After dropping his new album, This Ride, in October, Jerrod Niemann is back on country radio with a new single, “I Got This.”
Jerrod is hoping the laid-back groove, which was co-penned by Rodney Clawson, Luke Dick and Cole Taylor, continues to highlight his musical evolution and foster a connection with fans, much the same way past singles “Lover, Lover” and “Drink to That All Night” did. In fact, Jerrod’s fans had a hand in helping him pick “I Got This” as his new single.
“‘I Got This’ is one of the songs that was getting a lot of traction, a lot of excitement after playing it live at shows,” says Jerrod to Nash Country Daily. “I was seeing it pop up a lot online after I played. This Ride is my fourth [major-label] record, so I just tried to make stuff that people—who I have connected with in the past—will appreciate, and maybe connect with some more people in the future. I worked on this record for a couple of years and I hope people will give it a shot.”
Dylan Scott and wife Blair welcomed their first child, a son named Beckett Scott Robinson, on Dec. 12.
The “My Girl” singer posted a photo on Instagram of his family of three, noting in the caption that Beckett was born at 5:20 p.m. and weighed 8 pounds.
Dylan and Blair were married in 2016, and as Dylan told Nash Country Daily earlier this year, the couple has known each other for 10 years.
“We started dating at 15, so she’s known since then exactly what I wanted to do,” said Dylan. “She’s never once given me a hard time. There were times when we were dating and I’d tell her, ‘I just don’t know if this is what I’m really supposed to be doing. It’s just so tough. All these other guys are coming on the scene and going straight to the top.’ And she’d just tell me, ‘You have the best job, you’re there, you’re doing it, it will work.’ She was just a great motivator. She still is.”
Trey Smith & Ty Chandler – UT / Credit: UT Athletics
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Tennessee freshman offensive lineman Trey Smith and freshman running back/kick returner Ty Chandler have been named to Phil Steele’s 2017 All-SEC Teams.
Smith was named to Steele’s second-team offense and Chandler was named to the third-team special teams as a kick returner.
Smith was named to the AP All-SEC Second Team, Coaches All-SEC Second Team and SEC All-Freshman Team last week. The Jackson, Tennessee, native was the only Tennessee offensive lineman to start all 12 games for the Vols in 2017. He had eight starts at right guard, three at left tackle and one at left guard. Smith led the Vols in pancakes and was UT’s second-highest rated offensive lineman behind only senior Jashon Robertson. Smith became the first Tennessee true freshman to start at left tackle in at least 30 years.
Smith made several highlight reels with his physical blocking style and showed the poise of a veteran player despite 2017 being his first year of college football. Smith’s blocking helped pave the way for career-best seasons by running backs John Kelly(778 rushing yards), Chandler (305 yards) and Carlin Fils-aime (215 yards).
Smith, who is also a candidate for Freshman All-America honors, was the No. 1 overall rated player in the nation in 2017 recruiting according to ESPN.com.
Chandler played in all 12 games as a true freshman in 2017. He rushed for 305 yards and two touchdowns on 71 carries, caught 10 passes for 108 yards and returned 17 kickoffs for 416 yards (24.5-yard average) and one touchdown. His 24.5-yard kickoff return average ranked fourth in the SEC.
Against Indiana State on Sept. 9, Chandler returned the opening kickoff 91 yards for a touchdown, making him the first Tennessee true freshman to return an opening kickoff for a score since Leonard Scott scored off a 100-yard kickoff return against Georgia in 1999. Chandler earned SEC Freshman of the Week honors for his performance against Indiana State.
Against Kentucky on Oct. 28, Chandler posted career highs in carries (22), rushing yards (120), rushing touchdowns (two) and receiving yards (33). His performance against the Wildcats marked the first time since 2014 that a Tennessee freshman had rushed for 100 yards.
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Tennessee senior forward Jaime Nared has been named the Southeastern Conference Women’s Basketball Player of the Week, the league announced on Tuesday.
Nared averaged 25.0 points and 9.5 rebounds, as the Lady Vols improved to 10-0 on the season and rose to No. 7 in the AP poll after racing past Troy, 131-69, and outlasting #2/4 Texas, 82-75, last week.
The 6-foot-2 native of Portland, Ore., helped Tennessee defeat its highest ranked opponent at home since 2010, firing in a game-high 23 points and carding her fourth double-double of the season with a game-high 13 rebounds in the wire-to-wire win over the Longhorns on Sunday.
Nared scored 15 of her 23 points in the second half vs. Texas, hitting 9-of-12 free throws in the fourth quarter to help the Lady Vols snap a three-game series losing skid vs. the Longhorns.
Playing all 40 minutes, Nared also registered a game-high four steals as the Big Orange knocked the Burnt Orange from the ranks of the unbeaten.
Against Troy on Tuesday night, Nared drained 10-of-14 shots from the field, including 3-of-4 from three-point land, to finish with a game-high 27 points in only 24 minutes of duty vs. the Trojans. She added six rebounds, three steals and two blocks and assists for UT, which posted the third-most points in school history as well as the most assists and field goals in Thompson-Boling Arena history.
Nared contributed to an offensive onslaught against the 4-1 Troy squad, helping Tennessee tally a school-record 44 points in a quarter (third), and helped UT limit high-scoring Troy (91.8) and Texas (93.0) to 69 and 75, respectively.
For the season, Nared is Tennessee’s leader at 17.6 points and 9.3 rebounds per game and has registered five 20+ points games and four double-doubles.
Nared was named the College Sports Madness National and SEC Player of the Week on Monday.
NEW ORLEANS — Legendary former Tennessee football player and head coach Johnny Majors has been named to the inaugural class of the Sugar Bowl Hall of Fame, as announced on Monday by the Allstate Sugar Bowl.
Majors is one of 16 legends who starred in the annual New Orleans football classic. The first class of Hall of Famers spans seven decades of Sugar Bowl action and includes 12 all-star players, two national championship coaches and two individuals who had the rare distinction of both playing and coaching in the Bowl.
Majors played in the 1957 Sugar Bowl and coached Tennessee to a 35-7 win over Miami (Florida) in the 1986 Sugar Bowl and a 23-22 win over Virginia in the 1991 Sugar Bowl. He also coached Pittsburgh to a 27-3 win over Georgia in the 1977 Sugar Bowl and the Panthers were named national champions.
“The Sugar Bowl has had the opportunity to host many of the greatest coaches and players in college football history,” said Stanley Cohn, the President of the Sugar Bowl Committee. “We wanted to have a way to recognize the best-of-the-best in our history – what better way to do that than to create a Hall of Fame?
“We believe we have an inaugural class which should go down as one of the most accomplished groups of inductees into any Hall of Fame. But let me tell you, it was very challenging to limit it to 16. There have been so many legends in our game, our future classes figure to be just as impressive as this one.”
The living members of the inaugural class of the Sugar Bowl Hall of Fame have all been invited to New Orleans for this year’s Playoff Semifinal at the Allstate Sugar Bowl. Attendees and their guests will participate in select Sugar Bowl VIP activities and will be recognized on the field during the pregame ceremony leading up to the big Clemson vs. Alabama showdown.
In the 1957 Sugar Bowl, Majors, who was the Heisman Trophy runner-up, led Tennessee against Baylor. Majors was bottled up by a tenacious Bears defense, but he still managed 51 rushing yards and a key touchdown in a 13-7 loss. He later returned to the bowl decades later to find success as a coach.
In UT’s 1986 Sugar Bowl victory over Miami (Fla.), the Vols seized control of the game in the second quarter and never looked back. After trailing 7-0 in the first quarter, UT tied the game when Daryl Dickey hit Jeff Smith for a six-yard touchdown pass that sparked a run of 35 unanswered points.
Tennessee enjoyed a thrilling fourth-quarter comeback in the 1991 Sugar Bowl to defeat Virginia. The Vols scored 20 points in the fourth quarter. Tony Thompson rushed for 151 yards and scored a pair of touchdowns in the fourth, including a game-winning one-yard touchdown hurdle over the line with 31 seconds remaining.
Tracy Lawrence and his deep-fried turkeys helped feed a lot of folks and raise a lot of money for charity on Nov. 21 during his 12th Mission Possible Turkey Fry.
Tracy’s 2017 Turkey Fry and Concert raised $148,233 for the Nashville Rescue Mission. Over the years, Tracy’s team has raised more than $383,000 for Nashville’s homeless and hungry.
photo courtesy Splash! PR
“We are so thankful to our sponsors and the citizens of Nashville for their continued support of this event and we are already making plans for next year, said Tracy as he presented a check to the Nashville Rescue Mission.
Tracy dropped his new album, Good Ole Days, on Nov. 10. The new offering features 11 of Tracy’s hits, rebooted as duets with some of country’s biggest stars, including Tim McGraw, Luke Bryan, Jason Aldean and more.
After taking “Fix a Drink” to the top of the Mediabase chart in November, Chris Janson hopes his new single, “Drunk Girl,” will find a home there.
But don’t let the two aforementioned song titles fool you. “Fix a Drink” and “Drunk Girl” have nothing in common thematically.
Fun-loving “Fix a Drink” kept the summertime party flowing with cocktails and cold beers, while “Drunk Girl” tackles a much more serious subject matter: respecting women, regardless of the circumstances.
The tune—which was co-penned by Chris, Tom Douglas and Scooter Carusoe—reinforces its theme of respect throughout the chorus: Take a drunk girl home / Let her sleep all alone / Leave her keys on the counter, your number by the phone / Pick up her life she threw on the floor / Leave the hall lights on, walk out and lock the door / That’s how she knows the difference between a boy and man / Take a drunk girl home.
“Both of my co-writers are legendary,” said Chris to Nash Country Daily. “They certainly didn’t need me in the room. I can tell you that the song basically wrote itself. We were just stewards of the ship. And I say that in regard to, sometimes songs happen like that. You can’t really twist and turn ’em. If you try, you mess ’em up. If you let them lead, they lead. We wrote ‘Drunk Girl’ from a father’s perspective. We are all dads. I would hope after hearing the lyrics, if my daughter was in that situation, I hope someone would take care of her. Being a husband, being a dad of girls, I have such a great respect for women in general. I think this song needed to be said.”
Luke Bryan scored the 19th No. 1 single of his career as “Light It Up” ascended to the top of the Billboard Country Airplay chart this week.
“Light It Up,” which was co-penned by Luke and Old Dominion’s Brad Tursi, is the lead single from Luke’s sixth studio album, What Makes You Country, which dropped on Dec. 8. Produced by Jeff Stevens and Jody Stevens, What Makes You Country features 15 songs, seven of which were co-written by Luke.
“I’m just really relishing where I’m at right now, but that doesn’t . . . really make me slow down,” said Luke to Kix Brooks of American Country Countdown. “It’s not like you’re enjoying the gravy so much you don’t wanna stay focused on what you’re doing. I mean, I still really want to be at the top of my game, but it’s also nice to know that if I want to take a little time off—I took a little time off in between this album and Kill the Lights—I look forward to being able to do that in the future to where I can kind go travel a little bit and also be in a situation where you can dedicate a little more time at home also.”
Over the last decade, Luke has kept an “active” schedule, releasing an album every two years since 2007 and headlining tours from 2013-2017.
The Academy of Country Music announced that the 53rd ACM Awards will be broadcast live from MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on Sunday, April 15 at 8 p.m. ET on CBS.
Additional details about “The Week Vegas Goes Country,” including information on the ACM Party for a Cause events, activities and official ACM after-parties, will be announced in the coming weeks. Nominations for the ACM Awards will be announced in February.
In September, Nicole Kidman took home the Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series of Movie for her role as Celeste Wright in HBO’s Big Little Lies.
On Dec. 11, the Australian actress was nominated for a 2018 Golden Globes for the same performance. In addition, Top of the Lake: China Girl, which Nicole also starred in on SundanceTV, was nominated for Best Television Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television, alongside Big Little Lies.
Keith Urban wasted no time voicing his enthusiasm for his wife’s nomination via Twitter: “Hey baby- CONGRATULATIONS on all the GLOBES love this morn!!!!!!
Incredibly proud of you, the work, and all the BLL and TOTL team. THE STARS ALIGNED!!! xxxxxx – KU #GoldenGlobes.”
Hey baby- CONGRATULATIONS on all the GLOBES love this morn!!!!!!
Incredibly proud of you, the work, and
all the BLL and TOTL team.
THE STARS ALIGNED!!! xxxxxx – KU #GoldenGlobes
