Garth Brooks recently visited Dublin, Ireland to make a special announcement in person. Standing in Croke Park, the location of his sell out concerts in 1997, the legendary entertainer announced that he will return to that same venue in July 2014 for two performances, before the start of his worldwide tour, which is slated to begin later this year.
“Before we go back on tour in the Fall of 2014, I want to challenge myself, the band, and crew,” Brooks said. “In ’97, we were lucky enough to play Croke Park, and the stadium was under construction. 130,000+ of some of the greatest fans in the world [joined us]. I was quoted then as saying, ‘When this stadium is finished, I would love to come back and try to fill it again…this time to the brink.’…and we’re back to do just that.”
Tickets for The Garth Brooks Comeback Special Event on Friday, July 25 and Saturday, July 26, 2014, in Croke Park, presented by Aiken Promotions, go on sale on Thursday, Jan. 30 at 9 a.m. from ticketmaster.com and all usual ticket outlets Nationwide.
Brooks retired from music in 2001, and moved back to Oklahoma to raise his children.
In 2009, Brooks launched a five-year run at the Wynn Las Vegas. Since then, he has made several special appearances to aid various charities. Those appearances included nine sold out Nashville concerts over the span of six days in 2010, to raise money for the flood relief efforts in Tennessee. More than 145,000 fans attended the concerts. In July 2013, Brooks joined several other Country artists, including Toby Keith, to perform a concert raising funds to benefit those affected by a tornado outbreak.
The singer-songwriter was recently inducted into the International Songwriters Hall of Fame in New York, as well as the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. In October 2013, he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. Performing for his induction were his heroes George Strait, James Taylor and Bob Seger. On Nov. 29, 2013, nearly nine million viewers tuned in for Brooks’ CBS special Live From Las Vegas.
In November 2013, he also rose to the top of the all-genre Nielsen Soundscan rankings with Blame It All On My Roots, marking the ninth time Brooks has accomplished that feat.

The Stellar Gospel Music Awards, held in Nashville since 2006, will celebrate 29 years of honoring the best in gospel music with a move from the Grand Ole Opry to the Municipal Auditorium. The awards show will be held Saturday (Jan. 18), and will feature more than a dozen Gospel music mainstays, including Shirley Caesar, Mary Mary’s Erica Campbell, Kirk Franklin, Donald Lawrence, Hezekiah Walker and more. The View co-host Sherri Shepherd and Dish Nation star Rickey Smiley will co-host this year’s Stellar Gospel Music Awards.
UP Television Network will air the awards beginning at 7 p.m. ET.
Tickets are $55-200 ($35 student discount) and are available at ticketmaster.com.

Don Murry Grubbs. Photo by Factory Photography / Goldy Locks

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The Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum set an all-time attendance record in 2013, museum officials announced. The 2013 attendance total of 668,777 people is the largest in the institution’s 46-year history.

“We would like to thank our local, national and international visitors for such strong support,” said Museum Director Kyle Young. “Through November 2013, our operating revenues increased by about 25 percent over prior year, we held expenses in check, and we expect those numbers to hold through December 2013. In these challenging economic times, we don’t take this for granted.”

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Amateur and experienced musicians have the opportunity to win a $15,000 recording package at Dark Horse Recording studios in Franklin, Tenn. The winning artist or band will receive five days of studio recording time with a professional engineer and five days of mixing and mastering to create a complete six-song EP. The prize also includes lodging, a professional photo shoot, and graphic design services to create an album cover. Participants can enter at darkhorseinstitute.com.
Artists who have recorded at Dark Horse include Taylor Swift, Tim McGraw, Hunter Hayes, Matchbox Twenty, and The Fray.
To enter, contest participants upload a video of a song performance to the Dark Horse Institute website. Submissions are accepted until February 23. Qualified entries will then be posted on the company’s website for public voting until March 16. The three videos with the highest number of votes as well as one “wild card” submission chosen by the staff at Dark Horse Institute then move to compete against one another for the final round of voting which ends March 31. The winner will be announced on April 1.

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SESAC and Leadership Music, in cooperation with Metro Nashville Public Schools, have organized a “Songwriting Day” on Jan. 21 at SESAC for approximately 18-20 students from Pearl-Cohn High School and Nashville School of the Arts. Students will learn the “Business of Songwriting” from songwriter Brian White. White earned SESAC’s Country Song of the Year for penning Rodney Atkins‘ “Watching You.” He has more than 300 cuts to his credit, including writing for Trace Adkins, Gary Allan, Terri Clark, Point of Grace, Mandisa, Selah, Avalon and more.
The sessions will include information on copyrights, licensing, royalties, and writer-publisher relations. SESAC president Pat Collins will be on hand to welcome the group.