Universal Universal Music Group Nashville Pressroom

Little Big Town, in partnership with ACM Lifting Lives, hit the ACM Awards show stage for a performance of ‘Here’s Hope,’ an original song co-written by ACM New Artist of the Year nominee Hunter Hayes. Hunter introduced the quartet, who was joined onstage by the Clark County Children’s Choir. The performance, presented by ConAgra Foods’ Child Hunger Ends Here campaign, is being presented to shed light on child hunger in the United States.

Little Big Town began their performance by singing a bar of John Lennon‘s ‘Imagine’ before launching into ‘Here’s Hope’ with images of children flashing on the screens behind them.

“When I first learned about ACM Lifting Lives a few years ago, I immediately asked to be a part of this amazing organization,” says Little Big Town’s Kimberly Schlapman. “Lifting Lives seeks out needs and takes care of people. They work hard at giving both children and adults comfort, contentment and happiness. We are so honored and excited to be a part of the very special Lifting Lives moment to end child hunger on the ACM Awards.” 

From CMT.com:

LAS VEGAS — Luke Bryan launched his energetic, hour-plus set in Las Vegas with “Rain Is a Good Thing” — and judging by the cheers at this free party in the desert on Friday night (March 30), thousands of country fans agreed.

Although the desert air is dry and no rain was imminent, there were plenty of other liquids lubricating this particular crowd. Is it any wonder that Bryan’s current single, “Drunk on You,” earned some of the loudest singing-along of the night?

Bryan headlined the first of two nights at the Fremont Street Experience in Las Vegas, capping a night of music that offered ACM-nominated newcomers Scotty McCreery, Brantley Gilbert, Hunter Hayes and the updated duo version of Love and Theft.

Concluding the night with to the longest imaginable rendition of “Country Girl (Shake It for Me),” Bryan and his capable band admirably kept the momentum going up until midnight.

Hits like “All My Friends Say,” “I Don’t Want This Night to End” and “Do I” translated well to a live, late night setting and you could tell his fans were out in force. Bryan’s stage presence is undeniable, too, and if anybody unfamiliar with country music just happened to be downtown, you can wager they’re going to remember his name.

The free Fremont Street shows continue on Saturday with headliner Eric Church, as well as Laura Bell Bundy, the Eli Young Band, Craig Campbell and Jana Kramer.

Country music came to Caesars Palace on Friday, as the iconic Las Vegas Strip property hosted an autograph signing for fans with the Grammy nominated, platinum-selling group Little Big Town at Serendipity 3.  

The restaurant’s chef Michael Wolf collaborated with the band to create a special “Little Big Town” sundae, which features vanilla and chocolate ice cream, hot fudge caramel, fresh strawberries, wet nuts (walnuts and maple syrup), gummy bears and gummy worms.

Luke Bryan is thrilled to not only perform on Sunday night’s ACM Awards, but he’s pretty excited about taking part in the CBS-TV special, Lionel Richie and Friends – In Concert, which will tape on Monday (April 2^nd). “We had our fingers crossed certainly to be part of the Lionel Richie tribute thing,” says Luke. “He is by far in my top three most influential songwriters and artists of all time.” The other two are George Strait and Alabama’s Randy Owen. Luke originally met the iconic performer at last year’s CMA Awards. “He walked up and said, ‘Hey Luke!’ I mean I almost hit the floor backstage.” Luke then had the opportunity to sing with Lionel during CRS [Country Radio Seminar] last month. Luke, who is climbing the country charts with his latest single “Drunk on You,” will perform “Runnin’ With the Night,” during the special, which airs April 13th. 

AUDIO: Luke Bryan talks about meeting Lionel Richie. 

Luke Bryan (Lionel Richie) OC: …of all time. :34

“I’m doing [sings] ‘We were running with the night.’ So, yeah, I just recently got to meet, well, not meet for the first time. I met him at the CMAs. He walked up and said, ‘Hey Luke!’ I mean I almost hit the floor backstage. But for CRS, I had the opportunity to sing with him and meet him. And, we had our fingers crossed certainly to be part of the Lionel Richie tribute thing, and he is by far in my top three most influential songwriters and artists of all time.”

Eric Church always has a good time in Las Vegas, where the ACM Awards take place. It’s always been like a vacation for him and his wife Katherine; he gets to play roulette, usually going home with more than he came there with and Katherine gets to go shopping. That is…until the last couple of years when he’s actually had to put in some time “at work.” In 2011, he performed at the ACM Fan Jam and took home the award for Top New Solo Artist. This year, he’s up for the prestigious Album of the Year for his hit album, Chief, as well as for Music Video of the Year for “Homeboy.” Not to mention he’ll be handing in one of the most-anticipated performances of the entire show on the stage of the MGM Grand Garden Arena.

Eric is currently scaling the country charts with his latest hit, “Springsteen.”

AUDIO: Eric Church talks about being in Las Vegas for the ACM Awards.

Eric Church (Vegas) OC: …perform, you know? :16

“Vegas is like a vacation. We get to get out of town, and it’s like the beach – you can lay out in the sun, you can shop, you can gamble. My wife loves Vegas, more than I like her to love Vegas, you know? She does a lot of shopping out there. I love to gamble. This year we actually have got to do some work. [laughs] I actually have to perform.”

AUDIO: Eric Church says when he’s in Las Vegas, he likes to play roulette – and he’s got a couple of tips on how to win a little money.

Eric Church (gambling) OC: …it’s fun for me. :34

“I love roulette. I’m the double-the-money kind of guy, and I’ll put it all on black. It’s the quickest way. I don’t understand craps all that well. I always find a guy who’s got all the chips and do what he does, you know, which I never really trust because I don’t know why I’m winning. They’re just giving me chips. So, I enjoy roulette just because I’ve made money quick doing roulette…I play colors, red, black. Then there’s thirds – first third, second third and last third – is usually what I play. And then odd or even. You can play odd or even. You put 10-dollars on black and hit it and double your money, and then put that back on black and really quickly you’ve made a couple hundred bucks, you know, just hitting like that. So, it’s fun for me.”

Luke Bryan’s Tailgates & Tanlines remains at the top of the Billboard country album chart this week. The disc, which hit stores last August, has sold more than 18,200 copies this week to continue its reign at No. 1. “My whole approach is to make albums that can put me in a situation to play bigger stages and bigger live shows,” says Luke. “The album’s got its fun songs, but I’m really proud about some of the deeper songs [as well].” Lady Antebellum’s Own the Night is No. 4, followed by Eric Church’s Chief at No. 5. 

AUDIO: Luke Bryan explains the approach he took for his third album, tailgates & tanlines. 

Luke Bryan (album approach) OC: …matter also. :45 

“My whole approach is to make albums that can put me in a situation to play bigger stages and bigger live shows. What’s funny is starting with a single called, ‘Country Girl Shake It For Me’; the whole album gets a little deeper beyond that, you know? It’s not like it’s just a bunch of, you know, kinda you know light, uptempo songs on the album. So it’s nice that we were able to come with such a fun uptempo for the summer and something that’s really done well for me. Now we can get into a meatier part and a deeper part of the album. Like I said, the album’s got its fun songs but I’m really proud about some of the deeper songs. The songs that talk about a little deeper subject matter also.”

In the latest episode of DBTV, Dierks Bentley says coming back for the summer, he wanted to rock it and let loose with his new single, “5-1-5-0!” It’s become quite the fan favorite in concert too!

The 47th Annual Academy Country Music Awards will be broadcast live from the MGM Grand in Las Vegas on Sunday, April 1st, beginning at 8pm ET/delayed PT on CBS. Watch for performances by Keith Urban, Luke Bryan, Eric Church, Dierks Bentley, Little Big Town and many more. We have been rolling out soundbites throughout the week with our nominees and performers leading up to Sunday night’s ACM Awards. 

Dierks Bentley is nominated for Song of the Year at this year’s ACM Awards for his recent No. 1 single, “Home.” He co-wrote the song with Jim Beavers and Dan Wilson, who will also go home with a trophy for Song of the Year. 

AUDIO: Dierks Bentley talks about performing on the ACM Awards, where he’s nominated for Song of the Year for “Home.” 

Dierks (performing ACMs) OC: …good time. :18

“My favorite thing about music and why I’m in the music business is to play live music. I love being in front of people; that’s why I do this. It’s the fun part, but it’s also cool to get respect from other people in the business. So, I’m pretty excited about, you know? Any excuse to go to Vegas is a good one, and to be up for something is pretty cool. And hopefully, we’ll win something, but if not, we’ll still have a good time.” 

AUDIO: Dierks Bentley talks about writing his ACM-nominated Song of the Year, “Home.”

Dierks Bentley (writing Home) 2 OC: …with this song. 1:06

“[So] we were hanging out for about an hour, getting to know each other, and my wife called, battery’s dead. Typical — that car of hers. I went over and jumped her car, came back over, and Brett and Dan had started this melody, and I thought it was beautiful. Dan had said something about America. He kept thinking, ‘This song feels like America.’ And I was like, ‘Aw man, writing a patriotic song is so difficult. Let’s not do that. Those songs are too hard to write.’ Brett said something about ‘Home,’ and then I think I said something like, ‘the place we all call home.’ Maybe we could write a song about America that’s not overly in your face about it, you know, something that everyone could grab a hold of and feel inspired by. The recession was in full board at this point a year ago, the political nature of this country was as bad as it’s ever been with, basically, Washington D.C. being turned into a football game between two sides and not caring about the fans, the voters, the public at all, just their own internal thing going on there. It’s about now, but it’s a little bit of a history lesson too about what we’ve been through. And at the end of the day, I think it’s inspiring and hopeful, and it’s been a real blessing of a song and one that none of us really could take too much credit for, just inspiration hit. You write that many songs over the course of a year, you might get one of those moments, and we got one with this song.”

AUDIO: Dierks Bentley expresses his hopes for his recent No. 1 hit “Home,” which is nominated for ACM Song of the Year.  

Dierks Bentley (hopes for Home) OC: …things right. 1:21

“This song is written in a way that is opened-ended as far as what they want to walk away with. I mean, I think it’s obvious it’s a song about our country, about the ups and downs and the scars we have in our past. But at the end of the day, no matter what side of the fence you’re on, where you stand on certain issues, where you come from, your background, you have to walk through the front door of your house every day, this is our house, this is our home, this is our one country. There’s not another one you can go to. I hope in some sense it can bring people together and find more things in common than we don’t and hope for the people that are going through tough times that so many people are right now with the economy. There’s certainly still a lot of tough times ahead, and they see that we’ve overcome so much as a country in the past and there’s no reason why we can’t overcome these things again and really be the number one, the best country in the world as far as a place to have these freedoms and to raise your family and to pass something on to the next generation. Just help people feel inspired and look back and look at the country, from just a long term perspective, not just this day, this week, this month, this year, but just the history of this country and all the people that came before us and sacrificed their lives for us. We’re standing on their shoulders and we need to honor that, and I think the best way to honor that is come together and make things right.”

Little Big Town performs “Deep River Woman” with Lionel Richie on NBC’s Today Show Tuesday (March 27th). The band is featured on the iconic performer’s new album, Tuskeegee, which is now in stores.