Universal Universal Music Group Nashville Pressroom

ERIC CHURCH SET TO RELEASE FIRST-EVER LIVE RECORD ON APRIL 9, 2013

 Caught In The Act: Live to Feature 17 Songs Captured at Chattanooga’s Tivoli Theatre

 Exclusive 21-Song Vinyl to be Released on National Record Store Day, April 20, 2013

 NASHVILLE, Tenn. (Friday, February 8, 2013)—EMI Records’ Eric Church will release a 17-track live album, Caught In The Act: Live, on Tuesday, April 9, 2013 featuring songs from Sinners Like Me, Carolina, and his CMA Award-winning 2011 release, CHIEF. Act will be available for purchase on iTunes and in stores nationwide. The album was recorded at Chattanooga’s Tivoli Theatre in October 2012 and is Church’s first live recording. A double gatefold vinyl version of the record will also be made available on National Record Store Day, Saturday, April 20. The package will include four additional tracks and a special whiskey-infused 7-inch. 

Caught In The Act: Live features raw, electric performances of songs like “Pledge Allegiance To The Hag,” “Smoke A Little Smoke,” “How ‘Bout You,” “Creepin’” and more. American Songwriter noted of the live taping, “[The] rendition of the soulful hit ‘Springsteen’ is one of his best, slipping into the first verse of Springsteen’s ‘Born to Run’ towards to end.” The writer adds, “[Church] sang and played just differently enough to create variety from his studio versions and his performance confirmed that his voice is easily just as good as how it sounds on a produced record.”

The release of Caught In The Act: Live is fans’ first chance to take home a copy of Church’s live show — the only of the country genre to be named “Best Concerts Of 2012” by The New York Times who calls it, “A mean show,” and adds, “Mr. Church has clawed his way into the country mainstream with a series of post-outlaw anthems, and delivered them with verve and tension, as if he might not be allowed to for much longer.”

Church is nominated for two GRAMMY® awards this year, both for his No. 1 smash hit, “Springsteen,” in categories Best Country Solo Performance and Best Country Song and will be in attendance when the winners are announced this Sunday, February 10.

He is currently touring Canada on his sold-out The Blood Sweat & Beers Tour and will return to the states to join Kenny Chesney on the No Shoes Nation tour beginning March 16 in Tampa, Fla.

For a full list of tour dates and more information on Eric Church, visit www.ericchurch.com.

Caught In The Act: Live track listing:

1.)    “Before She Does” (3:46)

2.)    “How ‘Bout You” (4:24)

3.)    “Drink In My Hand” (4:51)

4.)    “Over When It’s Over” (2:57)

5.)    “I’m Gettin’ Stoned” (5:27)

6.)    “Creepin’” (4:45)

7.)    “Keep On” (2:52)

8.)    “Hungover & Hard Up” (3:33)

9.)    “Sinners Like Me” (4:22)

10.)  “Country Music Jesus” (3:49)

11.) “Pledge Allegiance To The Hag” (4:54)

12.)  “Jack Daniels” (6:03)

13.)  “Homeboy” (4:40)

14.) “Lotta Boot Left To Fill” (4:21)

15.)  “Smoke A Little Smoke” (5:14)

16.) “These Boots” (3:43)

17.) “Springsteen” (9:27)

Luke Bryan and the guys are up to no good again with LBTV: Outtake’s Edition!

Eric Church goes into Sunday night’s Grammy Awards with a pair of nominations afor Best Country Solo Performance and Best Country Song for “Springsteen.” He co-wrote the two-week number-one hit with Jeff Hyde and Ryan Tyndell.

Other UMG Nashville artists picking up nominations include Dierks Bentley, who is nominated for Best Country Solo Performance for “Home,” Little Big Town for Best Country Duo/Group Performance for “Pontoon,” and Jamey Johnson for Best Country Album for Living For a Song: A Tribute to Hank Cochran. Best Country Song category features “Even If It Breaks Your Heart,” which was written by EMI Nashville’s Eric Paslay (along with Will Hoge) and Alan Jackson’s song, “So You Don’t Have to Love Me Anymore,” which was written by his nephew Adam Wright and Jay Knowles.

Dierks has been tapped to perform at this year’s Grammy Awards with his pal and Locked & Re-Loaded tour mate Miranda Lambert. The two are said to be teaming up for a “special” performance on the show. Keith Urban will appear on the show as a presenter.

This year’s Grammy Awards will broadcast live from Los Angeles on Sunday (February 10th) beginning at 8pm ET on CBS.

Check out the country nominees below:

Best Country Solo Performance:
Dierks Bentley “Home”
Eric Church “Springsteen”
Ronnie Dunn “Cost of Livin’”
Hunter Hayes “Wanted”
Blake Shelton “Over”
Carrie Underwood “Blown Away”

Best Country Song:
“Blown Away” – Josh Kear & Chris Tompkins (Carrie Underwood)
“Cost of Livin’” – Ronnie Dunn & Phillip Coleman (Ronnie Dunn)
“Even If It Breaks Your Heart” – Eric Paslay & Will Hoge (Eli Young Band)
“So You Don’t Have to Love Me Anymore” – Jay Knowles & Adam Wright (Alan Jackson)
“Springsteen” – Eric Church, Jeff Hyde & Ryan Tyndell (Eric Church)

Best Country Duo/Group Performance:
Eli Young Band “Even If It Breaks Your Heart”
Little Big Town “Pontoon”
Taylor Swift & The Civil Wars “Safe & Sound”
The Time Jumpers “On the Outskirts of Town”
Don Williams, featuring Alison Krauss “I Just Come Here for the Music”

Best Country Album:
Uncaged – Zac Brown Band
Hunter Hayes – Hunter Hayes
Living For a Song: A Tribute to Hank Cochran – Jamey Johnson
Four the Record – Miranda Lambert
The Time Jumpers – The Time Jumpers

AUDIO: Eric Church says his Grammy-nominated “Springsteen” takes him back to when he was 16-years-old at his first amphitheater experience.

Eric Church (Springsteen inspiration) OC: …everybody out there. :38
“Springsteen’ is one of those songs that every night that I sing it, I can remember being 16 years old at Verizon Wireless Amphitheater in Charlotte, North Carolina – my first amphitheater experience up there on the lawn. And I can remember spreading that blanket down, and I can still see the faces of the people that were there with me; I still remember what the weather was like; I can still remember what the air smelled like, what the sky looked like. And I think the great thing about that song – you always try to write music and record music that sparks a memory, and there’s a line in the song – ‘Funny how a melody sounds like a memory.’ That’s exactly what ‘Springsteen’ is for me, and I hope that that’s what it’s for for everybody out there.”

AUDIO: Eric Church talks about Grammy nominations.

Eric Church (Grammy nominations) OC: …Grammys. :10
“If you’re a musical artist, the Grammys are pretty much the Holy Grail, because it’s all genres, it’s everybody, it’s peers. That’s why they are revered the way they are – you know, they’re the Grammys.”

AUDIO: Dierks Bentley talks about his Grammy-nominated “Home.”

Dierks Bentley (Home-Americans) OC: …the bad. :09
“You know, we’re all Americans. I think that’s the most important description of all of us and I think we wanted to write a song that really captured the spirit of this country – the good and the bad.”

AUDIO: Dierks Bentley talks about being nominated at this year’s Grammy Awards, and he says if his pals, bluegrass group The Grascals win, he’s going up on stage with them.

Dierks Bentley (Grammys 2013) OC: …be nominated. :46
“Well, I mean, let’s look at the stats. I’ve been nominated for 12, okay? So, I’m pretty used to clapping for somebody else and the camera’s right there [clap, clap, clap, clap]. I got that down pretty good. I’m nominated, I think, for ‘Home,’ for Vocal Event of the Year, but The Grascals, I wrote a song, a Bluegrass song, that’s nominated, The Grascals are nominated for Bluegrass Album of the Year. I talked to Jamey the other day from The Grascals, and I said, ‘If you guys win, can I rush up there with you?’ ‘Cause it’s a good year for them. The Del McCoury Band is not nominated, there’s no, Ralph Stanley’s not nominated, Steve Martin-rogue category, so as far as Bluegrass goes, The Grascals’ got a pretty good shot. So, if they win, I’m running up there, so I can say I did it, because it’s a tough thing to win one, I’ve found out. But it’s always cool to be nominated.”

AUDIO: Alan Jackson speaks about “So You Don’t Have to Love Me Anymore,” the song that earned his nephew, Adam Wright, and Jay Knowles their first Grammy nominations (as writers in the “Best Country Song” category).

AJ (Grammy nod for So You Don’t) OC: …this song :33
“You know, the first time I heard that song, I knew it was a great song. I called the writer, who just happened to be…one of the co-writers on it is my nephew Adam Wright who lives here in Nashville and is a singer-songwriter. I called Adam and I said, ‘Man, this is a great song. You sure you want to let me have it? I mean, there’s a lot of people that can sing this thing out there.’ And he said no – if I wanted it, he wanted me to sing it. So I was proud to have it. Everybody that heard it, the first thing they’d say was ‘Man, that thing gave me goosebumps on my arms!’ It’s just a great song, a great melody. I’m a songwriter, and I appreciate songs…so I definitely appreciate this song.”

AUDIO: Eric Paslay talks about writing his Grammy-nominated song, “Even If It Breaks Your Heart.”

Eric Paslay (Even If It Breaks Your Heart) OC: …just music. :43
“I wrote ‘Even If It Breaks Your Heart’ with Will Hoge, who’s an artist in Nashville, and that song actually was released [first] on Triple A radio. I think the majority of the people that tell me they love it are the musicians or the entertainers, because it’s so much about what we do. It’s like, ‘Keep on dreaming, even if it breaks your heart.’ If you let it, it could break your heart every day from the yeses and the nos and the ‘you’re not good enough, and now you are and you should’ve done,’ whatever it is. I think being in the entertainment industry, you make it more vulnerable. You just make sure you put your heart and soul into it, but make sure you realize it’s just music too. It IS music, but it’s just music.”

AUDIO: Little Big Town’s Phillip Sweet says their new No. 1 single, “Pontoon,” celebrates summer fun.

LBT (Pontoon summer fun) OC: …summertime fun. :13
“It’s just fun. [Jimi laughs] It really is. It feels like summer, and it feels exactly what it sounds like. I grew up on pontoon boats in the summer on the lakes and just having a blast, so it’s good ole clean summertime fun.”

George Strait To Be Honored With

CRB Career Achievement Award

(Nashville, TN – Feb. 6, 2013) – Country superstar George Strait will be honored with the 2013 Country Radio Broadcasters, Inc. Career Achievement Award at the Country Radio Hall of Fame Induction on Tuesday, Feb. 26 at 6 p.m.

The CRB Achievement Award is presented to an individual artist or act that, through their creativity, vision, performance or leadership has made a significant contribution to the development and promotion of country music and country radio.

“George Strait has done a superb job promoting country music and country radio over the years. His dedication to the format and on-going contribution to the industry as a whole make him the perfect recipient for this award,” said Mike Culotta, CRS President.

With a career spanning more than 30 years, George Strait has the most number one singles of any artist in history including Elvis Presley.  He has sold nearly 69 million records and with 33 different platinum or multi-platinum albums, has the most RIAA platinum certifications in country music and the third in all genres behind The Beatles and Elvis Presley. Strait was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2006. Strait is the only artist to have 85 out of 90 radio singles make it to Top 10 and 24 albums at the number one position on Billboard’s Country Music Album Chart, and has recently released “Give It All We Got Tonight” from his forthcoming 2013 album.

As previously announced, the evening will also feature Gaylan Christie being inducted into the Country Radio Hall of Fame and Dr. Don Carpenter, Crook & Chase, Eddie Edwards and Bill “Dex” Poindexter will be inducted in the Air Personality category. Bob Romeo will receive the 2013 Presidents’ Award.

Previous winners of this Award include Brooks and Dunn, Kenny Rogers, Charlie Daniels, Dolly Parton and Reba McEntire.

The Country Radio Hall of Fame dinner and induction ceremony unofficially kicks off Country Radio Seminar each year.

For more information on George Strait, visit www.georgestrait.com. 

AUDIO: George Strait has had a very long and successful career – more than 30 years since he released his first single, “Unwound.” King George explains what he believes has attributed to his long career.

George Strait (long career) OC: …do it all. :29
“It doesn’t seem like it’s been that long, though to me until I look in the mirror. It’s been a long time. It’s been a great career and I think one of the reasons is I’ve always been fortunate enough to have good people around me and good people to work with. Very loyal people that I get good advice from and bounce ideas off of and know that I can count on. You know you can’t do it by yourself. You can do a lot, but you can’t do it all.”

With the release of their latest single to iTunes this week, Lady Antebellum talk about “Downtown,” which is the first single from their upcoming album due out later this year.

Gary Allan’s Set You Free remains atop the Billboard Country Singles Chart for a second week in a row. The disc sold nearly 34-thousand copies this past week to hold steady at number-one on the country chart and land at number-eight overall. Last week, the collection, containing his gold-certified, chart-topping single “Every Storm (Runs Out of Rain),” debuted at the top of both the country and Top 200 charts with 106-thousand copies sold. “I sort of forced myself to stretch this time; one, because I had so much time, and I always feel like you have to do something new to reinvent yourself,” says Gary. “I think it’s my favorite album.”

The California native is not only celebrating a number-one single and album, but he’s also thrilled that his two shows at Nashville’s historic Ryman Auditorium in April sold-out in 10-minutes each.

AUDIO: Gary Allan says there is a lot of diversity on his latest album, Set You Free, which debuted atop the Billboard Top 200 last week and is still sitting at number-one on the country chart.

Gary Allan (diversity of album) OC: …album too. :41
“I sort of forced myself to stretch this time; one, because I had so much time and I always feel like you have to do something new to reinvent yourself, and this time it was [with] producers. I did stuff with Jay Joyce, which I’ve never done. How we did it this time is I did five songs with Jay Joyce, five songs with Mark Wright, and then I did five songs with my band and engineer Greg Droman. I think if you cut everything at one time, if you cut 15 songs, usually it’s okay if you end up with an album cut or a couple songs that don’t make the record. But since we did it like that, we were all competing with each other. Like we only got five, so there was a lot less room for mistake. And I think the result is we just got better quality everything. I think it’s my favorite album too.”

Lady Antebellum had the honor of sharing of the CMT Crossroads stage with Stevie Nicks last week in LA. Rolling Stone was there to capture all of the amazing moments on and off the stage. To check out their exclusive gallery of behind-the-scenes photos, click here.

RYAN SEACREST, LITTLE BIG TOWN, THE BAND PERRY, BETH BEHRS,

SCOTTY McCREERY, NANCY O’DELL & ROB MARCIANO, AND MORE

TO ANNOUNCE NOMINEES FOR THE

48^TH ANNUAL ACADEMY OF COUNTRY MUSIC AWARDS

COUNTRY MUSIC’S PARTY OF THE YEAR®

ON WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2013 VIA

www.facebook.com/AcademyOfCountryMusic AND www.twitter.com/ACMAwards

COUNTRY MUSIC FANS INVITED TO ANNOUNCE ENTERTAINER OF THE YEAR CATEGORY

& SPECIAL VIP GUESTS WILL ANNOUNCE CATEGORIES VIA VIDEO POSTS

Tweet: Join Ryan Seacrest, Little Big Town, The Band Perry, Beth Behrs & more announcing @ACMawards nominees! How? http://youtu.be/6A_400wmheM #ACMs

WHAT:                 The second annual ACM digital press conference, hosted by the Academy of Country Music, CBS Television and dick clark productions via ACM social media channels, to announce the nominees for the 48^th ANNUAL ACADEMY OF COUNTRY MUSIC AWARDS, Country Music’s Party of the Year® to be broadcast LIVE from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas Sunday, April 7, 2013 at 8:00 PM live ET/delayed PT on the CBS Television Network.   

WHO:                   The Band Perry, 2 Broke Girls star Beth Behrs, Little Big Town, Scotty McCreery, Ryan Seacrest, Entertainment Tonight hosts Rob Marciano and Nancy O’Dell and more surprise guests will announce categories via videos posted in real time to fans and media simultaneously.  The press conference will culminate with country music FANS announcing the nominees for Entertainer of the Year (see below).

WHEN:                 Wednesday, February 13, 2013

                                6:30 AM PST       Nominations announced via social media followed by a press release

posted on www.ACMcountry.com.

WHERE:               ACM Facebook Page:     www.facebook.com/AcademyOfCountryMusic

                                ACM Twitter Feed:         www.twitter.com/ACMawards

MORE:                  FANS ARE INVITED TO PARTICIPATE IN THIS ONLINE EVENT!  Beginning TODAY, fans are invited to visit the ACM YouTube Channel at www.youtube.com/acmcountry to learn how to post videos announcing the name of the artist(s) they would like to see receive an Entertainer of the Year nomination.  On Wednesday, February 13^th during the real-time digital press conference fans can watch to see if their video submission is used to announce their pick for the Academy’s biggest prize. And they’re in good company: Past participants in the ACM nominations press conferences have included Kenny Chesney, Toby Keith, Miranda Lambert, Brad Paisley, Rascal Flatts, Reba, Lionel Richie, Blake Shelton, Sugarland, Carrie Underwood and many more!

Kacey Musgraves co-produced her debut album, Same Trailer, Different Park, with hit songwriters Luke Laird and Shane McAnally. Kacey talks about some of the songs on the album, due out March 19th, below.

Kip Moore has been announced as the special guest on Toby Keith’s upcoming Hammer Down Tour, which is set to kick off June 8th in Ozark, Arkansas. “I am excited to go out with Toby, because I have heard so many stories about what the tours are like. I know that he has a big, big rowdy crowd, and I know he has a different kind of fan base than I probably do, which is why it’s going to be so fun to get in front of that fan base,” says Kip. “The guy has been at the top of his game for no telling how many years. I mean 10-15-20 years, so I know it’s definitely something I can learn a lot from, and I think it will better my career going out with him.”

Kip, who is currently on the road with Brantley Gilbert on the Hell on Wheels Tour, is scaling the country charts with his latest single, “Hey Pretty Girl,” the follow-up to back-to-back number-one singles – “Somethin’ ‘Bout a Truck” and “Beer Money.”

Hammer Down Tour dates:
6/8       Ozark, AR*
6/14     Cincinnati, OH
6/15     Pittsburgh, PA
6/22     Philadelphia, PA
6/28     Oshkosh, WI*
6/29     Cadott, WI*
6/30     Chicago, IL
7/19     Cleveland, OH
7/20     St. Clairsville, OH
7/21     Buffalo, NY
7/27     Cheyenne, WY*
7/30     Davenport, IA Mississippi Valley Fair *
8/2       Sweet Home, OR
8/6       Sturgis, SD*
8/14     Springfield, IL
8/24     Washington, DC
8/25     Hartford, CT
8/31     Allentown, PA
9/1       Essex Junction, VT
9/7       Indianapolis, IN
Dates with * = Kip Moore does not appear.

AUDIO: Kip Moore talks about going out on the road with Toby Keith.

Kip Moore (Toby Keith) OC: …out with him. :35
“I am excited to go out with Toby, because I have heard so many stories about what the tours are like. I know that he has a big, big rowdy crowd, and I know he has a different kind of fan base than I probably do, which is why it’s going to be so fun to get in front of that fan base. And it’s going to be a bunch of those outdoor amphitheaters, the sheds, which is always a lively good time. I mean, the guy has been at the top of his game for no telling how many years. I mean 10-15-20 years, so I know it’s definitely something I can learn a lot from, and I think it will better my career going out with him.”