Pulse – Country Music News

Carly Pearce and Ashley McBryde top the Mediabase chart this week with their duet, "Never Wanted to Be That Girl." The song is Carly's third chart-topper and the first for Ashley. They also co-wrote the song, which is featured on Carly's 29: Written In Stone album which was released last year.

Carly tells us: "Oh my gosh, I mean just thinking about how this song even came to be . . . I had an idea to have Ashley on a song and she was on board, and just to see what it's done and the stories that we've heard, and to be two women to get a number one – it's Ashley's first, which I think is really awesome, and I'm so happy for her, and this is the kind of music that I want to write and I want to sing, and to see it do what it's done at radio makes me really proud."

Carly shared the news of the chart-topper on social media on Sunday (May 8th) with a picture of her holding up gold mylar balloons in the shape of a hashtag sign and the number one writing in part, "Ashley, I am so proud to call you my friend, my sister and I will forever be grateful for this song bringing us together. Gonna go cry for the 100th time!"

Carly is on the road with Kenny Chesney as part of his Here And Now Tour. They perform at American Family Field in Milwaukee, WI on Saturday (May 14th).

Carrie Underwood will return to American Idol to serve as a mentor to the Top Five contestants. Show host Ryan Seacrest shared the news during Sunday's (May 9th) episode, and according to a post on social media, Carrie will mentor "live from the home of her Las Vegas residency 'REFLECTION' at @resortsworldlv!"

She returns to continue her residency at Resorts World Theatre on Wednesday (May 11th), with dates running through May 21st.

American Idol airs on Sundays and Mondays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.

Garth Brooks is adding a new opening night at Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton, AB on Friday, June 24th, with the originally announced date of Saturday, June 25th as the second night. The first concert sold out in 45 minutes. This will be Garth's only Stadium Tour appearance in Canada. Tickets will be on sale on Thursday (May 12th) at 10 a.m. MT via Ticketmaster.com.

HARDY, Ernest, Jimmie Allen, Mitchell Tenpenny, Riley Green, Jelly Roll and Tyler Braden have all signed on to participate in Folds of Honor Tennessee's 2nd Annual Rock N' Jock Celebrity Softball Game. They join previously announced players Lee Brice, Russell Dickerson, Chris Lane, Michael Ray, Jameson Rodgers, Jessie James Decker, Eric Decker and Shawn Johnson. The fundraiser for the families of America's fallen and disabled service members will take place at First Horizon Park in Nashville on June 6th. Tickets are on sale now at firsthorizonpark.com.

Miranda Lambert and Elle King have been added to the performance lineup at the Billboard Music Awards, which will take place at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on Sunday (May 15th) and airing live on NBC at 8 p.m. ET. The two ladies will perform their duet "Drunk (And I Don't Wanna Go Home)" which is nominated for Top Rock Song.

The Billboard Music Awards, hosted by Sean "Diddy" Combs, will also include performances by Becky G, Ed Sheeran and Travis Scott. They join previously announced performers Morgan Wallen, Florence + the Machine, Maxwell, Silk Sonic, Megan Thee Stallion, Latto, Rauw Alejandro, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Burna Boy, as well as this year's Icon Award recipient, Mary J. Blige.

Naomi Judd's funeral was reportedly held on Saturday (May 7th) at the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville. The private event was attended by the likes of Dolly Parton, Vince Gill, the Oak Ridge Boys, Ricky Skaggs, and The Isaacs, according to sources.

The Oak Ridge Boys and Terry Blackwood & The Imperials were among the performers, according to social media posts by both acts.

The service was allegedly recorded and will air sometime in the future. A spokesperson with the Country Music Hall of Fame did not respond to our request for further information at press time.

Craig Morgan will launch his headlining God, Family, Country Tour this fall, playing 11 theater and auditorium dates beginning on October 19th in Green Bay, WI. He'll be joined by opening act Ray Fulcher. Tickets go on sale on Friday (May 13th) at CraigMorgan.com.

Craig's tour includes a special Veterans Day Show on November 11th at Nashville's historic Ryman Auditorium, which will be his first headlining date at the venue.

Craig said, "I feel like this tour has been a lifetime in the making. Musically and personally, God, family and country are the most important things to me and I'm excited to share this in my upcoming memoir and in my tour as me and the band play some fan favorite songs, some album cuts and some new songs you've not even heard yet."

Craig's God, Family, Country Tour 2022 will follow closely on the heels of his personal memoir — God, Family, Country — which will be released on September 27th.

He continues competing on CBS's Beyond The Edge, which airs on Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET. Craig is playing for Operation Finally Home, which provides mortgage-free homes and home modifications to wounded, ill and injured military veterans, first responders, and their families in honor of their service and sacrifice to our country and community.

Blake Shelton and Carson Daly are joining forces on a new celebrity game show called Barmageddon, set to air on the USA Network. According to reports, the show originates from Blake's Ole Red bar in downtown Nashville where Carson will be the bartender and Blake will serve as the live entertainment alongside the bar's house band.

Two celebrities will be featured in each episode of the show where they will play a set of five games to win a prize for a viral internet sensation each has chosen to support. "Plucked from obscurity following their epic misadventures on the Internet, these now-infamous stars find themselves at Ole Red hoping to be redeemed," according to a release.

Blake said, "Nashville is known for great music and hospitality, which makes it the perfect setting. I'm excited about Barmageddon and can't wait for friends, old and new, to join my buddy Carson and me for some drinks, music and high-spirited fun at Ole Red."

Carson added, "Blake, Lee (Metzger) and I wanted to create a show where the audience can feel like they're hanging out with us at Ole Red in Nashville, having a drink and cheering on friends as they compete in the ultimate test of athleticism and endurance – bar games!"

Barmageddon will be hosted by WWE Hall of Famer Bella. Blake and Carson also serve as executive producers.

Sam Hunt and his wife seem to be reconciling after Hannah Lee Fowler called off the divorce last month. According to TMZ, a judge has signed off on this latest filing in their ongoing legal drama. Sam has reportedly resumed wearing his wedding ring, and the couple were recently spotted walking their dog together near their home in Franklin, TN.

Hannah originally filed for divorce in February citing infidelity.

The couple are expecting their first child, a girl, later this month.

Gabby Barrett is expecting baby number two! She appropriately shared the news on Mother's Day (Sunday, May 8th) with a social media post of an ultrasound video writing, "My son. Another LIFE we get to love and cherish. Happy Mothers Day!" Gabby and her husband, Cade Foehner, are already parents to one-year-old daughter Baylah Mae.

In other Gabby news, she released the video for "Pick Me Up" on Thursday (May 5th) with the CMT Broadcast Premiere, appearing on the Paramount Times Square Billboard in New York City, as well as on CMT Music and CMT.com – and via Facebook as a New Release Spotlight. The clip co-stars Gabby's husband and band member Cade.

Gabby said, "This was a very personal video for me to shoot – taking on the lead with my husband Cade, and even being reminded of our daughter Baylah by having a little girl play her on set, and my goodness, when I saw the full clip for the first time, I teared up. This one just touches my heart in a very special way."

The clip chronicles the true love story of a couple – played by Gabby and Cade – through the decades.

Gabby is on the road this summer as part of Jason Aldean's Rock N' Roll Cowboy Tour as well as select dates on Brooks & Dunn's Reboot 2022 Tour.

Kane Brown released his new single, "Like I Love Country Music," on Friday (May 6th). He co-wrote the song a few years ago, and as he tells us, it sounded like a hit from the start. "I wrote this song in 2019. I remember it was a little writer's retreat thing on the on the road. So we had two different songs going, one in the back of the bus and one in the front of the bus. And I was in the back. And as I came up front, they, the writers had this great idea. And they already had some of the first verse and I just remember thinking, this could be a smash. And I jumped on it and right after that we all fell in love with it and been waiting to put it out. But the song just wasn't ready and now it is."

"Like I Love Country Music" is the followup to Kane's latest Number One hit, "One Mississippi." Both songs will be included on Kane's upcoming album which is due out later this year.

Kane's first headlining international tour, called the Drunk or Dreaming Tour, is set to launch on September 17th in Melbourne, Australia. He will be joined by Blanco Brown, Chris Lane, Jesse James Decker, and Restless Road on select dates.

Jake Owen has added a dozen dates to his headlining Up There Down Here Tour. The fall dates will feature opening acts Travis Denning and newcomer Mackenzie Carpenter. Tickets for the fall leg of the Up There Down Here Tour are on sale on Friday (May 13th) at jakeowen.net.

The fall leg of the tour is set to launch on September 29th in Youngstown, OH.

Jake is climbing the charts with his latest single, "Best Thing Since Backroads."

Garth Brooks sold out his concert at Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton, Canada on Friday (May 6th) in just 45 minutes. The show will be held on Saturday, June 25th, and it will be Garth's only Stadium Tour appearance in Canada.

Grand Ole Opry members Carrie Underwood and the Oak Ridge Boys as well as Jon Pardi and June Opry NextStage artist Morgan Wade are helping the Grand Ole Opry kick off its CMA Fest week with two shows on Tuesday, June 7th.

Jon Pardi has released the video for "Last Night Lonely" which follows him for a night on the town, picking his guitar at a roadside motel before dancing down the iconic Las Vegas strip. The song is a Top 25 and climbing hit on the country charts.

Randy Houser has released a song he co-wrote called "Still That Cowboy," which is an ode to his wife Tatiana as the couple prepares for the arrival of their second child together. Randy said, "The last few years, I had more time to really reflect on what parts of my life mean the most to me. I'm grateful to have the opportunity to write songs and perform around the globe doing what I love, but ultimately, my family are my world."

Mickey Gilley, known for launching the "Urban Cowboy" movement in Country music, died on Saturday (May 7th) in Branson, Missouri at the age of 86. "Stand By Me," "Room Full of Roses" and "Lonely Nights" are among his 17 career Number One hits.

Gilley played 10 shows in April and had recently come off the road. According to his publicist, he "passed peacefully with his family and close friends by his side."

In 1971, Gilley opened his world-famous honky-tonk Gilley's in Pasadena, Texas, which sparked a chain of the famous nightclubs.

In 1980, Gilley appeared in the hit movie Urban Cowboy alongside John Travolta, Debra Winger and Johnny Lee. Gilley's served as the backdrop for the film, which helped launch his acting career. He went on to star in popular television series including Murder She Wrote, The Fall Guy, Fantasy Island and Dukes of Hazzard.

Gilley earned six Academy of Country Music Awards, a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and was inducted into the Texas Country Music Hall of Fame in 2011. He was one of only a handful of artists to receive the Academy of Country Music's Triple Crown Awards.

Kane Brown has announced a headlining international tour, called the Drunk or Dreaming Tour, set to launch on September 17th in Melbourne, Australia. The tour will weave its way throughout Australia, New Zealand, Canada, UK, and Europe before wrapping up in Stockholm on January 31, 2023. Kane will be joined by Blanco Brown, Chris Lane, Jesse James Decker, and Restless Road on select dates.

The Drunk or Dreaming Tour marks the first time Kane will tour Australia and New Zealand, and make his return to Canada and Europe. The announcement came ahead of Kane's upcoming hometown stadium show in Chattanooga, TN on Saturday (May 7th).

He releases a new single called "Like I Love Country Music" today (Friday (May 6th).

Carrie Underwood is a singer, songwriter and internationally-known superstar, and as she tells us, she's proud to be able to add "working mom" to her title. "I'm a working mom, working wife, same as all the other ones out there. My job's kind of weird (laughs), but you just figure your way through it and women, we ladies are good at that, and I'm honored to get to hold some pretty incredible titles (cries) and Mom is definitely one of them, and I'm just excited. I'm excited that they get to see their mom do that and see me on stage and hopefully I can be an inspiration to my children and to other working moms out there, cause we got this!"

Of course, Carrie has two sons -- Isaiah and Jacob -- with husband and former pro hockey player Mike Fisher.

Carrie will perform at the iHeart Country Festival in Austin, TX on Saturday (May 7th) along with Thomas Rhett, Zac Brown Band, Maren Morris, Dustin Lynch, Jimmie Allen, Scotty McCreery and Cody Johnson.

If there's one thing about Luke Combs' mom that he inherited it's her ability to talk . . . a lot, according to her son. Luke tells us you'd see him in her pretty quickly after meeting her. "The second you talk to her, probably, because she just wouldn't stop talking. Then you'd be like, if you knew me at all, like, it's like if we were at the house, you'd be like, 'God, is this guy ever going to stop talking? Geez! He's the worst.' (laughs) That's probably when you would know. I have I have I have an innate ability to like, I feel like at least, to be able to talk and relate to almost anyone, and I definitely would say that's the thing that I got from my mom."

Luke's wife, Nicole, will soon become a mom when they welcome their first child, a boy, sometime this spring. The couple have yet to announce a due date.

Luke plays the first of three summer stadium dates on May 21st at Empower Field at Mile Hight in Denver, CO.

Eric Church, Luke Combs, Ashley McBryde, Brothers Osborne and Jamey Johnson are all contributing songs to an album paying homage to John Anderson. The 13-song cover project, called Something Borrowed, Something New: A Tribute to John Anderson, will be released on August 5th. The songs on the album span John's four-decade career.

He said, "Listening to everybody do their own takes on the songs shows how the songs really come through, and I thought to myself, ‘You might have been young and foolish back then, but you sure did pick some good songs.' It's very gratifying to know that some things really do not change, and a great country song remains a great country song. Any one person on the record would be a real tribute, but all of them together? It's a pretty big deal for me personally."

Taste of Country reports that the project was produced by the Black Keys' Dan Auerbach and Grammy Award-winning engineer David Ferguson.

LoCash made their Stagecoach Festival debut on Sunday (May 1st) in Indio, CA, with a surprise pop-up from The Beach Boys to perform their collaboration and LoCash's current single, called "Beach Boys." The duo was introduced on stage by Guy Fieri, as LoCash was Fieri's guest last Saturday (April 30th) at the cook's on-site cooking demonstration at Guy Fieri's Stagecoach Smokehouse.

It's official! Dolly Parton is headed into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame this fall, along with fellow inductees in the Performers category including Pat Benatar, Duran Duran, Eminem, Eurythmics, Lionel Richie and Carly Simon. The big news was announced yesterday (Wednesday, May 4th). The class of 2022 will be inducted on November 5th at Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles.

She responded to the news on social media yesterday writing, "I am honored and humbled by the fact that I have been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Of course I will accept it gracefully. Thanks to everyone that voted for me and to everyone at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I will continue to work hard and try to live up to the honor."

Dolly originally tried to turn down her nomination, explaining that she did not feel that she had "earned that right" because she's a country artist, but she recently changed her mind, telling NPR, "I would just say thanks and I'll accept it because the fans vote."

The 37th annual Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony will air at a future date on HBO and stream on HBO Max.

Keith Urban paid a musical tribute to Naomi Judd during his concert in Manchester earlier this week. He led the crowd in singing an a capella version of "Love Can Build A Bridge."

Keith shared a clip of the performance on social media on Tuesday (May 3rd) writing, "Naomi Judd sowed so many important seeds in her precious time here. Here's one of the many. On the other side of the world in Manchester tonight they were all singing 'Love Can Build A Bridge.' Thank you Naomi. We love you."

Naomi reportedly took her own life on Saturday (April 30th), one day before she and her daughter Wynonna, aka The Judds, were inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. Naomi was 76.

Maren Morris relishes her role as a mother to toddler son Hayes, but she holds her own mother, Kellie Morris, up as one of her biggest role models. She tells us: "Definitely my mother. She's such a hard worker and she and my dad own a small business in Texas and I feel like nothing's been handed to her. She grew up in poverty and she really made something of herself without even a college degree. She's just such a street-smart go-getter and so I feel like that's been instilled in me from day one because of my mom."

Maren's Mother's Day weekend includes a performance at the iHeart Country Festival in Austin, TX on Saturday (May 7th).

She sits inside the Top 20 and climbing on the country charts with "Circles Around This Town."

Trace Adkins, U.S. Army Ranger veteran Craig Morgan, and The War and Treaty, the husband-and-wife duo of U.S. Army veteran Michael Trotter and Tanya Blount will take part in the Grand Ole Opry's Salute the Troops Opry performance on Tuesday, May 24th. The show will be filmed to air as a special Opry Live on Memorial Day weekend (Saturday, May 28th) on the Opry's television broadcast home, Circle Network, Circle All Access Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

Dennis Joyner, a combat-disabled veteran of the Vietnam War and board president of the Disabled Veterans' Life Memorial Foundation, will be the Opry's special guest announcer.

The Opry will invite men and women of the U.S. military and DAV members, as well as spouses, children, and parents of service members to walk the red carpet into the Opry House for the evening's show, dedicated to saluting the troops and their families for their service to the nation.

Brantley Gilbert and Jelly Roll will team up for the Son of the Dirty South Summer Tour with special guest Pillbox Patti. The five-date trek kicks off on June 30th in Jacksonville, FL. Tickets for the tour go on sale this Friday (May 6th) at 10 a.m. ET at BrantleyGilbert.com.

Brantley said, "I always look forward to being on the road and getting together with BG Nation, but I can say I'm especially excited to be heading out with my good friend Jelly Roll. We've got an incredible show in the works, and we're looking forward to seeing you this summer!"

Jelly Roll added, "Touring with Brantley has been on my dream list forever! He's one of my favorite artists, humans and fathers in the business. I expect these shows to be rowdy!"

Brantley is gearing up for his two-night stand at Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Morrison, CO this weekend (Friday, May 6 and Saturday, May 7).

Luke Combs and his last eight Number One hits will be celebrated with a huge party and concert being thrown by songwriting organization BMI in their Nashville office's parking lot on June 8th. Luke will be joined by the 11 hit songwriters who co-penned these chart-toppers, as well as thousands of his fans. Tickets went on sale yesterday (Tuesday, May 3rd), and the show is already sold out.

Hailey Whitters will open the show, followed by frequent collaborator Drew Parker. Songwriters Randy Montana, James McNair, and Dan Isbell will celebrate their first Number Ones alongside veteran writers Thomas Archer, Wyatt Durrette, Ray Fulcher, Shane Minor, Tyler Reeve, Jonathan Singleton, and Rob Williford.

Luke has enjoyed a record-setting 12 consecutive Number One singles at country radio over the course of his first two albums.

His new album, Growin' Up, will be released on June 24th.