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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, […]
This week, Beyoncé became the first Black woman to top Billboard’s Country Songs chart with “Texas Hold ‘Em.” But many of the credited songwriters and producers come from a surprising place – not Texas or Nashville, but Canada.
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“Texas Hold ‘Em” is co-written by three Canadians: Nathan Ferraro (who also co-produced it), Elizabeth Boland (who has released music for the label Arts & Crafts as Lowell) and Megan Bülow (who makes music as bülow). The three of them are all credited on the song, with Ferraro also co-producing the song with Killah B and Beyoncé.
“I love Beyoncé and I love the record,” Ferraro tells Billboard Canada, “She’s created such an amazing cultural moment.”
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Another Canadian, Dave Hamelin (formerly of The Stills), is credited on Beyoncé’s other new song, “16 Carriages,” listed as a producer and engineer.
To be clear, Beyoncé’s moment is not about any of these Canadian musicians. Many have rightfully pointed to the contributions of Rhiannon Giddens, a musician who’s been showing the world that the banjo was originally a Black instrument (which fits right in with Beyoncé’s Renaissance mission of reclaiming Black genres, first house and now country). Prominent Black roots musician, Robert Randolph, is also credited as a steel guitar player.
But it is also a big credit for a number of Canadian musicians who have been working behind the scenes of the music industry in bigger and bigger ways.
Ferraro was in an alt-rock band called The Midway State that had some success in Canada in the late 2000s. A signing to Interscope as a teenager brought him to Los Angeles, where he splits time with Toronto (it also brought a collaboration with a then up-and-coming Lady Gaga).
After writing for and with mostly Canadian artists, including Carly Rae Jepsen and Jessie Reyez, he had a modest international hit with bülow in “Not A Love Song,” which exemplified their collaboration as songwriters. He also wrote with Lowell (signed to Canadian label Arts & Crafts) for her project. They all formed a songwriting team that picked up steam in 2022, collaborating on the Charli XCX song “Yuck.”
“[The collaboration] works well for us,” Ferraro tells Billboard Canada. “We’re such good friends and we know each other’s strengths and weaknesses. I think we all have a lot of mutual respect, so we have a lot of confidence together and that allows us to take risks.”
He estimates they’ve written about 100 songs together, with about 20 of them seeing the light of day. Personally, he’s written about 1500, he says. He’s been recognized in Canada, with seven SOCAN awards for public performance of songwriting, but he’s also established himself as part of a “vibrant” community and industry of songwriters, studio musicians, producers and A&R people in Los Angeles.
“I first started coming here, sleeping on couches wherever I could, working with different collaborators and friends,” he says. “I did that for years. And at the end of the pandemic, I started spending even more time here and got a manager down here. And now I’m spending about six months a year here.”
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Ferraro is inspired by prolific songwriters who’ve both written for other artists and recorded under their own names – Carole King and Diane Warren, especially. But he describes his collaborative songwriting process as one based on friendship and spirituality – not necessarily religious, but one with room for an ineffable type of expression that drives in-the-room creation.
“When I read a book by Rick Rubin or John Lennon, that often comes up. And I don’t think it’s by chance,” he says. “For any artist there’s a vision and a belief in something that doesn’t yet exist. I think it was Quincy Jones who said ‘always leave some space for God in the room,’ and it’d be silly of me to negate that. There’s a humility and a presence and an openness, and I think that’s important.”
Many of his biggest credits have been for female artists, from Lady Gaga to Charli XCX, something he attributes to growing up with five younger sisters. None of those credits have been as big as “Texas Hold ‘Em,” though, which could become a breakthrough credit for Ferraro, Lowell and bülow.
“Honestly, since I was 14, I had the vision that I would write songs that could have a major impact,” he says. “And it’s pretty delusional because it’s just so, so far away. I grew up in Collingwood, Ontario. But you just put one foot in front of the other and write lots and lots of songs and don’t give up. And that’s led me here.”
This article originally appeared on Billboard Canada.
This week’s batch of new country tunes features Dierks Bentley’s take on a Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers classic, plus Bailey Zimmerman’s nostalgic new ballad, Jordan Davis’ thoughtful new track and stellar, pop-fueled work from Camille Parker and Tenille Arts.
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Bailey Zimmerman, “Holy Smokes”
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This moody, reminiscing ballad mixes romance and religious overtones, depicting nights of rebellion and young love in a church parking lot. Zimmerman excels at these kind of lost-love vignettes, as evidenced by “Rock and a Hard Place” and some of Zimmerman’s other hits. Between stately piano, driving percussion and a cathartic, country-rock chorus, it’s clear that this short-lived romance had a lasting impact. Zimmerman co-wrote the track with frequent collaborator Austin Shawn, as well as Ben Stennis, Michael Tyler and Lauren Hungate.
Dierks Bentley, “American Girl”
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Following his previous album Gravel and Gold, Bentley takes on this classic rock track from Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ 1976 debut album. Spright Banjo, mandolin and guitar fusions lead this jaunty number, which melds perfectly with Bentley’s own grainy, rock-leaning vocal. The song is included on the upcoming album Petty Country: A Country Music Celebration of Tom Petty, which will be released via Big Machine and the Tom Petty Estate.
Camille Parker, “Spinning Out”
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Parker, a member of this year’s CMT Next Women of Country class, also recently made her debut performance on the Grand Ole Opry and was a contestant on the musical competition My Kind of Country. Here, she issues a superb, dancefloor-ready, pop-leaning track, one that makes the most of her delicate-yet-earthy vocals. This new song finds Parker offering an uplifting, musical respite for those who need a self-care moment away from the stressors that come with the daily grind.
Jordan Davis, “Good News Sold”
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Davis has notched a slew of previous hits with warmly-produced songs rooted in slightly nostalgic, commonplace-yet-momentous life milestones, such as “Next Thing You Know” and his Luke Bryan collab “Buy Dirt.” He continues in that overall vein with his latest, which muses that the world would be happier and less divided if “Good News Sold” and spread across communication avenues in the same speed that bad news seems to proliferate. Written by Jacob Davis, Cole Taylor and Jordan Rowe, this track amounts to another solid contender for radio success.
Tenille Arts, “Next Best Thing”
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“You already had a queen in your California king,” she sings on this well-written song, adding “I’d wish you the best/ But you already had me.” Swiftian, swirling pop and razor-sharp wit guides Arts’ newest release, which she wrote with Ross Copperman and Emily Weisband. She draws the listener in with her charismatic vocal and keeps them with a track as danceable as it is relatable.
Having a platinum pedigree is one thing. But showing that you can use it is a whole different ballgame. Emmy Russell, 24 proved more than up to the task on Sunday night (Feb. 25) when the shy Nashville native, and granddaughter of country icon Loretta Lynn, stepped up to her mark on American Idol to perform an original piano ballad called “Skinny.”
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Smiling from ear-to-ear, Russell told the judge’s panel it was a “dream” to be on the reality singing competition as Katy Perry, Lionel Richie and Luke Bryan struggled to hear the singer’s quiet speaking voice. “Tell us about yourself, other than being quiet,” Bryan said. “Growing up, I sang music my entire life,” she said modestly.
“I just love writing. I’m 24 years old. Songwriter. I love music,” Russell added. “I don’t really sing out as much anymore, but growing up I sang on the road with — my grandma’s a country singer so I grew up singing.” Which, of course, elicited the obvious question from Bryan, leading to the revelation that Russell’s grandma was the Grammy-winning country “Coal Miner’s Daughter” superstar, who died in Oct. 2022 at age 90. “Your grandma is… what?!” Richie said in disbelief.
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The show then unspooled a montage of Russell taking viewers on a tour of her “meemaw” Lynn’s historic Hurricane Mills, TN ranch and home, where the singer’s mom, singer Patsy Lynn, grew up. “She’s one of the biggest country music singers of all time, but to me she’s just my grandma, and growing up on the bus and all that was very normal to me,” Russell said.
Embracing her timidity, Russell explained that one of the reasons she is kind of shy is because she wants to be her own person and “own my own voice.” Counseled by Perry that, like her gran, Russell needs to find her own unique path, the singer then went to the piano to perform a moving original she wrote about eating disorders called “Skinny.”
“Haven’t eaten in days/ God I hate how you made me/ So scared to confess, been so hard to undress lately/ These oversized T-shirts don’t work like they used to/ Sleeping on scales is just what I’m used to,” Russell sang urgently on the ballad that had a touch of Olivia Rodrigo’s keyboard-driven confessional songwriting.
Perry was super impressed with the audition, calling Russell an “A+ songwriter… so was your grandma, you’ve got the gift. I don’t think you need to compare yourself to what grandma was… you’re totally different, you shouldn’t give yourself all that pressure. I think you came in like a mouse.”
“A baby mouse,” Bryan added, as Perry asked Russell to say her name again, but louder this time.
Richie agreed, saying, “My dear, you have promise. And I like your promise. Each one of us is trying to battle something that we’re trying to overcome. In your case you have big shoes. Now if I can just get you to put those shoes back in the closet, that’s not your size.” Bryan said the task will be to boost Russell’s confidence and help her “own it.”
It was a tearful yes for Russell, who will advance to the Hollywood round on the current 22nd season of the long-running series, which Perry recently announced will be her final one with the show.
See Russell’s audition below.
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