Viral country riser Drew Green has revealed that he will release his debut album, What You’re Looking For, on Sept. 19 via RECORDS Nashville. He has released a music video for his fan-favorite track “Ammo” today (Sept. 4) to celebrate.

Co-written by Green with Mark Trussell and Benji Davis, “Ammo” finds the McMinnville, Tennessee native at his most unapologetic yet and letting go the only way he knows how. The visual was produced and directed by Chase Lauer, with Jimmy Naples as director of photography.

Green’s debut album follows a string of streaming successes. To-date, he has garnered over 400 million career streams and hopes to make a defining statement with What You’re Looking For. The 18-track collection includes the swaggering focus track “Lie Together,” the emotionally raw “Ammo” and collaborations with HARDY (“Colorado”) and 501 Bryze (“Back On It”).

“This album feels like the story I’ve been waiting to tell,” shares Green. “From writing songs in college to chasing it every night at Tootsie’s, I’ve dreamed of a project that shows every side of me — the highs, the heartbreak, and the grit it takes to keep going.”

What You’re Looking For Track Listing:
1. “Lotta Bit of You” (Drew Green, Brett James, Will Bundy, Brent Anderson)**
2. “Lie Together” (Jordan Rager, Evan Mayo, Paxton Peay, Cade Brinkley)*
3. “Ammo” (Drew Green, Mark Trussell, Benjy Davis)*
4. “Back On It” (feat. 501 Bryze) (Drew Green, Milan Modi, Russell Sutton, Andrew Bloom, James Maddocks, Noa Brown, Joseph McCue, Jordan Wheeler)***
5. “What You’re Looking For” (Drew Green, Mark Trussell, Hunter Phelps, Brent Anderson)*
6. “Take Me” (Drew Green, Mark Trussell, Matt Jenkins, Russell Sutton)*
7. “There Ain’t A Bar” (Drew Green, Mark Trussell, Reid Isbell)*
8. “Coming In Country” (Robert McDill, Drew Green, Mark Trussell, Kelly Archer)*
9. “Heard About Me” (Drew Green, Mark Trussell, Russell Sutton)*
10. “Town Drunk” (Drew Green, Mark Trussell, Josh Miller)*
11. “One of Mine” (Drew Green, Mark Trussell, Michael Whitworth)*
12. “The Right Way” (Drew Green, Russell Sutton, Andrew Bloom, Milan Modi, James Maddocks)***
13. “Colorado” (feat. HARDY) (Hunter Phelps, Drew Green and Michael Hardy)*
14. “Hot Chicken” (Drew Green, Seth Alley, Heath Warren, Jake Rose)****
15. “Road Dirt” (Drew Green, Hunter Phelps, Mark Trussell)*
16. “Whiskey on Whiskey” (Drew Green, Lee Starr, Jon Stark)*
17. “Undefeated” (Drew Green, Russell Sutton, Lindsay Rimes)*
18. “You and the Sun” (Brent Anderson, Chris DuBois, Austin Machado, Davis Forney, Michael Stevens)*^

*Produced by Mark Trussell
**Co-produced by Mark Trussell and Will Bundy
***Produced by Yung Lan
****Co-produced by Mark Trussell and Seth Alley
*^Produced by Brent Anderson

Willie Nelson pays tribute to his longtime friend Merle Haggard on his latest album Workin’ Man: Willie Sings Merle, set for release on Nov. 7 via Legacy Recordings. The first single from the album, Willie’s take on the classic “Workin’ Man Blues,” which was a No. 1 for Haggard in 1969, is out today (Sept. 4).

Available digitally, on CD and as a single LP black vinyl release, the album features Willie’s new interpretations of 11 classics penned by Merle Haggard. The tracks were handpicked for the album and include songs from various parts of Haggard’s career, from tracks off of his first No. 1 country album, 1966’s Swinging Doors (“Swinging Doors,” “Tonight The Bottle Let Me Down”) and late 60s career-defining hits (“Mama Tried,” “Okie From Muskogee”) to 70’s classics (“If We Make It Through December,” “Ramblin’ Fever”) and his No. 1 honky-tonk classic from 1980, “I Think I’ll Just Stay Here And Drink.”

Workin’ Man: Willie Sings Merle is the latest in Nelson’s storied history of focusing entire albums on a single songwriter’s or artist’s work. In the last decade alone, he has released albums focusing on songwriters Harlan Howard, Ray Price, George Gershwin and Rodney Crowell, and released two volumes of songs associated with Frank Sinatra. Nelson and Haggard released three collaborative albums together: 1983’s Pancho and Lefty, 2007’s Last Of The Breed (alongside Ray Price) and 2015’s Django and Jimmie.

The album announcement comes on the heels of the premiere of Highway 99: A Double Album, the career-spanning documentary on the life and career of Merle Haggard directed by Ethan Hawke which premiered at the Telluride Film Festival last weekend and featured Nelson as a prominent interview subject.

Nelson is preparing to launch the final leg of the “Outlaw Music Festival 10th Anniversary Tour” in the Northeast and Midwest starting tomorrow with a lineup that includes Willie, Bob Dylan, Sheryl Crow, Waxahatchee and Madeline Edwards.

Craft Recordings is relaunching HighTone Records and reimagining the genre-spanning label as a curated home for standout releases from the American roots music landscape.

Originally founded in 1983, HighTone’s legacy was built on championing voices across the spectrum of American Roots music through blues, country, rockabilly, gospel and beyond, and the relaunched imprint will offer curated physical and digital releases, playlists, and original editorial content from the original HighTone catalog as well as from labels Rounder, Sugar Hill, Vanguard and more.

The first projects under the new label are the new HighTone Highlights playlist (available to stream now) and the first-ever vinyl pressing of Tulare Dust: A Songwriter’s Tribute to Merle Haggard, arriving Nov. 7. The 1994 album honors Haggard through the lens of Americana’s finest, including Lucinda Williams, Joe Ely, Dwight Yoakam, Dave Alvin and more.

Russell and Alvin not only served as executive producers on the project but were also featured artists on the 15-track set. Russell kicks off the album with a dustbowl medley of “Tulare Dust/They’re Tearin’ the Labor Camps Down.” Alvin, who was a founding member of the Blasters, with stints in X and the Knitters, closes with a moving rendition of the 1985 Top 10 country hit, “Kern River.” In between are 13 inspired performances, including Lucinda Williams on 1964’s “You Don’t Have Very Far to Go,” Dwight Yoakam on a cover of 1974’s “Holding Things Together,” country rocker Steve Young on the plaintive “Shopping for Dresses” (1982), Joe Ely on the trucker anthem, “White Line Fever” (1969), and more.

Tulare Dust also highlights artists outside of the country sphere, including R&B singer Barrence Whitfield, who performs 1972’s “Irma Jackson,” which was controversial at the time of its release and explores themes of interracial romance. Singer-songwriter Marshall Crenshaw gives 1969’s “Silver Wings” a modern twist, while X’s John Doe performs the bluesy 1969 track, “I Can’t Hold Myself in Line.” Rocker Peter Case (The Nerves, The Plimsouls) also delivers a rendition of the 1977 Top 20 country hit “A Working Man Can’t Get Nowhere Today” on the acclaimed project.

Brandi Carlile is set to release her new album, Returning To Myself, on Oct. 24 on Interscope Records/Lost Highway. The album’s title track is out now along with an accompanying video.

The 11x Grammy-winner is looking inward, reflecting back, and ultimately, returning home on the new 10-song project, which was produced by Carlile, Andrew Watt, Aaron Dessner, and Justin Vernon. The album features her longtime bandmates Phil and Tim Hanseroth and SistaStrings (Monique and Chauntee Ross), as well as Josh Klinghoffer, Chad Smith, Matt Chamberlain, Dave Mackay, Rob Moose, Blake Mills, Mark Isham and Stewart Cole.

“I’m not my favorite person to spend my time with. Returning to myself is not just a lonely, but a painfully boring thing to do,” shares Carlile about the new project. “So much so that I’m actually not at all interested in doing it. I prefer to double, triple, and quadruple down on co-dependency, which I’ve come to learn that outside of 12-Step programs and junior high school relationships, isn’t really that unhealthy at all…

“For me the key to learning to ‘be alone’ is not being alone at all. It’s being alone in a crowded room. It’s hearing an unexpected doorbell ring and wondering who has shown up to watch me read my book and bite my nails all day. That a guest can be a deep lean-in over a cheap bottle of wine or simply an eyebrow raise and a gesture toward the refrigerator while I play Zelda…where I totally choose myself with someone so close to me I can hear them relax.  People want to be together in silence more than we allow in our time. It’s falling deeply in love with the car wheels on a gravel road. The possibility of the visitor. The “not being alone-ness” of it all…”

Carlile and her band will perform three sold-out nights at Colorado’s legendary Red Rocks Amphitheatre this weekend.

Returning To Myself Track List:
1. “Returning To Myself” (Brandi Carlile)
2. “Human” (Brandi Carlile, Phil Hanseroth, Tim Hanseroth, Andrew Watt)
3. “A Woman Oversees” (Brandi Carlile)
4. “A War With Time” (Brandi Carlile, Aaron Dessner)
5. “Anniversary” (Brandi Carlile)
6. “Church & State” (Brandi Carlile, Tim Hanseroth, Phil Hanseroth, Andrew Watt)
7. “Joni” (Brandi Carlile)
8. “You Without Me” (Brandi Carlile, Elton John, Andrew Watt, Bernie Taupin)
9. “No One Knows Us” (Brandi Carlile, Aaron Dessner)
10. “A Long Goodbye” (Brandi Carlile, Tim Hanseroth, Phil Hanseroth, Andrew Watt)

The Ryman Auditorium’s Sidewalk Sessions concert series is returning this fall, bringing free live music to downtown Nashville on select dates from Sept. 8-Oct. 30.

Presented on the outdoor PNC Plaza, the series highlights rising artists ahead of select Ryman shows, and guests can grab a drink, browse the Ryman Shop and enjoy performances just steps away from the historic Mother Church of Country Music.

Kiran Gupta will kick off the series on Sept. 8, and the lineup will also include Adam Simons, George Fitch, Kimi Most, Pretty Tied Up, George Croft, Matt Mann & The Shine Runners, and Paul Nestler. 

The shows are free and open to the public, weather permitting.

Ryman Auditorium Sidewalk Sessions Fall Lineup:

• Sept. 8 – Kiran Gupta
• Sept. 19 – Adam Simons
• Sept. 24 – George Fitch
• Oct. 2 – Kimi Most
• Oct. 7 – Pretty Tied Up
• Oct. 16 – George Croft
• Oct. 23 – Matt Mann & The Shine Runners
• Oct. 30 – Paul Nestler