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Country

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From Beyoncé’s Billboard 200-topping Cowboy Carter LP to Shaboozey’s Billboard Hot 100-topping “A Bar Song (Tipsy),” 2024 has been a watershed year for Black artists in the country music space – and BRELAND is looking to close out the year with a bold new agenda of his own. 
Titled Project 2024, the six-song EP is rooted in the country star’s experience visiting Selma, Alabama, the historically significant city from which his mother’s side of the family hails. The duality of Selma’s impact on the Civil Rights Movement and its current state inspired BRELAND to put together a project that speaks to the unshakeable freedom of creativity. He infuses the set’s country foundation with notes of gospel and disco, while also finding time to collaborate with other Black country acts like the Grammy-nominated husband and wife duo The War and Treaty, who appear on the EP’s moving closer, “Same Work.” 

“The music is not political and obviously it’s an eye-catching title,” BRELAND tells Billboard of the new EP, out today (Oct. 18) — whose title nods to The Heritage Foundation’s controversial Project 2025 political initiative. “But I think what I’ve really done in the songs here is create a body of work that is as inclusive as possible.” 

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Already a Billboard chart-topping artist – he hit No. 1 on Country Airplay with Dierks Bentley’s “Beers on Me,” which also featured HARDY – BRELAND also boasts hits of his own like 2019’s “My Truck” and 2022’s Thomas Rhett-assisted “Praise the Lord,” which hit Nos. 24 and 21 on Hot Country Songs, respectively. He also sports a unique perspective as a Black country artist who broke through before 2024 flipped the genre on its head. It’s that perspective that grounds his sonic amalgamation of American history, his family’s lineage and his vision for country music’s boundless future.

Project 2024 serves as BRELAND’s first studio project since 2020’s Rage and Sorrow EP, which was written and recorded in response to the fallout of the murder of George Floyd. Last year, he won the inaugural Lift Every Voice Award from the Academy of Country Music (ACMs) for his role in elevating underrepresented voices in country music. 

In a candid conversation with Billboard, BRELAND gets real about navigating country music as a Black artist, the making of Project 2024, his upcoming project with NBA star Jimmy Butler and not being featured on Cowboy Carter.

Project 2024 is obviously a very loaded title. Walk me through the thought process that brought you to that title. 

Yeah, definitely a loaded title in some ways — but literally, this is a project that I am putting out in 2024. You don’t really have to look any further than that. This is a project that was largely inspired by a trip that I took down to Selma, Alabama, which is the land of my ancestors. I had never been, and seeing that rich history of what it means to be Black in America — seeing a lot of the issues that they were fighting for in the ‘60s back on the docket — I feel that this is a project that is really born out of creative freedom, in a world where we can’t always take certain freedoms for granted.  

I wanted to put this out, not as a political agenda, but as a creative one — to say, “I’m going to continue to push the boundaries of what country music can mean.” 

The EP ends with a really touching collaboration between you and The War and Treaty. Why were they the right choice to be the only feature on the project? 

Since I’m only doing six songs, and I haven’t really put much music out this year at all, I wanted to make sure that I could actually tell some stories on my own. But this is one that felt like it really deserved an additional vocal and an additional storyteller. “Same Work” is based on a true story. 

After one of my shows [at CMA Fest], an older gentleman, who was a veteran, came over and told me how much he appreciated what I do and told me a little bit about himself. He served for a number of years and has since been working as a freelance nurse, and he’s been giving free healthcare to veterans [who] need it in the Memphis area. And he was like, “Well, you and me do the same work.” 

I [got] what he was trying to say, but let’s be clear: First responders are [very different] from musicians. He was like, “No, we do the same work. At the heart of my work is helping and serving people and to my knowledge, that’s what you do as well. If you keep that at your center, then we will always do the same work.” I just thought it was such a beautiful interaction and a reminder of why what I do is so special and why I’m so grateful to be able to do it — because I get to have interactions like that. [I can] impact people on that level, but then have people impact and influence me on that level [too.] 

So, I ended up writing the song with Tenille Townes. We were doing this holiday train tour. I told her about the interaction, and we ended up writing the song right then and there. When I was gearing up for this project, it felt like one that fit the overall tone and would be a nice closer. I really didn’t want people to think that I was equating being a musician to serving in the military or being a healthcare professional. I wanted to make sure that I could have someone singing with me on this song that understood the message from a different perspective. Michael [Trotter Jr.] being a vet himself definitely understood it and I felt like him being able to help tell this story with me would alleviate some of those concerns that I was having. 

You move through genres so freely and that’s always been a big part of your artistic ethos. What inspired the poppy, almost post-disco bent of “What You’ve Been Through”? 

I come from a very matriarchal family, and it’s my mom’s side of the family that hails from Selma. [All the women in my family] have overcome a lot. I wanted to have a song that speaks to that resilience, but I didn’t want it to be this sad, melancholy type of record. I wanted to do it in the form of a celebration because I feel like these women need to be celebrated. 

You might see a woman on the street and think, “Oh, wow, she’s got it all together.” But you don’t know exactly what it is that she’s been through. I have a lot of women in my life for whom that is true. We’re putting this project out in October, which is breast cancer awareness month and domestic violence awareness month. I have women in my family [who] have been affected by both. I felt it would be a fun approach to a concept that could be done in a very different way. 

You say Project 2024 isn’t political. What do you say to people who might argue that invoking the concept of Project 2025 must come along with some kind of substantive commentary on it, given the gravity of the situation and how close we are to the election? 

We are in very challenging times. We’re seeing a lot of families and friendships being broken along political and ideological boundaries. While my music has never been political, my existence in this space as an outspoken young Black country artist is. If you listen to this music and listen to the heart of the music, I care about people. I care about people being able to have rights, freedom of expression, freedom to love and freedom to live — and that’s something that I stand on. I want to remind people that there are certain freedoms that people can never take from us. To me, that’s where the music comes in.  

Hopefully, [this project inspires] people to do their own research about some of the different issues that I touched on in this project — and some of the issues that I don’t touch on in this project, but may exist in the larger political landscape that we live in. When they think about things like Project 2025, I want people to be able to come to informed conclusions about their own opinions.  

How important is it to you that you speak truth to power in your music as a Black artist in country music? 

I don’t think that my race is at the forefront of the music that I’m making, but I do also recognize the ways in which representation in this space is ever important and why me being a Black artist in this space comes with an additional level of responsibility. I always want to make sure that I rise to the occasion. 

These are songs that I hope Black people like, I hope white people like — I hope every culture and every community of people can relate to it because all of these songs are really about universal human experiences. That, to me, is more of the focus here. I think that representation in this space matters and trying to navigate how much I want to engage with that or even talk about that… these are things that a lot of my white peers don’t really ever have to consider. I also feel like I have to be additionally prepared to respond to certain types of questions or be able to guide conversations in a certain way. I think that I’m uniquely equipped and capable [of having] those conversations as they arise, and I’ve never really shied away from that in my art. 

It can be a challenge at times to have to bear that burden, but at the same time, I also feel like it’s a blessing for me to be able to do that, and pressure is a privilege. I’m definitely grateful to be in a position where I can have conversations along the lines of racial discourse and contribute with my art in a meaningful way. 

You mentioned earlier that your existence in country music has always been political. Was there a moment or a series of moments that truly crystallized that for you as an artist in this space? 

I [remember I had] just put out my first ever EP, which was the Breland EP, and then literally a week and a half [later], you’ve got the George Floyd murder and subsequent protests. In country music, in particular, there was a lot of finger-pointing of, like, “Well, you didn’t post a black square and this person did.”  

There was a lot of having to remind people that freedom and equality are not political. These are human rights and basic human liberties that we should have as human beings in general, and as citizens of America — which is a country that, in theory, should be able to help, support, maintain and establish that for its citizens. I don’t think that recognizing that racism still exists in America and trying to figure out ways to combat that is a political conversation. It has been politicized. 

As a completely new artist, I ended up putting out Rage and Sorrow, a short little EP that talks about the rage of that situation — but also the deep and very real sorrow that I think a lot of people were experiencing, myself included. 

I’ve also had situations like when I sang the National Anthem at the Daytona 500. When it was announced, it was met with a lot of criticism, and hate online from people who were like, “Here we go, they’re trying to make a political statement.” I’m like, “Hey, just so you know, I’m not kneeling when I do the anthem. I’m not putting up a Black Power fist. I’m not singing the third stanza of the National Anthem. I’m not making a political statement here. I’m singing the National Anthem just as adequately, and if not more competently, than some of your favorite white artists.” So, I sang it, did a great job and those same people were like, “Wow, that was actually very good.” And I’m like, “Why did we have to go through this in the first place?” 

I have [also] had some really amazing triumphs as a Black artist in this space, but I’ve also faced some pushback and resistance from specific people who maybe aren’t on the same page as me as far as those things are concerned. I recognize that simply being here, putting out music and being successful in this space helps change the conversation. 

2024 has obviously been a banner historic year for Black country artists, both in terms of commercial success and the critical and cultural conversation around it. What’s your biggest takeaway from this year, especially as a Black artist who was able to have a breakthrough before this particular moment? 

It feels like a long time coming. I think back on some of the artists that never really got their moment. I mean, obviously you have the Charley Prides of the world who experienced tremendous commercial success. But you also have artists like Linda Martell, who experienced some success, but probably would have experienced significantly more had certain doors not been closed to her. I think about artists like Rissi Palmer or Frankie Staton, or even Mickey Guyton, who were a bit ahead of their time, and really shouldn’t have been ahead of their time — because they’re talented artists who have stories to tell that are just as valid and creative and valuable as everyone else’s. 

For me, being in this space and having been able to have some success, all of that is great. But until we are no longer having this conversation, none of it is going to be enough, so we continue to fight forward. I definitely think that this has been a landmark year, and I love seeing more and more Black people engaging with country music — not just as consumers but as creators, and seeing people [who] are coming over and wanting to engage with this because this is a genre that wouldn’t exist without the contributions and influences of Black people from day one. It’s really cool to see Black people driving around town listening to country music, pulling up to honky tonks and coming to concerts. I can visibly see a shift just since I’ve come out five years ago.

What do you think the country music industry, and Nashville in particular, can do to keep this energy going beyond moments like Cowboy Carter and “A Bar Song (Tipsy)?” 

Country music is a genre that is really built on community in a way that other genres aren’t. I think it is going to require other artists in this space to continue to collaborate with Black artists and begin to bring Black artists out on the road as openers. Country radio stations also need to play more diverse artists, because if you’re not Kane Brown — or I guess now Shaboozey with this one song — Black artists don’t really get played on country radio at all. You can have these songs that make big splashes online, but [it doesn’t matter as much] if you don’t have the same push at country radio or the same push to get in front of people and play these shows and festivals. You need all of those things for this to be sustainable. 

So, I’m hoping that “A Bar Song” and the Beyoncé album and the cultural conversation that we are now having changes things.  

Were you asked to be a part of Cowboy Carter? 

I was not asked to be a part of Cowboy Carter. It would have been great to be a part of that. There was a moment when the track listing first came out and I was getting tagged in a lot of things with people being like, “Why wasn’t BRELAND a part of this project?” And I definitely asked myself some of those questions as well. It’s challenging sometimes to feel like, “Okay, I have relationships with all of these artists, right? I’ve written with Shaboozey [and] Willie Jones, I’ve got music out with Tiera Kennedy and Brittney Spencer, and I’ve brought Tanner Adell and Reyna Roberts out to sing with me. Not being a part of it was kind of hard for me to wrap my head around. 

At the same time, I also had to remember that, maybe with the exception of Brittney Spencer, all of these artists were independent or signed to independent labels. None of them had been played in any capacity at country radio. So, looking at what Beyoncé was trying to do — I think she was really trying to amplify the voices of people [who] maybe had not been as ingratiated or welcomed into the country music landscape the way that I had been. In a lot of ways, I think those artists really deserved that platform even more than I did. I was really happy for them all, and excited for their success. I listened to all of those records that all of them are featured on in particular, because I want to see them all win, and it’s bigger than just me. 

You were part of another major country music moment this year with “Boots Don’t” from Twisters: The Album, which marks your second collab with Shania Twain. What was your experience landing a song on such a blockbuster soundtrack? 

It was great! Shania was one of my favorite artists coming up. She’s one of the people [who] turned me on to country music with some of her hits from the 90s and early 2000s. When I got a chance to finally tour with her and to be a part of the deluxe [version] of her Queen of Me album, I thought that was already fantastic. But we did have this song in the tuck, and we were looking for an opportunity to put it out and the Twisters soundtrack came along, and it ended up being a good fit. Hopefully, we can get some sort of Grammy acknowledgment on that one. 

Shania opened up a lot of doors for me when she really didn’t have to. For her, being a Canadian woman breaking into country music at the time that she came in is very similar to my experience as a New Jersey Black dude coming in back in 2019. She understands what it is that I’m trying to do. I appreciate her friendship and her mentorship, and anytime we get an opportunity to sing together or perform together, it’s one that I definitely take with a great deal of gratitude. 

What’s up next for you? 

I definitely want to get back out on the road, but that’s probably more of a top of [next] year. I’ve got a couple of potential collabs that are coming, so I will have some more music in the next few months between this project and whatever I end up doing next as a solo artist. I’m working on a project with Jimmy Butler right now, which will be a compilation album featuring a bunch of artists both inside and outside of country music. I think it’ll be a really great cultural moment, and we’ve been working on [that] most of this year.  

I’m just now starting to properly work on the sophomore full-length album. I think that Project 2024 is a really great way to get back into the marketplace and give people some new music. 

In 2022, Riley Green notched his first No. 1 Billboard Country Airplay hit with the Thomas Rhett duet “Half of Me.” Now, as he prepares to release his third studio album, Don’t Mind If I Do, on Friday (Oct. 18) on Big Machine Label Group, he’s seeing a fresh career surge with another duet, the flirty “You Look Like You Love Me,” a collaboration with fellow Alabama native and singer-songwriter Ella Langley.

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The song went viral earlier this year, but has proven to have staying power, currently at No. 10 on the Hot Country Songs chart and at No. 30 on the all-genre Hot 100.

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“I didn’t know that song was going to be the hit that it has become,” Green tells Billboard. “I thought it was a cool song and the talking in the verses were a great nod of the cap to traditional country music. Both of us being from Alabama and growing up in similar areas, we have the same kind of twang and our voices just kind of mesh well together. I’ve been a fan of hers for a long time, so it’s been awesome seeing her success with this.”

That “nod to traditional country music” has been one key to the song’s success, as retro country sounds continue to make waves again in the format.

In a time when artists are putting out sprawling, pop-flavored albums, Green’s tightly-woven, 18-track project magnifies his devotion to country songwriting. Green wrote over half of the songs on the album, with a couple of his solo writes being among the standouts. That laser focus on writing comes naturally for Green, who has long taken inspiration from Georgia native and Country Music Hall of Famer Alan Jackson.

“Alan wrote a lot of his own songs. I’ve co-written with some great writers and have had some big hits from co-writes and I’ve never stopped co-writing, but there’s also something authentic about writing a song by yourself,” Green says. “I think you perform those songs a little different, maybe. I grew up listening to CDs and listening to ’em top to bottom, so I want to always make my albums an experience to listen to.”

One of Green’s solo writes, the poignant story song “Jesus Saves,” unfurls the tragic life events that led a military veteran to end up by the side of the road, holding up a ragged cardboard sign.

“Some of those things that the guy had been through in that story were things that if any of us had gone through it, maybe we’d be in the same position he was,” Green says. “I think that was a way to try to help people be a little more compassionate. And I just remember that with that song after I wrote it, when I listened back to it, I felt something from it. I was the same way when I wrote [2020 hit] ‘I Wish Grandpas Never Died’ and listened back for the first time. It choked me up a little bit. So, there’s always something special about songs that can do that. When fans feel that same way, it’s motivating and makes you want to continue to write those kinds of songs.”

On another solo write, he teams again with Langley for the love song “Don’t Mind If I Do.” From touring together to releasing multiple duets over the past few months, Green and Langley’s musical collaborations feel like a throwback to the 1970s, when artists like Conway Twitty and Loretta Lynn, as well as George Jones and Tammy Wynette, released numerous collaborative albums together.

Asked if Green and Langley might consider such a project, Green says, “Well at this rate, I think we’re working on it. We’ve got two songs this year, but I think that’s probably part of the success we’ve had. I think people kind of long for that storybook type of thing, the George [Jones] and Tammy Wynette, or Johnny [Cash] and June [Carter] and all that. You haven’t seen it in a long time—maybe Tim [McGraw] and Faith [Hill] would be the closest thing we’ve seen and I don’t have a problem leaning into that at all. I think she writes great songs and I love her voice so I think if there’s something else that comes along that fits, we’ll probably do it.”

Given the two artists’ creative chemistry, both vocally and in performance, Green says he understands why some fans have speculated that their compatibility extends into the romantic realm.

“With ‘You Look Like You Love Me,’ it’s a girl picking up a guy in a bar song, so I can totally see where that led fans to think something and then we go with ‘Don’t Mind If I Do,’ which is a more heartfelt love song,” Green says. “But we’re just great friends and I’m really a fan of her music, so it’s awesome to have this success with her on both these songs.”

Beyond “Don’t Mind If I Do” and “Jesus Saves,” the new album also catalogs a range of emotions, encompassing heartbreak anthems (“That’s a Mistake”), smoldering romance songs (“Worst Way”) and an older song, “Alcohol of Fame,” a lighthearted nod to boozy nights out.

“I had that title, ‘Alcohol of Fame,’ and I remember thinking, ‘How has someone not already written this?’ You have to start looking it up to make sure it wasn’t already a song, because it was such an obvious thing, but it’s a fun song to play,” Green says. “I wrote it a couple of years ago and it’s nice to finally be recorded and included on an album.”

For the tour announcement for Green’s 2025 Damn Country Music Tour, he again eschewed modern standards—instead of announcing with a social media graphic or brief video, Green turned to a retro, cinematic treatment.

He gathered with his tourmates, among them Langley, Erik Dylan, Vincent Mason, Jake Worthington, Drake White and Lauren Watkins, to create a parody of the 1977 Burt Reynolds film Smokey and the Bandit, complete with Green’s character “Duckman” nodding to Reynolds’ iconic role, while Langley’s “Smoke Show” pays homage to Sally Field’s character Carrie. Together, Green and Langley evade the cops in a Pontiac Firebird Trans Am, while they use the CB radio to call out to the tour’s other opening acts, inviting them to join to head out on the road.

“Growing up, Reynolds was one of the coolest guys there was,” Green says. “I’ll never forget [in the movie] Happy Gilmore when a limousine pulled up and they said, ‘You must be Burt Reynolds or something.’ I feel like that’s how we all felt growing up. That was the most famous person around.”

“You Look Like You Love Me” has notched Green and Langley their first CMA Awards nomination in the musical event of the year category. At the Nov. 20 ceremony, Green is also thinking about who might take home entertainer of the year since he’s worked with so many of the nominees.

“There’s been so many people that have had such big careers. Luke Combs has been great and I toured with him last year. Lainey [Wilson] is having such a big moment and it’s really hard not to mention Morgan [Wallen], he’s had such a big moment. We went and played a show in the U.K. together [at BST Hyde Park in London] and it was the biggest country show they’ve had there. I don’t really need much more than that to kind of look his way.”

Outside of music, Green launched his Duck Blind bar in Nashville earlier this year, working with Nashville entrepreneur Steve Ford to open the space in the former Winner’s Bar and Grill location in Midtown, rather than adding another “star bar” on downtown Broadway.

“There’s nothing against anybody that’s got a bar on Broadway, I just never hung out on Broadway and I don’t know many artists that do. I’ve hung out in Midtown and everybody I’ve ever met—songwriters and other artists—has been in Midtown, so it’s cool for me to put my name on something that has been nostalgic for me. It’s also full circle for me to own a bar and have up-and-coming artists coming there to play, showcase their songs and hopefully get a start like I did.”

For the immediate future, don’t look for Green to launch too many other business ventures. “I don’t really need any more projects right now,” he says, before hedging his bet. “But I didn’t think I was going to be in the bar business this year either, so who knows?”

Ringo Starr‘s first new full-length album in six years, Look Up, will find the former Beatles drummer and solo star going country, again. The 11-track album of original songs produced and co-written by T-Bone Burnett is due out on Jan. 10 and was prefaced on Friday (Oct. 18) by the tear-in-your tea ballad “Time On My Hands.”
“I have loved Ringo Starr and his playing and his singing and his aesthetic for as long as I can (or care to) remember,” said Grammy-winning producer/songwriter Burnett, 76, in a statement. “He changed the way every drummer after him played, with his inventive approach to the instrument. And, he has always sung killer rockabilly, as well as being a heartbreaking ballad singer. To get to make this music with him was something like the realization of a 60-year dream I’ve been living. None of the work that I have done through a long life in music would have happened if not for him and his band. Among other things, this album is a way I can say thank you for all he has given me and us.”

Burnett wrote or co-wrote nine of the songs on Starr’s 21st solo album, on which the peace-and-love advocate sang and played drums; one song so written by Billy Swan and another was co-written by Starr and Bruce Sugar. According to a release announcing the project, Starr co-wrote the album’s closer, “Thankful,” which features one of Burnett’s previous collaborators, bluegrass singer/fiddler Alison Krauss.

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Burnett also roped in some other Nashville ringers for the project, including Billy Strings, Larkin Poe, Lucius and Molly Tuttle. Though pop and R&B stars dipping their toes into the country pool has become de rigueur over the past year, with swerves into the genre by Beyoncé, Post Malone, Ed Sheeran, MGK and Lana Del Rey, the release noted that Starr’s appreciation for all things twangy goes back more than half a century.

“I’ve always loved country music. And when I asked T Bone to write me a song, I didn’t even think at the time that it would be a country song – but of course it was, and it was so beautiful,” Starr said of his collaboration with friend of more than four decades Burnett, which was spurred by a chance meeting in L.A. in 2022 where the ex-Beatle asked Burnett to write a song for an EP he was working on at the time.

“I had been making EPs at the time and so I thought we would do a country EP -but when he brought me nine songs I knew we had to make an album!,” Starr added of the tracks Burnett wrote that all had a country vibe. “And I am so glad we did. I want to thank, and send Peace & Love, to T Bone and all the great musicians who helped make this record. It was a joy making it and I hope it is a joy to listen to.”

“Time on My Hands” finds Starr wistfully lamenting the loss of a true love over pedal steel and gently strummed acoustic guitar, with his signature laconic vocals taking center stage in the ballad about the one that got away. “I used to have a true love/ Everything was fine/ But now she’s found a new love/ She’s no longer mine,” he sings.

From the country-tinged Beatles songs he performed and wrote, including “Act Naturally,” “What Goes On” and “Don’t Pass Me By,” to his 1970 sophomore solo album Beaucoups of Blues,” Starr has dipped his toe into the genre since his early, pre-Beatles days playing in Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. In fact, the release added, Starr was so enamored with country and blues as a teenager that he tried to emigrate from London To Texas in his younger years after learning that blues great Lightnin’ Hopkins lived there.

Starr’s first new full-length album since 2019’s What’s My Name, will get a proper country welcome on Jan. 14-15, 2025 when the singer/drummer headlines the legendary Ryman Auditorium; tickets for the show will go on sale on Oct. 25.

Check out the full track list and cover art for Look Up below.

“Breathless” (featuring Billy Strings)

“Look Up” (featuring Molly Tuttle)

“Time On My Hands”

“Never Let Me Go” (featuring Billy Strings)

“I Live For Your Love” (featuring Molly Tuttle) 

“Come Back” (featuring Lucius)

“Can You Hear Me Call” (featuring Molly Tuttle) 

“Rosetta” (featuring Billy Strings and Larkin Poe) 

“You Want Some”

“String Theory” (featuring Molly Tuttle)

“Thankful” (featuring Alison Krauss)

Ringo Starr

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Morgan Wallen has teased fans with the promise of new music over the past few months, sharing photos of himself in the studio. Now, as his third studio album One Thing at a Time reaches RIAA certified 7x multi-platinum status, Wallen is offering up an early glimpse of his upcoming new album, with the release of his new song, “Love Somebody.”

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He wrote the song with John Byron, Ashley Gorley, Jacob Kasher Hindlin, Elof Loelv and Ryan Vojtesak, with production from Joey Moi and Charlie Handsome. Together, they crafted a song about someone seeking a lover who “won’t leave a hole in my heart.” Elsewhere, in the song, Wallen sings, “And I’ll be lucky if I ever find a somethin’ more than just a crazy night.”

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“‘Love Somebody’ is a little bit of a new approach lyrically and sonically,” Wallen said in a statement. “I wanted to try something different, with what I wanted to talk about, how I wanted it to sound, and we were inspired by Latin-leaning influences. I’m really excited about this song and pumped that it is out.”

Wallen initially previewed “Love Somebody” on his TikTok account back in May, then performed the song during the European leg of his One Night at a Time Tour. He announced the song’s release during his double-shot of headlining shows at UT Knoxville’s Neyland Stadium, and also performed the song during the TJ Martell Foundation Gala event honoring Big Loud partner/CEO Seth England last month.

Wallen’s One Night At A Time Tour concludes this weekend with two nights at Charlotte’s Bank of America Stadium on Oct. 18-19. The tour spanned two years, 87 shows, 10 countries, and 51 stadium plays, in addition to festivals and arenas and was named Billboard’s country tour of the year in 2023.

Listen to “Love Somebody” here.

HARDY and his wife Caleigh Ryan are expecting their first child next year. HARDY shared a carousel of photos of the couple in a maternity photo shoot on Instagram, captioning the post: “You have been our favorite little secret to keep. Baby HARDY coming February 2025,” alongside a baby bottle emoji. The photos show Caleigh […]

Jelly Roll is known for his lengthy list of collaborations with everyone from MGK to Lainey Wilson to Cody Johnson. On Wednesday (Oct. 16), the country star added another powerhouse vocalist to that list — Kelly Clarkson.

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Jelly appeared on Wednesday’s episode of The Kelly Clarkson Show to join forces with the host on a soulful version of Jelly Roll’s “I Am Not Okay,” which currently sits at No. 2 on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart.

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In an earlier video from the two artists’ soundcheck for the performance, they shared some light-hearted jokes as they rehearsed the song. “Kelly and Jelly, dude!” Jelly Roll said at one point. Clarkson also shared her excitement in getting to sing on the song. “This song is so good,” Clarkson said. “I’m so excited he’s allowing me sing on his song ‘I Am Not Okay.’ And it’s so, so good.”

She went on to add of Jelly Roll, “I’m just a huge fan. I love authenticity and I love real messages. I think that real s— really matters.”

The singer also sat down with Clarkson for an interview during his appearance, where he promoted his new album while opening up about lowering his defenses to write songs like “I Am Not Okay.”

“I think vulnerability is my superpower,” he said, revealing how he has changed over the years. “I was a typical, angry, alpha, always aggressive kind of guy for a long time, and I almost had a mean spirit about me and it didn’t serve me no good. I didn’t have any emotions, I was just very flat with everybody in life. My heart changed, man, I got a relationship with God, I had a child, I got married to a woman who’s just the greatest woman on Earth, and immediately it softened my heart.”

On Friday (Oct. 11), Jelly Roll released the 22-song album Beautifully Broken, including an extended version that added five more songs, including collaborations with Halsey, Keith Urban, Ernest and more.

Watch Jelly Roll and Kelly Clarkson’s performance below:

Zach Bryan recently said that he doesn’t want to be known as strictly a “country musician.” Luckily, an upcoming collaboration with one of hip-hop’s greatest living legends (Snoop Dogg!) might just help with that.
On Thursday (Oct. 17), the 52-year-old rapper revealed on Today that he and the “I Remember Everything” singer-songwriter have a little something in the works. “Zach sent me a song,” he shared with the show’s hosts. “I gotta put a verse on it.”

“I’m inspired, seeing that with him, with The Boss, Bruce Springsteen,” Snoop added of Bryan’s recent conversation with the “Born to Run” icon for Rolling Stone, in which the younger musician explained why he doesn’t like to be labeled under any given genre.

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“I want to be a songwriter, and you’re quintessentially a songwriter,” Bryan told Springsteen at the time. “No one calls Bruce Springsteen — hate to use your name in front of you — but no one calls Bruce Springsteen a freaking rock musician, which you are one, but you’re also an indie musician, you’re also a country musician. You’re all these things encapsulated in one man. And that’s what songwriting is.”

The Boss agreed that Bryan has potential beyond the country landscape, telling the “Something in the Orange” artist he sees “so much — and I don’t want to call it rock — just energy in your performance.” “You bust all those different genre boundaries down,” Springsteen added in the Musicians on Musicians feature.

If Bryan is looking to expand his sound further, he’s come to the right collaborator. The Doggfather is one of music’s most versatile duet partners, guesting on songs with everyone from Katy Perry to Bruno Mars, Mariah Carey, Benny Blanco and BTS, Jason Derulo, Akon, The Pussycat Dolls and more. Most recently, Snoop worked with a number of artists on the soundtrack for Peacock’s film Bosco.

Watch Snoop talk about working with Bryan below.

Morgan Wallen is set to bring his own music festival to the beaches of Gulf Shores, Ala., next year, when the 15-time Billboard Music Awards winner launches his three-day Sand in My Boots Festival running May 16-18, 2025. Wallen has teamed with AEG Presents (producers of Stagecoach, California’s Country Music Festival and Hangout Music Festival) and the Hangout Festival to hold his event at the same site that hosts the annual Hangout Festival.

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The full talent lineup and ticketing details for Wallen’s Sand in My Boots Festival will be revealed in coming weeks, but the lineup will be multi-genre and will feature some of the country star’s closest friends, favorite artists and musicians he has always wanted to perform with. The festival shares its name with Wallen’s 2022 No. 1 Billboard Country Airplay hit.

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Wallen said in a video posted on social media, “Morgan Wallen here to share some exciting news me and my team have been working on for a while for y’all. We’re heading south to the beaches of Gulf Shores, Alabama and I’m bringing some good friends with me. Mark your calendars for May 16 – 18, 2025 for the Sand In My Boots Fest. Stay tuned and we’ll get you some more info soon!”

Stacy Vee, executive vp of Goldenvoice and Producer of Stagecoach, said in a statement, “Creating a Festival with Morgan has been a dream come true … and some of the most fun I have ever had booking a show! I can’t wait for fans to come and experience one of the most eclectic and electric lineups and on-site experiences the world has ever seen.”

AEG Presents and Hangout Festival Producer Reeves Price added, “The opportunity to bring Morgan’s world to life on the beach in Gulf Shores is something very special. The fact that it coincides with the 15th anniversary of the Hangout Festival only makes it more special. We can’t wait to see everyone back on the beach in May.”

The upcoming Sand in My Boots festival isn’t the only festival Wallen has had a hand in spearheading recently. Earlier this year, he and Eric Church teamed up to launch and curate the Field & Stream Music Festival, which had been slated for Oct. 4-6 in Winnsboro, S.C., with a lineup to include Church, Lainey Wilson and ZZ Top. However, the inaugural festival had to be postponed due to the widespread damage of Hurricane Helene. The Field & Stream Music Festival is part of Wallen and Church’s acquisition of the outdoor lifestyle brand Field & Stream, announced earlier this year.

When John Anderson showed up in Nashville in 1972, he wasn’t quite sure what to expect, and he barely tried to imagine what the future might hold for him.
He got a job nailing shingles onto the roof of the Grand Ole Opry House ahead of that iconic building’s 1974 opening. And the green 17-year-old performed almost anywhere that would take him.

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“I was just wanting to play and sing pretty much at any level that I could,” he remembers. “Thankfully, I was blessed that one little job led to another one, and most of the time it was kind of a little upgrade.”

Anderson’s career gets the ultimate upgrade when he’s installed in another iconic venue later in October, joining Toby Keith and guitarist James Burton as 2024 inductees in the Country Music Hall of Fame. The official medallion ceremony includes the unveiling of a bronze plaque that will hang in the museum’s rotunda, alongside the renderings of its existing 152 members, including Hank Williams, Willie Nelson and Reba McEntire.

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Anderson isn’t the flashiest personality to join the club. He didn’t fill stadiums like Garth Brooks, show up in the tabloids like Tanya Tucker or become a movie star like Kris Kristofferson.

But, like most of Hall of Famers, Anderson owned a singular vocal personality — a smoky, back-of-the-throat tone that suggested worldly experience even before he had much. Also, like most Hall of Famers, he applied that sound to some indelible recordings, including the optimistic, Dobro-flecked “I’m Just an Old Chunk of Coal (But I’m Gonna Be a Diamond Some Day),” the cautionary “Straight Tequila Night” and the bluesy million-seller “Swingin’.”

The voice was so country that even in his 20s, Anderson could believably convey wistful nostalgia in the ballads “1959” and “I Just Came Home To Count the Memories.” He approximated an R&B singer in “She Sure Got Away With My Heart,” evinced stone-cold hillbilly in “Wild and Blue” and growled his way through the rocking energy of “Money in the Bank.”

But the setting never mattered. The listener always knew whose voice was straining through the speakers. “I’ve been very fortunate that I could sing a lot of different kinds of songs as well as write different kinds,” he says. “Actually, I think my voice allowed me to be really versatile.”

Naïveté likely helped Anderson on his career path. His older sister, Donna, had already moved to Music City from their Florida home, and her tales from the club scene provided extra encouragement. But it wasn’t like his Apopka, Fla., education provided much of a blueprint for navigating Music Row, and his parents didn’t have any solid advice either.

“My dad,” Anderson says, “said, ‘Well, son, all I can say is, if you’re going to go try to do it, do the very best you can.’ ”

Early in his transition to Tennessee, he started meeting songwriters and realized that composing songs provided another source of income. Writing also gave him the opportunity to tailor songs to his blue-collar resonance, and to sort through issues that had personal meaning. He did that most successfully with “Seminole Wind,” a 1993 Country Music Association Award nominee for song of the year. It explored real concern for the environment in his Central Florida homeland, leaning sonically on the state’s strong Native American history. The recent devastation of hurricanes Helene and Milton underscores the song’s still-relevant lyric.

“Climate change has a little to do with it, but human encroachment has more to do with it than anything,” he says. “I love nature and wildlife, and so many places I’ve seen, I thought, ‘Boy, this is one of the most beautiful places.’ Go back in 30 years, and it could be a strip mall or a neighborhood, and that’s a bit of what ‘Seminole Wind’ is all about. Don’t get me wrong — I guess we all need our houses and our malls, and the more people that come, the more space we’re going to take up. That’s just the way it is. I’m not bitter and I’m not mad, but it does make me a little sad.”

Anderson’s career is a textbook example of resilience. After racking up a dozen top 10 singles — including three No. 1s — from 1980 through 1986, he was absent from that tier of the country list for the next five years. But “Straight Tequila Night” revitalized his career in 1992, becoming his first No. 1 in nine years and the first of eight more top 10 singles.

Unlike the character in “Would You Catch a Falling Star” — a country star grasping at past glory — Anderson has fashioned his 21st-century career in a way that allows him to keep a relaxed touring schedule. He plays just enough acoustic shows to keep the chops up and to scratch the performing itch, but not so many that it becomes a chore. The travel involved in touring is physically taxing, and by singing “Would You Catch a Falling Star” for decades, he gave himself regular reminders over the years to plan for the future he’s now enjoying.

“I didn’t want to be the guy in that song,” he says, half laughing, half serious. “Trust me, I’ve seen several in the last 50 years.”

But Anderson also witnessed — and even befriended — some of the stars who entered the Hall of Fame in years past. He ticks off a string of names that already have bronze plaques in the museum’s rotunda that he had a personal relationship with: Little Jimmy Dickens, Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Merle Haggard, George Jones and Tammy Wynette.

Even though he didn’t know what he was doing when he arrived in Nashville in 1972, Anderson clearly figured it out, joining a club beyond anything he dared to dream in those early days.

“I was able to become friends with all those people,” he reflects. “I’m really, really surprised that I ever made it in here. On the other hand, I don’t feel that out of place, because I can almost hear Ernest Tubb and Minnie Pearl and Loretta Lynn saying, ‘You come in here. We got a place for you.’ ”

It’s quite the picture: Lainey Wilson performs in a club with fewer than 100 seats and sings a song that’s so new she needs one of her fellow performers — Post Malone, of all people — to hold her cellphone so she can read the lyrics off the screen.

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That was the setting when Wilson took part in a songwriters-in-the-round event on June 17 at Nashville’s vaunted Bluebird Cafe. It was, she says, the first time she had performed “4x4xU” live.

“I didn’t even know the chords,” she recalls. “I was just making them up that night.”

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The song would make its way into the public sphere when Broken Bow released the track and its accompanying video to digital service providers on July 4, ahead of the Aug. 23 street date for her album Whirlwind. On Aug. 26, “4x4xU” officially went to radio via PlayMPE, continuing a trend she has unintentionally developed with prior singles “Heart Like a Truck” and “Wait in the Truck,” a collaboration with HARDY.

“For so long,” she says, “I was like, ‘I’m not going to write about trucks.’ That’s what everybody does. [But] every single one of my biggest songs is about a damn truck. I couldn’t help it, but I guess you just write what you know. And the truth is, trucks are a big part of my childhood and even with the way that I live now, I’m always up and down the road.”

Appropriately, Wilson wrote “4x4xU” on the road when she played Indianapolis’ Gainbridge Fieldhouse on Nov. 1, 2023, in conjunction with the 96th annual FFA Convention. The event cultivated some of her creative mindset for the day.

“I was excited to be at the FFA Convention,” she reflects. “My daddy started one of the very first FFAs at Louisiana Tech in Ruston. It just felt cool. It felt like, ‘Man, I want to kind of write a song about my people. I want to write a song about keeping my people close.’ ”

It was not the first thing on the menu. Co-writers Aaron Raitiere (“You Look Like You Love Me”) and Jon Decious helped her craft a cheeky light-funk piece, “Ring Finger,” first. Once that was completed, they found themselves with a small pre-concert window, and they were all game for a whirlwind attempt at something else.

“We didn’t have more than 30 or 40 minutes,” Decious says. “She had to go be a superstar, you know, in 50 minutes.”

Decious wasted no time — as they strummed guitars on the bus, he brought up the “4x4xU” hook he had developed during a brainstorming session.

“I spend, gosh, several hours a week just title-hunting, I call it, and that was one that I just kind of came across,” he says. “It sort of reminded me — like, I’m a big Prince fan, and you know how he would put numbers [in titles] and also, instead of writing out ‘you,’ he would just put the letter ‘U.’ ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’ is a good example. That’s kind of cool, but I don’t see it too often in country.”

Wilson turned the “4x4xU” hook into a gently ascending melody, very close to the way Decious had imagined it, and the phrase became the opening line of the chorus. The next line, “From the bayou to Kentucky,” enhanced the truck’s travel vibe in a personal way.

“She’s from the bayou, and we’re from Kentucky,” Raitiere says. “We were putting all these little, little, little nuggets in there. Hopefully people hear it on the second listen or something.”

Those two lines had a subtle verbal tie — the “4×4 by you” sounds like the “bayou” — and they added a few more locations in the rest of the chorus. They changed those communities on the second verse, covering New York, Los Angeles and a couple of cities with quirky names.

“We just wanted to get them all over the place,” Raitiere says. “And then Timbuktu; I been putting Timbuktu in songs for a while. Kalamazoo rhymes with Timbuktu. Those just seem like weird words. I actually had somebody come up to me from Kalamazoo and say they were so proud to have Kalamazoo in another song.”

When they formed the opening verse, they instinctively took a cinematic approach. The plot’s lens focused first on the singer, riding shotgun in the moving vehicle, then on the guy in the driver’s seat, who has his “hands 10 and two on this heart of mine.” That’s one of those nuggets Raitiere cited, the steering-wheel numbers setting up the four-by-four to come.

They parked the car in verse two, dropping their speed “90 to nothing,” once more feeding more numbers into the text. By the time they reached the bridge, the plot seemingly left the vehicle, pointing the camera toward the sun, the stars and the moon.

“I love that contrast,” Decious says. “You know, four-by-fours, the idea of it is so down home and so tangible, but then the idea of space and time is very intangible. So I love the contrast of those. I think it was just an accident that we went there, a happy accident.”

When Wilson brought “4x4xU” to producer Jay Joyce (Eric Church, Miranda Lambert), the track was layered during tracking at the Neon Cross Studio with multiple keyboards, including soulful electric piano and churchy organ sounds. The bridge received special treatment with a revised set of more ambitious chords and a fermata — an extended hold as pieces of electronica create otherworldly atmospherics.

“Jay does this a lot,” Wilson says. “He kind of takes you to outer space. He’ll kind of take you somewhere up in the clouds, and then when you’re coming back into that chorus, it’s almost like he brings you back down to Earth. When you can get both of those feelings — when you can feel grounded and rooted, like your feet are on the ground but also feel like your head is in the clouds — to me, there’s something really special about being able to feel both in a song.”

One other unusual moment in “4x4xU” occurs in the last half of verse two, with the band breaking into double time, directly contrasting with the “slow motion” lyric.

“That was my one production note,” Wilson says. “I was like, ‘What about if we kind of dug in right here and got a little sexy on it?’ And Jay was down for it.”

The fan base reacted strongly to “4x4xU,” and it continues its steady upward movement on the charts, reaching No. 28 in its sixth week on the Country Airplay list dated Oct. 19 and No. 32 in its fifth week on the corresponding Hot Country Songs. Just as importantly, it has a key role in Wilson’s concerts.

“I still felt like we were missing something that was a big moment, a put-your-hands-in-the-air, sway-back-and-forth kind of thing,” she says. “Truthfully, it’s all about the live show.”