Month: December 2021

The deluxe version of Blake Shelton's Body Language album arrives today, adding four new songs to the album's original 12 tracks.

Among them are two new high-profile duets. One, called “Fire Up the Night,” features rising star Hardy, who also co-wrote Blake's 2019 hit, “God's Country.” Hardy's a co-writer on the new song, too, as is Florida Georgia Line's Brian Kelley.

With his Hardy collaboration, Blake dips into the best of Nashville's new crop of artists, while elsewhere on Body Language Deluxe, he keeps it old-school with one of the genre's legendary acts: Brooks & Dunn, who appear on another new song, “Throw It On Back.”

The other new tracks on the album are Blake’s current single, “Come Back as a Country Boy,” and the song he wrote for his wedding vows to Gwen Stefani, “We Can Reach the Stars.” Each of the four new tunes are special, he explains, and he wanted the world to hear them even though he wasn't yet ready for a whole new album cycle.

“We wanted to release this deluxe album because some songs came in at a point where I wasn't ready to make a new album,” Blake says. “But I wanted to get these songs out there, so that's what we decided to do.”

To celebrate, the singer stopped by The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon Thursday night for an interview and performance of “Come Back as a Country Boy.” You can also catch him on NBC's TODAY and Ellen, and next Tuesday, he's performing his single on the People's Choice Awards broadcast.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

It's been less than a month since Jason Aldean dropped Macon, the first half of the massive double project he's putting out as his 10th studio album. Now, he's already looking ahead to part two.

This week, the singer shared “Whiskey Me Away,” which is the first taste of Georgia, the second half of his project. Brooding and booze-soaked, the lyrics follow a pair of new lovers who meet at a bar and distract each other from their loneliness — if only for one night.

Jason co-wrote the song with Morgan Wallen, a top-selling artist who found himself persona non grata in the industry in early 2021 after TMZ published footage of him yelling a racist slur during a night out. Since then, Morgan's been removed from radio station airplay, awards show contention and more. The singer initially retreated from the spotlight but has been making hints at his intentions to return lately; last month, he announced a tour for 2022.

Jason's spoken up in the past about his hopes that Morgan will return to country mainstream sooner rather than later. They're longtime friends, and Morgan co-wrote Jason's 2018 hit, “You Make It Easy.”

Georgia is due out in full next April. Together, the two discs pay homage to Jason's hometown of Macon, Georgia.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

The premise of two women singing together about being caught loving the same man isn't a new one for country music: Reba McEntire and Linda Davis explored the idea in 1993 with their duet, “Does He Love You.”

But when Carly Pearce and Ashley McBryde teamed up to write their song, “Never Wanted to Be That Girl,” they immediately knew they wanted to approach the topic in a different way.

“We didn't want to just try to reboot Does He Love You.' We didn't want to try to do anything that had already been done so well,” Ashley explains. “So in this one, these women don't confront each other…nobody wants to be the other woman, and they're both finding out at the same time that they are. And they're just saying, I just never wanted to be this girl.'”

For Carly, the song was an exciting chance to work with a singer with whom she's long felt a kinship. “I feel like when I've performed next to Ashley in writers' rounds, we sing the same,” she points out.

“She's a little edgier than me, as far as, she's got a slight bit of southern rock to her,” Carly goes on to say, “but on the country side, we anticipate each other's voices in the same way. And I wanted to sing with that.”

Those similar vocal skills translated to the studio: “We're swapping lines and then swapping who's singing harmony,” agrees Ashley. “It happened organically in the writing room, so we wanted to make sure it got recorded that way.”

“Never Wanted to Be That Girl” comes off of Carly's latest album, 29: Written in Stone.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Mitchell Tenpenny just shared a festive new music video for his Christmas song “I Hope It Snows,” featuring his fiancée and fellow artist Meghan Patrick. Mitchell and Meghan got engaged in Nashville just before Thanksgiving.

Kacey Musgraves joined the fun-loving Sesame Street gang for a song recently, called “All the Colors of the World.” The full episode featuring Kacey's appearance is available to watch now on HBO Max.

Catch Lauren Alaina on CBS' The Talk on Friday morning, where she'll perform “Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree” and help the show celebrate its special in-studio audience full of teachers from around the country.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.