Darius Rucker performs to a sold-out Ryman Auditorium crowd in support of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Photo: Katie Kauss

Darius Rucker kicked off CMA Fest 2019 Monday night (June 3) with his tenth annual Darius and Friends concert, benefitting St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, at the Ryman Auditorium. Prior to last night’s show, the event had raised $1.6 million for St. Jude. Rucker.

The recent recipient of the Harry Chapin Memorial Humanitarian Award marked a decade of giving, along with his friends Luke Bryan, Sheryl Crow, Kane Brown, Jimmie Allen, Brett Young, Travis Denning, and Charles Kelly.

Rucker set the feel-good groove early in the night, kicking off the show with his 2009 hit, “Alright.” In his blue jeans, t-shirt and ball cap, Rucker’s contagious smile lifted everyone to their feet to dance with him. “Let’s play some country music!,” he said. “We’re at the Ryman!” Rucker transitioned from Tracy Lawrence’s “Time Marches On,” to his most recent No. 1, “For the First Time.”

Rucker then introduced his first guest, country rocker Travis Denning. Denning started out with his new single, “After A Few,” and followed it with his ode to the fake-ID-days diddy, “David Ashley Parker from Powder Springs.” The crowd liked him, but when he went into the Allman Brothers’ iconic hit “Ramblin’ Man,” they loved him. The crowd ate him up, and the band grinned onward as Denning shredded on his electric. Denning left the stage with a standing ovation.

Travis Denning performs a dual-guitar solo during his rendition of The Allman Brothers’
“Ramblin’ Man.” Photo: Katie Kauss

Rucker returned to the stage to introduce his next friend. “There’s legends and then there’s legends,” he said. Nine-time Grammy award-winning Sheryl Crow ventured out to join him.

“Howdy!” she said, channeling her best Minnie Pearl. Crow quickly got everyone swaying to her Cat Steven’s cover “The First Cut Is the Deepest.” Hands flew up in the air with her massive hit, “Soak Up the Sun.” Crow smiled as she said, “This is my favorite place in America to play!”

Once Rucker was back to center stage, he played a sultry album cut from his latest record When Was the Last Time, titled “Hands On Me.” After following it with “Radio,” it was time for Rucker to introduce his next guest.

“This dude makes me laugh so hard,” Rucker said as Jimmie Allen walked out on stage to join him. Clad in a Clint Black t-shirt, Allen crooned on his debut No. 1 single, “Best Shot.”

Jimmie Allen performs. Photo: Keith Griner

Venturing into the crowd is becoming somewhat of a habit for Jimmie Allen. The BBR artist made his way through the Ryman aisles as he performed a Matchbox 20 cover, “Unwell.” Allen paid his respects to Rucker, and said, “I’m not brave enough to step onto the golf course with him, but he can put some Jordan’s on and I’ll take him on the basketball court.”

Rucker laughed and told him to get his skinny jeans off the stage.

Next up was Capitol label-mate Luke Bryan. After he performed his newest single, “Knockin’ Boots,” he coaxed Rucker back out on stage to take a shot. Bryan toasted Rucker for his work with St. Jude, and for being a good person. Appropriately, Bryan then went into his hit “Most People Are Good.”

After finishing with the whole crowd on their feet, shaking it with Bryan for “That’s My Kinda Night,” Bryan headed backstage.

Darius Rucker and Luke Bryan backstage. Photo: Katie Kauss

“Homegrown Honey” was the next Rucker No. 1 on deck, followed by “Come Back Song.” At this point, the whole crowd was dancing, pointing at their significant others for the epic choruses, and beaming up at a smiling Rucker.

He then introduced Big Machine hitmaker, Brett Young. Young serenaded the crowd with his first Platinum hit, “Sleep Without You,” followed it with his 2x Platinum smash, “Mercy,” and concluded with Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get It On.” When Rucker returned to the stage, he joked, “I don’t like men, but I was backstage thinking that guy is attractive.”

Rucker then turned to another new hit-maker on the scene. The crowd roared as Kane Brown walked into the spotlight.

With a fiddle player added to Rucker’s incredible backing band, Brown played his fun “Short Skirt Weather” and then transitioned into a cover of Randy Travis’ “Three Wooden Crosses.” He finished his set with the crowd screaming the words to his latest No. 1, “Good As You.”

When Rucker ventured back out, he commended Brown for his work and for his place in the industry. “When I came to Nashville they told me it would never work. It worked. That kid is about to explode the world,” he said of Brown.

Darius Rucker with event host Ashley Eicher and St. Jude patients Warner and Ian backstage. Photo: Katie Kauss

For one final surprise, good friend and golfing buddy, Lady Antebellum’s Charles Kelley, joined Rucker to perform a rendition of Prince’s “Purple Rain.”

Before the final song, Rucker thanked everyone for coming and making the event so lucrative for St. Jude every year. “This event sells out in minutes every year, and no one even knows who is friggin’ playing yet!”

Rucker and all his friends came together to join voices for Rucker’s mega-hit “Wagon Wheel” to close the night, kicking off CMA Fest with a fun, spirited country music hoo-rah.

Bumble, the social networking app, announced a multi-year initiative to address a fundamental issue of gender disparity in the music industry with their ‘Empowered by Bumble Bizz’ program, after USC Annenberg’s 2019 survey report on inclusion in the recording studio highlighted the lack of women in popular music.

The Bumble Bizz campaign will kick-off by offering up-and-coming women musicians the opportunity to be mentored by this year’s top-billing women artists, including Bebe Rexha, Kacey Musgraves, and Hayley Kiyoko at one of the following top music festivals: Lollapalooza, Outside Lands, Music Midtown, Austin City Limits Music Festival, and Voodoo Music + Arts Experience. The campaign will culminate with chances to win on-stage performance spots at top music festivals in 2020.

“Creating more opportunities for women in music has been a big initiative for me the last few years and I’m excited to be partnering with Bumble for this campaign. It’s important that we continue to champion women in the business to help create and push for equal representation within the industry,” said Bebe Rexha.

Starting today, women artists in the United States can submit their music in Bumble’s Bizz mode for both the 2019 mentorship and 2020 on-stage performance spots.  Applications for the mentorship program will close on June 30 within Bumble Bizz, but Bumble’s music incubator program for women artists will continue over the next year as the company rolls out additional opportunities for its users to receive mentorships, performance opportunities and more.

Pictured (L-R): Charles Esten, Cale Dodds, Blake Shelton, Martina McBride, Shane Tarleton, Lauren Alaina, Pete Griffin, Charlie Cook. Photo: Terry Wyatt/MOC

Musicians On Call and Blake Shelton brought in a record-setting amount for the nonprofit organization on Friday (May 31), when the 20th Anniversary Kickoff Celebration Presented By Pepsi raised $330,000, the most raised at an MOC event in Nashville to date.

Shelton and Cale Dodds performed during the event, held at Nashville’s CMA Theater at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.

Warner Music Nashville’s Sr. VP, Artist Development Shane Tarleton was the evening’s top honoree, and the recipient of the organization’s first Lifetime Achievement Award and commemorated with a platinum guitar. Martina McBride, Brandon Ray and Chandra LePlume honored Tarleton during the event, before he was surprised with two new programs in his honor. The first is a Music Pharmacy near his hometown at the Hospice of Union County, and a Bedside Performance Program at Transitions LifeCare in Raleigh, where Tarleton’s sister, Tanya Rand, is a nurse.

Blake Shelton performs during the Musicians On Call 20th Anniversary Kickoff Celebration Presented by Pepsi at CMA Theater at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum on May 31, 2019 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Terry Wyatt/Getty Images for Musicians On Call)