Music

Miranda Lambert sticks with a very stripped-down vibe for a new solo track that she released online early Tuesday morning (May 18). The country superstar offers up a very traditional country approach to “They’ve Closed Down the Honky Tonks,” which fans can check out below. The new song is very much in the same vein

Southern rockers Blackberry Smoke have announced new dates for an extensive tour giving praise to their musical heritage. The Georgia group’s headlining Spirit of the South Tour: A Celebration of Southern Rock N Roll will kick off July 30th and feature guests the Allman Betts Band, the Wild Feathers, and founding Allman Brothers Band member

Jordan Matthew Young secured a last-minute place in The Voice‘s season finale during the semi-finals episode on Tuesday night (May 18). That means that not only will there be two country-leaning contestants in the show’s Top 5, but also Team Blake will have two chances to win this season, giving Blake Shelton a leg up over all

Priscilla Block‘s single “Just About Over You” is the song that took her career to new heights. After going viral on the video-focused app TikTok in the summer of 2020, Block released the song and watched her fans push it to the top of iTunes’ all-genre sales chart and Apple Music’s streaming chart. “Just About

Son Volt are reviving their signature blend of country, infused with folk, blues and rock, for their latest album, Electro Melodier. It will be their 10th album release. The band has announced a July 30 release for the album, titled after the names of vintage amplifiers from the 1940s and ’50s. The first track released from the album is

Ty Herndon and CMT have partnered again for the 2021 edition of the Concert for Love and Acceptance, which will take place at 8 p.m. ET Wednesday, June 30th. The annual event to support the LGBTQ community will stream online on CMT’s Facebook and YouTube channels, along with the website for Herndon’s Foundation for Love

During The Voice‘s Monday night episode (May 17), Season 20’s Top 9 finalists performed live as they vied for viewers’ votes. But that wasn’t all the show had in store: It also featured a blast from The Voice‘s past in the form of Season 19 finalist Ian Flanigan. Repping the country genre for Team Blake with performances

“Zoom just doesn’t cut it.” Even if you were masked (now “welcome, not required” at the Grand Ole Opry House, as signs outside the historic Nashville venue inform concertgoers) during Sunday night’s (May 16) tribute to ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons, those words from the show’s bandleader and musical director Martin Guigui rang true. Seeing live

Rhonda Vincent has a confession to make. “I had been using a teleprompter whenever I sang that song,” the brand-new Grand Ole Opry member shares in a recent interview about her tongue twister of a song, “I Ain’t Been Nowhere.” “I probably shouldn’t tell people that, but it’s the truth,” she adds. “That one just has

After a year off the road, Jason Aldean has announced his Back in the Saddle Tour, which kicks off this summer. The country star revealed his return to touring Saturday night during his sold-out, livestreamed concert at the Bonnaroo Farm in Manchester, Tennessee. The gig marked Aldean’s first public performance since March 2020, when his

American Idol Top 4 finalist Chayce Beckham returned to the country genre — not once, but twice — on Sunday night’s episode (May 16.)  He kicked things off with a tender cover of Zac Brown Band‘s 2010 hit, “Colder Weather,” early on in the show. It was the first of three songs that Beckham was scheduled to perform Sunday

Twenty-three years ago today (May 16, 1998) was a big day for Faith Hill: It was on that date that the singer landed at the top of the charts with her single, “This Kiss,” which stayed in the No. 1 spot for three consecutive weeks. “This Kiss” was the debut single from Hill’s album Faith, which sold more than

Songwriter-artist trio Nashvillains cruise the Tennessee backroads in their new “Who Don’t” music video. The band says clip, premiering exclusively on The Boot, allowed them a chance to lean into their country roots. Directed by Brian Vaughn and shot in Franklin, Tenn., the video finds the group living it up at a field party, enthralling a

Cody Johnson has recorded a cover of Willie Nelson’s classic “Sad Songs and Waltzes” as the first single from his upcoming album. To make a bold move even bolder, Johnson recruited Nelson to sing and play on the tune, which originally appeared on the 1973 album Shotgun Willie. Johnson’s version begins similarly to Nelson’s original,

You may be shocked, because they look so darn young, but … Shawna and Keifer Thompson of country duo Thompson Square have been married for more than 20 years. That’s right: two full decades and then some, since May 15, 1999. For some couples, autonomous careers are a good thing. But for the duo, that

Twenty-four years ago today (May 15, 1997) was a significant day for the family of Bill Monroe: It was on that date that the bluegrass founder was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, less than one year after his death. Monroe credited his uncle, Pendleton Vandiver, with fostering his love of the

Kelsea Ballerini takes it back to her hometown, literally, for her “Half of My Hometown” music video. The scenes are shot at her high school, in streets near her childhood home, and all over her growing up stompin’ grounds. The story is set with a young Ballerini packing up a moving truck to leave her hometown. You can see

Before “country music outlaw” became just another outfit for would-be badasses to try on, Johnny Cash made it a job description. But among the seven arrests he accrued during his most tumultuous years, from the late 1950s to 1967, none was quite like the time he was arrested in Starkville, Mississippi while picking flowers on

Keifer and Shawna Thompson of award-winning country duo Thompson Square are a match made in country music heaven. She hails from Chatom, Ala., and he from Miami, Okla. They met at a singing competition after they separately moved to Nashville, but they didn’t instantly become a duo; instead, it was love first, singing second. “We came

Before he died in January, Steel Woods co-founder and guitarist Jason “Rowdy” Cope signed off on the track sequencing for the band’s new album, All of Your Stones. The record, the quartet’s third, would begin with “Out of the Blue” and end with its title track. “I didn’t realize how kind of perfect the sequencing is,” admits

Rising folk singer-songwriter Joy Oladokun co-wrote her new song “Bigger Man” with Maren Morris — and enlisted the country star to sing with her on it. The pair dropped the track on Friday morning (May 14). Joining Oladokun and Morris as co-writers on “Bigger Man” are Laura Veltz and Jimmy Robbins. Morris, Robbins and Veltz recently

The Moon River Music Festival will return to Coolidge Park in Chattanooga, Tennessee, for two days of music this fall. Leading the lineup for the September 11th to 12th event are artists including Wilco, Lord Huron, and Old Crow Medicine Show. Organized by Drew Holcomb (who will also perform with his band the Neighbors), the

On Sunday (May 16), Luke Bryan will get up from his American Idol judges’ chair and stand on the stage to share with the audience the fifth single from his Born Here Live Here Die Here (Deluxe Edition) album. That extended project was released in April 2021 and has already produced four consecutive No. 1 singles. “Waves,” the song

Thomas Rhett‘s “Heaven Down Here” — from his 2020 album Country Things, Side A – covers new ground for the artist. The song is the first time he’s written about a dear friend who died as Rhett’s career was just getting started. Before Rhett and his wife Lauren got married in 2012, their friend Hunter — who grew

Summer Dean isn’t sugar-coating it: The only reason the protagonist of her new song “You’re Lucky She’s Lonely” is getting anywhere with the woman who’s caught his eye is because she’s heartbroken and lovesick. “Just make your move / You’ve got nothin’ to prove / You’re lucky she’s blue,” the born-and-raised Texan sings in the first

After being forced to take a year off due to the Covid-19 pandemic, MerleFest will return in Fall 2021. The annual eclectic musical fest will take place September 16th to 19th in Wilkesboro, North Carolina, with a first round of performers that includes Melissa Etheridge, Mavis Staples, and LeAnn Rimes. Held over the course of

A video showing a pre-teen Caleb Kennedy sitting next to someone in a hood similar to those worn by Ku Klux Klan members has surfaced. As a result, the now-16-year-old American Idol contestant has exited the show. The country singer from South Carolina was a favorite heading into the Top 5 episode on Sunday (May 16). Now, only

There are dozens and dozens of versions of the gospel classic “I’ll Fly Away,” but Randall King‘s rendition offers a different look at Albert E. Brumley’s 1929 hymn than country fans are used to. What is often a more uptempo, bluegrass-tinged song becomes a slowed-down, twangy reflection. It’s not necessarily any less hopeful than the more

Meghan Patrick offers a love ballad with a twist in her latest release, “Mama Prayed For,” a song that recognizes that she might not necessarily be the kind of girl a mom might hope her son will choose as his partner. Between a tough attitude, a few vices and a hard-edged and hard-to-get-to-know personality, Patrick says she’s hardly a

Rodney Crowell will drop a new album called Triage via his own RC1 label and Thirty Tigers on July 23rd. The first single, “Something Has to Change,” is out now. An urgent mid-tempo tune with particularly pointed lyrics, “Something Has to Change” addresses inequality and discord, conditions that influenced the rest of the writing on