Pulse – Country Music News

Keith Urban and his family still love going to the beach for Christmas. It's a tradition that stems from his childhood that he now shares with his children. His tour just wrapped in Melbourne last week and he and his family will stay in Australia for the season. We asked Keith to tell us what puts him in the Christmas spirit, he told us this: "The lights going up, uh, the lights, the music, all of that, the house sort of transforming into Christmas. I love it. It's sad when it all has to go away." :10 (OC: when it all has to go away)

FGL's Brian Kelley and his wife Brittney have four dogs and they include them with all their holiday festivities. Brian tells us more: "Yeah, me and Brittney have a big ‘ol pack of dogs, and we definitely get them involved in the Christmas celebration and pretty much any celebration that we have they're involved. You know, any time we're off and at the house our day kinda revolves around our dogs. Our dogs are our babies, and it's always fun to kinda give ‘em some Christmas treats around that time and make it extra special for ‘em." :17 (OC: special for ‘em)

Jon Pardi says that one of his favorite holiday memories is of his grandmother's Christmas tree. She loved Elvis and would decorate it with Elvis ornaments. He told us about another Christmas memory that just may have changed his life: "One Christmas I got a guitar, but I was real young, so this guitar spent multiple nights in the backyard and probably got hit by a sprinkler. I was a kid. I didn't know what to do with this thing. It was like I knew how to strum it, but I didn't know how to take care of it. I must've been six or five, you know, I thought it was kind of a toy then, but it started the whole spark. So, I always kind of say, I always tell parents you just never know, if you get a little toy that's a guitar or drum set, you never know what that'll spark in a child's mind. So, who would've know if I had never gotten that guitar." :32 (OC: gotten that guitar)

As Wynonna Judd prepares to continue with The Judds: The Final Tour, she has announced her special stage guests. Martina McBride will return for all future dates. Others listed include Little Big Town, Ashley McBryde, Tanya Tucker, Brandi Carlile, and Kelsea Ballerini.

After the initial 11 shows, Wynonna said, "I'm so grateful to the fans that they want more and I'm anxious to be with everybody again."

15 additional dates have been added that run January 26 through February 25. a few of the tour stops include Hershey Pennsylvania, St. Louis, Missouri, Savannah, Georgia and Tampa, Florida.

Tickets are on sale now at The Judds .com.

Carrie Underwood says that the ingredients for a perfect Christmas haven't changed that much since she was a kid living with her parents… it's all about spending time with family. Carrie tells us more: "My perfect Christmas, generally we do a lot of traveling around Christmas. We'll go see either my family or my husband's family. I'll spend all day cooking. I'll make a small turkey, even though I don't eat turkey. I'll make myself some tofurkey; cranberry sauce, of course. Of course, sweet potato casserole. You have to have that. That's one of my favorites because it's a side dish and dessert, but I'll just make a ridiculous amount of food. Just celebrate, have a fire, we wait for Santa and open our presents, then we're off to see the next group of family. It's all about watching it through my sons' eyes and just getting to spend time with family." :40 (OC: time with family)

Maren Morris has signed on to guest judge on RuPaul's Drag Race on MTV. Ariana Grande has been named as one of the judges too. It's not clear if Maren will also perform.

The show is based on 16 queens competing to be the best and take home $200,000 in cash

After moving from VH-1, the realty show will begin airing on MTV on January 6.

The year-end numbers have been tallied and Walker Hayes is holding down the top two spots on Billboard's 2022 Country Digital Songs chart. Beating out every song in the genre, "Fancy Like" was the top-selling song of the year and right behind it was "AA." Cody Johnson is at #3 with his Grammy nominated single, "'Til You Can't." And Morgan Wallen has both #4 and #5 positions.

Some of the other notables include - an older song still proving that it's relevant, Chris Stapleton's 2015 release, "Tennessee Whiskey" in at #8.

There were no female artists in the Top 10, not even as a guest performer, however, Carrie Underwood made the Top 20 at a guest vocal on Jason Aldean's "If I Didn't Love You."

The only female-fronted tracks to make it into the Top 25 were Miranda Lambert and Elle King's "Drunk (And I Don't Wanna Go Home)" and Taylor Swift's "All Too Well."

After opening for an Alabama concert, Scotty McCreery interrupted their set to present them with a plaque representing two Billion streams of their music.

Founding members, Randy Owen and Teddy Gentry seemed surprised as Teddy said, "We thought a million plays was a very big deal but two billion plays of our songs puts it over the top. We appreciate Pandora and thanks for the award."

Scotty, a previous recipient of the Pandora Billionaire plaque, was honored to make the presentation and said he's been a fan all of his life.

The group has been making music for over 50 years.

Maren Morris recently played her last show of 2022 at a concert in Los Angeles and will be spending time with family over the holidays. Over the years, she says she's noticed a change in her audience and it's for the better. Maren tells us more: I feel like I've seen my audience grow over the years, not just in quantity, but in quality. I think that my crowd has become really diverse, not just in orientation or race, but like age, I think being able to look out at your crowd and see everyone from like little kids to people in their 90s jamming the 80s Mercedes is such a huge honor to be an artist that can speak to people of any generation, in a way so yeah, I feel like it's definitely changed in terms of getting more diverse over the years and more. Just I think solidified its acceptance and love of everyone. So it feels like a really safe environment and loving environment when you go to my crowd. : 53 (OC: to my crowd)

Dierks Bentley and his family will be heading out West for the Christmas holiday. Dierks is loading up his wife and three kids and returning to his hometown of Phoenix, as he tells us: "I am so looking forward to getting back home to Arizona, love having Christmas out there in the desert, love seeing all the cactus that have the lights wrapped around them and the luminaries and just seeing my mom, who's turning 80 and my in-laws, and just having a desert Christmas. It's gonna be so great."

Dierks' middle child, daughter Jordan, will turn 12 on Christmas Day (December 25th).

He sits inside the Top 20 and climbing on the country charts with his latest single, "Gold."

Dierks took the time to write individual hand-written notes to each member of his "band, crew, and team" which he finished yesterday (Thursday, December 14th) and lined up end to end all through his house. He shared a video of this on Instagram writing, "When you got the best band, crew, and team in Nashville, you got to let them know!"

Alan Jackson is officially a grandpa! His daughter, Ali, and her husband welcomed their first child, son Jackson Alvie Bradshaw, into the world on Tuesday (December 13th), just in time for Alan and his wife, Denise's, wedding anniversary, which was yesterday (Thursday, December 15th). Alan shared a picture of the new grandparents holding Jackson on social media yesterday writing, "Denise and I are celebrating our 43rd wedding anniversary with our new grandson Jackson Alvie Bradshaw . . . So happy that this little guy has made us grandparents!"

Alexandra "Ali" Jackson Bradshaw is the youngest of Alan's three daughters.

Jennifer Nettles will be the host of the upcoming dating series called Farmer Wants a Wife, set to premiere on FOX on Wednesday, March 8th. According to a release, there are four featured farmers who will bring their group of dates to their ranches and give them a realistic look at life on the farm. The women will try to win over the rancher.

Farmer Wants a Wife has already aired in 32 countries and has resulted in 180 marriages and 410 children.

The lineup of performers on CBS' New Year's Eve Live: Nashville's Big Bash TV special continues to grow with the additions of Jason Aldean, Luke Bryan, Jimmie Allen, Dierks Bentley, King Calaway, Sheryl Crow, Flo-Rida, Riley Green, Elle King, Ashley McBryde, Steve Miller, Thomas Rhett, Darius Rucker, Lainey Wilson, and The War And Treaty. They join previously announced performers Kelsea Ballerini, Brooks & Dunn, Little Big Town and Zac Brown Band. The event will be hosted by Jimmie Allen and Elle King and air live from Music City, on Saturday, December 31st beginning at 8 p.m. ET.

The five-hour broadcast will feature 50 back-to-back performances and cross multiple time zones. Nashville will count down with the East Coast at midnight and keep the party going through midnight Central Time with the city's renowned Music Note Drop.

New Year's Eve Live: Nashville's Big Bash will also be available to stream live and on demand on Paramount+.

Before heading out on the final dates on his 2022 The Speed of Now Tour in his native Australia, Keith Urban paid a visit to three Nashville-based charities to spend some time and donate money. Music Health Alliance, Thistle Farms, and the Nashville Food Project each received a check adding up to a combined total of $200,000.

Via a release, Keith said, "I have a deep-seated respect and feeling of gratitude for the work that all of these organizations do to make people's lives more manageable. Their commitment to community, what they do for Nashville, and for others across the country, is not only inspiring, but it shows how much we can accomplish when working together."

Keith presented a check for $100,000 to Music Health Alliance, an organization which provides healthcare resources for music professionals. Checks for $50,000 each were presented to the Nashville Food Project, which helps alleviate hunger across the city, and Thistle Farms, which "provides healing and hope for women who've survived trafficking, prostitution and addiction," according to People.com.

The outlet reports that Keith and his family also donated another $50,000 to Vanderbilt Breast Cancer research.

Keith will wrap up the Australian leg of his tour on Saturday (December 17th) in Melbourne.

Kelsea Ballerini was a recent guest on the iHeart podcast Tell Me About It with Jade Iovine where she opened up about why she divorced fellow artist Morgan Evans earlier this year after five years of marriage. She said, "For a long time, I was like, 'Oh this is just… The glitter wears off. That's what happens.' And then you get into a phase where you wait for it to come back. And then sometimes it doesn't."

Kelsea added, "At the end of the day, it is such a disservice and a dishonoring of yourself if you know something is not right and you stay. (Shame) is the one thing that I just refuse to feel . . . Judge me for it, fine, that's on you."

Kelsea recently moved into what she called her "dream house" but she hasn't been staying by herself. She explained, "Whether it was my mom or my dad or my friends, I've had my people really rally for me and I'm not ready to be alone yet, and I don't think that I'm avoiding anything, 'cause I'm definitely in my feels, cause I really want to heal properly… But yeah, I don't think that's what I need right now." Kelsea also said that a longtime friend moved into the house with her.

Kelsea and Morgan's divorce was finalized on November 15th.

Gabby Barrett and her husband, Cade Foehner, are the stars of the video for Gabby's latest hit, "Pick Me Up." Originally, their roles were supposed to be played by actors, but as Gabby tells us, she and Cade wanted those parts after reading the script. "The video was super fun to make and to be a part of. Originally, I was only supposed to be performing the performance scene of just singing the words to the video and doing that kind of like in a field scenery thing and other people were supposed to act out the other scenes. I remember just telling my manager was like ‘I want to act out those scenes and my husband wants to act out the scenes as well.' He's like ‘I'm letting you know it's gonna be a really long day of filming' and I was like ‘that's OK, like, let's do it.' We had special effects make up and it was a really long day but it came out awesome."

"Pick Me Up" is the fourth single from Gabby's 2020 album, Goldmine.

Parmalee will start the new year with an 11-date headlining tour, set to launch on February 2nd in Champaign, IL. The run is called the Take My Name Tour, which borrows its name from the group's latest Number One hit. Tickets for the tour go on sale tomorrow (Friday, December 16th at 10 a.m. local time.

Lead singer Matt Thomas said, "Everything we've built over the past couple years has been for this tour and for our fans. 'Take My Name' has such a huge connection with folks and with all the love everyone has shown the song, we decided to name this tour run after it."

Billboard recently named the song as the most-played song on the Billboard Country Airplay chart in 2022.

Jimmie Allen is among the many mourning the loss of Stephen "tWitch" Boss, The Ellen DeGeneres Show's longtime DJ and So You Think You Can Dance alum. He turned to social media yesterday (Wednesday, December 14th) after news of Boss' suicide broke, sharing a video that Boss posted of himself wearing a cowboy hat and writing in part, "Stephen my brother, one the best people I've ever gotten to know . . . This hurts!!! You missed @sir_twitch_alot" He then turned to Twitter to share the same video, this time writing, DAMMIT!!!! I can NOT!!! do this today!!!!!! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE check on your family and friends. People are struggling . . . Rest Easy Twitch"

According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner, Boss' official cause of death has been ruled a suicide by a gunshot wound to the head.

Boss was 40 years old and leaves behind his wife and three children ranging in age from 14 to three.

Luke Bryan is celebrating his career 30th Number One hit this week with "Country On," the lead single from his upcoming album. "Country On" claims the top spot on the Mediabase country chart.

Luke celebrated the feat with his manager and other members of his team. He shared several pictures on social media writing, "30 #1 songs at country radio is really crazy to hear. I'm blessed to have this career and can't thank everyone involved enough for supporting my dreams. ‘Hey, hey, USA! We ain't seen our better days' is a come together moment. I couldn't have hand picked a better 30th."

Luke tells us that the song's lyrics immediately resonated with him: "When you hear, ‘Hey Farm Boy…' I mean that certainly spoke to me right off the bat, and the fact that we were able to put so many different aspects of the way, the country American way of life out there, and I felt like this song really, really nailed it. It was something that really spoke to my heart."

Luke will kick off 2023 with his annual Crash My Playa in Riviera Cancun, Mexico from January 19 - 22.

If you need a great recipe for Christmas morning, Tim McGraw has got you covered. He took to Instagram yesterday (Tuesday, December 13th) to share a video of him making homemade beignets. He said, "Being a Louisiana boy, I grew up with beignets. It's been a part of my DNA since the earliest memories that I have."

Tim says this recipe is a favorite of his three grown daughters with wife Faith Hill. He recommends Cafe du Monde mix specifically, and offers helpful tips like putting cooking spray on his hands if the dough is too sticky, and using a Trader Joe's paper bag to make sure the beignets are properly coated with powdered sugar.

Keith Urban has sold his master recordings catalog to the music rights company Litmus, Billboard reports. The deal includes 10 studio albums, a greatest hits package, and an agreement to collaborate on Keith's future releases. The sale price has not been disclosed.

Keith is reportedly finishing up work on his next studio album, the followup to 202's The Speed of Now Part 1.

He is currently touring in his native Australia.

Yellowstone star Luke Grimes has joined the roster of Universal Music Group Nashville. You might know him as Kayce Dutton on the hit Paramount show. In a social media post, Luke shared the news that his debut release, "No Horse To Ride," which he co-wrote, will be release on Friday (December 16th).

Luke is set to perform at Stagecoach in Indio, CA on April 30th.

He's in the process of recording his debut album, which is being produced by Dave Cobb (Chris Stapleton).

Scotty McCreery will kick off the new year with a new tour. He'll launch his 22-city Damn Strait Tour beginning on January 20th in Hinton, OK and wrap things up on April 30th in Hagerstown, MD. Tickets for the Damn Strait Tour go on sale on Friday (December 16th).

The tour name is borrowed from Scotty's latest Number One hit, "Damn Strait," the second consecutive chart-topper from his 2021 Same Truck album.

The third single, called "It Matters to Her," is currently climbing the country charts.

Walker Hayes will return to the road next spring on his headlining Duck Buck Tour. The trek kicks off on April 13th in Rosemont, IL and runs through August 5th in Sterling Heights, MI. He will be joined by Ingrid Andress on all dates, as well as BRELAND and Ray Fulcher on select shows.

Taste of Country reports that the name of the tour refers to lyrics in the title track of his Country Stuff album which includes "I like shooting ducks and bucks." The "Duck Buck" became a signature animal design which is now featured on Walker's merchandise and social media.

Walker said, "I can't wait to get back out on tour. Headlining an arena tour for the first time this year was a dream come true. The whole family was able to come out and the road has become our home away from home. All the fans that have come out or will come out are making this dream a reality. I owe it all to them, and this next tour will be the biggest and best. I don't take for granted that they spent their hard-earned money on my shows, and I plan to make it well worth it!"

Tickets for the Duck Buck Tour go on sale on Friday (December 15th).