George Strait Doing Surprise Show Somewhere in Texas

Craig Campbell’s “Outskirts of Heaven” Actually Saved a Guy’s Life

Here’s an example of how powerful music can be.  CRAIG CAMPBELL says a fan sent him a message on Facebook thanking him for his song Outskirts of Heaven . . . because it literally saved his life.

The guy had lost his father and was thinking of committing suicide because he couldn’t imagine living without him.

Craig says, quote, “And then he heard the song and had an immediate, peaceful feeling as if his dad was saying, ‘Man, I’m good.  You don’t have to worry about me.  I’m up here in this place.  I’m fishing.  We’re good.  I’ll see you when you get here.'”

Here’s the chorus, and you can see how it’s relatable:  “But Lord when I die I wanna live / On the outskirts of heaven / Where there’s dirt roads for miles, hay in the fields / And fish in the river.”

Craig says he didn’t expect it would be a healing song, but, obviously, he’s thrilled people are responding to it. “Outskirts of Heaven” will be on his next album, which is due out sometime next year.


Karen Fairchild Once Ditched the Cops by Driving Down a Dirt Road

 LITTLE BIG TOWN played a game of “Stranger Strings” with JIMMY FALLON on Monday’s“Tonight Show”.  The title borrows from the show “Stranger Things” . . . because the game is played with Silly String.

Here’s how it went down:  They each wrote an unknown fact about themselves on a card.  As each card was read out loud everyone would spray Silly String on the person they assumed it was about.

The best one came from KAREN FAIRCHILD who wrote, “I once ditched the cops by driving down a dirt road with my mom in the car.”  Yep, one of those maneuvers that only happens in movies . . . but it worked, and saved her from getting a ticket.

Other good ones were KIMBERLY SCHLAPMAN, who can count to 10 in Korean . . . and PHILLIP SWEET, who does a mean Michael McDonald impression.  And he proved it.


Holly Dunn Has Died

HOLLY DUNN passed away yesterday after battling a rare and aggressive form of ovarian cancer.  She was 59 years old.  She had a string of hits in the late ’80s and early ’90s, including Daddy’s Hands and You Really Had Me Going.

She retired from music in 2003 to become a full-time artist and painter.


GEORGE STRAIT is doing a show at a Texas dancehall tonight to promote his Walmart exclusive set “Strait Out of the Box: Part 2”, which is out Friday.  The show will be live-streamed starting at 8:00 P.M. atStrait.WranglerNetwork.com.


KEITH URBAN paid tribute to the late LEONARD COHEN at his show on Friday in Nashville.  He sang a verse of Cohen’s classic “Hallelujah”, and posted the video on Facebook.  He wrote, “RIP Leonard.  And thank you for being a vessel of glory on high.”  (Careful:  There’s a lot of crowd noise that could be hiding profanities.)