Don Williams at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville on October 20, 2010.

ASCAP will honor Don Williams with the ASCAP Golden Note Award during its 49th Annual Country Music Awards on November 6 in Nashville. The Golden Note Award is presented to those who have achieved extraordinary career milestones. Garth Brooks, Fleetwood Mac’s Lindsey Buckingham, Sean “Diddy” Combs, Alan Jackson, Quincy Jones, Reba McEntire, JD Souther, Stevie Wonder, André Previn and Tom Petty are among those who have received this honor.

“Don is one of country music’s most successful performers of the past four decades,” ASCAP President and Chairman Paul Williams said. “His knack for finding songs that speak directly to people’s hearts has earned him millions of fans worldwide. He is a true international country music star, and we are very proud to honor him with ASCAP’s Golden Note Award in recognition of his extraordinary career.” Continue Reading

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Eli Young Band's 2011 CD, Life At Best. Photo by Jeremy Cowart, courtesy of Republic Nashville.

Eli Young Band returns with their brand of Texas Country on Life At Best, the quartet’s fourth full-length studio album, and their first with the Republic Nashville label. Based in Denton, Texas, EYB builds on the loose country/rock vibe of 2008’s Jet Black & Jealous with fourteen songs highlighted by Tom Petty-esque grooves, insightful lyrics and the comfortable ease of a band that understands each other’s nuances.

A single acoustic guitar opens the record on the lead track “Even If It Breaks Your Heart,” before singer Mike Eli’s fluid vocal enters to describe a young boy being helplessly wrapped up in music, from steel guitars to Memphis all the way to rock and roll. That line goes a long way to describe EYB’s sound as the band (made up of lead guitarist James Young, bassist Jon Jones and drummer Chris Thompson) breaks in on the chorus with a heartland rhythm section and ringing guitars a la Petty’s “American Girl.” The hard-hitting drums and locked electric/acoustic guitars of title track, “Life At Best,” show the band’s love for uptempo country/rock as they support the song’s message of joy and pain all being part of truly living. The group’s quick, rhythmic left turn through the pre-chorus works nicely to give the song additional depth while bassist Jon Jones’ smooth playing through the breakdown anchor the track before taking off again towards the song’s exciting climax.

On “Skeletons,” slightly distorted guitar notes ring through the verse as Mike’s vocal delivery sounds completely at ease admitting, Continue Reading

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Jamey Johnson photo courtesy of UMG Nashville.

Jamey Johnson is headed to the home of the Milwaukee Brewers Saturday, though he won’t be singing the national anthem or “Take Me Out To The Ballgame” during the final weekend of baseball’s regular season.

Instead, he’s been announced at the last minute as an addition to the lineup for Willie Nelson’s Farm Aid 25: Growing Home For America at Miller Park. Board members John Mellencamp, Dave Matthews and Neil Young were already set for the concert, of course. And so were Norah Jones, Jeff Tweedy, Jason Mraz and the Randy Rogers Band, among others.

And the event has an interesting connection to the top of the country album charts. Jamey’s new double-disc CD, The Guitar Song, came out Sept. 14 and went to No. 1 on the Billboard Country Albums chart. Kenny Chesney’s new project, Hemingway’s Whiskey, came out on Tuesday, and it’s already being forecast as the top-selling album in any genre for the week. Since Kenny’s scheduled to be at Miller Park, too, it means artists with No. 1 country albums two of the last three weeks will both appear on the same stage the same day.

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Don Henley photo by Andrew Macpherson.

The Eagles have long been hailed as an influence on modern country music, a fact that’s never been lost on drummer Don Henley. Now it appears Don is aiming to release an album that plays on that history.

He’s been working on an album of country songs — some originals, some covers. He’s in good company in the process. He’s been putting the project together with Stan Lynch, who used to be the drummer with Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers.

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Eli Young Band photo courtesy of Universal Records South.

In an era when Kid Rock and Bon Jovi have found success in country music, it shouldn’t be too much of a surprise to hear Tom Petty’s name being thrown around.

The Eli Young Band has been covering the rocker’s “American Girl” frequently in concert, and Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers are something of a muse for the Texas foursome as it develops a follow-up to the 2008 album Jet Black & Jealous.

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Emmylou Harris photo by Rocky Schenck, courtesy of Nonesuch Records.

Dave Rawlings grabbed four nominations to lead the rootsy field as Emmylou Harris and Todd Snider announced the nominees for the Americana Awards & Honors Wednesday at the W.O. Smith Music School in Nashville.

Dave’s nominations came for music he recorded at the historic RCA Studio B with a band shaped out of members from Tom Petty’s Heartbreakers, Bright Eyes and Old Crow Medicine Show. The Machine’s A Friend Of A Friend is a finalist for Album of the Year, and “Ruby” — co-written with Dave’s frequent collaborator Gillian Welch — is in the running for Song of the Year. Dave is up for Instrumentalist and the Machine is a finalist for Duo Group.

Ray Wylie Hubbard rode his cleverly titled album A. Enlightenment B. Endarkenment (Hint: There Is No C) to a trio of nominations. Ryan Bingham, whose “The Weary Kind (Theme From Crazy Heart” has already won a Golden Globe and an Oscar award, picked up three as well.

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Lady Antebellum on Wednesday, March 10, 2010 at the Ryman Autitorium in Nashville. Photo courtesy of The Greenroom.

Just two years ago, Lady Antebellum was on the road for the first time on a major tour, opening shows for Martina McBride. Last year, the group played a bundle of stadiums on the Kenny Chesney summer tour, and Lady A is currently opening arena dates for Tim McGraw.

Last week, the group upped the ante a little more, taking top billing on a pair of sold-out shows at Nashville’s historic Ryman Auditorium. Playing in the band’s hometown was part of the attraction for Lady A, but it was also an attempt to test the water and see if the group could deliver a strong enough set to warrant a full headlining tour. The trio — Charles Kelley, Hillary Scott and Dave Haywood — has gone from playing about 25 minutes per show on Kenny’s tour to doing a full hour opening for Tim.

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Lady Antebellum on Wednesday, March 10, 2010 at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville. Photo courtesy of The Greenroom.

With the No. 1 album in the nation and the most nominations for this year’s Academy of Country Music Awards, Lady Antebellum picked a perfect time to have its personal history intersect with country’s bigger history. The band headlined Wednesday for the first time at the historic Ryman Auditorium in Nashville and left little doubt that it will soon be headlining everywhere.

View photos from yesterday’s rehearsal and show — and check back tomorrow for more pics from tonight’s concert!

In the first of two sold-out shows, the trio deftly tied together its pop-sprinkled sound and the venue’s traditional-country background, getting a standing ovation for its encore and demonstrating a flexibility that should serve the group well.

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Tim McGraw photo courtesy of Curb Nashville.

When Gregg Allman showed up Tuesday with Tim McGraw on “The Jay Leno Show,” it was a bit of an event, though maybe not quite as unusual an event as it would have been in years gone by.

Gregg was an appropriate musical partner — after all, Tim’s current single “Southern Voice,” which he performed on “Leno,” namechecks the Allman Brothers along with Tom Petty and Chuck Berry.

But Gregg’s hardly the only pop star or rocker with an attachment to country these days. The Zac Brown Band’s “Toes” is co-written with singer-songwriter Shawn Mullins, who referred to Los Angeles as “Nashville with a tan” in his 1998 pop hit “Lullaby.” Carrie Underwood’s “Cowboy Casanova” counts Mike Elizondo, who’s worked with Maroon 5 and Snoop Dogg, among its writers. Brooks & Dunn’s “Honky Tonk Stomp” gets a signature vocal stamp from ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons. Jimmy Wayne enlisted Daryl Hall & John Oates to back him on his remake of “Sara Smile.” And Darius Rucker came to country music after first establishing himself in Hootie + The Blowfish.

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Tim McGraw photo by Danny Clinch, courtesy of Curb Records.

Tim McGraw releases his new Southern Voice album Tuesday, and in gearing up for the street date, he’ll appear this weekend with host Nan Kelley on GAC’s Top 20 Country Countdown.

The album’s first single, “It’s A Business Doing Pleasure With You,” was written in part by Chad Kroeger of the rock band Nickelback, and his current hit, “Southern Voice,” namechecks such rockers as Chuck Berry, Tom Petty, Jerry Lee Lewis and the Allman Brothers. In fact, Gregg Allman will sit in with Tim when he performs “Southern Voice” on “The Jay Leno Show” Oct. 27.

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