Country
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Darius Rucker releases a romantic new offering, Elvie Shane sticks up for the working class heroes, and newcomer Brittany Moore offers a stirring song about motherhood and the right to choose.
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Darius Rucker, “Fires Don’t Start Themselves”
The affable Rucker dips into sultry territory on this track, setting the scene with wine, some Conway Twitty records and effective use of the impressive vocal control and power in his lower register. This seductive toe-tapper of a track is rooted in crunchy, ’90s country-style guitar and is an early offering from Rucker’s upcoming album Carolyn’s Boy, out later this year.
Jenna Paulette, The Girl I Was
From the opening (and later, closing) notes of the classic “Home on the Range,” Paulette makes it clear on her debut album that much of her heart (and journey) resides under open skies and in spacious landscapes. A member of CMT’s Next Women of Country Class of 2022, Paulette fills this dozen-plus-song project with a step-by-step process of a woman unfurling the insecurities, hurt and pain of a past relationship and finding the freedom to fully express her own desires and perspective with engrossing candor (“I can’t believe I ever thought she wasn’t good enough/ I’m getting back to the girl I was,” she deadpans on the title track).
“You Ain’t No Cowboy” is a sure-footed kiss-off, while tracks like “Stop and Smell the Horses” and “Make the World a Small Town” brim with soft-hearted wistfulness, and “Fiddle and a Violin” cheers the common ground people of all kinds find in country music and a good libation. Paulette is a worthy contender in a new crop of artists weaving their unique perspectives and backgrounds into their music, reaching beyond country music’s well-worn path of ballcaps and pickup trucks.
Jesse Daniel, My Kind of Country Live at the Catalyst
Daniel gives fans a glimpse of his rowdy live show, with his first live project, recorded at the Catalyst Club in his hometown of Santa Cruz, California. For Daniel, performing on the club’s mainstage is the fruition of a long-held dream, as he cut his musical chops performing at the club’s upstairs bar and at one point worked as a stagehand and in security for the club. But on this album, he brings center stage his freewheeling brand of honky tonk country — soaked in steel guitar, sparse drums and fueled by Daniels’ more-grit-than-silk voice.
The project picks up fan favorites from Daniels’ three studio albums, with songs including “Lookin’ Back” (2021’s Beyond These Walls), “Tar Snakes” (2020’s Rollin’ On) and “Soft Spot” (his 2018 self-titled debut project), But it infuses each with the high-velocity craftsmanship of Daniel and his band, and the easygoing improvisation that comes from an artist who has truly learned to listen to his audience each night and give each something special.
Brittany Moore, “Some Mamas”
Indie artist Moore traverses the spectrum of emotions felt by expecting mothers, from joy and surprise to fear. In this song written by Moore with SaraJane McDonald and Stefanie Joyce, Moore pointedly maintains that regardless of circumstances, women “oughta have a say so, because some mamas want to be mamas and some mamas don’t.” The understated acoustics lend heft to Moore’s steely-yet-velvety vocal.
Elvie Shane, “Forgotten Man”
In 2021, Shane’s debut single — the sentimental viral hit “My Boy” — became his first Billboard Country Airplay chart-topper, leading to the release of his debut album, Backslider. Now, he returns with “Forgotten Man,” an ode to blue-collar workers that exposes the heart-aching realities of the working class (calloused hands, failed retirement plans, and the struggle to afford a home as developers race to build condos and apartments). Materially, “Forgotten Man” has more in common with songs such as Hank Williams Jr.’s “A Country Boy Can Survive” than the plethora of poppy, nostalgic anthems out right now, while Shane’s backwoods growl and heartland rock sound sells it hard.
Casi Joy, “Partners in Time”
This hooky love song plays with classic pairings like Bonnie and Clyde (though Joy sings pointedly, “Let’s lock this down without the crime”), as well as country music power couples past and present, like Johnny Cash and June Carter, and Tim McGraw and Faith Hill. This shimmering pop-country confection plays up the subtle shades of blues in Joy’s voice, as well as her flutter-soft falsetto, as she chronicles a couple’s lives — from a nervous first kiss to a love still going strong after a decade. This former Voice contestant just offered up her debut album, Miles and Maybes, which was released March 31 in partnership with ONErpm.
Taylor Edwards, “Don’t”
This Arkansas native first caught the attention of music companies including EMPIRE and Dreamcatcher Management with her viral hit “Call Your Sister.” This time around, she pairs a slickly packaged track with sharply detailed lyrics that call out a spineless sometimes-lover.
“If you don’t wanna stay, just go,” she deadpans, but spells out the consequences: “You don’t get the right to know if I made it home, if I’m there alone.” Edwards manages to sound both buoyant and defiant, while the song itself is rooted in pop sensibility.
The 2023 CMT Music Awards took over the Moody Center in Austin, Texas, where everyone from Kelsea Ballerini and Shania Twain to Blake Shelton, Carrie Underwood and more took the stage.
Ballerini’s performance of “If You Go Down (I’m Goin’ Down Too)” was a joyful romp filled with confetti and rainbows and backed by RuPaul’s Drag Race stars Manila Luzon, Jan, Olivia Lux and Kennedy Davenport, while the queen of country brought her new single “Giddy Up!” to life before being presented the Equal Play award by Megan Thee Stallion.
Shelton mashed up history by playing a medley of his 2001 debut track “Austin” and his latest single “No Body” before the American Idol season four champion powered through “Hate My Heart,” the second single off her ninth studio album Denim & Diamonds.
Meanwhile, the awards show also included multiple tributes over the course of the evening, including Gary Clark Jr. honoring Stevie Ray Vaughan with “The House Is Rockin’” and a star-studded tribute to Lynyrd Skynyrd featuring Wynonna Judd, LeAnn Rimes, Chuck Leavell, ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons, Slash and more.
Elsewhere, rising star Jelly Roll brought the Moody Center to church with “Need a Favor,” complete with a robed choir of gospel singers, and Kane Brown put his love on display with wife Katelyn Brown with their romantic duet of “Thank God.” Gwen Stefani made her CMT Music Awards debut with an assist from Carly Pearce for No Doubt’s smash hit “Just a Girl” off 1995’s Tragic Kingdom.
Watch all the performances from the 2023 CMT Music Awards and vote for your favorite below. (Note: Shania Twain’s performance of “Giddy Up!” isn’t available on YouTube as of press time.)
The 2023 CMT Music Awards went on the road this year, airing for the first time from Austin, Texas on Sunday night (April 2). It was an excuse to bring some Lone Star State flavor to the fast-paced show, which featured more than 20 performances from such country luminaries as Blake Shelton, Keith Urban, Carrie Underwood, Lainey Wilson and Darius Rucker, and celebrated the top videos of the past year.
The show, which aired live on CBS for the second year in a row after the ACM Awards decamped to Amazon’s Prime Video, opened cold with co-host Kelsea Ballerini addressing the mass shooting at Nashville’s Covenant School last week that left six dead and Music City reeling. The somber moment included Ballerini recalling her own experience in 2008 watching a classmate die from a shooting when she was in high school and calling for “real action.” That then gave way to celebration, as she and Kane Brown, co-hosting for the third time, proved again to be an amiable, nimble pairing.
Shania Twain, introduced by Megan Thee Stallion, accepted the CMT Equal Play award, calling for the country industry to “do our part to close the gap and provide an equal workspace for all talent. Let’s ensure that all our fellow artists get equal play, regardless of gender, age or race.” And the show tried to do just that, relying heavily on girl power throughout the evening. (Jelly Roll was still the night’s biggest winner, taking home all three awards for which he was nominated.)
The evening’s performances heavily relied on collaborations featuring country artists and rock acts performing the latter’s 90s hits. It was a gambit that worked, in large part because many of the rock fans of the ’90s are now country listeners.
Below are the top performances of the night.
Wynonna and Ashley McBryde Show They Know What Love Is
Image Credit: Kempin/GI
The Judds‘ last performance before Naomi Judd’s death last year was at the 2022 CMT Awards, when they sang their anthem, “Love Can Build a Bridge” — so it was only fitting that Wynonna return this year to showcase a song from her upcoming CMT special, which recreates the Judds’ 1991 initial final show in 1991. Joined by Ashley McBryde for an elegiac, slowed down version of Foreigner’s classic “I Want to Know What Love Is,” Judd took the audience to church, turning the song into her own personal testimony. When she declared, “Mama, you need to be here tonight,” she invoked goosebumps.
Kelsea Ballerini’s Performance Is a Real Drag
Image Credit: Jason Kempin/GI
If such things were handed out, Kelsea Ballerini’s performance of current single, “If You Go Down (I’m Goin’ Down Too)” easily won the award for best set of the night. Looking like something straight out of Barbie’s backyard and building on the retro pastel theme of the video, it featured Ballerini dressed like a ‘60s housewife, complete with teased hair and a bright green duster (under which she had on a floral romper), surrounded by equally festively dressed drag queens — including Manila Luzon, Kennedy Davenport, Jan Sport and Olivia Lux. Leave it to Ballerini, one of the few country artists not afraid to speak out on issues, to address the Tennessee anti-drag bill in a fun, but very obvious, way.
Jelly Roll Takes Us to Church
Image Credit: Christopher Polk for Variety
Just like Wynonna, rapper-turned-country artist Jelly Roll took the CMT Awards to church with his rising and rousing single, “Need a Favor.” The thumping track, featuring Jelly Roll accompanied by a gospel choir, includes the poignant line, “I only pray when I ain’t got a prayer,” which Jelly Roll delivered like a man seeking salvation. The crowd couldn’t get enough — and it felt like a new superstar was crowned, as Jelly Roll was the evening’s big winner, taking home three awards.
All-Star Tribute to Lynyrd Skynyrd Turns Austin into Alabama
Image Credit: Jason Kempin/GI
Though it helps, you don’t have to be southern to love Lynyrd Skynyrd — as the show’s closing performance proved, with both Bad Company’s Paul Rodgers and Guns N’ Roses’ Slash paying tribute to the band following March’s death of the last original member, Gary Rossington. Joined by ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons, Gov’t Mule’s Warren Haynes, the Rolling Stones’ Chuck Leavell, Cody Johnson and the world’s finest backing vocalists, LeAnn Rimes and Wynonna Judd, the ensemble started slowly with Rodgers delivered a soulful “Simple Man,” before several members took over lead vocals for the southern rock anthem, “Sweet Home Alabama.” Johnson seemed right at home onstage with the legends, banging his head and playing air guitar during Gibbons’ and Slash’s smoking solos.
Darius Rucker and The Black Crowes Talk to Angels
Image Credit: Christopher Polk for Variety
If the Black Crowes were just starting now, their bluesy, swampy sound would probably make them a country act. The Crowes joined Darius Rucker for a down-and-dirty version of their 1990 hit, “She Talks to Angels,” with Chris Robinson and Rucker both in fine vocal form. Rucker is one of the top vocalists of any genre, and to hear him and Robinson trade off lines on the song about drug addiction (with the Rolling Stones’ Chuck Leavell on keys) was potent and powerful. The two acts also performed the song for a forthcoming edition of CMT Crossroads.
Alanis Morissette With Lainey Wilson, Ingrid Andress, Madeline Edwards & Morgan Wade
Image Credit: Christopher Polk for Variety
The evening was high on multi-generational and cross-genre girl power, as Carly Pearce joined Gwen Stefani for a spunky performance of the No Doubt’s 1995 classic, “Just a Girl,” and then country upstarts Ingrid Andress, Madeline Edwards, Morgan Wade and Lainey Wilson kicked off Alanis Morissette’s vitriolic “You Oughta Know,” also from 1995, before being joined by Morissette herself. Nearly 30 years later, neither the song nor Morissette has lost any of its primal urgency. The new rendition received a resounding standing ovation. Ashley McBryde spoke for all of us when she jumped out of her seat, raised her arm, flashed the rock horns and shouted, “Yes!”
Gary Clark Jr. Pays Tribute to a Texas Hero
Image Credit: Christopher Polk for Variety
Falling under the “When in Rome…” maxim, the CMT Awards leaned into the location of Austin and wisely decided to pay homage to one of Texas’ finest, the late Stevie Ray Vaughan, by having Austin native and fellow gunslinger Gary Clark Jr. pay tribute. In one of the most exhilarating performances of the night, Clark and his band played a blazing medley of SRV & Double Trouble’s “The House is Rockin’”/”Travis County Courthouse,” so fiery that it threatened to burn down the Moody Center.
Carrie Underwood Rocks the House
Image Credit: Catherine Powell/GI for CMT
In a show when the collaborations, most of them of non-country songs, dominated and outpaced the appearances by today’s current country hitmakers, Carrie Underwood served to show them she is still boss with a rollicking performance of “Hate My Heart.” Dressed in a black leather jacket and shorts with hearts emblazoned on them, the country Queen of Hearts took the audience outside the Austin Capitol to a fever pitch with her incomparable vocals and moves copped from her beloved buddy Axl Rose from Guns N’ Roses.
On Sunday night (April 2), Jelly Roll, Lainey Wilson and power couple Kane and Katelyn Brown reigned as the biggest winners of the CMT Music Awards, which, for the first time in the awards show’s history, was held outside of Nashville, at Moody Center in Austin, Texas.
First-time nominee Jelly Roll took home the most awards wins of the evening (three accolades, including male video of the year), with Wilson taking home two (including female video of the year). Kane Brown and Katelyn Brown’s romantic video for “Thank God” took home the evening’s highest honor, video of the year.
Kelsea Ballerini and Brown returned as co-hosts, and also turned in powerful performances alongside Carrie Underwood, Blake Shelton, an all-star tribute to Lynyrd Skynyrd and the 10th anniversary of the CMT Next Women of Country Franchise as highlights of the performances throughout the ceremony.
But not all the top moments on the CMT Music Awards are broadcast on television—such as some stars spilling the tea on their all-time favorite music videos (Kane Brown’s is Michael Jackson’s “The Way You Make Me Feel,” Lainey Wilson’s is the Lee Ann Womack classic “I Hope You Dance,” and Jelly Roll points back to the era of music videos created under Master P’s No Limit Records, and under the Ronald “Slim” Williams and Bryan “Birdman” Williams label Cash Money: “It was all just bling and parties,” says Jelly Roll. “They would literally just go to like project buildings, have parties and shoot videos. I miss that era.”)
Here are seven moments from the awards that you didn’t see on TV last night.
Cody Johnson Teases a New Album, Collaborations
Johnson released Human: The Double Album in 2021, and he says he’s already hard at work on a follow-up project.
“We’ve got some duets and some collaborations set for this next album,” Johnson told Billboard backstage — and says one of the artists contending to be on the project is none other than Jelly Roll.
“Jelly Roll is definitely sending flowers, trying to get a spot on the project. Not guaranteed, we’ll see how it goes,” Johnson says. He said watching Jelly Roll take home his first CMT Music Awards honors was among his favorite moments of the evening.
“I loved watching my boy Jelly Roll winning an award in country music — because I’m a big fan of Jelly Roll, even outside of just country music. But what’s he’s done inside country music, to adapt the genre — I think he’s been so respectful, lyrically, and sonically. I think he’s doing great.”
Jelly Roll on Why He Doesn’t Plan to Keep All of His CMT Music Awards Trophies
The temperatures in Austin were still in the 80s, with plenty of humidity, as artists finished up on the CMT Music Awards red carpet and made their way into Moody Center. Add in the heat from the stage lights, and a few artists were glistening as they made their way to backstage media area. One of those was Jelly Roll, who briefly removed his ballcap to wipe his forehead before chatting with media — and was quick to joke that he chalked it up to “liquor, nerves, alcohol and obesity.”
During the CMT Music Awards, Jelly Roll picked up three wins — for breakthrough male video of the year (“Son of a Sinner”), digital-first performance of the year (“Son of a Sinner,” from CMT All Access) and male video of the year (“Son of a Sinner”). He was also joined by a gospel choir to perform his new song “Need a Favor.”
But the singer-songwriter isn’t planning on keeping all three of them — something he learned from Texan Cody Johnson, who picked up two CMT Music Awards trophies in 2022 and this year won CMT performance of the year (from his 2022 CMT Music Awards performance of “’Til You Can’t”).
“I seen this last year when it happened and Cody won,” Jelly Roll told Billboard backstage. “I asked him later what he did [with his award] and he said he gave it to his guitar player. I thought, ‘Man, if I win I wanna do the same thing, man. Maybe me and him, maybe he can start something and I can push it over the edge.”
On June 2, Jelly Roll will release his next album, Whitsitt Chapel, and he says fans can expect a slightly different sound from the new project.
“There’s still a lot of the pain that I sing about, but there’s a lot of redemption on this album,” he added. “There’s a lot of tempo on this album — I’ve never had tempo on an album. I normally stay right in the 76 [beats per minute] range and keep it nice, slow and down the middle. But this is going to be fun.”
Megan Moroney on Her Touring Must-Haves and Making Music Videos
Jelly Roll wasn’t the only one feeling the heat and humidity as he entered the media area.
“There’s boob sweat,” Megan Moroney quipped as she entered the backstage media area at Moody Center, wearing a stunning “Lucky” green dress and matching shoes.
Texas temperatures weren’t the only thing sizzling, as Moroney took home her first CMT Music Award win, the breakthrough female video of the year honor, for her debut video clip “Tennessee Orange.”
“With the discovery of ‘Tennessee Orange,’ we really wanted to play into that with the video,” Moroney told Billboard backstage. “When we met with the director [Jason Lester], I was like, ‘Either we could go to [Knoxville, Tennessee’s] Neyland Stadium and have me wear a Tennessee jersey with a guitar onstage and it’ll look cool, but it’s charting in areas that don’t care about Georgia or Tennessee football, because they are relating to it as a love song, so we leaned more into that . It’s a special video.”
Moroney is also gearing up for the release of her debut album, Lucky, on May 5 and will hit the road again in September on The Lucky Tour, inspired by the album’s title. Moroney also shared a few of her must-haves when she’s on the road.
“I must have Red Bull, and I eat a lot of Doritos. And of course I have to have clip-in extensions — shoutout Cashmere,” she added, running her hands over her long blonde hair. “And boots. Lots of boots.”
Lainey Wilson Talks That Alanis Morissette Collaboration
Lainey Wilson took home collaborative video of the year (for “Wait in the Truck” with HARDY), as well as female video of the year (for “Heart Like a Truck”) at Sunday evening’s CMT Music Awards. But she was also part of a stellar on-stage lineup, as she joined seven-time Grammy winner Alanis Morissette (along with Madeline Edwards, Ingrid Andress and Morgan Wade) for a performance of Morissette’s 1995 hit “You Oughta Know,” to celebrate the 10th anniversary of CMT’s “Next Women of Country” franchise.
“I think all the girls were a little nervous, but super excited,” Wilson told Billboard of the performance while backstage. “We couldn’t believe that we were getting to have the opportunity to share the stage with somebody like her. She’s a bada–, that’s the best word for it. So we were all up there trying to channel our inner bada–es too.”
Wilson also discussed her own favorite music video, Lee Ann Womack’s 2000 clip for “I Hope You Dance.”
“I remember the little girls dancing around, and when I was watching that video as a little girl, it made me feel like I could do anything I set my mind to … and CMT has been a huge part of why I’ve even dreamed of any of this. I remember sitting there in front of the TV, just watching for hours, and it’s crazy. Now they’ve welcomed me right on in.”
HARDY Talks Acting Aspirations
HARDY and Wilson took home the CMT collaborative video of the year, for their video “Wait in the Truck.” Backstage at the CMT Music Awards, HARDY told Billboard that watching Wilson’s acting talent inspired him during the making of the video.
“The first scene we shot for the whole video was her performance shot in the courtroom and I got to see it. After like two takes, I was like, ‘D–n, dude. She’s really good,’ and it inspired me. After that first shot, we really just dug into our own characters, but she really inspired me because she just killed it from the beginning.”
HARDY says he, like his duet partner (and Yellowstone actor) Wilson, would like to give acting a shot one day.
“I would love to,” he tells Billboard. “I’ve always been inspired by Doyle from [the 1996 film] Sling Blade [who was portrayed by country entertainer Dwight Yoakam], a dark, drunk piece of s–t kind of guy. I don’t think I’m that kind of person, but I think that would be a fun person to kind of dig into. But something really redneck would be up my alley too, for sure.”
He names “Typical” by Mutemath as one of his all-time favorite music videos. “They learned to play and sing the song in reverse,” HARDY says. “They filmed the whole music video in reverse so when they edited the music video they just reversed that and played it forward, and it was so unique. To process that is insane.”
Kelsea Ballerini Shows RuPaul’s Drag Race Alumni the Love
Kelsea Ballerini welcomed RuPaul’s Drag Race alumni including Manila Luzon, Kennedy Davenport, Jan Sport and Olivia Lux during her performance of “If You Go Down (I’m Going Down Too).” But her support for her onstage collaborators didn’t end when the music did.
As they were walking offstage, Ballerini bowed down to the drag queens and then raised her arms to encourage the crowd to cheer louder for the queens as they exited the stage.
Kane Brown and Katelyn Brown Talk Follow-Up to ‘Thank God’
When contemplating a follow-up to their No. 1 Billboard Country Airplay hit collaboration “Thank God,” Katelyn Brown said there is nothing in the works at the moment.
“For me and Kane, we’re not planners,” she told Billboard backstage. “We didn’t plan out ‘Thank God.’ Everything has be organic — so I think we just gotta get in there, get creative and see what we come up with.”
“It does have to beat ‘Thank God,’ though,” Kane added with a grin.
“We’re gonna have to try and top it,” Katelyn added with a laugh. “It’s like, ‘Okay, the bar’s high. How do we top this?’ It’s all good, I like the challenge.”
Around a dozen years ago, hit country songwriter Shane McAnally had a revelation after seeing his first Broadway show, The Book of Mormon.
“At the end of that show, I just looked at my husband and said, ‘I’m going to do this’ — not even knowing the first thing about how you would do that,” he says. “I feel like I set a dream in motion.”
Similarly, even though revered fellow singer-songwriter and frequent McAnally collaborator Brandy Clark had been raised on musicals (after seeing Oklahoma at an early age) and had “this big, lofty dream at some point of writing a musical,” she tells Billboard, “I thought ‘I can’t do that. I didn’t go to college to do that.’ I thought you had to be super trained.”
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After more than a decade, and a winding road that included abandoning both the original concept and a second attempt — taking a few years off before resuming and then dealing with pandemic delay — McAnally and Clark’s dreams come true Tuesday (April 4) when Shucked opens on Broadway at the Nederlander Theater.
The show, directed by three-time Tony winner Jack O’Brien, features lyrics and music by McAnally and Clark and a book by Robert Horn, who won a Tony for best book of a musical for Tootsie, which he wrote during a break from what ultimately became Shucked.
The musical comedy is a laugh-out-loud “farm-to-fable” about the denizens of a small, rural Midwest community, one of whom heads to the big city — well, Tampa — to figure out why the village’s corn has quit growing. The musical combines the good-natured, fish-out-of-water vibe of The Book of Mormon and the occasional bawdiness of Avenue Q, with a redeemed con man tale reminiscent of The Music Man.
Part of the show’s charm is its effervescent embrace of obvious, often lowbrow, humor: The female lead is named Maizy, who lives with her grandfather and friends in, naturally, Cob County. It pokes fun at rural stereotypes, but always with great affection for its characters and a knowing wink, provided by Storyteller 1 and Storyteller 2, who serve as the in-on-the-joke narrators.
With Horn’s script often focused on laughs, much of the emotional lifting comes from Clark and McAnally’s songs — including poignant, tender ballad “Maybe Love,” resilient mid-tempo track “Somebody Will,” perky empowerment tune “Woman of the World” and audacious anthem (and bonafide showstopper) “Independently Owned.”
“Shucked” writers Shane McAnally (music & lyrics), Robert Horn (book), and Brandy Clark (music & lyrics).
Emilio Madrid
Responsible for such hits (together and separately) as Sam Hunt’s “Body Like a Back Road,” Miranda Lambert’s “Mama’s Broken Heart,” Kacey Musgraves’ “Merry-Go-Round” and dozens of others, Clark and McAnally know their way around a country hook. But they didn’t know their way around the structure and timing of crafting a Broadway musical — so they were thrilled when they got a care package from Horn early in the process.
“He sent us CDs, saying, ‘These are opening numbers. There are 11:00 numbers,’” Clark recalls. Hairspray’s bouncy, inviting first tune, ‘Good Morning, Baltimore’ was on the opening numbers CD, while powerful ballads The Wizard of Oz’s “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” and West Side Story’s “Tonight” were examples of 11 o’clock numbers (even if those songs didn’t end their respective projects), meant to demonstrate the pacing and mood of writing for different acts.
“The thing about Robert is he’s a generous collaborator,” Clark says. “He wanted real country songwriters and he was willing to do that work to help us do our homework.”
HOW IT ALL BEGAN
Around 10 years ago, Horn was approached by the Opry Entertainment Group to write the book for a musical based on Hee Haw, the hokey variety show that ran from 1969 to 1991 and mixed country music with groan-worthy skits, often set in a cornfield. He asked Clark and McAnally to work with him.
“We loved the idea of doing something associated with Hee Haw. We were the only people who felt that way,” McAnally says with a laugh, sitting with Clark in a second floor lounge in the Nederlander Theater the morning after a sold-out preview.
McAnally and Clark quickly discovered that, while Hee Haw did offer them their first exposure to artists like Buck Owens, Roy Clark and Tammy Wynette as young children watching with their grandparents, “there wasn’t a lot there and some of the humor did not age well,” McAnally says. The idea morphed into the broader-themed Moonshine: That Hee Haw Musical, which opened in Dallas in September 2015, and told the story of a small town girl who goes to the big city to be a TV weathergirl.
Feeling that Moonshine wasn’t where it needed to be, after the Dallas run, the trio put the musical on hold. “We stepped away from it and said, ‘Maybe it’s just not going to happen,’” Horn says. “But there was a seed of an idea that we loved.”
A year or two later, as Horn watched America riven by political and ideological conflict, he reached out to Clark and McAnally. ‘“We need to start over,’” he recalls saying. “Let’s write a show about how we find commonality in a country so divided. We can’t fix that, but maybe we can be a part of the healing.”
The show was completely overhauled, with O’Brien now onboard and the theme evolving to “a girl who is underestimated and finds out she has the ability to be a hero inside of her,” Horn says.
Shortly after the producers booked the show for a late 2020 run at the National Theater in Washington, D.C., the pandemic hit and the run was canceled.
“If the show’s successful, I credit it to the pandemic,” Horn says. “We sat down and dug into the show and said, ‘It’s not there yet.’ Had we opened that show, it was still a good show — but it wasn’t the show. We literally rewrote the whole show again.”
Though country songs are renowned for their storytelling, Clark says writing for characters for a musical hits different. “When Alex Newell (Lulu) gets a standing ovation [for ‘Independently Owned’], it feels out of body,” she says. “I remember seeing Miranda Lambert after ‘Mama’s Broken Heart’ had been a hit, and when that part of the show came, being super-excited. This doesn’t feel like that. I forget that these are our songs. They are [the characters’ songs] — and when they feel like their songs, then I know it’s right.”
McAnally adds writing for Shucked is closer to his and Clark’s truest selves. “What’s funny is this actually feels like what we always did. We switched for [Nashville],” he says. “We have to edit [those songs] because we have a much more irreverent sense of humor. We love rhymes that are completely shocking, that people would go, ‘I’d never say that.’ Here we don’t have to do that — because we’re saying what these characters would say and not trying to figure out if Dierks Bentley would say it.”
A few remnants from Moonshine remain — including the rowdy “We Love Jesus (But We Drink a Little),” which opens the second act and serves as the theme of the small-town girl going to the big city and actor Kevin Cahoon, who is the only holdover from the Moonshine cast, where he played an idiot savant named Junior Junior.
In Shucked, Cahoon’s character is now Peanut, the town philosopher — who come across as a bit of a rube, but then spouts profound universal truths. Based on Horn’s husband’s uncle, who was a peanut farmer, Cahoon’s character also runs the radio station, marries and buries people, and is the town clerk.
Kevin Cahoon
Emilio Madrid
As Cahoon researched his part, he discovered the “great tradition of country storytellers, whether it’s Minnie Pearl or Jerry Clower,” he says. “You may have thought [they] were hayseeds, but they are saying things that are connected to you in a simple, pure, honest way. I thought about those great country comedians when I’m playing him.”
BOSNER’S ‘BEAUTIFUL’ EFFECT
The show may have remained dormant after Dallas, if not for Mike Bosner, one of the lead producers on the Tony-winning Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, signing on as lead producer. He heard about Moonshine after the Dallas run and met McAnally through McAnally’s husband, who knew Bosner’s wife, Brittany Schreiber, a booker for Today.
“Shane and I started talking about doing a different show, because I was obsessed about bringing a show to Broadway with country music,” Bosner says. “The fact that [there] hasn’t been one in recent years is a crime.”
Those involved say Bosner’s palpable enthusiasm, connections (he brought in O’Brien) and backing made all the difference. “We’re very happy that he got on board and feels so passionate,” McAnally says. “That relationship was really what put this into high gear.”
Around 2019, as Bosner began lining up other investors — the SEC filing’s range for the show is a minimum of $13 million and a maximum of $16 million — he approached Sandbox Entertainment head Jason Owen, whom he knew through his wife, to become a producer. (Even though artist manager Owen and McAnally are partners in Monument Records, it was Bosner who brought him in.)
Owen then brought in the other lead investor, AEG, which had last invested on Broadway in 2005’s The Color Purple, and whose team, led by Jay Marciano and Gary Gersh, has provided not just money but business acumen. “For the last six or seven months, we’ve had weekly calls with AEG,” Owen says. “They’ve been involved in looking at how we’re marketing in and outside of New York [and] cross-analyzing data on the ticket buyers that are seeing certain shows in and around New York.” AEG has also used its buildings and other venues to provide billboards and other out-of-home marketing.
(Owen further tapped into the music community, recruiting Sony Music Entertainment and clients Little Big Town’s Karen Fairchild and Jimi Westbrook as co-producers.)
Broadway previews began March 8, and given how Shucked is an unproven commodity with no known hit songs and no big names in the cast, the show aggressively discounted preview tickets — with some going for as low as $29, and none higher than $149. According to Broadway News, the gambit worked, with attendance running at (or close to) 100% for the first three weeks of previews. “What we really needed to do was get butts in seats,” Owen says. “We were able to capture an audience that lives on social media and was able to start spreading the word about how great the show is.”
The play is deliberately being marketed as a musical comedy and not a country musical. As the U.S. emerges from COVID and remains mired in political division, the producers are counting on a show with no agenda, other than to make people laugh and accept one another, to have broad appeal.
The promotional ad campaign initially relied on stressing the punny humor, while keeping an air of mystery. One ad had the tagline, “’I saw it 300 times before it even opened’-George Santos.” Another read, “’The musical that has Broadway all a-Twitter’-Elon Husk.”
Despite its rural themes and Clark and McAnally’s pedigrees, the music falls more solidly in the pop range, and the producers didn’t want to risk alienating any attendees by labeling the show “country.” “In a big metropolitan city like New York, saying, ‘Oh, we’re doing a country show’ — the theater elite is [going to be] like, ‘I don’t know if that’s for me,’” Bosner says. “But if you’re selling musical comedy and saying this is a laugh-out-loud hilarious, then a country score or whatever [genre] it is, would be the gift with purchase. From the get-go, I’ve been saying, ‘We need to sell this as the best time out,’ and our goal is to not create any potential pothole that says, ‘That doesn’t sound like a show for me’.”
Owen agrees. “The marketpace on Broadway is currently 90% existing jukebox musicals, whether that’s [MJ the Musical] or Moulin Rouge. You know to some extent what you’re getting,” he says. “If we would have pigeonholed ourselves into a country [box] when it’s really not — it just didn’t feel right to look at it like that.”
Clark and McAnally join a short list of Nashville-based, country music songwriters to open original musicals on Broadway. The most successful of those musicals has been Big River: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, with music and lyrics by Roger Miller (“King of the Road”). The Tony winner for best musical originally opened in 1985 and ran for 1,005 performances. Keeping with the Mark Twain works, Don Schlitz (“The Gambler”) wrote the music and lyrics for The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, which ran for 21 performances in 2001.
More recently, Nashville based Wayne Kirkpatrick (“Change the World”) was nominated for a Tony for best original score for co-writing the words and music for Something Rotten!, which opened in 2015 and played for 708 performances.
Sony Masterworks Broadway will release Shucked’s original cast recording digitally on May 5 and on CD June 9, but there are already thoughts of finding big pop names to possibly reinvent the songs, à la 2016’s The Hamilton Mixtape, featuring Kelly Clarkson and Alicia Keys, or 2017’s The Greatest Showman: Reimagined, which included P!nk, Zac Brown Band and Kesha. “Imagine ‘Independently Owned’ sung by Lizzo,” Clark says. “That’s where our head goes.”
There are also dreams of taking Shucked into corners that Broadway musicals have never ventured before. “AEG has Coachella and Stagecoach. Is there a world where we can do the music of the show at Stagecoach in some way?” Bosner asks. “That’ll be amazing, right? But let’s get the show open on Broadway first.”
Following the passing of Southern rock star Gary Rossington in March, the 2023 CMT Music Awards decided to pay tribute to the late superstar and his impact with Lynyrd Skynyrd on Sunday night (April 2).
Taking to the stage for the evening’s final performance, country singers Cody Johnson, Wynonna Judd and LeAnn Rimes were joined by Guns N’ Roses’ Slash, ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons, Bad Company’s Paul Rodgers and former Allman Brothers Band members Chuck Leavell and Warren Haynes for a tribute to the late guitarist, performing the band’s iconic tracks “Simple Man” and “Sweet Home Alabama.”
The star-studded group of performers was introduced by British rock star Peter Frampton, who lauded Rossington as a “Southern rock icon,” saying the star “helped define a band’s sound, and he inspired millions of fans and musicians” before joining his fellow bandmates “in rock n’ roll heaven.”
For their performance, the superstar group turned the stage into a Southern swamp of talent, backed by images of murky waters and reeds, as the musicians grooved their way through “Simple Man,” with Johnson and Rodgers trading verses back and forth. Once they finished out the classic track, the supergroup launched into a rollicking performance of “Sweet Home Alabama,” bringing the cheering crowd to its feet for a big finish to the annual ceremony.
Johnson, Judd, Rimes and company were far from the only performers to take to the CMT stage on Sunday. Stars including Blake Shelton, Gwen Stefani, Jelly Roll and Carrie Underwood all performed at the awards show, while Kelsea Ballerini and Kane Brown hosted the telecast and delivered sets of their own.
Carrie Underwood delivered her highly anticipated CMT Music Awards performance on Sunday night (April 2) when she unleashed her Denim & Rhinestones hit “Hate My Heart” onstage in front of the capitol building in Austin.
Fittingly dressed in a Queen of Hearts-inspired blazer, corset and shorts — and holding a heart-encrusted microphone — the country superstar delivered the track as fireworks blasted off behind her. “Hate My Heart” was up for video of the year at this year’s ceremony, though it ultimately lost to Kane and Katelyn Brown’s “Thank God.”
Underwood’s “Ghost Story” was also nominated for female video of the year.
The singer is no stranger to the CMT Music Awards, as she’s taken home 25 total trophies throughout her career. She also has the most video of the year wins and female video of the year wins of any artist.
“I wanted to have fun from the get-go,” the 40-year-old star previously told Billboard of Denim & Rhinestones, which debuted at No. 2 on Billboard‘s Top Country Albums chart. “That was definitely mission No. 1. With some other albums, it took me writing for a while before I figured out where the album’s gonna go. It’s got a lot of vintage sparkle. It’s not solidly throwback, but we have a couple of songs that are a little more ’70s feel and some that are in the ’80s pop world and some ’90s rock stuff, and obviously country. But we wanted to have music that was fun and felt good.”
Honoring ten years of CMT’s “Next Women of Country” series, a quintet of female singer-songwriters delivered Alanis Morissette‘s star-making 1995 post-breakup anthem “You Oughta Know” at the 2023 CMT Music Awards. Morissette was joined by previous honorees Lainey Wilson, Ingrid Andress, Madeline Edwards and Morgan Wade for the performance.
Wearing a sequined shirt over a white tee, Alanis led the All-Star vocal group in a performance of the incendiary Jagged Little Pill classic — with, appropriately enough, an actual blaze going on behind them. The performance was a mostly faithful rendition, albeit with some more complex harmonies added to the chorus, befitting the vocal talents of the singers assembled, and Alanis still stole the show with her piercing “ohhhhhh“s on the song’s wordless bridge.
The performance was the second ’90s alt-rock crossover event of the evening, following Gwen Stefani and Carly Pearce teaming up for a run through “Just a Girl,” originally by the former’s best-selling band No Doubt. Lainey Wilson had previous taken the stage for her ballad “Heart Like a Truck,” and also picked up a pair of awards earlier in the evening: female video of the year (for “Heart Like a Truck”) and collaborative video of the year (for “Wait in the Truck,” along with HARDY).
“You Oughta Know” served as Morissette’s breakout hit in 1995, as the first single pulled from her Jagged Little Pill album, and made her a phenomenon with its furious (and much-debated) lyrics and impassioned delivery. Jagged Little Pill would ultimately go on to be certified diamond by the RIAA, and ranks at No. 7 on Billboard‘s Greatest of All-Time Billboard 200 chart.
When it came time for her performance at the 2023 CMT Music Awards on Sunday night (April 2), Kelsea Ballerini decided to bring a quartet of fabulous drag queens out to help her deliver a poignant message.
Performing her single “If You Go Down (I’m Goin’ Down Too),” Ballerini was joined by RuPaul’s Drag Race alumni Manila Luzon, Kennedy Davenport, Jan Sport and Olivia Lux. All dressed in their best 1950s southern drag, Ballerini and the queens strutted around the stage — which was decorated like a white picket-fenced front yard — singing about their ride-or-die friendship with one another.
Eventually, the quintet of performers found its way from the stage to a massive catwalk stretching through the audience. As confetti rained down from above, Ballerini cuddled up with the four queens, belting out the final words to the song: “Our bodies are buried and they’re in the same ditch/ So even if I wanted to, I can’t snitch,” she sang. “Thirty to life would go quicker with you/ So if you go down, I’m goin’ down too.”
The performance came as something of a political statement from the country star, especially as drag has become a target for right-wing legislatures around the country. Most recently, after Tennessee passed its widely criticized public-drag ban, a federal judge blocked the law from taking effect for 14 days on Friday (March 31), claiming that the state failed to make a compelling argument as to why the new law was warranted.
Ballerini wasn’t only performing on Sunday night — the singer served as one of the evening’s hosts alongside Kane Brown. Stars including Blake Shelton, Carrie Underwood, Gwen Stefani and Tyler Hubbard also shared performances during the event, while Lainey Wilson led nominees at the event with four nominations. Brown, Jelly Roll and Cody Johnson followed with three each.
Check out the full performance below:
Jelly Roll rocked the 2023 CMT Music Awards on Sunday night (April 2) with a performance of his genre-bending hit, “Need a Favor.”
Backed by a full gospel choir, the 38-year-old delivered his sermon for the sinners as church signs featuring the track’s lyrics flashed behind him. “I only talk to God, when I need a favor/ And I only pray, when I ain’t got a prayer,” he belted in the chorus.
Jelly Roll (born Jason DeFord) snagged his first CMT Music Award this year, as he won all three awards he was nominated for. “Son of a Sinner” won digital-first performance of the year, breakthrough male video of the year and male video of the year.
The rising country star made history earlier this year after he surpassed NLE Choppa for most weeks atop Billboard’s Emerging Artists chart, as “Need a Favor” peaked at No. 37 on Hot Country Songs and his most popular track to date, “Son of a Sinner,” peaked at No. 8.
“I think what I think I represent is just a beacon of hope,” the singer previously told Billboard of his success. “I don’t look like the guy that you would’ve assumed would’ve made it [in the music industry]. Sam Hunt’s a really dear friend of mine, and Sam is just a big striking, handsome guy. When you see him, you’re like, ‘Oh, I get it.’ When you see me, you don’t get it initially — then you meet me, and hear the story and hear the music. I just feel like I represent the guy who looks at himself in the mirror every day and goes, ‘Yeah, guys like me don’t make it.’”