Kameron Marlowe took over Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium during his sold-out headlining debut on Saturday night (Oct. 26). The show served as a stop on his “Keepin’ The Lights On World Tour,” named after his sophomore album.

Wyatt McCubbin and Owen Riegling got the night started, pumping everyone up and showing off their skills with their supporting sets.

The Mother Church was then illuminated by lines of yellow bulbs behind the stage as Marlowe’s band walked out to greet the crowd and take their places. The man of the hour soon emerged and further amped the audience with his introduction, stating he’d been “waiting on this one” as streams of smoke shot up for “911.” He checked in with everyone before jumping into “Over Now,” giving fans the mic for the final chorus, and purple lights flashed for Keepin’ The Lights On track “Nothin’ Slowin’ Us Down.” After “Sober As Drunk,” Marlowe took some time to address the packed pews.

“This is a very surreal moment for me, so I’m just trying to take it all in. Thank y’all so much for showing up tonight,” he expressed. “I’m very blessed to have each and every one of y’all in this room, and I mean that.

“There isn’t anyone who is afraid to drink a little whiskey on a Saturday night in Nashville, is there?” the artist asked as he moved into “Ain’t Enough Whiskey.”

He then grabbed his guitar for “Tennessee Don’t Mind,” putting his powerful vocals on full display while hitting the high notes. Marlowe opened up about some personal struggles he’d been dealing recently and introduced the next tune, “Never Really Know,” by sharing, “I don’t know if anyone else in the room is going through [those] same things, but I just want to let you know that it does get easier and better. This song was written about you and for you.”

He put his guitar away for “Tequila Talkin’,” taking a shot with a fan in the midst of performing, but brought it back out for “Steady Heart,” white lights covering the crowd as he strummed and sang. The floor vibrated under all the toes tapping while Marlowe proceeded to wow the crowd with “Giving You Up” and “Leaning On You,” which he noted was written about his fiancée, who was present for the performance. After briefly going black, the venue lit up with fiery hues of orange and red for “Lock Me Up.”

Marlowe grabbed his guitar once again to pay tribute to the late Toby Keith with a rendition of “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American),” the audience chanting “USA” as the song came to a close. He then introduced everyone to his bandmates and spontaneously brought a member of his crew, whose birthday he commemorated by shotgunning a beer.

Marlowe moved on by sharing the deeply personal story behind “Keepin’ The Lights On.” “I just want to thank each and every one of you for spending your hard-earned money to come out to my shows, because I know how hard it is,” he said before serenading the crowd solo.

“This is my favorite verse I’ve ever written in my life, because it represents me and who I am,” Marlowe shared as he started to sing the final verse.

He followed with a cover of “Livin’ On A Prayer,” informing everyone that while his father showed him the world of country music, his mother raised him on rock & roll. Marlowe had all of the Ryman belt the Bon Jovi classic with him before switching to a new guitar and bringing out the incredibly talented Belle Frantz, who he discovered on TikTok, to join him for George Jones‘ “The Grand Tour.” He reunited with his band for “I Can Run” and an electrifying cover of Teddy Swims‘ “Lose Control.”

“If you’ve heard this song, then you really have changed my life,” Marlowe stated while sliding into “Girl On Fire.” He asked everyone to sing the final chorus alongside him. The smoke cannons fired once more as “Burn ‘Em All” followed.

To the crowd’s delight, Marlowe concluded with a two-song encore that included “Strangers,” the duet he recorded with Ella Langley. He kept the party going with small post-show set at Chief’s on Broadway.

The “Keepin’ The Lights On World Tour” is set to stop in Dallas, Texas this Friday (Nov. 1). A dollar from every ticket sold goes towards Marlowe’s Keepin’ The Lights On (KTLO) Fund, which aims to alleviate the burdens of those struggling to make ends meet and ensure a brighter future for those in need by paying electricity bills as well as purchasing shoes, clothing, groceries and other necessities.

The third annual GoldenSky Country Music Festival brought over 75,000 fans from across the nation and beyond together last weekend (Oct. 18–20) at Discovery Park in Sacramento, California.

Extended to a three-day function this year, the festival featured more than 35 performances on two stages from headliners Keith Urban, Thomas Rhett and Luke Bryan as well as Turnpike Troubadours, Riley Green, Bailey Zimmerman, Elle King, Gabby Barrett, Ashley McBryde, Clint Black, Shaboozey and GoldenSky Rising Star competition winner Burke., among others. One of multiple highlights included Green joining Rhett for their tune “Half Of Me” on Saturday (Oct. 19).

Additionally, fans could choose from over 150 samples of local, regional and national craft beer, hard seltzer and cider each day from 12:30–3:30 p.m. at the GoldenSky Beer Festival, and enjoy nonstop music, line dancing lessons and partner two-stepping at The River City Dance Hall & Saloon. Local food experience The Farmhouse, presented by the California Farm Bureau, offered selections from Urban Roots Brewing & Smokehouse, Mulvaney’s B&L, Druthers Sutter Park and Jayna Gyro, and the El Dorado Market highlighted local businesses in Sacramento and the Central Valley.

Following the festival on Saturday and Sunday (Oct. 20), many fans attended the Goldfield Trading Post afterparty, which featured a live DJ and line dancing.

Joe Nichols has released his latest album, Honky Tonks and Country Songs, out now via Quartz Hill Records.

The first single from the project, “Better Than You,” has been a top five most-added song at country radio (Mediabase) for four consecutive weeks, including one week before the track’s official impact date. The emotionally charged duet with rising country star Annie Bosko is about love at first sight, your last first kiss and realizing nothing else could compare with the feeling you’ve found.

Other tracks from the new project include “Doin’ Life With You,” “Bottle It Up,” “Helpless in a Honky Tonk,” “Hard Fires” and a cover of  the Hank Williams Jr. classic “Country Boy Can Survive,” which has become a fan-favorite at Nichols’ shows.

“My favorite thing about making this new album was, I think my voice is in good shape right now—the best shape it’s been in years,” Nichols says. “In the studio, I think I sounded more true to me, and how I started, than I have in several records. And I knew we had some good country songs, like ‘Doin’ Life With You,’ ‘Bottle It Up’ and several of the country-er things on this record, like ‘Helpless in a Honky Tonk’ and ‘Honky Tonks and Country Songs.’ I just felt like we could lay back and lay down some of those ‘old-school me’ vocals.”

Last week Nichols launched his long-awaited new record at Gilley’s Dallas, headlining the celebration to mark the world-famous honky tonk’s 21st anniversary.

Honky Tonks and Country Songs Track List:
1. “Honky Tonks and Country Songs” – (Tyler Hubbard/Matt Jenkins/Travis Wood/Casey Brown)
2. “Bottle It Up” – (Josh Kear/Dan Isbell/Paul Sikes)
3. “People Still Doin’ That” – (Justin Lantz/Clint Daniels/Jeremy Crady)
4. “Helpless in a Honky Tonk” – (Jared Keim/Ryan Beaver/Neil Medley/Dan Alley)
5. “Country Boy Can Survive” – (Hank Williams Jr)
6. “Hard Fires” (featuring Stevie Woodward) – (Michael Carter/Adam Craig/Matt Rogers)
7. “Doin’ Life With You” – (Jimmy Yeary)
8. “Y’all Do” – (Jake Mitchell/Michael Hardy/Mike Walker)
9. “On and On” – (Jason Sellers/Terri Jo Box/Dan Smalley)
10. “Better Than You” (Joe Nichols & Annie Bosko) – (Derek George/John Pierce)
11. “Amazing Ways” – (Dan Isbell/Jordan Minton/Jonathan Smith)

Kelsea Ballerini celebrated the release of her newest album Patterns with an exclusive Spotify listening event, “Baggage Claim,” last Thursday (Oct. 24) at the Carlyle Hotel in New York City.

Ballerini invited her top Spotify listeners in the area to hear the album before its release, and participated in a Q+A session. She also performed the previously-released “Two Things.”

“I would argue that this is the most love-filled record I’ve ever made,” Ballerini said of Patterns. “I think the presence of love in every song is at the forefront.

“There’s a lot on it,” she added. “If you want a friendship song it’s there. If you want a falling in love song, it’s there. If you want like, ‘I’m gonna ram my head through a wall because I’m so frustrated at someone’ songs. Obviously, it’s there, there’s a couple of those.”

When asked about the process of making the album, Ballerini reflected, “This is the most pressure I’ve ever put on myself to make a record because I felt so grateful that there were new ears on my music, but then I also wanted to honor the people who had been on board since ‘Love Me Like You Mean It.’”

“How Much Do You Love Me” intrigued fans right away, and Ballerini clued them in on the behind the scenes of the track. “This song is the softest song on the album. I remember writing it downstairs on guitar and Chase [Stokes] was like ‘what’s that?’ And I was like, this is a love song.”