Stagecoach Festival 2020 Dates Announced

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Stagecoach Festival, 2018

Dates for Stagecoach 2020 have been announced, with next year’s festival taking place Friday, April 24 through Sunday, April 26 at Empire Polo Club, Indio, Caifornia. 

The 2020 festival follows another successful year in 2019 featuring headline performances from Luke Bryan, Sam Hunt and Jason Aldean plus an unforgettable closing weekend set by Diplo featuring the first-ever live performance of “Old Town Road” by Lil Nas X and Billy Ray Cyrus.

Tickets and shuttle combo passes go on sale beginning Friday, July 19 at 11 a.m. during the Stagecoach 2020 Advance Sale. Lineup announcements, food and drink reveals, public on-sale information and other surprises will be revealed this fall.

Brandi Carlile To Headline Six Sold-Out Shows At Ryman Auditorium

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Brandi Carlile

Brandi Carlile will now perform six sold-out shows at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium on Jan. 14, 15, 16, 19, 20 and 21 with special guests Kim Richey, Lucie Silvas, Natalie Hemby, Lori McKenna and Courtney Barnett, respectively. Three additional shows were added to the run due to overwhelming popular demand after the first three shows sold-out immediately during last Friday’s on-sale.

Prior to the sold-out Ryman residency, Carlile will make her headline debut at New York City’s Madison Square Garden on September 14 and will perform Joni Mitchell’s Blue in full at Los Angeles’ Walt Disney Concert Hall on October 14. And in the New Year, Carlile’s sold-out Girls Just Wanna Weekend will take place at the all-inclusive Hard Rock Hotel in Riviera Maya, Mexico from January 29-February 2, 2020. The second annual festival once again features an all female-fronted lineup including multiple sets by Carlile as well as Sheryl Crow, Lake Street Dive, Patty Griffin, Lucius, Wanda Sykes (comedy set), KT Tunstall, Jade Bird, Amanda Shires and Yola as well as special guests Ruby Amanfu, Natalie Hemby and Katie Herzig.

Sam Hunt, Reba McEntire, Dierks Bentley To Perform For NSAI’s Nashville Songwriter Awards

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The Nashville Songwriters Association (NSAI) has announced several performers set to take part in the 2nd Annual Nashville Songwriter Awards, presented by NSAI and City National Bank.

Reba McEntire, Sam Hunt, Dierks Bentley, Chris Janson, Lee Brice, David Lee Murphy, Michael Ray and hit songwriter Dean Dillon will be part of the lineup.

Additionally, George Strait has been selected to receive the 2019 President’s Keystone Award, in recognition of his contributions toward the betterment of all songwriters.
“George Strait is the perfect recipient of the NSAI President’s Keystone Award.  The Keystone is the ‘central stone at the summit of an arch, locking the whole together’,” says NSAI President Steve Bogard. “His delivery of a great melody and that perfect phrasing that communicates the emotion in a lyric is the ultimate last step in bringing so many incredible records to his fans. We’re honored he’ll be with us.”
Previously announced honorees of the evening include Loretta Lynn, who will receive the Kris Kristofferson Lifetime Achievement Award, U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn) who will be honored with the White Hat Award, and the peer-voted 2019 “Song of the Year,” “Songwriter of the Year,” “Songwriter-Artist of the Year,” and the “10 Songs I Wish I’d Written” awards, all of which will be revealed the night of the awards.
The second annual Nashville Songwriter Awards will take place Sept. 17 at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium. Tickets will go on sale Friday, July 19 at 10 a.m. CT.

Country Music Hall of Fame And Museum To Open Brooks & Dunn Exhibit In August

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The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum will honor Country Music Hall of Fame members-elect Brooks & Dunn with a new exhibition set to open Aug 9.

Brooks & Dunn: Kings of Neon will chronicle the duo’s early solo careers, how they came together to form Brooks & Dunn, their record-breaking awards wins, 20 No. 1 hits, and their electrifying approach to touring. The exhibit will run through July 19, 2020.

Items featured in Brooks & Dunn: Kings of Neon include:

  • Dozens of awards presented to Brooks & Dunn between 1992 and 2006, including Grammys, CMA and ACM awards
  • Neon Circus & Wild West Show-themed Les Paul electric guitar, built for Brooks by the Gibson Custom Shop’s Master Luthier, Bruce Kunkel, in 2001. The instrument features rope-shaped binding and ornamentation; a hand-carved and painted cowgirl on the lower bout; carved volume and tone knobs in the shape of horned toads; mother-of-pearl cowgirl inlays on the fingerboard and headstock and a sterling silver pickguard engraved, “Brooks & Dunn, Neon Circus and Wild West Show”
  • Red cowboy boots decorated with steer’s head inlays, worn by Dunn when he was around five years old
  • Hand-tooled leather guitar strap made for Brooks by Hutch’s Custom Saddlery and embellished with oak leaf and acorn imagery and the names of Brooks’ wife, Barb, and their children, Molly and Eric
  • “Neon Moon”-themed archtop electric guitar with custom blue finish and crescent moon inlay, presented to Dunn in 2001 by the Gibson Custom Shop
  • Racing suits with steer’s head logos, worn by Brooks and Dunn when they drove 5/8th-scale Legends race cars in the 1990s
  • Early draft lyrics to “Red Dirt Road,” written by Dunn

“The combined talents of Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn have left an indelible mark on country music history. For nearly three decades, the duo’s skillful songwriting, dynamic recordings and rowdy performances have made Brooks & Dunn an enduring success with lasting influence on the genre and its contemporary hit-makers,” said Kyle Young, CEO, Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. “The museum looks forward to exploring the journey of two struggling solo artists brought together by fate and creative vision to become country music’s best-selling duo of all time.”

“It’s so cool to have an exhibit at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum,” said Dunn. “When you’re reminded that what you have created is part of history like that, it’s beyond humbling. I’m so, so proud.”

“Ronnie and I are really fired up about having an exhibit at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum,” added Brooks. “We’ve shared some of our favorite things with the museum over the years, and it’s going to be really special for us to revisit those moments from our career, especially in a format like the Hall that reaches all generations of fans.”

 

Vince Gill, Luke Combs, Sheryl Crow, Emmylou Harris To Play All For The Hall Benefit In Los Angeles

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Vince Gill, Emmylou Harris, Luke Combs and Sheryl Crow are set to take the stage at this year’s All for the Hall benefit in Los Angeles on Sept. 7. This star-studded event, which directly supports the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum’s education programs, will take place at The Novo in the L.A. Live complex.

Gill has hosted or co-hosted every All for the Hall concert since he founded the campaign in 2005. Now in his 18th term as president of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum’s Board of Officers and Trustees, Gill launched the All for the Hall initiative by encouraging country artists to contribute the proceeds from a performance to benefit the museum.

The All for the Hall series launched in 2005 and began traveling to Los Angeles in 2009. The series has alternated between Los Angeles and New York, with Gill and Harris serving as hosts in an acoustic format. With Keith Urban, Gill also co-hosts an All for the Hall concert in Nashville at Bridgestone Arena. To date, the concerts have netted more than $4.3 million in support of the museum’s educational initiatives, which directly serve more than 100,000 people annually.

Tickets for this year’s All for the Hall Los Angeles benefit concert go on sale this Friday, July 19 at 12 p.m. CT, and can be purchased via TheNovoDTLA.com.

Garth Brooks Rocks Joe’s In Chicago At First Dive Bar Show

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Photo by 8 Ten, Inc.

Garth Brooks packed Joe’s on Weed Street in Chicago Monday night (July 15) at the first in a series of his upcoming Dive Bar concerts. Tickets for the show were available to win exclusively from the Chicago country stations US 99 and BIG 95 5.

Garth went live on Facebook for a special Inside Studio G and asked for suggestions for his next dive bar on the seven-stop tour then took the stage, and fans can tune in to his Inside Studio G to find out where the next stop is on The Dive Bar Tour.

The event was also for a good cause, since Garth recently teamed with Seagram’s 7 to declare this the “summer of Dive Bars.” As part of the celebration, Brooks and Seagram’s 7 have committed to securing 700,000 pledges this summer from dive bar patrons across the country at jointhepact.com.

Brooks performs the new single, “Dive Bar” tonight on Jimmy Kimmel Live, while he and Blake Shelton will perform the song for the first time together live in Boise, Idaho on July 19 as part of Garth’s stadium tour.

Weekly Register: Luke Combs, Blanco Brown Extend Country Sales Leads

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Luke Combs and Blanco Brown continue at the top of the country sales charts this week, according to Nielsen Soundscan.

Combs’ This One’s For You earned 22K in total consumption this week, to expand his lead on the country albums sales chart. Dan + Shay‘s self-titled effort follows at No. 2 (15K). Combs comes in again at No. 3 with his The Prequel EP moving 13.5K. Morgan Wallen‘s If I Know Me is at No. 4 with 13K, followed by Thomas Rhett‘s Center Point Road at No. 5 with 12K.

Blanco Brown‘s “The Git Up” continues at No. 1 on the top country streaming songs chart, with 19 million streams this week. Blake Shelton‘s “God’s Country” is at No. 2 with 11.5 million streams. Wallen’s “Whiskey Glasses” is at No. 3 with 9.9 million. Combs rounds out the Top 5 with the No. 4 and No. 5 slots, with “Beer Never Broke My Heart” (9.6 million) and “Beautiful Crazy” (8.3 million), respectively.

Warner Chappell Music Adds Ben Gallaher To Writer Roster

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Ben Gallaher. Photo: David Abbott

Warner Chappell Music has signed a worldwide publishing deal with Nashville singer-songwriter Ben Gallaher.

A Pennsylvania native, Gallaher picked up his first guitar at age six and moved to Nashville in 2011 to pursue his music career. Known for his high energy stage presence and guitar slinging, Gallaher has built his fan base by touring throughout Pennsylvania over the past nine years, visiting state prisons on his annual “Barbed Tour.”

Earlier this year, he released “Love You Like America,” produced by Mickey Jack Cones.

Gibson To Move Headquarters To Downtown Nashville

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Guitar maker Gibson has announced plans for their new global headquarters to be located at Cummins Station in downtown Nashville (209 10th Avenue South, Nashville, TN 37203).

For the past 30 years, the company’s headquarters has been located on the outskirts of Nashville proper. Gibson plans to expand into their new HQ by the end of 2019, where it will be home to 100+ employees. In addition to improving workspace functionality, the new space will offer the opportunity to create guitar showrooms for artists, as well as more options to showcase the Gibson brand and story. Over the past several months, Gibson has integrated its Memphis facility and invested in its Gibson USA and Gibson Custom Shop factories in Nashville.

“I’m proud of the progress we have made re-building Gibson and I’m excited to move our new headquarters to the heart of Nashville,” says James “JC” Curleigh, president and CEO of Gibson. “Cummins Station is the perfect choice for our expansion needs, our cultural evolution and our connection to Nashville, Music City U.S.A.” 

“Over the past few years we have turned our iconic building into a modern-day solution for companies who thrive on creativity and a connection to Nashville,” says Zach Liff, owner and landlord of Cummins Station. “We are excited and honored that the iconic Gibson brand has selected Cummins Station for their new HQ.”

 

Russell Dickerson Celebrates Second Platinum Single With “Blue Tacoma”

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Pictured (L-R): Norbert Nix (Triple Tigers), Russell Dickerson, John Dennis (Dennis Entertainment). Photo: Kailey Dickerson

Russell Dickerson recently celebrated his second Platinum certification with his No. 1 single “Blue Tacoma,” off of his full-length debut album Yours. The smash single, which has amassed over 221 million worldwide streams to date, has been a staple on country playlists and radio since its release.

“I remember we had to re-write this song a couple times,” said Dickerson. “After my wife and I took a trip down Highway 1 in California, I plugged that real life story into Blue Tacoma and that’s when we felt the magic on this song!”

Dickerson is currently touring alongside Thomas Rhett as part of the “Very Hot Summer Tour” with upcoming stops in New York, Chicago and Nashville.