Country
Dan + Shay Talk New Album, ‘Good Things,’ Writing with Shawn Mendes and Drake’s Influence
Songs from the project began surfacing in October 2019 with the cross-format smash “10,000 Hours” with Justin Bieber. The song, which is the top streamed country song so far this year on Spotify, spent 21 weeks at No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart and was the duo’s seventh chart topper on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart. The track landed Dan + Shay their third straight Grammy for best country duo/group performance, making them the first act to snare the award in three consecutive years. The pair, who co-wrote all of the songs on the album, worked with their usual impressive roster of Nashville top tunesmiths, including Ashley Gorley, Ross Copperman and Jordan Reynolds. This time, they also added some leading pop songwriters to the mix — including Jason “Poo Bear” Bo...
Robert Plant and Alison Krauss Reunite for New Album Raise the Roof, Share “Can’t Let Go”: Stream
Few cover albums can be considered legendary, but then, few cover albums ascend to the lofty heights of 2007’s Raising Sand. More than a decade after they intertwined their indelible voices (and winning the Grammy for Album of the Year in the process), Robert Plant and Alison Krauss have reunited to announce Raise the Roof, a new album arriving November 19th on Rounder Records. To whet the appetite, the duo have shared their take on “Can’t Let Go,” a song by Randy Weeks that was made famous by Lucinda Williams. Like Raising Sand, Raise the Roof was produced by T-Bone Burnett. It includes songs by Merle Haggard, The Everly Brothers, Anne Briggs, Allen Toussaint, Geeshie Wiley, Bert Jansch, and more, as well as “High and Lonesome,” an original song co-written by...
Robert Plant & Alison Krauss Reunite for ‘Raise the Roof’ Album, 2022 Tour
The first track, which was released Thursday (Aug. 12), is “Can’t Let Go,” originally recorded by Lucinda Williams. Like the other songs on the album, the swampy, surf-influenced “Can’t Let Go” features a driving beat. “We wanted it to move,” Krauss said of the album in a statement. “We brought other people in, other personalities within the band, and coming back together again in the studio brought a new intimacy to the harmonies.” Added Plant: “You hear something and you go, ‘Man, listen to that song, we got to sing that song!’ It’s a vacation, really — the perfect place to go that you least expected to find.” A follow-up was expected long before now with Plant, Krauss and Burnett returning to the studio shortly after the release of the original, but that project was scrapped. Repr...
Dolly Parton to Release Novel and Companion Album Next Year
From music to modeling to activism and beyond, Dolly Parton has done just about everything in life, but that doesn’t mean she’s stopped trying new things. In fact, the country legend just revealed that she’s writing her first-ever novel (!) about a young woman who moves to Nashville to pursue her dreams as a musician. Even better, Parton plans on releasing it next year along with a companion album of new music. Entitled Run, Rose, Run, the 448-book is co-written by bestselling author James Patterson. Accompanying it is a full-length LP with songs based on its characters and situations. “I cannot be more excited about the release of my very first novel #RunRoseRun with @JP_Books,” tweeted Parton. “I hope you enjoy the book and the songs as much as we’ve enjoyed putting it together!” Ac...
Jason Isbell’s Houston Show Canceled, Says Venue Owner ‘Flat-Out Refused’ to Implement COVID-19 Policy
Isbell proved he wasn’t paying lip service when his show scheduled for Aug. 11 at Houston’s Cynthia Woods Mitchel Pavilion was canceled. According to a statement from the venue, “we are all on the same page and we agree with what Jason Isbell would like to implement, but there is a timing issue.” The statement continues, “to implement a major change in policy such as what is requested will take more time than we have.” Isbell contests those claims. “The pavilion statement is false,” he tweeted. “Live Nation, the promoter, was on board but the venue owner flat-out refused to even attempt to implement the policy.” Earlier, Isbell laid out the strict new protocols. “We’re now requiring proof of vaccination or a current negative test to attend all our shows, indoors or out. If the ...
Still Unbroken: The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band Marks 50 Years of an Improbable Album
This week marks 50 years since the band recorded the 38-track set in six focused days at Nashville’s Woodland Sound Studios. Originally released on three vinyl discs in the fall of 1972, it never spawned any actual hit singles, though it did peak at No. 4 on Billboard‘s Top Country Albums chart. People heard about it through word-of-mouth, Dirt Band concerts and significant critical attention, given in great part because it was a grand experiment that managed to cross multiple gaps — generational, cultural, stylistic and geographical — in an era when America was divided by urban violence and the Vietnam War. “I have close friends that said, ‘You kind of helped bridge that gap between my dad and me; we would put this record on, have something in common,R...
Chris Young Talks His ‘Growth’ on ‘Famous Friends’ Album & Leaving Zoom Songwriting Behind
Though it’s been almost four years since Young’s last album release — 2017’s Losing Sleep — fans have heard a steady stream of new material from Famous Friends since its first single, party anthem “Raised on Country,” came out in 2019. That was followed by the emotional gut punch of “Drowning,” co-written by Young as his response to a friend’s sudden death, and then the title track. The three songs highlight the musical and lyrical breadth of Famous Friends, which Young attributes to his broader experiences as he gets older and “being open and letting the music be what it needs to be without worrying about where it comes from and how it gets started.” Time was also on his side as the pandemic gave him unlimited time to craft the album. Young never had a release date ...
Jason Isbell to Require Proof of Vaccination at Shows: “If You’re Dead, You Don’t Have Any Freedoms”
Jason Isbell has a way with words, as he demonstrated on his 2020 album Reunions, and which he proved again on a new appearance on MSNBC. In conversation with Stephanie Ruhle, he explained his decision to require proof of vaccination at his concerts, saying, “If you’re dead, you don’t have any freedoms at all.” The quip came as part of a larger conversation about the resurgent threat of COVID-19 sparked by the delta variant. The singer-songwriter said he hadn’t received much pushback: “All the response I’ve gotten from people in the business has been positive, because they understand that we could go back to not working at all. And a lot of these smaller venues, they aren’t going to be able to reopen if they go through another round of shutdowns.” As he explained it, most venues ...
Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Rickey Medlocke Tests Positive for COVID-19, Band Cancels Shows
Jimmie Allen, who was the opening act, has extended his set list to open the show. He performs a duet with Paisley on the current hit “Freedom Was a Highway.” The band also suspended shows in Jackson, Mississippi; Atlanta; and Cullman, Alabama, with the Aug. 13 show in Atlanta rescheduled for Oct. 23. You Deserve to Make Money Even When you are looking for Dates Online. So we reimagined what a dating should be. It begins with giving you back power. Get to meet Beautiful people, chat and make money in the process. Earn rewards by chatting, sharing photos, blogging and help give users back their fair share of Internet revenue.
Chart Rewind: In 1996, Rhett Akins ‘Started’ a Long Run of Hot Country Songs No. 1s
Including “Started,” Akins has written eight Hot Country Songs No. 1s. He’s penned 25 Country Airplay leaders, tied for the second-most with Shane McAnally (after Ashley Gorley’s 43). He’s authored six Country Airplay No. 1s recorded by son Thomas Rhett, who boasts 16 chart-toppers as an artist, and 12 as a writer. Named songwriter of the decade by the Academy of Country Music in 2019, Akins, 51, will be inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame this year. You Deserve to Make Money Even When you are looking for Dates Online. So we reimagined what a dating should be. It begins with giving you back power. Get to meet Beautiful people, chat and make money in the process. Earn rewards by chatting, sharing photos, blogging and help give users back their ...
Willie Nelson Headlines Texas Protest Rally in Support of Voting Rights
“If you don’t like who’s in there, vote them out,” Nelson sang, inviting the crowd to join him in singing lyrics he’d previously written about taking a stand at the ballot box. “I felt like I needed to be here. It is a history-making event that is so necessary right now,” said Brenda Hanson, 75, of Austin. “I am a descendant of slavery and I am not interested in moving back. I want to see this country go forward. I have lived well over three quarters of a century and I have never seen us go backwards like this before.” Hanson said she is disabled but otherwise would have participated in the nearly 30-mile walk. Instead, she hoped to make a statement with her presence as she sat chanting in support on a bench under a tree. The march began Wednesday and ended Saturday when participants walke...
Willie Nelson Performs at Poor People’s Campaign Voting Rights March in Austin: Watch
Willie Nelson performed at the Poor People’s Campaign march for voting rights outside of the Texas State Capitol in Austin on Saturday. As Rolling Stone notes, it marked Nelson’s first public performance outside of his Luck, Texas ranch since the start of the pandemic. In response to Texas’ controversial election reform bill, The Poor People’s Campaign march organized a four-day 27-mile march that began Wednesday in Georgetown, TX, and concluded on Saturday on the steps of the state capitol in Austin. Advertisement Related Video If passed, the election reform bill would limit early voting hours, ban drive-thru and mail-in ballot drop boxes, allow partisan poll watchers to record voters who get help filling out ballots, and make it a crime for local elections officials to encourage voting b...
