How about a little Johnny Cash trivia to pass the time?
50 years ago, Johnny’s 1970 album, Hello, I’m Johnny Cash, ended its four-week run at No. 1 on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart (March 28–April 25).
In addition to the iconic title, the album was noteworthy for a number of reasons, including:
It featured three Top 5 singles: “Blistered,” “See Ruby Fall” and “If I Were a Carpenter.”
Johnny’s duet with June Carter Cash, “If I Were a Carpenter,” earned the couple the 1971 Grammy Award for Best Country Vocal Performance by a Group of Duo.
The 12-song album featured “To Beat the Devil,” which was the first Kris Kristofferson-penned song that Johnny cut.
Just how iconic is the Hello, I’m Johnny Cash album title? When Nashville’s Johnny Cash Museum re-opens after the COVID-19 shutdown, the title will continue to greet guests as they walk in the door.
Abby Anderson and longtime boyfriend Tyler Graham got engaged on May 2.
Tyler proposed to Abby during an evening canoe ride in a lake in Georgia, where the couple has been quarantining. Tyler got down on one knee and presented Abby with a ring made of wildflowers (until the jeweler opens back up and they can design her ring).
photo courtesy Abby Anderson
Abby shared the news via Instagram, saying: “TURNS OUT MY MAN CATCHES MORE THAN FISH💍😭 Ring brought to you by Tyler’s beautiful mind, jewelers being closed, corona and wildflower stems🌞”
Abby was named to CMT’s Next Women of Country class of 2018.
Congrats to the happy couple.
Listen to Abby’s new song, “I’ll Still Love You,” which she wrote about Tyler.
Kenny Chesney dropped a fan-filled video for his new song, “We Do,” which is included on his new album, Here and Now.
Penned by Kenny, Craig Wiseman, Scooter Carusoe and David Garcia, “We Do” features Kenny crooning the chorus directly at his passionate fan base, No Shoes Nation: “Yeah, we laugh and we love and we can’t get enough / As loud as we’re living, man, we still turn it up / We’re amplified, come alive, side by side / No matter where it goes you know we’re here for the ride.”
Directed by Shaun Silva, the “We Do” video features clips of Kenny’s fans enjoying his concerts—from the tailgates to the packed stadiums, and everything in between.
“I’ve wanted to paint this picture for a long time,” Kenny says. “But I never had the song that said what I needed to say about what we all share together. Once I did, it was a matter of how to build this clip in a way that captures the essence of it! Because you try to tell people, and they can’t quite get their heads around it . . . I look at those faces, the kids up on the stage hugging me, the guy throwing his arms into the air on his dad’s shoulders, and I think, ‘Yeah! That’s what the best rockers did for me, too.’ No matter how hard I work, how much we play, I will spend my life trying to give back as much as they give us—because nobody throws passion at a band harder than No Shoes Nation.”
Though circumstances related to the global coronavirus pandemic prevent standard commencement gatherings from taking place, Tennessee Athletics salutes its 65 spring/summer graduates who have completed their degree requirements.
On Thursday, May 7, the university is hosting a redesigned commencement celebration virtually starting at 9 a.m. ET. The link to participate will be available at www.UTK.edu as well as on the school’s official Twitter and Facebookchannels.
Tennessee’s graduates include student-athletes from coast to coast—California to Connecticut—who chose to chase their dreams on Rocky Top. The list also includes multiple international student-athletes from nations such as Australia, Greece and Jamaica.
The list of degree programs is equally as varied, with Vols and Lady Vols earning diplomas in Accounting, Aerospace Engineering, Supply Chain Management, Electrical Engineering, Plant Sciences, Retail & Consumer Sciences, Mechanical Engineering and many other disciplines.
In addition to their academic achievements, this collection of new grads set school records, earned All-America honors and captured SEC and NCAA championships.
“We couldn’t be more proud of our many graduates,” Tennessee Director of Athletics Phillip Fulmer said. “We certainly regret that they are unable to celebrate commencement with their coaches, teammates and families here on campus, but we also understand that sacrifices for the greater good are necessary right now. Throughout their time here at the University of Tennessee, these young men and women have developed the strength and resilience to overcome most any challenge they could encounter. And they’re now uniquely positioned to lead the way as society bounces back from this pandemic. We’ll be watching proudly.”
Among the newest crop of UT student-athletes grads are four former standout performers who put their degree progress on hold to pursue careers in professionals sports. They recently re-enrolled in UT’s Renewing Academic Commitment (RAC) Program to complete their degree requirements. This semester’s RAC graduates are baseball players Zach Osborne (2009-12) and Benito Santiago (2015-18), men’s basketball player Steve Hamer (1992-96) and football player Peerless Price (1995-98). All four were drafted out of UT. Price played nine seasons as a wide receiver in the NFL.
Seven of Tennessee’s spring/summer graduates did participate in commencement activities back in December, in anticipation that they would be unable to be present at ceremonies originally scheduled for this weekend.
MEN’S BASKETBALL (5) Jordan Bone, Recreation & Sport Management Jordan Bowden, Africana Studies Jacob Fleschman, Finance John Fulkerson, Recreation & Sport Management
Steve Hamer, Journalism & Electronic Media (RAC)
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL (4) Lou Brown, Communication & Information (Master’s) Rennia Davis, Hospitality & Tourism Management Kamera Harris, Communication & Information (Master’s) Kasiyahna Kushkituah, Hospitality & Tourism Management
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Athletes in Action Basketball recently hosted its first Virtual Leadership Academy for NCAA Division I women’s basketball captains and emerging leaders, and University of Tennessee student-athletes Kasiyahna Kushkituah and Rae Burrell served as representatives for the Lady Vols.
A total of 50 players from 25 different universities were selected to participate in this year’s Academy, which is normally held in Xenia, Ohio, at the Athletes in Action World Headquarters. This year’s Academy spanned three days, with participants spending two hours daily from April 24 to 26.
Kushkituah is a rising senior from Atlanta, Ga., and averaged 5.4 points and 4.4 rebounds in 31 games last season. Burrell is a rising junior from Las Vegas who was UT’s second-leading scorer (10.5) and rebounder (5.5) while appearing in 31 contests and starting the final nine. They helped the Lady Vols to a 21-10 overall record and 10-6 SEC mark that earned them a share of third place.
The purpose of the Academy is to equip, empower and encourage student-athletes to be competent, confident, effective team leaders. Participants engaged in a variety of sessions and live video conferences, including how to be a great teammate as well as viewing conflict management techniques, case studies in leadership, cohort group breakdowns, communication lessons and interviews with established leaders in business, sport and the military. Attendees had the chance to develop a deeper view of leadership and identity as well as expand the scope of their leadership understanding in the areas of connectedness and service.
Mike Petersen (Atlanta Dream) and Ariel Atkins (Washington Mystics) as well as former college captains and coaches headlined the experience for the players. The Academy is driven and supported by an AIA staff who want to help athletes use the time well and grow in their personal leadership goals. This marked the fourth year that Athletes in Action Basketball staged its Captains Academy and was the first one ever to be held on Zoom. The captains and leaders were able to participate in this training from their own residences.
Athletes in Action is an international sports organization that champions faith, character and victory beyond competition. AIA basketball hosts events, sends teams and develops total athletes and coaches globally. ‘For the good of the game, the growth of its people, to the glory of God’ is the organization’s prime motivation.
In 2016, Thomas Rhett and wife Lauren Akins were just a couple of happily married 26-year-olds enjoying four years of marriage.
Fast forward four years to May 2020, Thomas Rhett, 30, and Lauren, 30, are the proud parents of three beautiful girls: Willa Gray, 4, Ada James, 2, and Lennon Love, 2 months. And they’re still happily married.
TR and Lauren were in the process of adopting Willa Gray from Uganda in February 2017 when Lauren revealed that she was pregnant with Ada James. After a yearlong adoption process, TR and Lauren welcomed Willa Gray home in May 2017, three months before Ada James was born in August 2017. Lennon Love joined the family in February 2020.
In her upcoming memoir, Live in Love: Growing Together Through Life’s Changes, Lauren chronicles many of the “challenges they faced as they adjusted to the reality of becoming first-time parents” and opens up about her “life-changing experiences doing mission work in Haiti and Uganda, where she met the precious baby who would become their first daughter.”
As Thomas Rhett told Paul Koffy and Jasmine Sadry of Westwood One’s nationally syndicated morning show, Morning Koffy, the adoption process was “one of the toughest times in our marriage,” but TR believes he and his wife “grew so much stronger as a couple.”
“I mean, to me, marriage is super fun and all the good things that come with marriage, but I think that the hardships during a marriage really create your rock, in your marriage, if that makes any sense,” says Thomas Rhett. “There’s no marriage in the universe that is just a breeze the whole way through. And I think one of the most beautiful bits about a marriage is sacrifice. And so, when we were going over to Uganda, back and forth and in the process to adopt Willa Gray, it was definitely one of the toughest times in our marriage, ever. For multiple reasons.
“[Lauren] was in Uganda, pregnant, while I was back in America playing shows, and I remember leaving a stage somewhere in Arizona, and flying from Arizona straight back to Uganda, then back to Nashville, then back to Uganda. And it’s just like we were just exhausted, mentally, physically, emotionally. And then finding out halfway through the process that we’re going to have to live in Uganda for an extra five or six months to make sure the adoption went through. There was just so many lessons.
“And I think through that, we grew so much stronger as a couple, because really we learned how to rely on each other, but also learned how to rely so much more on the Lord, just because in circumstances like that, you don’t have any control over any of it. I mean, you are literally at the mercy of the government, or a probation officer, or whatever it is. And Lauren’s book coming out in a few months goes really deep into this stuff.”
Live in Love: Growing Together Through Life’s Changes will be released on Aug. 18.
Tune in to Morning Koffy on May 8 to hear Paul and Jasmine’s full interview with Thomas Rhett.
Travis Denning released his current single, “After a Few,” in January 2019. Penned by Travis, Kelly Archer and Justin Weaver, the single will be featured on Travis’ upcoming six-song EP, Beer’s Better Cold (May 15).
“I think this song really is just about that story that a lot of people can relate to,” says Travis. “Being attracted to someone that probably logically in your head is not good, but something in your heart keeps taking you back.”
For country radio, something in your ear keeps taking you back to the song.
After 57 weeks, “After a Few” broke the record for most weeks (50: Easton Corbin’s “Girl Like You” and Aaron Watson’s “Outta Style”) needed to move into the Top 10 on the Billboard Country Airplay chart (April 13 chart).
After 60 weeks, “After a Few” broke the record for most weeks (59: Jimmie Allen’s “Make Me Want To”) spent on the Billboard Country Airplay chart (May 4 chart).
Currently, “After a Few” is No. 6 on the chart after 60 weeks. If the single reaches No. 1, it will shatter the record for most weeks (58: Jimmie Allen’s “Make Me Want To”) needed to reach the top of the chart.
Beer’s Better Cold Track List & Songwriters
1. “Where That Beer’s Been” (Rhett Akins, Travis Denning, Chris Stevens, Jeremy Stover)
2. “After a Few” (Kelly Archer, Travis Denning, Justin Weaver)
3. “ABBY” (Ashley Gorley, Matt Jenkins, Chase McGill)
4. “Tank of Gas and a Radio Song” (Travis Denning, Nathan Spicer, Shane Minor)
5. “Beer’s Better Cold” (Scooter Carusoe, Travis Denning, Cole Taylor)
6. “Sittin’ By a Fire” (Rhett Akins, Travis Denning, Jeremy Stover)
After releasing his self-titled debut album in August 2015, Michael Ray dropped his sophomore album, Amos, in June 2018.
The title of his second album paid tribute to his late grandfather, Amos, who helped foster Michael’s love of country music. Michael first began singing and performing in his grandfather’s band when he was only 9 years old. The Florida native still plays Amos’ 1978 Les Paul guitar as a reminder of the time they spent together.
Between the two albums, Michael has scored No. 1 hits with “Kiss You in the Morning,” “Think A Little Less” and “One That Got Away.” His current single, “Her World or Mine,” which is the third single from Amos, is No. 22 on the Billboard Country Airplay chart.
As Michael, 32, told Kix Brooks of American Country Countdown, he hopes to be able to continue to show his musical “growth and evolution” on his next album.
“I think the music should change,” says Michael to Kix. “I think you should be able to look back on your first record five records later and go, ‘Wow, I wouldn’t have done that now. Man, look at how far we came.’ And, I think that’s just the growth and evolution of touring and being inspired by not just the people you grew up listening to but your peers and discovering, you know, yourself and getting better. I feel like what I want to strive to do is have people listen to my music and have them hear the influence of [Merle] Haggard or George Jones—the influence of those men and women that I grew up playing their music with my grandfather’s band, you know? I think that’s something I’ll always have. I just think that’s embedded in me, but I do think that, yeah, as it grows, I think the third record is gonna sound different than the second, than this Amos record, and the fourth and the fifth and so on. I think it just shows growth and it shows, you know, that you’re on the right path.”
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