Hunter Hayes photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Nashville.

Hunter Hayes, David Nail, Sunny Sweeney, Thompson Square and Eli Young Band have been named as the CRS 2012 New Faces of Country Music Show performers. Chosen by members of country radio, the annual new artist showcase closes out Country Radio Seminar and is one of the most anticipated performances each year. Co-sponsored by the Academy of Country Music and Muscular Dystrophy Association, this year’s show will be held Friday, February 24 at the Nashville Convention Center.

“The future of Country radio happens every twenty minutes on the New Faces of Country Music Show!, John Crenshaw, New Faces Committee Chair, said. “Radio has spoken clearly with this year’s wonderful lineup of Hunter Hayes, David Nail, Sunny Sweeney, Thompson Square and Eli Young Band for the crown jewel of CRS 2012.” Continue Reading

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Sunny Sweeney photo courtesy of Republic Nashville.

Fans of Sunny Sweeney who frequent her official Facebook page may have noticed another page with her name on it popping up in search results. The ‘Let’s get Sunny on Chelsea Handler’ fan page was created by a friend as a sort of an online petition to help Sunny’s dreams of meeting comedian and “Chelsea Lately” host Chelsea Handler come true.

Watch Sunny Sweeney perform her song “Mean As You” acoustically! >>

“I’m a huge, like obsessed Chelsea Handler fan,” Sunny said. “Every time a Chelsea book comes out, my dad gets it for me, and some of it is just so tacky. My mind is perpetually in the gutter so I’m thinking, ‘This is, like, my soul mate. I need to meet this woman.’”

Watch Sunny’s “From A Table Away” music video! >>

The fan page came about after Sunny and her friend were watching Chelsea’s show, Chelsea Lately, one night. Afterward, Sunny expressed her desire to meet Chelsea. By morning, her friend had created the page, which now has more than 2,500 supporters. Continue Reading

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Brad Paisley photo by Jeremy Cowart, courtesy of Sony Music Nashville.

The curtain has closed on Brad Paisley’s H20 II: Wetter & Wilder World Tour. Brad played his last show of the tour Sunday night in Raleigh, NC with special guests Blake Shelton, Jerrod Niemann, Sunny Sweeney and Edens Edge. The water-themed show reached over 1,079,436 fans in 52 cities, including five stadium shows and eight shows in Europe.

It’s not a Brad Paisley tour without a few pranks and Brad and company didn’t disappoint. Edens Edge was joined onstage by crew members in midriff-baring shirts. Jerrod returned to his bus to find it filled with packing peanuts and his set was crashed by a band of superheroes. Blake found 200 additional fans waiting for him at his meet and greet, courtesy of Brad-issued passes, and was the target of the night’s most elaborate prank. Remote control water trucks appeared onstage during his set, dousing Blake and his band with water.

Brad wasn’t in the clear, however. Sunny Sweeney was responsible for a toilet appearing on Brad’s second stage and Blake showed up during Brad’s set wearing a mullet and buckteeth. Brad was a good sport, even sitting on the toilet during one of his songs.

There was some peace-making amongst the hijinks. Brad brought Edens Edge back onstage to present them with a new Razorbacks floor mat. The Arkansas natives had replaced Brad’s WVU floor mat with a Razorbacks mat earlier in the tour. Brad retaliated by setting fire to the Arkansas swag, stirring up some heated feelings from Razorback fans. “Gave @edensedge a new Razorback floormat tonight. So there,” Brad tweeted after the show.

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Sunny Sweeney photo courtesy of Republic Nashville.

Sunny Sweeney’s life is largely spent on the road these days and with all the travel she does, it’s only natural she misses home sometimes. To keep a piece of home with her as she tours the country, there is one item she must pack before a run – her pillow. “It’s not that big of a deal,” she said. “Like it’s not like some great pillow or anything. It’s just my pillow. And my pillowcase, from my bed, from my house.”

Sunny has tried to travel without her pillow but learned quickly that was a bad idea. “I’ve tried to go on a couple of gigs without it,” she said. “I end up… I blame everything on not having my pillow on those dates. So now I just bring it with me anyway. Everywhere I go.”

Read our review of Sunny’s new album, Concrete! >>

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Sunny Sweeney photo courtesy of Republic Nashville.

Sunny Sweeney has had a big summer. Besides touring with Brad Paisley on his H2O II: Wetter & Wilder Tour, she also released her new album, Concrete. She’s had so much fun on Brad’s tour that she didn’t want to take time off when Brad left the country for a two week European tour.

“We had two or three weeks off when Brad went to Europe, and I felt like I had been at camp and then my mom made me come home, you know,” Sunny said. “Where I’m like, ‘But I was having so much fun. Why are you gonna make me come home?’ And then when we got to go back I was like, ‘oh, okay, we’re back.’”

Read our review of Concrete! >> Continue Reading

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Sunny Sweeney photo courtesy of Republic Nashville.

Sunny Sweeney recently celebrated the release of her new album, Concrete, in the place it all began – her hometown of Longview, Texas. “I fought to be in Longview for the album’s debut,” Sunny told the News-Journal. “This is where my roots are. It’s important to me that I share my success with people who helped make it possible.”

Born and raised in East Texas, Sunny’s father, Patrick Sweeney, can remember the talent show at Trinity School of Texas where Sunny first performed.

Read our review of Sunny’s Concrete album! >>

“I was sitting in the audience, really wowed by some of the talent,” he said. “Some of them were really good — had their own soundtracks. I was wondering what Sunny was going to do, I mean, I knew she was going to sing, but I didn’t think she had anything so glamorous set up as what I was seeing and hearing. In fact, I thought I might be embarrassed. But then she came out, and she really, really wowed me. You could tell the entire audience was loving it. I was loving it. And I thought she really was talented. So, I went from thinking that I might be embarrassed to thinking she was really the hit of the show.” Continue Reading

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Sunny Sweeney photo courtesy of Republic Nashville.

A word to the wise – don’t piss off Sunny Sweeney. Especially, and most emphatically, if you’re a guy she’s dating. Because if the 10 songs on the Texas singer/songwriter’s fantastic sophomore album, Concrete, are any indication, Sunny is not afraid to let you hear about it. Luckily for the rest of us, though, the fireworks exploding from this tight collection are like witnessing good drama; you can empathize with the stirring emotions and feel the pain involved, but you can’t help but keep looking.

Even Sunny herself can’t stop examining certain situations depicted on the album. On the first single, and Top 10 radio hit, “From A Table Away,” she watches from across the restaurant as the adulterer she’s dating mixes it up lovingly with his wife. The cheatin’ ballad is classic country with open guitar chords punctuated by thick telecaster tones. In her smooth and sweet southern drawl, Sunny sings, So I guess that means that things are better/ must not be so bad at home/ I thought it looked like you were leavin’/ but it don’t. On the bluegrass-tinged, “Amy,” Sunny conjures Dolly Parton in a reversal-of-fortune as she faces her cheating man’s wife. Amy, please let me explain, she sings before later adding, If you’d look right at him you might see/ he loves you, he never wanted me. The compelling story comes alive over a thumping, midtempo and stone cold country rhythm section.

Sunny’s voice and delivery shine as she displays the ability to convey complicated emotions through her well-phrased melodies and exceptionally chosen lyrics. On the brooding “Helluva Heart,” Continue Reading

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Sunny Sweeney photo courtesy of Republic Nashville.

Sunny Sweeney’s latest EP is as personal as it gets. The EP, available on iTunes now, “is like my diary, [so] I hope that people can relate to it,” Sunny said. She pulled from experiences in her personal life when recording the project.

“I’ve been through a lot personally in the last two and a half years and a lot of it’s about that, and I’ve gone through a divorce and dealt with some stuff that I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy,” Sunny said. “Fortunately I can turn those into positive things and turn it into songs.” Continue Reading

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Gary Allan photo courtesy of UMG Nashville.

Gary Allan will kick off the Daily Concerts on the Chevrolet Riverfront Stage during this year’s CMA Music Festival with a 10:00 a.m. CT show on June 9. Reflecting 40 years of country music, the stage’s daily lineup will feature past, current, and future superstar artists. The Riverfront Stage concerts are free and open to the public.

“Gary Allan will provide a dynamic start to 2011 CMA Music Festival at the Daily Concerts on the Chevrolet Riverfront Stage,” said Steve Moore, CMA Chief Executive Officer. “This stage is packed with great hit-makers from the ’70s through today, spotlighting all the decades of CMA Music Festival’s existence. And it’s free! We invite everyone to come and enjoy the great music on the Chevrolet Riverfront Stage.”

Darryl Worley will close the Daily Concerts on Friday, June 10, Billy Ray Cyrus on Saturday, June 11 and Terri Clark on Sunday, June 12. Terri last performed at CMA Music Festival in 2007, Billy Ray in 2008 and Darryl in 2010.

The current daily artist lineups in alphabetical order:

Thursday, June 9: Gary Allan, Emerson Drive, Colt Ford, Jack Ingram, Sammy Kershaw, Craig Morgan, James Otto, Jake Owen, Randy Rogers Band, and Steel Magnolia.

Friday, June 10: Frankie Ballard, Bucky Covington, Brett Eldredge, Jo Dee Messina, Randy Montana, Heidi Newfield, Sawyer Brown, Phil Vassar, James Wesley, and  Darryl Worley.

Saturday, June 11: Crystal Bowersox, Jason Michael Carroll, Billy Ray Cyrus, Steve Holy, Lonestar, David Nail, Corey Smith,  Mel Tillis, and Chuck Wicks.

Sunday, June 12: The Bellamy Brothers, Terri Clark, Larry Gatlin and the Gatlin Brothers, Josh Kelley, LoCash Cowboys, Jerrod Niemann, Troy Olsen, and Sunny Sweeney.

Performance order will be listed on CMAfest.com, the official website of CMA Music Festival, closer to the event. Additional artists will be announced. Artists and dates subject to change.

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Clockwise from top left: Luke Bryan photo courtesy of Capitol Nashville; Brett Eldredge photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Nashville; Montgomery Gentry photo courtesy of Sony Music Nashville.

For the second consecutive year, the Academy of Country Music is partnering with the USO to bring a free, private concert to troops and their families stationed at Nellis Air Force Base just outside of Las Vegas, NV. Luke Bryan, Brett Eldredge, Little Big Town, Blake Shelton, who is also the co-host of the upcoming 46th Annual Academy of Country Music Awards, Sunny Sweeney and USO Tour veterans Montgomery Gentry and Craig Morgan are scheduled to perform for airmen and their families. Storme Warren, host of GAC’s Headline Country, returns to emcee the day. This event, as part of “The Week Vegas Goes Country®” series of special events surrounding the ACM Awards, will be open to all military ID holders and media credentialed specifically for this event. Continue Reading

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