When four-time GRAMMY Award winner Keith Urban revealed the track listing for his September 18th album release THE SPEED OF NOW Part 1, little did he know that worldwide social media chatter would erupt because of faded yellow blocks placed next to songs, “Out The Cage” and “One Too Many.” Fans from around the globe, quipped, speculated about collaborators and exhibited the tell-tale signs of FOMO.
Today, the chatter ends as Urban reveals that “Out The Cage,” the album’s opening track, highlights a collaboration with Breland and the legendary guitarist Nile Rodgers, while “One Too Many” features the incomparable P!nk. An alternate version of “We Were,” features the song’s co-writer, Eric Church.
As the collaborators were announced Urban explained, “When I collaborate, I’m always looking for that ‘third thing.’ There’s what I do, there’s what my collaborator does and then there’s this ‘third thing’ that I’m most curious about. That’s what interests me the most – when the sum of the parts becomes even more than what I envisioned. That’s what I love so much about it – finding common ground, shaping it and bringing it together.”
THE SPEED OF NOW Part 1, featuring “We Were,” “With You” and his latest hit, “God Whispered Your Name,” is available September 18th.
On the heels of his defiant new single “Stick That In Your Country Song,” actively climbing the charts at Country radio, current ACM Entertainer of the Year nominee Eric Church again offers a glimpse at his forthcoming project with today’s release of “Bad Mother Trucker.” Chronicling the rebellious swagger of a female truck driver earning respect on the road, the song written by Church together with Casey Beathard, Luke Dick and Jeremy Spillman combines a contagious groove and a guitar solo begging for the day the Church Choir can once again gather at a live show with the Chief’s signature snarl and the powerhouse backing vocals of Joanna Cotten. “She drove an ’81 Peterbilt 18-wheeler, jet black with pink mud flaps / It was a mean piece of metal with lightning in the pedal, thunder coming out the back / And them boys would chuckle when they saw her buckle herself in the captain’s seat / But nobody was laughing when she’d go to passing, smiling at them real sweet,” Church sings as the song opens and listeners meet the heroine. “She was hell on wheels where the road meets the rubber / A real gear jammer, a white line wonder / Yeah you only get one and I wouldn’t want another / ’Cause Mama was a bad mother trucker.” The two new tracks follow heavy speculation surrounding Church’s forthcoming project, after he discussed writing and recording a song per day in a rural North Carolina cabin during his CRS “Chasing Creativity” keynote appearance earlier this year. Devoted to putting fans first, the man NPR calls “the gold standard for mainstream country” has offered them glimpses at the new songs throughout recent performances on ACM Presents:Our Country (“Never Break Heart”), Stagecouch (“Jenny”) and in a defiant spoken-word recording, “Through My Ray Bans.” The new music follows Church’s most recent critically acclaimed project, 2018’s Desperate Man, his sixth studio album which was named one of the year’s best by American Songwriter, Billboard, Entertainment Weekly, Esquire, Los Angeles Times, NPR, Rolling Stone, Variety and Vulture, among others, also earning a Grammy nod for Best Country Album (his third nomination in the category). For more information, visit www.ericchurch.com and follow on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
“I Should Probably Go To Bed,” the brand new single from Dan + Shay, is available worldwide now (LISTEN HERE). The accompanying music video is filled with surrealist imagery and physics-defying action. Written earlier this year, the song was produced entirely by the group’s Dan Smyers; every instrument was performed and recorded by Smyers at his home studio in Nashville, TN.
“I Should Probably Go To Bed” follows on the heels of the duo’s multi-week No. 1 hit “10,000 Hours” (with Justin Bieber), which became the biggest first-week streaming total in country music history and was the fastest country song to reach one million U.S. track equivalents in 2019, earning over 3.1 million U.S. track equivalents to date, and more than one billion global streams. “10,000 Hours” is the first song by a country duo or group ever to debut in the Billboard Hot 100’s Top 5, and spent 21 consecutive weeks at No. 1 on Hot Country Songs (4th longest run in chart history). The worldwide smash has achieved 2x Platinum certification in Australia and Canada, Platinum certification in the Netherlands, and Gold certification in four other countries.
Warner Music Nashville recording artist and “a singer/songwriter with attitude and hooks to burn” (Rolling Stone) Tucker Beathard is set to release the second installment of his debut double album, KING, on August 21 and it is available to pre-order now here.
Beathard’s new LP, driven by personal growth and unthinkable tragedy, rounds out the 20-plus song opus Beathard began with NOBODY’S EVERYTHING and signals that the bold breakout talent has found his voice. KING, a tribute to the middle name of Beathard’s late brother, Clay, sees Beathard steering his own creative ship with co-producer, co-writer and lead guitar and drum credits throughout the 13-song set, breaking an increasingly-tired mold for a project that cuts against the modern-country grain.
For “one of country music’s hottest young acts” (Pitchfork), the stage was first set for the cohesive collection with the release of “Better Than Me,” a high-octane anthem while the next offering, “You Would Think,” doubled down as an open-to-interpretation plea for mercy. “Miss You Now” turns the full-body ache of loneliness into armor, and the grooving “Can’t Stay Here” is a playful send up to a relationship’s closing time and a much needed-musical smile. Others like “Too Drunk” tap into heavy metal humor, while “20-10 Tennessee” uses college football as a moody metaphor for romantic-miracles, and “One Up’er” finds Beathard putting a barstool blowhard in his place with swampy, bluesman swagger. But it’s with the album’s final track that Beathard places the crown on KING’s head. Co-written with his father, “I Ain’t Without You” stands as a powerful message to his late brother – and in a broader sense, to all those struggling to cope through unprecedented trials.
Today, fans also finally get a studio recording of Beathard’s early-career youtube favorite, “Faithful,” available to listen here as well as a trippy, effusive new music video for the track available to watch here. Much loved as an acoustic ballad to taking chances on love, it’s now reborn as a stunning post-rock anthem solidifying Beathard’s penchant for “a bit more edge than Nashville is accustomed to” (NPR).
“For me music has always been a way to escape,” explains Beathard. “There’s a lot of things people are dealing with internally that they don’t have voices for right now, and I’ve learned that if I write from the heart, if I sing from experience, I can be that voice. Some people can’t pinpoint what they’re feeling, but they can hear a song and be like ‘Damn, that’s it,’ and I hope I can help them get there with this record. These songs mean a lot to me and I feel really ready to share them with the world.”
Beathard also shared more insight into the forthcoming record, available to watch here. KING – Official Track List: 1. Better Than Me Tucker Beathard, Dan Isbell, Jonathan Singleton 2. You Would Think Tucker Beathard, Casey Beathard, Donovan Woods 3. One Upper Tucker Beathard, Jeff Hyde, Ben Stennis 4. 20/10 TN Tucker Beathard, Casey Beathard, Phil O’Donnell 5. Paper Town Tucker Beathard, Phil O’Donnell, Monty Criswell 6. You On Tucker Beathard, Casey Beathard, Luke Dick 7. Miss You Now Tucker Beathard, Donovan Woods, Todd Clark 8. Only Tucker Beathard, Marla Cannon-Goodman 9. Find Me Here Tucker Beathard, Phil O’Donnell, Monty Criswell 10. Too Drunk Tucker Beathard, Joe Whelan, Shane MInor 11. Faithful Tucker Beathard, Marla Cannon-Goodman 12. Can’t Stay Here Tucker Beathard, Ryan Tyndell, Joe Whelan, Will Lamb 13. I Ain’t Without You Tucker Beathard, Casey Beathard
The country music community is mourning the loss of an iconic country star. Country music and southern rock legend Charlie Daniels has passed. The Country Music Hall of Fame and Grand Ole Opry member died this morning at Summit Medical Center in Hermitage, Tennessee. Doctors determined the cause of death was a hemorrhagic stroke. He was 83.
Funeral arrangements will be announced in the coming days.
