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When Willie Nelson became the only country artist to win two Grammy Awards during the Feb. 5 ceremony, he was in the middle of texts with producer Buddy Cannon.
Nelson didn’t give the trophies much thought.
“All he wanted to talk about was the next record,” Cannon says.
That hunger is present at a time in Nelson’s career that’s remarkable, and likely unprecedented, among country acts. Fewer than 1 in 5 people live to age 90, according to the Social Security actuarial table, and as Nelson proceeds one day at a time toward a two-day celebration of the milestone April 29-30 at the historic Hollywood Bowl, he is doing so with an impressive level of activity.
The two Grammys arrived just a few months after Me and Paul — a book about his late drummer, Paul English, co-written with David Ritz — and shortly after he received a nomination for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. A BIC commercial with Snoop Dogg and Martha Stewart aired during the Super Bowl, and Nelson is prepping the March 3 release of I Don’t Know a Thing About Love, a 10-song collection of material penned by late songwriter Harlan Howard. That next record he was focused on during the Grammys is bluegrass recordings of songs from his own catalog; it will likely be released later in 2023.
The Hollywood Bowl weekend, dubbed Long Story Short: Willie Nelson 90, has a stacked lineup of well-wishers: Chris Stapleton, Beck, Leon Bridges, Kacey Musgraves, Miranda Lambert, Rosanne Cash, Neil Young, Tom Jones and The Chicks, to name a few. And Nelson has his usual array of standard concerts on the calendar before that event.
“It’s something that people half his age would have a hard time keeping up with,” says CAA senior music agent Brian Greenbaum, who has booked Nelson’s shows since 2010.
Nelson, of course, has never been one to approach life quite like anyone else. His trademark braids and bandana set him apart visually from the rest of his peers. So did his grainy timbre, his unpredictable phrasing and the twangy resonance of Trigger, a beat-up guitar that provides a vehicle for improvised solos that are simultaneously adventurous and reassuring.
In a crowded business where it’s challenging for artists to carve out an identifiable lane of their own, Nelson managed to brand himself so well that he can enter any scenario and maintain his individuality.
“It gives us more leeway to think outside the box with Willie,” Greenbaum says. “He is such a multigenre artist, so you can tour Willie with a straight-ahead country artist, but you could also tour Willie with Bob Dylan, which we’ve done. And you can present him with some young up-and-coming artists like we’ve done with the Avett Brothers and a bunch of other artists in that vein.”
Part of what makes Nelson so appealing as an artist is his embrace of his story. Like Frank Sinatra, Ray Charles, Johnny Cash or Tony Bennett, he has aged gracefully under the glare of the spotlight. Instead of attempting to mask his experience, he wears it with an admirable authenticity. Both of his Grammy-winning entries at the recent ceremony — best country album A Beautiful Time and best country solo performance “Live Forever,” pulled from a tribute album to late singer-songwriter Billy Joe Shaver — are frank examinations of mortality. Beautiful Time ranges from the inspirational “Leave You With a Smile” to the humorous “I Don’t Go to Funerals,” with Nelson acting as an aspirational guide through a difficult topic. And that’s part of his brand, too.
“I’ve had the opportunity to meet the Dalai Lama and to meet Bishop Desmond Tutu,” says Bill Silva, who booked the Hollywood Bowl concerts as a principal in events company Live Nation-Hewitt Silva, in association with Blackbird Presents. “These guys are different than people you meet every day. They vibrate a little differently. And I would put Willie in that same category.”
Nelson is in that company because he approaches the world with such a laid-back attitude. Many observers credit that to marijuana, and there is likely some truth to that. But there’s a philosophical component to that stance, too. Nelson embodies it in person, and he brings it to the stage, where he has a jazz-like propensity for creating setlists and interpreting solos on the fly.
“He’s always in the moment,” says Sheryl Crow drummer Fred Eltringham, who has played on at least five of Nelson’s albums and sat in with the band when one of Nelson’s road musicians got COVID-19. “When you see him live, even if people perceive it as sort of a mess, he’s in it. And it’s not a mess. They’re just having fun.”
It’s a reason why the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame nomination makes sense. It came as a surprise to some, but others who assumed he was already a member viewed it as an overdue honor.
“I don’t think there are too many artists that are as punk rock as Willie Nelson, as far as just embodying the things that rock’n’roll is supposed to be,” Legacy vp of marketing Zach Hochkeppel says. “It seems like he kind of does it a lot better than most of the folks in the building.”
For now, Nelson is focused on that bluegrass album, recording it in his own way with Cannon overseeing the process. Nelson isn’t there when they cut the tracks — Cannon or studio singer John Wesley Ryles provides a reference vocal for an A-list band of gypsies that has seen enough Nelson shows or listened to enough of his records that they can anticipate the kind of arrangements that work for him.
Nelson adds his lead vocal and Trigger, at a later date, rarely performing more than three takes before he moves on. He’s so attuned to the song that even though he approaches it with a unique stylistic voice, he typically delivers the material with humility and a touch of reverence.
“It’s just like a strong magnet,” Cannon says. “It makes me listen to the song closer.”
That’s all part of what makes Nelson so remarkable in the current moment. He finds himself in a swirl of activity 25 years after most of his former contemporaries have retired, and he continues to do what he’s always done, focused on the project in front of him. The 90th birthday concerts will get here soon enough, and so will the Rock Hall’s May induction announcement.
Says Hochkeppel: “I don’t think that’s something that Willie himself is going to lose sleep over either way.”
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When Brad Paisley started playing potential songs from his forthcoming album Son of the Mountains for Universal Music Group Nashville president Cindy Mabe, she told him, “Make music that matters, that’s not disposable.”
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Gentle ballad “Same Here” was in the first batch that he played her, and Paisley certainly took that message to heart. The song, which came out Friday (Feb. 24), celebrates our similarities no matter where we’re from or the language we speak and ends with the audio of a conversation between the country superstar and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The release date is not coincidental: Today marks a year since Russia invaded its neighbor.
UMGN sent the track to radio, but even Paisley, whose 12th No. 1 on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart was last February’s “Freedom Was a Highway” with Jimmie Allen, doesn’t expect it to garner much play and he’s fine with that — even though, as he points out, “It’s a very country record,” with Jerry Douglas on dobro and Dan Tyminski on mandolin.
“The label [was] so great about it, realizing this isn’t going to be the feel-good hit of the year and this isn’t even going to be something that’s going to work long term at a radio station, it’s not going to research [well]. There’s a speech at the end of it, but this needs to exist in whatever form we can have it to present it,” Paisley says, adding there will not be a radio edit without Zelenskyy.
He says UMGN has been nothing but supportive. “It’s been a great team effort to sort of say, ‘Okay, I’ve got a new home. This is what I’m working on. The first thing is ready on this really important date and then we’ll start giving you these others as well, painting the picture I want to paint.’ And you can imagine how good that feels.”
Though Paisley’s move to UMGN’s EMI imprint from Sony Music Nashville was only announced earlier this week, the deal was actually done close to a year ago and Paisley has been hunkered down writing the new album for months. He wrote “Same Here” shortly after the invasion with Lee Thomas Miller and Dawes’ Taylor Goldsmith.
The war “was really weighing on me,” Paisley says. “I have been in the gym the night it started and I remember working out watching the news and it was just the most surreal scene, all those taillights leaving Kiev. I’ve been touring Europe lately and it’s like looking at that, it’s like, ‘Holy cow, that looks like every city we play.’ It wasn’t like anything I’ve ever seen in my lifetime.”
Paisley had conversations about performing it on NBC’s all-star special Ukraine: Answering the Call, which ran July 3 and featured Paul McCartney, Billie Eilish, Sheryl Crow, Alicia Keys among others. He talked with MSNBC anchor Nicole Wallace, who spearheaded the benefit, about the song and she said she could get it to some Ukrainians. Paisley initially thought about a refrain of the title sung in Ukrainian several times at the end. “And then I thought, ‘Would President Zelenskyy like to have the last couple of minutes and have a discussion with me on the ways we’re the same?’”
Because of security reasons, Paisley declines to give more details about how the song actually got into Zelenskyy’s hands (“I feel like I’m in The Bourne Identity,” he says half in jest).
The Zoom date with Zelenskyy moved around a fair amount but was finally slated so they could record the conversation for the song and also talk about United24, a charitable program to rebuild and restore Ukrainian homes destroyed by the current war. All proceeds from the song will go to the charity, for which Paisley is an ambassador. “We’re hoping to build housing for 4,200 people,” he says. “Rebuild the things that were bombed out, which, as you’d imagine, is just changing daily.”
Paisley stresses that he did not give talking points to Zelenskky, who needed none, but the two discussed they ways we’re all the same, in terms of loving our families and our countries. “He could have done 25 minutes at the end of this song on the ways were the same, but we hand selected [parts of the] conversation that really felt so relevant. I’m very, very proud of what he said. He’s a really charismatic and earnest, sincere guy.”
After teaching Paisley how to say “same here” in Ukrainian, Zelenskky says in the song, “We speak different languages in our life. Yes, but I think we appreciate the same things – children, freedom, our flag, our soldiers, our people. The biggest treasure we have. And friends. And we’re proud of our army who defends our freedom and will defend our lives.” The president also many a few suggestions that Paisley incorporated into the last verse. Paisley hopes to include video clips of their conversation into the music video for “Same Here.”
Thursday (Feb. 23), Paisley posted a video to his Instagram account mentioning the new album and song. Many of the comments were supportive, but, unsurprisingly, a fair number of comments were critical of his support of Ukraine. Comments were disabled on his posts today— one promoting the song (which features cover artwork by his oldest son) and a subsequent post featuring a snippet of his appearance on Fox & Friends this morning.
His team turned off the comments on the posts today because “you want [the song] to stand alone. I don’t want to be a site for bots to have their day. I want that to be a pure spot to see what I’m saying,” he says. “We’ve had to do that a few times retro-actively where something starts to get hijacked and it’s like, ‘C’mon, that isn’t what my site exists for, my site exists to present what I’m doing.’”
But Paisley adds, “I welcome discussion over this. Everybody’s opinion matters. So that person that hates it, they’re just as valid as me. They can hate it. It’s okay. I’m good with that. ‘I hope you’ll listen to other things and If I’ve lost you, I’ve lost you.’”
Paisley says the song fits in perfectly with his new album, which is about “a kid from West Virginia, looking at the world today.” He won’t talk many specifics yet, but says another song on the album addresses the opioid crisis: West Virginia has been hit hardest of all the states with drug overdoses. There are other issue-oriented songs, but he adds, “As much as I’m dealing with topics that are timely, it goes down very smoothly. I don’t do it in a way that’s any different than George Jones would do it or different than Merle Haggard would do it.”
As far as other guests on the album, he’s keeping quiet, only to add, with a laugh, that Zelenskky is the only world president with a cameo on the set coming later this year.
Reigning CMA entertainer of the year Luke Combs‘ new song “Joe” speaks to themes of alcohol addiction and sobriety.
“Joe” is featured on the singer-songwriter’s upcoming album, Gettin’ Old (out March 24), and was written by Combs, Erik Dylan and James Slater.
Combs posted a note on Instagram, detailing what the song means to him.
“There have been some folks in my family that have struggled with alcoholism and addiction through the years,” Combs wrote. “I’ve got buddies who live a sober lifestyle, and I’m sure y’all know someone who has struggled with these type of things, or maybe you, yourself do. This song is really important to me for that reason.”
Combs also spoke to the longstanding history of drinking songs as a bedrock of country music and its potential impact those struggling with alcohol dependency.
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“Our genre has so many songs about drinking and partying, hell, I’m probably one of the worst culprits of it,” he said in his note. “There’s nothing wrong with that I don’t think, but sometimes I wonder what someone in the crowd who doesn’t drink, or struggles with addiction, is thinking or feeling when there’s thousands of people around them screaming ‘Beer Never Broke My Heart’ or ‘1, 2 Many.’
“I’ve always wanted a song for those people to have for themselves,” said, adding, “to have a song they can sing at the top of their lungs and feel like they’re not forgotten.”
Gettin’ Old follows Combs’ 2022 album Growin’ Up and includes songs such as his recent release “Love You Anyway” as well as a cover of Tracy Chapman’s 1988 hit “Fast Car.” Another fan-favorite, “5 Leaf Clover,” will debut on St. Patrick’s Day on March 17.
Parker McCollum banks his third consecutive career-opening top 10 on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart, as “Handle on You” rises from No. 11 to No. 9 on the survey dated March 4.
In the week ending Feb. 23, the track increased by 7% to 19.8 million in audience, according to Luminate.
McCollum wrote the song with Monty Criswell, and Jon Randall produced it. “Handle” is the lead single from McCollum’s album Never Enough, due May 12.
The 30-year-old McCollum, who hails from Conroe, Texas, follows his two Country Airplay No. 1s: “To Be Loved by You” led last March and his rookie entry “Pretty Heart” reigned in December 2020, each for one week.
On the streaming-, airplay- and sales-based Hot Country Songs chart (dated Feb. 25), “Handle” held at No. 16, after reaching No. 14. It drew 5 million official U.S. streams (up 3%) and sold 1,000 downloads Feb. 10-16.
Hold That ‘Thought’
Morgan Wallen’s “Thought You Should Know” rents the Country Airplay penthouse for a second week, up 4% to 34.4 million impressions.
The song, which became Wallen’s eighth Country Airplay leader on the Feb. 25-dated list, is his fourth to rule for multiple frames. “You Proof,” which dominated for 10 weeks starting in October, is the longest-reigning song in the history of the chart, which launched in January 1990.
Meanwhile, of the five songs that have ascended to No. 1 on Country Airplay so far in 2023, “Thought” marks the third multi-week leader, following Nate Smith’s “Whiskey on You” (two weeks, February) and Jordan Davis’ “What My World Spins Around” (two, January).
Meanwhile, Wallen’s “Last Night” debuts at No. 47 on Country Airplay (1.5 million, up 246%), as well as at No. 40 on Pop Airplay. That track, “Thought” and “You Proof” all preview his 36-song album One Night at a Time, due March 3. “Last Night,” which has topped Hot Country Songs for two weeks running, is now being promoted to pop radio, while “One Thing at a Time” is Wallen’s next country radio single, with promotion starting March 13.
First Country is a compilation of several new country songs, videos & albums that dropped this week.
Ashley McBryde, “Light On in the Kitchen”
Is Ashley McBryde capable of writing a less-than-stellar song? It seems not. Here, the recent Grammy winner teams with equally sterling writers Connie Harrington and Jessi Alexander for this heartwarming track, which spills over with drops of advice about everything from body image, personal safety and healing a broken heart — advice she’s gleaned from confessional conversations held at all hours of the day and night at a kitchen table, a place with food, drinks and a confidant to listen, “where you can do some cryin’ and some bitchin’.” The song centers around the key line, “So honey trust yourself, you better love yourself/ Cause ‘till you do, you ain’t no good for anybody else,” all delivered with McBryde’s warm, conversational vocal. Another ace from this singer-songwriter.
Brad Paisley, “Same Here”
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Paisley returns with new music and a new label home, recently announcing his new deal with Universal’s EMI Records Nashville. The singer-songwriter hasn’t released an album since 2017’s Love and War, and his most recent solo Billboard Country Airplay chart-topper was 2015’s “Perfect Storm” — though he did team with Jimmie Allen to earn a No. 1 last year with “Freedom Was a Highway.”
On “Same Here,” in a similar vein to a few of Paisley’s previous hits (like “American Saturday Night”), the singer-songwriter espouses the similarities that run through seemingly varying cultures, this time with a gentle reminder that people the world over miss their mamas, worry about their children, and pray for peace and freedom. “Same Here” takes on deeper resonance near the end, which features an audio bit from a phone call between Paisley and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
It’s notable that the song, which Paisley co-wrote with Lee Thomas Miller and Dawes frontman Taylor Goldsmith, drops one year after Russia invaded Ukraine. Though the war is never directly mentioned, Zelenskyy speaks with pride about his country and his people, their hopes and dreams. While many will appreciate the unifying statement expressed here, no doubt some fans will still long for the clever turn-of-a-phrase songs such as his early career hits “Alcohol,” “Water” and “I’m Gonna Miss Her,” or thoughtful ballads like “Letter to Me.”
Brandy Clark & Shane McAnally, “Maybe Love”
The first preview of music from Clark and McAnally’s upcoming Broadway musical Shucked, which opens in April, this tender ballad looks at the concept of love as its own separate entity, one in need of nurture and grace. “Might get frozen in the frost, but maybe love is never lost,” Clark sings, accompanied by McAnally’s harmonies. In vocal and arrangement, “Maybe Love” feels akin to classic ’90s country ballads, and offers a soft-hearted, sonic palette cleanser to much of the country music landscape’s more polished current offerings.
Veronique Medrano, “Running on Empty”
In her new song, Medrano is weighed down by bills and heartbreak, but makes it clear she’s got the grit and inner determination to move forward and transform pain into power. “I followed the rules, colored inside the lines/ It’ll never heal this worn-out soul of mine,” she growls, her formidable voice bringing theatrical flair to the track, further elevated by pummeling percussion and sprightly horns.
Tenille Townes & Bryan Adams, “The Thing That Wrecks You”
This unexpected pairing winningly teams Townes’ tender-yet-sturdy vocal with Grammy winner Adams’ whispery rasp here, as they muse how quickly a fervent emotional attachment can descend into romantic fallacy. “We’re running down a darker road/ Where even angels fear to go,” they sing, on a track Townes co-wrote with Kate York and Daniel Tashian.
Channing Wilson, Dead Man
Wilson is known for writing songs recorded by Luke Combs, Riley Green, The Oak Ridge Boys, Chase Rice and more, but he’s also a vocal tour de force in his own right. His stone-cold country bonafides fill his debut album, Dead Man, including the tender “Crazy Over You,” and gravelly, despondent “Blues Comin’ On,” while he kicks up the tempo on the crunchy blues of the harmonica-laden “Runnin’ Down a Song.” In all, with songs like the swampy, gospel-tinged “Dead Man Walking,” the album is a surefire balm for those who like their country music organic and unvarnished.
Conner Smith, “Creek Will Rise”
Smith broke through with 2022’s “Learn From It,” but this swampy country-rocker of a song elevates his gritty, bluesy voice in a tale of passionate young love on the riverside. The track, written by Smith, Chris LaCorte, Chase McGill and Parker Welling and produced by Zach Crowell, is fueled by a bluegrass propulsion of dobro and fiddle, and features plenty of coy swagger on lines such as “We made a blanket out of that sundress/ And the radio won’t even let me tell you the rest.”
Taylor Austin Dye, “Rest in Peace”
Another entry in the canon of country music’s female artist-sung murder songs, this one from Kentucky native Dye offers a slab of sassy rhythm for a tale of a man whose abusive ways are taken down with some old-fashioned mountain justice, with no need for calling the police. Dye delivers it all with conviction.
What happens when two beloved legends meet for the first time?
“Well, it was more laughter than anything else,” Dionne Warwick says of meeting Dolly Parton. “We had a wonderful, wonderful meeting. It was as if we’d known each other for years.”
Though both women have been fans of each other’s work for many years, the occasion that finally brought them together was a video shoot for their new gospel duet “Peace Like a River.” Written by Parton and produced by Warwick’s son/manager Damon Elliott, the song is the first taste of Warwick’s forthcoming inspirational album, coming via Warwick and Elliott’s Kind Music Group.
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Parton and Warwick recorded their vocals for the single separately then met at Parton’s production facility outside Nashville to film the video. Sitting in a downtown Nashville hotel room for this interview, Warwick is both elegant and energetic — the excitement she feels over the collaboration with Parton is palpable.
“We were there to take care of our business, but along with that, we found time to not only smile but outright laugh,” Warwick says of the filming the clip, which was directed by Elliott and Nick Pres. “Dolly is very, very grounded — which I was thrilled about — but she’s also very business, which I happen to be about as well. So, it felt like two peas in a pod. It wasn’t like we were working at all. It was more like two friends meeting for lunch.”
“I was honored to get to sing with one of my idols, Dionne Warwick,” Parton said in a statement. “I have loved her since we were younger and getting to sing with her was one of the highlights of my career. I loved that she loved my song, and I loved singing it with her.”
Parton sent the song to Elliott in hopes that Warwick would be interested in recording it. When she heard it, she was immediately impressed by the lyrics and Parton’s vocals. “She asked if I’d like to do it as a duet. She’s testifying on this song, which she knows how to do,” Warwick tells Billboard of Parton’s fiery gospel delivery. “She felt that I was her voice of choice to do this with. She feels that the world needs it, as I do, and she said, ‘We’ve got a hit song.’ It’s so beautifully written. [These are] beautiful words to sing and I’m truly honored that she asked me to record it.”
Warwick plans to title her upcoming album Songs of Inspiration and is hoping to recruit Kirk Franklin, Donnie McClurkin and some of her other favorite gospel singers to participate in the project. The new album will be Warwick’s first inspirational collection since Why We Sing was released in 2008 on Rhino Records. “It’s so important for this time and so much needed,” Warwick says of releasing the inspirational set. “I don’t know what’s going on with our country.”
Though “Peace Like a River” marks Warwick’s first collaboration with Parton, Elliott recently produced another project involving the country icon when he recruited Dolly for “Gonna Be You,” a Diane Warren song performed by Parton, Cyndi Lauper and Belinda Carlisle featuring Gloria Estefan and Deborah Harry (which comes from the 80 for Brady movie starring Sally Field, Jane Fonda, Rita Moreno and Lily Tomlin). “Diane had this great song that she wrote, and she came to me and said, ‘I’m working on this song for this movie, and I want you to produce it,’” says Elliott, who produced Warren’s Oscar-nominated “Applause” from the film Tell It Like A Woman.
“It was a lot of fun,” Elliott says of working on “Gonna Be You.” “It took me back to when I produced ‘Lady Marmalade’ [with P!nk, Christina Aguilera, Lil’ Kim and Mya for Moulin Rouge!] many moons ago. Working with extraordinary talented artists — in this case living legends — is just something… I can’t put words to it.”
In addition to working on her upcoming inspirational album, Warwick and Elliott are co-executive producers for Hits! The Musical, a 50-city national tour featuring 29 young artists, ages 10 to 22, delivering 80 of America’s most iconic songs. Elliott is currently planning a Las Vegas residency for the show after the tour concludes.
When Elliott first became involved in the musical, he knew it would appeal to Warwick. “I called mom and said, ‘This is probably going to resonate with you,’ because she does stuff to help propel future artists,” he explains.
“Anything that has to do with kids, you’ve got me. Especially if it’s dealing with music, which I think I know a little bit about,” Warwick says with a smile. “It is absolutely phenomenal. The talent is enormous. They take five decades of music. Every time I think about it, I get tongue-tied. It’s something I think everybody should see.”
At 82, Warwick — whose Dionne Warwick: Don’t Make Me Over documentary recently hit HBO Max — shows no signs of slowing down. In addition to the new duet with Parton, touring the country, working on her inspirational album and co-executive producing Hits! The Musical, the five-time Grammy winner (who was honored with the lifetime achievement Grammy in 2019) is considered the “Queen of Twitter.” “After seeing some of the things that were being said on Twitter when I first got involved, [I thought] it’s time for a grownup to be present and let these kids know that there is another way to do all this,” Warwick quips.
She says she has no plans to retire anytime soon. “I’ve got a long, long time just to sit and be doing nothing,” she says. “I’m not ready for that yet.”
A year ago, country star Brad Paisley watched the news on television as Russian troops invaded Ukraine and, like many people around the world, he felt helpless at the images of people fleeing their homes.
“The world felt like it was in a new place that it hadn’t been in decades,” the three-time Grammy winner recalls.
On Friday (Feb. 24), the one-year anniversary of the war’s start, Paisley is releasing a new song called “Same Here,” featuring Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaking proudly about his country and people.
The song is Paisley’s first from his new record, Son of the Mountains, to be released later this year on Universal Music Group Nashville. The West Virginia native wrote the song with Lee Thomas Miller (co-writer on Paisley hits “The World” and “Perfect Storm”) and Dawes frontman Taylor Goldsmith. It’s a three-part narrative that reflects on universal similarities, despite distance and language.
While it doesn’t mention Ukraine specifically, the song ends with Paisley and Zelenskyy in conversation, recorded during a video call. Zelenskyy talks about Ukrainians’ desire for freedom, adding “There is no distance between our two countries in such values.”
“There’s just no differences,” Paisley told The Associated Press. “You can put us in different places with different flags and different languages, but we have so many similarities.”
Paisley is one of several celebrity ambassadors for Ukraine’s United24 crowdfunding effort, and has donated his time for other fundraising efforts to assist Ukrainians. But even he thought it would be a long shot to have the direct involvement of Zelenskyy, who has traveled the world advocating for Ukraine’s military and recovery efforts.
“I think he understands that art is how you reach the most people, especially in the heart,” Paisley said of Zelenskyy, who was an actor and comedian before becoming president. “He can give as many speeches as he can give, but it’s a lot easier to hear something with a melody maybe.”
Zelenskyy didn’t just sign off on the song; he also suggested some changes to it, Paisley said.
Paisley’s royalties for the song will be donated to United24 to help build housing for thousands of displaced Ukrainians whose homes were destroyed in the war, he said. Using his platform to advocate for causes important to him has always been part of his career, whether it was opening a free grocery store in Nashville with his wife, Kimberly Williams-Paisley, or fighting hunger by donating 1 million meals during the pandemic.
“I wouldn’t be able to sleep at night if I didn’t sort of swing for the fence with things like this,” Paisley said. “For me, I’m happiest dealing with stuff as a songwriter that’s very true and very, very passionate. And sometimes I don’t know if you’d call it risky, but it’s more like it’s bigger than me.”
Paisley brings his passion on stage during live shows. He’s been changing the lyrics to his hit song “American Saturday Night,” for instance, to replace a reference to the U.S.S.R. to “There’s a Ukrainian flag hanging up behind the bar.”
The new record will be his debut on UMG since moving from Sony’s Arista label, and he said “Same Here” reflects the kinds of big universal themes on it.
“We do deal with stuff going on in the world,” Paisley said. “How do you sing about things that are truly big — a big deal right now — that also don’t feel like maybe they’re the type of thing that you would be singing about typically? And yeah, on this album I have kind of really dug deep and tried to say something.”
Paisley, who has visited U.S. troops in Afghanistan, said he’s been invited to visit Ukraine, which he’d like to do. In the meantime, he hopes the song’s message will bolster the country now facing down year two of the war.
“That’s where it gets really rewarding… feeling like maybe the heart of this helps paint the picture they want to paint,” Paisley said.
UTA has added two new hires to its Nashville office, with Brian Hill joining as music agent and Jaime Roberts joining as tour marketing director.
Hill brings more than three decades of talent agency experience, including stints at Monterey Peninsula Artists/Paradigm and Creative Arts Agency (CAA). Hill has been named Pollstar‘s Third Coast Agent of the Year twice and has worked with artists including Eli Young Band, Aaron Lewis, Frankie Ballard and Home Free.
New York native Roberts launched her career in live entertainment by promoting live family entertainment experiences with Feld Entertainment, followed by more than a decade leading in marketing and promotions at Live Nation and The Bowery Presents for events in the New York and New Jersey region. Most recently, Roberts spent seven years in Austin, Texas, where she developed and executed multi-channel marketing campaigns for major touring artists with Messina Touring Group. During her time there, she led successful tour marketing efforts for artists including Shawn Mendes, Tim McGraw/Faith Hill, Little Big Town and Kelly Clarkson.
Over the past year, UTA Nashville has added Tyler Hubbard, Bobby Bones, Chris Janson, Parmalee, Dalton Dover and more to its roster and helped develop music newcomers including Megan Moroney, Alana Springsteen, Brittney Spencer and Chase Matthew.
“We are excited to have Brian and Jaime join us at UTA as we continue to expand and elevate the music department,” said UTA co-head of global music Scott Clayton in a statement. “Their decades of experience and stellar track record of going above and beyond for their clients make them perfect additions to our world-class team in Nashville.”
“I really do feel like it’s my best,” Dierks Bentley says of his upcoming 10th studio album, Gravel & Gold, which arrives Friday, Feb. 24 via UMG Nashville.
It’s the kind of platitude that artists often say with every new project they set out to promote. However, Bentley says it with the kind of steady confidence borne of the painstaking process of scrapping two previous album-making attempts in order to craft the new album, picking up portions of those previous projects and adding new songs and recordings.
“I feel like this is my best representation of the kind of country music I’m trying to do, the kind I’ve been trying to work on since I moved to town,” Bentley says.
The third attempt worked, resulting in an adept synthesis of the sleek, commercial country sounds that have permeated previous projects such as 2016’s Black, his ‘90s country influences, and the organic, bluegrass leanings that swathed previous projects including 2010’s Up on the Ridge (helmed by Jon Randall) and 2018’s The Mountain (Randall and Ross Copperman).
“All the pieces were there for the 10th project, and those earlier sessions were good, it just ultimately wasn’t right,” Bentley says. “I hadn’t been in the studio much, and I hadn’t been writing a lot of songs; I had taken a lot of time off during the pandemic. With every album, you gotta leave out some songs. It’s gonna hurt when you are going in there to make the final sequence — and it should be painful; it means you are cutting out good stuff to get to the best songs you can.”
Gravel & Gold marks Bentley’s first time as an album co-producer, working on tracks with Randall, Copperman and F. Reid Shippen.
The album is the result of Bentley falling back in love — with Nashville, with music — after a year spent living in Telluride, Colorado. Arizona native Bentley had been trying to find a respite from Nashville for 15 years, longing to spend more time out West, though his touring and recording schedule didn’t allow for it. In 2020, when tours shut down during the height of the COVID-19, pandemic, he relocated to Colorado for a year with his wife Cassidy and their three children, Evie, Jordan and Knox.
“I was really happy being out there, but when I came back to Nashville, I realized how much I love Nashville and how great the town has been to me — the history I have here, the friends I have here. It’s realizing that gravel can be gold; it’s just about your perspective on it and the way you look at it. That’s the underlying theme I had going into the making of the album, and certainly on that third go-around of making it. It felt like I settled back into Nashville.”
While other artists have used the pandemic become ever-more prolific in their songwriting, and issue multi-part albums, Bentley opted for a tightly-constructed project across a comparatively lean 14 tracks.
“I love that a lot of guys are putting out double and triple albums, but for me personally, I can’t consume much more than like 11 or 12 songs. But it’s a different world. I also see kids’ attention spans are so little these days — so it’s hard to get through a whole album, let alone a double or triple album.”
Taken together, the songs are a natural evolution for an artist who discovered his love of bluegrass while taking in countless shows at Nashville’s longtime bluegrass hotbed Station Inn and playing some of his earliest shows at Exit/In. He released his debut album in 2003 and earned a Country Airplay-topping hit with the sleek “What Was I Thinkin’.” In the 20 years that have elapsed, he’s become a consistent hitmaker (with 18 No. 1 Country Airplay hits), a 14-time Grammy nominee and an artist unafraid to take risks to follow his creative inclinations.
“Something Real” is straightforward about Bentley’s intentions for substantive music.
“I had ‘Gone’ and ‘Beers on Me’ on the radio, and those are fun songs that needed to be there at the time, coming through this whole pandemic, songs that feel good,” Bentley says. “But I really wanted to make an album that has great country songwriting that packs a whole lot of emotion, feeling and story into three minutes.”
The humor fans know from songs like “Drunk on a Plane” returns in the clever “Beer at My Funeral.” Meanwhile, a similar tone to Bentley’s 2013 hit “I Hold On” — which displayed a fierce loyalty to “dancing with the one that brought ya,” whether it be worn, lived-in trucks or guitars — permeates “Cowboy Boots,” featuring recent Grammy winner Ashley McBryde,
“Everyone loves Ashley McBryde,” Bentley says. “She’s a great singer, songwriter, a great personality. I was lucky enough to get to tour with her last year and just watch her command a stage every night. She has this great mix of rock, country and attitude. The first time I saw her perform, I was blown away by her whole deal.”
Bentley has utilized the music videos accompanying the songs on this album to spotlight music venues around Nashville, including Exit/In (“Same Ol’ Me”) and Robert’s Western World (“Cowboy Boots”).
“This album is all about returning to Nashville, with a new appreciation for all that we have here, that I’ve kind of taken for granted — places like Exit/In, Station Inn and Robert’s. Robert’s is one of my favorite bars — I used to go down there and watch BR-549, Brazilbilly, Wayne ‘The Train’ Hancock. It was nostalgic for me to go back to these venues where I cut my teeth.”
Reprising his previous bluegrass-centric work, Bentley pays homage to weed and bluegrass on the album’s closing track, “High Note,” while welcoming red-hot bluegrass picker Billy Strings, as well as a host of musicians including Jerry Douglas (dobro), Sam Bush (mandolin), Charlie Worsham (guitar) and Bryan Sutton (guitar/banjo). Since making his debut in 2017, Strings has risen from clubs to selling out a string of arenas on his current tour — a rarity for a bluegrass artist.
“I’m just lucky that I got the chance to meet [Billy] as he was coming up five or six years ago,” Bentley says. “His rise is unbelievable. Charlie Worsham wrote [“High Note”] and I wanted to have some bluegrass on this project. We cut it with drums and gave it a bit of a country-rock feel. It’s just a great collection of people coming together, playing on a fun song. I would love for that song to be a single on country radio, but I don’t know if it would work. It’s a great way to end the project and go out on a high note.”
The album’s blend of well-crafted songwriting across an array of styles from ‘90s honky-tonk, pop-country, and bluegrass leanings is uniquely positioned, given country music’s current sonic landscape. The highly produced works of Morgan Wallen top the country charts alongside the decidedly less-polished acoustic-rock works of Zach Bryan and the ‘90s country influence of Luke Combs, while Strings’ progressive bluegrass and Tyler Childers’ raw roots music draw ever-surging audiences, and Elle King powers her country-rock with banjo.
Though perhaps not reaching the threshold of a full-fledged bluegrass/roots music resurgence on the scale of 2001-2002 — spearheaded by the juggernaut soundtrack of O Brother Where Art Thou?, which dominated the charts alongside albums from Tim McGraw, LeAnn Rimes and Lonestar, while artists like Patty Loveless and Dolly Parton released acoustic albums and Nickel Creek won Grammys for their breakthrough album — hints of rootsier leanings are apparent. The landscape could be more akin to early 1980s, when two former members of Ralph Stanley’s Clinch Mountain Boys (Ricky Skaggs and Keith Whitley) went on have chart-topping country music careers.
In 2015, Bentley and his touring band delved deeper into his ‘90s country influences, often serving as tour openers for themselves via the side project Hot Country Knights, which released an album, The K Is Silent, in 2020. In recent months they have continued their bluegrass connection by launching bluegrass group Long Jon, with a slate of regular performances on the first Tuesday of each month at Station Inn.
“I think for me and the guys, it’s about chasing that first-time feeling again, musically,” Bentley explains. “With Hot Country Knights, it was scary, that first time walking on stage like that. I thought my whole career was gonna come to a crashing halt, but it ended up obviously being super fun. With Long Jon, I have a huge respect for the Station Inn stage. To me, the Station Inn is as important to Nashville as the Ryman. And I’m a little biased, but my band’s incredible and I’m so proud of them to be able to jump between all these different gigs. It keeps us all on our toes.”