genre country
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Lainey Wilson is set to make her feature film debut, Variety reports. The country star is set to appear in the upcoming film adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s book Reminders of Him, with the movie set to release on Feb. 13, 2026. The Universal film, directed by Vanessa Caswill, will also reportedly include actors Nicholas Duvernay, […]
Megan Moroney and Kenny Chesney were tourmates last year on Chesney’s Sun Goes Down Tour, and now the two country artists are set to release a collaboration, “You Had to Be There,” on May 9.
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Moroney revealed the title and an audio clip of the upcoming collaboration on her social media accounts, and included what seemed to be more of the song’s lyrics, captioning the photos, “7 years later got a different point of view.” She also shared a carousel of photos, including one shot of her ticket purchase from a Chesney show at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta that she attended in 2018, followed by photos of Moroney performing on Chesney’s tour last year.
The “Out Last Night” singer commented on Moroney’s Instagram post, writing, “As far as I know, this is the first song anyone has written for me. Thank you, Megan. I love ya,” and adding blue heart and palm tree emojis.
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During Chesney’s Sun Goes Down Tour, the two previously collaborated on a version of Moroney’s “Am I Okay?” and outside of tour life, the two singers seem to have forged a tight-knit friendship, with Moroney even being the one to introduce Chesney to the realm of TikTok.
Later this year, Chesney will be inducted as one of the newest members of the Country Music Hall of Fame, alongside music executive Tony Brown, and the late June Carter Cash. Chesney has long been a champion of uplifting female artists, previously welcoming Kelsea Ballerini to open shows on his I Go Back Tour in 2023; the two Knoxville-area natives also recorded the song “Half of My Hometown,” which won musical event of the year and video of the year at the Country Music Association Awards.
Meanwhile, Moroney is nominated for female artist of the year and for album of the year (for Am I Okay?) at the upcoming Academy of Country Music Awards. She was also honored during Billboard‘s annual Women in Music event earlier this year.
See Moroney’s announcement below:
The last time Morgan Wallen and Post Malone joined forces on record, it was for “I Had Some Help” — which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, spent six weeks atop the chart, and was ultimately named Billboard‘s Song of the Summer for 2024. So when news came that the two were reuniting for a new single, expectations were understandably high.
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That new single, “I Ain’t Comin’ Back,” dropped two Fridays ago (Apr. 18) — just before Easter weekend, which made for good timing with the song’s “There’s a lot of reasons I ain’t Jesus, but the main one is that I ain’t comin’ back” hook. This week, the song debuts at No. 8 on the Hot 100: a strong entrance, but somewhat below the bar set by duo’s previous collaboration.
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How should Morgan Wallen and Post Malone feel about their new song’s initial performance? And will it still grow into a “Help”-sized smash? Billboard staffers discuss these questions and more below.
1. Morgan Wallen and Post Malone’s “I Ain’t Comin’ Back” debuts at No. 8 on the Hot 100 this week. Is that spot lower, higher, or about where you would have expected it to debut?
Katie Atkinson: I think that’s exactly where I would have expected. While their last team-up “I Had Some Help” debuted atop the chart, it also had a megawatt live debut at 2024 Stagecoach setting it up for success and was a lot more upbeat. This new one is still catchy but has a sleepier tempo. I think a top 10 debut for a midtempo country jam chock-full of Christian imagery is pretty impressive – especially given it’s the fifth song preceding Wallen’s next album.
Kyle Denis: Maybe a little bit lower. “I Had Some Help” was such a massive No. 1 debut that I expected at least a top five entry for the new duet. Nonetheless, “Comin’ Back” isn’t as immediately catchy as “Help,” it doesn’t have the glow of being the lead single from Post Malone’s big country pivot and Morgan already has so many other songs circulating – including one directly above “Comin’” (“I’m the Problem,” No. 7).
Jason Lipshutz: About where I expected. “I Had Some Help” is the obvious analog, and while last year’s smash debuted at No. 1, that song possessed the glow of being Morgan Wallen and Post Malone’s first collaboration, and arrived as Wallen’s first single following his 2023 album One Thing at a Time. “I Ain’t Coming Back” has been preceded by a steady stream of music from both Wallen and Post, which likely blunted some of the immediate excitement around its release — but still, these are two brand-name chart titans, so a top 10 debut seemed all but guaranteed.
Jessica Nicholson: It debuts around where I thought it would. “I Had Some Help” was aided by the buzz of curiosity surrounding not only Post Malone releasing a straight-ahead country album, but also regarding just what a collab between a genre-fluid artist like Post Malone and one of country music’s top-echelon artists would sound like. This time around, fans are more familiar with a Posty-Wallen collab. On the Hot 100, the song is also battling against releases from Kendrick Lamar with SZA, Alex Warren’s hit “Ordinary” and even Wallen’s own title track to his upcoming album.
Andrew Unterberger: Definitely lower. It’s not surprising that it didn’t quite match “I Had Some Help,” but only because that song was an absolute monster right out of the gate, zooming past one of the most packed periods of pop music in recent memory and reigning for six weeks. But this song couldn’t even lap Morgan Wallen’s own “I’m the Problem,” which is hardly the most explosive Wallen hit in recent memory. With that history and the two artists’ combined star power — not to mention its slick sound, big chorus and the built-in Easter tie-in — it’s a slightly underwhelming bow for the duo, for sure.
2. “I Had Some Help,” the previous teamup of Wallen and Post, ended up spending six weeks at No. 1 and topping Billboard’s Songs of the Summer chart. Do you think this song has a chance of growing into a hit near that size, or will it be diminishing returns on the sequel?
Katie Atkinson: Diminishing returns, only because this one just doesn’t have the Song of the Summer potential of “Help.” This is a reliably great Morgan Wallen song, but it’s not the backyard-BBQ-soundtracking party-starter of last summer’s smash-hit duet. If I’m going to listen to some melancholy Morgan, right now I’ve got “Just in Case” on repeat instead.
Kyle Denis: I’m inclined to say the sequel won’t be as big as “Help,” for all the reasons I listed in my previous answer. It really helped that “Help” got so much room to be the primary song for consumers to focus on from both artists. With six songs already circulating from a 37-track album that’s due in a few weeks, there might just be a little bit too much Wallen in the air.
Jason Lipshutz: I think everybody involved would be totally fine with slightly diminished returns for one of the biggest hits of last year. “I Had Some Help” caught lightning in a bottle, as an immediate and immensely enjoyable sing-along that crystallized Posty’s newfound foray into country music. “I Ain’t Comin’ Back” follows a similar formula but with a slightly less catchy hook, and it’s been delivered a few months after we’ve received a full Post Malone country album and at a time where we’ve gotten a new Wallen single every few weeks. The circumstances of “I Ain’t Comin’ Back” will blunt its commercial impact to some degree, but as a sequel to a singular hit, it’s pretty clearly a success already.
Jessica Nicholson: “I Had Some Help” had an instantly catchy groove, and the kind of post-breakup, pushback defiance fans love to hear in a breakup song. “I Ain’t Comin’ Back” shares much of that defiance, but in a slightly quieter, less-summertime-vibe way. It will be difficult to surpass the chart domination of “I Had Some Help,” especially given that “I Ain’t Comin’ Back” didn’t debut at No. 1 as its predecessor did, but fans have proven they are clamoring for any new music from Wallen, and that they loved Post’s country foray. Plus, with both Post Malone and Morgan Wallen being on the road this summer, that will keep the fans hearing this song through the summer months (assuming it makes it into their respective setlists), so it is possible that the song could gain greater strength.
Andrew Unterberger: I wouldn’t be surprised if it grows a little from here — radio’s gonna sink its teeth all the way into this thing, and the warm-weather months will undoubtedly be kind to it — but it seems pretty unlikely that it’ll grow into “I Had Some More Help.” (Particularly with all the competition it has from other recent Wallen releases, an already-crowded field which is about to quintuple in size with the release of the full I’m the Problem.) And that’s fine. Most sequels don’t quite live up their originals.
3. Wallen has released a steady stream of new songs in the run-up to his upcoming I’m the Problem album. Do you think this strategy is proving effective for promoting the new set, or is the volume getting to be too much?
Katie Atkinson: Considering it’s his record-extending fifth top 10 on the Hot 100 preceding the new album, I’d say he’s on to something. Not to mention, there are 37 songs on the standard release of I’m the Problem, so it’s not like he’s giving the whole album away ahead of time. Releasing seven total advance tracks out of 37 is like putting out two or three singles from a 13-track album, percentage-wise.
Kyle Denis: Part of me feels like it’s getting to be too much – and I think that’s evidenced by “Comin’” debuting lower than all five I’m the Problem singles that preceded it, despite being the only one to feature another artist. He could do with letting the singles breathe for a bit, especially with so much more music coming in such a short span of time.
Jason Lipshutz: It depends on what the goal is, right? If Wallen is aiming for another long-lasting No. 1 smash along the lines of “Last Night” or “I Had Some Help,” then this deluge of new singles has not been as effective as releasing one focus track and placing the country superstar’s entire weight behind it. Yet if the mission is to make Wallen even more ubiquitous — constantly near the top of New Music Friday, always with multiple songs lingering around the top of the Hot 100, with plenty of headlines and new fodder for country radio — then this rollout has largely been a win for him. And considering that his new 37-song album arrives in a few weeks, this current moment might just be the tip of the iceberg.
Jessica Nicholson: Given today’s more-is-more streaming environment, it feels like an effective strategy. Morgan’s album will encompass 37 songs, so releasing seven of those songs (so far) amounts to approximately 19% of those songs being released ahead of time, so there will still be plenty of new music to dig into the moment the full album releases.
Andrew Unterberger: It’s a good short-term strategy that I do worry will have deleterious long-term effects. Undoubtedly this will all lead to a mighty first-week bow for I’m the Problem, and will confirm Wallen as the most dominant, ubiquitous country star of his generation — but it does feel like, after five years of near-continuous rising, the excitement with him as an artist and hitmaker is beginning to level off. But even in a worst-case scenario for him, it’ll be a while before it starts to really recede, and he’ll probably break a bunch more charts records in the meantime.
4. Post Malone has revealed that a second country album is in the works. Are you optimistic that the album will be able to repeat the success of F-1 Trillion, or would he have been better off leaving his country detour as a one-and-done?
Katie Atkinson: I’m very optimistic. I’m looking forward to what Posty can do standing on his own two feet, without 15 duets pairing him up with the biggest names in country on this one. If the F-1-ending solo highlight “Yours” — which finds Post sweetly singing about his daughter’s future husband — is any indication, he could have a seriously long future in this genre. Might be time for Posty to check out some real estate in Nashville.
Kyle Denis: I think Post has definitely been embraced by country listeners, and he’ll continue to strengthen that base with his just-launched Big Ass Stadium Tour. I think without novelty on his side, it will be a bit harder to repeat the success of F-1 Trillion, but it’s not entirely impossible. I think there’s a path for the album to be a success in its own right if he focuses on solo singles this time around.
Jason Lipshutz: F-1 Trillion was such a profound success that I’m not surprised that Posty is hitching a ride back to Nashville for its follow-up. Country sounded like a natural fit for an artist who broke through in the hip-hop world, and considering how often those sounds are intermingling on the charts these days, the transition hasn’t sounded as forced as it might have during a different musical era. I don’t think there’s any chance that Post Malone remains a country artist for the rest of his career, but right now, he’s in a good groove, and he should continue exploring.
Jessica Nicholson: It would be hard to repeat the success of F-1 Trillion, unless he makes the next project as collaboration-heavy as F-1 Trillion, as teaming with so many country stars, and getting that co-sign from them, brought in fans of all of those artists. However, critically, many of his solo songs on his extended “Long Bed” version of the album were as good as his collaborative efforts, so it would be a chance to prove his status as a solo country hitmaker. That said, if the goal is entrenching himself into the country genre as an artist who is in it for the long haul, then consistently releasing country projects is an obvious essential step in accomplishing that aim, regardless of whether a new album reaches the all-genre chart pinnacle.
Andrew Unterberger: My guess would be that Post’s F-2 Trillion-type album ends up analogous to mgk’s second pop-punk set Mainstream Sellout — a chart-topping hit that generally does fine, but doesn’t quite generate the hits or the excitement of its predecessor.
5. One Thing at a Time moved 501,000 units in its first week. What’s your (mildly educated) guess for what I’m the Problem will post as its first-week number?
Katie Atkinson: I’m thinking it will be another half a milli. Wallen’s popularity has stayed steady in the last two years, and as evidenced by the top 10 performance of all five pre-release songs, people are still craving new music from him. My educated guess will be 502k just so he can say he bumped it up a step.
Kyle Denis: I’ll say… north of 450k, but it doesn’t surpass 501k.
Jason Lipshutz: 550,000. It’s got 37 tracks, it’s coming out during a relatively sleepy moment for new releases, and did I mention it’s got 37 tracks? The early streaming numbers should help Wallen’s latest secure his biggest debut yet.
Jessica Nicholson: Though this 37-song album barely exceeds the length its predecessor, the 36-track One Thing at a Time, Wallen’s celebrity status seems to have only grown since his last album. This album also includes collabs with Eric Church and Tate McRae, which should further spur fan excitement. I would conservatively estimate the project would come in at around 510,000 in first-week consumption.
Andrew Unterberger: I’ll say 485,000. Not quite the first week of One Thing, but close enough that nobody really tries to read too much into the decrease.
Today’s music executives pay particular attention to on-demand consumption. If a listener chose a particular song, rather than simply hearing something that came up randomly, it’s fairly safe to assume that the song had greater value to them.
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But, new artist Chase McDaniel argues, real-time listening might very well have more impact on listeners in certain situations since there’s a surprise element involved in the experience.
“There’s probably three times in my life that I can say a song changed my life, and it was always on country radio,” he says. “In this day and age, when you can go and select the song and play it yourself, or you go to some playlist and it’s this [artificial intelligence]/robot thing, it takes away the meaning. But when you hear it played on the radio, and it’s at the right time, and you don’t know why it’s on right now, and it feels like it’s for you, it feels divine.”
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McDaniel hopes his first radio single — “Burned Down Heaven,” released by Big Machine to country radio through PlayMPE on March 17 — has that kind of effect on those who hear it. It certainly had psychological value for McDaniel, since it forced him to confront a painful chapter from his past.
“[It was] this low point, just covered in shame and in guilt and loneliness, knowing what you’ve done and not being able to fix it,” he says. “That’s truly what that lyric’s kind of pointing to.”
Just as McDaniel’s been surprised a few times by a song on the radio, he was surprised by “Burned Down Heaven.” It emerged from a conversation with his grandfather, who was reflecting on his relationship with his wife.
If he were forced to choose, his grandfather said, “I think I would turn down heaven for your mamaw.”Preparing on Feb. 13, 2024, for the next day’s writing appointment, McDaniel started working with that “turn down heaven” phrase as a possible title. But on one run-through, he was shaken by a small mistake.
“I accidentally said the phrase ‘burned down heaven,’ as if it fell from the sky,” he remembers. “It was like it came from my subconscious. I literally felt like I got struck by lightning, because saying the phrase ‘burned down heaven’ felt like the worst imaginable thing that anyone could say.”
If the thought hit him that hard, then it might have some emotional value for other people, too, so he considered bringing it up the next morning, though he had some reservations: The idea of setting fire to heaven might offend some listeners. So he held it back when he showed up to write with Jon Nite (“Dancin’ in the Country,” “Break Up in the End”) at the Nashville studio of writer-producer Lindsay Rimes (“World on Fire,” “Heaven”). After they ran through some other ideas, McDaniel finally brought up “Burned Down Heaven,” and when he explained the metaphor, both co-writers were up for it. They started with the chorus, to make sure they landed the idea effectively, and to make the best use of McDaniel’s range.
“He’s got some of the [Jon] Bon Jovi [power] up there, but he’s also got some of the Josh Turner [richness],” Rimes says. “It’s those kinds of dynamics in his vocals. I wanted to bring both of those through, because they’re kind of a strong part of his brand.”
They pitched the chorus in a high range to create an explosive effect. They also massaged the stanza’s opening lyric to better address McDaniel’s nervousness about the title.
“It was really Jon’s idea to say, ‘Hey, let’s bring this back to Earth,’” McDaniel recalls. “When I said, ‘Feels like I burned down heaven,’ he said, ‘Where was it at?’ And I was like, ‘It was in this driveway.’ He’s like, ‘There it is: Feels like I burned down heaven in that driveway.’ It brought it back to planet Earth. It made it real.”
They focused on the fiery part of the title in the chorus, incorporating “matches,” “ashes” and “smoke,” though the words were slipped in subtly. When they got to the lower-pitched verses, they shifted to the spiritual part of the title, though they handled the religious allusions so lightly that they almost go unnoticed. “You want to feel like it’s real,” Nite says. “You want to feel like you’re in the emotion of this moment, rather than cute little sayings about heaven.”
McDaniel didn’t talk much about it during the write, but he built the storyline around a difficult breakup from his past. “It was definitely the best thing — I realized that over time — but it was something that I still hadn’t forgiven myself for,” he says. “Anytime that I feel like I’ve made a mistake or hurt somebody, it just weighs on me, and so I carried it for years.”
Despite all of McDaniel’s concerns going into the appointment, it all developed easily. They started at 11 a.m. and had a demo and vocal performance of the completed song by 1:30 p.m. In fact, while Rimes and McDaniel worked on the demo, Nite went to the backyard and started another song that also got finished that day.
The “Burned Down Heaven” demo was so well developed that they used it as a foundation for the final tracking session at Nashville’s Sound Stage with drummer Evan Hutchings, bassist Tony Lucido, keyboardist Alex Wright and guitarists Ilya Toshinskiy and Sol Philcox-Littlefield.
“I don’t think a lot changed once the band was on there,” Rimes says. “Obviously, there’s live drums and stuff like that, but the basic bones of the song were in there.”
McDaniel recut his vocal for the master version, singing the first verse and first chorus separately, so that his voice could overlap with itself as he transitioned into that chorus. The final touches were provided by Gideon Klein, a musician that Rimes hired to arrange strings and overdub all of the parts.
Big Machine released it on Valentine’s Day — exactly one year after it was written — and it performed well enough that the label issued it to radio a month later as fans presumably gravitated toward the honesty in McDaniel’s story.
“All the guys that listen to it are like, ‘You know what? I’ve been this sometimes, and I just have been too proud to say it,’” Nite says. “All the girls are like, ‘I’ve had five boyfriends that do this, and they’ve been too proud to say it, and it’d be amazing if somebody actually said it was their fault.’ I think that’s why it’s caught fire a little bit.”
For his part, McDaniel hopes that someone might hear “Burned Down Heaven” on the radio and have the same unexpected life moment that he’s experienced with the platform.
“I’m on a mission now in country music to spread the light and tell people that they matter and that they’re important,” McDaniel says. “This song isn’t straight up about mental health and survival, but it is reflective of shame. Anytime that you can’t live with your mistakes and you can’t accept the past and you can’t forgive yourself, it makes it hard.”
Post Malone and Jelly Roll kicked off their BIG ASS Stadium tour on Tuesday night (April 29) with a three-and-a-half hour extravaganza at Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City, UT that featured both men playing their hits and fan favorites as well as Jelly jumping up on stage for a duet with Posty. Coming off […]
Kacey Musgraves is coming full circle with her new label deal, signing to the recently relaunched, Nashville-based Lost Highway Records. The eight-time Grammy winner was the final artist signed to the label in 2011. In 2012, Lost Highway was absorbed by Mercury Nashville as Musgraves was crafting her debut studio album Same Trailer, Different Park (which contained her breakthrough hit “Merry Go ‘Round”).
Now, she is the first artist signed to the revitalized label.
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Lost Highway’s revival was announced earlier this month, with former Thirty Tigers executive Robert Knotts and Universal Music Group Nashville (UMGN) executive Jake Gear serving as co-heads and executive vps of the resurrected label.
“Lost Highway was always a musical stable for artists who might be considered outliers or outlaws; those who live on the fringe,” Musgraves said in a statement. “In 2011, when other record labels questioned my songwriting and my more traditional country sound, Lost Highway believed in me, signing me to my first label deal and helped me take my music around the world. That journey has now come full circle in such a special way with John Janick and Interscope and I’m deeply honored to be able to once again call Lost Highway my musical home.”
Musgraves is celebrating the label deal with Lost Highway Records by releasing her interpretation of the label’s namesake song, the Leon Payne-written “Lost Highway,” which Hank Williams covered in 1949.
John Janick, chairman/CEO, Interscope Capitol and IGA, said in a statement, “Kacey exemplifies the kind of culture- shifting, left-of-center artists that Lost Highway has always been known for. Given the close relationship she’s had with both Lost Highway and Interscope, it seemed only natural for her to be the first artist signed in this new chapter.”
Music exec Luke Lewis, who founded Lost Highway in 2000 and signed Musgraves in 2011, said in a statement: “For 20 years, my job was to run Mercury and MCA labels, which were primarily mainstream country endeavors. The last 10 years of my time there were passionately dedicated to starting and leading Lost Highway, which was the most rewarding time of my entire career. The label went on to cultivate some of the greatest singer/songwriters I have had the honor to work with, and I am extremely proud to have helped them further their amazing musical journeys. I am beyond grateful that this very special label is now in the hands of John Janick, Robert Knotts, Jake Gear and the Interscope team, and I am certain Lost Highway will have an incredible second inning.”
Eric Church is already gearing up for the release of his new album, Evangeline vs. The Machine on May 2, but this fall he will take that new project on the road when he launches his Free the Machine Tour, with 22 arena shows starting Sept. 12. Joining Church on varying dates on the tour […]
Prymax Media & Technology Group has acquired all the remaining masters from the estate of music industry pioneer Stan Lewis, founder of the legendary labels Jewel Records, Paula Records and Ronn Records. While Prymax Media declined to reveal the purchase price, Billboard can exclusively report that the New York-based private investment firm’s acquisition encompasses more than 1,600 songs. Those include recordings by Aretha Franklin, Gladys Knight & the Pips, Willie Nelson, Ike & Tina Turner, Albertina Walker and Lightnin’ Hopkins, among other iconic artists representing America’s golden era of blues, R&B, soul, rock & roll, gospel and country.
Prior to co-founding Prymax Media in 2020, Tyrone Holmes worked primarily as a music and film producer who collaborated with Grammy-winning artist Faith Evans and late Stellar Award-winning artist LaShun Pace, among others. In a statement announcing his firm’s acquisition, Holmes said, “This is about more than just reclaiming music. It’s about preserving cultural heritage and sharing stories that have long been silenced. With the release of this vault, we’re not only honoring the legacy of the artists involved but also opening the door for new interpretations and collaborations in the future. These recordings were hidden treasures, and now we can introduce them to the world.”
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Added Beverly Paige, a member of the Prymax team, “This isn’t just an acquisition it’s the recovery of a cultural legacy. We look forward to seeing how this music resonates with lifelong fans as well as invite newcomers to discover the rich legacy of music that has shaped the industry. We’re also excited for the conversations it will spark around the significance and impact of gospel music in our lives.”
In addition to the aforementioned Albertina Walker — aka “The Queen of Gospel Music”— Prymax’s acquisition features released and unreleased recordings by fellow gospel artists Shirley Caesar and Dorothy Norwood, Jimmy Reed, Bobby Rush, John Lee Hooker and Malcolm X. Among the song titles now under new ownership are “Judy in Disguise,” the 1967 No. 1 hit by John Fred and His Playboy Band, “I Feel Good” by John Lee Hooker, “Knock on Wood” by Ike & Tina Turner and “A Message for You” by Curtis Mayfield.
Beyond fully finished tracks, the catalog cache includes rare studio sessions and alternate takes.
Lewis’ industry career began with the opening of Stan’s Record Shop in Shreveport, Louisiana in 1948 (a frequent customer was the yet-unknown Elvis Presley) from money earned selling newspapers. From there at age 20, he established what became the South’s largest independent record distribution network. In addition to Chess Records, where he also worked for a time, Lewis represented several other independent labels such as Atlantic, Checker and Specialty. Moving back to Shreveport after his Chess stint in Chicago, Lewis founded Jewel Records in 1963. Its roster and catalog holdings included Big Joe Turner, John Lee Hooker, Ike & Tina Turner, Aretha Frankline, B.B. King and Fats Domino. Prior to establishing Jewel, he had begun producing music artists while also co-writing with Dale Hawkins the 1957 rock & roll classic “Susie Q.”
Lewis later bought the masters of Chicago blues label Cobra Records in the late ‘60s (home to Buddy Guy). Then came the founding of the Paula (named after his wife Pauline) and Ronn imprints. The former sported a roster headed by The Uniques (led by Joe Stampley), Toussaint McCall, John Fred and His Playboy Band and others.
It was Garland Jones, owner of record store Garland Super Sounds and a longtime Lewis mentee, who helped the latter’s son Lenny outline all the music assets in Lewis’ vault before his death in 2018.
“After a decade-long legal battle, I finally obtained the rights to Stan Lewis’s succession and successfully sold this extraordinary, once forgotten collection of music to Prymax Media,” said Jones. “This partnership now can resonate with and inspire a new generation. The collection also includes the complete unreleased vault from the legendary Q Records and Gramercy Records.”
Attorney Jeffrey D. Garfin oversaw the transaction for Prymax Media. “The material derived from the estate of Stan ‘The Record Man’ Lewis represents a literal time capsule containing hundreds of unknown recordings from incredibly well-known artists,” commented Garfin. “Many of these iconic performers are no longer with us. So to be able to hear alternate takes on their hits and even new material is just fantastic. I’m honored to be shepherding these recordings into the 21st century.”
The Red Clay Strays were notified that they had won the ACM Award for new duo or group of the year on Monday (April 28) while recording with producer Dave Cobb in Savannah, Ga. Cobb also produced their first major-label album, Made by These Moments, which reached No. 9 on Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart and No. 29 on the all-genre Billboard 200.
The news was revealed to the band by the winningest artist in ACM history, Miranda Lambert, via a congratulatory phone call. Lambert previously informed Ella Langley of her win for new female artist of the year.
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Restless Road and Treaty Oak Revival were the other nominees for new duo or group of the year. This was the second nomination in the category for Restless Road, which means they cannot compete in this category again. Because the major country music awards shows allow artists two nominations in new artist categories, Treaty Oak Revival can.
The Red Clay Strays are also nominated for group of the year, where they are squaring off with Flatland Cavalry and three past winners in the category – Little Big Town, Old Dominion and Rascal Flatts.
The Red Clay Strays won emerging artist of the year at the 2024 Americana Music Honors & Awards. They were nominated for vocal group of the year at the 2024 CMA Awards.
The group has had some big breaks, including having a song (“Caddo County”) on the best-selling Twisters: The Album, and opening selected dates on The Rolling Stones’ Hackney Diamonds tour.
Hailing from Mobile, Alabama, the band is comprised of Brandon Coleman (lead vocals, guitar), Drew Nix (guitar and vocals), Zach Rishel (guitar), Andrew Bishop (bass), John Hall (drums), and Sevans Henderson (keys).
Langley and Zach Top, the winner for new male artist of the year, are set to perform on the 60th ACM Awards. The Red Clay Strays will probably also join the line-up of performers, though for now we are told only that they “will be celebrated” on the show.
The 60th ACM Awards, hosted by Reba McEntire, will stream live exclusively for a global audience on Prime Video and the Amazon Music channel on Twitch on Thursday, May 8 at 8 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. CT / 5 p.m. PT from the Ford Center at The Star in Frisco, Texas. A limited number of tickets to the landmark 60th ACM Awards are available for purchase on SeatGeek.
The ACM Awards are produced by Dick Clark Productions, which is owned by Penske Media Eldridge, a joint venture between Eldridge Industries and Billboard parent company Penske Media.
Country-rocker Cody Jinks is set to release a new album, titled In My Blood, on July 25.
He recorded the upcoming project, which will come out on his own Late August Records, at famed The Sonic Ranch in Tornillo, Texas, and worked alongside musicians David Colvin, Joshua Thompson (also a co-producer on the album), Jake Lentner, Chris Claridy, Austin Tripp, Matt Nolen, Drew Harakal and Lenny Castro.
Produced by Thompson and Charles Godfrey, In My Blood follows his 2024 album Change the Game which landed in the top 30 on Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart and featured songs such as “Outlaws and Mustangs.”
“I think that Change the Game was the final chapter in part one of my writing and I just opened up part two,” Jinks told Billboard via email. “Kind of like how an author like Stephen King has part one that has 10 chapters, and then there’s part two. So, I think In My Blood starts part two. That’s how I feel about this record. It’s a very, very reflective record, and hopefully optimistic about the future as well.”
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While Change the Game centered on lessons learned through his journey of sobriety and maturity, the new album finds him in a further reflective mood on songs such as the road-dog song “In My Blood,” the nostalgic “When Time Didn’t Fly” and the hopeful “Found.”
The album features a mix of songs written solo by Jinks, as well as songs he co-wrote Ward Davis, Tennessee Jet, Ray Wylie Hubbard and Blackberry Smoke’s Charlie Starr, among others. Each song features Jinks’s fearless, unapologetically honest style of songwriting and hard-charging musical style, adding to his storied canon of music.
His debut single from the album, “Found,” will be out May 2, while he is also slated to launch his headlining Hippies & Cowboys Tour in Columbia, Missouri later this month.
Below, Jinks details the making of In My Blood to Billboard.
Cody Jinks
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You recorded this project at The Sonic Ranch. What do you love about recording there?
I fell in love with the Sonic Ranch during the recording process of [2015’s] Adobe Sessions. I love having nowhere else to go but to the studio to make music, because there’s nothing out there. You’re completely isolated in the desert, and it’s 45 minutes to the next town. I’ve recorded a lot of work out there because of that very thing, and Tony [Rancich] has created a magical place like no other that will ever exist.
Was there a particular song that really sparked the beginning for this project?
Not really. There was a song [“Better Than the Bottle”] that was one of the last ones written that became the first track, because it really set the tone for what the record was going to be. So that was fun. I love how records take shape like that on their own often time.
The title song was co-written with and features Blackberry Smoke’s Charlie Starr. How did this song come about?
Charlie and I wrote this song while we were on tour together, last year, and debuted it the day we finished it in Canandaigua, New York. Obviously, since then, we recorded it, he came out to the studio and sang and played on it. We just got done doing a bunch of promo for it in Nashville, as well. He’s a great human being, and it’s the perfect song for him and I to have written together.
There seems to be such a synergy between what you do and what the guys in Blackberry Smoke do. Why do you love performing and creating with them?
That’s how that song really came to be. I love those guys because they aren’t in the music business. Blackberry Smoke is just a kick-ass band that’s been doing it the right way, the honest way, the hard way, the pure way, for a very long time. They are a very important piece of American music, and I’m thankful that we get to play with them. The friendship is more me and Charlie having hung out more than anybody else. When we were playing with those guys, there was always some of their guys watching our show and vice versa.
So, I think the mutual respect was there, and we see everybody in catering, and hang out, and guys would chat here and there. I think Charlie and I have found out we have a whole lot of things in common in just doing it the old school way, just the get in the van and go. And being thankful to still having a place in music.
“When Time Didn’t Fly” is really poignant. What is the backstory?
I wrote that song with Channing Wilson and Kendall Marvel on a Zoom write, four years ago or so, during COVID. I think at that time a lot of people were given time to reflect. All being at the age that we’re at, and given time to think about time… where did it go? Just the joys of childhood, how fun was it to do those things? The true joy that seems to not happen as much, the older you get. It’s a beautiful song, my mom loves that song, it’s the best on this new album. I really, really love that song. It’s a longing for innocence that only the youth are capable of having.
What is the story behind “The Others”?
We are the others. Everybody’s the others, actually. We all like the same things as everybody else, and we all like different things than everybody else. I wrote it with Ray Wylie Hubbard and Tennessee Jed. [After we were all at a festival], we ended up writing a song via text. “The Others” is just a cool tune written by two really, really cool guys and me. It’s one that we’re going to make a music video for. We’re really, really excited about this one being a single because at the end of the day, everybody’s just everybody. We’re all just people.
What do you most hope fans take away from this project?
I hope that if you really dive into the lyrics of this record, you find yourself, you find people, and you find letting go of the past and the things that hold you down, and looking forward to the things that are good for you. It’s about finding yourself, about being thankful, about becoming more reserved, and growing up. It’s a pretty wild ride, so the record reflects that. Our band made this record sound like it does.
They did a great job taking the simple songs that I brought them and making amazing pieces of music out of it. Josh Thompson, producing with Charles Godfrey, and our band having the freedom and the leeway to go in there with thoughtful and creative pieces that weren’t just laid down because they sounded all right, they were really crafted. It’s as pure a piece of art as we can possibly put out, as any band could ever possibly hope to put out. This is as pure as it gets, and I’ve often said that I’m thankful that the fans have grown up with us, and grown up with me, and here’s to looking forward and making it better.
In My Blood tracklist:
Better Than the Bottle
Lost Highway
The Others
In My Blood
Something Wicked This Way Comes
See the Man
When You Can’t Remember
Lonely Man
Monster
Found
When Time Didn’t Fly