Luke Bryan Is Taking His “Kill the Lights Tour” Where It Has Never Been Before: 2017

Luke Bryan Is Taking His “Kill the Lights Tour” Where It Has Never Been Before: 2017

After wrapping his 58-city 2016 Kill the Lights Tour in October, Luke Bryan announced today (Nov. 28) that he will extend the tour into 2017 with 11 additional dates, including a stop at New York City’s Madison Square Garden on March 1. Luke will resume the tour on Feb. 16 in Huntington, W.Va., and cap it a little more than a month later on March 17 in Orange Beach, Ala.

Brett Eldredge will serve as the opener on all dates.

Check out the dates, cities and venues below.

Kill the Lights Tour 2017
Feb. 16 – Huntington, W.Va. – Big Sandy Superstore Arena
Feb. 17 – Bloomington, Ind. – Assembly Hall
Feb. 18 – Jonesboro, Ark. – ASU Convocation Center
Feb. 23 – Columbia, S.C. – Colonial Life Arena
Feb. 25 – Jacksonville, Fla. – Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena
March 1 – New York, N.Y – Madison Square Garden
March 3 – Manchester, N.H. – Verizon Wireless Arena
March 4 – Providence, R.I. – Dunkin’ Donuts Center
March 9 – Richmond, Va. – Richmond Coliseum
March 10 – Fayetteville, N.C. – Crown Coliseum
March 17 – Orange Beach, Ala. – The Wharf

Dwight Yoakam Reflects on 20 Years of “Sling Blade”—“One of the Seminal Moments of My Life as an Artist”

Dwight Yoakam Reflects on 20 Years of “Sling Blade”—“One of the Seminal Moments of My Life as an Artist”

With appearances in more than 30 feature films and television shows, including Panic Room, Wedding Crashers and Under the Dome, Dwight Yoakam’s acting chops are as lethal as his onstage dance moves. Speaking of lethal, Dwight’s performance as abusive boyfriend Doyle Hargraves in 1996’s Sling Blade, which was written and directed by Billy Bob Thornton, is still one for the ages.

As the movie celebrates the 20-year anniversary of its release on Nov. 27, 2016, Dwight was kind enough to speak to NCD [from an interview in 2015] about his role as Doyle and the effect it had on his career as an actor.

NCD: As a whole, can you talk about the experience of being part of the film?

Dwight: “It will always remain a magical experience for me. I had done five movies at that point. After being on set a couple of days and shooting a couple of my scenes, I remember calling my manager on the phone and saying, ‘You know what, I think I’m in a real one here, something that will really have an impact. I think Billy [Bob Thornton] is doing something unique and lasting as a director and writer.’ I was really proud to be a part of it, and I still am.”

Billy Bob won an Academy Award for Best Writing for Adapted Screenplay. The dialogue is so well-crafted, but I can’t help but laugh throughout the movie with some of its absurdity, especially Doyle’s dialogue.

“It’s a tragically joyful movie [laughing]. There’s absurd humor in the tragic reality of that movie, for lack of a better way of putting it.”

Let’s talk about the most absurdly humorous scene, at least in my opinion, when Doyle goes on his drunken rampage and kicks his band out of Linda’s house and the ensuing beat-down he gets at the hands of Linda’s son, Frank.

“In a lot of ways, the argument Doyle has with Morris [actor Bruce Hampson] is what sent him into his tailspin, if you remember. It was Morris’ own ego trying to claim ownership of the brilliance of his lyrics: baking the cookies of discontent, by the heat of the laundromat vent [laughing]. Doyle had pretty much had it with Morris’ bullsh*t. Oh, my god [laughing]. It was an interesting film to be a party to.”

[warning: video below contains graphic language]

Doyle kicks everyone out of the house, including Terrance, played by singer/songwriter Vic Chestnut, who was partially paralyzed and in a wheelchair in real life.

“In memory of Vic Chestnut [who passed away in 2009], he refused to have a stunt double with that whole thing in the wheelchair. He actually hit the door. It was originally scripted that I was going to run him and the wheelchair through the screen door and off the porch. You were just going to hear him go [off the porch]. And then Billy [Bob Thornton] thought better of it and said, ‘No, I’m going to shut the door and you’re just going to run him into the door.’ They went to Vic twice and tried to convince him to use a stunt double, and Vic said ‘No. I want to do this. I want Doyle to take me and run me through it.’ I was like, ‘Aw man, it’s awful.’ But it was all of us wanting to do what was true. We really wanted that movie to be about the truth of human beings’ failings and how they’re able to interact. The character Doyle, to me and how I played it, was actually the most frightened guy in the room about losing everything. The character Linda tries to address that in her own way when she talks to her son at one point, ‘Doyle’s had a pretty messed up life.’ Well, no kidding [laughing].”

That’s when Linda’s son, Frank, played by Lucas Black gives you the beat-down.

“Lucas Black had run out of actual props to throw and he started throwing actual elements—real books, real encyclopedias [laughing]. Lucas was hurling that stuff. I actually did get hit pretty hard with a couple of the encyclopedias. The one hit me in the ribs and almost took the wind out of me completely.”

Any closing thought on the actual craft of acting and your role as Doyle?

“I know that the craft of acting is not something that happens by accident. It has to do with the rhythm of truth and how you say what you say as an actor. The old expression, ‘Does something have the ring of truth to it?’ To put it another way, ‘Does it have the rhythm of truth to it? It’s a performance of a scripted scenario of life. That fictional scripting, as with songwriting, is really addressing larger collective universal truths. Sling Blade is one of the seminal moments of my life as an artist of expressing myself artistically.”

Jewel Set to Appear on Three Upcoming Episodes of “Alaska: The Last Frontier,” Beginning on Nov. 27

Jewel Set to Appear on Three Upcoming Episodes of “Alaska: The Last Frontier,” Beginning on Nov. 27

Jewel Kilcher, better known to the music-loving world as singer/songwriter “Jewel,” returned to her Alaskan homestead for the first time in nearly seven years to take part in three episodes of Discovery’s Alaska: The Last Frontier, a reality program that documents the extended Kilcher family, including Jewel’s father, Atz, and brother, Atz Lee.

Jewel brought her 5-year-old son, Kase, on the trip, marking his first journey to the homestead to meet many members of his family.

jewel
Jewel, with son Kase, father Atz, and Atz’s wife, Bonnie

“Oh my gosh, I was overjoyed to get to go back, but having a son, I didn’t want to take him up there until he was old enough to remember it,” says Jewel to NCD. “I was really happy to take him up there and show him where I’m from. I’ve always been homesick for Alaska. I think how I was raised made me the kind of person I am and allowed me to stay grounded. I was raised knowing it was not money or material things that make us happy, it’s what kind of humans we are. Striving every day to be a good human was important to me. I was happy to try to share the land and nature and that type of lifestyle with my son.”

Highlights of Jewel’s visit include Atz building a wilderness fort for Kase, as well as a reunion potluck dinner the family cooked.

“My dad made my son an entire town in nature and made him this beautiful fort and threw him a little birthday party and that was beyond incredible,” says Jewel. “Just to see Kase be a part of that and getting to play on the homestead with his cousins was really incredible. My family threw a big reunion potluck for me. It was amazing and delicious. Homemade food tastes infinitely better than anything else, especially dad’s homemade bread.”

The first of Jewel’s three episodes, “The Prodigal Daughter Returns,” airs on Sunday, Nov. 27, followed by “The Monster Catch” on Dec. 4 and “When Cows Attack” on Dec. 11. Tune in to Discovery, Sundays, at 8 p.m. CT to catch all of the action.

photos courtesy of Discovery

Travis Tritt Responds to Beyoncé Backlash: “Race Has Nothing to Do With It.”

Travis Tritt Responds to Beyoncé Backlash: “Race Has Nothing to Do With It.”

Earlier this month, following Beyoncé‘s performance with the Dixie Chicks at the 50th annual CMA Awards on Nov. 3, Travis Tritt—as well as many other country music fans—took to Twitter to voice his thoughts about the presence of non-country artists performing at country music awards show.

While many agreed with what Travis had to say, Beyoncé fans—also known as the Beyhive—set their sites on Travis, attacking him via social media for what they believed were racist and derogatory comments.

Nash Country Daily had a chance to sit down with Travis after the Twitter battle to talk about his new album, A Man and His Guitar (more on that next week), his comments regarding the CMA show and the backlash.

But first, here are the comments that Travis made on Twitter.

NCD: You’ve been quite outspoken on Twitter about Beyoncé being part of the CMA Awards. Why?

Travis Tritt: It wasn’t so much about just Beyoncé. This is a complaint that I’ve heard for a long time, actually for decades. Back in the ’90s, it was Elton John or Sting or whoever. Every year the CMA television producers feel a need to bring in acts from other genres, and it’s always done to boost ratings. I understand the concept behind that but at the same time I’ve always found it a little bit insulting— from the standpoint of being a country music artist—because this is a format that I’ve been a part of since the very beginning in my career. It’s a format that I have seen grow a tremendous amount in the 27 years that I’ve been doing this.

“As part of the Class of ’89—Garth Brooks, Alan Jackson, Clint Black and myself—we saw country music album sales increase by millions over what they had ever been before. We saw an ability by all country music artists to put more fannies in concert seats than we’d ever seen before. We sold a ton of product, drew in millions and millions of fans that had never listened to country music before. I think during that period of time we’ve certainly become strong enough to stand on our own two feet without the help from outside sources. I’ve been complaining about this for years, and it’s funny to me that it took complaining about this year’s performance, before anybody paid any attention to it.

“It’s very strange to me. I’ve had open discussions about this on social media for the last 10 days and the fact is that while there are a lot of people that try to twist this into being something different than what it is—being motivated by something different than what it’s motivated by—the fact is that this is something that I’ve been very vocal about for a long time. Race has nothing to do with it. That’s what I’ve tried to make clear from the very beginning. We should be better than that. To make everything about race—to me—it makes me sad to be honest.”

NCD: In the times that we are living in now, with race being such a dividing point, is that what you feel they turned your comments into, something racial?

“That was done by the people who picked the story up from Twitter—from my Twitter feed. Some of the people in the media twisted it completely around. First of all, they said that I trashed Beyoncé, which I never did. I never made a statement saying anything bad about her personally. All I said was that her performance—in my humble opinion—her performance as well as any of the other performances that have been on from the pop world, including Arianna Grande, Meghan Trainor, Justin Timberlake or whoever, do not belong. I don’t think they belong on any country music show. Especially on a country music show that was a 50-year celebration—an anniversary of what was supposed to be the entire 50-year history of country music awards—the CMA Awards show. The other thing that frustrated me was the fact, and it has frustrated me for years, is the fact that for every pop performance or R&B performance or any other type of genre performance that you have on the CMA Awards, that takes time away from somebody who is a country music artist, doing country music songs, releasing country music singles to radio, selling country music under that moniker to people all across the country and across the world. That’s taking time away from them. There are other artists that could have been just as much of a draw and that really should have been involved in that slot to celebrate the music that they have helped to create.

“So many great country music artists that you can name that weren’t part of it because there is only so much time—I get that, I understand that and everybody else does too. But when you take a portion of that precious time and give it to an artist outside of our industry, it makes no sense. It makes about as much sense to me as it would make sense to bring Eminem in on the Dove Awards. But you wouldn’t do that because it doesn’t fit the format. That’s my humble opinion.”

Travis Tritt photo by Richard McLaren/Aristo PR

Kelsea Ballerini Releases Collaboration of “My Favorite Things” With Piano Prodigy Joey Alexander

Kelsea Ballerini Releases Collaboration of “My Favorite Things” With Piano Prodigy Joey Alexander

Country sweetheart Kelsea Ballerini has joined forces with critically acclaimed pianist Joey Alexander to release a collaboration of a classic tune, “My Favorite Things.”

The single, a hit from The Sound of Music, was also the title track of Joey’s debut jazz album in 2015. Kelsea adds her stirring vocals to Joey’s extraordinary piano playing, creating a collaboration for the ages that can be seen on CMA Country Christmas on Nov. 28.

kelsea-ballerini-joey-alexander“Putting out ‘Favorite Things’ with Joey has been one of my proudest and most exciting projects and moments so far,” said Kelsea in a statement. “He is so incredibly talented and, more so, so humble. Being in the studio and listening to him play so effortlessly over and over really challenged me to be my best. I’m so excited for people to hear this!”

“I got a good dose of that warm southern hospitality from the folks from Black River Records and the Nashville country music community, and performing with Kelsea Ballerini was amazing,” adds Joey. “I’m really proud of the work we’ve done and excited to share our new holiday single with the world.”

“My Favorite Things” will be available digitally on Nov. 25 but you can catch the duo performing the classic on CMA Country Christmas, which airs Nov. 28, 8 p.m. ET on ABC.

For now, you can check out Kelsea and Joey talking about “My Favorite Things,” with a sneak peek of their performance.

Keith Urban and Carrie Underwood Gear Up for Australian and New Zealand Leg of Ripcord Tour

Keith Urban and Carrie Underwood Gear Up for Australian and New Zealand Leg of Ripcord Tour

Keith Urban is heading to the Land Down Under in December, and he’s taking Carrie Underwood with him. The two superstars are joining forces for the final 2016 leg of Keith’s Ripcord Tour in Australia.

“We are announcing officially that we are coming to Australia,” Keith says in the video clip. “And we’re also going to come to New Zealand, so if you’re watching from New Zealand, come on down and see us in Wellington.”

The nine-date tour will kick off on Dec. 3 in Wellington, New Zealand, wrapping on Dec. 17 in Brisbane, Australia. This is not unfamiliar territory for the traveling duo as Keith and Carrie co-headlined their Love Pain & the Whole Crazy Carnival Ride Tour in 2008, have performed together countless times and even recorded the song, “The Fighter,” together for Keith’s Ripcord album.

The tour comes right on the heels of the fall leg of Carrie’s Storyteller Tour, which wraps on Nov. 28 in West Valley City, Utah, while Keith will wrap up his year in Nashville, headlining the city’s New Year’s Eve Celebration before heading out in June 2017 for an extended leg of his very successful Ripcord Tour.

Keith Urban’s Ripcord World Tour dates with Carrie Undewood:

Dec. 3 / Wellington, New Zealand / Westpac Stadium
Dec. 6 / Adelaide, Australia / Entertainment Centre
Dec. 8 / Melbourne, Australia / Rod Laver Arena
Dec. 9 / Melbourne, Australia / Rod Laver Arena
Dec. 10 / Canberra, Australia / GIO Stadium
Dec. 12 / Sydney, Australia / Qudos Bank Arena
Dec. 14 / Sydney, Australia / ICC Syndey Theatre
Dec. 16 / Brisbane, Australia / Entertainment Centre
Dec. 17 / Brisbane, Australia / Entertainment Centre

Thanksgiving Television Lineup: Performances From Miranda Lambert, Garth Brooks, Trisha Yearwood, Eric Church, Kelsea Ballerini, Brett Eldredge & More

Thanksgiving Television Lineup: Performances From Miranda Lambert, Garth Brooks, Trisha Yearwood, Eric Church, Kelsea Ballerini, Brett Eldredge & More

As you’re enjoying your feast on Turkey Day (and leftovers on Friday, Saturday and Sunday), many of your favorite country stars will be hitting the airwaves for television performances.

Check out what’s in store on Thanksgiving, as well as the next few days, and enjoy your break.

Thursday, Nov. 24

Good Morning America
ABC, 8–10 a.m CT
Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood

Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade
NBC, 8 a.m–11 a.m. CT
Kelsea Ballerini, Brett Eldredge, Maddie & Tae and Easton Corbin

Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade
CBS, 8 a.m.–11 a.m. CT
Miranda Lambert

McDonald’s Thanksgiving Parade
WGN, 8 a.m.–11 a.m. CT
Craig Campbell

Dallas Cowboys vs. Washington Redskins
Fox, 3:30 p.m. CT
Eric Church (halftime performance)

The Wonderful World of Disney: Magical Holiday Celebration
ABC, 7–9 p.m. CT
Garth Brooks, Trisha Yearwood, Kelly Clarkson and more

Friday, Nov. 25

Disney Parks Presents: A Descendants Magical Holiday Celebration
Disney Channel, 7–10 p.m. CT
Garth Brooks, Trisha Yearwood, Kelly Clarkson and more

Sunday, Nov. 27

Musselman’s Apple Sauce Family Skating Tribute
ABC, 3 p.m. –5 p.m. CT
Dan + Shay

Monday, Nov. 28

CMA Country Christmas
ABC, 7 p.m–9 p.m. CT
Jennifer Nettles, Brett Eldredge, Loretta Lynn, Kacey Musgraves, Brad Paisley, Rascal Flatts, Trisha Yearwood, Chris Young and more

Wednesday, Nov. 30

Christmas in Rockefeller Center
NBC, 7 p.m.–8 p.m. CT
Dolly Parton, Garth Brooks, Trisha Yearwood and more

Christmas of Many Colors: Circle of Love
NBC, 8 p.m. CT
Jennifer Nettles, Dolly Parton

photo courtesy Larry Busacca/Academy of Country Music

Cam Looks Up to “Badass Women” Like Dolly Parton, Loretta Lynn, Patsy Cline, Miranda Lambert, Carrie Underwood & Kacey Musgraves

Cam Looks Up to “Badass Women” Like Dolly Parton, Loretta Lynn, Patsy Cline, Miranda Lambert, Carrie Underwood & Kacey Musgraves

Singer/songwriter Camaron Ochs, better known to the country music-loving world as simply Cam, is in the midst of the best year of her career. Not only did she earn multiple nominations at the Grammys (Best Country Solo Performance), ACM Awards (Song, Single and New Female Vocalist of the Year) and CMA Awards (Song and Music Video of the Year) in 2016, but she also served as an opening act on Dierks Bentley’s Somewhere on a Beach Tour and is currently headlining her own Burning House Tour. Cam had more good news to share on Monday (Nov. 21) when she revealed she will serve as the supporting act during George Strait’s eight Las Vegas tour dates in 2017.

Not bad for an artist who was a relative unknown to the majority of the radio-listening universe 18 months ago. But as Cam tells it, she’s had a lot of help from some strong women along the way.

“There’s definitely been women that have looked out for me and I feel like even the women that I don’t know personally, well, I still stand on their shoulders,” said Cam to NCD. “Women in country music as artists specifically are the most badass women. They are the women that don’t take sh*t from anybody. You look at like a Dolly [Parton] or Loretta [Lynn], can you imagine somebody trying to tell them what they should or shouldn’t be doing? They were so strong and so outspoken. Patsy Cline, too. I owe it to all of them why I get to do what I get to do and that’s why these next women that are going to be coming up after me, everyone should remember, sometimes you get lost in this thing as if it’s competition, they should be going farther than . . . I’m going to go as far as I can, and they should be able, because I went there, to go farther. It is always a big helping-each-other-up moment. The cool thing about music is it’s always going forward.

“Miranda [Lambert] and Carrie [Underwood] are the ones who are sort of—and I know it sounds weird to say because they are still in it—they are role models. But for me, they are ahead of me and these are the women who are role models—Kacey Musgraves, too. All those people making good art, that’s what makes you really excited about making your art the way you want to make it. I think all of them are doing an amazing job at being role models.”

Cam still has five dates left on her Burning House Tour, so catch her while she’s hot.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRrCMEXPjWo

photo courtesy of Sara Kauss/Artisto PR

Family Tradition: 30 Country Stars Share Their Favorite Thanksgiving Traditions, Including Tim McGraw, Cole Swindell, Chris Young & More

Family Tradition: 30 Country Stars Share Their Favorite Thanksgiving Traditions, Including Tim McGraw, Cole Swindell, Chris Young & More

From food and family to football and friends, we asked some of country music’s biggest stars about their favorite Thanksgiving tradition. Check out what they had to say.


30-country-stars-thanksgiving-traditions-2016-cole-swindell“We’ve always had a close family, so the holidays—whether it’s Thanksgiving or Christmas—are really the only times we get to get together as a family. Just sitting around the table, holding hands, saying the blessing and telling stories. Those are the things that make Thanksgiving special to me. Obviously the food, especially being on the road all the time, that’s one meal I get to look forward to with the family. That family time, especially the older I get, is just so important to me. Being with my family and the food is my favorite.”
Cole Swindell


30-country-stars-thanksgiving-traditions-2016-shay-mooney“Every Thanksgiving it’s always been a tradition for us to go out on four-wheelers and we go up to my grandparents’ house and we just drive around and be idiots for a while, do some donuts and make some really bad decisions, but it’s really a lot of fun and we do it every Thanksgiving. My whole family gets to come in—cousins, aunts, uncles—and it’s always just a good time to spend some time with the family. It’s great.”
Shay Mooney of Dan + Shay


30-country-stars-thanksgiving-traditions-2016-connie-smith“I’m always cooking during Thanksgiving, but mainly it’s about getting together as a family for us.”
Connie Smith


30-country-stars-thanksgiving-traditions-2016-bill-anderson“Everybody comes to my house, all my kids live in Nashville with all the grand-kids in the greater Nashville area, and they all come over to Paw-Paw’s house. I don’t play the Opry or play the road, it’s family time. There’s nothing I enjoy more that getting out in the yard with the kids and throwing the football around and then going in the house and eating turkey and dressing. My kids all bring a dish and I do a little cooking, too. We dig in and have a good time.”
Whisperin’ Bill Anderson


30-country-stars-thanksgiving-traditions-2016-charlie-daniels“We will eat too much and watch football in the afternoon. That’s always the case.”
Charlie Daniels


30-country-stars-thanksgiving-traditions-2016-ty-herndon“We’ve been living in Kansas City the last three years and we just bought a house, so we’re going to be moving this year. I don’t know if we’ll be able to keep any traditions this year. It might be Kentucky Fried Chicken to-go this year.”
Ty Herndon


30-country-stars-thanksgiving-traditions-2016-chris-janson“We go down to my wife’s granddad’s farm in Adel, Georgia. She has so many cousins and aunts and uncles. It’s old school because all the guys come in with plaid shirts that are buttoned down and tucked it, no hats. Men can’t wear hats inside. We have a big time at the farm. I love it. It’s my favorite time of the year.”
Chris Janson


30-country-stars-thanksgiving-traditions-2016-brandy-clark“I always like to watch the Thanksgiving Day parade. That’s always exciting for me. I get up, get my coffee and watch the parade on a lazy day.”
Brandy Clark


30-country-stars-thanksgiving-traditions-2016-clare-dunn“The main thing for us is just getting together with family. I go back to my parents’ farm. The tradition is do the chores morning of, come back in and help cook. I’m a terrible cook, so I usually set the table and do other things. That’s our main tradition, just being together.”
Clare Dunn


30-country-stars-thanksgiving-traditions-2016-michael-ray“I wish I could get back to Florida this year, but I can’t this time. All my family gets together—they don’t do anything small, it’s a big event.”
Michael Ray


30-country-stars-thanksgiving-traditions-2016-billy-currington“I’ve celebrated Thanksgiving in Hawaii once, and I’ll be back there this year. I’ve kinda obtained a family out there over the years and they do the same thing on the island that we do on the mainland with the cooked turkey, but they cook a lot of fish too. It’s a little different, but it’s the same when it comes to family getting together to celebrate good times.”
Billy Currington


30-country-stars-thanksgiving-traditions-2016-courtney-cole“This sounds so boring, but it’s not boring. It’s just become this activity where we put together a puzzle. My mom will get the puzzle with the most pieces to put together, the most epic puzzle. It’s sounds simple and nerdy, but it’s our tradition.”
Courtney Cole


30-country-stars-thanksgiving-traditions-2016-raelynn“We all get in a big circle before we eat and each one of us talks about what we’re thankful for. There’s like 30 of us, so if you’re really hungry, it sucks. But it does mean a lot because every year there’s something one of our siblings goes through and they talk about how they’re thankful we helped them get through it. It’s such an awesome, emotional time. We go from laughing to crying every year.”
RaeLynn


30-country-stars-thanksgiving-traditions-2016-tim-mcgraw“Even though I live in a house with girls, I’ve gotten them to where they like to watch football a little bit with me, so we like to watch football and we like to watch movies. When we have time off and we’re all together, the five of us, we like to hang out, cook meals and watch movies. For us that’s a great time.”
Tim McGraw


30-country-stars-thanksgiving-traditions-2016-brantley-gilbert“We’re starting a new tradition this year with my wife. We’re going to spend the week at my deer farm in Alabama. We’re liable to shoot a turkey right there, and my wife is a wonderful cook, so we’ll see what happens out there.”
Brantley Gilbert


30-country-stars-thanksgiving-traditions-2016-jesse-james-decker“We’ll be celebrating in Nashville with my sister and her husband this year. It’s all about the turkey, and my favorite dish, sweet potatoes.”
Jessie James Decker


30-country-stars-thanksgiving-traditions-2016-clay-walker“Since we are transplants ourselves—my wife, Jessica, is from Louisiana and I’m from Texas—and we live in Nashville, we have a lot of friends around us who are transplants who don’t have family here. Every year at Thanksgiving, our tradition is inviting all those people over, so we end up with 40 or 50 people at our home and no one is kin. This year, we’re adding something to the mix. Jessica’s mom is one of 12 kids, and all of them and their kids and sisters and brothers are coming this year, so it’s going to be an absolute zoo with all of our friends and family.”
Clay Walker


30-country-stars-thanksgiving-traditions-2016-chase-bryant“I haven’t been home for Thanksgiving in eight years, but this one I will be. We’ve been on the road for a long time, so this one I’m spending with my family. They’re coming to me, so the pressure is on to cook.”
Chase Bryant


30-country-stars-thanksgiving-traditions-2016-granger-smith“The main tradition I have as a traveling singer is being home with the family on Thanksgiving. That’s the week I take off from touring so we can be together. Be with the family, eat some food and watch some football.”
Granger Smith


30-country-stars-thanksgiving-traditions-2016-deana-carter“My family has been coming to LA—this will be the second annual Thanksgiving trip to California. We get to go to the beach and do a little something different.”
Deana Carter


30-country-stars-thanksgiving-traditions-2016-jon-pardi“My new tradition is going to my good buddy’s cattle ranch in Montana and we go elk hunting and mule deer hunting and we have Thanksgiving in Montana. It’s awesome.”
Jon Pardi


30-country-stars-thanksgiving-traditions-2016-karen-fairchild“Just being with family after a busy year is great, but we all get together and say grace before we eat. It’s special every year.”
Karen Fairchild of Little Big Town


30-country-stars-thanksgiving-traditions-2016-kimberly-schlapman“We gather our whole family together at our house every Thanksgiving, both sides, my husband’s family and mine, all gather in Nashville. We have people everywhere, literally 16 or 17 people, for a whole week. We’ve got kids sleeping in walk-in closets and everywhere. It’s so much fun. It’s total chaos and disaster, but it’s so fun. We cook and eat and we shop a little bit and cook and eat some more. It’s a bittersweet time for us these days because my brother-in-law was killed on Thanksgiving [four years ago] by a drunk driver, but time is good. It heals. God and time, so this year will probably be a little bit easier. It’s still very important that we get everybody together at that time.”
Kimberly Schlapman of Little Big Town


30-country-stars-thanksgiving-traditions-2016-easton-corbin“We always try to get together at my granny and grandpa’s house for Thanksgiving and Christmas, but this year I’ll be performing at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.”
Easton Corbin


30-country-stars-thanksgiving-traditions-2016-frankie-ballard“I’m hosting Thanksgiving for the first time this year. I’ve got a big Irish family so this should be a pressure cooker. My mom is going to take over the kitchen. I have everything set up for her. I’m going to stay out of the way and watch my Detroit Lions. For me, it’s all about family. I’m gone on the road so much, I need some family time.”
Frankie Ballard


30-country-stars-thanksgiving-traditions-2016-scotty-mccreery“We normally go see the grandparents, switching off between mom’s folks and dad’s folks. This year, we’ll be going to see mom’s folks down in eastern North Carolina in Elizabeth City. Grandma always cooks up an amazing meal, so I’m looking forward to that.”
Scotty McCreery


30-country-stars-thanksgiving-traditions-2016-lee-greenwood“We’re so blessed to have our sons home for Thanksgiving because me and my wife travel so much on the road during the year. That’s the time we hold sacred. Last year I was part of Tracy Lawrence’s [Mission Possible] Turkey Fry for the homeless, so I’m planning on doing that again this year. We carve out time, they we carve up a turkey.”
Lee Greenwood


30-country-stars-thanksgiving-traditions-2016-chris-young“Thanksgiving for us revolves around the three Fs: family, food and football. The main thing is family. Getting to hang at home and spend time with everybody is the biggest thing for me.”
Chris Young


30-country-stars-thanksgiving-traditions-2016-brenda-lee“Before we sit down to eat, we give blessings for our blessings.”
Brenda Lee


30-country-stars-thanksgiving-traditions-2016-canaan-smith“We don’t have a lot of traditions in our family. We do have a big game of football out in the yard, so I guess that would be a tradition. Mainly, we just have a big turkey dinner.”
Canaan Smith

All photos by Jason Simanek except the following: Canaan Smith by Jim Wright/UMG Nashville, Brenda Lee courtesy Country Music Hall of Fame, Connie Smith by Russ Harrington/Marty Stuart Tours, Michael Ray courtesy WMG Nashville, Ty Herndon courtesy Aristo PR, Clare Dunn by Carlos Ruiz/Aristo PR, Billy Currington by Joseph Llanes/True PR, Jon Pardi courtesy UMG, Lee Greenwood courtesy Webster PR, Brandy Clark by Becky Fluke/Shore Fire Media, Courtney Cole by Carissa Riccardi, Easton Corbin by Kristin Barlowe/UMG Nashville

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