Month: September 2021

Kane Brown has earned a spot TIME magazine’s prestigious TIME100 list, honoring the 100 most influential people of 2021. Darius Rucker penned the touching tribute to Kane.

“Kane Brown has that unquantifiable ‘it’ factor,” Darius praised. “He's so laid-back and doesn't take himself too seriously, but he also really cares about his craft and other people. And when it comes to his music, he can do that low, cool, borderline-rapping thing, and then he sings and his vocal ability just blows you away.”

Darius made great strides as a Black man in country music, strides that Darius sees Kane also achieving.

“I'm sure there are kids looking up to Kane right now just like when I looked up at Charley Pride,” Darius says. “One of the most pivotal moments of my career was when Charley shared some of the lessons he learned over the years with me … Kane is setting the bar so high for the next generation. I hope kids see him and now think, ‘I?can do that.'”

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Good news for customers of StubHub: You’re getting your money back.

The ticket resale platform has agreed to give refunds to customers who purchased tickets to events canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic. When concerts and other events first started being canceled, StubHub initially stopped honoring its refund guarantee, instead offering customers credits to be used for future events.

On Wednesday, several state attorneys general announced a settlement with StubHub that forces the ticket reseller to reverse the policy and honor refunds for tickets purchased prior to March 25, 2020. The settlement also requires StubHub to be more forthcoming about its refund policies and honor those policies when events are cancelled.

The company will be able to avoid paying a multi-million-dollar penalty if it promptly coughs up the refunds owed to customers. Instead of refunds, StubHub had tried to offer credits of $120% of ticket purchase prices for future events.

The multistate investigation began after several customer complaints, and Stubhub's “lack of responsiveness” to the inquiries, the attorneys general said.

Now, the bad news: The settlement only involves StubHub customers in Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Indiana, Maryland, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Ohio, Virginia, Wisconsin, and the District of Columbia.

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On this day in 1903, this Grand Ole Opry star and famous fiddle player was born in Maynardville, Tennessee. Known as the original “King of Country Music,” he co-founded Acuff-Rose Music that signed Hank Williams, Roy Orbison and more. Who is he? ANSWER: Roy Acuff.

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Scotty McCreery is sharing another song from his upcoming Same Truck album. The American Idol alum dropped “Damn Strait,” one of only two songs he did not write on his new record.

“Every now and then you hear a song that sounds so much like you,” Scotty says of the song, which was written by Trent Tomlinson and Jim Collins. “I grew up as a huge George Strait fan, and when I heard this song, I raised my hand to say, I want this one.' Every country fan has a George Strait story, and everyone has a memory attached to their favorite songs.”

It was George, along with a couple of other country music legends, who inspired Scotty to become a singer.

“The first country music concert I ever went to was George Strait, Reba [McEntire] and Lee Ann Womack,” Scotty says. “When I saw that show, I said, I'm gonna do that one day.'”

Same Truck will be released on Friday, September 17. Scotty’s current single from the album, “You Time,” is currently in the top 5.

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This week, Thomas Rhett claims his 18th #1, as “Country Again” tops the chart. While his last dozen singles have made it to #1, that wasn’t always the case. 

“Minus the sunglasses, I wanted to be Eric Church,” he admits. “I used Eric’s producer. I tried to sing like him… My first two singles… did not do anything at all. My first two number ones… were songs that my dad wrote…”

“I put this song out called ‘Make Me Wanna,’ which was very strange to the radio at that point in time,” he continues. “It was like seventies-disco-meets-country-lyric. I was like, ‘Should I put this song out?’ My manager Virginia said, ‘If you’re okay with this song dying at number 40, then that should be your gut feeling and you should go with it.'”

That, it turns out, made the difference.

“It sat at 40 for like 20 weeks,” TR recalls, “and then all of the sudden, it started to catch. And then it became a hit, and that gave me the confidence to put a song out like ‘Crash and Burn.'”

“And then [it] kind of changed this whole trajectory for me,” he reflects. “I was in this lane, and then all of the sudden, I kind of veered left. And it kind of just gave me this confidence to put out songs that may or may not have worked.”

Ultimately, TR hopes he’s helped country’s next generation.

“I followed my gut on a lot of the releases,” he declares. “And I hope that… made a way for a lot of other artists to be able to put some of these songs out… as well, because people like Eric Church and Brantley Gilbert and Jason Aldean did that for me.”

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Lily Rose is releasing a new seven-song project, Stronger Than I Am, on October 1. It features her breakthrough single, “Villain,” and the title track, which drops on Friday. 

Jason Isbell is releasing a covers album, Georgia Blue, on October 15, featuring collaborations with Brandi Carlile, Brittney Spencer, wife Amanda Shires from The Highwomen, and more. Proceeds from the album benefit Black Voters Matter, Fair Fight and Georgia STAND-UP. Isbell’s cover of R.E.M.'s “Driver 8” with John Paul White is available now.

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