Photo: Haley Crow/MusicRow
For powerhouse vocalist and songwriter Ashley McBryde, the journey from playing houseparties in her hometown of Mammoth Spring, Arkansas (population: less than 1,000) to sharing stages with Eric Church and Chris Stapleton—and most recently, signing with major country label Warner Music Nashville/WAR—has been filled with heart and hustle.
McBryde made her Grand Ole Opry debut in June, where she performed the confident, defiant “Girl Goin’ Nowhere” (co-written with Jeremy Bussey), an anthem for ambitious dreamers everywhere. In the song, she dedicates a few lines to All those folks who swore I’d never be anything/ It took a whole lot of yes I wills and I don’t care.
“I had a teacher in high school who went around the room, asking students what they wanted to do with their lives,” McBryde recalls. “I said, ‘I’m going to make songs up in Nashville,’ and she was like, ‘No, that’s not what’s going to happen. You are from Arkansas.’ Well, nothing lights a fire under an a** like someone telling you that you can’t or shouldn’t do something.”
Though small, McBryde’s hometown had one thing that would set the singer-songwriter on a course to Music City: a radio station.
“We had no internet, no cable, so I lovingly refer to where I grew up as ‘radioland,’ because there was nothing but radio, which was my entire world. It was my Hollywood, my Mt. Rushmore,” she said during a visit to the MusicRow offices, as she introduced the new track, “Radioland.”
McBryde’s musical talents were apparent by the age of three, when she began playing mandolin. “I wanted to play guitar, but I was too small, and we already had a mando, so we couldn’t afford another guitar,” says McBryde.
By nine, she had progressed to guitar, and was sitting in with local bluegrass musicians. “They would show me chords,” she recalls. “I taught myself, but most of it was from those guys.”
MusicRow‘s Sherod Robertson with Ashley McBryde. Photo: Haley Crow/MusicRow
Her affinity for harmonies came by way of bluegrass music from Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver, Jim & Jesse, and Shawn Camp. Later she discovered vocalists and writers such as Carly Simon and Janis Joplin, and the guitar stylings of Jimi Hendrix. All of those influences would find common ground in McBryde’s voice, which sounds like a more earthy version of Wynonna or Joplin, with the keen songwriter’s eye for detail of writers like Dolly Parton, Miranda Lambert or Brandy Clark.
“I’m left-handed, so when I saw a VHS tape of Jimi Hendrix playing for the first time, I was like, ‘Are you kidding me? I could have just played it that way? No one told me.’ Same with vocals. I discovered there are other tools in your voice you can employ at any time.”
McBryde studied music (specifically french horn) and conducted the pep band while attending Arkansas State in Jonesboro. Though by that time she had built a solid catalog of her own material, she was too shy to perform her own music.
That changed after a national anthem singer failed to show up before a game; McBryde stepped in to sing. When fellow students discovered McBryde’s musical talents, she began playing house parties and coffeehouses in town, offering a mix of “Nickel Creek covers and stuff I made up,” says McBryde.
Eventually, McBryde made her way to Memphis, where she ran a Guitar Center store, while building her catalog, and experimenting with new sounds in clubs from Lexington to Tulsa. She moved to Nashville 11 years ago, where she began writing songs at Jennifer Johnson’s Song Factory, and collaborated with Bart Butler on her 2016 EP, Jalopies and Expensive Guitars. After a series of showcases, the vivid imagery in her songs and her soulful, resonant voice caught the ear of music manager John Peets.
“John just walked up to me and said, ‘I love what you do and I know what to do with it. Look forward to talking to you.’ And he just left. I took some meetings with him, and I knew that’s where I was supposed to be. I felt the same way when meeting people at Warner [Music Nashville]. I was like, ‘I know that’s it.’”
McBryde says her debut single, “A Little Dive Bar in Dahlonega,” penned with Jesse Rice (of FGL’s “Cruise” fame) and Nicolette Hayford, almost didn’t happen.
“We all had especially crappy days leading up to the day we were supposed to write. So crappy that I thought we shouldn’t write that day,” McBryde says. “I had broken my windshield, forgot my guitar. Nicolette had just gotten dumped in a Home Depot parking lot; they went from being together for three years and picking out wood flooring, to being single in the parking lot.” Rice was also late to the meeting, and McBryde recalls, “When he showed up, he was just a wreck. The strap on his gig bag was broken, and he was like, ‘Guys, I dropped my phone in the toilet last night at Tin Roof, and I just was not going after it.’ I don’t blame him, I wouldn’t have, either.”
The trio went to a nearby bar to discuss their misfortunes, where Rice recounted a previous day, when his car broke down, forcing him to make a spontaneous detour to Dahlonega, Georgia. Rice wound up visiting a café called The Crimson Moon, listening happening upon Shawn Mullins performing his 1998 hit song “Lullaby,” and meeting a girl.
“She raised her glass to him as they were sitting in that bar, he raised his glass back, and they’ve been together ever since,” says McBryde. “They got married last May. He said, ‘That’s the worst day of my life and it turned into the best day of my life.’”
Not to mention the inspiration for McBryde’s first single, which the trio would write that day.
“It’s a lot cooler to sing it when it’s just truth and you don’t have to bullsh*t any of it,” McBryde says.
MusicRow staffers with Ashley McBryde.
Miranda Lambert Tours Through ‘The Weight Of These Wings’ For CMA Songwriter’s Front & Center Taping
/by Eric T. ParkerPictured (L-R): Crystal Dishmon, ShopKeeper Management; Damon Whiteside, CMA Chief Marketing Officer; Ken Robold, Sony Music Nashville Executive Vice President/Chief Operating Officer; Miranda Lambert; Randy Goodman, Sony Music Nashville Chairman & CEO; John Zarling, Sony Music Nashville Executive Vice President Marketing & New Business; and Marion Kraft, ShopKeeper Management. Photo: Donn Jones / CMA
Miranda Lambert brilliantly toured through her now certified Platinum album, The Weight Of These Wings, on Tuesday, Sept. 19 at Nashville’s Marathon Music Works.
The event, taped for public television’s Front & Center, was part of the CMA’s songwriter series, presented by US Bank. In fact, Lambert’s acoustic event was the CMA’s 121 st songwriter show.
“Tonight we’re celebrating The Weight of These Wings going Platinum,” said a proud Lambert. “It’s a double-record and very much the story of my last couple years and all you go through in life. It’s a privilege and blessing to be able to write songs to help you get through something in your life that is really hard. Every songwriter on this record completely embraced where I was, whatever day that was—I was all over the map. I’m so thankful that I can say that some of my best friends in the world also get in the trenches with me and put words on paper. Music is medicine. So thank you to all the songwriters for going down the road with me and spending their time on my journey.”
Lambert then invited a variety of co-writers to the stage including Natalie Hemby, Anderson East, Aaron Raitiere, Shane McAnally, Luke Dick, Jessi Alexander, John Randall, Waylon Payne, Adam Hood, Scotty Wray, Brent Cobb, Jack Ingram, Liz Rose, and Gwen Sebastian.
Additional co-writer guests, many of whom were in attendance, recieved plaques to celebrate the sales success, including for Mando Saenz, Terry Jo Box, Rodney Clawson, Nicolle Galyon, Foy Vance, Lucie Silvas, Ashley Monroe, Josh Osborne, Shake Russell and Danny O’Keefe.
“I wanted this night to feel like being in our living room or our magic porch, where we write songs,” said Lambert. “We’re literally all friends, so this is really special.”
Miranda Lambert. Photo Donn Jones
While Lambert wrapped with “Greyhound Bound For Nowhere,” a song she wrote with her first co-writer—father and special guest Rick Lambert, helping her get a foot in the door on season one of Nashville Star (2003)—the Vanner Records/RCA Nashville star kicked off the evening with her only solo-write on The Weight Of These Wings album, “We Should Be Friends.”
“Natalie has a direct line to Miranda,” teased McAnally with Dick and Hemby on stage before playing a rare outside cut and fun title for the album, titled “Highway Vagabond.” “They have two cups with a string in the middle and Natalie just picks it up and says, ‘I’ve got a song,’ and Miranda says, ‘I’m cutting it.’
“Natalie has 10 songs on this record, so she’s kinda just got a permanent seat on this stage,” prefaced Lambert.
Of those 10 songs of Hemby’s, the Front & Center taping played through five, also including “Tomboy” with Raitiere, who was featured on “For The Birds.” Additionally, fabulous harmonies were featured on Hemby, Lambert and Alexander’s “Things That Break” and Lambert’s new beau, Anderson East joined for a three-way on “Getaway Driver.”
The lead single, “Vice,” was a co-write with McAnally and Osborne, who could not be in attendance. “Miranda came in [the day we wrote ‘Vice’] and I feel like she took her heart out of her chest and put it on the table,” said McAnally, who Lambert reminded she also brought a rolling cooler to the write. “She showed up…with the vulnerability of, ‘Let’s do this, let’s talk about this, let’s write a song.’
The depth of evening also touched on Lambert’s 2015 divorce, chronicled in the album.
“I did start drinking a lot,” said Lambert. “ I did go to bars in Midtown: Losers and Winners. I did have to pick up my car that had been there for three days, and I still had mascara on from the first day. And it was a Monday.” Rose and Hemby thus helped tease out the track “Ugly Lights.”
From Carnival Music Publishing, owned by Lambert’s producer Frank Liddell, the evening welcomed Hood and Cobb on “Good Ol’ Days” in addition to Payne for the traditional country song “To Learn Her.”
The evening concluded with Lambert’s Sebastian and Wray co-write, “Wheels.”
“We wrote this song in a dressing room at a venue,” said Lambert. “It basically says everything this record said and everything this journey amounted to—You gotta keep rolling on. You gotta keep going. You can’t stay in it.”
Round Hill Music Nashville Promotes Amanda Hruska
/by Jessica NicholsonAmanda Hruska
Round Hill Music Nashville has promoted Amanda Hruska to Senior Director, Administration. In her new role, Hruska will oversee Nashville’s administration operations for Round Hill and Big Loud Shirt, including copyright and mechanical licensing, as well as managing Nashville’s growing administration department.
“Amanda has demonstrated significant growth in the past three years here at Round Hill. I am delighted to announce her well-deserved promotion,” says SVP & GM of Round Hill Music Nashville Mark Brown.
Hruska has previously held positions at Warner/Chappell in Copyright Administration and at Bug Music in Foreign Affiliate Relations and Counterclaims.
Entries For The Chris Austin Songwriting Contest Open Oct. 1
/by Alex ParryMerleFest will begin accepting entries for the Chris Austin Songwriting Contest (CASC) beginning Oct. 1. MerleFest is an annual homecoming of musicians and music fans that takes place on the campus of Wilkes Community College in Wilkesboro, N.C. CASC is one of the most acclaimed songwriting contests in roots and Americana music, having a reputation for launching careers and discovering important new talent. Winners in four categories will be chosen at MerleFest, which will take place April 26 – 29, 2018.
Now in its 26th year, CASC is an opportunity for songwriters to have their original songs heard and judged by a panel of music industry professionals, under the direction of volunteer contest chairperson, Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Jim Lauderdale. Aspiring songwriters may submit entries to the contest using the online entry form: merlefest.org/ChrisAustinSongwritingContest/ or by mailing entries to MerleFest/CASC, PO Box 120, Wilkesboro, NC 28697. The deadline to enter is Feb. 1, 2018.
The first round of the CASC competition takes place in Nashville, Tennessee, and is narrowed down to 12 finalists representing four categories: bluegrass, country, general and gospel/inspirational.
“We are extremely proud of the career successes achieved by many CASC alumni.” said Lee K. Cornett, coordinator of MerleFest’s CASC.
Net proceeds from the contest support the Wilkes Community College Chris Austin Memorial Scholarship. Since its inception, the scholarship has awarded over $41,000 to deserving students. To learn more details about the contest, visit MerleFest.org/CASC.
Ashley McBryde Brings Hustle And Heart To New Music
/by Jessica NicholsonPhoto: Haley Crow/MusicRow
For powerhouse vocalist and songwriter Ashley McBryde, the journey from playing houseparties in her hometown of Mammoth Spring, Arkansas (population: less than 1,000) to sharing stages with Eric Church and Chris Stapleton—and most recently, signing with major country label Warner Music Nashville/WAR—has been filled with heart and hustle.
McBryde made her Grand Ole Opry debut in June, where she performed the confident, defiant “Girl Goin’ Nowhere” (co-written with Jeremy Bussey), an anthem for ambitious dreamers everywhere. In the song, she dedicates a few lines to All those folks who swore I’d never be anything/ It took a whole lot of yes I wills and I don’t care.
“I had a teacher in high school who went around the room, asking students what they wanted to do with their lives,” McBryde recalls. “I said, ‘I’m going to make songs up in Nashville,’ and she was like, ‘No, that’s not what’s going to happen. You are from Arkansas.’ Well, nothing lights a fire under an a** like someone telling you that you can’t or shouldn’t do something.”
Though small, McBryde’s hometown had one thing that would set the singer-songwriter on a course to Music City: a radio station.
“We had no internet, no cable, so I lovingly refer to where I grew up as ‘radioland,’ because there was nothing but radio, which was my entire world. It was my Hollywood, my Mt. Rushmore,” she said during a visit to the MusicRow offices, as she introduced the new track, “Radioland.”
McBryde’s musical talents were apparent by the age of three, when she began playing mandolin. “I wanted to play guitar, but I was too small, and we already had a mando, so we couldn’t afford another guitar,” says McBryde.
By nine, she had progressed to guitar, and was sitting in with local bluegrass musicians. “They would show me chords,” she recalls. “I taught myself, but most of it was from those guys.”
MusicRow‘s Sherod Robertson with Ashley McBryde. Photo: Haley Crow/MusicRow
Her affinity for harmonies came by way of bluegrass music from Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver, Jim & Jesse, and Shawn Camp. Later she discovered vocalists and writers such as Carly Simon and Janis Joplin, and the guitar stylings of Jimi Hendrix. All of those influences would find common ground in McBryde’s voice, which sounds like a more earthy version of Wynonna or Joplin, with the keen songwriter’s eye for detail of writers like Dolly Parton, Miranda Lambert or Brandy Clark.
“I’m left-handed, so when I saw a VHS tape of Jimi Hendrix playing for the first time, I was like, ‘Are you kidding me? I could have just played it that way? No one told me.’ Same with vocals. I discovered there are other tools in your voice you can employ at any time.”
McBryde studied music (specifically french horn) and conducted the pep band while attending Arkansas State in Jonesboro. Though by that time she had built a solid catalog of her own material, she was too shy to perform her own music.
That changed after a national anthem singer failed to show up before a game; McBryde stepped in to sing. When fellow students discovered McBryde’s musical talents, she began playing house parties and coffeehouses in town, offering a mix of “Nickel Creek covers and stuff I made up,” says McBryde.
Eventually, McBryde made her way to Memphis, where she ran a Guitar Center store, while building her catalog, and experimenting with new sounds in clubs from Lexington to Tulsa. She moved to Nashville 11 years ago, where she began writing songs at Jennifer Johnson’s Song Factory, and collaborated with Bart Butler on her 2016 EP, Jalopies and Expensive Guitars. After a series of showcases, the vivid imagery in her songs and her soulful, resonant voice caught the ear of music manager John Peets.
“John just walked up to me and said, ‘I love what you do and I know what to do with it. Look forward to talking to you.’ And he just left. I took some meetings with him, and I knew that’s where I was supposed to be. I felt the same way when meeting people at Warner [Music Nashville]. I was like, ‘I know that’s it.’”
McBryde says her debut single, “A Little Dive Bar in Dahlonega,” penned with Jesse Rice (of FGL’s “Cruise” fame) and Nicolette Hayford, almost didn’t happen.
“We all had especially crappy days leading up to the day we were supposed to write. So crappy that I thought we shouldn’t write that day,” McBryde says. “I had broken my windshield, forgot my guitar. Nicolette had just gotten dumped in a Home Depot parking lot; they went from being together for three years and picking out wood flooring, to being single in the parking lot.” Rice was also late to the meeting, and McBryde recalls, “When he showed up, he was just a wreck. The strap on his gig bag was broken, and he was like, ‘Guys, I dropped my phone in the toilet last night at Tin Roof, and I just was not going after it.’ I don’t blame him, I wouldn’t have, either.”
The trio went to a nearby bar to discuss their misfortunes, where Rice recounted a previous day, when his car broke down, forcing him to make a spontaneous detour to Dahlonega, Georgia. Rice wound up visiting a café called The Crimson Moon, listening happening upon Shawn Mullins performing his 1998 hit song “Lullaby,” and meeting a girl.
“She raised her glass to him as they were sitting in that bar, he raised his glass back, and they’ve been together ever since,” says McBryde. “They got married last May. He said, ‘That’s the worst day of my life and it turned into the best day of my life.’”
Not to mention the inspiration for McBryde’s first single, which the trio would write that day.
“It’s a lot cooler to sing it when it’s just truth and you don’t have to bullsh*t any of it,” McBryde says.
MusicRow staffers with Ashley McBryde.
Shore Fire Media Moves To New Location
/by Lorie HollabaughThe company’s current staff includes Jaclyn D. Carter, Senior Account Executive/Publicist; Andrea Evenson, Account Executive/Publicist; and Brian Mansfield, Content Director.
Founded in 1990 by President/CEO Marilyn Laverty and based in Brooklyn, New York, the company’s clients include Bruce Springsteen, Yusuf, Kesha, Lee Ann Womack, Elvis Costello, Maxwell, Margo Price, ODESZA, Morrissey, St. Vincent, Carole King, Bonnie Raitt, Zac Brown Band, Randy Rogers Band, Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real, Jackie Lee, Alex Williams, 3rd & Lindsley, Alan Jackson’s AJs Good Time Bar, Brooklyn Bowl, Big Yellow Dog Music, Downtown Music Publishing, Hurray for the Riff Raff, Esperanza Spalding, Josh Abbott Band, Maggie Rose, Mitchell Tenpenny, Music & Memory, Valerie June, Tortuga Music Festival, MEMPHO Music Festival, Summerfest, and many others.
Emmylou Harris, Steve Earle, Patty Griffin, Lee Ann Womack To Headline 2018 30A Festival
/by Lorie HollabaughAlso confirmed for nighttime performances are Charles Kelly of Lady Antebellum, Patty Griffin, Emily Saliers of the Indigo Girls with her solo Murmuration Nation band, Shawn Mullins, and Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame members Mike Reid and Craig Wiseman.
“It is especially gratifying to confirm Emmylou Harris, Steve Earle and Patty Griffin all in one year for 2018. They are among the most elite songwriters and performers in contemporary music and we are very lucky that their schedules aligned with ours,” states co-producer Russell Carter.
Among the 175 stellar songwriters who will perform at the 2018 Festival are Tommy Stinson (the Replacements, Bash & Pop), Jeffrey Steele, Kim Ritchey, Jeff Black, Will Kimbrough, Dan Navarro, The War & Treaty, Wyatt Durette, Farewell Angelina, Griffin House, Levi Lowrey, Peter Case, Charlie Mars, Chris Stills, Emerson Hart (Tonic), David Ryan Harris (John Mayer Band), David Hodges (Evanescence), Heather Horton, Old Salt Union, Robby Hecht, Alex Guthrie, Mary Bragg, Blue Jays, Josh Osborne, Jaren Johnston, Mark Irwin, Jonathan Singleton, Jeremy Stover, Matt Dragstrem, Adam Hambrick, Jacob Davis, David Berkeley, Matt Hires, David Robert King, and Michele Malone.
The 30A Songwriters Festival has also once again teamed up with NPR’s Folk Alley, a multi-media music service produced by WKSU. Folk Alley will be on site throughout the weekend producing sessions, interviewing artists and filming and recording performances in a home studio on 30A. The in-studio sessions are aired on the syndicated Folk Alley Radio Show.
A variety of festival weekend passes are available now starting at $255 and can be purchased at 30asongwritersfestival.
ASCAP Honors Top Christian Songs, Performers At 39th Annual Christian Awards
/by Lorie HollabaughPictured (L-R): ASCAP President and Chairman Paul Williams, ASCAP Vice President of Nashville Membership Michael Martin, Reba McEntire, ASCAP CEO Elizabeth Matthews, ASCAP Executive Vice President of Membership John Titta. Photo: Ed Rode
Matthew West, Joel Smallbone, and Colby Wedgeworth and Fair Trade Music were among the big winners at the 39th Annual ASCAP Christian Music Awards Tuesday night (Sept. 19) at the Franklin Theater in downtown Franklin, Tennessee.
Hosted by ASCAP CEO Elizabeth Matthews, ASCAP President and Chairman Paul Williams, Executive Vice President of Membership John Titta and Vice President of Nashville Membership Michael Martin, the evening celebrated the songwriters and publishers of Christian music’s most performed songs of the past year.
Reba McEntire made a special appearance to present the Song of the Year award to writer Wedgeworth and publisher Fair Trade Music for “The River,” and West received his second ASCAP Christian Music Songwriter of the Year award, having previously claimed the title in 2014. He also earned three ASCAP most-performed song awards for his own chart-topping single, “Mended,” as well as “One Step Away,” recorded by Casting Crowns and “Tell Your Heart to Beat Again,” recorded by Danny Gokey.
Smallbone earned his first ASCAP Christian Music Songwriter-Artist of the Year award and two ASCAP most-performed song awards for hits “Priceless” and “It’s Not Over Yet,” recorded by For King & Country. Matthews presented the ASCAP Christian Music Publisher of the Year Award to Capitol CMG Publishing, which claimed the award for the 15th consecutive year with an impressive nine award-winning titles.
Performers on the show included Jordan Feliz with Wedgeworth on “The River,” as well as Hannah Kerr, Ryan Stevenson, Emily Weisband, and Matthew West with Randy Phillips.
Hannah Kerr performs “Warrior” at the 39th Annual ASCAP Christian Music Awards. Photo: Ed Rode
Pictured (L-R): James Rueger, Fair Trade Music Publishing; Colby Wedgeworth, Joel Smallbone, Matthew West, Capitol CMG Executive Vice President Casey McGinty. Photo: Ed Rode
Emily Weisband performs “Thy Will” at the 39th Annual ASCAP Christian Music Awards. Photo: Ed Rode
Pictured (L-R): ASCAP Vice President of Nashville Membership Michael Martin, ASCAP Christian Music Songwriter of the Year Matthew West, ASCAP President and Chairman Paul Williams. Photo: Ed Rode
Joel Smallbone (For King and Country) accepts his award for ASCAP Christian Music Songwriter-Artist of the Year. Photo: Ed Rode
Alex Williams Helps Launch Bud Light Basement Performance Series
/by Jessica NicholsonWilliams caught the attention of Big Machine Label Group’s Julian Raymond, who has worked as a songwriter and producer on albums from artists including Glen Campbell, Hank Williams, Jr., and Jennifer Nettles. Williams soon found himself with a label deal with Big Machine Records.
“He got the green light to make the album. I didn’t think that was going to happen for a while,” Williams said. “But they gave me a chance to make an album with substance that I wanted to make. That’s pretty cool coming from a major label. They haven’t given me any boundaries, which is great.”
The Bud Light Basement sessions are filmed by Starstruck Entertainment’s content studio, in partnership with Bud Light.
David Lee Murphy Returns To Recording With Chesney/Cannon-Produced ‘No Zip Code’
/by Lorie HollabaughPictured (clockwise, from top left): David Ross, Founder/President/CEO, Reviver Records; Gator Michaels, Executive VP, Reviver Records; Kenny Chesney; David Lee Murphy.
David Lee Murphy is taking another turn behind the mic and releasing his own album project, No Zip Code, on Reviver Records. Produced by Kenny Chesney and Buddy Cannon, the project will be Murphy’s fifth studio album, and his first with Reviver Records. He previously enjoyed chart success with his chart-topping classic “Dust on the Bottle” and the most-played song of 1995 “Party Crowd.”
Murphy hasn’t strayed far from the charts since then though, having penned more than 50 cuts, including No. 1 songs for Jason Aldean (“Big Green Tractor,” “The Only Way I Know”), Blake Shelton (“The More I Drink”), Gary Allan (“A Feelin’ Like That”), Jake Owens (“Anywhere With You”), Eli Young Band (“Always the Love Songs”), Thompson Square (the Grammy-nominated “Are You Gonna Kiss Me (Or Not)”) and Kenny Chesney (“Livin’ In Fast Forward,” “Pirate Flag”). He’s also had album cuts for Thomas Rhett, Luke Bryan, Florida Georgia Line, Brooks & Dunn, Brad Paisley, Montgomery Gentry, Reba McEntire, and Keith Urban.
“We are thrilled to welcome David Lee Murphy to Reviver,” says label CEO David Ross. “His songs, his style and this record are incredible. We can’t wait to get to work.”
“I didn’t think I’d ever get out here and do this again,” Murphy says. “You focus on writing, and that’s its own kind of great. But Kenny and I got to talking, and it seemed like something worth doing. Then when we got in the studio, it felt so good, every day was more exciting than the one before.”
“David Lee is the original – and the last of – the hillbilly rock stars,” said Chesney of Murphy. “His groove, the way he lays into a melody is so smooth, yet he uses the words for shaping the rhythm. He knows the life, and he bottles it up in song. Making this record showed us what country music can be in the 21st century.”
Little Big Town To Launch Breakers Tour In 2018 With Kacey Musgraves, Midland
/by Lorie HollabaughThe multi-city run kicks off Feb. 8 at Chesapeake Energy Arena in Oklahoma City and will hit 26 markets, including stops in Austin, Atlanta, Minneapolis, Washington, D.C. and New York City’s Radio City Music Hall. Additional stops will be announced at a later date.
A preview of The Breakers Tour featuring a very special performance by Little Big Town, Kacey Musgraves, and Midland, will take place tonight on The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon.
Tickets for the new tour go on sale this Friday, Sept. 22, and two enhanced ticket experiences, the ‘Happy People’ and ‘The Breaker’ experiences, will be offered throughout the tour. Additional experiences available include a meet & greet with Little Big Town, a Q&A session, exclusive merchandise, and more. Ticket information can be found at LittleBigTown.com.
2018 Dates For The Breakers Tour Featuring Little Big Town, Kacey Musgraves, and Midland:
2/8 – Oklahoma City OK Chesapeake Energy Arena
2/9 -Austin TX Frank Erwin Center
2/10 – Grand Prairie TX Verizon Theatre – Grand Prairie
2/15 – Columbus OH Schottenstein Center
2/16 – Rosemont IL Allstate Arena
2/17 – Toledo OH Huntington Center
2/22 – Wilkes-Barre PA Mohegan Sun Arena
2/23 – Uncasville CT Mohegan Sun
2/24 – New York NY Radio City Music Hall
3/2 – Reading PA Santander Arena
3/3 -Washington DC Anthem
3/15 – Green Bay WI Resch Center
3/16 – Duluth MN Amsoil Arena
3/17 – Grand Forks ND Ralph Engelstad
3/22 – Grand Rapids MI Van Andel Arena
3/23 – Cedar Rapids IA U.S. Cellular Center
3/24 – Sioux City IA Tyson Events Center
4/5 – Minneapolis MN Target Center
4/6 – Milwaukee WI BMO Harris Bradley Ctr
4/7 – St. Louis MO Chaifetz Arena
4/19 – Greensboro NC Greensboro Coliseum
4/20 – Greenville SC Bon Secours Wellness Arena
4/21 – Atlanta GA Infinite Energy Arena