The Route 91 Harvest Festival will return to Vegas for a fourth year at Las Vegas Village with Jason Aldean, Eric Church and Sam Hunt leading the star-powered lineup. Lauren Alaina, Big & Rich, Lee Brice, Kane Brown, Brothers Osborne, Josh Abbott Band, Maren Morris, Jake Owen, Michael Ray, High Valley and Brett Young have all been added to the bill for the shows, which take place Sept. 29 – Oct. 1.

Three-day passes for the festival go on sale March 3 at Rt91Harvest.com. Fans can also upgrade their passes to include options like the Neon Lounge VIP Package, which offers dedicated hosts, premium elevated viewing, a shaded lounge space, exclusive food vendors, massage services and cell phone charging stations. The Sky Suite VIP Package includes access to an air conditioned Tri-Level Sky Suite complete with a top deck elevated viewing area, in-suite wait service, complimentary hors d’oeuvres, free wi-fi access and more.

“There’s no other city in the world like Las Vegas, and I definitely think that is what makes Route 91 Harvest so special,” said Brian O’Connell, President Of Country Touring at Live Nation. “You have fans coming together from so many different places, with one common thread…they want to have a good time. We have built this festival on the foundation of providing an experience that caters to all. Add to that, one of the most insane lineups of the year and I think it’s going to be one for the books.”

 

“You guys made country music famous,” Garth Brooks told Lorianne Crook and Charlie Chase, as Brooks and wife Trisha Yearwood stood onstage at the Grand Ole Opry.

Powerhouse duo Crook & Chase have helped promote country music via country music news, interviews and artist performances for 34 years, via television, radio and online formats.

Brooks and Yearwood were on hand to honor Crook & Chase with the Bob Kingsley Living Legend Award, during an event held on the stage of the Grand Ole Opry on Monday evening (Feb. 20).

“You can’t imagine having anything to do with this business and not walking through those doors,” Yearwood said. “You guys made us look cool. If you get to be on Crook & Chase, people see you. I don’t know how many homes we got to be in because of you guys.”

Legendary radio host Bob Kingsley earned the inaugural honor in 2014, then decided to make the honor an annual event for members of the industry to be honored on the stage of the Grand Ole Opry. Joe Galante earned the honor in 2015, as did Jim Ed Norman in 2016.

Among the artists who participated in the evening with performances, appearances and taped messages were Trace Adkins, Moe Bandy, John Conlee, Billy Dean, Tareva Henderson, Tracy Lawrence, John Michael Montgomery, Jeannie Seely, Ricky Skaggs, T.G. Sheppard, Doug Stone, Tanya Tucker, The Whites and Mark Wills.

More congratulatory words came from music industry members including Steve Buchanan, Robert K. Oermann, Kip Kirby, Kathy Martingale, Chuck Long, Burt Dubrow, Katie Haas, Kelly Sutton, Terri Bumgarner, CMA CEO Sarah Trahern and more.

Video tributes were sent from Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, Chris Young, Charlie Daniels, Blake Shelton, Clint Black, Toby Keith, Reba, Ricky Van Shelton, Darius Rucker, and Dolly Parton.

The evening benefitted the Opry Trust Fund, which has supported the Nashville music community for 50 years. Approximately 50 industry members are aided each year through the organization.

“We feel like we’ve grown up in the business with you guys,” Crook said. “Thank you for trusting us with your artists. It’s been a beautiful, life changing dance.”

In 1982, Crook was hosting her own show in Nashville, while Chase was also hosting his own show at another Nashville station, when producer Jim Owens saw them and put them together to form Crook & Chase in 1983. They began on the newly-founded network TNN (The Nashville Network) in 1983, under the banner This Week In Country Music. In 1986, the show became known as Crook & Chase, country music’s first national news and entertainment show, and ran until 1993, when it became known as Music City Tonight, when Crook & Chase replaced Ralph Emery’s Nashville Now.

CMA CEO Sarah Trahern noted that at one point, TNN had nearly 23 hours of Crook & Chase per week, on either TNN or in syndication. One year, seven of the Top 10 shows on TNN were attributed to Crook & Chase.

“Virtually every country star in the last 30 years has appeared on one of the many iterations of Crook & Chase on radio or on television,” Trahern said.

After 554 episodes, Music City Tonight signed off in 1995 at the height of country’s boom and the duo morphed Crook & Chase into a nationally syndicated talk show.

In the 2000s, Crook & Chase would return to television on RFD-TV. Lorianne hosted 180 episodes of Celebrity Kitchen on GAC-TV in 2003-2004.

Lorianne Crook and Charlie Chase are members of the Country Radio Hall of Fame. Their radio show, The Crook & Chase Countdown, is now in its 27th year.

Chase brought his trademark humor in accepting the honor, saying, “The biggest reward about this award is it has Garth and Trisha’s fingerprints on it!”

Columbia Records Nashville has signed country music roots ensemble Old Crow Medicine Show to the Sony Music Nashville/Columbia Records Nashville imprint.

The group surprised staffers with the news via a musical visit to the Sony offices.

On April 28, Columbia Nashville will release the Old Crow Medicine Show special recording of 50 Years of Blonde on Blonde to celebrate 50 years since the release of Bob Dylan’s iconic album Blonde on Blonde, which was recorded partly in Nashville. Fans of both Bob Dylan, Old Crow Medicine Show and great music can pre-order 50 Years of Blonde on Blonde beginning today at the Old Crow Medicine Show online store and everywhere this Friday, Feb. 24.

The 14-track album, 50 Years of Blonde on Blonde, was recorded live at the CMA Theater located inside the historic Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum located in Nashville, and mixed by Ted Hutt and Ryan Mall.

“Fifty years is a long time for a place like Nashville, Tennessee. Time rolls on slowly around here like flotsam and jetsam in the muddy Cumberland River. But certain things have accelerated the pace of our city. And certain people have sent the hands of the clock spinning. Bob Dylan is the greatest of these time-bending, paradigm-shifting Nashville cats,” says Ketch Secor, the primary vocalist of the Old Crow Medicine Show.

“By deciding to record his newly found rock n’ roll voice in 1966 Nashville, Bob swung the gates of country music wide open; so wide, in fact, that 50 years later there was still enough of a crack left for Old Crow Medicine Show to sneak its banjos and fiddles through the gates with string band swagger.”

Kelly Rich is joining Amazon Music as Sr. Label Relations Manager, Nashville. In her new role at Amazon, she will work directly with country artists and labels and will be based in Nashville. She will report to Nicole Lund, Amazon Head of Label Relations. Rich is the company’s second hire in Nashville in the last six months as the company continues to expand.

Rich previously served for a decade as Big Machine Label Group’s Senior Vice President of Sales, Marketing & Interactive where she played an integral role in the five multi-platinum Taylor Swift album releases, as well as promoting the work of artists including Reba, Thomas Rhett, Tim McGraw, Rascal Flatts, and more. Prior to joining Big Machine she was VP/Sales at UMG Nashville and National Sales/Marketing Director at DreamWorks Nashville.

Pennington Entertainment’s Shawn Pennington and producer Steve Peffier joined forces with VSA Tennessee in providing a platform for people with disabilities to display their musical talents through the VSA Young Soloist Competition.

As the state winners prepare to move on to the national level of the competition, Pennington and Peffier offered studio time at Peffier’s 524 Productions, allowing opportunities to make professional recordings. The recordings will then be submitted to the national VSA Young Soloist Competition, lending the opportunity for winners to perform at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC.

“The level of musical ability and talent these kids possess make some of us who do this for a living look like amateurs!” says Pennington. “This is my second year working with VSA and it has been both a humbling experience and an honor to be in their presence.”

Through funding from the Department of U.S. Education, sponsors and donations, VSA ensures there are resources, tools and opportunities for arts programming in schools and communities statewide, providing people with disabilities opportunities to participate in, learn through and enjoy the arts.

Lori Kissinger, executive director of VSA, comments on the importance of the Young Soloist Program, “Young Soloist was the first program of the VSA international program and continues to be one of its highest priorities with talented young people competing for scholarship dollars, a chance to perform at the John F Kennedy Center and mentoring opportunities. We very much appreciated Pennington Entertainment recording our Young Soloist winners so that they have something professional to use in competing in this international music arena.”

Pennington Entertainment represents Thompson Square, Parmalee, Blues Traveler, and The Hillbilly Way.