HEADLINES
Capitol NashvilleLuke Bryan will premiere his new video for "Crash My Party" on NBC's Today show Thursday morning during the program's fourth hour.
Fans can watch the video Thursday at KLGandHoda.com. It will be available at every other video outlet on Friday.
"Crash My Party" is the lead single from Luke's upcoming album, due out August 13.
He'll return to the Today show on August 16 to perform as part of its Summer Concert Series.
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Mercury NashvilleEaston Corbin and Dustin Lynch's performances at the Country Weekly CMA Music Festival Kick Off Party helped raise more than $13,000 for Musicians on Call Nashville. Greg Bates and newcomer Chris Janson were also on the bill for the show earlier this month.
The money raised goes to fund Musicians on Call's work to bring live music to the bedside of patients in healthcare facilities, and the fundraising isn't over yet. The 7th Annual Online Music Auction for Musicians on Call is still going on through Thursday. Jason Aldean, Luke Bryan,
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Big Machine RecordsRascal Flatts won't be lounging around the pool during the two-week break from their Live & Loud North American tour next month. Instead, they're playing a run of shows in Europe, including a two-night stand in London.
The Flatts will also deliver their first performances ever in Norway, Sweden and Ireland on this trek, kicking off July 5. They'll play seven shows in all on the European run. The dates:
7/5 -- Vinstra, Norway, Country Music Festival Vinstra
7/6 -- Gothenburg, Sweden, Tradgam
7/7 -- Stockholm, Sweden, Cirkus
7/10-7/11 -- London, England, Shepherd's Bush Empire
Slimenet.comCountry singer Slim Whitman died at age 90 Wednesday in Jacksonville, FL. Best known for his 1952 hit, "Indian Love Call," Whitman joined the Grand Ole Opry cast in 1955. He earned a string of top 10 hits between 1952 and 1971, including his final hits, "Guess Who" and "Something Beautiful (to Remember)."
Whitman was also a star overseas with his single "Rose Marie" spending 11 weeks at #1 in England in 1954. His song, "Closer to the Waterfall," was used in the 1977 film Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and "Indian Love Call" was featured in the 1996 movie Mars Attacks!
Whitman was also widely
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Big Machine RecordsTim McGraw has signed on to perform at the 19th Annual Music Festival for Mental Health at the Staglin Family Vineyard in Napa Valley, CA on September 8. The year event raises millions for research to find cures to brain disorders, and that cause hits close to home for Tim. He is the honorary chairperson of the Tug McGraw Foundation, an organization raising money for the fight against brain cancer, traumatic brain injuries and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Tim says, "I meet returning troops every night out on the road and a lot of them are living with invisible wounds like PTSD or other traumatic
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Facebook.com/JohnMayer; ABC/Lou RoccoJohn Mayer's new single "Paper Doll" was released on Tuesday, and immediately, speculation began that the song was John's response to Taylor Swift's alleged song about him, "Dear John." Why? Let's look at the evidence.
First of all, people are pointing to the line in "Paper Doll" where John sings "Here's a dress of gold and blue/sure was fun being good to you." This is significant, they say, because in "Dear John," Taylor referred
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Comstock/ThinkstockWhat is Keith Urban's middle name? Lionel.
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Burke/Triolo Productions/ThinkstockLittle Big Town performs "Your Side of the Bed" on ABC's The View Wednesday.
Hunter Hayes, Kacey Musgraves and Lauren Alaina are among the artists who made the cut on Seventeen magazine's new Hottest Country Singers! list at Seventeen.com.
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Stoney Creek RecordsThompson Square's Keifer Thompson is recovering nicely from some vocal problems that forced the duo to cancel several shows. A hemorrhage and polyp on Keifer's vocal cords has sidelined the duo for the last few weeks, but his doctor says he's making big strides in his recovery after two weeks of total silence.
Keifer says, "I had a really bad hemorrhage, and it's completely healed, resolved, and the polyp is about 70 percent down, so they don't want to do surgery now."
His vocal problem had been mounting for the last 10 months, but Keifer ignored the pain in his throat on night
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Capitol NashvilleKeith Urban is a busy, busy man these days. He's feverishly working to finish his new studio album, Fuse, before going into tour rehearsals for his Light the Fuse tour, launching July 18 in Cincinnati. Wrapping up the recording process isn't just a matter of Keith buckling down and getting it done: he has to coordinate a lot of other musicians' schedules too.
Says Keith, "The challenge has been in trying to finish an album that is complex in its collaborative, in the amount of people that I've collaborated with. I've got to land the plane."
Luckily, Keith has great people on his team to
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Webster PRGeorge Jones' widow Nancy Jones is moving forward with plans to turn the late country star's life into a feature film. George and Nancy had been working with Dennis L. Baxter and 28 Entertainment for the past six years to get the story right.
Nancy says, "Knowing George had input in this film and that it will be told the way he wanted it told, I feel we are in good hands to collaborate with 28 Entertainment as we move forward with production."
Country Music Hall of Fame member George Jones passed away on April 26 at age 81.
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Republic NashvilleYou might assume that the three members of The Band Perry automatically got into the group because they're siblings, but that isn't the case. It turns out their parents put them through an audition process while forming the family band.
The Perry siblings tell the U.K. website Female First, "Our parents, who are the 4th and 5th invisible members of The Band Perry, told us when we were younger that we would never be a part of the band because our last name is Perry. We had to earn our spot on stage
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Southern GroundThe Zac Brown Band prides themselves on featuring up-and-coming acts at their Southern Ground Music & Food Festival in Nashville, and some of those acts will look very familiar to the band's fans. Group member Clay Cook will turn in a solo set at the event, and his band mate John Driskell Hopkins will perform with the Mosier Brothers Band. ZBB's Coy Bowles will also play a set with his band, The Fellowship.
Willie Nelson, Eli Young Band and Kacey Musgraves are among the
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Republic NashvilleFlorida Georgia Line and Nelly's appearance at this year's Stars for Second Harvest benefit concert helped raise a record-breaking $100,000 for Middle Tennessee's Second Harvest Food Bank. The event took place June 4 at Nashville's Ryman Auditorium. Ronnie Dunn was also on the bill.
In the last nine years, the Stars for Second Harvest concert has raised more than $611,000 to feed hungry people in Tennessee. That figure translates into more than 2.4 million meals served.
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Atlantic RecordsCMT is counting down the 20 Greatest Redneck Videos with a little help from Kid Rock on Saturday, June 29. He hosts the hour-long special on board his fourth annual Chillin' the Most cruise. Kid will also give a sneak preview during the show of his new "Redneck Paradise Remix" featuring Hank Williams, Jr.
Clips from Blake Shelton, Toby Keith, Jason Aldean and Kenny Chesney are included in the Redneck countdown. Randy Houser, Brantley Gilbert and Trace Adkins are among the stars offering
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Valory Music CompanyBrantley Gilbert never leaves the house without his brass knuckles and wallet chain, but those potential weapons are a no-go when going through airport security. That's why Brantley packs all that hardware in his checked bags when flying to a show. He's even found a way to disguise his brass knuckles in the baggage thanks to the handy knob on one end.
Brantley tells ABC News Radio, "You can use it for a belt buckle, and I hook it to a belt, and that's how I get my brass knuckles everywhere."
Like a lot of travelers, Brantley dresses for comfort while flying.
He says, "I wear sweat pants and a t-shirt
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Comstock/ThinkstockCarrie Underwood plays a church youth pastor in which Hawaiian-set movie? ANSWER: Soul Surfer.
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Burke/Triolo Productions/ThinkstockKip Moore will perform on Fox News' Fox & Friends Friday morning.
Hunter Hayes will sing "I Want Crazy" with finalist Danielle Bradbery and Florida Georgia Line and Nelly will perform the "Cruise" remix on the season finale of NBC's The Voice Tuesday night at 9 p.m. ET.
Carrie Underwood and husband Mike Fisher have put their home in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada on the market for a cool $2.2 million. A video of the property has been posted on
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Valory Music CompanyJustin Moore, Dustin Lynch and Cassadee Pope are among the stars performing at the Brickfest Music Festival at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway July 27 and 28. Justin is set to perform after the Indiana 250 NASCAR Nationwide Series race at the Pagoda Plaza Stage on July 27.
On July 28, Dustin, Cassadee and newcomers The Cadillac Three will perform for fans before the Crown Royal Presents the “Your Hero’s Name Here” 400 at the Brickyard race gets underway. Justin Moore will perform a mini-concert prior to the race, and Cassadee will sing the national
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Warner Music NashvilleA lot of artists would love to go back and change things about their debut albums after they've had a few years out on the road. Hunter Hayes is one of the rare artists who actually gets to do that tweaking on the expanded edition of his debut album, Hunter Hayes (Encore), now in stores. The project features re-recorded versions of three songs from that album, and Hunter didn't have to think hard about which tracks he wanted to rework.
He tells ABC News Radio, "I was like, 'OK, well, these are the songs that I absolutely don't want to listen this way anymore. (Laughs) And these are the
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CMABrad Paisley is giving E! News a behind-the-scenes look at his Beat This Summer tour for their new E!'s Inside Track Summer Concert Series. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the feature will begin Friday at 7 p.m. ET with footage from Pitbull and Ke$ha's recent concert in Detroit. Matchbox Twenty, New Kids on the Block and Backstreet Boys are among the other acts taking part in the series.
Concert and backstage footage from Brad's June 22 show in Tampa, FL will be
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Sandbox EntertainmentLittle Big Town can't believe they now have an Emmy Award to display next to their Grammy, CMA and ACM trophies. The group won the Outstanding Original Song category at Sunday night's Daytime Emmy Awards for "Good Afternoon America," the theme song to ABC's Good Afternoon America.
Little Big Town's Karen Fairchild says, "We are freaking out right now. Winning a Daytime Emmy award is something that we could have never imagined and we are incredibly excited and honored!"
Little Big Town returns to daytime TV Wednesday on ABC's The View, where they'll perform
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Sony/Blue Chair RecordsKenny Chesney didn't let a little bad weather keep him from partying with more than 50,000 fans Saturday night in Kansas City, MO. Despite a torrential downpour that delayed the show's start time by 30 minutes, Kenny went on with the concert at Arrowhead Stadium.
He says, "Obviously, we never want anyone to be in danger, but we know lots of people plan trips to come together for one of these shows -- and you hate for them to lose their travel, their hotels."
Kenny admits he didn't want to miss out on playing for the Kansas City crowd, either. "The fans at Arrowhead Stadium are some of the loudest
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Greenroom PRDierks Bentley will host a live chat with his fans Monday from the set of his new video, "Bourbon in Kentucky." The shoot is taking place in Nashville, and you can take part in the chat starting at 7 p.m. ET at Dierks.com/Stream.
"Bourbon in Kentucky" is the lead single from Dierks' new album, Riser, due out this fall. The song features Kacey Musgraves on background vocals.
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Photo Credit: Sarah BarlowTaylor Swift has created three perfumes for women: Wonderstruck, Wonderstruck Enchanted, and her brand-new scent, Taylor by Taylor Swift. Why hasn't she done one for guys? Maybe it's because how men smell isn't something she's really focused on.
Asked by People magazine whether she prefers guys who wear cologne, or guys who just go au naturel, Taylor replied, "I’d just prefer them to be good people. I’ll start with that.”
As
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Facebook.com/TheBandPerryThe Band Perry's Kimberly, Reid and Neil Perry are all blessed with very full heads of hair, and it takes some effort to put every strand in place before hitting the stage.
While Kimberly admits she travels with more hair products than her brothers, she still gets her hair fixed in a timely manner. As for who's the slowest, Kimberly tells The Boston Globe, "Neil does take the longest to get ready."
When it comes
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Comstock/ThinkstockKellie Pickler is married to one of Nashville's top songwriters. What is his name? ANSWER: Kyle Jacobs.
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Vector ManagementCongratulations to Trisha Yearwood and Little Big Town on their Daytime Emmy wins Sunday night. Trisha's Food Network show, Trisha's Southern Kitchen, tied for the Outstanding Culinary Program trophy with another show on that network, The Best Thing I Ever Made.
Little Big Town took the Outstanding Original Song category for their song, "Good Afternoon," the theme from ABC's Good Afternoon America.
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Burke/Triolo Productions/ThinkstockKellie Pickler will co-host ABC's The View on Tuesday, June 18. Look for Kellie to perform her new single, "Someone Somewhere Tonight," during her visit too.
Tickets for Hunter Hayes' October 18 and 19 shows at Nashville's Ryman Auditorium sold out in less than an hour when they went on sale Friday morning.
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Capitol NashvilleFlorida Georgia Line has Nelly on the "Cruise" remix, and Jason Aldean teamed up with Ludacris a few years ago on a remix of "Dirt Road Anthem." Now, Luke Bryan may be releasing his own hip-hop/country hybrid track with T-Pain.
Luke has recorded a song written by his pal, songwriter Dallas Davidson, who's also a friend and collaborator of T-Pain's. The hip-hop star has recorded a demo version of that same song. Now Luke and T-Pain are working to combine their two versions of the song into a potential hit.
"I've
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