Last night (June 20), the best-selling female artist in the history of country music—Shania Twain—released a new song, “Poor Me,” the second track made available from her upcoming fifth studio album, Now.
Shania wrote “Poor Me”—along with all of the other songs on this new album—as an act of independence.
“I was determined to do it alone. Because I had been in a co-writing scenario for all those years, and this was going to be the first time after all that time that I’ve written solely alone, so it’s all about independence, and I needed to learn that about myself, I needed to rediscover that about myself.”
After releasing the song last night, Shania said, “Even though it has the most sadness to it, as a songwriter, it was creatively very fun to write ‘Poor Me.’”
Listen to “Poor Me” as you watch the lyric video below, or enjoy the song on Spotify and Apple Music.
Lady Antebellum is almost halfway through their big You Look Good world tour, but they show no signs of being road weary. Maybe they are just natural road warriors. Maybe they just know how to live comfortably on a tour bus.
Their latest video shows us that surviving on the road is all about good friends and a positive attitude.
And partying on the bus in a really comfortable bathrobe.
Watch Charles, Dave and members of their band take Sam Hunt’s hit song, “Body Like a Back Road,” on a soft and cozy comedic detour with their “Party In a Bathrobe” music video.
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. —The VOLeaders Academy, a first-of-its-kind program, is a dynamic partnership between the UT Center for Leadership and Service, the Center for Sport, Peace and Society and the Tennessee Athletics Department.
The program is unlike any in the country, spanning the boundaries of three different areas of campus, from academics to student life and athletics. It partners athletics with two of the most unique and respected programs on campus for the development of the student-athletes.
By using their platform in sport, student-athletes admitted into the VOLeaders Academy learn how to positively impact their team, campus and local and global communities.
Now in its second year, the program aims to inspire student-athletes to find ways to use their passion of sport and their influence to enact positive change that transcends their athletic success. After a year of preparation and the completion of two courses in the College of Education, Health and Human Sciences, the 2016-17 VOLeaders class, which included Tennessee football juniors Jack Jones and Kyle Phillips, embarked on a 13-day study abroad journey to Vietnam this summer.
“When we go global to these international destinations,” said Dr. Joe Scogin, Senior Associate Athletics Director, Assistant Provost and Director of the Thornton Center, “it gives our student-athletes an opportunity to broaden their horizons and understand what sport can do to address some of these issues that they see in these countries and how it expands their understanding of the impact that they can make within their teams, in the community and around the world.”
While there, the student-athletes worked with children in orphanages, volunteered at various sport skill camps and visited with university students.
“Going over there and working with these kids in sports, you learn that sports can bring anyone together,” Jones said. “We have all of these new freshmen coming in and they might be from all over the country, but football is bringing us together. It’s cool to see how sport brought people together in Vietnam and how it’s working now as we’re getting ready for the season.”
The VOLeaders class also visited the embassy, museums and cultural destinations important to Vietnamese heritage.
“Our main goal was to tell everybody how sport can bring unity to people from all over and how sports can just bring people together,” Phillips said. “Even though we’re American and they’re from Vietnam, the connection from sports still brings us together in some form or fashion.”
“Going there, they don’t have the best facilities, but they still enjoyed what they did have and they were appreciative of that. That’s something I can take up and I can implement to our team. You don’t have to have the best of the best to be successful, you just have to make the most of what you have.”
Additional Quotes
Admiral Schofield
(On the Vietnam trip overall)
“The first day we met some of the athletes and some of the para-Olympic athletes which was amazing. We took part in a basketball camp which was pretty fun, and Jack [Jones] was my partner. He didn’t know anything about basketball, but he did a good job and brought a lot of energy. Everything we learned over the course of the year really showed. Everyone brought a lot of energy and everyone was open to the new environment.” (On the overall experience of going to Vietnam with the VOLeaders)
“It was a life-changing experience. One of the biggest things for me was just seeing the facilities. We went to the Olympic facility and National Training facility, and just to see the condition that they were in, it couldn’t even touch our T-REC here. It’s amazing to step back and see the perspective of where I was and coming back from there appreciating what we really have here. Not saying that I didn’t appreciate it before, but really appreciating how nice things are. The way we have things set up here at Tennessee is amazing. How they just make use of what they have and make the best of their opportunities over there is pretty amazing.”
Kyle Phillips (On how he got involved with the VOLeaders program)
“Last year around this time I was nominated by our coaches and we had to go through an interview process with the people who work in the Thornton Center, and we were hand-selected by those guys. It was a whole year worth of learning about sport and how our platform in sport can help influence others in a positive way and in a negative way. It’s been a great program.”
(On the biggest culture shock)
“I’d probably say the food. The food is very different. It’s probably more fresh and healthy actually, but I like to stick to American food.”
Jack Jones (On his trip to Vietnam)
“I think it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. It was definitely an eye-opening experience. Vietnam is a very beautiful country. I couldn’t have been more excited to tour around their country and visit their people. It was really cool.”
(On what his days were like)
“We would usually wake up pretty early. We did different things. We did sports camps for kids. We visited a couple of orphanages. That’s what we would do during the mornings. After that, we visited places like the embassy and a couple of museums. It was cool to be able to work with these kids and then go somewhere like the War Museum. The kids and the people of Vietnam were so accepting of us after being in a major war with them. It was cool to see how kind the people of Vietnam were.”
Kelly reflected on how quickly his time has gone by here and how he feels about heading into his final season on Rocky Top.
“It’s wild how time flies. The veterans told me when I was freshman that when you blink your eye and you snap your finger, you’ll be a senior and it’ll be your last time running through the T. Now I’m looking and realizing how much that meant to them and how much it means to me now.”
For the first time in nine years, Tennessee has posted back-to-back nine-win seasons. The Vols are one of just three SEC schools to win nine or more games in each of the past two seasons. Kelly talked about the sense of pride that gives him, especially being a Knoxville native.
“When you’re a Volunteer, considering the situation that you’re in representing your state, playing in Knoxville, it’s a pleasure and I take the opportunity and I run with it. With that being said, having the opportunity to win some ballgames here and seeing this program progress, it speaks volumes to this program and what we’re trying to do which is win ballgames.”
Kelly was just recently named to the watch list for the Wuerffel Trophy, which is known as “College Football’s Premier Award for Community Service.” He talked about the joy he takes in helping out his community.
“It is [rewarding]. Most of the guys that I’ve seen on that list, we do it not to be on that list but just to do it for the cause and give back to the community because I know how many kids want to be on this platform. I was a kid and was enabled to make it this far, and I just want to give back to my community, especially being from here. Whether it is an elementary school or tutoring middle schoolers, whatever it may be. Just whatever I can do to help that’s what I’m going to do.”
Safety is shaping up to be one of Tennessee’s deepest positions this season. Kelly talked about the depth and completion at the position how he thinks things will play out during training camp.
“We have a lot of safeties that can play in the ballgame and be in there when their name is called. That takes pressure off of us and also makes us compete. This training camp is going to be all about competing to get one another better, and at the end of the day, whoever is on the field we are going to support each other.”
Depth at tight end should be a strength for the offense this season, especially considering position coach Larry Scott will also be serving as offensive coordinator. Wolf believes the depth at the position will give the Vols chances to create mismatches on offense.
“We’re pretty deep right now. Last year we had a bit of injury throughout the position, but now we have two new guys in that are doing very well. They haven’t had much time to learn the offense, and we’ve put in a lot of time with them making sure that when they go out on the field, they’re at least going to know what they’re doing. Eli (Wolf), Jakob (Johnson), and Austin (Pope), all those guys are working their butts off every day. And to be able to put another guy on the field, it creates mismatches, it allows us to be able to go from a run set to a pass set, and that’s what everybody looks for in a 12-personnel set and what everybody wants to do, you just have to have the guys to do it and I think we do.”
The offensive line returns players that accounted for 55 starts a season ago and Wolf believes the o-line will be a major strength for the team this year.
“I think we’re going in the right direction. We’ve got some new guys that are coming in and creating competition, and there’s competition every day. You’re always trying to out-do somebody, whether it’s friendly competition or not, which 99 percent of it is. We’re taking steps forward in the weight room and in the meeting rooms, and now we’re going to start on the field and I think that we’re going to have depth and we’re going to be a strong offensive line this year.”
Chemistry and leadership is vital for any offense to succeed. Wolf believes that this summer’s 7-on-7 practices have helped the team is both of those areas.
“Timing is the biggest thing. The coaches aren’t allowed to be out there, so it’s put on us, we have to go out there and develop a 7-on-7 and all that stuff just to get the timing down. And another thing it builds is leadership. You can’t do it without leaders because everything would go in all different directions, you have to have everyone on the same page, everybody running the same plays. We’re not going out there to just throw the ball. We obviously want to go out there and succeed and improve our timing and I think it’s going to pay off.”
Reba McEntire announced today (July 20) that she will be celebrating the 40th anniversary of her Grand Ole Opry debut with two shows on Sept. 22.
Reba shared the announcement via a Twitter video that inclued a short anecdote about her debut on the Opry in 1977, where she was upstaged by none other than Dolly Parton.
“First time I ever sang on the Grand Ole Opry was September 17, 1977,” says Reba in the video, “and I was supposed to sing two songs, but they came to me when I got there and said, ‘We’re gonna have to cut you down to one song because Dolly Parton just pulled up into the driveway, and she’s gonna take one of your songs.’ I said, ‘Okay, she can take both of them. Can I meet her?’ That was a big event in my life because Mamma and Daddy always listened to the Grand Ole Opry on the radio, 650 WSM. And now here comes the anniversary 40 years later. September 22, I’m going to go back and sing at the Grand Ole Opry. Won’t you come out and help me celebrate?”
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