State Champ Radio Country
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“‘Austin’ was written out of a lot of rage,” Dasha tells Billboard in late April. At a Los Angeles session in early 2023, the singer-songwriter began working on a different song with Adam Wendler, Cheyenne Rose Arnspiger and Kenneth Heidelman, which proved unfruitful. After Dasha suggested taking a quick break, she poured out a story of a tumultuous relationship; when the break ended, the group turned her heartbreak into her breakout smash.
With its irresistible groove and defiant storytelling, the single arrived as an independent release last November, and appeared on her sophomore album, What Happens Now?, released in February. “Austin” details the country artist hightailing to L.A. and leaving her no-good lover a drunken mess in Texas. Though she’d never actually been to Austin, at the time, Dasha says that “all the emotions that drove the story were real to me.”
They’ve resonated with listeners too: the song became Dasha’s first Billboard Hot 100 entry in March, since reaching a No. 28 high. It has also peaked at No. 3 on Hot Country Songs and registered 86.7 million official on-demand U.S. streams through May 2, according to Luminate.
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Mark Gong top and pants, Petit Moments necklace.
Ashley Osborn
Born Dasha Novotny, the 24-year-old has been writing songs and performing for over a decade. The San Luis Obispo, Calif., native started performing at local coffee shops at 10, and three years later, her father gifted her a professional studio session for her birthday to record one of her songs. “That experience at such a young age was pivotal,” she says. “I feel like I got an internship to my artistry. I was ready for this spotlight.”
After finishing high school, Dasha attended Belmont University in Nashville, though she dropped out in 2020 amid the pandemic to focus on her music career. She independently released pop-R&B singles “Don’t Mean a Thing” and “None of My Business” that year before releasing a project of remixes and her first EP, $hiny Things, in 2021. Her pop-oriented debut album Dirty Blonde followed in 2023, but it wasn’t until “Austin” 10 months later that listeners flocked en masse, prompting Dasha to further explore the blend of catchy pop-country fusion as an artistic sweet spot.
Before its official release, “Austin” drew the attention of Type A Management’s Alex Lunt, who had been looking for an act just like Dasha. “I had been working in the urban space and in rock, but I wanted to work in country and everyone knew it,” he says. He has been managing her brother’s band, Beauty School Dropout, for several years already, and after her brother sent Lunt a few of Dasha’s demos — including “Austin” — he soon became her manager as well.
Versace tank top, jacket and jeans.
Ashley Osborn
Alex Lunt and Dasha photographed April 25, 2024 at The Comedy Chateau in Los Angeles. Dasha wears a Prada top, jacket, skirt and belt.
Ashley Osborn
Prior to the track’s release, Lunt connected her with the indie label Version III, as well as PR company King Publicity, in anticipation of broadening the song’s reach. Dasha created a line dance timed to the song’s chorus and worked with a handful of influencers, including Zoey Aune, to create shortform videos to showcase it. “The goal was to target very specific demographics upfront: the female country audience,” Lunt says.
Clips began to roll out in early 2023, with one such video on Aune’s TikTok account featuring the influencer dancing with Dasha that went viral (with 29.4 million views on the platform to date). “That was the video that started the massive tidal wave,” Lunt recalls. A week later, Dasha posted herself line dancing in a corral solo; that video has since garnered 68.5 million TikTok views.
“I remember feeling really nervous that it would be cringey,” Dasha recalls. “I think the reason it worked so well is because it came from such a fun place and I feel like there’s this gap in community on TikTok right now, so people are down to connect any way they can. When you go to the club and you know the dance, you can participate in the community.”
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The song’s surge on social media sparked a label frenzy, with Dasha signing to Warner Records in March. (At the time of the announcement, she told Billboard, “Warner felt like they had the most heart. They were so passionate about my songwriting, which is my priority.”) The next month, she inked a deal with WME for booking. Media appearances followed, including Jimmy Kimmel Live!, a performance at the CMT Music Awards (notably held in Austin), and a set at the country music festival Stagecoach in Indio, California.
As the single continues to build, the team is now putting its efforts toward stabilizing it stateside — recently promoting it to country radio — and across the globe. “Austin” reached a No. 23 high on the Billboard Global Excl. U.S. chart on April 27, with Lunt revealing they have since targeted Scandinavian, German and Australian creators.
“I think the magic of this new country sound is that I can incorporate those big pop hooks,” says Dasha. “The first time you listen to it, you can sing it back. I think that’s why it’s working so well overseas. But then also it has a super vivid lyric, so it’s like a movie in your head.”
While Dasha works on a deluxe version of What Happens Now?, she believes the biggest opportunity to grow the song is performing it live: “Now that I finally have an audience listening, we can spend the time and energy and make this into something really, really magical.”
Mark Gong top and pants, Petit Moments necklace.
Ashley Osborn
A version of this story will appear in the May 11, 2024, issue of Billboard.
Grammy winner and reigning CMA entertainer of the year Lainey Wilson is set to become the latest country star with a bar in downtown Nashville.
This summer, Wilson will open the three-story restaurant and bar Bell Bottoms Up in partnership with TC Restaurant Group on 120 3rd Ave. South, in the location that used to house the now-closed FGL House.
The 27,000-square-foot venue will feature two stages, four bars and a mezzanine floor featuring a bar lounge overlooking the first-floor stage and a dining area. The rooftop level will be home to a 1970s western-inspired aesthetic, with a dance floor, disco-inspired decor and frozen drinks. Guests will also get a look at Wilson’s Louisiana roots through a basement-level space set to open this summer, which will include craft cocktails and a live music space.
Meanwhile, the bar’s menu will offer several Cajun-inspired entrees and bar foods, curated by Wilson in partnership with TC Restaurant Group’s vp of culinary development, chef Tomasz Wosiak. The menu will include Wilson’s favorite salads, as well as crawfish, shrimp boils and boudin, in addition to a cocktail menu that features favorites such as whiskey, experiential group drinks and classic drinks.
“I’m so excited to announce Bell Bottoms Up, which will be opening later this summer,” Wilson said in a statement. “I’ve always wanted to create a destination for all my fans to visit and create new memories at, in the heart of country music city. So, to have a permanent destination in Nashville, is such a dream come true. I can’t wait for all my Wild Horses to get to experience my home away from home.”
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“We are honored that Lainey has trusted us to deliver a venue that is faithful to her story, fans, and love for country music,” said Grant Burlingame, vice president of operations at TC Restaurant Group. “Fans gravitate to Lainey because of her authentic, down-to-earth personality, and Bell Bottoms Up will be a representation of her character and legacy. Lainey Wilson is one of the biggest names in country music, and we’re proud to partner with her on a venue that celebrates her genuine mark on the industry and brings another female artist to the forefront of Nashville’s Entertainment District.”
TC Restaurant Group is known for its work on several star bars in Nashville, including Jason Aldean’s Kitchen + Rooftop Bar and Miranda Lambert’s Casa Rosa.
Meanwhile, Wilson is gearing up for the release of her Lainey Wilson: Bell Bottom Country documentary on Hulu and is nominated for several honors at next week’s ACM Awards on May 16.
Miranda Lambert is set to blend two of her favorites — music and dogs — when she launches an upcoming benefit concert Oct. 5 in Nashville, all in an effort to raise funds to help animals. The five-time ACM Awards album of the year winner will welcome many of her animal-loving friends and fellow musicians […]
What Goes Around Comes Around. The title of a 1979 Waylon Jennings album is almost prophetic in 2024, as one of country’s original outlaws is poised to ride again.
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Twenty years after his death, Jennings’ name is appearing in song lyrics, his voice is present on two previously unreleased tracks about to reach the marketplace, and his rebel ways were one of the most talked-about elements in the recent Netflix documentary The Greatest Night in Pop.
Jennings, as that film demonstrated, walked out on Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, Bob Dylan and other fellow stars during the epic 1985 recording session for “We Are the World,” when the all-star assemblage got sidetracked by efforts to sing part of the song in Swahili. Jennings’ disappearing act had been vaguely reported before, but it became one of the anecdotes that appeared repeatedly in accounts of the film, which debuted in January.
It was not the last time Jennings would leave a live taping — he walked out on talk show host Tom Snyder in 1998 — but it was that kind of singular, headstrong approach to his life and career that helped make Jennings an icon. And it’s why there’s a small resurgence of his legacy that could grow in the months to come.
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“Waylon’s kind of a mystery,” says songwriter Lee Thomas Miller (“In Color,” “It Ain’t My Fault”). “I don’t think people really know how dark he was and just how intense he was. I mean, he was so politically incorrect, and he lashed out at the [Country Music Association (CMA)]. But I feel like culturally, Waylon and Willie [Nelson] are almost mythical, Marvel characters or something.”
Miller is one of four songwriters behind “Waylon in ’75,” a track on Chayce Beckham’s debut album, Bad for Me, released April 5. The rough-cut performance -— with its references to cocaine, rhinestones, anger and alcohol — comes close to capturing Jennings’ spirit during “his wild, wooly days,” says Jessi Colter, his wife and musical partner for more than 30 years. He cleaned up in 1984, though followers are more obsessed with his hard-living days.
“It’s fun in your 20s and early 30s,” Colter allows. “The taste of destruction is very appealing.”
The appearance of “Waylon in ’75” overlaps with two newly charted singles that tip a Stetson to Jennings in their lyrics: George Birge’s “Cowboy Songs” (No. 38, Country Airplay) and the John Morgan/Jason Aldean collaboration “Friends Like That” (No. 60). In both plots, Jennings’ music provides the atmosphere for a male protagonist.
“I’ve been a major Waylon Jennings fan for a very long time,” says Birge. “ ’Honky Tonk Heroes’ is probably my favorite Waylon song. I’ve listened to that song no less than 10,000 times in my dad’s truck. He had a five-disc CD player in his F-150, back in the days where the CD player was under the back seat of the cab. His Greatest Hits was one of the CDs in there, so I definitely was very, very heavily influenced by Waylon. So it’s probably not an accident when I was subconsciously throwing those lines together, that name came out.”
In the 1970s, some Nashville executives considered Jennings a troublemaker. He fought — and won — a battle with RCA over the arrangements and studios he used to make his recordings. Phased guitars and stomping basslines became an edgy, signature sound, and he controversially asked the CMA to remove him from awards consideration, maintaining that music should not be a competitive sport. He declined to attend when he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. It’s that against-the-grain persona that earned him an “outlaw” label, along with Nelson, Colter, Tompall Glaser, Billy Joe Shaver, David Allan Coe and Johnny Paycheck, among others. That makes it all the more ironic that many country fans have come to view Jennings as a traditionalist.
“People now look back at all those guys with rose-colored glasses,” “Friends Like That” co-writer Will Bundy says. “But those guys that we look at as staple pieces now weren’t really well received in some cases. They just sort of did their own thing.”
They set a tone for their era, and their lone-ranger musical spirit became the standard that the current crop of hit-makers is judged against. “I think guys like Aldean, and even Morgan [Wallen] and HARDY, they’re guys who do that,” suggests Bundy. “They might not really play by the rules, but, you know, they don’t care. Which is refreshing.”
Miranda Lambert likewise adopted a feisty attitude that mirrors Jennings’ approach. (She appropriately covered the Nelson/Jennings duet “Mammas, Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys” on the CBS special Willie Nelson’s 90thBirthday Celebration in December.) And many of her fellow Texans — including Parker McCollum, who co-wrote Beckham’s “Waylon in ’75” — also owe Jennings a stylistic debt.
“You see guys like Cody Johnson really killing it on the radio, and guys like Parker McCollum,” Beckham says. “The red-dirt stuff — I think a lot of it is getting a little bit more attention now. And Waylon is the embodiment of that. He’s the energy that has been the outlaw culture for quite some time.”
One of the ways Jennings changed the sound of country was his adoption of Southern rock textures. He was known to employ chords that departed from country norms, that toughened up his music’s underlying progressions and bordered on the blues. And one particular triad — which breaks standard key signatures while sounding like it still belongs — can still be heard in songs like Riley Green’s “Damn Good Day To Leave” (No. 43).
“The major two is an old-school country move, kind of a Waylon Jennings move,” suggests “Damn Good” co-writer Jonathan Singleton.
Jennings appears among the background singers on two Johnny Cash recordings from the early 1990s, “I Love You Tonite” and “Like a Soldier,” featured on a new Cash album of unearthed material, Songwriter, due June 28 through Mercury Nashville. A previous duet with Cash, the 1978 single “There Ain’t No Good Chain Gang,” illustrates the subtle vocal skills that made Jennings one of his era’s most adept singers. He navigates the verse melodies with an underplayed conversational tone, then launches into the raucous chorus with an emphatic, near-abandon.
“There’s not a whole lot of interpreters,” Colter maintains. “He is the rock of the American popular music business, in my mind.”
And with country embracing a grittier tone, it only makes sense that the individualistic spirit of Jennings and his outlaw peers is being quietly rekindled during the genre’s current resurgence.
“They were so instrumental to us in the way that they wrote songs and the way that they just all sounded distinctly themselves,” says “Friends Like That” co-writer Brent Anderson. “We still listen to those records. They sound like nobody else. It’s just them.”
In her upcoming documentary, Lainey Wilson: Bell Bottom Country, the “Wildflowers and Wild Horses” singer will take fans deeper into her journey from the Louisiana-born artist who once lived in a camper trailer when she first arrived in Nashville, to her current CMA entertainer of the year-winning and four-time Billboard Country Airplay-topping status.
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“I experienced a lot of rejection, a lot of heartache,” Wilson says in the opening scenes of the documentary’s trailer, which premiered Monday (May 6). “I’m a tough woman, but it’s not easy. I have my days where you gotta do whatever you can to crawl out of those dark holes.”
The special was produced by Robin Roberts’ ABC News Studios production unit, and features not only Wilson in conversation with Roberts, but also commentators, including radio/television personality Bobby Bones and Wilson’s labelmate and fellow country artist Jelly Roll.
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The trailer features photos from Wilson’s childhood, as well as images and footage of her early days in Nashville — including that camper trailer, which served as a home base and a place of solace in her trying early days in Music City.
“I remember sittin’ out in this camper trailer, cryin’ my eyes out, thinking, ‘Is it ever gone happen?’” she says at one point in the teaser. “But Mama and Daddy didn’t raise no quitter.”
The special highlights some of the key moment’s in Wilson’s meteoric career rise, including her CMA entertainer of the year win and her Grammy win earlier this year (Bell Bottom Country was named best country album). Additionally, the documentary delves into the hardships Wilson has faced along the way, including her father’s health struggles in 2022 while Wilson was filming her role on the television series Yellowstone.
The documentary will release on Hulu on May 29, just days before Wilson launches her headlining Country’s Cool Again tour with two shows at Nashville’s Ascend Amphitheater on May 31 and June 1.
Wilson is also nominated for five trophies at the upcoming Academy of Country Music Awards airing May 16, including entertainer of the year and female artist of the year.
Watch the trailer for Lainey Wilson: Bell Bottom Country below:
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This week’s crop of new releases includes Miranda Lambert’s first new music since inking with Republic Records in partnership with Big Loud, as well as Randy Travis’s new song, which was recorded with the help of AI. The lineup also includes music from Kameron Marlowe, Tenille Arts, Colby Acuff, Jesse Daniel with Ben Haggard, and more.
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Miranda Lambert, “Wranglers”
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Lambert returns to the kind of burn-it-all-down revenge stories that first served as her musical introduction, and as her fans know, this Texan’s vocal is often at its best when issuing a twangy, low murmur of a warning to anyone who has dared do her wrong. Written by Audra Mae, Evan McKeever and Ryan Carpenter, this song etches the tale of a woman dead-set on independence and undeterred by the fiery bout of revenge required to set those plans off the ground. “Wranglers” is Lambert’s first new music under her recent deal with Republic Records, in partnership with Big Loud.
Randy Travis, “Where That Came From”
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Though the use of AI has largely been viewed as a threat to artists and songwriters over the past few years, Country Music Hall of Famer Travis’s label team at Warner Music Nashville was intent on using the technology to aid the singer, who has had limited speech for more than a decade, following a 2013 stroke that left him with aphasia. This song, originally recorded by singer James Dupre and written by Scotty Emerick with John Scott Sherill, serves as a key vessel, one that feels every bit as classic as many of Travis’s previous hits. Through the help of AI and meticulous sonic editing from Travis’s longtime producer Kyle Lehning, Travis returns with “Where That Came From,” with his vocal sounding remarkably close to Travis’s timeless recordings in the 1980s and 1990s.
Tenille Arts, “So Do I”
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Arts delves into the despair of loneliness on “So Do I,” drawing on feelings of confusion, frustration and not quite measuring up, while wrapping it all in a beguiling pop hook. “Do you feel like the whole world’s waiting for you to get it right?,” she asks on this track, written by Sasha Sloan, King Henry, Demi Lovato and Laura Veltz. The song is featured on Arts’ latest album, to be honest, which was released on May 3 and draws on her penchant for soul-excavating frameworks and deeply detailed story arcs. The album is released via Dreamcatcher Artists and distributed through STEM.
Colby Acuff, “Scared of the Dark”
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Acuff, who signed with Sony Music Nashville last year, excels in pairing acoustic-propelled sounds with his grainy voice and deeply personal storylines. His latest, which he wrote solo and produced with Eddie Spear, builds from pared-back fiddle and vocal into pounding percussion, razor-sharp fiddle lines and relentless acoustic guitar, drawing out the lyrical arc of an incessant mental health battle with depression and shame, but ultimately drawing out the hope for better days ahead.
Lonesome Ace Stringband with The Andrew Collins Trio, “May Day”
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It’s been nearly two decades since the Lonesome Ace Stringband played a sound-refining residency at Toronto’s Dakota Tavern — roughly the same time that Lonesome Ace’s Chris Coole wrote this track with Andrew Collins of The Andrew Collins Trio. The two groups combine their talents on this breezy, exquisitely performed instrumental, with a mesh of mandolin, banjo, bass, guitar and fiddle that capture the warm, lively essence of springtime.
Kameron Marlowe, “On My Way Out”
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Marlowe’s formidable vocals are front and center on his new song, written by Michael Hardy, Ben Johnson, Hunter Phelps, Taylor Phillips and Bobby Pinson. By turns soaring and tender, Marlowe’s voice is an ace foil for this song musing on how he wants to leave this life better than he found it, right his wrongs and give thanks for those who meant the most to him. A top-shelf outing from this North Carolina native and former The Voice contestant.
Chase Matthew, “First”
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He’s trying to move on from a fizzled relationship, but everyone he spends time with only comes in second place when compared to his first love. He catalogs each of the first moments of burgeoning love in that standard-setting relationship, from the first time she called him “baby,” to the first time she kissed him. Sonically, the song stands up to the pop-oriented songs on radio, while the melody gives his burnished vocal room to soar. Matthew wrote the song with Ben Hayslip and David Lee Murphy.
Jesse Daniel & Ben Haggard, “Tomorrow’s Good Ol’ Days”
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Dripping with harmonica and winding guitar, this collaboration between Daniel and Ben Haggard (son of country music legend Merle Haggard) is the latest hard-hitting honky tonk release from neo-traditionalist Daniel. Here, they lament a country that is “on the brink of war,” kids who “are growin’ up too fast” and corporations buying up farmland and reshaping the economy in the process. Their weathered, craggy voices are a perfect foil for the storyline, in a throwback to other classic country compositions that have grieved over various economic and societal changes they have deemed damaging. The song is from Daniels’s upcoming project Countin’ the Miles, out June 7 on Lightning Rod Records.
The anniversaries are piling up on Curb | Word Entertainment chairman Mike Curb.
This year is the 60th anniversary of Curb Records’ founding. April 29 marked 30 years since Belmont University announced its highest-profile program was being renamed the Mike Curb College of Entertainment & Music Business. And the school just wrapped the 50th-anniversary campaign that celebrated the department’s founding. All those milestones come as Curb approaches his 80th birthday on Christmas Eve.
“I like everything except the last statistic,” he deadpans near the start of a three-hour interview.
The conversation acknowledges the landmarks, but it comes, more importantly, as Curb’s latest investment wraps some of his deepest passions — education, music preservation and legacy — in a structure likely to enhance the relationship between Belmont and Music Row. Belmont announced April 9 that the Curb Foundation made a $58 million donation that will seed a multipurpose Curb College building on Music Circle South, wedged between the BMG offices and the historic Columbia Studios.
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Neither Curb nor Belmont president Greg Jones could specify the breakdown of the $58 million — both called it “complicated” — but the figure encompasses the value of the land, which Curb donated; future rent; and cash. It also includes an expansion of the Buddy Lee Attractions building that’s adjacent to Columbia, while the school attempts to raise an additional $40 million for the project, which will encourage interplay between Belmont students and working music professionals. A 150-capacity performance space will provide an ideal concert-audio learning facility and offer label showcase options. Songwriting rooms will serve the college and, perhaps, some independent writers. And a coffee shop is expected to lure lunchtime visits from nearby businesses, setting up the possibility for students that a springboard for their careers could be just a handshake away.
The building is in the works at a time when large chunks of Music Row have been overtaken by non-music developers. Curb owns 12 properties on the Row — including RCA Studio B, Ocean Way and the former Masterfonics building — and he’s doggedly determined to maintain the character of the neighborhood, where he has control. That’s particularly true on Music Circle South, a block with numerous studios that have yielded hits by Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan, George Strait, Tom T. Hall and Dan + Shay — just for starters — through the decades.
“We made it impossible for the developers to get to it,” Curb says. “Even the WNAH radio building is just the way it is. Even the buildings that we’re using for Curb Records or for Word Records. Those are staying exactly the way they are. So we’ve got it pretty locked.”
Curb established his label as an 18-year-old college student at Cal State Northridge who was too young to sign the startup papers without a co-signer. He made a deal with Capitol, wrote a Honda commercial and landed a bundle of songs on movie soundtracks, including the 1968 Clint Eastwood picture Kelly’s Heroes. Curb became the president of MGM in his 20s, working with The Osmonds, Lou Rawls, Sammy Davis Jr. and Hank Williams Jr., and by the end of the ’70s, he was California lieutenant governor, serving alongside Ronald Reagan.
Post-government, he extended the Curb label’s independent run by partnering with the majors in the careers of Williams, The Judds, T.G. Sheppard, Lyle Lovett and Debby Boone, among others.
“Back then, you could walk up and down Hollywood Boulevard or Sunset Boulevard, there were hundreds of independents,” he remembers. “Now they’re all owned by the three majors. That’s one of the big issues now, you know: The deep catalog of our industry is owned and controlled by three majors.”
Curb arrived in Nashville in the early 1990s, earning multiplatinum sales from Tim McGraw and LeAnn Rimes along with hits by Sawyer Brown, Hal Ketchum, Jo Dee Messina and, in the 2000s, Rodney Atkins. McGraw and Rimes had public spats involving their Curb deals, and Curb ended up in litigation with Big Machine Label Group over McGraw, who ultimately moved on. Despite that battle, Curb is on good terms with BMLG president/CEO Scott Borchetta, who has partnered with him in auto racing.
“I consider Mike a genius, I consider him a friend, I consider him misunderstood by a lot of people,” Borchetta says. “The guy’s a walking encyclopedia.”
Curb’s ability to maintain relationships, even amid sharp disagreements, is a skill he perfected during his political career. His relationship with Belmont, for example, continues despite his previous opposition to the university’s firing of a lesbian coach. (The school ultimately amended its policies.) In 1978, Curb helped defeat a California proposition that would have banned gay teachers from schools, convincing conservative icon Reagan to join the battle. Currently, he continues to speak highly of Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), who agreed to a meeting with his gay employees, though they were unable to change her position on key issues. Writing people off, he reasons, is a poor long-term strategy.
“What I always tried to do was not criticize the people who disagreed with me, but tried to bring them together,” he says. “As I learned from Ronald Reagan, you just need 51%.”
Curb has certainly won over Belmont’s Jones. He suggested doing something with the Music Circle South property to benefit the music business program shortly after Jones became university president in 2021. The school already had an ideal location at the Southern edge of Music Row. With the new building, it will be in the heart of the district.
“We weren’t just thinking of the present and then making incremental changes,” says Jones. “We wanted the next 50 years of music business to be really transformational.”
It’s a goal that Curb shares. His label’s 60th anniversary will be celebrated June 6 with a CMA Fest show at Nashville’s Ascend Amphitheater featuring Atkins, Sawyer Brown, Dylan Scott, Hannah Ellis, Kelsey Hart and Lee Brice, among others. Curb is excited over the prospects of Brice’s new single — “Drinkin’ Buddies,” featuring Nate Smith and Hailey Whitters — which debuts at No. 26 on the Country Airplay chart dated May 11 (see page 4). But he’s just as enthusiastic about Brice’s collaboration with Christian band for King & Country on “Checking In,” which could — like Curb’s efforts for Belmont and for marriage equality — make a lasting mark. The anniversaries are important, but the future still beckons.
“We’re impacting the culture of Nashville, of country music — maybe pop music, the culture of the nation,” he says with youthful enthusiasm. “That’s what’s so exciting about what we do.”
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Randy Travis is thanking his fans for helping to inspire him to record his first new single in a decade, “Where That Came From.” The 64-year-old singer whose voice was mostly taken from him following a 2013 stroke released the new ballad on Friday and appeared on CBS Sunday Morning this weekend in a package describing how his team used artificial intelligence to create the affecting track.
“Eleven years ago I never thought I would be able to have a hand in music production of any kind,” Travis said in a statement. “But by God’s grace and the support of family, friends, fellow artists and fans, I’m able to create the music I so dearly love. Working with [longtime producer] Kyle Lehning and Warner Music Nashville again has been so special and nostalgic, and I’m so excited to share my new song ‘Where That Came From’ with you today. Many thanks to my wonderful team and the best fans in the world for putting me back in the saddle again! I’ve enjoyed every moment of it.”
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In the CBS interview, Travis’ longtime producer Lehning described his initial trepidation about using AI to fill-out the track, describing his fear that it sounded like a “parlor trick.” Travis suffered the stroke in 2013, after which doctors gave him a 2% chance of surviving following the discovery that in addition to paralysis the brain attack caused damage to the area of his brain controlling speech and language that had left it nearly beyond repair.
Lehning’s painstaking process began by pulling 42 classic Travis tracks from the his label’s vault, stripping away everything until just the vocal tracks remained and then adding some additional, new vocals from James Dupre, the singer who has been handling Travis’ vocals on tours by the country star’s band over the past few years.
Using an AI program that took Travis’ voice and overlaid it over Dupre’s singing, Lehning — who has worked with Travis for four decades — melded the two, telling CBS that having his longtime friend be a “vital part” of creating the song made a huge difference.
“Being a part of new Randy Travis music, I mean, that’s like… what?,’” Dupre told CBS.
“It’s Randy Travis. Randy’s on the other side of the microphone … It’s still his vocal,” Cris Lacy, co-chair/president of Warner Music Nashville said in the interview about the Grammy-winning legend who was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2016. “There’s no reason he shouldn’t be able to make music … And to deprive him of that, if he still wants to do that, that’s unconscionable to me.”
The song was originally recorded, but not released, by Dupre and written by Scotty Emerick and John Scott Sherrill.
“The motivation behind a musical recording is specific to each individual artist,” Lacy added. “The genesis of this particular track came from a visceral desire to restore what was taken away from someone we know and love – Randy Travis. It was inspired by his courage to continue as a vital contributor to the music community. In working with him to make new recordings, the byproduct is a gift that goes straight to our hearts. AI may have been a tool that helped us along, but it was a group of dedicated and passionate humans, including Randy himself, that brought this beautiful song to life.”
The piece included a scene from two months ago where Warner Music Nashville gathered a small group of fellow musicians in a studio to debut the new song, with Travis watching along with what was described as a “Cheshire Cat grin. The reaction that day was described as a mix of “joy and wonder,” plus some tears from Travis’ wife, Mary.
“You forget how much you missed it until you hear it again,” she said of her husband’s rich baritone. Fellow country star Carrie Underwood. whose 2009 collab with Travis, “I Told You So,” was a top 10 hit on the Billboard Hot 100, also on hand and she seemed bewildered and entranced by the studio magic. “How… how, how?” she asked a smiling Travis as she attempted to unpack the spot-on computer-assisted vocals.
Cole Swindell was also on hand and he said listening to the song reminded him of why he became a country singer. “So y’all let me hear it, that means a lot,” Swindell said choking up, adding, “Damn, I’m glad to year you sing.” Veteran country star Clay Walker was seen sharing a laugh and a smile with his old pal as they took in the song.
The CBS package also revealed that the team is working on a second untitled “new” song, though so far that one has proven more elusive. “It’s a life inspiration,” Mary Travis said. “Speak kindly, love fully, live completely, and leave the rest to God.”
Watch the full CBS piece, and listen to “Where That Came From,” below.
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George Strait is a ready for another round.
The country legend used the platform of his concert at Lucas Oil Stadium, the home of NFL franchise Indianapolis Colts, to announce Cowboys And Dreamers (via MCA), his 31st studio album.
According to reps, more than 51,000 filled out the stadium for Strait’s two-hour performance on Saturday, May 4. “We got some new stuff, too, I’m gonna throw in throughout the night, because I broke down and did another record, and I’m gonna play a few of those for you tonight,” he told the audience.
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The new LP is the the followup to 2019’s Honky Tonk Time Machine, which opened at No. 4 on the Billboard 200 chart. A release date for Cowboys And Dreamers has not been announced.
The 71-year-old Texas native shared several new songs from the forthcoming album, including “Three Drinks Behind,” and was joined by Chris Stapleton on two numbers, “Honky Tonk Hall of Fame” and “You Don’t Know What You’re Missing”.
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The Indianapolis date was one of just 10 shows Strait will perform in 2024, and marked a return to the stage following a string of devastating losses to his industry family including his manager of nearly 50 years, Eugene Ervine “Erv” Woolsey, Ace in the Hole member Gene Elders, and tour manager Tom Foote.
“It’s so good to be back,” he said from the stage, “man, it’s been six months, and that’s too long.”
Paying tribute to his lost friends, Strait remarked, “The last couple of months have been a tough time… music makes it all better. Thank you for coming out – we’ve had a great time tonight,” he said, as he closed out a six-song encore in their honor.
The County Music Hall of Famer and three-times CMA entertainer of the year has had a remarkable career, during which he has notched 44 Billboard Hot Country Songs chart-toppers, a record-tying 61 Country Airplay top 10s, and a record 27th No. 1s on Top Country Albums Chart, most recently with Honky Tonk Time Machine.
Strait’s 2024 Concert Calendar:May 4 — Lucas Oil Stadium, Indianapolis, INMay 11 –EverBank Stadium, Jacksonville, FLMay 25 — Jack Trice Stadium, Ames, IAJune 1 — Bank of America Stadium, Charlotte, NCJune 8 — MetLife Stadium, East Rutherford, NJJune 15 — Kyle Field, College Station, TXJune 29 — Rice-Eccles Stadium, Salt Lake City, UTJuly. 13 — Ford Field, Detroit, MIJuly 20 — Soldier Field, Chicago, ILDec. 7 — Allegiant Stadium, Las Vegas, NV
Morgan Wallen‘s Nashville bar will soon be open for business, according to the “Last Night” hitmaker. During his headlining set at Nashville’s Nissan Stadium on Saturday (May 4), the country music star revealed that his Morgan Wallen’s This Bar & Tennessee Kitchen will open on Memorial Day weekend. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and […]
