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Eric Church debuts 'Heart & Soul'’s bluesy album opener, “Heart on Fire”

• No Comments • Country Music News

Reid LongEric Church leans into his rocker side with “Heart on Fire,” the bluesy, electrifying album-opener off his upcoming triple project, Heart & Soul.

Eric first made the song available to members of his Church Choir fan club on Thursday, then sharing “Heart on Fire” for general listening on Friday morning. Now, the singer says that his just-released song is a perfect example of the unusual album-making philosophy that he and his collaborators embraced while creating the new body of work.

“‘Heart on Fire’ is the first song on the Heart album, and normally, if we had four songs about ‘heart,’ with the way we used to do this, we’d cut three of ‘em out and we’d do one,” Eric explains. “It started to be cool that this time we could lean into that sameness and the themes where you can put the songs together and know we wrote these within this much time of each other.”

All 24 tracks on the three upcoming albums, including “Heart on Fire,” were written during a marathon destination writing and recording retreat, which found Eric and his team spending 28 days working in a makeshift studio in the mountains of North Carolina.

Fans have already heard several of the tracks off the new project, including “Through My Ray-Bans,” “Bad Mother Trucker,” “Doing Life with Me” and more.

His current single off Heart & Soul, “Hell of a View,” is nearing country radio’s top 20.


By Carena Liptak
Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Nielsen now says 'Wonder Woman 1984' conquered holiday streaming content

• No Comments • Entertainment News

Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc./HBO Max(LOS ANGELES) — In a do-over of its rankings for the end of 2020, Nielsen streaming data now shows that Wonder Woman 1984 was the most streamed show for the week of December 21-27, besting Disney/Pixar’s Soul. 

According to the revised numbers, 2.25 billion minutes of the Patty Jenkins-directed sequel were watched, easily topping the 1.6 billion minutes watched of Soul, which had previously been logged as the most-streamed title. 

Incidentally, while the two new titles slugged it out at the top, a fan favorite sitcom scored. 1.435 billion minutes of The Office was streamed on Netflix in that last week of December — before the sitcom was moved to the Peacock streaming service; its performance was good enough for the number 3 slot.

Netflix dominated that key holiday week, the records show, taking 7 of the 10 slots; only Wonder Woman,  Disney+’s Soul and The Mandalorian (#5) were the only non-Netflix content to chart on Nielsen’s ratings.

Disney is the parent company of ABC Audio.

Here are Nielsen’s revised SVOD [streaming video on demand] rankings for the week of Dec. 21-27, 2020:

1. Wonder Woman 1984 (HBO Max) (movie) – 2.252 billion minutes
2. Soul (Disney+) (movie) – 1.669 billion minutes
3. The Office (Netflix) (192 episodes) – 1.435 billion minutes
4. Bridgerton (Netflix) (8 episodes) – 1.204 billion minutes
5. The Midnight Sky (Netflix) (movie) – 1.113 billion minutes
6. The Mandalorian (Disney+) (16 episodes) – 1.024 billion minutes
7. How The Grinch Stole Christmas (Netflix) (movie) – 705 million minutes
8. The Crown (Netflix) (40 episodes) – 700 million minutes
9. Grey’s Anatomy (Netflix) (366 episodes) – 691 million minutes
10. Christmas Chronicles 2 (Netflix) (movie) – 660 million minutes

By Stephen Iervolino
Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Granger Smith brings fans out to the farm for inaugural CMT “Campfire Sessions” episode

• No Comments • Country Music News

Disney Channel/Chris HolloGranger Smith is helping CMT kick off a new digital series called “Campfire Sessions,” a collection of intimate, acoustic performances in the theme of a traditional campfire sing-along.

For the first installment, Granger invites fans out to his Yee Yee farm in Texas for a stripped-down, 15-minute performance around the singer’s fire pit. The set list includes fan-favorite songs like “Backroad Song,” “Hate You Like I Love You” and more. Smith also offered some of the stories and fun facts behind the songs as part of his performance.

In 2020, Granger released his two-part double album, Country Things Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, in September and November, respectively. In doing so, he kicked off what has become something of a country music pandemic trend: In the months that followed, Morgan Wallen, Eric Church and Chris Young have all either released supersized projects or shared plans to do so.

Next month, the “Campfire Sessions” series will return with a performance from Jimmie Allen. Other artists slated to appear on future episodes of CMT’s new digital show include The War and Treaty, Lainey Wilson and Cody Johnson.

By Carena Liptak
Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

'Palmer' director impressed by "chameleon" Justin Timberlake's "charisma" and "intelligence"

• No Comments • Entertainment News

AppleTV+(LOS ANGELES) — Justin Timberlake’s new movie Palmer debuts on Apple TV+ today.  Justin stars as Eddie Palmer, a high school football star-turned-ex-con, who returns to his home town and begins mentoring a non-binary young boy abandoned by his mother.  Director Fisher Stevens wasn’t entirely convinced that Justin Timberlake was the right guy for the movie, but the pop star soon changed his mind.

“I have to say, the minute I met him and the intelligence he had discussing the script…he discussed the script better than most actors I’ve ever met or worked with,” Stevens tells ABC Audio. “Like, he is an actor. He just…happens to be an actor who makes a living as a pop star. But he’s just as much an actor…in his intelligence and his approach to the role.”

It was Leonardo DiCaprio‘s manager who recommended that Stevens cast Justin in the movie. And while Justin was interested, Stevens said he waited eight months to actually commit to the part.  But when he did, Stevens said, the singer impressed him.

“He just got into it, man, he just started losing himself,” Stevens recalls. “He just started talking to people who were in prison, and he started lifting weights…he’s a chameleon.”

In fact, Stevens notes, “One of the comments I’ve been hearing quite a bit about the movie is like, ‘Oh, my God, I forgot it was Justin Timberlake within like two minutes of the film.'”

But what really impressed Stevens was going to one of JT’s concerts.

“I was like, ‘Woah!'” he laughs. “I mean, Jesus! The power...the guy held 22,000 people [in the palm of his hand]. I mean, that’s a skill. That’s a beautiful thing for my movie too: Someone who has that kind of charisma.”

By Andrea Dresdale
Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Niko Moon has a “Good Time” with Shaggy in this breezy new rendition of his hit song

• No Comments • Country Music News

Matthew Berinato/Johnathan MannionNiko Moon’s “Good Time” is poised to be his breakout hit as a country artist, with the song a top-ten hit and climbing at country radio.

Meanwhile, the singer is offering an even more laid-back and carefree rendition of his ode to having fun, inviting reggae star Shaggy to join him for a new duet version of “Good Time.” While Niko had long been a fan of Shaggy, he says that the collaboration allowed him to get to know the singer better, and now he admires him on a personal level, too.

“We worked on this song remotely, which made it a lot of fun. I love Shaggy’s music and his whole vibe,” Niko explains, adding that while the song might sound easygoing, the recording process wasn’t always quite so carefree.

“I found we are both perfectionists when it comes to our work, and we really dialed into every detail,” Niko continues. “This is my first collaboration and I had a blast. I loved getting two creative minds together. We’re in completely different genres but we both love having a good time!”

Niko’s single is also the title track for his 2020 Good Time EP. He also recently released an acoustic, outdoors version as part of his Good Time Campfire Sessions EP.

In addition to his rapidly growing career as a recording artist, Niko is an in-demand Music City songwriter who has written five number-one hits for Zac Brown Band. He also penned Dierks Bentley’s current single, “Gone,” and before deciding to cut “Good Time” himself, he thought about pitching the song to Blake Shelton.


By Carena Liptak
Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.