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Willie Nelson will get an illustrious, star-studded celebration in honor of his upcoming 90th birthday (on April 29), when a cavalcade of stars including The Chicks, Miranda Lambert, Chris Stapleton and Tyler Childers gathering for a two-day concert event at Los Angeles’ Hollywood Bowl on April 29 and 30, 2023.
“I can’t think of a better way to spend my 90th birthday than being surrounded by family, friends and of course the fans who made this all possible,” Nelson said via a statement. “It’s an honor to perform with such an incredible group of artists at such an iconic venue.”
Billed as Long Story Short: Willie Nelson 90, A Star-Studded Concert Celebrating Willie’s 90th Birthday and presented by Blackbird Presents and Live Nation Hewitt-Silva, the celebration’s lineup will also include performances from Nelson himself, as well as Allison Russell, Beck, Billy Strings, Bobby Weir, Charley Crockett, Edie Brickell, Kacey Musgraves, Leon Bridges, Lukas Nelson, Lyle Lovett, Margo Price, Nathaniel Rateliff, Neil Young, Norah Jones, Orville Peck, Particle Kid, Rosanne Cash, Sheryl Crow, Snoop Dogg, Sturgill Simpson, The Avett Brothers, The Lumineers, Tom Jones, Warren Haynes and Ziggy Marley. Additional artists will be announced in the coming weeks.
Two-day packages for the general public go on sale Saturday, Jan. 28, at 10 AM PT at ticketmaster.com.
Nelson continues to be prolific, gearing up to release his upcoming studio album, I Don’t Know a Thing About Love, a set of classic Harlan Howard songs, on March 3. Additionally the definitive five-part documentary film on Nelson’s life and career will premiere at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. He also continues to tour the country, headlining festivals including Farm Aid, July 4th Picnic and his Outlaw Music Festival Tour. Last year, he also released his latest book, Me and Paul, chronicling his 70-year friendship with drummer Paul English.
ACM Triple Crown winner Miranda Lambert and “Son of a Sinner” hitmaker Jelly Roll have been cooking up some new music in the writing room lately — and according to Lambert, the two singer/songwriters “go together like biscuits and gravy!”
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Lambert shared a few photos from the writing session that included both Jelly Roll and DJ Telemitry (aka hit writer/producer Jesse Frasure).
“Made a new friend this week!” Lambert captioned the photos. “Jesse was right when he said we go together like biscuits and gravy! Loved writing a tune with @jellyroll615 and @telemitry.”
No word yet on what the collaboration might sound like, but both artists are dedicated to making music their own way and fulfilling their unique artistic visions, with Jelly Roll’s hard-driving rap-rock sound and Lambert’s range from Texas-dipped country tracks like “Tequila Does” to electric tracks like “Locomotive” from her Wildcard album.
Jelly Roll recently earned his first Country Airplay No. 1 with “Son of a Sinner,” which followed his rock chart-topper “Dead Man Walking.” He also headlined a sold-out show at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena earlier this year, has shared the Grand Ole Opry stage with Craig Morgan and last year, joined Brantley Gilbert and Pillbox Patti on tour.
Meanwhile, reigning ACM entertainer of the year Lambert has been on a songwriting tear as of late. In addition to releasing her album Palomino last year and teaming with Elle King for the Country Airplay No. 1 “Drunk (And I Don’t Wanna Go Home),” she’s been steadily writing songs other artists have recorded, including Morgan Wallen’s “Thought You Should Know,” and Jon Pardi’s “Don’t Blame It on Whiskey” (featuring Lauren Alaina).
Interestingly, Jelly Roll was already manifesting a Lambert collab back in September 2022, when he shared with fans on Twitter, saying, “I wanna do a song with @mirandalambert someone please help me meet Miranda please.”
Alana Springsteen has an old classical guitar she found in her grandfather’s garage at the age of seven to thank for her first foray into music.
“He didn’t even play guitar, but from the first second I saw it, I was drawn to it,” the Virginia native tells Billboard, calling just before heading out to perform as part of Luke Bryan’s annual Crash My Playa festival in Cancun, Mexico.
Her grandfather gifted her the guitar, on one condition. “He said I could have it if I promised to learn how to play it,” Springsteen recalls. “I begged my uncle to come over on weekends and start teaching me chords.”
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By nine she started writing songs and a year later was making trips to Nashville. By age 14, she had signed her first publishing deal. Last year, she released the two-part EP project, History of Breaking Up, via Sony Music Nashville/Columbia. Now 22, the member of CMT’s Next Women of Country Class of 2023 is gearing up to release her three-part, full-length debut album.
On March 24, she will put out the project’s first installment, the six-song Twenty Something: Messing It Up, spearheaded by fiery single, “You Don’t Deserve a Country Song.”
When she walked into the writing session with Mitchell Tenpenny, Geoff Warburton, Michael Whitworth and Will Weatherly in early 2021, Springsteen was healing from a tough romantic breakup and was intent on writing about moving on.
“You can’t really say that title without smiling,” she says. “I wasn’t in a really good place after my last relationship ended, and this guy was the same one I wrote a lot of History of Breaking Up (Part Two) about. He broke my heart and it was not a good situation, which is why It made sense to me to kick off Messing It Up with this song. It doesn’t come from a place of anger or pain, but from a place of deciding to put myself first. I realized I was giving my ex a lot of power by sitting in regret and heartbreak, so I walked into that writing session very intentionally.”
Chatting with Billboard, Springsteen discussed her upcoming project, her new song and her time in Nashville.
When you first came to Nashville, what were your first co-writing sessions like?
I first came when I was 10 and started co-writing with Sherrié Austin and Will Rambeaux. It’s so funny looking back because I’m like, “What must they have been thinking when they saw this 10-year-old walk into a room like, ‘Here’s this idea I have. Let’s write a song’?” But I never questioned it, and just knew it’s what I was born to do.
We wrote a breakup song, believe it or not. I remember they were like, ‘Have you been through a breakup?’ I drew from stories, and movies and books. Then I met people like Bart Herbison at NSAI and Tim Fink at SESAC, just early believers. That’s one thing that is so special about Nashville. People, for the most part, genuinely want to help you get connected.
What does songwriting mean to you?
That was really a big deal for me. I mean, when I found songwriting, my whole world changed. Songwriting is how I make sense of the world. It has been my therapy. All I wanted to do was be a country artist like those I grew up on, like Shania Twain, Taylor Swift, Carrie Underwood and Keith Urban. I love the way country music can craft a hook and take you on this journey through song.
Mitchell Tenpenny was a co-writer on “You Don’t Deserve a Country Song.” You’ve also toured with him.
We met while writing this song and that led to a cool friendship. He’s got a few other moments on this upcoming album, which is exciting.
As a co-writer, a vocalist, or both?
I don’t want to give away too many details, but he’s definitely all over this record.
Do you already have all of the songs written for all three portions of Twenty Something?
I always leave room to change things. I write in real time, so I’m keeping room if something really special comes along, but I have pretty much the record planned out.
Last year, you released the two-part project, History of Breaking Up. Your upcoming album, Twenty Something, has three parts. What appeals to you about making these multi-part albums?
I think there’s just something really cool about creating this body of work and letting fans digest a lot of songs. Twenty Something is, as a whole, about kind of the messiness of your 20s. I’m only two years into my 20s, but I’ve already learned so much about myself and experienced so much change. I know I’m not alone in that.
When I wrote the song “Twenty Something,” I started to see that a lot of the music that I had written over the past few years fit into three separate categories. I wanted to compile them and take it step by step and take my fans along with me on this journey.
What can fans expect from the music on the upcoming portions of Twenty Something?
There are songs on here that call out my struggles, areas that I’ve messed it up, which a lot for me has been in the areas of love and relationships. It’s pretty vulnerable. But then there are moments where, if you’re lucky, you start living your purpose and start figuring things out. I think your 20s are a mixture of all of that. I hope that people can just find a little bit of themselves in this record one way or another.
What is the first concert you remember seeing?
The first concert I went to was Taylor Swift’s Speak Now Tour in Charlotte, North Carolina. I’m a huge Taylor fan. Growing up, it was like she was telling my stories. She was writing from such a young age, that encouraged me that I could do the same thing. I’ll never forget what it felt like watching her on that tour, the way she shared that moment with her fans. It was beautiful to watch and I’d never seen fans react to an artist that way.
Do you have a favorite music book or podcast?
I love the [podcast] And the Writer Is…, that one’s always really fun to listen to, to get into the mind of writers and learn tips from people that I look up to in the field. I’ve also been reading a book called 101 Essays That Will Change the Way You Think. I’m making my way through it. I feel like I’ll read a paragraph and be like, “Oh, wow, I need to spend a week just sitting with that and figuring out what it means to me.” So it’s one that I pick up, whether I’m on a plane or in the van on the road. But it just gives me something to think about.
Over the past five years, Michael Hardy (who records under his last name, HARDY) has swiftly become one of country music’s most in-demand writer-artists, crafting hit country songs with and for artists including Morgan Wallen (“Sand in My Boots,” “More Than My Hometown”), Blake Shelton (“God’s Country”), and notching his own No. 1 Country Airplay hit with “One Beer.”
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But even as he released his debut 2020 album A Rock and was making a sharp impact on country music’s charts, HARDY was already hinting at his hard-rock proclivities on the track “Boots,” and laying the groundwork for his new album, the half-country, half-hard rock project The Mockingbird & The Crow, which Big Loud/Big Loud Rock released Jan. 20.
Early on during his live performances of “Boots,” his rendering steadily evolved into the sung-screamed vocal delivery that fans have come to know.
“There’s a trick to it. It’s not as loud or as harsh on your throat as you would think,” he tells Billboard, seated at Big Loud’s Nashville office. “I kept trying to get better at it, and I had a bit of a conversation with Caleb Shomo from Beartooth about it, and then Hunter Madison from Hunt the Dinosaur. When I wrote ‘Sold Out,’ I had just gotten off the road and was exhausted. My voice was nearly gone, and I thought, ‘I could do the scream really good. It’s better when your voice is raspy. I did, and it’s been a thing ever since.”
In the explosive aggro-rock of “Sold Out,” HARDY asserts that though his last name is “a whole lot bigger than I thought it’d be,” and gold plaques line his walls, he’s “still the same old redneck f–k, don’t give a d—n.” The song launches the rock half of The Mockingbird & The Crow and became HARDY’s first song to crown Billboard’s Hot Hard Rock Songs chart in 2022. He’s followed that with a pair of top 5 hits on the chart: “Jack” and the album’s title track.
“The Mockingbird & The Crow,” a five-minute song that evolves from country to grunge, bridges the two halves of the album.
“For a second, [the album title] was just going to be my full name, Michael Hardy. ‘Michael’ was going to be the country side and ‘Hardy’ the rock side, but I was never married to that idea,” HARDY says. “Then I was on a jon boat on the Cumberland River and I saw a crow flying into the sky with a mockingbird, just fighting each other. I thought that would be a cool song idea.”
The half-country, half-rock album represents both an outside-the-box moment for country music, but also comes at a time when several artists are incorporating a rock sensibility into their sound.
Jelly Roll is in the top 5 on the Hot Rock and Alternative Songs chart with “Son of a Sinner,” a song that recently topped the Country Airplay chart. Zach Bryan’s genre-fluid “Something in the Orange” has been a mainstay on both the country and rock charts. Even country legend Dolly Parton is currently working on a rock album with such artists as John Fogerty and Stevie Nicks, following her induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. But HARDY embodies the full country-to-rock range over the course of the album’s 17 songs.
The first half is chock-full of the kind of red-hot, redneck songs HARDY has become known for. “Screen” espouses trading phone screens for front porch screens. “Red,” his collaboration with Wallen, is no nod to Republican-state politics, but rather themed around the various ways the color is splashed across small towns — including courthouse bricks, rusted and dusted pickups, barn doors, worn Bibles and sports jerseys. He also adds to country music’s canon of murder ballads with his current top 15 Country Airplay hit, “wait in the truck,” featuring Lainey Wilson.
But this Mississippi native also grew up hearing his father play Pearl Jam and Lynyrd Skynyrd. By his early teens, he had added Nelly, Eminem and Kid Rock to the rotation.
“Every song from Eminem has some sort of twist or hook to it. But you can totally listen to those songs and think, ‘That could be a country hook.’ He’s so good at twisting words, his phrasing, and he’s a lyrical genius,” HARDY says. “Huge respect for him.”
HARDY made his first foray into the rock genre with his 2021 cover of Puddle of Mudd’s ’00s metal crossover hit “Blurry,” but also considered covering Stone Temple Pilots’ ’90s alternative staple “Big Empty.”
“‘Blurry’ just fit my brand more. We were testing the waters of rock radio to see if they would bite,” he says. “I’m thankful because rock is really intentional. You intentionally have to go there for it to be accepted and I’m thankful they have let me in that world a bit.”
Wry humor, self-awareness and a distorted vocal permeate “Radio Song,” featuring Jeremy McKinnon of A Day to Remember, which finds the pair playfully jeering country music tropes from moonlight kisses, trucks and conventionally attractive females, as the song itself twists from pop-country verse to an intense crescendo of a chorus.
“I was a huge Day to Remember fan, especially in high school,” HARDY recalls. “Their first three records, I listened to all the time. Jeremy and I started talking on Instagram. After ‘Sold Out’ came out, I started getting some attention from some of the rock guys. I’ve reached out to people, saying, ‘I’m a huge fan.’ I have no shame in telling people I grew up listening to that I’m a huge fan. Chris Fronzak in Atilla, he and I chat quite a bit. Even on the hip-hop side, Arizona Zervas who had the ‘Roxanne’ song, Yung Gravy, just all kinds of people.”
On its surface, “Jack” sounds like another party soundtrack, but one listen reveals a deeper purpose.
“My mom dealt with alcoholism — not herself, but people in her family growing up,” HARDY says. “I’ve always been conscious of that, and making sure that it’s never become a problem. It’s always been present, the grip that alcohol can have on you. I wanted to write a song about how it can tear people away from people. It’s paying homage to my mom and others that have had to put up with alcoholics and stuff like that.”
Though “Here Lies Country Music” is a song he calls “the funeral for country music on this record — if you don’t like the other stuff, start the record over from there,” his lyrics celebrating rural living and small-town pride reverberate throughout the whole of the album.
“I have to write a country lyric. It’s the only thing I know how to do,” he says. “Yes, it’s a half country, half-rock record, but the rock stuff is still my take on how I would like to experiment with country music. When you dig into the lyrics on the rock half of the album, I would argue that some of them are more country than the country side. On ‘Kill Shit ‘Til I Die,’ it’s talking about learning to hunt and clean your own deer that you killed. Even my rock stuff is a spin on country music.”
Looking ahead, the reigning ACM Awards songwriter of the year anticipates returning his focus to writing songs for other artists. “I love when a project is done and my brain switches back over [to writing for others]. I will always love getting cuts with other people, so I’m excited to get back in the room and do that. I was writing with Bailey Zimmerman the other day and I was like, ‘Man you just got your first No. 1′ — and I made that joke about BMI and mailbox money, and he said he didn’t write the song. I was like, ‘Dang, really?’ I think that’s cool that some of these younger kids are cutting outside songs. That’s, like, old-school Nashville stuff.”
HARDY also hopes to someday add writing credits for rock artists to his resume.
“I haven’t pitched any songs yet, but I’ve talked about it with a lot of people,” he says. “It would be cool to write rock songs for other people. I would add that to my list of things I want to do.”
BMG has promoted JoJamie Hahr to executive vp of recorded music, Nashville.
Hahr will oversee day-to-day operations of BMG Recorded Music in Nashville, including BBR Label Group and its roster and imprints Broken Bow Records, Stoney Creek Records and Wheelhouse Records. She will continue reporting to Jon Loba, president of BMG Nashville.
Hahr was promoted to senior vp of BBR Music Group in 2020, where she oversaw all artist strategy, brand partnerships, strategic marketing and digital/creative efforts for BBR Music Group imprints Broken Bow Records, Stoney Creek Records and Wheelhouse Records. She has been with BBR Music Group for eight years. Prior to joining BBR, Hahr served as national director of field promotion for The Valory Music Co., after being promoted from director of Southeast promotion and marketing. Her two decades of music industry experience have also included stints at Universal Music Group, Nashville radio station WSIX and Orlando radio station WWKA.
“I’ve had the good fortune to work with JoJamie for a significant part of her professional life. Whenever she has been given a new opportunity for growth, she has not only met, but exceeded my high expectations,” said Loba in a statement. “She is one of the very best music executives in the industry and this promotion recognizes her many contributions, while at the same time giving her the opportunity to help further grow BMG Nashville, where I have no doubt, she will once again exceed our expectations.”
“It’s a privilege and a blessing to work with our extraordinary artists and our BMG family every day,” added Hahr. “Jon Loba has always encouraged my passion and my growth and I’m thankful for his belief in me. BMG truly puts artists and their music first, and I’m extremely proud of what we all continue to build together in Nashville and beyond.“
Over the past year, BBR Music Group has seen two red-hot artist breakthroughs. In March, Lainey Wilson won new female artist of the year and song of the year at the 2022 ACM Awards, followed by wins for female vocalist of the year and new artist of the year at the 2022 CMA Awards in November. Meanwhile, Jelly Roll just earned his first No. 1 single on Billboard‘s Country Airplay chart with “Son of a Sinner” after previously earning his first No. 1 single on Billboard‘s Mainstream Rock Airplay chart with “Dead Man Walking.” The singer has also a total of spent 22 weeks atop Billboard‘s Emerging Artists chart. Elsewhere, three-time ACM entertainer of the year winner Jason Aldean earned his 25th No. 1 Country Airplay hit in May.
Actress-singer Rita Wilson recently appeared on The Kelly Clarkson Show to discuss her 2022 album, Now & Forever: Duets, which includes collaborations with Smokey Robinson, Willie Nelson, Keith Urban, Jimmie Allen, Vince Gill, Tim McGraw and Elvis Costello on a range of classic songs, such as “Crazy Love” with Urban and “Slip Slidin’ Away” with Nelson. The album follows her 2019 project Halfway to Home.
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“It’s all cover songs from the ’70s, and sort of re-envisioned as conversations and duets.” Wilson told singer, songwriter and show host Kelly Clarkson. “I thought, ‘What if these songs were actually conversations that lovers were having with each other?’”
Asked whether she was nervous when making the ask of so many artists to be part of the album, Wilson said, “I give them the out right away, like, ‘I thought maybe you’d want to do this, but it’s okay if you don’t want to. I just don’t want to hear the ‘no,’ but I know that I might hear a ‘No.’ In this case, I’m very lucky, very humbled by everybody who was able to show up.”
The album’s co-producer, Matt Rollings, had previously worked with Nelson on Nelson’s project Summertime: Willie Nelson Sings Gershwin, as well as Nelson’s Frank Sinatra tribute album, My Way.
“Willie was the first person to say yes,” she said, which prompts Clarkson to ask if Wilson hung out on Nelson’s tour bus. “I did not hang out on his bus, but this year he sent me hemp tea and coffee. He’s got his own hemp tea and coffee and he and his wife Annie sent us that for Christmas.” Nelson’s Willie’s Remedy line includes a range of hemp-infused teas and coffees, as well as sparkling water, balms and tinctures.
See Wilson’s interview on The Kelly Clarkson Show in the video above.
Brooks & Dunn are extending their Reboot tour with the addition of 17 tour dates in 2023. The new slate of shows will launch on May 4 in Kansas City, Mo.
“Last year, you all reminded us just how much fun it is to walk out on that stage and share the night with ya! We love what we do, but we’re just surfing your wave …can’t wait!!” said Brooks & Dunn’s Kix Brooks via a statement.
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“The Brooks and Dunn posse rides again,” added Ronnie Dunn. “More excited to hit the big stage as we ever have been! Unbelievable band of friends.…annnnnd YOU! Together, let’s rock the house!!”
Heading out on the road with B&D is Scotty McCreery, known for his chart toppers including “This Is It” and “Five More Minutes.”
“Having been a huge fan of their music all my life, going out on the road with Kix and Ronnie is a dream come true for me,” said McCreery. “I can’t wait for this tour to begin!”
The tour takes its name from Brooks & Dunn’s 2019 album Reboot, which found the duo collaborating with younger country artists including Kacey Musgraves, Midland and Luke Combs on several of Brooks & Dunn’s biggest hits. Though McCreery did not appear on that project, he did recently earn another Billboard Country Airplay chart topper with “Damn Strait,” a sly nod to another ’90s country artist, George Strait.
“My first country music concert was George Strait, and along with my love for Elvis [Presley], he inspired me to become a country music singer myself,” McCreery previously told Billboard. “When I did American Idol, George called me and requested I sing his [1995] hit ‘Check Yes or No,’ and I still sing it from time to time in concert. Now, having my fifth straight No. 1 on a song that pays tribute to George, while at the same time being a classic country heartbreaker such as he might have sung, is such a full-circle moment that means the world to me. Trent Tomlinson and Jim Collins wrote a clever song that reaches beyond name-dropping Strait hits to tell a meaningful story.”
Last year, Brooks & Dunn revived the CMT franchise CMT Storytellers, and rang in 2023 as part of Nashville’s New Year’s Eve Bash.
Tickets for the new tour dates go on sale Friday, Jan. 27, at 10 a.m. local time at brooks-dunn.com and livenation.com.
See the full list of Reboot 2023 tour dates below:
Thu May 04 – Kansas City, MO – T- Mobile Center
Fri May 05 – Oklahoma City, OK – Paycom Center
Sat May 06 – Ft. Worth, TX – Dickies Arena
Thu May 11 – Lexington, KY – Rupp Arena
Fri May 12 – Pittsburgh, PA – PPG Paints Arena
Sat May 13 – Buffalo, NY – KeyBank Center
Thu May 18 – Birmingham, AL – Legacy Arena at The BJCC
Fri May 19 – Biloxi, MS – Mississippi Coast Coliseum
Sat May 20 – Little Rock, AR – Simmons Bank Arena
Thu Jun 01 – Omaha, NE – CHI Health Center
Fri Jun 02 – Sioux Falls, SD – Denny Sanford PREMIER Center
Sat Jun 03 – St. Paul, MN – Xcel Energy Center
Thu Jun 08 – Duluth, GA – Gas South Arena+
Sat Jun 10 – Orlando, FL – Amway Center
Thu June 15 – Mt. Pleasant, MI – Soaring Eagle Casino & Resort*
Fri Jun 16 – Columbus, OH – Nationwide Arena
Sat Jun 17 – Greensboro, NC – Greensboro Coliseum
*Not a Live Nation Date
+On Sale Friday, Feb. 3
With CMA and ACM Awards wins to her credit — not to mention chart-topping songs including “Never Wanted to Be That Girl” and “I Hope You’re Happy Now” — Grand Ole Opry member Carly Pearce has been steadily adding accolades since she released her debut song, her first Country Airplay chart-topper “Every Little Thing,” in 2017.
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On Friday (Jan. 20), Pearce shared a video with fans and revealed a wild story from an early radio tour, when Pearce was crisscrossing the country to promote her debut single and she had a run-in with the police.
“I’m going to tell you about the time that I had a warrant out for my arrest,” she began.
While traveling on the radio tour, her flight was canceled, forcing Pearce and her band to have to rent a car and drive to where they were playing the next day.
“I was driving through the great state, my home state of Kentucky and I didn’t realize the speed limit went very quickly from like 70 to 35 — and let’s just be real, I was already going, um, 85,” she recalled.
A cop pulled her over and gave her a ticket. “I could tell he was, like, really annoyed, but we had to get to the show, so I didn’t look at the speeding ticket until I got to the venue a few hours later and realized I had a reckless driving ticket. So I paid the ticket and thought nothing of it — and then got a call that there was a warrant out for my arrest, because I did not go to traffic school or pay the full amount of my ticket, because I didn’t realize it’s a big offense if you are reckless driving.”
With a deep sigh, she continued, telling fans that there was one bright side to the ordeal.
“You’re never gonna believe it, but the cop was a country fan, and I bartered my way to pay the ticket and give him tickets to my show — and he dropped the warrant, or the charge or whatever you want to call it. That police officer in Kentucky, thank you. You can come to a show anytime. But yeah, I’m kind of bad,” she says, with a mischievous gleam in her eyes.
The video ends with another video clip of Pearce — this time, seemingly ready to head onstage — as she continues, “The moral of the story, y’all, is be aware of the speed limits where you are going and it pays to be a country singer sometimes,” she added with a wink and a smile.
Pearce is nominated for a Grammy leading into next month’s awards show, earning a nod for best country duo/group performance for “Never Wanted to Be That Girl” with Ashley McBryde. She is opening shows on Blake Shelton’s Back to the Honky Tonk tour.
Yellowstone continues to have a strong impact on Billboard’s Top TV Songs chart, powered by Tunefind, ranking four songs within the top 10 of the December 2022 list, including the No. 1.
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Rankings for the Top TV Songs chart are based on song and show data provided by Tunefind and ranked using a formula blending that data with sales and streaming information tracked by Luminate during the corresponding period of December 2022.
Lainey Wilson’s “Watermelon Moonshine,” heard in the Dec. 11 episode of the Paramount show, leads at No. 1. It scored 4.9 million official U.S. streams and 10,000 downloads in December 2022, according to Luminate.
As a result of its Yellowstone synch, the song, originally released Aug. 12, 2022, reached No. 5 on Billboard’s Country Digital Song Sales chart, as well as No. 15 on the all-format Digital Song Sales ranking.
Wilson, who also acts on the show, performed the song as her character in the episode.
Other Yellowstone appearances on the chart include a pair of Zach Bryan songs (“Motorcycle Drive By,” No. 4 — 3.9 million streams, 6,000 downloads; “Summertime Blues,” No. 7 – 3.7 million streams, 2,000 downloads) and one from Flatland Cavalry (“Mountain Song, No. 8 – 2 million streams, 2,000 downloads). Bryan performed both songs on the Dec. 18 episode.
The top non-Yellowstone title, meanwhile, belongs to Mitski, whose “Washing Machine Heart” bows at No. 2 after a Dec. 2 synch in Mythic Quest. In December 2022, the song earned 13.1 million streams.
See the full top 10, also featuring music from Fire Country, The White Lotus, The Rookie, Harry & Meghan and The Good Doctor, below.
Rank, Song, Artist, Show (Network)1. “Watermelon Moonshine,” Lainey Wilson, Yellowstone (Paramount)2. “Washing Machine Heart,” Mitski, Mythic Quest (Apple TV+)3. “Never Say Never,” Cole Swindell & Lainey Wilson, Fire Country (CBS)4. “Motorcycle Drive By,” Zach Bryan, Yellowstone (Paramount)5. “Ciao Ciao,” La rappresentante di lista, The White Lotus (HBO)6. “Katla,” Zander Hawley & Abby Gundersen, The Rookie (ABC)7. “Summertime Blues,” Zach Bryan, Yellowstone (Paramount)8. “Mountain Song,” Flatland Cavalry, Yellowstone (Paramount)9. “Follow the Sun,” Xavier Rudd, Harry & Meghan (Netflix)10. “What Makes You Sad,” Nicotine Dolls, The Good Doctor (ABC)
Dan+Shay‘s Shay Mooney and his wife, Hannah Billingsley, have welcomed their third child. The parents revealed the arrival of their new baby boy, Abram Shay Mooney, on Friday (Jan. 20). Abram, born on Jan. 17, joins older brothers Asher and Ames.
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Mooney shared a video of himself cuddling his newborn son, and softly singing a bit of Dan+Shay’s 2017 song “When I Pray for You.”
“Grateful doesn’t begin to cover it,” Mooney captioned the clip, ending it with a heart emoji.
Several fellow artists offered their congratulations to the couple in the video’s comments section on Instagram, including Rascal Flatts’ Jay DeMarcus, Little Big Town’s Karen Fairchild, Charles Esten, Chrissy Metz and Callista Clark.
Billingsley shared the same video clip on Instagram. “First song sang to the newest family member…Abram Shay, you’re so loved and so prayed over, baby boy,” she captioned her post. “Thankful for all that God has done for us this week.”
In August 2022, the couple revealed they were expecting their third child, telling fans via social media by posting a video that included their older sons. The couple welcomed their first child, son Asher James, in January 2017. The Mooneys wed in October 2017, and welcomed son Ames Alexander in February 2020.
“When I Pray for You” was released as part of the soundtrack for the film The Shack. Mooney and his Dan+Shay bandmate Dan Smyers wrote the song with Justin Ebach and Jon Nite. “When I Pray For You” offers the viewpoint of a father’s unconditional love toward his child.
See Mooney’s sweet post about baby Abram below:
