February 2020

The nominees for the ACM Awards 2020 have been released, with Thomas Rhett and Maren Morris both set for a busy night with five nominations each. Rhett has been nominated for Entertainer of the Year, Male Artist of the Year, Album of the Year for ‘Center Point Road’ and Video of the Year for Remember You Young, while Morris is up for Female Artist of the Year, Album of the Year for ‘GIRL’, Group of the Year for her role in The Highwomen and Musical Event of the Year for her featuring role on Miranda Lambert’s Fooled Around and Fell in Love. Due to how ACM Awards work, if an artist is a producer for an Album of the Year nominee, it technically counts as two awards as producers get one too – hence why both have five nomination. Elsewhere, Carrie Underwood and Eric Church are both up for Entertainer of the Year, though without Garth Brooks like at the CMA Awards, while Underwood is also nominated for Female Artist of the Year. Church meanwhile, has Some of It nominated for Song of the Year. It will also be a busy night for Dan + Shay and Old Dominion, who are nominated for four awards each – Dan + Shay for  Duo of the Year, Song of the Year, Musical Event of the Year and Video of the Year (the latter three all for 10,000 Hours featuring Justin Bieber), while Old Dominion are up for Group of the Year, Single of the Year, Song of the Year and Video of the Year (the last three all for One Man Band). The ACM Awards 2020 nominees are: Entertainer of the Year Luke Bryan Eric Church Luke Combs Thomas Rhett Carrie Underwood Female Artist of the Year Kelsea Ballerini Miranda Lambert Maren Morris Kacey Musgraves Carrie Underwood Male Artist of the Year Dierks Bentley Luke Combs Thomas Rhett Chris Stapleton Keith Urban Duo of the Year Brooks & Dunn Brothers Osborne Dan + Shay Florida Georgia Line Maddie & Tae Group of the Year Lady Antebellum Little Big Town Midland Old Dominion The Highwomen New Female Artist of the Year Ingrid Andress Gabby Barrett Lindsay Ell Caylee Hammack Tenille Townes New Male Artist of the Year Jordan Davis Russell Dickerson Riley Green Cody Johnson Morgan Wallen Album of the Year ‘Center Point Road’ – Thomas Rhett (Julian Bunetta, Jesse Frasure, Dann Huff, Thomas Rhett, The Stereotypes, Cleve Wilson) ‘GIRL’ – Maren Morris (busbee, Greg Kurstin, Maren Morris) ‘Heartache Medication’ – Jon Pardi (Bart Butler, Ryan Gore, Jon Pardi) ‘What You See Is What You Get’ – Luke Combs (Scott Moffatt) ‘Wildcard’ – Miranda Lambert (Jay Joyce) Single of the Year God’s Country – Blake Shelton One Man Band – Old Dominion Rainbow – Kacey Musgraves Rumor – Lee Brice What If I Never Get Over You – Lady Antebellum Song of the Year 10,000 Hours – Dan + Shay ft. Justin Bieber Girl Goin’ Nowhere – Ashley McBryde God’s Country – Blake Shelton One Man Band – Old Dominion Some of It – Eric Church Video of the Year 10,000 Hours – Dan + Shay ft. Justin Bieber God’s Country – Blake Shelton One Man Band – Old Dominion Remember You Young – Thomas Rhett Sugar Coat – Little Big Town Songwriter of the Year Ashley Gorley Michael Hardy Hillary Lindsey Shane McAnally Josh Osborne Musical Event of the Year 10,000 Hours – Dan + Shay ft. Justin Bieber Dive Bar – Garth Brooks ft. Blake Shelton Fooled Around and Fell in Love – Miranda Lambert ft. Maren Morris, Ashley McBryde, Tenille Townes, Caylee Hammack & Elle King Old Town Road – Lil Nas X ft. Billy Ray Cyrus What Happens In a Small Town  – Brantley Gilbert ft. Lindsay Ell

Country in the Afternoon will be returning to the Half Moon in Putney for a third time between May 16-17, with Blake O’Connor and John Gurney headlining. Tickets are on sale for the Saturday here and the Sunday here. The first Country in the Afternoon premiered in 2019 and was a huge hit, to the point that the two-day daytime event has been allowed to continue and to provide fantastic entertainment in the process. This time around, there are four international artists and four UK artists, but all four of the continental acts will be making their London debuts at the event. The four acts in question are O’Connor, who won the Toyota Star Maker award in Australia last year, multi-million selling artist Jeremy McComb, Ruthie Collins and Gurney. O’Connor and McComb will perform on the Saturday, while Collins and Gurney will be performing on the Sunday. As for the UK acts, three-time Grammy winner Sandy McLelland will be performing, as will upcoming dup Gasoline & Matches, Scottish singer/songwriter Chris Mossop and 17-year-old prodigy Megan Louise, who impressed many with her performances at Millport Country Music Festival 2019. Tickets are priced at £17.50 per day and the event takes place between 12:30 and 5pm.  

The Rising have released a studio version of their cover of Love Machine by Girls Aloud, which represents the first phase of a new strategy from the trio. You can listen to the song here. Made up of Chantelle McAteer and Chris Logan, the band are now operating predominantly as a duo and their new strategy is to release a new single a month for the foreseeable future. The song came about after they were asked to come up with an unexpected cover for a BBC Introducing session, which subsequently received a very positive response, to the point that they have opted to release it as a single. The re-imagined version of the 2004 Girls Aloud song, which peaked at Number Two on the UK charts upon its release, features cowbell and banjo and is a totally different version to the original, while Pete Maher (U2, Rolling Stones, The Killers, Snow Patrol) mastered the song. Later on in 2020, The Rising are planning to embark on a UK and Ireland tour, with one date already pencilled in for March 2020 and with many more set to follow. Full dates can be found on the band’s website, which can be accessed here.  

Just a year after his last release, Willie Nelson will be putting out a new album on April 24, which will be titled ‘First Rose of Spring’. You can pre-order the album here. Last summer, iconic star Nelson released ‘Ride Me Back Home’, of which the title track won Best Country Solo Performance at the recent Grammy Awards, but his immediate return to the studio for a new record will come as a surprise to many. While Nelson has joined forces with his long-time associate Buddy Cannon, ‘First Rose of Spring’ has also seen him work with a number of younger songwriters, while he will also cover Our Song by Chris Stapleton. The tracklisting for ‘First Rose of Spring’ by Willie Nelson is: 1. First Rose of Spring – (Randy Houser, Allen Shamblin, Mark Beeson) 2. Blue Star – (Willie Nelson, Buddy Cannon) 3. I’ll Break Out Again Tonight – (Sanger ‘Whitey’ Shafer, Doodle Owens) 4. Don’t Let The Old Man In – (Toby Keith) 5. Just Bummin’ Around – (Pete Graves) 6. Our Song – (Chris Stapleton) 7. We Are the Cowboys – (Billy Joe Shaver) 8. Stealing Home (Marla Cannon-Goodman, Casey Beathard, Don Sampson) 9. I’m The Only Hell My Mama Ever Raised – (Wayne Kemp, Bobby Borchers, Mack Vickery) 10. Love Just Laughed –(Nelson, Cannon) 11. Yesterday When I Was Young (Hier Encore) – (Charles Aznavour, Herbert Kretzmer)

Nashville based duo Haley & Michaels have released their first UK radio single in the shape of fan favourite Drinking About You. You can listen to the song here. The song was co-written with Jeff Cohen (Sugarland, The Shires) and Zach Abend (Chris Lane, Filmore) and had gained a fair bit of traction in the US and beyond before being cherry picked as a single, with two million streams to its name on Spotify alone. Speaking about the song, Haley & Michaels – made up of Shannon Haley and Ryan Michaels – said that the song is indicative of their sound and representative of them as musicians, while they also tried to incorporate as many influences as they possible could within the song. “Drinking About You really defines our sound and who we are as artists and songwriter,” the duo said. “We really wanted to capture both perspectives in a relationship in a way that highlights the raw honesty of country songs and also incorporates all of our musical influences in Country, Pop and Rock N’ Roll. We’re really excited to have this song as our first release in the UK!” Haley & Michaels will be at C2C this year for a number of performances and have just added another one for the Sunday in London, where they will partake in an acoustic set as part of the Country Hits Radio Sessions.

Fast rising duo O&O have released another new single in the shape of Dancing on the Floor, which has arrived a couple of months after their last release. You can listen to the track here. Dancing on the Floor arrives hot on the heels of the last song that the duo – made up of Obadiah Jones and Orian Peled – released, which was titled Here We Are. Speaking about the track, the duo said that Dancing on the Floor allows them to embrace a more rockier side of their sound and that when they recorded it in Liverpool, they had full license to let rip. “The track further explores our rockier side, which we have previously dabbled with on Truth Comes Out,” the pair said.  “For this song, we delved into the world of vices to question why we humans are often drawn to do exactly what we shouldn’t. “The opening guitar riff, which sprang to hand almost fully formed, was the inspiration and driving force of the track. Recorded at our favourite studio, The Cabin (Liverpool), we had free reign to crank up the distortion controls.” O&O are currently on a UK tour and have a special headline date in London locked in on April 24, which will see them perform at The Spice of Life with Demi Marriner and Robbie Cavanagh as their support acts. O&O will be playing: February 25 – The Bristol Fringe, Bristol, England February 27 – Barnoldswick Music & Arts Centre, Barnoldswick, England February 28 – Old School BBQ Bus, Manchester, England March 5 – The Bedford, London, England April 24 – The Spice of Life, London, England

Kenny Chesney has released a new song in the shape of Here and Now, which came hot on the heels of a huge personal accolade for the artist. You can listen to the song here. During the 2020 Country Radio Seminar at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Chesney became the recipient of the Country Radio Broadcasters’ Humanitarian of the Year Award and the release of this track came hot on the heels of that. Speaking about the single, which is due to be own his upcoming record that will drop in spring, Chesney said that he is only limited in what he can do in regards to how the world works, but he is doing his bit tot ry and give his fans some relief and to help them leave their worries at the door for a few hours. “There is so much in the world we can’t change and you can get so caught up in that, you miss your life,” Chesney said.  “I can’t save the world, but I can make music that makes people happy, play shows that let them forget their problems for an evening – and occasionally cut a song that maybe reminds all of us what we ought to be embracing.” The song was created during a writing retreat that Chesney staged in Malibu and was written with David Lee Murphy, Craig Wiseman and David Garcia. Kenny Chesney is due to embark on a stadium tour across the US as of April, which will conclude at the end of August. There is a date at the Nissan Stadium in Nashville pencilled in, which takes place on June 27. 

Iconic country music star Reba McEntire has returned to Universal Music Group Nashville after an 11-year stint away from the label. McEntire‘s hugely successful first 32 years as an artist were on UMG Nashville labels Mercury and then MCA Records, where she experienced 33 Number One singles and sold over 56 million albums. In 2009, McEntire left for Valory Records, which is an offshoot of Big Machine Records – who ironically distribute through Universal – but surprised everyone at the industry only audience at the Ryman Auditorium for the UMG Nashville Luncheon at Country Radio Seminar when she took to the stage to perform, subsequently announcing the news. Speaking about re-signing for UMG Nashville, McEntire said that she is delighted to be back and that she cannot wait to get stuck into her older songs, which suggests that a possible remaster collection could be on the horizon. “It’s a wonderful feeling to be back with the family where I started,” Reba said. “I am thrilled because my catalogue is here at Universal and I’m really excited to revisit all the songs that I recorded many years ago. We’re going to have a lot of fun.” In March, McEntire will embark on her first arena headline tour in nine years and will be taking Caylee Hammack as her support act, while she is also still continuing her residency stay in Las Vegas with Brooks & Dunn.

Upcoming Nashville based artist Kate Kelly has released her latest track Quiet as a Mouse, which sees her venture down a different musical path. You can watch the video below. [wpdevart_youtube]TnMJAR9odkE[/wpdevart_youtube] Kelly, whose previous releases in the ‘New Heartbeat EP’ and her debut album ‘The Wonder of it All’ were very much influenced by soul and jazz, has gone for a more ambient, country based sound with her new music. Speaking about the song, Kelly said that it was written in the aftermath of a relationship split and how she felt at the time, while also stating that writing the song helped her in many ways. “I wrote Quiet as a Mouse several years ago as I explored feelings of abandonment after a breakup,” Kelly explains. “It was an all-consuming emotion, one that I felt in my body and in the passing of time. “This song became important to write as I learned how much of myself could be regained through being left alone. It is an exploration of being left, leaving and saying goodbye. There is strength in our endings if we honour the pain” Originally from the Gulf coast of Alabama, Kate Kelly moved to Nashville initially to study musical therapy at Belmont University, before deciding that she wanted to pursue a career as a musician.

A freshly conducted study from CMT has proved that an overwhelming majority of country music fans want equal play for female artists on country radio. In conjunction with Coleman Insights Media Research, CMT surveyed 1000 listeners aged between 25 and 54 and specifically screened for listeners who either “love country radio and would listen all the time,” “like country radio a lot and would listen frequently,” or “like country radio and would listen occasionally.” The results showed that 88% of listeners believe that females play a huge part in the genre, 84% want equal play for female artists and about seven in 10 want more female artists involved with country music. In addition, 72% of fans have noticed that they listen to men more than women on country radio, but a small majority of fans (53%) don’t actually have a preference of gender. Finally, the study found that 44% of listeners would be more interested in a radio station that heavily features female artists, while 28% of listeners would listen to country radio more if more females were involved, compared to the 11% who said they would listen less with more female artists. The survey results further prove that people want to listen to female artists and it will be interesting to see what happens next. It has been no secret that country radio in America is very male dominant and the issue doesn’t look like going away anytime soon.