By WNML Staff
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![Charles Esten Memorializes “Kind and Charismatic” Actor Powers Boothe With Heartfelt Words & Fun Video [Watch]](https://www.wivk.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/602/2017/05/Powers-Boothe-652x228.jpg)
Emmy-winning actor Powers Boothe, who starred in Tombstone, Deadwood and Nashville, passed away yesterday (May 14) in his sleep. From 2012–2014, Powers played Rayna Jaymes’ father, Lamar Wyatt, on Nashville.
Nashville co-star Charles Esten remembered Powers in an Instagram video and post that featured a short clip of Powers singing “Honky-Tonk Man” on the Ryman stage, as well as the following heartfelt words: “At the end of a Nashville Season One party, when the great Powers Boothe started to sing ‘Honky Tonk Man’ on @theryman Auditorium stage, I grabbed my phone as fast as I could. So glad I did.
“This is how I will remember this kind and charismatic man I was thrilled and honored to work with. I was a huge fan when we met. I became even more of one as, through his warmth and generosity, I got to know him a little better. What I’ll remember most was his deep bond with, and his obvious love for, his wonderful wife and college sweetheart, Pamela. It’s her that he’s singing to in this clip. My heartfelt prayers and condolences go out to her and to their family.
“Rest In Peace, Powers. With your singular presence, you elevated every project you were ever a part of – most definitely including ours. We were blessed to have you in, and on, Nashville.”
Watch the clip below of Powers singing “Honky-Tonk Man,” a song made popular by Johnny Horton (1956), Bob Luman (1970) and Dwight Yoakam (1986).
Chris Stapleton’s new album, From A Room, is coming in hot.
Chris’ sophomore solo album, which dropped on May 5, debuted at No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart and No. 2 on the all-genre Billboard 200 chart.
According to Nielsen, From A Room sold 202,000 copies in pure album sales and more than 218,000 units in equivalent album sales (which takes into account how many times an album’s individual songs are streamed or sold as downloads). The top spot on the all-genre Billboard 200 chart went to rapper Logic, whose album, Everybody, had 196,000 in pure sales and 247,000 in equivalent sales.
While Chris outsold Logic in pure album sales (202,000 to 196,000), Logic’s fans put him on top by downloading/buying their favorite songs at a much higher rate (70.2 million track streams to 15.5 million track streams).
Nonetheless, it’s an impressive debut on the charts for Chris’ From A Room, which had the strongest sales week by a country artist since Luke Bryan’s Kill the Lights sold 320,000 units in its debut week in 2015.
Jim Casey talks with Maggie Rose about her early affinity for singing as a child, the high bar for being a musical artist in Nashville, sharing a van with trio Post Monroe while on CMT’s Next Women of Country Tour, appreciating her peer Lauren Alaina’s voice and perseverance, her new EP, Dreams > Dollars, and she performs an acoustic rendition of her new single, “Body On Fire.”
The Writers Room, Ep. 90, 16 minutes
photos by Jason Simanek
Darius Rucker entered stealth mode for a special episode of CBS’ Undercover Boss on May 12. The country star traveled to Austin, Texas, on an undercover journey to discover the next great musical act.
During part of his time incognito, Darius assumed the identity of Jackie Middleton, a busker who hits the streets to make a little cash—”little” being the operative word as Jackie only netted $12.
Watch Darius, aka Jackie Middleton, in action as he meets a fellow busker, Damiyr, and makes a friendly wager.
Southern rock has always been about horsepower, and the pedal is down in 2017 as the guys from A Thousand Horses get set to release their sophomore album, Bridges, on June 2. The new album comes almost two years to the date they dropped 2015’s Southernality, which featured the troupe’s breakout No. 1 hit, “Smoke.”
The band’s four founding fathers—Michael Hobby (lead vocals), Bill Satcher (lead guitar), Zach Brown (guitar and vocals) and Graham DeLoach (bass and vocals)—are hoping that the new 13-song album showcases their evolution over the last two years.
“I feel like we’ve grown a ton,” says frontman Michael Hobby, “I mean, we’ve been a band a long time. Southernality came out a few years ago, and we’ve been out on the road with these big heavy-hitters for the last two or three years, opening up for Jason Aldean or Thomas Rhett or Darius Rucker. So we’ve learned a lot from those guys, you know, and learning to play [stadiums] that we’ve never played . . . we did our first couple of stadium shows this past year. So you evolve as a musician and you evolve as a songwriter and a performer. We switched producers from Dave Cobb [Southernality] to Dan Huff, and it’s been absolutely incredible working with Dan, and we feel like we’re just kind of elevating our sound as a band to give the best product and the best show that we can out there on the road.”
Listen to A Thousand Horses’ lead single, “Preachin’ to the Choir,” from their upcoming album, Bridges.
Bridges Track List & Songwriters
*Produced by Corey Crowder
**Produced by Dann Huff
***Produced by A Thousand Horses
![Maren Morris, Old Dominion, Cam & More Rock the Key West Songwriters Festival [Photo Gallery]](https://www.wivk.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/602/2017/05/Maren-Morris-1-652x228.jpg)
With more than 200 performers over five days, the 22nd annual Key West Songwriters Festival once again paired a star-studded lineup with sunny Florida weather from May 10–14.
This year’s lineup included notable singer-songwriters Robert Earl Keen, Liz Rose, Jack Ingram, Lauren Alaina, William Michael Morgan, Michael Ray, Dean Dillon and many more, as well as headliners Maren Morris, Cam and Old Dominion.
On Saturday night (May 13), the shoulder-to-shoulder crowd at the main stage on Duval Street was treated to free performances from Cam, Maren and Old Dominion.
Cam opened the show with a set that included new music, party songs and, of course, “Burning House,” which had the entire crowd singing along.
Next up, Maren kept the party rolling for the 5,000 fans who lined the blocks in front of the shops and bar, playing both “My Church” and “’80s Mercedes” during her set.
Old Dominion opened its set with “Snapback,” one of the many songs featured on their Meat and Candy album, but they also showcased a couple of new tunes from their upcoming sophomore album, including current single, “There’s No Such Thing as a Broken Heart.” Old Dominion’s setlist also featured “Make You Miss Me,” a song OD’s Matthew Ramsey co-penned that Sam Hunt took to No. 1 in 2016. Old Dominion capped the evening with “Song for Another Time.”
Check out the photo gallery below, courtesy of Erika Goldring/BMI.
photos courtesy of Erika Goldring/BMI
Former middle school classmates Kane Brown, 23, and Lauren Alaina, 22, may have taken different paths to their respective stardom, but their paths have crossed again more than a decade later. Kane’s current single, “What Ifs,” features vocals from Lauren.
The tune, which was penned by Kane, Matthew McGinn and Jordan Schmidt, is the third single from Kane’s 2016 self-titled debut album. Currently, the song is No. 46 on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart after 12 weeks.
Kane and Lauren teamed up for a new video for the single, one that finds them crossing paths a long way from their home state of Georgia. The video, which was directed by P.R. Brown, was filmed at the Inn at New Port Ranch in Fort Bragg, Calif.
Watch the video below.
Wedding season is upon us.
Sam Hunt got things started in April when he married Hannah Lee Fowler, and now Dan + Shay’s Dan Smyers and Abby Law have followed suit.
Dan and Abby, who got engaged in November 2016, tied the knot in Nashville on Saturday, May 13. The couple’s dogs, Chief, Joy and Ghost, were part of the wedding party.
Up next on the country music marriage docket? Kelsea Ballerini and Morgan Evans, Kacey Musgraves and Ruston Kelly, and Dan + Shay’s Shay Mooney and Hannah Billingsley are all planning upcoming nuptials.
My person. pic.twitter.com/MKzdNL7RTU
— Dan Smyers (@dansmyers) May 9, 2017
https://www.instagram.com/p/BUH-yN6Az3Z/
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Tennessee will host an NCAA Regional for the 13th straight year as the Volunteers were revealed as the No. 8 national seed when the bracket was announced late Sunday night on ESPN2.
The Big Orange will welcome Ohio State, USC Upstate and Longwood to Sherri Parker Lee Stadium for the NCAA Knoxville Regional this weekend from Friday, May 19 to Sunday, May 21. The Knoxville Regional will be a double-elimination tournament with the winner moving on to the NCAA Super Regionals (Round of 16). Tennessee will play Big South Champion Longwood on Friday at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN2 while Ohio State will take on Atlantic Sun Champion USC Upstate to begin play on Friday at 4:30 p.m. on ESPN3/WatchESPN.
This will be the 15th NCAA Tournament appearance overall and the 14th consecutive appearance for the Vols, who have advanced to the postseason every year since 2004. This is also the sixth time in program history that UT has earned a top-eight national seed (2006, 2007, 2012, 2013, 2015).
For the first time in league history, all 13 teams from the Southeastern Conference were selected for the 64-team tournament field. The SEC made up half of the national seeds, with eight teams earning a spot among the top-16 seeds in this year’s tournament.
Tennessee enters the NCAA Tournament with a 44-10 overall record and finished in a tie for third in the SEC regular season standings, posting a 16-7 mark in conference play. The Vols had five players earn SEC postseason honors last week, led by sophomore shortstop Meghan Gregg, who was named the SEC Player of the Year and was also an All-SEC first team selection for the second straight year. Sophomore’s Brooke Vines and Matty Moss were both All-SEC second team picks while Caylan Arnold and Chelsea Seggern were both named to the SEC All-Freshman Team. Arnold was also the league’s Freshman of the Year, becoming the fourth player in program history to earn that honor.
Friday’s two winners will play in Game 3 on Saturday at 12 p.m. The losers from Friday’s games will play in Game 4 at 2:30 p.m., and the loser from Game 3 will face the winner from Game 4 at 5 p.m. to conclude play on Saturday.
Game 6 will be on Sunday at 12 p.m. and will feature the winner from Game 3 against the winner from Game 5. The two teams will play again in Game 7 at 2:30 p.m., if necessary.
The 16 winning teams from their respective regional sites will advance the Super Regionals, which will take place from May 25-28, depending on the host site. All Super Regional sites will feature broadcasts on the ESPN family of networks.
Friday
Game 1: Ohio State vs. USC Upstate | 4:30 p.m. | ESPN3/WatchESPN
Game 2: Tennessee vs. Longwood | 7 p.m. | ESPN2
Saturday
Game 3: G1 Winner vs. G2 Winner | 12 p.m.
Game 4: G1 Loser vs. G2 Loser | 2:30 p.m.
Game 5: G3 Loser vs. G4 Winner | 5 p.m.
Sunday
Game 6: G3 Winner vs. G5 Winner | 12 p.m.
Game 7: G6 Winner vs. G6 Loser (If necessary) | 2:30 p.m.
All-Session tickets will go on sale to the general public at 8:30 a.m. Monday, May 15. Tickets will be $25 for bleacherback seats, which will be good for all games that weekend.
Season ticket holders have until noon on Tuesday, May 16 to purchase their season locations. Any season locations that are not purchased by the deadline will be released and available for purchase by the general public at 8:30 a.m. Wednesdaymorning.
If any chairback seats are available at that time they will be $40 for the entire weekend. Based on All-Session sales, single game tickets will go on sale Friday when gates open at the stadium.
For more ticket information, visit AllVols.com.
-UT Athletics
