Month: June 2021

It's been several days since Chris Lane and his wife, Lauren, welcomed their first child, a baby boy named Dutton. Now, as they adjust to life as a family of three, Lauren shared some snapshots of baby Dutton's first week of life.

Included are snaps of the newborn snoozing, smiling or just hanging out in the arms of his family members. One video shows Dutton in his car seat, sucking on a pacifier and wearing a sweet newborn outfit with a hat to match.

Lauren also shared a hospital mirror selfie of her postpartum body, giving her followers an honest glimpse into what the initial days of recovery after childbirth look like.

Chris — or, more specifically, his legs — also make an appearance in one photo, which features baby Dutton lying in his lap and staring adorably up at his dad.

Dutton was born on June 8. In the days since, both of the proud parents have shared updates about life with a newborn. In her birth announcement on social media, Lauren wrote, “Your dad and I can't get enough of all 9 pounds of you. Now back to baby cuddles and praising Jesus over and over again for this little miracle!!”

 

 

 

 

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Kelsea Ballerini is the latest in a long line of country stars to make a stop on Sesame Street, according to People.

Like Johnny Cash, Tanya Tucker, Kacey Musgraves and many more before her, the “hole in the bottle” star is joining the beloved children's show's cast for a song.

In an episode airing on Thursday, Kelsea leads Elmo and the gang in a song “all about families,” she explains to the iconic red Muppet, adding, “I love all families. Wanna know why? Because every family is different.”

With acoustic guitar in hand, Kelsea then launches into a pop-inflected sing-a-long celebrating all the ways in which families can be unique and beautiful.

“Some families have a mom and dad / Some just one or the other / Your family might be you and grandma / A mom, you and your brother,” she sings. “But the one thing every family has, whatever they may be / Is a thing that we call love / That's what makes a family.”

Kelsea's Sesame Street appearance airs on HBO Max and PBS. She's one of several guest performers on this season of the show, along with Billy Porter, Maggie Rogers and Issa Rae.

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Late Southern rock pioneer Charlie Daniels gets the duets treatment in a new, 19-track collection due out this summer. The project, called Charlie Daniels & Friends — Duets will feature a number of classic performances, sung by Charlie with some of the best-loved stars in country music.

Dolly Parton features on a duet rendition of “Daddy's Old Fiddle,” for example, while Brad Paisley joins Charlie for “Jammin' for Stevie.” Garth Brooks offers up backing harmonies on “Waco,” Darius Rucker appears on “Like a Rolling Stone,” and Keith Urban plays guitar on a version of “The South's Gonna Do it Again.”

Other artists making guest appearances on the Duets album include Vince Gill, Brooks & Dunn, Montgomery Gentry, Travis Tritt, Marty Stuart and Brenda Lee.

The album will be available exclusively at Walmart, both in stores and on the retail chain's website. Its release date is July 16, just over a year after the one-year anniversary of Charlie's death in July 2020.

The legendary star died at the age of 83 after suffering a hemorrhagic stroke. He will also be remembered this August at the 2021 Volunteer Jam: A Musical Salute to Charlie Daniels, which will take place at Nashville's Bridgestone Arena.

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Alan Jackson, Jimmie Allen, Jennifer Nettles and Mickey Guyton will be representing country music on the all-genre bill for PBS' upcoming A Capitol Fourth television special. Airing on July 4, it's the 41st annual celebration of Independence Day.

Along with a live fireworks display, this year's A Capitol Fourth show will be made up of pre-recorded performances due to the pandemic. Artists will submit their performance from stages all across the country. Alan will perform from Nashville's Ryman Auditorium, while Jennifer will take the stage in New York City's Town Hall in Times Square.

Other artists joining the special include Jimmy Buffett, Gladys Knight, Pentatonix, Cynthia Erivo and many more. Vanessa Williams will host.

In particular, A Capitol Fourth will honor military members and their families. The event will also feature a salute to the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Teams ahead of this year's Olympics Games in Tokyo.

You can tune in to the show on PBS from 8-9:30PM ET on July 4. The program will also be broadcast on NPR stations nationwide, and stream on Facebook and YouTube as well as PBS' website.

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Like other country acts, Kenny Chesney had to halt touring plans in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He postponed his planned Chillaxification Tour, originally scheduled to kick off in spring 2020 — first to 2021, and then to 2022.

However, the singer's time away from his fans is finally coming to an end. He has confirmed a string of dates for 2022, giving the trek a new name: The Here and Now Stadium Tour. It takes his name from Kenny's 19th studio album, which he released in May of 2020.

The following year, fans received a deluxe version of Here and Now, the title track of which was also a chart-topping single. But Kenny still hasn't gotten a chance to play the songs on the album live, and that will all change in 2022.

“Like it does for everyone, the idea of…live music fills me up,” the singer explains. “…We're calling the tour Here and Now 2022, because when we get together, there is only the present — and it's so electric and good, I know I don't want it to end. I just want to be 100% there with all of you.”

The Here and Now 2022 Tour begins in Tampa, Florida on April 23. It'll stretch through the summer of 2022, wrapping with two nights in Foxborough, Massachusetts on August 26 and 27.

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On this date in 1988, a now-legendary superstar signed his first record deal with Capitol Records. He'd actually auditioned for the label weeks before and gotten turned down, but his luck soon changed when a performance he gave at Nashville's Bluebird Café caught the ear of the label's A&R head. Can you name this star? ANSWER: Garth Brooks.

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In case you missed it, Miranda Lambert stopped by The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon earlier this week with Jon Randall and Jack Ingram. The trio performed “Two-Step Down to Texas,” off their new album, The Marfa Tapes.

Blanco Brown is among the artists getting his own hologram from augmented-reality platform Jadu, as a part of a new collection centered around Black art for this year's Juneteenth. Blanco's holographic NFT will show him performing the dance to his “The Git Up,” which went viral on TikTok in 2019.

Hardy, Cody Johnson, Jameson Rodgers and Walker Hayes are all booked for Lynchburg Music Fest 2021, which announced its final lineup this week. The three-day event takes place July 8-10 at Music Hollow in Lynchburg, Tennessee.

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