March 29, 2021 • No Comments • Country Music News

Trae Patton/NBCGwen Stefani attributes fiancée Blake Shelton for helping her maintain a youthful appearance.  

Speaking recently to Australia’s Daily Telegraph, the 51-year-old pop superstar opens up about her views on aging, especially where it concerns women and celebrities.

“It’s really hard for everyone to age and have to face life. Especially for females and people who have been in the spotlight, it can be daunting,” she says, explaining how she rises above the pressure. “You tackle it by just trying to be the most beautiful version of yourself inside and out. People talking about my aging is a compliment, I guess. I’m kind of obsessed with how I’m aging, too.”

But when asked to divulge her secret to youthful-looking skin, Gwen says she doesn’t rely on creams or surgical enhancers.  Instead, she credits her happy and healthy relationship with the “God’s Country” singer for her youthful glow.

“Blake is the greatest guy. I look back over the past few years and look at pictures of when I first started kissing Blake, and I look the best I’ve ever looked in my life in those photos,” she claims. “Love must look good on me.  I feel like that does show through — it really does.”

Gwen and Blake met in 2014 when shooting The Voice, though Gwen admits that at the time, “I had no idea who he was.”

The couple has sent two duets to the top of the country charts over the past year with “Nobody but You” and “Happy Anywhere.” They announced their engagement in October but have yet to reveal a date for their wedding.

By Megan Stone & Cillea Houghton 
Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

March 29, 2021 • No Comments • Country Music News

ABCLauren Alaina is on the mend following a battle with COVID-19. 

The American Idol season 10 runner-up tweeted March 20 that she’d tested positive for COVID-19. In an interview with People, she shares that she was “pretty sick” with the virus and experienced symptoms including shortness of breath and strong headaches. 

“I’m doing better now,” she reports, adding that she is “feeling healthy” and staying hydrated. “I was so frustrated when I got it, because I have taken it so seriously, and I went over a year and didn’t get it, and then I got it. I rarely even go to the grocery store, but it’s a very contagious virus and I picked it up somewhere.”

The singer tested positive for the virus days before she was scheduled to get her first dose of the vaccine. “I was going to get it, because I didn’t want to get the virus. But I got it,” she explains. “It’s different for everyone. I just want my life back, and it felt like a way for me to get one step closer to that.”  

Lauren recently released her latest single, “Getting Over Him,” featuring Jon Pardi. It’s the title track of her 2020 EP.

By Cillea Houghton 
Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

March 29, 2021 • No Comments • Country Music News

Warner Music NashvilleFor Blake Shelton, it was love at first listen, when he initially encountered his current top-20 hit.

“‘Minimum Wage’ is a song that I heard for the first time about a year ago, maybe a little bit longer,” he explains, “and had a lot of ideas how I wanted to record this song. I fell in love with it instantly.”

Though it’s no doubt been a long time since the Oklahoma native was making minimum wage, he was drawn to what the tune has to say.

“I love the message of the song,” Blake says, “and I love that it says something about how you don’t need a lot of money, you don’t need all the possessions in the world, you just need to have love.”

“And the song on top of that is just a blast,” he adds.

While his current-day knowledge of hourly pay may not be that extensive, Blake does know a thing or two about love, since he’s presently engaged to longtime girlfriend Gwen Stefani. 

So far, Blake hasn’t revealed if “Minimum Wage” is the precursor to a new album or not, as he’s previously said he enjoys the freedom of putting out single tracks. 

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

March 26, 2021 • No Comments • Country Music News

Gaither Music GroupOn June 18, Rory Feek will release Gentle Man, his first solo album ever and the first time he’s been the primary artist on a project since the death of his wife and duo partner, Joey, in 2016.

Ahead of Gentle Man’s release date, Rory has shared “Met Him in a Motel Room,” a duet with Trisha Yearwood that is one of only two songs on the new album that he wrote. A classic country story song with a twist, the ballad follows a woman who’s meeting a stranger at a motel — but their encounter isn’t what you might expect.

“This song is about a woman of the night…sort of,” Rory shared in a recent blog post about the new song. “It’s actually about the emptiness inside us that we try and try to fill, with money and things, with work or with alcohol…only to find that that empty spot inside of us, that all that stuff is supposed to fill…doesn’t.”

The song might be familiar to Trisha’s fans. She also included it on her Prizefighter: Hit After Hit album, which came out in 2014.

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

March 26, 2021 • No Comments • Country Music News

Jeff RayKnown for his top-10 hits “Take It On Back” and “Little Bit of You,” from 2014 and 2015, respectively, it’s been quite a while since Chase Bryant shared new music.

Now, the singer has returned: His long-awaited debut album, The Upbringing, is due out on July 16.

It’s been an eventful journey to releasing the project for Chase, whose songwriting documents a tumultuous period of his personal life. He struggled with anxiety and depression and even survived a suicide attempt.

Now, the singer’s new batch of music is grittier, more true to traditional country and more authentic than anything Chase has recorded before. The singer had a hand in writing 10 of the album’s 12 tracks.

Before he releases The Upbringing in full, Chase is previewing the project with two advance songs: The title track, as well the harmony-laden “High, Drunk and Heartbroke.”

If you are struggling with thoughts of suicide, or worried about a friend or loved one, help is available. Call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 [TALK] for free confidential emotional support 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Even if it feels like it, you are not alone.

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