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As the final nominees for the 58th Academy of Country Music Awards were announced Thursday (April 13), there were the usual number of expected names, as well as a handful of surprises and snubs.
The eligibility period for nominations ran Nov. 16, 2021-Dec. 31, 2022. The ceremony will stream live on Amazon’s Prime Video from Frisco, Texas, on May 11.
Here is a look at some of the year’s notable surprises and snubs.
Snub: Jelly Roll swept the CMT Music Awards earlier this month, and given how ascendent his star seems to be, it was shocking that he didn’t nab a single nomination — not even for new male artist of the year, which is overstuffed with six acts. Jelly Roll, who broke Billboard’s record for number of weeks at No. 1 on the Emerging Artists chart in February when he hit 25 weeks, also seemed like a contender for a song of the year nod after his confessional “Son of a Sinner” hit No. 1 on the Country Airplay chart.
Surprise: Jason Aldean is no stranger to the winner’s circle, having taken home 15 ACM Awards, including artist of the decade in 2018. He’s even won entertainer of the year before three consecutive years, 2015-17. However, he had fallen out of the category after 2018 and makes a return for the first time in five years this year for his only nomination.
Snub: Maren Morris had a solid six-year run of female artist of the year nominations — including winning at the 2020 ceremony — but her streak is broken this year, perhaps because she is off album cycle. The ACMs have shown her plenty of love in the past, as she’s taken home six trophies over the last several years in a number of categories.
Surprise: Prolific songwriter Ashley Gorley has more than 50 No. 1s to his credit, so his inclusion for penning a song of the year entry is no surprise. However, he pulls off a hat trick, capturing three nominations in the category for co-writing Chris Stapleton’s “You Should Probably Leave,” Cole Swindell’s “She Had Me at Heads Carolina” and Morgan Wallen’s “Sand in My Boots.” He is the only non-performing songwriter to ever land a trio of songs in the category in one year. Songwriter/artists Merle Haggard and Kris Kristofferson achieved the feat in 1968 and 1971, respectively.
Surprise: Cole Swindell has received only two ACM nominations in his career, including for new artist in 2015, which he won. He’s making up for lost time this year with five nominations, including song and single of the year for “She Had Me at Heads Carolina.”
Snub: Similar to Maren Morris, Thomas Rhett has been a contender for six years running — in this case for male artist of the year — but he drops off the list this year. He’s not completely shut out, however, as he earns a nomination for song of the year as a co-writer on “She Had Me at Heads Carolina.”
Surprise: Not only is Kane Brown one of the leading nominees with five nods, but a very pleasant surprise is that he scores two nominations for the first time — including the prestigious entertainer of the year. It marks the first time in 50 years that a biracial or Black artist has been nominated in the category since Charley Pride in 1972. Brown, who previously won video of the year for “Worldwide Beautiful,” also snags his first male artist of the year nomination.
Singer-songwriter Granger Smith‘s upcoming summer tour will be his last. Smith recently took to social media to announce that following the tour, he will be leaving his country music career behind to pursue a career in ministry.
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“I have felt a strong desire to pursue ministry,” he told fans via social media on Tuesday. “This doesn’t mean I’m going to start a church or a crusade, or a revival. It means me and my family are going to serve our local church. We’re going to pour into that church as members, and have my pastors and elders pour into me and disciple me and teach me, as I sit under their wise teaching. Hopefully one day they can affirm me into the next steps of what that might look like, to glorify God best from my platform.”
Smith added that he has been pursuing a master’s degree at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. “This is a time of growing and learning for me…that may explain to some of you why I may have seemed distant, especially to music, lately,” he said.
In the caption for the video, Smith wrote, “I am so encouraged and hopeful and excited and joyful about the next chapter, but to a large extent, I have no idea what it will look like. I just want to glorify God the best way that I can.”
Smith earned a No. 1 hit on Billboard‘s Country Airplay chart in 2016 with “Backroad Song” and a top 10 hit on the same chart in 2017 with “If the Boot Fits.” “Backroad Song” was also honored with a BMI Award in 2016.
On Aug. 1, Smith will release the book Like a River: Finding the Faith and Strength to Move Forward After Loss and Heartache, which offers a look into how Smith and his family relied on their faith as they navigated grief and healing after the death of his 3-year-old son River, who drowned in a swimming pool accident in 2019. Granger and his wife, Amber, are also parents to daughter London and sons Lincoln and Maverick.
Smith’s farewell Like a River Tour will launch April 13 in Wisconsin and will run through Aug. 26 in Texas.
Luke Combs covers one song on his new LP, Gettin’ Old: Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car.” The 1988 original, which Chapman wrote solely, won the Grammy Award for best female pop vocal performance and sparked her coronation as best new artist.
Combs is clearly getting fans up to speed on “Fast Car,” as his version cruises from No. 14 to No. 10 in its second week on Billboard’s streaming-, airplay- and sales-based Hot Country Songs chart (dated April 15), becoming his 19th top 10.
On the Billboard Hot 100, it zooms 44-32 in its second frame.
Combs’ interpretation drew 11.1 million official streams (up 27%) and sold 6,000 downloads in the United States March 31-April 6, according to Luminate.
(Chapman’s original was up 22% to 3 million in radio airplay audience and 5% to 2.5 million streams in that span.)
Gettin’ Old spends a second week at No. 2 on Top Country Albums, with 54,000 equivalent album units, after launching with 101,000 units.
Combs supporters who have been to his live shows won’t be surprised about his update of “Fast Car,” as it’s been a fan favorite among his setlists.
While the song isn’t a radio single, some country stations are giving it airplay, one being Audacy’s WPAW Greensboro-Winston Salem, N.C. “Luke’s take on ‘Fast Car’ is a gift to the original fans – the ones that instantly fell in love with him early on,” program director Clay Walker tells Billboard. “No doubt if you paid to see him in the clubs around North and South Carolina, you know that. Even though his version stays true to the Tracy Chapman original, he really is thanking his foundational fans with this.”
The song’s crossover appeal is also evident in SiriusXM’s support: Country channel The Highway is playing Combs’ cover, as is pop-focused TikTok Radio.
Combs isn’t the first artist to gas up a charted rendition of “Fast Car.” Jonas Blue’s version, featuring Dakota, hit No. 7 on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs, as well as No. 98 on the Hot 100, in 2016.
Those remakes mark the two that have hit the Hot 100 since Chapman took the original to No. 6 in August-September 1988. Until this week, the composition last ranked in the chart’s top 40 (at No. 39) on the list dated that Oct. 1 (as Bobby McFerrin’s “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” breezed to a second week at No. 1).
While country artists aren’t exactly known for redoing pop hits, a few have charted highly since the late ‘80s. Rascal Flatts’ repaved “Life is a Highway” reached No. 18 on Hot Country Songs in 2006, after Tom Cochrane’s original hit No. 6 on the Hot 100 in 1992.
Mark Chesnutt scored his most recent of eight Hot Country Songs leaders with his version of Aerosmith’s “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing” in 1999. Aerosmith’s recording of the Diane Warren-penned ballad debuted atop the Hot 100 and dominated for four frames in 1998.
In the mid-‘90s, country artist John Michael Montgomery and pop/R&B vocal group All-4-One shared hits simultaneously: In 1994, “I Swear” was a Hot Country Songs No. 1 for the former and an 11-week No. 1 Hot 100 smash for the former. A year later, “I Can Love You Like That” became another Hot Country Songs No. 1 for Montgomery and a No. 5 Hot 100 hit for All-4-One.
Back to the late ‘80s, Rosanne Cash’s update of The Beatles’ “I Don’t Want to Spoil the Party” became her most recent of 11 Hot Country Songs No. 1s, in 1989. The Lennon-McCartney original reached No. 39 on the Hot 100 for the Fab Four in 1965 (as the B-side of “Eight Days a Week,” which hit No. 1).
Stephen Colbert took aim at Kid Rock‘s transphobic response to trans activist Dylan Mulvaney’s team-up with Anheuser-Bush’s Easy Carry Contest in the cold open to Tuesday night’s (April 11) The Late Show in a parody ad for “Shaft Beer.”
The piece began with a brief bit of news footage of the backlash against the beer giant issuing a personalized, commemorative gift can for influencer Mulvaney. It then cut to the now-infamous video posted by Rock in which he attempted to obliterate 12-packs of Bud Light with a semi-automatic rifle.
“Are you tired of woke beer that blurs gender lines?” a manly voiceover asks amid images of a rainbow Bud Light float at a gay pride event in the Colbert video. “Want to drink the beer that you were assigned at birth? Then reach for Shaft Beer, the only brew that comes in a can shaped like a penis so you know just who it’s for,” it continues as manly men grab a hold of the cans and raise the hyper-masculine brew to their lips.
“Pop one open and put it in your mouth,” the narrator encourages amid an image of two dudes hanging out around a grill with their fingers wrapped tightly around the phallic cans. “Shaft harkens back to a golden time when men knew how to do man stuff, like grab-a–ing in the shower. So tug on a Shaft today.”
And, if that’s too much for your beer gut, the fake promo adds another option: Shaft Light. “It’s the same beer, but in a can the size of Kid Rock’s penis,” it promises of the two-inch mini version.
Though Rock never mentions Mulvaney (or the word “trans”) in his video, the brew-ha-ha appears to have been kicked off earlier this month when transgender TikTok star and social media influencer Mulvaney shared a video of herself participating in Bud Light’s Easy Carry Contest for the end of the NCAA’s March Madness. In the clip, she revealed that the company helped her celebrate her “365th day of womanhood” with “possibly the best gift ever” — a commemorative can of Bud Light with Mulvaney’s face on the side.
Bud Light parent company Anheuser-Busch told Billboard in a statement that the commemorative cans bearing Mulvaney’s face are “not for sale.” That didn’t stop right-wing commentators and country stars including Travis Tritt and John Rich from saying that they would boycott the many products from the world’s leading beer seller, which also include the brands Busch, Stella Artois, Michelob Ultra, Hoegarden and dozens of others.
Colbert also hit on the topic in his monologue, alluding to the raft of “toilet stuff” Republican lawmakers have been laser focused on lately as conservative politicians in Iowa, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Tennessee have passed bills addressing bathroom use for trans people amid other attacks on the rights of trans people.
He also mentioned a recent anti-trans bill in Florida, noting that Republican lawmaker Webster Barnaby referred to living in a society with trans people as akin to watching an X-Men movie earlier this week. “It’s like we have mutants living among us on planet Earth,” Barnaby said in a hearing. “We have people that live among us today on Planet Earth that are happy to display to display themselves as if they were mutants from another planet. This is the planet Earth!”
Colbert noted that the X-Men are from planet Earth. “Second, if you are against trans people, why would you compare them to incredibly cool superheroes with laser eyes, indestructible skeletons or who control the weather with sexiness?” he wondered. “Most importantly, the entire message of all these movies is that society should accept everyone, no matter their differences.”
Colbert also said that late Marvel genius Stan Lee said that he created the X-Men characters as a metaphor for civil rights, and that the franchise is explicitly a “gay-rights parable.” The host, who played a clueless conservative blowhard for a decade on The Colbert Report, then reported that “right-wing nutjobs” are not just focused on bathrooms, but also on beer.
He ran a headline showing some conservatives calling for a boycott of Bud Light over its celebration of Mulvaney, then doubled down on Rock’s video. “The charge was led by conservative thought leader Kid Rock,” he said before playing the video again and adding that Texas congressman Dan Crenshaw also tried to “get in on the dumb” with his own viral video attempt.
In Crenshaw’s case, though, the video didn’t mean what he thought it meant. The former Navy SEAL tried to prove his anti-Bud bona fides by saying that he was going to throw out every Bud Light in the house. After fumbling around and failing to find a Bud in his mini fridge, though, Crenshaw mumbled, “Well, I guess that was easy.” Colbert then cited some internet sleuths who saw some Karbach beers front and center in the shot — like Bud and Bud Light, Karbach is made by Anheuser-Busch.
Check out the Late Show videos below.
The late Kenny Rogers‘ first posthumous album, Life Is Like a Song, is set to release June 2 via UMe.
Rogers, who notched a successful career in pop music with the band First Edition in the 1960s and then transitioned into a solo country music career that ultimately earned him membership into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2013, died on March 20, 2020, from natural causes at the age of 81.
Life Is Like a Song marks the first non-holiday studio album from Rogers in a decade, and his only non-compilation/non-reissued full-length album to be released on vinyl since 1991. The project will include songs that were deeply personal to the late singer-songwriter, and will be available digitally as well as on CD and vinyl.
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Curated and executive produced by Rogers’ widow, Wanda Rogers, the album includes eight never-before-heard recordings, spanning from 2008 to 2011. A digital deluxe version of the project will include two bonus tracks: a cover of the classic “At Last,” and the Buddy Hyatt-penned original “Say Hello to Heaven.”
“I think the record is fabulous, and it is going to make Kenny so proud,” said Wanda Rogers via a statement. “These songs are such a beautiful reminder of his love ‘for the feelings a song can make’ for a person. He would often say that he wanted his songs to be ‘what every man wants to say, and every woman wants to hear.’ I think there are a lot of those moments on this album. This is a very special record to me and our family because it really tells the story of our life together, and I feel his fans will also relate to it in a big way because it walks the listener through the seasons of life that we all experience in one way or another. There is joy, there is love, there is family, there is uncertainty, there is pain, there is faith … it’s emotional and real. This is the kind of music Kenny loved to make.”
Two songs from the album are available now for streaming: “Love Is a Drug,” co-written by Rogers’ longtime musical partner and former New Christy Minstrels bandmate Kim Carnes, as well as Rogers’ rendition of The Temptations’ hit “I Wish It Would Rain.”
The album also features a collaboration between Rogers and his longtime friend and collaborator Dolly Parton, who together notched the enduring hit “Islands in the Stream.” In the mid-aughts, they teamed up again for “Tell Me That You Love Me,” produced by Tony Brown. The song originally appeared on a 2009 compilation.
The album also includes Rogers’ rendition of the Lionel Richie-penned song “Goodbye,” which also previously appeared on the same 2009 compilation. The album also features Rogers’ rendition of Eric Clapton’s “Wonderful Tonight,” while “Am I Too Late,” originally recorded for Rogers’ 1977 album, Daytime Friends, gets reimagined as a duet with Kim Keyes.
Perhaps the fulcrum of the album is the previously unreleased “Catchin’ Grasshoppers,” a tribute to Rogers’ twin sons with his wife, Justin and Jordan. Written by Laura McCall Torno and Earl Torno, with production work from Rogers and Randy Dorman, the song honors Rogers’ children and the memories he made with them.
See the tracklist for Life Is Like a Song below:
“Love Is a Drug”
“I Wish It Would Rain”
“Am I Too Late” (with Kim Keyes)
“Tell Me That You Love Me” (with Dolly Parton)
“Straight Into Love” (with Jamie O’Neal)
“Wonderful Tonight”
“Catchin’ Grasshoppers”
“That’s Love to Me”
“I Will Wait for You”
“Goodbye”
Amazon Music will serve as the exclusive streaming home for this year’s Stagecoach Festival, which takes place April 28-30 in at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, Calif.
The livestream will be available on the Amazon Music channel on Twitch and Prime Video, starting at 3 p.m. PDT each day, courtesy of sponsors T-Mobile, Magnum Ice Cream and finance company SoFi.
As part of the build-up to the Goldenvoice-presented festival, Amazon will release Amazon Originals from a number of artists preforming at the event, including BRELAND’s reimaging of his track “Happy Song” featuring Danielle Bradbery, and Luke Grimes’ cover of Blaze Foley’s “Clay Pigeons.”
Among the other acts playing the 15th edition of Stagecoach are Chris Stapleton, Jon Pardi, Kane Brown, Lainey Wilson, Luke Bryan, Old Dominion, Gabby Barrett, Brooks & Dunn, Diplo, Bryan Adams, Jackson Dean, Priscilla Block, Keb’ Mo’ and Bailey Zimmerman.
Once on site, Kelly Sutton and Amber Anderson, hosts of Amazon Music’s Country Heat Weekly podcast, will interview participating artists from the Amazon Music backstage set.
Amazon Music will also host the Amazon Music Live lounge, located in the vendor area. The air-conditioned lounge will include charging stations and behind-the-scenes content broadcast on a jumbo screen.
In addition to seeing Yellowstone star Grimes perform, Stagecoach will provide an ever bigger Yellowstone tie in as the Dutton Ranch from the Paramount Network’s hit show will be transported to the desert. Fans will be able to play in a Yellowstone cornhold competition, as well as purchase items from a Yellowstone Airsteam pop-up shop.
Morgan Wallen simultaneously tops the Billboard Artist 100, Billboard Hot 100 and Billboard 200 charts (dated April 15), ruling as the top musical act with both the No. 1 song and album in the United States for the second time in his career.
Wallen is now the eighth artist to spend multiple weeks leading the Artist 100, Hot 100 and Billboard 200 charts at the same time.
Wallen first tripled up atop the three tallies dated March 18, as his LP One Thing at a Time launched atop the Billboard 200 and its single “Last Night” hit No. 1 on the Hot 100. The set scores a fifth week at No. 1 on the latest Billboard 200 with 173,000 equivalent album units earned (March 31-April 6), according to Luminate, while “Last Night” rebounds for a second week atop the Hot 100.
Most Weeks Simultaneously Leading the Artist 100, Hot 100 & Billboard 200 Charts
16, Drake
15, Taylor Swift
9, Adele
5, The Weeknd
2, Ariana Grande
2, Ed Sheeran
2, Harry Styles
2, Morgan Wallen
1, Beyoncé
1, Justin Bieber
1, BTS
1, Camila Cabello
1, Future
1, Kendrick Lamar
As Wallen’s “Last Night” returns to No. 1 on the Hot 100 for a second total week on top, it becomes the first song by a male artist and no accompanying acts to have notched multiple weeks at No. 1 on the Hot 100 and the Hot Country Songs chart, where it claims a ninth week on top, since Glen Campbell’s “Rhinestone Cowboy” in 1975. Wallen places 12 songs on the latest Hot 100, after simultaneously charting a new one-week record 36 songs on the survey dated March 18, all from One Thing at a Time.
Wallen has now spent 11 total weeks at No. 1 on the Artist 100, extending his record for the most among core country acts.
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.
The Grand Ole Opry has revealed eight artists chosen to take part in this year’s Opry NextStage program, marking the largest class in the program’s history.
The 2023 class members are Ashley Cooke, ERNEST, Jackson Dean, Chapel Hart, Corey Kent, Kameron Marlowe, Megan Moroney and Ian Munsick.
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ERNEST released the deluxe version of his Flower Shops album earlier this year, and earned a top 20 Billboard Country Airplay hit with the Morgan Wallen-featured title track. Jackson Dean’s debut single, “Don’t Come Lookin’,” reached the top five on the Country Airplay chart, while Moroney‘s “Tennessee Orange” currently sits at No. 17 on the same chart. Kent’s single “Wild as Her” resides at No. 8 on the Country Airplay chart.
Familial trio Chapel Hart, known for its performances on America’s Got Talent, will release its debut album Glory Days on May 19. Meanwhile, Munsick just released his new album, White Buffalo, which includes collaborations with Cody Johnson, Vince Gill and Marty Stuart.
The Grand Ole Opry will officially introduce the new NextStage class with an Opry NextStage Live concert at Lava Cantina in Colony, Texas, on May 10 at 2:30 p.m., leading up to the 58th annual Academy of Country Music Awards on May 11. The Opry NextStage Live concert will air live on Circle Network. Following the show, the artists in the Opry NextStage program will be featured throughout the year, with original Opry content, performances on the Grand Ole Opry and support across the Opry Entertainment platforms, including WSM Radio and Circle Network.
“Opry NextStage is a testament to the Grand Ole Opry’s longstanding reputation as a trusted curator in Country music and its commitment to nurturing and showcasing exceptional new talent, as it has done for almost a century” said Jordan Pettit, director of artist relations and programming strategy of Opry Entertainment Group. “This year’s new artist class, much like previous classes, showcases exceptional creativity across various musical styles, and we are excited to carry on the Opry tradition by introducing this exciting group of rising artists to fans.”
Tickets will be available through an exclusive pre-sale beginning Thursday, April 13, at 10 a.m. CT. General public on-sale will begin Friday, April 14, at 10 a.m. CT via Eventbrite.
The Opry NextStage program launched in 2019 and has featured artists including Lainey Wilson, Morgan Wade, Elvie Shane, Yola, Breland, Parker McCollum and Riley Green.
The Grand Ole Opry has made strides in offering its platform to highlight a range of new artists, from welcoming more than 100 artists to make their Grand Ole Opry debut performances in 2022, to making a minority investment with country music website Whiskey Riff and playing a role in the inaugural People’s Choice Country Awards, slated to air Sept. 28 at 8 p.m. ET/PT across NBC and Peacock, live from the Grand Ole Opry stage.
Brothers Osborne unleash a trio of new tracks this week, while Tanya Tucker celebrates her upcoming Country Music Hall of Fame induction with a first glimpse into her upcoming album. Meanwhile, Aaron Crawford nods to his trusty six-string companion, and Ray Fulcher and Tenille Arts team for an ode of gratitude.
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Brothers Osborne, “Nobody’s Nobody,” “Might as Well Be Me” and “Rollercoaster (Forever and a Day)”
Hitmakers and critical darlings Brothers Osborne team with a new producer, Mike Elizondo, as they return with a trio of gut-punching tracks, marking their first music since the deluxe version of their Skeletons album. “Nobody’s Nobody” is a heartening track that nods to the fact that everyone makes an impact on somebody. “Some people never ever make a name/ But change the game in someone’s story,” TJ sings, backed by John’s bluesy guitar work.
“Might as Well Be Me” is a careening barn burner, with a rollicking groove every bit as impressive as the duo’s previous hit “It Ain’t My Fault,” while maintaining that “Somebody’s gotta shake things up… might as well be me.” Notably, they change gears on the piano and string-led ballad “Rollercoaster,” delving into a romance between two emotional polar opposites and the balance they each bring to the relationship. These well-grounded tracks are a promising glimpse into their upcoming album.
John King, “Make More Time”
King has already proven his sturdiness as a songwriter (through penning songs including Randy Houser’s “We Went”) and an artist (via his 2021 album Always Gonna Be You). But in his latest, he ponders the gravitas of everyday moments — a childhood birthday, or a phone call with an octogenarian loved one — in light of mortality. King’s supple vocal can ride the smooth tenor notes before breaking into a baritone just raspy enough to capture the longing and resignation in the line, “I can make a little money on the side/ But damn, I can’t make more time.”
Tanya Tucker, “Kindness”
Newly minted Country Music Hall of Fame inductee-elect Tucker wasted no time capitalizing on the announcement of her upcoming inclusion into country music’s most coveted membership, announcing her new album, Sweet Western Sound, to arrive June 2. As with many tracks on her previous effort, the Grammy-winning While I’m Livin’, the first taste of her upcoming project, “Kindness,” finds Tucker reflecting on her sinuous life journey, along with the lessons learned through the zeniths and hollows.
“I found glory in the ruins of the best-laid plans,” she ruminates triumphantly on this track, written by twin musician-writers Tim and Phil Hanseroth (known for their work with Brandi Carlile, who co-produced Sweet Western Sound with Shooter Jennings). Beyond the reflection, she pleads for kindness and understanding, and with her signature vocal, Tucker delivers.
Aaron Crawford, “Strings of This Guitar”
Northwest native Crawford telegraphs a nod to his constant companion of “wood and wire,” a well-worn six-string guitar that “took me on a winding road that dreamers understand,” on this tale of ambition-fueled perseverance. Along the way, his notes his trusty guitar has not only served as a bolster for his voice, but a salve for onstage loneliness and anxiety. The woozy, emotional ties depicted within should resonate with any number of musicians and artist-writers.
Chase Matthew, “Come Get Your Memory”
With his latest, Matthew aims squarely for the country/rock and bro-country-tinted amalgam dominating country streaming charts at the moment. In this track Matthew wrote with Casey Brown and Jordan Minton, he faces a home filled with his ex’s memories and begs to her to take them, along with everything else she took when the relationship fizzled. The radio-ready “Come Get Your Memory” is the title track to Matthew’s upcoming debut album for Warner Music Nashville, a 25-song sprawl out June 9.
Nicholas Jamerson, “Billy Graham Parkway”
Sinewy guitar fills this stately-sounding track, which ponders the greed and emptiness in the years and months leading up to a three-car pileup on Billy Graham Parkway. “Was the money you made worth the price that you paid/ Selling Jesus on cable TV?” Jamerson sings pointedly on this track, which was written by Jamerson’s late friend, Allun Cormier. The song takes its name from a stretch of road in Charlotte, North Carolina named for the evangelist Billy Graham. Jamerson’s upcoming album, Peace Mountain, releases May 19.
Ray Fulcher with Tenille Arts, “After the Rain”
The multi-talented Fulcher is known in songwriting circles for contributing to a range of hit songs for artists including Luke Combs (“When It Rains It Pours,” “Does to Me”) and as an artist on his own project Spray-Painted Line. Here, he teams with “Somebody Like That” hitmaker Tenille Arts for this earnest ode of love and gratitude for someone who “picked up the pieces when my heart was breaking/ since you showed up nothin’s been the same.” Their vocal interplay is terrific, with Arts’ penetrating soprano balancing Fulcher’s warm baritone. Fulcher wrote the song with AJ Pruis and Matt Jenkins, together crafting a song that serves as a balm of gratitude in a divisive age.
Remy Garrison, “As I Go”
While numerous country songs amount to little more than a list of nostalgic country “bona fides,” Alabama native and Nashville resident Garrison distills a list of her own — namely, a rundown of lessons she’s learned about love. “Don’t let a fool kiss ya/ Don’t let a kiss fool ya,” and “Don’t shop for white on an empty heart,” are a few of of the hard-fought gems Garrison advises, on this track written by Adam Wood, Lena Stone and Taylor Watson. Garrison is known for her previous single releases such as “Anymore” and “Young and Restless,” but this release further showcases her ear for sturdy songcraft and interpretive talents.
The modern country music business is putting a little of the western back into country & western.
The C&W phrase was dismissed years ago: The Recording Academy dropped “Western” from its category names in conjunction with the 1968 Grammy Awards, and the Academy of Country Music snipped the “& Western” from its organizational banner in October 1973. But there is a noticeable western resurgence taking place.
Former rodeo pro Cody Johnson is becoming a consistent trophy-winner, Jon Pardi and Midland represent western fashion and attitudes, and Dierks Bentley draws frequently on his Arizona roots for storylines that reflect the atmospheric heritage of his home state and regional sister Colorado. Extending the trend, Wyoming native Ian Munsick’s second Warner Music Nashville album, White Buffalo, incorporates lonesome steel, cowboy imagery and Amerind-flecked musical grounding.
“A lot of people still view cowboys and Native Americans as enemies because that’s what Hollywood has shown us over the years,” Munsick notes. “But they live hand in hand and they’re actually the same people, so there’s a lot of Native American influences on my album.”
Lainey Wilson is particularly bringing the West to life with her current single, “Heart Like a Truck,” which won a CMT Award on April 2 for its horse-themed video, while the song is also featured in a horsepower-themed Ram Trucks commercial. Given her role in the Paramount+ series Yellowstone, it’s no surprise that Wilson sees that series as a strong driver in the trend.
“I don’t know why western ever went out of style to begin with,” she says.
For years, the cowboy was a dominant figure in entertainment. Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, Tex Ritter, Rex Allen and The Sons of the Pioneers were among the singing cowboys who kept the tumbleweeds rolling on the silver screen. Even when western vocalizing fell out of favor, cowboy dramas remained plentiful on the big screen and on TV, where over 100 westerns landed on network schedules in the ’50s and ’60s, including Gunsmoke, Big Valley, Rawhide and The Cisco Kid. Marty Robbins kept western tones alive on country radio even after they had left movie theaters, fashioning classic cowboy songs such as “El Paso,” “Big Iron” and “Cowboy in the Continental Suit.”
Miranda Lambert’s Palomino single “If I Was a Cowboy” obliquely referenced him with the phrase “big iron hips.”
“I love westerns, and I’m a huge Marty Robbins fan,” says co-writer Jesse Frasure (“Dirt on My Boots,” “What’s Your Country Song”). “Any of that kind of stuff and those melodies, I’m always a fan of doing.”
Los Angeles’ country/rock movement, which occurred during Robbins’ peak years, likewise threaded cowboy ideals into the Stetson, cactus and “Desperado” themes and images of The Flying Burrito Brothers, Eagles, The Byrds and Poco. That era, which brought an adult viewpoint to the pop and rock music that preceded it, is celebrated in the aptly timed Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum exhibit “Western Edge.”
“They wanted to write songs that were about home, about love, about relationships as modern relationships were at the time,” museum writer-editor Michael McCall says. “They wanted to take it away from the sort of rock’n’roll fantasy stories and make it about real stuff.”
Like those acts, Tanya Tucker sees no-nonsense characters as a major part of western standards. Revealed April 3 as a 2023 Hall of Fame inductee, Tucker counts the cowboy-themed “Texas (When I Die)” and “It’s a Cowboy Lovin’ Night” among her hits, and her next album, Sweet Western Sound, is due June 2.
“I’m into real shit,” she says. “The difference between a cowboy story and a fairy tale is a fairy tale starts out with ‘Once upon a time,’ and to me, a cowboy story starts out with ‘This ain’t no [phony] shit.’”
Unreality is a major function of modern life. The rise of artificial intelligence is just the latest entrant alongside deep fakes, programmed sound and video games — all of which represent some level of virtual mimicry. As a tonic, the physical work and outdoor lifestyle associated with the cowboy are likely a major attraction behind the resurgence of the West.
“I think the further we get into the future, and our society is so reliant on screens and technology, that we really want to go back to the old ways of life,” suggests Munsick. “That’s living under the stars and having free range to roam around in. That’s what the West offers.”
That creates a certain dichotomy in the current trend. Kassi Ashton, who inserted what she calls a “spaghetti western” steel guitar into her single “Drive You Out of My Mind,” sees the cowboy ideal being applied to small-screen social media.
“The trending aesthetic for this summer is coastal cowgirl,” she notes. “That’s all over TikTok, and it’s crazy how trends happen. You get into a whole discussion why. I think that inflation-wise and everyone being broke right now being tied to a Western, simple, coastal, rustic thing is not a coincidence.”
This wave is not likely to inspire country music to reestablish the dated country & western brand. Back in 1980, the genre rode the Urban Cowboy movement for a year or two before it petered out. But it does hint at a reexamination of ideals, both in the arts and in humanity.
In the end, the West is less about the lasso, the six-shooter or the Stetson than it is about integrity and trustworthiness, Wilson maintains. As well as dogged individualism.
“My daddy is a real-life cowboy,” she says. “He stands up for what he believes in. Don’t take no shit.”
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