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Country

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The pieces are falling into place for the inaugural People’s Choice Country Awards, which will air Thursday, Sept. 28, at 8 p.m. ET/PT on NBC and Peacock.
Little Big Town will host the show, which will be held at the fabled Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville. Brothers Osborne will present the Country Champion award to Wynonna Judd. Blake Shelton will present the Country Icon award to Toby Keith.

Little Big Town, Wynonna, Keith and Shelton are all set to perform on the show, as are Carly Pearce, Dan + Shay, HARDY, Jelly Roll, Kane Brown and Kelsea Ballerini.

Additional presenters who will take the stage to reveal winners of the fan-voted awards include Dustin Lynch, Hunter Hayes, Jessie James Decker, Kristin Cavallari, Lady A and Mickey Guyton.

The PCCAs will be held just four days before voting opens for the 2023 Country Music Association Awards, where several of these performers are nominees. Jelly Roll has five CMA nominations; HARDY has four. Pearce and Ballerini are competing for female vocalist of the year at the CMAs. Dan + Shay is up for vocal duo of the year. Little Big Town is up for vocal group of the year. Brown is vying for musical event of the year, where he is competing with three other PCCA performers – Jelly Roll, HARDY and Pearce. Can a strong performance on one awards show boost your chances of winning on another show? Let’s just say it can’t hurt. It seems likely that a large swath of the country music community will either attend or watch the show.

Voting for the CMA Awards extends from Monday, Oct. 2, through Friday, Oct. 27

Voting for the PCCAs is now closed. Morgan Wallen is the leading nominee with 11 nods, followed by Luke Combs and HARDY, with nine each.

The People’s Choice Country Awards is produced by Den of Thieves. Jesse Ignjatovic, Evan Prager and Barb Bialkowski will executive produce, along with RAC Clark as executive producer and showrunner.

Backstage Live: People’s Choice Country Awards, a livestream featuring red-carpet arrivals, backstage chats and other behind-the-scenes coverage, will air on Peacock, PCA Twitter, NBC Twitter/Facebook/YouTube, TODAY All Day/Twitter, E! News Twitter/Facebook/YouTube/E! Online, Access Twitter/YouTube, and Circle social platforms.

These projects are touted as an example of collaboration resulting from NBCUniversal’s equity investment in Opry Entertainment Group alongside Atairos, which was finalized last year.  

Here are all the performers and presenters for the inaugural People’s Choice Country Awards.

Performers

Blake Shelton

Carly Pearce

Dan + Shay

HARDY

Jelly Roll

Kane Brown

Kelsea Ballerini

Little Big Town

Toby Keith

Wynonna

Presenters

Adam Doleac

Blake Shelton

Brothers Osborne

Carly Pearce

Chris Young

Dustin Lynch

Gabby Barrett

Hunter Hayes

Jessie James Decker

Josh Ross

Kameron Marlowe

Kristin Cavallari

Lady A

Lauren Alaina

Leanne Morgan

Mickey Guyton

Nikki Garcia

Scotty McCreery

The War and Treaty

The motto of the Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI) is “It All Begins With a Song.” But on Tuesday evening (Sept. 26), Tim McGraw told the audience of music industry denizens and country music fans gathered at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville that he wanted to briefly amend that statement.

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“It all begins with the songwriter,” McGraw said.

Since 1967, NSAI has worked in service of songwriters at all stages of their careers and across various musical genres, working to advocate for songwriters’ rights. It was those songcrafters — and those who support songwriters — who were honored on Tuesday evening, during the sixth annual Nashville Songwriter Awards.

Chief among them was songwriter-producer (and 2011 Country Music Hall of Fame inductee) Bobby Braddock, who was saluted with the Kris Kristofferson Lifetime Achievement Award. Braddock, of course, is a co-writer on George Jones’ signature hit, the ballad often lauded as the best country song ever made: “He Stopped Loving Her Today.” (“Stopped” was powerful enough to win the CMA Award for song of the year honor twice, in 1980 and 1981.) Braddock got his start performing as part of Marty Robbins’ road band, and earned his first hit as a songwriter with Robbins’ 1965 hit “While You’re Dancing.” Demonstrating the breadth of his influence, Braddock has earned chart-toppers in five different decades.

Braddock’s considerable gifts to country music also include Tammy Wynette’s “D-I-V-O-R-C-E” and the Wynette-Jones duets “Golden Ring” and “(We’re Not) The Jet Set,” all of which were performed Tuesday evening by Jimmy Yeary (wearing a shirt Jones had owned) and Sonya Isaacs in honor of Braddock. Other songs in his sterling catalog include T.G. Sheppard’s “I Feel Like Loving You Again,” John Anderson’s “Would You Catch a Falling Star,” Bill Anderson’s “Peanuts and Diamonds,” Lacy J. Dalton’s “Hard Times” and Billy Currington’s “People are Crazy.”

Or, as Garth Brooks put it more succinctly while honoring Braddock on the Ryman stage, “Bobby Braddock is country music.”

Blake Shelton honored Braddock by performing “He Stopped Loving Her Today,” but also offered his gratitude to Braddock for being a champion for Shelton’s own career. “Bobby Braddock is the guy that found me when I was just a kid here in Nashville trying to make it,” Shelton told the audience. “He took me under his wing, literally took me around Music Row, got me a record deal, produced my first three albums. He’s literally the reason that I am standing here tonight.”

Tracy Lawrence performed his Braddock-penned 1996 hit “Time Marches On,” while Toby Keith offered a mighty-voiced rendition of his 2001 hit “I Wanna Talk About Me,” which Braddock also wrote. “This lyric to me is an epitome of country music; it’s a work of art,” Lawrence said of “Time Marches On.”

“I love country music and I feel fortunate to play a small part in country music,” Braddock said from the podium, as Lawrence, Shelton and Brooks watched. “Long live country music, God bless country music and thank you for this.”

Later in the evening, songwriter exemplar Ashley Gorley earned his seventh songwriter of the year honor, and was feted by Cole Swindell, performing his ACM single and song of the year award-winning hit, “She Had Me at Heads Carolina.” Meanwhile, Russell Dickerson performed “God Gave Me a Girl.”

Morgan Wallen was honored with the songwriter-artist of the year award, for songs including “You Proof” and “Thought You Should Know.” Though Wallen was not in attendance, one of his “Thought You Should Know” co-writers, ACM Awards triple crown winner Miranda Lambert, sent in a video discussing the day Lambert and Nicolle Galyon wrote “Thought You Should Know” with Wallen. “Morgan wanted to write a song about his mama, and he had the two perfect girls in the room that day. There was magic in the air,” Lambert said.

Two of country songwriters’ biggest supporters — the National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA) chairman/CEO David Israelite and country star Tim McGraw — were also celebrated. McGraw was honored with the NSAI President’s Keystone Award.

McGraw has earned 29 No. 1 Billboard Country Airplay hits. NSAI president Steve Bogard called him “a touchstone of modern country music,” while Lori McKenna performed a tender rendition of the hit that became one of McGraw’s signature hits, “Humble and Kind,” which also earned McKenna a Grammy for best country song, and earned CMA song of the year honors. Brett Young celebrated Israelite with a rendition of the Leonard Cohen classic, “Hallelujah.”

“Thank you for trusting me with your songs and thank you for this wonderful award. It means so much to me,” McGraw said.

Israelite was honored with the NSAI Advocacy Award, honoring his work in fighting for the songwriters’ and publishers’ rights to fair compensation for their art, including his important work toward passing the Music Modernization Act in 2018. He noted the shared goals and progress of NMPA and NSAI, and the work still to do in the era of A.I. He noted a key line in Jordan Davis’s song “Buy Dirt”: “Do what you love and call it work.”

“A brilliant line,” Israelite said. “I have yet to meet a songwriter who doesn’t live their life doing that–doing what they love and calling it work, and I am so fortunate to say the same.”

The night’s biggest song honor, song of the year, went to Lainey Wilson’s “Heart Like a Truck,” written by Wilson, Dallas Wilson and Trannie Anderson. “Heart Like a Truck” is also currently nominated for both single and song of the year at the forthcoming CMA Awards.

Anderson recalled writing her first songs at age seven, and playing in bands since before she was old enough to drive. “The stars that had to align for something like this to happen is a miracle,” she said, adding, “I will forever be grateful.”

Dallas Wilson is the son of musician and songwriter Lonnie Wilson, known for writing songs including Luke Bryan’s “All My Friends Say” and Rascal Flatts’ “Love You Out Loud.” Dallas honored his father, saying, “I’ve always wanted to be just like you.” He said that it was an incredible to be recognized with the song of the year award, but even more so to be celebrated “with friends you have been writing with for years.” Dallas also noted that Lainey could not be in attendance to accept the song of the year honor, because she was playing a sold-out show at Red Rocks.

It was perhaps McGraw who summed up the evening’s aim best, when he charged songwriters to “keep changing the world with your words and melodies.”

Woven throughout the evening, 22 songwriters were saluted with the coveted “10 Songs I Wish I’d Written” accolade, voted on by NSAI songwriter members to honor the work of their songwriting peers, and acknowledge songs featuring Nashville writers across the spectrum of country, Christian, mainstream Top 40, rock and other genres. Megan Moroney offered up a rendition of her own current CMA song of the year-nominated “Tennessee Orange.” Meanwhile, Renee Blair joined HARDY to perform his Lainey Wilson collaboration “Wait in the Truck,” which is up for multiple awards, including single and song of the year, at the CMAs. Others who took the stage to perform some of the night’s honored songs were Nicolle Galyon, ERNEST, Tony Lane and Emily Shackelton.

Here is the full list of “10 Songs I Wish I’d Written” honorees:

“Anti-Hero”Written by: Jack Antonoff, Taylor Swift (recorded by: Taylor Swift)

“Flower Shops”Written by: Ben Burgess, Mark Holman, Ernest Keith Smith(recorded by: ERNEST feat. Morgan Wallen)

“Give Heaven Some Hell”Written by: Ashley Gorley, Michael Hardy, Ben Johnson, Hunter Phelps (recorded by: HARDY)

“Heart Like a Truck” Written by: Lainey Wilson, Trannie Anderson, Dallas Wilson (recorded by: Lainey Wilson)

“Human”Written by: Tony Lane, Travis Meadows (recorded by: Cody Johnson)

“Tennessee Orange”Written by: David Fanning, Megan Moroney, Paul Jenkins, Ben Williams(recorded by: Megan Moroney)

“Thought You Should Know”Written by: Nicolle Galyon, Miranda Lambert, Morgan Wallen (recorded by: Morgan Wallen)

“wait in the truck”Written by: Renee Blair, Michael Hardy, Hunter Phelps, Jordan Schmidt(recorded by: HARDY feat. Lainey Wilson)

“What He Didn’t Do”Written by: Ashley Gorley, Carly Pearce, Emily Shackelton (recorded by: Carly Pearce)

“You Proof”Written by: Ashley Gorley, Charlie Handsome, Ernest Keith Smith, Morgan Wallen(recorded by: Morgan Wallen)

Maren Morris shook up the world of country music when she announced earlier this month that she would be leaving the genre, and Lady A are wishing her well as she departs.
In an interview with Billboard, the country trio shared that they heard of Morris’ decision to leave the genre, and felt that she needed to follow her instincts. “I think that, at the end of the day, you’ve got to listen to your heart,” lead singer and guitarist Charles Kelley said. “If this is what her heart is saying, then more power to her.”

Kelley also applauded the singer’s musical chops. “I mean, we love her music,” he said. “If [country] doesn’t feel like it’s where she is right now … I’m always gonna be a fan of her music wherever it’s played. If you’re making great music, you’re making great music.”

Along with the release of her latest singles “The Bridge” and “Get the Hell Out of Here,” Morris told The Los Angeles Times that she couldn’t justify staying in a genre that she felt was sociopolitically out of sync with her beliefs. “After the Trump years, people’s biases were on full display. It just revealed who people really were and that they were proud to be misogynistic and racist and homophobic and transphobic. All these things were being celebrated,” she said. “I thought I’d like to burn it to the ground and start over. But it’s burning itself down without my help.”

For Lady A, country music is less about a system of belief and more about a sound that they enjoy playing. “We just try to focus on authentic music that we love, and as country music fans, we feel like this is the genre for us,” Kelley says.

As for online debates about the political leanings of country music, Kelley said he didn’t have much interest in participating. “I try not to focus on too much of the social media world,” he said. “There is definitely a lot of debate out there, but I can tell you, at least speaking for myself, I just want to focus on the music.”

Fellow lead singer Hillary Scott added that it was important for the band to create “safe spaces for the fans to come and enjoy” their music above all else.

Check out Lady A’s latest single “Love You Back” — a song that Scott says is all about “wanting to give the fans what they want” — below:

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Darius Rucker is opening up about his career and his latest album, Carolyn’s Boy, which releases Oct. 6.
In an interview with Tetris Kelly for Billboard News, the nine-time Country Airplay chart-topping artist discussed how he decided on the title of the new project, which honors Rucker’s late mother.

“It was during the pandemic and we were writing the record, and I was having a bad day,” Rucker recalls. “I just said to myself, ‘At the end of the day, I’m just my mama’s boy,’ so I decided I was going to name it Carolyn’s Boy after that. She was such a big influence on me and she was so important in my life. It was time for me to do something special like that.”

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Rucker also recalled some of the career moments he wishes his late mother had been there to see, including when Hootie & The Blowfish won their first Grammys in 1995, for best new artist, as well as best pop performance by a duo or group with vocal for “Let Her Cry.”

“I wish to God she could have seen me win my first Grammy,” Rucker said, adding, “We used to watch the Grammys as a family when I was a kid, and that was a moment that really hit me. … Just thinking, ‘God, I wish my mom was here to see this.’”

On Carolyn’s Boy, which marks Rucker’s first solo project in six years, Rucker co-wrote the song “Sara” with pop singer/songwriter Ed Sheeran.

“That kid is such an amazing songwriter and such a good guy,” Rucker said of Sheeran, adding, “You’ll sing a line and he’ll sing it back, and he’s singing it differently and singing different words … but it’s just better so you just go with that. I hope I get to write with Ed again; he’s awesome.”

Rucker also spoke about country music’s moment of holding the top three spots on the Billboard Hot 100 just weeks ago, saying, “Country music is taking over. For me, I think it’s great to see. To have the top three spots in the Hot 100 and all the touring everyone is doing and doing well out there, it’s great to see. Country is not rock’s little sister anymore; country’s standing up for itself and on its own. I love being a part of it. You see a lot of great things happening in country music, from those guys doing that, and then you see all these African-American artists getting record deals and stuff like that, country seems to be moving on up.”

The Grammy winner also reflected on his own experiences as a Black artist launching a career in country music.

“It’s been awesome and crazy. When I first came to Nashville, I didn’t even think I’d get a record deal,” Rucker said. “Then we did and we go on a radio tour. There were people saying they didn’t think their audience would ever accept a Black country singer. We proved them all wrong and my success turned into Kane [Brown] and all those other guys getting a shot and blowing it up. I love it, I love watching it. Chapel Hart and all these great groups that are coming out right now.”

Rucker also spoke of transitioning from creating rock music to country music, saying, “It was different because the genres are so different, but country music, especially the artists, are just so welcoming. Rock ‘n’ roll and pop, a lot of times … a lot of people, they make it a competition. It seems like, for me, in country music, everybody thinks there’s room for all of us, if you’re good.”

Next year, Rucker will take his music overseas, with a slate of tour dates in the U.K. and Ireland.

Watch his full interview above.

It’s not something talked about much outside of creative circles, but there are few more obvious — or more effective — production techniques in modern music than the down chorus.

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After establishing the singalong part of a song with a couple of refrains, dropping the instrumental energy the third time around allows the listener to keep singing while the track prepares for the big finale. It happens in songs like Dan + Shay’s “Speechless,” Michael Ray’s “Whiskey and Rain” and Lainey Wilson’s “Heart Like a Truck.”

But Jelly Roll takes the down chorus to another level in “Save Me.” There is no third chorus, so there’s no real opportunity to drop the supporting instrumentation. But for a singer to call himself a “lost cause” and announce that he’s “damaged beyond repair,” well, it’s tough to get more “down” in a chorus than that.

“Early on in my songwriting I chose connection and honesty,” Jelly Roll says. “I didn’t feel that it had to be songs that only seemed like everything was fine, especially when the songs that helped me, or that I saw help my mom the most, were songs that you felt someone was speaking to you from an honest space about something you were going through. That’s where you find connection.”

Jelly Roll really needed connection when “Save Me” came into existence. It was June 2020, when the pandemic had shut down the nation for three months. With tours canceled and plenty of unstructured free time, he desperately wanted to make some music, and he booked Nashville’s Sound Emporium for two weeks to hammer out what would become the Self Medicated album. Deep into the process, songwriter-producer David Ray (“Son of a Sinner”) picked out some basic chords to unwind a bit during downtime.

“I remember sitting in the corner, and I was just kind of noodling on the guitar,” he says. “They were looking at their phones and just kind of taking a break, and I started noodling on that song, and I just reached out, ‘Somebody save me from myself.’ And Jelly was like, ‘What is that?’ ”

That “save me” starting point became the opening line, and they chased the song down in linear fashion, each line leading to the next. Jelly Roll was admittedly immersed in vices, and “Save Me” turned into a painful confession.

“I was in the thick of it — I knew the lifestyle I was living at that moment wasn’t one that could be sustained,” he says. “I needed to make changes in my life, and it was my personal cry for help. Thankfully now I can say I’ve made a lot of positive changes, but I’m still a work in progress.”

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The song unfolded initially with drawn-out phrases that established his ailing spirit, then changed textures when the drinking and smoking arrived atop insistent triplets in a mantra-like prechorus. The chorus breaks into a melodic lift, even as Jelly Roll unveils his “lost cause” admission. They crafted four lines of brokenness, but still needed four more. Instead of taking that second half of the chorus to another place, they repeated the four lines again.

Ray instinctively questioned that. “I do remember bringing that up,” Ray says. “He just felt so passionate about what those four lines said, he wanted it to be a repeat. He just wanted to drive that home.”

“Sometimes,” Jelly Roll explains, “people will hear you but not understand the gravity of what you are saying until you say it again.”

They inserted a simple, wordless melody at the close of that chorus to break from the heaviness, then moved forward again. The second verse opened with an empty sky and concluded with the singer washing away his pain, presumably with booze. And in case the listener didn’t fully understand the first time around, he repeated the mantra-like pre-chorus again, then repeated the “down” chorus. No silver lining.

They recorded it right away, with Ray playing a spacious guitar part as Jelly Roll delivered the difficult, emotional truth. His singing wasn’t perfect — some of the vocal was pitchy, and he didn’t always use full diaphragmatic support — but, like a George Jones performance, Jelly Roll’s imperfections accurately conveyed the depth of his feelings.

“I don’t know how to go beyond the compliment of Billboard saying it’s a George Jones vocal,” Jelly Roll says with a laugh. “Do we get to make that a quote? Is that on the record?”

A couple of days later, Jelly Roll did a live studio version of the song for YouTube with Stu Stapleton playing a piano part that would appear on the final version. Originally, the song had a different title until just before he released it as “Save Me.” The airy production — with Jelly Roll, Ray and Robin Raynelle singing the wordless section — would be certified platinum by the RIAA.

Once he signed with Broken Bow, Jelly Roll envisioned an alternate country rendition, and Wilson was an obvious duet partner. He called on a longtime friend, producer Zach Crowell (Sam Hunt, Dustin Lynch), to guide it, and once Jelly Roll’s team mentioned the slow-build arrangement that he’d been using on “Save Me” in concert, Crowell had a direction that made sense and alleviated some fears.

“The song was already a hit for Jelly Roll and already kind of changed his life,” Crowell says. “I was very nervous to go in and touch it.”

Guitarist Sol Philcox-Littlefield developed subtle, ethereal sounds to provide some appropriate texture, while drummer Grady Saxman waited until the second chorus to fully engage, dragging on that second prechorus in a way that underscores the despondency in Jelly Roll’s lyric. “It’s intentional, because, no offense, the original guitar part is dragging right there,” Crowell says, noting that was a fortunate imperfection. “We didn’t want to replace David Ray’s stuff because it would turn amazing and perfect.”

Crowell and Jelly Roll were both in the booth when Wilson came in to Sound Emporium to record her vocal. The enthusiasm was palpable, even if that mood is a bit counterintuitive for a heavy song. “I did a few takes and after each one, Jelly stood up behind the glass, all hype, talking about how much he loved it and pumping me up before the next take,” she remembers. “He has this way about him where he can encourage vulnerability and feeling just through his genuine excitement and the way he lifts you up.”

Their version was released to digital service providers on May 11, ahead of the Whitsitt Chapel album, and it generated an immediate response. They performed it together on NBC’s Macy’s Fourth of July Fireworks Spectacular, and country radio began playing it before the promotion department started working it, bringing it to a different audience than the rap- and rock-based following that originally took it platinum.

“Jelly has done a beautiful job of not only shedding light on his journey but giving fans a safe space within his music,” Wilson says. “Being able to reach beyond genres is a true testament to how many folks this song speaks to.”

Stoney Creek released it to terrestrial broadcasters through PlayMPE on Aug. 22, and it ranks at No. 26 on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart and No. 7 on Hot Country Songs. On Sept. 7, it earned a Country Music Association Award nomination for musical event of the year. Jelly Roll’s “down chorus” has had a profound effect. Not only has the audience responded to its honesty, he used it as motivation to address the issues it laid bare.

“Seeing how the song impacted the lives of so many people almost immediately, it helped me find the strength to make the lifestyle changes I needed to make,” he says. “‘Save Me’ truly changed my life in more ways than one.”

The Country Music Association has announced changes to its CMA Touring Awards, which recognize behind-the-scenes members of the country music touring community.
New this year, the 2023 CMA Touring Awards will add five categories to its current 15 categories. CMA members will soon be able to vote for crew, backline technician, stage manager, support services company and unsung hero of the year.

In addition, the balloting process for the 2023 CMA Touring Awards has been updated. A nomination round will take place between Friday, Oct. 6 and Thursday, Oct. 19, allowing eligible CMA professional voting members the opportunity to nominate individuals/companies in all 20 categories while providing a brief explanation for their nomination.

A CMA Touring Awards nominations task force will then review the top 20 nominated individuals/companies in each category and determine the finalists.

A final round of voting between Wednesday, Dec. 13, and Thursday, Dec. 28, will allow eligible CMA professional voting members to cast their vote among the top five to eight finalists in each category.

The 2023 CMA Touring Awards ceremony is expected to be held in Nashville in early 2024. 

The CMA Touring Awards, originally called the SRO (Standing Room Only) Awards, were created by the CMA board of directors in 1990. The first awards were presented at a black-tie gala during CMA’s Entertainment Expo, also known as the Talent Buyers Entertainment Marketplace. The SRO Awards were renamed the CMA Touring Awards in 2016.

Here are details on the five new CMA Touring Award categories:

Crew of the Year

This award honors the entire crew of a country music tour that executed a multi-city run of shows during the eligibility period. The award recognizes the crew that has consistently demonstrated outstanding professionalism, skills, teamwork, hospitality, innovation and excellence in all aspects of their work. This award is not necessarily for the team supporting the biggest or top-selling tour of the year, but for the crew that has clearly demonstrated the most heart and spirit on the road, making the biggest overall contribution to elevating country music.

Backline Technician of the Year

This award goes to a backline technician who has demonstrated technical proficiency in ensuring exceptional musician and/or artist support on a country tour during the eligibility period.

Stage Manager of the Year

This award goes to a stage manager who has been instrumental in organizing and executing a country tour during the eligibility period.

Support Services Company of the Year

This award goes to a support services company that has maintained high professional standards and delivered creative and innovative ideas through their services provided to a country tour during the eligibility period. This may include video, lighting, merchandise, security, sound equipment leasing, transportation, catering, staging and other touring support services companies.  

Unsung Hero of the Year

This award goes to a touring professional who has made invaluable contributions behind the scenes and served as a vital part of a country tour during the eligibility period. The recipient of this award has gone above and beyond their assigned duties and has worked tirelessly to elevate the overall experience for everyone on the tour. Individuals who are eligible to be nominated in the other CMA Touring Award categories are not eligible to be nominated for this award category. 

Lady A stopped by the Billboard News, and Charles Kelley talked about his journey with sobriety and how he is feeling today. Charles Kelley:I’m getting close to 15 months. I never thought that I would actually enjoy it, you know? Stephen Daw:Of course. Charles Kelley:I kind of was like, “OK, I want to do this. […]

It’s been more than a year since Charles Kelley, founding member of country trio Lady A, sought treatment for alcoholism. As he tells it, that decision has made all the difference in his personal and professional lives.
Speaking to Billboard on Monday (Sept. 25), Kelley says that nearly 15 months into his sobriety, he’s feeling better than ever. “I never thought I would actually enjoy it, you know?” he says. “I thought, ‘OK, I’m gonna do this for my family, I’m gonna do this for my band, I’m gonna do this for myself.’ But I think it’s the energy you get from not having crazy nights and all of those different things.”

The singer went on to say that sobriety also means living in the moment, which has proven to be a blessing in his day-to-day life. “It’s led me a lot closer to my spirituality. It’s led me to look at myself and what I want more,” he says. “Like, what am I doing? What am I standing for? What do I want for the next 20 years? I think sometimes you have to kind of hit that point of desperation in a way to find that. I’m glad I hit it in my 40s and didn’t wait until later on in life.”

Kelley’s year-plus journey in recovery has also been life-changing for his bandmates Hillary Scott and Dave Haywood. “You’ve always had a big heart and a passion for music and the people you love and loyalty,” Scott tells Kelley. “And now, I feel like there more communication of those feelings.”

Haywood agrees, adding that he’s learned from Kelley’s ability to stay present over the last year. “I feel like, [there’s] a lot of daily gratitude, saying, ‘Let’s celebrate and enjoy this moment,’” Haywood tells Billboard. “We don’t always have to look to the next thing we’re going to do. Let’s be grateful with this music, with this moment, with this show tonight. He’s been fantastic, and we’re so proud of him.”

Fans of Lady A first learned about Kelley’s decision to seek help in August 2022, when the trio postponed their Request Line Tour in order to support him in his recovery. “In order to be the healthiest, strongest and most creative band we can be, Lady A will take the time with the support of our families and team of professionals to walk through this together,” they wrote in a statement at the time.

If you or anyone you know is battling substance abuse, visit FindTreatment.gov for information on where to find confidential treatment referral, information and support.

Three years ago, the pandemic temporarily turned Nashville recording studios into miniature ghost towns.

The business looks a whole lot different in 2023.

“Every engineer out of work in 2020 is so slammed now that they can’t take a vacation,” says producer Trent Willmon (Cody Johnson, Granger Smith). “I was talking to somebody — I can’t remember who said it — but booking a session, he said he called seven steel players before he found someone available. That means country music is badass, baby. Four years ago, all the steel players were just like, ‘Hey, man, you got any work?’ And now they’re just all overwhelmed.”

A year or two ago, the bulk of that workload would have been a result of artists bringing new material created during COVID-19 isolation to the studio. But the volume of recording work in Nashville hasn’t subsided since that first postcrisis wave, and it appears that another development from the pandemic era is behind the ongoing studio traffic.

Morgan Wallen’s Dangerous: The Double Album rode 30 tracks to a record-setting run atop Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart, which reflects streaming and sales data compiled by Luminate. Following its success, now albums — which were typically 10 to 12 tracks in the past — have become much more robust. A dozen have hit No. 1 since the beginning of 2021, and only two have fit the historic range: Carrie Underwood’s 11-track holiday album, My Gift, and Luke Combs’ 12-track Growin’ Up, which was later revealed as the lead-in to the 18-track companion Gettin’ Old.

The rest of the No. 1 albums have spanned from Underwood’s 13-track gospel album, My Savior, to Wallen’s 36-track One Thing at a Time. Those larger albums obviously utilize more songs, but that also means they require more hours from the artist, producers, engineers, musicians and other crew members. Thus, the country studio business is booming.

“I’m busier than I’ve ever been in my life in terms of workload, and at the same time, it’s fewer artists,” says guitarist Derek Wells, one of country’s first-call studio players. “The reality is your big, premiere artists kind of gobble up weeks and weeks and weeks of your year. And there’s just no room left for some of the newer stuff. It’s not an unwillingness to do it, or lack of a desire to go be amongst some of those things. It’s just kind of first come, first serve.”

While supersized albums are an aggressive way to compete for chart superiority, they also serve as a digital-era method of satisfying artists’ superfans. The maturation of streaming has given consumers quicker access to music by their favorite artists for a set monthly price, rather than compelling them to buy albums. Artists’ biggest fans have always wanted more music. And with home studios and digital recording techniques providing more flexibility, it’s easier than ever to satisfy that hunger.

While the leading acts are supersizing albums, artists with smaller fan bases are releasing EPs with greater frequency, putting out more music than their predecessors often did at a similar career stage to satisfy their own strongest supporters’ demands. The combination of supersized albums and more frequent EPs is stretching the resources in Nashville.

“Work is definitely surging,” Nashville Musicians Union president Dave Pomeroy says. “We’ve more than gotten back to where we were before the pandemic, in terms of [recording contracts] we see coming through the building,”

That makes booking a recording session something of a Rubik’s cube. A producer’s top musician choices will likely not all be available at the same time for a session that wasn’t booked far in advance. That encourages even more overdubbing, with producers doing bare bones tracking dates and hiring musicians to layer on parts at home.

“A lot of the times I’m not doing a full session on my songs,” says Alana Springsteen, who co-produces her music. “We’ll start [recording] things in the room sometimes the day we write the song, I’ll lay down an acoustic, lay down a vocal, one of my co-writers might play the electric, and we’ll lay down a path. Sometimes it looks a little different than a traditional session.”

While it’s possible to record musicians one at a time, many artists still want to use a larger room with the players all working in unison. Many of the established studios have shuttered since 2000 as home recording increased, so now that recording is in a boom cycle, it’s increasingly difficult to find an available large studio. As a result, many individual tracks are recorded in three or four different locations, and a full album may be pieced together at six or more sites.

“It used to be when we’d do a record, if we did three or four different tracking days, it was all going to be in the same room,” says producer Frank Rogers (Scotty McCreery, Frank Ray). “At the end of the day, I put the players first, because if you have the right players, you can go and set up in a living room and still make a really good record. If you got the greatest studio in the world and C [grade] players, then it’s just not going to be what it needs to be.”

Chris Young found a previously untapped studio when he booked Sony Music Publishing’s upgraded facility for the master tracking session on his new single, “Young Love & Saturday Nights.” At the same time, he also has a home studio, and his output there is using engineer hours beyond the traditional venue. Multiply that phenomenon by dozens of artists, and the ramifications become much more apparent.

“It’s sort of insane,” Young says, hinting that his next album may be larger than a traditional project. “I have seven songs for my next record already. And part of it is, I try and write all the time when I’m home [from touring]. I usually write, every single year, 100 songs on top of what I find outside… I’m [taxing the system] a little bit.”

The engineering sector may be stretched thinner than every other area of production.

“With the ease of recording, everybody — half the songwriters in town, and every musician, every producer — is an engineer,” Rogers says. “But the ones who know how to track really, really well or know how to mix really, really well, there’s not a whole lot of them that are great. There’s a lot of good, there’s not much great, and so those guys are as busy as they’ve ever been.”

At the other end of the music chain, the increase in the number of tracks is stretching the infrastructure with radio and digital service providers (DSPs), too.

“There’s always too much music — it’s not manageable on any of the platforms,” says artist consultant John Marks, a former programmer for broadcast radio, satellite radio and Spotify. “Wherever you are today, you cannot manage that traffic, the amount of releases, regardless if you have an album of 12 tracks, or 36 tracks, or 50 tracks. Whatever it is, you are treading water in the ocean.”

The DSPs get thousands of new tracks every week, and while they can make educated guesses about what to playlist from new albums and -individual -singles, fans’ choices will ultimately require programming adjustments. Similarly, traditional country radio stations — which have drawn their playlists primarily from major labels — are increasingly auditioning songs from sources they would not have considered in the past, thanks to digital consumption.

“If Zach Bryan’s new song gets streamed 20 million times, why would I think that radio listeners wouldn’t feel the same way about the song if they were exposed to it?” Cumulus vp of country formats Charlie Cook says. “So then it’s incumbent on me to expose it. When you get 20 million streams on Oliver Anthony or 13 million on Tyler Childers, why am I smarter than them? I’m not.”

Traditional radio still plays one song at a time, no skips, so instead of trying to satisfy every artist’s superfans, its business still requires identifying the songs that fit the widest number of individual tastes. Even if it means sifting through more music to play the same number of songs.

“It’s radio’s opportunity to find the strongest songs and play the heck out of them,” Cook says. “We had a liner for a while that said, ‘We’ll cut through everything that’s out there and find the best music for you.’ And I think that has now become radio’s position.”

The new, longer albums are likely to continue as the artists, and the media that exposes their music, attempt to superserve their most ardent fan base.

“I think it will last, and it will permeate the lower rungs of artistry,” Marks says. “Really, the only way to get to your fans these days is a continual release pattern, keeping in front of your audience and not letting them rest. Listeners and fans want more of whatever they’re finding, and they want it now.” 

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Morgan Wallen is extending his One Night at a Time tour for several more nights, with 10 new stadium dates added for 2024.  The additional U.S. dates will kick off April 4 at Indianapolis’ Lucas Oil Stadium and end Aug. 8 at Las Vegas’ Allegiant Stadium. Each date will include three opening acts from a […]