Universal Universal Music Group Nashville Pressroom

Sam Hunt has released a lyric video for his latest hit, “Downtown’s Dead.” The song is the follow-up to his history-making, multi-platinum “Body Like a Back Road.”

Darius Rucker enlisted some famous friends to join him on the remake of “Straight to Hell,” which was released in 1989. Pals Luke Bryan, Charles Kelley of Lady Antebellum and Jason Aldean joined Darius on the song and the video, which was just released. The four of them seemed to have a rowdy good time on the set of the clip, which features them in a speakeasy during Prohibition back in the 1920s.

“When you’re friends with people in the business, you see ‘em when you can. If you tour with ‘em, you get to hang out sometime, but there’s never really day where the four of us have gotten to sit together all day. We did just about every scene together and it was all of us together, and we just had, man, there was some funny stuff said that day. I was losing my mind laughing. That was a fun day.”

Hopefully, Darius and Lady A will perform the song during their tour together. They’re set to kick off their Summer Plays On Tour, which kicks off July 19th in Toronto.

Sam Hunt surprised the crowd at Nashville’s Nissan Stadium during CMA Music Fest on Saturday night (June 9th) with a performance of his latest song, “Downtown’s Dead.”

Chris Stapleton popped into his CMA Music Festival Pop-Up store at the George Jones Museum to sign autographs following a pop-up performance at SiriusXM’s Happy Hour at Margaritaville.

As you know Darius Rucker is one of the founding members of the supergroup Hootie & the Blowfish. Their breakthrough album, Cracked Rear View, was just certified 21x Platinum by the RIAA, meaning more than 21 million copies of the collection were sold.

Dierks Bentley will perform during the Today Show’s Citi Summer Concert Series on Tuesday (June 12th), followed by a performance on NBC’s Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on Wednesday (June 13th).

Chris Stapleton’s album Traveller has been certified triple platinum (3 million copies sold), while Luke Bryan’s “Huntin’, Fishin’, Lovin’ Every Day” and “Drink a Beer” were certified double-platinum. Luke’s “Most People Are Good,” “Light It Up” and “Move” are now gold.

Carrie Underwood will perform her anthemic “The Champion” with Ludacris for the very first time at this year’s Radio Disney Music Awards and will receive their Hero Award. The show will take place at 8pm ET on June 23rd on the Disney Channel. Find out more information right here.

Luke Bryan was featured on CBS Sunday Morning (June 10th), in which the cameras took viewers behind-the-scenes of his recent Musicians On Call visit with young patients in Manhattan.

Shania Twain performs on CBS’ Late Late Show with James Corden Monday night (June 11th).

Dierks Bentley just scored a new No. 1 song with “Woman, Amen” this week. The song, which he wrote with Ross Copperman and Josh Kear, naturally asserted itself when it came time to pick a first single from his new album, The Mountain.

“When you’re making an album, which is what I’m trying to make – I’m not trying to make a collection of singles; I’m trying to make an album – and you’ve got to follow the muse, follow the music. The first single really – I know this sounds kind of cheesy in a way, but it chooses you. That song chose me. That song chose us. That song chose to be the first single. You know, when you’re originally looking on making a new album, a title like ‘Woman, Amen’ wouldn’t be something that pops off the page to me necessarily as the first single, but it just asserted itself and it’s just the right song to lead the charge of this album.”

After playing Sunday night (June 10th) at Nissan Stadium to help close out CMA Music Fest, Dierks will take his Mountain High Tour, featuring Brothers Osborne and LANCO, to Pittsburgh on June 15th.

Little Big Town release the video for their new single, “Summer Fever.” Check it out below.

Dierks Bentley releases his new album, The Mountain, on Friday (June 8th). He co-wrote 10 of the 13 new tracks that are unified by themes of presence and positivity, and range in style from textured rock to acoustic folk.

The Mountain‘s story begins in the Rocky Mountain resort town of Telluride, Colorado, which every summer plays host to a celebrated bluegrass festival. Owing to his well-documented love of the genre, Bentley has attended the festival multiple times over the years, always making a point to slow down and tune back in to the world around him. But after performing on the festival’s main stage in 2017, the idyllic surroundings became more than a much-needed getaway, it reflected where he is in life; his past, present and future.

“I was up in Wyoming with some friends, and we were just hanging out on the back deck and we were watching the sun go down over the Teton Mountains. It was beautiful, and I was with my producer, Ross Copperman, and our wives and kids, just all in a cabin up there. I’m not sure whose idea it was, but my wife actually said on the trip out there, she said, ‘I feel like the idea for the album is going to come out on this trip.’ She really said it,” recalls Dierks. “Maybe it was Ross. ‘A mountain. We’re looking at a mountain.’ Yeah, it just really clicked. It’s not the most clever title in the whole world. I’m sure it’s been used before, but it really was just like The Mountain. I loved the metaphor, but where we spent a lot of the summer was out there and where I’m from. I had a mountain in my backyard. I started climbing when I was four – Camelback Mountain – that I could walk to from my house. So, it’s always been a big part of my life, and it kind of resonated with my desire to something that reflected the West and that world that I loved so much.”

Dierks is currently poised to hit the top of the country charts with the lead single from the album, “Woman, Amen.”

The Mountain Track List:
Burning Man (Feat. Brothers Osborne)

The Mountain

Living

Woman, Amen

You Can’t Bring Me Down

Nothing On But The Stars

Goodbye In Telluride

My Religion

One Way

Son Of The Sun

Stranger To Myself

Travelin’ Light (Feat. Brandi Carlile)

How I’m Going Out

Almost a decade after first pledging his support to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital^® and the thousands of children the healthcare institution treats, music superstar Darius Rucker hosted his sold-out ninth annual “Darius and Friends” benefit concert on Monday night followed by his traditional golf tournament on Tuesday morning. This year’s concert, auction and golf tournament alone raised $404,000 for St. Jude, breaking the previous year’s record and bringing the cumulative total raised for all years to $1.6 million.

“As a parent I can’t imagine the emotional toll hearing your child has cancer takes, not to mention the financial stress,” said Rucker. “The support families with a child facing life-threating illness receive from St. Jude is just incredible. I’m proud to support St. Jude and I’m so grateful to all our friends who came out and donated their time to be on the show.”

With thousands descending on Music City for 2018’s CMA Fest, the benefit concert has become an unofficial kick off to the week’s festivities. For its second year at the historic Ryman Auditorium, Rucker welcomed surprise guestsPatrick Davis, Edwin McCain, A.J. McClean of the Backstreet Boys and Brad Paisley, along with stars Trace Adkins, Lauren Alaina, Bobby Bones, Ashley McBryde and Rachel Wammack and more than 2,400 fans to the sold-out event.

Rucker, the evening’s host and MC, kicked things off with a performance of “Alright” followed by his most recent No. 1 “For The First Time” before introducing singer/songwriter Lauren Alaina who kicked things off with “Road Less Traveled,” her first No. 1, followed by current hit “Doin’ Fine” and her second No. 1, “What Ifs.”

Alaina was followed by iHeartMedia’s award-winning nationally syndicated radio host, Bobby Bones. He had the crowd in hysterics with his comical Bobby Bones and The Raging Idiots tune “Chick-Fil-A (…But It’s Sunday).” He was then joined on stage by Rucker for a rousing cover of the Beastie Boys’ classic “Fight for Your Right.”
 
To the delight of attendees, “Darius and Friends” has become known for its surprise guests and this year was no exception. The first surprise of the evening came with Rucker introducing the Backstreet Boys’ A.J. McLean to roaring screams of approval. McClean launched into Backstreet Boys’ hit “I Want It That Way” with support from the crowd singing every word of the chorus.
 
Rucker then returned for the second of three sets throughout the evening; this time performing his hits “Hands On Me” and “Radio” before introducing RCA Nashville newcomer Rachel Wammack. The soulful songstress wowed the crowd with “No Love” and “Damage” off her debut EP.
 
Rucker described the evening’s next performer as one of his “favorite voices in country music and just an all-round great dude” before introducing country star and actor Trace Adkins, who delivered a crowd-pleasing performance of his hits “Ladies Love Country Boys” and “Just Fishin’.” “In my opinion there is no better cause than St. Jude,” Adkins said. “Children are innocent and they don’t deserve anything bad that happens to them. If something bad happens to me, I probably did something to deserve it,” Adkins added, drawing laughs form the crowd. 
 
Rucker then returned with hits “Homegrown Honey” and “If I Told You” before introducing Edwin McCain as the night’s second surprise guest, who took the stage performing his hit “I’ll Be.” McCain’s soaring vocals could hardly be heard over the audience singing along to every word. He followed up the hit song with covers of Peter Gabriel’s “In Your Eyes” and Seal’s “Crazy.”
 
Rucker returned to join both McCain and fellow South Carolina singer/songwriter Patrick Davis for a funky cover of Bill Wither’s “Use Me” before bringing out breakout country singer/songwriter Ashley McBryde, who immediately captured the rapt crowd’s attention with Top-30-and-climbing single “Little Dive Bar in Dahlonega.”

“Gosh it is good to be here at the Ryman. It never gets old being here,” she shared before playing her infectious “American Scandal” off debut album Girl Going Nowhere. McBryde told stories from her time at St. Jude last December and detailed the patients she met there, before declaring “Country Music has been there over 40 years for St. Jude and we will be there every single time.” An emotional highlight of the evening followed, with her mesmerizing take on Cyndi Lauper’s hit “Time After Time” drawing a standing ovation from the audience. 
 
“He’s not my friend, he’s not my buddy, he’s my brother,” Rucker said before introducing the final performer and surprise guest, country music superstar Brad Paisley. Rucker joined Paisley for his first number and struck a somber note with a duet of Paisley’s hit “Letter To Me,” although the notoriously comical Paisley couldn’t resist getting a few jokes in throughout the song, teasing Rucker with “You dated Bridget too?”
 
Rucker and Paisley have a long history as duet partners, having toured together in 2010. Paisley also invited Rucker to join the Opry nearly six years ago. They’ve also teamed up several times over the years for different charitable causes including a fundraiser hosted by Paisley’s wife Kimberly Williams-Paisley just the night before. 
 
Paisley then performed fan favorite “Ticks” before Rucker returned to join him for a boisterous duet of Paisley’s hit “Alcohol” and bringing the crowd to their feet with a rocking cover of Prince classic “Purple Rain.”
 
The crowd was not ready for the night to end and Rucker obliged with an encore of his Hootie & the Blowfish hit, “I Only Want to Be with You.”
 
The evening ended, as has become tradition, with a performance of Rucker’s hit “Wagon Wheel,” with Adkins and McBryde returning to the stage to join Rucker and the crowd for a raucous singalong. 

The event has sold out year after year, raising funds through concert ticket sales, a silent auction and annual golf tournament, hosted by the free-swinging Rucker and his band. Friends performing with Rucker in the past have included Brooks & Dunn, Luke Bryan, Luke Combs, Dan + Shay, Radney Foster, Randy Houser, Jamey Johnson, Charles Kelley of Lady Antebellum, John Oates of legendary pop duo Hall & Oates, Michael Ray, Kenny Rogers and many more.

Rucker, a longtime philanthropist over his more than two decades as a hit-maker and singer-songwriter in the music industry, was recently named the ACM Gary Haber Lifting Lives Award winner for his devotion to improving lives through the power of music. He made a commitment to support St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital^® after touring the campus in 2008. St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital^® is leading the way the world understands, treats and defeats childhood cancer and other life-threatening diseases. Unlike any other hospital, the majority of funding for St. Jude comes from individual contributions. Events like this help ensure families never receive a bill from St. Jude for treatment, travel, housing or food – because all a family should worry about is helping their child live.     
   
The event is made possible through the support of generous sponsors CDW Healthcare, Intel, Pitney Bowles, Hendrix Enterprises, Arrow Electronics, AO Smith, AMD, Tom Shepherd’s Family Auto Group and Hutton Hotel.
 
Rucker recently achieved his ninth career No. 1 on the country charts with “For The First Time” and will co-headline the Summer Plays On Tour this summer with Lady Antebellum before heading overseas to the United Kingdom for a string of shows this fall.

For more information, please visit www.dariusrucker.com or follow on social media @DariusRucker.

CMA New Artist Of The Year Jon Pardi kicked off the 2018 CMA Music Festival with an jam-packed, high-energy performance at the Chevy Riverfront Stage in downtown Nashville this morning. Pardi greeted fans and performed his single “She Ain’t In It” along with consecutive #1 hits “Dirt On My Boots,” “Heartache On The Dance Floor” and “Head Over Boots.” The Platinum-selling artist is continuing the week with an acoustic set at the HGTV Lodge on Friday at 2 p.m., before heading to his  highly-anticipated, nightly concert taking place at Nissan Stadium on Saturday at 8:30 p.m.

Earlier this week, Pardi was nominated for CMT Awards Male Video Of The Year (‘Heartache On The Dance Floor’). The fast-rising newcomer has received multiple first-ever nominations over the past year including CMA Awards, CMT Awards, ACM Awards, AMA Awards and the iHeartRadio Music Awards. Pardi is currently on tour with Luke Bryan’s What Makes You Country Tour with upcoming stops in Cincinnati, OH (6/16), Tampa, FL (6/23) and Pittsburgh, PA( 6/30). For more information and a full list of tour dates, visit http://www.jonpardi.com/.