Country
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Luke Combs is nothing if not a hospitable guest. The “Fast Car” country star proved it on Thursday (August 1) when he dropped by the Cincinnati Bengals’ pre-season practice to hang with some of the home team’s stars before setting up shop for two nights at the NFL squad’s home stadium this weekend.
According to ESPN, Combs braved the oppressive humidity to chat on the sidelines between drills with star wide receivers Tee Higgins and Ja’Maar Chase, as well as defensive end Sam Hubbard and team president Mike Brown. In a video posted by the team, Higgins can be seen admiring Combs’ new watch as his teammates are put through their paces in the background.
Hubbard told the sports network that Combs was, “a really nice guy… He was super down-to-earth, relatable. Cool to see all the guys interacting with him. Cool to see the owners talking to him when he was about to play in the stadium.”
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North Carolina native Combs — who typically cheers for the Carolina Panthers — has worn a custom Bengals jersey with his name on it before on his current Growin’ Up and Gettin’ Old stadium tour. The drop-in came a day before the singer will play his first of back-to-back shows in The Jungle, the affectionate nickname for the team’s home Paycor Stadium.
Friday night’s (August 2) gig will feature support from Cody Jinks, Charles Wesley Godwin, Hailey Whitters and the Wilder Blue, while Jordan Davis, Mitchell Tenpenny, Drew Parker and Colby Acuff will warm things up on Saturday (August 3); local forecasts predict potential heavy rainstorms around showtime on Friday.
The Bengals, who are expected to make another Super Bowl run this year after falling out of the race in 2023 following quarterback Joe Burrow’s season-ending wrist injury, seemed excited to have a visit from their celebrity guest. Tennessee native Higgins — who moved to Nashville in 2014 — said he’s very familiar with Combs and appreciated the pop-in. “It shows that he’s actually invested in sports and not just an artist,” Higgins said. “It’s pretty cool.”
Not for nothing, Hubbard said Combs will be making his fantasy draft picks inside Paycor Stadium this weekend during his two-night stand. In honor of the visit, the Bengals Pro Shop revealed on Friday morning that they have custom Combs t-shirts for the weekend featuring the singer’s name above the team’s roaring Who Dey tiger logo.
Check out footage of Combs’ visit below.
We look at country artists who tried out for American Idol early in their careers.
It turns out you can go home again. One day after it was revealed that Carrie Underwood would be returning to American Idol as the replacement for departed judge Katy Perry, the country singer told Good Morning America that going back to the show that lifted her to global stardom 20 years ago “feels like […]
Country music sensation Jelly Roll has released the much-anticipated music video for his latest single, “Liar” after previously sharing a teaser for the clip on social media.
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“Liar” boldly confronts addiction and materialism’s emptiness, with Jelly Roll‘s raw honesty on full display and his vulnerability shining through as he tackles the heavy themes head-on. The visual is as stark as the message of the song, with Jelly standing in the middle of a dilapidated living room while singing to his reflection in a mirror and vowing that the dark voices in his head will not get him down again.
“You ain’t nothin’ but a liar/ Yeah, I walk right out the fire/ Yeah, you try to keep me down/ Try to put me underground/ But I’m only going higher,” he sings as his mirror image stares back ominously, wringing his hands and looking forlorn.
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The singer previously debuted the song on May 16 at the ACM Awards, where he treated audiences at Ford Center at The Star in Frisco, Texas, to a rousing performance of the at-the-time unreleased rock track.
The release on Aug. 2 marks a change of tune from earlier this year when the Nashville native revealed in an interview with Taste of Country Nights that he was “on the fence” about releasing the track.
“I felt like it was important to start the new era of music at the ACMs because we had done ‘Save Me’ there. We launched me and Lainey there. I think that as we’re celebrating ‘Halfway to Hell’ going No. 1, it’s kind of the end of the Whitsitt Chapel era,” Jelly Roll said in May.
“I don’t even know if we’re going to put ‘Liar’ out. I’m still on the fence about it,” he added.
Jelly Roll, born Jason DeFord, has seen rising success on the Billboard charts over the past few years.
His single “Son of a Sinner” hit No. 1 on the Country Airplay chart in January 2023, marking his crossover from hip-hop to country. His album Whitsitt Chapel, released in June 2023, debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200, his highest-charting album yet.
The album has also performed well on the Top Country Albums and Top Rock Albums charts, while his “Need a Favor” reached the top 10 on the Rock Airplay chart.
Watch Jelly Roll’s “Liar” below.
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The Man in Black will soon be the Man in Marble. Later this year, a statue of country icon Johnny Cash will become the first professional musician to take its place in Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol. The tribute to Cash will be unveiled during a ceremony in the Capitol’s Emancipation Hall on Sept. 24.
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Cash will take his place in the National Statuary Hall Collection, where each U.S. state receives two statues to commemorate important figures from its history. Cash, born in Dyess, AR, will be enshrined alongside civil rights activist Daisy Bates, whose statue was put in place in May; in 2019, Arkansas’ state legislature passed a bill to replace existing statues of Sen. James P. Clark and lawyer Uriah Rose with Cash and Bates.
The news about the eight-foot tall bronze statue of a stern-looking Cash holding a Bible and a guitar designed by artist Kevin Kresse was announced on Thursday (August 1) by House speaker Mike Johnson and Democratic House Minority leader Hakeem Jeffries. In December 2022, Kresse posted an image of the statue, writing, “Although I finished this 8ft. tall sculpture of Johnny Cash 2-3 months ago, I couldn’t take it to the foundry until we received approval from Washington D.C. for the entire packet. (Sculpture, Pedestal, Inscriptions, Engineering, etc.). Yesterday we received ‘official’ approval from D.C. Although I don’t know when the unveiling will be, I do know that statues of Daisy Bates and Johnny Cash will be the new representatives of Arkansas in the US Capitol, starting in 2023. I couldn’t be happier with these choices for Arkansas. I’m also extremely proud to be a native son of Arkansas, getting this opportunity to sculpt an Arkansas icon for the nation’s Capitol.”
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Cash’s enshrinement will place him in good company alongside such historic figures as Ethan Allen, Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune (educator, civil rights activist and co-founder of the United Negro College Fund), Pulitzer Prize winner author Willa Cather, Amelia Earhart, inventor Thomas Alva Edison, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Andrew Jackson, Hellen Keller, astronaut John Swigert, Jr., George Washington and many others.
With his signature rumbling baritone voice and songs of faith, murder, longing and love, Cash was a beloved country outlaw best known for such iconic tracks as “I Walk the Line,” “Ring of Fire,” “Folsom Prison Blues,” “Man in Black” and “Daddy Sang Bass,” and many others.
According to NBC News, Johnson, Jeffries, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Sanders and Cash’s family are expected to attend the unveiling. Cash died in 2002 at age 71 due to respiratory failure tied to complications from diabetes.
See the announcement and a picture of the statue below.
A proud son of Arkansas, Johnny Cash’s epic life carried him to Memphis and then Middle Tennessee. He will forever hold a special place in our hearts.We celebrate Arkansas’s recognition of him and look forward to seeing his statue in the halls of our nation’s Capitol. pic.twitter.com/Sc7uV0XEwX— TN Attorney General (@AGTennessee) August 1, 2024
Beloved former President Jimmy Carter will be feted at a 100th birthday party next month in Atlanta by an all-star group of musicians and celebrities at a music gala entitled “Jimmy Carter 100: A Celebration in Song.” The Sept. 17 event at the Fox Theatre in Atlanta will come ahead of the ailing former command-in-chief’s […]
Kelly Clarkson recently performed fellow American Idol champion (and newly announced judge) Carrie Underwood’s hit “Blown Away” during the Kellyoke segment of The Kelly Clarkson Show.
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The July 25 performance was praised by fans of both Clarkson and Underwood across social media, with one viewer commenting, “Kelly Clarkson nailed it! Her voice is incredible, and she did Carrie proud!”
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Another added, “We need a full-length album collab with Kelly and Carrie.”
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The performance was timely, as it came just ahead of the Aug. 1 announcement that Carrie Underwood will join American Idol as a judge, replacing Katy Perry and making her the first American Idol alum to take on the major role.
“Carrie Underwood is the first American Idol alum ever to join the judging panel. Her global superstar status as the most successful Idol winner to date makes her a perfect fit for the show,” said Megan Wolflick, Idol showrunner and executive producer in a statement.
“She embodies the true spirit of Idol as she herself is the definition of the Cinderella story. Our future hopefuls will have the chance to receive advice from someone who has walked in their exact footsteps every step of the way Carrie has always been a strong supporter of Idol, and I’m thrilled for her to be reunited with our Idol Family.”
Underwood, who won the fourth season of American Idol in 2005, has since released nine studio albums and collected a slew of accolades, including eight Grammy Awards. She boasts an impressive 16 No. 1 hits on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart, which includes the Clarkson-covered “Blown Away” that marked Underwood’s 13th No. 1 single on the chart.
Her involvement with the show has also remained strong over the years; she has returned as a mentor in past seasons, offering guidance to contestants as they navigate the competition.
Underwood is set to join fellow judges Lionel Richie and Luke Bryan for American Idol’s 23rd overall season, which will air on ABC and Hulu in spring 2025. Auditions for the upcoming season are set to kick off on Aug. 12 with the return of Idol Across America, the talent search that will take place in all 50 states and Washington, D.C.
Katy Perry, who announced her departure from the show earlier this year, served as a judge alongside Richie and Bryan for seven seasons since the show moved to ABC in 2018.
In addition to her new role on American Idol, Underwood is extending her Las Vegas residency through 2025 and recently revealed a collaboration with Papa Roach on their song “Leave a Light On (Talk Away the Dark).”
She also performed in Nashville earlier this week at a tribute concert honoring the late country singer-songwriter Toby Keith.
Billboard recently ranked Underwood as the No. 2 best American Idol alum of all time, just behind Kelly Clarkson, who holds the top spot.
Two of country music’s most lauded artists–Lainey Wilson and Miranda Lambert–are teaming up on a new song that is featured on Wilson’s upcoming album Whirlwind, out Aug. 23 via BBR Music Group/BMG Nashville.
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The song, called “Good Horses,” released Friday (Aug. 2), is Wilson’s first collaboration on her own project and the fourth song released from Whirlwind. Wilson and Lambert co-wrote “Good Horses” alongside songwriter Luke Dick.
Wilson, who is the reigning CMA and ACM entertainer of the year, is currently headlining her own Country’s Cool Again North American 2024 tour. Whirlwind will follow her previous Grammy-winning project Bell Bottom Country.
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Wilson, of course, has been a collaborations queen over the past few years. “Save Me,” her two-week Country Airplay chart-topping collab with Jelly Roll, earned a Grammy nomination, while she’s also had hit collaborations with Cole Swindell (“Never Say Never”) and HARDY (“Wait in the Truck”). Wilson has also collaborated with Dolly Parton, Terri Clark, Wynonna Judd, Anne Wilson, ERNEST and Charlie Worsham, among other artists.
Lambert, a 14-time CMA Award winner, is also set to release a new project this fall, with her project Postcards From Texas slated to release Sept. 13, and marking her first project after signing with Republic Records. She’s already previewed the upcoming project with songs including “Wranglers” and “Alimony,” while the project’s tracklist also reveals Lambert’s collaboration with Parker McCollum, on a song titled “Santa Fe.”
On Aug. 1, Wilson and Lambert shared a snippet of a performance of “Good Horses,” with the two artists seated on stools and accompanying themselves on acoustic guitars.
Stream “Good Horses” below:
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Sometimes what you see in a music video is all smoke and mirrors, an illusion of fun carefully crafted to make it seem like the artists are living it up and having a killer time together. Then there’s Post Malone and Blake Shelton‘s “Pour Me a Drink.” The clip for the song from Posty’s upcoming […]
Country music superstar Carrie Underwood seems primed to return to the show that set her career in motion nearly two decades ago, according to reports from multiple outlets. The multi-Grammy-winning country singer is expected to replace Katy Perry as the new judge of American Idol. Underwood was the winner of American Idol‘s fourth season in […]