The Grand Ole Opry celebrated its latest achievement with a party on May 2.
Check out what TripAdvisor had to say about Music City’s famous concert hall.
Rascal Flatts celebrates at the Opry on May 2.
1. The Grand Ole Opry, Nashville, Tennessee Country music’s most famous concert hall honors the genre’s rich history and dynamic present. Travelers can book a one-hour behind-the-scenes Grand Ole Opry House Backstage Tour on TripAdvisor from $25 per person.
On a sidebar, Nashville neighbor Memphis copped three spots on TripAdvisor’s Top 25, including Beale Street (No. 11), The National Civil Rights Museum/Lorraine Motel (No. 18) and Graceland (No. 20). If you plan to visit either Memphis or Nashville this spring, keep in mind that the cities are only separated by a 3-plus-hour drive.
Jim Casey talks with good ol’ boy Colt Ford about how there is more luck in music than there is in golf, his sixth studio album, Love Hope Faith, collaborating with “anybody that’s not afraid to doing something cool,” never having a song in the Top 20, losing weight, and more.
Today (May 5), the wait for new music from Scotty McCreery is finally over. After almost two years, the former American Idol has released a new song, “Five More Minutes,” to digital retailers and streaming services. Scotty co-penned the deeply personal tune with Frank Rogers and Monty Criswell two weeks after the death of his grandfather in 2015.
A few hours before the song dropped, Nash Country Daily caught up with Scotty and he revealed 5 Things You Need to Know About “Five More Minutes.”
1. The Song Is Autobiographical
“I wrote this song in early 2015, and the day that I wrote it, I tweeted that I thought I just wrote my favorite song I’ve ever written, and that still holds true today. I was hoping this thing would be out in 2015, so it’s nice that it’s finally here. I think it’ll be worth the wait. I’m excited about it. I had written with Frank [Rogers] before. This was my first time writing with Monty [Criswell]. I’ve known some of his songs like ‘I Saw God Today’ by [George] Strait and a few others that he’s written, but yeah, this was the first time we’d sat down to write together. It was just a couple weeks after I lost my Granddaddy Bill, so I was just talking to them about that and where I was in my head space. Anytime you lose somebody, everybody thinks about things you wish you could’ve said to them before they passed or something you wish you could do again. For me, it would’ve been golfing with him. Just chatting about that and Monty had the idea for ‘Five More Minutes,’ and we rolled with it.
“The verses were all real experiences. You’ve got to craft them in to how they work in a song, like the verse when he’s 16 years old and on the porch with Katie. I never had a girlfriend named Katie, but her name fit well in a song. I’ve been on the porch before with parents watching, the awkward moment. The sports lyrics, too, that verse about the football field, for me, it was baseball, but it was the same kind of deal. I remember like it was yesterday my last pitch that I threw, and I walked back to the mound and dusted off the mound with my cleat one last time and just looked around, took it in and walked back. It was kind of a tough moment. Everything in there is autobiographical. We just pieced it together to fit the song.”
2. First Performance
“The first time I sang it, we were in Pinehurst, North Carolina, where my Granddaddy Bill and my Grandma Paquita live. The first time I sang it, I had brought a bunch of radio folks down to play Pinehurst No. 2 [golf course] with me and let them hear some new music. This was back in 2015. Grandma Paquita was there in the crowd when I sang it, and I couldn’t even make it through the last verse. I was choked up pretty good. That was my first time singing it, but my first live show to the public was at the Grand Ole Opry.”
3. Emotional Effect
“It gets me every time I sing it live, some nights more than others. Some nights it’s kind of like you feel like he’s watching over you and you get going, you get to where there’s energy that’s out there. Some nights, it’s a little tougher when you actually get down to thinking about not being able to spend time with your granddad anymore. It’s nice when you sing a song looking out in the crowd, it’s like everybody is locked into it and their eyes all focused on one spot. A lot of times when you’re singing, you’ll see them talking to friends, you’ll see them on their phones or something, but almost every night that we sing the song, it’s like everybody is focused in on the lyric, remembering their own moments of their lives that they wish they could have five more minutes of. They tell me that in meet and greets, their story behind it, what the song means to them. That definitely helps me.”
4. Family Favorite
“My family loves it. The first time that everybody heard it in the family, I think everybody got a little teary-eyed. It affects them the same way because we’re all thinking about the same moments. As a family, we all know the man that he was and what he meant to all of us, so I think everybody got a little choked up. Grandma, I think the first time she heard it was when I started breaking down, so she never even heard the last verse until recently, and she called me and said that she loved it. Yeah, everybody kind of had the same reaction.”
5. New Album
“We had a full record pretty much ready to go [when I lost my record deal in February 2016], and ‘Five More Minutes’ has been my favorite song for a while. I would’ve loved to have had it come out back then and release the record off of that, but things happen. We’ve still got all that music back, and we are probably going to use some of that music on the upcoming album. But we’ve been writing, too. I’ve been writing just a ton here recently, and I feel like I’m in a really cool spot creatively. On the album, we’re probably going to use a lot more of what’s happening right now, now that I’m writing, but I’ll probably still use three or four from the record that we had made in 2015 and piece it all together.”
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. 48 on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart after 11 weeks.
Kane and Lauren teamed up for a new lyric video for the single, one that finds them on the track to cross paths again. Will they? Check out the video below.
On this video, Erik breaks down taking alerts on the backside in the passing game.
Submit your specific play suggestion in Tennessee history that you want Erik to analyze on an upcoming show and find out more about the exclusive weekly feature HERE.
Head coach Rick Barnes announced Thursday that junior-college transfer Chris Darrington is joining the Tennessee basketball family. The 6-1, 175-pound combo guard will be a junior for the Vols next season after spending the last two years at Vincennes University in Indiana.
A Toledo, Ohio, native, Darrington recently earned his associate degree from Vincennes, where he was coached by Todd Franklin. He plans to enroll at UT in June and pursue a major related to either education or communications.
“Chris brings two qualities we were looking for: confidence and the ability to score the basketball,” Barnes said. “Chris’ experience at Vincennes was valuable because he has developed an appreciation for what goes into winning. A lot of guys can score, but not many can do so and win. He has been very well coached, and we expect him to come into our program with a great foundation.”
As a sophomore last season, Darrington earned first-team NJCAA Division I All-America honors and helped Vincennes to a 32-3 record and a District XVI championship. He led the Trailblazers in points (20.7) and assists (5.1) last season while also boasting a 2.2 assist-to-turnover ratio and shooting .431 from 3-point range.
Darrington was the only player in NJCAA to average more than 20.0 ppg last season while also appearing in 35 or more games.
A volume scorer, Darrington logged 17 games of 20-plus points last year, including a career-best 45 in a road win at Indian Hills in early December. That outburst marked one of his eight games of 30 or more points in 2016-17, highlighted by a stretch of three consecutive 30-point outings in mid-February and a 33-point showing—featuring seven made 3-pointers—in Vincennes’ victory over Northern Oklahoma Enid in its opening game of the NJCAA Tournament.
Darrington showed a unique knack for getting to the foul line during his time at Vincennes. He attempted 245 free throws last season—third-most in the NJCAA. The former Ohio Mr. Basketball made the most of those trips, shooting .804 from the charity stripe.
Other notable Vincennes basketball alums include NBA players Bob McAdoo, Shawn Marion and Carl Landry.
A four-year letterwinner at Scott High School in Toledo, Darrington was named District Player of the Year and earned first-team All-Ohio distinction as a senior. He averaged 23.3 points, 6.2 rebounds, 4.5 assists and 4.0 steals per game that season, leading the Bulldogs to their first City League title since 2006 and dropping 38 points in the championship game.
Darrington will be the first Tennessee men’s basketball player from Ohio since Cincinnati native Ryan Childress completed his eligibility in 2008-09. Darrington becomes the fourth member of this Volunteers signing class, joining forwards Zach Kent and Derrick Walker as well as wing Yves Pons.
Tennessee Vice Chancellor/Director of Athletics John Currie announced Thursdaythat Sam Winterbotham has been relieved of his duties as head men’s tennis coach, effective immediately.
Currie will lead an internal, four-person committee in a national search for Winterbotham’s replacement.
“Associate AD/tennis administrator Dara Worrell and I met with Sam this afternoon, and we came to the conclusion that it was best for him to step away from the program at this time,” Currie said. “I want to thank Sam for his 11 years of service to the University of Tennessee, which were highlighted by three SEC titles and an appearance in the NCAA team final.
“Associate head coach Chris Woodruff has agreed to serve as interim head coach and will accompany sophomore Timo Stodder to the singles tournament at the NCAA Championships later this month.”
A two-time SEC Coach of the Year, Winterbotham led the Volunteers to a 217-104 record during his tenure as head coach. Tennessee won SEC regular-season championships in 2010 and 2011 and captured the SEC Tournament title in 2010. That 2010 squad also reached the final of the NCAA Championships and was one of six Winterbotham-led UT teams that advanced to the Round of 16 or beyond.
Individually, Winterbotham coached one NCAA singles or doubles finalist every year from 2008-2011. In 2014, Mikelis Libietis and Hunter Reese won the NCAA Men’s Doubles Championship. Libietis was named the 2013 SEC Player of the Year, while John-Patrick Smith claimed that honor under Winterbotham’s tutelage in both 2010 and 2011. Six Vols coached by Winterbotham also went on to reach the top 200 in the ATP World Tour Rankings.
Winterbotham will receive a buyout of one year’s salary ($181,873) in monthly installments through June 30, 2018, which is the expiration date of his contract. Should he accept another job prior to that date, his buyout will be mitigated accordingly.
But back in the 1990s—before anybody needed to be reminded who Randy Travis was—Randy decided he needed to step back from the grind of touring and recording music. That’s when he pursued his other dream: acting.
Randy Travis took a year-long break from his grueling country music schedule to make five movies—four of them westerns—but now says he’s recharged his musical batteries and has left the bright lights of Tinseltown for a triumphant return to Music City.
“Anybody, regardless of where they are, where they’re from or what they do for a living, dreams of being a cowboy once in a while,” the golden-voiced, three-time Grammy Award winner told Country Weekly in an exclusive interview.
“But music is my first love, and it will always be.”
After making nine albums since 1986, Randy tired of the country music grind and decided about a year ago to take time out from touring and recording to chase his dreams of starring in Western films. A year later, he’s notched five, big-budget movies with a constellation of Hollywood stars: Maverick with Jodie Foster and Mel Gibson, Dead Man’s Revenge with Bruce Dern, Frank and Jesse, The Legend of O.B. Taggart with Mickey Rooney, and At Risk, the only non-Western in the bunch.
Now that he’s got the “acting thing” out of the way, a newly inspired Randy returns to the forefront of country music this month with the release of his new album, This is Me.
So what does he say to all of his fans who think he retired? “They got that wrong. These films coming out this year, some in the theaters and some on TV, will show people what I’ve been doing.”
More often than not, what he’s been doing has involved pulling on a pair of chaps, strapping on a couple of six-guns and hopping up on a trusty stallion. Of the five movies that Randy shot, four of them are westerns.
“Anybody, regardless of where they are, where they’re from or what they do for a living, dreams of being a cowboy every once in a while,” Randy said.
His first taste of moviemaking came with a bit part in Young Guns. Blink and you’ll miss him, since most of his work ended up on the cutting room floor. But the acting bug bit.
“I’d been touring for about eight years and was burned out on that. It wasn’t the singing for an audience ‑ I loved that and always will. But I wanted to get off the road and stop waking up in a new town every day.”
His timing couldn’t have been better—following Clint Eastwood’s success with Unforgiven movie moguls put together one dusty shoot‑’em‑up after another. Randy was waiting.
“I’ve been practicing quick draw and target shooting and riding horses since I was a kid.”
Randy’s expertise in the cowboy way allowed him to help out his co-stars in handling guns. He also did all but one of his own stunts on the set of Frank and Jesse, most of them involving a horse.
In Deadman’s Revenge, airing April 15 at 9 p.m. ET on the USA Network, Randy plays Marshal Harriman, a lawman who can’t keep a ruthless land baron (played by Bruce Dern) from cheating everyone in town.
The big budget Maverick, due in theaters next month, stars Mel Gibson, Jodie Foster and James Garner in a remake of the old TV show that features Randy in a cameo.
At Risk, the only non‑western in the bunch, takes on the tragic topic of AIDS. “It’s kind of an artsy‑type movie, made for the theater,” said Randy.
The Legend of O.B. Taggart, a feature film about a train robber who gets out of jail and goes after the loot he hid, co-stars Mickey Rooney and Larry Gatlin.
And of course, there’s Frank and Jesse, the big one for the fledgling actor.
He plays Cole Younger, a member of the notorious James/Younger gang who robbed and killed their way into infamy. “Cole was a rough character,” Randy says. “I read quite a bit about Cole and the James/Younger gang to prepare for the movie. I played him the way I thought he might have been.”
Not only will Randy’s fans have to get used to seeing their idol as a villain, they’ll also have to find him underneath a face full of hair. Cole Younger was a bearded man.
“I shaved it as soon as I finished the movie,” the once‑again clean‑cut performer said. “I never got used to it.”
Randy said even though the character of Cole Younger was as nasty as they come, acting the tough guy was a lot of fun. In some ways, it allowed him to follow in the footsteps of the man Randy considers to be the master, Clint Eastwood, who turns out to be a big fan of Randy’s music.
Randy spent just a speck of time on the set of Maverick but it was a speck worth spending, he says.
“The set was unbelievable,” he recalled. “I walked into that room and looked around and saw all these character actors I knew from the old westerns since I was a boy. I just stood there like a kid in a candy store.”
Along with all the fun, though, came some real work and Randy found his experience as a performer on a stage sometimes helped and sometimes didn’t.
“It’s totally different,” he says. “On live shows you get the automatic feedback from an audience, plus there’s no backing up.
Working in front of the camera, the only audience is people working alongside you and the camera, which you have to learn to ignore.
“On the other hand, working onstage makes you feel a lot more comfortable in front of a camera.”
Cutting an album has a few more similarities to moviemaking, Randy says. “Doing an album, the producer is sort of like the director on the set. He sits in the booth while I’m singing and gives me direction. If he thinks I’m approaching a line too hard or too soft, whatever, he directs me, plus he tells all the musicians what he wants.
“The biggest difference between Nashville and Hollywood is the pace. The music business seems totally sane compared to the movie business,” Randy explained.
“I knew exactly where I was going to be, how long I would be there and exactly what time the show would take place. In the movie business you can’t make schedules like that. You might get called and told to be there in 20 minutes.”
As much as Randy adapted to his new world of lights, cameras and action, he didn’t let the old world of guitars, lyrics and melody fade into the background. One film threw him together with country crooner Larry Gatlin.
As for Frank and Jesse, expect to hear a Randy Travis‑penned song on the soundtrack.
“Music always has been a priority for me,” he emphasized. “I see myself always working on albums -‑ as long as we can sell a few, as long as there’s a reason to keep making them.
“This is the best that I’ve felt about an album in quite some time,” he said. “My producer, Kyle Lehning, and I had a year to put it together, so we took the time in finding the right songs and, in the studio, doing the work we needed to do to make a strong album.
“We experimented a little production-wise. Things will sound a little different than most of the other albums we’ve done. In some cases there are productions that are a lot more rowdy than we’ve been used to doing.”
And while This Is Me is undeniably a Randy Travis album, with his distinct voice and styling, the singer has been diligent in keeping up with the Joneses (George division) as well as the Cyruses (Billy Ray type).
“I listen to country radio all the time,” he says. “I’m not one of those who sings country and listens to something else.” So he’s well aware of the changes that have been churning through Nashville, even in the past year.
“When I started in the business, every label that signed anybody tried to record traditional country music,” he notes. “A few years went past, and kind of like they did in the 70s, they started experimenting and stepped out of those bounds and went to the pop‑sounding music.”
“ Now there’s a huge variety of music that’s being played on country radio ‑ a lot of it good, a lot not so good.”
“I look at movies the same way I look for a song. It has to be something I like,” he explains.
“At the same time, at the position that I’m in right now, I can’t get the best scripts and work the way Mel Gibson can. I’m at a beginning point. It’s not to say that I have to take anything that’s offered, because I won’t do that. But I can’t be quite as choosy as a Mel Gibson.”
He doesn’t expect to be another Mel Gibson either. “I want to be a competent actor and be offered some good parts and some really good movies that the public receives well. I don’t see myself winning any awards.
“I went after the acting because it’s something I want to do. I kind of wanted to prove to myself that I could do it.”
All the script offers headed his way indicate he proved something to somebody.
“In the beginning I hated to watch myself. I’d see everything that was wrong instead of what was right,” he says. “I’m my own worst critic.” And hey, if it doesn’t work out then he always has that singing thing to fall back on.
And, hey, if it doesn’t work out, then he always has that acting thing to fall back on.
Buckingham Palace announced today that 95 year old Prince Philip will retire from royal public duties, while his wife, Queen Elizabeth, will continue with her royal engagements as usual. MORE
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