Country
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Beyoncé is reflecting on the cultural impact she made with her country album, Cowboy Carter.
“When you are breaking down barriers, not everyone is ready and open for a shift. But when I see Shaboozey tearing the charts up and all the beautiful female country singers flying to new heights, inspiring the world, that is exactly what motivates me,” the superstar shared in a lengthy statement to The Hollywood Reporter.
“There was a time in my life when charts and sales excited and motivated me. Once you have challenged yourself and poured every ounce of your life, your pain, your growth and your dreams into your art, it’s impossible to go backward,” she continued. “I’m very grateful and humbled for the extraordinary success of the new album.”
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The album did incredibly well on the charts. Cowboy Carter also launches at No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Country Albums, Americana/Folk Albums and Top Album Sales charts. She’s the first Black woman ever to have led the Top Country Albums list, dating to its January 1964 inception.
Bey concluded, “I’m honored to introduce so many people to the roots of so many genres. I’m so thrilled that my fans trusted me. The music industry gatekeepers are not happy about the idea of bending genres, especially coming from a Black artist and definitely not a woman.”
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Bey introduced her Cowboy Carter era with a pair of country singles — “16 Carriages” and Billboard Hot 100 chart-topper “Texas Hold ‘Em” — released during the 2024 Super Bowl. The 27-track album features a whopping list of star-studded collaborators, including Miley Cyrus, Post Malone, Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson, Linda Martell, Tanner Adell, Willie Jones, Raphael Saadiq, The-Dream, Shaboozey and more.
“This album has been over five years in the making,” Bey wrote of the project on Instagram earlier this month. “It was born out of an experience that I had years ago where I did not feel welcomed…and it was very clear that I wasn’t. But, because of that experience, I did a deeper dive into the history of Country music and studied our rich musical archive. It feels good to see how music can unite so many people around the world, while also amplifying the voices of some of the people who have dedicated so much of their lives educating on our musical history.”
Luke Combs is opening up about what he calls “one of the best and one of the worst days in my life” during an interview with Zane Lowe of Apple Music 1 that aired Thursday (June 20).
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In August 2023, Combs and his wife Nicole celebrated the birth of their second son, Beau (the couple are also parents to 2-year-old son Tex), but the two-time CMA entertainer of the year winner wasn’t able to be present for the birth of his second child due to being on tour in Australia.
“I’ll never forget the craziest day, probably, in my life, close to it,” Combs told Lowe. “One of the best and one of the worst days in my life at the same time was, interestingly enough, and it’s so hard to wrap my mind around it,” Combs said, before detailing the day his son Beau was born.
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“So it’s Aug. 16. I wake up in the morning, I’m in Sydney, Australia, in a hotel room, and we’re on tour in Australia. I probably woke up at around 8 a.m. or something like that — Australia time — and I had a text from my wife and it said, ‘I’m so sorry, I really tried to not have the baby while you’re gone.’ And God, dude, it sucked.”
Combs grew emotional as he added, “It sucked because he was born on Aug. 15 in the States. I got to see him be born, which was awesome,” presumably implying that he watched via a video call. “He wasn’t born yet, but my wife went, she texted me on the way to the hospital, and he was two and a half weeks early and I was supposed to be home and I wasn’t. That was real hard to do and I haven’t really told anybody that.”
He added that two of his close friends also work as his guitar tech and personal assistant, so he had a support system. “God, it was a hard day, but I was so lucky that a lot of my closest friends now work for me. And so I had a really great support system. “I was able to be with them through that whole thing.”
Though Combs couldn’t be there in person, he said his wife also had “a really great support system” by her side at home in the States.
“Luckily, my mother-in-law came up for the month while I was gone, because, obviously, we have a 1-year-old [Tex turned 2 on June 19] and my wife is essentially nine months pregnant at the time, so thank goodness she was there. My sister-in-law lives in Nashville as well. So my wife had a really great support system with her for that experience, which I’m very thankful for. That made it a lot easier. I had people with me, everything went great. No hiccups in the process or anything.”
He called the day “a defining moment in my life, for sure,” and said that the day highlights some of the less-than-rosy parts of being in the music industry. “The leaving, and your schedule’s crazy and you’re traveling all over the place. It’s not like I can drop everything I’m doing and fly 18 hours home.”
While his newly released album Fathers & Sons includes songs looking at fatherhood from different perspectives, he said, “I didn’t cover that too much in this album because it’s really hard for me to deal with.”
The dozen-song project includes the songs “The Man He Sees in Me” and “Remember Him That Way.”
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On June 22, 1974, Waylon Jennings’ “This Time” became his first No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart. It was released as the lead single from his same-named LP, which he produced with Willie Nelson.
With “This Time,” which Jennings solely wrote, he achieved his first of 16 Hot Country Songs leaders (with his 31st entry on the chart). He notched his first of 53 top 10s with “(That’s What You Get) For Lovin’ Me,” which reached No. 9 in 1966. Among his No. 1 total, “Highwayman” – by Jennings, Nelson, Johnny Cash and Kris Kristofferson – led in 1985.
Jennings was born June 15, 1937, in Littlefield, Texas. His storied career comprised an on-air stint at KLLL Lubbock, Texas, and his famed run as the balladeer on CBS’ The Dukes of Hazzard in 1979-85.
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In 1959, Jennings played bass in Buddy Holly’s band on his Winter Dance Party Tour. He performed with Holly during the latter’s final show at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa. Holly, J.P. Richardson (The Big Bopper) and Ritchie Valens all perished in a plane crash that Feb. 3 following the concert.
Jennings, who played a big part in country music’s Outlaw movement of the 1970s, was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2001. He died in February 2002 at age 64 at his home in Mesa, Ariz., after a long battle with diabetes.
Jennings’ legacy is in vogue in 2024. His rebel ways were one of the most talked about elements in the recently released Netflix documentary The Greatest Night in Pop, which chronicles his walking out of the recording of USA for Africa’s megahit, and four-week 1985 Billboard Hot 100 No. 1, “We Are the World.”
“Waylon in ’75,” a track on Chayce Beckham’s debut album, Bad for Me, is just one example of today’s artists paying homage to him, Meanwhile, Shooter Jennings, the 45-year-old son of Jennings and Jessi Colter (who married in 1969), has announced that he’s uncovered unreleased music from his father and plans on releasing it in 2025.
Established pop star Post Malone scores his first No. 1 on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart as “I Had Some Help,” featuring Morgan Wallen, ascends from No. 2 in just its seventh week on the survey (dated June 29).
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The breakup song increased by 6% to 31.5 million audience impressions June 14-20, according to Luminate. Post Malone and Wallen wrote it with Louis Bell, Ernest, Ashley Gorley, Hoskins, Ryan Vojtesa and Chandler Paul Walters.
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“Help” wraps the fastest trip to No. 1 on Country Airplay since Garth Brooks’ “More Than a Memory” became the only hit in the survey’s 34-year history to arrive at the summit, in September 2007. Among songs that rose to No. 1 from another rank, “Help” completes the speediest sprint since Tim McGraw’s “Live Like You Were Dying” reached the top in its seventh week in July 2004. Notably, the average rise to No. 1 this decade is 33 chart weeks.
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Post Malone logged one prior Country Airplay entry, as featured on an update of Joe Diffie’s “Pickup Man,” which hit No. 44 in January. (The original dominated for four frames beginning in December 1994.)
Post Malone is set to release his upcoming album, F-1 Trillion, Aug. 16, as he revealed via a billboard in Nashville Tuesday (June 18).
Meanwhile, “Help” grants Wallen his 13th Country Airplay No. 1. He’s charting an additional song in the list’s upper reaches: “Cowgirls,” featuring Ernest, hops 6-3 (26.3 million, up 16%).
“Help” has spent five weeks running at No. 1 on the multimetric Billboard Hot 100 and Hot Country Songs (through the charts dated June 22).
Young’s ‘Young’ Is Top 10
Chris Young achieves his 18th Country Airplay top 10 as “Young Love & Saturday Nights” pushes 11-10 (18.9 million, up 5%). The song, which he co-penned, is his first to hit the tier since his team-up with Mitchell Tenpenny, “At the End of the Bar,” which became Young’s 11th No. 1, for a week in August 2022.
Post Malone’s country era isn’t slowing down.
The “Rockstar” singer and rapper joins forces with country star Blake Shelton on “Pour Me a Drink” (via Mercury Records/Republic), the latest cut from Posty’s forthcoming country album, F-1 Trillion.
Dropping at midnight, “Drink” is a party number, a twangy-ode to imbiding with buddies and burying mistakes.
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On it, Shelton rues: “Guess I really went and messed it up again Now, my baby’s goner than the Tulsa wind/ Judgin’ by the stone-sober state I’m in/ Need to crack one wide open.” In the chorus, Malone sings, “Somebody pour me a drink, somebody bum me a smoke/ I’m ’bout to get on a buzz, I’m ’bout to get on a roll.”
Posty and Shelton premiered the song for CMA Fest at Nissan Stadium, footage of which will air as a package next Tuesday, June 25 on ABC.
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Malone is enjoying life at the penthouse with “I Had Some Help,” his country team-up with Morgan Wallen which has now logged five weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.
That song is Malone’s sixth leader and Wallen’s second, and the first to collect at least its first five weeks on the chart at No. 1 since Miley Cyrus’ “Flowers” spent its first six weeks on the survey at the summit in January-March 2023. “I Had Some Help” is also the first smash to reign over the chart for five consecutive weeks in nearly a year.
F-1 Trillion is slated for release Aug. 16, and is Posty’s sixth studio album, following 2023’s Austin. Two of those LPs have hit No. 1 on the Billboard 200. The artwork for the forthcoming LP features a baby blue pickup truck performing a miracle on a lake. See below.
Malone’s genre-hopping activities of late have included a performance on the Academy of Country Music Awards in May, performing a song called “Never Love You Again;” a spot at the Stagecoach Festival 2024 in Indio, CA; and a performance earlier in the week at Nashville’s Bluebird Cafe, where he was joined by Lainey Wilson, Ernest, and multi-hit songwriter Ashley Gorley for an industry-only writers’ round at the famed songwriters venue.
Stream “Pour Me a Drink” below.
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Maren Morris has joined forces with Julia Michaels for the new song, “Cut!”.
The song is featured on Morris’s upcoming five-song project Intermission, which bows Aug. 2.
Earlier this week, Morris alerted fans to the upcoming collab by posting a photo on social media. The pic featured Morris and Michaels in a kitchen, with Michaels seated at a table and Morris standing atop the table and wielding a chainsaw.
“Can’t wait to cathartically scream f–k at the top of our lungs together,” Morris captioned the photo.
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This week, Morris also shared the track listing for Intermission: “Cut!,” “I Hope I Never Fall in Love,” “Push Me Over,” “Because, Of Course,” and “This is How a Woman Leaves.”
Last year, the Grammy winner released a pair of songs entitled “The Tree” and “Get the Hell Out of Here.” The new five-song set follows her 2022 album Humble Quest and her 2019 CMA album of the year-winning project GIRL.
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Michaels and Morris have previously collaborated, as they are among the co-writers on the song “Circles Around This Town” from Morris’ Humble Quest project. “Circles Around This Town” earned Grammy nominations for best country solo performance and best country song.
In addition to her own hits including her 2017 debut solo single “Issues,” Michaels is a writer on hit songs for Demi Lovato, Ed Sheeran, Selena Gomez and more. Her 2020 collaboration with JP Saxe, “If The World Was Ending,” picked up a Grammy nomination for song of the year.
Morris is well-known for her thoughtful collaborations throughout her career, including her work as part of the music collective The Highwomen, as well as collaborations with Taylor Swift (“You All Over Me”), Zedd (“The Middle”), Brandi Carlile (“Common”), and Vince Gill (“Dear Hate”).
Listen to “Cut!” below:
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Cole Swindell taps into his history on his new single, “Forever to Me.”
It’s the second time he’s sung about Carolina in the chorus of a song he issued to radio, following his 2022 release “She Had Me At Heads Carolina.” And a line in the bridge, “I wish you coulda met my daddy,” references the loss of his father, a life event that formed the backbone of his 2015 ballad “You Should Be Here.”
But “Forever to Me” also uses history to anticipate the future, recounting the 2023 engagement that led to his June 12 marriage in California to former NBA dancer Courtney Little. “Forever to Me” represents the start of the next phase in his personal life, now unfolding in a way he doubted it would.
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“I always wondered if I’d ever get married – you can’t really have a song like that if you don’t,” he says. “So for all this to happen within a year, man, and to have [the song] out there and finally be playing it live, it’s really cool.”
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“Forever to Me” is actually more than three years in the making. Swindell had met Little at a NASCAR event, and they struck up a friendship. But when his video team needed a love interest for his intricate 2021 video “Some Habits,” Swindell thought it’d work better to shoot it with Little than with an unfamiliar model. Working on that particular song on a Tennessee backroad created a spark, and the two began dating.
“The whole feeling on that day, I just felt like there was something,” he reflects. “I don’t know that I thought we’d be getting married, but I definitely knew that’s what I was missing.”
In May 2023, Swindell planned to pop the question in Texas in conjunction with the Academy of Country Music Awards, but just days before that event, he called an audible and arranged to take Little on a surprise detour to that same “Some Habits” backroad. He knelt on a soggy field, she said “yes,” and as he worked on his next album, he periodically attempted to write about the relationship for their first dance. Oddly enough, “Forever” arrived in tandem with a football game.
Swindell was to headline a swanky private party in Houston on Jan. 7, the eve of the National College Football Championship, and at the last minute, he asked Greylan James (“Next Thing You Know,” “Happy Does”) to join him and to suggest a third writer. James picked Rocky Block (“Cowgirls,” “Man Made a Bar”). They wrote a couple songs on the way to Houston, and after the concert, they stayed up late on the bus talking – so late that they saw the sun come up. They asked Swindell to describe his relationship, and he replied that Little is “forever to me.” That, his co-writers agreed, was the song they would write – after they slept.
When they awoke, James and Block worked on it a bit before Swindell was ready. James developed an opening acoustic guitar riff that Swindell compared to a Keith Whitley vibe.
“It was a really purposeful part,” James says.
They came up with the chorus’ opening line, “She gave 18 summers to Carolina” – not quite the correct number of years, but definitely the right state. “That was a little bit poetic license, but it got the point across,” Block notes. “We were just trying to say she grew up somewhere.”
Block controlled the melody at the close of that chorus, including the all-important set-up line, “I might’ve gave her the diamond/But she gave forever to me.” “I would have never sang that off the bat,” James says. “That’s just a Rocky Block special.”
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The word “gave” became an important device – “She gave 18 years…,” “I gave her a diamond…,” “She gave forever…” Swindell’s co-writers were very specific about it. “We kind of went in on what else she gave [in] other places in that chorus,” Block says.
Swindell didn’t quite realize it was happening. “It is a lot of ‘gaves,’” he says. “I didn’t even notice that we had done it. It just kind of felt right.”
One of the “gaves” – “I gave a grass stain to my knee” – is the kind of detail that specifically personalizes “Forever.” Originally, they started writing the verses with a line that referenced Dallas, since that’s where he intended to propose. Along with the references to Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee, the geography felt cluttered, but they kept it. Eventually, that became the second verse as he spent the first recounting how they met.
The song’s powerhouse moment comes with the bridge. It sews in a cultural reference, “She said ‘yes to the dress’ with her mama,” as the writers specifically included Little’s mother in the lyric. It’s there that Swindell sings “I wish you coulda met my daddy,” tying in his own personal note. And they included a mention of Jesus, suggesting divinity is involved in the relationship. It was only after writing the bridge that Swindell came up with the opening line, “You ever seen a prayer in person?,” tying the front and back of the song together.
They had champagne on hand for the game, but they broke it out early for an emotional toast. “We’re holding cups of champagne, hugging each other, and tears coming down — because we felt every line in that in that bridge,” James recalls.
They barely got to the stadium suite in time for the game, a Michigan blowout over Washington. Numerous celebrities wandered in and out, but the three writers kept going back to a corner and playing a work tape of “Forever.” James paid extra attention to the demo when he got back to Nashville, since the song was likely to be important to Swindell’s fiancée. The story made it one of Swindell’s most challenging vocals.
“It was a different kind of feeling — like, ‘Man, I can’t believe I’m singing this. I can’t believe I wrote this song,’” Swindell remembers. “I felt a lot of pressure to get it right.”
Little and the in-laws loved it, though another song eventually supported their ceremonial first dance. Meanwhile, Swindell struggled to record a final version of it. They made several attempts with different groups of musicians, but none of the results captured the song’s emotion the way the demo did. Ultimately, Swindell contacted producer Jordan M. Schmidt (Tyler Hubbard, Mitchell Tenpenny), who used much of Swindell’s vocal and some of James’ drum programming from the demo. Schmidt hired drummer Nir Z to mesh light human drum work into the synthetic percussion, and he had Jonny Fung redo the guitar parts.
Swindell still needed to rewrite the Dallas line, though, and he had a long phone call with Block and James to change the lyric. They turned the lines into “There ain’t no dancin’ around it/ When your whole world’s standin’ there.” It might be the only part of the song that Swindell re-sang during one last vocal session, held under more pressure, since the label had picked “Forever” as a single, and deadlines were imminent.
Schmidt “was a huge reason we were able to release it,” Swindell says.
Warner Music Nashville issued “Forever” to country radio via PlayMPE on April 12. It ranks No. 46 on the Country Airplay chart dated June 22, documenting his recent history as he steps into newlywed status.
“I’m literally in this season of my life,” he says. “I will never talk about it any more than I will now and this kind of goes along with what I’m going through. It just kind of fit.”
Luke Bryan’s Crash My Playa will return for a milestone 10th year, when the five-time entertainer of the year winner and his fellow artists take over the Moon Palace Cancun resort in Cancun, Mexico, for four days of music, sun, sand, and fun times on Jan. 15-18, 2025.
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Bryan will headline for two nights during the all-inclusive concert vacation, but the lineup also features three-time ACM entertainer of the year winner Jason Aldean, who returns for a third time, as well as 11-time Billboard Country Airplay chart-topper Kane Brown, who is making his Crash My Playa debut in 2025. Also on the lineup are Bailey Zimmerman, Dustin Lynch, Dylan Scott, Elle King, Jackson Dean, Nate Smith, Dasha, Ella Langley, Tucker Wetmore and DJ Rock.
Bryan, who has amassed a career total of 21.3 billion streams and 26 Billboard Country Airplay chart-toppers has steadily built the event into a must-attend getaway that welcomes an average of 5,000 attendees each year. For Bryan, the enduring impact of the festival is special, given his deep involvement at the very origins of Crash My Playa.
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“From day one, we partnered with Playa Luna [Presents],” Bryan tells Billboard. “At the time, they said, ‘Luke, do you want to just take the money, or do you want to build it and be an owner?’ I was so glad I decided to build it and become an owner, because it’s something I’ll look back on and it will be one of the proudest things I’ve been a part of. Year one, I’ll never forget when I saw the actual concert site and looked at how beautiful everything was lit, and how well done. My first thought was, ‘These fans are about to have one of the greatest [four-day periods] of their life, because everything even exceeded my expectations.”
It’s not only fans who get excited about attending Crash My Playa — the artists do, too.
“Artists will hear about Crash My Playa and how fun it is, and they will walk up to me and say, ‘Hey, can we come be a part of this?’” Bryan says. “I was doing some TV stuff with Kane [Brown], and he goes, ‘I want to do Crash My Playa,’ and I said, ‘Well, we can get it organized and booked right now.’ So it’s been fun to kind of be the promoter of my own festival, but it’s fun when the artists come down and it lives up to their expectations.”
For Bryan, chief among a decade of music-filled, sun-drenched memories he has amassed from previous years of Crash My Playa are the moments he and his fellow artists have been able to let loose and be comfortable — even if that means some informal, silly onstage moments.
“I never will forget the year that me, Jason Aldean, Lee Brice and Charles Kelley got onstage,” Bryan recalls. “I had toured with Jason Aldean for many, many years and I’d never heard him lose his voice, but we all sounded like wolves out in the wild. So that told me maybe we’d had a little too much tequila down there, but we knew we had had a great time when singers are losing their voices, trying to do cover songs. But it was a pretty funny moment and thank God it never went viral.”
In addition to music, the concert vacation features an array of sports activities, games, pool parties, wellness activities, and more, with previous years’ activities including ATVs, zip lines, snorkeling, beach volleyball, and a pickleball tournament.
“We’ve always got a big group of friends and family that come down,” Bryan says. “It’s nice to go down there and get in the sun and get your vitamin D and feel good and have some margaritas. So most of the time we just sit there and sit by the pool and play music.
“One time I learned how to windsurf there and that didn’t go well,” he adds with a laugh. “So I gave up windsurfing.”
Notably, despite the ACM Award-nominated event’s continuously surging popularity, package prices remain consistent with last year.
“I want fans to come down there and go, ‘Wow, that was twice as good as we expected and we can’t believe that we got all this for this package [price],’” Bryan noted. “Whenever we’ve had our inputs go up, and wherever we’ve had to spend more money on this or that, I’ve taken it out of my pocket and never transferred it to the fans. I could have raised ticket prices 20% and paid off something else, but we chose not to do it that way. If things get a little more expensive, I take it on the chin, and that just feels like the right way to go about it.”
The general on sale for the event will launch June 28 at 3 p.m. ET at crashmyplaya.com. Previous attendees will have early access through an Alumni Pre-Sale starting at 11 a.m. EDT on June 28. Fan club members for Bryan, Aldean, Brown, and Lynch will also have the opportunity to purchase Pre-Sale packages on June 28 at 2 p.m. EDT.
A decade on, and having firmly established Crash My Playa as one of country music’s essential artist-driven events, Bryan says he’s always focused on ways “to be innovative, and keep it fresh and young. I must say I’ve thought about a Crash My Maui or a Crash My Bahamas, so if we can take that and go mobile … and always, it’s all about the fan experience for me. As long as we have the continued support from them and everybody’s excited, we’ll always do our part to stay ahead of the curve on it.”
Country music singer-songwriter Mark Chesnutt is recovering after undergoing emergency heart surgery. According to a June 18 post on Chesnutt’s Instagram page, he experienced a heart health issue and was hospitalized on Sunday. He underwent emergency quadruple bypass surgery and is currently recovering. The surgery and recovery has also led Chesnutt to cancel some upcoming […]
Tanner Adell, known for her breakthrough hit “Buckle Bunny” and her contributions to Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter album, has signed with Love Renaissance (LVRN).
The Atlanta-based Love Renaissance was founded in 2016 by Tunde Balogun, Justice Baiden, Junia Abaidoo, Carlon Ramong and Sean “Famoso” McNichol, and features a roster including 6LACK, Summer Walker, DVSN, SPINALL, and TxC. The multi-faceted label and management company offers creative direction, production, marketing and strategic partnerships. LVRN also operates the Atlanta-based LVRN Studios to further cultivate musical talent in the Atlanta area.
“They made it so obvious that they knew exactly who I was and exactly how they were going to help me achieve what I want to achieve,” Adell tells Billboard of her decision to sign with LVRN Records.
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Adell’s upbringing in both California and Wyoming has helped the singer-songwriter in crafting a unique fusion of country, pop and hip-hop on songs such as “Whiskey Blues” and “FU-150,” as well as a signature brand that blends big-city glitz and rural roots. Adell moved to Nashville three years ago with her sights set on a career in country music.
“I was writing in my bedroom, using beats I’d find on the internet. I moved here and just put my head down, working, and kept my vision as straight as I possibly could in trying to create a sound that I felt was unique to me, but relatable,” Adell told Billboard.
Adell, who was previously signed with Columbia Records, issued the song “Honky Tonk Heartbreak” in 2021, followed by her EP Last Call the following year. Most recently, she released her Buckle Bunny debut mixtape last year, followed by a deluxe version of the project, including “Love You a Little Bit,” “Throw It Back,” and “I Hate Texas.”
Then Queen Bey came calling.
On Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter, Adell joined with Brittney Spencer, Tiera Kennedy and Reyna Roberts on the song “Blackbiird,” and provided background vocals on “Ameriican Requiem.” Like her Cowboy Carter cohorts, Adell saw a surge in streaming. According to Luminate, the week after Beyonce released “Texas Hold ‘Em,” Adell saw a 188% increase in streaming activity.
This year, she’s built on that surge by performing at top festivals including CMA Fest, Stagecoach and C2C. Adell also wrote and recorded the song “Too Easy” for the soundtrack of the movie Twisters, with her work residing alongside music from artists Luke Combs, Jelly Roll and Miranda Lambert.
Baiden, head of A&R for LVRN, said in a statement, “It’s rare these days to be wowed and instantly connect to an artist. Tanner is a generational talent who will change how people feel, perceive, and digest country music. We believe in the stories she tells and her ability to relate to the everyday person; she will touch a global audience. Our decision to support her journey reflects how we at LVRN came into the business and how we see things: fearless, rebellious, loving, Renaissance!”
Amber Grimes, evp/GM of LVRN, added, “Given our profound affinity for storytelling, we were determined to collaborate with Tanner. She has a jaw-dropping story waiting to be shared through her songwriting. We are thrilled to welcome Tanner to our family, amplify her narrative, and continue to cultivate her success as an artist. Our commitment to nurturing talent and supporting artistic integrity extends across all genres.”
Adell recalled the detailed plan the label created for a forward-facing career vision.
“They had about 30 pages of where they felt my trajectory was going, showing how they understood my brand,” Adell told Billboard. “They had a vision for touring, and a deep dive into how the partnership would go if I signed with them. You never see that—it felt like these are real people who really care and understand me.”
Over the past year, Adell has been writing for a new project, one that will draw fans deeper into her story.
“I haven’t talked too much about my family, and my birth family and being adopted and how I’ve dealt with that,” Adell said. “I’m biracial. I was adopted by a white family, but they also adopted my siblings. I haven’t talked about finding my birth family, or any of that. I feel like my fans are ready, and I’m ready to give that part of myself to them. I’m ready to share that side of me. I feel like there will be a lot of people who will be healed.”