Natalie Maines, Emily Robison and Martie Maguire of the Dixie Chicks dropped their first single in 13 years with the release of “Gaslighter” on March 4.
The new tune, which was co-penned and co-produced by the Dixie Chicks and Jack Antonoff, debuted at No. 36 on the Billboard Country Airplay chart. The tally marks the highest debut on the chart for the Dixie Chicks since their cover of Fleetwood Mac’s “Landslide” in September 2002, which debuted at No. 32. According to Billboard, “Gaslighter” is the first song by the Dixie Chicks to hit the Top 30 since Natalie’s comments about President George W. Bush in 2003.
“Gaslighter” serves as the title track to the Dixie Chicks’ upcoming eighth studio album, which is slated to drop on May 1.
The trio also released a new video for “Gaslighter.” Check out the new clip below.
On if this team plays like it practices:
“I think most teams do (play like they practice) to an extent. You build habits and you build the continuity that you’re looking for. But I don’t think that at this time of the year, you can be really bad in practice, and if you are, you just haven’t gotten it figured out yet, and we were bad on Thursday. And that’s what really bothered me. You start trying to analyze it and say that our guys start to have people feeling good about them, and they’re kids, and they can get caught up in it and they can lose focus, and the key is that you’ve got to be able to reset your focus. You’ve got to enjoy winning, and I’m probably not one of the better guys to do that, because I’m always thinking that we’ve got to get ready for the next one, and you try to let guys do that. But after a day off, too, you think about it, we should have been able to re-focus better than we did. Again, I don’t want to take anything away from Auburn because they played great, but I was just really disappointed in the fact that with the momentum that we had built, we did what we did on Thursday. On Friday you can’t do much because it’s a big game, and you hope guys can maybe turn it around, but when you haven’t built those habits, you can’t.”
Credit: UT Athletics
On if he thinks Santiago Vescovi has hit a wall:
“I don’t know if he’s hit a wall. He’s turned down some shots that he needs to take, and I told him, ‘You’re going to have to take the open shots.’ He got two shots blocked where he was way too slow getting to the rim, and we need guys to take the shots that we talk about them taking. Regardless, his parents were here, and that’s got to be an emotional time for him. He was totally surprised that they were coming, and then they left on Sunday, and it has to be tough because they’re a close-knit family. But again, there’s a combination of a lot of things, but the fact is, what he’s done this year, I’ve said it many times, is pretty darn phenomenal.”
On how important it is to get good bench-play during tournament time:
“It goes back to Saturday again, it’s a crazy game sometimes. Olivier (Nkamhoua) had arguably one of his very best practices that he’s ever had on Thursday, I mean he looked like a totally different guy, and then he goes in the game on Saturday and looks nothing like how he practiced. It was the same thing with Ticket (Davonte Gaines). He had been playing really well, but he’s lost his grandfather, he’s been gone since Sunday and he’ll meet us in Nashville. I’m sure some of that weighed heavily on him, because he had been really terrific, but he wasn’t as locked in Saturday. Uros (Plavsic), it’s the same thing I’ve said before, I wish Uros could have had a full season where he could’ve had a chance to play more, but we’ve got to play him, and right now you either win or you go home, it’s pretty simple. We need those guys, and like I said, after every game you go through it, you second-guess yourself, you scrub it out any way you want to, and I just know that we need those guys going forward and I hope that they can understand the value of accepting the role that we need them to play. I think most freshmen, they validate themselves by scoring as opposed to playing defense, rebounding, taking care of the ball, and that’s where they have to begin. Once you begin there, the other things will take care of themselves.”
On playing zone defense:
“I don’t hate zone, I really don’t. It’s just because of what we’ve gone through this year trying to get Santi caught up and guys in and out of the lineup. We haven’t had time to do it. We haven’t had a chance. We have a zone. We could throw it out there. It’s not very good because I see what we do to it in practice. No, I don’t have a problem with zone. It’s just that there’s a lot of things that we weren’t able to get to this year. As I said before, if anybody would’ve played our zone in the first five or six conference games, Santi wouldn’t have been able to play. We were just trying to teach him our man offense. Again, during the game if somebody went zone we simplified as much as we could, but the zone package that we had, (Santi) probably didn’t get that totally grasped until the middle of last month. There were so many different things we were trying to get in with him. I don’t have a problem with it, we just haven’t had a chance to do a lot of things because of the injuries, guys going in and out of lineups, just trying to patch things together at times.”
On how different Alabama is with Herbert Jones in the lineup:
“He’s a guy that I think any coach would love to coach. He’s going to do the dirty work. You have to admire the fact that he’s wearing a cast and shooting the ball like he is with one hand. Again, he’s a guy that presents problems in a different way for you.”
On defending Alabama’s 3-point shots:
“Same thing, you have to get out there and you have to extend it. They probably have shot more threes than anyone in the league. They’ve got guys that can shoot it deep and then obviously you have to be subconscious of where different guys are on the floor. They spread you out. Then you have to still help your teammates, you have to get a hand up, you have to guard the 3-point line without fouling. That’s the situation where transition defense is so important because if you don’t get back and get set they can pop you early and often.”
On Josiah-Jordan James’ inconsistency through the past few games:
“He was one of the guys who played Saturday the way he practiced Thursday. I don’t understand it; I wish I did. I was as surprised as anybody because you felt like he had finally turned the corner where he was starting to get into a flow. I know he doesn’t do it intentionally, I know that. That goes back to maturity. It goes back to understanding how to take care of your body. The way you eat, the way you sleep, all that built up to it. I don’t think he’s got that part of it down yet and I don’t think he understands how that part affects him more than he might know. I hope he’s learned that lesson. I’m like you, there wasn’t a person on the floor that was better than him at Kentucky. Then he came back after that, had practice, and we were like what’s going on?”
On where what Yves has done ranks in his coaching career:
“Obviously, I think he’s the Defensive Player of the Year, because when you think about us taking him off the court; think about the number of ‘fix it’ plays he’s had for our team. When we’ve struggled staying in front of the ball or in other areas of the floor, he’s had more ‘fix-it’ plays than any guy we’ve coached in a long time. For a guy of his size to go out and make those plays—and he takes great pride and joy in doing it. He’s had to guard all five positions in this league, he’s not afraid to do it and we’re not afraid to put him in those spots. But, it’s his ‘fix-it’ plays that I think make him the Defensive Player of the Year. We’re not a gambling team on defense, where we’re trying to get a lot of steals. I think a lot of people look at steals, where some guys get Player of the Year awards where they don’t really defend, but just steal the ball. To me that’s not what a Defensive Player of the Year is. Yves is a guy that not only can guard every position on the floor, but his ability to help his teammates at so many different levels is what makes him so impressive to me.”
On if the team has changed since playing Alabama in February:
“I do think we’re a bit different obviously. I felt like the way we played on Saturday we looked like the team that played back in January. I was just not very happy watching the tape on both ends of the floor. It’s baffling to be quite honest with you. I think you are who you are right now. Where we are right now, it’s hard for me to say we’ve improved. Before Saturday’s game I felt we had improved a lot. I know we have, but it’s just so baffling to know that we can revert back to the mentality we had. We still have a lot to play for and for us not to respond better mentally is so frustrating and disappointing.”
On what it would mean to see John Fulkerson named an All-Conference player:
“John is a guy who on Saturday was not as good as he can be on the defensive end. He had multiple defensive breakdowns, but there’s no doubt in my mind that I think John is an All-Conference SEC Player. I don’t know if many can truly appreciate—you all might, because you all have seen all the things we’ve had to deal with this year—for him to go from where he was a year ago, to becoming a focal point of team’s schemes and continuing to go get his every night. There’s no doubt he can get worn down some. You know he’s getting tired when he misses his assignments. His rotations and other things we need him to do defensively aren’t where they need to be. Some of that can be placed on me by not getting out of the game more, but he has gotten better with battling through fatigue. He’s never really been a player to do that and this year he’s done a good job of trying to kick it and get through it. But, the way he’s finished the year is as good as anyone in the league. So, I do think he’s worthy of that honor.”
On if he thinks that they have a good defense, or if some of the breakdowns worry him:
“I think we have a good team defense when everyone is doing their job. Jordan Bowden and Yves Pons are guys we can consistently count on. To be a good defensive player you have to take your specific matchup personally. If you don’t, I don’t think you can be a great defensive player. But, with that said, collectively you can be a good defensive team if everyone takes care of their assignment. Collectively I think we’re a really good defensive team and we have two or three guys when they’re really locked in are really good for us. The great defensive teams have five guys who take it personal, we haven’t gotten to that point yet.”
On if there’s benefit to playing in the early time slot when needing to make a tournament run:
“I think so. I remember Bruce told me last year that he felt it was a big advantage that they got to play early and had longer to rest. I haven’t looked at it that much, but I would say playing early gives you more rest time in a tournament when you’re advancing and the more you can get off of your feet the better.”
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Riding a wave of momentum to close the 2019 season, Tennessee football returns to the field for the start of 2020 spring practice on Tuesday afternoon. A total of 15 workouts culminate with the Chevrolet Orange & White Game at 4 p.m. ET on Saturday, April 18 in Neyland Stadium.
The Chevrolet Orange & White Game will be carried live on SEC Network+ via WatchESPN.com and the ESPN App. It will also be carried on affiliates of the Vol Network with pre-game air time at 3:45 p.m. ET. Bob Kesling, Tim Priest, Brent Hubbs and Kasey Funderburg will be on the radio call. The radio broadcast will be available on UTsports.com and the UT Gameday App as well.
Admission and parking is FREE for the Chevrolet Orange & White Game. Gates open at 2:30 p.m. Vol Village in Lot 9 will open at noon. Located directly west of Neyland Stadium, Vol Village will feature music, face painting, photo opportunities with Smokey and the spirit squad, food vendors, inflatables, giveaways, interactive areas, autographs with VFLs and other activities.
Athletic department staff members will be available on gameday to provide one-on-one service to fans interested in exploring the stadium to review available seating inventory. Fans interested in scheduling an appointment on April 18 or any other date can do so HERE. Throughout the game, fans will have a chance to win season tickets. Alcohol sales will also be in effect.
Third-year head coach Jeremy Pruitt welcomes back a talented squad, a newly-signed top-10 recruiting class and 98.5 percent of the Vols’ total offense from a year ago. Tennessee reeled off six consecutive victories, finished 5-3 in SEC play and won the Gator Bowl over Indiana. The team carries the second-longest active winning streak among Power Five programs into its season-opener on Sept. 5 against Charlotte.
Season tickets for the 2020 Tennessee campaign are on sale now at AllVols.com and start as low as $300. Season tickets can also be purchased by calling (865) 946-7000. The Vol Pass also is returning for the 2020 football season. A great option for fans interested in experiencing Neyland Stadium from a different vantage point each game, those interested in learning more about the Vol Pass are encouraged to call (865) 946-7000.
Key Spring Dates
Tuesday, March 10 – spring practice begins
Sunday, March 15-Saturday, March 21 – spring break
Thursday, March 26 – Pro Day
Thursday, March 26-Saturday, March 28 – Coaches Clinic
Saturday, April 18 – Chevrolet Orange & White Game, 4 p.m.
Spring Practice Dates (closed to general public)
Tuesday, March 10
Thursday, March 12
Tuesday, March 24
Friday, March 27
Saturday, March 28
Tuesday, March 31
Thursday, April 2
Friday, April 3
Saturday, April 4
Tuesday, April 7
Thursday, April 9
Saturday, April 11
Tuesday, April 14
Thursday, April 16
Maren Morris will follow up her multi-week No. 1 single, “The Bones,” with the release of “To Hell & Back.”
The new tune, which was penned by Maren, Jessie Jo Dillon and Laura Veltz, will impact country radio on March 30.
“I wrote ‘To Hell & Back’ with my friends Jessie Jo Dillon and Laura Veltz, who wrote ‘Rich’ with me, so they’re kind of my go-to girls on really, really important songs,” says Maren. “I feel like this song came out of a time when I was ending a relationship and I was in a really dark place. And I had kinda started growing deeper feelings for this new guy and he was so accepting and non-judgmental of my process of healing from that other relationship, and kinda gave me space and understood my mess. And I thought that was such a pure kind of love to receive from someone, where they’re like, ‘I know you’re not ready for us yet, I know that you’re not ready for me yet, but I’m gonna wait until you get out of hell,’ and so that’s where that song was inspired from.”
Carrie Underwood has mastered a number of musical skill sets since launching her career in 2005. Singing? Check. Performing? Check. Songwriting? Check. Marketability? Check.
But Carrie has also has shown a willingness to step out of her comfort zone to try new endeavors, including starting her own Calia clothing line in 2015, co-producing her Cry Pretty album in 2018, and writing her first book, Find Your Path, in 2020.
As Carrie told Kix Brooks of American Country Countdown, the best way to gain confidence is by doing, but sometimes “you’ve just got to fake it.”
“Some days you’ve just got to fake it, man [laughing],” says Carrie. “I’m not gonna lie. Some days you don’t feel confident. You don’t feel up to it or you don’t feel… whatever it is, but I feel like the more you step into that role anyway . . . the more you start to feel it. So, if I’m going into a situation that I question—like producing, I had never done it before [Cry Pretty]. I don’t know how to be a producer. I’ve worked with plenty, so it was kind of like in the beginning, it’s like, ‘Okay, just kind of pretend like you know what you’re doing [laughing] until you actually do,’ and I feel like that worked.”
Carrie launched a new fitness app, fit52, in conjunction with the release of her new book, Find Your Path, which hit the shelves on March 3.
Kane Brown scored his fifth consecutive No. 1 single as “Homesick” ascended to the top of both the Billboard Country Airplay chart and Mediabase chart this week.
Penned by Kane, Brock Berryhill, Matthew McGinn and Taylor Phillips, “Homesick” is featured on Kane’s 2018 album, Experiment.
“‘Homesick’ is just kinda personal because we’ve done so many shows in the last couple of years, and I’m never home,” says Kane. “I miss my dogs, I miss my family and my friends. I had it tattooed on me already, so it kinda made sense [as a single].”
The tune follows previous No. 1 singles “Lose It,” “Heaven,” “What Ifs” and “Good as You.”
The Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI) has decided to reschedule the Tin Pan South Songwriters Festival, which was slated for March 23–28 in Nashville.
In light of the tornado damage Nashville suffered on March 3, as well as the coronavirus outbreak, the NSAI plans to postpone the festival until the summer.
“After heavy consideration, in light of the tornado this week as well as growing health concerns over the coronavirus, we have decided to reschedule Tin Pan South Songwriters Festival to later this year, in the summer,” said NSAI executive director Bart Herbison. “We feel this is the responsible decision, and it is supported by Tin Pan venues and sponsors involved in the festival. We want to thank everyone who had planned to participate in or attend the festival, and appreciate the support in rescheduling it.”
More than 400 artists were scheduled to descend upon Nashville for the 28th annual Tin Pan South Songwriters Festival. During the six-day festival, 10 Nashville venues were to host 100 shows, featuring some of the industry’s best singer/songwriters, including Hayes Carll, Jamey Johnson, Allison Moorer, Mindy Smith and more.
The NSAI noted that it is possible that several of the venues will move forward with the previously scheduled events, which will be decided between the venues and participants, and it is possible that several events will now be modified to benefit tornado relief efforts. Venues scheduled to take part in this year’s festival include Analog at Hutton Hotel, The Bluebird Cafe, Cross-Eyed Critters Watering Hole, Douglas Corner Cafe, Fat Kat Slims, The Listening Room, The Lounge at City Winery, NashHouse Southern Spoon & Saloon, 3rd & Lindsley and True Music Room & Bar.
For those who purchased Tin Pan South Fast Access Passes to the festival and/or registered for the Tin Pan South Songwriting Seminar, the option to receive a refund or to transfer the passes or registration to the newly scheduled date will be available.
The Gospel Music Association (GMA) announced its Hall of Fame inductees for 2020: 4Him (Contemporary Christian), Commissioned (Gospel), The Isaacs (Southern Gospel) and Bill Hearn (non-performing).
The Class of 2020 will be recognized at the 7th annual GMA Honors and Hall of Fame Induction ceremony on May 6 in Nashville.
In addition, the GMA will recognize its 2020 Honorees at the ceremony: Chris Tomlin for Angel Armies, Steve Moore for The Shalom Foundation, Wes Campbell and Dave Wagner for Thriving Children’s Foundation, and Willie Moore Jr. for Bethany Christian Services.
Presenters and performers will be announced in the coming weeks.
Artists are eligible for inclusion in the GMA Gospel Music Hall of Fame after 25 years of participation in music and ministry. The GMA Hall of Fame Committee is comprised of historians and industry leaders from various gospel music genres.
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – No. 11 Tennessee dropped Sunday’s series finale against Wright State, 6-3, at Lindsey Nelson Stadium.
The Raiders (5-9) secured the series win with Sunday’s victory, while the Volunteers lost their first weekend series of the year.
The Big Orange managed to make things interesting with three runs over the final three innings after falling behind 6-0. The Vols had the tying run at the plate in the bottom of the ninth, but Christian Scott struck out and Jake Rucker flew out to right field to end the rally.
For the third straight game, UT struggled to get the bats going against Wright State’s starting pitcher. Austin Cline held the Vols (14-2) to just three hits in five shutout innings to earn his second win of the year.
Tennessee’s middle infield tandem of Liam Spence and Max Ferguson accounted for the majority of the Vols’ offense on Sunday, combining for five of the team’s eight hits. Spence finished the day with three hits and a walk while Ferguson went 2-for-4 with a pair of RBI.
Tyler Black had a big day for the Raiders, leading them with three hits, two runs and two RBI, including a two-run homer in the sixth inning.
Chase Wallace started for the Vols and fell to 1-1 on the year after giving up two runs on four hits in four innings of work.
Tennessee will look to rebound from Sunday’s loss on Tuesday night when in-state foe ETSU visits Lindsey Nelson Stadium for a midweek matchup. First pitch is slated for 6 p.m.
Notable Spence Ties Career High
Spence was one of the bright spots at the plate for Tennessee on Sunday, tying a career high with three hits. The junior infielder from Geelong, Australia reached base in all four of his plate appearances and also scored a run.
Connell and Pleasants Impressive in Relief Kirby Connell and Elijah Pleasants were solid in relief for the Vols on Sunday, holding Wright State to just two hits over the final 3.1 innings of the game. The duo also combined for three strikeouts and walked just one batter.
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – A career day from sophomore catcher Ally Shipman and complete game shutout in the circle from freshman Callie Turner pushed the Tennessee softball team past Stanford, 5-0, on Sunday at Sherri Parker Lee Stadium to close out the Tennessee Invitational.
Turner’s performance was the first complete game shutout of her young Tennessee career. She routinely pitched to contact, allowing her defense to put in work behind her, giving up just four hits and a walk on an efficient 82 pitches.
The Lady Vols (14-8) offense went to work early, putting a run across in three of the first four innings, tattooing the Cardinal (22-4) for seven hits in those same four innings.
Shipman strung together a career-high four hits with two extra-base-hits, putting a double into the gap in right centerfield in the third and going yard for her second homer of the season to put UT up 3-0 in the fourth.
Senior outfielder Cailin Hannon (2-for-4) was huge for the Orange & White, tallying RBI’s in the first and third to put UT up early, along with a third in the seventh inning to add insurance to the Lady Vols advantage.
The victory was Tennessee’s first shutout of 2020 and its third consecutive win of the weekend.
Shipman Stays Hot Ally Shipman was hot throughout the Tennessee Invitational, tallying 12 hits in 16 at-bats for a .750 average, recording 3+ hits in three of her five outings. She also concluded the weekend with four extra-base-hits and six RBIs.
Up Next
Tennessee returns to action for a midweek matchup with North Carolina inside Sherri Parker Lee Stadium. First pitch on Tuesday night is slated for 8 p.m. ET on ESPNU.
