Country
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You don’t have to ask Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson twice if he wants a good time.
When Chris Janson called the actor earlier this year to see if he’d appear in the country star’s music video for “Whatcha See Is Whatcha Get,” within an hour, Johnson had replied yes.
The result is a fun escapade as the two ride around a field and lounge in the back of a 1970 brown Ford Explorer in the clip, laughing and enjoying each other’s company. The mood matches the upbeat song’s good-timing lyrics: “When I get a truck, I just jack it up/ Find myself a mudhole, go and get it stuck/ Head to toe in camo, that’s just how it is/ But I ain’t tryna hide, what you see is what you get.”
“I love this song and love the idea behind it, which is just always remain who you are, anchor in and be your real self,” Johnson says, over Zoom. “I always like to say the most important thing we could be is ourselves, and that’s what Chris is. That’s one of the reasons why we bonded and we shot the video and it was awesome.”
The two met in 2022 when Janson was in California with his son and they spotted the wrestling and film superstar in a parking lot, while they were both waiting for their cars. “If it weren’t for my kid going, ‘Oh my gosh, The Rock is right in front of us! Daddy, please ask for a picture,’ this would have never maybe happened,” Janson says. “I’m a pretty shy guy. I’ve never once, I’m proud to say, asked for a photo, because I understand the extent of what it constitutes when you are in the public eye. But God works in mysterious ways.”
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Janson introduced himself, the two started talking about country music, and upon discovering their mutual love for Hank Williams Jr., they broke in to his 1980 hit “The Blues Man.” A friendship and a nickname were born: Janson is listed in Johnson’s phone as “Chris ‘The Blues Man’ Janson,” while, for discretion’s sake, Johnson is listed in Janson’s phone simply as “DJ.”
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They shot Johnson’s portion of the video outside Dallas on March 8 because he was in town for the WWE Smackdown. They met at the Mesquite Arena, slapped a GoPro camera on the truck and had a video crew follow them, and within two hours they were done. “It was so, so unscripted,” Johnson says. “It was, ‘Hey, I got a truck. You bring your guitar. We got a cool location. You bring your Mountain Dew, I’ll bring the tequila, and let’s see what happens,’” he recalls. “I will say this in front of him: I had the greatest time making this video because as I was telling him afterwards, I gave him a big hug and I said, ‘Dude, I just don’t get moments like this where I could just hang out and be with a buddy and have some drinks and have fun,’ because we’re all so busy.”
The only bummer? They didn’t get to buy the vintage truck, which they both fell in love with. “And at the end of it, DJ goes, ‘We should try to buy this truck!’ And I said, ‘Yes, we should!,’” Janson says. “So we both kind of nice like [asked], ‘Hey, man, you want to sell the truck?’ He’s like, ‘No, I don’t think so.’ He was old-school Texas, which I can appreciate. I respect that.”
So the two friends shared some barbecue, Johnson left for his gig, and Janson left for his. They are still likely to burst into song. As Janson recounts the story, he starts singing George Strait’s “A Showman’s Life.” “That’s a great one,” says Johnson, nodding his head.
Johnson grew up on country music, and by the time he was 15, he had moved from Hawaii to Nashville. As he explains, his career path could have gone very differently. “We were evicted out of Hawaii, couldn’t pay the rent, sent to Nashville,” Johnson says. “I moved in with a buddy of mine, a family friend in a motel. That’s when we started going down, hanging out on [Broadway]. A couple of days later, I was in Piggly Wiggly, singing a Hank song. A woman [who was shopping] came around and she kind of looked at me. I thought I’d done something wrong. She goes, ‘Do you sing?’ I’m 15 and I went, ‘No, I just love to sing. I love country.’ She goes, ‘You should go down to [Broadway]. That’s where all the singers are.’”
Prompted by her words, Johnson started hanging out on Broadway, “trying to get a gig at these honky-tonks because I had this dream in my head — or a delusion— that I was going to be a country music star.” He recounts the story on his Instagram.
As for whether Johnson, who has shown off his singing chops in movies like Moana, is jumping into the country waters like so many other celebrities and making a country album, he says, “We have to work on it. Maybe this year, we’ll see.” But first he plans to take Janson up on his invitation to join him on the Grand Ole Opry stage. Janson joined the esteemed Opry last year and has played it more than 200 times. Or they could hop on stage at Broadway’s legendary Tootsie’s, where Janson was singing while living out of his car while he was still a teenager. “I was living in the backseat of my car on purpose,” he says. “I didn’t have enough money to have a hotel or anything, which was fine. I felt like I had made it.”
“We’ll do it together [at Tootsie’s],” Janson says. “It will be the first time together that we’ve been back in there. That’s the wildest thing. If you think about it, I don’t know one other person who has the same exact story as mine and that’s how we bonded in the parking lot over taking a picture. He tried to do it there and I tried to it there and they gave me a gig there. I was a tip jar guy.”
Johnson picks up on his friend’s story, recounting how Janson auditioned at Tootie’s at 10 a.m. and got the gig, but that his try-out didn’t go so well. “What’s full circle for me is I went in [to Tootsie’s], it was in the afternoon, I was told ‘No, you can’t. Get out.’ Eight years later, I returned back to Nashville to the fairgrounds where I was a pro wrestler making 40 bucks a match.”
Though the two friends haven’t tried writing songs together, Johnson says he would love to, and Janson is eager to give it a try, too. “He’s one of the most talented guys I know, on and off stage, and I would absolutely be honored to write a song with him,” Janson says. “We’re all about what happens naturally so the answer I would give, and I’m sure he would agree, is that if it happens naturally, great. And if it doesn’t, that’s okay, too. We’re still friends.” As if on cue, prompted by Janson stressing doing what happens naturally, Johnson bursts into the Buck Owens and the Buckaroos’ 1963 hit, “Act Naturally,” grinning as he sings, “They’re gonna put me in the movies.”
Why take your gin straight when you can have it with a side of Hardy? In honor of Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre‘s new Gin & Juice canned cocktail venture, the country-rock star released a cover of the hip-hop duo’s classic “Gin and Juice” on Friday (April 19), with a music video to follow next […]
As Cowboy Carter enjoys a second consecutive week atop the Billboard 200, the world continues to dissect Queen Bey’s latest opus. On Thursday (April 18), via a press release, Max announced a new documentary titled Call Me Country: Beyoncé & Nashville’s Renaissance slated to hit the streamer on Friday, April 26.
Produced by CNN FlashDocs, the upcoming documentary will provide a look at the impact of high-profile acts like Beyoncé and Lil Nas X on the contemporary country music scene and how their contributions connect to the history of Black artists in Nashville.
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Earlier this year, Queen Bey made history with “Texas Hold ‘Em,” the lead single for Cowboy Carter, announced and released during the 2024 Super Bowl (Feb. 11). On the chart dated Feb. 24, “Texas Hold ‘Em” reached No. 1 on Hot Country Songs, marking the first time a Black woman had ever topped the ranking. The following week (chart dated March 2), “Texas Hold ‘Em” became the first country song by a Black woman to top the Billboard Hot 100. Following the release of “Texas Hold ‘Em” and its B-side, “16 Carriages,” streaming activity for other Black women in country exploded across the board.
Call Me Country will feature interviews with Grammy-winning country duo Brothers Osborne, “Texas Hold ‘Em” banjo player Rhiannon Giddens, Rissi Palmer, Aaron Vance and Denitia, as well as analysis from a slew of cultural critics and country music experts, including Touré and co-directors of the Black Opry Holly G. and Tanner D.
Cowboy Carter, Beyoncé’s eighth solo studio album, arrived March 29 with 27 tracks that pay homage to the Black roots of country music and envision a distinctively Beyoncé-esque future for the genre. The sprawling album included collaborations with several ascendant Black country stars including Tanner Adell, Brittney Spencer, Reyna Roberts, Tiera Kennedy, Shaboozey and Willie Jones. In addition, country music legends Willie Nelson and Dolly Parton voiced interludes on the album, which Beyoncé described as a “continuation” of her Grammy-winning Renaissance record.
Fans may still be waiting on the visuals, but, in the meantime, they can enjoy the Call Me Country documentary.
Move over, Cowboy Carter! Beyoncé‘s latest Billboard 200-topping album isn’t the only place to find some country-crossover fun. On Thursday (April 18), Billboard chart-topping country star Hardy announced via Instagram that he’s doing a special cover of Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre‘s classic “Gin and Juice” in honor of the two rap icons’ upcoming pre-mixed […]
Earlier this month, reigning CMA Awards entertainer of the year Lainey Wilson stood alongside contemporary Christian music star Chris Tomlin at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena as part of Tomlin’s eighth annual Good Friday Nashville concert.
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Standing between them onstage was “My Jesus” hitmaker Anne Wilson. The trio of artists playing to the Nashville audience served as a literal representation of Wilson’s new album, Rebel, with its aim of fully intertwining the two genres via a country sound enmeshed with faith-filled lyrics. Both Tomlin and Lainey appear on Rebel, which comes out Friday (April 19) via Capitol Christian Music Group and Universal Music Group Nashville.
In 2021, Kentucky native Wilson broke through with “My Jesus,” a song she wrote following the death of her older brother Jacob. The song spent six weeks atop Billboard’s Christian Airplay chart, making Wilson the first female soloist to top the Christian Airplay chart with a debut single since the chart’s launch in 2003. Subsequent singles included the top 5 Christian Airplay hits “Sunday Sermons” and the top 25 hit “Hey Girl.”
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After she released her debut Capitol Christian Music Group album, My Jesus, which sonically dipped into the grooves between CCM and country, Wilson recalled getting messages from both country and Christian music fans.
“Some would say, ‘We don’t listen to Christian music, but we love your music. It sounds country.’ And then others would say, ‘We love country music, but we don’t play it in the car because we don’t want our kids listening to it, but we let them listen to you — the in between,’” Wilson tells Billboard, while seated at UMG Nashville’s office. “That was encouraging for me to hear, and showed me that’s where we were heading.”
As she began writing for the album in late 2022, Wilson says “the songs that were coming from my heart were leaning more country.” To that end, she’s set about expanding upon her CCM radio success, releasing music aimed at both country and CCM audiences, with her current top 5 Christian Airplay hit “Strong,” as well as country-aimed “Rain in the Rearview.” The songs filling out Rebel flit between themes well-known to country listeners, such as family (“My Father’s Daughter”), Sunday morning church, rural living and the struggles of life on the road (“Milestones”), but also songs that delve deeper into spiritual themes of prayer (“Sinner’s Prayer,” “Praying Woman”), redemption (“3:16”), and worship (“The Cross,” featuring Tomlin).
UMG Nashville Chair/CEO Cindy Mabe also saw the potential in a CCM-country connection and reached out to Wilson’s team in 2023.
“She said, ‘We want to give her an opportunity to take a song to country radio and to expand her reach,’” Wilson recalls. “It was out of the blue, but it made sense. I basically have two record labels, which is amazing. Double the people, double the ideas. It’s been great having so many different people helping with this album.”
Wilson, Zach Kale, CCM singer-songwriter Matthew West and The Cadillac Three’s Jaren Johnston wrote ‘Rain in the Rearview’ in August 2023 and released it the following month.
“Writing it, producing it and releasing it in like five weeks was very fast, but it’s been cool to see the reaction and how my music has been able to go to both country and Christian platforms and be appreciated in both,” Wilson says.
Certainly, songs of faith have been mainstays in country music from its inception, from the gospel classic “Will the Circle Be Unbroken,” made famous in country circles by The Carter Family in 1935, to Hank Williams’ “I Saw the Light” and Carrie Underwood’s Grammy-winning “Something in the Water.” But the past five years has seen a particular surge, with more than a dozen country-CCM collaborations released from artists including Dolly Parton, Zach Williams, Florida Georgia Line, Thomas Rhett and Colton Dixon. Tomlin teamed with FGL for a CCM album featuring country artists, while Steven Curtis Chapman released a bluegrass-tinged project and Underwood issued a hymns album.
With Rebel, Wilson fully fuses the two genres. She co-wrote every song on the 16-track project, reuniting with her core team of co-writers in West and Jeff Pardo, who crafted “My Jesus” with Wilson, and expanding her writing circle, bringing in top-tier country writers including Nicolle Galyon, Emily Weisband, Trannie Anderson and Casey Beathard.
“It was really life-giving as an artist; this album felt very free-spirited, like I can write about my faith, but also about different things, too,” say Wilson, who is part of both the Opry’s NextStage Class of 2024 and the CMT Next Women of Country Class of 2024.
She teams with “Wildflowers and Wild Horses” singer Lainey Wilson (no relation) on “Praying Woman.”
“I loved working with her,” Anne says. “I met Lainey on Instagram in 2020. Then we met [in person] last year, and we wrote the song the same day … We were talking about our moms, and we both remember our moms praying a lot when we were kids, getting on their knees and praying for things, and we got to write a song to honor our moms and talk about what it means to be a woman who prays and faith.”
She says Lainey is “like a big sister,” explaining, “The thing I love about Lainey’s story is she worked for so many years, lived in a camper and all these things and never changed who she was. She trusted that she was going to keep being herself and something was going to happen one day, and it did. She’s told me multiple times, ‘Don’t change for anyone or anything.’”
“Next Thing You Know” hitmaker Jordan Davis joins on “Country Gold,” a tender, breezy ode to the riches found in the simplicity of family, friends and rural living. They first collaborated during the ACM Honors last year, performing Davis’s hit “Buy Dirt.”
“He’s such a good guy,” Wilson says. “When I wrote ‘Country Gold,’ and it felt like it could be a collaboration, the first person I thought of was him. He said, ‘Yes,’ and I think his voice adds the perfect touch. It’s one of the more straight-forward country songs, just with valuing small-town life.”
“Milestones,” written with Galyon and Hungate, delves into the trade-offs that come with life as a musician on the road. “I remember Nicole asking me, ‘How are you?’ And I was like, ‘Good,’ but she was like, ‘No, how are you really?’ And I just started crying, and telling her all these things that I’ve been going through, and the pain of missing milestones. You hold it in one hand, the incredible opportunities I’m getting, and then in the other hand is all the milestones you have to miss; it’s just this exchange. But I think anybody can relate to that in a sense. My team’s really good about giving me grace for that, too. I’m a people-pleaser; I don’t like to disappoint. But I think it’s about figuring out what are the most important moments in my life and making sure those stay on the calendar, and then everything else works around it.”
Meanwhile, “Red Flag” serves as an older sister of sorts to the song “Hey Girl” from Wilson’s My Jesus album.
“All the little girls love ‘Hey Girl,’ and we thought, ‘What’s the grownup version of that song?’ After you’ve told them about their identity in Christ and loving themselves, the next thing is a boy that comes into the picture. I’ve never written a song about a boy — because, thankfully, I’ve never had a bad breakup story — but my mom had always told me about red flags: ‘Look for this and don’t look for this.’ This song ended up being like a continuation of ‘Hey Girl,’ to encourage them and tell them what to look for.”
While sonically and thematically, the album stitches together the threads tying country and Christian music, the title track stems from her struggles to meld the two genres.
Wilson had been taking that title into writing rooms for a few years, but says, “No one wanted to write the song. They were like, ‘How do we write a song called “Rebel” when you are this five-feet, little sweet Christian girl who’s not a rebel at all?’… At one point, I had a song go to [Christian] radio and they said it was too country for them to play it, though the message was very faith-based. I remember being frustrated, as any artist would, but it fired me up to want to write this album. A lot of the reason we called it ‘Rebel’ is I decided I’m just going to be who I am. I’m not going to change who I am to please Christian radio and I’m not going to change who I am to please country radio.”
To that end, her upcoming summer dates will include a mix of Christian and country festival performance slots — with Wilson playing the same set of songs, whether playing to a more country-leaning or CCM-leaning crowd. One thing Wilson is looking forward to is appearing at some country festivals where Lainey Wilson is also playing: “So hopefully, we’ll try to perform [“Praying Woman”] together,” she says.
Wilson is also set to lead her second headlining tour in the fall.
Taylor Swift will always have Shania Twain in her corner. In a new interview, the “You’re Still the One” singer opened up about passing the country–pop torch to artists like the 14-time Grammy winner, whom Twain commended for “working her butt off.”
“She is living an exhausting existence, but she’s dedicated and committed to herself, to her art, and her work,” the Canadian singer-songwriter said in a Haute Living cover story, published Wednesday (April 17). “It isn’t even about ambition, though I’m sure that most people would call her ambitious.”
“She’s an extremely hard worker, and I’m sure she’s got giant goals,” Twain added. “But it’s not all about ambition: It’s about passion and committing yourself to your passion.”
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The “Man!…I Feel Like a Woman!” singer’s comments come in stark contrast to what another music icon recently said about Swift. Courtney Love took shots at the “Anti-Hero” artist while speaking to The Standard earlier this week, calling her “not important” and “not interesting as an artist.”
Twain, however, has long been a friend and fan of Swift’s, and vice versa. The pair performed together at the 2019 American Music Awards, and in a 2021 TikTok, the Eras Tour star commended the “That Don’t Impress Me Much” musician for disproving the notion that “country girls can’t go pop” over the course of her career.
On the subject of paving the way for genre-bending artists such as Swift, Twain said, “it wasn’t like I intended on being a trailblazer or anything.”
“I was just trying to be original, my authentic self, and to do it with conviction,” she continued. “I’m an expressive person, and I put that into my music. I was saying it with attitude and with confidence because I meant it. Yes, I see it as a great compliment when someone calls me a trailblazer, but it’s not like I set out to do so. I was just being myself, and I think that’s served me very well.”
The forthcoming new music festival Kickoff Jam in Panama City Beach, Fla., will feature a star-studded lineup, spearheaded by Garth Brooks, Carrie Underwood and group Alabama when it launches Aug. 30, and running through Sept. 1.
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Country group Alabama will headline on Friday, Aug. 30, with a special appearance by Randy Travis. Other artists on that day’s bill also include Jamey Johnson, Tyler Farr, Gavin Adcock, Pam Tillis and Catie Offerman.
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The Saturday, Aug. 31, lineup will be headlined by Underwood. Other performers are NEEDTOBREATHE, Lauren Alaina, Restless Road, Carter Faith and Kayley Green.
The final evening, Sunday, Sept. 1, will feature headliner Brooks, as well as additional performers The Oak Ridge Boys, Randy Houser, Rhett Akins, Mackenzie Carpenter and Allie Colleen.
The festival is presented by the producers of Gulf Coast Jam presented by Jim Beam, with three-day passes ranging from $299 to $1399, with passes available beginning April 24 at 10 a.m. CT at kickoffjampcb.com.
“I’ve been doing this for 40 years, and without question, this is the biggest show we’ve ever put on,” said executive producer Rendy Lovelady in a statement. “We’re excited to celebrate five decades of Country music in Panama City Beach!”
“It’s such a great honor to be a part of bringing the biggest names in Country music right here to our beautiful beaches,” said Kickoff Jam COO Mark Sheldon in a statement. “It’s our vision to not only support the local community, but to show the country how proud we are of our heritage and Country music in Panama City Beach.”
Tunein.com has joined as the official media sponsor for the festival, while Storme Warren, host of TuneIn’s The Big 615, will host the weekend’s festivities.
It’s a good time to be Kylie Morgan.
The EMI Nashville singer-songwriter picked up her first gold single, “If He Wanted to He Would,” on March 14; she’s begun performing in coveted opening slots at arena-level concerts; and she’s 16 months into a rewarding marriage to fellow artist Jay Allen. The cheer, the career advances and her romantic story all come together in “Two Night Stands,” released to country radio via PlayMPE on March 18.
Not that Morgan plotted it out that way. In fact, she hadn’t intended to reveal much about how she met her husband, but the tale fit the concept of a song she dashed off in a bit of a scheduling crunch, and she just let the narrative flow.
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“It definitely was a piece of our story,” she says. “It was a very organic thing that happened.”
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Upping the ante, “Two Night Stands” evolved as the kind of material she was hoping to create: “an anthemic, uptempo, fun love song.”
Though “Two Night Stands” ended up telling Morgan’s story, it started as someone else’s experience. A lifelong friend who’s witnessed Morgan’s rise from budding talent to national artist went out on the road as a weekend guest last fall when Morgan was opening for Old Dominion. During a conversation in the green room at one of the shows, the friend said she’d noticed that when she hooked up with men who’d not had a live-in relationship, they invariably had just one night stand next to the bed. She thought maybe there was a song idea with potential wordplay, about encountering just one night stand while on a one-night stand.
Morgan thought it had potential, and she brought it up as she wrapped a writing retreat last Halloween with Shane McAnally (“We Don’t Fight Anymore,” “half of my hometown”) and Track45 member Ben Johnson (“Bulletproof,” “Give Heaven Some Hell”) at McAnally’s house in Santa Barbara, Calif. Morgan had just a couple hours to write the song, which had morphed into a story about how a one-night stand led to a marriage and two night stands next to the bed. It needed to be playful, and Johnson led them in that direction with a shiny, busy guitar riff.
“It almost sounds like ‘It’s A Great Day to Be Alive’ or one of the ‘90s riffs,” Johnson says. “The song didn’t really end up sounding super-‘90s at all, just the riff itself.”
With that instrumental hook setting a caffeinated tone, they went to work first on the chorus, where the “two night stands” hook balances the front and back of the sing-along section, much as two night stands balance a couple’s bed. They first gave the chorus a busy melody, then affixed a string of lyrics to the notes.
“If you need to say a lot in a few words, [that] is way harder,” Johnson says. “It’s actually easier when you have more syllables because you don’t feel as constrained and can say everything you want to. This one, I don’t remember feeling constrained.”
The melody started in a descending pattern, but took a sharp ascent midway through the chorus. “That’s a Shane melody, for sure,” Morgan says. “He is a genius when it comes to that. Just when you think the chorus couldn’t get any better, he throws in another section that you’re just like, ‘Oh, yes.’”
They were fairly deliberate once they focused on the verses. For starters, they inserted more space between the phrases in a departure from the chorus. “You want contrast for all your sections – at least I always feel like that,” Johnson says. “So if the chorus is very wordy, the verse is going to be very sparse.”
The lyrics were intentional, too. They set up two people meeting at a bar in the opening frame, leading into the celebratory chorus. In verse two, Morgan insisted on explaining the one-night stand, saying “I never do things like this.” And after noting the couple shares the same mailbox and same last name, they characterized the hookup as the “best bad decision I ever made.”
“That’s the essence of the song,” Johnson notes.
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They added a bridge that cemented the couple’s current committed status – more importantly, it provided a musical break before the song returned to one final chorus. Johnson had built much of the demo as they wrote, but with the clock ticking away, Morgan had just a few minutes left before she needed to bolt for the airport. She sounded a little groggy as she laid down a vocal – unintentionally perfect for a song keyed to night stands – then headed home.
In November, she recorded the instrumental tracks with McAnally producing. He stacked multiple stringed instruments playing the signature riff and had drummer Evan Hutchings do several different tracks so they could experiment with a variety of rhythms during mixing. Morgan recreated the groggy morning voice as Johnson produced overdubs, though that wordy chorus presented a challenge.
“There’s no room to breathe, like at all,” she says. “There’s so many words, and so I originally had to do the chorus in two separate parts when we recorded it. When I do it live, I have to really focus when that chorus hits to get a really big breath, because there’s nowhere for me to breathe.”
“One Night Stands” had the kind of energy and upbeat attitude that made it a likely radio single, but Morgan also came to realize it had some unexpected relevance to her home life, too. She bought a couple of wooden night stands that were a little unusual, but perfect for the space in the bedroom she shares with Allen.
“It looks so great,” she says. “Well, guess what!? They’re actually barstools, and they have a curve to them. We love them so much, we still use them, so now I just have to make sure when I set a water on it, I have to put it in exactly in the middle of the nightstand.”
Barstools becoming nightstands is symbolic for her relationship with Allen, which started over drinks and led to two nightstands. She hopes the parallels are a good omen for the future of “Two Night Stands.” Especially since the song fits the sound she was aiming for this time around.
“I wanted something a little easier when it came to the second stab at radio,” she says, “with a little more sway, and you don’t have to overthink anything. You know exactly what the song is about.”
Indeed. It’s about Kylie Morgan.
Bunnie XO has no time for haters. The Dumb Blonde podcast host took to TikTok to shut down trolls who have negative things to say about her and her husband Jelly Roll. “How we walk thru life together knowing we make ppl smile & others sooo mad,” she wrote over a video of the duo […]
The Naomi Judd estate is offering fans a deeper look at the late singer-songwriter’s life and career through a virtual exhibit that will launch on May 1 to mark the second anniversary of The Judds‘ induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame. Judd died in April 2022 at age 76.
The multi-faceted exhibit, launched by the Naomi Judd estate in collaboration with Definitive Authentic and Mercy Community Healthcare, will feature rare and never-before-seen artifacts. The inaugural collection, titled “Artist,” is the first of five archival collections to be rolled out this year, with each focusing on different areas of Judd’s life and work. “Artist” will focus on her work with daughter Wynonna Judd as part of the mother-daughter duo The Judds. In the six years that elapsed between 1984 and 1989, The Judds earned 14 No. 1 Hot Country Songs hits, including “Young Love,” “Why Not Me” and “Turn It Loose.” They also earned five Grammy wins for songs including “Mama He’s Crazy,” “Why Not Me” and “Love Can Build a Bridge.”
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The exhibit will include behind-the-scenes photos, awards, a personal stage map with handwritten notes, a script from the “Grandpa (Tell Me ‘Bout the Good Old Days)” music video and more. A portion of the proceeds from the exhibit will benefit The Naomi Judd Mental Health Clinic: A Bridge to Hope, a new mental health wing at Mercy Community Healthcare in Franklin, Tenn. The facility will feature a larger mental health area, including counseling/psychiatric rooms, a parent-child interactive therapy room, a prayer area, a waiting room and more.
Judd’s husband, Larry Strickland, said in a statement, “It is such a blessing for me to honor my wife’s life by giving the fans a look into the detailed archives that Naomi kept all of these years. I’d often walk through the barn and wonder why she insisted on keeping all of these objects that at the time seemed to be collecting dust; however, I now see that these were more than just things. These were her memories… our memories. These releases are our family’s gift to you, her public, for being there for all of us for the past 40 years. I hope they bring you a sense of Peace & Hope in regards to her memory and the Legacy that is Naomi Judd.”
Kodi Chandler, director of Hill Entertainment Group and archivist for the Naomi Judd estate, said in a statement, “Naomi kept meticulous records of photographs and artifacts. Through these we are able to explore how she viewed herself. It is our honor to help the family curate these collections for release. This first collection, simply titled ‘Artist’ is how she documented her time as she was best known, as one half of The Judds. The subsequent collections introduce and revisit other facets of Naomi that we can’t wait to share with those who meant the most to her, the fans.”
Judd’s legacy as an artist and songwriter, and her success as part of The Judds, was previously feted via the album A Tribute to the Judds, which featured artists including Wynonna Judd, Reba McEntire, Trisha Yearwood, Cody Johnson, Lainey Wilson and Ashley McBryde performing Judds classics. The album supported the National Alliance of Mental Illness (NAMI) Tennessee.
Also forthcoming is the first vinyl release in the United States of The Judds’ final studio album, 1990’s Love Can Build a Bridge, which will also include lyric sheets and never-before-seen photos from Naomi Judd’s personal scrapbooks.