Music

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

Kelly Clarkson treated fans to a twangy Reba McEntire cover during the “Kellyoke” segment of her most recent episode of The Kelly Clarkson Show. Clarkson delved into McEntire’s catalogue from the 1980s, performing “How Blue,” which was the first single off of McEntire’s 1984 album, My Kind of Country. The song was a hit upon its release, marking

Caitlyn Smith has lived in Nashville for about a decade now, and she’s seen the city change plenty — but she’s different now, too. After the singer-songwriter found herself considering the weight of all of this change during a drive around the city, she and co-writers Ben West and Stephen Wilson turned the idea in

Brooke Eden is done hiding her real-life love story. Her new “Got No Choice” music video stars the singer and her girlfriend, Hilary Hoover, showing the pair enjoying a carefree day on the water. “Two months ago, you had me hooked at ‘hello’,” Eden sings, confessing that the connection she felt was immediate. That was

Kip Moore joins the many country artists going back on tour this fall. The Georgia native announced dates for his headlining How High Tour on Monday and released a video for his song “Good Life.” The How High Tour begins October 14th at the Riviera Theater in Chicago and currently has 20 dates, including stops

Back in the Blind Auditions of The Voice‘s Season 20, contestant Kenzie Wheeler earned a four-chair turn with a country-as-all-get-out cover of Keith Whitley‘s “Don’t Close Your Eyes.” Kelly Clarkson to use her block button to keep Wheeler from making the obvious country choice – Blake Shelton – as his coach. Wheeler ultimately claimed a spot on Team Kelly, though Shelton’s

Just because you don’t hear any songs from The Marfa Tapes on the radio doesn’t mean you never will. Miranda Lambert, Jon Randall and Jack Ingram‘s sparse production on the 15 acoustic tracks makes them a strange fit for airplay as is, but the country hitmaker says she plans to amplify those songs soon. Talking to

Chase Likens‘ debut single is a twangy reminder that the cure for what ails you is to go get lost in the country. Readers can press play below to hear “Rub a Little Dirt on It,” premiering exclusively on The Boot. Written by Roger Springer, Carson Chamberlain and Wade Kirby, and produced by Kevin Beamish, “Rub a

Amythyst Kiah delivered a potent version of “Black Myself” on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Friday night. The lead single off her upcoming label debut, Wary + Strange, is a newly arranged rock rendition of the song Kiah first wrote for the supergroup Our Native Daughters’ 2019 debut, Songs of Our Native Daughters. The song would go

The cast of NBC sketch show Saturday Night Live dedicated their most recent cold open to celebrating Mother’s Day on Saturday night (May 8), with cast members such as Kate McKinnon and Aidy Bryant appearing alongside their moms at the top of the show. Those clips were backed by an emotional performance from musical guest Miley Cyrus,

The Associated Press’ wire story for Keith Whitley‘s May 9, 1989, death includes a telling quote about his creative process. “The whole deal with my music has been the emotional quality,” Whitley said in 1988. “Songs I do have to strike an emotional chord the first time I sing them. It’s not so uncommon for

Alan Jackson stays country with “I Can Be That Something,” his new song. The country legend offers the type of classic country heartbreak song that one would hear pouring out of an old fashioned jukebox in a honky-tonk. The song finds Jackson setting himself up as a shoulder to cry on for a heartbroken woman whose lover left

Cassadee Pope draws on her pop-punk roots in the guitar-driven new song “What the Stars See,” a collaboration with Lindsay Ell and Little Big Town’s Karen Fairchild. It is Pope’s first new release since the 2020 EP Rise and Shine. Penned by Pope with Jake Rose and Lindsey Rimes, “What the Stars See” comes with

Dierks Bentley has much bigger touring plans in store for 2021 than a handful of dive bar dates in May. The 2021 Beers on Me Tour will begin on Aug. 13 and take the “Gone” singer through early fall. Parker McCollum and Riley Green will join Bentley on tour, with Mitchell Tenpenny filling in a few times during a 22-show

Country music legend Eddy Arnold suited the industry’s desired image during two phases of a career that spanned seven decades. Born Ray Edward “Eddy” Arnold on May 15, 1918, in Henderson, Tenn., he went from a young fan of Georgia’s Pete Cassell and other “hillbilly” crooners to a radio star in his own right at age

Walker Hayes and Jake Owen get into “Country Stuff” in Hayes’ new single. The track finds the singers raising a glass to all the “country stuff” they love: old blue jeans, mud on their tires, guitars and dirt roads. “You know, country stuff,” they chant at the end of the chorus. The melody leans into Hayes’

Gary Allan will release his first album in eight years with Ruthless, a collection of 13 songs due June 25th. It’s the follow-up to 2013’s Set You Free and follows a string of one-off singles he has released beginning in 2015. The album news arrives with the record’s lead-off track, “Temptation.” Written by Nicolle Galyon,

A new country music drama is coming to Fox. The network announced on Friday (May 7) that it had placed a series order for a new show called Monarch — and one of Nashville’s top music talent managers is involved. According to a press release, Jason Owen will join Gail Berman and Hend Baghdady as executive producers

Singer-songwriter Harper Grae and her wife Dawn Gates are expecting their first child together this summer — a joyous moment for the couple, though also a bittersweet milestone for Grae, who suffered a late-term miscarriage nearly a decade ago. Her new “Still Your Mother” music video, premiering exclusively on Taste of Country, is for anyone

Adam Sanders hopes his new song “Do What We Do” will become an anthem. The singer and songwriter took an unconventional approach to writing this track from his upcoming album. A new music video — premiering exclusively on Taste of Country — shows what he’s after. Veteran songwriter Brice Long (Randy Houser, Gary Allan, Jon Pardi)

Jon Randall had been going to Marfa, Texas, and nearby Terlingua since the early 2000s, and he was quickly becoming an evangelist. “It was one of those places that just filled my heart,” the Texas-born songwriter and producer says. “Especially if you’re very creative and ever have an introspective part of you, it’s that place

Miranda Lambert is literally closing the door on a very turbulent chapter of her life. The singer reveals that she has moved off the farm she bought for $3.4 million in 2016 and is currently building a new home with her husband of two years, Brendan McLoughlin. Her old house was a three-bedroom farmhouse with multiple guest cabins

Craig Gerdes tells his own love story in his new song “I Could Get Used to This.” The single, due out on Friday (May 7), is premiering exclusively on The Boot. “From the opening lyric, this song is entirely true,” Gerdes tells The Boot. As the song details, the singer and songwriter married his high

Riley Downing loves to go record hunting. You’re likely to find the singer-songwriter and Deslondes co-founder digging through crates at antique malls — a “good pastime, cheap hobby,” he tells The Boot — in his free time. Fellow vinyl collectors will find themselves in Downing’s latest release, “Start It Over.” The title track of his first-ever