Morgan Wallen Foundation & Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation Donate Instruments To Schools In Touring Cities

The Morgan Wallen Foundation supports programs for youth in both music and sports, and the foundation further expanded its local impact during Wallen’s U.S. tour’s 2024 leg with their “One Instrument At A Time” initiative, in partnership with the Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation.

For the past two years, Wallen has donated three dollars from every U.S. ticket sold on his 87-show “One Night At A Time World Tour” to the nonprofit. The foundation committed to donating musical instruments to schools in need across 14 stadium touring cities Wallen visited this year on his tour, including Charlotte, Denver, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Las Vegas, Minneapolis, Nashville, Philadelphia, Tampa, Virginia Beach and more. In total, the value of the instrument donations is $500,000.

 

Chris Janson Performs On Fox & Friends

Chris Janson performed his patriotic anthem, “All American Guy,” on Fox & Friends recently (which is currently racing up the iTunes charts since the performance,) and also included a stirring portion of the anthemic “God Bless the USA.”

“Flags were flying and the energy in the studio was awesome,” says Janson about the appearance. “I had a blast singing my song ‘All-American Guy’ on the show today. This one has become a favorite of mine to perform and the live audience today showed up to celebrate our incredible country.”

 

CMHOFM Hosts Concert, Conversation With Rosie Flores

The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum hosted a concert and conversation with Rosie Flores last weekend.

The program was led by the museum’s Associate Director of Editorial Michael McCall. Flores is a 2024 National Heritage Fellow, an honor recognizing her six decades of devotion to exploring and performing American roots-rock music and how it intersects with her Latina heritage. A key member of the L.A. cowpunk scene in the 1980s, Flores led the bands Penelope’s Children and Rosie & the Screamers, joined the flamboyant Screamin’ Sirens, then signed with Reprise Records as a solo artist in 1987.

The program was offered in support of the Western Edge: The Roots and Reverberations of Los Angeles Country-Rock exhibit, presented by City National Bank and made possible in part by the Academy of Country Music.

 

IBMA 2025 Leadership Bluegrass Program Accepting Applications

The 2025 application for the IBMA Leadership Bluegrass program is now open. IBMA Leadership Bluegrass is a three-day intensive professional development program designed for music industry professionals. Each year, 25 applicants are selected to gather for a series of panels, presentations and collaborative activities to better understand the current industry landscape and cultivate leadership in the bluegrass community.

Selected participants will gain necessary knowledge and connections to realize their business goals and become leaders in the bluegrass music industry, and the application deadline is Nov. 18 at 5 P.M. CT.

Country To Country (C2C) Festival’s Spotlight Stage will return, in partnership with the Country Music Association, for the 2025 event, taking place March 14–16 in London and Glasgow.

Bayker Blankenship, Drew Baldridge, Harper O’Neill, Kashus Culpepper, Kassi Ashton, Kezia Gill, Max McNown, Reyna Roberts and Willow Avalon will all take the Spotlight Stage at The O2 in London. Blakenship, Baldridge, O’Neill, Ashton, Gill and Avalon will also perform in Glasgow.

The Spotlight Stage seeks to further show C2C’s dedication to developing rising country stars, and further demonstrate CMA’s support of C2C through this new partnership. Since the festival’s inception, the Nashville-based organization has supported C2C’s mission of growing country music in the United Kingdom.

As previously announced, C2C 2025 will be headlined by Lainey Wilson, Dierks Bentley and Cody Johnson. Additional performers include Dylan Gossett, Tyler Hubbard, Chayce Beckham, Shaboozey, Tucker Wetmore, Niko Moon, Nate Smith, 49 Winchester, Avery Anna, Wyatt Flores, Tanner Adell and The Castellows.

Country superstar Kelsea Ballerini continued to celebrate the release of her newest album Patterns with a sold-out release show at the famed Madison Square Garden in New York City last night (Oct. 29).

After Tigirlily Gold and Aly & AJ warmed up the crowd, Ballerini started the show off by being lifted onto the stage. Feeding off the energy from the fans, she began with a three-track run of “Patterns,” “This Time Last Year” and “Baggage,” all of which were sung back by the audience.

Taking fans through the journey of the album, Ballerini ran through the 15 songs before ending with “I Would, Would You.” During the performance, she gave a nod to her fellow Patterns collaborators, an all-female team consisting of Alysa Vanderheym, Hillary Lindsey, Jessie Jo Dillon and Karen Fairchild.

With the significance of the show front of mind for Ballerini, she took fans down memory lane through her 10-year career for the second half of the set, performing an array of her hits including “Love Me Like You Mean It,” “Miss Me More,” “Hole In The Bottle,” “If You Go Down (I’m Going Down To),” “Penthouse” and more.

As the finale of confetti and fire was shooting off, Ballerini grabbed her guitar to end with an acoustic performance of the unreleased “To The Men That Love Women After Heartbreak,” as a way to pay homage to how her career started.

“I promised myself when I started, no matter what venue I was playing, no matter how big or how small, I would sing a song just me and my guitar. I want to close the show tonight how it all started, with just me,” Ballerini said to her crowd.

Additionally, Ballerini has added six more dates to her 2025 “Kelsea Ballerini Live On Tour” trek. The added dates will take her to Kansas City, Omaha, St. Louis, Tulsa and Greenville, before wrapping up the tour in Charleston on April 9. Tickets for the new shows will go on sale this Friday (Nov. 1) at 10 a.m. local time.

Rounding out her Patterns release celebrations, Ballerini will appear on The Tonight Show Staring Jimmy Fallon tonight (Oct. 3o) and The Kelly Clarkson Show on Nov. 4.

“Kelsea Ballerini Live On Tour” Added Dates:
04/01 – Kansas City, MO – T-Mobile Center
04/03 – Omaha, NE – CHI Health Center
04/04 – St. Louis, MO – Enterprise Center
04/05 – Tulsa, OK – BOK Center
04/08 – Greenville, SC – Bon Secours Wellness Arena
04/09 – Charleston, NC – North Charleston Coliseum

Dream 3 Publishing and Kobalt have signed singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Andy Buckner to an exclusive publishing agreement.

Raised on a tobacco farm and cattle ranch deep in the Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina, Buckner grew up listening to gospel, bluegrass, southern rock and classic country music. Drawing inspiration from his upbringing and influences like Travis Tritt, Waylon Jennings, Keith Whitley, Merle Haggard, Marty Stuart, Dwight Yoakam and Gary Allan, he seeks share authentic southern songs with fans.

Buckner generated buzz while opening for Zach Top, and is currently working on new music alongside producer and former VP of A&R for Mercury Records Nashville Carson Chamberlain.

“Andy’s authenticity in his writing and amazing country voice paired with Carson’s production is a real treat for real country music fans like myself,” says Emily Olson, Partner & Creative Director, Dream 3 Publishing. “We can’t wait for everyone to hear the music they’ve been working on!”