Search Results for "Dwight Yoakam"

(l-r): Vince Gill, Emmylou Harris and "The Office"'s Steve Carell backstage at "The Jay Leno Show." Photo by Rique, courtesy of Morris Public Relations.

There’s always a country connection — even to Steve Carrell, the star of movies including “The 40 Year Old Virgin”  and the hit TV show, “The Office.” When Vince Gill and Emmylou Harris performed on “The Jay Leno Show” Sept. 30, Steve, who plays Michael Scott on “The Office,” was also a guest. Continue Reading

Garth Brooks photo by Mark Tucker, courtesy of Pearl Records.

Oct. 1, 2009 — October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and GAC contributes to the cause with a re-airing Saturday of Ultimate Garth: The Ultimate Hits.

 The one-hour special features Garth’s observations about the music and videos that appeared on his Ultimate Hits compilation, which was issued in a special pink edition that raised money for Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure. Ultimate Garth will also offer information on the Susan G. Komen Foundation.

Ultimate Garth airs at 4 p.m. ET Saturday. Other country acts taking part in events on behalf of breast cancer include: Continue Reading

Vince Gill photo courtesy of UMG Nashville.

The Tulsa World Scene reports Vince Gill will receive the 2009 Spirit of Will Rogers Award on Nov. 8 at Cain’s Ballroom in Tulsa. Vince joins past winners Toby Keith, Garth Brooks and Jane Goodall, among others. Tickets are pricey, starting at $125, and table prices range from $1,700 to $10,000 — but proceeds, in part, will benefit American Blue Star Mothers, Oklahoma Chapter 1, which sends “Freedom Boxes,” or care packages, to troops serving in Iraq, Afghanistan and on any hostile foreign soil.

In other Vince news, tonight he’ll be in Los Angeles, performing with Emmylou Harris on The Jay Leno Show at 10 p.m. ET on NBC. While in L.A., Vince and Emmylou will share the stage with Melissa Etheridge Continue Reading

Justin Moore photo by Kristin Barlowe, courtesy of The Valory Music Co.

By Bob Doerschuk

© 2009 CMA Close Up® News Service / Country Music Association®, Inc.

If you can make your past come alive through music, then you’ve got a gift that will serve you well. In this department, Justin Moore is amply blessed.

Case in point: Though written by Randy Houser and Jeremy Stover, Moore’s first single, “Back That Thing Up,” conjures how life must have felt back on the Arkansas farm where he was raised. Kids grew up there hunting, fishing, milking the cows and working the land — the kind of routine that feeds the good-natured, double-entendre swagger in this tale of a country boy as he introduces a city lass to the wonders of rural recreation. Continue Reading

Keith Urban photo courtesy of Capitol Nashville.

We “can’t move [country music] forward unless we know where it’s come from.” Keith Urban might be part of the current wave of pop- and rock-influenced country, but he certainly appreciates the genre’s past, and that’s why he’s assembled a host of top-name acts — including Taylor Swift, Brad Paisley, Faith Hill and Vince Gill — for an October concert that will raise money for the Country Music Hall of Fame.

The All For The Hall show, slated for Nashville’s Sommet Center on Oct. 13, will also feature Jason Aldean, Lady Antebellum and Little Big Town with other stars likely to be added. Tickets are an inexpensive $25 apiece, with most — if not all — of the cost to be donated to the Hall of Fame, located across the intersection from the Sommet.

“We want it full,” Keith said during the official announcement Monday morning at the Hall’s Ford Theater. “Right now particularly it’s hard times for a lot of folks in this country — in some cases, some of the hardest they’ve ever known in their generation. So we tried to make this as affordable as we possibly could.” Continue Reading

The Boxmasters photo credit: Sandrine Lee

By Ted Drozdowski

© CMA Close Up® News Service / Country Music Association®, Inc.

To get a perspective of Billy Bob Thornton as an artist, begin with his band, The Boxmasters, and then go further back through the deep ties he has nurtured throughout his life with Country Music.

“Country Music today gives me a lot of feelings – dismay, sadness, anger,” the Arkansas native explained by phone from The Cave, the recording studio in the basement of his home in Los Angeles. “I grew up listening to rock ‘n’ roll and Country when Country was Ray Price, Jim Reeves, Del Reeves, Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, and it was amazing. Today, Country seems to be ’80s pop ballads with steel guitars and music videos with a bunch of hot people in hot tubs. Continue Reading