Country
Page: 73
Zach Bryan welcomed the “Hawk Tuah” girl onstage during his concert at Nashville’s Nissan Stadium on Saturday (June 29). During the latest stop of his Quittin Time Tour, the 28-year-old country star surprised the crowd by bringing out viral sensation Hailey Welch — aka “Hawk Tuah” girl — to help sing the encore “Revival.” Welch, […]
The Mavericks frontman and lead guitarist Raul Malo shared with fans on Thursday (June 27) that he is undergoing treatment for cancer. In a video posted to the group’s official Instagram page, Malo noted that the cancer was detected after he underwent a physical, a catscan and a colonoscopy.
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
In a statement Malo wrote to fans (and provided to Billboard), the singer further shared, “Recently, the doctors found a few cancerous spots in my digestive system. Obviously, this isn’t the news I was hoping to get, or to share with you all.”
Trending on Billboard
However, Malo was quick to tell fans that he is surrounded by a top team of doctors and medical professionals in Nashville, adding, “They’ve reassured me this is a very common form of cancer, and my odds are good. Fortunately, we have a plan in place, and I’m feeling great! I’ll continue to be as active as possible throughout these treatments, but it does mean a few shows may be affected this year, and we’ll have more information for you as soon as possible on that.”
Malo added, “But most importantly, I wanted to say to my fellow men out there, and anyone who may be reading this — It’s important to take care of your health, and to see a doctor for checkups, especially if something is wrong. With modern medicine, these types of cancer are very survivable with proper treatment, but if you don’t get checked, you’ll never know. It’s important to do it for your family, the people around you, and those you love.
“I’m sharing this message in the spirit of transparency and honesty, as you all have stuck with us throughout these 35 crazy years of music, shows, breaking up, & getting back together – we’ve even survived a pandemic together,” he continued, “We’ll get through this just like we have everything else. In the meantime, I want you to know I’m not going anywhere, and I’ll look forward to seeing you all out on the road again soon.”
Malo also thanked fans for their support of the group’s recent album Moon & Stars, which released May 17 and featured appearances from Sierra Ferrell, Maggie Rose, Nicole Atkins and Max Abrams.
The Mavericks have been on tour this year in support of the album, but noted that a few shows will have to be canceled or postponed. Shows in Aspen, Colorado (set for July 12) and Steamboat Springs, Colorado (July 14) have been canceled, while a July 13 show in Denver has been rescheduled to Aug. 25. Later in the year, the group has shows slated in Los Angeles, Dallas, and Detroit, as well as a pair of shows at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium on Dec. 6-7.
The group, which meshes the talents of Malo, guitarist Eddie Perez, keyboard player Jerry Dale McFadden and drummer Paul Deakin, formed in Miami and relocated to Nashville in the 1980s. In the years since releasing their self-titled debut album in 1990, the Mavericks have become known for their genre-melding blend of country, rock, Tejano, samba, soul and more. In 1995, they earned a Grammy win for best country performance by a duo /group with vocals for “Here Comes the Rain.” The group has seen five of their albums reach the top 10 on Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart, including 2015’s Mono. In 2020, the group leaned into its Latin roots, with the release of the project En Español.
Kelsea Ballerini and Noah Kahan‘s partnership on “Cowboys Cry Too” started out with a simple text. And in honor of the twangy slow-jam arriving Friday (June 28), the former shared exactly how she reached out to the latter to get him to agree to the collaboration — not that it took much convincing. According to […]
Keith Urban is back with some exciting news — his new album High is set to drop on Sept. 20, marking his first release in nearly four years.
High follows 2020’s The Speed of Now Part 1. which peaked at No. 7 on the Billboard 200, one of his eight top 10 appearances on the chart, a tally that includes two leaders. The new collection follows Urban’s musical journey while simultaneously exploring themes of human connection, what it is to be alive, cutting loose, hope, nostalgia, shredding solos, straight-up fun, and some personal life revelations.
“I’ve always been drawn toward the subject of living in the moment, because it’s all there is, and it’s hard to do,” said Urban of his latest project. “And these days with so much ‘content’ flying at us, it can feel like drinking from a fire hose.”
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
To give fans a taste of what’s to come, Urban has also released the new single “Wildside”.
Trending on Billboard
Inspired by Joan Cusack’s character in School of Rock, the song is a fun, party anthem. “She’s the principal of a school by day, all prim and proper,” Urban said. “And then, a few tequilas at night and all bets are off.”
[embedded content]
He explained the inspiration behind the album’s title, High. “What makes you ‘high’ can mean whatever you want it to mean,” the singer said.
“It might be physical, spiritual, herbal, meditative, chemical, or musical, but it’s definitely a place of utopia.”
For Urban, those highs come from his family, friends, and the thrill of playing live music. “Playing guitar, writing songs and the place where I always feel high – playing live. Every night I get a chance to bring an energy and a release to people.”
However, creating High wasn’t all smooth sailing.
Urban shared that his hectic 2022 tour schedule made it tough to maintain a cohesive sound. “There was no continuity. The songs didn’t work well together. I learned that what I thought was a framework to create within, turned out to be musically limiting.”
The forthcoming album features a variety of tracks, each with its own unique vibe and story. Besides “Wildside,” High includes songs like “Straight Line,” “Go Home W U” featuring Lainey Wilson, and the current radio single “Messed Up As Me.”
Urban’s career is still on fire. This year, he was inducted into the Nashville Songwriter’s Hall of Fame by Dolly Parton, returned to American Idol as a mentor and performer, and rocked stages at big events like the Formula One Heineken Silver Las Vegas Grand Prix.
His Las Vegas residency at the Bakkt Theater at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino has been a huge hit, proving once again why he’s one of the best live performers around.
Urban’s High is available for pre-order now. Check out the High tracklist below.
High Track Listing:
“Blue Sky (Prelude)”
“Straight Line”
“Messed Up As Me”
“Wildside”
“Go Home W U (With Lainey Wilson)”
“Chuck Taylors”
“Daytona”
“Love Is Hard”
“Heart Like A Hometown”
“Laughin’ All The Way To The Drank”
“Dodge In A Silverado”
“Break The Chain”
Say howdy to Noah Kahan and Kelsea Ballerini‘s new duet “Cowboys Cry Too,” which dropped midnight Friday (June 28). Featuring reflective lyrics, twangy guitar and fiddle, finds the two stars’ voices blending beautifully together with the refrain, “I never knew cowboys cry too.” “I grew up wishing I could close off the way my dad […]
That kind of music just soothes the soul! Bunnie XO shared a sweet moment to TikTok this week, in which she’s seen jamming out with her husband, Jelly Roll, at a bar to Bob Seger’s classic 1978 hit, “Old Time Rock & Roll.”
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
In the clip, the “Need a Favor” star is seen belting the lyrics to the chorus as Bunnie dances nearby. Soon enough, the couple’s famous pals, MGK and Mod Sun, join in and the whole group jams out together.
“The sweetest widdle family,” Bunnie captioned the video.
Earlier this month, Jelly made an appearance on the Bussin’ With the Boys podcast, where he revealed that he and Bunnie are trying to have a baby. “My wife and I are talking about having a baby, and it really made me realize that at almost 40, I was like, it means I got to live to at least 60. I got to see this kid into college,” Jelly Roll said. “My plan was never to be 60. It was to be like 55. I think [the Grateful Dead lead singer Jerry] Garcia died at 56. I was young, so I was like, ’56 would be great for me! …It’s better than 27 when all the other stars died. It’s 27 or 56 in the celebrity world. Let me be 56.’ But now I’m like, ‘I’d like to see my 60s.’ You know what I mean? And that really lit it up.”
Trending on Billboard
Meanwhile, Bunnie XO also shared a snippet from the podcast on her social media, adding in the caption, “God willing–Baby DeFord 2026,” and revealing that the couple is undergoing their own IVF journey.
Bunnie XO added, “Papa Bear dropped a surprise on this pod today. We had planned on doing this privately, but decided our IVF journey needed to be shared because we’ve always been so open. And w/ all odds stacked against us, it’s already been hard and we have only just begun. We have been meeting with IVF doctors & exploring all our options to add to our family.”
Jelly Roll has notched three Billboard Country Airplay chart-toppers to date with “Son of a Sinner,” “Need a Favor” and his Lainey Wilson collaboration “Save Me.”
The Pointer Sisters have enjoyed their share of hits on the Billboard Hot 100 as well as Billboard’s R&B, AC and dance charts over the decades. Fifty years ago this month, the group even found a place for itself in country music — and won a Grammy Award for it.
The then-quartet recorded “Fairytale” for its second studio album, That’s a Plenty, in 1974. The song was released as a single in June of that year, reaching No. 37 on the Hot Country Songs chart and No. 13 on the Hot 100 and Adult Contemporary chart.
“Anita and Bonnie wrote that song way before we were even recording,” Ruth Pointer, the sole surviving member of the original group, tells Billboard. “We were looking for material to put on the [second] album; Anita and Bonnie said, ‘We got a song. We wrote it awhile ago, but it’s good.’” Bonnie told the Youngstown, Ohio Vindicator in 1974 that the track — a breakup song inspired by Anita’s brief affair with a married radio disc jockey in San Francisco — was no novelty, “People think because we’re always trying something different we’re not sincere. Like country music. For us, it’s no joke…Our folks came from Arkansas and we grew up singing country songs. It’s part of us.”
Trending on Billboard
The Pointers’ own band balked at recording “Fairytale,” according to Ruth, so the Pointers and producer David Rubinson went to Quadrophonic Studios in Nashville to cut the track, working with noted session players such as guitarist Bobby Thompson, Weldon Myrick on pedal steel, David Briggs on piano, Norbert Putnam on bass, Ken Buttrey on drums and Buddy Spicher on fiddle; Anita sang lead.
“The musicians were wonderful, just wonderful,” Ruth remembers. “Those were authentic country musicians. They really gave us that sound…and the rest is history.”
The Pointers began including “Fairytale” in their live shows shortly after That’s a Plenty’s release (it is featured on their Live at the Opera House album that came out during September 1974). It was originally the B-side of the Pointers’ version of the Vibrations’ “Love in Them There Hills” but was eventually pitched to country stations, which proved receptive to it.
“Let me tell you something — they didn’t know we were Black,” Ruth says now. That was proven on Oct. 25, 1974. Four years after Linda Martell became the first Black woman to perform at the Grand Ole Opry, the Pointer Sisters became the first Black vocal group to perform at the famed Nashville venue (though without June, who was absent due to exhaustion). “When we performed at the Grand Ole Opry people were yelling from the audience, ‘Oh my God, them gals is Black!’” Ruth says with a laugh. “They had planned a party for us, and when we showed up they ran out to the car, ran us around the back and put us in the kitchen. I thought they were hiding us to make a surprise entrance. Then (Rubinson) came back, ‘What are you guys doing back here?’ We told him, ‘We think they’re keeping us here to come out as a surprise’ and he said, ‘No. They think you’re the help.’ And we’re like, ‘Oh, OK…’ (laughs) So that was our experience with the Grand Ole Opry and country and Nashville.”
“Fairytale” won a Grammy Award for best country vocal performance by a duo or group the following year (one of the group’s three Grammy wins), and in 1986, Anita hit No. 2 on the Hot Country Songs chart via a duet with Earl Thomas Conley on his 1986 single, “Too Many Times.”
As country becomes more inclusive, Ruth — who currently leads the Pointer Sisters with her daughter, Issa, and granddaughter, Sadako — says she’s been encouraged by the trend. “I love what’s happening now. I would say it’s about damn time,” she says. “I love Mickey Guyton. I love Beyoncé, all of it. Hallelujah!”
The Pointer Sisters kick off a run of co-headlining shows with the Commodores on July 11 in Tinley Park, Ill.
The Country Music Hall of Fame is opening its doors to several performers for its two-day All For the Hall music event in Dallas. The event will launch Sept. 9 with Grammy-nominated trio Midland performing at a Patron Party at the home of event honorary co-chairs Anne and Steve Stodghill (previously announced performer Vince Gill […]
Post Malone had some help on his upcoming country album, and the superstar teased yet another collaboration via Instagram on Wednesday (June 26). In the clip, the singer shared a brief snippet of an upcoming collaboration with Chris Stapleton. “She whispered pull it over, I said you’re the boss / In a southern drawl said […]
Saddle up, Kelsea Ballerini and Noah Kahan fans: The two singer/songwriters are partnering up on a new song titled “Cowboys Cry Too,” and it’s dropping in less than 48 hours. The “Peter Pan” singer broke the news Wednesday (June 26) via social media, sharing the single’s cover art and release date. “cowboys cry too with […]