Pulse – Country Music News

Kip Moore will head out his headlining Damn Love World Tour this fall. The tour borrows its name from Kip's upcoming album, due out April 28th. The tour will kick off on March 11th in Bloomsbury, Australia with special guests The Cadillac Three. In addition to Australia, the tour will play in New Zealand, South Africa, the U.K. and Europe. Tickets for the Damn Love Tour will be available to purchase this Friday (March 10th) at 10 a.m. local time at kipmoore.net.

The Damn Love album features over 13 new tracks co-produced by Kip and Jaren Johnston of The Cadillac Three.

The video for "Damn Love" was recently released.

Miranda Lambert and her MuttNation Foundation have teamed with Tractor Supply Company to create "Relief For Rescues Fund," a new animal emergency response program. Launching yesterday (Monday, March 6th) through Sunday (March 12th), with a nationwide donation at check-out campaign at all Tractor Supply stores, as well as online at TractorSupply.com and through the mobile app, the Fund will enable more efficient response times to support animals in immediate need.

Miranda said, "It's really no longer a question of ‘if' – it's just a matter of ‘when' the inevitable will happen and MuttNation and Tractor Supply want to be ready to help shelter pets in times of crisis. We know it's not easy to see the road back after a major disaster. We want to provide a ray of sunlight after the storm."

Tractor Supply and MuttNation Foundation have collaborated on multiple initiatives since 2019, including MuttNation's Mutts Across America program, providing grants to animal shelters nationwide.

Scotty McCreery headlined the "Good for Country" concert presented by UBank in Lufkin, Texas on Saturday (March 4th) at the George H. Henderson Expo Center in front of a sold-out crowd of 4,500 folks. The proceeds of the show benefitted the East Texas Food Bank. More than $30,000 was raised for the food bank, which according to the attached Lufkin Daily News article, is more than the amount of the previous three "Good for Country" concerts combined.

Moments before taking the stage at the Grand Ole Opry Friday (March 3rd) night, Maddie & Tae were surprised with a plaque commemorating their Number One hit song "Die From A Broken Heart" achieving Triple Platinum certification by the RIAA. Maddie Font and Tae Kerr co-wrote the song, which now stands as the pair's most-certified song, surpassing sales of three million units.

The video for Tenille Townes and Bryan Adams' duet, "The Thing That Wrecks You," has been released. The two officially released the song last month.

Morgan Wallen's pop-up concert at Nashville's Bridgestone Arena on Friday (March 3rd) drew a crowd of 19,292 in-person attendees, a record setting all-time attendance for the arena, according to a release. Morgan announced the show on Thursday (March 2nd) morning and within three hours, fans descended on the arena and claimed all the tickets. He treated concertgoers to a 22-song set in celebration of the release of his new album, One Thing At A Time, which dropped on Friday.

Morgan launches his One Night At A Time World Tour on March 15 in Auckland, New Zealand. The trek includes 63 shows and 30 stadium dates.

Dierks Bentley will head out on a 28-city tour this summer and he's taking Jordan Davis along as direct support. The Gravel & Gold Tour will open on June 1st in Toronto and will feature rotating special guests Elle King, Tracy Lawrence, Tyler Braden, Caylee Hammack, Hot Country Knights, Kameron Marlowe, The Cadillac Three, The Red Clay Strays, Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway, Shane Smith & the Saints, Caitlyn Smith, and Hailey Whitters.

Dierks tells us that he snagged Jordan at the perfect time. "I asked Jordan this time last year, and we've been talking about it for a while. I feel really lucky because he's a great guy. I mean, this it's fun touring with someone who's just so easy to get along with, but he's also like really hot right now. It's like, yes, I nailed it! I got someone who's, like, just crushing it. I mean, he's had so many huge hits and I mean, he's really, he's just rocking. And so, I feel so lucky to have him out there. It just makes my job so much more fun when the person in front of me is just got the crowd going crazy."

Tickets to the Gravel & Gold Tour go on sale to the public on Friday (March 10th) at 10 a.m. local time at Dierks.com.

The tour is named after Dierks' new album, Gravel & Gold, which was released last month.

To celebrate the April 21st release of So Help Me God (Deluxe Edition), Brantley Gilbert will host his 2023 Album Release Party and Trail Ride Powered By Polaris Inc at Brimstone Recreation in Huntsville, TN on April 22nd. He will lead fans on group trail rides followed by an intimate performance from Brantley's frequent co-writers, along with an acoustic set from Brantley himself. Tickets are on sale now at BrantleyGilbert.com.

Brantley said, "I wanted to do something really special for the release of this album and what better way to celebrate than kicking up some dust with BG Nation on the trail . . . With some of my songwriting buddies coming along to bring some Nashville-style fun to the woods, you can bet it's going to be a hell of a time!"

Special guests for the writers round acoustic performance include Bobby Pinson, Taylor Phillips, Josh Phillips, Will Weatherly, Jake Mitchell, Cole Taylor, and George Birge.

So Help Me God (Deluxe Edition) includes Brantley's current chart-climbing single, "Heaven By Then," with Blake Shelton featuring Vince Gill.

He will join Nickelback for the Get Rollin' Tour this summer.

The deluxe version of Ingrid Andress' Good Person album is available everywhere. It features three brand-new original tracks, including "Runnin (with JP Saxe)."

Ingrid kicked off her 20+ date trek on The Good Person Tour earlier this month with sold-out performances in Salt Lake City and Denver. She will play to sold-out crowds in NYC, Boston, Minneapolis and more before wrapping up in Norway on May 24th.

Good Person was originally released in August of last year and includes the hit single "Wishful Drinking" with Sam Hunt.

Guitarist Gary Rossington, the last remaining original member of Lynyrd Skynyrd, died on Sunday (March 5th) at the age of 71. Rossington had been sidelined from the band's recent dates following emergency heart surgery in 2021.

The band issued a statement, which reads: "It is with our deepest sympathy and sadness that we have to advise, that we lost our brother, friend, family member, songwriter and guitarist, Gary Rossington, today. Gary is now with his Skynyrd brothers and family in heaven and playing it pretty, like he always does. Please keep Dale, Mary, Annie and the entire Rossington family in your prayers and respect the family's privacy at this difficult time."

As a guitarist, Gary Rossington will probably be best remembered for his slide guitar work on Skynyrd's signature tune, "Free Bird" -- and as a songwriter, he left his mark co-writing such Southern rock standards as "Sweet Home Alabama," "What's Your Name?," "Gimme Back My Bullets," "I Ain't The One," and "Simple Man," among others.

Gary Rossington broke both arms, both legs, both wrists, both ankles and his pelvis in the 1977 plane crash that took the lives of his Lynyrd Skynyrd bandmates -- lead singer Ronnie Van Zant, guitarist Steve Gaines and his sister, backup singer Cassie Gaines, Skynyrd manager Dean Kilpatrick, as well as the plane's two pilots Walter McCreary and William Gray.

Following the crash, in 1979, Rossington formed Rossington Collins Band with surviving Skynyrd members Allen Collins, Leon Wilkeson, and Billy Powell. Lynyrd Skynyrd reunited in 1987 with Ronnie Van Zant's youngest brother Johnny Van Zant handing frontman duties.

When we last caught up with Gary Rossington, we asked him what motivated him and his bandmates to keep the Skynyrd name alive: "Gosh, it's just, y'know, you gotta carry on, and go through it. If you take the lives of just any seven individuals and follow them, tragedy happens, y'know? And it just happened to us. And we just kept carryin' on, we're doin' it for the guys that aren't with us, and for us, and for the music and the name and -- it's what we are."

In October 2015, Gary Rossington suffered a serious heart attack, and earlier that year was hospitalized with an abdominal infection, forcing the band to miss a show. At the time, Johnny Van Zant gave us an update on Rossington's heart issues: "Yeah, he's doing good. Y'know, he had a slight heart attack, and y'know, he had a quadruple bypass -- what was it five, six years ago, maybe -- it might be even longer than that. And he was doing a procedure and they took him off of his plavix, which is blood thinner, and it caused him to have a blood clot -- so basically gave him a small heart attack."

Gary Rossington told us that he's both proud and amazed at Skynyrd's longevity: "My mind's blown that we've been around this long and still doing it, and we're God-blessed in that way. Y'know, a lot of groups don't have this longevity and stuff, and it's just great to be here doing it. I don't know -- it's hard to talk about, because it's not relatable, y'know? There's only a few people or a few bands that have been around this long."

Priscilla Block has released a new song called "Couple Spring Breaks Back." She co-wrote the tune about the memory of finding a special someone during Spring Break.

Priscilla said, "I've been super excited about this song for a while! It takes you back to the younger days, spring break, fake IDs and that one fling you had for the week on the beach. I'm a sucker for a nostalgic song and this is that."

Priscilla continues to climb the country charts with "You, Me, & Whiskey," a duet with Justin Moore featured on his upcoming album.

She is gearing up for her Spring Break Takeover Tour, launching on March 10th in Tampa, FL.

Travis Denning has released a new song, "Strawberry Wine And A Cheap Six Pack." The song is a nod to the music of the mid-2000s which shaped him as a country artist.

Travis said, "I really wanted to write something like "Strawberry Wine and A Cheap Six Pack" to grab a nostalgic feeling on a lyrical and musical level. When I was growing up and a teenager, I was listening to certain kind of music from an era that I really wanted to capture on this song. The song has a mid-2000s country music vibe and that's something I've been chasing for a long time. I feel like this song was the first I've written that definitely hits that same feeling and energy of the music of my youth."

Travis will make his 16th appearance at the Grand Ole Opry on Tuesday, March 28th.

He continues to spend time in the studio working on new music.

Morgan Wallen will play a free pop-up show at Nashville's Bridgestone Arena tonight (Friday, March 3rd) to coincide with the release of his album, One Thing At A Time, which is available everywhere today. Morgan shared the news with fans via Instagram stories yesterday morning (Thursday, March 2nd) with a video saying in part, "I'm gonna do acoustic… everyone's asking me why I'm not doing a Tennessee show. I'm doing one now. Friday, 3/23. See you there."

Yesterday afternoon, Bridgestone Arena tweeted, "The response was so incredible to Morgan Wallen's album release celebration tomorrow night that as of 1:06 pm CT, all tickets to his free show have been distributed."

Morgan sits at Number One on the country charts this week with "Thought You Should Know," which was co-written by Miranda Lambert.

His headlining One Night At A Time World Tour is scheduled to kick off overseas March 15-24 with shows in New Zealand and Australia with HARDY before returning stateside on April 15th at Milwaukee's American Family Field with HARDY. He'll play New Jersey's MetLife Stadium, Chicago's Wrigley Field and Boston's Fenway Park with Parker McCollum before wrapping on October 7th at Tacoma Dome in Washington. ERNEST and Bailey Zimmerman will support across all dates, U.S. and internationally. The 39-date trek includes 17 stadiums, in addition to amphitheaters and arenas.

Carrie Underwood took her headlining Denim & Rhinestones Tour to Nashville's Bridgestone Arena on Wednesday (March 1st) for a sold-out show that included a few surprise guests. Carrie was joined onstage by Jason Aldean and Brad Paisley, in addition to special guest support Jimmie Allen, who joins Carrie on all dates of the tour.

Jason and Carrie performed their multi-week Number One hit single, "If I Didn't Love You," while Carrie and Brad reunited to sort of reprise their roles as co-hosts of the CMA Awards. They performed an original parody number celebrating the unexpected reunion of "Paisleywood," poking fun at recent hosts Luke Bryan and Peyton Manning. Brad and Carrie also performed their hit duet, "Remind Me."

Yesterday (Thursday, March 2nd), Carrie posted a series of photos from the show writing, "Still processing last night in Nashville at the @bridgestonearenaofficial ! The hometown crowd was INSANE!!! And I am so grateful that @bradpaisley and @jasonaldean came out to make it extra special! It was truly a night I will never forget! THANK YOU MUSIC CITY!!!"

Carrie's Denim & Rhinestone Tour rolls on to Columbus, OH on Saturday (March 4th).

Kelsea Ballerini will once again be joined by special guest Georgia Webster when she kicks off the third leg of her Heartfirst Tour on June 16th in Santa Barbara, CA. The new leg includes 10 stops, wrapping up in Phoenix on July 1st. Tickets go on sale to the general public on Friday, March 10th at 10 a.m. local time.

The second leg of the Heartfirst Tour launches on Monday (March 6th) in Toronto, ON, closing out on March 18th in Pittsburgh, PA.

Kelsea's new single "If You Go Down (I'm Goin' Down Too)" continues to climb at Country radio.

She will make her Saturday Night Live debut as musical guest alongside host Travis Kelce this Saturday (March 4th) on NBC.

Parker McCollum has released the official music video for the personal track "Rest Of My Life," from his debut album, Gold Chain Cowboy. The clip stars Cameron Cowperthwaite, star of American Horror Story and the Netflix TV mini series Dahmer.

Parker tells us: "The message of this video in terms of the graphic extent in making this video was much more dramatic and further along than anything I was doing in real life that inspired this song, but I really wanted to kinda push the limits. And, you know, I didn't want to get done with this video and feel like we could've done more. I felt like we did everything we could do. So many talented people working on it made it so easy to capture exactly what we were talking about and exactly what that song's about. Hopefully, it helps somebody."

Parker currently sits inside the Top 10 and climbing on the country charts with "Handle On You."

Megan Moroney will release her debut album, Lucky, on May 5th. The album's title track will be released on March 10th.

Megan said, "After we wrote the title track ‘Lucky,' I knew I wanted it to be the name of my debut album. If you know anything about me and my story, a lot of things (both good and bad) happened to get me to where I am today, and I just feel very lucky. I couldn't live out this dream without the support of my fans, family, and team. I can't wait to bring these songs on the road with me this year and I hope everyone loves them as much as I do!"

Megan sits inside the Top 25 with her debut single, "Tennessee Orange."

She will head out on her Pistol Made of Roses Tour next month. This summer, Megan will hit the road with Brooks & Dunn.

Tim McGraw and Keith Urban will co-headline one night of the 2023 NCAA March Madness Music Festival in conjunction with the 2023 Division I Men's Final Four. The free, three-day event will be held from March 31 - April 2 at Discovery Green Park in Houston. Tim and Keith will take the stage on Sunday, April 2nd, following performances by Little Big Town and Mickey Guyton.

Other artists set to perform during the NCAA March Madness Music Festival include Lil Nas X and Maggie Rogers.

Fans can register for free music festival tickets at ncaa.com/marchmadness/musicfest beginning on Friday, March 10th at 10 a.m. ET.

Among the 18 songs on Luke Combs' upcoming album, Gettin' Old, is one called "You Found Yours." On Tuesday (February 28th), Luke turned to social media to share the idea for this song, which he co-wrote. He shared a picture of a knife writing, "If you zoom in on this knife, you'll notice YOU FOUND YOURS engraved on it. It was made and given to me by my Uncle Eddie and I've had the thing for probably 10 years, but never noticed it until last January while I was sitting in the deer stand. I'm not sure what made him put that on there, but once I saw it, I knew I had to use it in a song."

He later followed up adding, "And no, my Uncle Eddie is not Cousin Eddie from Christmas Vacation."

Luke's Gettin' Old album will be released on March 24th.

He currently sits at Number Two on the Mediabase chart with "Going, Going, Gone."

Tim McGraw will release a new single called "Standing Room Only" on March 10th. He shared the news yesterday (Wednesday, March 1st) on social media, issuing a challenge to fans. Tim wrote, "If we get 1,000 pre-saves on this today I'll share a little bit of the song with you."

"Standing Room Only" is the followup to Tim's 2021 release, "7500 OBO."

Yesterday, it was announced that Tim and Keith Urban will co-headline the NCAA March Madness Music Festival on April 2nd in Houston. They will close out the show following performances by Little Big Town and Mickey Guyton.

Jennifer Nettles has landed a role in the first film in the upcoming horror trilogy titled The Exorcist. She shared the news on social media recently writing, "I am proud beyond words to get to be a part of this amazing project, cast, crew, production and legacy . . . to collaborate with these fantastic folks is a dream for any story teller. I can't wait to tell you more…….but I'll have to!"

According to Variety, Jennifer's part will be a "primary role."

The Exorcist will also star Leslie Odom Jr., Ann Dowd, Lidya Jewett and Ellen Burstyn, who will be reprising her role as Chris MacNeil from the 1973 film.

This first film in the trilogy will reportedly be released in theaters on October 13th.

Kip Moore has released the official music video for his new song, "Damn Love," the title track to his upcoming album. The 13-song project is due out on April 28th.

Kip will head out on a sold-out tour of Australia, beginning with a show at the Dittmann Bull Pit Country Fest in Bloomsbury March 11th. The trek includes stops in Melbourne, Sydney, Willowbank and Auckland, before heading to South Africa for more headlining shows.

Alabama is reviving June Jam, the group's one-day music festival in their hometown of Fort Payne, AL. It's been 26 years since the last June Jam, Taste of Country reports. This year's event will held on June 3rd at the VRW Fairgrounds with Randy Owen and Teddy Gentry closing out the show as headliners. Additional performers will be announced in the coming weeks.

Randy said, "Our wishes are that Fort Payne will take June Jam and it will go on forever. We lost Jeff (Cook) and when me and Teddy are gone, hopefully the city will continue with the June Jam. We want this to continue to help the city, the town, the state, and just help people in general."

In the days leading up to June Jam, the group has plans for Alabama Fan Appreciation events including a Celebration of Life for Jeff Cook, who died in November after a battle with Parkinson's disease and a brunch honoring the Jeff & Lisa Cook Foundation which will be held at the Cook Castle at Randy's farm.

Tickets to June Jam are available beginning today (Wednesday, March 1st) at 11 a.m. ET via Ticketmaster.

Tyler Hubbard has enjoyed a smooth seque from being half of duo Florida Georgia Line to being a hitmaking solo artist. But that wasn't always the plan once his former partner, Brian Kelley, told him he wanted to pursue a solo career.

At the time, Tyler tells us he planned to stay in Nashville and focus on writing songs. "I really liked the idea of being a stay-at-home songwriter, you know, and working the 11-to-4 and I've always been envious of guys who just stay in town and write and thought, 'Wow, that must be nice.' So I did that and did some features here and there and just was having fun with writing, and six or eight months into that I realized quickly and with the help of conversations with people that I trusted and some close friends and being like, 'Okay, I could do this and I think I wanna do this.'"

Tyler's debut solo single, "5 Foot 9," has already topped the charts while its followup, "Dancin' In The Country," hovers just outside the Top 20 at Country radio. The song was co-written by Keith Urban, among others.

Morgan Evans has released a five-part documentary series to go along with his latest release, "Over For You." The series takes viewers along in Australia and New Zealand, including CMC Rocks QLD Festival, where he debuted the single for 25,000 people, according to a release. The series also introduces fans to Morgan's family members in Australia as well as behind-the-scenes in those days leading up to his divorce from now ex-wife Kelsea Ballerini.

Morgan said, "This song is the most personal thing I've ever written and the most personal thing I've ever shared."

He wrote the song in the wake of the couple announcing their divorce, and after debuting it before a live audience, he got incredible response and support. Morgan said, "It felt like channeling all that sort of awfulness into something positive." He added, "I didn't realize that I was going to feel this, but after I played it at CMC Rocks, I did feel a weight off my chest."

Kelsea recently released her version of events leading up to the split via an EP and a short film titled Rolling Up The Welcome Mat.