NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Next year brings new music from Darius Rucker. He’s releasing his third country album on January 22nd. It’s called “True Believers” and features twelve tracks.
Rucker says he really paid attention to what friends and fans were saying on the road and the result is an album he’s “so proud of.” Rucker says his fans “really have been the true believers” since he released his first single to country radio. The album’s title track is currently in the top 20 and climbing.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Eric Church will be angry when he walks out on stage to perform at the Country Music Association Awards tomorrow.
He says he has a huge chip on his shoulder from all the times when other artists got things he didn’t and when he couldn’t get a song played on the radio. He carries that with him when he’s on stage, and he believes it makes him a better performer. Church is the lead CMA Awards nominee, and he says no one is more surprised about that than he is.
NEW YORK (AP) — Taylor Swift’s new album is called “Red,” but its true color is a brilliant platinum. The 22-year-old sold 1.2 million copies of her latest album in its first week — the largest sales week for any album in a decade.
Nielsen SoundScan confirmed the sales Tuesday night. “Red” marks Swift’s second straight album to sell more than 1 million in its first week; “Speak Now,” her third album, sold a little over 1 million when it was released in 2010. She’s the only woman to have two albums sell more than 1 million copies each in its first week.
The only other act to do so was ‘N Sync.
Swift tweeted to her fans Tuesday night: “Thanks a million.”
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tim McGraw has announced a Feb. 5 release date for his first album since leaving Curb Records.
“Two Lanes of Freedom” is McGraw’s first release since a judge granted him the right to record for Big Machine Records. The Louisiana native had been under contract with Curb for nearly two decades.
The singer announced his partnership with Big Machine’s Scott Borchetta last May, and an appeals court recently affirmed his right to record and release new material with the label.
McGraw will perform the new single “One of Those Nights” during the Country Music Association Awards, airing live Thursday night on ABC.
The partnership between Curb and McGraw was one of the most successful in country music history, leading to 40 million in albums sales, 32 No. 1 singles and three Grammys.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — George Strait is releasing a new single today. It’s called “Give It All We Got Tonight.”
He recorded the song in Nashville, and it’s the first from his upcoming album. Strait says “the song has a very unusual melody and very cool phrasing,” which is something he’s always been drawn to.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Taylor Swift better rest while she can. She’s launching the “Red” tour next year with 58 headlining shows at stadiums and arenas across the country. She’s making stops in 45 cities in 29 states and three provinces. She’ll be playing nine stadiums, including Pittsburgh’s Heinz Field, the Dallas Cowboys’ Stadium, and Detroit’s Ford Field.
The tour kicks off March 13th in Omaha, Nebraska, and runs through September.
British singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran is the opener for all shows. They have a duet together on Swift’s new album, “Red,” called “Everything Has Changed.”
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Taylor Swift will co-host the Grammy nominations television special.
Grammy officials say the pop star will join LL Cool J as hosts of the Dec. 5 special, airing live on CBS from Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tenn. This is the first year the nominations special has been broadcast from Music City.
Grammy officials also announced Monday that rising country star Luke Bryan has been added to the telecast as a performer, joining Maroon 5 as the only acts announced so far. More performers will be revealed at a future date.
Swift has won six Grammys. She released her latest album, “Red,” last week.
The 55th annual Grammy Awards will be held Feb. 10 in Los Angeles.
In what might be considered a country music version of the Blue Collar Comedy Tour, singers Joe Diffie, Sammy Kershaw, and Aaron Tippin are currently on what they’re calling the Roots and Boots tour…and they’re bringing it to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation this Sunday…playing in the Prairie Wind Casino at 7:00.
Diffie…whose dozen #1 hits include If the Devil Danced in Empty Pockets, Pickup Man, and Third Rock From the Sun…they’ve been having a lot of fun, but admits the idea of the three of them coming together wasn’t theirs.
He says they all have the same booking agency and while each of them was looking for something different to do, someone at the agency suggested touring and singing together.
In addition to having three headliners working together, the Roots and Boots tour features Diffie, Kershaw, and Tippin working acoustically. He says both aspects…being part of a team instead of a lone wolf and using the softer acoustic sound…have been a lot of fun.
Diffie recently re-recorded 20 of his biggest hits into a CD titled The Ultimate Collection. He says there were a couple of reasons he decided to redo them instead of just re-releasing the original versions.
One dealt strictly with a business reason: he would own the new recordings and have more control over their use.
Another was to eliminate a few aspects of the originals he thinks are dated, such as a heavy use of reverberation on his songs from the early part of the 90s.
Diffie says he didn’t know if he could catch “the magic” that made the songs hits originally, but thinks the result was a good updating that’s a good representation of his hits.
As for what fans can expect Sunday night at the Roots and Boots concert at the Prairie Wind Casino, Diffie says good music and good fun with he, Tippin, and Kershaw on stage together with a lot of comradery.
Ticket prices for Sunday’s concert are $20, $30, and $40.
We talk to Joe Diffie:
(AP) — Jason Aldean says he’s “curious” about things like album sales and chart positions, but those aren’t the most important things in his career. He told a group of reporters recently that he “hasn’t even called his record company in four years.”
They probably don’t mind too much because his new album, ‘Night Train,’ debuted at the top of both Billboard’s country albums chart and its multi-genre albums chart, selling 409,303 copies its first week. Aldean wraps up his “My Kinda Party” tour this Saturday in Dallas with his annual Concert for the Cure to benefit breast cancer research. He then heads to Nashville for the CMA Awards, where he’s nominated for three trophies, including Entertainer of the Year.
(AP) — Hayden Panettiere plays a country musician on TV and one day she might be one in real life.
The 23-year-old “Nashville” actress tells US Weekly that she recorded an album when she was younger and always said if she ever went back to music she “would do country.” She says she’s “keeping her fingers crossed.”
Her song “Telescope” — part of the Nashville show soundtrack hit country radio this week.
