Universal Universal Music Group Nashville Pressroom

Kacey Musgraves’ debut album, Same Trailer, Different Park, debuted at the top of the country album chart. The collection sold 43,496 copies to land at number-one on the country chart and at number-two overall (right behind Justin Timberlake’s The 20/20 Experience.

The Texas native says she found the inspiration for the songs on her album from just being very observant. “I love observing things, whether it’s myself or other people. It’s kind of my favorite to just like find inspiration and zone in on that and figure out the little facets in that idea,” says Kacey. “I want the record to reflect…just well- rounded emotions. I didn’t want the overall tone to be angry or sad .I think there’s elements of everything on there.”

Luke Bryan’s Spring Break…Here to Party came in at number-two with 38,162 copies, followed by his Dirt Road Diaries Tour openers Florida-Georgia Line.

Kacey, who’s on the road with Kenny Chesney’s No Shoes Nation Tour, is beginning to hit the airwaves with her new single, “Blowin’ Smoke.”

AUDIO: Kacey Musgraves says the inspirations for the songs on her debut album, Same Trailer, Different Park, come from observing life.

Kacey Musgraves (finding inspiration) OC: …on there. :25
“I love observing things, whether it’s myself or other people. It’s kind of my favorite to just like find inspiration and zone in on that and figure out the little facets in that idea. Yeah, I mean, I’m just inspired by emotions of every kind. I want the record to reflect a well -rounded, just well- rounded emotions. I didn’t want the overall tone to be angry or sad .I think there’s elements of everything on there.”

Keith Urban appears on John Fogerty‘s album Wrote A Song For Everyone, which is a compilation of classic songs along with two new songs. Keith is featured on the track, “Almost Saturday Night.” His interview on the album and their song are in the video below. The album releases May 28th!

Nashville, TN – MCA Nashville singer/songwriter Drake White released his debut single, “The Simple Life,” to radio this week tying Justin Moore for the most added song. “The Simple Life” is co-written by Drake, Jeremy Stover and Brian Dean Maher and will appear on Drake’s upcoming debut album (title TBD) due out late 2013 on MCA.

To hear “The Simple Life” click here and to see Drake discuss his debut single, click here. 

Drake explains what’s behind the debut single saying “There’s a buzz in this world. There’s a distraction and a constant noise. ‘The Simple Life’ is about getting away from that and knowing what is important to you—family, friends, God, whatever and really feeling that you don’t have to be going  90 million miles an hour all the time.“ 

He adds, “You can slow down, live simply and when you let the loose ends drag, they say the stress levels go down, the health goes up. When you’re healthy and stress free, that’s a good life.  That’s the simple life.”

The Alabama native describes his sound as “country rockin’ freestyle blues” with influences by Ray Charles, Merle Haggard, Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson, whom Drake toured with on the Country Throwdown tour. He has also opened for Eric Church, Kid Rock, Alan Jackson, Little Big Town and most recently, Blackberry Smoke. 

For a full list of Drake White tour dates visit www.drakewhite.com

Nashville, TN – March 25, 2013 – For Seven-time GRAMMY winning trio Lady Antebellum, their upcoming fourth Capitol Records Nashville release GOLDEN out May 7 was figuratively – and literally – born on the move.

The harmony-based trio and its sizeable fan base bonded heavily during the band’s headlining Own The Night World Tour– an over-sized road trip, if there ever was one. The shows themselves were inspirational. But so was the time offstage. Lady A made a point of experimenting and creating with its road band as the one-nighters and the miles of travel piled up. That behind-the-scenes interaction inspired much of the music on GOLDEN, an instantly infectious project in which Lady A discovered new edges for its already-successful foundation.

“We were just kind of in that live show mindset for this album,” said Lady A’s Dave Haywood. “We had that perspective of being on a tour and having seen what translates in an arena. We have a better idea what kind of songs are so relatable where it shakes everybody like, ‘Oh, my God, I’ve totally been there.’”

“Every band I love that’s been here for a long time has reinvented itself in some way,” added Charles Kelley. “There’s a balance to it. I get a little annoyed when people reinvent themselves too much because there’s a reason people fell in love with you in the first place, but I think it’s important not to regurgitate the same stuff over and over again.”

Lady Antebellum’s familiar, established blend remains firmly intact, but there’s a sense of renewal about it, too.  Lady A and veteran producer Paul Worley return as co-producers on GOLDEN, a reinvented version of Lady A that’s familiar but simultaneously unlike any of its predecessors. It’s an achievement that comes from the band’s journey, and from its willingness to risk. “Downtown,” GOLDEN’s funky lead single, first announced the new direction in January. The band gave it an energetic, playful performance with a noticeably cleaner production than the previous album. The recording uses fewer instruments – each of them framed distinctly in the sound – and Scott delivers the lead vocal with a full-on attitude that’s never been completely realized in previous recordings.

“We embraced risk,” noted Hillary Scott. “When you are pushing yourself to not go back to the same well, you’re gonna come up with something different, or you’ll find songs that are different. And that’s what happened on this album.”

In some ways, GOLDEN also reaffirms the very beginnings of Lady Antebellum. The project focuses on deft songwriting and fresh uses of their talents, which was at the heart of what drew them together in the first place. In the end, the mix of their road experiences, songwriting and challenging outside songs adds a brightness to the album that’s reflected in the GOLDEN title.

GOLDEN Track List:
1. Get To Me
2. Goodbye Town
3. Nothin’ Like The First Time
4. Downtown
5. Better Off Now (That You’re Gone)
6. It Ain’t Pretty
7. Can’t Stand The Rain
8. Golden
9. Long Teenage Goodbye
10. All For Love
11. Better Man
12. Generation Away

Since its 2006 inception, the group had risen quickly to become Country Music’s most influential current group. Lady A won the “Vocal Group of the Year” honor from both the CMA and from the ACM’s three times in a row and sold 11 million albums worldwide. Eight of the band’s singles went Gold, with four surpassing the Platinum mark. “Need You Now” went on to sell over seven million downloads and claimed five of the trio’s seven career GRAMMY wins, including the all-genre “Record and Song of the Year.” For more information on new music, visit www.ladyantebellum.com.

AUDIO: Lady Antebellum’s Charles Kelley says the title Golden fits their forthcoming album perfectly.

Lady Antebellum (Golden title) 1 OC: …right now. :27
“We were talking about some different songs off the record that kind of represented the record. And we’ve never had a one-word title, and I think there’s something kind of strong about having a one-word title, and Golden is actually one of the last songs we wrote for this record. It felt like we had kinda gotten back to the basics of how we started, when we first started writing songs together. There was a very pure place that that song came from, and we thought it conjured up a lot of different images of kind of where we are in our lives right now.”

One of the industry’s most electrifying live performers, four-time Grammy Award winner and American Idol judge Keith Urban, has added a second leg of seventeen concerts that will get underway on October 18^th in Omaha, to his previously announced dates (all dates listed below).  Additionally, shows in Austin, Albuquerque and at Denver’s iconic Red Rocks Amphitheater have been added to the newly dubbed “Light The Fuse Tour 2013” first leg.

Tickets for “Light The Fuse Tour 2013,” with Little Big Town and special guest Dustin Lynch, will go on sale nationally beginning on Friday, April 5^th. 

The “Light The Fuse Tour 2013” first leg kicks off on July 18^th in Cincinnati and concludes on October 5^th, after twenty-eight outdoor shows highlighted by Urban’s first performance at Los Angeles’ famed Hollywood Bowl.  The second leg gets underway in Omaha before seventeen arena shows conclude in Louisville on December 8^th.

The concerts will feature new music from Urban, expected out this spring, as well as an all-new production, the size and scope of which have become synonymous with Urban’s electrifying concert experiences.

For all official Keith Urban tour news and ticket information go to www.keithurban.net/tour.

LITTLE BIG TOWN: Grammy-winning country group, Little Big Town-consisting of members Karen Fairchild, Phillip Sweet, Kimberly Schlapman and Jimi Westbrook-entered the music scene over 13 years ago with hits such as “Boondocks,” “Bring It On Home” and “Little White Church.” The group’s fifth studio album Tornado was released in the fall of 2012 and includes 2x platinum-selling #1 hit “Pontoon” and album title-track “Tornado” which also peaked in the #1 spot. Collectively, the group has earned over 25 award show nominations and has taken home the award for ACM Top New Vocal Group, CMA Single of the Year (“Pontoon”), CMA Vocal Group of the Year and a Grammy Award for Best Country Group/Duo Performance (“Pontoon”).

DUSTIN LYNCH: Since the release of his debut single, “Cowboys and Angels,” Broken Bow Records’ Dustin Lynch has earned a #1 album, over a million single sales and has surpassed 7 million views on YouTube/ VEVO. He’s soared to #1 on the MTV Music Meter, earned a #1 ringtone on CMT, a Top 5 on the Billboard Heatseekers Songs Chart, a Top 3 Country radio single and was lauded by People magazine as “one of the best debuts of 2012.”  Dustin’s follow-up, the Top 20 double-entendre head turner, “She Cranks My Tractor,” continues to catapult up the Country Radio charts.

KEITH URBAN’S “LIGHT THE FUSE TOUR 2013” SECOND LEG 

October 18^th                       Omaha, NE                                         CenturyLink Center

October 19^th                       Oklahoma City, OK                          Chesapeake Energy Arena

October 20^th                       Springfield, MO                                JQH Arena

October 25^th                       Tulsa, OK                                             BOK Center

October 26^th                       Bossier City, LA                                 CenturyLink Center

October 27^th                       Lafayette, LA                                     Cajundome

November 8^th                    Kansas City, MO                               Sprint Center

November 9^th                    Des Moines, IA                                 Wells Fargo Arena

November 10^th                  Peoria, IL                                             Peoria Civic Center

November 14^th                 Manchester, NH                               Verizon Wireless Arena

November 15^th                  Uncasville, CT                                    Mohegan Sun Arena

November 16^th                 Uncasville, CT                                    Mohegan Sun Arena

November 22^nd                 State College, PA                             Bryce Jordan Center

November 24^th                 Toledo, OH                                         Huntington Center

December 6^th                     Greenville, SC                                    Bi-Lo Center

December 7^th                     Charleston, WV                                Charleston Civic Center

December 8^th                     Louisville, KY                                      KFC Yum! Center

July 18^th                                Cincinnati, OH                                    Riverbend Music Center

July 19^th                                Twin Lakes, WI                                  Country Thunder

July 20^th                                Monticello, IA                                    Great Jones County Fair

July 25^th                                Charlotte, NC                                     Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre

July 26^th                                Raleigh, NC                                         Time Warner Cable Amphitheatre

July 27^th                                Atlanta, GA                                         Verizon Amphitheatre

August 4^th                            Detroit, MI                                          DTE Energy Music Center

August 8^th                            Columbia, MD                                   Merriweather Post Pavilion

August 9^th                            Canandaigua, NY                              CMAC

August 10^th                         Boston, MA                                        Comcast Center

August 15^th                         Austin, TX                                           Austin360 Amphitheater

August 16^th                         Houston, TX                                       Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion

August 17^th                         Dallas, TX                                             Gexa Energy Pavilion

August 22^nd                         Birmingham, AL                                Oak Mountain Amphitheatre

August 23^rd                         St. Louis, MO                                     Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre

August 24^th                         Indianapolis, IN                                 Klipsch Music Center

August 28^th                         Albuquerque, NM                           Sandia Casino Amphitheater

August 30^th                         Denver, CO                                         Red Rocks Amphitheatre*

September 12^th                 Cleveland, OH                                   Blossom Music Center

September 13^th                 Pittsburgh, PA                                   First Niagara Pavilion

September 14^th                 Camden, NJ                                        Susquehanna Bank Center

September 21^st                 Mountain View, CA                         Shoreline Amphitheatre

September 22^nd                Sacramento, CA                                Sleep Train Amphitheatre

September 27^th                 Los Angeles, CA                                Hollywood Bowl

September 28^th                 San Diego, CA                                    Sleep Train Amphitheatre

September 29^th                 Phoenix, AZ                                        Desert Sky Pavilion

October 4^th                         Tampa, Florida                                  Live Nation Amphitheatre Tampa

October 5^th                         West Palm Beach, FL                      Cruzan Amphitheatre

* Keith Urban and Little Big Town Only

AUDIO: Keith Urban says he owes his career to his fans.

Keith Urban (Owes It to the Fans) OC: …long soundcheck. :28
“The life that I have is because of them. It’s that simple. I mean, everything that I have in this life that I is, I come from nothing, very, very working class family. And I’ve been blessed with this extraordinary life,  and it’s the fans and it’s the audiences that like the music and come to the concerts. I mean, that’s just changed my life, and without them it’s just one big long soundcheck.”

Nashville, TN – George Strait is set to release his highly anticipated 40^th studio album, Love Is Everything, on May 14th on longtime label home MCA Nashville.  The King of Country music rejoined veteran producer Tony Brown to co-produce the album, which features 13 new tracks, including the Top 15 and climbing current single “Give It All We Got Tonight.”  Love Is Everything includes four songs written or co-written by Strait, who penned many alongside his son Bubba Strait and legendary songwriter Dean Dillon.  Love Is Everything will be available in stores and at all digital retailers.

With the new album’s first single “Give It All We Got Tonight” quickly approaching Top 10 on the Country radio charts, the song is poised to become Strait’s 60^th #1 single.  Fans and fellow Country artists recently started campaigning for the “Sixty For Sixty” movement, which encourages local radio stations to make the song his 60^th #1 single before his 61^st birthday on May 18th. Their efforts are certainly paying off as “Give It All We Got Tonight” is the fastest certified Gold single of Strait’s incredible 32-year career.  Fans can tweet and Instagram their support with hashtag #60for60, as well as share posts on Facebook.

In the midst of his two-year final U.S. tour, The Cowboy Rides Away Tour, Strait recently set an all-time attendance record at Reliant Center when he closed out this year’s Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo, performing to a crowd of 80,020 fans. The tour has so far sold out 16 of 16 venues played.

Love Is Everything Track List:
1.  I Got A Car

2.  Give It All We Got Tonight

3.  Blue Melodies

4.  I Just Can’t Go On Dying Like This

5.  I Thought I Heard My Heart Sing

6.  That’s What Breaking Hearts Do

7.  When Love Comes Around Again

8.  The Night Is Young

9.  Sittin’ On The Fence

10.  I Believe

11.  Love Is Everything

12.  You Don’t Know What You’re Missing

13.  When The Credits Roll

Alan Jackson will release Precious Memories Volume II tomorrow (March 26^th), the first volume having been recorded and released in 2006 and topping three album charts – Top Country Album, Top Christian Albums and Top Christian & Gospel Albums – during its first week of release.

The first volume of “Precious Memories” started as a Christmas gift for the singer’s mother, and was urged by some friends, family and record label execs to release it to his fans.

He equates many of the gospel standards to country songs. “They’re a lot like country songs. They’re memorable melodies, and they’re well-written subjects that appeal to common people,”  the Georgia native says. “When you really start listening to those songs, as a songwriter now, I’m especially amazed at how good they are, you know, in the melodies and even some of the melodies are similar, almost, to a country song. That’s one reason I love ‘em.”

He culled through 30-40 more gospel songs with his wife to come up with the tracks on Volume II.

Precious Memories Volume II Track List:
1. Amazing Grace
2. He Lives
3. Just As I Am
4. Love Lifted Me
5. O How I Love Jesus
6. Only Trust Him
7. There Is Power In The Blood
8. Precious Memories
9. Sweet Hour of Prayer
10. When the Roll is Called Up Yonder
11. Wherever He Leads I’ll Go

Alan Jackson shares his thoughts on why the songs he recorded for Precious Memories Volume II endure and resonate with people.

AJ (country & gospel) OC: …that sound. :54“T
hey’re a lot like country songs. They’re memorable melodies, and they’re well-written subjects that appeal to common people. When you really start listening to those songs, as a songwriter now, I’m especially amazed at how good they are, you know, in the melodies and even some of the melodies are similar, almost, to a country song. That’s one reason I love ‘em. And I think people that grew up in church, it’s not unlike your young days in high school and whatever you listened to on the radio, you know? Those are songs that [when] you hear them now, they really take you back to that feeling of that moment. And I think that’s what these songs do for people that heard ‘em every Sunday and especially like the church I went to had a big ol’ pipe organ and a piano and that was just a monstrous sound. It was very – even though I wasn’t that crazy about being at church when I was a young man, that music – I loved that sound.”

Greensboro, NC — Country superstar George Strait thanked a brave Triad service member Saturday night, during his performance at the Greensboro Coliseum.

Strait with the help of retired Army Lt.General Leroy Sisco presented Winston-Salem native Ryan Hamilton with the keys to a new home, according to Greensboro CBS-TV affiliate WFMY.

It’s all part of the “Homes 4 Wounded Heroes” program, which is provided through the Military Warriors Support Foundation.

Hamilton is a retired Army sergeant. He was hit by an IED, while serving in Iraq in 2007.

This is the 17th home Strait has given away, so far, as part of his “The Cowboy Rides Away” tour.

Check out the video here.

Newcomer Drake White hits the airwaves with his debut single, “The Simple Life,” on Monday (March 25th). The Hokes Bluff, Alabama native was destined to become a singer-songwriter, especially since he began rhyming words at a very young age. “We laugh about it now, because I used to get in trouble rhyming,” says Drake. “I would start rhyming with duck, and you know where that ends up. That’s true, like I always rhymed at a very young age – 7, 8, 9 – but poetry always intrigued me.

Check out the video below to see an acoustic version of “The Simple Life.”

AUDIO: MCA Nashville’s Drake White says his penchant for rhyming words (and later songwriting) came at an early age.

Drake White (rhyming words) OC: …secretive-type thing. :33
“My dad worked at Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, and my mother was a cosmetologist in a garage, one-chair shop, so, I mean, it was a pretty awesome, cool, simple type of life. We laugh about it now, because I used to get in trouble rhyming. I would start rhyming with duck, and you know where that ends up. That’s true, like I always rhymed at a very young age – 7, 8, 9 – but poetry always intrigued me. And I grew up in a place where guys didn’t cry, guys didn’t, you know, so poetry was kind like, I really didn’t tap into it until I was about 14 or 15, and that was kind of a secretive-type thing.”

LINER Drake White (Simple Life intro)

In the latest episode of ScotTV, Scotty McCreery enjoys the nice warm weather in sunny Florida before the show. See how life on the road can be a wild ride!

When he’s not on the road with his Weekend Road Trip Tour or in classes, Scotty’s been working hard on his next album.

The next date on his Weekend Road Trip Tour is Thursday (March 28th) in Aurora, Illinois.