The rumor that has been buzzing around the internet all day has been confirmed: Queen Bey will perform on tonight’s (Nov. 2) 50th annual CMA Awards. There is no official word on what Beyonce will sing, but there have been a number of speculations. Some news outlets suggest she will sing the Dolly Parton classic “I Will Always Love You,” which she has previously performed in concert. Other media honed in on the possibility of her singing her own song “Daddy Lessons” with the Dixie Chicks, because the trio has covered the song and it is rumored they will be in attendance.

Last year, A-list pop star Justin Timberlake took to the CMA Awards stage. He teamed with Chris Stapleton to perform “Tennessee Whiskey” and “Drink You Away,” which sent the then-rising star’s career into overdrive.

The 50th Annual CMA Awards will be hosted by Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood and broadcast live from the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Wednesday, Nov. 2 (8:00-11:00 PM/ET) on the ABC Television Network.

Previously announced performers include Alabama, Jason Aldean, Kelsea Ballerini, Dierks Bentley, Clint Black, Garth Brooks with Trisha Yearwood, Brooks & Dunn, Luke Bryan, Eric Church, Roy Clark, 2016 CMA Country Music Hall of Fame inductees Charlie Daniels and Randy Travis, Florida Georgia Line, Vince Gill, Alan Jackson, Elle King, Miranda Lambert, Little Big Town, Martina McBride, Tim McGraw, Maren Morris, Kacey Musgraves, Jennifer Nettles, Paisley, Pentatonix, Charley Pride, Thomas Rhett, Reba, Ricky Skaggs, George Strait, Chris Stapleton, Underwood, Keith Urban, and Dwight Yoakam.

Earlier today, CMA Awards were presented to Bentley, Stapleton and King.

BOBBY KARL WORKS THE ROOM

Chapter 549

This year’s BMI Awards crowned a new songwriting king, saluted an established superstar and honored one of country music’s most popular songs of the year.

Ross Copperman was the organization’s first-time Country Songwriter of the Year. Kenny Chesney, who has 30 No. 1 hits, was given the BMI President’s Award. “Die a Happy Man,” written by its singer Thomas Rhett with Sean Douglas and Joe London Spargur, won the Frances W. Preston Country Song of the Year Award.

Sony-ATV set a new record by winning BMI’s Country Publisher of the Year honor for the 15^th time. Georgia Congressman Doug Collins was given the BMI Champion Award for his legislative efforts on behalf of the songwriting community.

The ceremony, staged at BMI’s Music Row headquarters on Tuesday night (Nov. 1), also made history by honoring a record-setting 16 first-time songwriter winners. These included Cam (Ochs), Chris Janson, Michael Ray, Granger Smith, Jamie Lynn Spears, Tyler Johnson, Jennifer Wayne and Brian Davis.

Video segments praising Chesney were interspersed among the awards throughout the first half of the ceremony. Then came the musical tributes. Keith Urban delivered “I Go Back” in an arrangement that evolved from acoustic-guitar simplicity to a full-band, electric-guitar rave-up. Dean Dillon provided a touching, tender, solo on “Tin Man.” Eric Church injected his intensity into “Anything But Mine.” All three received standing ovations.

“I don’t think I’ve ever in my whole life felt so much love in a room,” said Chesney. “God put a song in my heart years ago. He made me want to write songs. Without that, there wouldn’t be anything else….Thank you very much for this moment. I’ll never forget it.”

Copperman was honored for writing seven major hits in 2015-16. The artists of six of those tunes were there to celebrate with him. They were Billy Currington, who sang Copperman’s co-written “Don’t It;” A Thousand Horses, who did “Smoke;” Urban, who immortalized “John Cougar, John Denver, John 3:16;” Luke Bryan, who hit with “Strip it Down” and Brett Eldredge, who recorded “Drunk on Your Love” and “Lose My Mind.” The sixth awarded Copperman song was “Confession,” sung by Florida George Line.

BMI’s Jody Williams described Copperman as, “a songwriter, producer, musician and a leader of a new generation in Nashville.”

“I want to dedicate this award to every song plugger in this town,” said the honoree. He read a poem he composed for them, adding, “Thank you to every song plugger and publisher….I couldn’t do this without you. This is such a huge honor.”

The annual BMI gala is typically studded with stars, and this year’s event was no exception. Among the record makers in attendance in addition to Chesney, Rhett, Church, Janson, Ray, Smith, Cam and Eldredge were such songwriting award winners as Chris Young, Dan + Shay, Jaida Dreyer, LOCASH, Rhett Akins, Heather Morgan and Cole Swindell.

Fans lined the street opposite BMI to get a glimpse of entering attendees Little Big Town, Kix Brooks, Frankie Ballard, Jake Owen, Bill Anderson, John Oates, Doobie Brother Tom Johnston, Alabama’s Randy Owen, Rob Crosby, Scotty McCreery, Mac Davis, Dickey Lee, Kane Brown, Chase Bryant, Shawn Camp and new Country Music Hall of Fame inductee Randy Travis, who drew a standing ovation when introduced during the banquet upstairs.

Clay Walker, Dustin Lynch, Luke Bryan, Brett Eldredge and a few others delighted the fans by crossing the street before entering the gala and posing for selfies. The crowd squealed with delight.

Inside, you couldn’t turn around without bumping into an award winner during the cocktail hour. Barry Dean, Al Anderson, Tom Douglas, Luke & Beth Laird, Trent Summar, Jim Collins, Brett & Jim Beavers, Casey Beathard, Tommy Cecil, Rodney Clawson, Jeffrey Steele (winning his 30^th BMI Award), Dallas Davidson (his 25^th), Westin Davis, Andrew Dorff, Liz Rose, Connie Harrington, Lee Thomas Miller, Jay Knowles, Lori McKenna, Melissa Pierce, Michael White and Phil O’Donnell were schmoozing up a storm.

But award winners are only part of the story at this annual whoop-de-do. It is, at its heart, a gigantic family-reunion party.

Jody Williams even admitted as much: “Make no mistake about it; this is a party, and we are going to celebrate.”

If it was songwriting superstars you sought, BMI can easily fill the bill. In attendance were Rory Bourke, Even Stevens, Mark James, Bob & Leslie Tomasina DiPiero, Roger Murrah, Norro Wilson, Whitey Shafer, Aaron Barker and Jerry Chestnutt, as were such legendary producers as Byron Gallimore, Keith Stegall, Tom Collins, David Malloy and Jerry Crutchfield.

We dined on greens with pumpkin salad, beef medallions, hen quarters with currant glaze, green beans, mashed potatoes and heirloom carrots. The banquet décor was simple but elegant, focusing largely on floral arrangements. The BMI garage sides were open to the unseasonably warm air and overlooked the lights of the city.

Enjoying the vibe were Sally Williams, Jay Williams, Kyle Lehning, Kyle Young, Cindy Watts, Cindy Hunt, Hunter Kelly, Scott Siman, Scott Stem, Charlie Feldman, Charlie Monk, Jerry House, Autumn House-Tallant, Mark Hartley, Mark Brown, Dave Pomeroy, David Preston, David Briggs, David Crow, Tim Nichols, Tim Wipperman, Bobby Cudd, Bobby Pinson, Steve Lassiter, Steve Lowery, John Marks, John Huie, Jim Free, Jimmy Carter, Butch Baker, Dale Dodson, Fletcher Foster and Susan Stewart.

In addition to Williams, the awards presentations were handled by CEO Mike O’Neill, Bradley Collins, Phil Graham and the exquisite Leslie Roberts.

“It’s hard to believe this is my 40^th BMI country dinner,” said Graham. Ooof. Wasn’t it just yesterday that we all began this meet-and-greet journey?

Marching along merrily were Kos Weaver, Andrew Kintz, T.K. Kimbrell, Jay Orr, Will Rambeaux, MaryAnn McCready, Mayor Megan Barry, new singer-songwriter Trent Harmon, Debbie Carroll, Tony Conway, Whitney Daane, Arturo Buenahora and Walter Campbell.

Doug Johnson, Ron Cox, Brandi Simms, Allen Brown, acclaimed documentary filmmaker Ken Burns, Michael Heeney, Leslie Fram, Barry Coburn, Recording Academy CEO Neil Portnow, Sherod Robertson, Tracy Gershon, Patrick Clifford and Amy Mayo were working the room, too.

So were Josh Van Valkenburg, Terry Bumgarner, Rick & Janis Carnes, Joe & Phran Galante (who looks fabulous), Phyllis Stark, Becca Walls, Holly Gleason, Alicia Warwick and Clay Myers.

After the awards banquet, we headed back to the BMI lobby for dessert and dancing to The Guilty Pleasures. 

As we exited, the fans were still in formation on their sidewalk. God bless ‘em.

 

The full track listing for George Strait‘s previously announced second box set has been released.

Strait Out of the Box: Part 2, a three-disc, 56-track collection includes 26 of Strait’s chart-topping hits, as well as two new tracks co-written by Strait. “Kicked Outta Country” was co-written with Jamey Johnson, while “You Gotta Go Thorough Hell” was co-penned with Bubba Strait and Dean Dillon.

He also has 18 hand-picked album cuts. The project spans 20 years of Strait’s career, ranging from 1996-2016. Strait Out of the Box: Part 2 follows the 8x platinum 1995 set Strait Out of the Box.

The set will release Nov. 18 exclusively at Walmart.

“Going back through all the songs for this box set does bring back a lot of old memories,” says Strait. “A lot of them we considered for radio singles and for whatever reason, we just picked something else. It was not that hard to pick them after I looked through them because there are just so many that are my favorites.”

Strait will perform at The 50th Annual CMA Awards on Wednesday. The broadcast airs on ABC Nov. 2 at 8/7c live from Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena.

Strait Out of the Box: Part 2 Track Listing

Disc 1 (1996-2000)
1. Blue Clear Sky
2. Carried Away
3. Rockin’ In The Arms Of Your Memory
4. I Can Still Make Cheyenne
5. Round About Way
6. Carrying Your Love With Me
7. One Night At A Time
8. Today My World Slipped Away
9. The Nerve
10. I Just Want To Dance With You
11. True
12. Maria
13. We Really Shouldn’t Be Doing This
14. Meanwhile
15. Write This Down
16. The Best Day
17. Looking Out My Window Through The Pain
18. Go On

Disc 2 (2001-2008)
1. She’ll Leave You With A Smile
2. Run
3. Living and Living Well
4. My Life’s Been Grand
5. Cowboys Like Us
6. Desperately
7. Four Down and Twelve Across
8. I Hate Everything
9. Seashores of Old Mexico
10. She Let Herself Go
11. Give It Away
12. Wrapped
13. It Just Comes Natural
14. Texas Cookin’
15. How ’Bout Them Cowgirls
16. Come On Joe
17. Troubadour
18. River Of Love
19. I Saw God Today

Disc 3 (2009-2016)
1. Living For The Night
2. Out Of Sight Out Of Mind
3. Arkansas Dave
4. Love’s Gonna Make It Alright
5. Drinkin’ Man
6. Shame On Me
7. Here For A Good Time
8. House Across The Bay
9. Blue Marlin Blues
10. I’ll Always Remember You
11. Give It All We Got Tonight
12. I Just Can’t Go On Dying Like This
13. That’s What Breaking Hearts Do
14. The Night Is Young
15. I Believe
16. Goin’ Goin’ Gone
17. Everything I See
18. Kicked Outta Country*
19. You Gotta Go Through Hell*