Month: May 2022

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Go Country 105

Jimmie Allen, Trisha Yearwood + more sign on for panels, events at CMA Fest

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Special CMA Fest programming continues to roll out this week, as the calendar fills in for the multiday country music festival headed to Nashville this June.

Jimmie Allen will appear on the CMA Close Up Stage in a panel discussing his children's book, My Voice is a Trumpet. Trisha Yearwood is also helming an event billed as Up Close and Personal, featuring artists Lauren Alaina and Caitlyn Smith.

Other special events happening on the stage center around artists like Lainey Wilson, Craig Morgan and Florida Georgia Line's Brian Kelley. The collective Black Opry will take the stage, and Lady A's Hillary Scott is set to host a female-forward event presented by She is the Music.

Meanwhile, a large group of newcomers will perform on the Spotlight Stage. Among them are Jenny Tolman, Shelby Darrall, Miko Marks and Madison Kozak.

The 2022 CMA Fest will take place June 9-12 in downtown Music City. Luke Combs, Carrie Underwood, Kane Brown, Jason Aldean and many more big names will take the main stage at Nissan Stadium during the festival.

 

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Go Country 105

Luke Combs drops the track list for 'Growin' Up', and it includes a Miranda Lambert duet

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Luke Combs is filling in more of the details about his upcoming third studio album, Growin' Up. The country star shared the full track list for the project on his social media this week, and it includes a few live favorites — and one superstar duet.

Megawatt duets aren't a new thing for Luke, who included a collaboration with Eric Church called “Does to Me” on his last album.

This time around, the song in question is called “Outrunnin' Your Memory,” a collaboration with Miranda Lambert. Luke had previously teased that the album would feature a duet, and hinted at a few more facts about the album in the days leading up to the track list announcement.

“Crazy thing is, I've only ever posted about or played lived 6 of the 12 songs on the new album, so y'all have never heard half the songs,” he wrote earlier in May.

Now that it's out, the track list features several familiar titles — like “Tomorrow Me” and the lead single “Doin' This” — but there's plenty of never-before-heard stuff in the mix.

Fans will get the chance to hear a little bit more of the album before it comes out in full: Luke says that track three off the project, “The Kind of Love We Make,” will be coming out ahead of release day, on June 17.

Growin' Up will arrive in full the next week, on June 24.

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News Daypop

FDA authorizes single booster dose of COVID-19 vaccine for ages 5 through 11

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On Tuesday, the Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) authorized the use of a single booster dose of the COVID-19 vaccine produced by Pfizer-BioNTech for children ages 5 through 11.

FDA Commissioner Dr. Robert M. Califf said: “While it has largely been the case that COVID-19 tends to be less severe in children than adults, the omicron wave has seen more kids getting sick with the disease and being hospitalized, and children may also experience longer term effects, even following initially mild disease.” Califf said that the authorization for the single dose in the youngest children eligible for the vaccine provides “continued protection against COVID-19,” adding that “vaccination continues to be the most effective way to prevent COVID-19 and its severe consequences… and it is safe.”

Pfizer in late April asked the FDA for the emergency authorization to cover booster shots for children 5 to 11.  Earlier that month, Pfizer and BioNTech released clinical trial data from 140 children between the ages of 5 and 11 who had received a booster shot showing a six-fold increase in neutralizing antibodies against COVID-19.

Last October, federal regulators first authorized use of the vaccine for children between 5 and 11; and late last month, a second booster shot of either the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccine was approved for those 50 and older.

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News Daypop

President Biden and First Lady visit Buffalo New York after mass supermarket shooting, says ‘white supremacy has no place in America’

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During a trip to Buffalo, N.Y., on Tuesday to visit with families of the victims killed in a mass shooting over the weekend, President Biden said that White supremacy is a “poison” that “has no place in America.”  The President and First Lady Jill Biden also met with community leaders, and visited a memorial site for the victims where they added a bouquet of flowers and had a moment of silence.

The attack on Saturday at the TOPS Market in Buffalo killed 10 people and injured three others, making it the deadliest of multiple attacks that occurred in the United States over the weekend. Police say they’re investigating the shooting as a hate crime. Authorities say the suspected shooter, 18-year-old Payton Gendron, was motivated by hate when he opened fire at the store and had written a lengthy manifesto before the attack in which he communicated racist views against people of color. Gendron traveled about 200 miles to Buffalo from his home in another part of New York. Authorities said they believe that Gendron had planned on carrying out more shootings in other locations before he was stopped at the TOPS store.

The President called the shooting an act of domestic terrorism:  “White supremacy is a poison, it’s a poison … running through our body politic…And it’s been allowed to grow and fester right before our eyes. No more, no more. We need to say as clearly and as forcefully as we can that the ideology of White supremacy has no place in America. None.  In America, evil will not win, I promise you. Hate will not prevail. White supremacy will not have the last word. The evil did come to Buffalo and it’s come to all too many places, manifested in gunmen who massacred innocent people in the name of hateful and perverse ideology, rooted in fear and racism. It’s taken so much.”

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Go Country 105

When they're not on tour, Dan + Shay are “floating around the pool with an acoustic guitar” this summer

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After a couple of relatively quiet months, Dan + Shay are once again hitting the stage: They performed at the 2022 Billboard Music Awards, where they also won Top Country Duo/Group, and now they're on tour with Kenny Chesney for the summer.

And while both members of the duo are longtime Kenny fans who've been to plenty of his shows as fans, they say that getting on stage is giving them a chance to get to know his fanbase in a new way.

“It's a great group of people. It's very eclectic,” says Shay Mooney. “You've got anyone from, you know, [age] 10 to 80. It's just people that love music and that love people. It's a nice vibe.”

And when they're not on tour? Bandmate Dan Smyers says they've been taking advantage of the downtime to get to work on some new music.

“Writing songs — I mean, we can't stop. That's all we do,” he explains, adding that they're trading in a traditional writer's room for a sunnier locale this summer. “We've been writing songs by the pool, a little bit, trying to enjoy being outside.”

The duo are operating at a slower pace than they were this time last year, since the summer of 2021 was a jam-packed few months filled with touring and makeup shows from last year's pandemic cancellations.

“It was a grind. It was awesome. Very, very busy,” Dan continues. “This summer is just weekends. So we're taking advantage of the weekdays at home, floating around the pool with an acoustic guitar and trying to write our best music.”

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Categories
Country Daypop

Jerry Lee Lewis, Keith Whitley lead 2022 Country Music Hall of Fame inductees

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The Country Music Hall of Fame has announced a new group of inductees for 2022, with rock & roll pioneer Jerry Lee Lewis set to be inducted in the Veteran category, and Keith Whitley to join the Hall in the Modern category, and former RCA Records executive Joe Galante will become a member in the Nonperforming category. Brooks & Dunn announced the inductees in the Hall of Fame’s rotunda; the new class of inductees will be formally honored at the Country Music Hall of Fame’s Medallion Ceremony, to be held in the fall.

Said Lewis: “It’s hard for me to find something to say. But I’m here, I love you, I couldn’t have done it without you.”  Galante is a Queens native who relocated to Nashville in 1974 to work for RCA in 1982 at the age of 32. Among his signings during his long tenure were Alabama, Clint Black, Kenny Chesney, the Judds, Martina McBride, Carrie Underwood, and Keith Whitley. After leaving the music business, he devoted himself to mentoring young businesspeople and philanthropy. Said Galante when learning of his induction: “I didn’t know what to say, which was very unusual. This is an unmatched honor and I think it’s a tribute to all those people who helped me get here.”

Keith Whitley, who passed away in 1989 of alcohol poisoning at the age of 34, earned consecutive Number 1 songs with “Don’t Close Your Eyes,” “When You Say Nothing at All,” and “I’m No Stranger to the Rain.”  Whitley brought bluegrass background into the country mainstream, and his 1985 hit “Miami, My Amy” has had a resurgence of late, as it makes the rounds on TikTok. Whitley’s widow, country singer Lorrie Morgan, called the induction “a dream come true,” adding, “Keith never knew how good he was,  He never accepted that he could have a great record deal or that he could have as much as everybody else had. That’s how humble he was.”

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Country Daypop

Thomas Rhett and Carrie Underwood among those who will perform on ‘American Idol’ Season Finale

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Carrie Underwood and Thomas Rhett and Carrie Underwood will be among the artists performing during the Season 20 finale of American Idol. Judges Luke Bryan, Katy Perry, and Lionel Richie will also each take to the stage during the finale airing on Sunday, May 20th on ABC.

Perry will return to the stage to perform with Rhett, with whom she guested on “Where We Started,” the title song of his recently-released album. Underwood will be making her latest return to the show, where she won as a newcomer in Season 4 in 2005.  Other performers on the finale include Gabby Barrett, who placed third in Season 16 in 2018, Deana Carter, Earth, Wind & Fire, Ben Platt, James Arthur, Sara Bareilles, Melissa Etheridge, Flo Rida, and Tai Verdes. Michael Bublé will perform with Christian Guardino, who was eliminated after making the final seven earlier this season.

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Pop Daypop

5 Seconds of Summer announce upcoming album and share video for new single ‘Me, Myself & I’

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5 Seconds of Summer have released the video for their new single “Me, Myself & I”, the third track from their forthcoming album 5SOS5. 

The band announced their highly-anticipated fifth studio album 5SOS5 will arrive on September 23rd, 2022 via BMG. The deluxe CD version and digital versions of the album will have 19 tracks, and cassette and vinyl are also available. 5SOS5 will feature previously released tracks such as “Take My Hand” and ‘”Complete Mess” alongside 16 new songs, and is available for pre-order here.

Check out the new music video for Me, Myself & I at the link – here.

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Pop Daypop

Charli XCX to perform Metaverse concert on Roblox platform

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Charli XCX will enters the Metaverse this June, performing a special concert for Samsung on the Roblox platform on June 17.   The concert comes at the end of a five-week campaign by Roblox, where they have hosted mini-games and other challenges for users to become involved in. The ‘Superstar Galaxy’ allowed players to create pop star avatars of their own, completing challenges; the winners of these are given the opportunity to join Charli XCX on stage for the concert.

Along with her performance, Charli XCX’s own Roblox avatar will be on hand to provide players with assistance and tips along the way. Fans and users of the platform will be able to rewatch the performance throughout the weekend.

Watch the trailer for the event – here.

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Go Country 105

Nashville notes: Dolly Parton + more

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Dolly Parton presented broadcasting legend Dan Rather with the Peabody Career Achievement Award this week. He's one of several honorees at the upcoming 82nd Peabody Awards, which will be held during a multiday virtual celebration next month.

Rising country star Ernest teased a new track called “Songs We Used to Sing” on social media this week. His duet with Morgan Wallen, “Flower Shops,” is currently climbing the country charts.

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