Curb | Word Records duo for King & Country has accumulated career accolade after accolade in the past few months. They’ve settled in at the No. 1 spot on Billboard’s Christian Airplay chart for the past several weeks with their current hit “TOGETHER,” a soaring call for unity, featuring Kirk Franklin and Tori Kelly, and the track is already in the Top 30 on the mainstream Hot AC chart. Already five-time GMA Dove Award winners, for King & Country’s Joel and Luke Smallbone lead this year’s nominees, with six nominations heading into the Dove Awards in October.
And this week, they’ve hit a new career milestone, reaching 1 billion on-demand streams since they first began releasing music eight years ago.
“We found out about a week or so ago that it was getting close to that number,” Joel tells MusicRow. “I sort of sat back and didn’t quite know how to comprehend that at first. But behind every single number or stream is a pair of ears and hopefully in some way they’ve been encouraged or entertained or impacted by a story that we’ve told through a song.”
The brothers relocated from Australia to Nashville, Tennessee with their family in 1991, including their sister and singer-songwriter Rebecca St. James. The duo formally created for King & Country in 2010, and released their first album, Crave, in 2012. Since then, they’ve produced seven No. 1 radio hits, including radio staples such as “Fix My Eyes,” “Shoulders,” “Priceless,” “joy.,” and “God Only Knows,” and earned four Grammys. Along the way, the duo has also built a reputation of immensely creative, theatrical live shows that could easily find one of them climbing production scaffolding during a performance (as they did during a Grammy Block Party in Nashville in 2014), or climbing over balcony seats to bring the music closer to their fans, as they did during one Ryman Auditorium concert (part of their Burn The Ships tour in 2018).
Last year, for King & Country infused the Christmas exemplar “Little Drummer Boy” with an ethereal, U2-esque vibe when they performed the song as part of CMA Country Christmas. The rendition stole the show, earning a standing ovation from the in-house audience, while the official video of the performance has earned more than 10 million views on CMA’s Facebook page, with another 3.2 million views on YouTube. The track also topped Billboard’s Christian Digital Songs chart following the performance.
On Oct. 30, for King & Country will expand on that performance, with their first full-length studio Christmas album, A Drummer Boy Christmas. The 13-track album follows the duo’s previous holiday offerings, the 2017 live album Christmas: Live From Phoenix and 2013’s Into the Silent Night: The EP. A Drummer Boy Christmas was executive produced by aqualung (Matt Hales).
For Joel and Luke, the Christmas album has been eight years in the making. Before they had even released their debut album in 2012, Luke, Joel and their band went on a Christmas tour.
“We very unreasonably decided to do a Christmas tour,” Joel recalls, “and the reason I say unreasonably, is we had no album out at that point, no radio single, we just decided to hit the road. We shoved ourselves into a warehouse for two days to work up Christmas renditions and from that came this very drum-centric version of ‘Little Drummer Boy’ that we have done and refined over the years. This Christmas music has shaped and reshaped not only the way we present Christmas music but the band itself. We’ve taken two or three of those original versions we came up with in that warehouse and then to take everything we’ve learned as a band over the past eight years and create this piece of music, it feels like a culmination moment as a band.”
For King & Country has found massive success through collaborations, ranging from their current chart-topper “TOGETHER,” to the Grammy-winning “God Only Knows” featuring Dolly Parton.
That strategy finds its place on two tracks from the upcoming album. Gabby Barrett lends her powerful vocals to “Go Tell It On The Mountain.”
“From her time on American Idol, and just being in Nashville, we’ve been aware of her talent and when we reached out, we found out she was sort of a fan of the band and believed in what we are doing. Her voice is beautiful and it worked really well with this song,” Joel says.
Another of the songs for King & Country gravitated toward in those warehouse sessions from 2012, “O Come, O Come Emmanuel,” gets a reworking, featuring NEEDTOBREATHE.
“NEEDTOBREATHE started out as a band with brothers. So we always had that respect for one another from afar. ‘Emmanuel’ was one of those classics that we came up with in that warehouse that night in 2012. We thought when we started working on it this time around, we thought it had a slightly folksy, rock feel to it.
“When [NEEDTOBREATHE lead singer] Bear [Rinehart] sent his vocal track back, I looked at our producer and Luke and I said, ‘We need to go back in the studio and re-cut our vocals to up our game.’ There’s this wonderful moment in the second verse where he’s singing and I meet him halfway with a harmony. But I really tried to match his timbre and energy and it really came out beautifully. That’s the template of a good collaboration, when you have these moments and you didn’t know you needed to get better, but all of a sudden you are kindly encouraged to up your game.”
While classics such as “Silent Night,” Angels We Have Heard On High,” and “O Come All Ye Faithful” make the bulk of the project, several original tracks are interspersed throughout, including “Heavenly Hosts” and the stunning “The Carol of Joseph.”
“One of my favorite parts of Christmas is how Mary is celebrated. But there’s this quiet hero all along the way. Even when you go back and read the Biblical stories there’s not a lot of emphasis on [Joseph]. You put yourself in his shoes of having this child who is not his, but he chooses to love and be a good father to him. I think one of the things we don’t think of is Jesus—being human and a strong character that he was and the graceful character that he was—obviously much of that would have come from his mother but there’s a portion of that that would have come from his dad, as well. It became this grounded story of taking a snapshot of those initial moments between Joseph, Jesus and Mary. One of my favorite moments is in the song when Mary says, ‘I believe in you,’ and this idea of the mother of God saying to her husband, ‘I believe in you,’ that you can raise this child. Each time it gets to that moment in the record—I don’t cry often, but it is one of those moments that is emotional.”
The duo’s plans for a large-scale tour during the first portion of 2020 were stalled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but silver lining has been more time to focus more intently on the upcoming album.
“The album might not exist because we had been planning on traveling so much this year,” Joel says. Partially due to COVID-19 restrictions, for King & Country reached out to fellow creators around the world to help piece the album together. The album was mixed in London, mastered in New York, with orchestration done in Copenhagen, some production work done in England, and brass parts tracked in Los Angeles.
“The record was literally bouncing around from continent to continent as it was made. It’s literally been this worldwide creative team that has spoken into this project as well,” Joel said. “I think the spirit of the record speaks very internationally because of that.”
Given the weight of sickness, death, job losses, and industry devastations that have affected the world as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, those pains brought the project’s mission into sharp focus for the brothers.
“We toyed around with the ‘Holly Jolly Christmas’ songs or ‘Frosty the Snowman’—which, from an Australian’s perspective, ‘Frosty the Snowman’ when you are in the dead heat of summer celebrating Christmas, makes no sense—but, just coming out of some of the hell of 2020 so far, we really wanted to make this album 45 minutes of spiritual hope, and a celebration of the hope of what Christmas has to offer. Even songs that we wrote for the project were specifically focused on how to bring to light to people.”
The album is available to pre-save and pre-add, and can be pre-ordered via for King & Country’s official website.
A Drummer Boy Christmas Track Listing:
- In The Bleak Midwinter (Prologue)
- Joy To The World
- O Come, O Come Emmanuel (feat. NEEDTOBREATHE)
- Won’t You Come
- Heavenly Hosts
- Silent Night
- A Christmas Monologue
- Little Drummer Boy
- The Carol of Joseph (I Believe In You)
- O Come All Ye Faithful
- Go Tell It On The Mountain (feat. Gabby Barrett)
- Angels We Have Heard On High
- In The Bleak Midwinter (Epilogue)
Industry Ink: Scotty McCreery, Nashville Public Radio, Joe Bonsall
/by Lorie HollabaughScotty McCreery Receives Golden Recognition For “In Between”
Pictured: Scotty McCreery receives a RIAA certified Gold single for “In Between” from Triple 8 Management’s Scott Stem onstage at Ryman Auditorium on September 04, 2020 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by John Shearer/Getty Images for Scotty McCreery)
Scotty McCreery performed in the Live At The Ryman series to a sold-out, limited in-venue audience and via livestream at the Ryman Auditorium on Sept. 4, and prior to taking the stage that evening, he was surprised with a plaque commemorating the RIAA-Gold Certification of his No. 1 “In Between.” Last week, the North Carolina native announced the first taste of new music from a forthcoming album with upcoming single “You Time,” set for release Sept. 23, and debuted the tune on the historic Ryman stage.
“It was a fun surprise to receive a gold plaque for ‘In Between’ during ‘HLN’s Morning Express,’” said McCreery. “The fans are the reason why the song was certified gold, so I wanted to share the moment with them again on my livestream Q&A moderated by my friend Bill Cody.”
Nashville Public Radio Names Jason Moon Wilkins As Program Director For New Music Station
Jason Moon Wilkins. Photo: Rachel Iacovone / WPLN News
Nashville Public Radio has named Jason Moon Wilkins as the Program Director of its new music discovery radio station which launches later this fall on 91.1 FM. Wilkins has been host of All Things Considered on 90.3 FM WPLN News. He has also earned honors from the Associated Press. Most recently, he produced and hosted the special program A Radio Wake for John Prine, which was carried by numerous stations nationwide and became the most-streamed feature on WPLN News. Wilkins has also worked as a touring musician, music director, manager, music journalist, and helped launch or consult with numerous events and festivals including Next BIG Nashville, which served as a mini-SXSW for the city for several years and grew into a platform for everything from hip-hop to roots rock.
‘Name That Country Tune’ Set To Tape September 10
A pilot for a new country trivia game show, “Name That Country Tune,” will be taped in Nashville on Sept. 10 at Studio 615 in Nashville. The fast-paced, family-friendly, charity-driven game show is set in a living room rather than the traditional stage podium design, and will feature three recording artist contestants raising money for their favorite charity. The show host is Joe Bonsall of The Oak Ridge Boys, and contestants on the first show include Lee Greenwood, Linda Davis, and T. Graham Brown.
“We are pleased that 100% of the funds raised will go directly to the charities selected by the celebrities,” said Executive Producer, Nelson Tucker. “Our number one goal is to raise significant funds for the charities. All advertising monies and donations from viewers go directly to the charities. This is our way of giving back in a significant way.”
Steve Baker Celebrates 20th Anniversary Of Visual Image Marketing
/by Lorie HollabaughSteve Baker. Photo: Brittany Baker
Steve Baker’s company Visual Image Marketing is marking a major milestone this year, celebrating its 20th year of providing music video promotion and marketing services to independent country and Americana artists.
Baker’s business strategies have helped Dolly Parton, The Bellamy Brothers, Larry Stewart, Gene Watson, Kevin Costner & Modern West, T. Graham Brown, Don Williams, The Grascals, Southern Halo, Soul Circus Cowboys, and numerous other acts meet success in a hyper-competitive market. VIM’s client roster has included artists from around the globe like Tina Tara (Austria/UK), Binky (UK), McPeake (Northern Ireland), Australia’s Tornadoes (Australia), Chris Lindberg (Sweden), and others.
“I always try to deliver more than I promise,” Baker says. “And I always keep in mind the fact that my clients depend on me to help build their exposure wherever possible.”
Canadian Country Queen Lucille Starr Dies
/by Robert K OermannLucille Starr. Photo: Courtesy Robert K. Oermann
Canadian Country Music Hall of Honour member Lucille Starr died in Las Vegas on Friday (Sept. 4) at age 82.
She was a female rockabilly pioneer who later originated the country standard “Too Far Gone.” Starr’s bi-lingual “The French Song” became a U.S. pop hit, and she recorded a string of Canadian country successes in Nashville. She had numerous television credits and became an international artist with tours and hits in Holland, Belgium, England, Mexico, Guam, The Philippines, Japan, Korea, China and South Africa.
Because she spoke fluent French, many people assumed she was from Quebec, But she was born Lucille Saboie in Manitoba and raised in British Columbia. She began her career in an all-female, French-singing folk group called Les Hirondelles (The Swallows).
She and Bob Frederickson met and married in Vancouver, BC. They took the stage names Lucille Starr and Bob Regan and worked as country performers in the mid-1950s. When the rock ‘n’ roll revolution ignited, they headed for Los Angeles to record rockabilly tunes.
Bob and Lucille’s “Eeny-Meeny-Miney-Moe” was issued in 1959, followed by the equally snappy “What’s the Password,” “The Flirting Kind,” “The Big Kiss” and “Demon Lover.” Now considered rockabilly classics, they are characterized by Starr’s bopping, high-hiccup vocals and Regan’s stinging guitar breaks.
For the next seven years, the team starred on Los Angeles country television shows, including Town Hall Party. Lucille Starr became the yodeling singing voice of Bea Benaderet’s “Cousin Pearl Bodine” character on the top-rated network comedy The Beverly Hillbillies in 1962-63.
Bob and Lucille had a series of country hits in their homeland billed as “The Canadian Sweethearts.” These included 1964’s “Hootenanny Express” plus the singles “Freight Train,” “Don’t Let the Stars Get in Your Eyes,” “I’m Leaving It All Up to You,” “Looking Back to See” and the 1966 No. 1 hit “Don’t Knock on My Door.”
But Starr’s husband became jealous of her vocal talent. This increased when she had a solo international pop hit with “The French Song” in 1964. It became the centerpiece of her debut LP, produced by Herb Alpert, Jerry Moss and country star Dorsey Burnette for A&M Records. The album’s “Crazy Arms” became her first top 10 Canadian country hit as a solo.
Signed to Epic Records, she increasingly recorded as a solo artist in Music City. Billy Sherrill produced her singing his “Too Far Gone” in 1967. The song became a country evergreen recorded by Tammy Wynette, Emmylou Harris, Joe Stampley, Bobby “Blue” Bland, Waylon Jennings, Elvis Costello, David Houston and many more.
“The Canadian Sweethearts” recorded their Side By Side LP with Sherrill in 1967. Canadian hits continued with Lucille’s “Is It Love?” (1968) and “Cajun Love” (1969), as well as the duo’s “Let’s Wait a Little Longer” (1968) and “Dream Baby” (1970). They earned Gold and Platinum record awards in Canada, Holland and South Africa.
Lucille Starr’s solo successes included “Bonjour Tristesse,” “Send Me No Roses,” “Yours,” “Colinda,” “Jolie Jacqueline” and “Here Come More Roses.”
“The Canadian Sweethearts” finally divorced in 1977, and Lucille Starr moved to Nashville to further her career. She sang regularly on Ralph Emery’s morning TV show. In 1981, she recorded her comeback LP The Sun Shines Again in Music City. Appearances on TV’s Nashville Now and the Grand Ole Opry ensued.
Her single “The First Time I’ve Been in Love” returned her to the Canadian country charts in 1988. She also made those charts with the title tune of her 1989 Back to You album.
She starred in the Canadian TV special Lucille Starr in Quebec in 1989, the same year she became the first woman inducted into the Canadian Country Music Hall of Honour. She also starred in two TV specials in Holland.
Former partner Bob Regan died in 1990. The following year, Lucille Starr undertook a 17-date European tour. Based in Nashville, she continued to tour internationally during the 1990s.
In 2010 a jukebox musical titled Back to You: The Life and Music of Lucille Starr premiered in Winnipeg, Manitoba. A street in Coquitiam, BC is named in her honor.
Son Bob Frederickson Jr. was the guitarist in the touring act Buffalo Springfield Revisited.
Lucille Starr’s funeral arrangements were unknown at press time.
NIVA, YouTube Announce Initiative To Help Preserve Independent Music Venues
/by Lorie HollabaughThe National Independent Venue Association and YouTube have joined forces to help preserve independent live music venues across the United States through the Save Our Stages initiative.
NIVA’s mission is to preserve and nurture the ecosystem of independent live music venues and promoters throughout the U.S., and together, YouTube and NIVA will work on unique programming that will help bring live performances back into music venues safely. In addition, YouTube will help raise awareness and funding for the NIVA Emergency Relief Fund.
The Emergency Relief Fund was created to support America’s most vulnerable venues and is intended to provide short-term relief for independent venue owners and promoters on the verge of eviction or permanently shutting down due to COVID-19. The fund is intended to work hand-in-hand with federal and local programs, assisting with the most immediate needs facing the country’s independent venues and promoters and making it more likely that they will be able to reopen, fully, when it’s safe.
“YouTube is a place where artists and fans around the world come to connect and build community,” said Robert Kyncl, YouTube Chief Business Officer. “With traditional concerts on hold, never has there been a more important time to support the live music industry through our partnership with NIVA. We’re committed to doing our part in saving independent venues and continuing to bring artists and fans together through music.”
“With the entire independent venue and promoter industry on the verge of massive collapse, we’ve been fighting urgently for the Save Our Stages Act which will provide meaningful relief to our members and the independent music community,” said Stephen Sternshein, co-founder/treasurer of NIVA, and managing partner of Heard Presents in Austin. “YouTube’s direct involvement helps us generate awareness for the plight of independent live music and raise funds for NIVA’s Emergency Relief efforts. This could literally be the difference between some venues going under or holding on until Congress comes back from recess to pass much-needed federal relief. The independent concert industry will be reeling for years to come from the devastating revenue loss related to COVID-19, so we’re excited about what YouTube and NIVA can do together to bring the live experience back.”
BMI Announces Record Revenue Of $1.311 Billion
/by Jessica NicholsonBMI President & CEO Mike O’Neill said, “During this unprecedented year, our songwriters and composers’ incredible creativity, talent and resilience were beyond compare and truly inspiring. We were thrilled to be able to distribute our highest royalties ever and deliver them earlier than scheduled to help ease the concerns of our creators and publishers during this challenging time. BMI remains committed to supporting our affiliates during this crisis and beyond, and our team continues to work hard every day to protect the profession of songwriting and composing and ensure the ongoing creation of new music.”
The $1.233 billion total in distributions includes domestic and international royalties, as well as distributions from direct deals that BMI administers on behalf of its publisher and digital service provider clients. Those direct deals, which account for $71 million, represent an increase of $9 million over last year and approximately 6% of BMI’s total distribution.
Though its revenue performance surpassed last year’s results, BMI estimates it absorbed a $60 million negative impact to its revenues due to the COVID -19 effect across multiple businesses. The company’s total domestic revenue, including digital, media and general licensing, came in at $961 million, an increase of $18 million, or 2%, over last year. Strong growth in the digital and radio categories helped weather a decline in other areas, notably the general licensing sector, where businesses such as live concert venues, bars, restaurants, fitness centers, retail establishments and many others faced closures as a result of the pandemic.
Revenue from digital sources represented 32% of BMI’s domestic total with $304 million, an increase of $42 million, or 16%, compared to last year. This marks the first time the digital category eclipsed all others. As people stayed home during the COVID-19 crisis, they turned to indoor entertainment which translated to increases in viewers and listeners. The company saw strong growth from subscription streaming services that feature TV series, movies and music. Notably, BMI entered into new digital audiovisual licensing agreements with Disney+, Apple TV+, HBO Max and Peacock this year.
Total domestic media licensing revenue, comprised of cable & satellite, broadcast television and radio, came in at $527 million, an increase of $14 million, or 3%, over last year. Of this, cable and satellite-derived income remained the largest contributor at $271 million. Radio revenues totaled $155 million, $27 million higher than last year, or an increase of 21%, thanks to BMI’s rate court settlement with the Radio Music Licensing Committee (RMLC) that resulted in a new agreement and retroactive payments. Broadcast television revenue came in at $101 million, flat to last year.
General licensing, along with other income, came in at $130 million, down $39 million, or 23%, from last year. BMI’s international revenue grew to $350 million, up $10 million, or 3%, over last year. This figure would have been $9 million more were it not for a negative foreign exchange impact.
BMI saw its affiliate membership increase by almost 10% this year, with nearly 100,000 new songwriters, composers and publishers joining the organization. Exciting new signings included Succession composer Nicholas Britell, Chance the Rapper, H.E.R., Tame Impala, Dave Mustaine, Juan Salinas and Oscar Salinas of Play-N-Skillz, and the late Pop Smoke, among others, while agreements were extended with Ellie Goulding, Elton John, Khalid, Marshmello, Willie Nelson, Ozuna, Horacio Palencia, Mike Post, Lil Wayne, John Williams, Bebe Winans, and many more. In addition, BMI’s number of licensed musical works grew to over 17 million.
This year, BMI processed approximately two trillion performances. While this number is slightly lower than last year’s total, this is only due to a change in BMI’s internal performance tracking system. The Company actually saw a 26% increase in performances processed when comparing year-over-year with this new approach.
Carrie Underwood, Trisha Yearwood, Blake Shelton Join ACM Awards Performers
/by Jessica NicholsonCarrie Underwood, Trisha Yearwood and Blake Shelton featuring Gwen Stefani are among the latest performers added to the upcoming 55th annual Academy of Country Music Awards lineup.
Shelton and Stefani will perform their latest single, “Happy Anywhere,” while Underwood will honor the 95th anniversary of the Opry by paying tribute to female Opry members with a medley of songs made famous by Patsy Cline, Loretta Lynn, Barbara Mandrell, Martina McBride, Reba McEntire and Dolly Parton. Yearwood will perform “I’ll Carry You Home,” from her album Every Girl, as part of the In Memoriam segment which honors country music luminaries that have died over the past year.
Also joining the all-star lineup are presenters Lauren Alaina, Lily Aldridge, Clint Black & Lisa Hartman Black, Bobby Bones, Cam, Darius Rucker and Runaway June.
Hosted by reigning ACM Entertainer of the Year and 15-time ACM Award winner Keith Urban, the 55th annual ACM Awards will be broadcast on Wednesday, Sept. 16 (live 8:00-11:00 PM ET/delayed PT) on the CBS Television Network, and will be available to stream live and on demand on CBS All Access.
For the first time in the show’s history, the awards will take place in Nashville, broadcasting from three iconic country music venues: the Grand Ole Opry House, Nashville’s historic Ryman Auditorium and The Bluebird Cafe. Previously announced performers include Jimmie Allen, Kelsea Ballerini, Gabby Barrett, Kane Brown, Luke Bryan, Eric Church, Luke Combs, Dan + Shay, Florida Georgia Line, Riley Green, Mickey Guyton, Miranda Lambert, Tim McGraw, Maren Morris, Old Dominion, Thomas Rhett featuring Jon Pardi, Tenille Townes, and Morgan Wallen.
Spirit Music Group Acquires Tim McGraw Master Recordings
/by Jessica NicholsonTim McGraw
Spirit Music Group has acquired a number of Tim McGraw’s master recordings. The acquisition deal encompasses masters for three of McGraw’s albums: Two Lanes of Freedom (2013), Sundown Heaven Town (2014) and Damn Country Music (2015), all released via Big Machine Records and featuring some of McGraw’s top hits, including the No. 1, Grammy-winning “Highway Don’t Care” and his chart-topping “Humble and Kind,” which were also certified 3x multi-Platinum last week, moving McGraw’s total career RIAA certifications to 75 million. The deal with Spirit also includes the Platinum-certified “Shotgun Rider” and “Truck Yeah.”
“There are few artists in any genre of music who have had the level of success and impact that Tim McGraw has—we’re delighted to welcome Tim McGraw to the Spirit family and to represent his recording interests in some of country music’s most beloved songs,” said Jon Singer, Chairman, Spirit Music Group. “The entire Spirit team is honored to become an active partner in developing and protecting Tim’s incredible legacy of music.”
“Tim is one of the most prolific artists in country music and it is a unique opportunity to be able to acquire such a remarkable body of work in a competitive music rights market. We thank Tim for entrusting Lyric Capital Group and Spirit Music Group with his songs and are committed to doing our part to further build on the success of these master recordings,” said Ross Cameron, Partner, Lyric Capital Group.
“Tim McGraw is a timeless artist who makes timeless music. His recordings have helped shape the sound of country music,” said Frank Rogers, CEO, Spirit Music Nashville. “Spirit Music Group could not be more excited to partner with Tim to represent these amazing records that have become important threads in the fabric of country music history.”
“Jon, Ross, Frank and Spirit’s team have shown great dedication to protecting Tim’s body of work, and that laid the foundation for this deal. They understand the special place that Tim has in music and it’s great to be in business with them,” said Scott Siman, management, EM.Co Entertainment Management Company. “Tim and I are looking forward to working with them to find ways to continue to share the music with the fans.”
Though partnerships encompassing master recordings are rare for a music publisher, this is not the first time that Spirit has done such deals. The company also represents both the master and publishing for a portion of the catalog for T.Rex via Marc Bolan and recently announced it acquired the masters and publishing for the majority of the catalog of Ingrid Michaelson.
For King & Country Celebrate One Billion Streams, Announce ‘A Drummer Boy Christmas’ Album [Exclusive]
/by Jessica NicholsonCurb | Word Records duo for King & Country has accumulated career accolade after accolade in the past few months. They’ve settled in at the No. 1 spot on Billboard’s Christian Airplay chart for the past several weeks with their current hit “TOGETHER,” a soaring call for unity, featuring Kirk Franklin and Tori Kelly, and the track is already in the Top 30 on the mainstream Hot AC chart. Already five-time GMA Dove Award winners, for King & Country’s Joel and Luke Smallbone lead this year’s nominees, with six nominations heading into the Dove Awards in October.
And this week, they’ve hit a new career milestone, reaching 1 billion on-demand streams since they first began releasing music eight years ago.
“We found out about a week or so ago that it was getting close to that number,” Joel tells MusicRow. “I sort of sat back and didn’t quite know how to comprehend that at first. But behind every single number or stream is a pair of ears and hopefully in some way they’ve been encouraged or entertained or impacted by a story that we’ve told through a song.”
The brothers relocated from Australia to Nashville, Tennessee with their family in 1991, including their sister and singer-songwriter Rebecca St. James. The duo formally created for King & Country in 2010, and released their first album, Crave, in 2012. Since then, they’ve produced seven No. 1 radio hits, including radio staples such as “Fix My Eyes,” “Shoulders,” “Priceless,” “joy.,” and “God Only Knows,” and earned four Grammys. Along the way, the duo has also built a reputation of immensely creative, theatrical live shows that could easily find one of them climbing production scaffolding during a performance (as they did during a Grammy Block Party in Nashville in 2014), or climbing over balcony seats to bring the music closer to their fans, as they did during one Ryman Auditorium concert (part of their Burn The Ships tour in 2018).
Last year, for King & Country infused the Christmas exemplar “Little Drummer Boy” with an ethereal, U2-esque vibe when they performed the song as part of CMA Country Christmas. The rendition stole the show, earning a standing ovation from the in-house audience, while the official video of the performance has earned more than 10 million views on CMA’s Facebook page, with another 3.2 million views on YouTube. The track also topped Billboard’s Christian Digital Songs chart following the performance.
On Oct. 30, for King & Country will expand on that performance, with their first full-length studio Christmas album, A Drummer Boy Christmas. The 13-track album follows the duo’s previous holiday offerings, the 2017 live album Christmas: Live From Phoenix and 2013’s Into the Silent Night: The EP. A Drummer Boy Christmas was executive produced by aqualung (Matt Hales).
For Joel and Luke, the Christmas album has been eight years in the making. Before they had even released their debut album in 2012, Luke, Joel and their band went on a Christmas tour.
“We very unreasonably decided to do a Christmas tour,” Joel recalls, “and the reason I say unreasonably, is we had no album out at that point, no radio single, we just decided to hit the road. We shoved ourselves into a warehouse for two days to work up Christmas renditions and from that came this very drum-centric version of ‘Little Drummer Boy’ that we have done and refined over the years. This Christmas music has shaped and reshaped not only the way we present Christmas music but the band itself. We’ve taken two or three of those original versions we came up with in that warehouse and then to take everything we’ve learned as a band over the past eight years and create this piece of music, it feels like a culmination moment as a band.”
For King & Country has found massive success through collaborations, ranging from their current chart-topper “TOGETHER,” to the Grammy-winning “God Only Knows” featuring Dolly Parton.
That strategy finds its place on two tracks from the upcoming album. Gabby Barrett lends her powerful vocals to “Go Tell It On The Mountain.”
“From her time on American Idol, and just being in Nashville, we’ve been aware of her talent and when we reached out, we found out she was sort of a fan of the band and believed in what we are doing. Her voice is beautiful and it worked really well with this song,” Joel says.
Another of the songs for King & Country gravitated toward in those warehouse sessions from 2012, “O Come, O Come Emmanuel,” gets a reworking, featuring NEEDTOBREATHE.
“NEEDTOBREATHE started out as a band with brothers. So we always had that respect for one another from afar. ‘Emmanuel’ was one of those classics that we came up with in that warehouse that night in 2012. We thought when we started working on it this time around, we thought it had a slightly folksy, rock feel to it.
“When [NEEDTOBREATHE lead singer] Bear [Rinehart] sent his vocal track back, I looked at our producer and Luke and I said, ‘We need to go back in the studio and re-cut our vocals to up our game.’ There’s this wonderful moment in the second verse where he’s singing and I meet him halfway with a harmony. But I really tried to match his timbre and energy and it really came out beautifully. That’s the template of a good collaboration, when you have these moments and you didn’t know you needed to get better, but all of a sudden you are kindly encouraged to up your game.”
While classics such as “Silent Night,” Angels We Have Heard On High,” and “O Come All Ye Faithful” make the bulk of the project, several original tracks are interspersed throughout, including “Heavenly Hosts” and the stunning “The Carol of Joseph.”
“One of my favorite parts of Christmas is how Mary is celebrated. But there’s this quiet hero all along the way. Even when you go back and read the Biblical stories there’s not a lot of emphasis on [Joseph]. You put yourself in his shoes of having this child who is not his, but he chooses to love and be a good father to him. I think one of the things we don’t think of is Jesus—being human and a strong character that he was and the graceful character that he was—obviously much of that would have come from his mother but there’s a portion of that that would have come from his dad, as well. It became this grounded story of taking a snapshot of those initial moments between Joseph, Jesus and Mary. One of my favorite moments is in the song when Mary says, ‘I believe in you,’ and this idea of the mother of God saying to her husband, ‘I believe in you,’ that you can raise this child. Each time it gets to that moment in the record—I don’t cry often, but it is one of those moments that is emotional.”
The duo’s plans for a large-scale tour during the first portion of 2020 were stalled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but silver lining has been more time to focus more intently on the upcoming album.
“The album might not exist because we had been planning on traveling so much this year,” Joel says. Partially due to COVID-19 restrictions, for King & Country reached out to fellow creators around the world to help piece the album together. The album was mixed in London, mastered in New York, with orchestration done in Copenhagen, some production work done in England, and brass parts tracked in Los Angeles.
“The record was literally bouncing around from continent to continent as it was made. It’s literally been this worldwide creative team that has spoken into this project as well,” Joel said. “I think the spirit of the record speaks very internationally because of that.”
Given the weight of sickness, death, job losses, and industry devastations that have affected the world as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, those pains brought the project’s mission into sharp focus for the brothers.
“We toyed around with the ‘Holly Jolly Christmas’ songs or ‘Frosty the Snowman’—which, from an Australian’s perspective, ‘Frosty the Snowman’ when you are in the dead heat of summer celebrating Christmas, makes no sense—but, just coming out of some of the hell of 2020 so far, we really wanted to make this album 45 minutes of spiritual hope, and a celebration of the hope of what Christmas has to offer. Even songs that we wrote for the project were specifically focused on how to bring to light to people.”
The album is available to pre-save and pre-add, and can be pre-ordered via for King & Country’s official website.
A Drummer Boy Christmas Track Listing:
Weekly Register: Luke Combs, Morgan Wallen Top Sales Charts
/by Jessica NicholsonLuke Combs. Photo: David Bergman
Luke Combs‘ What You See Is What You Get jumps from No. 3 to No. 1 on the country albums chart this week, with 23K in total activity, according to Nielsen. Morgan Wallen‘s If I Know Me is at No. 2 this week, with 21K. Combs’ This One’s For You is at No. 3 with 19K, followed by Kane Brown‘s Mixtape Vol. 1 at No. 4 with 15K. Luke Bryan‘s Born Here Live Here Die Here is at No. 5 with 13K.
The top album debut this week is Colter Wall‘s Western Swing & Waltzes and Other Punchy Songs at No. 8 with 9K.
The Country On-Demand Audio Streaming chart’s Top 5 stays the same this week, as Wallen’s “7 Summers” continues to dominate, with 9 million streams this week. Gabby Barrett‘s “I Hope” remains at No. 2 with 8.3 million streams, followed by Maddie & Tae‘s “Die From A Broken Heart” at No. 3 with 6.9 million streams. Wallen’s “Chasin’ You” is at No. 4 with 6.5 million streams, followed by Diplo with Julia Michaels (ft. Morgan Wallen)’s “Heartless” at No. 5 with 6.3 million streams this week.
Chris Stapleton’s “Starting Over” is this week’s top debut at No. 7, with 5.7 million streams.
Josh Thompson Maintains No. 1 Spot On MusicRow Top Songwriter Chart For Fourth Week
/by LB CantrellJosh Thompson maintains the No. 1 position on the MusicRow Top Songwriter Chart for the fourth consecutive week this week, with co-writer credit on “One Margarita” (Luke Bryan), “Ain’t Always The Cowboy” (Jon Pardi), and “Be A Light” (Thomas Rhett feat. Reba McEntire, Hillary Scott, Chris Tomlin & Keith Urban). HARDY maintains the No. 2 position for another week.
Lance Miller makes his way inside the top 10 this week, with credit on “I Called Mama” (Tim McGraw) and “Everywhere But On” (Matt Stell).
The weekly MusicRow Top Songwriter Chart uses algorithms based upon song activity according to airplay, digital downloaded track sales and streams. This unique and exclusive addition to the MusicRow portfolio is the only songwriter chart of its kind.
Click here to view the full MusicRow Top Songwriter Chart.