Carrie Underwood is BACK! Our Oklahoma ambassador is on the airwaves with a brand new single released this week that pulls the heartstrings as she tells the listeners that you can’t “Cry Pretty“. Carrie Underwood will be performing this song LIVE this weekend on the ACM Awards.
Ashley McBryde has built an unconventional career since a teacher back home in Mammoth Spring, Arkansas suggested the singer/songwriter not get her hopes up about a career in music. Criss-crossing the South, playing any gig, room or biker bar she could find, the raven haired young woman built a foundation fan-by-fan, gig-by-gig over a number of years on her way to a deal with Atlantic Records/Warner Music Nashville. Today, the artist who was told she’d amount to nothing sees Girl Going Nowhere as the biggest debut by a solo country artist this year. Championed by SiriusXM’s The Highway, McBryde’s “A Little Dive Bar in Dahlonega” found traction; anywhere people heard the voice that’s equal parts real life, unabashed hope and savoring the good parts, they responded, coming to shows, buying music and singing along. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9s830jmiqnw “It feels incredible to have this album out in the world,” says McBryde who collaborated with producer Jay Joyce on the 11-song album. “It may not seem like it, but I’ve always been a shy person, so to hear stories of how other folks relate to these stories, these lyrics and our songs reaffirms this unconventional path we took creating and releasing it.” McBryde is the latest in a new breed of country music maverick. Rather than wait on country radio, she makes her music, goes out to her fans and connects from the soul and the heart. With her single “A Little Dive Bar in Dahlonega” sitting just outside the Top 30, Girl achieves unprecedented chart position on the strength of her fans seeing themselves in her songs. Whether it’s the second chance of “Little Dive Bar,” the dug-in dreamer of the title track, the hell-bent for love “American Scandal” or the tender “The Jacket,” McBryde’s country is cut from her life – and the lives of many people just like her. With The New York Times proclaiming, “Varied, warm and effortlessly confident,” Rolling Stone opining, “She has a serious gift” and Variety declaring, “An unabashed, Southern-rooted, honest-to-Gawd great country record,” McBryde has touched a nerve amongst music lovers. As Billboard points out, “Unlike Nashville’s current crop,” McBryde’s earthy tenor as a singer and a writer has been described by The Washington Post as “Vivid,” Uproxx as “Prodigiously talented” and Entertainment Weekly as “…cutting through the cookie-cutter clutter of contemporary pop-country, thanks to her gifts at combining classic storytelling specificity.” In a world/genre where strong women’s voices are hard to find, McBryde stands out, NPR recognized the potency of her work early. Featuring album cut “Radioland” on All Songs Considered, they wrote, “The cheap comparison would be female Chris Stapleton, but Ashley is her own woman. She really does however, combine the energy of rock, the earnestness and simple beauties of prime-era Springsteen or John Mellencamp; her songs are about family, working people, about living your best life when your best life is maybe on the outskirts of town in a ranch house with a manual lawnmower.”
Kacey Musgraves & Ruston Kelly feature in the new music video for ‘To June This Morning’ – a re-imagination of a love letter penned by Johnny Cash to June Carter. The video also features Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson. Watch here – https://JohnnyCash.lnk.to/FTJTM_MVPR ‘To June This Morning’ is taken from ‘Johnny Cash: Forever Words’, a new collaborative album of Johnny Cash’s unknown poetry, lyrics and letters, now set to music by an astounding array of contemporary artists, out now via Legacy Recordings. The latest official music video from ‘Johnny Cash: Forever Words’ (out now/Legacy Recordings) finds newlyweds Ruston Kelly & Kacey Musgraves turning a love letter that Johnny Cash wrote to June Carter Cash into an all-new ballad. It was filmed at the remains of Johnny and June’s home at Old Hickory Lake in Hendersonville, Tennessee. Ruston originally started composing “To June This Morning” as a teenager, based on a love letter that Johnny had written to June as she descended the kitchen stairs one morning in 1970, eight months pregnant with their son John Carter Cash. Years later, when Ruston was asked by John Carter to contribute to this album, he asked his then-fiancée Kacey Musgraves to record the final version with him. The video begins with Willie Nelson & Kris Kristofferson’s contribution to ‘Johnny Cash: Forever Words,’ called “Forever/I Still Miss Someone.” A thematic prologue to both the album and the video, “Forever/I Still Miss Someone” features two of Johnny’s old friends and collaborators: Willie plays the melody to one of Johnny’s songs (“I Still Miss Someone”) while Kris recites one of the final poems Johnny ever wrote, called “Forever.” Says John Carter Cash, “To me, the essences of the tracks “Forever/I Still Miss Someone” and “To June This Morning” are both of hope. My father wrote the poem “Forever” weeks before his passing. “To June This Morning” has the same hope; the words were written in February of 1970, one month before my birth. Together they represent Dad’s enduring hopes, the beauty of faith and the belief in all the good to come…even in the face of his own mortality.” A collaborative album of Johnny Cash’s unknown poetry, lyrics, and letters now set to music by an astounding array of contemporary artists, ‘Johnny Cash: Forever Words’ was released on Friday on Legacy Recordings, a division of Sony Music Entertainment. The release has been met with a number of high profile features including CBS This Morning, the NY Times, Rolling Stone, NPR Weekend Edition, Associated Press and much more. Listen to ‘Johnny Cash: Forever Words’ on all platforms here: https://JohnnyCash.lnk.to/Foreverwords_AlbumPR Watch CBS This Morning here: https://bit.ly/2uO9es0NY Times feature: https://nyti.ms/2qa1AmO Rolling Stone feature: https://rol.st/2HjlGmd Listen to NPR Weekend Edition here: https://JohnnyCash.lnk.to/WeekendEditionPR Along with Ruston Kelly & Kacey Musgraves, ‘Johnny Cash: Forever Words’ features new songs by Chris Cornell, Rosanne Cash, Elvis Costello, Alison Krauss & Union Station, Kris Kristofferson & Willie Nelson, Brad Paisley, John Mellencamp, Carlene Carter, The Jayhawks and more. Legacy Recordings has previously released the music Continue reading Kacey Musgraves & Ruston Kelly turn Johnny Cash love letter into new music video ‘To June This Morning’
GRAMMY® Award-nominated, platinum-certified country hit maker Cassadee Pope debuted her first new music video in nearly two years today. “Take You Home,” TYHvideo also Pope’s first single release in nearly two years, was co-written by Paul Digiovanni, Ben Hayslip and Emily Weisband and marks a new phase in Pope’s musical journey, one with swagger, style and substance. The song was released this past Friday to critical praise. “Since “Take You Home” has such a vivid lyric, I didn’t feel like the video needed a storyline,” said Pope. “I wanted to support the song, not to overshadow.” Pope adds, “I love how much of a departure the look is from my past music videos. I wanted to go darker with the colors, more inconspicuous with the locations, edgier with the wardrobe. Making videos has always been a dream of mine since I was a little girl. Now I get to help create and star in them! I couldn’t be more excited!” “Take You Home,” directed by Justin Nolan Key, was shot in Nashville last month. “Punctuated by confessional lyrics, “Take You Home” as Pope put it, “is in-your-face musically, really intimate, and a little seductive.” Pope’s powerhouse voice, inimitable presence, and endless charm transformed her into a force of nature beloved by millions worldwide. Following her victory on Season 3 of NBC’s The Voice, her 2013 full-length debut, Frame By Frame, bowed at No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Country Albums Chart and Top 10 on the Billboard 200 all-genre chart. Its lead single “Wasting All These Tears” not only notched an RIAA platinum certification, but it also achieved “Breakthrough Video of the Year” at the CMT Music Awards in 2014. During 2016, she also teamed with Chris Young for the No. 1 hit “Think Of You” and garnered a 2017 GRAMMY® nod in the category of Best Country Duo/Group Performance.
If you spend enough time on the internet you find yourself going down certain rabbit holes that open your mind to talent you otherwise would have never known existed. This is exactly what happened when one day I went searching for who wrote the intro music for Phillip DeFranco’s youtube channel and discovered “Hot Dad” (Erik Helwig) . As it turns out, Erik’s written the theme songs for a lot of my favorite YouTubers, but there’s a secret he’s been keeping to himself until now… Hot Dad is a HUGE Shania Twain fan! In fact, he’s such a big fan that he assembled the best comments from OTHER fans on Shania Twain’s facebook fan page and somehow managed to turn them into a song that is now stuck in my head. Take a break from your Monday Blues and join the rest of us as we tap our toes to the Shania Twain tribute song you didn’t know you needed! If you enjoy this often satirical and always fun sense of humor, or just want to support a man who can make a catchy song about nearly any topic, I highly recommend you check out Hot Dad’s youtube channel and consider supporting him on Patreon!
Travel around the world with Youtube Vlogger Indy Blue in Sir Rosevelt’s New Video [embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnGYpq-TmuY[/embedyt] “Dancefloor-ready… merges gospel with funk, big band jazz, Seventies disco, caffeinated R&B and, yes, a little bit of country.” – Rolling Stone Multiplatinum GRAMMY® Award-winning recording artist Zac Brown’s southern pop project Sir Rosevelt released their official video for their single “Something Bout You” today, co produced by Timbaland. The video follows Youtuber / travel vlogger Indy Blue as she traveled around the world over the past year. “Something Bout You” is featured on Sir Rosevelt’s debut self-titled album, released late last year. WATCH THE “SOMETHING BOUT YOU” OFFICIAL VIDEO HERE. Directed By Indy Blue Sir Rosevelt Zac Brown, Ben Simonetti and Niko Moon Executive Producers/Producers Diego Pernia/Chad Gibson A Zac Brown’s Southern Reel/ Elektra Records Production. About Sir Rosevelt: “Sir Rosevelt” sees Zac Brown (of the 3x GRAMMY Award-winning Zac Brown Band), Niko Moon and Ben Simonetti uniting as Sir Rosevelt to create a thoroughly original new sound marrying pop, dance, acoustic instrumentation, and a distinctive Southern sensibility. The trio first came together as Zac Brown Bandbegan experimenting with new sounds and recording techniques on 2015’s chart-topping fourth album, “JEKYLL + HYDE.” Inspired by the full-throttle dynamics of electronic/dance music and the elasticity of contemporary pop, Brown teamed with his friends and longtime collaborators Niko Moon (co-writer with Brown on genre-busting, multi-format #1 hits like “Heavy Is The Head (feat. Chris Cornell)” and “Beautiful Drug”) and Nashville recording engineer Ben Simonetti (Foo Fighters,Blake Shelton) with a goal of creating something altogether original and idiosyncratic. The result is an album that is both utterly unique and remarkably cohesive, melding disparate influences into an innovative, up-to-the-minute brand of Southern pop unlike anything else. Connect with Sir Rosevelt: http://sirrosevelt.com https://twitter.com/SirROSEVELT https://soundcloud.com/sirrosevelt https://www.facebook.com/sirrosevelt https://www.instagram.com/sirrosevelt
Just in time for the weekend, Jason Aldean hits us with a heartwrenching love anthem in his new track “I’ll Wait For you“. Give it a listen and let us know what you think! You can catch Jason Aldean on the road this summer with special guests Luke Combs and Lauren Alaina on his High Noon Neon tour! Tickets are on sale now at all Ticketmaster locations!
Kenny Chesney Returns! Hear the People-Positive “Get Along” 4/6 Leave it to Kenny Chesney to tap into both the moment and the feel good. When the East Tennessee songwriter/superstar was working on what will be his most personal album to date, he found himself in a zone of looking at life, the world and the state of where we are now. From that soul-searching, the man the Los Angeles Times called “The People’s Superstar” found “Get Along.” With a deep pocket, a chorus that sweeps you up, banjo etching and Chesney’s signature acoustic guitar strum, the brisk mid-tempo offers an invitation to come together, find higher ground, exhale and seek a way of living that fosters harmony. In unlikely ways, the melody bubbles up, as the chorus offers a dose of self-acceptance and reality, “Get along on down the road/ We’ve got a long, long way to go/ Scared to live, scared to die/ We ain’t perfect, but we try…” “Some days, it’s like the world is just angry, screaming people,” Chesney reflects, “all harping on what’s wrong, how other people are awful. The more I move around, talking to people, though, the more I know people are seeking the same things, working hard to get by and hoping for the best for their family and friends. It’s simple, but we keep getting driven apart – and made unhappy. When I heard this song, beyond how good the rhythm felt, I was amazed how simply they broke all this stuff down. Get along… find the common ground… know the basic stuff is where the joy, the love, the happiness is.” Written by Shane McAnally, Ross Copperman and Josh Osborne, “Get Along” takes the exuberance of “American Kids,” the positivity of “Save It For A Rainy Day” and “Spread the Love” and the roots-driven musicality of “Everybody Wants To Go To Heaven” to a new place. Just as importantly, it continues expanding the 8-time Academy of Country Music and Country Music Association Entertainer of the Year’s take on American music. “To me, music is what you make it, and I want music that sounds good, but also gives you permission to really live,” Chesney explains. “I think we can get so caught up in expectations, our own and other people’s, and we forget what matters.” Beyond the obvious notion to “always give love the upper hand,” the chorus breaks it down to some very specific real-life items: “paint a wall, learn to dance, call your mom, buy a boat, drink a beer, sing a song, make a friend,” before asking, “can’t we all just… get along.” Equally intriguing, the song can be as much an encouragement to move on instead of clinging to grudges, as it is an invitation to find common ground with others. At a time when divisiveness is commonplace, Chesney is about elevating the No Shoes Nation – a place truly without borders – to finding the best in each other, loving life and making memories to treasure. Continue reading New Music from Kenny Chesney!
Randy Travis’ next round of songs on his Diggin’ Up Songs Spotify playlist premiered exclusively with Taste of Country yesterday. The playlist can be streamed here. Songs added this round include: “Hippies and Cowboys” by Cody Jinks “Junkyard” by Heidi Raye “I Never Shed A Tear” by Joshua Hedley “I Lived It” by Blake Shelton “Lie” by Shane Owens “This is so tough! Great thing is that we are realizing there is unbelievable talent out there, in the form of so many artists—writers and vocals!!” said Randy’s wife, Mary Davis-Travis. “This really makes you study the craft from another perspective—thank you for allowing Randy to do this!” Diggin’ Up Songs new music spotlight is a multi-faceted digital campaign across Spotify, Twitter, Facebook and RandyTravis.com highlighting music curated by Randy Travis himself. Five more songs will be added to the playlist on Monday, April 16. Country Music Hall of Fame member Randy Travis has long since marked his spot in music history as one of the truly timeless country icons. Now, he is putting his years of experience and golden ear to good use by shining a spotlight on new music he believes in and enjoys listening to. About Randy Travis With lifetime sales in excess of 25 million, Randy Travis is one of the biggest multi-genre record sellers of all time and a recent inductee into the Country Music Hall of Fame class of 2016. His honors include seven Grammy Awards, 10 Academy of Country Music statuettes, 10 American Music Awards, two People’s Choice awards, seven Music City News awards, eight Dove Awards from the Gospel Music Association and five Country Music Association honors. In addition, three of his performances earned CMA Song of the Year honors, “On the Other Hand” (1986), “Forever and Ever Amen” (1987) and “Three Wooden Crosses” (2002). To date, he has 18 No. 1 singles, 29 top-10 smashes and more than 40 appearances in feature films and television shows to his credit. Ten of his albums are Gold Records. Eight are Platinum. Two have gone Double Platinum. One is Triple Platinum and another is Quintuple Platinum. In 2004, Randy was honored with his own star in the Hollywood Walk of Fame and is honored on the Music City Walk of Fame in Nashville, TN. He has been a member of the cast of the Grand Ole Opry since 1986. Since his near fatal stroke in 2013, with the help of his wife Mary and rigorous physical therapy, Randy continues to make improvements in his speaking, walking, and yes, singing. For more information please visit www.randytravis.com.
Enjoy Smokey Robinson and Cam performing her “Burning House.” Catch the full episode of CMT Crossroads: Smokey Robinson & Cam Wednesday, March 28th at 10/9c on CMT. SUBSCRIBE now for more CMT on Youtube: http://bit.ly/2r4dHA1 Watch more videos from CMT now: http://bit.ly/2gJ0kWw FOLLOW CMT: Facebook: http://at.cmt.com/Bsd230cWd2t Twitter: http://at.cmt.com/uXwGj Instagram: http://at.cmt.com/uXx1Q CMT.com: http://at.cmt.com/RIyG30cWddh Add CMT on SNAPCHAT: CMT
