Month: June 2021

The 2021 CMT Music Awards were handed out Wednesday night, live from Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena. Kane Brown and Kelsea Ballerini hosted the fan-voted show.

Here’s a complete rundown of the winners:

Video of the Year
Carrie Underwood with John Legend — “Hallelujah”

Male Video of the Year
Kane Brown — “Worship You”

Female Video of the Year
Gabby Barrett — “The Good Ones” 

Duo/Group Video of the Year
Little Big Town — “Wine, Beer, Whiskey”

Breakthrough Video of the Year
Dylan Scott — “Nobody”

CMT Performance of the Year
Kelsea Ballerini and Halsey — “The Other Girl” (from the 2020 CMT Music Awards)

Collaborative Video of the Year
Chris Young and Kane Brown — “Famous Friends”

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A Texas police officer named Tyler Pride, who is the biological son of the late country legend Charley Pride, has filed a lawsuit contesting the singer's will, according to The Dallas Morning News.

Pride died of COVID-19 complications in December 2020, and his will acknowledges the three children, Dion, Angela and Carlton, whom he shared with his wife of more than 60 years, Rozene, who is also the executor of his will.

But Pride also fathered a child by Joyce Ann Tines, Tyler's mother, during an affair that Tyler tells the newspaper lasted for a decade. In 1992, a Texas court proved that the then-13-year-old Tyler was Pride's biological son using the results of a DNA test. The court also ordered that Pride pay $92,000 in back child support and begin making payments of $4,000 per month until Tyler's 18th birthday.

In her response to the lawsuit, Rozene doesn't contest Tyler's paternity, but does say that it's “heartbreaking to see Tyler try to tarnish Charley's reputation and break Charley's estate plan in the hope of getting more money for himself,” also saying that Tyler saw Charley as a “cash cow” during the latter years of his life.

Tyler, now 41, says he's contesting the will to “see what I'm entitled to,” also explaining that he felt shut out from the family in the wake of Pride's death. Nobody “bothered to tell me” about Pride's fatal bout with COVID-19, he explains, also claiming that he met with resistance when he expressed interest in attending the funeral.

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It's been nearly four years since Chris Young released his last album, Losing Sleep, and he's been teasing new music in the works for quite a while. Now, it's official: The singer's next album, Famous Friends, will arrive this summer.

Chris' next album is due out on August 6, and takes its name from his top-five hit duet with Kane Brown. It's no accident that that's the title track, the singer tells People.

“This song has really made a name for itself with how much people love it. Going into the album launch right here in the heat of the summer with a song that's becoming one of the songs of the summer, it made a lot of sense to call this Famous Friends,” he explains.

The Famous Friends track list will include a handful of songs Chris has released over the past few years, such as “Drowning,” “Town Ain't Big Enough” and “Raised on Country,” Chris' hit single from 2019.

“It's been so long that I've been talking about all the stuff that I did in the past year and a half, and I think people at one point thought I was just messing with them a little bit,” Chris acknowledges of the album's slow rollout. “They were like, Do you actually have an album coming out?' But it's so exciting to have this information out there.”

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpMOx2Ul9RA]

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Earlier this week, Dierks Bentley announced the lineup of his Seven Peaks Music Festival, which will return to Buena Vista, Colorado in early September 2021.

But there was a time when he wasn't so sure it would return. Launched in 2018, the event was cancelled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, so it's still only in its third year. That means Seven Peaks hasn't had time to financially break even yet, Dierks explains to Billboard.

“We're not doing it for that — we're doing it because it's awesome. We're hoping one day it does work out that way, but we're still growing it,” he says.

Still, Dierks launched Seven Peaks in partnership with Live Nation, and after the financial hit of 2020, he had concerns about whether his festival would get the go-ahead for this year.

“[When] it got cut last year, that really hurt and the question of whether Live Nation's going to put their money behind something that's not yet making them a lot of money was very worrisome for me,” the singer admits.

But the return of Seven Peaks started to feel “pretty real” once Keith Urban signed on as a headliner, Dierks continues.

“That was such a huge thing; that was the ultimate green light,” he says. “You've got to have that one big headliner at a country festival.”

The momentum of adding Keith to the bill began to snowball, and Dierks has also announced a number of other exciting names, like Ingrid Andress, Kip Moore and Travis Denning. Also performing are rising acts like Willie Jones, bluegrass guitarist Molly Tuttle and Dierks' own 90s parody band, the Hot Country Knights.

Seven Peaks runs September 3-5, 2021. Tickets go on sale June 18 at 12 p.m. ET.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FoChCHT83K4]

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Midland singer Mark Wystrach is among the cast of The Eyes of Tammy Faye, a biopic that looks at the life of televangelist Tammy Faye Bakker.

Faye and her husband, Jim Bakker, became legendary in the world of religious television in the 70s and 80s, creating their own religious broadcasting network and theme park. Their empire ultimately crumbled under scandals that ranged from financial impropriety to sexual assault, and more.

Mark plays Gary S. Paxton in the film, according to IMDB. A renowned record producer, artist and songwriter, Paxton became linked to the Bakkers in 1987 when rumors swirled of an affair between him and Tammy. At the time, Jim Bakker was embroiled in an affair scandal of his own with church secretary Jessica Hahn.

The Eyes of Tammy Faye arrives in theaters September 17. The film stars Jessica Chastain in the titular role, as well as Andrew Garfield, Cherry Jones, Fredric Lehne and others. You can check out a trailer for the flick at Searchlight Pictures’ YouTube channel.

Though he's better known for his success in country music these days, Mark has plenty of experience as an actor. He had a role in the 2006 film Just My Luck and made an appearance on the TV series Weeds, for example.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMMLRnXPPJk]

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Blanco Brown is counting down the days until he drops his new song, “Nobody's More Country,” on June 18. Prior to release day, the singer-songwriter will give a live performance of the tune during the CMT Music Awards on Wednesday night.

“Nobody's More Country” draws from his native Georgia roots, Blanco explains, as well as the feeling of homecoming he gets from country music, wherever he finds it.

“I've been all around the world and have seen people of all ages, nationalities and backgrounds uniting over their love of country music — the music that ties us together,” the singer reflects. “It's the sound of home. It's the sound of my Georgia heart. It's hard to imagine anybody loving it more than me.”

“Nobody's More Country” also is the first song Blanco will release since his September 2020 motorcycle accident, which required hours of surgery to address his life-threatening injuries and weeks in the ICU. The singer made his first public appearance post-accident at the 2021 ACM Awards, where he shared his excitement at getting back to music and performing.

In March, Blanco had a number-one hit courtesy of “Just the Way,” his duet with Parmalee.

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Lady A has a new album on the way. The trio just announced their next release, What a Song Can Do (Chapter One), which is due out June 25.

The new songs find the band writing and processing their way through the challenges of 2020. Each of the tracks on What a Song Can Do (Chapter One) features at least one of the band mates — Hillary Scott, Charles Kelley and Dave Haywood — as co-writer. Plus, they teamed with some of their country music friends and frequent collaborators, like Thomas Rhett and Ryan Hurd, to write the project.

“There's an interdependence that we have with each other, and music is at the center of that to me,” Hillary reflects. “We are all living in the now together…we're all a work in progress, and that is what we wanted to share with these songs on the first chapter.”

While a seven-song track list feels a little slim for a full album, the project's title indicates that more music is yet to come, though. Lady A hasn't shared any details about a Chapter Two.

The band also recently announced a tour, also named What a Song Can Do, which will launch in late July and feature opening acts Carly Pearce, Niko Moon and Tenille Arts.

What a Song Can Do (Chapter One) includes the group's current single, “Like a Lady.” The project is available for pre-order starting Friday. If you pre-order it, you’ll have instant access to another new track, “Things He Handed Down,” which Lady A debuted onstage at the Grand Ole Opry last month.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RihBVjVqpwA]

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The CMT Music Awards airs on Wednesday night, and there are just a few finalists left in the running to win the night's top honor. CMT has now revealed the final four nominees for its Video of the Year category.

Two of the top videos are cross-genre duets: Carrie Underwood and John Legend's “Hallelujah” is in the running, as is Keith Urban and P!nk's “One Too Many.” Kane Brown could also win the top honor with his “Worldwide Beautiful,” and Kelsea Ballerini is nominated for “hole in the bottle.”

With 22 trophies, Carrie's the most-awarded artist in CMT history. Also, if she wins Video of the Year, it'll be the second year running she's won the award. She also won the night's biggest category at the 2020 CMT Awards, for “Drinking Alone.”

When CMT first unveiled this year's nominees list, there were 14 contenders for Video of the Year. Since then, fan voting has whittled it down to the top four. As of Wednesday, Twitter voting opened for Video of the Year, and will remain open through the live broadcast of the show.

To cast your vote for one of the four finalists, tweet with their artist-specific hashtag: #VoteCarrieCMT, #VoteKaneCMT, #VoteKeithCMT or #VoteKelseaCMT.

The 2021 CMT Music Awards airs Wednesday at 8 p.m. ET on CMT.

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On this day in 2009, “He Stopped Loving Her Today” was added to the Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry. Can you name the singer? ANSWER: George Jones. 

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