Sturgill Simpson Cancels November Shows At The Ryman Auditorium

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Sturgill Simpson

Sturgill Simpson announced via social media the cancelation of his five shows at New York City’s Webster Hall as well as his three upcoming shows at the Ryman Auditorium, originally set for Nov. 18-20.

“I am extremely disappointed and sorry to have to inform all of you that all five performances this week in New York at Webster Hall and all three performances in Nashville at The Ryman Auditorium in November are officially cancelled,” he shares.

The reason for the unexpected cancellations of his remaining 2021 tour shows has not been specified. All ticket purchases will be refunded.

Simpson recently had to cancel his performances at the Outlaw Music Festival and Farm Aid 2021 due to losing his voice. The singer broke the news to his fans on Sept. 23, saying: “Lost my voice completely. Been four days still no better… hoping just viral laryngitis or inhaling treated wood from backstage campfire at Merlefest or something equally stupid and not actual injury to vocal chords for playing too many shows in a row after not singing much for over 18 months.”

After the release of his recent record, The Ballad of Dood & Juanita, Simpson also won the Album of the Year award for his first bluegrass project, Cuttin’ Grass Vol. 1 – The Butcher Shoppe Sessions, at the 20th Annual Americana Honors & Awards held earlier this week.

Lindsay Ell, Tenille Townes, Brett Kissel, More Receive CCMA Nominations

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The Canadian Country Music Association (CCMA) announced the nominees for its 39th Canadian Country Music Awards presented by TD. This year’s ceremony will be broadcasted from London, Ontario on Nov. 29.

BBR Music Group/Stoney Creek Records’ Lindsay Ell, the female artist receiving the most nominations this year, earned five 2021 CCMA Award nominations–Ford F-150 Album of the Year, Female Artist of the Year, Interactive Artist or Group of the Year, Songwriter(s) of the Year, and PRS Guitars Video of the Year.

Brett Kissel also took home five for Amazon Music and Alexa Fans’ Choice, Entertainer of the Year, Ford F-150 Album of the Year, Male Artist of the Year, PRS Guitars Video of the Year. Reigning Entertainer of the Year Dallas Smith also earned five nominations in Amazon Music and Alexa Fans’ Choice, Entertainer of the Year, FORD F-150 Album of the Year, Male Artist of the Year and Single of the Year.

Leading with six artist category nominations are Platinum-selling brother-sister duo The Reklaws for Amazon Music and Alexa Fans’ Choice, Group or Duo of the Year, two Single of the Year nods, Interactive Artist or Group of the Year, and Entertainer of the Year.

Other 2021 CCMA Awards nominations include three or more for Dean Brody, High Valley, Tyler Joe Miller, Jess Moskaluke, MacKenzie Porter, and Tenille Townes.

Chosen by Canadian country music fans, the Amazon Music and Alexa Fans’ Choice nominees include Tenille Arts, Brody, Jade Eagleson, High Valley, Kissel, Tyler Joe Miller, Porter, The Reklaws, Smith and Townes. Voting for Amazon Music and Alexa Fans’ Choice is now open.

For a full list of 2021 CCMA Award nominees, click here.

Chart Action: Carly Pearce, Ashley McBryde Earn Most Added Milestone

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Carly Pearce and Ashley McBryde impacted radio this week earning the most added title for their single “Never Wanted To Be That Girl.” This is the first time a female duet earned this milestone since 2007 with Reba McEntire and Kelly Clarkson’s “Because Of You.” The single earned 142 adds this week across the Billboard, Mediabase, and MusicRow CountryBreakout charts.

The powerful duet reignites the country tradition of a cheating song. The CMA and double ACM Awards winner and 4x Grammy nominee combined forces to write and record the track alongside co-producer Shane McAnally, which is featured on Pearce’s new album 29: Written In Stone released via Big Machine Records.

For more chart data, view the latest edition of The MusicRow Weekly.

Rita Wilson Shares Final EP In Trilogy Series

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Rita Wilson

Rita Wilson has released the third and final EP in her Trilogy series–Trilogy 3.

The project features three new tracks including lead single “Thin Air,” a collaboration with Sleeping At Last. The track was co-written and co-produced by Rita and Sleeping At Last’s Ryan O’Neal.

Other tracks on the new EP include, “Aftershock,” co-written by Rita, Jon Levine and Lindy Robbins, and the powerful ballad “You Are My Heart,” co-written by Rita, Liz Rose and Nathan Chapman.

“People are multifaceted. We are not just one thing,” explains Wilson about the series. “And we often do multiple things at once; a metaphorical and creative juggling act. I started thinking about triptychs and how each panel shows one aspect of a painting. In actual triptychs the panels can be folded so that only part of the art is seen. That’s often how I feel. I’m showing one side of myself or maybe two but the complete picture is hidden. That led me to the idea of a trilogy; a series of three related works.” She continues, “These songs are a part of me that I don’t often show but they’re a part of who I am. My three new EPs called Trilogy 1, 2 and 3 are different aspects of the music I love to write, the stories I love to tell. Three EPS, three songs each.”

Wilson has a busy fall in store as she heads to perform at the Women Who Rock Benefit Concert in Pittsburgh on Oct. 16 presented by Gibson Gives featuring an all-female line-up, and the Tortuga Music Festival in Ft. Lauderdale on Nov. 13.

Bellamy Brothers Offer Up Some ‘Covers From The Brothers’ In October

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Bellamy Brothers. Photo: Derrek Kupish,

The Bellamy Brothers are tackling some of their all-time favorites on a new project, Covers From The Brothers, set for release on Oct. 15. Fans who pre-order the album now will instantly receive the Bellamys’ cover of the Billy Swan hit “I Can Help” featuring Dennis Quaid.

For their first-ever, covers-only album, the Bellamys interpret some of their favorites by Bob Dylan (“Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door”) and Stevie Wonder (“I Just Called to Say I Love You”) and also perform some tracks they’ve played countless times like Joe South‘s “Games People Play.” Produced by the Bellamys and Randy Hiebert, the 12-song collection also includes the talents of Paul Franklin and Jenee Fleenor.

The Bellamy Brothers are currently on the road on Blake Shelton’s “Friends And Heroes Tour.” They will embark on their own European tour beginning in 2022.

Jason Aldean, Carrie Underwood Return No. 1 On MusicRow CountryBreakout Chart

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“If I Didn’t Love You” by Jason Aldean and Carrie Underwood returns to No. 1 on the MusicRow CountryBreakout Radio Chart this week, marking its third week on top. The singles holds +57 spins over the No. 2 position despite losing a total of -29 spins the last two weeks.

“If I Didn’t Love You” was written by Kurt Allison, Tully Kennedy, John Morgan and Lydia Vaughan, and produced by Michael Knox.

Underwood earned a nomination for Entertainer of the Year at this year’s 55th Annual CMA Awards, which airs live from Nashville on Wednesday, Nov. 10 (8:00 – 11:00 p.m. EST) on ABC. Click here to see a full list of nominees.

Click here to view the latest edition of The MusicRow Weekly containing the MusicRow CountryBreakout Radio Chart.

Avenue Beat Announces Break-Up With ‘The Debut Farewell Album’

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Avenue Beat’s Sam Backoff, Savana Santos, Sami Bearden. Photo: Delaney Royer

Avenue Beat’s Sami Bearden, Savana Santos and Sam Backoff came onto the Nashville music scene with clever, relatable songs and a fresh sound. With wry songs like “Delight” and “Be A Bro,” and relatable anthems “Ruin That For Me” and “Broke,” Avenue Beat charmed their way into the hearts of fans and industry members alike.

After signing with Big Machine Label Group’s Valory Music Co. and Tape Room Records, they released their self-titled, debut EP, which showed off their wit and interesting vocal harmonies. Their song “F2020” became a viral hit and the soundtrack for a year filled with anxiety, cultural hostility, and pain from the the COVID-19 pandemic.

To mark the pop trio’s end, Avenue Beat has announced a 12-track project, The Debut Farewell Album, will release Oct. 15 via Big Machine Records.

Ahead of the album’s release, the group dropped “This Is Goodbye,” which serves as an elegy to the adventures, the surprises and the laughter Avenue Beat has shared over the years. Featuring vocals from friend and “unofficial” fourth Avenue Beat member, Summer Overstreet, the song says good-bye to their collaboration that sustained all three girls throughout their time on a major label.

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The album cover, which serves as a perfect representation of the clever, self-aware 20-somethings, only features Santos and Backoff, not Bearden.

“There’s no real drama,” offers lead singer/producer Santos. “Sami decided this life wasn’t for her. She didn’t like what it was, and it was time for her to stop. So it was time for this to stop. We didn’t really see it coming, but we wanted to support our friend.”

“And we’re so glad we got to finish the journey with these songs,” Bearden explains. “It’s all here, and it tracks us from ‘F2020’ to the very end. It’s hard when you know it’s time to go, because I’m leaving two people I really love. But I also know this is not where I need to be.

“All we ever did was process our lives through these songs,” Bearden continues. “There was no master plan, no big set-up or ideas. Just this happened, now here’s a song.”

“And now here are the last songs,” Santos picks up. “This is how it ends. Nobody saw it coming. There’s nothing else to say. But for the people who’ve been in here with us, it’s the craziest thing of all: actual closure. Everything you never get to say, it’s in these last few songs.”

The Debut Farewell Album Official Track List:
1. “F2020” | Sam Backoff, Sami Bearden, Savana Santos
2. “Woman” | Sam Backoff, Sami Bearden, Savana Santos, Joey Hendricks, Michael Whitworth*
3. “I Don’t Really Like Your Boyfriend” | Sam Backoff, Sami Bearden, Savana Santos, Summer Overstreet
4. “Rock In Outer Space” | Sam Backoff, Sami Bearden, Savana Santos, Summer Overstreet+
5. “DTF” | Sam Backoff, Sami Bearden, Savana Santos, Summer Overstreet, Jordyn Shellhart, Emily Weisband^
6. “Space For You” | Sam Backoff, Sami Bearden, Savana Santos, Summer Overstreet^
7. “New Strangers” | Sam Backoff, Sami Bearden, Savana Santos, Jason Gantt
8. “Parties” | Sam Backoff, Sami Bearden, Savana Santos, Summer Overstreet
9. “Interlude” | Sam Backoff, Savana Santos
10. “Different” | Sam Backoff, Savana Santos
11. “Happy For You” | Sam Backoff, Savana Santos, Victoria Canal, Summer Overstreet
12. “This Is Goodbye” (featuring Summer Overstreet) | Sam Backoff, Savana Santos, Summer Overstreet

Produced by Savana Santos
*Produced by Savana Santos, Alysa Vanderheym
+Produced by Savana Santos, Julian Bunetta
^Produced by Savana Santos, Julian Bunetta, John Ryan, Afterhrs

Brett Young Plans New Christmas Album, CMT Crossroads Special

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Brett Young is giving fans an early Christmas gift this season with his first-ever Christmas album, Brett Young & Friends Sing The Christmas Classics, on Oct. 22. The eight-song collection is available for pre-order with “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas” featuring Sam Fischer available everywhere now.

Young enlisted an all-star lineup of guests for the project, including Colbie Caillat, Fischer, Dann Huff, Darius Rucker, Maddie & Tae, Chris Tomlin and Phil Wickham. Producer Noah Needleman helped Young produce the project after getting in the spirit with his release of the classic “Silver Bells” last year.

“I’ve always known that I wanted to make a Christmas album one day, it was just a matter of figuring out how I could do something a little bit different,” Young says. “We tapped into an old school, lo-fi sound with ‘Silver Bells,’ and knew we had the blueprint for a full album. It means the world that so many incredible artists who I respect were open to singing with me on the project… we don’t take the title Brett Young and Friends lightly!”

Later this year, Young will bring the album’s must-see duets to TV on the special CMT Crossroads Christmas: Brett Young & Friends. More details on the show will be announced in the coming weeks.

Brett Young and Friends Sing The Christmas Classics Track List:
Silver Bells
White Christmas ft. Colbie Caillat
The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire) ft. Phil Wickham
The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don’t Be Late) ft. Dann Huff
Silent Night ft. Chris Tomlin
Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow! ft. Maddie & Tae
Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree ft. Darius Rucker
Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas ft. Sam Fischer

RaeLynn Takes Fans Back Home On Full ‘Baytown’ Album [Interview]

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RaeLynn. Photo: Alysse Gafkjen

Two-time ACM New Female Vocalist of the Year nominee RaeLynn has many things to celebrate this season with the birth of her first child, daughter Daisy Rae, on Sept. 8, and the release of her new full-length album, Baytown, which is available everywhere today (Sept. 24).

After releasing a six-song EP by the same name in 2020, the Baytown album expands upon the original set by adding eight more tracks to the full-length project.

Marking her debut studio album on Florida Georgia Line‘s Round Here Records and her first full-length release since 2017’s Wildhorse, RaeLynn is a writer on all 14 songs on the Corey Crowder-produced album alongside some of Nashville’s most in-demand writers, including Bob DiPiero, Brett James, Emily Weisband, Tyler Hubbard, and Crowder.

Baytown, named after RaeLynn’s hometown outside of Houston, Texas, draws serious inspiration from the place that made her the person and artist that she is today.

“Any artists I meet that didn’t come from Nashville are all unique in their own way. What makes them unique is where they grew up, what they were around, what music they were surrounded by, and what their environment was,” RaeLynn tells MusicRow. “For the first couple of years, I was trying to figure out who I was in Nashville. I realized that what makes me different and what makes me special is that I grew up in a place called Baytown and being the baby of eight kids. I realized that all of these different things that are woven inside of me have made me who I am, and that’s going to show into my music,” she explains.

“The best way for me to describe Baytown is country people with a little grit and sass.” When describing Baytown in a sonic sense, she sums, “It’s like if Cardi B and Dolly Parton had a baby. It’s fun, but a little ratchet in the best way.”

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With tracks like the heartfelt “Small Town Prayer” and the revealing “Only In A Small Town,” RaeLynn offers up the different shades of growing up in a place like Baytown on the aptly named record.

“I love those two songs because they go to show the undeniable pureness and authenticity of a small town that makes us who we are, but then they also have the rowdiness of what a small town represents too. Everybody knows each other and gets into a little bit of trouble, but everybody has each other’s back too,” she comments.

Additionally, the album includes a couple of welcomed duets, including the entertaining “Why I Got A Truck” with her former The Voice coach Blake Shelton, and the flirty “Get That All The Time” with Mitchell Tenpenny.

Baytown also features familiar favorites like “Keep Up,” “Judgin’ To Jesus,” “Rowdy,” and “Bra Off,” while also giving fans new tracks that showcase more sides of the Platinum singer-songwriter that they haven’t heard before.

RaeLynn. Photo: Ford Fairchild

“She Chose Me,” which undoubtedly serves as the album’s centerpiece, takes listeners behind the curtain of RaeLynn’s life as she learned that she was the result of an extramarital affair. Giving a vulnerable invitation into how she came into this world, the track chronicles her mother’s momentous choice to keep the pregnancy despite the small town scrutiny while also serving as a prequel to her 2016 breakout Gold-certified single, “Love Triangle.”

Coming full-circle from there, RaeLynn also shares a demo version of “Made For Me To Love,” which make her own daughter, Daisy, her muse for the first of what’s sure to be many times to come.

With over 840 million career streams and nearly half a million album equivalents sold, one of country music’s newest parents will be spending the next few months diving into motherhood with plans of returning to the road in early 2022.

“I don’t know anything about [motherhood] so it’s all gonna be new to me, but I’m beyond excited,” she shared as she was preparing for Daisy’s arrival. “This pregnancy has honestly been an incredible experience… I’ve had such a beautiful time being pregnant, and it’s been so cool to be able to do something beyond myself.

“I’m gonna miss being pregnant for those special moments, but I am excited to drink a margarita,” she jokingly admits.

RaeLynn’s full-length album, Baytown, is available now.

Co-Founding Member Of The Blind Boys Of Alabama, Jimmy Carter, Releases Solo Album

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Jimmy Carter, the last original member of The Blind Boys of Alabama, released his first solo album Blind Faith on Sept. 20.

Carter is the eldest member of The Blind Boys of Alabama, the five-time Grammy-winning, Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award-winning, Gospel Hall of Fame members. The group was founded in 1939 in Talladega, Alabama and has featured a changing roster of musicians over its history, the majority of whom are or were visually impaired.

Carter dedicated the song “I Am With You Still,” the first single off of Blind Faith, in memory of his good friend, co-founder of The Blind Boys of Alabama, Clarence Fountain.

Produced and co-written by songwriter and musician Ron Pullman, Carter aims to send a Gospel message and a source of peace with the solo album.

Carter says, “This is my first solo album and I am excited to be able to sing some original music that’s in harmony with traditional Gospel, while using a range of different musical genres that embrace the Gospel sound with an up-lifting message.”