Month: November 2022

Tim McGraw recently shared a live cover of Merle Haggard's holiday classic, “If We Make it Through December,” on his social media.

Tanya Tucker stars in the upcoming Paramount Network holiday film A Nashville Country Christmas. The trailer is available to watch now.

Scotty McCreery returns to the road Wednesday after several weeks of paternity leave; he posted a bittersweet shot of himself saying goodbye to his newborn son, Avery, at the airport. He is headlining the National Finals Rodeo's Downtown Hoedown on Fremont Street in Las Vegas. 

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Jason Aldean is among the artists getting their own episodes in a revitalized run of the classic Behind the Music documentary series.

The franchise got a reboot on Paramount+ in 2021 and this week a number of new episodes dropped. Jennifer Lopez, Boy George and Remy Ma are the spotlight artists in other new episodes.

Jason's episode traces his origins as a small-town boy who broke into the country genre with a unique and — at the time — controversial dose of rock influence in his music. Eventually, his vision earned him musical superstardom and influenced the sound of modern country music today.

“Man I watched every episode of this show back in the day,” Jason wrote on Twitter after his episode came out. “I never dreamed I would have an episode about my life and career one day. Really proud of this and hope u guys will check it out and lemme know what u think.”

Jason's Behind the Music episode is available to stream on Paramount+.

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Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Before the 2023 CMA Country Christmas special airs next week, the show has revealed its festive song list.

Rising vocal duo The War and Treaty will perform “O Holy Night,” Scotty McCreery will perform “Holly Jolly Christmas” and show host Carly Pearce will deliver a two-pack of holiday favorites: “Man With the Bag” and “Here Comes Santa Claus.”

Carly's also partnering with bluegrass star Molly Tuttle for a medley of Christmas classics with a bluegrass twist. “It's Beginning to Look Like Christmas,” Let it Snow,” “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen,” “Winter Wonderland” and “Christmas Time's A-Comin'” are all in the mix.

A couple of performers are focusing on the soulful side of the holiday. Maren Morris will sing “Merry Christmas, Baby,” an R&B favorite that has been recorded by the likes of Otis Redding, Elvis Presley, Ike and Tina Turner, B.B. King and more. Meanwhile, Old Dominion is performing “What Christmas Means to Me,” a song that many artists have cut, including Stevie Wonder.

Original holiday material gets its due on CMA Country Christmas, too. Dan + Shay are performing two original numbers — “Holiday Party” and “Officially Christmas” — and Steven Curtis Chapman will treat viewers to his “Precious Promise.”

CMA Country Christmas airs on Thursday, December 8 at 9 p.m. ET on ABC.

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Fast-rising hitmaker Jelly Roll returns today, November 30, with “she,” a new song that puts a spotlight on the addiction crisis and the people impacted by it.

“she' is about the struggle of addiction. she' is talking about the elephant in the room and addressing head on the heroin and fentanyl epidemic that is sweeping the nation; the pharmaceutical pill problem that is sweeping the nation, and has been for a long time,” Jelly explains in a statement.

“And I feel like it's the artist's responsibility to speak for those who sometimes can't always speak for themselves,” he adds.

The “Son of a Sinner” star, who's currently gearing up for a hometown show at Nashville's Bridgestone Arena, partnered with nonprofit Shatterproof for the release of this song, supporting the organization's mission to raise awareness of the addiction crisis and help provide treatment and recovery resources for those facing addiction.

Jelly may be a relative newcomer to the country scene, but giving back has been important to him from the get-go. Earlier this month, he pledged $250,000 to open a recording studio inside Davidson County Juvenile Detention Center, the same Nashville facility where Jelly served a criminal sentence in his youth.

On top of that, he also funded five $10,000 scholarships to graduating seniors in Davidson County and contributed to Impact Youth Outreach's seasonal holiday food resources and toy drive.

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Just three weeks ago, Luke Combs picked up his second consecutive Entertainer of the Year trophy from the Country Music Association. 

But even that pales in comparison to the new title he took on June 19 when his son Tex arrived: father. Luke admits it’s been quite a life change.

“Oh, man, it’s — I would say 180 [degrees], but it’s like 360, you know,” he tells ABC Audio. “It’s completely different.”

“I still have to do all this [music business] stuff,” he adds. “And then like the rest of my time — the small amount of free time that I did have is just squandered. It is completely gone.”

While dad’s on track to claim his fifteenth consecutive number one with “Going, Going, Gone,” he thinks his son’s latest accomplishment is just as impressive.

“He started holding his own bottle, which was pretty sweet,” Luke brags. “I mean, he’s only four months old, so I feel like he’s kinda ahead of the curve there. But yeah, he started doing that like this past week, so that was exciting.”  

Tex has since hit the five-month mark, meaning he’ll celebrate half a year right before Santa visits for the first time.

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