Video: Lady A “Unplugs,” Discusses New Album

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Lady Antebellum announces they will touch-down in three major cities surrounding their Sept. 13 Own The Night album release in a concert series labeled Own The Night: Unplugged. The evenings will feature stripped-down versions of new and old favorites from the band beginning in Chicago on Sept. 10, New York on release day (9/13), followed by Los Angeles on Sept. 15.

“The next few weeks are crazy, and we wanted to make spending time with our fans in a low-key, intimate setting a big priority,” says Hillary Scott. “We want to play some of our new songs and their favorites, and really live in this moment with them.”

These intimate shows will precede the band’s first headlining tour, hitting arenas in 21 cities, starting Nov. 11 in Knoxville, featuring Josh Kelley on all dates, with Randy Montana and Edens Edge on select dates.

Fans can purchase the very limited “Unplugged” tickets beginning tomorrow (8/26) plus receive information on the arena tour tickets through www.ladyantebellum.com.
A behind-the-scenes look as the band prepares for the upcoming Own The Night album release and tour can be seen with the video below.

“We named our new album ‘Own The Night’ after one of our favorite songs ‘We Owned The Night’ off the new album, and felt it was a great description of how we wanted our fans to spend each night of the tour with us,” explains Dave Haywood. “When people come out to our live show or hear the song on the radio it’s a call to action. Be confident, live in the moment and enjoy the experiences you’re going through—own them.”

Own The Night 2011 Stadium Tour

11/11 – Knoxville, Tenn. – Knoxville Coliseum*
11/12 – Macon, Ga. -Macon Centreplex*
11/13 – Pikeville, Ky. – East Kentucky Expo Center*
11/16 – El Paso, Texas – El Paso County Coliseum*
11/17 – Phoenix, Ariz. – Grand Canyon University*
11/18 – Las Vegas, Nev. – The Joint @ The Hard Rock*
11/25 – Huntsville, Ala. – Von Braun Civic Center**
11/26 – Florence, S.C. – Florence Civic Center**
11/27 – Savannah, Ga. – Savannah Civic Center**
12/1 – Colorado Springs, Colo. – Colorado Springs World Arena**
12/2 – Lubbock, Texas – City Bank Coliseum**
12/3 – Wichita Falls, Texas – Kay Yeager Coliseum**
12/4 – Belton, Texas – Bell County Expo Center**
12/8 – La Crosse, Wis. – La Crosse Center Arena**
12/9 – Sioux City, Iowa – Tyson Center**
12/10 – Springfield, Mo. – JQH Arena**
12/11 – Murray, Ky. – CFSB Center**
12/15 – Amherst, Mass. – The Mullins Center**
12/16 – Wilkes-Barre, Pa. – Mohegan Sun Arena**
12/17 – Roanoke, Va. – Roanoke Civic Center**
12/18 – Morgantown, W.Va. – WVU Coliseum**

*Tour Dates with Randy Montana
**Tour Dates with Eden’s Edge

Indiana State Fair Tragedy Claims Seventh Life

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The Indiana State Fair stage collapse.

A seventh fatality from the stage collapse at the Indiana State Fair was confirmed this week. It is unknown how many fans remain hospitalized. Sugarland, who was scheduled to perform at Indiana, resumed its tour over the weekend, opening the first show back on the road with a moment of silence.

Meanwhile, a class-action lawsuit claiming negligence has been filed by against the state of Indiana, promoter Live Nation, and stage rigging company Mid-America Sound Corp. An Indiana judge has ordered the state to preserve the wreckage from the staging in case it is needed for further investigation.

Elsewhere, four people died when a stage collapsed at Belgium’s Pukkelpop music festival last week. Officials claim a fifth was dead before the severe storm hit the site.

Taking extra precautions to prevent another disaster, TMG/AEG Live moved Kenny Chesney’s Sun., Aug. 28 concert at Gillette Stadium near Boston to Fri., Aug. 26, citing “the US National Hurricane Center’s forecast that hurricane-level storms may occur in New England.”

On a tiny positive note, the kidneys of the seventh Indiana victim, a 24-year-old, were donated to others.

Ticket Technology War Escalates

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Touring is big business and filling the seats in a club or a giant stadium starts with one transaction—the ticket sale. The service charges that are collected from the sale of tickets is also big business. Ticketmaster, owned by Live Nation Entertainment is the big dog in this market, currently dominating ticket sales at venues worldwide. But AEG, another concert promotion giant is set to unveil its own offering, Axs Ticketing, in an effort to capture some of the lucrative ticket fees for itself.
The ticket market is sure to become a battleground as Ticketmaster and now AEG fight for marketshare. The competition began as a result of the Ticketmaster/Live Nation merger last year when the Justice Department called for additional ticket outlets to be created as a merger condition.
AEG’s Axs Ticketing
This new service, according to the Wall Street Journal, is set to begin selling seats at two Denver venues, the Ogden Theatre and the Bluebird Theater. Soon, two AEG-owned theaters in San Francisco will be added and by the end of 2012 all 100 of AEG’s venues—such as the Staples Center in L.A. and O2 in London—will utilize Axs. The ticketing software was built by Outbox enterprises and has been about a year and a half in development. Axs will place tickets on its website and on venue websites.
Ticketmaster Gets Facebook Enhancement
Further raising the ticketing bar, Ticketmaster is set to introduce a new interactive Facebook-driven feature that allows ticket buyers to see where their Friends are sitting.

According to Mashable, “With the upgrade, Facebook members can now connect their accounts to view a Facebook-infused event seat map that highlights where friends are sitting with miniature Facebook flags. The feature is live for more than 9,000 events on Ticketmaster and Live Nation sites. The interactive seat maps experience is now designed to help Facebook users see where their friends are sitting, purchase nearby tickets, tag themselves into their seats, nudge their Facebook friends to do the same and share their seats with friends on Facebook.”

“We studied the way people bought tickets,” says Kip Levin Ticketmaster EVP of eCommerce told Mashable. “People said they would buy tickets …because they knew where their friends were sitting.”

GAC To Sponsor Own The Night Tour

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GAC has announced it will sponsor Lady Antebellum’s Own The Night 2011 tour which will feature Josh Kelley on all dates and Randy Montana and Edens Edge on a rotating basis. The 21-city tour begins Nov. 11 in Knoxville, then moves on to Macon, GA. (11/12) and Pikeville, KY. (11/13).
“GAC and everyone who works over there have always shown us so much love and support, even from the very beginning of our career and the release of our first single,” said Lady A’s Dave Haywood. “This Own the Night tour has been so much fun to plan. We’re excited that we’ll have our friends at GAC out on the road with us and helping us put together a once-in-a-lifetime experience for country music fans.”
The trio’s album Own The Night is set to launch on Sept. 13, co-produced with veteran Paul Worley. “We’re definitely more in tune with each other musically and personally than ever,” Dave explains. “It’s an exciting place to be. This album was created from the ground up—we are writing these songs, playing these instruments and creating these arrangements. With Own The Night, more than ever before, I think we share a real feeling of accomplishment both as a band and as friends.”
 

Snapshots: Paisley, EYB, Hoge, Nick Lowe

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Brad Paisley recently played to a sold-out crowd at the Olympia Theater in Dublin, Ireland. Paisley posed for a picture with Maureen Grant, who was celebrating her 62nd year as manager of the backstage bar in the Theater.

(L-R): Rob Beckham, WME; Noel McHale, Promoter MCD Concerts; Paisley, Grant, Damien O’Donoghue, Chief Operations Officer-MCD Concerts; and Orin Murphy, Webmaster MCD Concerts. Photo By: Ben Enos


Eli Young Band’s current single “Crazy Girl” was recently certified gold by the RIAA for sales of over 500,000 downloads and their label Republic Nashville presented them with plaques commemorating the milestone. The song from the band’s latest album Life At Best (released Aug. 16) is currently inside the Top 10 and climbing on MusicRow’s CountryBreakout Chart.

(L-R): EYB's James Young, Big Machine Label Group's Kelly Rich, EYB's Mike Eli, Big Machine Label Group's Scott Borchetta, EYB's Jon Jones, Chris Thompson and Triple 8 Management's George Couri.


Nashville singer/songwriter Will Hoge fulfilled a lifelong dream last Friday (8/19) when he made his debut at the Grand Ole Opry. Vince Gill, who appears on Hoge’s album Number Seven, introduced Hoge to the audience and made a special request to play his song “Baby Girl.”

(L-R): Hoge, Amy Grant, Vince Gill. Photo By: Chris Hollo


The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum welcomed British pop legend Nick Lowe to its Songwriter Session on Saturday, August 20. During the interview segment, Lowe discussed his ties to country music, including writing “The Beast In Me” for Johnny Cash and covering Tom T. Hall’s “Shame On The Rain” for his upcoming album The Old Magic.

(L-R): Sirius XM Radio’s Jeremy Tepper, Nick Lowe, Museum Writer/Editor Michael McCall and Yep Roc Records’ Glenn Dicker. Photo by John Russell

Indiana Fair Tragedy Draws Attention To Growing Problem

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Staging collapses in Belgium today.


Outdoor concerts are being scrutinized in the wake of Saturday’s (8/13) tragedy at the Indiana State Fair, where strong winds caused the staging to collapse, killing five people and injuring more than 40 others.
Today (8/19) comes the unsettling news of a disaster at a music event in Belgium, where at least two are confirmed dead after a storm hit the Pukkelpop festival.
According to music site Spinner.com, this is the fourth stage collapse of the summer. It joins the dangerous list that already includes the Indiana fair, an incident during Cheap Trick at the Ottawa Bluesfest, and the Flaming Lips’ outdoor show in Oklahoma.
An Associated Press article gives some insight into the dangers of outdoor events. It includes a discussion with promoter and ACM head Bob Romeo, and notes that part of the problem is a lack of uniform safety regulations.

The Band Perry to Headline The Ryman

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After a year of major success, The Band Perry is scheduled to perform its first headlining show in Nashville. The siblings will take the stage at the Mother Church of Country Music, the historic Ryman Auditorium, on Feb. 20, 2012.
“We are so excited to headline the Ryman, which holds a very special place in the heart of everyone in Country music,” said Kimberly, Reid and Neil Perry.
While The Band Perry has seen the view from the Ryman stage before while performing on Grand Ole Opry and other multi-artist events, this will be the first opportunity to showcase their music in a full-length show.
“It truly is an amazing experience to step on that stage – we can’t wait to spend a whole evening there, sharing our stories and becoming a part of its history,” said the Perry’s.
Tickets will go on sale Friday, August 26 in a three-tiered range $25, $30, and $35.

Web Round-Up

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• • • • Today’s (8/17) announcement of the 2011 IBMA Award Nominees will be streamed live at www.MusicCityRoots.com and will air on Sirius XM’s Bluegrass Junction. The announcement will take place at The Loveless Barn at 5:00 p.m. CT with hosts Doyle Lawson, Russell Moore, Josh Williams and Sierra Hull, who will follow that with performances at Music City Roots at 7:00 p.m.
• • • • Billboard reports layoffs at Sony’s New York office. About 25 people exited yesterday, and more cuts are expected as new chief Doug Morris settles in at the company.
• • • • Nashville’s new music venue will be called Marathon Music Works.
• • • • The LA Times has been checking out concerts by Toby Keith and Eric Church, and Wanda Jackson with Adele.
• • • • NPR’s Ann Powers gives an insightful take on country’s rising stars.

…in Nashville this year, where most of the best-selling artists are neo-traditionalists who seamlessly integrate current styles and attitudes into classic approaches. Of this year’s best-selling artists, three are relatively young country acts coming into their own on their third or fourth albums. Aldean is the exemplar of an updated take on rural roughneck that treats melding rap, hard rock and outlaw country like it’s no big thing. Church writes drinking songs that celebrate debauchery and mourn its aftermath in equal measure, in a style that embraces bad jokes and psychological depth. Blake Shelton, the best-groomed and most accessible of the bunch, is a good/bad boy whose Red River Blue album melds contemporary Christian ballads with swaggering sexiness. This new guard isn’t changing country so much as making the genre comfortable with the cultural shifts that have inevitably affected even the most traditional aspects of people’s lives.


Country Superstars Tour Overseas

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Alan Jackson played to a total of 30,000 fans during his recent Scandanavian tour. Pictured onstage in Stavanger, Norway. Photo: Scott Scovill


Alan Jackson and Toby Keith are taking their tours across the pond.
Jackson’s tour visited Sweden and Norway last week. Tickets to see the superstar and his band The Strayhorns were in high-demand for all three shows. The run kicked off in Stockholm, Sweden.
This isn’t the first international trek for the singer-songwriter this year – in March, Jackson toured Australia for the first time and all six shows sold out in minutes.
Jackson is currently climbing the charts with the new song, “Long Way to Go,” his debut single from EMI Records Nashville and ACR (Alan’s Country Records).
• • • •
Toby Keith will take his tour overseas in late October, promoting the release of his new Show Dog- Universal album. His latest project, Clancy’s Tavern, will be available worldwide Oct. 25.
The lead single, “Made In America,” is fast rising, already landing at No. 2 on MusicRow’s CountryBreakout chart.
Keith is set for twelve concerts in Europe, kicking off Oct. 30 in Edinburgh. This isn’t his maiden voyage overseas, in 2009 he did a nine-date, six-city sold-out run.
Locked & Loaded International Dates:
Oct. 30—Edinburgh
Oct. 31—Manchester
Nov. 1—London
Nov. 3—Amsterdam
Nov. 5—Munich
Nov. 7—Cologne
Nov. 8—Hamburg
Nov. 11—Helsinki
Nov. 13—Stockholm
Nov. 15—Oslo
Nov. 17—Copenhagen
Nov. 19—Berlin

Letter From Sugarland

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Sugarland has just released this statement regarding the tragedy that occurred Saturday before the duo took the stage at the Indiana State Fair.

Dear Fans, Family and Friends,
We have taken a couple of days to try and even begin to emotionally process the magnitude and gravity of the tragedy in Indiana on Saturday. While the path to healing from this type of trauma and loss is long and winding, we wanted to reach out and update you on where we are and how we are.
We are in the process of planning a private memorial in Indiana, to honor those fans who died. We would first like to hold space so that their families can have time to go through their own services and memorials. Until that time we are holding vigil for them. We join them on their mourning benches. And we stand in the gap asking God to offer them peace and healing. For those suffering from injury we hold you up with prayers for complete healing of your own.
We are also addressing our own specific healing. Our road family experienced its traumas together. While we all scattered to our given families for their comfort, the trauma we experienced together binds us in a unique way that we share only with each other and those who were there. There is healing in our being together. There is healing in our working together. For this reason we are planning to get back on the road this weekend, beginning with our scheduled show in Albuquerque this Thursday, August 18th.  The emotions have us yearning to be close to each other immediately. The logistics have us needing to replace all of our instruments and equipment. (The set is a loss that is insignificant in light of the tragedy).
This Incredible Machine is more than a tour and more than a set. We have always celebrated music as a Healer. While music cannot change the events and losses at the Indiana State Fair, it can hopefully serve as a ritual and a balm to provide comfort and facilitate healing in this time of great sorrow. We hope to see you all soon.
Love,
Sugarland

The statement is also available on the band’s official website, www.sugarlandmusic.com.