 10th Anniversary of Stand Up to Cancer, a telethon first airing in 2008 by media and entertainment leaders to help raise money and awareness for cancer research and assist in funding innovative treatments. The organization has already raised more than $480 million.

Academy Award-nominated actor Bradley Cooper will serve as executive producer for the special, while others participating in the telecast include Reese Witherspoon, Kathy Bates, co-founder Katie Couric, Jennifer Garner, Matthew McConaughey, Mahershala Ali, David Spade, Tony Hale, Marlee Matlin, Ken Jeong, Jillian Michaels and many others.

Stand Up to Cancer will air commercial-free on September 7th at 8pm ET/PT on numerous networks, including ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, Bravo, Freeform, FXM, HBO, ION, REELZ, Showtime, STARZ, Encore, TNT and WGN America, among others.

Eric Church is giving his fans a sneak peek into his upcoming album, Desperate Man. He just released the lyric video for “Heart Like a Wheel,” which will be included on the new collection, available October 5th.

The Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin, has passed away at her home in Detroit after a lengthy battle with pancreatic cancer. She was 76.

This world needs women who are strong, independent, smart, talented, and fierce. That said, we lost one today. Even though we say “goodbye” to a legend, her legacy will live on and she will forever have our love and #RESPECT. Sing with angels, Aretha.

— Carrie Underwood (@carrieunderwood) August 17, 2018

An unbelievable woman and voice. It was an honor to meet and perform with the Queen of Soul. RIP Aretha Franklin ❤️💔https://t.co/BQBtdPuoZO

— Shania Twain 💎💎💎 (@ShaniaTwain) August 16, 2018

She could hit every note, but the greatest gift was that you felt every word. Truly the Queen. Rest peacefully, Aretha. pic.twitter.com/dzCLhuzmon

— Lady A (@ladya) August 16, 2018

We lost one of the most important all time greats today. My love goes out to her family. Love you Aretha. That band in Heaven just got a lot better!! ⁦@ArethaFranklin⁩ pic.twitter.com/z1qSn32ohJ

— Darius Rucker (@dariusrucker) August 16, 2018

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bmi28DglETh/?taken-by=claredunnmusic

One of my favorites. Rest In Peace ✌🏻 Queen of soul! #respect #youbetterthink #arethafranklin pic.twitter.com/vWDsYPPzhT

— Jon Pardi (@JonPardi) August 16, 2018

The undisputed Queen of Soul, simply the greatest to EVER do it. RIP Aretha Franklin.

— Travis Denning (@Travis_Denning) August 16, 2018

Rest in Power Queen. Today is a sad day 😞 https://t.co/Nat5BXo7ph

— Mickey Guyton (@MickeyGuyton) August 16, 2018

All hail the Queen. There will never be another like you. 💔 pic.twitter.com/zSIG6bqnKO

— Karen Fairchild (@KarenFairchild) August 16, 2018

https://twitter.com/KassiAshton/status/1030100600074190848[/embed]

I used to sit in my car in college and try to mimick Aretha’s vocal techniques.

How to have such power while seeming so at ease.

How to say so much more than the words coming from my mouth using tone and inflection.

She was my teacher. She was my inspiration.

— KASSI ASHTON (@KassiAshton) August 16, 2018

The world is better for having heard your voice. Rest peacefully, @ArethaFranklin

— Adam Hambrick (@adamhambrick) August 16, 2018

The loss of @ArethaFranklin is a blow for everybody who loves real music: Music from the heart, the soul and the Church. Her voice was unique, her piano playing underrated – she was one of my favourite pianists. pic.twitter.com/ug5oZYywAz

— Elton John (@eltonofficial) August 16, 2018

If you’re feeling down about Aretha Franklin just think, the universe is billions of years old and we got to live at the same time as her. We’re the lucky ones.

— Brothers Osborne (@brothersosborne) August 17, 2018

With songs like “Rum” and “Dirt Rich” from their debut album, Pawn Shop, Brothers Osborne explained how they grew up and where they came from as a blue-collar family.

“We’re from Maryland, which is a very blue-collar state. Our dad’s a plumber, our mom’s a hairdresser. We didn’t have a lot of money growing up, but we still really loved life. We enjoyed ourselves so much, you know, and we tried to have the biggest time possible with what little we had,” says John Osborne. “We want to express that it’s okay to be that way, because we turned out alright. We’re doing fine. As long as you’re able to laugh and able to enjoy yourself with family and friends, you’re really living the good life.”

The guys are currently making their way up the country charts with “Shoot Me Straight” from their latest album, Port Saint Joe.

Carrie Underwood is sitting inside the Top 10 with her latest hit, “Cry Pretty,” which she hopes people will connect with on an emotional level.

“I want people to be drawn into ‘Cry Pretty’ from the get-go. The first words of it are ‘I’m Sorry,’ and I feel like those are words that are powerful; they’re two little words, but they kind of suck you in and I want people to be like, ‘Well, why are you sorry?’ and then kind of follow the rest of the musical journey that we go on. I want them to relate to it. I want them to be like, ‘Oh my gosh! This is me. Whatever I’m going through, I can relate to this,’” says Carrie. “By the end of it, I want people to feel, I want them to feel that release. I mean the song just keeps getting bigger and bigger and it’s pretty rocking by the end. So, I want people to listen to it and by the end, just feel like they’ve kind of gotten a little bit of an emotional release just by listening to the song.”

Her album of the same name – Cry Pretty – will be released September 14th. You can catch Carrie co-hosting the CMA Awards with pal Brad Paisley for the 11th time this November.

Dierks Bentley will perform on the star-studded fourth annual WE Day special tomorrow night (August 17th).

Dierks, who will perform his recent No. 1 song “Woman, Amen,” will be joined on the television special that was taped this past Spring by Jennifer Aniston, Whoopi Goldbern, Will Ferrell, Cyndi Lauper, Martin Sheen, Selena Gomez and host John Stamos, among others.

WE Day is a celebration of doing good, honoring youth and families across the country who prove that when they put their individual resources together, they can help on a global level.  WE Day includes a series of 19 stadium-sized events held across the U.S., Canada, the U.K. and the Caribbean as a catalyst to support the movement of young people leading change. Students can’t buy a ticket to WE Day – youth earn their way by the actions they take on one local and one global cause of their choice.

In a WE video (see below), Dierks talks about ways his children learn how to help others. “We constantly think about ways to give our kids as much of a balance as possible,” he says. “One of our favorite things to do is just go to Second Harvest, which is a food bank in Nashville, and pack backpacks for kids. They learn about the fact that these kids get their food from school. That’s the only place they really eat…It really helps them understand the privileges they have and hopefully plants a little bit of a seed in them for having that compassion and interest in helping folks in their community.”

Catch Dierks and the rest of the all-star cast on the WE Day special airing at 8pm Friday night on ABC.