February 22, 2021 • No Comments • Country Music News

Country Radio Seminar2021’s Country Radio Seminar came to a close Friday in Nashville with a New Faces show unlike any that’s come before, as the entire affair was forced to go virtual because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Still, country radio managed to knight HARDY, Matt Stell, Tenille Arts, Travis Denning and Ashley McBryde as the genre’s potential superstars of tomorrow.

Matt’s set opened with a tongue-in-cheek video of a bad date that suddenly turned around, once the beauty in his truck realized how successful he’s been, thanks to a chance mention on the radio. The Arkansas native went on to do both of his number ones, “Everywhere But On” and “Prayed for You,” as well as his first live performance of his new single, “That Ain’t Me No More.”

Travis Denning kicked off his part of the show with a video that compared fishing to having a song climbing the chart, before doing the chart-topping “After a Few” and revealing that “ABBY” would arrive as his new single next month. 

HARDY served up “One Beer” as well as its follow-up, “Give Heaven Some Hell.” This year’s newest artist, the Canadian Tenille Arts, offered her top fifteen breakthrough, “Somebody Like That.” 

Ashley McBryde brought CRS 2021 to a close, starting with a solo acoustic version of her autobiographical “Girl Goin’ Nowhere,” before her band joined her for the song that put her on the map, “A Little Dive Bar in Dahlonega.” 

In a throwback to her days playing those little bars, Ashley transformed Johnny Cash‘s “I’ve Been Everywhere” into “I like every beer, man,” before sticking to the “One Night Standards,” her only top ten so far. She ended with its successor, the murderous “Martha Divine.” 

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

February 19, 2021 • No Comments • Country Music News

Don Arnold/WireImageActor couple Emma Roberts and Garrett Hedlund welcomed their baby boy, Rhodes Robert, in late 2020, and in a recent interview on The Kelly Clarkson Show, the proud new papa revealed his son’s unexpected country connection.

“He’s somebody that I admire and respect not only as an amazing father, an amazing husband and amazing musician, amazing actor — and his name is Tim McGraw,” Garrett said.

As it turns out, Garrett and Tim’s friendship dates back almost two decades, when they were on set together filming the 2004 film Friday Night Lights, where they played a father and son.

“I’ve seen his children, his daughters, from the time they were one, three and five [years old],” the actor continues, as host Kelly Clarkson joked that it must be exciting for Tim to have a parental connection to a boy after parenting three girls.

“He’s the best. And when…after 12 weeks…of Emma being pregnant, I called him, and the first thing he said was, ‘I’m the godfather.’ So how can you argue?” Hedlund adds.

In addition to enjoying his new role as godfather, Tim has been busy on the musical front, too. In January, he released a duet with Florida Georgia Line’s Tyler Hubbard called “Undivided.”

February 19, 2021 • No Comments • Country Music News

February 19, 2021 • No Comments • Country Music News

Amazon MusicFlorida Georgia Line are postponing their global album release livestream event until Thursday, February 25. The change is due to the ice and snow storms affecting Nashville, as well as much of the rest of the country, this week.

“Due to inclement weather in Nashville, we are moving our Amazon Music Global Livestream to Thursday, Feb. 25,” the band explained in a statement. “The party starts at 7PM CT via the Amazon Music Twitch channel and within the Amazon Music mobile app. Keep on listening to Life Rolls On and we look forward to performing for y’all next week!”

As previously announced, the event will take place in FGL’s namesake bar in downtown Nashville. Duo members Tyler Hubbard and Brian Kelley will be accompanied by a full band as they perform songs off their just-released new album, Life Rolls On.

Included on that project are hits “I Love My Country” and “Long Live.” Before the show, CMT host Cody Alan will host a Q&A with the band.

That interview, along with the show itself, will stream on Amazon Music’s Twitch channel.

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

February 19, 2021 • No Comments • Country Music News

ABC/Image Group LAJordan Davis looks back at the relationships in his life that didn’t quite work out in the music video for his current single, “Almost Maybes.”

In a personal twist, some of the scenes in the clip are recreated from the singer’s own memories: One background recalls his old college dorm room, and another scene takes place in one of his favorite Baton Rouge bars, called Bogie’s.

Starring opposite Jordan in the video is television personality and The Bachelor star Hannah Brown, and Jordan reveals that it was actually his fan base who made the decision to cast her in the clip.

It all started when Hannah told her fans on an Instagram Q&A that she would love to be part of a music video one day.

“Within hours I was getting messages saying I should have Hannah in the video,” says Jordan, who DM’d her on social media to set it up.

“Hannah was very involved in the plotline of the video, which was really fun, hearing about her past relationships and marrying those stories with mine,” the singer goes on to say. “I’m really happy with how the video turned out.”

Jordan also took the opportunity to debut a brand-new look in the “Almost Maybes” video: The first scene of the clip features him without his signature long beard, but rather a much shorter layer of scruff.

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