State Champ Radio Country
Page: 189
In October, The Oak Ridge Boys’ longtime members — Duane Allen, Joe Bonsall, William Lee Golden and Richard Sterban — will celebrate their semicentennial celebration, five decades of making music together. In gearing up for the milestone, the group has announced their American Made: Farewell Tour.
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
“When you’re saying farewell, there’s a lot of people you want to say farewell to,” Golden tells Billboard. “It’s all the people that supported you along the way, the ones that called the radio stations, the one that come and bought tickets to see us sing and sat in the rain with the rest of us while we were able to play and sing music. It’s a lot of emotions, because we as the Oak Ridge Boys are a family. I mean, we spent more time through the years together as a family and we did our own families, basically.”
Though the Oak Ridge Boys quartet has origins running back to the 1940s, it was the Golden-Sterban-Bonsall-Allen collective that propelled the group to commercial heights in both the country and pop fields.
At 84, Golden is the eldest member of the group, having joined the Oak Ridge Boys in 1965; Allen joined a year later, having previously performed as part of the Southernaires Quartet and the Prophets quartet. In 1972, the group added Sterban, known for his work performing as part of the J.D. Sumner and the Stamps quartet. Bonsall joined in 1973, rounding out the current lineup. Both Bonsall and Sterban had previously performed as part of gospel group The Keystone Quartet.
This particular iteration has spearheaded the group for all of those years, save for an eight-year stretch starting in 1987 when Golden was replaced by Steve Sanders.
In the 1970s, the Oak Ridge Boys followed The Statler Brothers in gaining country success as a four-part vocal group with gospel roots. In 1977, they issued a live album which mixed country and gospel numbers such as “Good Hearted Woman” and “Just a Little Talk With Jesus.” But it was under the guidance of manager Jim Halsey, and with production from Ron Chancey, that the Oak Ridge Boys found success in the junction of gospel, country and pop, putting their inimitable harmonies behind what would become some of the biggest country and pop hits of the 1970s and 1980s.
In 1977, the group earned their first major country hit with “Y’all Come Back Saloon.” The group went on to earn 17 No. 1 Hot Country Songs hits, starting with 1978’s “I’ll Be True to You” and 1980’s “Leaving Louisiana in Broad Daylight. 1981 would bring their seminal, career-expanding crossover hit, the top five Billboard Hot 100 hit “Elvira,” anchored by Golden’s signature “Oom pa pa mow mow” vocals. They followed that with the top 15 Hot 100 hit “Bobbie Sue.”
Thanks to their distinct harmonies — with each of the four vocalists commanding an instrument capable of allowing the group to alternate lead vocal duties — the group earned four CMA Awards trophies and five Grammy wins. They’ve been recognized with the highest honors from the Country Music Hall of Fame (2015), the Grand Ole Opry (2011), the Gospel Music Hall of Fame and the Vocal Group Hall of Fame.
Bonsall, the youngest of the four members at age 75, notes that the group has been slowly scaling back the number of concerts they have played each year, from 140 dates last year to 120 dates in 2023; he estimates they will play only around 50-60 shows in 2024.
“We’ve worked nearly 150 dates a year almost every year,” Bonsall tells Billboard. “We’ve never booked tours like a lot of groups do — making an album and doing maybe 50 or 60 days to support it. We may tour under a different tour name every year, but it’s really the never-ending tour. We’ve never known how to stop or slow down, for sure. So what we have put a concentrated effort in our thought pattern here in the last year or so into how can we slow it down some, but still keep moving forward.”
Bonsall says they intend to include key venues that staunch supporters over the years, such as the Alabama Theater in Myrtle Beach, N.C., and the American Music Theatre in Lancaster, PA. — or the Kentucky State Fair, which the group has played for the past 49 years.
“Are we going to play the Kentucky State Fair for the 50th year next August, if at all possible? You bet we are,” Bonsall says. “That’s a record that might not be broken.”
Bonsall noted that age was one factor playing into the decision to launch a slate of farewell dates.
“For the past year, I’ve done our shows [sitting] on a stool,” Bonsall says. “My legs aren’t what they used to be — but I’m still singing good and feeling good, and I’m not in any pain,” Bonsall says. “Richard has had a few small health issues, but he got by them fine. Dwayne is doing great and [William Lee] Golden, he’s going to be 85 in January and he’s got more energy than all of us put together.”
“I want to thank God for 50 years of singing with three of my best friends and for the fans who have been there for us,” Sterban said in a statement. “This is a celebration and we hope to see you there.”
“For all of my career I have always been a planner, sometimes planning two or three years in advance, what we will do, where we will go, and when we record,” Allen said in a statement. “As we celebrate 50 years of being together, just as you see us, we will, also, begin our American Made: Farewell Tour. I don’t know how long the tour will last, but we hope to return to as many parts of the country as we can. Thank you so much for these 50 years. For me, it’s 57 1/2 years. I have given you the best part of my life and you have rewarded me with a wonderful career. Thank you, our dear fans. Thanks to God for His divine guidance. Thank you to our wonderful organization. Thank you to all the supporting companies who represent us. And thank you to our families.”
The farewell tour announcement is a momentous one, considering the Oaks’ considerable contributions to the progress and ascension of country music touring, both domestically and internationally. In 1976, thanks to the work of Halsey, the Oak Ridge Boys toured the Soviet Union with Roy Clark.
“The Iron Curtain was still firmly in place. Jim Halsey worked it out as a cultural exchange,” Bonsall recalls. “It was an incredible experience to go and see what life was like there, and to be able to cross a lot of barriers, language-wise, with music and harmony.”
The Oaks’ tour alongside Kenny Rogers and Dottie West in 1979 is considered country music’s first major arena tour. “All arenas, all sold-out, big production and lights in the middle of an arena — it was never done before,” Bonsall says. “Kenny and Dottie had those big hits like ‘Every Time Two Fools Collide,’ and Kenny was riding on ‘The Gambler’ and ‘Lucille.’ We were the hot new young kids on the block; we learned so much from Kenny.”
Riding high on hits like “Elvira” and “Bobbie Sue,” the group propelled country music touring forward, with their energetic stage shows bolstered by lighting and production previously unheard of in country music concerts. “We had a computerized light system; everybody uses it now, but we did then,” Bonsall says. “We had lasers and smoke spotlights up in the truss; it was an amazing tour. People are doing big tours now all the time of course.”
The group joined another tour with Rogers, West and at times, Dolly Parton, thanks to the Rogers-Parton 1983 Billboard Hot 100 chart-topper “Islands in the Stream.”
“Kenny also had [the 1980, six-week No. 1 Hot 100 hit] ‘Lady,’ and we had all these hits by that time — so that was another monster tour; for like seven straight years, we never saw an empty seat in an arena,” Bonsall says.
Golden notes that as members of the Grand Ole Opry since 2011, they still plan to continue to perform at the Opry even after the conclusion of the farewell tour. “It was like people like Roy Acuff, people that inspired us as kids growing up, hearing them on the Grand Ole Opry,” he says. “It would come alive in our little farmhouses out the middle of a cotton field, and the battery radios bring it all alive to you.”
In addition to the upcoming farewell tour, the group has holiday shows in the works, and they plan to enter the studio in January to start work on a new album, again enlisting producer Dave Cobb, with whom they’ve worked on four previous albums, including 2021’s Front Porch Singin’.
“We’ve talked about doing an album of songs that talk about mamas,” Golden says. “We’d mention an old Dottie Rambo song called ‘Mama’s Teaching Angels How to Sing,’ and other songs that have a theme about mothers.”
“It’s a time of reflecting and there’s a sadness about being able that it’s a farewell tour,” Golden adds, “but there’s the other side that you feel so blessed because of your singing partners, the people that you’ve been able to travel with and sing with. The accomplishments that we’ve had together is four guys, regardless of our different backgrounds, coming together and we each bring a uniqueness to the group with our contributions.
“It’s exciting to have been able to have survived this many years with the same lineup of singers, and to be able to go out there and thank people,” he continues. “It’s going to be an emotional tour.”
See a full list of upcoming tour dates below:
Sept. 20 – The Mansion Theatre for the Performing Arts / Branson, Mo.Sept. 21 – The Mansion Theatre for the Performing Arts / Branson, Mo.Sept. 22 – Capital Region MU Health Care Amphitheater / Jefferson City, Mo.Sept. 23 – Dixie Carter Performing Arts Center / Huntington, Tenn.Sept. 28 – Norsk Hostfest Great Hall of the Vikings / Minot, N.D.Sept. 29 – Chester Fritz Auditorium / Grand Forks, N.D.Sept. 30 – Swiftel Center / Brookings, S.D.Oct. 1 – Deadwood Mountain Grand / Deadwood, S.D.Oct. 4 – The Mansion Theatre for the Performing Arts / Branson, Mo.Oct. 5 – The Mansion Theatre for the Performing Arts / Branson, Mo.Oct. 6 – Ameristar Casino Hotel Kansas City / Kansas City, Mo.Oct. 7 – Richard Drake’s Party Barn / Powderly, TexasOct. 11 – The Mansion Theatre for the Performing Arts / Branson, Mo.Oct. 12 – The Mansion Theatre for the Performing Arts / Branson, Mo.Oct. 13 – Arlington Music Hall / Arlington, TexasOct. 14 – Arlington Music Hall / Arlington, TexasOct. 18 – The Mansion Theatre for the Performing Arts / Branson, Mo.Oct. 19 – The Mansion Theatre for the Performing Arts / Branson, Mo.Oct. 21 – Rome City Auditorium / Rome, Ga.Oct. 26 – The Mansion Theatre for the Performing Arts / Branson, Mo.Oct. 27 – The Mansion Theatre for the Performing Arts / Branson, Mo.Oct. 28 – Neewollah Celebration – Jim Halsey Auditorium / Independence, Kan.Nov. 1 – The Mansion Theatre for the Performing Arts / Branson, Mo.Nov. 2 – The Mansion Theatre for the Performing Arts / Branson, Mo.Nov. 3 – Brown County Music Center / Nashville, Ind.Nov. 4 – Crossroads Arena / Corinth, Miss.Nov. 8 – The Mansion Theatre for the Performing Arts / Branson, Mo.Nov. 9 – The Mansion Theatre for the Performing Arts / Branson, Mo.Nov. 11 – Grand Ole Opry / Nashville, Tenn.Nov. 15 – The Mansion Theatre for the Performing Arts / Branson, Mo.Nov. 16 – The Mansion Theatre for the Performing Arts / Branson, Mo.Nov. 21 – Vern Riffe Center for the Arts / Portsmouth, OhioNov. 24 – Honeywell Center / Wabash, Ind.Nov. 25 – Paramount Theatre / Anderson, Ind.Dec. 1 – Renfro Valley Barn Dance / Mount Vernon, Ky.Dec. 2 – Anderson Music Hall / Hiawassee, Ga.Dec. 7 – Firekeepers Casino / Battle Creek, Mich.Dec. 8 – Island Resort & Casino / Harris, Mich.Dec. 9 – Island Resort & Casino / Harris, Mich.Dec. 14 – Luther F. Carson Four Rivers Center / Paducah, Ky.Dec. 15 – Effingham Performance Center / Effingham, Ill.Dec. 16 – Crystal Grand Music Theatre / Wisconsin Dells, Wisc.Dec. 17 – Egyptian Theatre / Dekalb, Ill.
Luminaries from Nashville’s country music industry celebrated more than a dozen honorees as part of the 16th annual Academy of Country Music Honors, which airs Monday evening (Sept. 18) at 8 p.m. ET on Fox (and streams the following day on Hulu).
The evening celebrated not only many of country music’s hitmaking artists, but many throughout the music business who have made an indelible mark on the industry, and pushed the genre forward in many ways — including songwriters, musicians and industry executives.
Four-time ACM Award winner Carly Pearce returned as host for a third consecutive year. Reigning ACM new female artist of the year Hailey Whitters offered up a jovial, sassy rendering of her hit “Everything She Ain’t” and honored many of the studio winners during the evening.
Early in the evening, Breland was honored with the inaugural ACM Lift Every Voice Award, the newest ACM Honors accolade. Keith Urban, who called Breland “a superb songwriter and the real deal…he’s got a great heart,” joined Breland for a rendition of “Throw It Back.”
Breland offered perhaps one of the most insightful, stirring acceptance speeches of the evening.
“I just want to say winning this award is truly the highest honor that I’ve received in my career,” he said, going on to name several influential Black musicians such as Rufus “Tee Tot” Payne, who taught Hank Williams, as well as the railroad workers who influenced Jimmie Rodgers and the Grand Ole Opry’s first Black country star, DeFord Bailey. Breland also recognized Mickey Guyton, Darius Rucker and The War and Treaty for their music and their work in progressing diversity within country music.
A trio of superb singer-songwriters — Clint Black, Mary Chapin Carpenter (two members of country music’s illustrious “Class of ‘89”) and the late K.T. Oslin — were each honored with the ACM Poet’s Award.
Lady A honored Black by performing his 1993 hit duet with Wynonna “A Bad Goodbye,” while Trisha Yearwood performed “This Shirt” from Carpenter’s 1989 album State of the Heart.
Black said, “This only happens because so many people come together and get behind a guy or girl and make things happen for them.”
One songwriter honored another as Brandy Clark performed a heart-tugging, tender rendition of the late Oslin’s “’80s Ladies.” Meanwhile, acclaimed journalist/author Robert K. Oermann gave a touching acceptance speech honoring his dear friend Oslin, who died in 2020.
Pearce joined songwriter Emily Shackelton to perform Pearce’s “What He Didn’t Do,” to honor their co-writer on the song, this year’s ACM songwriter of the year recipient Ashley Gorley.
Meanwhile, HARDY was feted with the ACM artist-songwriter of the year honor.
The crowd began cheering as Bailey Zimmerman took the stage to sing HARDY’s “Signed Sober You.” Zimmerman told HARDY, “You’ve been an inspiration because you’ve always been you and done things your way. You’ve taught us we can do what we want and still be successful.” Dennis Matkosky, co-founder of Relative Music Group (HARDY was named partner in the company a couple of years ago), presented HARDY with the artist-songwriter of the year honor.
Longtime music industry members were also honored for their career contributions to the genre. Two country radio titans, Bill Mayne and Charlie Cook, were each honored with the ACM service award. Cook serves as vp of country music, programming operations manager for Cumulus Nashville’s five-station cluster, and program director for WSM-FM and WKDF-FM. Throughout his career, Mayne worked at both record labels and in radio; he also held the executive director role at Country Radio Broadcasters from 2011 until his retirement in 2019.
Chris Janson presented Cook with his honor, saying, “Without country radio I wouldn’t be standing here…thank you for believing in me,” before performing his hit “Good Vibes.”
Country Thunder Festival executive producer Troy Vollhoffer was named the recipient of the ACM Lifting Lives Award, given to an artist, duo/group or industry professional who has devoted themselves to improving lives through the power of music. Vollhoffer’s Premier Global Production company has been one of the foremost staging and lighting companies for decades. Meanwhile, Vollhoffer has served on the board of ACM Lifting Lives, rising to officer positions including vice president, president and ultimately chair of the board in 2022. He has also served on advisory boards for the T.J. Martell Foundation and Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital.
Storme Warren honored the late Charlie Daniels with the ACM spirit award, while Billy Ray Cyrus, Firerose and Travis Denning celebrated the legendary singer-songwriter-guitarist-fiddler in song with a rendition of Daniels’ “Long Haired Country Boy.” A recipient of the 1997 ACM Pioneer Award, Daniels was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2016 and died in 2020.
Other performers during the evening included Sara Evans offering a rendition of her hit “Born to Fly,’ while Dennis Quaid performed “Fallen.”
Tim McGraw and now-retired Universal Music Group Nashville chairman/CEO Mike Dungan were the recipients of this year’s ACM Icon Award, which honors an artist, duo/group or industry leader who has advanced the popularity of the genre through their contributions in various sectors of the industry.
During his decades in the industry, Dungan has championed artists including Brooks & Dunn, Pam Tillis, Brad Paisley, Brothers Osborne, Stapleton, Carrie Underwood, Luke Bryan, Kacey Musgraves, Jordan Davis and Parker McCollum.
“He took so many artists under his wing,” Davis told Dungan from the stage. “What you’ve done in country music will last a lifetime and this genre is better because you are part of it.” Davis was then joined by contemporary Christian music hitmaker (and now UMG Nashville-aligned artist) Anne Wilson for a rendition of Davis’ No. 1 hit “Buy Dirt” (the original featured Luke Bryan). Meanwhile, Priscilla Block offered up what she called “the song that brought us together in the first place,” her breakthrough hit “Just About Over You.”
McGraw earned his first ACM honors back in 1994, picking up top new male vocalist and album of the year (for Not a Moment Too Soon). In 1997, he earned single, song, vocal event and video of the year honors for his enduring duet with his wife Faith Hill, “It’s Your Love.” Those are just a few of the 21 ACM Awards honor McGraw has picked up during his nearly four-decade career.
Brett Young honored McGraw with an especially soulful rendering of “Don’t Take the Girl,” while Nelly performed his genre-blending McGraw collaboration from 2004, “Over and Over,” noting that he and McGraw recorded the song not because either necessarily was in need of a hit, but out of pure respect for each other’s artistry.
“He believed in what I was trying to do; it’s an honor to call him a friend,” Nelly said, stepping down from the stage to hug McGraw, who was seated front row in the Ryman Auditorium, alongside Hill and their children.
Country Music Hall of Famer Randy Travis honored Kane Brown with the ACM international award, while Lee Brice performed Brown’s recent No. 1 hit “Like I Love Country Music.” Brown recently notched his 10th No. 1 Country Airplay hit with “Bury Me in Georgia” and has crisscrossed the globe on his international Drunk or Dreaming tour, visiting Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the U.K. and Europe.
“Country music let me into the family and now I get to travel the world and be different, which is what I’ve always wanted to be and what I always have been,” Brown said in accepting his honor.
Closing out the evening was a celebration for ACM Triple Crown winner Chris Stapleton. The ACM Triple Crown honor is given to artists who have previously earned ACM new male or female artist of the year, ACM male or female artist of the year and ACM entertainer of the year trophies during their career. The ACM triple crown honor has been awarded to only eight other artists, including Kenny Chesney, Carrie Underwood, Miranda Lambert, Merle Haggard and Barbara Mandrell.
“Every now and then someone comes through who levels the walls and moves things forward,” said singer-songwriter-musician and country music historian Marty Stuart, in honoring Stapleton with the ACM triple crown honor.
Husband-and-wife duo The War and Treaty brought the audience to its collective feet with their otherworldly, showstopping offering of Stapleton’s “Cold,” their unparalleled voices melting over the song’s soulful angst.
Stapleton was humble in accepting his ACM Triple Crown honor, thanking his family and his team and saying, “I was just out here playing songs, seeing if something could happen. Still kind of feel that way sometimes…I’m so grateful…It’s a wonderful and rare thing to get to do something you love so much.”
No doubt, many in the room that evening would agree with Stapleton’s simple, heartfelt sentiment.
Zach Bryan‘s new self-titled album recently notched two weeks atop the Billboard 200 all-genre albums chart, but he’s already offering up new music — namely, collaborations with two-time Grammy winner Bon Iver and “Hurt Somebody”/”Dial Drunk” hitmaker Noah Kahan.
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
Bryan posted a trio of new songs on Instagram Sunday (Sept. 18), along with a note stating, “Locked myself in a studio all week, wrote myself through a notebook, walked around with people I love in the city then went campin, felt restful and hopeful, thankful for breathing no matter the day, just grateful,” Bryan said, offering thanks to Noah Kahan and Bon Iver. “Them boys of faith,” Bryan added.
Over on X, Bryan tagged Bon Iver in a snippet of a song featuring the lyric “Them Boys of Faith,” saying, “come back soon [Bon Iver]. you have a friend for life.” Bryan tagged Kahan in another song, with a similar statement.
This isn’t the first time Bryan and Kahan have collaborated; Kahan showed up at Bryan’s set at Iowa’s Hinterland Festival last month to join Bryan in performing the final song of the set, “Revival.”
Bryan has been on a collaborations hot streak lately, recently topping the Billboard Hot 100 with another collaboration, “I Remember Everything,” featuring Kacey Musgraves; the song marked the first Billboard Hot 100 hit for both artists. His self-titled album also includes collaborations with The War and Treaty (“Hey Driver”), The Lumineers (“Spotless”) and Sierra Ferrell (“Holy Roller”). Bryan also previously released the Maggie Rogers duet, “Dawns,” which reached No. 11 on the Hot Country Songs chart.
Next year, Bryan’s headlining Quittin’ Time Tour, which launches in March in Chicago, will feature artists including Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit, Turnpike Troubadours and Sheryl Crow.
Listen to the snippet of Bryan’s new tracks below.
Trisha Yearwood and the late John Prine are this year’s inductees into the Austin City Limits Hall of Fame Induction & Celebration, set for Oct. 26 at The Moody Theater in Austin, Texas.
Actor/filmmaker Ethan Hawke will induct Prine, while Don Henley will induct Yearwood. Henley is also set to perform in tribute to Yearwood, with whom he paired on the 1992 country smash “Walkaway Joe” and a 2001 reunion hit, “Inside Out.” Yearwood will also perform.
Other music guests include Tyler Childers, Allison Russell, Tommy Prine and Kurt Vile, honoring Prine, and Jo Dee Messina and Ronnie Dunn, saluting Yearwood.
Yearwood debuted on Austin City Limits in 1992 and went on to make two additional headlining appearances in 1996 and 2000. She returned in 2015 as a guest of Henley’s. The Austin City Limits website amusingly (and no doubt affectionately) describes Yearwood as a “country music star and a culinary mastermind.” While giving her TV side-gig equal weight to her recording career is a bit jarring, she has been awarded for both. She won a Daytime Emmy in 2013 as the host of Trisha’s Southern Kitchen. She has also won three Grammys, three CMA Awards and three ACM Awards for her non-culinary efforts.
One woman has been inducted into the Austin City Limits Hall of Fame every year since 2015, the Hall’s second year. Yearwood follows Loretta Lynn (2015), Bonnie Raitt (2016), Rosanne Cash (2017), Marcia Ball (2018), Shawn Colvin (2019), Lucinda Williams (2021) and Sheryl Crow (2022). (There was no ceremony in 2020 because of the pandemic.)
Trisha Yearwood and Don Henley perform on ‘The Tonight Show’ on September 06, 2001.
Paul Drinkwater/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images via Getty Images
Prine appeared regularly on Austin City Limits throughout his celebrated five-decade career. He made his first appearance in 1978 and returned for his eighth and final appearance in 2018. Prine, a four-time Grammy winner, was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2019. He died in 2020. Prine is the fifth musician to be inducted into the Austin City Limits Hall of Fame posthumously, following Stevie Ray Vaughan (2014), B.B. King (2016), Roy Orbison (2017) and Ray Charles (2018).
The annual Austin City Limits Hall of Fame Induction & Celebration is Austin PBS’ largest fundraising event. The live production will be recorded and broadcast across PBS stations nationwide in 2024. Tickets for the 2023 edition can be purchased online.
Established in 2014, the Austin City Limits Hall of Fame recognizes musicians and other individuals who have been instrumental in making television’s longest-running popular music show an institution.
Austin City Limits and the Austin City Limits Hall of Fame are produced by Austin PBS, KLRU-TV. Proceeds from the event benefit Austin PBS, a community-supported, non-profit organization providing public television and educational resources to Central Texas as well as producing quality national programming.
The Moody Theater is, appropriately, located on W. Willie Nelson Blvd in Austin. A VIP party begins at 6 p.m. The show starts at 7:30 p.m. Attire is “Austin fun.”
While Brothers Osborne and Dan+Shay offered up stellar new albums this week, and Maren Morris issued a double-punch of new music with The Bridge, we look at a slate of more new country music released this week. Dustin Lynch teams with Jelly Roll, while Sam Williams honors his late grandfather, country music legend Hank Williams, Sr., by covering one of his classic songs. Also, Stephen Wilson Jr. offers an extremely promising debut project. All that and more below in Billboard Country’s weekly must-hear roundup.
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
Dustin Lynch with Jelly Roll, “Chevrolet”
[embedded content]
Dustin Lynch teams with the seemingly ubiquitous CMA male artist of the year nominee Jelly Roll for the latest country song to interpolate a classic hit. Jessi Alexander, Hunter Phelps and Chase McGill interpolate the instantly recognizable melody and rhythm from the Mentor Williams-written 1973 Dobie Gray hit “Drift Away,” with a newly-penned set of lyrics. Here, six-packs, Brooks & Dunn, dirt roads and a Chevrolet replace rock n’ roll as simple requisites for a soul-lifting evening. Lynch’s smooth vocal offers a nice foil for Jelly Roll’s soul-gravel renderings, but both of their voices melt bone-deep into the song’s joyous lyrics.
Track45, “When I Grow Up”
[embedded content]
Sibling trio Track45 (which includes Jenna Johnson, KK Johnson and Kane Brown/Jake Owen/Parmalee songwriter Ben Johnson) follows their previous six-song EP Grew Up On with this stirring ballad. Released during Suicide Prevention Month, “When I Grow Up” touches on depression, difficult family circumstances, self-harm and regret. KK’s lead vocals are equal parts raspy and earnest, while the group’s familial harmonies are superbly tight-knit.
Sam Williams, “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry“
[embedded content]
Singer-songwriter Sam Williams celebrates the centennial celebration of the birth of his grandfather, the late country music icon Hank Williams, Sr., with this ethereal, blues-tinted rock rendering of his grandfather’s classic “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry.” The song serves as a perfect vehicle for his hauntingly soulful voice, which still harbors hints of Williams, Sr.’s plaintive tenor.
Stephen Wilson Jr., Søn of Dad
[embedded content]
On his debut, 22-song album, Wilson Jr. offers a meshup of large-scale arena rock, country, and elements of grunge. “Year to Be Young 1994” offers a chronicling of the essence of the 1990s youth culture, from Kurt Cobain and pagers to roller rinks and nights spent flopped on a bedroom floor, soaking in music through headphones; the track has already garnered over 3 million streams on Spotify.
But the emotional heart of Søn of Dad reverberates in songs that offer maturing perspectives on fatherhood. “I used to hate being called Jr./ I don’t mind any longer,” he sings on “Father’s Son,” his gruff vocal pulling out all the anguish and honor of being connected to his namesake on the lush, string-driven track. “Grief Is Only Love” tackles loss with the succinct musing, “Grief is only love with no place to go,” while “Hang in There” focuses on the trinkets he keeps to remind him of his late father and serve as a reminder to keep forging onward.
Elsewhere, songs such as “The Devil” and “Holler From the Holler” offer unvarnished, keen-eyed looks at good and evil. “I came from the mud where the low lives waller/ Sailor-swearing, single-parent, double-wide squalor,” he testifies on “Holler From the Holler,” his voice at once soaring and coarse, as he sings of domestic abuse and life in an impoverished area. Throughout the album, Wilson Jr. offers the kind of nuanced storytelling that has helped make stars of artists like Eric Church and Chris Stapleton, and he has the vocal prowess to back it up. An extremely promising debut.
Austin Williams, “Wanna Be Saved”
Williams’ debut single currently ranks in the top 20 on the iTunes country chart, his burly vocal and a stolid percussion bolstering this pills-and-booze fueled tale of taking on life at full speed in the wrong direction. Williams sings of the struggle between pain-numbing vices and the urge for some kind of spiritual resolution. Sonically, track falls in line with the rock-stoked, hip-hop infused works of mainstream country radio mainstays like Morgan Wallen and Jason Aldean.
Madeline Merlo, “Tim + Faith”
[embedded content]
Merlo is known for writing the hit “Champagne” for Lady A, and providing backing vocals on the Cole Swindell hit “She Had Me at Heads Carolina.” This protean singer-songwriter deftly offers her own tribute to ’90s country in this soft swirl of nostalgia and romance, recounting a teenage love soundtracked by the music of McGraw and Hill. Merlo’s velvety, lilting voice lends a dreamy quality as she melds titles, lyrics and a snippet of the melody of “It’s Your Love” into this storyline. A lovely outing.
Robert Hale, “I Washed My Hands in Muddy Water”
Longtime bluegrass music mainstay Hale performs a grassy take on the 1965 Stonewall Jackson hit here. “I washed my hands but they didn’t come clean,” he sings on this outlaw narrative, which effloresces with the fleet-fingered instrumentation from Hale (guitar), Nathan Aldridge (fiddle), Kameron Keller (bass), Jason Davis (banjo) and Chris Davis (mandolin).
Sammy Arriaga, “Tennessee Whiskey”
[embedded content]
Florida native Arriaga issues his latest in a slate of Spanish-language covers of classic country songs, with two versions of “Tennessee Whiskey” — one bilingual and one entirely in Spanish. Sonically, the track largely remains faithful to Stapleton’s rendering, highlighting Arriaga’s rich vocal range, while forging the song forward into new territory.
The name Hank Williams comes with loads of connotations, thanks to a short but fiery ascent and an equally speedy burnout that made him a country legend.
He was an inspiring songwriter, an energetic performer, a tragic addict, a frail spina bifida victim and — based on his portrait of his marriage to Audrey Williams — a bit of a drama queen.
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
Sunday (Sept. 17) marks 100 years since his birth in Alabama, and the century milestone finds his legacy barreling down two tracks. On one hand, he was a breakthrough songwriter whose ability to turn real-life events into melodic, poetic soap operas has influenced generations of artists and composers. On the other, he remains a mythological figure who died in the back seat of a Cadillac during an overnight journey to a concert, a passage that is as mysterious and misunderstood as the bad fortune he stumbled into — or created — during his 29 years on earth.
Neither his artistic track nor his iconic level of tragedy would matter 10 decades after his introduction if Hank Sr. hadn’t had such impact.
“It’s so deceptively difficult to do what he did, like the ability to have humor and marry that with real, raw, honest emotion,” says Ward Hayden, whose Boston-based band Ward Hayden & the Outliers released A Celebration of Hank Williams Live on Sept. 1. “He definitely found something unique, which is why I think so many people have used his music as inspiration. I mean, he really set the bar.”
It’s often said by traditionalists that Hank Sr. wouldn’t have been able to get a recording deal in modern Nashville, but that doesn’t mean his presence isn’t still felt. In Hailey Whitters’ recent top 20 single “Everything She Ain’t,” the singer pledges to be “the Audrey to your Hank.” And in Walker Hayes’ current “Good With Me,” he lampoons himself: “Buddy thinks everything I sing sucks/ ’Cause it don’t sound like Hank.”
That’s one of the frequent criticisms of modern country: that artists who cite Hank Sr. might not even know, let alone appreciate, his music. Even in cases where that’s true, those performers still owe him a debt for the revolution he brought to the genre.
“Anybody who writes a personal song, in some ways, traces back to Hank because when he started, people were writing more generic songs — you know, the tragedies and the heart songs, family and home and God,” says Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum senior writer Michael McCall. “It wasn’t as personal, but Hank sensed all of those things and made them personal. People felt like he was singing about his life.”
Often he was. “Cold, Cold Heart,” “Your Cheatin’ Heart” and “You Win Again” — an achingly distraught ballad recorded the day after his second divorce from Audrey became final — were all about that central relationship. Even now, Kelsea Ballerini, Megan Moroney, Maren Morris, Jason Aldean and Thomas Rhett are just a smattering of the country artists whose lives or their personal beliefs are incorporated into the material they record.
“We all feel like we know Dolly Parton,” says Williams’ grandson, Mercury Nashville recording artist Sam Williams. “People in my generation, with my music tastes, we know Miley Cyrus — we grew up with Miley Cyrus, we know her different facets. And I think that so many people are able to feel like they know [Hank Sr.] by the honesty that he put in his songs.”
Sam never met his grandfather, but based on the recordings, he believes he inherited some of the same personal traits: a tendency to be misunderstood, a “goofy” sense of humor, a strong work ethic and a posture as a hopeless romantic. He recorded one of Hank Sr.’s songs for the first time in conjunction with the 100th anniversary. Sam delivers “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” with slight melodic changes, darker chord textures and a robust arrangement that heightens the despair in its text.
[embedded content]
Sam released his version on Friday (Sept. 15), and he will perform it on the Grand Ole Opry on Sept. 16 and again during a Hall of Fame tribute concert on Sept. 21, alongside appearances by sisters Hilary and Holly Williams, Lyle Lovett, Connie Smith and more. It’s likely that many of the performers will change the sound of Hank Sr.’s songs — in part because it’s so easy to do. Ray Charles, Tony Bennett, Al Green, Pirates of the Mississippi, George Thorogood, Charley Pride, Linda Ronstadt and Hayden’s Outliers are among the scads of acts who found new textures in his classics, as did Hank Williams Jr., most famously.
“The songs are versatile,” Hayden says. “It’s not a blank canvas, but it’s a canvas that can be rearranged without completely changing it.”
Some of that comes from Hank Sr.’s song construction: conversational lyrics with basic chord structures and singable melodies. He left a lot of space for reimagination.
“There was just something about the simplicity of the music and the way he’s saying it,” notes Josh Turner.
The simple presentation doesn’t mean that Hank Sr. had a simple, one-dimensional story. As easy as it is to focus on the sorrow in his ballads or the deep well of inspiration he tapped, he was also conscious of his audience and was intentional about developing material that would connect. Particularly in such uptempo songs as “Honky Tonk Blues,” “Move It On Over,” “Honky Tonkin’,” “Jambalaya (On the Bayou),” “Mind Your Own Business” or “Hey, Good Lookin’,” one can sense the core of a great concert experience built to satisfy a crowd.
“He was just one of those engines of charisma in early American popular music that took it to the next level,” Sam says.
Ultimately, Hank Sr.’s legacy is difficult to fully chronicle. For all the identifiable music in his catalog, a mythology arose around his drinking, the drugs, the fights with Audrey and his concert no-shows. His spinal issues created pain and led to experimental treatments, and most certainly influenced some of the erratic behavior. That tragedy, though, exists behind a haze of folklore.
“It’s similar to [Johnny] Cash. Rosanne says you can apply anything to him and it works because he was all those things,” says McCall. “Hank was that way. The mythology became a little different than who he was, and nobody could live up to that kind of mythology, but those myths are strong, and they influence people.”
Hank Sr., as an artist, certainly had an effect. His work inspired the likes of Merle Haggard, George Jones, Bob Dylan, Randy Travis, Kris Kristofferson, Bob McDill, Dean Dillon and Rodney Crowell — anyone who drew from those artists or their stylistic heirs is receiving his hand-me-down spirit. But part of the legacy that accompanies his creations is what Hayden calls “the archetype of the doomed country singer.”
Keith Whitley, who died from overdosing on alcohol in his 30s, seemingly bought into it and paid a price. Turner likewise bought into Hank, but not entirely. The emotional behaviors and the emotional material are both part of the story that surrounds Senior at the century mark.
“It’s definitely a cautionary tale,” Turner warns. “But he was also inspiring because in spite of the pain, he was able to go and do great things.”
[embedded content]
HARDY will be presented with the ACM Artist-Songwriter of the Year award at next week’s Academy of Country Music Honors, and his pal Bailey Zimmerman celebrated the accomplishment with a soulful performance of “Signed, Sober You,” shared exclusively with Billboard. In the snippet from the performance, Zimmerman delivers the track backed by just an acoustic […]
Grammy winner Maren Morris released two new songs — “The Tree” and “Get the Hell Out of Here” — on Friday (Sept. 15). With them, she also shared the nuanced emotions behind her decision to leave country music and her feelings about the socio-political divide that has deepened over the past several years.
“These two songs are incredibly key to my next step because they express a very righteously angry and liberating phase of my life these last couple of years, but also how my navigation is finally pointing towards the future, whatever that may be or sound like,” she said in a statement. “Honoring where I’ve been and what I’ve achieved in country music, but also freely moving forward.”
On “The Tree,” she sings, “The rot at the roots is the root of the problem/ But you want to blame it on me.” She adds on “Get the Hell Out of Here”: “I hung around longer than anyone should/ You’ve broken my heart more than anyone could.”
She went into detail about her decision in an interview with The Los Angeles Times, sharing that the growing sociopolitical divide within country music — and the right-leaning views of some of the genre’s artists and fans — has been an ongoing challenge and barrier.
“After the Trump years, people’s biases were on full display,” Morris told the paper. “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, and it was weirdly dovetailing with this hyper-masculine branch of country music. I call it butt rock.”
“I thought I’d like to burn it to the ground and start over,” she added. “But it’s burning itself down without my help.”
Morris — who graced the cover of Billboard’s Pride issue alongside drag stars — has also been one of the fiercest advocates for diversity, inclusion and progress within the country music genre, championing greater inclusion of voices and music from women, members of the LGBTQ+ community and artists of color. When she won a CMA Award for female vocalist of the year in 2020, Morris used her acceptance speech to honor women of color within country music. She performed at the Love Rising concert in Nashville earlier this year, an event that celebrated the LGBTQ+ community and challenged anti-trans legislation in Tennessee. Last year, Morris also had a war of words with Jason Aldean and his wife, Brittany, over gender-affirming care.
Morris’ move away from the genre comes as four country songs, including Aldean’s controversial “Try That in a Small Town,” have topped the all-genre Billboard Hot 100.
“I think it’s a last bastion,” Morris said of the consumption of “Try That in a Small Town.” “People are streaming these songs out of spite. It’s not out of true joy or love of the music. It’s to own the libs. And that’s so not what music is intended for. Music is supposed to be the voice of the oppressed — the actual oppressed. And now it’s being used as this really toxic weapon in culture wars.”
[embedded content]
Morris noted that she did not initially consider herself a political artist — merely an artist writing songs about the happenings in the world around her. “But the further you get into the country music business, that’s when you start to see the cracks,” she pointed out. “And once you see it, you can’t unsee it. So you start doing everything you can with the little power you have to make things better. That doesn’t make you popular.”
She went on to say why she thinks it’s necessary to speak up. “If you truly love this type of music and you start to see problems arise, it needs to be criticized,” Morris told the paper. “Anything this popular should be scrutinized if we want to see progress. But I’ve kind of said everything I can say. I always thought I’d have to do middle fingers in the air jumping out of an airplane, but I’m trying to mature here and realize I can just walk away from the parts of this that no longer make me happy.”
[embedded content]
Morris noted that she is “still unraveling” a lot of her feelings of connection with country music.
“I don’t want to have an adversarial relationship to country music,” she added. “I still find myself weirdly wanting to protect it. But it’s not a family member. That’s the f–ked-up part, is that I’m talking about it as if it’s a person, but it’s not. So it’s a lot of deep deconstructing that I’m still unraveling.
“These songs are obviously the result of that — the aftermath of walking away from something that was really important to you and the betrayal that you felt very righteously. But also knowing there’s a thread of hope as you get to the other side,” Morris continued. “I hope it comes across that way because I truly was in a space of hope when I wrote the two songs, even though ‘Get the Hell Out of Here’ is really heavy. It’s about disarming that trauma and saying, ‘I can’t bail water out of this sinking ship anymore. It’s so futile. I choose happiness.’”
Grammy winner Maren Morris has released a duo of songs, “The Tree” and “Get The Hell Out of Here,” under the collective project title The Bridge, today (Friday, Sept. 15). Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news Though she is still hard at work on her next full-length project, […]
Blake Shelton, Carly Pearce, Dan + Shay, HARDY, Jelly Roll, Kane Brown, Kelsea Ballerini, Little Big Town, Toby Keith and Wynonna Judd are set to perform at the inaugural People’s Choice Country Awards, which will air Thursday, Sept. 28 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on NBC and Peacock.
That’s 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.
Voting for the CMA Awards extends from Monday Oct. 2 through Friday Oct. 27.
Voting for the People’s Choice Country Awards is now closed. Morgan Wallen is the leading nominee with 11 nods, followed by Luke Combs and HARDY, with nine each.
Little Big Town is hosting the People’s Choice Country Awards, which will be taped at the Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville. Keith will receive the Country Icon Award and Wynonna will take home the Country Champion Award.
A limited number of show tickets and VIP packages are available now at Opry.com.
The People’s Choice Country Awards are 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.
Ballerini performed “Penthouse” on the MTV Video Music Awards on Tuesday Sept. 12, where she was the only country performer on the bill.
