Every country artist dreams of playing the Grand Ole Opry, and newcomer Brooke Eden is no exception. The Florida native fulfilled a lifelong dream when she made her Opry debut on Saturday night (Nov. 19).
“I remember the very first time I got to witness what that room feels like, and the only way I can describe it is like baptism day at church,” Brooke said in a statement. “I remember feeling so blessed to just be in the presence of that sacred ground and thinking that could be me one day! I am so grateful that day finally happened.”
Brooke Eden with Ricky Skaggs
Making her Opry debut on the historic Ryman Auditorium stage, Brooke belted out her latest single, “Diamonds,” and performed her very own rendition of Hank Williams’ “Lovesick Blues.” Rounding out the show were legendary country artists Bill Anderson, Connie Smith, Ray Stevens and Ricky Skaggs.
Brooke’s single, “Diamonds,” is featured on her debut EP, Welcome to the Weekend, which is available now.
Tracy Lawrence continued his yearly Thanksgiving tradition today (Nov. 22) by hosting his annual Mission Possible Turkey Fry at the Nashville Rescue Mission. Now in its 11th year, Tracy and his team have provided nearly 4,500 turkeys and cooked more than 65,000 meals to help feed Nashville’s homeless over the years.
“Thanksgiving is such a special time of year for me and my family—a time to share and be thankful for all that God has blessed us with,” said Tracy. “It’s also a very humbling time, knowing how much suffering and pain is going on in the world. It makes me treasure the opportunity that myself, my friends and my family have to give back to our community through the Nashville Rescue Mission. I will continue to be overwhelmed by the support and love that comes out to volunteer and donate to their fellow man during this week.”
A photo posted by Tracy Lawrence (@therealtracylawrence) on
For the second year in a row, the “Time Marches On” singer will host the Tracy Lawrence Mission Possible Charity Concert tonight (Nov. 22) at Nashville’s Wildhorse Saloon. Tonight’s concert features performances from Tracy, Big & Rich, Jerrod Niemann, Ben Rue and Halfway to Hazard, with proceeds benefiting the city’s hungry and homeless. Doors open at 6 p.m., and tickets can be purchased online for $20 (general) and $40 (VIP).
“It should be a great concert tonight, all the guys are donating their time to peform,” said Tracy. “Come on out and show your support.”
Check out a photo gallery of Tracy’s 11th annual Mission Possible Turkey Fry below.
Dancing With the Stars’ final four contestants—Jana Kramer, IndyCar driver James Hinchcliffe, former NFL wide receiver Calvin Johnson Jr. and Olympic gold medalist Laurie Hernandez—hit the ballroom floor for Part 1 of the season finale last night (Nov. 21) on ABC.
The contestants performed two dances last night: one selected by the judges and a freestyle of their own choosing. After the two dances, one couple would be eliminated while the remaining three finalists would advance to Tuesday night’s (Nov. 22) finale to decide the winner.
Jana and her partner, Gleb Savchenko, who came down with the flu, danced the tango—a dance the judges picked for the couple to show how far they’ve come throughout the season—to the song “Stay the Night” by Zedd featuring Hayley Williams of Paramore. This dance had plagued Jana during the season and this time she again received mixed reviews from the judges and a low score of 35 out of 40.
“I don’t know if it’s the curse of the tango,” judge Julianne Hough said. “I didn’t feel that kind of same spark that I was hoping for. But you guys still have the freestyle so come back and knock it out.”
“It sparked for me,” Bruno Tonioli rebutted. “I still think you’re hotter than hell. When these two dance, you can give night sweats to a saint. I think you have such a full-blooded passion, determination and drive. You really put everything you’ve got into the dance. You’re not a dancer and what you achieved is incredible. This time around it was slicker and cleaner than the first time.”
For their second dance, Jana and Gleb performed a freestyle dance to Sia’s “Unstoppable.” However, the couple was apparently stoppable as they stumbled with a few missteps during the dance, receiving a disappointing 36 out of 40 points from the judges.
“I thought it was a fascinating concept,” judge Len Goodman said to Jana after the dance. “I love the slowness of it, it was very exposing. When you dance that slow every little hiccup can be seen so clearly. Something happened when you went flying across the floor. But what a beautiful performance and a wonderful dance.”
“I have so much respect for you,” judge Carrie Ann Inaba began. “Ultimately to me, you are the underdog. You are this little precious being that has really developed. You are here because you clutched at everything and you pulled yourself up together. This partnership has been so passionate and so true and so honest and so vulnerable. Tonight, yeah there was a slide and I have to take off points because you know that’s what I do, but I want you to walk away feeling amazingly proud of yourself because that was stunning.”
At the show’s conclusion, Laurie Hernandez and Calvin Johnson Jr. advanced into the finals, while James Hinchcliffe and Jana Kramer were considered for elimination by the audience. When the announcement came, it was Jana who was sent home, ending her run on Dancing With the Stars with a fourth place finish.
It was a valiant effort on Jana’s part and we can say she certainly made the country music community proud. Congratulations to Jana and Gleb for their amazing accomplishment. Check out their freestyle dance below.
Garth Brooks and the lovely lady he has affectionately dubbed his “Queen,” wife Trisha Yearwood, topped Billboard‘s Country Albums chart this week with their new holiday album, Christmas Together. The new record, which marks Garth and Trisha’s debut duets album, sold 21,000 copies, according to Nielsen Music.
The 11-song offering includes holiday favorites such as “Feliz Navidad,” “Santa Baby” and “Baby, It’s Cold Outside,” as well as “What I’m Thankful For (The Thanksgiving Song),” which features vocals from James Taylor.
“Christmas Together is fun, I can tell you we built it for one thing: to decorate the tree with the family,” said Garth to Nash Country Daily. “If you’re looking for that holiday album to decorate the tree to, this is it. It starts fun, it ends fun. It’s very thoughtful. The Queen is unbelievable—when you’re the weak link in the chain, that’s a pretty cool thing. The Queen just owns that thing. James Taylor came in and was phenomenal on it. You talk about no better feeling of Christmas or thankfulness than James Taylor’s voice on something, it’s pretty cool.”
Garth’s 10-disc boxed set, Garth Brooks: The Ultimate Collection, which also dropped last week, sold 134,000 copies solely through Target, as reported by BuzzAngle Music. The set is ineligible to chart on Nielsen and Billboard’s charts, as its price falls below the minimum required price to chart ($3.49 for a single disc, or $3.49 times the amount of discs in a boxed set, in a title’s first four weeks of release).
Nonetheless, chalk another “score” up for Garth, the newly crowned CMA Entertainer of the Year.
Blake Shelton announced a 13-date tour for 2017 on Facebook Live yesterday (Nov. 21) as he and special guest RaeLynn took part in a Newlywed style game. The new tour, dubbed the Doing It to Country Songs Tour, takes its moniker from a song of the same name on Blake’s 10th studio album, If I’m Honest, which dropped in May.
“Performing for an audience is what I love most—and if you’re coming to see me, you’re coming to hear country music, because that’s what I do,” said Blake. “So get ready as we’re going to be Doing It to Country Songs all night long!”
The new tour kicks off on Feb. 16 in Bakersfield, Calif., and runs through March. RaeLynn will serve as the opener on the tour.
Check out the dates below as well as a video of Blake and RaeLynn on Facebook Live.
Blake Shelton’s 2017 Doing It To Country Songs Tour
Summertime may be over, but Jason Aldean is still having fun in the sun with the announcement that his single “A Little More Summertime” is No. 1 on both the Billboard Country Airplay and Mediabase charts this week. The tune, which is Jason’s 18th career No. 1 single, is the second single from Jason’s seventh studio album, They Don’t Know.
“I’m really proud of this record,” Jason told NCD when the album dropped in September. “I feel like for the first time in a couple albums we really were able to take our time and find songs and really kind of make an album that from top to bottom fit my deal. It was kind of like going back to basics for me a little bit. I always want to keep moving in new directions and try new things, and sort of being a trailblazer as far as that goes. At the same time, I think it’s important to really stay true to that sort of vintage sound that we’ve created over the years, too, and I feel like this album, with the songs and everything, it allowed us to go back and cut an album that sounds in my mind more like the vintage stuff that really is the stuff that we’re known for. Really got to be known for I should say. Just from a song standpoint going in—subject matter, melodies of songs—it reminds me a lot of the Wide Open and My Kind of Party records. Sort of a combo of those two albums, just with a little bit more of an updated sound. Obviously, different songs and so it’s going to allow you to go in different directions, which is what you want. It just feels more like a vintage Jason Aldean record to me.”
Following the second consecutive chart-topper off his seventh studio album, today (Nov. 21) Jason release a new single, “Any Ol’ Barstool,” which was written by Deric Ruttan and Josh Thompson.
“I think ‘Any Ol’ Barstool’ is probably one of the best written songs on the album,” said Jason. “The guy is just trying to convince her that he’s doing fine, not drinking too much. It’s one of things we’ve all been through in some way. Plus, that traditional feel is the country music I grew up on and has always been important to me to include on our albums. I love that stuff.”
Just as Kenny Chesney wrapped his 2016 Spread the Love Tour in August at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass., word spread that the superstar would not be touring in 2017—only playing a select number of gigs in the coming year.
Apparently, Mr. Chesney loves the city of Foxborough so much that the superstar has decided to go back for his ONLY stadium show in 2017. Kenny took to his Facebook page to make the beachside announcement.
“Hey New England, it’s Kenny Chesney, and I just want to say how excited I am to say that we are coming back to Foxborough, Massachusetts—Gillette Stadium—next summer, August 25 for my only stadium show in America,” Kenny says in the video. “No other stadium shows except in Foxborough. I want to thank you guys for loving the music. I want to let you know that we are so excited to come back and play again. I can’t wait to see your faces, to feel your energy for the only stadium show we’re doing next summer. We’re doing it because we love you. So thanks a lot. See you then.”
While Gillette stadium will be Kenny’s only stadium show, there is another opportunity to catch Kenny as he headlines the 2017 Tortuga Music Festival in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., on April 7-9.
For two hours on Nov. 28 you’ll be able to celebrate Christmas with some of country’s biggest stars during CMA Country Christmas. But if you can’t wait until then, Nash Country Daily has a sneak peek of the special event right here.
Jennifer Nettles returns for the seventh year as host of the ABC special along with country’s top stars, including Kelsea Ballerini, Loretta Lynn, Kacey Musgraves, Trisha Yearwood and Brett Eldredge.
Kelsea Ballerini joins Joey Alexander for a stirring rendition of “My Favorite Things”; Jennifer Nettles—in one of her performances—joins Idina Menzel on “Little Drummer Boy”; Brett Eldredge absolutely glows during his performance of “Let It Snow”; Kacey Musgraves heats up the night with her laid-back version of “Mele Kalikimaka,” from her Christmas album, A Very Kacey Christmas; and Loretta Lynn joins Jennifer Nettles and Trisha Yearwood for a special Christmas song Loretta penned herself, “Country Christmas.”
Tune in to CMA Country Christmas Nov. 28 at 8 p.m. ET on ABC. Check out the sneak peek below.
After canceling two shows on Nov. 13 and 15 due to illness, Willie Nelson returned to the stage on Friday, Nov. 18, in Lake Charles, La.
Willie, who is 83 years old, played a full set, including favorites “Me & Paul,” “Whiskey River,” “Always on My Mind” and “Will the Circle Be Unbroken.”
We’re thankful Willie is back onstage where he belongs.
Check out a video of Willie singing “Always on My Mind” below.
The ladies of Post Monroe—Shelby McLeod, Ashlee Hewitt and Whitney Duncan—who were announced as part of CMT’s Next Women of Country, have released the new video for their current single, “Half Hearted.”
“‘Half Hearted’ is the very first song we ever sang together, so we really wanted to make the video special and timeless, not just tie it to a specific storyline,” Whitney tells Nash Country Daily. “We love the imagery with the horses and really feel like it fits the sound of this song.”
The single, written by Post Monroe, is the trio’s second release from their self titled debut EP, following up the release of “Red Hot American Summer.”
The ladies have also recently (Nov. 18) released their new Christmas single, “Let Christmas Hang Around,” co-written by Post Monroe and Dave Thomson.
“We really wanted to write our own Christmas song this year and really get into the spirit,” says Shelby. “Christmas is my favorite time of year and we wanted to express that sentiment that we just want it to be like Christmas all the time!”
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