December 2, 2020 • No Comments • Country Music News

Catherine PowellDuring a year when the holiday season will likely look different for most people, Dan + Shay are providing a bit of a respite with a pair of original songs. 

The duo of Dan Smyers and Shay Mooney have offered up a double dose of Christmas cheer with “Take Me Home for Christmas” and “Christmas Isn’t Christmas.” The duo both had a hand in writing the tracks, with Shay admitting that it’s a challenge creating an original holiday tune, seeing as many of the song ideas have already been used. 

“Doing original Christmas songs is just very hard to do because you go and you try to find a title and they’re all taken already,” Shay tells ABC Audio. “So you have a title idea and you’re like ‘Nah, that was a Bing Crosby hit back in the day.'”

But Dan + Shay overcame the challenge and provided some much-needed positivity to their fans during the process. Shay adds that he and Dan got into the Christmas spirit early this year.   

“I feel like Christmas is the only thing that can save 2020 right now,” he laughs. “We need it. We need it in a big way. And we’ve already started to decorate and Dan has his tree up already. We’ve been getting into the Christmas spirit.”

By Cillea Houghton 
Copyright © 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

December 1, 2020 • No Comments • Country Music News

BMLG RecordsWhen Lady A was curating the track list for the deluxe edition of On This Winter’s Night, they were intentional in selecting Christmas songs that aren’t typically covered. 

In addition to the original number “Christmas Through Your Eyes,” which Dave Haywood describes as a “really fun write,” the trio also recorded their own renditions of Paul McCartney‘s “Wonderful Christmastime,” “Little St. Nick” by the Beach Boys, and the little-known Ray Charles tune, “Spirit of Christmas.” 

“There’s a lot of very familiar Christmas songs, and we wanted to find a couple that were familiar, but there hasn’t been a ton of covers of,” Charles Kelley describes of the song selection process. “And there really hasn’t been that many covers of ‘Little St. Nick’ or Paul McCartney’s much at all, and so we thought that’d be kind of different and unique.”

Charles also points to a humorous scene in National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation when Chevy Chase‘s character is trapped in the attic and finds an old-fashioned song reel, selecting Ray’s “Spirit of Christmas,” a song that Charles Kelley notes is hard to come by.

“But it’s such an amazing song and Ray Charles is just one of my idols.  And so I said, ‘man, I’ve always wanted to try this,'” Charles continues. “So those are the four new songs.” 

On This Winter’s Night Deluxe was released in October. Upon the original edition’s release in 2012, it hit number one on the Billboard Top Holiday Albums chart and number two on the Top Country Albums chart.

By Cillea Houghton 
Copyright © 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

December 1, 2020 • No Comments • Country Music News

Joey Tortuga Kane Brown has shared the footage from his stadium-worthy halftime performance at the Dallas Cowboys Thanksgiving Day game.

Last week, Kane led the annual tradition from the AT&T Stadium in Dallas where the Washington Football Team defeated the Cowboys, with Kane utilizing the stadium as his stage. 

Accompanied by a socially distanced orchestra with the musicians wearing masks while spaced out on the field, Kane opened his set with a cinematic rendition of his hit single, “Heaven,” followed by the unifying “Worldwide Beautiful.”

The spectacle continued with an appearance by the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders who performed a routine as Kane sang “Be Like That,” his pop hit featuring Khalid and Swae Lee, which led into the rollicking “Lose It.” 

After holding his own on a drum solo, Kane was joined by duet partner Lauren Alaina for “What Ifs” before bringing the show to a close with an energetic performance of “One Thing Right,” complete with an EDM breakdown, pyro and fireworks that lit up the night sky. Kane stood on a scaffold stage over the parking lot where mask-wearing fans were parked drive-in style, enjoying the display. 

Kane’s performance was also part of an effort to encourage viewers to donate to The Salvation Army’s Red Kettle Campaign.

By Cillea Houghton 
Copyright © 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

December 1, 2020 • No Comments • Country Music News

Ian Gavan/Getty ImagesThough Dolly Parton is a master of many crafts ranging from acting to music, she’ll always be a songwriter at heart.

In an expansive feature in The New York Times Style Magazine, Dolly opens up about her songwriting process, revealing that while songs have a way of naturally coming to mind, she’s constantly tweaking them until she feels they’re ready to share. 

“I’m always editing as I go, and I go over and over and over it, and I’ve got a thousand papers wadded up on the floor,” she explains, adding that she’s often “rewriting all the way to the mastering lab.” 

While Dolly’s songs have been revered across generations, her work was catapulted into the global spotlight with Whitney Houston‘s famous rendition of “I Will Always Love You.” “Any dummy could have written that,” Dolly says of the simple stanzas. 

The icon also offers insight into how she maintains humility as her star power continues to grow, using perseverance as a motivating factor. 

“I love having to rise to an occasion, and being able to do something that I hope might impress somebody. So I just pray about it, and I just reach out there and do it,” she says.  “It may not be great, but, I can write any kind of music, any style. The more I accomplish, the more humble I become, because I realize how [few] people are able to say that they’ve seen their dreams come true.”

By Cillea Houghton 
Copyright © 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

December 1, 2020 • No Comments • Country Music News

ABCIn an essay penned for Guideposts magazine, Carrie Underwood opens up about the fear she had to overcome on her American Idol journey.

Carrie admits that auditioning for the show in 2005 was initially “out of the question” after learning that the closest audition site was in St. Louis, a far drive from her hometown of Checotah, Oklahoma — until her mother offered to take her.  

“It would be easy to say the rest is history, that it was meant to be. But it didn’t feel like that at the time,” Carrie writes. “Going through a slew of auditions in St. Louis, getting the ‘golden ticket’ to Hollywood, every contestant’s dream, I was terrified. Every time I had to sing in front of the judges, I’d get nervous the way I did in church that first time.”

The country superstar recalls time when she almost let the nerves get the best of her while driving to the airport to fly to L.A. for the Hollywood week round. On the way, they stopped at the store to buy lip liner and broke down in tears in the car, faced with a crossroads. 

“All at once, it was just too much. Going out to Los Angeles by myself, competing with all those other people who were so talented. I burst into tears,” Carrie explains. “My dad turned to me in the backseat. ‘Carrie,’ he said, ‘we can go home right now, and we don’t ever have to talk about it again.’ I took a deep breath. ‘No,’ I said at last. ‘I’ll go.'” 

Carrie’s decision certainly paid off: she was crowned champion of season four and has released seven chart-topping studio albums since. Her Christmas special on HBO Max begins streaming on December 3.

By Cillea Houghton 
Copyright © 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.