Universal Universal Music Group Nashville Pressroom

Eric Paslay grew up in Texas with much of his extended family in the same town, so there were many toys to play with at Christmas time.

“I remember always [on] Christmas Eve, we’d go to my Mom’s mother’s house, my grandmother, and we’d open up gifts kinda from the family,” he says. “And my great-aunt, lived across the street, so all of those cousins, we’d go over there and hang out and steal some more cookies and kind of show…what’cha got and play with the toy for five minutes and move on to the other cousin’s toys.”

CMA New Artist Of The Year and reigning ACM New Male Vocalist Jon Pardi wrapped his headlining “CMT On Tour Presents Jon Pardi’s Lucky Tonight Tour” this past weekend tallying all sold-out shows, record-breaking numbers and a total of 66,319 tickets sold overall. Stops along the way on his third headlining tour included Grayson Stadium in Savannah, GA, which sold-out with the most tickets sold since Bob Dylan in ‘05 (Peachtree Ent.) and Billy Bob’s in Fort Worth, TX, which sold out days in advance – a rare feat considering the last show to sell out in advance was Florida Georgia Line in ‘13 (Chris Spinks, Marketing Director, Billy Bob’s). Pardi’s live show was named a Boston Globe “Top 15 folk or country concert this fall,” The Houston Press said, “Pardi would have easily been labeled a throwback if he didn’t strike such a chord with today’s fans” and the Minneapolis City Pages said, “…Pardi will be at or near country music’s forefront for years to come.” Pollstar shared an in-depth interview HERE. The “CMT On Tour Presents Jon Pardi’s Lucky Tonight Tour” featured Midland and Runaway June and was CMT’s fastest and best-selling CMT On Tour series to date. View a recap video of the tour, here: https://youtu.be/S2eq0gsbOiE.

[EMBED]https://twitter.com/JonPardi/status/940287580418883584[/EMBED]

Pardi’s current single “She Ain’t In It” is currently Top 40-and-climbing the country music charts and was the most-added song on country radio with more than 50 first-week stations. “She Ain’t In It” is an easily identifiable traditional country song. Sounds Like Nashville said Pardi is, “Known as one to not back away from the traditional elements that defined Nashville’s country music decades ago…” and “She Ain’t In It” “…revives the good ol’ days of the format…” Saving Country Music noted that the song “…might be the most hard country song released on a mainstream country record in years, or at least from someone whose career is more ahead of them than behind…” and Billboard called it “…a stone-cold weeper that would make George Strait nod with approval.” “She Ain’t In It” follows Pardi’s three consecutive chart-topping hits “Dirt On My Boots,” “Head Over Boots,” and “Heartache On The Dance Floor” from GOLD-certified album California Sunrise (Capitol Records Nashville).

Pardi is currently nominated for the 2017 Rare Country Awards in the New Artist Of The Year category and will be heading back out on the road with Miranda Lambert’s Livin’ Like Hippies Tour in 2018. For a full list of tour dates and more information, visit http://www.jonpardi.com/.

ABOUT JON PARDI
Jon Pardi’s GOLD-certified album California Sunrise (Capitol Records Nashville) debuted at #1 on Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart earning him CMA’s New Artist Of The Year and ACM New Male Vocalist Of The Year. Pardi dominated the top of the country music charts with consecutive #1 hits including “Dirt On My Boots,” Platinum-selling “Head Over Boots” and “Heartache On The Dance Floor” (#1 on Mediabase). Fourth single “She Ain’t In It” is currently Top 40-and-climbing. California Sunrise (Capitol Records Nashville) is the follow up to Write You A Song (Capitol Records Nashville), which debuted at #3 on Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart and yielded Top 10 GOLD-selling song “Up All Night,” “What I Can’t Put Down,” “MIssin’ You Crazy” and “When I’ve Been Drinkin” (all co-written by Pardi). Pardi made major National TV appearances on NBC’s “Late Night With Seth Meyers” and ABC’s “Good Morning America” and landed on several ‘Best’ lists including the Los Angeles Times, Rolling Stone Country, Rhapsody and more. Since then, he’s toured with country music forerunners; Eric Church, Dierks Bentley, Luke Bryan, Zac Brown Band and Dwight Yoakam. Pardi’s third headlining tour “CMT On Tour Presents Jon Pardi’s Lucky Tonight Tour” marked the fastest-selling CMT Tour series to date with record-breaking numbers featured in Pollstar Magazine. This past year, the West Coast native and fast-rising newcomer received multiple first-ever nominations at the CMA Awards, CMT Awards, ACM Awards and AMA Awards. For more information, visit www.jonpardi.com.

Kacey Musgraves really appreciates homemade gifts that come from the heart. Two of her favorite presents have come from her mother, who is a gifted artist and painter.

“I’ve gotten several really great handmade presents from her that really touched me and you know I still really appreciate. One of them was a portrait of my dog, Pearl, my 3-legged dog, and it was just the most realistic, beautiful painting of her, and then another one was this beautiful guitar,” says Kacey. “It’s a guitar made completely out of found objects, and so like the tuning keys are skeleton keys, old skeleton keys…It’s just there’s something about someone using their hands and their brain to like come up with something that like no one can buy. It’s really special to me.”

Kacey has a couple of favorite Christmas traditions that her family does every year.

“My grandpa has a scavenger hunt puzzle that he does every year. Even though I’m like too old for the puzzle, he’s like, ‘You’re still gonna do it.’ So, every year we do that, and it’s funny ‘cause sometimes you’ll find your present in the bathroom or in a tree or out behind the shed,” says Kacey. “He does a little trail of like either corn or a string to it. It’s very imaginative, and it’s something I look forward to every year.”

Another one of her beloved traditions is the Christmas stocking. “They’re kinda my favorite, ‘cause it’s like all the little goodies in there just are fun.”

Last year, Kacey released her first holiday collection, A Very Kacey Christmas, which includes several classics and a few originals, including “Present Without a Bow,” featuring Leon Bridges.

Darius Rucker always looks forward to Christmas, not just because he gets a little downtime with his family after being on the road so much, but because he truly enjoys the holiday and all the magic that goes along with it.

He and his family have a routine they pretty much stick to on the big day. “Christmas at the Rucker house is pretty laid-back,” says Darius. “Our kids wake up early – real early – and open their gifts and we hang out, have breakfast, go to church, come home and PLAY, play with toys and hang out and see family who comes by, and we go to see family. It’s just a pretty normal, fun Christmas Day.” Sounds like a great time! But if you happen to receive a gift from Darius, just know he wasn’t the one doing the wrapping! “I buy it and go, ‘Honey, wrap this!’ I don’t wrap, and it definitely doesn’t look like Dillards’ [wrapping],” he admits. “It would be frumpy is what it would be. [laughs]”

Darius, who released his first Christmas album Home for the Holidays in 2014, loves to take it easy during the holidays after being on the road all year long. One way he winds down with his family is to watch Christmas movies…however, he can’t pick just one favorite.

“That’s such a hard question, favorite Christmas movie, because there are so many great movies that I can think of just off the top of my head that are great Christmas movies,” says Darius. “But it would be a tie between Miracle on 34th Street, which is still just great acting, great movie. I just love it. I love watching it. I watch it probably four times every Christmas and cry at the end every time. And I love Elf. I just think Elf is one of the absolute great stories and just funniest movies I’ve ever seen, and it just happens to be a Christmas movie. It’s one of my favorite movies.”

Brothers Osborne will host their first Christmas in Nashville this year, and their whole family, including that of John’s wife, singer-songwriter Lucie Silvas, will be in town for the holidays.

“This will be the first time ever since John and I’ve lived in Nashville that we will host Christmas here in Nashville, so our parents will be coming down. Our brothers and sisters will be coming in and our nephews and nieces and our great nephews and nieces. We’ll have the whole family here in town. It will also be the first time that John’s in-laws, Lucie Silvas’ parents, from New Zealand and our family would meet,” says TJ Osborne.

John’s wife Lucie is from New Zealand, so they usually experience a hot Christmas. “It’s interesting, a lot of them have never experienced a cold Christmas before. I went there for Christmas and New Year’s a few years ago, and it was hot. It’s like burning up hot! So, they’ll come here and experience a cold Christmas. I hope, I really, really hope that it gets cold enough and snows,” says John. “I hope it’s a white Christmas for them. I think that would be really special.”

While they’re all enjoying the down time with family, they also love the sights and sounds of Christmas.

“It stays dark so you have a lot of Christmas lights. I just love Christmas lights – they put you in such an amazing mood,” says John. “Just the sounds, like all the Christmas music and even shopping, which is quite possibly one of the most hectic things to do during the holidays. Even if we have all our shopping done, we’ll still go to the mall just because it’s so alive and vibrant and the colors and the music and the lights. I just love it. It’s a bit sensory overload, but I kinda dig that.”

John and TJ earned a nomination at the 59th annual GRAMMY awards with “Best Country Duo/Group Performance” for their song, “21 Summer.” This is their second GRAMMY nomination as they were nominated last year with their No. 1 hit “Stay a Little Longer.”

The guys received their third GRAMMY nomination in the Best Country Duo/Group Performance category for their Top 10 rowdy hit “It Ain’t My Fault.” This nomination joins their previously nominated performances for their No.1 Platinum smash hit “Stay A Little Longer,” as well as the nostalgic “21 Summer.”

Luke Bryan scores his 19th career No. 1 hit with “Light It Up” tops both the Billboard and Country Aircheck  country airplay charts. The song is the first single from his new album, What Makes You Country, which was released on Friday (December 8th). He co-wrote “Light It Up” with Brad Tursi from Old Dominion.

The song is something that just about everybody can relate to, since we’re all so caught up with constantly checking our cell phones.

“You look at everybody, everybody is locked into their cell phones these days, their screen. They’re constantly jockeying between a million things on their phone, and so when you’re in limbo with your significant other and you’re fighting whatever – so many people break up, get back together, fight, argue, fall in love via text message, and this guy is just waiting to see if this girl wants his love, and if she wants it, just say, ‘Hey, just light it up.’ When your screen is dark and you see it light up and it’s got that text message you want on it, it’s a big deal,” says the Georgia native. “I think we were able to really capture that anxiousness, that anxiety, going to bed with it by your pillow, lying there if it buzzes. You want it to be that text message and you can’t rest, and finally you have to just put the phone on the floor or get it away from you because you’re in limbo.”

Catch Luke as he performs on the Ellen DeGeneres Show on Tuesday (December 12th).

LUKE BRYAN WHAT MAKES YOU COUNTRY ALBUM AUDIO TOOLKIT

We have compiled an array of content — a variety of liners and soundbites – from LUKE BRYAN to equip you with everything you might need to put together your own album radio special; roll-out tracks leading up to –and following — the release of his new album, WHAT MAKES YOU COUNTRY, to use in news feeds, specials and much more. Check out all of details below (including audio liners and soundbites, as well as transcriptions) to create your own content surrounding LUKE’S album release.

Click HERE for audio and liners.

Luke Bryan releases his new album, What Makes You Country, Friday, December 8th. The collection was produced by Jeff Stevens and Jody Stevens and contains 15 songs, seven of them co-written by Luke including the title track. The album’s lead single “Light It Up,” written by Luke and Old Dominion member Brad Tursi, is the follow up to his 18^th career No. 1 single and sixth No. 1 from his Kill The Lights album. With this feat, Luke made Billboard chart history as the only artist in the 27-year history of the Billboard Country Airplay chart to garner six No. 1 singles from one album. Luke’s tailgates & tanlines and Crash My Party albums both generated five No. 1 singles.

“My favorite part of making a new album is getting to collaborate with the songwriting community in this town,” said Luke. “It is important to me to continue to push myself to grow on all levels and I feel like we did that on this project. Making and performing music never gets old and I can honestly say I am having the time of my life.  I will be forever grateful to every fan who sings along each night.”

Country music superstar Luke Bryan is a two-time Academy of Country Music and Country Music Association Entertainer of the Year, a five-time host of the ACM Awards and the 2017 Super Bowl LI National anthem performer. He has more certified digital singles than any other country artist with 40 million tracks and 12 million albums with three Billion music streams. He has had 19 career No. 1 singles, 11 of which he co-wrote, and has headlined arena tours and sold-out stadiums across the U.S. performing for 1.5 Million fans this year.  Luke will launch “What Makes You Country Tour” in February and will join Lionel Richie and Katy Perry at the judges tables for ABC’s first season on American Idol next spring.

Visit www.LukeBryan.com or follow Luke on Twitter @LukeBryanOnline, Instagram and Facebook

What Makes You Country Track List:

1. ​What Makes You Country – Luke Bryan, Dallas Davidson, Ashley Gorley
2. Out Of Nowhere – Luke Bryan, Dallas Davidson, Ashley Gorley
3. Light It Up – Luke Bryan, Brad Tursi
4. Most People Are Good – David Frasier, Ed Hill, Josh Kear
5. Sunrise, Sunburn, Sunset – Zach Crowell, Ryan Hurd, Chase McGill
6. Bad Lovers – Justin Wilson, Dallas Davidson, Kyle Fishman
7. Drinking Again – David Lee Murphy, Brad Warren, Brett Warren
8. Land Of A Million Songs – Luke Bryan, Jeff Stevens, Jody Stevens
9. Like You Say You Do – Luke Bryan, Michael Carter, Ashley Gorley
10. Hooked On It – Luke Bryan, Dallas Davidson, David Lee Murphy
11. She’s A Hot One – Michael Carter, Chase McGill
12. Hungover In A Hotel Room – Rodney Clawson, Chris Tompkins, Josh Kear
13. Pick It Up – Luke Bryan, Rodney Clawson, Matthew Dragstrem
14. Driving This Thing – Rhett Akins, Ben Hayslip, Jody Stevens
15. Win Life – Rodney Clawson, Ross Copperman, Nicolle Galyon

Luke Bryan releases his new album, What Makes You Country, on Friday (December 8th). The album contains 15 songs, seven of them co-written by Luke, including the title track.

“I just try to go in the studio and record music that makes me happy, makes me feel something, makes me emotional at times, songs that I visualize my crowd reacting to,” says Luke. “I just try to go into albums believing in the songs, confident in the songs and controlling what I control. I can control how hard did I write, how many songs did I write and how many songs did I listen to and did I really do the best job I could at singing them and recording them. I couldn’t be happier with all of those aspects of this record.”

Luke is poised to hit the top of the country charts with his latest release “Light It Up,” which was written by Luke and Old Dominion member Brad Tursi.

Luke made Billboard chart history as the only artist in the 27-year history of the Billboard Country Airplay chart to garner six No. 1 singles from one album. Luke’s tailgates & tanlines and Crash My Party albums both generated five No. 1 singles.

Catch Luke on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on Friday. He’ll perform the title track of his new album, What Makes You Country. He will also perform on The Ellen DeGeneres Show on Tuesday (December 12th).

What Makes You Country track list:

1. What Makes You Country – Luke Bryan, Dallas Davidson, Ashley Gorley
2. Out Of Nowhere Girl – Luke Bryan, Dallas Davidson, Ashley Gorley
3. Light It Up – Luke Bryan, Brad Tursi
4. Most People Are Good – David Frasier, Ed Hill, Josh Kear
5. Sunrise, Sunburn, Sunset – Zach Crowell, Ryan Hurd, Chase McGill
6. Bad Lovers – Justin Wilson, Dallas Davidson, Kyle Fishman
7. Drinking Again – David Lee Murphy, Brad Warren, Brett Warren
8. Land Of A Million Songs – Luke Bryan, Jeff Stevens, Jody Stevens
9. Like You Say You Do – Luke Bryan, Michael Carter, Ashley Gorley
10. Hooked On It – Luke Bryan, Dallas Davidson, David Lee Murphy
11. She’s A Hot One – Michael Carter, Chase McGill
12. Hungover In A Hotel Room – Rodney Clawson, Chris Tompkins, Josh Kear
13. Pick It Up – Luke Bryan, Rodney Clawson, Matthew Dragstrem
14. Driving This Thing – Rhett Akins, Ben Hayslip, Jody Stevens
15. Win Life – Rodney Clawson, Ross Copperman, Nicolle Galyon

Luke Bryan will perform from the Opry City Stage on ABC’s Good Morning America on Friday (December 8th), the same day his new album What Makes You Country is available. Opry City Stage, which boasts a restaurant, bar and live performance stage, is also set to open Luke’s What Makes You Country Pop-Up Shop, featuring his new album, T-shirts and more…all in Times Square.

George Strait has been named the 2018 Texan of the Year by the Texas Legislative Conference. Strait will be presented the award at the New Braunfels Civic/Convention Center March 22nd on behalf of his efforts to help Texans year-round, but most especially for his relief efforts for Hurricane Harvey. To date, he’s helped raise more than $50 million..

Watch Darius Rucker’s concert special on the AT&T Audience Network on Friday (December 8th) at 9pm ET. He recently filmed the one-hour special at New York’s famed Apollo Theater.