Universal Universal Music Group Nashville Pressroom

George Strait picked several special guests to join him as he makes his final trek on The Cowboy Rides Away Tour. His opening acts will include Eric Church, Vince Gill, Little Big Town, Jason Aldean, Sheryl Crow, Merle Haggard, Miranda Lambert, Martina McBride, Lee Ann Womack, Chris Young, Ronnie Dunn and more. “Some of the acts I’d never worked with before, like Eric Church. I’ve worked with Jason [Aldean], but we wanted to get some guys who were really relevant right now to come out,” says George. “Merle Haggard – he’s been one of my main influences throughout my career, especially to start with. He got me into Bob Wills Western Swing music with his tribute album, The Wills, back in the day. And then others that we worked with throughout the years, we just wanted to get together one more time, you know, and do a final blast-off.”

The last leg of his final tour will kick off January 9th in Bossier City, Louisiana, and will hit 26 more dates before the tour bus is retired.

If you can’t wait until next year to see the King of Country, he is scheduled to perform at the star-studded George Jones Tribute Show at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena November 22nd.

George Strait (special guests on final tour) OC: …final blast-off. :37
“It was difficult kind of, but some of the acts I’d never worked with before, like Eric Church. I’ve worked with Jason [Aldean], but we wanted to get some guys who were really relevant right now to come out, and I think it’s gonna be fun. Merle Haggard – he’s been one of my main influences throughout my career, especially to start with. He got me into Bob Wills Western Swing music with his tribute album, The Wills, back in the day. And then others that we worked with throughout the years, we just wanted to get together one more time, you know, and do a final blast-off.”

Keith Urban debuts at the top of both the country album and the Top 200 charts with his latest, Fuse. The new project, which contains his recent two-week No. 1 hit “Little Bit of Everything” and his current single, “We Were Us,” a duet with Miranda Lambert, sold nearly 100,000 copies to land at No. 1 overall. Luke Bryan’s Crash My Party is No. 2, followed by Sheryl Crow’s Feels Like Home.

“The first thing I wanted to do was work exclusively with people I had never worked with, and it started with the songwriters. That moved into the various producers that I worked with and then musicians in the studio too,” says Keith. “Everything for me had to be new and different and [that was] a big part of what I was trying to do with Fuse.”

Keith’s next performance is on Friday (September 20th) at the MGM Grand for the iHeart Music Festival. He’ll return to the road for his Light the Fuse Tour 2013 on Saturday (September 21st) in Mountain View, California.

Keith Urban (new & different) OC: …with Fuse. :20
“The first thing I wanted to do was work exclusively with people I had never worked with, and it started with the songwriters. That moved into the various producers that I worked with and then musicians in the studio too. Everything for me had to be new and different and [that was] a big part of what I was trying to do with Fuse.”

Kacey Musgraves has been in a Nashville rehearsal hall this week working on her Same Trailer, Different Tour, which kicks off Thursday (September 19th) in New York City. The trek will make stops in 13 cities, including New York and London, as well as Stockholm, Oslo, Berlin, Amsterdam and Dublin.

“We’re gonna be bringing our little trailer park across the pond and then back to the U.S., and it was just really something, if anything, a little self-indulgent for me,” says Kacey. “This for me was something I was really excited about doing and getting to go to, not only just amazing countries that I’ve never been to, and there’s so many great country fans over there. They have embraced me completely, and I just love spending time over there. But I also love playing in intimate, kind of smaller venues where you really feel the energy of people and you can really create a vibe, and that’s kind of my favorite part.”

In between some of the dates, Kacey will perform at this year’s Farm Aid in Saratoga Springs, New York on Saturday and the Southern Ground Music and Food Festival in Nashville.

Kacey Musgraves (Same Trailer, Different Tour) 1 OC: …favorite part. :52
“I’m so excited about Same Trailer, Different Tour. We’re gonna be bringing our little trailer park across the pond and then back to the U.S., and it was just really something, if anything, a little self-indulgent for me. I was coming off of huge, you know, a tour with Kenny Chesney, which was absolutely amazing. I had an awesome summer. It was a six-month long tour. I learned a lot and made a lot of great relationships, and this fall, I’ll be going back into another huge tour with Lady Antebellum. So, this for me was something I was really excited about doing and getting to go to not only just amazing countries that I’ve never been to, and there’s so many great country fans over there. They have embraced me completely, and I just love spending time over there. But I also love playing in intimate, kind of smaller venues where you really feel the energy of people and you can really create a vibe, and that’s kind of my favorite part.”

Billy Currington’s new album, We Are Tonight, hit stores this week, and the first single from the album “Hey Girl” is poised to hit the top of the charts in the coming weeks. While Billy didn’t write the song, he says it’s a pickup line he and his buddies used when they would try to pick up girls on the beach years ago. One of those buddies he also considers his “Wingman,” which is another song on his new album.

“I still have a guy named Jamie Day, my best friend in the whole wide world, and he’s my wingman, always will be; like he’s the guy when I explain where did ‘Hey Girl’ come from. ‘Hey Girl’ is what we used to say while we were walking down the beach when we didn’t know what else to say, and Jamie was always that wingman for me. If either one of us couldn’t come up with something, that was the one line we would use, and it would always start conversation. Every time,” says Billy. “I’ve known Jamie since the fifth grade. He ended up sitting in front of me, and we just became the two class clowns and got in a lot of trouble together, and it just kept going from there.”

Billy Currington (Wingman) 2 OC: …from there. :51
“I still have a guy named Jamie Day, my best friend in the whole wide world, and he’s my wingman, always will be; like he’s the guy when I explain where did ‘Hey Girl’ come from. ‘Hey Girl’ is what we used to say while we were walking down the beach when we didn’t know what else to say, and Jamie was always that wingman for me. If either one of us couldn’t come up with something, that was the one line we would use, and it would always start conversation. Every time. You would think they would look at us like, ‘You’re stupid. What are you saying?’… But yeah, Jamie Day, that’s my wingman. I’ve known Jamie since the fifth grade. He ended up sitting in front of me, and we just became the two class clowns and got in a lot of trouble together, and it just kept going from there.”

Dierks Bentley returns as host of the 2013 ACM Honors event in Nashville at the Ryman Auditorium in the latest episode of DBTV. Not only did he crack the jokes and make artist introductions, but he also performed with the amazing Ricky Skaggs.

Darius Rucker celebrated the success of his recent No. 1 single, “Wagon Wheel,” with a party on the stage of Nashville’s legendary Ryman Auditorium. Old Crow Medicine Show’s Ketch Secor, who co-wrote “Wagon Wheel” based on an unfinished song by Bob Dylan. The song even earned Dylan his first CMA Awards nomination for Song of the Year (it also picked up a nod for Single of the Year).

“I talked Frank Rogers, my producer, into cutting it, and it’s the perfect country song. When I hear it on the radio, I think, ‘I don’t think I could be any countrier than that,’” says Darius. “For me, it was a no-brainer. Once we started cutting it, I couldn’t believe I didn’t cut it for my first record. It’s just one of those songs that I just thought was perfect.”

Darius is currently making his way up the charts with his latest single, “Radio.”

Darius Rucker (WW 1 party) OC: …was perfect. :39
“I heard the song probably the first time 7, 8 years ago, and it’s such a great tune. I love it. It was such a bluegrass song, that I never really thought about…they do it so perfectly. I mean, the way they do the song is the way it should be done. It’s just a perfect bluegrass song. I didn’t think that I could make it a country song, then I heard a band playing it in a country way, and I thought, ‘Wow! I wanna cut that.’ I talked Frank Rogers, my producer, into cutting it, and it’s the perfect country song. When I hear it on the radio, I think, ‘I don’t think I could be any countrier than that.’ For me, it was a no-brainer. Once we started cutting it, I couldn’t believe I didn’t cut it for my first record. It’s just one of those songs that I just thought was perfect.”

Nashville, TN –  Easton Corbin’s hit single “All Over The Road” has reached GOLD status by the RIAA. The Top-3 hit was written by Carson Chamberlain, Ashley Gorley and Wade Kirby and serves as the title track to Corbin’s sophomore album that released last year.

The Florida native performed the hit song on Fox News’ morning show Fox & Friends last week. Watch the performance here.

Furthermore, this week Easton added another GOLD Plaque to his wall with the certification “Lovin’ You Is Fun,” the first single off his current album All Over The Road. This makes the fourth Gold single for Easton. Other Gold certifications include “A Little More Country Than That” and “Roll With It” from Easton’s Self-Titled 2010 debut album.

To commemorate the occasion the Chairman and CEO of UMG Nashville, Mike Dungan, surprised Easton with two Gold Plaques for both “Lovin’ You Is Fun” and “All Over The Road” Gold singles on Saturday night (September 14th) at a pre-show event in Nashville.

 Catch Easton Corbin out on the road currently with Blake Shelton on the Ten Times Crazier Tour and then next year with The Band Perry on the We Are Pioneers World Tour.

To stay up-to-date on Easton Corbin news and tour dates, visit www.EastonCorbin.com

AUDIO: Easton Corbin talks about recording songs for his latest album, All Over the Road.

Easton Corbin (songs that spoke to him) OC: …out there. :08
“We found songs that I love, relate to and that spoke to me, and I feel like translates to the audience out there.”

PHOTO ATTACHED:

Photo taken by Jessica Wardwell

(Appearing in Photo L-R: Mike Dungan, Easton Corbin)

Caption: UMG Nashville Chairman & CEO Mike Dungan surprises Easton Corbin with two Gold Plaques for Corbin’s last two singles “Lovin’ You Is Fun” and “All Over The Road”

George Strait, Eric Church, Reba McEntire, Blake Shelton, Miranda Lambert and Alabama have joined the all-star lineup for the George Jones tribute concert in November.

 
“I am thrilled and honored that so many of George’s friends are coming to what would have been his last concert, but is not a fitting tribute,” says his wife Nancy Jones.  “George loved these artists and before passing had actually wrote letters to almost all of them.”
 
The newly added list of performers will join previously announced artists Alan Jackson, Dierks Bentley, Travis Tritt, Tanya Tucker, Josh Turner, The Oak Ridge Boys, Charlie Daniels, Jamey Johnson, Montgomery Gentry, Sam Moore and others at the November 22nd show at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena.  All previously announced artists are currently being reconfirmed. 
 
George Jones, often referred to as the “the greatest living country singer” was on his farewell tour titled “The Grand Tour,” when he passed away on April 26th. The icon’s hits, “I Don’t Need Your Rockin’ Chair”, “Who’s Gonna Fill Their Shoes”, “White Lightning” and “He Stopped Loving Her Today” will surely become standards for honky-tonk cover bands for years to come.

Keith Urban wasn’t able to make his scheduled concert at Blossom Music Center in Cleveland last night (Thursday). He was grounded in New York City because of severe thunderstorms. Keith posted an apology video to his fans in Cleveland on YouTube (see clip below). 

 “We’ve been waiting hours and hours, waiting to take off, but they’ve had these planes grounded pretty much all afternoon waiting for the storms and lightning to pass by,” he said, promising “to play way longer then we would’ve tonight – it’s all that we can do to make it up to you.”

The concert is re-scheduled for Sunday, and those that can’t make the show will receive a full refund.