Country
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The CMT Music Awards have added a solid shot of female star power.
Gwen Stefani, Alanis Morissette and Shania Twain have been added to the performers lineup for the fan-voted awards show, which airs Sunday on CBS, live from the Moody Center in Austin, Texas, beginning at 8 p.m. ET. The show will also be available to stream live and on-demand via Paramount+. This marks the first time that the CMT Music Awards have been held in Austin, after being held in Nashville for decades.
Stefani will make her CMT Music Awards debut via a collaboration with Carly Pearce. Morissette will make her CMT Music Awards debut by helping to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the CMT Next Women of Country franchise, by performing her 1995 hit “You Oughta Know” alongside former CMT Next Women of Country honorees Morgan Wade (Class of 2022), Ingrid Andress (2019), Madeline Edwards (2022) and Lainey Wilson (2019).
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Twain will perform and will also be honored with the third CMT Equal Play Award, which recognizes an artist’s work as an advocate for diversity and a champion for underrepresented voices within country music. Previous recipients of the award are Jennifer Nettles and Linda Martell.
Twain, Stefani and Morissette join previously announced performers Darius Rucker with The Black Crowes, as well as Wynonna Judd with Ashley McBryde. Other previously announced performers include Carrie Underwood, Cody Johnson, Blake Shelton, Keith Urban and show co-hosts Kelsea Ballerini and Kane Brown.
Leading this year’s CMT Music Awards nominees is Wilson with four nominations, including video of the year (for “Wait in the Truck” with HARDY), female video of the year (“Heart Like a Truck”), collaborative video of the year (“Wait in the Truck” with HARDY) and CMT performance of the year (for “Never Say Never” with Cole Swindell, from the 2022 CMT Music Awards). Johnson, Brown and first-time nominee Jelly Roll follow with three nominations each.
Country music group Old Dominion was forced to postpone three shows on its No Bad Vibes Tour, after lead singer Matthew Ramsey was injured in an ATV riding accident, Ramsey revealed on social media. The group’s trio of shows slated for Coffee Butler Amphitheater in Key West, Fla., this weekend have been postponed to March 22-24, 2024.
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“Well friends – I’m afraid I have some disappointing news,” Ramsey said in a statement posted via Twitter. “I was in an ATV accident that has left my pelvis fractured in three places. The good news is it’s gonna heal just fine. The bad news is I’m gonna have to stay home and recover for a little while. I know we all had plans to sing and dance together in Key West. I was looking forward to that so much! We will make it up to you!”
He added, “I promise we’ll keep up updated on my recovery and any other shows that might be affected. This tour has been such a blast so far this year and before you know it, I’ll be back out there with No Bad Vibes! Love you all. – m”
Old Dominion’s “Memory Lane” is currently at No. 21 on Billboard‘s Country Airplay chart. According to the band’s official website, the group’s next tour dates begin with an East Coast run in April, starting with a show in Redding, Penn., on April 13, followed by shows Albany, N.Y. (April 14), and Bangor, Maine (April 15).
Attendees holding tickets for the three Key West dates will have their tickets honored for the new dates. For any fans unable to attend the new show dates in 2024, full refunds will be available at the point of purchase for the next 30 days.
See Ramsey’s full statement below:
Jana Kramer took to social media on Monday (March 27) to update fans on her kids amid the mass shooting at Nashville’s Covenant School.
The One Tree Hill alum, who lives in Music City, assured fans the tragedy didn’t take place at the school her kids — seven-year-old Jolie and four-year-old Jace — attend. “It wasn’t their school,” she wrote in an Instagram Story. “I know someone that works there though and we have friends that have kids there… It all just feels too close to home. I just don’t understand. We need prayers and then action.”
“We shouldn’t have to fear dropping our kids [off] at school and fearing them not coming home,” she continued. “Just want to squeeze them asap. first flight out tomorrow am now.”
Kramer reiterated her concern for her kids while attending the 2023 iHeartRadio Music Awards at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. “People are like, ‘Who are you wearing?’ I’m like, ‘I don’t care. I want to go hug my kids right now,” she said on the red carpet. “Their dad picked them up at school, and they’re good.”
Tragically, three students and three staff members were killed by a shooter at the school — which is located on the grounds of Covenant Presbyterian Church in the Nashville neighborhood of Green Hills — armed with two AR-style guns and a pistol. Among the murdered were three nine-year-old third graders, a 61-year-old substitute teacher, the school’s janitor and the head administrator of the school.
Read Kramer’s Instagram Story here before it expires.
Morgan Wallen scores a 10th week at No. 1 on the Billboard Artist 100 chart (dated April 1), holding as the top musical act in the United States thanks to the continued success of his new LP, One Thing at a Time.
The 36-track album tallies a third week at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, with 209,000 equivalent album units earned in the March 17-23 tracking week, according to Luminate, after opening with 501,000 units, the largest weekly sum for an album this year. The set became Wallen’s second No. 1, following 2021’s 30-track Dangerous: The Double Album. The latter places at No. 7 on the Billboard 200 (42,000 units).
Contributing to Wallen’s Artist 100 rule are 18 songs on the Billboard Hot 100. Two weeks earlier, he set a one-week record, with 36 songs on the chart, and then claimed the second-most weekly entries last week, with 28, with all from from One Thing at a Time. “Last Night” leads his 18 titles on the latest Hot 100 at No. 2, after becoming his first No. 1 two weeks ago.
Wallen is the 11th artist to reach the 10-week milestone on the Artist 100, dating to the chart’s 2014 inception. Taylor Swift leads with 64 weeks at No. 1, followed by Drake (37), The Weeknd (28), BTS (21), Adele (20), Ariana Grande (15), Justin Bieber, Post Malone and Ed Sheeran (14 each), Billie Eilish (12) and Wallen (10).
U2 re-enters the Artist 100 at No. 5, thanks to its new 40-track LP Songs of Surrender, which starts at No. 5 on the Billboard 200 (46,000 units). It’s the band’s 13th top 10 and makes the Rock & Roll Hall of Famers just the fourth group with new top 10s in the 1980s, ’90s, 2000s, ’10s and ’20s, after AC/DC, Def Leppard and Metallica. U2 topped the Artist 100 for a week in 2017.
Plus, BTS member Jimin debuts at No. 10 on the Artist 100 thanks to his new solo single “Set Me Free, Pt. 2.” The song debuts at No. 30 on the Hot 100 with 6.4 million official U.S. streams and 63,000 downloads sold, as he becomes the first BTS member to score an unaccompanied solo top 40 hit on the Hot 100. He’s the third member of BTS (which re-enters at No. 100) to reach the Artist 100’s top 10, joining RM (No. 6 peak in December) and Jin (No. 10, November).
The Artist 100 measures artist activity across key metrics of music consumption, blending album and track sales, radio airplay and streaming to provide a weekly multidimensional ranking of artist popularity.
Lauren Daigle postponed a planned concert to preview songs from her upcoming third studio album on Monday night (March 27) in order to host a prayer vigil for the victims of a mass shooting at Nashville’s The Covenant School.
“Today’s shooting is truly heartbreaking for our Nashville community and all of those impacted,” the Christian pop singer said in a statement. “I’m going to postpone my performance tonight, and in its place, host a community-wide Prayer Vigil. To everyone who was planning to come out, please continue to come join us as we share in a time of prayer and worship to honor the victims and everyone in need.”
Daigle was slated to preview her upcoming self-titled album (May 12) at the Marathon Music Works on Monday night; the show is now scheduled for April 5. Instead, the venue hosted a free-to-all community-wide prayer vigil to honor the three nine-year-old children and three school staff members who were killed during Monday’s mass shooting in which the shooter — armed with two semi-automatic long guns, a pistol and tactical gear — was killed by police 14 minutes after the rampage began at the private Christian school in Nashville.
A number of Nashville musicians spoke out in grief and anger after the nation’s 132nd mass shooting so far this year. Singer-songwriter-musician Charlie Worsham wrote via his Instagram Stories, “It seems impossible to find fitting words to say about the shooting in Nashville today. I’m heartbroken and enraged that we can’t seem to provide the simplest, most common-sense safeguards for our own children. If this was something other than a gun problem, it’d be happening all over the world. But it only seems to happen here.”
Kelsea Ballerini, who has previously spoken with Billboard about her own experience surviving a school shooting when she was a high school sophomore, shared via Instagram Stories, “i’m heartbroken i’m triggered i’m angry and i’m terrified for the loss we continue to have in this country due to guns. three f**king kids. what are we doing.”
In a stark post last Monday night, Justin Timberlake tweeted out a list of the victims, which included three fourth grade children and three adults in their 60s.
See Daigle’s statement and Timberlake’s post below.
On Monday (March 27), CMT revealed the six finalists for video of the year at their upcoming awards show, including Morgan Wallen, Blake Shelton and more.
Wallen’s visual for “You Proof” is nominated, while Shelton is competing with 2022’s “No Body.” The four other nominees rounding out the category include Carrie Underwood‘s “Hate My Heart” from her latest album Denim & Rhinestones, Cody Johnson‘s “Human,” HARDY‘s Lainey Wilson-assisted “Wait in the Truck” and Kane Brown‘s “Thank God” with his wife Katelyn Brown.
Voting in the video of the year category, which started with a crop of 16 videos, will continue through the weekend, with the top three nominees being announced Sunday (April 2) ahead of the show and the big winner revealed during the telecast on CBS.
Underwood’s inclusion in the top six continues her hot streak at the CMT Awards; the American Idol champ holds the record as the most-awarded artist in the show’s history, and she’s been up for video of the year for five consecutive years.
Shelton coming out on top would make it The Voice coach’s second win for video of the year after being crowned in 2018 for “I’ll Name the Dogs,” though the Browns would make history with a win as the first-ever husband and wife duo to take home the prize. (The Different Man singer also happens to be co-hosting the ceremony opposite Kelsea Ballerini.)
For HARDY, Wilson, Johnson or Wallen, a victory over the country veterans would bring a first-time win in the category. The latter currently holds the No. 1 spot on the Billboard 200 for the third consecutive week with his sprawling, 36-track album One Thing at a Time (chart dated April 1).
Several Nashville musicians have spoken out after six people, including three students and three adult staff members, were killed during a school shooting on Monday (March 27) at The Covenant School in Nashville.
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A 28-year-old suspect was killed during an altercation with police. The Metro Nashville PD’s official Twitter account revealed that the six victims fatally shot by the active shooter at Covenant School were identified as Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs and William Kinney, all age 9; Cynthia Peak, age 61; Katherine Koonce, age 60; and Mike Hill, age 61. Koonce is listed as the head of School on The Covenant School’s official website.
Nashville musicians spoke out in grief and anger. Singer-songwriter-musician Charlie Worsham wrote via his Instagram Stories, “It seems impossible to find fitting words to say about the shooting in Nashville today. I’m heartbroken and enraged that we can’t seem to provide the simplest, most common-sense safeguards for our own children. If this was something other than a gun problem, it’d be happening all over the world. But it only seems to happen here.”
Kelsea Ballerini, who has previously spoken with Billboard about her own experience surviving a school shooting when she was a high school sophomore, shared via Instagram Stories, “i’m heartbroken i’m triggered i’m angry and i’m terrified for the loss we continue to have in this country due to guns. three f**king kids. what are we doing.”
Contemporary Christian singer Natalie Grant shared a news story about the incident via her Instagram Stories, adding, “I posted this earlier and then deleted it because I had been told people were only injured. I’m so heartbroken and devastated to realize not only was the original report true, but that more are dead, including three children. Several injured. This story is tragically repeated over and over and over again. Only today it hits very close to home. Jesus be near.”
Via Instagram Stories, Maren Morris shared a tweet from the Nashville Fire Department that shared details of the incident, simply commenting, “Oh my god,” accompanied by a broken-heart emoji.
Several artists, including Jason Isbell and Sheryl Crow, addressed Tennessee officials, with Isbell quote-tweeting Tennessee Governor Bill Lee, after Lee tweeted that he is “closely monitoring the tragic situation at Covenant.” Isbell responded, “Is this what we want? Monitoring the ‘tragic situation’ and asking for prayers? Something can be done Bill you just don’t have the spine for it. This must be what you want, because you haven’t done anything to prevent it.”
After Senator Marsha Blackburn sent out a tweet saying that her office was “ready to assist” federal, state and local officials, Crow responded, “If you are ready to assist, please pass sensible gun laws so that the children of Tennessee and America at large might attend school without risk of being gunned down.”
Rosanne Cash also responded to Blackburn’s tweet, saying, “Don’t even. You vote against every common sense gun control bill that comes across your desk, you’ve taken over $1 million from the NRA, and you rank 14th in all Congress for NRA contributions. Spare us the handwringing @marshablackburn”
Shortly after news of the school shooting broke, Margo Price addressed Lee, saying, “4 dead so far in an elementary school shooting in Nashville this am. Can I ask you, @GovBillLee why you passed permit less [sic] carry in 2021? Our children are dying and being shot in school but you’re more worried about drag queens than smart gun laws? You have blood on your hands.”
See several of the responses from Nashville music artists below:
Is this what we want? Monitoring the “tragic situation” and asking for prayers? Something can be done Bill you just don’t have the spine for it. This must be what you want, because you haven’t done anything to prevent it. https://t.co/klWsCbhw0B— Jason Isbell (@JasonIsbell) March 27, 2023
My heart is broken and prayers for all involved in todays horrible school shooting in Nashville.— Chris Janson (@janson_chris) March 27, 2023
We are praying with our Nashville community for everyone involved in today’s horrific shooting— Brett Young (@BrettYoungMusic) March 27, 2023
No words… The Covenant School. Our children deserve better. Praying for all affected. Tragic America.— Sheryl Crow (@SherylCrow) March 27, 2023
Pray for Nashville. A shooting at a school has occurred. Three children dead. Praying for these babies & their families. Absolutely devastating 💔— Carly Pearce (@carlypearce) March 27, 2023
I try to stay off here for my mental health but for the love of God! As a mother, I’m pissed the fuck off. Shame on every single politician ok with doing nothing as CHILDREN are getting assassinated on an everyday basis in a place that is supposed to be their safe haven.— Mickey Guyton (@MickeyGuyton) March 27, 2023
God Bless all the parents of children at The Covenant School. Horrific and sickening.— Randy Houser (@RandyHouser) March 27, 2023
Thank you @MNPDNashville for running toward the danger and neutralizing it without hesitation, or a second thought to your own safety. #Nashville greatly appreciates you.— John Rich🇺🇸 (@johnrich) March 27, 2023
Morgan Wallen kept his cool when someone in the audience at Saturday night’s (March 25) show at Melbourne, Australia’s Rod Laver Arena chucked a full cup of liquid at him on stage, narrowly missing a direct hit on the country star while he was singing “Everything I Love” from his Billboard 200 #1 double album One Thing at a Time.
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In video posted on TikTok by a fan who attended the show, Morgan looks irritated at the attempt to interrupt his show by launching the cup, with a few droplets hitting him, but the majority, and the cup, avoiding a direct hit. In fan Chloe Donovan’s video of the incident, Wallen doesn’t miss a beat and keeps singing, but looks in the direction of the liquid launcher and gives them a sideways glance.
In a follow-up clip, Wallen stops the music and stares at the area where the cup came from while the crowd shouts “kick them out! kick them out!” Wallen, pointing, says, “Go ahead. One of y’all own up to it or I’m gonna kick your whole f—in’ group out. One of y’all go ahead and say ‘I did it.’ All right, kick that kid out of here then.”
A spokesperson for Wallen confirmed that a cup of liquid was thrown on stage and that the person who tossed it was removed from the venue.
Meanwhile, One Thing at aTime will notch its third straight week at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 album chart (dated April 1) after earning 209,500 equivalent album units in the U.S. in the week ending March 23. It debuted at No. 1 with 501,000 units, then tallied 259,000 in its second frame.
Check out Donovan’s video of the incident below.
A language teacher at Heyer Elementary School in Waukesha, Wisconsin has called out her school’s administration after saying that they vetoed the inclusion of a pair of rainbow-themed songs in the spring concert. “My first graders were so excited to sing ‘Rainbowland’ for our spring concert but it has been vetoed by our administration. When will it end?,” she tweeted last week along with hashtags for the school system, Dolly Parton, Miley Cyrus, GSafe (which create safe spaces for LGBTQ+ youth in Wisconsin schools) and civil rights.
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Teacher Melissa Tempel also included the lyrics to “Rainbowland,” the Cyrus/Parton duet about acceptance that appeared on Miley’s 2017 album Younger Now. “Living in Rainbowland/ Where you and I go hand in hand/ Oh, I’d be lying if I said this was fine/ All the hurt and the hate going on here/ We are rainbows, me and you/ Every color, every hue,” they sing on the song. Why was that track about living in harmony together reportedly banned?
On March 24, Tempel wrote, “The latest I heard is that the song was banned bc @MileyCyrus is controversial. D’oh, I thought for sure it was @DollyPartonvand her beautiful drag queen followers! Oh well, I can’t stop my students if they still sing ‘Rainbowland.’ It’s a fun, catchy song!” First grade teacher Tempel later said her guess as to why the duet was pulled was because of its “beautiful LYRICS. Because saying an ARTIST is controversial would be a very slippery slope and they wouldn’t want to go there. Amirite?,” she wrote.
When a commenter asked why the song was pulled from the concert Tempel responded, “no reason given.” A day later, Tempel reported that the administration also banned the Muppet Movie classic “Rainbow Connection,” writing, “so it seems the reason is rainbows.” Tempel provided another update on March 23 when she reported that “Rainbow Connection” had been unbanned after “parents sent emails to admin,” though it seems “Rainbowland” is still off the menu.
At press time spokespeople for Heyer Elementary and the Waukesha Country board of Education had not returned Billboard‘s request for comment on the reported song bans. At press time it also did not appear as if Parton or Cyrus had responded to the reported “Rainbowland” ban on their socials.
In a statement to People, the Alliance for Education’s Becky Gilligan said that their organization, “continues to advocate for our community… This is the most recent decision by a school district administration intent on stifling the diversity and denying equality to the community it serves, further ostracizing Waukesha in the eyes of the nation.”
The mother of a first-grader at the school, Sarah Schindler, told the Los Angeles Times that her daughter came home last week with a list of songs she was going to perform at the spring concert. Among the tracks Schindler pulled up on YouTube were “Rainbowland,” Kermit the Frog’s “Rainbow Connection” and Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World.” Schindler said both she and her daughter were very excited because they love Parton.
Then a few days later, her daughter came home and told Schindler, “we can’t sing it anymore. We can’t sing ‘Rainbow Connection’ and we can’t sing ‘Rainbowland.’” Schindler said she reached out to Tempel, her daughter’s teacher, and the school’s principal as well as the district superintendent for answers and was told that the administration had pulled the songs because they were too “controversial.”
Schindler told the Times that the school board had undergone a “conservative flip” recently in the wake of COVID-19 mitigation strategies during the global pandemic that has has killed more than 1.2 million Americans to date. “One of those is a controversial topics policy saying that teachers can’t have any kind of signage that could be deemed political. … Discussion of pronouns with students was another thing that came up. And teachers aren’t allowed to wear rainbows,” Schindler said.
Another parent with a student enrolled in the district told the paper that the Waukesha school district has “really cracked down on anything LGBTQ… so this song being an ‘issue’ has not in any way come as a surprise… My daughter is 17 and has been in the marching band community for four years. It’s a very welcoming community for kids that are LBGTQ. She has a lot of friends that identify as part of that community so it hurts her deeply. All that Miley and Dolly are saying is that they want to live in a world that is accepting, with no judgment and where people can be who they want to be.”
See Tempel’s tweets below.
Today they banned Rainbow Connection, so it seems the reason is rainbows.— Maestra Melissa (@melissatempel) March 23, 2023
The latest I heard is that the song was banned bc @MileyCyrus is controversial. D’oh, I thought for sure it was @DollyParton and her beautiful drag queen followers! Oh well, I can’t stop my students if they still sing Rainbowland. It’s a fun, catchy song!— Maestra Melissa (@melissatempel) March 25, 2023
This week in country, Brandy Clark returns with new music, Luke Combs takes on a Tracy Chapman classic, and Rissi Palmer and Miko Marks team up for a powerful collaboration. All that and more below, as Billboard takes you through the new country releases you need to hear this week.
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Brandy Clark, “Buried”
Clark returns with the announcement of an upcoming self-titled album (out May 19), with production by Brandi Carlile (their previous collaboration, “Same Devil,” earned Clark her 10th Grammy nomination). Clark, known for co-penning country hits including “Mama’s Broken Heart” and “Follow Your Arrow,” is well-versed with Nashville’s music row writing rooms and machinations. But here, she moves further away from writing-by-committee, unearthing personal revelations. With the album’s first single, “Buried,” Clark exhumes the sense of emotional tethering to an ex-lover, even as she attempts to move on. “I’ll be an over you achiever, I’ll make you a believer/ That I don’t love you either,” she sings — though the song’s denouement offers a glimpse at the devotion behind the defiance. As she envisions one day getting remarried, she confesses, “But I’ll love you ’til I’m buried.” Above all, Clark continues to convey her inexorable talents as both a song-crafter and vocal interpreter.
Luke Combs, “Fast Car”
When Luke Combs released his 18-song latest album, Gettin’ Old, on Friday (March 24), one of the most gut-wrenching songs on the project wasn’t a new track, but his cover of the 1988 blues-folk hit, “Fast Car,” written and recorded by Tracy Chapman. The song’s gritty tale chronicles a woman’s escape from a low-income, alcoholic family situation, only to end up in a similar situation, working a low-income job, living with an alcoholic partner, and once again faced with the decision to leave. The timeless song has earned several cover attempts since its release 35 years ago; Combs’s laudable cover stays steadfast to the song’s iconic guitar riffs, while his gravelly vocal phrasing at times approximates Chapman’s, encapsulating both the aspiration and desolation recounted in the song.
Jordana Bryant, “Penniless & Broke”
Bryant brings an atmospheric, country-pop polish to her new song, while laying waste to a lover’s litany of clichéd excuses for ending a relationship. “We could’ve been giving each other our hearts/ You gave it up before you even tried,” she sings, layering her staccato vocals over this spunky-yet-contemplative track. Written by Bryant with Jason Earley and Jonathan Gamble, this auspicious single melds conversational, ripped-from-the-diary lyrics with deft pop melody and rhythm. “Penniless and Broke” is the first release from Bryant’s upcoming six-song EP, out April 21.
Randall King, “Green Eyes Blue”
King follows his 2020 EP Leanna and 2022 album Shot Glass with his latest single, a nod to the life-changing power of love. “It’s like I was saved from the hell I raised/ When my gaze locked on you,” King sings. Written by King with Randy Montana, this song is so steeped in traditional country sounds that you can nearly smell the sawdust on the floor of the honkytonk. As with all of King’s music, it’s the honeyed, distinctive timbre of his voice and the vitality in his songs that hoist his staunchly traditional sound above the plethora of recently released, ’90s country-tinged songs.
Maggie Baugh, “Mystery Whiskey Woman”
Singer-songwriter and touring musician Baugh teamed with fellow songwriter Larry McCoy for her latest outing, a song which finds Baugh watching a woman alone in a bar, and pondering what circumstances led her to that moment. “Are you drinkin’ ’bout something worth drinkin’ ’bout tonight?” Baugh muses. A sparse accompaniment, stripped down to only guitar and pedal steel, lends a hushed, haunting feel to the track.
Rissi Palmer and Miko Marks, “Still Here”
This swampy track teams Palmer with close friend and fellow Black country artist Miko Marks, for a celebration of perseverance, ambition and ultimately triumph, imbued with sizzling vocals and shades of soul-elevating gospel. Singer-songwriter Palmer also hosts Apple Music’s Color Me Country, while Marks returned to country music in 2021 with her project Our Country, following a decade-plus hiatus from the genre.
The song shares its title with the recently-released PBS documentary, which traces Palmer’s career journey as one of a handful of Black women to have charted songs on country radio — also including Linda Martell, Dona Mason and Mickey Guyton. Starting in May, Palmer and Marks will team up for a co-headlining tour later this year.
Chancey Williams, One of These Days
Williams, a former saddle bronc rider, has previously released five studio albums. On his latest project, the 11-song One of These Days, he continues to wrap his pleasant baritone around a slate of honky tonk songs. The album features production by and nine co-writes with Trent Willmon, a singer-songwriter in his own right, who also produced Cody Johnson’s CMA-winning “‘Til You Can’t.” Among the gems on this project are the coolly swaggering “Bordertown Whiskey,” the gentle-yet-impactful “If I Die Before You Wake” (one of the few outside cuts here, written by Dave Brainard, Dustin Evans and Rick Tiger) and the fiddle-drenched title track (Williams with Jody Stevens).
Ashley Ryan, “Too Far Gone”
In 2018, California native-turned-Nashville resident Ashley Ryan got a career boost when she was invited to sing with Keith Urban at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena during his Graffiti U Tour. Ryan is all swagger on this full-fledged barn burner: “Your mama gave you her mama’s hand-me-down clothes/ My mama gave me a half-smoked pack of Marlboros,” she sneers on the track, contrasting her own down-home upbringing to that of someone else’s relative wealthy origins. Deftly navigating spitfire lyrics, this newcomer brings an abundance of firepower.