John Cougar Mellencamp Still Touring Strong

Americana rock and roller, John Cougar Mellencamp, proves touring is not just a young man’s game. John Cougar Mellencamp is showing the industry kids a thing or two about hard work as he barrels through city after city on his “No Better Than” tour this fall. Now sure, he’s not exactly country, but the country and rock genres have overlapped so much that you could almost hear his hits “Jack and Diane” and “Hurts So Good” on your local country stations couldn’t you? Anyhow, those are just my thoughts.

Scotty McCreery I Love You This Big Video

Scotty McCreery Premiers Debut Music Video August 9th. Season 10 American Idol winner, Scotty McCreery is set to release the debut video for his first single, “I Love You This Big“. Like fellow American Idol alum Lauren Alaina, Scotty will be featured on CMT Premieres: Scotty McCreery I Love You This Big. Unlike, Lauren though, Scotty will be premiering his video during this segment, Tuesday, August 9th, the day after Alaina’s release date. The video was shot in Los Angeles, but McCreery and the crew worked hard to find a spot that had the right kind of country vibe. Watch Scotty McCreery in “I Love You This Big” now! “The location for the shoot was really cool. If you looked one way, you could see Dodger Stadium, and if you looked another way, you could see downtown L.A. We found this park that had a little country feel to it … If I hadn’t told you that, you would think we would have shot that in North Carolina. The music video has a summertime barbecue feel.” -Scotty McCreery Scotty will be performing on ABC‘s Good Morning America on August 12th. Also, you can catch him on the special television concert event, CMA Music Festival: Country’s Night to Rock on Sunday, August 14th on ABC. Scotty will be singing with Josh Turner. McCreery is still working on his debut album, but a release date has yet to be announced.

Lauren Alaina Like My Mother Does Video

Lauren Alaina Premiers First Video On August 8! Lauren Alaina has been a very busy girl! After winning the runner-up spot on American Idol in the Spring she immediately jumped into a whole host of guest appearances and performances from the CMA Music Festival to the CMT Music Awards. On top of all that, she has most recently been on tour with American Idol Live, along with other American Idol alums from the past season. Somehow, in the midst of all this activity, the young Lauren has managed to film a music video for her debut single, “Like My Mother Does” which originally premiered on American Idol and has received a substantial amount of positive responses from fans and the industry alike. Like the title of the single suggests, the video plays homage to Alaina’s mother and Alaina’s childhood. See Lauren in “Like My Mother Does” now! Like My Mother Does – Lauren Alaina – Lauren Alaina Videos “The video is all about my mom and it has footage from my childhood and pictures of me and my family while I was growing up … I love that it shows who I am and how I became who I am. It shows my family and all about what I’ve done all through the years, and I love that.” -Lauren Alaina The video is set to be released on Monday, August 8th. CMT will be putting the spotlight on Lauren featuring her on CMT Premieres: Lauren Alaina – Like My Mother Does. This will be a 15 minute spot which will include the video as well as exclusive behind-the-scenes content from the video shoot! This will air on CMT, CMT Pure, and CMT.com on Monday, August 8 at 10:30 am. Fans can also catch the video release on GAC on August 8 at 6:24 am (ET), 8:24am (ET), 12:30pm (ET), 2:30pm (ET), 6pm (ET) and 11:30pm (ET). Lauren is currently working on her debut album, which does not have a release date yet. You can catch televised performances of Lauren coming up on ABC‘s Good Morning America on Friday, August 12, and during the prime-time concert special, CMA Music Festival: Country’s Night to Rock, Sunday, August 14 on ABC. On the CMA special, Lauren will be performing with Martina McBride.

Jerrod Niemann One More Drinkin’ Song Video

Jerrod Niemann’s One More Drinkin’ Song Music Video Is Here! Jerrod Niemann’s lates single “One More Drinkin’ Song” has a bright future ahead. Love songs and sad songs are great, but you can never have enough drinking songs. The follow up to “What Do You Want” has got me thirsty and that marga-daiquiri-screw-aloda-on the beach sounds interesting enough to sample! The song comes off of his album Judge Jerrod & The Hung Jury and is available now. Watch this video and see how many of Niemann’s famous artist friends make an appearance. Cheers! Tags: One More Drinkin’ Song, Jerrod Niemann, Jerrod Niemann Videos

Tim McGraw Emotional Traffic In OKC

Tim McGraw, Luke Bryan, And Edens Edge At The Zoo Amphitheater In OKC. This Tuesday (August 2) I took on the extreme heat to watch some of country music’s finest in Oklahoma City. Tim McGraw’s Emotional Traffic Tour included a couple Amen’s, some well executed dance moves, and a broken foot…it was awesome! Edens Edge were the first to take the stage at the Zoo Amphitheater and did a great job of getting the crowd pumped up. They sang their latest single “Amen” and also a mixture of all their favorite summer songs including Miley Cyrus’ “Party In The USA“. Once they were finished there was about a 45 minute wait for the next artist. Luke Bryan took the stage and the fans took notice! He had an excellent show with an abundance of energy that was very nicely exuded to the crowd. Noting that it was a Tuesday night and that the majority of the audience had to work the next morning, Bryan gave everyone some sound advice. “You need to take four Advil, not two, you’re gonna need four, a bunch of water, and eat two pieces of white bread.” With this mental note stored away for safe keeping, the partying fans tried their best to keep up with the country boy from Georgia, as he shook “it” up and down the stage. He sang “Country Man“, “Someone Else Calling You Baby“, “Drinkin’ Beer And Wastin’ Bullets“, “If You Ain’t Here To Party“, “Drunk On You“, “We Rode In Trucks“, “Do I“, “Rain Is A Good Thing”, “Country Girl (Shake It For Me)“, and “All My Friends Say”. He thanked everyone again for braving the heat, then sadly disappeared back stage. Tim McGraw was the main event of the night and let me tell you, he was well worth the wait! Even with a broken foot, this veteran of the industry did his thing and proved he was the real deal! With each song he sang, I realized how much I’ve truly grown up on his music. McGraw took me down memory lane with “Something Like That“, “Where The Green Grass Grows“, “Down On The Farm“, “Last Dollar (Fly Away)“, “Just To See You Smile“, “Please Remember Me“, “For A Little While“, “Red Ragtop“, “Unbroken“, “Do You Want Fries With That“, “Back When” (where Luke Bryan joined him and added a special surprise to a few lyrics), “Better Than I Use To Be” (a new song), “The Cowboy In Me“, “Southern Voice“, “Felt Good On My Lips“, “Real Good Man“, “Live Like You Were Dying“, “Indian Outlaw“, and “I Like It, I Love It“. Like I said, the temperature was very high, but with a couple of (over-priced) drinks and two of country music’s best looking men on the stage in front of me, it ended up being one of the best nights of the summer! I’m putting it out there, find a show near you and get tickets, even if you have to eat Ramen for two Continue reading Tim McGraw Emotional Traffic In OKC

Luke Bryan CMT On Tour Dates

Dates Announced for 2011 CMT On Tour Headlined By Luke Bryan. Earlier this summer it was announced Luke Bryan would be headlining the 2011 CMT On Tour, and the dates for this special concert series have finally been announced! The tour kicks off September 15th in Huntington, West Virginia at Big Sandy Superstore Arena, will include a grand total of 22 shows, and will run through November 19th in Monroe, Louisiana. Bryan will be joined on tour by Lee Brice, Josh Thompson, and CMT’s Next Superstar winner Matt Mason. This year will mark the 10th consecutive year CMT has sponsored this tour. Tickets will officially go on sale August, 12th!

New Feature! Google +1 Plus One Button

CMNB adds a new way to show you care about country music with the Google +1 button! While we try not to get too geeky on our readers, every once in a while the crew here at Country Music News Blog gets really excited about new internet doo-dads and gadgets. Today is one of those days! We have now added a handy +1 to EVERY post on our site so you can help us tell Google what you think. See it down there at the bottom of this very post? Consider it an internet-pat-on-the-back if you will. A head nod in passing. A tip o’ the hat to a fine fine ladyfriend. Consider it whatever you want, as long as you click it! The down and dirty is this button helps us. And using it is easy… you just click the button and viola! We get Google love. Easy right? So do it… you know you want to. 😉 Cheers! ~WC~

Kenny Chesney Goin’ Coastal 2011

Goin’ Coastal 2011 Tour Featuring Uncle Kracker, Billy Currington, Zac Brown Band, and Kenny Chesney! I was very fortunate to be in the audience during the Goin’ Coastal 2011 Tour this past Saturday in Kansas City, Mo at the Arrowhead Stadium. My main reason for my 5 1/2 hour drive was to review Billy Currington’s show, but due to a miscommunication with a publicist I was unable catch his performance (along with the other artists excluding Chesney). After a short melt-down and pouting session, I decided to make the best of it and enjoy what was left of the show. I have always liked Kenny Chesney’s songs, but never thought of myself as a diehard fan. I have to say after walking out of that stadium that night I was a Chesney fan. He had non-stop energy, sang his heart out, and had a huge smile on his face the entire time. There was great interaction between the artist and his loyal fans. What impressed me the most, and has impressed me by all artists I have seen this summer, is their commitment through the scorching heat! During his sweaty performance he sang “Summertime“, “When The Sun Goes Down“, “I Go Back“, “Big Star“, “Don’t Happen Twice“, “There Goes My Life“, “Somewhere With You“, “No Shoes No Shirt No Problems“, “Boys Of Fall“, “Everybody Wants To Go To Heaven“, “We Went Out Last Night“, “She Thinks My Tractor’s Sexy“, his latest single “You And Tequila“, plus many, many more! That night happened to be Zac Brown’s birthday and turned out to be a special treat for us. Just when the crowd thought Kenny was done for the night, he came back out and not alone. He presented Zac with a proper sized birthday drink and led the thousands of fans in a Happy Birthday tune. The two, along with both their bands proceeded to entertain us for another thirty minutes. They sang a couple Alabama songs which included an out of this world performance by the two fiddle players (obviously my favorite part of the entire evening), “Knee Deep“, and “The Joker” by the Steve Miller Band. It was a fantastic show that I only wish I could have seen more of. Billy Currington was truly missed by me and more of Zac Brown Band would have been a cherry on top of the phenomenal show! The tour still has plenty of stops to go, so get your tickets now!

Matt Stillwell’s Shinefest 2011

Troy & Sons Distillers Presents Matt Stillwell’s Shinefest 2011! This year’s Shinefest 2011 will take place August 19-21 (Friday-Sunday) in Western North Carolina. Matt Stillwell’s annual festival is being presented by Troy & Sons Distillers and will be held at the Fontana Village Resort in the Smokey Mountains. Some of Nashville’s best songwriter will take the stage along with Stillwell, Blackberry Smoke, Black Lillies, Jim Lauderdale, and more. “My vision for the festival is to showcase some of the greatest songwriters in Nashville, the creative people behind my career, local and upcoming bands as well as all the musical styles that have influenced me. The festival has grown each year and this year is looking to be bigger than ever.” -Matt Stillwell For those who prefer the outdoors, camping spaces are also available but are sure to be going fast. For more information on the entire event, including VIP packages click here.