Randy Houser may have another #1 song on his hands, as “How Country Feels” is rocketing up the charts. It’s the first single from his next album, and even though he didn’t write it, he knew it was something special: “The first time I heard it, I heard that you know, ‘Let your hair down! Hair down!’ I went, ‘Aw, man.’ You know, I was hooked. There was no way I was not recording that song.” He’ll be a busy boy tonight, playing the Opry at the Ryman, then heading down the street to the Wildhorse Saloon to be part of Justin Moore’s benefit concert for Hurricane Sandy victims.
Dustin Lynch’s new song, “She Cranks My Tractor,” is very different from his first hit, “Cowboys and Angels.” What’s it all about? Dustin explains: “It’s definitely not about tractors; it’s about my dream girl. You know? It’s about a country girl that’s wilder than I am and kinda makes me come outta my shell, so that’s what that song means to me.” The woman in the video would crank a dead man’s tractor – check it out…
Blake Shelton isn’t winning any romance points with Miranda Lambert, it seems. In an interview with E! News, he was asked what he would give his wife for Christmas. He reminded the reporter that Miranda was very rich, and why should he blow a lot of his money on her when she could blow a bunch of her money on herself. He went on to say he might draw her a picture or something like that. Since we know Blake’s sense of humor, I’m guessing he’ll come up with a fabulous gift for Miranda.
The Band Perry feels cheated! They were in Europe last week, touring, and completely missed fall: “We live over in East Tennessee in the mountains so the leaves are all pretty over there, but I felt like we left and it was summer and we came back and all the trees were bare.” It’s ok, guys…you’ll see it next year, maybe while you’re on the road with Rascal Flatts.
Actually, Mike Gossin of Gloriana has some good advice for people whose lives are moving too fast: “I would say just savor the moment more. It all happened so fast for us. We didn’t really take it for granted, but I think we could have just realized more and been a little bit more appreciative of everything that was going on around us.”
Garth Brooks fans, in case you missed it, be on the lookout for the “Gartha Stewart” episode of Trisha’s Southern Kitchen on the Food Network. Garth and wife Trisha Yearwood collaborated on black bean lasagna, TY Thai salad and peanut butter balls. The peanut butter balls are apparently something Garth and his daughters have made for years, and they looked really yummy!
Jake Owen is dreaming of being a father, which will happen some time this month, but he’s a bit worried about how his bulldog, Merle, will handle the new addition: “Yeah, I’m a little…I’m worried that, you know, Merle’s (sighs)…Merle’s gonna get his feelings hurt a little bit. He already looks sad enough ’cause he’s a bulldog, but he also really likes kids. He’s fascinated with kids, and he loves playin’ with ‘em, and so it could be cool. I can’t wait. I really can’t wait ’til she’s big enough where she can sit on the couch, and he can sleep right next to her, and the two of them, the same size, can lay there together, and I can take photos.”
Keith Urban announced his tour plans for next year, and he’s also in the studio, working on an album he’ll release before hitting the road. He’s taking along Little Big Town and Dustin Lynch as tourmates, kicking things off July 18th in Cincinnati, Ohio, and wrapping up October 5th in West Palm Beach Florida. The complete list of tour dates is on his website, and check out how psyched they all are about this tour…
If you’re a Rascal Flatts fan, you might want to call in sick next Tuesday – “Rascal Flatts: All Access & Uncovered” comes out Monday, and they’ll be haunting the airwaves all night Monday night. Joe Don says their fans learn a lot more about each of them: “It’s really a little deeper glimpse into the heart, souls and minds of Rascal Flatts. And the three of us individually – how we grew up, where we grew up, before we came to Nashville and met each other. Also parts of how we met each other and how we became Rascal Flatts, and all the emotions that’s built up to where we’re at in life.” The trio will be on The Voice and Chelsea Lately on Monday night.
Luke Bryan is at the top of the charts again this week with “Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye.” It’s his second week at #1, and instead of basking in the glow, Luke is planning the album that will follow up the platinum “Tailgates & Tanlines.” According to Luke, “I’m super excited about what I’ve got written and what songs I’ve found—even more than Tailgates and Tanlines—I’m more excited. There’s one or two little things I kinda want on the record that I don’t have yet—but it’s certainly great being on this side and getting great songs from the Nashville community.”
What do writers do? They write, and husband/wife duo Thompson Square is no exception. But they’re not limiting themselves to songs this time – they’re writing a book called “Are You Gonna Kiss Me Or Not?,” due out in June of next year. It’s a novel, and they’ll co-write with Travis Thrasher.
The ABC show, “Nashville,” is such a hit that it’s been picked up for the entire season. Hayden Panettiere, who plays Juliette Barnes, knows why people are drawn to the show: “Both characters, and as are all the characters in the show, going through their own hard times, their own troubles, turmoil and everyone has their own issues to overcome and I think that’s something that people bond over, is hurt or pain or … just things like that in motion that people really find common ground with.” The music is great, too, and a soundtrack will be out on December 11th.
Taylor Swift is on The X Factor on FOX tonight, and Jason Aldean is on Jimmy Kimmel Live.
Luke Bryan kicks off his 2012 Farm Tour tonight, after touring with Jason Aldean this summer. The Farm Tour is near and dear to his heart, but he’s planning his own headlining tour for 2013 and is excited about the plans so far: “Oh it’s happening, it’s happening. We’re starting to plan that up. It’s gonna be interesting—lotta pop. Lotta—not pop, like a lotta fireworks, I meant! I don’t wanna scare anybody. No pop there--I can’t go pop if I’ve got a load of roman candles!”
Lady Antebellum is enjoying their second tour in Australia, this time as headliners. Dave Haywood explains, “We were lucky enough to get to open up for Keith Urban last year in Australia, and we kind of found this whole little new world of fans over there for us. Everybody was super nice, and we love their accents, so it’s a beautiful place to be. But, it’s very interesting, very high energy.” The tour wraps up tonight in Sydney, and once they get back to the US, they’ll head into the studio to work on their 4th studio album.
A week from today, Jake Owen kicks off his first headlining tour, taking along Love & Theft and Florida Georgia Line. He’s excited to be the top of the ticket, but also knows he’s got some work to do: “When I get out there I want the people that are on tour with me – Love & Theft and Florida Georgia Line – and their crew guys, the guys in the band everyone – I want them to feel very taken care of. Like the way I feel when I go on tour with artists that are headlining. There’s a lot of responsibility that goes along with that, but I love the challenge of that.”
Dustin Lynch is well-known now for his song, “Cowboys and Angels,” but back in the day, when he promised his parents he’d go to college before getting into country music, he was known for – frogs?? “I love to hunt and fish and I like to, uh...weirdly enough I used to like to dissect things, so you know it kinda got me in that arena and it was easy. Biology came easy to me, so I just wanted something I could do and was good at.”
American Idol is taping, and Keith Urban is having a blast as one of the judges: “We had two days in New York and I had a blast! I can’t wait ‘til the next couple days and I’m really, really glad to be doing it!.” Season 13 premiers in January of 2013.
Want to party for a cure with Jason Aldean? Mark your calendar – his “Concert for the Cure” happens the last night of his “My Kinda Party” tour – October 27th in Dallas. The money raised goes to Susan G. Komen For The Cure. This is the 7th year that Jason Aldean has put on this benefit, in memory of his late friend, Melissa, who lost her battle with breast cancer when she was only 29 years old. Twenty thousand tickets sold out in less than four minutes when the show went on sale earlier this year, and Jason says it’s always his favorite concert of the year.
Want to walk a mile in Taylor Swifts’ shoes? You can, if you pony up enough cash. She’s donated a pair of autographed size 8 Bloch flats to Soles4Souls, a charity that provides shoes to children in need around the world. The auction ends on September 13th at 3pm Eastern, so you have some time to gather your pennies together. You’ll need to gather a bunch, though – the bid at this writing is $713 and the bid increment is $100. Good luck – you’ll look great in Taylor’s shoes!
Little Big Town has scored their very first #1 song with “Pontoon.” Karen, Kimberly and Jimi are enjoying the ride: “[Karen] We could not be happier and we’re so grateful to have our very first #1 record. [Kimberly] I mean, we always wanted one of course, we’ve been a band for 13 years and we’ve always wanted a #1 record, but it’s kinda cool that it’s just now happening. There’s something really... [Karen] It could happen again though! [Jimi] That would be OK! I’d be alright with that.” They’re also celebrating their first platinum single with “Pontoon.” They’ve had two gold singles, “Boondocks” and “Little White Church” and a platinum album with “The Road to Here.”
Jason Aldean played a show for David Letterman’s audience last night, and you can re-watch it on CBS.com. His new album, “Night Train,” comes out October 16th, and Jason played a couple from it, saying, “The one thing I’m always trying to do is find great songs. You know, I’ve always wanted people to put the CD in and never have to skip songs. You know, I want them to listen to it all the way through.”
Eric Church is planning a live album, and you can be in the audience. The shows will be in Chattanooga in October, and Eric is giving his fans a way to win tickets. Get out your video camera, put on your creativity hat and go to Eric’s website to enter. Meanwhile, Eric knows that this first headlining tour is timed perfectly in his career, after years in dive bars: “I think you have to go through those environments to be able to earn your way into a place where you’re in front of 10,000 to 15,000 people. Then if something goes wrong, you can still handle it.”
Brantley Gilbert had a great time being part of Eric Church’s “Blood, Sweat and Beers” tour, and the two guys apparently hit it off well: “Eric is a person, you know, being out with him we actually formed a friendship. We got a chance to write together, you know, and we still text and talk and he’s a great guy, great performer.” The two will apparently arm-wrestle to see who gets to record each of the songs they co-wrote during the tour.
Dustin Lynch has a big fan – no, a really big fan! “Tim McGraw walked on the bus and he wanted to introduce himself. He said, ‘Man I’m a fan of your song ‘Cowboys And Angels.’ I’m a big fan of your music. I just want to say hello my name’s Tim.’ I was like, ‘Uh yeah, I know who you are buddy!”
Darius Rucker is part of a new fantasy football league, this one built around college ball. Pigskin Fantasy U lets players draft entire teams, and we know Darius has the Gamecocks in his picks, as he’s a huge fan. According to Darius, he got involved because “My buddies and I needed another reason to talk about football and trash talk each other.”
If you missed the premiere of Taylor Swift’s new video last night, never fear – CMT will air it every hour during music hours all through Labor Day weekend. As for those weird costumes, Taylor says, “You have to watch the video to just see how ridiculous they look [Laughs] It’s the funniest thing—it’s the funniest costume thing we’ve ever had in a video. I mean, I can’t believe that they actually went along with it. I probably would have put my foot down if I were them, just like, ‘I’m NOT doing that!’ [Laughs]” In other Taylor news, her new song, “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together,” tops the digital song chart this week, selling over 300,000 units. That pace says that the song will go platinum before the end of Labor Day weekend – platinum means over a million units sold.
Carrie Underwood and Hunter Hays will tour together this fall, with Hunter opening the show. But according to Carrie, the two will perform together each night, too. “That is the plan, yeah we haven’t actually tried anything yet, of course we’ll have to get in there and see what we can do. But, surely we’ll figure up something we’re both talented individuals – so we’ll find some way to sing together and perform together. We are in rehearsals this week doing all of our music rehearsals, making sure everything’s perfect. After that, we’re going to start our production rehearsals.”
Artists spend a lot of time on the road, especially during the summer, when tours take them to all corners of North America. All of them take along things to make the miles pass more quickly, and Jake Owen’s sanity includes a furry friend: “My dog. I got to have Merle with me a lot. And some good music to put on the stereo, because music has always been such a huge part of my life. Not only as in my profession, but something that keeps my mind sane, you know?”
Keith Urban heads back to the classroom this coming Thursday, as he puts on a program for students at Metro Nashville Public High School. Keith will talk to them about the art of songwriting, his musical influences, favorite career moments and probably play them a song or two. The event isn’t open to the public but will stream live on keithurban.net on September 6th beginning at 10am Eastern.
Tim McGraw made new friends during his Brothers of the Sun tour this summer. At each of the 25 tour stops, he awarded a mortgage-free home to a military family in need. He met with each family, learned about their sacrifices and according to Tim, that made an indelible mark on him. He plans to keep HomeFront going in the future.
Dustin Lynch’s “Cowboys and Angels” has gone gold and propelled Dustin’s self-titled debut album to #1 on the Billboard Country Album chart. It’s a dream come true for Dustin: “I’ve put my whole life into album one and I’ve dreamed of having an album when I moved here nine years ago, and it’s finally happening.”
How hot is Taylor Swift? Her new song, "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together," is the #1 most downloaded song in 29 countries! Meanwhile, she gets set for the September release of her new perfume, Wonderstruck Enchanted, and the release of her new album, Red, in October with this new ad for the perfume. Note the clever use of the color red in it.
Dierks Bentley has had three #1 songs in a row from his Home cd, and he admits that his new song, “Tip It On Back,” nearly didn’t make it onto the album: “‘Tip It On Back’ was actually the last song that I really heard for the album. You kinda reach a place where you’re like, ‘I’ve listened to every song out there. There’s no more songs to listen to,’ and then you hear one like that, and you’re like, ‘Man, this is a great song.’” His college tour kicked off last night at the University of Georgia.
Luke Bryan’s 4th annual Farm Tour will kick off October 3rd in Claxton, Georgia and hit Clemson, SC, Valdosta, GA and Auburn, AL before it ends October 13th. Luke enjoys the small-town vibe and says, “I just love the fact that people can come out and have a big time, listen to some music and um...it’s just a fun experience all the way around and I wanna continue to do what I can to keep it rockin’.” This small-town tour raises money so kids from local farming families can go to college. Here’s the list of tour stops:
10/3 - Claxton (Statesboro), GA
10/4 - Clemson, SC
10/5 - Auburn, AL
10/6 - Valdosta, GA
10/10 - Villa Rica, GA
10/11 - Colbert (Athens), GA
10/12 - Tallahassee, FL
10/13 - Macon, GA
David Nail is also doing a series of smaller tour stops, focusing on small venues and featuring scaled-down shows. They’ll be special, though, because he understands the power of his fans: “You can’t help but not reference the people who came out to our shows when ‘Red Light’ was #36 – not even Top 20. Those people have kind of stayed with us, and it’s definitely helped our show a lot.” Here’s the list of his tour stops:
9/6 Cincinnati, OH
9/7 Marietta, OH
9/8 Cleveland, OH
9/9 Arcola, IL
9/13 Knoxville, TN
9/14 Richmond, VA
9/15 Philadelphia, PA
9/16 Baltimore, MD
9/18 New York, NY
9/26 Pittsburgh, PA
9/27 Ridgefield, CT
9/28 W. Springfield, MA
9/29 Boston, MA
10/1 Winston-Salem, NC
10/4 Southaven, MS
10/6 Houston, TX
10/10 Oklahoma City, OK
10/11 Dallas, TX
10/18 Minneapolis, MN
10/19 Milwaukee, WI
10/20 Chicago, IL
10/25 Carbondale, IL
10/26 Columbia, MO
11/2 Birmingham, AL
11/3 Biloxi, MS
Kix Brooks’ latest single, “New To This Town,” is climbing the charts. Wonder how he got Joe Walsh to be his guest on it? Wonder no more – according to Kix, “My manager and Joe’s manager Irving Azoff, who manages The Eagles, are partners. Actually an engineer from my radio show said ‘Man that’d sound great with some Joe Walsh-like guitar on it!’ And I go ‘Wow! I wonder if I could actually…maybe…’” And he found out the answer was “yes.” Kix releases his solo debut album on September 11th.
Singer/songwriter Dustin Lynch, who has his first single climbing the charts, loves to write. “Cowboys and Angels” is just one of the tons of songs he’s written lately: “Ahh, hundreds and hundreds. I’ve written hundreds of songs the past few years. It’s so funny, people are like, ‘Why did you write so many songs?!’ You know, when I woke up one morning and realized I was getting paid to write songs which is what I used to do for fun—you know I just love it! It’s so much fun for me to go into a room with nothing and come out with possibly something that could change my life or mean something to somebody else.”
Tim McGraw will answer fan questions on Pennzoil’s Facebook page this Friday. You can submit questions now, and if one of yours gets answered, you get autographed goodies from Tim.
Another country artist has been added to the Republican National Convention. Rodney Atkins will headline the official welcome party this Sunday in Petersburg Florida.
Dierks Bentley’s Country & Cold Cans EP is out today, as is the self-titled debut album by Dustin Lynch. The Dierks EP includes a special version of “Tip It On Back.”
