October 2022

Chris Tomlin, who TIME magazine heralded as the “most often sung artist in the world” as 20-30 million people around the globe sing his songs in church every week, co-hosted the 53rd Annual GMA Dove Awards earlier this week and was honored with the 28th Dove award of his career. Tomlin received his Dove award in the Christmas/Special Event Album of the Year category for his 2021 Christmas album, Emmanuel: Christmas Songs of Worship. Tomlin hosted the Dove Awards, for the first time, with multi-platinum selling artist Erica Campbell, half of the Gospel duo Mary Mary. This year’s broadcast exclusively aired earlier tonight on TBN and the TBN app, Friday, October 21st, 2022 and will re-air at 10:00p.m. ET, with encore presentations on October 28th, 2022, at 8:00p.m. ET and 10:00p.m. ET. Tomlin recently shared with People.com “Viewers can look forward to not only an incredible night of celebration but also of amazing music and worship. We will get to come together and celebrate the artists who have paved the way, the artists of today, and hopefully help inspire and launch the generation to come.” The recognition at the Dove Awards continues the tremendous success Tomlin has experienced since last fall including a CMT ‘Crossroads Christmas’ performance with Brett Young, Tomlin’s annual ‘Good Friday Nashville’ expanding globally with an exclusive live premiere on Facebook, setting a career attendance record with an unprecedented concert at Los Angeles’ Banc of California Stadium, becoming the first Christian artist to play three sets of back-to-back concerts at Red Rocks Amphitheater, being selected as a one of four CMA ‘Artists of the Day’ during 2022 CMA Fest, performing a song from his new album ALWAYS on the Kelly Clarkson Show earlier this month and currently sitting in the Top 5 on the Christian chart with radio single “Always.”  In November Tomlin will launch the first of two headline concert tours out before the end of this year: the third leg of the “Tomlin UNITED Tour,” named by Pollstar as a ‘Top 10 Worldwide Tour,’ kicking off November 3 and the “Chris Tomlin X MercyMe: A Winter Tour” scheduled for Dec. 1-13. In September Tomlin released, ALWAYS, a new full-length worship album. The project contains 13-tracks all of which were co-written by Tomlin except for the historical and beloved hymn “Oh Lord, You’re Beautiful” which features Steffany Gretzinger. The Tennessean claimed, “For three decades, Christian musical artist Chris Tomlin’s been as much a faith leader as a songwriter, able to parlay his faith in spirituality into influential and popular music. Via ALWAYS, his seventeenth album, he surges forward from leader to legend in the worlds of gospel and contemporary Christian music…The 17-time Christian radio chart-topper releases new music that cements his legendary status in the genre.” Elevation Worship, Brandon Lake and Lady A also appear on the album. The album’s title track is Tomlin’s current radio single and is a nod to Hebrews 13:8, “Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever.” The project was produced by Ben Glover, Jeff Sojka, Bryan Fowler, Ed Cash, Jonathan Smith and Dave Haywood of Lady A co-produced “The Answer.”

Kenny Chesney returned to East Tennessee State University to help honor the founder of his alma mater’s Bluegrass, Old-Time and Roots Music Studies Program, Jack Tottle. The internationally acclaimed program, which has graduated GRAMMY-, International Bluegrass Music Association-, Country Music Association- and Academy of Country Music Awards winners, is celebrating its 40th Anniversary as part of Homecoming Weekend. “Jack Tottle taught me how to dream, or inspired me to have the ability to dream enough to believe I could do this,” Chesney said of the renowned program creator, considered a global expert on bluegrass and roots music, as well as an accomplished musician. “He showed me that music could make connections beyond what we see, that it could communicate beyond language or location. He took us – the ETSU Bluegrass Band – to Russia as part of a cultural exchange and made that idea real.” A surprise guest at the celebration, Chesney was welcomed to the stage by President Brian Noland midway through the evening to shrieks from the audience. Noland and Provost Kimberly McCorkle awarded the four-time CMA and four-time consecutive ACM Entertainer of the Year an honorary doctorate of letters. After the current ETSU Bluegrass Pride Band performed “Me & You,” President Noland explained to the audience, “He is a paradigm-shifting artist who helped define country music in the 21st Century, selling out stadiums across the world… He is an inspiration, reminding the world — through his art and the example he sets — to live life with joy, humor, passion, and soul.  “Here at ETSU, we have issued a challenge to our faculty, staff and students to ‘go beyond.’ Mr. Chesney, soon to be Dr. Chesney, you exemplify that ideal. You have gone beyond genres, unifying people through your art and your work. You have gone beyond borders, sharing your amazing talent all over the world. And you have gone beyond yourself, using your voice to uplift others and give back to communities.” Taking the stage, the clearly moved songwriter/superstar delivered remarks that spoke of how much the program, region and especially the experiences in the choir, Bluegrass band and playing the local bars shaped his sense of what mattered in terms of music and songs. He drew laughter, saying he was going to make his road family refer to him as “Dr. Chesney” and surprised many by reciting the Quadratic Formula to show he was paying attention in class. “To say I wouldn’t dream this is an understatement,” Chesney explains. “I was spending most of my time at Chucky’s Trading Post, the Downhome, Quarterback’s BBQ and in the rooms at the music building, practicing my guitar. All I wanted was to get a song on the radio, write some things I could be proud of and get out on the road and have some fun. “My tour manager and a couple of my friends from back here are still out there with me, but I don’t think any of us would’ve seen this coming. But that’s why no matter what you dream, you have to just keep dreaming and believing.” Chesney’s degree was awarded earlier in the evening so he could be part of the presentation to Jack Tottle, who had started the program. A well-known historian, player and journalist, Tottle devoted the ‘80s and ‘90s to creating a program that would inspire young musicians – including Amythyst Kiah, Tim Stafford, Adam Steffey, Ron Block, Becky Buller and the program’s current director Dan Boner – to use music as a way to bring people together, to respect the roots, but also create music’s future. “When I was just beginning to really get serious, Jack Tottle was 10 years into this incredible program that focused on the region’s musical roots,” the only country artist in Billboard’s Top 10 Touring Acts of the Last 25 Years for the last 13 years explained of the program and Tottle’s impact. “He welcomed me, taught me a lot about songs, being in bands and what this music is made of. He took a bunch of us kids – several went on to play with Alison Krauss and Union Station – to Russia as part of a cultural exchange, teaching us how music builds a bridge places you can’t imagine. “So, it was my honor to honor Jack this way. He showed an East Tennessee kid the power of what music can do; and for me, it sure did.” Calling the professor emeritus “the catalyst for our dreams,” Chesney joined President Boland in helping present Tottle’s own honorary doctorate degree. Having flown in from Hawaii, the program’s founder beamed at his former student – as an example of the power of what his program and his commitment to classic roots music had sown over the last several decades. After the presentation, President Noland told the assembled, “The stories and memories shared by Kenny Chesney represent the sort of impact a professor and mentor like Jack Tottle can have on a student. “The mission of this university is to improve the quality of life for the people of our region and beyond. That happens in all sorts of ways. One of the ways ETSU goes beyond expectations is the way in which our faculty work with and support students. Jack Tottle epitomizes that important tradition.  With the ‘80s and ‘90s Alum bands, the Old Time Band and current ETSU Bluegrass Bands all playing, it was as much a night of music as speeches. Backstage, old friends caught up, new friends were made and the legacy of one very special teacher’s program was measured in very concrete ways. “A doghouse bass you don’t see every day,” Chesney marveled. “And some of the very best banjo and mandolin players are all here, all doing the same thing I am: honoring Jack – now Doctor Jack – Tottle. To show the current students and young people who’re coming up not just what can happen, or what excellence is, but how much joy music can give you? To me, that’s worth everything I learned here.”

Thomas Rhett and Katy Perry today release the music video for their duet “Where We Started.” Directed by Patrick Tracy, the video for the title track off Thomas Rhett’s sixth studio album finds each artist contently reflecting on their own journeys. “Working with Katy has been a really collaborative process,” said Thomas Rhett. “From tracking the song in the studio, to performing it on American Idol, to this video – her input has made this whole experience really special for me.” Katy shared: “I loved being able to create a dreamy world for “Where We Started,” going back to the Nashville singer-songwriter roots of where I started.” Celebrating a decade of bringing country to the masses, C2C, Europe’s biggest country music festival, is back for 2023, and Thomas Rhett will be headlining! Country to Country has established itself as the annual destination to see some of the world’s best country artists and future stars. The festival is set to bring yet another incredible line up to The O2 London, 3Arena Dublin and The OVO Hydro, Glasgow from Friday 10 to Sunday 12 March 2023.

Just hours after releasing brand-new song “Way Down Yonder,” multi-Platinum singer/songwriter Chase Rice was surprised at SiriusXM The Highway’s “Music Row Happy Hour” with a plaque commemorating his Pandora Billionaire status. The milestone commemorates over 1.5 billion streams on the platform, and Rice has been added to Pandora’s Country Billionaires Radio in celebration of the honor. “Throughout my career, now matter where we were at with touring or radio success, our incredible fans have consistently streamed the music,” shared the man praised by American Songwriter as “one of country music’s most intriguing and lasting acts” in response to the honor. “This is a testament to those fans and their love of country music. They’re why we keep pushing ourselves and why we’re so excited to share new songs with them now.” Rice quickly moved from one celebration to the next, making his way up Broadway to kick off the night’s Rock N’ Roll Cowboy tour stop at Bridgestone Arena. In addition to his chart-topping hits including “Eyes On You” and “Drinkin’ Beer. Talkin’ God. Amen.” plus fellow Platinum-certified favorites “Ready Set Roll” and “Lonely If You Are,” Rice also treated fans to a live performance of the just-released song. Written by Rice together with Hunter Phelps, John Byron, Blake Pendergrass and Corey Crowder during a writing retreat in Florida that also produced recent release “Key West & Colorado,” the song paints a vivid picture of hardworking characters living beyond the confines of the law:         Way down yonder where the outlaws wander        You can feel that thunder in your bones        Rippin’ hot rod runners under moonlight cover        Just some back glass gunners on the road        Where you buy your bud with your moonshine money        Make your love where the bees make honey        When the cut’s where you’re born and raised        Man it’s in your blood, we were born this way down yonder “When we wrote this song, I had the mountains of North Carolina where I grew up in mind; all the moonshining history there in the Appalachians,” recalls Rice. “Then all of a sudden during the recording process, Rob McNelley started playing this crazy carnival sound on the acoustic… and it got Western quick. That turned it from a song I didn’t think was even going to make the cut for this next album into one of my favorite songs on the project.” The song and accompanying music video, shot in a single take as a time period piece at Fort Worth’s Stockyards National Historic District, previews a new sound embodying Rice’s next musical era. His forthcoming album, recorded during a two-week period alongside producer Oscar Charles and a live band at Rice’s farm outside Nashville, used makeshift recording environment to capture a pure, raw style unlike any of his previous studio projects. The shift in setting suited the set of more vulnerable, personal music from the man Billboard celebrates as “having storytelling details tumble from his lips, his portraits created quickly and efficiently,” with CMT noting, “The vocalist worked day in and day out to find the courage to knock down the wall he had kept up his entire career. Once he demolished the barricade holding him back, he left his heart and soul on the writing table.”