Darius Rucker will be honored with the Harry Chapin Memorial Humanitarian Award during the upcoming Music Biz conference in Nashville. The award commemorates his work on behalf numerous charities, including MUSC Children’s Hospital in Rucker’s hometown of Charleston, South Carolina.

Rucker will receive the honor during the Music Biz 2019 Awards and Hall of Fame dinner on Tuesday, May 7 at the JW Marriott Nashville Hotel.

“Through his tireless efforts to support the youth community of Charleston, not to mention the millions of dollars he has helped raise for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Darius has beautifully honored the legacy of our Humanitarian Award’s namesake, Harry Chapin,” said Music Biz President James Donio. “We truly feel that Harry would be proud to see how Darius has used his platform and resources to benefit those among us in need. We are delighted to recognize him for all he has contributed.”

Since 2010, his annual Darius & Friends benefit concert and golf tournament has raised millions of dollars for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Through the Hootie & the Blowfish Foundation, Rucker and his bandmates have raised funds for over 200 charitable causes that support public education and junior golf programs in South Carolina.

At the annual Darius & Friends benefit concert and golf tournament, Rucker performs and plays alongside some of his famous friends in order to raise money for children who are battling cancer. The annual “Monday After the Masters” (MAM) golf tournament brings together golf pros, celebrities, and their friends to raise money for the Hootie & the Blowfish Foundation and the South Carolina Junior Golf Foundation, among others.

Every fall, the Hootie & the Blowfish Foundation hosts Hootie’s Homegrown Roundup, an event designed to assist underprivileged children in the Charleston County School District. Through the Roundup, kids receive free annual eye exams, dental exams, new shoes, haircuts, and a backpack full of school supplies to help them prepare for the school year.

Rucker, who first found fame as the lead singer and guitarist for Hootie & The Blowfish, successfully built a solo country career on the strength of songs including “Wagon Wheel,” “It Won’t Be Like This For Long,” and more. His version of Old Crow Medicine Show’s “Wagon Wheel” earned Rucker his third Grammy honor in 2013.  In 2018, Rucker won the Gary Haber Lifting Lives Award from the Academy of Country Music, celebrating his devotion to improving lives through the power of music.

Rucker is set to join his Hootie bandmates in 2019 as they embark on the 44-city Group Therapy Tour, which will be accompanied by the release of their first studio album since 2005. The band signed to UMG Nashville earlier this year.

Since its inception in 1981, the Harry Chapin Memorial Humanitarian Award has celebrated the legacy of folk-rock singer-songwriter Harry Chapin, whose philanthropic work to end world hunger earned him the Congressional Gold Medal. In 1977, Chapin helped create the Presidential Commission on World Hunger. He also co-founded the charitable organization World Hunger Year to which he donated all of the proceeds from merchandise sales at his concerts. The writer of the #1 hit “Cat’s in the Cradle,” top 40 singles “Taxi,” “W*O*L*D,” and “Sequel,” Chapin scored a gold album with 1974’s Verities & Balderdash. Previous recipients of the Harry Chapin Memorial Humanitarian Award have included Martina McBride, Dee Snider, Melissa Etheridge, Annie Lennox, Jackson Browne, Norman Lear, and Bonnie Raitt, as well as Rock The Vote, Hands Across America and the T.J. Martell Foundation.

William Shatner made his Grand Ole Opry debut on Friday (Feb. 15) with Jeff Cook of the band, Alabama. The Opry appearance promoted Mr. Shatner’s and Mr. Cook’s recent collaboration on Shatner’s country album Why Not Me on Heartland Records Nashville.

Prior to taking the Opry stage, Shatner and Cook held a press conference for invited guests in Studio A located in the back of the Opry House. They amusingly covered many topics during the Q&A session including Shatner’s feelings about performing on the Opry, his interest in recording a blues album in the future, and Cook’s Star Trek memorabilia collection.

“I’m honored to be here, most humbled, you might say,” shared Shatner about the night’s momentous occasion.

And at age 87, Shatner is not slowing down. He has several upcoming TV shows that could not be formally announced at this time and is pitching a variety of shows to the networks, both animated and reality. He will be touring several times this year supporting a film called The Wrath of Khan, the second film made by the Star Trek team which Shatner is affiliated with, and he has a book called, Live Long and… What I Learned Along The Way.  Shatner also wants to do a blues album, which he mentioned in a recent interview with MusicRow.

“I want to do a documentary on this ‘white guy from Montreal’ who says, ‘What is and what are the blues?’ and I want to explore that before I make the album to document on film,” Shatner said.

Cook shared on collaborating with Shatner for the album, “I was a fan, and a bunch of years ago, we met and stayed in touch. A mutual friend that’s in the record business talked to him, talked to me, talked together and came up with this project.” Cook also has an impressive Star Trek memorabilia room in his castle in Ft. Payne, Alabama.

Shatner said, “It’s a spectacular room. He’s got a lot stuff that everybody wishes they had. I, on the other hand, have nothing. I have kept nothing.” To which Cook amusingly responded, “Would you like some of it back?”

Reflecting on importance of Nashville in the music industry, Shatner shared, “There used to be in Times Square a building called the Brill Building, that in the 40s and 50s, songwriters would be in the building. In the summer time, it was my understanding, with the windows open, you could hear the piano playing as the composers were selling their songs. And somehow, that closed and the crooning and the standards went out of favor. Nashville became the place where writing songs, like country music songs, took place. Nashville is now what the Brill Building used to be.”

Shatner added, “I’m looking forward to standing on stage, and feeling the people who played– that I admired and are probably no longer here. I believe that there is a spirit life in everything, even things that are not alive. I believe that it is so on stage. I’m looking forward to visiting with the ghosts of yesterday and yesteryear.”

If the Ryman Auditorium was capable of transforming into a dancehall, like the nearby Schermerhorn Symphony Center, those pews would have been long gone during country duo Brothers Osborne‘s three-night residency, where they held court each evening at the hallowed venue on Feb. 13, 15 and 16.

Evident in lyrics like Filling a dance floor is something I live for, the finale evening (Feb. 16) of their sold-out residency welcomed traditional country music guest Lee Ann Womack for the first live performance of that debut Bros album cut, “Loving Me Back.”

Two-step rompers urged the lively crowd to their feet without any place to shuffle. Covers of Steve Earle’s “Copperhead Road” saw lead singer, baritone brother TJ swinging his hips like a country Elvis, while an accordion accompanied from behind.

But honky tonk vibes aren’t the only draw for the brothers’ sound. Older brother John’s guitar slinging is easy to overlook unless he steps into the spotlight. Not for lack of quality, in fact the complete opposite—an ace guitarist can’t just be measured by performances perched atop road case pedestals, though he had a few during the night. However, John Osborne supports the overall effect of the Brothers Osborne with accouterment guitar trills unmatched by the majority of major label country road warriors today.

Where other bands can’t, the Brothers Osborne surge forward into rarefied air on familiar tunes, remade for the road, like the brilliant “21 Summer.” The mellow performance was abridged and stripped down, punctuated by crystalized beams pouring from the lit walls behind the duo. It wasn’t until midway through the set when John’s guitar mastery stepped into those bright lights, as he took center stage for “Stay A Little Longer.” Later, he would continue pushing the crowd toward musical euphoria with his Fleetwood vibes during an epic 12-minute guitar solo capping “It Ain’t My Fault.”

The Maryland-raised duo interjected various substances as reliable themes throughout the setlist, like “Weed, Whiskey and Willy,” “Greener Pastures,” “Drink Like Hank,” “Shoot Me Straight,” “Rum,” or “Tequila Again.” Masked love songs they may be, more obvious medleys pour out effectively on “Pushing Up Daisies,” “Me Before You,” or even their rendition of the driving Dierks Bentley No. 1 duet, “Burning Man.”

Bentley joined the brothers on a previous evening, as did Maren Morris, who is a co-writer on “Greener Pastures” in addition to another appearance by John’s wife and master tunesmith Lucie Silvas.

The East Nashville residents celebrated the final hometown show at the Ryman on Saturday (Feb. 16) with special opening guest, Warner Bros. artist The Wild Feathers. The two bands closed out the encore with the Lennon-McCartney “With A Little Help From My Friends,” while those friends, family members, neighbors and lovers swayed in the church pews before them.

Country artist Lucas Hoge and Southwest Airlines have renewed their partnership for 2019 following Hoge’s year as a #SouthwestStoryteller. Hoge’s single “Boom Boom” from his album Dirty South is featured on the airline’s 737 MAX 8 aircrafts’ playlist, which the airline implemented to enhance their customers’ onboard experience. Hoge will also be joining the airline during SXSW for a special performance on March 10.

“I am humbled and honored to continue this partnership, not only is Southwest my favorite airline, but the people behind the brand are truly amazing,” said Hoge. “I’m blessed that they support my music and I am excited to share my travels in 2019, the sky’s the limit!”

Over the past year, Hoge was part of a curated group of 12 #SouthwestStorytellers who promoted the airline’s brand on their social channels. As part of his partnership with Southwest in 2018, Lucas participated in the airline’s signature Live at 35 program, which brings artists onboard for surprise live inflight performances. Now Hoge is assisting Southwest in their search for the next great storyteller. The contest, which ends Feb. 24, aims to reward and empower influencers with travel on Southwest for a year to help them build their brands and continue creating incredible content. Click here to find out more and enter the Next Southwest Storyteller Contest.

Twenty-eight years, multiple platinum albums, and nearly 20 Top 10 hits (including five No. 1s) since Trisha Yearwood released her breakthrough 1991 debut “She’s In Love With The Boy,” the singer has proven she possesses a voice enviably capable of drawing out the meaningful nuances of songs from a number of musical genres, from western swing (see “Cowboys Are My Weakness”), power-belting soul numbers (“Wrong Side of Memphis,” “Heaven, Heartache, and the Power of Love”), to pop balladry (“How Do I Live”).

With her latest project, Let’s Be Frank, Yearwood pairs her timeless voice with a timeless catalog—the songs of Frank Sinatra.

“There’s Frank and then there’s everybody else,” Yearwood tells MusicRow Magazine. “I think that’s because his style is so conversational. He really did wrap himself in the lyric, and that’s something that made me able to relate to him. I have always approached songs like they are poems or a mini-movie that you are in for three and a half minutes. I study the lyrics because how you read a lyric affects how you sing it. We have that in common as far as really reading a lyric and throwing yourself into the story. I’ve had a lot of fun in my career in the studio, but I’m not sure I’ve ever had more fun than that. “

Let’s Be Frank marks Yearwood’s first solo collection since 2007’s Heaven, Heartache, and the Power of Love (she collaborated with husband Garth Brooks on the holiday project Christmas Together in 2016).

In the interim, Yearwood has become a multi-media star, with three best-selling cookbooks, Food Network cooking show Trisha’s Southern Kitchen, a home décor line, and a cooking line with Williams Sonoma, an exclusive partnership through which Let’s Be Frank was initially released in December. On Friday (Feb. 15), the album was released on all music platforms.

However, Yearwood says the idea for a standards album has been 20 years in the making.

“I kept telling myself, ‘Well, I’m making a country record,’ or ‘I’m doing the cooking show.’ I put it on the back burner, thinking I could do it anytime. And now, I think what it really was, was as long as I didn’t do it, I couldn’t fail at it.”

That hesitancy changed after Yearwood took part in Sinatra 100: An All-Star Grammy Concert in 2015, where she honored the late Chairman of the Board with a rendition of “I’ll Be Seeing You.” Grammy-winning producer and musician Don Was led the house band for the show, and notably used the original arrangements written for Sinatra in the show.

“Don was the one who asked me, ‘Have you ever thought about doing an album of all these songs?’ It just felt like the timing was right.”

Yearwood’s fellow collaborators on Let’s Be Frank included composer/arranger Vince Mendoza, as well as engineer/producer Al Schmitt, who has earned more than 20 Grammy awards, and worked with Sinatra on albums including Duets and Duets II.

Let’s Be Frank was recorded live with a 55-person orchestra at the Capitol Recording Studio at Capitol Tower in Hollywood, the same studio Sinatra recorded so many of his own hits. Yearwood’s vocals were recorded with the same microphone Sinatra used.

“Capitol is one of the most historic studios in the world and I just assumed the Frank microphone and the barstool that Frank sat on that are in all these photographs would be under glass somewhere,” Yearwood says. “But this is a working studio and they use this stuff. I was floored that they would have these things out and be using them, but it helped the vibe of being in the studio. You are sitting with an engineer that worked with Frank Sinatra. He’s sat behind that board before when Frank was singing. There’s a responsibility and an aura of Frank when you walk in that room.”

Yearwood was more than ready for the challenge. Prior to heading into the studio, Yearwood handed Was and Schmitt a list of 100 of her favorite Sinatra songs.

“Don sat me down in the first meeting we had in person and said, ‘If you had to write down 12 of these songs right now to record, just don’t even think about it, just write them down.’ And that list ended up making about 99 percent of the record.”

The four days of recording at Capitol Studio began with Sinatra’s classic “All The Way.”

“When you’re singing with 55 musicians, you don’t want to be the person who is not prepared and doesn’t know where to come in, because if you screw up with 55 people and have to start over, it’s a little different than with five people,” she says, comparing the process of making Let’s Be Frank to her own country albums. “Once I got that first song down, then I was good. But to let that rawness and that vulnerability come out and stay on the record, that’s one of the things that makes it special because we recorded it live. I went back and fixed a couple of notes here and there, but it really was live.”

Though Yearwood has long included in her live shows a version of the Judy Garland classic “Over The Rainbow” (a song Sinatra would cover on Songs By Sinatra), Mendoza introduced her to one of the song’s lesser-known verses.

“He brought me the verse that is sung before the lyric that we all know,” she says. “I didn’t know that earlier lyric. Judy sang it one time on a radio show, so it’s not a popular thing that a lot of people know. It’s this beautiful melody that sets up the song, and then he brings the melody back in in his arrangement in the end. He was just as much a part of making these songs sound good as anybody in the room.”

As much as Let’s Be Frank is a tribute to one of music’s most iconic singers and musical interpreters, it also serves as a creative way of reconnecting with memories of the music her mother Gwen listened to when Yearwood was a child.

“My mom was a big musical and movie buff. One of my favorite things to do with her was sit and watch movies together and listen to those songs. I was watching movies that were made in the ‘40s and ‘50s, but this was the ‘70s. The sentimental thing is my mom and dad are both gone, but that was something I shared with her, so that was something important to me and it made me feel connected to her to get to do this.”

The album also includes the lush original track “For The Last Time”—a rare Yearwood co-write, penned with Garth Brooks.

“I don’t call myself a writer and I came up with a title—for the first time I’m in love for the last time—and I just think that about [her relationship with Brooks] and I didn’t know what to do with that line. He showed me why he’s in all the hall of fames—he started singing this melody that is from another era and we just wrote it without having a plan at all for it, but I ended up playing it for Don. I never intended to have an original song on the album, but this is kind of in that vein. While I would never put myself up against these iconic writers, it was nice to have something that it didn’t feel weird to play that song in the collection of these other songs.”

Fans longing for fresh country material from this multi-talented creator can expect a new album to release in the fall.

“Everything is recorded, we are just doing that last checklist of things like adding harmonies and things are almost ready to mix.” Yearwood’s says of the album’s status. “I’m already chomping at the bit to release this country album. It definitely reminded me that as much as I love all the things that I get to do that are entertainment-related–I don’t do anything I don’t love—but music feeds my soul. I’m not going to let that much time pass before I make another record because it’s something that brings me so much fulfillment. It’s something I need to do for myself but hopefully other people will like it.”

As for the songs on Yearwood’s list of favorite Sinatra selections that did not make the album, there’s a chance they could be recorded down the road.

“I hope that I get a chance to do another album, because there were a lot of songs that I would like to do. The quality of songs from that time is so stellar. “