Pulse – Country Music News

Ashley McBryde is this year's recipient of the CMA International Artist Achievement Award. She was surprised with the industry honor backstage at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville ahead of her CMA Awards rehearsal prior to last week's live telecast.

Ashley said, "Since the first time I was lucky enough to play abroad when C2C took a chance on me in 2018, I have fallen in love with the international fans. I've told them over and over that as long as they keep showing up, I'll keep showing up. That is still true today. I am honored and so proud to be receiving this award and I promise to continue to be the best ambassador that I can be for Country Music all over the world."

"The CMA International Artist Achievement Award recognizes outstanding achievement by a United States-based artist who has demonstrated the most significant creative growth, development and promotion of the Country Music industry outside of the United States during the eligibility period," according to a release.

Yesterday (Tuesday, November 15th), Ashley and her "Never Wanted To Be That Girl" duet partner Carly Pearce were nominated for Best Country Duo/Group Performance at next year's Grammy Awards. The winners will be announced on February 5th in Los Angeles.

Brothers Osborne have teamed with Vermont-based WhistlePig Whiskey to create a single barrel, limited-edition 100% Rye Whiskey. Proceeds from the sales of each bottle will benefit Rogers Behavioral Health and their foundation, Mission Possible Fund, raising funds to provide free mental health treatment to low-income patients, according to Country Now.

Brothers Osborne said, "We're very proud to release a new kind of single for our family to enjoy this holiday season. At its core, music is a string of notes that creates a perfect melody, and the same applies to whiskey. You want a combination of various components that complement one another, and whether it's music or whiskey, it's always a dynamic mix."

The whiskey is bottled at 96.56 proof and is available for purchase online at shop.whistlepigwhiskey.com for $49.99 MSRP per 750ml bottle. TJ and John Osborne have autographed about 100 bottles which will be available for pre-order for $225.

Maren Morris will join The Avett Brothers, Sam Bush, and Jerry Douglas, among others, at next year's MerleFest. The event will take place April 27-30 on the campus of Wilkes Community College in Wilkesboro, NC.

Garth Brooks will launch a new headlining Las Vegas residency, called Garth Brooks/Plus ONE, at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace beginning in 2023. Tickets for these shows will be available through registration using Ticketmaster Verified Fan. The Verified on sale will begin Monday, November 21st at 10 a.m. PT for registered fans only on a first come, first served basis.

The dates are as follows:

• May 2023: 18, 20, 21, 25, 27, 28
• June 2023: 1, 3, 4
• July 2023: 6, 8, 9, 13, 15, 16, 20, 22, 23
• November 2023: 29
• December 2023: 1, 2, 6, 8, 9, 13, 15, 16

Garth announced the residency yesterday (Monday, November 14th) morning on ABC's Good Morning America.

Via a release, he said, "Vegas is the place where anything goes, and The Colosseum at Caesars is the heart of Vegas. The perfect combination to present a show that will not only push the envelope, it's gonna shred it."

"No two shows will be the same" at Garth Brooks/Plus ONE, according to a release, "with varying band members and the occasional special guest, fans are promised a once in a lifetime performance each and every night . . ."

Tyler Hubbard's debut solo single, "5 Foot 9," is a Number One hit this week on Country radio. The feat makes Tyler the first male country artist formerly in a country duo to climb to Number One as a solo artist. "5 Foot 9" is the lead single from Tyler's self-titled debut solo album which will be released on January 27th. He co-wrote and co-produced the song, which was certified Gold by the RIAA within six months of its release.

Tyler tells us: "I'm trying to really let it sink in you know, what this really means and how special this is and the fact that I'm getting relive having a first No. 1 again is so, it's so rare and so special, so I'm really trying to let it soak in and again, just continue to feel all this gratitude and use it to motivate and inspire the next one and just keep this thing rockin'. So, I'm really, really excited and really grateful to be on the charts in general, much less at No. 1."

Tyler celebrated the Gold certification on Friday (November 11th) night backstage at the Grand Ole Opry, where he received a plaque before making his debut Grand Ole Opry performance as a solo artist.

Dolly Parton has received Amazon head honcho Jeff Bezos' Courage & Civility Award and with that $100 million, which is expected to be directed to "the charities that they see fit," Bezos' partner Lauren Sanchez said during a presentation posted to social channels on Sunday (November 13th), according to Billboard. The award recognizes "leaders who aim high, find solutions and who always do it with civility," according to Sanchez.

Parton accepted the award and spoke to the crowd saying, "When people are in a position to help, you should help. And I know that I've always said, I try to put my money where my heart is. I will do my best to do good things with this money."

Previous Amazon Courage and Civility award recipients include Van Jones, who served as founding CEO of the REFORM Alliance and Dream Corps, and chef and humanitarian Jose Andres, who established World Central Kitchen.

Brett Young is closing out 2022 with a sold-out tour across Europe including stops in the UK, Germany, Netherlands, Norway and Sweden. On the other side of the globe, Brett announced a special limited run in Hawaii in 2023, which sold out in 24 hours.

He said, "This has been such a great year and I'm always so grateful for the support of the fans. I loved seeing everybody on the road this summer and it's always mind blowing to meet fans overseas. It's a dream come true that my music is touching people from all over. There's a lot more in the works as far as new music and a tour for next year - more to come!"

Brett officially wraps things up on December 10th with a show at the House of Blues in San Diego, CA.

In addition to touring, Brett also recently released an acoustic version of "You Didn't." Meanwhile, the song is a Top 16 hit and climbing on the Mediabase chart.

Ingrid Andress will head out on her headlining The Good Person Tour, set to kick off on February 24th in Salt Lake City and make stops in NYC, LA and London before wrapping up in Norway on May 24th. General on-sale will begin this Friday (November 18th) at 10 a.m. local time at ingridandress.com.

She shared news of the tour on social media yesterday (Monday, November 14th) writing in part, "i've been wanting to tell y'all about this global tour for so long and I'm v proud of myself for keeping it a secret til now. i'll be playing a lot of songs from the good person album for the first time and visiting some cities i've never been to before, so please come out and say hi. i want to meet every last one of you . . . "

Ingrid recently topped the Country Aircheck chart with her Platinum-certified hit "Wishful Drinking (with Sam Hunt)." The song is Ingrid's second career Number One and Sam's 10th.

Scotty McCreery released the official music video for his current single, "It Matters to Her," on Monday (November 14th). The video was filmed in North Carolina and features his wife, Gabi, preparing to welcome their son, Avery, who was born last month. The song was co-written by Scotty.

He said, "I wanted to really focus the video on Gabi and our preparations for (son) Avery's arrival. We filmed some of it over the course of several months at home in Raleigh when we were getting the nursery ready. We also filmed some of it at our place at North Topsail Beach. I think you can see in the video how excited we were getting for Avery to get here as well as how amazing Gabi was throughout the entire pregnancy."

"It Matters To Her" is climbing the country airplay charts. It follows Scotty's five consecutive No. 1 hits, including his recent three-week chart-topper, "Damn Strait."

"It Matters to Her" is included on Scotty's Same Truck: The Deluxe Album, which will be available this Friday (November 18th) on vinyl, CD and digital, and includes six additional new songs not found on the original album which was released last year.

Russell Dickerson will continue his headlining She Likes It Tour into 2023, adding dates with opener David Morris. The six-date tour extension kicks off on February 16th in Charlotte, NC. Public sale for tickets starts Friday (November 16th).

Mitchell Tenpenny has released a new single to country radio called "We Got History." It follows up Mitchell's history-making success with the shortest time between Number One songs in the modern chart era with a three-week span between "Truth About You" and "At The End Of A Bar" with Chris Young.

Matt Stell released the video for "One Of Us" over the weekend. The clip was shot at the track at Lake Elsinore Motorsports Park in Lake Elsinore, CA. Matt said, "Doesn't matter if it's drinks after work, dirt bikes on your day off, or a Country concert on Friday night, it's coming together and celebrating life with your friends that makes you ‘One Of Us.'"

Shania Twain has revealed the track listing for her upcoming album, Queen of Me. The project will feature 12 new songs when it is released on February 3rd. This will be Shania's first full-length offering since the 2017 release of Now.

Today (Monday, November 14th) at 6 p.m. ET, Shania will join TV personality Nancy O'Dell for TalkShopLive where fans can hear stories around the making of Queen of Me and pre-order the autographed LP and limited edition boxed sets.

Shania recently announced her global 49-date Queen of Me Tour, featuring rotating opening acts Kelsea Ballerini, Lindsay Ell, Hailey Whitters, Breland, Robyn Ottolini, Priscilla Block, and Mickey Guyton. The Queen of Me Tour kicks off on Friday, April 28th at Spokane Arena in Spokane, WA.

Jason Aldean knows that thing or two about 'what tequila does.' It's not only the title of his latest hit single, "That's What Tequila Does," but it's among his favorite adult beverages. He tells us: "My go-to tequila is probably Casamigos and my go-to tequila drink is tequila. Just, that's it. Just a shot (laughs). Shot and chase it with a beer, you know?"

"That's What Tequila Does" is a Top 15 and climbing on the country charts.

In other Jason news, he is among the artists being featured in new episodes of Behind the Music coming to Paramount+. The new installments of the documentary series will begin streaming on November 29th. Other featured artists include Jennifer Lopez, Boy George, and Remy Ma.

Elle King has released a song called "Jersey Giant," written by fellow artist Tyler Childers. Elle will join Childers on his 2023 Send in the Hounds Tour at Radio City Music Hall in New York City on August 2 and 3.

Elle said, "Tyler Childers is not too far from where my family lives and he's a legend. The life of a song is something so beautiful to me, and country music has taught me to see that the opportunity to sing a song written by someone else, is nothing short of a gift, a blessing. When you hear a song and say ‘I wish I wrote that' you know it's a good'n . . ."

Tyler said, "I wrote ‘Jersey Giant' over ten years ago and only performed it for a short period of time. I was pleased with how it turned out . . . but I was over performing it pretty fast. I reckon that's just how songs go sometimes . . . I'm super excited that Ms. King has dusted this old song off and given it a new life . . ."

Elle provides lead and background vocals and is featured on acoustic guitar, in addition to co-producing the track with Charlie Worsham.

Elle will release her new album, Come Get Your Wife, on January 27th. The record includes her current single, "Worth A Shot" (feat. Dierks Bentley).

Eric Church, Shania Twain and Kenny Chesney have been announced as headliners at Rocks the Ocean's Tortuga Music Festival taking place in Fort Lauderdale, FL April 14-16. The three-day event will feature more than 30 multi-genre artists.

Other artists set to take the main at the Festival include Wade Bowen, Deana Carter, Ashley Cooke, Alexandra Kay, Dee Jay Silver, Niko Moon, Lukas Nelson & Potr, Jake Owen, Carly Pearce, Shane Profitt, Jameson Rodgers, Brittney Spencer and Cole Swindell.

Artists set to appear on the Sunset Stage include Lauren Alaina, Tyler Braden, Collie Buddz, DJ Rock, Corey Kent, Kidd G, Wiz Khalifa, Mike., Justin Moore, Kylie Morgan, Pecos & the Rooftops, Dylan Scott, Nate Smith, The Wallflowers, Tropidelic and Brett Young.

Next From Nashville Stage performers include Chayce Beckham, George Birge, Tyler Booth, Mackenzie Carpenter, Erin Kinsey, Dylan Marlowe, Chase McDaniel, Megan Moroney, Pillbox Patti, Catie Offerman, Aaron Raitiere, Frank Ray, Red Clay Strays and Alana Springsteen.

Tickets and passes go on sale to the public on Friday (November 18th) at 10 a.m. ET at tortugamusicfestival.com.

On the heels of his very first CMA Award win for Song of the Year for his hit "Buy Dirt," featuring Luke Bryan, Jordan Davis has released a new track called "Part of It." It's the latest preview of songs from his upcoming album.

The video for Cheat Code's "I Remember (Dixie Remix)" featuring Dixie D'Amelio and Russell Dickerson was released on Friday (November 11th). The clip features Cheat Codes, Russell and Dixie popping up at a variety of places around NYC, including the very top of the Empire State Building, surprise performing at Marquee Nightclub, and getting late-night tattoos with the sought after ink artist @jonboytattoo.

Ahead of their Christmas tour of the same name, Phil Vassar has released the original holiday song, "Coming Home for Christmas" with singer-songwriter Deana Carter, as well as the video for "Brand New Year." Both singles were co-written by Phil and Deana with hit songwriter and Songwriters Hall of Fame member Steve Dorff, who makes a cameo in the video. Phil and Deana kick off their Coming Home For Christmas Tour on November 25th in Renfro Valley, KY.

Runaway June have released the video for "Broken Hearts (Do Broken Things)." On Friday (November 11th), the clip appeared on the Paramount Times Square Billboard in New York City, as well as on CMT Music and CMT.com.

On the heels of his second consecutive CMA win for Entertainer of the Year on Wednesday (November 9th) night, Luke Combs is gearing up for his 2023 World Tour, which includes 16 stadium shows. He played some this year, but as Luke told reporters backstage at the CMA Awards, he was just getting warmed up for what's to come. "This year was a trial run, really, in the stadiums for us to see how we did and what we wanted to do, what we liked, what we didn't like. Obviously with the worry of not selling tickets behind us, it's really the ability to just focus on the production. We have some great ideas that we've been working on, and there's nowhere to go from here, which is kind of scary a little bit. There's really nowhere to go but down which freaks me out a little bit, but I'm excited about it."

Luke's 35-date World Tour opens on March 25th at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas and concludes in London, England at The O2 Arena on October 19th.

He will be joined by Riley Green, Lainey Wilson, Flatland Cavalry and Brent Cobb for the North American dates, while Cody Johnson and Lane Pittman will be the special guests on the Australian and New Zealand dates.

In addition to Entertainer of the Year, Luke also took home the trophy for Album of The Year for Growin' Up.

Alabama members Randy Owen and Teddy Gentry released statements yesterday (Thursday, November 10th) about the passing of their longtime bandmate and fellow founding member Jeff Cook earlier this week.

In a post on social media, Randy wrote, "He lived to play our music we created together. He could play any instrument he chose, but his harmonies I'll miss the most. I'm thankful we got to create music together for over 50 years! Wish we could play 'My Home's in Alabama' one more time. I'm hurt in a way I can't describe! To Lisa, thanks for loving him and being there for him to the end. Play on, Jeff. Love you!"

Teddy wrote, "Closer than brothers, we lived together more than with our immediate families. Don't think I've known anyone who loved playing more. Jeff, along with me and Randy, experienced the highs of undreamed success, as well as some very tough early years. None of us were perfect, but together we had something so special it will never die. No other guitar player I've known had the range of styles Jeff had. No one can take your place. Ever. Rest in peace till we get to jam again."

Jeff died on Monday (November 7th) at the age of 73 after a decade-long battle with Parkinson's disease.

In lieu of flowers, the family has requested donations be made to The Jeff and Lisa Cook Foundation, P.O. BOX 680067, Fort Payne, AL 35968 or through the foundation website at thejeffandlisacookfoundation.org.

Arrangements for Jeff's "Celebration of Life" will be announced at a later date.

Walker Hayes was up for his very first CMA Awards nomination on Wednesday (November 9th) night where he was up for New Artist of the Year. Although he didn't win, he was prepared with a speech just in case. Yesterday (Thursday, November 10th), he released a song called "Face In The Crowd." He prefaced it by stating, "I was honored to be nominated for a CMA Award, but the acceptance speech I would've made dropped just now… it's called ‘Face in the Crowd.'" The song is a message to his wife, Laney, his family and his fans.

The song's lyrics include: "When my 15 minutes ends / and the world loves me a little less / I hope you know that you're the only one / I was trying to impress / if I sold out Bryant-Denny / made my sweet home so proud / all I ever cared about, all I ever cared about was your face in the crowd"

Walker said, "I can't say how grateful I am for the last year of my life. It changed a lot for me and my family, but at the end of the day, money doesn't fix anything. We've been doing this a long time, and we were happy when we were poor, too. We're just lucky to have each other, and that's really all that matters"

His latest single, "Y'all Life," continues climbing the charts at country radio.

MetroCard vending machines at four high-traffic subway stations in New York City are loaded with 50,000 limited-edition cards honoring the release of Dolly Parton's album, Dolly Parton - Diamonds & Rhinestones: The Greatest Hits Collection, which will be released on November 18th. MetroCards will be available for purchase on a first come, first served basis.

Cards are available at the vending machines that accept all forms of payment, including credit, debit, and cash at the following stations: 34th Street Penn Station, Herald Square, Grand Central Terminal, and Times Square.

Jimmie Allen had to bow out of his performance slot on Wednesday (November 9th) night's CMA Awards due to illness. He was scheduled to perform with the Zac Brown Band and Marcus King, however just hours before the live broadcast Jimmie tweeted, "unfortunately I'm under the weather and won't be able to."

Lee Brice is donating a portion of the proceeds from his 2022 Label Me Proud Tour. Nearly $50,000 will be split between Folds of Honor, which provides life-changing scholarships to the spouses and children of America's fallen or disabled military, and also families of American first responders, and Tunnels to Towers, which provides funding for families of first responders and injured or fallen military members.

Luke Combs, Lainey Wilson and Cody Johnson were the big winners at last night's (Wednesday, November 9th) 56th Annual CMA Awards in Nashville, each taking home two awards. Luke had a huge night as he won Entertainer of The Year for the second year in a row. Seemingly stunned by the win, he said, "I want to thank country music for making my dreams come true." Earlier in the night, he also picked up the coveted Album of The Year award for Growin' Up.

First time nominee, Lainey Wilson was a major winner and gave two of the most emotional speeches when she won Best New Artist and Best Female Artist. In tears, she talked about her dad recently being in the hospital but was able to walk the red carpet with her earlier in the evening.

Cody Johnson accepted Best Single for "‘Til You Can't," alongside his producer Trent Willmon and engineer Jack Clarke.

The show spotlighted several legendary artists including opening with a tribute to Loretta Lynn that featured Reba McEntire, Carrie Underwood, and Miranda Lambert. Later, Alan Jackson was honored with the Willie Nelson Lifetime Achievement award. Jo Dee Messina performed with Cole Swindell, Patty Loveless joined Chris Stapleton, Jeannie Seely introduced Miranda Lambert's performance, and Ricky Skaggs played in Carly Pearce's band.

After hosting the show solo last year, Luke Bryan was joined by football's Peyton Manning to co-host this year. The three-hour show aired live from Nashville's Bridgestone Arena.

WINNERS LIST:

ENTERTAINER OF THE YEAR

• Luke Combs

SINGLE OF THE YEAR

• Award goes to Artist(s), Producer(s) and Mix Engineer 
• "‘Til You Can't" – Cody Johnson
• Producer: Trent Willmon
• Mix Engineer: Jack Clarke

ALBUM OF THE YEAR 

• Award goes to Artist(s), Producer(s) and Mix Engineer(s)
• Growin' Up – Luke Combs
• Producers: Luke Combs, Chip Matthews, Jonathan Singleton
• Mix Engineers: Jim Cooley, Chip Matthews

SONG OF THE YEAR

• Award goes to Songwriter(s) 
• "Buy Dirt"
• Songwriters: Jacob Davis, Jordan Davis, Josh Jenkins, Matt Jenkins

FEMALE VOCALIST OF THE YEAR  

• Lainey Wilson

MALE VOCALIST OF THE YEAR

• Chris Stapleton

VOCAL GROUP OF THE YEAR

• Old Dominion

VOCAL DUO OF THE YEAR

• Brothers Osborne

MUSICAL EVENT OF THE YEAR

• Award goes to Artist(s) and Producer(s) 
• "Never Wanted To Be That Girl" – Carly Pearce and Ashley McBryde
• Producers: Shane McAnally, Josh Osborne

MUSICIAN OF THE YEAR

• Jenee Fleenor, Fiddle

MUSIC VIDEO OF THE YEAR  

• Award goes to Artist(s) and Director(s) 
• "‘Til You Can't" – Cody Johnson
• Director: Dustin Haney

NEW ARTIST OF THE YEAR  

• Lainey Wilson

BROADCAST SOUND

Jordan Davis accepts award for Song of The Year

• "We wrote a song about -- we wrote a song about faith and family, and if that's not country music I don't know what is. Luke Bryan, come up here, bro. What are you doing? Come here. Cheers and applause Luke, come here, dude. This song isn't you without on it -- cheers and applause I want to say thank you so much, CMA. Cheers and applause" :22 OC...so much, CMA Cheers and applause

Wynonna Judd presents Duo of the Year award

• "In death there is life, and here I am. Thank you. for your love and your support. Cheers and applause These past six months have been a time to grieve and a time to be grateful. And I am humbled and honored tonight to still have a seat at the table of country music. Cheers and applause" :22

Osborne Brother accepting Duo of the Year award

• "To be in the presence of wynonna. Absolutely. While winning this award. Will be one of the biggest highlights of my entire life. This is so crazy to me. Cheers and applause It's an absolute honor. We have learned so much from you and your family." :14 OC...and your family

Old Dominion accepts award for Vocal group of the Year

• "Well, hmm. Listen. There's, obviously, we've lost a lot of legends, but there's nobody in this, in this category and really any category that would be here without Alabama, and we just lost Jeff Cook. Just got me thinking and just, there's nothing like being in a band, you know? I'm so grateful to have my friends, and I can't imagine losing one of you guys, and I'm so happy to be able to make music and be honored. We love you. And we love the opportunity do what we love doing. So thank you guys so much. For allowing us. Thank you. Cheers" : 52 OC...us. Thank you. Cheers

Cody Johnson accepts award for Single of the Year

• "I'm not going to take up too much time. Ben Stennis, Matt Rogers wrote in my opinion what is one of the greatest country songs. And I was so blessed to have it in my hands. Trent Willman, Jack Clark, These men standing behind me, are, in my opinion, the greatest producer and engineer in the business. I'm not going to take up too much time. I want you guys to speak. God bless country music. Thank you so much. Cheers and applause" :25 OC...you so much Cheers and applause

Luke Combs accepts Album of the Year award

• "Oh, man. I was not expecting this. And I don't, I don't want to waste too much of your time. I'm so thankful anytime I get to stand up here. But the real people to be thankful for are these two gentlemen standing behind me. Chip Matthews and Jonathan singleton. These guys worked their tails off on this album. Chip might have slept two hours since we put this record out. So I want y'all to come up here and say something. Thank y'all so much. Cheers" :30 OC...y'all so much Cheers

Lainey Wilson accepts New Artist of the Year award

• "This is for those 11 years that I have been here in Nashville and not taken no for an answer. Thank you. This right here is for everybody who has believed in me and a little bit for the ones who even didn't." :19 OC...who even didn't

Lainey Wilson accepts Female Artist of the Year award

• "I want to say a few months ago my daddy got real sick and we thought we were going to lose him. He spent two months in ICU. And he's walking the carpet with me tonight and he's here. Cheers and applause This one right here is for my daddy Brian Wilson. I ain't talking about the beach boy. I'm talking about the cowboy. Cheers and applause" :22 OC...about the cowboy Cheers and applause

Chris Stapleton accepts Male Artist of the Year award

• "It means so much. I got an award from my friends back here. I was sitting over there and all the guys in the category all deserve this award and everybody's killing it. And I'm so honored to be a member of the country music community. I promised my daughter if I got up here, it's her birthday tonight. So Ada, happy birthday. She's 12 tonight. I love you, baby. This is for you. Cheers and applause" :30 OC...is for you Cheers and applause

Alan Jackson accepts Willie Nelson Lifetime Achievement award

• "One night watching television and this movie came on about the life of hank williams. It just really inspired me. Audience member: We love you! Jackson: I came to Nashville with nothing. Carrie was talking about three chords and the truth. Mine was more like three chords and a prayer. Laughter" :30 OC...and a prayer Laughter

Luke Combs accepts Entertainer of the Year award

• "I want to thank country music for making my dreams come true. My beautiful, beautiful wife Nicole. Our beautiful 4 1/2-month-old son Texas, at home right now. And this is a dream come true. There is nobody in this category that doesn't deserve to be standing up here." :20 OC...standing up here

BACKSTAGE SOUND

Brothers Osborne's John Osborne on announcing his wife's pregnancy: "Lucy didn't know. I guess I got nervous. I didn't know what to say. Well, Wynonna was standing right next to us and you look up and see the clock going. I'm like so nervous right now. We never prepare a speech. We never expect to win, and I looked over out of the corner of my eye and saw Lucy sitting there and just my heart filled up and . . . I don't know. It's not really like me to do it but I just wanted to tell the world."

Old Dominion's Matthew Ramsey on group taking home fifth Vocal Group win: "(I'm) pretty shocked every time. I will say, like, the third time might've been the time that we were like, 'Yeah, we got this.' Whatever. Now it's just insane that we're still getting to do this period, and that we're getting this award for the fifth time. It doesn't happen really in any other category where . . . it seems like this category is the one where you take it and you hold it, and we're just so happy to be holding it right now."

Jordan Davis on co-writing "Buy Dirt" with his brother, Jacob: "Yeah, we've had some moments backstage to kind of just drink this in. We both moved to town to write songs, just try to make a living do that, so we'd have been crazy to think that this was even attainable, but now that we have it and I have it with my brother . . . I mean, I shared a room with the guy til I was 16 years old so we're pretty close, so this is something that nobody's ever gonna be able to take away from us."

Cody Johnson on winning Single and not winning Male Vocalist: "Honestly, if I'm being honest, Single of the Year is the one that I wanted. That's a team victory. That's Warner Music Nashville pushing my first Number One double platinum single on Billboard and it couldn't have gone better, and as far as Male Vocalist goes, when you're in a category with Chris Stapleton you kind of already know who's gonna win, right? So I was pretty pleased. I'm feeling pretty happy at this moment."

Lainey Wilson on Female Vocalist win: "Every single girl in the category I look up to in some way. A lot of the girls have given me advice. They have pointed me in directions. I mean, they have listened to me cry. It's really a sisterhood. It truly is and they are rootin' me on, and I feel the love. It's so genuine and it goes for them, too. It's something really, really special and no, I never in a million years expected it but I'll take it. I've been here a long time working hard and they know that about me, too, and I think they're really happy for me."

Luke Combs on Entertainer and Album of the Year wins: "Entertainer is so huge. For everything that we do all the time that we spend away from home and it feels like such a huge award for me and my team and everybody on the road with me that spends all this time away to make sure that we do the best we can, and then the album is everybody that I write songs with, all the studio musicians, all the time that I've spent in there. I mean, I spent two years making that record, of my life -- painstaking years -- and so to be recognized for that, it just means the world to me and my team and my family. I just couldn't me more thankful. I'm just honestly blown away by tonight."

Jeff Cook, founding member and guitarist of the supergroup Alabama, died on Monday (November 7th) at the age of 73 after a long battle with Parkinson's disease. According to his spokesperson, Cook passed away peacefully with his family and close friends by his side at his beach home in Destin, Florida.

Cook stopped touring with Alabama in 2018 due to his illness.

He is survived by his wife of 27 years, Lisa Cook.

In lieu of flowers, the family has requested donations be made to The Jeff and Lisa Cook Foundation, P.O. BOX 680067, Fort Payne, AL 35968 or through the foundation website at thejeffandlisacookfoundation.org

Arrangements for Cook's Celebration of Life will be announced at a later date.

Carly Pearce heads into tonight's (Wednesday, November 9th) CMA Awards as the reigning Female Vocalist of the Year, a category in which she is included again this year. While Carly is hoping for a second win, she tells us she doesn't take even the nomination for granted. "Would I be lying if I said I didn't wanna win it again? Of course. I think that over the last few years I've had such huge jumps in my career, that I think that moment in particular did make me believe that anything is possible. And so, I think just as I go into this awards season, but also just as I continue to think about what goals in the next 1 to 5 years do I want to see happen, I do believe because of that, I think I can do anything. Every year you hold your breath. There's so many great females, especially right now in our business, and so just to get the nomination was really special, and I have to remind myself of that."

Carly is also nominated for Single, Song, Musical Event and Video of the Year for her chart-topping duet with Ashley McBryde, "Never Wanted To Be That Girl."

She is set to perform twice during the live broadcast, singing "Dear Miss Loretta," her tribute song to Loretta Lynn off her 29: Written in Stone album, then she'll join Kelsea Ballerini and Kelly Clarkson to sing "You're Drunk, Go Home," their collaboration on Kelsea's new album, Subject To Change. The 56th Annual CMA Awards live from Nashville's Bridgestone Arena at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.

Jason Aldean: "So sad to hear of the passing of Jeff Cook. I spent a lot of my life listening to him play guitar, what an iconic sound he had. I got a chance to perform with him multiple times over the years and I will never forget it. RIP Mr. Jeff, you are a legend to many of us and your influence will be felt forever in country music."

Kenny Chesney: "Jeff Cook, and all of the guys in Alabama, were so generous with wisdom AND fun when I got to tour with them as a young artist... But maybe even more, they showed a kid in a t-shirt that country music could be rock, could be real, could be someone who looked like me. Growing up in East Tennessee, that gave me the heart to chase this dream."

Travis Tritt: "Sending out my deepest condolences to the family, friends and band mates of Jeff Cook from @TheAlabamaBand. Such a great guy an one heckuva bass fisherman. He will be truly missed."

Cook died on Monday (November 7th) at the age of 73 after a 10-year battle with Parkinson's disease.