Author Archives: HaleighT

About HaleighT

HaleighT grew up in rural Sallisaw, Oklahoma, completely immersed in the country music lifestyle. She works with CMNB as our field assignment journalist, gathering concert reviews and exclusive interviews from every artist she can. When she's not out on the road, she's in our web studio filming "Takin' a Break With HaleighT" a short weekly opinion and news segment that launched in 2011.

NRA Country Artist Of The Month

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Trace Adkins Announced As NRA Country January Artist Of The Month! January’s NRA Country Artist of the Month is Trace Adkins! The month-long promotion gives fans the opportunity to check out a never before seen, behind the scenes look at a recent photo shoot on his personal farm near Nashville. The exclusive video can be seen here! In addition to the video, fans can register to win a NRA Country prize pack, including a hat and t-shirt of choice! Click HERE from now through the end of January to register to win! “I grew up in the Sportsman’s Paradise – Louisiana, so I guess it isn’t a surprise that the great outdoors has always been a big part of my life. All my favorite memories involve the outdoors – whether it was playing outside as a kid, playing football in college, goofing around with my kids, or going hunting. I support NRA Country because they share my love of the outdoors and my wish to safeguard America’s hunting heritage. I am Trace Adkins and I am NRA Country.” Fans can also catch Trace at the 2nd Annual NRA Country Jam on April 13th, during the NRA Annual Meeting in St. Louis. Tickets will be on sale soon, just visit NRACountry.com for more information. For those of you wanting to see Trace in concert and do your part to help charities at the same time you are in luck! Great tickets and VIP Charity Packages are available exclusively at NRACountry.com to benefit NRA Country Cares, working to help charities supporting our military, American farmers, firearm safety and other important causes. Click HERE for more information!

HaleighT Reflects On 2011

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To Mention All The Excitement Of 2011 Is A Hard Task, But Simply Put, It Was Awesome! This year has been a crazy ride and I have loved every minute of it! I am so thankful for the opportunities that have come my way and even more proud of myself for taking some chances! This week we have been focusing on the top moments of country music for the year and for me, getting this job (and in a small way becoming part of this crazy world) ranks at the top! I am honored to have met the people I have met, including all the artists who were gracious enough to give me their time to talk with them, the behind the scenes industry people who made each time possible and my employers who gave me the tools to do so! I am also so indescribably grateful for the family and friends who gave me such an abundant amount of support! When I look back at the interviews, the beginning of our video segment and even the littlest of things I was a part of in the first 8 months here at Country Music News Blog, I get excited for the things that I KNOW our team can accomplish in 2012! I hope everyone is ready because we plan on making it even more enjoyable for you to get you country music news fix! Thank you so much for reading my articles, especially the exclusive content (I would love to see some of you at some shows next year!)! Everyone have a very safe and festive weekend and we will most definitely be talking to y’all next year!!!!!!!!!

Sarah Darling Sings At The Franklin American Mortgage Music City Bowl

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Sarah Darling To Have A Busy Two Days! Sarah Darling has been chosen to sing “God Bless America” at the opening of the 2011 Franklin American Mortgage Music City Bowl. The college football game will be played by North Carolina’s Wake Forest and Mississippi State University and is expected to bring over 70,000 fans to Nashville’s LP Field today, December 30th! Tomorrow, Saturday December 31st, New Year’s Eve Darling will headline the 4th Annual New Year’s Eve Beach Ball Drop at Pier Parkin Panama City Beach, FL. She will take the stage at 10:45pm being the final performer of the night. The 800 pound glowing beach ball will slowly descend until the clock strikes 12! This event is free to the public and for more information click here!

Country Music Top Topics 2011

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Top Posts Our Readers Loved The Most for 2011! #1 Miranda Lambert and Blake Shelton From their wedding photos to wedding details to album releases, it is safe to say that Blake and Miranda topped the charts at number 1. Blake gained many fans for himself and country music in general when he showed the world his down-home, don’t give a crap attitude on the hit new show The Voice! Miranda joined a few girls to become the Pistol Annies. With the same attitude as her husband, these three took the world by storm with their outspoken lyrics and solid harmonies! #2 Award Shows We had the CMAs, the CMT Awards, the ACMs and the ACAs, not to mention other non-country based shows (Peoples Choice, Grammy, Teen Choice, Etc.) and each show gave us moments that we will remember for years to come! I would say that the recognition given to the artists that won was pretty spaced out. An artist might have done a great job at taking home the majority of the trophies at one particular show, but no one was the top dog at every show. That seems right on the money considering each award show has different ways of voting, whether its fan based or industry votes. Another thing that was interesting about the award shows this year was the number of surprise performances. Who would have ever thought we would see Ludacris (the rapper) at a country based award show?! #3 Summer Tours This year was no different than any other when it came to summer tours! One of the first things that comes to mind when dreaming about the next summer when I’m looking outside at 2 feet of snow on the ground is what shows I will be lucky enough to catch! This year two major summer tours were the return of Kenny Chesney’s Goin’ Coastal and Tim McGraw’s Emotional Traffic! Along with them there were other country superstars headlining all over the country and those fabulous festivals that included multiple artists that lasted almost a week! Shows are slowly beginning to be announced for Summer 2012, so everyone be sure to keep your eyes and ears open for your favorite artists coming to a stadium or bar near you!

Kenny Chesney Reality Music Video

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Kenny Chesney Gives Fans A Glimpse Of His 2011 Summer Tour In “Reality” Music Video! Kenny Chesney’s “Reality” has been out for a while, but until recently it wasn’t getting much airtime. This song can easily put you into a better place after listening to it. Basically it is about finding your own way of dealing with things. Life isn’t perfect, but take things as the come and relax, because you are going to get through it, but in the mean time take a break and embrace you escape from reality! The video for “Reality” takes you front row from some of his stadium shows this past summer. Somewhere in the sea of people at the Kansas City Chief’s stadium, I stood. Continuously rocking through every song makes you forget about the heat and the $12 beers. It was my first Chesney concert, but something I would LOVE to do again! Enjoy the video!

Craig Campbell I’ll Be Home For Christmas

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Craig Campbell’s New Holiday Single “I’ll Be Home For Christmas” Music Video Craig Campbell recently released his holiday single “I’ll Be Home For Christmas!” As a special gift, he has made the single available FREE to download, but you need to hurry because today is the last day! To receive your gift click HERE! Campbell sounds great on the track and the video shows us just how much of a “Family Man” he is! Check it out, you won’t be disappointed!!!!

Martina McBride White Christmas

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Martina McBride Shows Her Christmas Spirit In Her White Christmas Music Video Here is an elegant video of Martina McBride singing the classic carol “White Christmas” with a beautiful band accompanying her. Yes, this is a bit of a flashback and she has shorter hair, but that voice sounds the same every time! Enjoy!

Billy Ray Cyrus In Hallmark Movie

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Billy Ray Cyrus Plays The Leading Man In A New Original Hallmark Channel Movie! Billy Ray Cyrus will be starring in Christmas Comes Home To Canaan, a Hallmark Channel original movie! This holiday film, also starring Gina Holden, will premiere Saturday, December 17 at 8/7c. Cyrus plays Daniel, a widower and father who finds love in an unexpected place. This is not Cyrus’ first rodeo when it comes to acting and it more than likely won’t be his last. Tune in with your families to see how this story plays out! Here is a sneak peak! Enjoy!

Lisa Matassa The Christmas Song Video

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Lisa Matassa “The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire)” Music Video! Though many of you haven’t heard of her, Lisa Matassa is no new comer to the music world! After having some success in her younger days on the Dance Pop charts, this mother of two teenagers is back and with a whole new perspective this time! The Long Island New Yorker released her EP (Me Time) earlier this year and with all her dedication and talent, she is sure to gain some fans. She recently recorded “Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire)” with the Broadway Youth Ensemble and here is the video for it! Her take on this classic is sure to put you in that festive mood that so many are already in! Enjoy! Tags: The Christmas Song, Lisa Matassa, Lisa Matassa Videos

CMT Artists Of The Year

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HaleighT’s Recap Of The 2011 CMT Artists Of The Year Show! Last night was the presentation of the CMT Artists Of The Year Awards, hosted by Rob Lowe. The honorees were Kenny Chesney, Lady Antebellum, Jason Aldean, Taylor Swift and Brad Paisley. The recipients were chosen based off of sales, radio airplay, concert grosses and activity on cmt.com. Each artist was given a section of the 90 minute show that was dedicated to them with a performance, congratulatory words by others and a short acceptance speech. Kenny Chesney had the special treat to have Gavin Degraw perform his hit “Somewhere With You“, where he did a fantastic job! A part of the show that ranks very high on my list was when Matthew McConaughey had a video message for Chesney that was too cute! Lady Antebellum received kind words from many including their good friend Miranda Lambert and performed their brand new single “Dancin’ Away With My Heart.” It sounded great and by the reactions of Taylor Swift and the rest of the audience (including me at home), it looks like this will be another chart topper for them! Jason Aldean performed his current single “Tattoos On This Town” and spoke of how this year was kind of a risk, but he was glad he did things on his terms. He wasn’t concerned about what people were telling him to do, he followed his gut and boy did it pay off! Nobody puts Jason in a corner! Viewers were treated to a special treat with an energetic performance by The Avett Brothers. A band that is quite possibly one of the most cross-genre groups around (we aren’t quite sure what they are…folk, rock, indie, Americana, who knows)! Taylor Swift also had someone else perform one of her songs, but this performance had a bit of a twist. The All American Rejects gave us their take on “Mean” while throwing in a little bit of their own hit “Gives You Hell!” It was great! She accepted her award from her good friend and fellow female country artist, Faith Hill. Brad Paisley wrapped the night up for us, first by saying that Country Music was the best industry to be in because everyone was so nice and then by collaborating with Joe Walsh on “Camouflage!” It was a great night for everyone, wish I could have been there! Congratulations again to all five of the talented acts!