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Dolly Parton leads this week’s crop of new music, with her tender tribute to her late husband, Carl Dean, after his passing at the age of 82 on March 3. Kelsea Ballerini continues unpacking emotions the deluxe version of her album Patterns, while Brad Paisley teams with Dawes for a new track that takes a unflinching look at mental health.
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Check out all of these and more in Billboard‘s roundup of the top new country, bluegrass and Americana songs of the week below.
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Dolly Parton, “If You Hadn’t Been There”
Country Music Hall of Famer Dolly Parton pays elegant homage to her late husband Carl Dean on this tender song. With a classic country feel, underpinned by piano and fiddle, finds Parton chronicling the ways he served as her constant source of support. “I wouldn’t be here if you hadn’t been there/ Pushing me on when I was scared,” she sings, and her expressive soprano builds from whisper-soft, sounding slightly ragged around the edges with grief, to ringing powerfully with love.
Kelsea Ballerini, “Hindsight Is Happiness”
Last year, Ballerini issued her biggest-selling album to date with Patterns, and returns with five new songs on the deluxe version of the project. One of the standouts in this new handful of tracks is “Hindsight is Happiness,” a peaceful ballad looking back on the wreckage of a decimated relationship and realizing both parties have matured and moved on. “I never should’ve tethered in my 20s, my bad,” the now-31-year-old Ballerini sings, before wishing happiness and love for her ex-flame on the road ahead.
Brad Paisley and Dawes, “Raining Inside”
Brad Paisley and Dawes recently performed together at the Grammys earlier this year. Now, the two pair their boundary-less creative freedom and turn it toward providing a mirror to modern-day afflictions, on this brooding look at mental health and depression. “No one’s sick and no one died, no one’s left and no one’s leaving/ But it’s raining inside,” they sing, highlighting the prevalence mental health struggles regardless of the presence or absence of situational hardships. The song’s pop-rock oriented stylings, highlighted by grizzled guitar work, elevates the song’s poignant message.
Tim McGraw feat. Parker McCollum, “Paper Umbrellas”
McGraw refreshes a fan favorite from his 2023 project Standing Room Only by welcoming McCollum. Together, they blend neo-traditional country sounds with a slight islands vibe to create a song that feels tailor-made to become a summer anthem. The intergenerational pairing of 57-year-old country standard-bearer McGraw with surging 32-year-old McCollum also evinces the enduring power of a song that melds a timeless, relatable story arc of post-breakup solace with breezy instrumentation and a melody that highlights the warm, laid-back charisma these two vocalists share.
Caroline Owens, “You’ve Still Got It”
Caroline Owens, a three-time IBMA Awards nominee who has performed with bluegrass luminaries including Alison Krauss, Ricky Skaggs and Rhonda Vincent, offers up softly beguiling vocals on her debut single for Billy Blue Records. Her soft-focus voice floats over trilling mandolin picking and reserved fiddle. Written by Jerry Salley and John Pennell, “You’ve Still Got It” centers on a sturdy love. Her full album, with production from Salley and Darin Aldridge, is set for later this year.
Rob Williford, “Johnny”
“How far can a man bend before he breaks?” It’s a haunting question at the center of the latest song from Williford, known for his work as a songwriter crafting hits for Luke Combs (“Beautiful Crazy” and “Forever After All” and Tim McGraw (“Fool Me Again”) and as a longtime bandmember for Combs. Williford previously released the solo project Wildcard in 2023, but fully steps into his own on his latest song. “Johnny” is a tale of addiction to moonshine and pills that leads to betrayal and murder, depicting how addiction and a string of poor choices can decimate a family generation after generation. His growling vocal lays out this destructive storyline over driving, rustic acoustics, evoking a unfiltered, country-rock vibe.
Ringo Starr has long loved country music as evidenced on his most recent album, Look Up, released in January.
The Beatles drummer brought that love to life with two concerts taped at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium Jan. 14-15 that CBS and Paramount+ will air tonight (March 10) as Ringo & Friends at the Ryman.
In this exclusive clip, Starr, with a little help from friends like Jack White, performs the Carl Perkins rockabilly classic “Matchbox,” which the Beatles covered on their 1964 EP, “Long Tall Sally.”
Other “friends” in the special include Sheryl Crow, Emmylou Harris, Mickey Guyton, Jamey Johnson, Rodney Crowell, the War and Treaty, and Billy Strings and Molly Tuttle, both of whom appear on the album with Starr. The artists join the drummer for selections from the new album, Starr’s solo hits and Beatles classics.
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“I did love country music before I was in [the Beatles],” Starr told Billboard earlier this year. “We got plenty of it in Liverpool, because the lads who were in the merchant navy would bring not only rock and roll over, but country — and when country bands went on tour in England, they always played Liverpool.”
In addition to the performances, luminaries including Dolly Parton and fellow Beatle Paul McCartney share stories on Starr’s impact on their music.
Gunpowder & Sky’s Van Toffler produced the special with Starr and T Bone Burnett, who also produced Look Up.
“Producing Ringo & Friends at the Ryman with T Bone has been another wild ride — some of music’s finest playing the hell out of Ringo’s songs, including a few Beatles classics,” Toffler tells Billboard. “We handpicked a lineup of artists who not only have deep respect for Ringo’s legacy but could also bring their own unique spin to these songs, highlighting the great stories and messages behind them. Watching them reinterpret his music — whether through full-throttle rock energy or a stripped-down, soulful take — was a testament to just how timeless his songs are. And having Dolly, Lainey Wilson, and his fellow Beatle, Paul, talk about his love of country artists brought it all full circle, making the night even more meaningful.”
Working with Burnett enhanced the production, Toffler says. “T Bone is one of the greats: His encyclopedic knowledge of music and deep roots in so many legendary projects helped shape this into something truly special.”
Other Gunpower & Sky productions include its documentary on Crow, Sheryl (Showtime); the history of soft rock Sometimes When We Touch (Paramount+) and Lil Peep: Everybody’s Everything. Its Words + Music audio series features Beck, Eddie Vedder, Smokey Robinson and others, while new audio series Lighters in the Sky highlights the stories behind the greatest live performances from artists including Amy Winehouse, Bruce Springsteen and Led Zeppelin.
HARDY and Caleigh Ryan are celebrating the arrival of their newborn baby. Rosie Ryan Hardy arrived on March 7, 2025 at nine pounds, two ounces, the country singer and his wife announced on social media, two days after Caleigh gave birth. The pair were showered with messages of congratulations on their Instagram post Sunday (March […]
Ingrid Andress will never sing the National Anthem again. “I’m sorry, America,” she says.
The 33-year-old country singer is referring to the disastrously disheveled, off-key rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner” she delivered last July before the home-run derby at Major League Baseball’s All-Star Game. The minute-and-a-half clip went viral, and not in a good way. It has drawn 2.5 million YouTube views and 2,500 comments, including this one: “Thank you Ingrid for helping my uncle out of his coma with this performance. When he heard your performance on the hospital TV, he woke up after 10 years and jumped out of the window.”
Publicly, Andress responded to the debacle with damage control, announcing in a statement that she had been “drunk” during the performance and immediately checked herself into a “facility.” She then disappeared until Feb. 28, when she performed the anthem for the second time, at Denver’s Ball Arena, before her home-state Colorado Avalanche beat the Minnesota Wild. The performance went much better this time.
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Privately, Andress spent the past eight months dealing with what she stops short of labeling “alcoholism” — although she went to rehab, worked through the experience through prolific songwriting, including “Footprints,” a low-key country single Warner Music Nashville released this week, and allowed herself “the space to process.” She realized during this reflection that splitting from her longtime boyfriend and manager last year affected her more than she had admitted to herself. And, rather than allowing herself to “grieve” these losses, she threw herself into work — and, yes, alcohol.
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This was Andress’ combustible emotional state in the run-up to the All-Star Game. “I just kept plowing forward and that’s when I started losing track of how much I was drinking, not sleeping enough,” she says, in a phone interview from her Nashville home. “It took a significant moment, like botching the Anthem on a global level, for me to ask for help.”
Below, she unpacks that moment further, and how she’s responded in the eight months since.
What made you pick the Avs game as the venue for coming back and singing the National Anthem?
Growing up, the Avs were my team. I felt more comfortable in my home state and more at home. Why not go back there, where I feel the most centered and grounded?
How did the Avalanche respond to the idea? Were they at all put off by your history with the Anthem?
I’ve played shows in Colorado, and people know, “She can sing, and this was just an unfortunate happening of events that got captured and went viral.” They were excited, which helped my confidence a little bit.
Artists say the “Star-Spangled Banner” is a dangerously hard song to sing.
It is a challenging song. It tricks everyone’s brain into thinking that anyone can sing it. When you actually look at the range of notes, it compliments no one’s voice. But as it turns out, not being intoxicated and singing it makes it very doable.
In addition to the negative feedback, how much did people respond with empathy?
In the heat of all the hate is when I received the most support and love from my peers and friends and people who care about me. I obviously have never been part of anything that publicly humiliating before. I was devastated, embarrassed, disappointed in myself. To have that support of people who’ve also been there — that really helped.
How much did you plunge into songwriting as therapy?
I did, later. Initially, I took the space to separate myself from, “Who am I as a human, separate from singing, separate from songwriting? How did I get to a point where I didn’t really care how I sang?” The first part of stepping away from it was getting back to life, being in Colorado, going snowboarding. Once I felt like myself again, I got back into writing and producing, and some of the songs I hadn’t listened to in months hit differently.
What was the rehab experience like?
Rehab was more of an emotional deep dive. Anything can be substance abuse. It’s not just alcohol, it’s gambling, it’s food, it’s sex, it’s anything we use to numb or not want to feel something. Rehab for me was understanding the “why.” And once you know why you do something, it gives you your power back. You realize you have a choice and you don’t have to use substances or items or whatever to numb yourself. Since then, I’ve been looking at everything so differently and I’m present and clear-headed.
How long was the rehab process?
I was there for a little over a month and I was in no rush to get back to the public. Honestly, I was scared to come back too soon, because everybody was so harsh and critical, and that’s not an easy thing to mentally come back from.
How accurate is it to use the word “alcoholism” for what you were dealing with in your rehab?
It was never called that — but obviously everyone’s level in their journey in how they got there varied so much. That was never really a discussion when I was there. It was more about the month leading up to that day [of the Anthem performance] than anything.
What was that month like?
I made some pretty drastic changes all at once. I’ve only had one manager my whole career, and I had to let her go. Then a longterm boyfriend who lived with me — I said goodbye to him. All that happened within two weeks.
I took everyone’s advice, which is “keep it moving.” I felt like I couldn’t be sad because I was the one who parted ways with them. I didn’t give myself any space to grieve. It drastically changed who was around me every day of my life. Management is like a marriage. Then [losing] your boyfriend living with you is like losing your best friend. Two key people in my life were gone because I had made that decision.
What else have you learned from this experience?
You should ask for help the moment you need it. Never wait until something terrible happens. I did not have the insight to do that in the months leading up to the anthem. I’m glad it did happen. I was going down a road that was unfamiliar, and I didn’t know where it was going to lead. I’m in such a better place now. I feel like I’m back to being myself.
Even as a child, singer-songwriter Caylee Hammack realized the power of storytelling. She grew up immersed in stories — whether from the adventures embedded in the songs of musical influences such as Dolly Parton and Kate Bush, or in the pages of Harlequin romance novels she read as a teen.
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“I remember in elementary school, I would charge my friends a dollar to tell [them] scary stories or mysteries,” she recalls to Billboard. “It got to the point where I was like, ‘I could build a business from this.’”
The Ellaville, Georgia native first tried to write her own book at age 13 and made another attempt a few years later, ultimately letting that hope go — or so she thought.
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“I just told myself, ‘This is never going to be something you can do,’” she says. “And I hate that little voice — that I actually listened to it — but I put that dream away.”
Instead, she made an impact relating her stories through song: releasing her debut country album If It Wasn’t For You in 2020, collaborating with Chris Stapleton on “Small-Town Hypocrite,” recording with Miranda Lambert as part of the ACM Award-winning musical event of the year “Fooled Around and Fell in Love,” and picking up a pair of nominations for the ACM’s new female artist of the year.
But on her latest Capitol Nashville project, Bed of Roses, out today (March 7), Hammack fulfills that childhood dream.
Bed of Roses comes with a companion, a 240-page romance novel. Each book chapter corresponds to a song on the album, such as “No I Ain’t,” “The Pot & The Kettle” and “Bread & Butter.”
Sam, the protagonist in the book Bed of Roses, finds herself stuck in rural Homestead, Texas, after her vintage car breaks down. There she meets Jack, the owner of the only mechanic shop in Homestead. His grandmother offers Sam a place to stay in exchange for help in her flower shop. Sam agrees in a decision that opens her eyes to all the charms of the small town.
“What I wanted to do was hone in a woman listening to her intuition, listening to her gut, and wise women that have come before her and experienced the same things,” Hammack says. “Finding your own community–whether it’s people you’re related to or people that you’ve met along the way that feel as if they’re related to your soul. I just really wanted a romance novel that had a sturdy, steadfast building of love. I love the bad boy tropes, but I’ve loved him a little too much in real life. For once, I would like to have a story where you want to root for the good guy.”
Hammack co-authored the book with one of her long-time favorite writers, New York Times best-selling author Carolyn Brown, who has written more than 140 romance books, including Ladies Room, The Dove, and her most recent, The Party Line, which Hammack calls a favorite.
“We would work 8-10 hours a day or more, just going back and forth. I was a tennis player growing up and I think of it as the most beautiful, consistent volley of ideas and creative energy,” Hammack recalls.
Hammack says the songs on the album chronicle Sam’s story, but also Hammack’s own journey: “If you listen to the album top to bottom, you get my story, my progression through lessons and experiences in the past 10 years. If you listen to it backwards, from bottom to top, and you read the book, then you get [the book’s protagonist] Sam’s story.”
The album is filled with songs that delve into self-love and knowing one’s limits, such as “No I Ain’t.” “I just kind of wrote it from personal experience,” she says. “I wanted one song that I could sing back to myself, or that someone could sing to themselves, where if you’re not strong enough right now to make the decision to love yourself more, that this can be a mantra to choose what is best for you. ‘I’m putting barbed wire around my boundaries,’ meaning I’m going to protect myself.”
Hammack credits her team at UMG Nashville with setting the dual book-album project into motion, noting that the album’s songs were inspired by consistencies in the romance novel genre as a whole — and those songs then sparked the idea for the book itself.
“I had told my label how I had based different songs [on the album Bed of Roses] off romance novels, and the tropes and dynamics of them. I like when tropes are used well and cleverly, so I look at songs as books — there are certain rises and falls you have to hit. [The label executive] had been meeting with a literary agent. I think he misunderstood because he said that I had an idea for a romance novel. But when I heard that this literary agent wanted to meet with me and talk about this romance novel idea, I automatically started thinking of characters and the whole book just exploded in me.”
The digital version of the book Bed of Roses is available now, while physical copies of the book will be released in June. Hammack says that could be just the first in a series of books ahead.
“I have ideas sketched out for two different books coming off this book. I would love to continue the story of the families and the people related around the Bed of Roses. I love captivating people and taking them to another place, opening their mind a bit. That’s what you get to do with music, too. You get to comfort, you get to awaken people, you get to excite people, but you also get to just be a refuge for people if they’re heartbroken. I hope that’s what this album and book is.”
After three studio albums and one charity album featuring covers of songs by Georgia artists following President Joe Biden’s 2020 election, Jason Isbell is back to playing on his own. Out today via his own independent label Southeastern, Foxes in the Snow is Isbell’s first solo album without his supremely talented band the 400 Unit in a decade.
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The 11-track set is return to a more acoustic sound that places an acoustic guitar and Isbell’s soulful voice at the foreground as he grapples with death, love and everything Tennessee. The album is his first since filing for divorce from his longtime wife, 400 Unit member and solo musician Amanda Shires at the end of 2023. And, in true Jason Isbell fashion, Foxes in the Snow does not stray away from addressing difficult issues.
With more than 20 years as a professional musician – first as a member of the Drive-By Truckers and then as a solo artist and with the 400 Unit – Isbell has used his music to publicly grapple with everything from his poor behavior to getting sober and being a dad. For this latest album, he tackles the end of a relationship, his continued belief in commitment and how it all impacts those his old love songs.
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How did you decide it was time for a solo album instead of one with the 400 Unit?
It had more to do with challenging myself to do something different than anything else. I’m 46 [year-old] and I’ve been making records since I was 22 and I didn’t want to keep doing the same thing over and over again.
Making another full band, fully produced sort of rock album didn’t feel like the right thing to me right now either. We did such a good job on [our last album] Weathervanes and I didn’t want to keep trying to do a different version of the same thing.
Foxes In the Snow is very much not a full band album. It’s bare bones in comparison.
Especially with [2013 album] Southeastern, Dave Cobb and I were trying really hard to demonstrate song first and make the song the center of everything. I still try to do that when I am in the studio, but I feel like it’s not as impactful sometimes as it is when you just strip everything away. I like reminding people of the old work.
Lyrically, I was trying to push myself on this record. When I am pushing, I am attempting to grow. More often than not that will come out as something else that I need to ignore. Originally, it was “ignore the size of the audience,” because I was playing to rooms that were really small and sometimes they weren’t full. Then it was “ignore the critics,” because they weren’t always getting what I was doing. Rolling Stone, Pitchfork – they didn’t like Southeastern. Then it was “ignore the record sales,” because the number of records that people sell is so significantly big.
What were you trying to ignore with this album?
Now, in a lot of ways, what I was trying to ignore were the expectations of songwriting craft. I’m not here to impress anybody. I don’t have anything to prove. If you want a witty songwriter and a bunch of metaphors and stuff like that, fine. We can do that, but that’s not serving the point. The point for me is that I needed to express the way I felt in these songs. And sometimes I don’t feel metaphors. Sometimes, I feel straight up emotions just like everybody else.
Did you feel the need to put boundaries on anything you wrote for this album?
I normally do the opposite of that. If something’s uncomfortable, I force myself to keep it in the song. The trick to that is going in without bitterness and going in without any kind of maudlin demonstrations of emotion. There’s a big difference between feeling a certain way and demonstrating a certain feeling. The former is always allowed. Everybody in the world is allowed to feel however they need to feel at all times. But when that turns into action, then it becomes manipulative. When you’re using those emotions to fuel the way you act in order to make other people feel a certain way, then you’re weakening your position as a narrator.
This wouldn’t be a Jason Isbell album without some emotional intensity, and it certainly gets heavy in the middle with tracks like “Gravelweed” and “Eileen.” But it ends on a lighter note with the lovely “Wind Behind the Rain.”
I wrote [that song] for my little brother and his wife when they got married. She came to me and asked if I would write them a first dance song. Nobody’s ever asked me that before and I thought, that’s so bold. But since you asked, I’m going to do it.
I was really nervous. It’s crazy. I was more that day than I would be at Red Rocks [Amphitheatre] or something, because of how much it meant to them. Then it wound up making the record. I felt like it ended on a very hopeful note. I want people to understand that I believe there’s still always a reason to commit to something. Whether it’s a person or a belief or a way of life. The process of committing yourself I so much more valuable than how it turns out.
That was incredibly brave of your brother and now sister-in-law. You’ve very good at writing sad songs.
I know. She could have gotten herself in a bind with that if I’d written a traditional song of my own. It would have been bad.
Did they hear the song before you sang it on their wedding day?
No. Nobody did. I just got up and sang it while they were dancing their first dance. I wasn’t gonna get halfway through the song and be like, “and then she died of cancer.” [Laughs.] But if anybody ever asks me to do that again though, it’s fair game. I played along the first time. This time, I’m pulling some s–t.
You’ve created a lot of beautiful love songs throughout your career that fans have glommed onto. Then on track “Gravelweed” you sing, “And now that I live to see my melodies betray me/ I’m sorry the love songs all mean different things today.” Are you apologizing to yourself? Fans?
That’s a good question. Why not both? It doesn’t say that the songs don’t mean anything. It’s just they mean different things. Once you finish a song, you turn it loose out in the world. It’s not really yours anymore. It belongs to the people that connect with it. It’s still yours in that you carry it with you and you get to revisit it and perform it every night if you want. You get to see it grow and change over the course of performing it. But if you’re too precious about the meaning, you’re going to limit yourself and your audience in the long run.
My life changes. And out of the changes that I’ve made in the last year and a half – ending a long-term relationship – the only thing to me that was confusing about that is what’s going to happen with these songs. After I went out and performed them again, I saw exactly what was going to happen. They were going to continue to mean the same thing for some people and they were going to take on different meanings for other people. Some of them were going to collect a little bit of irony, a little bit of bittersweetness. But the songs were still going to have an impact on me and on the people who heard them.
Looking back to your older work – Southeastern was certified gold by the RIAA earlier this week, which is a first gold certification for you.
How exciting is that! On our own little independent record label. It’s pretty crazy. I never thought that would happen. I remember when that Civil Wars record went gold and it was on their own independent label. I remember thinking, that was amazing. I’ve never heard of such a thing. To me, it reflects, if you’re lucky and you work pretty hard, the idea that there are different avenues, different ways to be successful in the music business now. Also, I’m so grateful to the audience for listening to the record and consuming the record like that.
Right now, you’re playing a string of solo shows, singing mostly new tracks about your divorce and other intimate things. How do these shows compare to your full-band gigs?
I’ve been really grateful for the type of audience that I have. At first, it was a little bit scary emotionally but also mechanically. But the audience has been great. When it works and everybody’s paying attention and nobody’s got their phone out, they’re all listening to what you’re doing – you feel like you can control every single corner, every space in the room.
If you’re playing solo like that, you’re steering a motorcycle rather than a cruise ship. When you’ve got a full band up there, you don’t get to interact with time. You can interact with the volume. There are times in the solo set when I can speed songs up and slow them down intentionally, just to control an extra level of the dynamics. I can do that in a split second, whereas with the band, it takes a few beats. If I am up there by myself, I can move with a lot of precision. You just have to turn off the part of your brain that’s yelling, “Don’t screw this up.”
You recently rescheduled a few of those shows because you didn’t want to miss your daughter’s performances.
Yeah, it’s Frozen Junior. She’s Anna in Frozen Junior. She’s killing it. She’s doing really well. It’s great because she was shy to sing in front of people until this and now she’s walking around singing in front of everybody.
[The school] doesn’t tell you the dates of the performances. We book our shows a year in advance and I didn’t know the dates. As soon as they gave me the dates, I thought, I’m going to have to reschedule the shows. I hated to do it after people had already made plans, but some things are more important.
CMT’s Next Women of Country franchise, launched in 2013, has selected its class of 2025, naming seven burgeoning female country artists to the latest edition.
The Class of 2025 is Alexandra Kay, Dasha, Kaitlin Butts, Kat Luna, Lanie Gardner, Meghan Patrick and MŌRIAH.
CMT’s Next Women of Country franchise started 12 years ago under Leslie Fram, CMT’s former senior vp of music & talent, as a way to highlight developing country artists across CMT and parent company Paramount’s suite of brands.
“CMT provides support for our NWOC artists, their music and videos across CMT, CMT Music, PlutoTV’s CMT Equal Play channels, CMT Hot 20, our CMT Digital franchises (Studio Sessions, Campfire Sessions, On The Road, etc.) our curated playlists on Apple Music, Spotify and beyond,” Donna Duncan, vp of music & talent tells Billboard. “We also provide support and cross-brand promo opportunities across our portfolio of Showtime/MTV Entertainment Studios & Paramount Media Network brands with the Times Square Billboard in New York City, promotional and event opportunities.” There have also been branded NWOC tours, but so far there are no plans for a tour this year.
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Members of the 2025 class are already benefiting from the corporate synergy. Duncan cites Dasha, who was the first country artist to be named an MTV Push artist in December. “We just coordinated a big premiere rollout for her new video with CMT, MTV and the Times Square billboard,” she says. “We also just booked her to perform at a Paramount ad sales event in Vail. These are the kind of opportunities we look to do across the board where it makes sense for all our artists.”
The official introduction to the new class will come Saturday (March 8) during CMT Hot 20 Countdown, when Lauren Alaina interviews each of the new inductees during the three-hour episode. The segments also include Alaina, who was in the class of 2014, breaking the news to each woman that she is a member of the 2025 class.
“It was special to have it come from someone who has also been in their shoes,” says Duncan. “One of my favorite moments is Lauren talking to Kaitlin Butts about her upcoming tour with Lainey Wilson. She tells her Lainey will take great care of her on the road – and that she herself is only a call away. That moment embodied exactly what NWOC is about – it’s become one big sisterhood and artist support group.”
CMT selects the women through a variety of ways, but the primary focus is always the music, Duncan stresses. Then, “CMT takes a 360, full-picture look at each artist. There is no single stat, streaming benchmark or airplay requirement,” she says. “A variety of factors are considered in our decision making: Artists can be independent, signed to a label, in the industry for a decade or a new breakout sensation. Each class of Next Women are selected for their unique contributions to meeting the moment in country music.”
The seven-member class size is smaller than in past years — last year’s class was 14 — but Duncan says “there’s no one-size-fits-all rule for the number of inductees.”
Despite the cutbacks CMT underwent last fall as part of a Paramount Global restructuring, which included Fram’s departure, Duncan says continuing the NWOC program was never in doubt. “There was never a question CMT would continue the work it’s done for 10+ years in this space,” Duncan says. “Supporting female artists and underrepresented voices in country music remains a top priority for us.”
Including the new class, more than 130 women acts have gone through the NWOC program. Beyond Alaina, alumni include Ashley McBryde, Brandy Clark, Brittney Spencer, Carly Pearce, Ella Langley, Gabby Barrett, Ingrid Andress, Kacey Musgraves, Kelsea Ballerini, Lainey Wilson, Maren Morris, Megan Moroney and Mickey Guyton.
Dolly Parton‘s songs have always been there to comfort us, bring joy and, occasionally, put certain people in their when they get a bit too cheeky. So it’s perfectly fitting that following the death earlier this week of her husband of 60 years, Carl Thomas Dean, Parton paid tribute to her lifelong partner with a heartbreakingly beautiful musical testament to their endless love.
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“Carl and I fell in love when I was 18 and he was 23, and like all great love stories, they never end. They live in memory and in song, and I dedicate this to him,” Parton, 79, wrote in an early-morning post on Friday (March 7) announcing the ballad “If You Hadn’t Been There” that featured a sweet throwback pic of the couple in which Parton is smiling and wrapping her arms around Dean’s neck.
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Like so many of Parton’s most beloved songs, “If You Hadn’t Been There” tells a complicated story in plain, powerful language in a way that is pure Dolly. “If you hadn’t been there/ Where would I be?/ Without your trust/ Love and belief/ The ups and downs/ We’ve always shared/ And I wouldn’t be here/ If you hadn’t been there,” Parton sings delicately, her voice just a whisper at times over subtle piano and strings.
As a swaying fiddle comes in and the beat picks up, Parton swells into her full voice while paying tribute to the famously attention-shy partner who she says was truly her other half. “If you hadn’t been there/ Well, who would I be?/ You always see the best in me/ You’re loving arms have cradled me/ You held me close, and I believe,” she sings before exploding into the loving chorus: “I wouldn’t be here/ If you hadn’t been there/ Holding my hand/ Showing you care/ You made me dream/ More than I dared/ And I wouldn’t be here/ If you hadn’t been there.”
The instant classic written by Parton and produced by Gregg Perry swells to a crescendo in the final verse, with a gospel chorus backing Parton up as she repeats the song’s title a few more times like a prayer.
The song’s release came shortly after Dolly posted a note about Dean’s death on Monday (March 3) in which she wrote, “This is a love note to family, friends and fans. Thank you for all the messages, cards and flowers that you’ve sent to pay your respects for the loss of my beloved husband Carl. I can’t reach out personally to each of you, but just know it has meant the world to me. He is in God’s arms now, and I am okay with that,” before quoting her own 1982 classic hit: “I will always love you.”
Parton met Dean the day she moved to Nashville at age 18 to pursue a career in music and they got married a short time later in in Georgia in 1966, two years after that first run-in at the Wishy Washy Laundromat. Though Dolly would soon climb to the highest highs as a performer, songwriter and global superstar, Dean preferred to stay out of the spotlight and was rarely seen by the public.
Listen to “If You Hadn’t Been There” below.
Ingrid Andress made headlines — and garnered considerable backlash — last summer after her botched performance of the national anthem at the MLB Home Run Derby in Arlington, Texas. Andress swiftly issued an apology on social media, saying, “I’m not gonna bullsh– y’all. I was drunk last night. I’m checking myself into a facility today to get the help I need. That was not me last night.”
The “More Hearts Than Mine” hitmaker sought treatment and, more recently, made a comeback, singing the national anthem at a Colorado Avalanche hockey game.
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She’s been making the media rounds, and during an appearance on the podcast The Viall Files, Andress opened up about the support she’s received from other artists — and she noted, in particular, how other women country music artists encouraged and championed Andress during her time in rehab.
“That was actually the other really meaningful thing that happened after the anthem. I was expecting no one to reach out,” she said. “But there was just so much outpouring of love from female country artists in Nashville. I actually felt so loved and seen going into rehab.”
She continued, “Elle King was like, ‘This is just all part of it, girl,’ and she’s obviously been there before, too, and you know, Kelsea Ballerini was like, ‘Welcome to the worst parts of this job.’ It was mostly women. Karen Fairchild from Little Big Town, and that really meant a lot to me, because I feel like women in country music have had to stick together based on very obvious things because it’s a very male-dominated genre, but for them to be like, ‘Hey, we’ve all been there,’ it was very meaningful.”
Country music’s female artists weren’t the only artists to reach out with love: Andress recalled how artist-guitar virtuoso Carlos Santana reached out with support.
“Have never spoken to him before in my life, and he asked my management, ‘Hey, can I get Ingrid’s number?’ … He was so kind and so supportive. He was like, ‘If you ever want to do a song, you know where to find me,’ and he sent me flowers.”
Andress continues to cement her return with the recent release of her new song “Footprints.”
“As I’ve gotten older and experienced more life, I think the most human thing on earth is failing. It’s getting kicked off, feeling the sting of it, but getting back on the same d**n horse anyway,” Andress wrote in an Instagram post revealing the song. “The sister, daughter, and human I want to be is resilient. Without the mistakes in my life, I would not be the person I am today, and I sure as hell wouldn’t have the stories to pass on about my journey. We have to talk about our mistakes in order for our success to make sense. ‘Footprints’ is a reminder to all the people I love the most, and also to myself, that I’m out here trying my best at this “life” thing, and if there’s any helpful guidance anyone can take from it, it’s all worth it. Here’s to making it worse, making it right, and making it.”
See the full podcast below:
Rascal Flatts announced their upcoming star-studded collabs album Life Is a Highway: Refueled Duets on Thursday (March 6). The project due out on June 6 through Big Machine Records will feature 10 re-imaginings of the country trio’s most beloved hits with guests including Kelly Clarkson, the Backstreet Boys, Blake Shelton, Jason Aldean and Carly Pearce.
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“It was such an honor to create this project with such incredibly talented artists, it’s a pretty indescribable feeling having your colleagues and friends do your songs in such unique ways and knock your socks off with the results,” said lead singer Gary LeVox in a statement. “This album is just another attempt for us to thank our fans for the blessings they’ve given us on this crazy journey the past 25 years, thanks for riding along with us!”
Rascal Flatts teamed up with the Jonas Brothers in January for the first single from the collection, “I Dare You,” which was written by the JoBros’ Nick Jonas with Dan + Shay’s Shay Mooney along with Dewain Whitmore Jr. and Tommy English. The song gave the Jonas siblings their first hit on the country charts after “I Dare You” spent a week on the Billboard Hot Country Charts (No. 31) last month; it is currently charting at No. 37 on the Country Airplay chart.
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Among the other acts who team up with LeVox, bassist/singer Jay DeMarcus and guitarist/vocalist Joe Don Rooney on the album are: Brandon Lake, Ashley Cooke, Jordan Davis and Halestorm singer/guitarist Lzzy Hale.
The country group is gearing up to kick off their Life Is a Highway tour in their hometown of Columbus, OH at the Nationwide Arena on Thursday night.
Check out the track list for Life Is a Highway: Refueled Duets album below.
1. “I Dare You” (with Jonas Brothers)
2. “Fast Cars And Freedom” (with Jason Aldean)
3. “My Wish” (with Carly Pearce)
4. “Mayberry” (with Blake Shelton)
5. “Stand” (with Brandon Lake)
6. “Summer Nights” (with Ashley Cooke)
7. “What Hurts The Most” (with Backstreet Boys)
8. “Yours If You Want It” (with Jordan Davis)
9. “Life Is A Highway” (with Lzzy Hale)
10. “I’m Movin’ On” (with Kelly Clarkson)