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Garth Brooks & Trisha Yearwood to Perform on Grand Ole Opry Saturday, May 2

4/28/2020

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Double date with the Queen and me on Saturday night??!! love, g

Watch #StudioG here: https://t.co/itlXZb03Yg pic.twitter.com/7HzAPDxUwN

— Garth Brooks (@garthbrooks) April 27, 2020
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – (April 28, 2020) Opry members Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood will step in to the circle to perform the Grand Ole Opry’s 4,922nd consecutive Saturday night broadcast, bringing millions of fans around the world together as the Opry keeps the music playing for what will be the eighth broadcast in which the Grand Ole Opry has not had an audience in attendance amidst the COVID outbreak. 

Opry members Brooks and Yearwood will step on the stage together this Saturday, May 2 at 8 PM ET / 7 PM CT. The show will be broadcast live on Circle, Gray TV stations, DISH Studio Channel 102, Sling TV and other TV affiliates in addition to a companion live stream on Circle All Access and the artists’ Facebook pages. Radio personality Bobby Bones will host the Circle telecast, while WSM's Mike Terry will serve as radio announcer for those tuned in in 650 AM WSM and SiriusXM Satellite Radio. The show’s artists will perform acoustically. For those in the Nashville area, tune into WSMV-TV (Channel 4). 

With Nashvillians at home under Nashville Mayor John Cooper’s “Safer at Home” order and live shows paused at the Grand Ole Opry to help reduce the spread of COVID-19, this Saturday’s performance will once again take place without a live audience. 

Each week millions of fans in dozens of countries around the world have tuned in live over the past seven weeks to video stream or listen to legendary Opry members Bill Anderson, Jeannie Seely and Connie Smith as well as Mandy Barnett, Michael Cleveland & Flamekeeper and Sam Williams took to the stage on March 14 as the Opry show went on the air without a live ticketed audience. On March 21, Opry members Vince Gill, Brad Paisley and Marty Stuart performed acoustically from the Opry House stage. On March 28, Gill returned to the stage to perform acoustically with members of his family: wife Amy Grant and daughters Jenny Gill and Corrina Grant Gill. The April 4 show featured Opry member Terri Clark, plus Lauren Alaina and Ashley McBryde stepping on to the stage for the 4,918th Saturday night Opry broadcast. On April 11, the Opry hosted an Easter celebration featuring Opry member Trace Adkins with Jason Crabb and T. Graham Brown. On April 18, bluegrass greats and Opry members Ricky Skaggs and Dailey & Vincent performed on the Opry’s 4,920th consecutive Saturday night. And last week, the Opry welcomed members Luke Combs and Craig Morgan to the stage.
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ACMs to Nashville!

4/27/2020

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Announced today during Nashville Mayor John Cooper's daily press briefing, the 55th Academy of Country Music Awards will broadcast live from Nashville on Wednesday, Sept. 16 on CBS. The Academy, Dick Clark Productions and the network postponed the show, originally set for April 5 in Las Vegas, as COVID-19 forced widespread shut downs. The new date will incorporate performances from the Grand Ole Opry House, the Ryman Auditorium and the Bluebird Cafe; Keith Urban will host (as previously announced before the world went awry). A decision about audiences will be made later. This is the first time the show has been held in Nashville.
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[Closed] WIN: "Homeward Looking Angel" Pam Tillis Now "Looking for a Feeling"

4/22/2020

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​
Pam Tillis's long-awaited album "Looking for a Feeling" makes its official debut this week (more info here: 
https://www.thecountryclubonline.com/home/pam-tilliss-new-tunes-might-just-be-your-kind-of-medicine). 

*Contest Rules: Comment below and be the first to answer all six questions correctly. (If you didn't win - here's a link to buy).  

1) Fill in the Blank: Maybe it was...?

A) Cherry Coke
B) Strawberry Wine
C) Memphis
D) Sweet Tea

2) In what Vince Gill music video did Pam (and an astounding number of many more musical heroes and who's whos) appear?  

3) True or False: Pam used to record under the stage name Regina Phalange.

4) In what scripted TV show did Pam appear in a recurring role as herself? 

5) Of what does Pam claim to be queen?

A) My Double-Wide Trailer
B) England
C) Everything
D) Denial 

6) Pam's father's name is: 

A) Mel
B) Luke
C) Ryan
D) Time

#PamTillis #NewMusicFriday #CountryMusic #Contest #FreeMusic #ReginaPhalange
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Chrissy Metz Takes Up Talking to God

4/9/2020

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Buy now on Amazon!

Award-winning actress Chrissy Metz releases brand-new song “Talking To God” today. Written by Nicolette Hayford, Connie Harrington, Jake Mitchell, Ashley McBryde and Aaron Raitiere (interview with him here), the introspective song is the first from Metz’s upcoming debut album on EMI Records Nashville.
 
Listen to “Talking To God” HERE and see a behind-the scenes look at the album photo shoot HERE.
 
“‘Talking To God’ is a song about those moments when we ask the questions we desperately want the answers to,” shares Metz. “Whether it’s a lost love or why our own lives look much different than the way we had hoped they would. It’s about those personal prayers and conversations we have while listening and learning to surrender and trust in the bigger picture.”
 
Metz signed a record deal with Universal Music Group Nashville following her starring role in 20th Century Fox’s Breakthrough movie and soundtrack featuring her performance of the Oscar-nominated, Diane Warren penned track, “I’m Standing With You.” Metz, who has also showcased her vocal abilities as “Kate Pearson” on NBC’s award-winning series This Is Us, calls music her “first love” and is currently hosting a daily Facebook livestream, The Dreamers where she shares her musical journey. 


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Never Say Never!                                                                Ashley McBryde's New Album Available Now

4/3/2020

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*McBryde plays a special Saturday night Opry on 4/4 alongside Terri Clark and Lauren Alaina. ​
Buy Now on Amazon!
Reigning ACM New Female Artist of the Year, CMA New Artist of the Year and CMT Breakout Artist of the Year Ashley McBryde is set to release her sophomore album Never Will, the follow-up to her critically-acclaimed GRAMMY-nominated debut Girl Going Nowhere on April 3 via Warner Music Nashville.

At the top of 2020, NPR named Never Will in an all-genre “An Early Preview: 5 Upcoming Albums We Can’t Wait to Hear,” noting McBryde’s “renegade spirit and no-nonsense approach to her artistry.” Rolling Stone echoed, including McBryde’s Jay Joyce-produced record in its “70 Most Anticipated Albums of 2020.” Never Will holds 11 tracks including lead single “One Night Standards,” which landed at number seven on NPR’s “25 Best Songs of 2019,” and acts as the first installment of a three-piece video storyline including “Martha Divine,” and “Hang In There Girl". The three-time GRAMMY nominee followed the video saga with “First Thing I Reach For".
 
Despite postponed dates on her headlining One Night Standards Tour, McBryde has continued connecting with fans via Facebook live with her “All Cooped Up” series.
 
Order Never Will HERE.
 
Never Will Track Listing:
  1. Hang In There Girl (Ashley McBryde, Jeremy Bussey)
  2. One Night Standards (Ashley McBryde, Nicolette Hayford, Shane McAnally)
  3. Shut Up Sheila (Nicolette Hayford, Charles Chisholm)
  4. First Thing I Reach For (Ashley McBryde, Randall Clay, Mick Holland)
  5. Voodoo Doll (Ashley McBryde, Nicolette Hayford, Brandy Clark, Connie Harrington, Jake Mitchell, Aaron Raitiere)
  6. Sparrow (Ashley McBryde, Nicolette Hayford, Brandy Clark, Connie Harrington, Jake Mitchell, Aaron Raitiere)
  7. Martha Divine (Ashley McBryde, Jeremy Spillman)
  8. Velvet Red (Ashley McBryde, Patrick Savage, Daniel Smalley)
  9. Stone (Ashley McBryde, Nicolette Hayford)
  10. Never Will (Ashley McBryde, Chris Harris, Blue Foley, Matt Helmkamp, Christian Sancho, Victor Quinn Hill)
  11. Styrofoam (Randall Clay)

#AshleyMcBryde #NeverSayNever #OneNightStandards #MarthaDivine
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*Star* Power: An Interview with Grammy-Winning Singer/Songwriter Aaron Raitiere

4/3/2020

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VIDEO: Raitiere accepts Grammy alongside Natalie Hemby and Hillary Lindsey
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Photo by Becky Fluke
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PictureRaitiere with the Oak Ridge Boys
Aaron Raitiere “Star”ry-Eyed After Recent Grammy Win: Talks Winning, Writing, Reindeer and
​What’s Next on the Horizon


BY MELISSA COKER

He may have lost his phone on the way to this year’s Grammy Awards—but that didn’t stop songwriter Aaron Raitiere from answering the (proverbial) call. As he stood alongside co-writers Natalie Hemby and Hillary Lindsey you could feel the thankfulness radiating from Raitiere, who grinned from ear to ear throughout the entire 30 seconds of the threesome’s collective acceptance speeches upon winning the golden trophy in the Best Song Written for Visual Media category. Raitiere and his co-writing cohorts were up against creations from Randy Newman, Dolly Parton, Thom Yorke and Beyoncé.

“I’d like to thank my mom and dad. Love you all,” he was sure to add in edgewise as the exit music began to play as the songwriters accepted their A Star is Born win for the song “I’ll Never Love Again.”

“All of that stuff [the song and nomination] was just a total . . . wait and see,” shares Raitiere. “I showed up and turned something in. The song was written in probably less than an hour and that was while they were still writing the movie. And so we didn’t hear for a couple of years whether or not it was even going to be in the movie.”

Fresh off of the Grammy high, Raitiere returned to a lower level—down to The Basement, to be exact. Thanks to an invite from Mike Grimes (owner of Grimey’s New & Preloved Music and the Basement) Aaron wrapped up a month-long residency at the Nashville nightspot just two days after the awards ceremony with a free show featuring very special guests Anderson East and Ashley Monroe. The encore evening was also recorded, with plans in the works for a live album. Other guests throughout the residency included Everette, Hayes Carll, Wyatt McCubbin and Waylon Payne. Raitiere says he’s lucky to have met Grimes and is very grateful for that opportunity.

Self-described as a “single-wide dreamer in a double-wide world” (a lyric which he explains simply means being “happy with the smaller details in life in a world where people’s goals aren’t necessarily small”), winning for the Star soundtrack is definitely one of the things of which dreams are made. But being aligned with the soundtrack’s constellation isn’t the 2009 MTSU Master of Fine Arts grad’s first foray into the celestial. An enchanting far and away tune titled “Brand New Star,” which Raitiere co-wrote with Americana artist Mando Saenz, is the first track on and a featured single from The Oak Ridge Boys’ 2018 album 17th Avenue Revival (produced by Dave Cobb). The uptempo ode is a sort of “Will the Circle Be Unbroken?” of sorts, mourning the loss of a loved one but celebrating that the loss is the sky’s gain because there’s a brand new star up in heaven tonight.

“It’s the happiest song I’ve ever heard about someone dying,” Oak Ridge Boys singer Joe Bonsall cheerfully says of “Brand New Star.”

“I love that song. Mando and I had a write planned that day anyway and I write for Dave Cobb, and Dave Cobb was producing that record,” reflects Raitiere. “Dave said he needed a gospel song. It happened to be about the time that Chris Cornell of Soundgarden died and so the song for me was written for Chris Cornell, but it was played at my grandfather’s funeral and I think it’s turned into a real special song for a lot of people.”

Keeping on the sunny (and snowy) side, to detail Raitiere’s work for the Oaks and not mention their most recent Christmas collection would be grounds for the naughty list. He wrote six of the eleven tracks (two solo) on 2019’s Down Home Christmas. The title track was another Mando Saenz co-write, “Don’t Go Pullin’ on Santa Claus’ Beard” was written with Raitiere’s fellow former MTSU classmate Anderson East (and featured producer Dave Cobb in its video), and the frolic-filled “Reindeer on the Roof” (video below) was written with Jake Mitchell.

“We told Aaron Raitiere that we needed a fun Santa song, and almost immediately he and Anderson East wrote ‘Don’t Go Pullin’ on Santa Claus’ Beard,’” said Bonsall. “[The album process] was like old Nashville again. Writers would bring us a song and we would record it while they wrote another one. It was all magic and our producer Dave Cobb led us all the way! Quality songwriters writing great songs.”

“Show up and turn something in,” he advises to current students trying to make it in songwriting. “I think that’s how I graduated from college at all is to show up and turn something in. You never know. Sometimes the stuff you think is the worst could be what winds up bringing you success.”

But, about those reindeer on the roof? The Christmas video (below) for that Oak Ridge Boys cut could easily be another win in a best visual media category (albeit of a different variety). It prominently showcases John Rich (of Big & Rich) in a Santa suit, a pensive Jamey Johnson, and Dennis Quaid spiritedly singing Aaron Raitiere and Jake Mitchell’s lyrics in the video, which even showcases the group’s William Lee Golden stirring up a big batch of eggnog.

“Yeah, that was nuts [watching these guys sing ‘Reindeer on the Roof’],” he tells us. “Me and Jake Mitchell wrote that song. But Dave was making the record and he introduced me to the Oaks. And then I just kind of went into a Christmas hole for the month of June and just wrote tons and tons and tons of Christmas songs and I guess we all just kind of clicked."

On songwriting versus singing, he says: “I call it the ‘look at mes.’ I don’t think I have the ‘look at mes,’” he laughs sheepishly. “I hope I’m like a storyteller or maybe like a writer’s writer. I like to mind my own. And I think if you’re out in front as an artist, you’ve got to have a little bit of an appetite for attention. And I like being behind the music where I’m not the one that has to go out and sing the same songs every night and answer the same questions.”

That said, there is “a full-length album on deck that I’m really excited about and we’re shooting for a fall release,” he anticipates. “The music’s full-band. It’s co-produced by Anderson East and Miranda Lambert. We started working on it about four years ago and Anderson and I finally finished it up recently. I did do all the writing but they’re all co-written songs. I’m pretty excited about it. There’s a lot of guests on the record. But we’ll probably release the live record before the album.”

Raitiere even co-wrote (again joined by Jake Mitchell, in fact) two songs on Ashley McBryde's just-released album jaunt Never Will - "Voodoo Doll" and "Sparrow" (tracks five and six, respectively). Buy Never ​here. 

For more on Aaron Raitiere, visit aaronraitiere.com.

#AStarisBorn #Grammys #TheBasement #Nashville #Songwriting #Songwriter #StarryEyed #BrandNewStar #OakRidgeBoys #AshleyMcBryde #MirandaLambert #AndersonEast

*This article is a modified version of an interview by Melissa originally published in The Murfreesboro Pulse.

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