Tennessee punter Paxton Brooks spoke to the media recently after spring practice 10 in Knoxville.
WATCH: Vols P Paxton Brooks on areas for him to improve on in 2022 “Consistency, hang-time.”
WATCH: Ekeler “Coach Heup, he’s in every meeting. He’s talking. He is so into the details. That carries over to our kids.”
Tennessee special teams coordinator and outside linebackers coach Mike Ekeler spoke with the media after spring practice 10 recently to discuss his units and the team.
WATCH: Ekeler “Coach Heup, he’s in every meeting. He’s talking. He is so into the details. That carries over to our kids.”
Tennessee special teams coordinator and outside linebackers coach Mike Ekeler spoke with the media after spring practice 10 recently to discuss his units and the team.
Brett Young’s “Long Way Home” Featured in Mark Wahlberg’s Movie Father Stu
Brett Young is climbing the country airplay chart with his current single “You Didn’t.”
But now fans have a little extra music to listen to as Brett has released “Long Way Home” – his song that he wrote and recorded for the Mark Wahlberg movie Father Stu.
Brett shares the story behind how he got involved with the film, “I met Mark at a golf tournament a few months ago. We connected pretty quickly and he told me about an incredible project he was working on, and asked if I’d be up for writing a song to capture the spirit of the movie. Within a few hours I was flying home with Shay Mooney, Bear Rinehart and throwing ideas around and after watching an early screening the next day, we brought Jimmy Robbins in to help us put together something that we thought would be a perfect fit.”
“Long Way Home” was a perfect fit, and is a part of Father Stu – which arrives in theaters this Wednesday April 13th.
Brett and Mark recently reconnected at a special viewing of the movie.
Check out the lyric video for “Long Way Home” from Brett Young – which includes footage from Father Stu.
Headline Photo Credit: Seth Kupersmith
Additional Photo Credit: Theresa Regan
Dillon Carmichael Releases First Song from the Deluxe Edition of his Album Son Of A
Dillon Carmichael is climbing the Billboard country airplay chart right now with the title track to his 2021 album, Son Of A.
Dillon has just announced that 2022 will see a Deluxe Edition of his album…
From the Deluxe Edition of Son Of A – Dillon has shared the song “If I Wasn’t Your Man.”
Talking about the track, Carmichael says “I actually wrote this song 7 years ago. Some songs you write and record within a couple of weeks, and some songs take years. We immediately knew it was a great song, but for some reason, the stars didn’t line up for us to release it until today. Ultimately, I think that was God’s purpose and the way it was supposed to be with this timing. Now that I’m engaged to the love of my life, the song means even more to me. I couldn’t be more proud of it and happy for it to be out in the world.”
Check out the lyric video to “If I Wasn’t Your Man” from Dillon Carmichael’s album, Son Of A Deluxe Edition.
Photo Courtesy of Dillon Carmichael
Garth Brooks Set to Open a New Entertainment Concept Bar in Nashville
All of Garth Brooks‘ friends will now have a place to call home as the music superstar will be opening his own venue in Music City!
Garth shares “We feel very lucky to have the chance to be part of Lower Broad, which is arguably THE hottest spot in the country.”
What we know so far is it will “a new entertainment concept and bar” in Nashville located at 411 Broadway which is at the epicenter of famed Lower Broadway. Garth’s still unnamed place will be a 3-story, 40,000+ square foot venue.
Garth adds, “The goal is a classic honky-tonk that welcomes all and encourages love and kindness while playing the greatest music in the world in the home of Country Music!”
No opening date has been announced yet, but we’ll share the details as soon as they become available.
Photo Credit: Becky Fluke
Caitlyn Smith’s New Album – High – is Available Now
Caitlyn Smith‘s brand new album High is out now.
This is Caitlyn’s third album, but the first one where she’s taken on the role of producer – a decision that was helped by her move back to her home state of Minnesota.
After she released her 2020 album Supernova – which featured her CMT Music Award nominated “I’ Can’t” with Old Dominion – the world shut down due to COVID.
Caitlyn shares “The last few years have been such a season of growth for me and my husband. It really all starts with the beginning of the pandemic…I released a record, everything shut down, and my husband and I were looking at each other like ‘now what do we do?’ We’ve always wanted to move back to Minnesota… that’s where we’re both from…and we decided, you know what? What better time than right now.”
So Caitlyn, her husband Rollie, and their two sons made the move back to the Land of 10,000 Lakes.
Smith shares that the return to home let her “turn down the static and get back to her roots” and she feels lot of that is reflected in the music on her new album.
While she was busy songwriting during quarantine – thanks to zoom sessions – when it came time to build an album Caitlyn was still in Minnesota outside of the usual Nashville resources.
That led Smith to take a leap of faith on herself and slide into the role of producer, “This project was a little bit different for me because I decided to self produce this record which was quite the undertaking something that was very terrifying. I’d written the songs…singing the song is another way of vulnerability but being in charge of the whole sonic landscape as a producer was another layer of vulnerability and so it feels really exciting to finally have it in the world.”
High track listing:
- “High – Intro” (Caitlyn Smith, Jennifer Erin Decilveo, Miley Cyrus)
- “High” (Caitlyn Smith, Jennifer Erin Decilveo, Miley Cyrus)
- “Dreamin’s Free” (Caitlyn Smith, Shane McAnally, Lori McKenna)
- “Good As Us” (Caitlyn Smith, Dave Barnes, Ben West)
- “Downtown Baby” (Caitlyn Smith, Gordie Sampson, Thomas Tawgs Salter, Simon Wilcox)
- “Nothing Against You” (Caitlyn Smith, Shane McAnally, Matt Jenkins)
- “Maybe In Another Life” (Caitlyn Smith, Jennifer Erin Decilveo)
- “I Don’t Like The World Without You” (Caitlyn Smith, Gordie Sampson, Troy Verges)
With this collection of songs, Caitlyn says, “The goal in releasing High is that we want to capture sonically those feelings and emotions that are the highs of life.”
High from Caitlyn Smith is available now and includes “Downtown Baby” – Caitlyn’s single at country radio now.
Photo Credit: Shervin Lainez
Jimmy’s blog: Defense scores 3 touchdowns in UT’s final major scrimmage of spring
By Jimmy Hyams
Neither rain nor sleet nor snow could interrupt Tennessee’s last major scrimmage of spring practice before a bundled up crowd of recruits and their parents Saturday at Haslam Field.
Tennessee went about 70 minutes in what served as a defacto spring game, since Nayland Stadium was unavailable due to renovations.
Rain, sleet and snow contributed to some fumbles and dropped passes along the way, and about a dozen players were held out, including receiver Cedric Tillman, running back Jabari Small, center Cooper Mays and tight end Princeton Fant.
With VFLs like Heath Shuler and Joey Kent watching, coach Josh Heupel seemed pleased with the progress he saw from his team.
The Vols will have two more practices before ending spring drills April 14.
The media was stationed in the West end zone of the practice field, so some of the actual yardage gains are an estimate. Here are some of the highlights.
Quarterback Hendon Hooker only got two series. He threw a 5-yard touchdown pass to Bardon Warren on one lengthy drive.
With the offense backed up near its goal-line, receiver Jimmy Callaway took a flare pass to the left from quarterback Joe Milton, dodged a defender in the end zone, reversed field, and scampered 93 yards for a touchdown, with Milton throwing a block about 60 yards downfield. Heupel said Callaway’s best day of the spring was the scrimmage.
The defense scored three times late in the scrimmage. Defensive tackle Omari Thomas went about 20 yards with a scoop-and-score fumble return. Defensive back Will Brooks sprinted 20 yards for a pick six off walk-on quarterback Navy Shuler. And freshman Elijah Herring returned an interception 20 yards off a tipped pass.
Each defender was mopped by his teammates in the North end zone and Heupel expressed pleasure with the energy displayed by the unit.
The defense also recorded about four safeties, mostly on errant snaps from true freshman center Addison Nichols. Heupel said he wasn’t worried about the high snaps by Nichols, playing center for the first time. Heupel said Nichols will be a “great, not good’’ player for the Vols.
Milton made a couple of terrific throws, hitting Jack Jancek, son of former UT defensive coordinator John Jancek, with about a 50-yard scoring toss, and finding Ramel Keyton in stride on a perfectly thrown route up the left sideline for a gain of about 30 yards.
Len’Neth Whitehead ripped off a 30-yard run.
Running back Justin Williams-Thomas looks like a natural and displayed good balance, vision and power.
Tennessee’s starting offensive line was, front left to right, Jeremiah Crawford, Ollie Lane, Jerome Carvin, Javontez Spraggins and Darnell Wright, who played left tackle last season.
The second team offensive line: Florida transfer Gerald Mincey, James Robinson, Parker Ball, Jackson Lampley and RJ Perry.
Sponsored by Big Kahuna Wings: the wings that changed it all
Thompson Square Announce New Single and New Label Home
Thompson Square is back with new music, and a musical home.
Keifer and Shawna Thompson are now signed with Quartz Hill Records – and their first single is “Country In My Soul.”
The duo shared, “We really got back to our roots with the new music. In fact, roots is kind of what this song is all about. We’ve lived a lot of life in the last few years – we had a baby, we both lost parents – and our new music reflects a well-lived life, both the ups and the downs.”
Check out “Country In My Soul” here…
Photo Credit: Ford Fairchild
Cole Swindell’s New Album Stereotype is Available Now!
Cole Swindell’s new album, Stereotype, is out now!
As his new album was released, Cole sent out a special message to his fans on social media.
When it comes to the title track, and album, name “Stereotype,” Cole says “I had that title, and I just thought what a cool title that could be if you could write it a different way and I thought about you know instead of it being stereotyped what if it’s you got a girl that she’s the turning up my stereo type of girl and I just think, just a little twist like that is why I love song writing and also being able to…it may have a different meaning to some folks, you know, but…especially like me. Even artists get stereotyped about their music or think that this is all this guy can do or this is all he sings about, and I just think that stuff isn’t fair. That’s why you make albums and that’s why some people don’t listen to the whole album, they just know the recent single you got out there and I’m just being honest I think this album has a little bit everything and that’s why we thought it was cool the name it Stereotype and let people just think about that what they want.”
Cole thinks that fans will be able to relate to many of the songs on Stereotype, “I think there really is a song for everybody on here so that’s another thing I can’t wait to hear what everybody’s favorite is.”
Stereotype track listing;
1. “Stereotype” – Cole Swindell, Michael Hardy, Jordan Schmidt
2. “Every Beer” – Cole Swindell, Michael Hardy, Jordan Schmidt
3. “Never Say Never” (with Lainey Wilson) – Cole Swindell, Jessi Alexander, Chase McGill
4. “She Had Me At Heads Carolina” – Cole Swindell, Ashley Gorley, Jesse Frasure, Thomas Rhett, Mark D. Sanders, Tim Nichols
5. “Sayin’ You Love Me” – Mark Holman, Ernest K. Smith, James McNair
6. “I’m Gonna Let Her” – Dustin Lynch, Justin Ebach, Josh Thompson
7. “Down To The Bar” (featuring HARDY) – Cole Swindell, Michael Hardy, Jordan Schmidt, Josh Thompson
8. “How Is She” – Hunter Phelps, Brock Berryhill, Greylan James
9. “Miss Wherever” – Cole Swindell, Chris LaCorte, Luke Laird, Josh Miller
10. “Single Saturday Night” – Ashley Gorley, Michael Hardy and Mark Holman
11. “Some Habits” – Chris LaCorte, Josh Miller, Scooter Carusoe
12. “Girl Goes Crazy” – Cole Swindell, Michael Hardy, Ross Copperman
13. “Walk On Whiskey” – Randy Montana, Rodney Clawson, Jared Mullins
It’s been a while since Cole’s last album, All Of It, has come out, so he’s very excited to have new music for fans to listen to, “You know it’s always thrilling to have new stuff out that you’ve been working on, you’ve been waiting on people to hear but when it’s been you know over 3 years I think it’s even more exciting and just hopefully the fans are just as excited and you know because the buzz around us this duet with Lainey (Wilson) has been amazing and I’m just ready for them to hear the whole project.”
Stereotype includes Cole’s 2021 number-1 song “Single Saturday Night,” – Cole says, “I knew the first time I heard ‘Single Saturday Night’ that I had to record it. It could be for anybody. For anybody in a relationship…already had their last single Saturday night, or maybe for somebody looking for that special someone, heading out on the weekend looking to change it all.”
Cole is currently sitting in the Top-5 on the country airplay charts with his duet with Lainey Wilson, “Never Say Never.”
Cole shares the story behind the song, “’Never Say Never’ is a song that I wrote several years ago with Chase McGill and Jesse Alexander and I’m so thankful to have Lainey Wilson on it. It’s just you know about a relationship that probably isn’t good for either person and it’s just hard to say no sometimes it’s comfortable and even though it’s not doing any good you keep going back and you keep going back and it’s just one of those things you know I think a lot of people can relate to it, everybody’s had that person that could never say never to.”
Cole Swindell’s album Stereotype is available now.
Photo Courtesy of Cole Swindell
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