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Tim McGraw fans are swooning over the country star’s cover of a Shania Twain staple from the ’90s this weekend.
As Twain released her sixth studio album, Queen of Me, on Friday (Feb. 3), McGraw took to Instagram to share his acoustic version of the ballad “You’re Still the One,” Twain’s 1998 country-pop hit that was No. 1 on Billboard‘s Hot Country Songs chart and peaked at No. 2 on all-genre Hot 100 that year.
“@bobminner and I had some fun covering this @shaniatwain classic a few weeks ago,” McGraw captioned the clip. “Always been a big fan… can’t wait to listen to the new album!!”
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McGraw’s smooth performance caught the attention of Twain, who commented, “Gorgeous!!”
“Gonna need y’all to record that one!” actress Octavia Spencer chimed in, adding several fire emojis to her comment.
Queen of Me, led by the singles “Waking Up Dreaming” and “Giddy Up!”, is Twain’s first album with Republic Nashville. She’ll be a presenter at the 2023 Grammy Awards on Sunday (Feb. 5).
Watch McGraw’s “You’re Still the One” performance below.
Morgan Wallen’s new album, One Thing at a Time, is a family affair.
His sister Ashlyne and his two-year-old son, Indie, both participated in the making of the 36-track set, which Wallen and producer Joey Moi previewed in Los Angeles on Feb. 3. The project comes out March 3 via Republic/Mercury Big Loud, while his last album, Dangerous: The Double Album, still sits in the top 10 of the Billboard 200 chart 107 weeks after its release.
Ashlyne, who is 15 months younger than Wallen, sings harmony on “Outlook.” “We’ve always been super, super tight,” Wallen said. “We grew up in church singing hymns and stuff and learning how to harmonize with each other and sing three-part harmony.” The song, Wallen says, is one of the first he ever wrote and addresses faith, “so it seemed appropriate from everything that we grew up learning and everything that we lived through together.” He also wanted his youngest sister, Mikaela, on the record, but she had just given birth so the timing didn’t work out.
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Wallen’s son, Indie, who was born in July 2020, was a frequent studio visitor. “He started coming in there and banging on guitar strings and, you know, delete songs for Joey and stuff like that,” Wallen said with a laugh. “But honestly, he brought a lot of joy into the room. He brought a new energy that we hadn’t had in there before.” By the end of the recording, Indie was frequently in Moi’s lap at the console, turning knobs.
The pair spent four months in the studio and while the intention wasn’t to surpass Dangerous’s 30 tracks, “the songs just kind of naturally came in,” said Wallen, who co-wrote 14 of the songs.
“It seemed like the more we cut, the more songs would show up,” said Moi. “So it just kept piling up,” he said, adding that at one point they cut the track list down from 42 songs.
The playback included 11 tracks bookended by album opener “Born With a Beer In My Hand” and album closer “Dyin’ Man.” Wallen has already released three tracks, “Last Night,” “Everything I Love” and “I Wrote the Book.”
The album brings in Wallen’s musical influences spanning country, alternative and hip-hop. From the songs played, the three influences subtly intertwine with each other through rap beats and rock guitar work. Wallen also talked about his biggest inspirations in each of the genres, including country superstar Eric Church, who appears on the record, alternative act The War on Drugs and rapper T.I.
Wallen’s studio involvement has become greater with each set. “The first record, in a budding career [from a] new artist is weird, you kind of get stripped of all your time to make the record, so we really panicked our way through that one,” Moi says. “He was on tour, and then we would cut the songs together in the studio, and then he’d go off on tour. I’d squirrel away and work on the music getting ready for him to come back. He’d sing like six songs in one day. It was that process. Second record, we were able to engineer the calendar a little better but he was still heavy in obligations [but] he was present for way more than the first record. This one I feel like we nailed the calendar, and he was there for every moment of it. It was amazing having him in the room the whole time with me.”
Morgan Wallen’s One Thing at a Time track listing (songwriters listed in parentheses): 1. “Born With a Beer In My Hand” (Morgan Wallen, Zach Abend, Michael Hardy)2. “Last Night” (John Byron, Ashley Gorley, Jacob Kasher Hindlin, Ryan Vojtesak)3. “Everything I Love” (Morgan Wallen, Ashley Gorley, Ernest Keith Smith, Ryan Vojtesak) Contains interpolation from “Midnight Rider” written by Gregg Allman, Robert Kim Payne4. “Man Made a Bar” (Feat. Eric Church)(Rocky Block, Jordan Dozzi, Larry Fleet, Brett Tyler)5. “Devil Don’t Know” (Travis Denning, Jared Mullins, Ben Stennis)6. “One Thing at a Time” (Ashley Gorley, Ernest Keith Smith, Ryan Vojtesak, Morgan Wallen)7. “’98 Braves” (John Byron, Josh Miller, Travis Wood)8. “Ain’t That Some” (Chris LaCorte, Chase McGill, Josh Miller, Blake Pendergrass)9. “I Wrote The Book” (Morgan Wallen, Michael Hardy, Cameron Montgomery)10. “Tennessee Numbers” (Jordan Minton, Blake Pendergrass, Travis Wood)11. “Hope That’s True” (Morgan Wallen, Ernest Keith Smith, Ryan Vojtesak)12. “Whiskey Friends” (Morgan Wallen, Ashley Gorley, Jonathan Hoskins, Ernest Keith Smith, Josh Thompson, Ryan Vojtesak)13. “Sunrise” (John Byron, Blake Pendergrass)14. “Keith Whitley” (Thomas Archer, Brad Clawson, Jared Mullins)15. “In the Bible” (Feat. HARDY) (John Byron, Jeff Garrison, Jon Hall, Ben Johnson, Geoffrey Warburton)16. “You Proof” (Morgan Wallen, Ashley Gorley, Ernest Keith Smith, Ryan Vojtesak)17. “Thought You Should Know” (Morgan Wallen, Nicolle Galyon, Miranda Lambert)18. “F150-50” (Jared Mullins, John Pierce, Ben Stennis)19. “Neon Star (Country Boy Lullaby)” (Morgan Wallen, Ernest Keith Smith, Josh Thompson, Ryan Vojtesak)20. “I Deserve A Drink” (John Byron, Devin Dawson, Jacob Durrett, Hillary Lindsey)21. “Wine Into Water” (John Byron, Matt Jenkins, Blake Pendergrass)22. “Me + All Your Reasons” (Morgan Wallen, Ashley Gorley, Ernest Keith Smith, Ryan Vojtesak)23. “Tennessee Fan” (Morgan Wallen, Ashley Gorley, Michael Hardy, Mark Holman)24. “Money on Me” (Michael Lotten, Blake Pendergrass, Matt Roy)25. “Thinkin’ Bout Me” (John Byron, Ashley Gorley, Taylor Phillips, Ryan Vojtesak)26. “Single Than She Was” (John Byron, Ben Johnson, Ryan Vojtesak)27. “Days That End in Why” (John Byron, Blake Pendergrass, Driver Williams)28. “Last Drive Down Main” (Jerry Flowers, Ryan Hurd, Michael Lotten)29. “Me to Me” (Morgan Wallen, Ashley Gorley, Ernest Keith Smith, Ryan Vojtesak)30. “Don’t Think Jesus” (Jessi Alexander, Mark Holman, Chase McGill)31. “180 (Lifestyle)” (Rocky Block, Ashley Gorley, Mark Holman, Blake Pendergrass, Ernest Keith Smith, Ryan Vojtesak) Contains interpolation from “Lifestyle” written by Arsenio Archer, London Holmes, Dequantes Lamar, Bryan Williams, Jeffery Williams32. “Had It” (Rocky Block, Alex Eskeerdo Izquierdo, Ryan Vojtesak)33. “Cowgirls” (feat. ERNEST) (Rocky Block, Ashley Gorley, James Maddocks, Ernest Keith Smith, Ryan Vojtesak)34. “Good Girl Gone Missin’” (Morgan Wallen, Ashley Gorley, James Maddocks, Ernest Keith Smith, Ryan Vojtesak)35. “Outlook” (Morgan Wallen, Rodney Clawson, Jeff Hyde)36. “Dying Man” (Ben Johnson, Blake Pendergrass, Josh Thompson)
Shania Twain‘s new album Queen of Me finally arrived on Friday (Feb. 3). To celebrate, the country singer appeared on The Kelly Clarkson Show, during which she revealed that the album track “Inhale/Exhale AIR” was inspired by a private struggle with COVID-19.
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“I affectionately call the song ‘Air.’ With everyone suffering from COVID…it’s such a respiratory infection that can really take your life very quickly,” Twain told the American Idol alum. “I won’t get into it, but when I was released from the hospital, the first thing I did was write down a list of things that air gives us. Obviously life, but I’m thinking, ‘OK, cheer yourself up. What does air give us that is very celebratory?’”
She continued, “I’m thinking champagne bubbles, balloons! With the air we can sail, we can fly, we can fly a kite. We have all these lovely things to celebrate about air. So I wrote that song. What are you going to do without that air? ‘Inhale, Exhale.’ That’s the most inspired song on the album.”
“Inhale/Exhale AIR” follows Queen of Me‘s self-love theme. Twain took to Instagram on album release day to share her excitement and her hopes for its listeners.
“I am absolutely thrilled to announce that my new album, Queen Of Me, is now yours 🥰 I wrote this album from a place of feeling good within myself – I wanted music that got me up dancing and lifted my spirits!” the 54-year-old wrote. “I think the fact that I recorded this album with so many good hearted and talented people only amplified that! I hope the album brings you joy and empowers you to feel good in your own skin!”
Watch Twain talk about “Inhale/Exhale AIR” on The Kelly Clarkson Show in the video above.
It’s officially February, and as we turn the page on a new month, we’ve got a whole batch of new music to soundtrack the lead-up to Valentine’s Day. And Billboard wants to know: Which release are you loving the most?
More than half a decade after 2017’s Now, Shania Twain reasserts her claim to the country-pop throne with her new album Queen of Me. Preceded by singles “Waking Up Dreaming” and “Giddy Up!,” the new studio set also lifts the icon’s title track to her 2022 compilation Not Just a Girl (The Highlights) and incorporates the anthemic single into its 12-song track list.
Meanwhile, GloRilla feeds the haters and calls out the fakery in all our social media feeds on her delicious new single “Internet Trolls.” “Watch out for them internet trolls/ They be tryna satisfy them internet goals/ You just got locked up ’cause the internet told/ Fake it ’til you make it, that’s the internet code,” she spits on the Hitkidd-produced track.
There’s also RAYE, who caps off a long and arduous music industry journey of the past few years by finally releasing her debut album 21st Century Blues. “Please get nice and comfortable and lock your phones, because the story is about to begin,” she declares at the top of the independent studio set, which arrives on the heels of her U.K. No. 1 hit “Escapism” featuring 070 Shake and also contains highlights like “Oscar Winning Tears,” “The Thrill Is Gone” and the Mahalia-assisted “Five Star Hotels.”
Plus, Morgan Wallen previews the massive 36-song track list of his upcoming album One Thing at a Time with a trio of new tunes; Karol G and Romeo Santos team up for the Spanish-language “X Si Volvemos”; and more.
Vote for your favorite new release of the week in Billboard‘s poll below.
First Country is a compilation of the best new country songs, videos & albums that dropped this week.
Dierks Bentley with Ashley McBryde, “Cowboy Boots”
“They ain’t broke in until they’ve broke a few horses and some hearts,” Dierks Bentley sings in this sentimental ode to trusty, dusty old boots. Joining Bentley is is another superb, rootsy-warm vocalist, Ashley McBryde. Together, they bring all out the best nuances in this track, which is included on Bentley’s upcoming album Gravel & Gold, out Feb. 24.
Shania Twain, Queen of Me
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Shania Twain returns with the album Queen of Me, her followup to 2017’s Now. Here she nods to the current culture’s fervent nostalgia for ’90s music — both pop and country. With three top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 (“You’re Still the One,” “That’ Don’t Impress Me Much,” “From This Moment On”), Twain has been one of the foremost architects of the ear-catching, euphoric pop-country blend, and brings to this new project a continuation of the peppy, empowering messages (see songs such as inescapably danceable “Giddy Up!” and “Not Just a Girl”), layered over staunchly pop productions that legions of fans have come to expect. Given her battle with health issues including Lyme disease and dysphonia, Twain’s vocal does sound different than her projects from the mid-’90s, but she uses her voice’s newly gritty texture with great impact, as it lends an added toughness to her defiant, triumphant storylines such as “Brand New” and “Queen of Me.”
Morgan Wallen, “Everything I Love”
Leading up to the March 3 release of his upcoming massive, 36-track album One Thing at a Time, Wallen released three new songs this week: “Last Night,” “Everything I Love” and “I Wrote the Book.” “Everything” is the most traditional country of the three, holding on to his country/rock/hip-hop hybrid, while incorporating a ’70s Allman Brothers vibe — and the the lyrics offer a direct nod to the Brothers’ classic “Midnight Rider” on the lyric, “We were listenin’ to ‘one more silver dollar’/ Hanging out in my Silverado.”
Corey Kent, “Man of the House”
Kent follows his radio hit “Wild as Her” with this moody, autobiographical track about a boy forced to grow up a little too fast, trying to “fill shoes that ain’t my size” in order to make up for the hole left by an absent father. The memories and inner struggle tumble out as his voice runs the gamut from subdued and husky to an angsty near-scream as the memories and inner struggles tumble out, before he muses that now grown up and a father, he’s still “a boy trying to be the man of the house.” A solid showcase of Kent’s maturing acumen as a songwriter and vocal interpreter.
4Runner, “Ragged Angel”
This group first signed with Polydor in 1995, released their debut track “Cain’s Blood” and earned followup hits. Years later, they disbanded to raise their respective families. But now, they return with their first release in nearly two decades, on a reimagined version of a song they first released in 2004 — and a new baritone singer, with lead singer Craig Morris’ son Sam. In that time, it’s clear the group’s Eagles-esque, full-bodied harmonies are perfectly intact on this uplifting and buoyant track, which feels like a perfect throwback in an era filled with nostalgia for 1990s and 2000s country sounds.
Charles Wesley Godwin, “The Jealous Kind”
Godwin’s scruffy voice offers bone-baring honesty on this cover of Chris Knight’s “The Jealous Kind,” accompanied by cool piano licks and haunting bass lines. He and his band kick up the tempo, leaning into the urgency reverberating through the song’s storyline, detailing a guy outrunning the law to reach his wayward lover.
“I never drove two days through the pouring rain just stopping for coffee and gas,” he sings. “Never outrun the law on the interstate/ Didn’t know this thing’d go that fast … but there’s always a first time.”
Throughout his six-plus decades in country music, Bill Anderson has been lauded for his considerable talents as both an artist and a songwriter, with more than 30 top 10 Billboard Country Songs hits to his credit as an artist, including seven chart-toppers. As a songwriter, he’s seen his songs recorded by artists including George Strait, Brad Paisley, Aretha Franklin, James Brown and Dean Martin.
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But even as a member of the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Country Music Hall of Fame, the 85-year-old Anderson is still notching career firsts. Leading into Sunday’s (Feb. 5) Grammy Awards, Anderson is celebrating his first Grammy nomination as an artist, as “Someday It’ll All Make Sense (Bluegrass Version)” earned a nomination in the best American roots performance category.
The nomination is Anderson’s fifth overall Grammy nomination, with his four previous nominations stemming from his skill as a songwriter. He was the sole writer on Connie Smith’s 1964 hit “Once a Day” and Porter Wagoner’s “Cold Hard Facts of Life,” which were each nominated for a Grammy in the best country & western song category. His work as a co-writer on Steve Wariner’s “Two Teardrops” and George Strait’s “Give It Away” earned nominations in the same category, after it was renamed best country song.
“I knew I had Grammy nominations for writing. I have never won one. It’d probably be my last shot at it,” he says with an unassuming chuckle, seated at a table in his business office just outside of Nashville.
Anderson recalls playing the song for Sony Music Publishing Nashville CEO Rusty Gaston: “I didn’t even tell him I was going to play it, and he didn’t know Dolly was involved. He’s sitting there listening to it and of course, I sing the first verse of the song myself. When Dolly’s voice came on, he was like, ‘A Grammy!’ So he believed in it from the beginning.”
“Someday It’ll All Make Sense,” which Anderson wrote with Bobby Tomberlin and Ryan Larkins, is featured on Anderson’s most recent album, As Far as I Can See: The Best Of, which released in June on MCA Records/Ume.
As Far as I Can See is also the title of his current exhibit on display at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, detailing Anderson’s journey from being the 19-year-old disc jockey in Georgia who wrote “City Lights,” which would become a No. 1 hit for Ray Price in 1958. In 1960, Anderson earned his own first top 10 Country Songs hit with “Tips of My Fingers,” followed in 1962 by his first No. 1, the seven-week chart-topper “Mama Sang a Song.” He earned another seven-week chart-leader in “Still,” as well as later chart-toppers “I Get the Fever,” “For Loving You” (with Jan Howard) and “Sometimes” (with Mary Lou Turner).
By the 1980s, he parlayed his affable, humorous personality into work as a television game show host on The Better Sex and the now-defunct cable outlet Tennessee News Network’s country music-themed quiz show Fandango (he had previously hosted his own The Bill Anderson Show). However, in the 1990s, he began collaborating with Vince Gill, notably on the song “Which Bridge to Cross (Which Bridge to Burn).” That ushered in a renaissance for his songwriting career, leading to him writing with and for a new generation of artists and crafting fine-tuned hits including Kenny Chesney’s “A Lot of Things Different,” Strait’s “Give It Away,” and the Brad Paisley/Alison Krauss duet “Whiskey Lullaby” (which won the CMA’s song of the year honor in 2005).
Anderson talked with Billboard about his current Grammy nomination, working with his longtime friend and fellow singer-songwriter Dolly Parton, his thoughts on touring and songwriting and his memories from his decades in music.
How did Dolly come to be part of this song?
Her hairstylist is a girl named Cheryl Riddle, and we’ve been friends for many years. She’s had a lot to do with my career in some interesting ways. When I kind of quit songwriting for a while and backed away from it, she’s the one who encouraged me to do some co-writing. She was also doing Vince Gill’s hair at the time, and was trying to get me and Vince together to co-write. She finally succeeded, and that started my whole second songwriting career — and evolved into a wonderful friendship between me and Vince.
Bobby Tomberlin is also good friends with Cheryl, and he played some of it for her, with just me singing it. Cheryl said, “Oh my god, Dolly should be singing on that with him.” And asked for a copy. Dolly loved it, and next thing I know, they sent me a copy of her singing it with me. I told Dolly the day we filmed the video, I said, “This sounds like something you would’ve written,” and she said, “I wish I had! I love it,” which I took as a great compliment.
This is not the first musical collaboration you have had with Dolly. As Far as I Can See also features an early demo from around 1964 with Dolly, “If It Is All the Same to You,” a song you later recorded with Jan Howard.
It was lost for a long period of time. I’m almost positive that we did that session out at [Owen] Bradley’s barn. Dolly was new in town. Walter Haynes was working for the publishing company I was writing for at the time, and I said, “I need a girl singer to help me on this duet.” He said, “I know this girl from East Tennessee and she’s pretty good.” So she was hired and we sang the duet together. I think we recorded six or seven songs that night, and I went up there not long after to get a copy of the session, and someone had taken the duet and cut it out. There were seven songs on the demo but only six on the copy. Until recent years, I thought it had disappeared, until the Bear Family put out a box set of my music and uncovered it.
The two of you also filmed the video together for “Someday It’ll All Make Sense.” What do you recall about the day of filming?
She set aside from 10:00 a.m. until 1:00 p.m., so we had three hours to do the video. When we finished filming all the scenes she would be involved, we got finished a little before one. There were all kinds of people coming to watch and Dolly stopped and said, “Okay, if anybody would like to get pictures or an autograph, we’ve got 15 minutes.” She stood there and took pictures with everybody in that room.
And then she turned to me and said, “Ok, I gotta go change clothes. I’m doing a video for the Queen of England” [for Queen Elizabeth’s Platinum Jubilee in 2022, marking 70 years of service]. So she finished filming a video with Bill Anderson, changed clothes into something very prim and proper, a black dress with a set of pearls and did a video for the Queen of England, then changed again and did a video for NASCAR. She’s amazing.
In addition to being artists, writers and all-around entertainers, both you and Dolly were were part of impactful duos — Dolly and Porter were on the Porter Wagoner Show, and Jan Howard was part of your show and a frequent duet partner. Do you have any memories that stand out from that time?
There were occasions where promoters would book my show and Porter’s show together. There were some pretty big fairs up in the Northeast where Jan and my group, we’d do the first half of the show, and then there would be an intermission, and then Porter and Dolly would do their part of the show. One time, we did this cool thing where we decided to do a swap. Jan and I guested on the Porter Wagoner Show, and Dolly and Porter guested on the Bill Anderson Show, and we all sang songs together. I would love to have a copy of those shows.
You have several books here on your table, including a book about your Country Music Hall of Fame exhibit As Far as I Can See. What music or music business books have been some of your favorites?
I read all the time and have books stacked up. I’ve never thrown away a music book and an awful lot of ‘em are autographed. Probably the music book that got me the most, emotionally, was the Louvin Brothers book, Satan Is Real [written by Charlie Louvin with Benjamin Whitmer]. If I was a movie producer, I’d make a movie out of that book so quick. I knew Charlie [Louvin] quite well, and Ira as well as you could know Ira. They recorded quite a few of my songs. That book was just so brutally honest and it really moved me. But I’ve read Shania Twain’s book [From This Moment On], and Anne Murray [All of Me] and everything from Willie — Willie’s book of the month. I feel like I know Willie awfully well.
What Is ahead for you in terms of touring and recording?
I want to make some more records. [UMG Nashville president] Cindy Mabe has been a real champion for this whole project, and UMG re-released a lot of my older catalog digitally for the first time. So I’m just seeing what is ahead.
I’m not going out on the road right now. I haven’t been out on the road since [the] COVID [pandemic] started. Surprisingly, I haven’t missed it like I thought I probably would. I was on the road for over 50 years and I figured I couldn’t live without it. But I’ve kind of enjoyed just kicking back a little bit, writing a little bit more, taking time off and being with my kids and grandkids.
I’m not saying I’m never going back on the road — as soon as I say “Never,” something will change. I want to make more records and keep performing occasionally at the Opry. I’m not saying I’ll never work the road again, but it’s not on the top of my priority list.
You have had so much success, both as a solo writer and a co-writer. Who are some of your favorite rising songwriters?
I like Ryan Larkins, the third writer on “Someday.” And I like this kid, Drake Milligan. I’ve got two writing dates with him and one is going to be me and him and Vince. Ryan and Drake are two that I have connected with. They are young kids with old souls.
What are your thoughts on the nomination as we head into the Grammys?
I’ve been so blessed. I mean, I pinch myself sometimes that this has really all happened. If we do win a Grammy on Sunday, that’ll be the cherry on top of the sundae. And if we don’t, it’s still been a fun ride.
Artists, music executives, songwriters and more descended on Los Angeles’ Nightingale Plaza on Wednesday night for the National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA) and Billboard Grammy Week Showcase.
Throughout the star-studded night, Demi Lovato, Sabrina Carpenter and Jimmie Allen each performed an intimate set, highlighting the work of a particular songwriter who helped each craft the sound of their latest studio set. Carpenter, the rising star behind Emails I Can’t Send, put a spotlight on Amy Allen, with whom she duetted on their co-written single “Vicious.”
Later in the evening, Allen performed a brand-new track titled “Small Town Anthem” as well as his 2022 hit “Down Home” before posing alongside Nashville powerhouse Liz Rose, who sits on the NMPA board of directors and was awarded song of the year during the party for co-writing “All Too Well” hand-in-hand with a certain superstar by the name of Taylor Swift back in 2012.
Lovato eventually closed out the musical festivities with back-to-back performances of “Feed” and “4 Ever 4 Me” from their 2022 album Holy Fvck — both of which were penned by Laura Veltz along with 11 more of the album’s 16 pop-punk-infused tracks.
Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason jr. and NMPA president David Israelite were both on hand for the soiree, as well as songwriters from Makia, Nija Charles and Alex Raphael to Amber Mark and Patty Smyth. Heading into the 2023 Grammys on Sunday, Charles, Veltz and Allen are all among the inaugural pack of nominees for the first-ever award for songwriter of the year, non-classical.
Check out Billboard‘s exclusive gallery of the NMPA and Billboard Grammy Week Showcase below.
Linda Ronstadt’s illustrious voice is back in the spotlight, thanks to her 1970 song “Long, Long Time” being featured in the HBO series The Last of Us.
Ronstadt first rose to prominence during the folk-rock scene of the 1960s and later became a blazing country-folk musical force throughout the 1970s, putting her stamp on the musical landscape as a formidable vocal stylist and interpreter possessing a supple voice capable of enviable musical diversity. Over the course of more than two dozen albums, Ronstadt traversed genres including rock, folk, country, jazz, Mexican folk, the Great American Songbook and opera. Several of her songs reached the upper echelon of the Billboard’s Hot 100, and in 1975, she crowned the chart with her hit “You’re No Good.” In total, she placed 34 entries on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart.
She also notched hits on the Billboard Latin chart (“Frenesi,” “Perfidia”) and country charts (1975’s “When Will I Be Loved,” and the Dolly Parton/Emmylou Harris collaboration “To Know Him is to Love Him”).
Ronstadt has 11 Grammy wins to her credit, in a diverse spectrum of categories including best musical album for children, best country vocal performance, best Mexican-American album, best pop vocal performance, and the all-genre record of the year category. Further demonstrating her versatility, Ronstadt also earned a Primetime Emmy Award in 1989 for outstanding individual performance in a variety of music program, for Canciones de Mi Padre (Great Performances), and was nominated for a Tony Award for best performance by a leading actress in a musical, for her role as Mabel Stanley in The Pirates of Penzance.
Ronstadt earned a lifetime achievement award from the Latin Grammys in 2014, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2014 and was a Kennedy Center Honors recipient in 2019.
Here, we look at 15 songs that highlight Ronstadt’s stylistic range.
The Voice could have had a very different vibe if producers had gotten their first choice of judges to fill one of the iconic red spinning chairs. In an interview with ET Online country legend Reba McEntire was asked who she thought would make a good replacement for soon-to-depart OG coach Blake Shelton, revealing that it could have been her they were looking to re-cast.
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McEntire reminded ET that she was originally offered a role on the reality singing series before it debuted in 2011, with producers then offering the gig to Shelton, who will end his 12-year-run with the show after Season 23, which premieres on NBC on March 6. “Who could fill Blake’s shoes?” McEntire asked with a smile according to ET.
“I got [a look at] the Holland version of The Voice. They sent it to me and I said, ‘I can’t see me doing that,’” she said of her feelings after seeing the original version of the show that has spawned a global franchise. “Because, you know, I’m a gypsy at heart,” McEntire, 67, said, noting that she’s not sure she could be committed to one project for so long and stay in one place.
Whoever does permanently fill Blake’s shoes has their work cut out for them, McEntire said. “To fill Blake’s chair? Wow. That’s gonna be tough,” she predicted. “He did a great job and kudos to him.” McEntire didn’t totally blow producers off, though, agreeing to serve as a mentor to Team Blake during the show’s premiere 2011 season and returning again in 2015.
The upcoming season of The Voice will feature new coaches Niall Horan and Chance the Rapper joining Shelton and returning cast member Kelly Clarkson.
For now,
With the Jan. 27 release of Elle King’s Come Get Your Wife, the expansiveness of modern country is firmly on display.
The album melds a banjo-toting female artist who emerged in rock and adult alternative genres with a country format that is increasingly testing its boundaries. The project mixes a range of sounds and influences — Southern rock, blues, bluegrass, classic soul and folk/pop — in a manner that’s impressively cohesive, built around King’s gritty vocal and spacious, funky approach to the banjo.
Come Get Your Wife comes at a time when country artists are pushing the genre’s borders in multiple directions, taking risks but maintaining enough of its identity that the outlier material still holds a connection to country’s core.
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Chris Young’s current “Looking for You” utilizes a pitch-shifted version of an Emily Weisband vocal to create an other-worldly sonic hook. Jordan Davis’ “What My World Spins Around” incorporates a tremolo electric guitar effect that mirrors The Smiths’ 1984 new wave piece “How Soon Is Now?” Jelly Roll’s “Need a Favor” and the HARDY collaboration with Lainey Wilson, “wait in the truck,” rely on haunting gospel choirs to bring home their drama. And Walker Hayes’ “Y’all Life” features a washed-out drum sound while employing loose gang vocals to carry the lead melody.
The developments aren’t exactly new, but the volume of outside sounds and techniques at work in country reflects changing attitudes among artists and fans, as well as a wider array of available tools and easier access to music through streaming platforms.
King, in fact, felt more freedom to combine her multiple influences while making a country album than in her previous recordings. That represents a major change from the past, when artists have at times complained that the format is too stifling.
“I realized that I could pull from each of [my influences] and make this sound, which is country music to me,” King says. “This album doesn’t sound that far off from anything that I would have [previously] made, but I felt like because I could have this, I don’t know, shell to put on it, I could bring in what I wanted from each place and each feeling.”
The cooperative marketing effort for Come Get Your Wife, involving Sony offices in New York and Nashville, is representative of a friendlier cross-genre atmosphere. Warner/Chappell and Big Machine similarly cross-pollinate between Nashville and Los Angeles, and Music City songwriters are increasingly meshing with composers from other industry centers.
“Nashville is lending to L.A., and L.A. is lending right back to Nashville,” notes Laura Veltz, a Nashvillian currently nominated in the Grammys’ new songwriter of the year category, recognizing her work with country artists Maren Morris and Ingrid Andress, as well as pop singer Demi Lovato.
Technology plays a major role in the development, as the rise of the internet changed the way music is both created and consumed. On the production side, musicians and producers have far more sounds available through a wider selection of sound-shaping pedals and computer plug-ins, particularly compared with previous eras, when studio pros were expected to churn out four songs in a three-hour session, usually applying the same instruments to each of the tracks.
“Harold Bradley might play guitar on one song and turn around and play a banjo on the next one,” says Bill Anderson. “So they did change instruments a little bit and sometimes played two instruments on the same song. But all the things they have available to them now, we didn’t have that. I don’t know if we’d have used it or not.”
On the consumer end of the equation, the ability to identify, locate and sample music online is extraordinarily fast, matched up against the pre-internet age, when less music was available and the music fans heard beyond the radio was mostly proportionate to their willingness to purchase albums.
Now consumers can speed through genres and catalogs, cross-reference studio work against live recordings and find artists and sounds that would have been obscure to their grandparents. Like the artists themselves, fans are thus more willing to hear Queen or Beach Boys influences in country, as happens in some Dan + Shay recordings.
“We’re very fortunate, I feel like, to live and breathe in a time in music where we aren’t so segregated and isolated,” says Joel Smallbone of contemporary Christian act For King + Country, appropriately nominated in the Grammys for a collaboration with Hillary Scott of the country trio Lady A.
One reason that country is arguably able to maintain its identity now that the walls are falling down is that many of its artists — such as Young, Tyler Hubbard or Thomas Rhett — retain their Southern accents no matter what non-country sonics surround them.
“Chris is a great example,” says Chris DeStefano, co-writer and co-producer of “Looking for You.” He has a very country voice. I think Morgan Wallen is another amazing example. He’s got the cheat code for country music. He could sing anything, you can put a [hip-hop] 808 beat under him; it still sounds country.”
King’s new album puts the trend in focus most clearly with two songs that appear back-to-back on the project: “Try Jesus” weaves a church organ and thick gospel choir into an otherwise-country production, while “Drunk (And I Don’t Wanna Go Home),” her Grammy-nominated duet with Miranda Lambert, leans heavily on the interplay between tribal drums and an unusual two-note bass guitar riff. Country’s increasing openness was perfectly timed for her appearance in the format.
“I’ve noticed a difference in wider-open sliding doors even since 2016, 2017, when I first met Dierks [Bentley],” she says. “I feel like country makes room for good music, a good song. I don’t want anyone to kick me out.”
