Country
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Morgan Wallen is slated to be the latest artist with a bar in downtown Nashville.
The Billboard Hot 100 chart-topper and Knoxville-area native will open a six-story, 30,000-square-feet venue called This Bar and Tennessee Kitchen this summer on Nashville’s Lower Broadway, located on 4th Avenue. The venue will feature three live music stages and an open-air rooftop. A gift shop will feature exclusive Wallen merchandise offerings.
Wallen teamed with TC Restaurant Group to create the space; TC Restaurant Group is also responsible for working on other artist-curated venues including FGL House, Jason Aldean’s Kitchen + Rooftop Bar, Miranda Lambert’s Casa Rosa and Luke Bryan’s Luke’s 32 Bridge Food+Drink.
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Each floor of This Bar and Tennessee Kitchen will feature photos and memorabilia from Wallen’s childhood and career thus far. The menu will be curated by Wallen with chef Tomasz Wosiak, vice president of culinary development for TC Restaurant Group, and feature Southern delectables, bar bites, Tennessee favorites and some of Wallen’s mother’s recipes.
“I sing about finding myself in ‘this bar,’ and now it’s coming to life. This venue will hold true to everything I love and is inspired by my fans and the way they have embraced me and my music,” Wallen said in a statement. “We’re designing a menu around some of my family favorites, so it brings a piece of East Tennessee to Music City. I hope This Bar is a place you’ll want to find yourself in and make memories with your friends and family and celebrate the way country music has brought us all together.” “Morgan Wallen is one of the most sought after stars in the music industry, and we are thrilled that he has trusted us to deliver a concept that will bring him closer to his fans, hold fast to his roots and enshrine his name among an exclusive group of artists who can claim international stardom with a Lower Broadway destination fans all over the world seek out,” said Adam Hesler, president at TC Restaurant Group, via a statement.
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Wallen is just the latest artist to open a bar in downtown Nashville, following recent news of rocker Jon Bon Jovi’s upcoming space, also set for Lower Broadway. Other country artists with bars/restaurants in downtown Nashville include Jason Aldean, Dierks Bentley, Luke Bryan, Garth Brooks, Alan Jackson and Miranda Lambert, while Luke Combs and Eric Church also have bars set to open.
This is also the latest new business venture from Wallen, who recently teamed with Eric Church to announce they are purchasing the Field & Stream brand, with plans for relaunching the print magazine and to start an outdoor music festival.
As the entire world already knows, Beyoncé is in her country era. After hard-launching her new album — the as-yet-untitled second part of the three-act project she began with the Billboard 200-topping Renaissance back in 2022 — during the 2024 Super Bowl via a Verizon commercial, Queen Bey has released two new versions of the […]
After joining forces with Keith Urban for the new Zorro series soundtrack, Carin León continues tapping into the country music realm by teaming up with Kane Brown for his next collaboration, Billboard can reveal.
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Marking León and Brown’s first collaborative effort, the pair will premiere their new single “The One (Pero No Como Yo)” on Thursday, Feb. 22, at 2024 Premio Lo Nuestro. The title indicates the song will be a heartfelt Spanglish bop. This also marks Brown’s second Latin effort after dropping “Lost in the Middle of Nowhere” with Becky G in 2019.
“After I recorded the song with Carin, he invited me to join him at the awards show to do the performance,” Brown tells Billboard exclusively. “I have never attended Premio Lo Nuestro, so I’m a little nervous and very excited … I see so many similarities between our fans and I’m incredibly grateful to be able to share my style of music with his fans and share Carin’s style of music with my fans.”
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Nominations for the 2024 awards ceremony were revealed in January, with 14-time nominee Maluma leading the pack. He’s followed by Peso Pluma (13), Grupo Frontera (10) and, with nine each, Karol G and Feid. Each of the leading artists are up for the coveted Premio Lo Nuestro artist of the year prize alongside the other top nominees, including León, Bad Bunny, Camilo, Ozuna and Shakira.
Meanwhile, Ana Barbara, Don Omar and Olga Tañon will receive this year’s Premio Lo Nuestro a la Trayectoria, Global Icon and Premio Lo Nuestro a la Excelencia special awards, respectively.
Co-hosted by Galilea Montijo, Clarissa Moline and Angélica Vale, the 2024 Premio Lo Nuestro will air live from Miami at 7 p.m. ET on Thursday, Feb. 22, via Univision.
Towering above the recent slate of country-intended projects is the surprise release of two new country songs from Beyoncé.
Beyoncé, owner of eight No. 1 Billboard Hot 100 hits and the most Grammy wins of all time, shook up the music industry once again on Sunday night (Feb. 11) by using a Super Bowl commercial to announce the release of new music, and thus, entering her country era. Though we don’t know the full spectrum of sounds that could be included on the entire project, she did release two country-flavored new songs, the up-tempo romp “Texas Hold ‘Em” and more Americana-flavored ballad “16 Carriages.” The two new songs are part of her upcoming March 29 album Act II, which follows her dance music-inspired Renaissance and is part of a three-act project.
Just how fully country radio stations embrace the new music remains to be seen, although “Texas Hold ‘Em” will officially be serviced to country radio on Feb. 20. Both of the new songs highlight Black roots musicians, with “Texas Hold ‘Em” featuring banjo from Rhiannon Giddens, while “16 Carriages” features pedal steel from Robert Randolph.
This isn’t Beyoncé’s first foray into country sounds, collaborations and more. At the 2007 American Music Awards, Sugarland (Jennifer Nettles and Kristian Bush) collaborated with Beyoncé on a performance of Bey’s “Irreplaceable,” which had spent 10 weeks atop the Hot 100. The Houston, Texas native has also performed at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo several times, both as a solo artist and part of Destiny’s Child.
In 2016, she performed at the Country Music Association Awards, performing her song “Daddy Lessons” alongside The Chicks—a performance that was met with considerable controversy at the time. Meanwhile, country music queen (and recent Super Bowl national anthem performer) Reba McEntire turned her version of Beyoncé’s “If I Was a Boy” into a country hit back in 2010.
At the 2024 Grammy Awards, Beyoncé further signaled her country intentions, showing up to the ceremony in a Western-themed attire, including a cowboy hat and bolo tie. But even as far back as her announcement of Renaissance, promotional photos showed Beyonce donning a cowboy hat and seated atop a glass horse, while back in 2021, Beyonce’s Ivy Park x Adidas collaboration released a “Rodeo Collection,” featuring pink cow prints and denim-athleisure pieces.
Of the new crop of pop artists looking to cross into country, Beyonce is primed to once again make music history, as while several Black male artists such as Rucker, Charley Pride, Stoney Edwards, Blanco Brown and Jimmie Allen have earned country chart success over the decades, no solo Black female artist has yet earned a No. 1 Hot Country Songs or Country Airplay hit.
Which isn’t to say Black female artists have been absent from the country landscape. The Pointer Sisters earned a top 40 Hot Country Songs hit (and won a best country vocal performance by a duo or group Grammy) with “Fairytale” in 1974, while Anita Pointer teamed with Earl Thomas Conley for the No. 2 country hit “Too Many Times” in 1986. Linda Martell reached No. 22 on the Hot Country Songs chart with “Color Him Father” in 1969 and in 1977, Ruby Falls earned a top 40 hit on the Hot Country Songs chart with “You’ve Got to Mend This Heartache.” Mickey Guyton’s 2015 song “Better Than You Left Me” reached No. 34 on the Country Airplay chart. Other Black female artists who have charted on the Hot Country Songs chart include Rissi Palmer and Dona Mason.
It is also notable that with “Texas Hold ‘Em” and “16 Carriages,” Beyonce joins several current Black female artists who have adeptly crafted their own unique, genre-melting blends of country, pop, R&B and more — including Yola, Tanner Adell, Reyna Roberts, Madeline Edwards, Tiera and mother-daughter duo O.N.E the Duo.
When No Doubt take the stage together at Coachella in April for their first show in nine years Gwen Stefani predicts it will be “crazy.” The band’s singer and solo star told Jimmy Kimmel on Wednesday night (Feb. 14) that she’s really looking forward to reuniting with her old mates bassist Tony Kanal, guitarist Tom […]
Beyoncé loves a theme, and with Act II of her Renaissance album trilogy seemingly leaning country, the superstar has used her Southern roots to inspire her outfits lately. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news The “Break My Soul” singer attended the Luar runway show during New York […]
As Beyoncé enters her country era, the global superstar has the unequivocal support of at least one fellow artist — Reneé Rapp. During the Mean Girls star’s concert in Paris on Tuesday night (Feb. 13), Rapp delivered a faithful cover of Queen Bey’s 2016 country song “Daddy Lessons.” Dressed in a pair of baggy jeans […]
Forget yeehaw, it’s all about Bey-haw now! During the Super Bowl (Feb. 11), Beyoncé teased new music — in a glitzy Verizon commercial, no less — and by the time the Chiefs won, two new singles had appeared on streaming platforms. One of the new tracks, “Texas Hold ‘Em,” released alongside the plaintive “16 Carriages,” […]
Former Boston Red Sox and Cincinnati Reds star Bronson Arroyo’s punnily titled 2005 debut, Covering the Bases, included a cover of The Standells’ “Dirty Water” with Red Sox teammates and cracked the Billboard 200. Since his 2017 retirement, Arroyo has added songwriting to his arsenal, putting out 2023’s all-originals collection Some Might Say.
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How do you compare playing baseball and performing with your band onstage?
It’s kind of a strange thing. When you play at the highest level and you’re winning the World Series, or you win 15 games in a Major League season, you feel like you’re at the top of the mountain, doing your best work. I didn’t pick up a guitar until I was 27 years old. You never feel like you’re getting to the top. It’s this constant whittling of the wood, being in the basement, practicing over and over again. It doesn’t feel like something you were born to do. It feels like it’s something you’re constantly working to do to get better.
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In baseball, the metrics that show successes are as objective as they can be, but in music, even when you have chart data, it’s totally different, right?
Right. Absolutely. Nobody can deny if you win 15 games in a season or punch out 200. That’s a solid year. No one can take that from you. Music is an art and it’s totally subjective to the listener… If I was one of those kids who was 5 or 6 years old at the piano and I was born with this gift, as I was my athleticism, you might think about it differently. But it’s this constant grind, and I enjoy that.
How does your preparation differ between pitching and performing music?
Leading up to a show, it’s very similar. You get all those jitters. You watch guys in a baseball locker room going into a routine and you watch guys in the band run through their routines. That’s a very similar feeling to standing on the mound and listening to the National Anthem. Once you start pitching, all that stuff eases. It’s just a lot more intimate with the music. What the [baseball] crowd thinks of you in those moments isn’t quite that obvious and personal as when you’re looking people in the eye and thinking, “Are you singing this song along with me?”
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How much promotion do you do for your albums and shows?
Just a little bit. I’m not trying to make money off it. It’s always nice if extra money comes around, but that’s not the main thing. … I did a bunch of radio interviews and newspaper articles with writers from baseball and tried to infiltrate that world a little bit and do stuff that wouldn’t chew up too much of my time. I wasn’t trying to get on a plane and stop at every radio station in the country — which I would if I was 22 and in a van trying to push my music.
You’re on a golf trip now — are you doing music shows, or is this purely vacation?
No, not playing [live music] at all. I have a guitar with me, and these 10 songs we wrote, I’m trying to play them. There’s nowhere I go without having one — you know, those guys who go for a run four or miles every day, and if they don’t do it, it’s a problem. I’m just writing now. I’m going to try to put out 20 to 30 songs. I don’t even know what to do with them, to be honest with you. I’m just going to write a bunch of folk songs. Eventually, I’ll get them out.
Upon ending his 15-year career pitching for the Oakland A’s and San Francisco Giants, Zito followed in the musical footsteps of his parents, who both worked with Nat “King” Cole — his father as a conductor-arranger and his mother as a tour singer. Zito, whose country-folkish No Secrets EP hit No. 18 on Billboard‘s Heatseekers Albums charts in 2017, is now a producer-songwriter. The Cy Young Award winner and World Series champion spoke by phone from his Nashville studio.
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It’s legendarily difficult to make it on Music Row. How challenging has it been for you?
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The journey’s always a zigzag. My dream in music was always to be a writer-producer, even in my early baseball days, when I was able to hang out with some amazing producers in L.A. After I came to Nashville in 2015, [I] was a little more into the songwriting, which I view now as so necessary. Writing with a lot of great writers and published writers helped me so much in my role now as a producer.
When your album No Secrets charted in 2017, how did you celebrate?
It was a whirlwind, something we were doing to show more relevance here in the Nashville community, and maybe to some baseball fans who were going to continue to follow me on the music journey. It was honestly a surprise. My manager printed out a framed copy with a picture of the album. I have that in my studio now.
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During your baseball career, were you concentrating on writing songs?
No, I wrote chunks of songs. I wrote some complete songs. Like anyone who’s writing alone, you have a lot of ideas you don’t know how to finish. No one knows this: I actually had four songs I paid a friend of mine in L.A., who’s a great producer, to cut. It was when I was not pitching well at all for the Giants. [The producer] brought in some great [music] players, and it was all over the map — a bossa-nova song, a pop song, a country song. It was just me exploring. I wanted to release it — I even had the album artwork ready to go — but we realized it wasn’t such a good look getting paid $18 million [a year] to pitch and you’re sitting here trying to release music while you’re not doing your actual job.
What’s the best story your parents told you about working with Nat King Cole?
My father told me a story that blew my mind, which is the guy that wrote “Nature Boy.”
Eden Ahbez!
Eden Ahbez, dude! Come on! I’m sure some of the details were fuzzy. My father was Nat’s road conductor, so he was on the road a lot. They were at a venue somewhere and the tour manager, whoever it was, says, “There’s this guy, he wants to talk to you guys, he has a song to play.” They’re kind of curious, so they go out and there was a piano on stage. It was Eden Ahbez. At the time, I guess he was homeless, he had this song, and he said, “I’d love for you to cut it, Nat.” He gets on the piano and plays “Nature Boy” for them. It’s pretty mind-blowing to think that is how “Nature Boy” was born into this world, as far as the industry goes.
Who have you been producing in Nashville?
I have anywhere from two to three sessions a week. I’ll build the track through the day, we’ll get some vocals at the end of the day and I’ll have a nice demo, and then somebody wants to release something, they’ll come back, we’ll do a production deal, we’ll cut final vocals if we have to, add production. There’s an artist-development piece to it with the three artists I’m working with. Lexi Mackenzie, she’s like a country-pop girl, she’s incredible. It’s kind of a blank canvas.
How much do you miss baseball?
Ah, not at all, man. And I don’t mean any disrespect to it. But when I really sit down and watch a game or try to remember how it felt to be on the field — I have my World Series rings in the studio — I do start to miss it. My buddy sent me some TikTok of a pitcher for the A’s throwing 98 miles per hour in a bullpen, which is insane. I thought, “God, that must be so fun, to pump 98 with no adrenaline, just in a bullpen.” I have a complicated relationship with it. I tell myself I don’t miss it, but maybe I do. Maybe I’m trying to fill the gap by being so focused on music.