Carrie Underwood. Photo: Jeff Johnson
“It’s so good to be home!” Carrie Underwood told the crowd during a tour stop at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena on Thursday night (Sept. 22). She has taken The Storyteller Tour: Stories In The Round to arenas across the country since January, with dates continuing through November.
Underwood packs more than 20 songs into the elaborate production, seemingly effortlessly sailing through the vocally-challenging numbers including “Blown Away,” “Two Black Cadillacs,” “Before He Cheats,” and several from her Storyteller album, including the show opener “Renegade Runaway.”
Appropriate for a concert dubbed Stories In The Round, Underwood’s massive stage stretched across the entire arena, ensuring fans on every side of the arena got a great seat. The three LED rings hanging above center stage lowered, rose, and rotated at other moments during the concert to create a dramatic focal point.
Meanwhile, Underwood was tireless in working the perimeter of the stage, allowing each audience member to have the best seat in the house. She attracted 15,000 fans to her Nashville show.
Even during moments Underwood was not onstage, there was no lack of stimulation for the audience, as members of her ace band showcased their talents. Added to that were smoke, lasers, rising stages and more to keep the audience engaged.
Props were strategically placed throughout the set. After showcasing her drumming skills during a fierce, buzz-worthy performance of “Church Bells” during the ACM Awards earlier this year, Underwood reprised her performance for the second leg of The Storyteller Tour. Later, she sang atop a jukebox illuminated with sparks during “Cowboy Casanova.”
She performed the intimate “What I Never Knew I Always Wanted,” the final track from Storyteller, perched on a piano situated at one end of the stage, as video and images of her husband and son flashed on screens hanging above center stage. A disco ball illuminated the crowd during her recent chart-topper “Heartbeat.”
Lesser entertainers might have been overtaken by such an ornate production; for Underwood, the pageantry only served to accentuate her strengths as both a vocalist and engaging entertainer.
While most Nashville crowds have come to expect a surprise superstar guest appearance or two, it was clear that Underwood didn’t need it. Instead, she showcased a wide range of musical talents, playing guitar on working person’s anthem “Smoke Break,” and holding her own during a harmonica “battle” with a band member during another Storyteller track, “Choctaw County Affair.”
She welcomed tour openers The Swon Brothers and Easton Corbin back to the stage to lead a harmony-rich, crowd sing-along of the Alabama classic “Mountain Music.”
A rare a cappella moment showcased Underwood’s voice at its most nuanced, as she led the audience in a performance of Dolly Parton’s “I Will Always Love You.”
“As a woman in country music, we have so many incredible women to be able to look up to,” she told the crowd. “One of those women to me is Dolly Parton. To me, she is everything. She has the career that everybody in country music wants to have, because she does everything, and she does everything so dang well. She is an incredible vocalist and entertainer and storyteller and songwriter and everybody in the world knows who she is, and she’s a nice person. In Nashville, Tennessee, I think it’s very fitting that we pay tribute to the queen.”
Parton may have accrued more decades of songwriting and touring under her belt, but it seems Underwood is paying close attention, and fashioning her own polished persona as a multi-faceted entertainer, singer, and songwriter.
But make no mistake, Underwood is a singer’s singer, and she let no opportunity to unleash her formidable voice on a high note go to waste.
While she proved more than capable on edgier fare including “Somethin’ Bad,” “Last Name,” and “Undo It,” this Nashville crowd was taken with her more inspirational material, from her 2005 debut hit “Jesus Take The Wheel,” to the powerful “Wasted.”
The show ended with the stage awash in blue laser light, as Underwood stayed center stage for a masterful, inspired rendition of her rangy 2014 hit, “Something In The Water,” complete with a snippet of “Amazing Grace.”
Over the course of the evening, it became clear that during a career that has barely spanned 10 years, Underwood has evolved into an high-caliber entertainer who not only commands her time in the spotlight, but one who relishes it.
Photo: Jeff Johnson
Kacey Musgraves Christmas Tour Includes Ryman Date
/by Craig_ShelburneKacey Musgraves will perform at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville on Nov. 28 as part of A Very Kacey Christmas Tour. Tickets for the Ryman show go on sale Friday (Sept. 30).
The tour begins on Nov. 26 in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, and continues through Dec. 17 in Evansville, Indiana. Musgraves will release her first Christmas album, A Very Kacey Christmas, on Oct. 28.
“I’m so excited to tour my first Christmas album and to get festive with this music! It was such a blast to make,” said Musgraves. “I’m making sure these are going to be some very magical nights!”
A Very Kacey Christmas Tour Dates
Nov. 26: Windsor, Ontario, Canada; The Colosseum at Caesars Windsor
Nov. 28: Nashville; Ryman Auditorium
Dec. 8: New York City; The Town Hall
Dec. 9: Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania; FM Kirby Center for the Performing Arts
Dec. 10: Washington, DC; National Theater
Dec. 15: Joliet, Illinois; Rialto Square Theater
Dec. 16: Knoxville, Tennessee/Tennessee Theater
Dec. 17: Evansville, Indiana/Victory Theater
Katie Garfield Signs With Young Guns Publishing
/by Craig_ShelburnePictured (L-R): Dave Rose, President, Deep South Entertainment; Micah Wilshire, VP of TV/Film, Young Guns Publishing; Katie Garfield; Cliff Downs, President, Young Guns Publishing; Aubrey Rupe, Creative Director, Young Guns Publishing; Will Hamrick, VP/GM, Young Guns Publishing
Young Guns Publishing has signed singer/songwriter Katie Garfield to its roster.
“Ever since I first started writing with the talented Young Guns writers almost three years ago, I’ve known that Young Guns is the place for me. I feel right at home with their wonderful team and I’m so excited for my future there,” Garfield said.
“Katie brings a fresh and unique perspective to the Young Guns roster. We are very excited to have this multi-talented singer/songwriter join our company,“ said Cliff Downs, President of Young Guns Publishing.
After moving to Los Angeles at 18, she started working with songwriters and producers such as David Pack and Scott Gordon. Now 23, she has signed her first publishing deal and has been writing songs for TV and film opportunities.
Garfield is also an accomplished actor, having had guest starring roles in television shows such as The Vampire Diaries, Sleepy Hollow, One Tree Hill and Nashville.
This fall she will be seen in Nate Parker’s Nat Turner biopic The Birth of a Nation as Catherine Turner. The film won the Grand Jury and Audience Awards at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival and is set to premiere nationwide on Oct. 7.
Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital At Vanderbilt Expanding
/by Craig_ShelburnePictured (L-R): Scott Borchetta, Sandi Spika Borchetta, Tiffany Fallon Rooney, Allison DeMarcus. Photo: Anne Rayner, VU
Construction is underway at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt for a four-floor expansion. The renovations will advance the size and scope of the hospital’s comprehensive array of specialty and subspecialty pediatric health care programs.
Big Machine Records executives Scott Borchetta and Sandi Spika Borchetta joined Tiffany Fallon Rooney and Allison DeMarcus at an event on Tuesday (Sept. 20) for the hospital’s “Growing to New Heights” campaign, a fundraising effort that will help cover the total construction cost of more than $100 million. DeMarcus is chair of the Children’s Hospital board.
Rascal Flatts has been a champion and benefactor of the hospital for many years. Tiffany Fallon Rooney is married to band member Joe Don Rooney; Allison DeMarcus’ husband is band member Jay DeMarcus. When Rascal Flatts’ donations reached $3 million in 2014, the hospital named its pediatric surgery unit after the band. Since 2005, the group has raised $4 million for the hospital.
The additional space will be built over a 30-month period to provide the necessary square footage to meet the future health care needs of the children and families from Tennessee, the surrounding region and across the nation.
Hopdoddy Burger Bar Moving Into Former Boscos Building
/by Craig_ShelburneThe first Tennessee location of Hopdoddy Burger Bar is bound for Hillsboro Village in 2017.
Hopdoddy co-owners Guy Villavaso, Larry Perdido, Chuck Smith and Larry Foles will occupy the former Boscos Restaurant, located at 1805 21st Avenue South in Nashville.
Founded in 2010, Hopdoddy Burger Bar was born in Austin, Texas, and serves fresh, all-natural Angus burgers, hearty salads and handcrafted milkshakes with a full bar with craft brews, house-made liqueurs and fresh squeezed juices. The restaurant currently operates 16 locations in Arizona, California, Colorado and Texas.
“We see many creative and eclectic similarities between Austin and Nashville, and our Austin heritage positions us to successfully bring our world famous burger bar to iconic Nashville,” said Hopdoddy Burger Bar CEO Jeff Chandler. “Nashville is young, vibrant and full of great energy and we believe Hillsboro Village to be at the heart of this energy – a natural fit for our brand.”
Carrie Underwood Shares The Storyteller Tour With Nashville
/by Jessica NicholsonCarrie Underwood. Photo: Jeff Johnson
“It’s so good to be home!” Carrie Underwood told the crowd during a tour stop at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena on Thursday night (Sept. 22). She has taken The Storyteller Tour: Stories In The Round to arenas across the country since January, with dates continuing through November.
Underwood packs more than 20 songs into the elaborate production, seemingly effortlessly sailing through the vocally-challenging numbers including “Blown Away,” “Two Black Cadillacs,” “Before He Cheats,” and several from her Storyteller album, including the show opener “Renegade Runaway.”
Appropriate for a concert dubbed Stories In The Round, Underwood’s massive stage stretched across the entire arena, ensuring fans on every side of the arena got a great seat. The three LED rings hanging above center stage lowered, rose, and rotated at other moments during the concert to create a dramatic focal point.
Meanwhile, Underwood was tireless in working the perimeter of the stage, allowing each audience member to have the best seat in the house. She attracted 15,000 fans to her Nashville show.
Even during moments Underwood was not onstage, there was no lack of stimulation for the audience, as members of her ace band showcased their talents. Added to that were smoke, lasers, rising stages and more to keep the audience engaged.
Props were strategically placed throughout the set. After showcasing her drumming skills during a fierce, buzz-worthy performance of “Church Bells” during the ACM Awards earlier this year, Underwood reprised her performance for the second leg of The Storyteller Tour. Later, she sang atop a jukebox illuminated with sparks during “Cowboy Casanova.”
She performed the intimate “What I Never Knew I Always Wanted,” the final track from Storyteller, perched on a piano situated at one end of the stage, as video and images of her husband and son flashed on screens hanging above center stage. A disco ball illuminated the crowd during her recent chart-topper “Heartbeat.”
Lesser entertainers might have been overtaken by such an ornate production; for Underwood, the pageantry only served to accentuate her strengths as both a vocalist and engaging entertainer.
While most Nashville crowds have come to expect a surprise superstar guest appearance or two, it was clear that Underwood didn’t need it. Instead, she showcased a wide range of musical talents, playing guitar on working person’s anthem “Smoke Break,” and holding her own during a harmonica “battle” with a band member during another Storyteller track, “Choctaw County Affair.”
She welcomed tour openers The Swon Brothers and Easton Corbin back to the stage to lead a harmony-rich, crowd sing-along of the Alabama classic “Mountain Music.”
A rare a cappella moment showcased Underwood’s voice at its most nuanced, as she led the audience in a performance of Dolly Parton’s “I Will Always Love You.”
“As a woman in country music, we have so many incredible women to be able to look up to,” she told the crowd. “One of those women to me is Dolly Parton. To me, she is everything. She has the career that everybody in country music wants to have, because she does everything, and she does everything so dang well. She is an incredible vocalist and entertainer and storyteller and songwriter and everybody in the world knows who she is, and she’s a nice person. In Nashville, Tennessee, I think it’s very fitting that we pay tribute to the queen.”
Parton may have accrued more decades of songwriting and touring under her belt, but it seems Underwood is paying close attention, and fashioning her own polished persona as a multi-faceted entertainer, singer, and songwriter.
But make no mistake, Underwood is a singer’s singer, and she let no opportunity to unleash her formidable voice on a high note go to waste.
While she proved more than capable on edgier fare including “Somethin’ Bad,” “Last Name,” and “Undo It,” this Nashville crowd was taken with her more inspirational material, from her 2005 debut hit “Jesus Take The Wheel,” to the powerful “Wasted.”
The show ended with the stage awash in blue laser light, as Underwood stayed center stage for a masterful, inspired rendition of her rangy 2014 hit, “Something In The Water,” complete with a snippet of “Amazing Grace.”
Over the course of the evening, it became clear that during a career that has barely spanned 10 years, Underwood has evolved into an high-caliber entertainer who not only commands her time in the spotlight, but one who relishes it.
Photo: Jeff Johnson
Glen Campbell, Merle Haggard Christmas Albums Return On Vinyl
/by Craig_ShelburneVintage Christmas albums from Glen Campbell and Merle Haggard are once again available on vinyl.
Campbell’s That Christmas Feeling (1968) and Haggard’s Christmas Present (1973) were reissued Friday (Sept. 23) by Universal Music Enterprises.
Campbell’s project includes the hit “Christmas Is For Children” as well as his take on “Blue Christmas” and Willie Nelson’s “Pretty Paper.” Haggard’s set includes “If We Make it Through December” and “Daddy Won’t Be Home for Christmas.”
Glen Campbell’s That Christmas Feeling Track List:
Side A
1. “Christmas Is For Children”
2. “Old Toy Trains”
3. “Little Altar Boy”
4. “It Must Be Getting Close To Christmas”
5. “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas”
6. “Blue Christmas”
Side B
1. “The Christmas Song (Merry Christmas To You)”
2. “Pretty Paper”
3. “There’s No Place Like Home”
4. “I’ll Be Home For Christmas”
5. “Christmas Day”
Merle Haggard’s Christmas Present Track Listing:
Side A
1. “If We Make It Through December”
2. “Santa Claus And Popcorn”
3. “Bobby Wants A Puppy Dog For Christmas”
4. “Daddy Won’t Be Home Again For Christmas”
5. “Grandma’s Homemade Christmas Card”
Side B
1. “White Christmas”
2. “Silver Bells”
3. “Winter Wonderland”
4. “Silent Night”
5.” Jingle Bells”
Artist Updates: The Band Perry, Darryl Worley, Ray Stevens
/by Craig_ShelburneThe Band Perry Plans For NASCAR Race
The Band Perry
The Band Perry will perform prior to the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship race on Nov. 20. The band will be featured in a pre-race show, which airs on on NBC. The Ford EcoBoost 400 championship race will be broadcast in 185 countries and territories on NBC, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. The race will take place in Homestead-Miami Speedway in Florida.
“We are thrilled to have The Band Perry performing in what will be an exciting day at Homestead-Miami Speedway, which will be capped off with the Ford EcoBoost 400 championship race on Sunday,” said Homestead-Miami Speedway President Matthew Becherer. “The Band Perry has become a household name in country music, and having them kick off the Sprint Cup Series championship race with a pre-race concert will be an electrifying experience for NASCAR and all of our fans. We can’t wait to see the show they put on in November.”
Darryl Worley Will Ride The Santa Train
Darryl Worley
Darryl Worley will be the celebrity guest on the Santa Train when it makes its 74th journey on Nov. 19. He will accompany Santa and event sponsors CSX, Dignity U Wear, Food City and the Kingsport Chamber of Commerce on the 110-mile trek. Worley will perform live at the final stop in Kingsport, Tennessee. The Santa Train makes 14 stops in Kentucky, Virginia and Tennessee and delivers toys, food and winter clothing to hundreds of children and families along the way.
“I’m honored to accompany the Santa Train as the celebrity guest this year,” Worley said. “The opportunity to give back and to be a part of a 74-year-old holiday tradition is one that I couldn’t pass up, and I look forward to being a part of it.”
Ray Stevens Announces Golf Event
Ray Stevens has announced his first “Ray Stevens Charity Golf Classic,” set for Oct. 7 and 8 at the Temple Hills Country Club in Franklin, Tennessee. A full concert by Stevens and special guests will take place on the evening of the 7th, followed by an 18-hole golf scramble on the 8th. The event benefits GIFT (Giving in Faith Together), Augie’s Quest (ALS) and the ClubCorp Employee Partners Care Foundation.
“I’m looking forward to seeing lots of friends at my Charity Golf Tournament at Temple Hills in a few weeks. It should be fun doing a show in town,” says Stevens. “The concert is no problem but the Davidson County Public Safety Department won’t allow me to tee off within 100 yards of a highway. The folks in my foursome all dress like baseball catchers.”
Weekly Chart Report (9/23/16)
/by Troy_StephensonClick here or above to access MusicRow‘s weekly CountryBreakout Report.
Brooke Eden Releases EP On RED BOW Records
/by Craig_ShelburneBrooke Eden issued a four-song EP, Welcome to the Weekend, on Friday (Sept. 23) on RED BOW Records.
Eden co-wrote all the songs, collaborating with songwriters Chris DeStefano, Brett James, Cary Barlowe, Jesse Frasure, Ingrid Andress, Will Weatherly and Justin Wilson. Jacob Durrett and Nick Brophy produced the project.
Eden’s lead single, “Diamonds,” has been featured in the TLC series, Close to Home.
Welcome to the Weekend Track List
1. “Diamonds” (Brooke Eden, Chris DeStefano, Brett James)
2. “Act Like You Don’t” (Brooke Eden, Cary Barlowe, Jesse Frasure)
3. “Silence Speaks” (Brooke Eden, Ingrid Andress, Will Weatherly)
4. “Sunday Mornin’” (Brooke Eden, Justin Wilson)
Rascal Flatts Announce Christmas Album, ‘The Greatest Gift Of All’
/by Craig_ShelburneRascal Flatts will release The Greatest Gift of All, their first-ever Christmas album, on Oct. 21 on Big Machine Records. The collection was produced by the band and features 10 holiday favorites.
Contemporary seasonal songs on the album include renditions of Stevie Wonder’s “Someday at Christmas” and 4Him’s “A Strange Way to Save the World.” The trio’s version of “Silent Night” begins with vocals from their children.
“It probably seems crazy that we waited this long to release a Christmas record,” says band member Jay DeMarcus. “We just wanted to do it right! There are certain songs I think most everyone wants to hear during Christmas, and we wanted to put our own special spin on those songs, while adding in a couple of our personal favorites. We had a blast making this album, and being in the producer’s chair ourselves, makes it extra fun and challenging for us.”
The Greatest Gift of All Track List:
1. “Joy To The World”
2. “O Holy Night”
3. “Deck The Halls”
4. “A Strange Way To Save The World”
5. “Go Tell It On The Mountain”
6. “Let It Snow”
7. “Silent Night”
8. “Someday At Christmas”
9. “The First Noel”
10. “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing”