Keith Urban knows what his fans want to hear when he heads out on his The Speed Of Now World Tour 2022…because he asked them!
Keith posted on his social media “working on the setlist for tour and decided to call a few friends for suggestions. there’s no one better out there to help than all of YOU ! drop a song (or ten) that you want to hear.”
Watch as Keith makes his calls to get requests…
Fans in the US will get to hear their requests played live starting in June, after Keith returns from the “World” part of his tour as he travels around the UK and Europe performing in April and May.
One request a lot of fans will be looking to hear from Keith Urban is his current single at country radio – “Wild Hearts”
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – No. 7/9 Tennessee picked up a hard-fought win on the road on Sunday, taking down the Razorbacks, 70-63, at Bud Walton Arena.
Tennessee (13-1, 2-0 SEC) had five players in double figures, with junior Tamari Key leading the team with 17 and graduate Alexus Dye recording a double-double with 13 points and 10 rebounds. Graduate Jordan Walker finished with 13, junior Jordan Horston had 12 and graduate Keyen Green rounded out the scoring with 11.
Amber Ramirez was the leading scorer for Arkansas (10-4, 0-1 SEC) with 26 while, Makayla Daniels added 11.
Lady Vols C Tamari Key / Credit: UT Athletics
UT went right to work, winning the tip before Walker found Key breaking to the bucket for an open layup in the opening seconds. That layup would be the first of four straight baskets the Lady Vols scored in the paint, stretching their lead to 8-0 less than two minutes into play. Ramirez scored Arkansas’ first points with a trey on the next possession, but Walker responded with a three of her own on the other end, and a pair of free throws by Horston stretched UT’s lead to 10 by the 6:21 mark. The Razorbacks would trim that lead down to four two and a half minutes later, and the Lady Vols would maintain that margin until Jersey Wolfenbarger hit a free throw to cut the score to 20-17 at the end of the quarter.
Green scored the first points of the second period with a layup, before Daniels hit a 3-pointer to pull UA within two. Green scored again on the next possession, kicking off a 9-0 UT run that put the Lady Vols up by 11 with 7:37 left in the half. Four straight points by Ramirez and Wolfenbarger, however, set off a 14-2 Razorback run that gave Arkansas its first lead of the game at 34-33 with 1:18 on the clock. Walker hit a pair of free throws in the closing seconds to give UT a 35-34 halftime lead.
UA reclaimed the lead to start the third, scoring on back-to-back possessions before Dye dropped in a layup to cut the deficit to one. A pair of free throws and a trey by Elauna Eaton put the Razorbacks up 43-37 by the media break, but Green answered by knocking down a contested jumper in the lane following the timeout. Five straight points by Ramirez would give UA an eight-point lead with just over two minutes left in the period, but the Lady Vols responded, closing out the third with a 5-0 run to pull within three at 48-45.
Tennessee continued its run with three straight points to start the final stanza, tying it up at 48-all less than a minute into the fourth. Samara Spencer hit her first trey of the game on the next play, but Tennessee rallied back with back-to-back layups by Dye and Walker to reclaim the lead at 52-51. Ramirez countered with another 3-pointer, but Key converted on an old-fashioned three-point play to put UT back up by one with 5:51 left in the game. She went on to stretch the lead to three off a pair of free throws before Ramirez again tied it up with a trey on the other end. The Lady Vols built their lead up to six by the 2:04 mark with an 8-2 run, going four of five from the free-throw line during that span. The Razorbacks crept within three off a three-point play by Spencer with 41 seconds remaining, but Walker came up with a layup on the other end, and the Lady Vols added two free throws in the closing seconds to make the final score 70-63.
UP NEXT: The Lady Vols return home for a Top-25 matchup against #23/17 Texas A&M. The game will tip at 6:30 p.m. ET and be broadcast on SEC Network.
DOUBLE-DOUBLES CONTINUE: Graduate Alexus Dye recorded her third double-double as a Lady Vol with 13 points and 10 rebounds. Tennessee has managed 16 double-doubles on the season with at least one UT player recording a double-double in 13 of 14 contests.
DEFENSE ON POINT: UT held the Razorbacks to a field goal percentage of just 30.3 percent, almost 11 percent below their season average of 43.2 percent. Tennessee has held all 14 foes in 2021-22 to 36 percent shooting or below and 10 of 14 opponents to 31 percent or lower. Tennessee ranks No. 1 in the NCAA in field goal percentage defense at 30.2 percent.
RAE RETURNS: Senior Rae Burrell returned to the court for her first game action since suffering an injury in the season opener vs. Southern Illinois on Nov. 10. She played 12 minutes and converted on one of her two shots to add two points to the victory.
DROPPING 20s: After tallying 20 in the opening stanza vs. Arkansas, Tennessee has scored 20+ first-quarter points in its last four games and in five of its last six contests. The Lady Vols had no 20-point first-frame effort through their first eight contests this season. UT also has accumulated 12 20-point quarters in its last four games, including four vs. ETSU and UTC, two vs. Alabama and Arkansas.
RALLYING THE TROOPS: Tennessee overcame an eight-point Arkansas lead in the third quarter and recorded its 11th come-from-behind win of the season. UT also overcame a three-point fourth-quarter deficit to card its fifth final-frame comeback of the year.
Dustin Lynch and MacKenzie Porter ended 2021 with the number-one song in country music, and here in the first week of 2022 they are at it again as “Thinking ‘Bout You” is the first chart topper of the new year.
Upon learning he and MacKenzie now had the number-1 spot for 5 weeks in a row, Dustin shared, “HUGE! What a way to kick off 2022!” He also teased fans with “more news coming soon.”
While Dustin and MacKenzie have been all over country radio with their hit song, fans who listen Dustin’s 2020 album, Tullahoma hear a different version of the track.
The album version of “Thinking ‘Bout You” features Lauren Alaina.
Dustin shares the story behind why Lauren is on the album version of the song, “We knew it was especially the day we wrote it. The original version that’s on the Tullahoma album… Lauren Alaina joined – which was a natural fit, we just got off tour together and it’s so tough to lineup two artists schedules to release a song together…we’ve learned that. We knew that going in and we just could not make it work to where she could join us on this release.”
Dustin explains how MacKenzie Porter then became involved on “Thinking ‘Bout You”,”I asked my team I said ‘Man this may be a crazy idea but what if we reach out to several younger artists and see if they’ll be up for auditioning to maybe be a part of the song?’ and we had great success with that. We had a lot of submissions of newer artists in Nashville…pretty much audition for this slot, and I didn’t want to be persuaded by names or what they had going on in their careers I just wanted them numbered so that all their auditions were sent to me just numbered and I chose my favorite number – my team actually agreed on the same number and it ended up being MacKenzie Porter’s version.”
Dustin adds, “Upon me discovering that was I started digging in to whom MacKenzie was as a person and as a talent and she’s just unbelievable she’s a great songwriter a great singer she’s got a amazing tone and she’s a great actress she does it all well!”
Dustin and MacKenzie are now spending their 5th week at number-one on the Billboard country airplay chart with “Thinking ‘Bout You.”
Photo Courtesy of Dustin Lynch and MacKenzie Porter
Purdue needed 4 hours and 38 minutes to dispatch of Tennessee 48-45 in overtime in the when-will-this-ever-end Music City Bowl game last week in Nashville.
Several factors contributed to what might have been the longest college football game ever played.
Among them: 93 points, 56 first downs, 19 penalties, 10 touchdown passes and more than half-a-dozen fake injuries.
Fake injuries – mainly by the defense – have become an epidemic in college football, thanks to the increasing number of up-tempo offenses.
Purdue must have had six apparent fake injuries.
Earlier in the season, Ole Miss must have had about 10 in a win at Neyland Stadium.
Tennessee isn’t exempt from this unethical practice. About six times this year – including once in the Music City Bowl – Tennessee had a player go down with an injury on an extra-point attempt.
In my 37 years of covering Tennessee football, I don’t recall a player being injured on an extra point – until this year.
And during that Ole Miss game, a Tennessee assistant was caught on camera signaling an offensive lineman to flop after his helmet was dislodged and he was jogging off the field. UT didn’t have a sub ready so the lineman hit the deck to avoid a timeout and to allow for a replacement.
All these fake injuries have drawn the ire of many a coach.
It has also caught the attention of Steve Shaw, the national coordinator of college football officials who used to be the head of SEC officials.
Shaw has called the practice a “bad look’’ for the game and questioned the “integrity’’ of such antics.
He’s right.
Shaw said during an interview last month on SportsTalk, 99.1 The Sports Animal, that the NCAA rules committee two years ago asked coaches to monitor the situation because it wasn’t fair to ask officials to discern whether a player was really hurt.
“It’s an integrity issue,’’ Shaw said. “We needed, from a coaching perspective, to see if the coaches could take care of it. That didn’t seem to get it done.’’
No, it didn’t.
“It’s a bad look,’’ Shaw said. “It’s not the life-lesson we want to teach players, so we’re going to keep working to get it out of our game.’’
Shaw said that this year, the rules committee allowed schools to appeal to Shaw for video review of fake injuries, which, in turn, would be relayed to the offending school’s athletic director.
Shaw said he received six official claims.
“Each of those six was pretty obvious and straight forward,’’ Shaw said. “We turned it back to the athletic director to take a further look. In conversation with those athletic directors, they were embarrassed and they assured us they would take care of it. A few of them probably helped.’’
But as Shaw noted: “We still have an issue.’’
Said Shaw: “I think we’re probably going to have to do something `next step.’ The rules committee doesn’t want to go there, but `next step’ probably includes additional playing time for the player injured to sit out.’’
Some have suggested the injured player sit for three or four plays, or for the rest of the possession.
But some coaches have argued that what if a key player gets the wind knocked out of him; does he have to sit for four plays when he could return after one?
Shaw said one suggestion has been to allow a coach to call a timeout so the injured player doesn’t miss any plays “assuming the medical staff’’ clears the player to return. “That would be an expensive way for a coach to get a guy back in the game,’’ Shaw said.
Another idea: Allow the team with the injured player to only sub for that player. Also, don’t allow teams to huddle as if a timeout had been called.
Shaw said another thought is to allow a defense to make a substitution the first 10 seconds of the play clock so the offense can’t run a play until at least :30 remains before the snap.
“With the up-tempo coaches,’’ Shaw said, “that is highly unpopular.’’
Shaw said the fake injury phenomenon has made it difficult on officials who already have a difficult job.
“From an officiating standpoint, we have to honor the injury,’’ Shaw said. “There’s no way our officials can make a judgment on if a player is injured or not. If they (players) are down, we have to stop the game.’’
But Shaw said if you make that player sit for several plays, that could get the attention of the player – and the coach.
“What we’ve learned is, if you take playing time away from players,’’ Shaw said, “that is there most precious commodity. That really has an impact.’’
Shaw expects some rule with some teeth to be implemented this offseason.
“We’ve got to find a way to take care of this because it’s a bad look for the game,’’ Shaw said. “It’s a difficult (issue) but the rules committee will have to take a next step. We’ll just have to see what the next step will be. But based on the outcome of the last two seasons, I don’t think we’ll do nothing.’’
Did you stay up New Year’s Eve to see the Note drop during Nashville’s Big Bash?
Did you catch all the awesome performances?
Well, you can re-live all those great songs here with appearances from Luke Bryan, Cole Swindell, Lainey Wilson, KingCalaway, Gabby Barrett, Jason Aldean, Brooks & Dunn, Darius Rucker, Blake Shelton, Dierks Bentley, Ingrid Andress, Lady A, BRELAND, Jon Pardi, Riley Green, & Chris Janson
Photo Courtesy of Dierks Bentley, Lady A, Ingrid Andress
Lainey Wilson greeted 2022 the same way she hopes to spend most of her time this year…on stage.
Check out Lainey and King Calaway‘s medley of “Straight Up Sideways” and “American Woman” …
While Tim McGraw and Faith Hill have 1883 (the new series steaming on Paramount Plus) covered, Lainey Wilson has a special featurette in honor of Yellowstone‘s season 4 finale.
Lainey shares her own story, talks about her favorite character on the hit show, and performs 3 songs (1 from her 2018 self-titled EP, and 2 from her album, Sayin’What I’m Thinkin’ which came out in 2021)
Watch the segment (which was made in partnership with Fritos) here…
Lainey and Cole Swindell will be jumping into 2022 in a big way as their new duet is one of the hottest new single on country radio – “Never Say Never”
The 2022 NHL Winter Classic was one for the ages – as St. Louis Blues defeated the Minnesota Wild 6 to 4 at Target Field in sub-zero weather on New Year’s Day.
Thomas Rhett was there representing country music and trying to heart things up a little bit.
Thomas shared, “Thanks to everyone for staying and listening to us play in -10 degree weather last!! Coldest hockey game in NHL history. Wow. Love y’all!!”
Performing his hit songs “What’s Your Country Song” and “T-Shirt” – watch Thomas Rhett score at the Winter Classic hockey game…
Now that the Winter Classic is done, Thomas will turn his attention to summer…and slowing it down…check out the music vide for his single “Slow Down Summer”
Headline Photo Courtesy of Thomas Rhett Additional Photos Credit: Aaron Davis
