Category Archives: Artists

Sunny Sweeney NRA Country Artist Of The Month

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Sunny Sweeney Has Been Announced As The “This Is NRA Country” Artist Of The Month! Singer/songwriter Sunny Sweeney is the NRA Country Artist of the Month for March. Sweeney joins some of country music’s biggest stars including Craig Morgan, Trace Adkins, Lee Brice, Montgomery Gentry and Justin Moore, who have teamed up with NRA Country to celebrate their support of our brave men and women in uniform, appreciation for the great outdoors and the love of family. Sweeney’s respect and admiration for those who serve this great country in every capacity make her a natural choice to be NRA Country Artist of the Month. “Every day, brave men and women put their lives on the line for the safety and well-being of our great nation. From firefighters to law enforcement to our Armed Forces and more, I’m grateful to all for their diligence and dedication. I’m proud to be an American. I am Sunny Sweeney, and I am NRA Country!” -Sweeney As part of the March promotion, fans can register to win an autographed photo and a copy of Concrete, from now until the end of the month. To do so click HERE! In 2011, Billboard ranked Sweeney as one of the Top 5 New Country Artists and also listed her hit “From A Table Away” as one of the Top 100 Hot Country Songs. Sweeney had a hand in co-writing 7 of the 10 songs on her debut album, which has sold over 400,000 digital tracks to date. She has performed in front of over a million fans after earning a coveted spot on Brad Paisley’s H2O II: Wetter & Wilder World Tour and this summer she will join the Country Throwdown Tour!

Miranda Lambert And Kelly Clarkson On The Voice

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Miranda Lambert And Kelly Clarkson Lend A Helping Hand To Team Blake! Last night was the first night of the “Battle Rounds” on NBC‘s hit show, The Voice! During this time the coaches of each team pair up two members to “battle” each other for one spot closer to the finale. Blake Shelton, CMNB’s favorite coach, got the help of two very talented female artists to mentor his team. Miranda Lambert, country super-star and wife of Shelton, and Kelly Clarkson, vocal powerhouse and friend of Shelton were the perfect artists to share some advice! This week Lambert helped hopefuls RaeLynn and Jordis, while Clarkson worked with Adley and Brian. Both of these successful, Texas women had encouraging and helpful word to share, but when it came to RaeLynn and “Free Fallin’” Lambert said, “It’s not about competing with someone, it’s about competing with yourself!” The wise words must have worked because the 17-year-old RaeLynn won the battle over Adley. The second battle for Team Blake didn’t go so smooth. During rehearsals, Jordis asked the question of what she could do to win, Shelton answered, “Whichever one of ya’ just flat-out-sings the other person will win.” Well….Christina Aguilera said that the performance was pitchy and Shelton agreed! He actually said “it sucked,” and I have to say he gave a pretty accurate description. The song was “Ironic” by Alanis Morissette (a mentor for Team Adam) and both Jordis and Brian seemed to have a little trouble with it. In the end Jordis won the fight and made it one round closer to the prize. The other mentors for the night were Alanis Morissette and Robin Thicke for Adam Levine’s team, Babyface and Ne-Yo for Cee Lo Green’s team and Lionel Richie and Jewel (another of my favorites) for Team Christina! Each coach had to eliminate one member from their team during the battle rounds, which means the competetion is slowly getting tougher! Keep watching The Voice on Mondays at 8/7c on NBC!

Reba McEntire On Who Do You Think You Are

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Reba Was Featured On Last Week’s Episode Of “Who Do You Think You Are?” Reba McEntire was featured on the March 2 episode of NBC’s series “Who Do You Think You Are?” This show takes famous people (athletes, actors, musicians, etc.) and shows them a whole other side of themselves that they didn’t know existed. A slew of well-known figures in society have taken part in this ancestral adventure including Tim McGraw, Lisa Kudrow, Emmitt Smith, Ashley Judd, Kim Cattrall, Spike Lee, Steve Buscemi and now Reba! During her experience, Reba travels all over searching for answers to her family history. “I want to know where we came from. I want to know what makes me tick. Why am I like I am? I would love to go back, as far back as possible. I am very interested in knowing who the first of my ancestors were to step on the United States of America.” -Reba These are questions that everyone would love answered and Reba was lucky enough to get the chance to try! Here is the entire episode. If you missed it, then here you go. If you already saw it, no hurt in watching it again!

Freemont Street Line-up 2012

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Complete Line-up of Performers for 2012 Freemont Street Experience. The ACM Awards take place in Las Vegas, and so we wouldn’t really expect them to do things small, now would we? Of course not, and appropriately the lead up to the ACM Awards on Sunday, April 1st is two nights of free concerts that has come to be know as the Freemont Street Experience! It was previously announced that Luke Bryan would be headlining the Friday, March 30th concert with Eric Church headlining the Saturday, March 21st concert, and now we know who is joining who and when! The ACM New Artist of the Year nominees, Brantley Gilbert, Hunter Hayes and Scotty McCreery will be taking center stage on Friday night while Craig Campbell, Eli Young Band, Laura Bell Bundy and Jana Kramer take the stage Saturday night! Its sure to be one heck of an event, and I envy the lucky who folks who get to check it out!

Kenny Chesney New Album Summer 2012

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Kenny Chesney Will Debut New Album Summer 2012! Well, we were already excited about Kenny Cheney and his Brothers of the Sun Tour with Tim McGraw, but it looks like he’s got even more in store for us this summer, a new album! This new record follows up on Chesney’s hugely successful Hemingway’s Whiskey, and is at this point still untitled. Fans can expect to get their ears on the new music on June 19th!’ In the meantime, Chesney’s tour with McGraw will kick off on June 2nd in Tampa, FL. See below for complete ticket info!

Sugarland’s In the Hands of the Fans Tour 2012

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Sugarland Gets Back On The Road with “In the Hands of the Fans” Tour for 2012! I had heard on the country music grapevine that Sugarland‘s Jennifer Nettles and Kristian Bush were going to be laying low tour wise for most of 2012, but it looks like the grapevine was (thankfully) wrong. The duo will be heading back out on the road starting April 5th through August 18th(so far!) for their “In the Hands of the Fans” Tour. You might be wondering about the tour’s title, and you should be! Nettles and Bush are letting the fans take-over each concert’s set list by requesting songs however they can (Twitter, Facebook, text, handwritten signs, anything goes)! As long as the tune you want to hear is off their albums or something they’ve performed before at another concert, they’ll take your requests. How cool is that? Click here to sign up for updates, and be sure to check the complete list of tour dates below. Sugarland will be joined on tour in select cities by Lauren Alaina and Canaan Smith.

Kip Moore Debut Album Release Date

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Kip Moore Sets Release Date for Debut Album! You’ve probably heard Kip Moore‘s single, “Somethin’ Bout A Truck“, and if you like it, you’re in luck! The single belongs on Moore’s debut record, Up All Night, and he has just announced it will release April 24th! Kip has put a lot of heart and soul into this album, and he is understandably excited about getting it out there for fans to enjoy! “The song doing great is a huge accomplishment, but the fact that I’m getting to release a whole record, something I’ve put so much energy into over the years, is the biggest accomplishment in my music career thus far. I am so excited for people to get a chance to hear this record because I feel like it is an emotional record and I want to be able to move people like the records moved me growing up.” -Kip Moore If the rest of the album is anything like what we’ve heard so far, I think this is one album I’ll have on repeat all summer long! Moore’s got an authentic country voice, the kind that makes country girls weak in the knees, and there is just the right amount of steel guitar in his music to give that edge we all love. Can’t wait to get my ears on this album! In the meantime, I’ll just keep listening to “Somethin’ Bout a Truck“! [youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YfNFR6gh2E&ob=av2e]

Lauren Alaina Performs on American Idol

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Lauren Alaina Returns to American Idol to Perform Single, “Georgia Peaches”. Less than a year after achieving runner-up on American Idol, Lauren Alaina is returning to the show that placed her front and center in the country music spotlight to perform her single, “Georgia Peaches“! No doubt, Alaina’s presence will remind contestants just what kind of future they could have by winning this season’s prized status! You can catch Lauren’s performance during the Thursday, March 8th episode on FOX. Check local listings for channels and times. Alaina is currently on tour with Jason Aldean on his 2012 “My Kinda Party” Arena Tour also featuring Luke Bryan. Speaking of “Georgia Peaches“, have you seen the video yet? [youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfWmFevHdQo]

Easton Corbin New Single “Lovin’ You Is Fun”

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Easton Corbin Releases Single from Upcoming Album! Easton Corbin‘s latest single, “Lovin’ You Is Fun” has officially hit country music airwaves. The tune which is featured on his upcoming sophmore album was the second most added single to play the charts last week! Corbin feels pretty good about this song so far, and no doubt you enjoy it through spring and summer time too. When I first heard this song, man, it just really felt good. It’s a fun song – a feel good summertime song you can roll the windows down and turn the radio up,” Easton Corbin If you haven’t had the chance to hear it on the radio yet, you’ll definitely be able to get it on iTunes, March 13th! In the meantime, take a break and watch the video for his “A Little More Country Than That“! Easton Corbin, “A Little More Country Than That“. [youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oS1NfjLkdSM&ob=av2e]

Dixie Chicks: The Controversy Country Music Won’t Let Die

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The Dixie Chicks “Thing” Happened Years Ago, Can We Let It Go Now? Recently, I found an article from Country Weekly that surprised me. It was a short article about some comments Natalie Maines of the Dixie Chicks made on her twitter account during the 2012 Grammy Awards. Apparently, she made an off-hand comment about Jason Aldean being out of tune during his performance of “Don’t You Wanna Stay” with Kelly Clarkson. The title of this article was, “Natalie Maines’ Own Fans Don’t Like Her Jason Aldean Dig,” and the opening statement of the article was this: The Dixie Chicks’ Natalie Maines is no stranger to saying controversial things. Remember a certain overseas criticism of then-President Bush that effectively destroyed the Chicks’ country career? First of all, saying that someone is out of tune during a performance is not controversial in the least (Or it really shouldn’t be, and if it is somehow, we might be in trouble as an industry). To me, Maines’ comments just show observational skills. I love both Jason Aldean and Kelly Clarkson, but their 2012 Grammy performance was not their best. I’ve seen them perform this before, and they totally rocked it. So maybe they just had an off night, or the sound crew wasn’t handling the levels well. Who knows? Regardless, Maines wasn’t necessarily wrong, and she definitely wasn’t being “mean”. Here is my big issue though: are we seriously still talking about that? Almost ten years later, really is this the first thing we have to say about Natalie Maines? This is why we write an article about her? Really? Just a quick refresher, the Dixie Chicks have earned CMA Awards as Entertainer of the Year (2001), for Vocal Group of the Year (1998, 1999, 2000, 2002), for Song of the Year (1999), for Album of the Year (2000), for Video of the Year (1998, 1999), and for the Horizon Award (1998). They have also earned multiple Grammy Awards, hold the distinction of being the top selling female group of any genre, and have 6 #1 country music singles (those were within a 5 year period). Not to mention, these 3 extraordinarily talented and hard-working women gave country fans some really amazing music that will stand the test of time. That is their legacy. It is alarming to me that it is okay to disregard an opinion or vilify someone because they say something negative about something you like. Sometimes people can do this in a non-constructive way, I’ll give you that. Still though, everyone is entitled to their negative opinions just as much as others are to their positive ones. We run the danger of losing our critical thinking skills when we only listen to the “good stuff” people say; the things that let us stay safely inside our comfort zones. Let me be clear, Jason Aldean is a great performer, and being out of tune during one performance in no way discounts that. At the end of the day, I really Continue reading Dixie Chicks: The Controversy Country Music Won’t Let Die→