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After months of slowly teasing fans with new music, Eric Church will return with his new album on May 2, when he releases Evangeline Vs. the Machine. The eight-song album marks his first release since 2021’s Heart & Soul triple project, and judging from the songs the upcoming album has already yielded, the project promises to be one of Church’s most creative and introspective to date.
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“An album is a snapshot in time that lasts for all time,” Church said in a statement. “I believe in that time-tested tradition of making records that live and breathe as one piece of art — I think it’s important. I’ve always let creativity be the muse. It’s been a compass for me. The people that I look up to in my career and the kind of musicians I gravitate to never did what I thought they were going to do next — and I love them for it. I never want our fans to get an album and go, ‘Oh, that’s like Chief or that’s like this.’ Painstakingly, I lose sleep at night to try to make sure that whatever we do creatively, they go, ‘Wow, that’s not what I thought.’ I think that’s my job as an artist.”
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As with his previous projects, the new album features a mix of solo writes and collaborative efforts. Church has writing collaborations with several top-shelf songwriters, including Casey Beathard, Scooter Carusoe and Luke Laird, while also contributing three solo writes.
The project’s lead radio single, “Hands of Time,” impacts country radio on March 24. “As I get older, I’m looking for things that make me feel not as old,” Church said of the song via a statement. “I can honestly say that when I hear music or see something from my past, I feel like I did then; I relate to what it was then. I really believe that a good way to handle that is with music.”
in February, Church previewed another song from the album, “Johnny,” at the Country Radio Seminar during the annual UMG Nashville showcase at the Ryman Auditorium. The song is a reinterpretation inspired by The Charlie Daniels Band’s “The Devil Went Down to Georgia,” and also inspired by the tragic school shooting at Nashville’s Covenant School in 2023.
The album also features “Darkest Hour,” which Church previously released to raise funds to aid those impacted by Hurricane Helene, with all of Church’s publishing royalties on the song going to aid those in his homestate of North Carolina.
The album closes with a cover of Tom Waits’s “Clap Hands.”
See the full tracklist for Church’s Evangeline Vs. The Machine below:
“Hands of Time” (Eric Church, Scooter Carusoe)
“Bleed on Paper” (Tucker Beathard, Casey Beathard, Monty Criswell)
“Johnny” (Eric Church, Luke Laird, Brett Warren)
“Storm In Their Blood” (Eric Church)
“Darkest Hour” (Eric Church)
“Evangeline” (Eric Church, Luke Laird, Barry Dean)
“Rocket’s White Lincoln” (Eric Church)
“Clap Hands” (Tom Waits)
Dolly Parton said she’s doing her best following the death earlier this month of her beloved husband of nearly six decades, Carl Thomas Dean. After a surprise appearance at the 40th season celebration at her Dollywood resort in Pigeon Forge, TN, last week, the singer spoke to Knox News about how she managing life without Dean, who died on March 3 at age 82.
“I’m doing better than I thought I would,” Parton said. “I’ve been with him 60 year. So, I’m going to have to relearn some of the things that we’ve done. But I’ll keep him always close.” Parton added that Dean — who was publicity-shy and more than happy to let his famous wife take all the spotlight over their long marriage — suffered “a great deal” near the end. “I’m at peace that he’s at peace,” she said of the love of her life, who she met when she was 18 and he was 23. “But that don’t keep me from missing and loving him.”
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Parton, of course, poured her grief out in the only way she knows how days after Dean’s death, releasing the moving ballad, “If You Hadn’t Been There,” an homage to the stoic support her husband offered her throughout their life together. “If you hadn’t been there/ Where would I be?/ Without your trust/ Love and belief/ The ups and downs/ We’ve always shared/ And I wouldn’t be here/ If you hadn’t been there,” Parton sings on the track.
“If you hadn’t been there/ Well, who would I be?/ You always see the best in me/ You’re loving arms have cradled me/ You held me close, and I believe,” she adds on the song before leaning into the loving chorus: “I wouldn’t be here/ If you hadn’t been there/ Holding my hand/ Showing you care/ You made me dream/ More than I dared/ And I wouldn’t be here/ If you hadn’t been there.”
In her trademark chin-up style, Parton told Knox that there is a “hole in my heart… but we’ll fill that up with good stuff and he’ll still always be with me.”
Though Dean was happy to stay off the radar, Parton also talked about how he loved visiting Dollywood, often standing in line to purchase his own ticket because “he didn’t want somebody giving him a ticket ’cause he was Dolly’s husband. Everybody thinks that’s the funniest thing.” In fact, he’d go alone, snack on funnel cakes and give his wife notes on improvements, saying things like, “‘You need more bathrooms’… or he would say, ‘You need to tell them this or that. It’s crowded over in that area. You might want to tell them they ought to do this or that.”
In his honor, Parton said she plans to hit up Dollywood and “do like Carl” and “walk around, look at everything.” The interview came after Parton made her first public appearance since Dean’s death on March 14, where she thanked Dollywood guests for their love and support.
As the Grand Ole Opry celebrates its 100th anniversary this year, the revered country music institution is celebrating its essential role in country music.
What became the Grand Ole Opry launched as the WSM Barn Dance in 1925, and has broadcast as the longest-running radio show in U.S. history.
The Grand Ole Opry currently has 76 members — and for artists at any stage of their careers, from newcomers to those who have been in the spotlight for decades, entering the membership ranks at the Grand Ole Opry has stood as a coveted career milestone. Those invitation moments often mean tears and speeches of awe and gratitude from the artists who are extended the invitation to join the Opry’s ranks.
When Carrie Underwood was formally inducted as a member by Garth Brooks in 2008, he told her, “Nothing will last as long or be more important than this award right here tonight.”
Each year, the Opry’s management team extends membership invitations to a handful of artists. According to the Opry’s website, consideration involves a number of factors, including radio airplay, music sales, touring, and industry recognitions. But beyond simply career stats, the Opry also seeks “a musical and generational balance,” as well as those with a passion for country music, and commitment to the Opry.
“The decision to bring a new act into the Opry fold is a two-pronged one, based on a combination of career accomplishment and commitment,” the Opry’s website states. “But, really, it comes down to just one word: relationships. The relationships between performers and fans. The relationships Opry members have with each other, relationships that may last for decades. And, perhaps most importantly, the relationship between each artist and the ideal of the Grand Ole Opry.”
The Opry’s most recently inducted members are Lainey Wilson, Scotty McCreery, T. Graham Brown and Stephen Curtis Chapman (each inducted in 2024), while the Opry’s oldest living member is Bill Anderson who, at age 87, has been an Opry member since 1961. Beyond solely artists, those in Opry membership also include comedians such as Henry Cho and Gary Mule Deer (both inducted in 2023), and musicians such as Country Music Hall of Fame harmonica player Charlie McCoy, who has been a mainstay in Nashville’s recording studios for five decades, and who served as the music director for the television show Hee Haw for nearly two decades.
Below, we look back at 10 memorable moments of artists being invited to join the Grand Ole Opry.
The Oak Ridge Boys
Variety is set to launch its first Power of Women: Nashville issue and event, bringing its Power of Women franchise to Music City to honor a slate of top women country artists and industry members.
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The May 1 event, in partnership with Lifetime, will celebrate the inaugural Power of Women: Nashville honorees, who will each appear on four separate covers of the issue, as well as women profiled in the annual Women’s Impact Report: Nashville, which will highlight the industry’s most philanthropic women who have made an impact through their work.
The Power of Women: Nashville event will honor artists Kelsea Ballerini, Mickey Guyton, Reba McEntire, and Lainey Wilson.
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Country Music Hall of Famer McEntire has earned 24 No. 1 Billboard Hot Country Songs hits and has forged a multi-faceted career that includes movies, television, music, Broadway, book deals, a clothing line and time as a judge on The Voice, among other initiatives. Wilson has earned entertainer of the year accolades from both the CMA and ACM, and released her latest album, Whirlwind, last year. She’s currently headlining her Whirlwind tour, with shows in Europe and North America. With her recent projects including the Grammy-nominated Rolling Up the Welcome Mat and her latest, Patterns, Ballerini has seen her career surge on the strength of heartfelt songs and energetic stage shows, with headlining concerts at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena, Knoxville’s Thompson-Boling Arena, and New York’s Madison Square Garden. Guyton recently released her latest album, House on Fire, and launched her first headlining tour last year, in addition to garnering an array of high-profile appearances in recent years, including performing the national anthem at the Super Bowl in 2022.
Nine-time Grammy winner Sheryl Crow will host the event, while actress and activist Ashley Judd will be on hand to introduce the upcoming four-part documentary The Judd Family: Truth Be Told, which will premiere on Lifetime on May 10-11, and will profile familial and personal connections within the Judd family, including Ashley, her sister Wynonna Judd and their late mother, Naomi Judd. In addition to her own solo musical career, Wynonna was also a part of the Country Music Hall of Fame duo The Judds with Naomi. In the 1980s, the duo earned 14 No. 1 Hot Country Songs hits.
As has been done with Variety‘s Power of Women celebrations in Los Angeles and New York, each honoree will bring awareness to a charity of their choice, with the publication making a donation to each charity as part of the event. Ballerini will honor the Feel Your Way Through Foundation, which helps nonprofits focused on mental health initiatives. Guyton has chosen to celebrate The Loveland Foundation, which seeks to give opportunities to communities of color, while Wilson will spotlight her own Heart Like a Truck Fund.
“The impact of these extraordinary honorees reminds us that true power lies in uplifting others and creating meaningful change,” Elaine Frontain Bryant, EVP and Head of Programming, A&E, Lifetime & LMN, said in a statement. “This year, as we bring Variety’s Power of Women to Nashville for the first time, we celebrate not only their achievements but also the power of storytelling, community, and advocacy. Lifetime is proud to continue shining a light on these remarkable women with Variety.”
Variety and Billboard are owned by parent company PMC.
As the Grand Ole Opry celebrates its centennial anniversary in 2025, the revered country music institution will highlight its 100-year history, as well as its present and future, on Wednesday (March 19) when Opry 100: A Live Celebration airs live on NBC and simulcasts on Peacock. The event will be hosted by 29-time Billboard Country Airplay chart-topper and Opry member Blake Shelton, who was inducted in 2010.
Ahead of the special, Billboard is exclusively premiering a first-look video with artists including Brad Paisley (inducted in 2001), Keith Urban (2012), Luke Combs and Kelsea Ballerini (both in 2019) wishing the Nashville staple a happy birthday and discussing the institution’s enduring impact on country music. The clip also features “I Was Country When Country Wasn’t Cool” hitmaker Barbara Mandrell (inducted in 1972) and “Mama Sang a Song” hitmaker Bill Anderson (inducted in 1961).
“You just walk into the Opry House and you feel the history and the richness of the stories and the people that have made country music what it is,” five-time Country Airplay chart-topper Ballerini says in the video.
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Elsewhere, the artists also displayed the close-knit camaraderie the Opry is known for, as they offered up good-natured jokes. “I think it’s great that Blake’s going to host the show,” Anderson says in the video, before adding with a chuckle: “And I look forward to just watching him sweat.”
Other artists who have notched enduring country hits spanning decades will also be included in the special, which will highlight nearly 50 official Grand Ole Opry members over the course of the three-hour show. Opry 100: A Live Celebration will also feature appearances from Alan Jackson, Alison Krauss & Union Station, Ashley McBryde, Carly Pearce, Carrie Underwood, Clint Black, Dierks Bentley, Garth Brooks, Jamey Johnson, Lady A, Lainey Wilson, Marty Stuart, Reba McEntire, Ricky Skaggs, Steven Curtis Chapman, Terri Clark, Trace Adkins, Travis Tritt, Trisha Yearwood, Vince Gill, Randy Travis and more. Other fan favorites — including Aloe Blacc with the McCrary Sisters, Amy Grant, Eric Church, Jelly Roll, Post Malone, The War And Treaty and Yolanda Adams — will also make appearances.
The upcoming special spotlights how the Grand Ole Opry, radio’s longest-running show and broadcast on WSM-AM, has evolved to become a multimedia, global juggernaut through the decades, reaching fans through not only radio, but television, social media and digital streaming platforms. Since launching in 1925, the Grand Ole Opry has called several Nashville buildings home, among them the Ryman Auditorium (from 1943-1974), and has called the Grand Ole Opry House home since 1974. The special will feature artist performances from both iconic venues.
“NBC is proud to continue expanding its commitment to the genre, offering both iconic performances that highlight the impact and relevance of country music,” Jen Neal, NBCUniversal Television and Streaming Exec. VP, Live Events & Specials, told Billboard in a statement. “Opry 100: A Live Celebration reflects country music’s enduring influence on the American musical landscape, and NBC is honored to be a platform for its continued growth.”
Opry 100: A Live Celebration airs on NBC and will stream on Peacock on Wednesday, beginning at 8 p.m. ET. The special marks NBC’s fourth live television event from Nashville in the past two years. The telecast will be executive produced by Silent House Productions’ Emmy Award winners Baz Halpin, Mark Bracco and Linda Gierahn, along with R.A. Clark and Steve Buchanan.
See the exclusive video below:
Morgan Wallen’s upcoming fourth studio album, I’m The Problem — the follow-up to his smash hit projects Dangerous: The Double Album and One Thing at a Time — is ready, according to the singer-songwriter.
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The East Tennessee native posted on his official Instagram on Friday (March 14), stating, “Album is officially done. More news for y’all next week, but here’s a clip of one that’s coming out soon.”
With that, he offered a teaser of the new song, titled “Just in Case.”
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Wallen has released several new songs in previewing his upcoming album, including the Billboard Hot 100 chart-topper “Love Somebody,” as well as “Lies Lies Lies,” “Smile” and the album’s title track. As with some of those previous outings, his newly previewed song delves into coping with heartbreak and wrestling with the complicated, heart-wrenching process of trying to move on.
“I ain’t sayin’ that I always sleep alone, I ain’t sayin’ that I ain’t met no one else/ Done a little bit of midnight movin’ on, and I ain’t sayin’ when I do that it don’t help,” he sings, before the song’s lyrics later laments never letting oneself fully depart from the longing for an ex-lover.
“I never let my heart go all the way, every time I try I just hit the brake…I never fall in love, baby, just in case,” the song snippet continues.
Wallen’s upcoming album has plenty of milestones to live up to. Wallen’s Dangerous: The Double Album spent total 10 weeks atop the all-genre Billboard 200 chart, while is successor One Thing at a Time, spent 19 total weeks at the chart’s pinnacle. To date, Wallen has earned a trio of Hot 100 chart-toppers, and 16 Country Airplay chart hits.
The upcoming album shares its name with Wallen’s 2025 tour, which launches June 20 at NRG Stadium in Houston, Texas. The tour will include visits in Seattle, Washington; Foxborough, Massachusetts; Toronto, Ontario and more, and will feature a rotating roster of guest artists including Brooks & Dunn, Miranda Lambert, Thomas Rhett and Koe Wetzel, with direct support from Gavin Adcock, Corey Kent, Ella Langley and Anne Wilson as first-of-three across select dates.
Prior to the tour, Wallen’s inaugural Sand in My Boots Festival is set to take place May 16-18 in Gulf Shores, Alabama.
Listen to Wallen’s teaser of “Just in Case” below:
Blake Shelton is set to release his new album, For Recreational Use Only, on May 9. The project will mark Shelton’s first album under BBR Music Group/BMG Nashville.
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The dozen-song album spotlights songs from several top-shelf country songwriters, including Sarah Buxton, Zach Crowell, Greylan James, Shane McAnally, Pat McLaughlin and Bobby Pinson. The project also features Shelton in collaboration with fellow artists including wife Gwen Stefani, John Anderson and Craig Morgan.
“It’s been a long time since we had a new album out, and I want to thank the songwriters and musicians who helped bring this record to life,” Shelton said in a statement. “[Producer] Scott [Hendricks] and I have been working on this music for years, and I’m beyond excited to finally share it with the fans.”
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Gearing up for the album, Shelton follows his current Billboard Country Airplay top 15 hit “Texas” with the new song release, “Let Him In Anyway,” which offers the spiritual-minded tale of someone pleading for divine forgiveness for a friend who never fully went all-in on redemption.
“‘Let Him In Anyway’ is one of the most powerful songs I’ve ever had the chance to record,” Shelton said in a statement. “Hardy is a co-writer and a friend, and I’ve never heard a song like this before. When I first listened to it, I knew it was something special. It’s an honor to bring it to life, and I’m incredibly proud of the record we made.”
Shelton is currently leading his sold-out Friends & Heroes Tour, with the country star joined by artists including Morgan, Deana Carter, Trace Adkins and Emily Ann Roberts.
See the tracklist for For Recreational Use Only below:
“Stay Country or Die Tryin’” (Drew Parker, Graham Barham, Sam Ellis, Beau Bailey)
“Texas” (Johnny Clawson, Kyle Sturrock, Josh Dorr, Lalo Guzman)
“Hangin’ On” (feat. Gwen Stefani) (Sam Ellis, Charles Kelley, Greylan James)
“Strangers” (Michael Hardy, Zach Crowell, Jameson Rodgers)
“Let Him In Anyway” (Michael Hardy, Zach Abend, Kyle Clark, Carson Wallace)
“Heaven Sweet Home” (feat. Craig Morgan) (Chris Tompkins, Sarah Buxton, Jake Rose)
“Life’s Been Comin’ Too Fast” (Craig Wiseman, David Lee Murphy, Lindsay Rimes)
“Don’t Mississippi” (Shane McAnally, Ross Copperman, Ben Hayslip, Josh Osborne)
“All of My Love” (Colton Swon, Zach Swon)
“Cold Can” (Bobby Pinson, Josh Osborne, Andrew DeRoberts)
“The Keys” (Jay Brunswick, Brock Berryhill, Bobby Pinson)
“Years” (feat. John Anderson) (Pat McLaughlin, John Anderson, David Ferguson, Daniel Auerbach)
Country Music Hall of Fame duo Brooks & Dunn has rescheduled its concert that had been slated for Thursday night (March 13) at United Supermarkets Arena on the campus of Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas, after an explosion in a tunnel apparently sparked fires around the campus on Wednesday evening, leading to power outages […]
On his new album, Lonesome Drifter, out Friday (March 14), Charley Crockett traverses new career territory while simultaneously nodding to his roots.
In the past near-decade, the prolific Crockett has released 13 albums, each on his independent label Son of Davy and nine of them in conjunction with Thirty Tigers. For Lonesome Drifter, which he recorded over a 10-day span at Los Angeles’ Sunset Sounds Studio, the fiercely independent-minded Crockett made a major career shift, signing with UMG’s Island Records.
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“The last few years, all the majors started calling,” he tells Billboard, noting that he nearly signed with Columbia Records at one point, given that it had been at points the home of two of his musical icons, Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash.
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But he says Island Records understood what he was seeking in a label partner. “It’s been a process in the past few years of seeing labels realize that if you don’t do a licensing deal with my company, or my friends’ companies, we’re just not going to do [the deal],” Crockett says. “Island agreed to all the things I was looking for, which was I wanted to maintain ownership and have creative control.”
Crockett has spent years building his reputation as a musician’s musician, an artist fueled by creativity and fashioning songs that mirror the lives and stories he sees around him, while also nodding to a deep understanding of the ties and history connecting country, folk, blues and more. In making the choice to sign with Island, he also wanted to make sure he wasn’t erecting creative boundaries in his career.
“Island wasn’t like, ‘Hey let’s take this thing to Nashville and focus on Nashville radio,’” he says. “I didn’t want to be stuck in that because I’ve always felt the thing in Nashville was ‘He’s too country,’ or ‘He’s not country enough.’ No matter who I was dealing with in Nashville, that was always the viewpoint. Not to be controversial here, but I’ve been around a long time and seen a lot of back rooms in Nashville and the money’s still coming from New York — just like Willie [Nelson] and Waylon [Jennings] figured out.
“[Island Records co-chairman/co-CEO] Justin Eshak, he did the whole deal, got all the paperwork, we signed the deal and everything, and they had never heard the [Lonesome Drifter] record,” Crockett continues. “It was like, ‘Look at these records we put out before it. If you like those records, then you’ve got nothing to worry about.’”
To commemorate the release of the new album, and the new label deal, Crockett has been giving away 100,000 copies of a four-song CD sampler at locations around the United States, including at 200 record stores across the country, at SXSW and the Houston and Austin Rodeos, and at Luck Reunion and the Luck Record Club. The choice brings him full circle — as a decade ago, he handed out 5,000 free copies of his self-released 2015 A Stolen Jewel.
“It was my wife’s idea. She’s a lot smarter than I am,” Crockett says, his grin audible as he gives credit for the Lonesome Drifter giveaway to his wife Taylor. “She mentioned it had been 10 years, and was like, ‘Let’s remind them how you did it. Let’s do 100,000 instead of 5,000.’ We went to the Universal building and Taylor threw that idea out in front of Island and they said, ‘It sounds like a hip-hop model,’ and when I say hip-hop, I mean DIY. And they weren’t scared of it.”
Crockett co-produced Lonesome Drifter with singer-songwriter-producer Shooter Jennings, son of Waylon Jennings and Jessi Colter. One of the songs released from the album, “Game I Can’t Win,” inspired by the work of Woody Guthrie, looks at greed from an underdog’s perspective. He takes a shot at Music City on the line, “Them boys in Nashville, they don’t mess around/ Better watch ’em when your deal goes down.”
“The phrase ‘I always love a game I can’t win’ came into my head, because it’s true,” he says. “The thing about America is: No matter what background people are coming from, people feel that it is rigged, that the cards are marked in advance. I think people feel that. When I think about parlor games, think about casinos — we know when we walk into a casino that the game is set up for the house to win, but even with all the odds stacked against you in America, you can win as hard as it is, as rigged as it is, as much favor for a favor [that] there is. For me personally, being from South Texas, I feel that you can win, and I think that’s at the heart of all Americans, that’s kind who we are.
“’I Can’t Win,’ a lot of it is two songs jammed together,” he continues. “When I put them in front of Shooter, he made me see how Willie and Waylon and them were doing. Willie was really good at taking what looked like two totally different sketches and making them one. Shooter helped give some context to that for me to finish some songs.”
“Easy Money” was inspired in part by the 1969 movie Midnight Cowboy, taking in the story arc of a Texan who seeks his fortunes in New York. Crockett began writing a freehand poem as he watched the movie. “I also remembered this person, a friend’s sister, who started dancing at a gentlemen’s club, Silver City in West Dallas. It all hit me, this idea of ‘easy money,’ but if you’re poor, there’s no such thing as easy money.”
The album closes with a cover of George Strait’s 1982 hit “Amarillo By Morning,” written by Terry Stafford and Paul Fraser in 1973. Before Strait’s version became prominent, Stafford released a version of the song in 1973, while Chris LeDoux recorded it as part of his 1975 album Life as a Rodeo Man.
“I’m a huge Terry Stafford fan,” Crockett says. “I knew all of George Strait’s songs when I was a kid, and ‘Amarillo by Morning’ was always a favorite. I thought, ‘I’m going to recut this. It’s 40 years old.’ But when I told Shooter about it in, I second-guessed myself and was like, ‘Never mind. They are going to judge the s–t out of me. George Strait owns that song.’ But Shooter’s heart was set on it and we did cut it. When I sing [songs like his own] ‘$10 Cowboy,’ it’s like, ‘I’m not George Strait. I’m not a rodeo guy.’ [But the “Amarillo by Morning” lyric] ‘I’m not rich, but Lord, I’m free,’ that’s how I live my life. I wake up every morning and I’ve got more responsibility than I ever did, but I know I still have that freedom of choice.”
Crockett was born in San Benito, close to the Texas-Mexico border, before his family moved to the Dallas-Fort Worth area (he also spent summers with family in New Orleans). He grew up soaking in an array of music, including Jennings, Nelson, Curtis Mayfield and ZZ Top, in addition to folk-troubadours like Dylan and Guthrie.
“I went to New York City because of this idolizing of what I heard or read about that scene in NYC that Bob took that folky thing in the village and took it to the world,” Crockett says. “Looking back now, there was a lot of darkness with that, and I couldn’t live there. I did learn that New York is the empire, the heart of the empire and if you try to get on top of the empire and stay on top, it can destroy you. That concrete jungle is so big. We got offered so many record deals, management deals, all that kind of s–t on those subway cars…one positive thing that’s changed about the business [is] there’s a lot of artists out there and they’re just amplifying what they are doing when they discover ‘em.”
He continued busking his way across the country, playing on the streets of California, Colorado and Paris, France, before making his way back to Texas. Along the way, he offered listeners CDs out of his guitar case, on the advice of other, more seasoned transient performers.
“If I was staying with someone, I would record the songs that I knew real quick with the built-in microphone on their laptop and then burn those onto CDs,” he says. “I’d wrap those up in colorful ads and magazines and sell them for $5,” he says, recalling that “the amount of money people threw in my case increased overnight — I realized I looked more legitimate.”
He had handed one of those CDs to Turnpike Troubadours lead singer Evan Felker outside of Gruene Hall in New Braunfels, Texas. The CD made its way into the hands of Turnpike’s booking agent Red 11 Music, Jon Folk (Red 11 Music was acquired by WME in 2023. Crockett is represented worldwide for booking by CAA). The Folk connection led to Crockett previously aligning with Thirty Tigers.
“The good thing about the way I did it, is I made a lot of records really cheaply with [Thirty Tigers’ co-founder/president David] Macias over the course of those seven, eight years, that allowed me to develop my sound,” Crockett says.
As his sound solidified, his prominence has grown. Crockett has continued putting in the time in both the studio and the road, playing over 100 shows over the past year. He’s been nominated for numerous Americana Honors & Awards and was named emerging artist of the year in 2021. Last year, he earned his first Grammy nomination, as his 2024 $10 Cowboy release was nominated for best Americana album.
His Island Records debut Lonesome Drifter comes not quite eight months after $10 Cowboy Chapter II: Visions of Dallas. The frequent releases Crockett has become known for serve as needed deadlines to help drive the singer-songwriter’s creativity.
“One of the reasons I record so often is because I’m really good at starting songs, but I’m not always great at finishing them, if I don’t have pressure,” Crockett says. “I need a bunch of pressure and not a lot of time, so booking studio sessions is how I finish songs.”
And there are more on the way — Crockett says Lonesome Drifter is the first in a trilogy of projects, noting, “I just got the second one done, and I’ve got the theme and sketch of the third one done.”
Throughout his career, 91-year-old music icon Willie Nelson has been known to highlight the music catalogs of other artists and songwriters, including Frank Sinatra, Cindy Walker, Kris Kristofferson and Ray Price.
Nelson’s upcoming Legacy Recordings album Oh What a Beautiful World, out April 25, will highlight the songwriting compositions of another lauded singer/songwriter and fellow Texan: Rodney Crowell.
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The dozen-song album, Nelson’s 77th solo studio project, finds the prolific artist offering fresh interpretations of songs written or co-written by Crowell, and reunites Nelson with longtime producer Buddy Cannon.
Crowell himself trades vocals with Nelson on the album’s first release and title track to the project. “Oh What a Beautiful World” appeared as the closing song on Crowell’s 2014 album Tarpaper Sky. Nelson first recorded one of Crowell’s compositions in 1983, and most recently recorded Crowell’s songs for his 2024 album The Border, including the album’s title track (written by Crowell and Allen Shamblin) and “Many a Long and Lonesome Highway,” written by Crowell and Will Jennings.
The album also features instrumentation from Bobby Terry (acoustic guitar, steel guitar, electric guitar), James Mitchell (electric guitar), Jim “Moose” Brown (B-3 organ, piano, Wurlitzer), Mickey Raphael (harmonica), Fred Eltringham (drums, percussion) and Glenn Worf (bass, upright bass), alongside background vocals by Wyatt Beard, Buddy Cannon and Melonie Cannon.
Crowell formed the band The Cherry Bombs in the 1970s, then went on to gain acclaim as an artist and songwriter, releasing his 1978 debut album Ain’t Living Long Like This, while also writing or co-writing songs that became hits for artists including Highway 101 (“Somewhere Tonight”), Gary Stewart, Emmylou Harris, Jerry Jeff Walker and Waylon Jennings (who each recorded versions of Crowell’s “Ain’t Living Long Like This”), and Emmylou Harris and the Oak Ridge Boys (who both recorded “Leaving Louisiana in Broad Daylight”). Crowell’s “Song For the Life” has been recorded by John Denver, Jennings and Alan Jackson, while Keith Urban recorded Crowell’s “Making Memories of Us,” while Tim McGraw covered Crowell’s “Please Remember Me.” “Shame on the Moon” became a hit for Bob Seger and his Silver Bullet Band.
In 1988, Crowell’s album Diamonds & Dirt notched five consecutive Hot Country Songs chart No. 1 singles, including “It’s Such a Small World” (with Rosanne Cash), “I Couldn’t Leave You If I Tried,” “She’s Crazy For Leavin’,” the Grammy-winning “After All This Time” and “Above and Beyond.” The album was also nominated for album at the year at the CMA Awards. Crowell earned another Grammy for best Americana album in 2013 for his album Old Yellow Moon. In 2006, he also earned a lifetime achievement award in songwriting from the Americana Music Association.
