New Music Friday:
• “Damn Country Music“, Tim McGraw. His guests include Big & Rich on the song “California”, and his daughter Gracie McGraw on the track “Here Tonight”.
• “The 21 Project“, Hunter Hayes. This is a 3-disc set where he performs seven songs three ways: acoustic, live, and in-studio.
“The Cadillac Three“, the debut album of country rockers The Cadillac Three.
• “Meat and Candy“, the debut album of Old Dominion
• “Front Row Seat“, the Josh Abbott Band.
• “Genuine: The Alan Jackson Story“, Alan Jackson. A Wal-Mart exclusive that features 59 of his previous recordings plus eight never-released tracks. You can check out the song “Ain’t Just a Southern Thing”, here.
“Billboard’s” 10 Things to Know About Chris Stapleton
Now that everyone’s suddenly discovered CHRIS STAPLETON, Billboard.com did a “10 Things to Know” about him. Here are some highlights:
He’s a prolific writer. His songs have been recorded by Luke Bryan, Miranda Lambert, Jason Aldean, Brad Paisley, and Adele, and that’s a very small sample. According to Wikipedia, over 150 of his songs have appeared on other artist’s albums.
“Traveller”is his first solo album. He’s been in two bands, The Steel Drivers and The Jompson Brothers . . . but “Traveller” is the first project credited to him alone.
Whiskey is one of his favorite subjects to write songs about. Here are a few: “Drinkin’ Dark Whiskey”, “Whiskey and You”, “Guitars, Whiskey, Guns and Knives”, “Good Corn Liquor”, “Drinkin’ Alone”, and “Hangover Tonight”.
He’s a vocal defender of country music. He once said, quote, “As long as people want to buy country music and go see live shows, as long as they’re doing that for somebody, it’s good for everybody.”
Jason Aldean’s Music is Back on Spotify . . . Because His Fans Asked for It
It was about a year ago when JASON ALDEAN pulled his music from Spotify. At the time, it was about making sure the creative people behind the scenes got paid for their hard work. Well, on Wednesday, all six of his albums were back on Spotify.
And then yesterday he hit up Facebook to tell us why. Quote, “I’ve heard from you, the fans, all summer on the road and online that you miss being able to stream my music. I definitely want you to find it easily, so we’ve decided to make it available again.”
Keith Urban’s Mom is Still Trying to Find Stuff for His Hall of Fame Exhibit
KEITH URBAN’sexhibit at Nashville’s Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum opens two weeks from today, but he still doesn’t know what’ll be in it. Quote, “I don’t quite know what the whole exhibit’s gonna be yet because they’re still putting it together.
“My mom’s been feverishly looking for old photographs and clothes I used to wear when I was a kid on stage. My dad used to make clothes for me to wear on stage. He made them and my guitar strap. Yeah, it’s crazy.”
Wednesday’s “CMA Awards” on ABC was the most watched show of the night, pulling in 13.6 million viewers. That’s a slight ratings dip from last year . . . but still enough to beat Fox’s “Empire”, which had 11.6 million. It was the first time any network has beaten Fox in that time slot since “Empire” debuted back in January. (ABC)