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Burly-voiced vocalist and songwriter Nate Smith is swiftly accumulating career milestones. His debut major label single, “Whiskey on You,” spent two weeks atop Billboard’s Country Airplay chart, becoming the first multi-week No. 1 debut single on the chart since 2019. He’s nominated for new male vocalist of the year at the upcoming ACM Awards and this weekend he’ll make his first appearance at Indio, California’s Stagecoach Festival.
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“This past year has been crazy and a dream come true,” he tells Billboard, seated in an office at the Sony Music Nashville offices, where he shifted to the RCA Nashville imprint after his former Arista Nashville label home folded last month.
But he’s most excited about his self-titled, debut major label album, which comes out Friday (April 28), because he considers it a full-fledged testament to his devotion to writing and finding great songs.
“I want to sing songs that mean something, songs that people can relate to and take hope from,” says Smith, who is managed by The Core Entertainment. “I think of songs I love like Rascal Flatts’ ‘What Hurts the Most,’ and Keith Urban’s ‘Tonight I Wanna Cry.’ Those songs just set the bar.”
Nate Smith offers a hefty mix of heavy-hitter ballads like “I Don’t Miss You” (which Smith calls “the epitome of what I want to hear in a big rock ballad”), uplifting, romantic compositions such as “You Shouldn’t Have To,” and fun fare including “Alright Alright Alright” (inspired by actor Matthew McConaughey’s famous catchphrase in the 1993 movie Dazed and Confused).
“I think my agents have even reached out to [McConaughey’s] team, hoping he will do something with us on it,” Smith says. “It’s a nod to him in a lot of ways—it’s catchy, and people can sing along with it easily.”
As Morgan Wallen continues to top the Billboard charts with back-to-back albums with more than 30 tracks each, Smith’s debut weighs in at 20 tracks. But Smith is already augmenting his album with a deluxe version that also releases on Friday, adding six songs to the mix, because of a last minute addition that he felt passionately about releasing.
“Didn’t you think it would end up just always being singles?” he says, pondering the change in how music is released since the advent of streaming. “And then it moves back to these large albums. I think Morgan [Wallen] pioneered a lot of that.”
Smith wrote 13 of the songs on the 20-track album, and five of the six songs on the deluxe version. One of his co-writes is “Raised Up,” an ode to his small-town roots and growing up, as he sings, “Any time I lose my way, I turned to the way I was raised up.”
“I remember tearing up when we wrote that, because it made me think of home,” Smith says. “Life goes so fast and people get so busy, it’s just a great nod to remembering where you come from.”
But further fueling these songs is Smith’s formidable, rangy and raw vocal power, especially on songs such as the piano-laced “Wreckage” and the HARDY and Taylor Phillips-written “Better Boy.” The latter is among the songs Smith performed when he showcased for country radio professionals during the New Faces Show during March’s Country Radio Seminar. The song offers up an earnest warning to give a relationship a full-hearted effort, and to “never let her think somewhere out there’s a better boy.”
“It’s a miracle that I got that song before anybody else did,” Smith says. “I got the worktape from Taylor. I was listening to it, and it was HARDY singing on it. I felt such a connection to it and they let me cut it.” Growing up in Paradise, Calif., Smith says his interests always slanted toward music rather than sports.
“I went hunting a bit with my dad when I was younger. I tried every sport and I wasn’t good at sports,” Smith says. “I grew up listening to country music, artists like Garth [Brooks] and George Strait, but in junior high and high school, I was more into rock artists like Blink-182.”
At church, he honed his skills by playing worship music on Wednesday nights for his youth group and often favored jam sessions over studying. “In high school, me and my friends would skip school. We knew the secretary in the church and she’d let us sneak in,” he says. “We’d leave school and would be in there jammin’ out. I don’t know how we didn’t get in trouble, but we didn’t.”
Smith moved to Nashville in 2008 and, initially, Smith’s path seemed aligned with contemporary Christian music; he signed a publishing deal with Centricity Music and came close to inking a deal with Word Records. But the soon, the deal fell through, at the time same as Smith was weathering a divorce. The string of obstacles led Smith to return to California in 2011, where he worked as a nursing assistant. But even prior to leaving Nashville, he was already exploring his country roots.
“Before I left Nashville, I made a 10-song album and everyone was like, ‘It sounds kind of country,’” Smith recalls.
In 2018, Smith became one of the 14,000 residences who lost their homes when the Camp Fire raged through Paradise. He poured his pain and perspective into the song “One of These Days,” and was determined to give Nashville another chance. He made a month-long road trip from California to Nashville, playing bars and clubs along the way. Soon after returning to Music City, Smith released the viral track, “Wildfire.” Soon, labels came calling, he signed with Sony Music Nashville and released the radio single “Whiskey on You.”
Another fire-fueled song, “World on Fire,” which Smith wrote with Ashley Gorley, Phillips and Lindsay Rimes in November 2022, led to Smith’s decision to release a deluxe version of his debut album in tandem with the original.
“We weren’t planning on doing a deluxe album at all,” Smith says. “But the demand for ‘World on Fire’ was so high and it was doing so well on socials. We were like, ‘If we add it to the album, it takes away all our pre-saves of the song.’ We could have waited until after the album was done and just dropped it separately, randomly, but opted to include it in a deluxe version. Fans have been asking for this song, so I’m glad to finally release it.”
Later this year, Smith will perform many of his new songs as part of Thomas Rhett’s Home Team Tour 2023, which launches May 4. As much a student of the stage as he is of songs, Smith keeps finding new ways to enhance his live show, and says he paid close attention to when he was previously opening shows for Brett Eldredge.
“It feels like Brett’s never in a rush onstage, in a good way,” Smith says. “His transitions between songs are really powerful, but then when it’s just him and an acoustic, it’s magical. He taught me to realize the importance of moments. Also, he doesn’t rush off the stage — he will thank people and take his time getting offstage. And I do that at every show now, and I completely stole that from Brett.”
Looking ahead, Smith teases an upcoming collaboration with Ashley Cooke, and has his sights set on a Saturday Night Live appearance one day.
“I really want to do it because I love being silly,” Smith says. “I would love to act and be on the show and sing and all that. That would be a dream.”
“Son of a Sinner” hitmaker Jelly Roll is known for a music career that has incorporated modern country, rock and hip-hop elements. But during a recent performance in Huntsville, Ala., as part of an all-star tribute concert to the late George Jones, Jelly Roll proved he can take on a country classic just fine.
During an all-star tribute concert in honor of the 10th anniversary of the death of Country Music Hall of Famer Jones, who died April 26, 2013 at age 81, Jelly Roll offered a cover of Jones’ 1978 classic “Bartender’s Blues.” The track was written by James Taylor, who included it on his 1977 album JT, before Jones recorded it the next year, as the title track of his Bartender’s Blues album (with Taylor offering harmony vocals). Jones’ version became a top 10 hit on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart in 1978. Jones would later re-record the song on his 1994 album The Bradley Barn Sessions, this time in collaboration with Trisha Yearwood.
Joining Jelly Roll on the bill for the Alabama tribute show that evening were artists including Brad Paisley, Dierks Bentley, Jamey Johnson, Justin Moore, Lorrie Morgan, Mark Chesnutt, Michael Ray, Sam Moore, Tanya Tucker, Tracy Lawrence, Trace Adkins, Tracy Byrd, Travis Tritt, Wynonna Judd, Joe Nichols, Randy Travis and Sara Evans. The concert was also taped to air on PBS later this year.
Jelly Roll recently dominated the CMT Music Awards, held in Austin, Texas earlier this month. Jelly Roll took home male video of the year, breakthrough male video of the year (both for his “Son of a Sinner” video), and the CMT digital-first performance of the year honor, for his performance of “Son of a Sinner” on CMT All Access.
Listen to Jelly Roll’s cover of “Bartender Blues” in the video above.
Old Crow Medicine Show has earned a reputation for top-shelf musicianship and hits including the now-classic “Wagon Wheel,” but the two-time Grammy-winning group is also advocating for gun reforms.
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The group has released the protest song “Louder Than Guns” to all streaming platforms, in partnership with 97Percent, a bipartisan gun-safety organization that is working to create research-backed policies supported by both gun owners and non-gun owners.
Old Crow bandleader and Nashville resident Ketch Secor wrote the song in the aftermath of the March 27 school shooting at The Covenant School in Nashville, which took the lives of three children and three school staffers. (The shooter was also killed during the incident.) “This time it was people I know, gunned down in a minute or so/ Only God knows when it’ll stop/ But thoughts and prayers ain’t enough,” Secor sings in the song.
“When the lives of six teachers and students were snuffed out in a couple minutes at Covenant School in Nashville, I knew I had to speak out, and so I sought every opportunity to do so,” Secor said via a statement. “I wrote the song ‘Louder Than Guns’ and recorded it just a week after the funerals for the slain. Before we recorded the track, I carved their names in my fiddle — Hallie, Evelyn, William, the three 9-year-olds, and Mike, Cynthia and Katherine, the three educators. I dedicate this song to them because I swore when the shooting came to Nashville, I was going to work my hardest to make it the last stop on this runaway train of murders, gun violence and terror. I stand up not knowing the answers as to how this will be done. I am a musician, not a politician. But I will use my voice from now on to demand the change our communities deserve. Won’t you join us in Old Crow Medicine Show and take a stand in your community, too?”
Secor, a father of two children and a co-founder of The Episcopal School of Nashville, has been a leading voice for change following the shooting at The Covenant School. He performed at a benefit concert at Belmont University’s The Fisher Center to support those impacted by the Nashville school shooting, as well as at a vigil held in downtown Nashville. He is also joining the board of the 97Percent.
On Wednesday (April 26), 97Percent and Wunderman Thompson launched the Aim For Change campaign, a petition featuring four gun reform laws that 97Percent’s research shows are supported by gun owners.
Of the band’s partnership with 97Percent, Secor said, “We’re proud to partner with 97Percent, an organization focused on pragmatic, impactful solutions that both non-gun owners and gun owners want, because we recognize the huge importance of getting through the gridlock on the issue of gun violence. Parents across America must set the example for politicians; the time is now for the Left and Right to come together at the bargaining table. As 97Percent believes, we’re never going to make progress without engaging gun owners. Old Crow hopes our partnership will be a calling to gun owners and sportsmen. The time to act is now and both sides simply must come together before the next innocent lives are lost.”
Listen to “Louder Than Guns” below:
Long Story Short: Willie Nelson 90, A Star-Studded Concert Celebrating Willie’s 90th Birthday just got a little longer and a little more star-studded with the addition of a big-name presenters who will help Willie Nelson celebrate his milestone this weekend at the Hollywood Bowl.
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Woody Harrelson, Chelsea Handler, Ethan Hawke, Helen Mirren, Jennifer Garner, Owen Wilson and Gabriel Iglesias will be presenters at the two-night Los Angeles extravaganza, which boasts more than 45 acts on hand to celebrate the national treasure that is Nelson.
The presenters join a diverse artist lineup for Saturday and Sunday that includes George Strait, Snoop Dogg, Miranda Lambert, Norah Jones, Sheryl Crow, Dave Matthews, Tom Jones, The Chicks, Chris Stapleton and more who will salute the “On the Road Again” singer, who is also slated to perform.
Also on the bill are Allison Russell, Beck, Billy Strings, Bobby Weir, Booker T. Jones, Buddy Cannon, Charley Crockett, Daniel Lanois, Dwight Yoakam, Edie Brickell, Emmylou Harris, Gary Clark Jr., Jack Johnson, Jamey Johnson, Kris Kristofferson, Leon Bridges, Lily Meola, Lukas Nelson, Lyle Lovett, Margo Price, Nathaniel Rateliff, Neil Young, Orville Peck, Particle Kid, Rodney Crowell, Rosanne Cash, Shooter Jennings, Stephen Stills, Sturgill Simpson, The Avett Brothers, The Lumineers, Tyler Childers, Warren Haynes, Waylon Payne and Ziggy Marley. Kacey Musgraves, who had originally been scheduled to perform, can no longer appear.
Each evening is expected to last at least four hours with the two nights’ experiences varying from each other.
At 90, Nelson continues to be a musical force. He was nominated for four Grammys earlier this year and a multi-part documentary on Nelson, titled Willie Nelson & Family, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. On March 3, he released his latest album, I Don’t Know a Thing About Love, which highlighted songs written by Harlan Howard, on Sony’s Legacy Recordings.
Produced by Blackbird Presents, Live Nation and Hewitt Silva, the Hollywood Bowl event’s executive producers are Mark Rothbaum, Keith Wortman, Bill Silva, Brian Smith and Creative Artists Agency.
The Academy of Country Music announced the first round of performers on Thursday (April 27), as well as that the 2023 ACM Awards will be free to stream live globally on Prime Video and the Amazon Music channel on Twitch on Thursday, May 11. The full rebroadcast will stream the next day for free on Amazon Freevee.
This is the show’s second year on Prime Video. The show, now in its 58th year, aired on CBS from 1998 to 2021 and before that aired on ABC and NBC.
In addition to co-hosting this year’s show with Garth Brooks, Dolly Parton is set to close the show by performing the lead single from her forthcoming rock album. The Country Music Hall of Famer was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last year.
The show will also will feature performances by Jason Aldean, Kane Brown, Luke Combs, Cody Johnson, Miranda Lambert, Jo Dee Messina, Ashley McBryde, Jelly Roll, Cole Swindell, Keith Urban, Morgan Wallen, The War And Treaty, Lainey Wilson and Bailey Zimmerman.
In an unusual move, the ACM announced that these will be the “only televised country music awards performances of the season” by Aldean, Combs, Lambert, Wallen, The War and Treaty, and Zimmerman. The ACM also says additional performers (including, presumably, Brooks), presenters and ancillary events will be announced.
The show is set to stream at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT from the Ford Center at The Star in Frisco, Texas. A limited number of tickets have been added and are available for purchase on SeatGeek, with prices starting at $446 (and going up to $2,820).
Previous Amazon Music Breakthrough Artists Gabby Barrett and BRELAND will introduce Zimmerman as the next Breakthrough Artist from Amazon Music. Breakthrough is the emerging artist program from Amazon Music, aimed at amplifying the best new talent and championing them at key moments early in their careers.
Fans can listen to special guest features from Zimmerman, Parton and Brooks on “Country Heat Radio” in DJ Mode, along with new Country Heat Weekly podcast episodes hosted by Amber Anderson and Kelly Sutton on Amazon Music, where fans can tune in to in-depth conversations with guests, including Zimmerman and Brooks.
Fans can also stream the ACM Awards playlist available now on Amazon Music in celebration of this year’s nominees. Fans can listen to country music’s top stars on the Amazon Music app.
The 58th Academy of Country Music Awards is produced by Dick Clark Productions, with Raj Kapoor, Barry Adelman and Fonda Anita serving as executive producers, and Damon Whiteside serving as executive producer for the Academy of Country Music. Patrick Menton is co-executive producer. (DCP is owned by Penske Media Eldridge, a Penske Media Corporation (PMC) subsidiary and joint venture between PMC and Eldrige. PMC is the parent company of Billboard.)
Billboard is introducing a peer-voted award to run alongside its annual Country Power Players list of country music industry’s most influential executives. This new Country Power Players’ Choice Award will honor the executive whose peers believe has had the greatest impact across the music business over the past year, from recording and publishing to managing and touring and beyond. Vote here.
Voting is now open to all Billboard Pro members, both existing and new, with one vote per member.
Billboard launched its first Players’ Choice Award with the Power 100 list earlier this year.
The first round of voting will begin April 25, with an open call for nominees.
The second round of voting will begin May 8, in order to narrow down the top 25 nominees into the final five top executives.
The third round of voting will begin May 15, to select the winner from that list.
If you are not yet a member of Billboard Pro, you can join here.
Billboard is introducing a peer-voted award to run alongside its annual Country Power Players list of country music industry’s most influential executives. This new Country Power Players’ Choice Award will honor the executive whose peers believe has had the greatest impact across the music business over the past year, from recording and publishing to managing and touring and beyond.
Voting is open to all Billboard Pro members, both existing and new, with one vote per member.
Billboard first launched its Players’ Choice Award with the Power 100 list earlier this year.
The first round of voting is now open and will run through May 7 with an open call for nominees. Vote below.
The second round of voting will begin May 8, in order to narrow down the top 20 nominees into the final five top executives.
The third round of voting will begin May. 15, to select the winner from that list. Voting concludes May 21 at 11:59 p.m. EST.
Vote here:
April 26 marks a decade since Country Music Hall of Fame member George Jones died in 2013 at age 81. PBS stations are gearing up to honor the life and career of the iconic country music vocalist with the upcoming television special Still Playin’ Possum: Music & Memories of George Jones to premiere on PBS’ Great Performances, Billboard can reveal.
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On Tuesday (April 25), artists including Dierks Bentley, Brad Paisley, Wynonna, Travis Tritt, Jelly Roll and Tanya Tucker gathered before an audience at the Propst Arena at the Von Braun Center in Huntsville, Ala., to honor the late Jones with renditions of his hits, including “The Grand Tour,” “Tennessee Whiskey,” “White Lightnin’” and “He Stopped Loving Her Today.” Fans who couldn’t make it to the show will get a chance to see the special evening when it is turned into this new PBS television special. A release date for the PBS special has not been set.
“Thank you to the fans and artists who traveled from all over to be in Huntsville, Ala., for this incredible tribute to George,” said Jones’ widow, Nancy Jones, who is an executive producer on the television special. “Everyone from the producers to the performers created an evening we will never forget and for those who couldn’t be there in person, this is your chance to have your own front-row seat. I hope everyone that attended or gets to see it on television will enjoy it and remember their favorite George song.”
Other artists on the lineup are Trace Adkins, Sara Evans, Justin Moore, Jamey Johnson, Joe Nichols (who performed with Jones on the Grand Ole Opry in 2007), Aaron Lewis (who released the song “Country Boy” in 2010, featuring Jones, Charlie Daniels and Chris Young), Michael Ray, Uncle Kracker, Lorrie Morgan (who had a hit with a cover of Jones’ “A Picture of Me (Without You)” in 1991), Tracy Byrd, Tracy Lawrence, The Isaacs, Dillon Carmichael, T. Graham Brown, Gretchen Wilson, Sam Moore, Janie Fricke and Charlie Starr of Blackberry Smoke. Randy Travis, who collaborated with Jones on the track “A Few Ole Country Boys” in 1990, will also make a special appearance. T. Graham Brown and Tritt previously appeared as part of the all-star group of artists who sang in the chorus with Jones on his 1992 release “I Don’t Need Your Rockin’ Chair.”
Jones, who was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1992 and was a Kennedy Center Honors recipient for lifetime achievement in 2008, was known for his unique baritone and catalog of hits that included “She Thinks I Still Care,” “Walk Through This World With Me,” “A Good Year for the Roses,” “The Race is On” and “Tender Years.” The Texas native earned his first top 10 with the Starday-released single “Why Baby Why,” in 1955, and recorded over 160 charting singles. His first chart-topper on Billboard‘s Hot Country Songs chart came in 1959 with the five-week No. 1 “White Lightnin,’” which he released via Mercury Records. He then joined United Artists and later Musicor, adding “She Thinks I Still Care,” “The Race is On” and more to his catalog of hits.
He inked a deal with Epic Records in 1971, working with producer Billy Sherrill to record songs including “The Grand Tour” and “Bartenders Blues,” as well as duets between Jones and his then-wife, fellow country artist Tammy Wynette. Their electrifying, vulnerable vocal entwinement led to numerous hits in the 1970s including “We’re Gonna Hold On” and “Golden Ring.” Jones and Wynette divorced in 1975, and Jones’ music career hit a rough patch until he returned with the 1980 hit “He Stopped Loving Her Today,” which earned a CMA Awards honor for single of the year, and earned Jones CMA male vocalist of the year wins in 1980 and 1981. His recording of “He Stopped Loving Her Today” also earned Jones a Grammy for best country vocal performance, male, in 1981.
During his career, Jones would earn 13 No. 1 Billboard Hot Country Songs hits. His final top 20 hit on the chart came with his guest vocal on Patty Loveless’ “You Don’t Seem to Miss Me,” which won a CMA Award for vocal event of the year in 1998.
In the five years since the release of his debut single, “Best Shot,” Jimmie Allen has earned a reputation as one of country music’s most industrious figures.
He has piled numerous high-profile TV roles — including stints on Dancing With the Stars, Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve and Celebrity Family Feud — on top of what’s typically the most exhaustive period of an artist’s career, while also launching several businesses and establishing a family, to boot.
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Part of what has propelled him is a seemingly indefatigable energy, a can-do-it disposition that fueled his upward mobility from a rough period when he was forced to sleep in his car. Most successful people have some period of dues-paying, and while Allen never seems to complain about — or solicit sympathy for — that part of his past, he acknowledges it in the opening stanza of his new single, “Be Alright (15 Version),” which honors the foundational character the hard times inspired.
“It was important to tell that story,” he says, “because a lot of people want to run from the struggles. But you have to get into it.”
Appropriately, “Be Alright” was forged in the aftermath of a difficult period. Allen never grew comfortable writing songs over Zoom during the pandemic, and he only did it twice. As the world began to open back up, he booked a full week of writing in Los Angeles, and returning to that kind of in-person connection tapped into his animated spirit. The bookings included a session with Jason Evigan (“I Should Probably Go to Bed,” “Talk Dirty”), songwriter-producer Gian Stone (Meghan Trainor, Jonas Brothers) and Castle, a trio that Allen was meeting for the first time.
Allen didn’t have much time for pleasantries. When he entered the studio, set with a sleek wall logo that gave it a mild Star Trek vibe, he announced he wanted to write a song with an upbeat affirmation that everything would be all right. Atypically, they dived into work in the first five minutes.
“When you start a session, especially when you don’t know the other people, there’s like 30 minutes, an hour, hour and a half of easing into writing a song,” Stone says. “You talk and you kind of get a background, and you do all this stuff. And in a weird way, that kind of happened two hours into this. We jumped in right away.”
Evigan had received a rather elaborate cigar-box guitar for a birthday present, and he used it to craft a twisty opening riff that matched the cheery tone of Allen’s theme. Evigan and Stone concentrated on the musical elements, while Allen and Castle enthusiastically tackled the message. “Castle has like, crazy, wild energy,” says Evigan. “He just keeps the room going, and then Jimmie is the same way. I mean, he was preaching. He’s really well spoken and has just so much to say. So we’re kind of sitting back like kids, taking notes.”
They endeavored to balance the track’s sonic positivity with a healthy level of depth, following a blueprint laid out by multigenre duo Louis York. “Claude Kelly, the amazing songwriter, and Chuck Harmony, they have this phrase called ‘deep-fried veggies,’ ” Allen says. “The ‘deep-fried’ part is it feels good. But the ‘veggies’ part, when you listen to it, is something that’s good for you.”
The second verse neatly used the casual phrasing established in the first verse. The first word, “patience,” is followed by a pause, cleverly making the listener wait (“That was intentional,” Allen says), ultimately encouraging persistence before segueing back into the chorus. That singalong section is a relentless parade of speedy phrases, seven lines that embrace life’s unpredictability with a tight rhyme scheme: “roll with it,” “flow with it,” “go with it.” The L.A. writers suggested doubling that part, though Allen was adamantly opposed.
To wrap the process, Allen sang over the day’s programmed tracks, and he broke into yet another hooky idea — a simple repetition of “alright, alright, alright” — during the final take.
“We loved that,” remembers Stone. “He did an ad-lib track at the very end — doing the vocal, a lot of times, we’ll be like, ‘Hey, can you just try to add some ad-libs and see if you hear anything?’ I think he started doing that in the end, and we were like, ‘Wait, that should be a whole part of the song.’”
It became a post-chorus — “We called it a ‘super chorus’ when I was growing up in bands,” Evigan recalls — when they dropped it in place after Allen left. But they also renewed that thought of doubling the “roll with it” section by simply repeating that seven-line passage twice. They did that on both the first and third occurrence — the second one remains the original length — and Allen ultimately approved as the song’s structure became more clearly defined.
“There was a lot of science that went into it afterward,” Evigan notes. “When he left, I remember us both being like, ‘What is going on with this song? It’s all over the place.’ ‘I’m gonna roll with it’ — was this a chorus? But once we doubled it, we kind of knew it’s got this rolling thing. It just feels good.”
Allen positioned “Be Alright” as the opening track of Tulip Drive, which Stoney Creek released June 24, 2022. Even as the album arrived, Allen already had an alternate version in mind that would be more suitable for airing on country radio.
“They play what they play, and I’m all about respecting where you are,” says Allen. “If I want to be played on country radio, I need to give them something they want to play.”
Allen and producer Ash Bowers (Matt Stell, George Birge) recut it on July 5 at Front Stage on Nashville’s Music Row with a live band. Allen changed two lines, too, altering the chorus’ opening phrase, “Smoke it and roll with it,” to “You gotta roll with it.” They had Evan Hutchings play a bigger, hotter drum part, and Allen re-sang the lead vocal to fit the new version.
Allen hoped to get Matthew McConaughey to guest in the video — the “alright, alright, alright” post-chorus seemed tailor-made for him — but the actor was out of the country.
In the meantime, Allen designated the new version “Be Alright (15 Edition),” to pay homage to his late father, a baseball enthusiast who wore the No. 15 on his jersey. Stoney Creek released it to country radio via PlayMPE on March 21. He is optimistic that its positive message will have an impact on the country fan base.
“I feel,” Allen says, “like this is what the world needs to hear right now.”
In light of the fallout from fans following Morgan Wallen‘s last-minute cancellation of his headlining show in Oxford, Mississippi over the weekend, the wife of another country music hitmaker is chiming in.
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Bunnie XO, the wife of “Son of a Sinner” hitmaker Jelly Roll, recently took to social media to discuss what goes on behind the scenes and how hard artists work to get onstage.
“I wanted to chime in on this Morgan Wallen situation that’s going on,” Bunnie XO said via Instagram Stories on Monday (April 24). “I’ve been watching it unfold all day long. I just feel like I need to say something because as a wife of an artist, I have seen what goes on behind the scenes and it’s not easy. Those decisions are never easy.”
She shed light on the effort that artists (including her husband Jelly Roll) put in to get onstage and perform for fans, saying, “I have seen my husband getting literally, like, two or three breathing treatments because he has bronchitis so bad, and an IV, getting a shot of Toradol, taking steroids like the steroid pack that the doctor gives you, I mean, like doing all of that just so he makes it onstage, because he knows that if he doesn’t make it onstage because, one, the backlash he’ll get, and two, he never wants to upset the fans.”
She added, “When an artist has to make a decision to cancel a show, especially when you get to arenas like that, it’s one of the hardest decisions they have ever made. It’s not them sitting in the back and saying, like, ‘Oh, you know, I don’t want to show up to work today.’ There are so many factors that go into that. Not only that, but they lose out on money. They have to pay the venues back. I understand, people have to travel thousands of miles to see their favorite artist. I understand that parents have had to get babysitters and time off work and this is their one night out that they are really looking forward to, but you also have to understand that health is the most important thing. If somebody’s sick, they cannot go out there and give their all. If he really lost his voice and he went out there onstage and he was singing, [and giving] the worst version of himself that he could, not only would you guys be mad at him still — you all would be making videos about that, like, ‘Look at Morgan Wallen’s worst performance ever’ — and trying to get views from it. An artist is damned if they do, damned if they don’t.”
She ended with a bit of advice for fans and those ready criticize artists who cancel shows. “But I guess my whole point is I’m coming on here to say, that maybe, have a little grace. It’s like, be nice. Be kind. It costs nothing to be nice and to just kind of put yourself in that other person’s shoes.”
Following the concert cancellation, Wallen has postponed additional shows that had been slated for this week and told fans he is on vocal rest.