Country
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“People say ‘unforgiveable’ a lot, but we don’t use the word ‘forgivable’ much,” says Bart Millard, lead singer of contemporary Christian music act MercyMe. “With all the craziness going on in the world today, sometimes it feels like that forgiveness and grace is the most insane thing, especially with cancel culture. We are very good at eating our wounded.”
Millard is referring to the song that serves as the fulcrum of MercyMe’s new album, Always Only Jesus, out Friday (Oct. 21). For nearly three decades, the Brickhouse Entertainment-managed MercyMe has grown a back catalog of hits like “I Can Only Imagine,” which was just certified 5x platinum by the RIAA; “Word of God Speak,” and “Even If.”
Their new album strikes the balance between experimental and the style of polished worship music that MercyMe has become known for, as it dives deep into celebratory wonder (“Hands Up,” “Always Only Jesus”), keeping faith amid doubt (“To Not Worship You”) and finding refuge (“Heart Beats for Your Good”).
The band, which has won six Dove Awards, hopes the new music inspires reconciliation within communities that have become fractured through the COVID-19 pandemic, fiery political divides and more over the past few years.
“In our perspective, we’ve seen a lot of division within the body of Christ, a lot of people drawing lines, taking different stances on things,” Millard says. “And, man, if there was ever a time to remind ourselves that there is one thing we have in common and that’s Jesus, [it would be now].”
MercyMe had initially planned to record only a five-song EP; however, that began to shift with the writing of what became their current single, “Then Christ Came.”
“Then Christ Came,” which stands at No. 11 on Billboard’s Christian Airplay chart, was originally slated for their 2021 album inhale (exhale), but the song, penned by Millard and co-writer David Leonard, wasn’t fully finished by the album’s deadline. So they instead included only a snippet of the unfinished demo.
“We couldn’t crack the code on it for some reason,” Millard recalls. “We knew it was a special song, so we decided that for the first time, we were going to pull the song and wait for the next album.”
Millard joined with singer-songwriters Jason Ingram and Phil Wickham to finish the song, which gets an amped-up refurbishing on Always Only Jesus — a technique reminiscent of Rich Mullins’ “Step by Step,” which was a chorus included on the first album of Mullins’ two-volume project, The World as Best as I Remember It, released in 1991. The chorus, written by David “Beaker” Strasser, became a popular worship song. Mullins added verses to it, and included it again on the album’s second volume, under the name “Sometimes by Step.”
“I’m a huge Rich Mullins fan and I love that he did that,” Millard says. “With ‘Then Christ Came,’ our label said, ‘What if we did a demo — since we know it’s going to be the first single, whenever the next record comes out, a kind of foreshadowing?”
As with inhale (exhale), the group recorded Always Only Jesus at Imagine Cabin, their cabin-turned-recording studio just outside of Nashville.
“It’s been a dream of ours forever to have a space like this,” MercyMe guitarist/vocalist Barry Graul says. “We can leave stuff set up however we want and work as much as we want. If inspiration strikes, we can just chase it. It’s great to go to new areas and find new inspiration, but there’s something special about having your own space, too.”
“This is us getting back to the heart of being a band again,” Millard adds.
The group reunited with the same trio of producers that worked on their previous album: Brown Bannister, known for producing a string of contemporary Christian music artists including Amy Grant, Steven Curtis Chapman and Third Day; Tedd T (Delirious, Newsboys, for King & Country) and The Afters’ Jordan Mohilowski (Andrew Ripp, Walker Hayes).
“They are each very different in their approach,” Millard explains. “Jordan is very in-the-box programming, kind of directing us, whereas with Ted, you could accidentally drop your guitar or something and he would be like, ‘Oh, do that again so I can record it.’ And Brown is like the zen master of encouragement in the room. He’s been doing this for so long and really knows how to work with a band, he’s very diplomatic. He’s the king of giving a band space to get it right. It’s been cool to watch each of them bring their own style to the process. Then there are five producers within the band, so you’ve got like eight producers, but it makes everybody better.”
According to Millard, there was another artist who also gave input into the album — CCM icon Grant, who had been instrumental in MercyMe recording and releasing what became their signature hit, ‘I Can Only Imagine.”
“I’ve had a thing for years where I’ll send a new record to Amy before it ever releases, and she’ll take notes and tell me what she loves — or doesn’t love — about it,” Millard says. “She will be brutally honest. For [“Forgivable”], she said, ‘The lyrics are so heavy… The drums kind of get on my nerves, because I’m wanting it to be a ballad.’ When I’m writing lyrics, I tend to save those for the power ballad, but I do love that this is one of the deepest lyrics on the whole album, but it’s also like an upbeat John Mayer song.”
The album closes with a revamped, harmony-rich version of the hymn “Nothing But the Blood.”
“There are some songs that, due to time and scheduling, I’ll do all the background vocals because I’m there, and [his MercyMe bandmates] do it live and they are more than capable,” Millard says. “This is one of those, like [2008’s] ‘Finally Home,’ where there’s no programming, that’s strictly the band. That’s literally us, trying to find the kick drum sound by hitting things on the wall or the couch cushions, creating it right there in the room.”
This week, the band launched their MercyMe Live 2022 tour, and will team with Chris Tomlin for a winter U.S. outing beginning Dec. 1. For all their achievements, including 17 No. 1s on Christian Airplay, the band members say they still have a few career goals left on their wish lists — including some areas where they’ve still never performed.
“There are some overseas places we would love to play,” says MercyMe bassist/keyboardist/vocalist Nathan Cochran. “We’ve done very little international touring; we haven’t done anything in Europe. We’ve played Australia. We did a USO tour, which was amazing. We would love to do that again — though it is a balancing act because either we take all of our families with us, or we would have to be gone from our families for two weeks.”
And atop the bucket list is winning a Grammy — for which they have been nominated six times, but have yet to take home the golden gramophone. “That’s the one. That would be cool,” says Cochran.
Zach Bryan‘s songs have dotted the Billboard country charts over the past year, but he recently revealed he’s also a fan of another singer-songwriter with strong country ties: Taylor Swift.
Bryan recently shared his enthusiasm for Swift’s upcoming album Midnights, which releases Friday, Oct. 21.
“miss swift what are the vibes at midnight good morning everybody and happy almost sweekend, get in we’re going crying,” Bryan tweeted Thursday (Oct. 21). That message prompted one of his followers to ask the singer about his favorite Swift songs.
“‘August,’ for sure,” Bryan responded, referring to a track from Swift’s 2020 album Folklore. He also noted that his girlfriend asks him to cover Swift’s 2006 debut single, “Tim McGraw.”
Like Swift herself, who released albums Folklore and Evermore in 2020, followed by last year’s re-recordings of her previous albums Fearless and Red, Oklahoma native and Navy veteran Bryan has also proven himself a prolific writer.
In May, Bryan’s Warner Records debut album American Heartbreak debuted at No. 1 on Billboard‘s Top Country Albums chart and at No. 5 on the Billboard 200, while his song “Something in the Orange” has been certified platinum by the RIAA, and is at No. 44 on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart).
In July, Bryan followed American Heartbreak with the release of the nine-song EP Summertime Blues, which debuted at No. 7 on Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart, as well as at No. 2 on the Top Americana/Folk Albums chart.
Leading up to the release of Midnights, Swift has teased song titles (including “Mastermind,” “Anti-Hero,” and “You’re on Your Own, Kid,” as well as “Snow on the Beach,” a collaboration with Lana Del Rey), lyrics (via a series of Spotify billboards that have popped up in cities around the world), and inspirations for the album.
See Bryan’s tweets about his favorite Taylor Swift song below.
miss swift what are the vibes at midnight good morning everybody and happy almost sweekend, get in we’re going crying— Zach Bryan (@zachlanebryan) October 20, 2022
august for sure but my gf actually forces me to cover Tim McGraw for her so it’s all up in the air— Zach Bryan (@zachlanebryan) October 20, 2022
George Strait, Brandi Carlile, Keith Urban, Tim McGraw, Little Big Town and Wynonna are among the artists who will pay tribute to Loretta Lynn on Oct. 30 during Coal Miner’s Daughter: A Celebration of the Life and Music of Loretta Lynn.
The event, helmed by CMT and Sandbox Productions in partnership with the late legend’s family, will air live and commercial-free on CMT at 7 p.m. ET from Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry. Lynn, 90, died at her home in Hurricane Mills, Tenn., on Oct. 4.
Hosted by NBC’s Today show co-host and family friend Jenna Bush Hager, the evening will also include performances and appearances from Barbara Mandrell, Lynn’s sister Crystal Gayle, Darius Rucker, Emmy Russell & Lukas Nelson, Faith Hill, Margo Price, Martina McBride, Sheryl Crow, Tanya Tucker, The Highwomen (Carlile, Amanda Shires, Natalie Hemby and Brittney Spencer) and more artists to be announced later.
“We are truly honored to work closely alongside Loretta’s family to create a celebration of life fit for a true queen of country music, Loretta Lynn,” said CMT’s senior vp of production, music & events Margaret Comeaux and senior vp of music strategy and talent Leslie Fram, who serve as executive producers along with Sandbox’s Jason Owen, Ladypants Productions’ Patrizia DiMaria, Lynn’s daughter and manager Patsy Lynn Russell and Essential Broadcast Media’s Ebie McFarland. “She was a true original, a woman who always sang from her heart, never shied away from challenging the status quo and blazed the path forward for her fellow female artists. From her firecracker spirit and signature musicality to her unmistakable country style and unparalleled authenticity, we look forward to honoring her in the best way we know how: sharing stories and songs with her family, friends and the legions of fans she loved dearly.”
Lynn, whose hardscrabble life story was turned into the 1980 Oscar-winning biopic Coal Miner’s Daughter, recorded 16 No. 1 singles and was among country music’s pioneering female artists.
The memorial service comes five months after CMT and Sandbox joined together to honor the life and career of another Nashville icon, Naomi Judd, for a similar televised live event. Judd died April 30 at age 76.
Also coming from CMT is Nov. 8’s Next Women of Country: Celebrating the Songs of Loretta Lynn showcase at City Winery Nashville. Fram and Wendy Moten will co-host the evening, featuring performances in the round from Bowen + Young, Brooke Eden, Caylee Hammack, Erin Enderlin, Miko Marks, Sacha, Stephanie Quayle and Tiera Kennedy.
CMT dedicated its Oct. 14 broadcast of the 2022 CMT Artists of the Year celebration to Lynn’s memory, with her sisters Gayle and Peggy Sue Wright delivering an emotional performance of “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” and with special presentations from McBride and Tucker.
Two additional commercial-free encores of the Oct. 30 celebration will air on CMT on Nov. 2 at 8 p.m. ET and Nov. 6 at 11 a.m. ET. The special will also be made available on Paramount+ in early 2023.
Privacy may be one of the most valuable commodities of life in 2022.
With internet tracking, the proliferation of public cameras and the frequent ping of text-message spam, keeping personal space personal is much more difficult than it was when the biggest issue was a neighborhood snoop.
Finding time alone — specifically adult time alone — is at the heart of “You, Me, and Whiskey,” a new Justin Moore duet with Priscilla Block. It’s also a real-world issue for Moore, who shares a house in Arkansas with his wife of 15 years and their four kids.
“One night, [it’s] softball practice for one of them, the other night is basketball lessons for this one and the next night is church,” he says. “It’s difficult to make time for Kate and I — for just us — so you have to make a concerted effort to do that. So I really related to the song.”
Landing a cut with Moore was the goal when Brock Berryhill (“Homesick,” “What Happens in a Small Town”) hosted a 9 a.m. writing session with Cole Taylor (“Home Alone Tonight,” “Nothing To Do Town”) and Jessi Alexander (“Never Say Never,” “I Drive Your Truck”) on Music Row on Jan. 10. Specifically, they intended to write a potential duet for Moore and an unidentified female.
“I love writing duets and almost can’t get tired of them,” enthuses Alexander. “In a duet, you kind of get more dimension. And I love layering. You can alternate melodies and shift around and [have the singers] accompany each other.”
Taylor brought the title “You, Me, and Whiskey” into the room, and all three thought it lent itself to a song about a casual hookup. But they wanted an angle that was authentic to Moore’s home life and focused on a long-term couple.
“He’s happily married,” Taylor says. “When you’re writing with certain artists in mind, you have to keep their story in your head.”
They wrote the anthemic chorus first, beginning the stanza with the hook and filling the next six lines with rising passion and alcohol, the “black-label buzz” aiding the couple’s private pursuit of “things that stay in the dark.” That led to the setup line, celebrating the romance as both sweet and strong, before they repeated the hook once more.
That setup line “was the hardest one for us to find,” recalls Taylor. “We knew we had something special with the melody and the title and the duet part. And the most important part of the song is how you set up the hook. None of it matters if you don’t have a good hook. We searched and searched and searched for that, and then I want to say Jessi maybe said, ‘Nothin’ as sweet, nothin’ as strong.’ We’re all, ‘Yeah, that’s it.’”
They made the chorus ultra-flexible. If Moore — or some other artist — wanted to cut it solo, they wouldn’t have to change a single word. But it was also perfect for two singers to trade lines or sing the entire chorus in harmony.
“I’m a big harmony guy, so I love everything harmonized,” Berryhill says. “I’d harmonize drums.”
They used the same four-chord progression for the verses as the chorus, applying a different melodic approach to provide variance. The progression is dark and mostly unresolved, creating a near-constant tension. The chorus’ big, bright melody hides it a bit, though the verses, using a lower melody and more cautious phrasing, make that subliminal need for resolution clearer. That’s quite appropriate for a song about interpersonal tension and release.
In the second verse, they addressed the release a little more with a cheeky line about “talkin’ dirty” at 10:30,” knowing that it might cause an issue for some programmers. “Obviously, it’s really risky,” allows Taylor. “If it needs changing, we can change it. If not, we just got ‘talkin’ dirty’ on country radio.”
Alexander believes allowing the characters to behave in a public song the way they would in private makes it more likely to connect. “There’s going to be people in the carpool lane, people that are also married, that hopefully will go, ‘I remember those kids,’ ” she says. “That’s exciting because I don’t know that they’re spoken to a lot.”
“You, Me, and Whiskey” didn’t get completed during that Monday’s two-hour appointment, but they reassembled on Friday to finish it. Taylor and Alexander laid down the vocal parts for the demo that day, and Berryhill produced it with scratchy programmed drums and acoustic guitar, offset by a shimmering banjo.
“Being a rock dude, I normally take things to 10,” says Berryhill. “But this one, we kind of kept it like 60%, 70%. The demo doesn’t have all the big drums.”
An hour after Taylor turned it in to his publisher at Creative Nation, owner/producer Jeremy Stover (Travis Denning, Jack Ingram) forwarded “Whiskey” to Moore, who identified Block as his first choice for a duet partner. They both appeared at a WUSY Chattanooga, Tenn., guitar pull on March 29, and Moore was impressed by her voice and her poise while performing alongside artists who were all more established.
“I thought Priscilla stole the show that night with her interaction with the crowd,” he says. “She sang her tail off. The songs were really, really good. I was just highly impressed.”
He told her that night he would be happy to help her any way he could. Getting her to sing on “Whiskey” would fulfill that offer. She was interested, but of course wanted to hear it before she agreed. It was an easy “yes.”
“It feels like me,” says Block. “I tend to drink quite a bit of whiskey, so that one was like, ‘All right, we’re on brand here.’ ”
Stover and his co-producer, Big Machine Label Group president/CEO Scott Borchetta, kept some of Berryhill’s drum programming from the demo but otherwise rerecorded “Whiskey” with a full band, providing a tougher sound while cutting six tracks at The Castle in Franklin, Tenn.
“It’s out in the country, and there’s not a lot of distractions, so everybody’s hyper-focused just on the music,” Stover says. “They’re not running somewhere to make a bank deposit or run an errand. Everybody’s just there for the day.”
Stover visited Arkansas to capture Moore’s lead vocal at his home, and he worked with Block at Nashville’s Blackbird Studios to get her part, intentionally highlighting her unique tone and enunciations, even when the two singers are locked in harmony. “Sometimes you can line up the vocal so tight that it just sounds like a background singer,” says Stover. “We left those vocals where you really hear two distinctive voices, but at the same time, you don’t lose the melody.”
He encouraged Block to adjust the part to accentuate her persona, and she found that “Whiskey” went down rather easily. “Thank you, Jesus, they weren’t sending me any Christina Aguilera/Carrie Underwood [song],” Block deadpans. “There’s just no way that my voice would be able to do amazing things like that.”
Valory released “You, Me, and Whiskey” to country radio via PlayMPE on Oct. 10 with an official add date of Oct. 24. Their two voices fit together publicly the way the song’s characters mesh in private. In the process, the singers meet in the middle, using a production that walks the line between Moore’s usual classic country instrumentation and Block’s more progressive sound.
“It reminds me a little bit of ‘Somebody Else Will,’ ” he says. “So we’re being pushed a little bit out of my comfort zone. But sometimes that’s good. We didn’t get outside of the box, but we got a little closer to the edge of it.”
Michael Knox has been promoted to president of peermusic Nashville. Knox, who joined the company in 2010, previously served as senior vp of peermusic Nashville.
Under Knox’s guidance, peermusic Nashville published the 2016 SESAC country song of the year, Dierks Bentley‘s “Somewhere on a Beach,” co-written by Michael Tyler and Jaron Boyer, as well as the 2013 ASCAP country music song of the year, Randy Houser‘s “How Country Feels” (co-written by Neil Thrasher and Vicky McGehee). Other peermusic Nashville publishing highlights include Jason Aldean‘s “Rearview Town,” Jon Pardi‘s “Ain’t Always The Cowboy,” Cole Swindell‘s “Love You Too Late,” Riley Green‘s “There Was This Girl” and Dustin Lynch‘s “Hell of a Night.”
“In the 12 years that he has been with peermusic, Michael Knox has distinctively guided our Nashville office song by song, hit by hit, resulting in major impact for our roster of songwriters,” said Kathy Spanberger, president/COO peermusic, via a statement. “Knox is one of the most prolific publishers and music producers in Nashville with an extraordinary amount of production credits to his name, but it’s his thoughtful approach, quick humor, and devotion to our music creators that really draws people to want to build their careers with peermusic Nashville. Knox is delivering career-making opportunities for our writers.”
“For over 94 years, the Peers have been widely considered the first family of country music publishing with a history of delivering ‘firsts’ in the industry,” Knox added. “I jumped at the invitation to be a part of this publishing team 12 years ago and to work alongside some of the best and most trusted music publishers in the business. The important legacy that we’re building upon here in Nashville, our commitment to continue delivering ‘firsts’ for songwriters, and the genuine connections we have with our peermusic writers is something that I’m flat-out proud to be a part of. I’m thankful to Kathy, Mary Megan Peer, Ralph Peer II, and our peermusic team for this opportunity.”
In addition to his work leading peermusic Nashville, Knox is an accomplished producer known for his longtime work with Aldean and others. Knox topped Billboard’s Top Country Producers chart for the first time last year (notching his 13th year earning Top 10 Country Producers honors) after the release of the Aldean/Carrie Underwood collaboration “If I Didn’t Love You,” which Knox solely produced. The song stayed atop the Billboard Country Airplay chart for three weeks, and earned single of the year honors at the 57th annual Academy of Country Music Awards. The song is nominated for music event of the year at the upcoming 56th annual Country Music Association awards.
Knox’s production credits have contributed to over 55 million singles and 30 million albums sold, including songs recorded by Thomas Rhett (“It Goes Like This”), Trace Adkins (“Just Fishin’”), Kelly Clarkson and Aldean (“Don’t You Wanna Stay”), Aldean, Luke Bryan and Eric Church (“The Only Way I Know”), Montgomery Gentry (“Where I Come From”) and more. He also co-produced “The Wrong Song,” featuring Connie Britton and Hayden Panettiere with T Bone Burnett for the television show Nashville.
Prior to joining peermusic, Knox opened the song plugging company Hit Pluggers in 1991. From 1992 until 2002, Knox served as a vice president at Warner Chappell, responsible for writer and artist development and song placements. He signed and oversaw writers and catalogs including Aldean, John Rich, Gretchen Wilson, Emily West, Jeff Stevens, Steve Bogard, Marv Green, Terry McBride, Wendell Mobley, and Dave Loggins. Knox has previously served on the ACM Board of Directors and the CMA Board of Directors.
Additionally, Knox is a label exec with the Music Knox Records imprint with BBR Music Group/BMG. He signed Tim Montana to the label in 2020. He also launched the nationally syndicated radio show Knox Country 360, which he serves as host and producer on. Earlier this year, Knox became a first-time ACM national weekly on-air personality of the year, alongside co-host Shalacy Griffin.
Glass Animals‘ “Heat Waves” set a new record this week as the longest-running hit in the history of the Billboard Hot 100. On the chart dated Oct. 22, the No. 1 hit officially surpassed The Weeknd‘s “Blinding Lights” by spending 91 weeks on the tally.
And now that Dave Bayley and his bandmates are the reigning record holders thanks to the remarkable, slow-burning success of their single, we want to know which longtime Hot 100 hit is your favorite.
Of the never-ending cascade of songs that have gone up and down the all-genre tally since its inception in 1958, only 10 have spent at least 68 weeks on the chart — including hits by Imagine Dragons, AWOLNATION, Dua Lipa and more.
Do you prefer “Heat Waves” over “Blinding Lights”? Which gets your blood pumping more: Dan Reynold’s ferocious delivery of “Radioactive” or AWOLNATION‘s glitchy, hard-charging “Sail”? On the pop front, does Dua’s “Levitating” send you soaring or are you still head over heels for Jason Mraz‘s 2008 single “I’m Yours” after all these years?
The oldest song of the ten is actually LeAnn Rimes‘ 1997 country juggernaut “How Do I Live,” which comes tied in seventh place at 69 weeks with The Weeknd and Ariana Grande‘s “Save Your Tears.” (That’s right, the artist otherwise known as Abel Tesfaye is the only musician to have two hits among the longest-running Hot 100 tracks.)
Was OneRepublic‘s “Counting Stars” an unstoppable force on your playlists a decade ago? Or were you busy party rocking to LMFAO‘s “Party Rock Anthem” featuring Lauren Bennett and GoonRock?
While we celebrate Glass Animals’ latest accomplishment, vote for your favorite long-running song on the Hot 100 below.
Thomas Rhett and Katy Perry‘s joint music video is finally here. Rhett shared the official music video to their collaborative track “Where We Stared” on Tuesday (Oct. 18), which hails off of his sixth studio album of the same name.
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The video sees Rhett and Perry stripping things back for something more simple, with the country singer wearing a double denim ensemble and the pop star in a flowing white gown, appearing at first in separate sheet covered rooms. While singing the song’s second chorus, the pair wade through flowing fabrics to find and serenade each other.
“Those days when you’re brokenhearted/ And you get knocked down/ And you say you don’t know how far we’re gonna go/ Just look at that road and think about where we started/ Keep your eyes on me ’cause talk is cheap/ We’re all we need, yeah/ Darlin’, I know how far we’re gonna go/ Just look at that road and think about where we started,” Rhett and Perry sing.
“Working with Katy has been a really collaborative process,” Rhett said in a statement. “From tracking the song in the studio, to performing on it American Idol, to this video — her input has made this whole experience really special for me.”
The “Firework” singer added, “I loved being able to create a dreamy world for ‘Where We Started,’ going back to the Nashville singer-songwriter roots of where I started.”
“Where We Started” peaked at No. 33 on Billboard‘s Hot Country Songs chart in April. Meanwhile, the album itself spent three weeks on the Billboard 200, where it peaked at No. 12 following its April 1 release. The LP spent 23 weeks on Top Country Albums and peaked in the No. 2 spot on the chart.
Watch the new video for “Where We Started” below:
Amazon is adding some music to its Thursday night football coverage. Amazon Music Live will feature a series of artists performing during the streamers’ Thursday Night Football on Prime Video series beginning on Oct. 27.
Among the acts slated to take the stage on the broadcasts are are Lil Baby, Megan Thee Stallion and Kane Brown, with more artists to be announced throughout the season according to a release announcing the events. The livestream concert series will be hosted by 2 Chainz and will air on Prime Video following that week’s game. Baby is first man up on Oct. 27, followed by Megan hitting the Amazon Music Live stage on Nov. 3 and Brown performing on Nov. 10.
“Whether you’re a sports fan waiting for the first football game of the week, or a music fan staying up late to hear the latest drop from your favorite artist, Thursday is the biggest night for entertainment,” said Kirdis Postelle, global head of artist marketing of Amazon Music in a statement. “With Amazon Music Live, we’ve created a new, can’t-miss series for fans to experience the most exciting new music together. For artists, this show represents a massive new stage to share their music with fans after Thursday Night Football — the biggest game of the week, airing live on Prime Video.”
2 Chainz will also interview each night’s performer and the concerts will be available to stream for free around the world on Prime Video as well as being available to stream on-demand for a limited time. “Every Thursday night, I’m bringing the biggest and the brightest stars in music to the Amazon Music Live stage in Los Angeles,” said 2 Chainz in a statement. “We have the people that are influencing the culture and have carved their own unique path in music, like Lil Baby, Megan Thee Stallion, and Kane Brown.”
The concerts will take place in front of live crowds in Los Angeles.
Check out the promo video for the series below.
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.