Month: December 2021

Walker Hayes and Mitchell Tenpenny will be spending New Year's Eve in Florida, celebrating college football.

They're both performing different events during the 2021 Orange Bowl: Walker's performing the halftime show, while Mitchell will play the Capitol One Orange Bowl Fan Fest pre-party before the game starts.

The pre-game event featuring Mitchell starts at 2:30p.m. EST, while the game itself begins at 7:30 p.m. EST, with the Michigan Wolverines squaring off against the Georgia Bulldogs. Those are two of four teams currently in the running to make the 2022 College Football Playoff National Championship; the other two are the Cincinnati Bearcats and the Alabama Crimson Tide.

While Walker's performing the halftime show for Michigan vs. Georgia, he's an Alabama native himself, and his newest song, “AA,” features a shout-out to Alabama head coach Nick Saban. It's unclear what the singer's planning to perform during halftime, though it's a good bet that it'll involve “Fancy Like,” his viral smash from earlier this year.

The big game will take place at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida. Admission to Fan Fest — and therefore, Mitchell's show, which will take place just outside the stadium — is free for game ticket holders.

 

 

 

 

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If you're looking forward to seeing Tom Hanks‘ cameo in the forthcoming Yellowstone prequel, 1883, you can thank Tim McGraw.

Tim, who stars in the series alongside his wife and fellow country star Faith Hill, says he personally asked Tom to make an appearance in the show. Minor spoiler alert: Tom plays a Union general who shows compassion to Tim’s character — who was a Confederate officer in the Civil War — during a flashback scene, according to ?Deadline?.

“Tom and [his wife] Rita [Wilson] and Faith and I have been friends for a long time,” Tim tells ET Online, explaining how he convinced the film star to join 1883‘s cast. “So I gave Tom a call and just asked. He goes, ‘Tell me when to be there.’ And he showed up and did it and he killed it. Of course, he’s Tom Hanks, so he’s gonna.”

The pair’s megawatt friendship isn’t quite as surprising as it sounds. Tim and Tom’s gigs have overlapped on occasion, such as during the January 2021 Celebrating America primetime television special. Tim performed on that event, and Tom hosted it.

Also, in addition to being an actor, Rita Wilson is a singer-songwriter whose musical inclinations fall inside the country genre. Faith even contributed vocals to her 2012 solo debut, AM/FM.

1883 premieres on Paramount+ on December 19.

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The Grand Ole Opry's first-ever Opry Live: USO Holiday Special airs on Saturday night, featuring festive performances from stars like Luke Combs, Josh Turner and Lauren Alaina.

It's a special partnership with United Service Organizations, a nonprofit that provides entertainment for service members and their families. The Opry show will spotlight those actively serving, as well as veterans, with a focus on delivering the sounds of home leading into the holiday season.

Before the special airs on Saturday night, you can get a glimpse of one of the performances: Carrie Underwood's classic take on “Silent Night.” Accompanied by a hushed piano line and strings, Carrie delivers a tender rendition of the holiday standard while standing on the Opry stage, backed by twinkling Christmas trees.

Watch the sneak peek via People, who premiered the clip.

Opry Live: USO Holiday Special ?will air on the Circle Network on December 18 at 9 p.m. ET. The event will also livestream on the USO and Circle All Access' Facebook, Twitter and YouTube channels. Country singer-songwriter Kellie Pickler, who's also a USO Global Ambassador, will host the show.

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Supergroup trio the Pistol Annies bring their new Christmas album to life tonight, with the Hell of a Holiday special airing on their Facebook page.

The three performers — Miranda Lambert, Ashley Monroe and Angaleena Presley — will sit down for an intimate conversation during the special, and will also deliver festive live performances of several tracks off the album.

Hell of a Holiday is made up of a seasonal mix of standards, like “Auld Lang Syne” and Merle Haggard's “If We Make it Through December,” as well as originals, such as “Snow Globe.”

The fun kicks off tonight at 8 p.m. ET. It'll also serve as a fundraiser for the Music Health Alliance, a Nashville-based non-profit that provides health care resources for members of the music industry. That's a cause that's particularly important to the trio this year, as Ashley — one third of the Annies — was diagnosed with a rare type of blood cancer. This morning, just hours before the special airs, Ashley shared a happy update with fans: She just finished her course of chemotherapy.

“My last chemo is done! Merry Christmas everyone,” she wrote on social media. “Thank you for praying for me. I felt them more than you know. I've never been more thankful. Ready to come back like never before in 2022!”

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Jason Aldean is beginning to tease new songs off his spring 2022 album, Georgia, and one of the tracks on the project will be a song about his mom, called “Your Mama.” His relationship with his mother is a subject near and dear to his heart, Jason explains in a new video posted to his social media.

“My parents got divorced when I was three, and my mom, she was very instrumental in raising me,” the singer reflects. “I was her only child, so everything she did sort of revolved around me and what I was doing.”

Jason says his mom always supported him, whether he was pursuing music or other interests, such as baseball. The singer remembers how his mom used to take him to baseball card shows, where they'd wait in line together so that Jason could get his cards autographed.

“I've always been super, super close with my mom,” he continues. “It's taught me how to be like that with my kids, and I give her a lot of credit for me being the way I am.”

In addition to the personal backstory behind the song, Jason also shared a snippet of “Your Mama” in the video.

The full Georgia album will be out next April. It's the second half of a double album project that began with the release of Macon last month; together, the discs make up Jason's 10th album to date.

 

 

 

 

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Ken Kragen, the music manager who organized the 1980s charity projects “We Are the World” and “Hands Across America,” has died, according to The Hollywood Reporter. He was 85 and died Tuesday in LA of natural causes.  

In his career, Kragen managed stars like Lionel Richie, Kenny Rogers, The Bee Gees and Olivia Newton-John, country stars Trisha Yearwood and Travis Tritt, and entertainers like Burt Reynolds and The Smothers Brothers.  He also produced The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour and The Gambler movies, starring Rogers.

However, Kragen is best known for his involvement in “We Are the World.”  In 1984, actor and humanitarian Harry Belafonte asked Kragen to help organize a concert to raise money for African famine relief.  Kragen suggested a charity single instead, and was instrumental in helping to line up the talent who appeared on the “We Are the World” single, co-written by Lionel Richie and Michael Jackson.

Released in 1985, “We Are the World” featured everyone from Stevie Wonder, Bob Dylan, Tina Turner, Diana Ross and Ray Charles to Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel, Steve Perry, Hall & Oates, Cyndi Lauper and Huey Lewis. It topped the Billboard Hot 100, became the first single ever to be RIAA-certified multi-Platinum, and raised more than $64 million for poverty relief in Africa and the U.S.

That same year, thanks to his efforts, Kragen became one of only a few private citizens ever to receive the United Nations’ Peace Medal.

In May of 1986, Kragen organized “Hands Across America,” which saw 6.5 million people linking hands across the U.S. for 15 minutes to create a human chain. Celebrities who participated included Rogers, Kenny Loggins, Bob Seger, Dionne Warwick, Yoko Ono, Robin Williams, Michael J. Fox, Michael Jackson, Brooke Shields and President Ronald Reagan. That project raised $15 million for hunger and homelessness.

Kragen went on to serve on the boards of numerous charities, lecture and teach at various universities, and produce part of Bill Clinton‘s 1992 presidential inauguration.  He wrote the 1994 best-selling book Life Is a Contact Sport, won two MTV Awards and an American Music Award, and was nominated for two Emmy Awards.

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As he continues to put tickets on sale for next year's Stadium Tour stops, Garth Brooks is bringing in massive sales numbers, including his most recently-announced show in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

So far, fans have snapped up 102,000 tickets to Garth's Baton Rouge show, which will take place in late April 2022 at the city's Tiger Stadium. The venue's capacity is 102,321, according to its website. It's only been five days since tickets for the show went on sale.

Over the course of the past three weeks, Garth's Stadium Tour shows have sold a total 570,000 tickets across three different cities. He sold out his show in Fayetteville, Arkansas, as well as all five dates planned for September 2022 in Dublin, Ireland's Croke Park.

But if you’re hoping to catch Garth's Stadium Tour next year, you still have your chance to do so. Tickets for his March 2022 date in Orlando, Florida go on sale this Friday, and he's also planning two Las Vegas engagements for February, which will go on sale later this month.

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Brett Young and family had a very specific Christmas tradition growing up that almost informed his own holiday album. 

The hit singer reveals that the Christmas with The Chipmunks album was a mainstay in his house, so much so that he believed it was every family’s favorite holiday album. 

“I thought that everybody had the Chipmunks Christmas record playing on vinyl every year during Christmas. That’s what I thought, ’cause that’s what we did every year,” Brett reveals. “If we weren’t watching the movie A Christmas Story on TV, we were listening to the Chipmunks record. So I thought that was everybody’s Christmas experience. Not sure why I thought it would be that way, but it was every year for me.”

Brett almost took his super-fan status to the next level when he began the recording process for his new Christmas album, Brett Young & Friends Sing the Christmas Classics, briefly toying with the idea of remaking the Chipmunks record. Instead, he called on some of his musical pals, including Darius Rucker and Colbie Caillat, to collaborate on standards like “White Christmas” and “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree,” although he did still manage to work in a cover of “The Chipmunks Song (Christmas Don’t Be Late).” 

“We actually flirted with the idea of re-doing the whole Chipmunks record for this record, and then we realized that would be ridiculous,” Brett says, laughing. “So we did one song.” 

Brett Young & Friends Sing the Christmas Classics is available now.

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