Chase Rice Earns Third Career No. 1 With ‘Drinkin’ Beer. Talkin’ God. Amen.’

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Chase Rice has achieved his second chart-topper as an artist with his latest single “Drinkin’ Beer. Talkin’ God. Amen. (feat. Florida Georgia Line),” this week. The track also reached No. 2 on Spotify’s most-streamed Hot Country songs of 2021 thus far.

The single follows his double Platinum-certified, two-week chart topper “Eyes On You,” which was one of the Top 5 most-played songs on country radio in 2019. “Drinkin’ Beer. Talkin’ God. Amen.” marks a full circle moment for Rice and Florida Georgia Line’s Tyler Hubbard and Brian Kelley, who first topped the charts as co-writers on FGL’s Diamond-certified hit “Cruise” when making music together as new-to-Nashville roommates more than a decade ago.

“Sharing a No. 1 song together not once, but twice, is more than we ever could have imagined years ago, when we were just three friends chasing a crazy dream,” notes Rice. “I’m so grateful to the fans and country radio for connecting with and supporting this song the way they have. There’s no better feeling as an artist than knowing that writing and singing your truth resonates with people… The journey of this song has been so special. Not only did it give me, Brian and Tyler the chance to work on music together again; it was also written on the bus at one of my last live shows before the world shut down–and now it’s sitting atop the chart just as we’re getting back to enjoying live music together. The timing couldn’t be more perfect.”

“There is always an inspiring energy when the three of us come together,” add Kelley and Hubbard, who co-produced the song alongside Rice and Corey Crowder. “You could just feel it in the house back when we were roommates, and it is amplified that much more now when we collaborate. Our first No. 1 changed all of our lives in more ways than we could have ever imagined, and we’ve certainly lived a lot of life since then. To be celebrating our second No. 1 together is surreal and a full circle moment. We’re so thankful to Chase for his friendship over the years and sharing in this crazy dream of ours.”

Shane McAnally Makes Top 10 On MusicRow Top Songwriter Chart

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Shane McAnally moves into the top 10 this week on the MusicRow Top Songwriter Chart. He is a co-writer on “Half Of My Hometown” (Kelsea Ballerini feat. Kenny Chesney), “I Was On A Boat That Day” (Old Dominion), and “Next Girl” (Carly Pearce).

For the forth consecutive week, Ashley Gorley stays at No. 1 on the chart with “Good Things” (Dan + Shay), “Country Again” (Thomas Rhett), “Give Heaven Some Hell” (Hardy), “Sand In My Boots” (Morgan Wallen), “Single Saturday Night” (Cole Swindell), “You Should Probably Leave” (Chris Stapleton), and “Beers On Me” (Dierks Bentley, Hardy & Breland).

The weekly MusicRow Top Songwriter Chart uses algorithms based upon song activity according to airplay, digital download 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.

In Pictures: The Oak Ridge Boys, More Play Grand Ole Opry Show At Music City Grand Prix

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The Oak Ridge Boys. Photo: Chris Hollo

The Oak Ridge Boys performed at the Grand Ole Prix show following the inaugural Big Machine Music City Grand alongside Danielle Bradbery, Callista Clark, Riley Green, and Justin Moore on Sunday night (Aug. 8.) The show, which also celebrated the Oak Ridge Boys’ 10th Opry anniversary, was hosted by Opry announcer Bill Cody. Moore joined the Oaks on stage for the band’s iconic “Elvira.” The Opry performance closed out the three-day racing event.

Justin Moore. Photo: Chris Hollo

Sunday night’s performances were also live-streamed on Circle Network’s social channels, hosted by Natalie Stovall, a member of Runaway June and a Circle TV personality. The Country Music Hall of Fame members shared the stage at the Grand Ole Opry House Saturday evening with fellow Opry members Ricky Skaggs, Chris Young, and more. The special performances aired on Opry Live on Circle TV.

Danielle Bradbery. Photo: Chris Hollo

Bradbery also took part in the Grand Prix’s opening ceremony on Sunday evening, riding in the Ruoff Fastest Seat in Sports with racing legend Mario Andretti. Bradbery released a music video for her newest song “Stop Draggin’ Your Boots” on CMT on July 30.

Clark made her Opry debut on July 30. Her song, “It’s Cause I Am,” from her debut EP is currently sitting at No. 18 on MusicRow’s CountryBreakout Radio Chart. Green’s song “If It Wasn’t For Trucks” is also on MusicRow’s CountryBreakout Radio Chart, sitting at No. 16.

Callista Clark. Photo: Chris Hollo

Riley Green. Photo: Chris Hollo

Weekly Register: ‘Fancy Like’ Keeps Walker Hayes At The Top For Fifth Week

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Walker Hayes. Photo: Robert Chavers

Monument Records’ recording artist Walker Hayes spend his fifth “Fancy Like” week at No. 1 on the top country streaming songs chart. The breakout hit earns Hayes another 11 million streams this week, contributing to a total 64 million RTD, according to Nielsen.

Nelly & Florida Georgia Line continue their stay at No. 2 as “Lil Bit” gains another 7.3 million streams. Ryan Hurd and Maren Morris move up to third with “Chasing After You” adding another 7.1 million streams this week. Meanwhile, Dan + Shay recover the fourth spot as “Glad You Exist” earns 6.7 million streams, and Luke Combs solidifies the top five with “Forever After All” gaining 6.6 million streams this week.

The top five country streaming albums remain intact this week, according to Nielsen. Morgan Wallen‘s Dangerous: The Double Album takes the top spot with 44,000 (53 million RTD) and If I Know Me stays at fourth with 15,000 streams this week. Combs continues his residency at No. 2 with What You See Is What You Get earning 24,000 streams and No. 3 with This One’s For You earning 17,000 streams. Chris Stapleton rounds out the top albums as Traveller adds another 12,500 streams.

CRS To Launch New Heads Of State Series With Top Music Executives In 2022

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CRS will launch CRS Heads Of State, a new series that will debut during CRS ’22 from Feb. 23-25, 2022. This series will feature a mix of the industry’s most prominent leaders and highest-profile CEOs from the realms of radio and record labels for daily exclusive, one-on-one conversations.

The inaugural series will include Caroline Beasley (CEO/Beasley), Ginny Morris (CEO/Hubbard), Bob Profitt (CEO/Alpha Media), Bill Wilson (CEO/Townsquare), Scott Borchetta (President/CEO, BMLG), Mike Dungan (Chairman/CEO, UMG), John Esposito (Chairman/CEO, WMN), Randy Goodman (Chairman/CEO, Sony), and Jon Loba (President, BMG), with more music industry executives to be added in the coming weeks. Joel Denver (All Access Media Group), Erica Farber (RAB), Lon Helton (Country Aircheck/Country Countdown USA), and Mike McVay (McVay Media) will serve as moderators.

Each day of CRS will start and end with one of these impactful conversations which will share unique insight and global perspective on the current status of the music and broadcast businesses, how they have emerged post-pandemic, and ways their respective companies plan to achieve continued success in the near future.

“In just two eventful, arduous years, the country music industry has undergone disruption, challenges, revival, and innovation that have and will continue to reshape the world and our business as we know it. It’s time to hear what insights leaders of our genre–the Heads Of State–have to say about all that, to share what they know, and forecast where all of us are headed,” shares CRS Executive Director RJ Curtis.

Early bird registration for CRS ’22 opens at 10 a.m. CST on Tuesday, Aug. 17. Following the success and popularity of CRS 2021: The Virtual Experience, CRS will also be offering a virtual track featuring livestream sessions and on-demand content from the 3-day event. Musical performances will only be available in-person and not available through the virtual experience. For more information about registration, click here.

Heather Cook, Liz Rogers, More To Look At Current State Of Sync In AIMP Webinar

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The AIMP Nashville Chapter, in partnership with the Nashville Film Festival, will address the Current State of Sync in a new webinar this Thursday, Aug. 12 at 4:30 p.m. CT.

Sync music executives Heather Cook (Director of Marketing & Brands at peermusic & Sr. Music Event Producer at Nashville Film Festival), Kourtney Kirkpatrick (VP of Sync, Concord Music Publishing), Liz Rogers (Founder & Creative Director, Anacrusis), Alex Stefano (VP of Sync, Big Yellow Dog Music), and moderator ET Brown (Senior Director, Creative Services at SESAC) will discuss the current condition of the film, TV, advertising, and game sync markets during the online event.

As the group will discuss, with COVID-19 shifting production schedules, many music supervisors were forced to shift their music searches, and thus music publishers, labels, and sync rep companies shifted the music they pitched. This webinar will reveal the current needs of the sync market and potential trends that may be coming.

Registration for this webinar is free for AIMP members and $5 for non-members. To register, click here.

Asleep At The Wheel Celebrate ‘Half A Hundred Years’ With New Album

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Asleep At the Wheel. Photo: Mike Shore

10-time Grammy-winning band Asleep At The Wheel are ringing in their 50th anniversary with Half A Hundred Years on Oct. 1 through Home Records in partnership with Thirty Tigers. The album’s title track is available everywhere now.

The nineteen-track celebration of the legendary band’s half-century-long career will feature a number of world-class friends of the band. Country greats, such as Willie Nelson, George Strait, Emmylou Harris, Lee Ann Womack, and Lyle Lovett appear throughout the upcoming project. On top of that, three original members of the group—Chris O’Connell, Leroy Preston, and Lucky Oceans—returned after 4o years to lend their voices and musicianship to a number of the album’s tracks.

“I went over to the ACL stage to see Jamey Johnson,” says longtime frontman Ray Benson. “I told him ‘Ya know it’s Asleep at the Wheel’s 50th anniversary!’ He looked at me and said, ‘That’s Half a Hundred years!’” Benson says of the upcoming and title track, “I was trying to get across the sacrifices you have to make in 50 years on the road and the other positive side of it. The great experiences, the places I’ve been, and all the amazing people I’ve had the opportunity to meet and play music with.”

Since its founding in 1970, Benson and Asleep at the Wheel set out to bear a torch and carry the roots of American popular music into the future. The new record serves as a reminder to take ownership and care of the things they love, just as Ray Benson has cherished, polished, built, and rebuilt Asleep at the Wheel.

Half A Hundred Years Track List:
1. Half A Hundred Years
2. It’s The Same Old South feat. Chris O’Connell
3. I Do What I Must feat. Leroy Preston
4. There You Go Again feat. Lyle Lovett
5. My Little Baby feat. Chris O’Connell
6. Paycheck To Paycheck feat. Leroy Preston
7. Word To The Wise feat. Bill Kirchen
8. That’s How I Remember It feat. Chris O’Connell
9. The Photo feat. Leroy Preston
10. I Love You Most Of All (When You’re Not Here) feat. Lucky Oceans
11. The Wheel Boogie
12. Take Me Back To Tulsa feat. George Strait and Willie Nelson
13. The Letter That Johnny Walker Read feat. Lee Ann Womack
14. Bump Bounce Boogie Feat. Chris O’Connell, Elizabeth McQueen, & Katie Shore
15. Miles And Miles Of Texas
16. Get Your Kicks On Route 66 Feat. Leroy Preston, Johnny Nicholas, & Ray Benson
17. Marie Feat. Willie Nelson
18. Spanish Two Step Feat. Johnny Gimble And Jesse Ashlock
19. The Road Will Hold Me Tonight Feat. Emmylou Harris And Willie Nelson

Live Nation Announces New COVID-19 Best Practices For Artists, Concertgoers, Staff

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Over the last two weeks, many states, cities, and businesses have responded to the growing spread of COVID-19, specifically the extremely contagious Delta variant that is running rampant across the United States and the rest of the world. Included in many of these responses are vaccine requirements, such as those recently announced by President Joe Biden for federal employees and some Nashville music venues.

With the U.S. reporting over 100,000 new cases of COVID on average each day, the nationwide vaccine campaign has begun to see a bit of an uptick as over 70% of Americans have received at least one of the three available vaccines to those 12 years or older.

Last week, Live Nation, the world’s leading entertainment and ticketing company, announced that they have developed best practices that will allow artists the option to require their concertgoers and staff to be fully vaccinated or show a negative test result for entry at their U.S. shows. This is not a requirement and will be completely determined by the artist.

Live Nation has already implemented this model at many major events over the past few weeks, including at Lollapalooza in Chicago. As shared by Live Nation’s President and CFO Joe Berchtold from the company’s earnings call on Aug. 3, over 90% of the festival’s patrons were fully vaccinated, signaling positive commitment and support of being vaccinated in order to attend shows.

“We are working to ensure we are reopening in the best way possible for staff, artists, crew, fans, and communities at large. Our teams have worked together to put new processes in place so that artists doing shows with Live Nation in the U.S. can require all attendees and staff to be fully vaccinated or show a negative test result for entry, where permitted by law,” said Live Nation’s CEO Michael Rapino in a letter to the company’s staff. “We know people are eager to return to live events and we hope these measures encourage even more people to get vaccinated. That is the number one thing anyone can do to take care of those around them and we are encouraging as many shows as possible to adopt this model.”

Additionally, Live Nation will be requiring all employees in the U.S. be vaccinated in order to enter any of its events, venues, or offices—with limited exceptions as may be required by law—beginning Oct. 4 as their offices are set to reopen.

“We’ve seen great vaccination enthusiasm among our staff so far, and we want to ensure we’re taking every step possible to keep you all safe,” Rapino explained. “Our business and our industry is about uniting people and vaccines are one of the greatest tools for making sure that everyone can continue to enjoy live music together.”

For more information regarding CDC guidance, vaccinations, and the Delta variant, click here.

Morgan Wade Signs With Arista Nashville

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Pictured (L-R, front row): Randy Goodman, Sony Music Nashville Chairman & CEO; Morgan Wade; Mary Sparr, Hillpeople Artist Management. (L-R, back row): Liz Cost, SMN VP, Marketing; Caryl Atwood, SMN SVP, Sales and Streaming; Jennifer Way, SMN SVP, Marketing; Taylor Lindsey, SMN SVP, A&R; Steve Hodges, SMN EVP Promotion and Artist Development; Sadler Vaden, producer. Photo: Alan Poizner

Morgan Wade has signed with Arista Nashville. Wade’s debut single, “Wilder Days,” will be released this fall.

Wade released her debut album Reckless in early 2021 to critical acclaim. The 26-year-old kept her songs and her voice hidden in her younger years, taking to the stage naturally at age 19, and then choosing sobriety soon after in her early twenties. Working alongside Paul Ebersold and Sadler Vaden, the trio shaped songs Wade has written over the years and developed new tracks to create her debut.

“There always a bit of reserve when going to a major label from an independent one – there’s worry that your creativity will be stripped away. I don’t feel that at all with Sony,” says Wade. “If anything, I’m more inspired than ever. Sony and Arista see my vision and want to work hard with me to share that vision. I feel at home.”

Following opening stints with Ashley McBryde and American Aquarium, Wade will join Lucero for the band’s fall tour and will appear at major festivals including Rock the South, Pilgrimage, and more.

Wade is represented by Hillpeople Artist Management and WME. She signed with UMPG Nashville earlier this year.

Boy Named Banjo Announce New ‘Circles’ EP

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Boy Named Banjo. Photo: David McClister

Mercury Nashville’s newest band, Boy Named Banjo, is set to release their new seven-song EP, Circles, on Aug. 27.

Produced by Oscar Charles, the upcoming project highlights the band’s genre-defying sound. Composed of members William Reames, Willard Logan, Barton Davies, Sam McCullough and Ford Garrard, the group have been releasing music and hitting the road together since 2016, but Circles is on track to represent the band better than any of their previous releases to date.

“Our Circles EP has been years in the making,” the band shares. “With the unexpected time at home during the pandemic, we decided to dive back into this music and try to make it the very best that it could be. We feel the finished product both highlights and represents our band like nothing we have released before. We could not be more proud and grateful to present this EP to the world.”

The road-tested band will embark on their headlining Where The Night Goes Tour which kicks off in late August in Atlanta, and visits Birmingham, Richmond, Chicago, Louisville, Denver, and more before wrapping in Nashville on Dec. 23 at the Brooklyn Bowl. For a full tour schedule, click here.

Circles EP Track List:
1. Only You Know (Barton Davies, Jon Sherwood, William Reames)
2. Feel For You (Barton Davies, William Reames, Michael Whitworth, Dan Fernandez)
3. Too Close (Barton Davies, William Reames, Tim Bruns, Jon Sherwood)
4. Circles (William Reames, Oscar Charles, Jon Sherwood)
5. Where The Night Goes (Barton Davies, William Reames, Benjamin Simonetti, Jon Sherwood)
6. Keep Lying To Me (Barton Davies, William Reames, Benjamin Simonetti, Jon Sherwood)
7. Go Out Dancing (Barton Davies, William Reames, Oscar Charles, Jon Sherwood)