Country
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The country music industry may be centered in Nashville, but much of the talent and sound behind Music City’s best-known export originates elsewhere.
The Country Music Hall of Fame medallion ceremony on Oct. 16 provided a strong reminder that the genre synthesizes people, style and abilities from across America. Late honoree Keith Whitley found his way to Nashville from eastern Kentucky through a bluegrass portal. Record executive Joe Galante brought marketing savvy to town from New York after working rock records by David Bowie and Lou Reed.
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And Jerry Lee Lewis — forced by an illness to stay home — developed his flashy piano playing and performance skills after hanging out at R&B/blues club Haney’s Big House in Ferriday, La., before launching his recording career in Memphis ahead of his shift to country in 1968.
The first performance during the induction — Alabama’s “My Home’s in Alabama,” a song that was key in the band signing with Galante at RCA in 1980 — clung to that concept, celebrating the group’s hometown roots despite exploring a range of American cities.
The rest of the guest list similarly represented multiple facets of popular music and geographical backgrounds. Oklahoman Garth Brooks found all the dramatic high points of Whitley’s “Don’t Close Your Eyes” in a guitar/vocal format, ironically closing his own eyes during the chorus while seemingly channeling the song’s lead character. Texan Lee Ann Womack created spine-tingling sensitivity in her version of Lewis’ “Middle Age Crazy,” infusing the late-’70s ballad with fierce sympathy and just a touch of scorn. East Tennessee-born Kenny Chesney fought through the emotionally challenging country love song “The Good Stuff,” a title that found favor in part because Galante pushed for its release to radio. And former San Francisco resident Chris Isaak delivered a faithful rendition of the Killer’s “Great Balls of Fire,” replete with heavily reverbed vocals and Jen Gunderman’s interpretation of Lewis’ piano-banging and shiny glissandos.
Galante recalled in his acceptance speech that late BMI executive Frances Preston, a 1992 Hall inductee, had told him that country music revolves around the song and the artist. That combination of impactful songs and distinct artists describes the works that defined the medallion ceremony’s honorees.
Lewis rode his “pumping piano” — as it was listed on the label of his early Sun recordings — to a singular place in rock and country history, with “Great Balls of Fire” and “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Going On” succeeding in both genres in the late 1950s. He refocused on country in 1968, leading to a 13-year run of hits that included a remake of “Chantilly Lace,” honky-tonk hit “What’s Made Milwaukee Famous (Has Made a Loser Out of Me)” and an improbable take on “Over the Rainbow,” bolstered with a self-reference to “ol’ Jerry Lee.”
“Jerry Lee doesn’t walk onstage and politely thank an audience for being there,” Hank Williams Jr. said while inducting the Killer. “Jerry Lee doesn’t ask for your attention. He demands it. He doesn’t take the stage. He commands it … Jerry Lee doesn’t play songs. He owns songs.”
Whitley applied a rich vocal tone to tunes he inhabited emotionally. “Don’t Close Your Eyes,” “I’m No Stranger to the Rain” and “When You Say Nothing at All” — performed by Mickey Guyton during the ceremony while Hall of Fame member Don Schlitz, who co-wrote it, watched from the audience — provided his first three No. 1 hits in just a few months in the late 1980s, earning significant airplay at the time he died from alcohol poisoning in 1989. Where Lewis is famously confident, Whitley hid lingering self-doubts, a trait that was perhaps key to his ability to embody sadness and vulnerability in his recordings.
“Keith was three weeks away from being made a member of the Grand Ole Opry when he passed away,” recalled Lorrie Morgan, who was his wife at the time. “He didn’t know it. And he would have never suspected this [induction] in his life.”
Whitley’s breakthrough made him an addition to the new traditionalist movement of that era, and he became a significant influence on many acts who followed him, including Tim McGraw, Chris Young and Brooks, who officially inducted him into the Hall.
“This night,” Brooks announced, “is long overdue.”
Galante, meanwhile, was hailed as an executive who, by asking the right questions, helped the country industry better understand its product, its audience and the connection between them. He developed data, as Hall of Fame CEO Kyle Young noted, that informed difficult decisions and inspired marketing plans for a product that had frequently been worked on gut instinct. Not that Galante operated strictly from a mathematical playbook.
“Joe also looked beyond the numbers, to the things you can’t quantify, like originality and heart,” said Young. “He overruled the data when it felt right.”
Galante’s successes were numerous. He directed key campaigns for Waylon Jennings, Dolly Parton, Ronnie Milsap, Carrie Underwood, Martina McBride and Miranda Lambert, who performed a guitar/vocal version of “White Liar” in his honor. Kix Brooks, while inducting Galante, noted that Brooks & Dunn was contemplating a split when a merger put the executive in charge of their label. The chance to work with “Joe frickin’ Galante” was enough incentive for the duo to give it one more try, which turned into a second 10-year run.
Galante’s own sensitivities were on display during his acceptance speech, where he told how his father, a 30-year postal service employee, had never understood the job that consumed his son. He discovered only after his dad’s death that the elder Galante had routinely purchased Billboard off newsstands in New York and saved photos and stories about his boy.
“You get the point,” Galante said, just before the emotion took over the story.
Ultimately, it’s those human tales — the ones delivered by singular artists — that built both Music City and the Rotunda that houses the bronze plaques of the Country Music Hall of Fame. Johnny Cash, Jimmie Rodgers and Willie Nelson will have to make room for three more occupants who made their entrance somewhere else but left their mark in Nashville.
Kelly Clarkson kicked off a new week of The Kelly Clarkson Show with a very special Kellyoke featuring Dwayne Johnson! The twosome opened the Monday (Oct. 17) daytime talk show by duetting on Loretta Lynn‘s 1967 classic “Don’t Come Home a Drinkin’.”
“An extra special #Kellyoke duet with Dwayne @therock Johnson in memory of the late, great @LorettaLynn,” the show’s Twitter account announced that morning.
“No, don’t come home a drinkin’ with lovin’ on your mind/ Just stay out there, on the town and see what you can find/ ‘Cause if you want that kind of love, well, you don’t need none of mine/ So don’t come home a drinkin’ with lovin’ on your mind,” the pair sing in unison over the song’s honky-tonk instrumentation. (During the performance, Clarkson also rebuffed a playful kiss from the movie star as she sang, “You come in, kissin’ on me/ It happens every time.”)
Released off the late country icon’s ninth solo studio album, “Don’t Come Home a Drinkin’” earned the Coal Miner’s Daughter her very first No. 1 on the Hot Country Songs chart, a feat she would replicate 15 more times throughout her accomplished career. It was later recorded by Tammy Wynette on her 1967 album Your Good Girl’s Gonna Go Bad, and also covered by Gretchen Wilson on the 2010 LP Coal Miner’s Daughter: A Tribute to Loretta Lynn.
Johnson may be known for his acting, but he also notched his own Billboard Hot 100 entry back in 2016 when “You’re Welcome” from Disney’s Moana debuted at No. 83 on the all-genre chart.
Last week, Clarkson also welcomed Sam Smith to join her for a Kellyoke duet of her own 2004 smash “Breakaway” before covering Olivia Rodrigo’s “Traitor,” “Whitney Houston’s “Queen of the Night” and Alec Benjamin’s “Let Me Down Slowly” featuring Alessia Cara over her next four shows.
Watch Clarkson and Johnson pay tribute to Lynn below.
The Aldean family conflict with Maren Morris reached a new peak at Jason Aldean‘s concert Friday night (Oct. 14). While teasing the identity of his show’s surprise guest — who turned out to be Morgan Wallen — the “You Make It Easy” singer name-dropped Morris and paused as his Bridgestone Arena crowd in Nashville loudly booed.
“I thought, man, who could I call?” Aldean told his audience in fan-captured video, drawing out the suspense of his surprise guest. “I got some friends in town. I could call Luke Bryan. I could call Kane Brown. See if Kenny Chesney’s here and not at the beach.”
Then, he simply said the name of “The Middle” singer, before trailing off as his audience audibly jeered.
This follows an August social media disagreement between Morris and Aldean’s wife, Brittany Aldean. After Brittany made a transphobic joke on Instagram (“I’d really like to thank my parents for not changing my gender when I went through my tomboy phase. I love this girly life,” she’d captioned a makeup video). She followed it up with an Instagram Stories statement in which she doubled down on her stance. “Advocating for the genital mutilation of children under the disguise of love and calling it ‘gender affirming care’ is one of the worst evils,” she posted. “I will always support my children and do what I can to protect their innocence.”
In a response to Cassadee Pope, who had tweeted her opposition to Brittany’s comments, Morris agreed with the singer and former Voice contestant. “It’s so easy to, like, not be a scumbag human?” replied the “Make You Say” singer. “Sell your clip-ins and zip it, Insurrection Barbie.”
In September, Morris opened up about why she feels so strongly about speaking out when it comes to social justice issues, even when her fellow country artists and fans of the genre oftentimes disagree with her — and do things like, say, boo the mention of her name at a concert.
“I try to rise above — not even bad behavior, but just expected behavior that has become normalized that is bad,” she told Apple Music Country’s Proud Radio with Hunter Kelly. “[My husband’s] like, ‘I hate that you always feel like you have to be the hall monitor of modern country music’s behaviors in and around race and homophobia, transphobia.’”
“I don’t need to feel like I have to always be that person that speaks up,” she continued. “I think I come across a lot louder than I actually am because everyone else is so quiet.”
Watch a fan video of Morris’ name getting booed at a Jason Aldean concert below:
Country singer Jimmie Allen has announced that he’ll appear on the new season of ABC’s The Conners.
“This is gonna be a good time,” he tweeted. “Learning my lines as I type.”
The sitcom — a sequel to the 1988-97 series Roseanne, which was briefly revived in 2018 before creator Roseanne Barr was fired over controversial tweets — is now in its fifth season. It’s yet to be revealed whether Allen is playing a character on the show or himself.
Allen has appeared on other television shows this year too, performing on American Idol and serving as an advisor to Blake Shelton on The Voice. The singer got his start on season 10 of Idol back in 2011 but was cut before the show’s live voting rounds; he signed a deal with Wide Open Music shortly thereafter. More than a decade after his time on American Idol, Allen teamed up with his former judge Jennifer Lopez to create a country remix of the Marry Me soundtrack single “On My Way.”
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Allen has earned three No. 1 spots on Billboard‘s Country Airplay chart, and in 2021, he won the CMA Award for new artist of the year and ACM Award for new male artist of the year.
See Allen’s announcement below:
One of country music’s most respected singer-songwriters honoring another of the genre’s most revered singer-songwriters made for a signature moment during the 2022 CMT Artists of the Year ceremony, which airs Friday (Oct. 14) on CMT, and taped the evening of Oct. 12.
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Alan Jackson, who received the artist of a lifetime award, stood center stage at Nashville’s Schermerhorn Symphony Center and paid tribute to the late Loretta Lynn, who died Oct. 4 at the age of 90.
“There will never be another Loretta Lynn,” he told the crowd, eliciting cheers.
The evening marked a celebration of some of the most successful artists in the genre over the past year. This year’s honorees were Kane Brown, Luke Combs, Walker Hayes, Cody Johnson and Carly Pearce. Additionally, Lainey Wilson was named breakout artist of the year.
Hayes, known for hits like “AA” and the inescapable “Fancy Like,” which spent 24 weeks atop the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart (and reached No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100), teamed with Ciara for a special collaboration of Hayes’ song “Y’all Life.” Kelsea Ballerini and writer-producer Shane McAnally (who works with both Ballerini and Hayes, among many others) recalled first meeting Hayes in a smoothie shop, when Hayes approached him and asked if McAnally would listen to his songs.
Hayes was emotional as he accepted the honor, saying, “The last award I got was in ninth grade for most-improved student.”
With her EP 29 and expanded album 29: Written in Stone, Pearce has turned one of the most challenging and heartbreaking seasons of her life into triumph, crafting the projects following her divorce in 2020 from fellow artist Michael Ray. Pearce has since earned another No. 1 hit with “Never Wanted to Be That Girl,” and is the reigning ACM female artist of the year and current CMA female vocalist of the year. Last year, Pearce was also inducted into the Grand Ole Opry, and has been on the road opening shows for Kenny Chesney.
Pearce performed an anguished yet determined rendering of “29,” and later accepted her CMT artists of the year honor by thanking CMT’s senior vp of music and talent Leslie Fram for being a steadfast champion.
“I think about 10 years ago, crying on Leslie Fram’s couch and wondering if I was going to get a break,” she recalled. She encouraged anyone who is struggling with a difficult time, adding, “You can get through and overcome, because I did.” Closing out her speech, she reminded the audience that “country music is my heart,” and quipped, “Divorce never looked so good!”
The evening marked the third CMT artists of the year honor for Luke Combs, who this year earned two CMT Music Awards nominations, as well as a Grammy nomination for best country solo performance for “Forever After All.” He is also set to launch his stadium World Tour, which will visit 16 countries, next year. Though the hitmaker was not in attendance, Riley Green performed Combs’ current Hot 100 top 10 hit “The Kind of Love We Make.”
Wilson wowed the audience with her vocal prowess on “Heart Like a Truck,” which is included on her upcoming album Bell Bottom Country. Over the past year, Wilson has earned two No. 1 hits, “Things a Man Oughta Know” and the Cole Swindell duet “Never Say Never,” and just teamed with HARDY for the dramatic murder ballad “Wait in the Truck.” She is also gearing up for her debut on the hit series Yellowstone in November, and is the most-nominated artist leading into this year’s Country Music Association Awards. At the same time, Wilson has also weathered hard times in recent weeks, as her father has been battling health issues. She happily noted to the audience that he came home from the hospital this week, which drew cheers from the audience.
She noted that she has “come a long way from the camper trailer days,” and noted how much she has always just wanted a chance to be in country music.
The CMT Artists of the Year taping was extra special for Kane and Katelyn Brown, as it fell on the couple’s fourth wedding anniversary. The evening also marked Brown’s third CMT artists of the year recognition.
Brown performed his recent No. 1 hit “Like I Love Country Music,” which includes a reference to “Chattahoochee,” the 1993 hit from lifetime honoree Jackson. The song is included on Brown’s recently released album, Different Man. Over the past year, Brown has continued to add to his arsenal of hit songs and collaborations. In August, Brown became the first male country artist to perform on the MTV VMAs and recently embarked on an international tour with stops in Australia and Europe. “This feels amazing to be recognized,” Brown said, thanking not only his wife, but also his manager Martha Earls and his publishing partner Kent Earls.
Texan Cody Johnson scored one of the year’s biggest hits with “’Til You Can’t,” which reigned atop Billboard’s Country Airplay chart for two weeks in March. He also picked up two CMT Music Awards earlier this year, including male video of the year and digital-first performance.
Seated on a stool and backed by his own band, Johnson performed his latest single, “Human.” In accepting his trophy from Warner Music Nashville labelmates Dan+Shay, Johnson noted that he has been with his manager Howie Edelman for 11 years, based on a handshake deal.
“I believe in country music… and will give it everything I’ve got,” Johnson said.
Tanya Tucker introduced a segment focused on Lynn, saying, “She guided me through this business. I grew up singing her fightin’, drinkin’, cheatin’ songs… she went from being my hero to my great friend.”
Lynn’s sisters Crystal Gayle and Peggy Sue performed Lynn’s “Coal Miner’s Daughter” as the audience stood to its feet and gave an extended ovation. “We had a really good friendship, and I just really appreciated her,” Jackson later told the audience.
As the evening concluded, Jackson thanked CMT for playing his videos over the years, noting that he’s created approximately 60 country music videos during his career. Jackson has also notched 26 No. 1 songs on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart, and 51 top 10 hits.
He recalled his range of music videos, which have included water skiing in boots (“Chattahoochee”), car races and monster trucks.
“I always believed videos were important to music,” he said. “I argued with some record executive a couple times about how important they were back in the ‘90s. I thought people would watch in the background and listen to music, hear your songs, even [during times] when they didn’t hear it on the radio.”
Tribute videos to Jackson from several of the evening’s fellow honorees, as well as one from former President George W. Bush, were played — including a humorous anecdote from Hayes, who said he used to burn CDs of his own songs and throw them into Jackson’s backyard in Nashville, hoping he might hear them.
As it turned out, Brown’s performance of “Like I Love Country Music,” with its reference to “Chattahoochee,” was a foreshadowing of the evening, as Jackson closed out the ceremony. The mood in the room was already festive, but as Jackson strapped on his guitar, that celebration became “hotter than a hoochie coochie.”
“I’ve been really blessed of course with everything, and so thankful for all my fans and all my music and everybody,” he concluded.
Streams of Loretta Lynn‘s catalog shot up 615% in the week of the country legend’s death, according to Luminate.
In the Sept. 30-Oct. 6 tracking period, Lynn’s catalog earned 8.7 million official on-demand U.S. streams, a 615% jump from 1.2 million the previous week (Sept. 23-29).
The primary bump occurred on Oct. 4, the day of Lynn’s death. Her music was streamed 3.2 million times that day, up 1,841% from 167,000 on Oct. 3.
Her signature hit, 1970’s “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” led the pack at 1.3 million streams Sept. 30-Oct. 6, a 399% boost from 253,000 the previous period.
It’s followed by 1966’s “You Ain’t Woman Enough (To Take My Man)” (768,000 streams, up 381%), 1966’s “Don’t Come Home A-Drinkin’ (With Lovin’ On Your Mind)” (593,000, up 351%), her 1973 Conway Twitty collaboration “Louisiana Woman, Mississippi Man” (575,000, up 209%) and 1968’s “Fist City” (427,000, up 424%).
Additionally, Lynn’s catalog moved 7,000 digital downloads Sept. 30-Oct. 6, a gain of 2,691% from a negligible amount the previous week. “Daughter” makes a pair of Billboard charts dated Oct. 15 as a result, appearing at Nos. 12 and 36 on Country Digital Song Sales and Digital Song Sales, respectively, on the strength of 2,000 downloads.
Lynn’s 2022’s greatest hits package, All Time Greatest Hits, also debuts on Top Country Albums with 5,000 equivalent album units earned.
Lynn died Oct. 4 at age 90 in her sleep in Tennessee of natural causes.
Lynn earned 10 Top Country Albums No. 1s over a career that spanned seven decades from 1960 through 2021, plus 16 No.1s on Hot Country Songs.