Month: March 2022

Kelsea Ballerini duetted with living legend and fellow East Tennessee native Dolly Parton on the stage of this week's ACM Awards, and the younger star shared her excitement over the duet with a series of photos and video clips that she could only describe as “The Dolly Dump.”

In one of those videos, Kelsea asks Dolly, “How long does it take to do your hair?” To which Dolly responds, “How would I know? I'm never there.”

It's a classic Dolly-ism, and far from the first time Kelsea's gotten to be on the receiving end of the country legend's notorious wit. On ACM night, Kelsea told Cosmopolitan that early on in her career, she interviewed Dolly for a Q&A Series.

At the end of all the “thoughtful questions about how East Tennessee impacted her music and what it's been like defying the odds and being such a successful woman in country music,” Kelsea had one more question, she remembers.

“My very last question was, Dolly, how do you play guitar with your nails like that?' She looked at me and deadpanned, Good. I play it real good.'”

All these years later, sharing the stage with Dolly at the ACMs was “full circle,” Kelsea continued. The pair sang “Big Dreams and Faded Jeans,” off of the companion album to Dolly's brand new book, Run Rose Run.

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The Hag himself is the subject of a new tribute show taking place at the Grand Ole Opry. The Opry Salutes Merle Haggard event is scheduled to take place April 6, which is both Haggard's birthday and the sixth anniversary of his death at age 79.

Cody Johnson, Lainey Wilson and Joe Nichols are among the artists signing on for the tribute show, along with Suzy Bogguss, Eli Paperboy Reed and Haggard's son, Marty Haggard. They're set to perform their favorite Haggard songs, along with some of their own Haggard-inspired material.

Tickets go on sale this Thursday at 10 a.m.

The Opry Salutes Merle Haggard is part of a special spring block of Wednesday-night shows at the Opry. The event will also be recorded for a special, which will air at a later date on the Opry's Circle Network.

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Jimmie Allen's got a trick for when he feels himself getting emotional onstage: He tags in his guitar player for an extended solo so he has time to compose himself.

There might be more guitar solos on Jimmie's near future. He just released “Down Home,” a song inspired by his dad, who died in 2019. Jimmie debuted the song onstage at the ACM Awards, on what happened to also be his mom's birthday.

Jimmie's guitarist, Tate Howell, had been encouraging the singer to write a song about his dad for years now, the star tells CMT. Tate was a co-writer on “Down Home,” which Jimmie describes as a letter to his late father.

“I just talked about him and let him know that we miss him, and that he's the reason why I fell in love with country music,” Jimmie recounts. “I feel like it was time. I feel in the right place, mentally, where I wanted to write that song, and I wanted to play it out, you know, for me.”

But the song wasn't just for him, Jimmie continues: “There's a lot of other people that lose a parent, and they're going through the same thing.”

The toughest part of performing “Down Home”? The line where Jimmie sings “I've got a daughter now,” he says. The star's dad met his oldest son, Aadyn, but since he died, Jimmie's welcomed two baby girls, Naomi and Zara.

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Carrie Underwood has something up her sleeve, but she’s playing coy regarding what it is. 

“I’m always I’m always working on something. Obviously, we can’t spill too many beans right now, but my fans know what I mean when I say ‘soon,'” she says with a laugh. “They actually hate it when I use that word because they’re like, ‘What does that mean?’ But it’s been been busy, for sure.” 

While fans are eager to know what she has in store, the superstar has been keeping busy over the past few years. She released her last studio album, the acclaimed Cry Pretty, in 2018. One year later, she welcomed her son Jacob and hit the road on the Cry Pretty Tour 360. 

The powerhouse singer has spent the past two years mainly focusing on her first Christmas album, My Gift, and companion gospel album, My Savior, both of which debuted at #1 on the Billboard Top Country Albums charts, and in the top five on the all-genre Billboard 200. 

The Cobra Kai fan also made a recent appearance in the season four finale of the Netflix series, performing “The Moment of Truth” from the soundtrack of the original Karate Kid. 

Additionally, she and Jason Aldean took the stage at Monday night’s ACM Awards for a performance of their duet, “If I Didn’t Love You,” which was also named Single of the Year.

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