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Morgan Wallen fans are getting an early look at his setlist ahead of the opening night of his upcoming I’m the Problem Tour on June 20 at NRG Stadium in Houston, thanks to Apple Music Country.
The 27-song playlist features not only many of Wallen’s earlier hits, such as “Whiskey Glasses,” “More Than My Hometown,” “One Thing at a Time,” and “Ain’t That Some,” but also many songs from the tour’s namesake album, last month’s I’m the Problem.
Among the new songs on his tour setlist are “I Got Better,” “Love Somebody,” “Kiss Her in Front of You,” “I’m a Little Crazy,” “What I Want,” “Superman” and “20 Cigarettes.”
To Apple Music Country, Wallen said, “There’s a bunch of songs on there that I’m excited to play,” noting that he’s excited to sing “I’m a Little Crazy” (“I love singing that song,” he says) and “I’m The Problem” (“I already see how well it’s doing,” he says).
He also said it’s “the energy” that marks a major difference between hearing a song and seeing the artist perform it live in front of thousands of fans.
“I spend months at this point getting ready to get on tour, just getting in shape,” he says. “I don’t have to be in any kind of crazy shape to record in the studio. With how big my stage is, how much I run around, and how much effort that me and the guys put into it, I don’t think you would know that by just listening to the record.”
Wallen’s I’m the Problem Tour comes just over a month after the release of his I’m the Problem album and the launch of his Sand in My Boots Festival. The trek will conclude with two shows on Sept. 12-13 in Edmonton, Alberta. Artists set to open various shows on the tour are Brooks & Dunn, Miranda Lambert, Thomas Rhett, Koe Wetzel, Gavin Adcock, Corey Kent, Ella Langley and Anne Wilson.
Here’s every song listed on Apple Music Country as part of the setlist for Wallen’s upcoming tour.
“Broadway Girls” (Lil Durk feat. Morgan Wallen)
Four-time Billboard Country Airplay chart-topping artist Lauren Alaina and her husband Cam Arnold have welcomed their first child together, daughter Beni Doll Arnold, born Wednesday, June 11 in Nashville. Beni Doll weighed 7 pounds and 13 ounces, and was 19 inches long. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and […]
Riley Green banks his third chart-topper on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart as “Worst Way” (Nashville Harbor) rises 3-1 on the list dated June 21. It increased by 13% to 28.4 million audience impressions in the June 6-12 tracking week, according to Luminate. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and […]
As he releases his 11th studio album Broken Branches, out today (June 13), Dierks Bentley knows more than a bit about constructing an album — and a career — that’s going to endure. After two decades spent notching 18 chart-topping Country Airplay hits and establishing himself as seasoned headliner, the artist, who spent nights early in his career soaking in bluegrass music at Nashville’s Station Inn and who collaborated with the bluegrass stalwarts Del McCoury Band on his debut 2003 album, says he’s tried to approach his career like a bluegrass band does a performance.
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“It’s very collaborative, and all the pieces are important. You can’t make bluegrass music without all those unique instruments and unique voices,” Bentley tells Billboard. “I’ve tried to work with great people in every aspect of my career. It’s mixing my love of bluegrass instrumentation with my love of playing big rooms, and that requires big electric guitars and drums and bass. The original idea was to mix the bluegrass with the kickass, and I’m still trying to do that.”
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On Broken Branches, he collaborated with a tight-knit group of fellow artists, producers and writers, including Ross Copperman and Jon Randall, and feted musicians including Jedd Hughes, Rob McNelly, Bryan Sutton and Charlie Worsham (who also plays in Bentley’s road band).
“They know my music and are able to take it places that maybe I hadn’t even thought about,” Bentley says. “They know it from underneath the car — I might be driving the car, but they know all the nuts and bolts of it, so it’s great working with those musicians.”
Bentley co-wrote four of the album’s 11 songs, infusing witty lyrics into “She Hates Me,” or examining the toils and rewards of working toward a goal on “Something Worth Fixing.” But most of the project finds him locked in on highlighting the songs of other writers.
“There’s people around me that are like, ‘Hey, you need to have some more songs on there that you wrote.’ I just want great songs,” he says. “I love being a big fan and proponent of the Nashville songwriting community. Nobody writes songs like Nashville. I have such respect for it, and I feel lucky [and] grateful to have some temporary ownership of some of these great songs on this record.”
Fifteen years ago, Bentley collaborated with Miranda Lambert and Jamey Johnson on “Bad Angel” from his 2010 Up on the Ridge bluegrass album. On Broken Branches, Bentley and Lambert reunite for the banjo-inflected “Never You.”
“She’s someone I’ve known forever and whose voice I love,” he says. “She’s exactly who she is offstage as she is onstage, and she is awesome. I sent the song to her, and she was in Scottsdale [Arizona]. She went into a studio we found out there and put down the vocal. She’s one of the true trailblazers in country music.”
When Bentley heard the song “Broken Branches,” written by Zach Abend, Beau Bailey and “Oil Money” hitmaker Graham Barham, he says it “gave us a story” to construct the album around.” He invited Riley Green and Country Music Hall of Fame member John Anderson to sing with him, linking together three generations of country hitmakers.
Green was Bentley’s first call. “Right away he was in on it and a couple of days later we were in the studio. While he’s singing, I was thinking, ‘How can I make this even more special?’” he recalls. “John Anderson came to mind, because the link between ‘Broken Branches’ and [Anderson’s 1983 hit] ‘Black Sheep,’ just subconsciously hit me. He came in the studio by himself like a week later. What a legend. He came off the road—he drives himself in his RV to all his gigs, which is so classic. His RV had broken down in Valdosta, Georgia and he spent three days in a motel—hard M—waiting to get it fixed. He’s the real deal and always has been.”
The song wraps with a bit of good-natured, ad-libbed ribbing as Bentley, Green and Anderson ended up recording the ending together. “You hear us talking [like on] Alan Jackson and Jimmy Buffett’s ‘It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere,’ I like that stuff,” Bentley says. “It’s funny and it sticks out in my mind when I listen to those records. This song, it was all done together. It wasn’t no AI, no overdubbing or editing, just us around one mic kind of giving each other crap.”
The song naturally felt like the title track that tied the project together. “When I’m looking for songs, I’m trying to find those songs that are like little broken branches off the family tree,” Bentley explains. “Not the big popular ones, not the ones that sound like a big hit on radio. Those are great, but I’m trying to find songs that are a little bit different.”
He adds, “That really started with the [2014] Riser record and the song ‘Riser.’ I heard ‘Broken Branches’ and thought it’s a great song because I’m a broken branch. Most of my friends are broken branches. All the people I know that came to Nashville to do something in music are doing something that their family probably didn’t do. And they’re doing it; they love country music.”
Throughout his career, Bentley has prioritized lifting up the next generation of artists, sifting through sounds and championing those artists whose music catches his ear. Burgeoning artist Stephen Wilson Jr. co-wrote two songs on the album, “Cold Beer Can” and “Something Worth Fixing.” Bentley has also shared the stage with recent breakout artists like Red Clay Strays and Zach Top, the latter of whom is opening for Bentley on his the Broken Branches tour.
“I love the spot I’m in in country music. I’ve been around a lot of the older cats, and I love those guys—but I also love watching what the younger artists are doing,” he says. “I love what’s happening in country music right now and I love seeing those guys have that success. I first saw Red Clay Strays play at our Seven Peaks Festival a while back. I probably personally told like 500 people about those guys. Same with Zach. I’ve known about him since his bluegrass days, just [through] having a bunch of bluegrass guys in my band. Watching him come over to country and do what he’s done, it’s been fun to watch.”
The album ends with the reflective “Don’t Cry For Me,” which Bentley wrote with Jim Beavers. The song finds him taking stock of his life and career thus far and assuring that he’s happy with how it’s all turned out.
“It’s very personal for me just knowing that one day it all does come to an end, whether it’s your music career or your life,” he says. “I’ve been really blessed in my time here in Nashville. It’s just been a great career and I’ve still got a lot left, hopefully, to do.”
One thing not on that list? Making movies.
Though many of Bentley’s music videos, including the clip for “She Hates Me,” make use of his natural comedic talents, that’s as far as he’s likely to go as an actor. “I love making music videos, but I don’t have any desire to do anything beyond that,” he explains. “I get sent some stuff, and sometimes people think, ‘Hey, everyone just wants to be in a movie,’ and I just don’t. I love film and movies and shows, but I think I’m pretty good in my lane.”
But it’s likely fans could see him once again revisiting his bluegrass roots: “I think about that all the time when I’m listening to [SiriusXM channel] Bluegrass Junction. It’d be fun to make another record like that.”
Elizabeth Nichols could have been an author, an accountant or a lawyer.
Instead, she chose artist. And now she has a breakthrough song with the quirky kiss-off “I Got a New One.” The attitude-driven song about kicking toxic, possessive lovers to the curb got a boost recently when Kelly Clarkson gave it the “Kellyoke treatment” on an episode of her popular talk show The Kelly Clarkson Show.
Nichols independently released “I Got a New One” in December. Soon after, The Kelly Clarkson Show’s team reached out, asking for permission to use the song.
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“I signed everything, did the legal stuff and then I didn’t hear anything,” Nichols recalls to Billboard. “I thought maybe it was going to play in the credits or something. But then I woke up and Kelly was singing it on TV. I freaked out, alone in my house. I ordered Dickey’s Barbeque to celebrate — nothing like barbeque to celebrate.”
After her rendition, Clarkson expressed her happiness at being able to shout out a “fellow Texan” and heaped praise on Nichols’ song (“I love it so much. It’s so funny”). “I heard what she said on TV and it was so kind. It was a very huge honor,” Nichols adds.
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Nichols is No. 15 on Billboard’s Emerging Artists chart, and has already opened shows for Wyatt Flores. Her seven-song debut EP Tough Love comes out on June 20 on Pulse Records.
“I’m just counting down the days until [Tough Love] releases,” she says. “It comes out the day before my birthday, and I’m celebrating with a crawfish boil. That was my one request.”
The set, produced in part by Nichols, Travis Heidleman, Steve Rusch and Jackson Foote, includes the flirtatiious, quirky “Mama,” as well as another sterling track, “Somebody Cooked Here” — which Nichols wrote with Mags Duval, co-writer of Alex Warren’s current two-week Billboard Hot 100 chart-leader “Ordinary.”
Texas native Nichols, who grew up in Louisville, Kentucky, doesn’t see songwriting as all that different from her pursuits as an author. “I kind of look at songs as mini-books or stories,” she says. “There needs to be a cliffhanger or a plot twist.”
Nichols knows something about a plot twist; her own career journey is filled with them. A pastor’s daughter, Nichols grew up singing in church and started writing songs at age nine. But she put songwriting aside to focus on school and long-form writing, studying writing at Oral Roberts University in Oklahoma. She then earned her master’s degree in accounting in Melbourne, Australia. But even then, she was being pulled toward music. She began writing songs again, sometimes crafting tunes about various classmates, and putting out snippets of those songs under an alias account on TikTok.
Her homespun songs began connecting with not only fans, but with other artists. Her first-ever co-writing session, prior to moving to Nashville, was with “Indigo” hitmaker Sam Barber. She landed a co-write on his 2024 album Restless Mind.
“I got a DM from Sam’s manager, and they were like, ‘He likes your music. Do you do co-writes?’” Nichols recalls. “I had to Google what a co-write was — I had no clue. But I flew to Montana and met Sam and we wrote for a few days. Sam’s so talented and amazing. The first song we wrote was ‘Morning Time,’ which ended up on his album. Right after that, I went and got a guitar and was like, ‘This is my career now.’”
She moved to Nashville in August 2024 and enrolled in law school at Belmont University, but kept writing songs and setting up co-writing sessions. The first week she arrived in Nashville, a writing session with writer-producer Jackson Foote brought about “I Got a New One.”
“I’m kind of ornery,” she says with a grin, as she talks of co-writing the defiant song. “I had the story arc thought out. I was like, ‘Now, let’s just make the music and flesh it out.’”
By January, Nichols dropped out of law school to focus fully on music. In early June she experienced her first CMA Fest in Nashville. When her first official CMA Fest debut was rained out early on during the four-day festival, Nichols orchestrated her own plot twist, performing on the street in downtown Nashville for fans that same day.
“I got to meet everyone, shake their hands, take pictures with them. It was cool,” she recalls. “I just started playing shows a month ago, but I was recognizing people from my comments section, like, ‘Oh, you comment on my videos!’ My screen time is scary. I’m a little chronic.”
In addition to releasing her EP, she’ll be opening shows for Little Big Town and Russell Dickerson throughout the summer. Billboard caught up with Nichols, Billboard’s Country Rookie of the Month for June, at CMA Fest to discuss “I Got A New One,” the Kelly Clarkson performance, her EP and more. See our conversation below.
This EP also includes “Somebody Cooked Here,” a song you wrote with Mags, about a woman who visits her lover and realizes he was previously in a pretty serious relationship. What do you remember about writing that?
We wrote that the first month I came to town, it was the first time we met. It took us about 20 minutes to write the whole song. It was immediately like sparks flying. Songwriting is like a first date. Sometimes it takes you time to click with someone and sometimes you go in there and it’s instant. I had the idea for “Somebody Cooked Here,” and we were like, “Let’s make it literal.” That’s one of my favorites, and we’ve written so many songs that are soon to come out.
You signed with Pulse Records in March. How did you connect with them?
I’m such a fan of everybody on my team, and they make my job so easy. When “I Got a New One” first came out, I released it independently and then talked to so many people. It was the hardest decision. It was like giving me 20 great options and asking what cut of steak I want — filet mignon, rib eye? Pulse and I just connected. I saw the projects they were working on and they were just killing it.
You just wrapped a tour opening for Wyatt Flores. What was that like?
When I had just 300 followers on TikTok, he was one of the first people who followed me; he was the first person of anyone in the music industry. Wyatt Flores is the best A&R. He was so [supportive] early on and so, it’s a full-circle moment for me to be opening for him. And he’s such a sweetheart and so kind.
What are your favorite cover songs to work into your set?
I love Toby Keith. “How Do You Like Me Now?!” is such a good, fun kiss-off song. We throw a few ones like that in there. And his music is funny — I like funny singers.
What kind of music did you grow up listening to?
I grew up in church, so I listened to a lot of CeCe Winans, Marvin Sapp.
Is a gospel project in your future?
I would love to one day, because the sky’s the limit. You never know. My dad would be happy about that.
What did he think when you told him you were going to pursue music?
I was in law school here in Nashville, and I dropped out in January. I called my dad and told him, and he was like, ‘Oh, god.’ But he’s the most supportive. He’s been at every show. He has this calendar printed out with every date of every show I have for the next year and he’s already booked flights for every single one. He’s happy. He just wanted a free lawyer. But he’s fine. He gets free concerts.
What is a song you wish you had written?
Any Kacey Musgraves song. “Tin Man” from Miranda Lambert. It makes me angry when I listen to it, sometimes because I’m like, “I wish I could have written this.” It’s so beautiful.
Who would you love to collaborate with?
I’m a big Zach Top fan. Who isn’t? He’s killing it, and he does the cool, old-school thing.
What podcast or book are you into right now?
I’m reading The Hunger Games, which has been fun. I finished the first book before CMA Fest. I have the rest of the books and I made my roommate hide them so I wouldn’t read them during the Fest. So I’m excited for Monday after the festival because I can read [the series’ second book] Catching Fire.
Oliver Anthony had a lot to get off his chest on his new song, “Scornful Woman,” which finds the singer-songwriter venting about his divorce.
If the lyrics of the June-released song are to be taken as autobiographical, Anthony implies that his wife is shaking him down for money amid legal proceedings following the dissolution of their marriage. The Virginia resident has kept his personal life out of the public eye, but it is known that he had a wife and kids when he first blew up in 2023 with “Rich Men North of Richmond.”
“The court says 50/50, but the math don’t seem right with a scornful woman,” Anthony belts on the fiddle-heavy track. “She can have all the money, and they can keep all the fame/ I’d go back to being broke as a joke if I could just get a break from the pain.”
The scorching track arguably speaks for itself, but on a recent episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, the podcaster — who had Anthony as a guest on his show in 2024 — shared his version of the story behind “Scornful Woman.” “I’ll tell you guys what happened,” Rogan said on the show. “Oliver Anthony has no money. He’s poor, he’s selling farm equipment. He puts this song on YouTube, he’s a f–king superstar. He doesn’t know what to do, he freaks out. He asks me for advice.”
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The comedian went on to explain how he urged Anthony not to “sign anything with anybody.”
“I go, ‘You’re independent, you’re already there,’” Rogan continued. “‘You already made it.’ Cut to: He starts making millions of dollars, doing arenas. The wife divorces him, she wants everything. She wants more than half. She wants all the money he’s going to be making in the future, ’cause she was with him when he was broke. He’s just tortured, wants to die. And he writes this song.”
Rogan’s remarks came just before the release of “Scornful Woman,” which Anthony sent to him before it dropped. In a video shared to the musician’s Instagram, the podcaster also praises the track ahead of its release on a different episode of JRE, saying, “That’s what I’m talking about … in the middle of all this honey honey sugar s–t, there’s still Oliver Anthony.”
It’s been nearly two years since Anthony went from unknown to Billboard Hot 100-topping artist in a matter of days. After a video of him performing his independently released single “Rich Men North of Richmond” went mega viral, the ballad debuted at No. 1 on the singles chart, making him the first artist to ever do so without having appeared on it previously.
Listen to “Scornful Woman” below.
On June 12, 2010, Miranda Lambert’s “The House That Built Me” started a four-week reign on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart, becoming her first of five career No. 1s to date.
The ballad was co-authored by Tom Douglas and Allen Shamblin and co-produced by Frank Liddell and Mike Wrucke. It was released from Lambert’s LP Revolution, which debuted at No. 1 on Top Country Albums, marking her third of seven straight career-opening, and total, No. 1s.
The nostalgic composition finds Lambert looking back on her childhood home and its legacy. Among other reflections in it, she sings, “Up those stairs in that little back bedroom is where I did my homework and I learned to play guitar.”
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The song earned Lambert the Grammy Award for best female country vocal performance in 2011.
Revolution also yielded Lambert’s second Hot Country Songs leader, “Heart Like Mine,” for a week in May 2011, and the No. 2-peaking lead single “White Liar.” She has subsequently led with “Over You” (one week, May 2012); “We Were Us,” with Keith Urban (three weeks, November-December 2013); and “Somethin’ Bad,” with Carrie Underwood (one, July 2014).
Lambert was born in Longview, TX, on Nov. 10, 1983, and came to prominence after finishing third on the USA Network’s talent show Nashville Star in 2003. Shortly after, she inked her first major-label deal, with Epic Records.
On Country Airplay, Lamber has banked seven chart-toppers, mostly “Drunk (And I Don’t Wanna Go Home),” with Elle King, in April 2022. It became her 18th and most recent top 10 on the multimetric Hot Country Songs chart.
Lambert, who won the Country Music Association’s female vocalist of the year trophy seven times between 2010 and 2017, signed to Big Loud in partnership with Republic Records in April 2024. She released her latest album, Postcards From Texas, last September. It opened at its No. 8 high on Top Country Albums, becoming her 10th top 10.
Country music is getting a new Grammy category: best traditional country album. It is the only new music category being added for the 68th annual Grammy Awards in 2026.
To reflect the change, the existing best country album category has been renamed best contemporary country album. The new category will join the 13 other categories in Field 5, four of which are specifically dedicated to country, while the others cover American roots, Americana, bluegrass, blues, folk and regional roots music.
New categories are considered from proposals submitted to the Recording Academy’s Awards & Nominations committee, which are then voted on by the Academy’s board of trustees. “The community of people that are making country music in all different subgenres came to us with a proposal and said we would like to have more variety in how our music is honored,” Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason jr. tells Billboard. “They said, we think we need more space for our music to be celebrated and honored.” Mason said the proposal had been submitted a number of times previously before passing this year.
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The move helps bring the country categories more in line with other genres which separate contemporary and traditional albums or performances, including R&B, pop and blues.
“It makes country parallel with what’s happening in other genres,” Mason says, “But it is also creating space for where this genre is going.”
The definition for the new category reads, in part, “This category recognizes excellence in albums of traditional country music, both vocal and instrumental. Traditional country includes country recordings that adhere to the more traditional sound structures of the country genre, including rhythm and singing style, lyrical content, as well as traditional country instrumentation such as acoustic guitar, steel guitar, fiddle, banjo, mandolin, piano, electric guitar, and live drums. It also includes sub-genres such as Western, Western Swing, and Outlaw country.”
The hope is that the new category benefits artists who fall outside of mainstream, commercial country music, such as Charley Crockett, Sierra Ferrell, Colter Wall and Noeline Hoffman, who have previously been nominated into the Americana and American roots categories. (Both Crockett and Ferrell were nominated for best Americana album for the 2025 Grammy Awards, with Ferrell’s Trail of Flowers taking home the Grammy.)
“The issues have been, traditionally, a lot of people that weren’t sure whether [an album] was Americana or roots or folk or country were just jamming everything into one category,” Mason says. “There are obviously nuances between the different genres. Those experts in those genres understand those nuances, and I’m quite certain now you’re going to see the right people going into Americana versus folk versus traditional country. [The change] gives us an opportunity to put things in more specific categories.”
As all subgenres of country grow in popularity, Mason says the addition of a new category gives more chances to share the wealth. “People from that community are making more music, it’s more varied, there’s different styles of writing and performing,” he says. “I’m hopeful that that community understands that the academy is doing what it always does, which is stay in tune with what’s happening in their genre.”
After previously clashing with fellow Tulsa, Oklahoma-native musician John Moreland, Zach Bryan has released a new version of his song “Memphis; The Blues,” replacing Moreland’s feature with J.R. Carroll.
The Moreland version of “Memphis; The Blues” had been included on Bryan’s 2024 album The Great American Bar Scene. Carroll has been a keyboard player in Bryan’s band and also released his first full-length album, Dark Cloud, in 2024.
“‘Memphis; The Blues’ is back out with @jrvcarroll,” Bryan wrote on Instagram. “Promise is a promise. Honored to have done this with one of my best friends in the world. Catch us belting this in Europe and across the states all summer. Thank you brother and we love u guys.”
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The new version of the song comes after Moreland voiced his disapproval when it was revealed that Bryan had reportedly sold his publishing rights to Merritt Group and reupped his label deal with Warner. The Hollywood Reporter noted that the deals earned Bryan approximately $350 million.
“$350 M is a lot to pay for the f—in’ off-brand version of me,” Moreland wrote May 7 on Instagram, adding, “Y’all have a great day.”
Bryan responded by sharing a screenshot of Moreland’s comments and stating, “Just saw this from an artist I’ve always respected and supported. Not trying to be dramatic but refuse to have anyone with a problem with me on my records. Replacing ‘Memphis the Blues.’ If it goes down for a bit just know that this is the reason! No hard feelings! Confused as sh–, Tulsans look out for Tulsans.”
Bryan then removed the Moreland collaboration from streaming platforms.
Moreland responded by saying he didn’t regret his statement or the fallout. “As far as I’m concerned, getting kicked off a Zach Bryan album is way f—ing cooler than being on a Zach Bryan album. At this point, I’ve hung out with him five, six times. I don’t like this mother—-er. Like, am I supposed to be upset?”
Moreland added, “If I was asked to be on the album today, I wouldn’t do it. I don’t want to be on an album with a dude who is a di–head to my wife and my friends right in front of me every time I see him. I don’t want to be on an album with a dude who I’ve heard tell borderline racist jokes more than once. I don’t want to be on an album with a dude who brings a 19-year-old girl in the bar, and then when they tell him she can’t be in there, looks at me like I’m supposed to have his fucking back. I don’t like that person.”
After the new version of the song released on June 11, Carroll wrote on Instagram Stories, “It is out. I hope y’all like it. I’m going into hiding in a couple of hours so I don’t read comments that hurt my feelings hope you guys have a good day.”
Listen to the new version with Carroll below:
Billboard celebrated the genre’s top executives, impact makers and rising artists on Wednesday, (June 4) during the annual Billboard Country Power Players Awards, which were held at venue Category 10 in downtown Nashville. Reyna Roberts hosted the Country Power Players party, which launched with a performance by Latin artist Carín León. Brooks & Dunn’s Ronnie […]
