Universal Universal Music Group Nashville Pressroom

Jordan Davis’ current song, “Take It From Me,” kicks off his debut album, Home State, for a reason.

“That was one that is at number one for a reason. I feel like when it came to kicking the record off there was not a better song than ‘Take It From Me’ that did it,” says the Louisiana native. “I feel like we wrote that song very well, and then you know as far as production-wise, I think that that’s a great introduction to what Home State is, and yeah, I’m very, very proud of that one.”

Jordan “takes” his music to Louisville, Kentucky on Wednesday, followed by a performance at the Faster Horses Festival in Brooklyn, Michigan on Friday (July 20th).

Brandon Lay is a student of his craft, studying every move Kenny Chesney makes on his Trip Around the Sun stadium tour.

“It’s amazing to watch, because you know I think one of the main lessons I’ve learned already is as a new artist, it’s a little daunting sometimes to step out ‘cause there’s no way to prepare for a stage and I’ve played honky tonks and every frat party I could, but when you step out into a stadium it’s a totally different sport,” says Brandon. “One thing that I’ve noticed what he does better than anybody is he makes it an inclusive event and gives more. And I feel like for me, I’m coming out there maybe thinking too much sometimes ‘cause I’m a new guy, nobody knows too much about me so I don’t want to mess up. But what I’m founding out is more important than nailing every note or every lick is that it’s that connection. That’s something that I strive for.”

Brandon rejoins Kenny on the road on Saturday (July 2st) at Busch Stadium in St. Louis, Missouri. The Tennessee native is currently climbing the country chart with his latest song “Yada, Yada, Yada.”

Darius Rucker just scored his fourth hole-in-one on Friday (July 13th). He was playing at Old Natchez Golf Course in Franklin, Tennessee.

Hole in one at Old Natchez today. Friday the 13th!!!! pic.twitter.com/GpXtBZ8jrL

— Darius Rucker (@dariusrucker) July 13, 2018

Golf is one of Darius’ favorite pastimes and passions, which he began when he was just 14 years old, when a friend’s father invited him to go along with them to the golf course to play a round. He’s been hooked ever since.

Getting outside and playing against a course are the reasons why he enjoys playing golf. “First of all, I love being outside. I get outside so little, you know, really when you look at the whole thing. I just love me against the course. I love that.”

Last year, the avid golfer began a monthly radio show called On Par with Darius Rucker, which airs on the SiriusXM’s PGA Tour Radio channel.

Darius is climbing the country charts with his all-star collaboration, “Straight to Hell,” featuring Luke Bryan, Charles Kelley of Lady Antebellum and Jason Aldean.

The South Carolina native will embark on his co-headline Summer Plays On Tour with pals Lady Antebellum on Thursday (July 19th) in Toronto.

Eric Church, a two-time CMA Album of the Year winner, has a well-known reputation for always bringing his music to the people. With 2015’s Mr. Misunderstood, he went as far as overnighting fans copies of his surprise release. So this time around, after announcing new music is coming in a video message speaking directly to fans yesterday, Church is set to exclusively debut the “Desperate Man” music video via Amazon Music in the U.S. on Monday, July 16 ahead of his forthcoming October 5 Desperate Man album release.

The cinematic and high-flying video directed by Reid Long and John Peets captures Church executing his mission to fight for what’s right. Ray Wylie Hubbard, who co-wrote “Desperate Man” with Church, guests in the video. For its release, Amazon Music, a service that has supported Church’s music and provides a strong connection to his fans on a global scale, offered to premiere the music video for the title track “Desperate Man.”

“Excitement for new music from my favorite artists is a feeling I can remember from my formative years. The unknown and the possibilities of the anticipation are one of the true joys of music,” shares the North Carolina native. “Well, even though how we discover songs from our favorite performers may have evolved, the feeling remains the same.”

The music video for Church’s “Desperate Man” will be live for 48 hours exclusively at www.amazon.com/adlp/ericchurchdesperateman starting Monday, July 16 at 12:01am PT/2:01a.m. CT/3:01am ET.

Beginning today (July 13th), fans can also stream the single on Amazon Music.

Shania Twain has been nominated for a pair of CCMA Awards for Apple Music Fans’ Choice Award, as well as Female Artist of the Year. The 2018 CCMA Award Show, which will be hosted by Shania, will broadcast live from Hamilton, Ontario September 9th at 8pm ET on CBC and cbcmusic.ca/ccmas.

Shania is currently making her way across the U.S. with her NOW! Tour. This weekend, she’ll play shows in Brooklyn, New York (July 14th) and Washington, DC (July 15th).

Before hitting the road for the first time in 2018, journalist Willie Geist will sit down with seven-time GRAMMY award-winning group Lady Antebellum for NBC’s Sunday TODAY (July 15th) at 7:00a CT  from tour rehearsals in Nashville. Before embarking on the SUMMER PLAYS ON TOUR , Hillary Scott, Dave Haywood and Charles Kelley extensively reflect on their whirlwind, decade-long career including the ups and downs that have come along with their record-breaking success. While discussing Lady A’s chart-topping radio hits, critical acclaim, award show accolades and growing families, Geist will take fans behind-the-scenes of what preparation is like for a major amphitheater tour.

Fueled with anticipation for the joint headlining tour with Darius Rucker kicking off next Thursday (July 19th) in Toronto, ON, the friendship-fueled run  will continue through the summer with opener Russell Dickerson. Lady A’s pulsating Top 15 single “Heart Break,” serves as the title-track off their No. One selling sixth studio album and follows more than 18 million album units sold. The multi-PLATINUM selling band has earned ACM and CMA “Vocal Group of the Year” trophies three years in a row and countless other honors including seven GRAMMYs, Billboard Music Awards, People’s Choice Awards and Teen Choice Awards. For more information visit www.ladyantebellum.com.

Keith Urban’s latest release, Graffiti U, will be released on vinyl July 27th, along with two of his previous releases – Be Here and Love, Pain and the Whole Crazy Thing.

The “U” in the title of Keith’s current album came about quite creatively and organically. “Graffiti came, and I didn’t like the word on its own. It felt like it needed one more thing, and I thought, ‘Well, it’s for the audience. It’s for the listener. That’s what I do this for.’ It’s what every artist does it for, because…I said the other day, ‘If an album played in the forest, would anyone ever hear it?’ [laughs] So, the audience is key. The listener is the other half of it. And I thought ‘You! It’s You are the audience.’ So, Graffiti You felt really good, and when I wrote it down, I thought, ‘Well, it shouldn’t be Y-O-U. It should be just the letter U to really personalize it.’”

Keith, who’s sitting inside the Top 5 on the country charts with “Coming Home,” will take his Graffiti U World Tour to Salt Lake City on Friday (July 13th), Denver on Saturday (July 14th) and Albuquerque, New Mexico on Sunday (July 15th).

Kacey Musgraves releases the video for her crossover single “High Horse.” Directed by Hannah Lux Davis (Ariana Grande, Nicki Minaj, Halsey), the video features Kacey escaping from her 9-to-5-inspired workplace, daydreaming about telling off her self-satisfied coworkers. Watch “High Horse” here: http://smarturl.it/KMhighhorsevideo

Featured on Kacey’s recent #1 album Golden Hour, “High Horse” has received rave reviews, with Billboard proclaiming it “pure Studio 54-meets-barnyard bliss” on their list of the best songs of 2018 so far. The FADER declares the “sparkly disco-country banger is a song for all seasons, but deserves to be the Song of the Summer by sheer virtue of versatility,” and Rolling Stone pronounces “’High Horse’ bears the hallmarks of Musgraves’ songwriting, with sharp wordplay, double entendres, and a perfectly executed put-down.”

Kacey is currently on tour with Harry Styles, wrapping up this weekend with 2 nights at LA’s The Forum. Kacey will kick off her headlining Oh, What A World: Tour this fall. For a full list of announced dates, visit http://www.kaceymusgraves.com/tour.

Follow Kacey Musgraves:

Instagram | Twitter | Facebook |  YouTube | Spotify

In a video message speaking directly to his fans (view HERE), 2x CMA Album of the Year winner Eric Church told his faithful Church Choir [Church’s official fan club] earlier this morning: “It’s been a while; I just want to say I have missed you. I have good news…the album is done, and we are back. It’s called Desperate Man and the first single is called ‘Desperate Man,’” with the Choir having access to listen first through their login today.

https://t.co/U2KTKbDFvR https://t.co/PDlT1MyosV

— Eric Church (@ericchurch) July 12, 2018

Church continues, “Just like last time – just like Mr. Misunderstood – if you’re in the Church Choir, on October 5th you’re going to get the album,” as Church renegotiated his record deal with EMI Nashville leading into Desperate Man to include his fans.

“Desperate Man,” Church’s first single off the new album, will be made available everywhere tomorrow, Friday, July 13. Co-written by Church with Texas musician Ray Wylie Hubbard (who Church namechecks in his 2015 “Mr. Misunderstood”), “Desperate Man” sees Church again collaborating with producer Jay Joyce. ­­­
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Many may recall in 2015, Church stunned industry and fans alike with the surprise release of Mr. Misunderstood, giving it away to his fans first without interviews, hype or promotion. Church Choir members spoke directly to local television on how they received the record, being the first to confirm its existence. Church said then, “Everyone is so focused on your first week. But I am more concerned with week 80 than week one.” Mr. Misunderstood went on to win CMA Awards’ Album of the Year in 2016 and reached RIAA-Platinum certification earlier this year.

Never satisfied with the status quo, Church constantly challenges himself as an artist and is applying that same philosophy to the Choir changing it to make it better and even more inclusive. Membership tiers are simplified to two options: paid and free. Members of the Choir will also be in control of what music and bundles they receive upon signing up and at renewal. Members who annual renew or auto-renew, and new fans who sign up will now receive an album of their choice from Church’s catalog – in addition to all the benefits paid members currently receive including access to purchase pre-sale tickets, chances for meet and greets, opportunities to attend Church Choir events and much more.  The free tier of Church Choir membership includes access to the online community, email updates and special offers.

By-passing the gatekeepers and speaking directly to the fans is fundamental to Church’s success and he is proving it once again with reconfiguring the Church Choir in advance of the release of Desperate Man.

Church concludes the video message saying, “I look forward to seeing you on the road… I’m very proud of this album. See you soon.”

Stay tuned to EricChurch.com for more information.

WATCH: Eric Church speaks to the Church Choir directly via video address to announce his new album, Desperate Man, is set for an October 5 release. Church Choir can hear its first single/title track now by logging in at EricChurch.com. Church Choir Membership includes the album.

Little Big Town’s ready to hop on The Bandwagon Tour with their pal Miranda Lambert. The trek kicks off Thursday (July 12th) in Charlotte, North Carolina and is currently set to run until the end of August.

The band is excited about the tour, which will be separate sets, plus a full collaborative set together.

“We love her. We’ve loved her forever, and we were fans first and then friends,” says LBT’s Kimberly Schlapman. “[We’ve] been talking about trying to do something together on the road forever, and finally all of the schedules worked out. It’s going to be a true collaboration, which we’ve never really done ever.”

“It’s going to be a real, like event, versus just somebody opening, somebody closing, doing one finale song,” says LBT’s Karen Fairchild. “It’s going to be like a true collaboration. We may sing each other’s songs. We may cover things, I mean, I’m acting like I don’t know. I do know what we’re going to do [Jimi Westbrook laughs], but I think it’s going to be really special. It’ll be special for us. I hope the fans feel the same way.”

Little Big Town is currently making their way up the country charts with their latest song, “Summer Fever.”

THE BANDWAGON TOUR DATES:

7/12/18                Charlotte, NC                      PNC Music Pavilion***

7/13/18                Cincinnati, OH                     Riverbend Music Center***

7/14/18                Indianapolis, IN                   Ruoff Home Mortgage Music Center***

7/20/18                Hartford, CT                        XFINITY Theatre *

7/21/18                Mansfield, MA                     XFINITY Center *

8/2/18                  Orange Beach, AL              The Wharf at Orange Beach

8/3/18                  Tampa, FL                           MIDFLORIDA Credit Union Amphitheatre

8/4/18                  West Palm Beach, FL         Coral Sky Amphitheatre

8/10/18                Houston, TX                      Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion

8/11/18                Dallas, TX                          Starplex Pavilion

8/16/18                Darien Center NY               Darien Lake Performing Arts Center

8/17/18                Pittsburgh, PA                    KeyBank Pavilion

8/18/18                Philadelphia, PA                 BB&T Pavilion

8/23/18                Toronto, ON                        Budweiser Stage

8/24/18                Clarkston, MI                      DTE Energy Music Theatre

8/25/18               Chicago, IL                         Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre