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Triple Tigers, the Nashville-based label home to chart-topping country artists Scotty McCreery and Russell Dickerson, has named Kevin Herring and Annie Ortmeier co-presidents, while former president Norbert Nix has left the company.
Herring had served as the label’s senior vp of radio promotion. Ortmeier joins from Universal Music Group Nashville where she was senior vp of streaming marketing. They will report to George Couri, Triple Tigers co-founder and Triple 8 Management co-founder. The moves align with Triple Tigers’ focus on terrestrial radio and digital media, such as streaming and social platforms.
“Triple Tigers 2.0 is here,” Couri said in a statement. “I look forward to stepping into a more active role, as well as having Kevin and Annie form a dual attack in the worlds of both radio and streaming & digital. Kevin’s radio singles batting average here is unmatched in the industry, and Annie comes from leading streaming and digital strategies at the biggest label in the business. With our company intentionally focused on maintaining a very small group of artists who benefit from dedicated attention, there will be tremendous impact on our roster.”
Launched in 2016 as a joint venture between Thirty Tigers, Sony Music Entertainment-owned distributor The Orchard and Couri’s Triple 8 Management (whose clients include McCreery, Eli Young Band and Corey Kent), the label has had tremendous success right from the start with McCreery’s first five singles and Dickerson’s first four singles going to No. 1 on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart. Dickerson’s current single, “God Gave Me a Girl,” is bulleted at No. 11 on the chart, while McCreery’s new single, “Cab in a Solo,” is bulleted at No. 40. Jordan Fletcher is also on the boutique roster. Couri is now Triple Tigers’ remaining managing partner.
A representative declined to comment on whether Triple Tigers co-founder David Macias had sold his stake in the company.
“I am very proud and honored to be entrusted with a leadership role at Triple Tigers,” said Herring, in a statement. “This is an amazing group of people and artists who are dedicated to making world class country music and lifting up the artists, songwriters, format and community.”
Ortmeier added, “I am excited to be joining George, Kevin and the team at Triple Tigers. I have admired Triple Tigers and the incredible success they have had thus far and am looking forward to being able to build upon that success with Scotty, Russell, Jordan and the team!”
Nix, who was also a partner in the label, is set to launch VISCYRL, a new artist development company in partnership with the Orchard. He leaves with fond memories. “It was us against the world. A David vs. Goliath story,” he says. “The most exciting thing for me was being able to bring in this team of people who were dedicated to the music and understood the vision. We came out of the chute with a string of No. 1 singles. It was an honor to lead that group of people.”
Luke Bryan is set to host and executive-produce an upcoming, six-episode Hulu docuseries titled It’s All Country, which will examine “the iconic songs and artists that changed the face of country music forever,” according to a release. A release date for the docuseries has not yet been revealed. Executive-producing the series alongside Bryan will be […]
Oliver Anthony is standing firm on affordable ticket prices.
The singer had a disagreement with a Knoxville, Tenn., music bar called Cotton Eyed Joe, where he was scheduled to perform later this month, leading to the show getting canceled and the the venue expressing some choice words on social media.
Ticket prices were listed at $99, and a meet and greet costed $199, which upset Anthony, who recorded a video posted to Instagram to deter fans from paying that price. “I had to pull off on the side of the road and make this video. My adrenaline’s pumping, man,” he says in the clip. He continued in the caption, “Don’t buy $90 Cotton Eyed Joe tickets or $200 for a meet and greet. That’s not acceptable. Just saw the Facebook post and lost my s—. Miscommunication with my friend booking shows and I. My shows should never cost more than $40, ideally no more than $25. Hell, out of the 4 shows we have currently done, 2 of them have been completely free. This will get straightened out tonight. Hold off on buying tickets for now.”
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However, Cotton Eyed Joe took to Facebook to explain that Anthony had agreed to play a 60-minute set at the Knoxville bar for $120,000, which would allow the bar to “break even and bring our customers a show we thought would be fun.” The bar then added a bit of shade by referencing Anthony’s Hot 100 chart topper, concluding their message: “To our talent agency and promotor friends that follow us… be careful booking the North Man of Richmond.”
See the post here.
“I am not pointing fingers at Cotton Eyed Joe, I don’t know where the miscommunication took place. I’m just upset seeing those prices,” Anthony responded on Facebook, adding that he’ll be more involved in upcoming bookings.
The 31-year-old’s breakout viral hit “Rich Men North of Richmond” unexpectedly debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart. Among other chart achievements for the singer-songwriter, he’s the first artist ever to launch atop the list with no prior chart history in any form. His success story began when a now-viral video of Anthony, posted by radiowv, began circulating around the Internet, showing the singer offering an acoustic performance of “Rich Men North of Richmond,” vocalizing the pain and angst of the working class at the hands of greedy rich men. The song takes on high taxes, abuse of welfare and selfish politicians.
Congratulations are in order for Grammy-winning country star Hank Williams Jr. On Monday, via his official Facebook page, the singer-songwriter announced that he tied the knot.
“Please congratulate Mr. And Mrs. Hank Williams Jr!” the post reads. “Hank and Brandi were married on Sept 9, 2023 at Enon Baptist Church in Banks, Alabama in front of a small group of family and friends. A reception followed at Kendall Hall in Troy, Alabama. They had gotten engaged earlier this year on Mothers Day. The bride and groom have known each other and been friends since 2003.”
This is the fourth marriage for Williams. He was married to Gwen Yeargain from 1971-1977 and to Becky White from 1977-1983. In March 2022, Mary Jane Thomas, Williams’ third wife, unexpectedly died. According to People, the autopsy listed Thomas’ cause of death as “pneumothorax due to perforated parietal pleura during liposuction with autologous fat reinjection procedure.”
“38 wonderful years she gave me. Her kind spirit and beautiful and endearing love carries on in the hearts of our son, Sam, grandsons Beau and Tennyson, and granddaughter Audrey Jane,” Williams wrote on Instagram weeks after her death. “Of course, she will be missed and loved by so many forever.”
On Tuesday (Sept. 12), Williams posted a wedding picture of Brandi and himself with the caption “Mr. and Mrs. Hank Williams Jr.” He limited the comments on both his Instagram and Facebook posts.
Last year, Williams Jr. released Rich White Honky Blues, a Dan Auerbach-produced album of blues covers and original tracks.
Hank Williams Jr. has earned three entries on the Billboard Hot 100: 1964’s “Long Gone Lonesome Blues” (No. 67) and “Endless Sleep” (No. 90), as well as 2000’s “A Country Boy Can Survive” (No. 75, with Chad Brock & George Jones). On the Billboard 200, he has notched 39 career entries, reaching as high as No. 12 with 2012’s Old School New Rules. He’s the son of Hank Williams, one of the most celebrated country singer-songwriters in American history.
Click here to see Hank Williams Jr.’s wedding pictures and check out his big announcement here:
A trio of songs from Olivia Rodrigo’s new album Guts top Billboard’s Hot Trending Songs chart, powered by X, for Sept. 16, paced by “The Grudge” at No. 1. Billboard’s Hot Trending charts, powered by X, track global music-related trends and conversations in real-time across X, viewable over either the last 24 hours or past […]
Maren Morris is hard at work on a new album, but she’s not making fans wait for the album release to hear new music. The Grammy winner will release a duo of songs, under the collective project title The Bridge, on Friday (Sept. 15), she announced on Tuesday (Sept. 12).
The project contains the songs “The Tree” and “Get the Hell Out of Here.” Morris said in an Instagram post that the dual song release “honors where I’ve been and [sic] but also feels like a forward step into the sun.”
Morris added, “As I’ve been working on my record nonstop this year, I realized these two songs deserved a moment of their own – a story in their own right, written a day apart from each other – a tender duo and bridge to my next album. I welcome, celebrate and grieve the changes that have happened these last few years and these two songs say it better than I ever could in a caption or interview….hope you enjoy these. ‘Wherever I’m going, I hope I’m not the only one.’”
Based on the song title, it seems that “Get the Hell Out of Here” may be tied to an image Morris posted on Sept. 7, a visual that appeared may be positioned as a response to Jason Aldean’s recent controversial song “Try That in a Small Town.”
She captioned that post, “I’m done filling a cup with a hole in the bottom,” which was shared alongside a silent clip of a bucolic town with a billboard that reads, “Welcome to Our Perfect Small Town: From Sunrise to Sundown.” (Her rep did not respond to Billboard‘s request for comment at the time.)
Aldean’s “Try That in a Small Town” garnered both support and criticism due to lyrics that advise people to refrain from burning the American flag, disrespecting police and committing robberies in small towns. (Sample lyric: “Cuss out a cop, spit in his face/ Stomp on the flag and light it up/ Yeah, ya think you’re tough?/ Well, try that in a small town/ See how far ya make it down the road.”) “Try That in a Small Town” was written by Kelley Lovelace, Neil Thrasher, Tully Kennedy and Kurt Michael Allison. The song’s video was pulled from CMT, a move that sparked both support and backlash.
Following CMT’s decision, Aldean posted a message to his Instagram Stories regarding the contrasting reactions that the song and video have faced. The controversy helped propel consumption of the song and its video. The visual for “Try That in a Small Town” now has over 35 million views, while the song topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart in late July; it is currently in the top 10 on the Country Airplay chart.
Morris’ upcoming full-length album will follow her 2022 project Humble Quest and her 2019 album GIRL, which won a CMA Award for album of the year. GIRL‘s key song, “The Bones,” won Morris single and song of the year honors in 2020, while Morris also picked up her first CMA female vocalist of the year win.
See her new music announcement below:
As Kelsea Ballerini celebrates her 30th birthday today (Sept. 12) and gears up to perform at tonight’s Video Music Awards, she also celebrates nearly a decade of notching hit singles on Billboard‘s Hot Country Songs and Country Airplay charts, showcasing her bravura as a singer, entertainer, songwriter and hitmaker.
From her debut album, 2015’s The First Time, Ballerini cemented herself as an adept songwriter, one capable of absorbing pop-fueled optimism and fusing it with heart-on-her-sleeve lyrics. The album garnered Ballerini a trio of Country Airplay No. 1 hits: “Love Me Like You Mean It,” “Dibs” and “Peter Pan.” She also earned a best new artist Grammy nomination, while her sophomore album, Unapologetically, earned a best country album nod.
That album title proved prescient, as she’s forged a career based on proving that vulnerability can be an audience-uniting super-strength. She offered a glimpse at the myriad emotions behind the concerts, fashion-forward styles, bright smile and effervescent personality, on songs such as “homecoming queen?”.
In 2021, Ballerini earned her first two CMA Awards, for musical event of the year and music video of the year, both for capturing the wanderlust of ambition that battles with the draw toward the comforts of home, as she honored her Knoxville, Tennessee hometown through her collaborative work with fellow Knoxville native Kenny Chesney, “half of my hometown,” a song Ballerini wrote with Jimmy Robbins, Nicolle Galyon, Ross Copperman and Shane McAnally.
That same year, she let fans further into her instincts as a writer, and her personal journey, when she released Feel Your Way Through: A Book of Poetry, a collection of poems that contemplated her musical ambitions, struggles with body image, and her own experience in 2008 of watching a classmate die from a shooting when she was in high school. In 2022, she also offered up the project Subject to Change, which contained her current top 20 Country Airplay hit “If You Go Down (I’m Goin’ Down Too).” Another song from the album, “Heartfirst,” earned Ballerini a Grammy nomination for best country solo performance.
Through song and performance, she also stood for her convictions, as evidenced by a pair of 2023 CMT Music Awards appearances: She opened the show by addressing the mass shooting at Nashville’s Covenant School earlier this year, which left six dead, and called for change. Later in the evening, she performed “If You Go Down,” and welcomed several drag queens — including Manila Luzon, Kennedy Davenport, Jan Sport and Olivia Lux — to perform with her, using music to address a recent Tennessee anti-drag bill.
This year, Ballerini released what is arguably her creative magnum opus to date, the EP Rolling Up the Welcome Mat, which distills the complex range of emotions and experiences she navigated through a dissolving marriage, weathering a divorce as a public-facing person, and ultimately, finding personal freedom and reconnecting with her true self. The vulnerability and elegant writing funneled into Rolling Up the Welcome Mat was recently recompensed when the project earned an album of the year nomination for the upcoming Country Music Association Awards; Ballerini picked up her sixth female vocalist of the year nomination as well. She also shared her story with fans through discussions and screenings of her Rolling Up the Welcome Mat short film.
On Nov. 2, it is this mature, bold Ballerini, fully in control of her artistic capabilities, who will bring her music and journey back to her Tennessee roots, when she headlines her first headlining arena show in the city where it all began (and the city she has often referenced in her songs) — her hometown of Knoxville, Tennessee — when she performs at the Thompson-Boling Arena at Food City Center.
Here we look back at Ballerini’s top Country Songs hits.
Kelsea Ballerini’s Biggest Billboard Hits chart is based on actual performance on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart, through Sept. 9, 2023. Songs are ranked based on an inverse point system, with weeks at No. 1 earning the greatest value and weeks at lower ranks earning less. Due to changes in chart methodology over the years, eras are weighted to account for different chart turnover rates over various periods.
“I Hate Love Songs”
For more than four decades, Country Music Hall of Famer George Strait has proven himself as one of country music’s most dependable, elite entertainers. In 2023, Strait’s stadium shows — featuring Chris Stapleton and Little Big Town — have set new attendance records in several stadiums, including ones in Seattle, Milwaukee and Columbus, OH.
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Now, Strait, eight-time Grammy winner Stapleton and special guests Little Big Town are extending their record-setting slate of stadium shows into 2024, adding nine new dates.
The new shows are set for May, June, July and December of next year and will visit cities including Indianapolis, Detroit and Chicago, in addition to setting the 37th installment of the Strait to Vegas show, with a Dec. 7 gig booked at Las Vegas’ Allegiant Stadium.
“I’ve always said we have the best fans in the world, and to see so many of them show up for these shows just makes us want to keep bringing them more,” Strait said in a statement. “I’ve also missed performing in Las Vegas during NFR, so I’m happy to see that show come together in 2024. See you soon!”
Tickets to most shows go on sale on Sept. 22 at 10 a.m. local time via GeorgeStrait.com, with tickets to the Jacksonville show on sale on Oct. 20 at 10 a.m. local time. American Express® Card Members can purchase tickets before the general public beginning Friday (Sept. 15) at 10 a.m. local time through Sept. 21 at 10 p.m. local time.
See the full list of stadium shows below:
May 4 — Indianapolis, IN @ Lucas Oil Stadium
May 11 — Jacksonville, FL @ EverBank Stadium
May 25 — Ames, IA @ Jack Trice Stadium
June 1 — Charlotte, N.C. @ Bank of America Stadium
June 8 — East Rutherford, N.J. @ MetLife Stadium
June 29 — Salt Lake City, UT @ Rice Eccles Stadium
July 13 — Detroit, MI @ Ford Field
July 20 — Chicago, IL @ Soldier Field
Dec. 7 — Las Vegas, NV @ Allegiant Stadium
Sawyer Brown was one of the most popular country groups of the ’80s and ’90s, charting such country No. 1s as “Step That Step,” “Some Girls Do” and “Thank God for You” — and now, it’s getting a Blake Shelton-produced documentary.
As the band turns 40, the country star looks at Sawyer Brown’s compelling story in Get Me to the Stage on Time, a documentary Shelton executive produced that examines how the group left its mark on country music, despite reservations by the genre’s gatekeepers. Shelton has long professed his love for the band, noting the first concert he ever attended was by Sawyer Brown, and among the first singles he purchased was the group’s cover of George Jones’ “The Race Is On.”
The Joel Kraus/Madison Miller-directed movie, which will debut Oct. 1 at the Nashville Film Festival in Franklin, Tenn., features interviews with Shelton, Dolly Parton, Dierks Bentley and Mac McAnally, among others. As the title suggests, it also reflects on Sawyer Brown Band’s propulsive live performances, led by frontman Mark Miller.
“It’s pretty surreal to watch your life and memories and music play out in a film, but Get Me to the Stage On Time does an amazing job of capturing what this ride has been like,” Miller says in a statement to Billboard. “I think the film shows not only what it took to get our career going, but also what it took to keep the wheels from coming off a couple of times. It also shows why it means so much to us to be where we are now, still playing shows, with new music on the horizon. It’s a look at what it means to never give up, no matter what.”
The ACM Award-winning vocal group of the year’s journey started with winning Star Search in 1983, in an era before television talent competitions such as American Idol and The Voice became commonplace launching pads for country stars such as Carrie Underwood and Scotty McCreery. Though a fan favorite renowned for its live shows, even after a slew of hits, Sawyer Brown remained a polarizing force in Nashville and at country radio with some put off by their non-traditional, colorful presence.
In the trailer — which Billboard is premiering above — the band recounts being turned down by every label in Nashville before storming the Star Search stage with its high-octane performances. Even after winning and signing with a Nashville label and experiencing multiple hits, “the industry couldn’t really figure out why are these guys still here,” says Sawyer Brown keyboardist Gregg “Hobie” Hubbard. But the audience understood as the group played up to 250 concerts a year, entertaining fans with its vastly energetic show. The documentary attempts to answer “how a band turned 15 minutes of fame into 40 years.” For Miller, it simply boils down to “when you get us in front of a live audience, we win.”
Following the documentary’s premiere, Sawyer Brown, who are working on a new album produced by Shelton, will perform at the Franklin Theater. Distribution plans for the film are still pending.
A group of protesters gathered outside Jason Aldean‘s concert on Saturday in Tinley Park, Illinois, near Chicago. According to the Chicago Tribune, the group of nearly 2 dozen people were part of a protest led by Revolution Club Chicago, which aligns with Communist beliefs.
During the protest, members of the group chanted, marched and burned American flags. The outlet also reported that there were no major altercations between concertgoers and the members of the protesting group.
A representative for Aldean could not be reached for comment on the protest.
The protest comes as Aldean’s latest single, “Try That in a Small Town,” garnered both support and criticism due to lyrics that advise people to refrain from burning the American flag, disrespecting police and committing robberies in small towns. (Sample lyric: “Cuss out a cop, spit in his face/ Stomp on the flag and light it up/ Yeah, ya think you’re tough?/ Well, try that in a small town/ See how far ya make it down the road.”) “Try That in a Small Town” was written by Kelley Lovelace, Neil Thrasher, Tully Kennedy and Kurt Michael Allison.
“Guess what, Jason? We will try that in a small town,” one of the protesters, Rafael Kadaris, said, according to the Tribune. “We will try that in a big city. And we will try it right in front of your concert.”
The music video for “Try That in a Small Town,” which included imagery of protests and flag burnings and was filmed in front of a Tennessee county courthouse with a history of lynchings, was pulled by CMT, sparking both support and outrage from country music fans. The video has earned 35 million views on YouTube. In July, the controversy helped drive consumption of “Try That in a Small Town” and send it to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart, which blends all-genre U.S. streaming (official audio and official video), radio airplay and sales data.
On the radio-driven Country Airplay chart, “Try That in a Small Town” currently resides at No. 11. Aldean’s headlining Highway Desperado Tour will make its next stop on Sept. 14 in Rogers, Arkansas.
