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Garth Brooks‘ fans who can’t be at the March 7 opening of the superstar’s new Nashville bar and honky tonk Friends in Low Places can still experience the excitement through a new Prime Video docuseries.
The six-episode series, Friends in Low Places, chronicles Brooks and his wife Trisha Yearwood as they build the four-story, 54,715-square-foot venue on Nashville’s Lower Broadway. The show, which also debuts March 7, follows the couple, as well as Brooks’ tour team and hospitality group, as they go through the adventures of trying to realize their vision for the club.
“This was so much more than I bargained for! With that said, what we have built is far more than just a business,” Brooks said in a statement. “This is by far the craziest ride I have ever been on.” The singer acquired the property, located at 411 Broadway in Nashville, in December 2021. He performed at the venue on Black Friday last November and the first two floors have been open during weekends for the past several weeks.
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“I know this sounds corny: I want it to be the Chick-fil-A of honky-tonks,” Brooks told Billboard in June. “I want it to be a place you feel safe in, I want it to be a place where you feel like there are manners and people like one another. … Our thing is this: If you [are let] into this house, love one another. If you’re an a–hole, there are plenty of other places on lower Broadway.”
“We started down this road fueled by passion, dedication, and a shared vision,” added Yearwood. “I’m really proud of the team that has built the Friends Bar and Honky Tonk. We are excited to share the culmination of everyone’s efforts. It’s even bigger than we dreamed!” The venue’s menu will feature recipes from Yearwood’s best-selling cookbooks.
Max Goldberg, Jenny Deathride Bratt, Trisha Yearwood, Garth Brooks, Camille Tambunting and Benjamin Goldberg in ‘Friends in Low Places’
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The series also follows the travails of hospitality experts Benjamin and Max Goldberg, who oversee all aspects of hospitality at the honky tonk, as well as Jenny Deathride Bratt and Camille Tambunting, heads of Strategic Hospitality and the team on the ground at Friends in Low Places.
Friends in Low Places is produced by Amazon MGM Studios and Casey Patterson Entertainment. Brooks, Patterson and Carol Donovan serve as executive producers.
Fans can also buy Brooks’ and the venue’s merchandise through Brooks’ Amazon store, as well as stream his music catalog through Amazon Music.
Country music duo LOCASH has launched Galaxy Label Group in partnership with Studio2Bee Entertainment, founded by veteran Nashville music executives Skip Bishop and Butch Waugh.
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BBR Music Group/BMG Nashville will distribute the label, Billboard can reveal.
LOCASH’s Preston Brust and Chris Lucas celebrated the newly-announced venture on Wednesday evening (Feb. 28) during an event in downtown Nashville, just as radio programmers descended on Music City for the annual Country Radio Seminar.
“We’re all blessed to be part of this music business and we have a chance to do what our passion is, and to have Skip and Butch back on the team with us, it’s great,” Lucas tells Billboard during a Zoom call with LOCASH and Bishop.
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In launching the label, LOCASH, who formed in 2008, draw on nearly two decades of experience as artists and writers. In 2016, they earned a top 5 Country Airplay hit with “I Love This Life,” and followed with the chart-topper “I Know Somebody,” top 20 song “Ring on Every Finger,” and in 2019, earned another top 5 Country Airplay hit with “One Big Country Song.”
“We’ve talked about doing a label for years,” Lucas says. “Some of the best success we’ve had was when were have been more hands-on with it.”
Bishop and Waugh had previously worked on the campaign for “I Love This Life,” and the full-fledged staff that Studio2Bee has with marketing and radio reps, “seemed like a perfect match,” Bishop explains.
A nod to the label’s name, Brust says the ideal artist roster will include genres beyond country, though they haven’t signed additional artists just yet. The hard lessons LOCASH has learned along the way as artists and songwriters influence the business model for the new label.
L-R: PETER STRICKLAND, GENERAL MANAGER, BMG; KATIE KERKHOVER, VICE PRESIDENT, A&R, BMG; SKIP BISHOP, STUDIO2BEE ENTERTAINMENT; PRESTON BRUST, LOCASH;
CHRIS LUCAS, LOCASH; JON LOBA, PRESIDENT, FRONTLINE RECORDINGS, NORTH AMERICA, BMG; QUINN BAUDUCCO, SENIOR MANAGER, BUSINESS & LEGAL AFFAIRS, BMG; JOJAMIE HAHR, EVP, RECORDED MUSIC, BMG NASHVILLE
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“The main thing that we’ve seen on some bigger labels is that sometimes some artists would be to the side because another artist was hot at that moment,” Brust says. “We’ve always talked about that and how it’s not fair, because there is so much talent in this city.”
Galaxy Label Group will also serve as home to LOCASH’s new music; BMG Nashville’s Wheelhouse imprint had previously released their albums. The duo has been in the studio working on their upcoming album, with their first single, “Hometown Home,” expected to release in the spring.
“This song just stepped into the roots of what Locash is about,” Lucas says. “It’s about hometown love and being the guy who says, ‘We could go anywhere in the world and start a new life together, but if you want to stay here in our hometown, that’s good with me too, because I just want to be with you.’ It’s one of those messages that is relatable and hits you in the heart.”
Beyond signing artists, Galaxy Label Group aims to aid songwriters. The duo says Galaxy Label Group will give songwriters a percentage of the master royalties (out of the label’s share) on every recording for the label, including Locash’s upcoming album. The commitment could mean a boost for songwriters, whose incomes have seen significant, negative impact in the steaming era. When physical albums sold regularly, songwriters would be paid on each album sold, earning a solid income regardless of whether their song was picked as a radio single. But with streams comprising the bulk of music consumption, songwriters are increasingly dependent on radio hits, losing out on the valuable income avenue physical records once provided.
The commitment follows in the footsteps of some smaller indie labels such as Facet Records and Good Boy Records, as well as individual artists such as Kip Moore, who in 2017 pledged an annual bonus for songwriters.
“We want to be fair,” Lucas says. “It’s one of those things where if we sit down and before the album comes out, we say, ‘This [percentage] seems fair.’ We could get down the road and if the single just goes into another realm, who knows? We could change a percentage at that point.”
Ultimately, Brust says, they hope to “create new revenue streams in this the industry.” He adds, “Nashville is built on the song. The best songwriters in the world—I would put us up against anyone. Nashville has it, period. There’s no one better than that. We want songwriters to have a fair chance. If someone’s getting 700 million streams and the songwriter’s barely seeing a dime, that’s not fair. We want to get a part of this ahead of the game and get a fair percentage for them. That’s what we’re most excited about right now—giving back to the community that has been there for us.”
Chris Young has joined the artists roster at Coran Capshaw’s Red Light Management, the company tells Billboard. At Red Light, Kailyn Finnegan will serve as Young’s manager. Finnegan worked with Young at his previous management home, The AMG. Prior to The AMG, Finnegan worked at Live Nation. “I’m excited to work with her and everybody […]

John Fogerty is continuing to speak out about the mysterious cancelation of his performance at this year’s Country Fest Queensland in Australia.
Chatting with Billboard on Wednesday (Feb. 28), the Creedence Clearwater Revival founder says that he’s still “in total shock” over the festival’s Tuesday (Feb. 27) announcement that his performance was canceled due to “unforeseen circumstances.”
“I’m bewildered,” he says, sounding jovial but confused. “I still remain able and ready and willing to do this show. I take the commitment of playing for the fans very seriously. Throughout my career, practically my whole life, there’s hardly ever been a cancelation.”
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The performance, which had been scheduled for the weekend of March 30, would have marked Fogerty’s first show in Australia in more than a decade. According to the singer and his rep, Country Fest Queensland alerted his agent Friday (Feb. 23) that he’d been removed from the lineup without explanation, but continued to sell tickets with his name attached to the event for four days afterward, up until announcing the the cancellation of his performance to the public on Tuesday. (Country Fest Queensland did, however, offer refund options to ticketholders no longer interested in attending in light of Fogerty’s “non-appearance.”)
Fogerty and his team maintain that they have not been made aware of any reason for the sudden change. Billboard has reached out to Country Fest Queensland for comment.
“I really don’t know a lot,” Fogerty tells Billboard. “I was happy to be coming down to Australia to play. It sounded like a really fun event.”
Soon after Country Fest announced that Fogerty was no longer part of the billing, the “Old Man Down The Road” singer posted a statement on Instagram. “I was ready to celebrate with you all for my one and only show this year in Australia when the Country Fest Queensland blindsided me yesterday by canceling my appearance,” it read.
“It was posted that I would not be appearing due to unforeseen circumstances,” his statement continued. “Well, I can tell you, my friends, I was not the reason for the ‘unforeseen circumstances.’”
Country Fest has since shared a follow-up statement claiming that negotiations with Fogerty’s team “did not reach a final outcome” and ceased on Friday (Feb. 23). “The matter is now subject to court proceedings in the Supreme Court of Queensland,” it continued, adding that the festival does not “intend to comment further” until the case is heard mid March.
However, neither Fogerty nor his rep know of any details regarding the “court proceedings” mentioned by Country Fest Queensland, they tell Billboard. They also expressed confusion over the festival’s assertion that negotiations had never been finalized; according to Fogerty, his contract was signed and fully agreed upon in mid-January.
“My wife Julie and I and our people … we started making all the usual preparations to arrive at the showplace on the show date and, you know, do my show,” he tells Billboard. “Everything was normal as far as I knew.”
What’s most important to Fogerty now is that his Aussie fans know how much he wants to perform for them. On Tuesday night, he posted a video dedicated directly to them, in which he plays an acoustic rendition of CCR’s “Bad Moon Rising.”
“It’s a big disappointment what’s going on right now,” he says in the clip before diving into the song, sitting in a chair with his golden retriever lying at his feet. “A shock, actually. Sometimes things get complicated, beyond my grasp anyway.”
“I’d certainly never cancel for convenience, or for [the sake of being] – what do you call those – a diva,” he tells Billboard. “There were some people that were going to travel quite a distance. I just feel really bad about it. As far as I’m concerned, the fans come first.”
As broadcasters begin assembling in Nashville this morning (Feb. 28) for the Country Radio Seminar, expect a lot of talk. About talk.
Radio personalities’ importance has been on the decline for decades. They used to pick the music on their shows. That privilege was taken away. Then many were encouraged to cut down their segues and get to the music. Then syndicated morning and overnight shows moved in to replace local talent.
But once the streaming era hit and started stealing some of radio’s time spent listening, terrestrial programmers began reevaluating their product to discover what differentiates it from streaming. Thus, this year’s CRS focus is talk.
“That’s what’s so important about this year,” says iHeartMedia talent Brooke Taylor, who voicetracks weekday shows in three markets and airs on 100 stations on weekends. “The radio on-air personality is sort of regaining their importance in the stratosphere of a particular station.”
Taylor will appear on a panel designed for show hosts — “Personal Branding: It’s Not Ego, It’s Branding!” — but it’s hardly the only element geared to the talent. Other entries include “On Air Personalities: The OG Influencers,” a research study about audience expectations of their DJs; a podcasting deep dive; and four different panels devoted to the threats and opportunities in artificial intelligence (AI).
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As it turns out, artifice is not particularly popular, according to the research study “On Air Talent and Their Roles on All Platforms,” conducted by media analytics firm Smith Geiger.
“Americans have very mixed feelings about AI,” says Smith Geiger executive vp of digital media strategies Andrew Finlayson. “This research proves that the audience is very interested in authentic content and authentic voices.”
Not to say that AI will be rejected. Sounds Profitable partner Tom Webster expects that it will be effective at matching advertisers to podcasts that fit their audience and market priorities. And he also sees it as a research tool that can assist content creation.
“If I’m a DJ and I’ve got a break coming up, and I’ve pre-sold or back-sold the same record 1,000 times, why not ask an assistant, ‘Give me something new about this record to say’?” Webster suggests. “That’s the easy kind of thing right there that can actually help the DJ do their job.”
CRS has been helping country radio do its job for more than 50 years, providing network opportunities, exposure to new artists and a steady array of educational panels that grapple with legal issues, industry trends and listener research. In the early 1980s, the format’s leaders aspired to make country more like adult contemporary, offering a predictable experience that would be easy to consume for hours in an office situation. The music, and radio production techniques, became more aggressive in the ’90s, and as technology provided a bulging wave of competitors and new ways to move around the dial, stations have been particularly challenged to maintain listeners’ attention during the 21st century.
Meanwhile, major chains have significantly cut staffs. Many stations cover at least two daily shifts with syndicated shows, and the talent that’s left often works on multiple stations in several different markets, sometimes covering more than one format. Those same personalities are expected to maintain a busy social media presence and potentially establish a podcast, too.
That’s an opportunity, according to Webster. Podcast revenue has risen to an estimated $2.5 billion in advertising and sponsorship billing, he says, while radio income has dropped from around $14 billion to $9 billion. He envisions that the two platforms will be on equal financial footing in perhaps a decade, and he believes radio companies and personalities should get involved if they haven’t already.
“It’s difficult to do a really good podcast,” Webster observes. “We talk a lot about the number of podcasts — there are a lot, and most podcasts are not great. Most podcasts are listened to by friends and family. There’s no barrier to entry to a podcast, and then radio has this stable of people whose very job it is to develop a relationship with an audience. That is the thing that they’re skilled at.”
That ’80s idea of radio as predictable background music has been amended. It’s frequently still “a lean-back soundtrack to what it is that you’re doing,” Webster suggests, though listeners want to be engaged with it.
“One of the people in the survey, verbatim, said it’s ‘a surprise box,’ ” Finlayson notes. “I think people like that serendipity that an on-air personality who really knows and understands the music can bring to the equation. And country music knowledge is one of the things that the audience craves from an on-air talent.”
It’s a challenge. Between working multiple stations, creating social media content and podcasting, many personalities are so stretched that it has become difficult to maintain a personal life, which in turn reduces their sources for new material. Add in the threat of AI, and it’s an uneasy time.
“What I see is a great deal of anxiety and stress levels, and I don’t know how we fix it,” concedes Country Radio Broadcasters executive director R.J. Curtis. “There’s just so much work put on our shoulders, it’s hard to manage that and then have a life.”
Curtis made sure that CRS addresses that, too, with “Your Brain Is a Liar: Recognizing and Understanding the Impact of Your Mental Health,” a presentation delivered by 25-year radio and label executive Jason Prinzo.
That tension is one of the ways that on-air talent likely relates to its audience — there are plenty of stressed, overbooked citizens in every market. And as tech continues to consume their lives, it naturally feeds the need for authenticity, which is likely to be a buzzword as CRS emphasizes radio’s personalities.
“Imagine having a radiothon for St. Jude with an AI talent,” Taylor says. “You’ll get a bunch of facts, but you’ll never get a tear. You’ll never get a real story. You’ll never get that shaky voice talking about somebody in your family or somebody that you know has cancer. The big thing that just will never be replaced is that emotion.”
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Early Tuesday (Feb. 27), Country Fest Queensland issued a statement that John Fogerty had been dropped from its 2024 lineup due to “unforeseen circumstances.” But in a newly shared statement of his own, the Creedence Clearwater Revival founder said that he was just as surprised as fans that he wouldn’t be performing at the festival. […]
Four-time Grammy nominee Kelsea Ballerini will return as the solo host of the 2024 CMT Music Awards, marking the fourth consecutive year Ballerini has led the fan-voted country music awards show. Ballerini will pull double duty during the show, serving as not only host but as a performer during the broadcast. Explore Explore See latest […]

When Beyoncé says something, people listen. When she planted her iconic silhouette squarely in front of a towering screen that simply read “feminist,” thousands of essays and think pieces followed. When she sang, “Okay, ladies, now let’s get in formation,” everyone heeded; whether they were boycotting her or queuing up for her then-record-breaking Formation World Tour, people fell in line. Last year, when Queen Bey requested that attendees of the last few shows of her historic Renaissance World Tour wear their “most fabulous silver fashions,” they packed stadiums dressed in outfits shinier than a disco ball. As per The New York Times, searches for silver clothes and sparkly, mirrored cowboy hats increased by 25% that same week.
We listen to Beyoncé because she’s one of the most important artists of our time and very arguably our greatest living entertainer. But we also listen to Beyoncé because – at least since 2013 – she is notoriously silent. Silence, of course, is a part of the present-day Beyoncé brand. How else would the First Lady of Music, deemed as such by one Clive Davis, flawlessly execute her industry-shifting surprise drops or differentiate herself from the hordes of pop stars bending to the algorithmic whim of TikTok and the like?
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Because Beyoncé says very little – and when she does, it’s normally in a very highly curated setting – we collectively project a lot onto her. And we also take her fans’ musings and theories as something of an extension of her artistic intention and the inner workings of Parkwood Entertainment, her production company. This curious phenomenon – the idea that through her current sting of releases, Beyoncé is “reclaiming” whitewashed genres — ran parallel to the entire Renaissance era, and now it’s trickling into Act II. That idea, however, glosses over the contributions of Black artists who have been holding down these genres before the Renaissance trilogy came to life.
As the entire world knows by now – yes, even that one country radio station out in Oklahoma — Beyoncé used her eye-popping Verizon commercial to launch her new album cycle during the 2024 Super Bowl (Feb. 11). That same night, two new country songs (“Texas Hold ‘Em” and “16 Carriages”) appeared on digital streaming platforms, alongside a bevy of chatter that Act II would find Beyoncé “reclaiming” country music as a Black genre — just as she did for the Black queer roots of dance music and culture on Act II’s predecessor, the Billboard 200-topping Renaissance.
But nowhere in the note Beyoncé posted to her website before Renaissance dropped in its entirety (Jul. 28, 2022) — which detailed her latest endeavor as a “three-act project,” and delved into her connection to dance music via the impact her late Uncle Johnny had on her life — does Beyoncé say or allude to “reclaiming” dance as a Black genre. Nor is that stated as an explicit intention of Renaissance or any of the subsequent acts. If anything, the note points to a personal and artistic renaissance for the 42-year-old music icon.
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“Creating this album allowed me a place to dream and to find escape during a scary time for the world,” she mused. “It allowed me to feel free and adventurous in a time when little else was moving. My intention was to create a safe place, a place without judgment, a place to be free of perfectionism and overthinking. A place to scream, release, feel freedom. It was a beautiful journey of exploration.”
Of course, it’s relatively easy to turn everything Beyoncé does into a grand political spectacle. Ever since her eponymous 2013 surprise album – and especially since 2016’s Peabody-winning Lemonade – we collectively view Beyoncé’s art through an intensely political lens. That’s not wholly incorrect to do so, and Act II is no different. However, when that lens isn’t informed by a nuanced or comprehensive understanding of contemporary mainstream country music, the contributions of Black artists preceding “Texas Hold ‘Em” can get unfairly muddied. The idea that Beyoncé is single-handedly reclaiming musical genres with white-washed roots presupposes that Black people have been absent from those genres until this three-act project – and that is not the case. While Black artists may not have been directly at the forefront of mainstream dance and country music in recent years, they have been taking up their rightful space and making meaningful strides in their respective fields.
A year before Renaissance lit up dancefloors around the world with sing-along smashes (“Cuff It”) and Miami bass-indebted rump-shakers (“America Has a Problem”), KAYTRANDA became both the first Black and first queer winner of the Grammy Award for best dance/electronic album. Earning the award for Bubba – which topped Billboard’s Dance/Electronic Albums Chart – KAYTRANADA has spent much of the young decade continuing to bridge the worlds of R&B and house, just as Beyoncé would do with Renaissance.
The same year as KAYTRANADA’s historic Grammy win, SAINt JHN – a Guyanese-American producer and singer – earned the top spot on Billboard’s 2020 Year-End Dance/Electronic Songs chart, becoming the first Black artist to do so since Lil Jon in 2014 and the first Black artist to do so unaccompanied. It should also be noted that Renaissance is the third consecutive album by a Black artist to win the best dance/electronic album Grammy; Black Coffee snagged the award in 2022 for his Subconsciously LP.
Renaissance didn’t “reclaim” dance music as a Black genre; Black artists who call that space home were already keeping the spirit of the genre’s originators alive. What Renaissance did do, however, is help educate the masses on where dance music and club culture comes from. Whether via collaboration (Honey Dijon, Syd) or sampling (the “I Feel Love” flip on closer “Summer Renaissance” remains a career highlight), Renaissance was a musical encapsulation of Beyoncé’s artistic aim for this past half-decade: using her platform to highlight, uplift and pay homage to often unsung movers and shakers across genres.
She’s done this in flashes throughout her career, but her vision truly sharpened on The Lion King: The Gift, her compilation soundtrack for the 2019 photorealistic Lion King remake that doubled as a love letter to Afrobeats, which was then only just starting to cross over to the global stage. On that record, which hit No. 2 on the Billboard 200, Beyoncé tapped African talent from across the continent, including artists like Burna Boy, who would go to be a formidable top 40 presence in the following decade (and help bring Afrobeats along with him).
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Should she continue this endeavor with Act II, she will once again be entering a space that – while relatively foreign to her career– boasts a small, but mighty collection of Black artists taking up as much space as they can. Before “Texas Hold ‘Em” made Beyoncé the first Black woman in history to top Hot Country Songs, stars like Darius Rucker (11) and Kane Brown (13), who boast a combined 24 top 10 hits on the chart, have been making noteworthy strides within the contemporary Nashville machine.
In the years immediately following Beyoncé & The Chicks’ controversial 2016 CMAs performance, stars like Mickey Guyton and BRELAND also made great strides for Black artists in Nashville. In 2021, Guyton became both the first Black woman soloist to earn a Grammy nomination in the country field (best country solo performance for “Black Like Me”) as well as the first Black woman to receive a new artist of the year nod at the CMAs. BRELAND, who first exploded onto the scene in 2019 with the “Old Town Road”-evoking country-trap hybrid “My Truck,” has earned six top 40 hits on Hot Country Songs in just four years. Alongside “My Truck,” Blanco Brown’s “The Git Up” — which topped Hot Country Songs and hit the top 20 on the Billboard Hot 100 – also made a huge impact in 2019.
There’s also an ironic outlier in Tracy Chapman, a cross-generational storyteller who perhaps always fit into the sprawling lineage of country music as proven by the enormous success of Luke Combs’ cover of her seminal “Fast Car.” Thanks to Combs’ take, Chapman became the first Black woman to score a No. 1 at country radio with a solo composition, the first Black songwriter to win song of the year at the CMA Awards.
As evidenced by the historic achievements of “Texas Hold ‘Em” — now also the first country song by a Black woman to reach No. 1 on the all-genre Billboard Hot 100 — progress for Black artists in country music, especially Black women, has been very minimal and very slow. But while many Black female artists have struggled to thrive in country as they may have deserved, they’ve still been present and impactful, and the word “reclamation” erases the strides they made before the launch of Act II. As a billionaire, Beyoncé is effectively an institution, so she can’t really “reclaim” anything. What she can do, however, is pay homage to both her own cultural and familial roots – which, in this context, she first extensively explored on Lemonade standout “Daddy Lessons” — as well as the whitewashed roots of historically Black genres.
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Beyoncé’s presence can start a conversation and keep it going, but a genuine, full-scale reclamation would require a concerted reconfiguration of the industry of each genre she forays into. Beyoncé making a country album won’t magically get more Black female country artists record deals, nor will it magically spur country music awards institutions to nominate and honor Black women while they’re still here. Instead, Beyoncé’s presence can illuminate the other Black women (and men) in country who have been carrying the torches of pioneers Linda Martell and Charley Pride even when things looked far more dire for Black country artists than they do currently.
It’s like she croons in “I’m That Girl,” the opening track on Renaissance, “Touching everything in my plain view/ And everything next to me gets lit up too.” This isn’t reclamation, this is one of the most important entertainers in history using her platform to highlight artists – often those who share some of her social identifiers – who may never experience a fraction of her reach or recognition.
And, for what it’s worth, Beyoncé is already making good on that lyric just two weeks into her country era. Rising country singer Tanner Adell – best known for the spunky “Buckle Bunny” — experienced a 188% increase in official on-demand U.S. streams for her catalog in the weekend following the release of “Texas Hold ‘Em,” according to Luminate. Adell, a Columbia labelmate of Beyoncé’s, has fully leaned into the Beyoncé Country Boom by posting TikToks drawing links between her own music and that of Beyoncé.
During the same period, Martell – the first Black woman to perform at the Grand Ole Opry – saw her catalog streams leap by 275% from the weekend prior. History-making country star and Apple Music Country radio host Rissi Palmer also received a catalog streaming boost of 110%, and catalog streams for Rhiannon Giddens – who plays banjo on “Texas” — jumped by 50%. Even K. Michelle – who, at press time, has less than a handful of country songs available on streaming – saw a significant boost, with her twangy “Tennessee” rising 185% in streams following the release of “Texas Hold ‘Em.”
In an interview with News Channel 5 Nashville, Alice Randall, the first Black woman to co-write a No. 1 country song (Trisha Yearwood’s 1995 hit “XXX’s and OOO’s (An American Girl)”), said: “It’s almost a full-circle moment for me… I almost want to cry. I wanted to see a black woman get to the top of the charts, and I can retire now!”
This is the real power of Beyoncé’s three-act project, and it will likely stand as the biggest example of the trilogy’s impact. It’s all about bringing names like Alice Randall and Tanner Adell and Linda Martell and Rissi Palmer to the forefront, so they can stand alongside Beyoncé’s — in the hopes that once she moves on to the next act, they can remain at the forefront for decades to come.

Willie Nelson‘s upcoming Outlaw Music Festival Tour just might be the most star-studded one yet. The outing — which launches June 21 in Alpharetta, Georgia — will feature Willie Nelson & Family, Bob Dylan, Robert Plant & Alison Krauss and John Mellencamp, along with Brittney Spencer, Celisse and Southern Avenue on various dates throughout the tour. Billy Strings, who just headlined three Nashville shows, will join the tour for a special concert outside Seattle, Washington at The Gorge.
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“This year’s Outlaw Music Festival Tour promises to be the biggest and best yet with this lineup of legendary artists. I am thrilled to get back on the road again with my family and friends playing the music we love for the fans we love,” Nelson, 90, said in a statement.
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The Outlaw Music Festival made its debut in 2016 in Scranton, Pennsylvania. The sold-out show garnered so much acclaim that organizers Blackbird Presents, Mark Rothbaum and Nelson developed it into a hugely-popular touring franchise that has welcomed artists including Chris Stapleton, Neil Young, Luke Combs, Van Morrison, ZZ Top, Sheryl Crow, Eric Church, Bonnie Raitt, Tyler Childers and more over the years.
Tickets for this year’s tour go on sale to the general public on Friday (March 1) at 10 a.m. local time here. Citi is the official card of the tour, with Citi cardmembers having access to presale tickets on Feb. 27 at 10 a.m. local time until Feb. 29 at 10 a.m. local time through the Citi Entertainment program.
See the full list of tour dates and lineups for the 2024 Outlaw Music Festival Tour below:
June 21 — Alpharetta, GA @ Ameris Bank Amphitheatre
Willie Nelson & Family
Bob Dylan
Robert Plant & Alison Krauss
Celisse
June 22 — Charlotte, N.C. @ PNC Music Pavilion
Willie Nelson & Family
Bob Dylan
Robert Plant & Alison Krauss
Celisse
June 23 — Raleigh, N.C. @ Coastal Credit Union Music Park
Willie Nelson & Family
Bob Dylan
Robert Plant & Alison Krauss
Celisse
June 26 – Virginia Beach,VA @ Veterans United Home Loans Amphitheater at Virginia Beach
Willie Nelson & Family
Bob Dylan
Robert Plant & Alison Krauss
Celisse
June 28 — Syracuse, NY @ Empower Federal Credit Union Amphitheater at Lakeview
Willie Nelson & Family
Bob Dylan
Robert Plant & Alison Krauss
Celisse
June 29 — Wantagh, NY @ Northwell Health at Jones Beach Theater
Willie Nelson & Family
Bob Dylan
Robert Plant & Alison Krauss
Celisse
June 30 — Holmdel, NJ @ PNC Bank Arts Center
Willie Nelson & Family
Bob Dylan
Robert Plant & Alison Krauss
Celisse
July 2 — Mansfield, MA @ Xfinity Center
Willie Nelson & Family
Bob Dylan
Robert Plant & Alison Krauss
Celisse
July 6 — Bethel, NY @ Bethel Woods Center for the Arts
Willie Nelson & Family
Bob Dylan
Robert Plant & Alison Krauss
Celisse
July 7 — Hershey, PA @ Hersheypark Stadium
Willie Nelson & Family
Bob Dylan
Robert Plant & Alison Krauss
Celisse
July 29 — Chula Vista, CA @ North Island Credit Union Amphitheatre
Willie Nelson & Family
Bob Dylan
John Mellencamp
Brittney Spencer
July 31 — Los Angeles, CA @ Hollywood Bowl
Willie Nelson & Family
Bob Dylan
John Mellencamp
Brittney Spencer
Aug. 3 — Mountain View, CA @ Shoreline Amphitheatre
Willie Nelson & Family
Bob Dylan
John Mellencamp
Brittney Spencer
Aug. 4 — Wheatland, CA @ Toyota Amphitheatre
Willie Nelson & Family
Bob Dylan
John Mellencamp
Brittney Spencer
Aug. 7 — Boise, ID @ Ford Idaho Center Amphitheater
Willie Nelson & Family
Bob Dylan
John Mellencamp
Brittney Spencer
Aug. 9 — Spokane, WA @ ONE Spokane Stadium
Willie Nelson & Family
Bob Dylan
John Mellencamp
Brittney Spencer
Aug. 10 — George, WA @ Gorge Amphitheatre
Willie Nelson & Family
Bob Dylan
John Mellencamp
Billy Strings
Brittney Spencer
Sept. 6 — Somerset, WI @ Somerset Amphitheater
Willie Nelson & Family
Bob Dylan
John Mellencamp
Southern Avenue
Sept. 7 — Tinley Park, IL @ Credit Union 1 Amphitheatre
Willie Nelson & Family
Bob Dylan
John Mellencamp
Southern Avenue
Sept. 8 — St. Louis, MO @ Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre
Willie Nelson & Family
Bob Dylan
John Mellencamp
Southern Avenue
Sept. 11 — Cincinnati, OH @ Riverbend Music Center
Willie Nelson & Family
Bob Dylan
John Mellencamp
Southern Avenue
Sept. 12 — Cuyahoga Falls, OH @ Blossom Music Center
Willie Nelson & Family
Bob Dylan
John Mellencamp
Southern Avenue
Sept. 14 — Burgettstown, PA @ The Pavilion at Star Lake
Willie Nelson & Family
Bob Dylan
John Mellencamp
Southern Avenue
Sept. 15 — Clarkston, MI @ Pine Knob Music Theatre
Willie Nelson & Family
Bob Dylan
John Mellencamp
Southern Avenue
Sept. 17 — Buffalo, NY @ Darien Lake Amphitheater
Willie Nelson & Family
Bob Dylan
John Mellencamp
Southern Avenue
Kevin Bacon and wife actress Kyra Sedgwick got their boots dirty this week for a barnyard cover of Beyoncé‘s smash country hit “Texas Hold ‘Em.” The couple took to the pen to mingle with their pigs and ponies for one of their beloved cover song videos, in which Bacon — rocking a wide-brimmed cowboy hat, […]