Greg Bates and Aaron Lewis Join 2013 Country Thunder Arizona

Greg Bates and Aaron Lewis Join Already Packed 2013 Country Thunder Arizona Line-Up! If there’s one thing you can expect from a long running annual country music festival, it’s that the line-up will be really great! For the 2013 Country Thunder Arizona roster, that is definitely the case. We just received the news that country music up comer (and CMNB favorite) Greg Bates and the popular Aaron Lewis have been added to this year’s list of artists! The two are joining an already impressive group including my personal fave, Jerrod Niemann along with Lady Antebellum, Toby Keith, Eric Church, Brantley Gilbert, Lee Brice, Kip Moore and many more! The festival is hitting up Florence, Ariz., April 11-14, 2013. The weekend passes will only be available through December 31st, so be sure to get the ticket info below and check out the complete line-up. Country Thunder Arizona Line-Up: Thursday, April 11th: 4:00-5:00pm Chris Janson 5:30-6:30pm Sweetwater Rain 7:00-8:30pm Kip Moore 9:00-10:30pm Brantley Gilbert Friday, April 12th: 1:00-2:00pm TBA 2:30-3:30pm Greg Bates 4:00-5:00pm Jana Kramer 5:30-6:30pm Love & Theft 7:00-8:30pm Tracy Lawrence 9:00-10:30pm Eric Church Saturday, April 13th: 1:00-2:00pm TBA 2:30-3:30pm Morgan Frazier 4:00-5:00pm Parmalee 5:30-6:30pm Diamond Rio 7:00-8:30pm Lee Brice 9:00-10:30pm Toby Keith Sunday, April 14th: 1:00-2:00pm TBA 2:30-3:30pm Edens Edge 4:00-5:00pm Aaron Lewis 5:30-6:30pm Jerrod Niemann 7:00-8:30pm Justin Moore 9:00-10:30pm Lady Antebellum Get the lowdown on Country Thunder Wisconsin!

Keith Urban and Taylor Swift Featured On Tim McGraw’s New Album

Keith Urban and Taylor Swift Guest On Tim McGraw’s New Album, Two Lanes of Freedom. Tim McGraw has two very special guests on his upcoming album, and that would be country favorites, Keith Urban and Taylor Swift! If everyone wasn’t already excited about hearing new tunes from McGraw, especially after all that Curb Records broo-ha-ha, this collab is sure to get you on board. The new album, Two Lanes of Freedom, is set to release February 5th, 2013, and Urban and Swift are featured on track 13, “Highway Don’t Care” written by Mark Irwin, Josh Kear, Brett Warren and Brad Warren. Other tracks include recent releases “Truck Yeah” and “One Of Those Nights” (be sure to check out the complete track listing below!). There will also be a deluxe version of the album released including four additional songs. Tim McGraw Two Lanes of Freedom Track Listing. 1. “Two Lanes of Freedom” 2. “One of Those Nights” 3. “Friend of a Friend” 4. “Southern Girl” 5. “Truck Yeah” 6. “Nashville Without You” 7. “Book of John” 8. “Mexicoma” 9. “Number 37405” 10. “It’s Your World” 13. “Highway Don’t Care” (featuring Taylor Swift and Keith Urban)

Listen: Ashley Monroe New Song Use

Listen to Ashley Monroe’s New Song “Use” From Upcoming Album. To the delight of country music fans, Ashley Monroe (of the Pistol Annies) recently announced that she will be releasing a new solo album, Like A Rose, in 2013. Notably, the new album is co-produced by Vince Gill and Justin Niebank and all the tracks were co-written by Ashley! Now, the date has changed since we last talked about it, and it will now be debuting on March 5th via Warner Nashville. Luckily though, Monroe is more than willing to keep giving little tastes of what is to come. The most recent sample from the album is her single, “Use“, that is beautifully mournful and heartbreakingly relatable. If this tune is any indication of what to expect from the rest of the record…well, let’s just say I can’t wait! Hear it for yourself below! Listen: Ashley Monroe’s “Use”. Be sure to check out Monroe’s title track from the album as well!

Brad Paisley Southern Comfort Zone Video: Review

Brad Paisley’s Southern Comfort Zone Video Is An Unlikely Masterpiece: Review I am a big fan of Brad Paisley so I was excited for the music video for “Southern Comfort Zone“, a brilliant song about Southern pride still encouraging people to see the world, and then be glad to come home! The video appears to have been recorded while Brad conducted the recent leg of his European tour, and The Band Perry even have a couple of cameos since they opened for him during the tour. In addition, he visited the Masai tribe that he donated cows to a couple of months back, and filmed the remainder of the video there. It’s a lot different than Brad’s previous music videos, and certainly very different from your average country music video. The idea behind involved Brad running through various cities, and seems designed to show an almost-seamless fit between places and his journey. Eight countries in eight days, apparently. Amateur Quality = Relatable. The beginning of the video consists of Brad playing the beginning of the song, just him and an acoustic guitar, by a truck, seemingly in the African safari. It is a delightful clash of cultures, but done more subtly than expected, and the writing across the screen to declare the title of the song and artist is in childish font. This pretty much sets up the whole ethos of the video, in that it is oddly, and yet fantastically, amateurish. Sometimes the camera doesn’t focus properly and you experience it focusing in and out. A lot of the time Brad is simply running down random streets in various cities and passers-by stare at him over their shoulder. The beginning and the end of the video where Brad is playing guitar is the live sound, and it doesn’t sound exactly like the polished studio recording. Some of the camera angles aren’t up to much and you get the feeling a lot of it’s been filmed on a handheld. Sometimes the camera holds its shot on completely unknown people and things. Whilst Brad is running someone occasionally throws him a new jacket which he catches and throws on like it’s nothing. He walks into a pub in Ireland and the crowd gathered sing the chorus of the song loudly and unabashedly. He plays guitar next to a real life giraffe and jerks it away slightly when the giraffe goes to try and eat it. Throughout Brad appears unassuming and without star status, he is simply ordinary. Everything is done with the utmost casual vibe, we get no theatrical expressions and sometimes the colors are fairly dull. And that makes me completely love this video. No Glam = Down To Earth While, I like the glitz and the glam and the creative videos that clearly have been worked hard on, there’s something about this that is fun, and perhaps even more interesting than other videos that have had hours of work and a lot of money put into them. This feels Continue reading Brad Paisley Southern Comfort Zone Video: Review

RaeLynn Premiers Boyfriend On The Voice

RaeLynn Premiers Her New Single, “Boyfriend,” On The Voice. Last night we found out that another contestant wouldn’t be making it to the finals. Trevin Hunte was eliminated, leaving the top 3 of season 3. Cassadee Pope and Terry McDermott remain for Blake Shelton‘s team and Nicholas David for CeeLo Green’s team. A contestant from last season, a Shelton team member, also made an appearance last night. RaeLynn premiered her new single, “Boyfriend.” Although she didn’t win, or make the top finals, RaeLynn does have a record deal with Republic Nashville. You can find her single on iTunes and should get to hear a full length album in 2013. There has been much debate on whether the young girl is “country” or not. So we would love to hear what our readers have to say. Do you like the song? Do you like her voice? Is she country? Watch the video of her performance below and fire away in the comments section!

Sara Beth Under The Mistletoe

Here Is The Official Music Video For SaraBeth’s “Under The Mistletoe.” SaraBeth recently released the music video for her original Christmas song, “Under The Mistletoe.” The video was directed by Israel Anthem and produced by Noah Johnston. It was filmed in Nashville’s infamous “everyday is Christmas” themed Santa’s Pub—the doublewide trailer karaoke bar located near the city’s fairgrounds. “I felt like we were inside a snow globe while taping at Santa’s Pub,” says SaraBeth. “We had so much fun taping that day and meeting ‘Santa’ gave me an edge on all the other country artists. I was able to sneak in some of my Christmas-list wishes early!” Until tomorrow, fans can log on to Roughstock.com to enter to win a “Holiday Skype Hang with SaraBeth.” While in the studio with producer Dean Sams completing her full-length debut album, due out in stores later in 2013, one winner will win a skype interview with SaraBeth, plus a one hundred dollar Visa gift card. Runner-ups will win an autographed copy of her debut EP, Kickin’ and Screamin’ released earlier this year. To enter visit www.roughstock.com–contest ends on December 13, 2012. Watch “Under The Mistletoe” below and tell us what you think. It is hard for me to be a fan of any Christmas songs that aren’t the classics, but you could feel different. So don’t be shy, speak up! =)

Lee Brice I Drive Your Truck Video: Review

Lee Brice Gets Intense with “I Drive Your Truck” Video: Review. This song is one of my favorites of the past year for its deep meaning and emotional intensity, so I was excited to finally see the video. The main structure of the video follows the narrative very closely at times – a man who isn’t Lee Brice but looks suspiciously like him – is standing by a truck that holds everything described in the first verse, before driving it along some back roads and around a field, and handing the keys back to (presumably) his wife. In fact, it is the most song-faithful music video I have seen in a long time, and there are benefits and perhaps disadvantages to this. The Video. Because I like literal videos, unless there is scope for really playing with confusing meanings and images, I liked the faithfulness of this video to the original song. This song would not suit doing something else with the video because of the emphasis on the emotion and story, so the video needs to reflect that. Even the sunset/sunrise dusty filter on the camera is how I imagined it, and perhaps is a cinematic representation of how people think of the rural South, the farms and back roads. It certainly adds something to the setting! The video movement is very slow at first which fits the pace of the song, cutting between the leading man simply staring into the truck and Lee Brice gently singing the song, not looking at the camera as if it’s too painful, and apparently standing in a field of wheat. A lot of work has been done setting the whole thing up to really represent an actual story and make the song really come to life. I have to commend the director on the subtle but very effective change in pace as the song builds momentum leading up the chorus. To add to that, as soon as the chorus kicks in Lee Brice is suddenly playing with his band in the wheat field, which taps into country music’s video focus on physically playing the song. There perhaps could have been scope for slightly more airtime of the narrative rather than Lee, but I suppose it’s him the video is promoting. Also, there could have been a montage of ‘memories’ which would have perhaps helped reinforce the meaning of the song, but that’s quite over-used so perhaps they decided to keep it very simple and let the song do the talking. I do think the actor in the narrative could have been a little more physically dynamic, and produce a wider range of expressions, because he appears a little more numb than the song suggests and dealing with loss provides a variety of different emotions that could have been shown here. However, I think I’m just being really picky, and the video works really well as it is. The Emotion. During the bridge, the slow motion takes on fast and aggressive movements in Continue reading Lee Brice I Drive Your Truck Video: Review

Lisa Matassa Somebody’s Baby Video Success with Fans

Lisa Matassa’s Recently Released Somebody’s Baby Video Successful with Fans! These days an easy way to find out if fans are really into something is to check out the response it receives on social media platforms! For Lisa Matassa, her current success can be measured by the popularity of her new video for ”Somebody’s Baby“! The video debuted on YouTube just a little over a month ago, and it has already garnered over 2 million views, which is pretty impressive! When you hear the song and see the vid, its easy to understand why the tune strikes such a cord with fans. Watch it below, and let us know what you think. Watch: Lisa Matassa’s “Somebody’s Baby” Video. Check out Lisa’s EP on iTunes.

Watch: LoCash Cowboys What Time Is It Christmas Video

Check Out LoCash Cowboys Christmas Themed Video for “What Time Is It?” It’s not often that we get a brand new Christmas tune (versus a cover of a classic), but the LoCash Cowboys have come up with a fun new song all about the simple joys of the holidays from cutting down the tree to drinking Momma’s eggnog. They released the video last week, and you can check it out below. Be sure to let us know if this holiday song will become one of your new favorites for the season. Watch the LoCash Cowboys “What Time Is It?” Video!

Brad Paisley Southern Comfort Zone Video Live Ustream

Brad Paisley Will Debut Music Video for “Southern Comfort Zone” Live Via Ustream! Brad Paisley is all set to release the music video for current single “Southern Comfort Zone“, and he’s going to do it in a really fun way! On December 10th fans will be able to see the video debut live via Ustream, and following the premiere fans will be able to participate in an online chat with Brad! You can access the broadcast by going to his website or by visiting his Ustream page. To participate in the chat use #bradpaisleychat by logging into Twitter or the social stream next to the Ustream broadcast window. The live premiere will start at 2pm CT. Listen: Brad Paisley’s “Southern Comfort Zone“.