Tag: Country Music

Music Spotlight: Drew Parker

Bethany Bowman

One of my favorite type of artists to interview are “Highway Finds” from SiriusXM The Highway. The Highway plays new mostly unheard artists on their weekend show, On the Horizon and if they get enough response from their subscribers, they move the song over to their weekly rotation.

Even though Drew Parker has had a #1 song as a songwriter, Jake Owen’s “Homemade”, he has never been on the radio as a performer until recently when Sirius radio introduced him to the world with his title track to his up and coming EP, While You’re Gone.

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Country Star and Hit Elvis Songwriter Mac Davis Dies at 78

The Associated Press

Country star Mac Davis, who launched his career crafting the Elvis hits “A Little Less Conversation” and “In the Ghetto,” and whose own hits include “Baby Don’t Get Hooked On Me,” has died. He was 78.

His longtime manager Jim Morey said in a press release that Davis died in Nashville on Tuesday after heart surgery and was surrounded by family and friends.

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Music Spotlight: Reyna Roberts

Bethany Bowman

I’m not sure how Reyna Roberts showed up on my Instagram feed. It was probably because Mickey Guyton reviewed a clip of her singing a cover of Carrie Underwood’s “Drinking Alone, Together.” After I picked my jaw off the ground, I immediately put Roberts on my radar because I knew her career was getting ready to take off.

Roberts was born prematurely in 1997 to U.S. military parents in Anchorage, Alaska. She was told that she could have cognitive, physical, visual, and vocal developmental delays. Because of the bleak prognosis, her family kept music as a main influence to help her improve and become successful.

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Music Spotlight: Highway Women

Bethany Bowman

The Highway Women is an all-female country blend (country, rock, pop) music band like no other bringing a musical movement to support other women in country music and beyond. They are comprised of singers Kristen Kae, Drew Haley, Bailey James, and Heather Harper.

The group started in 2016 and has had various members since then, but the current group has been together for about a year. They don’t have a lead singer as they try to equally share the singing responsibilities.

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Music Spotlight: Jamie O’Neal

Bethany Bowman

Those who have been following country music their whole lives know already who Jamie O’Neal is as an artist. Off her first album, Shiver, released in 2000, she had two number one hits, “There Is No Arizona,” and “When I Think About Angels.” Her next top ten hit came in 2005, “Somebody’s Hero.”

I wanted to find out more about this country star who was born in Australia. Having no Australian accent, O’Neal said, “I was born in Sydney, Australia, where my parents (Jimmy and Julie Murphy) were performers who moved to America when I was two. I always say that I am the opposite of Nicole Kidman who was born in Hawaii and was raised in Australia. It was the opposite for me, I was born there but raised in the U.S.”

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White Singing Group Formerly Known as Lady Antebellum Seeks Legal Ruling to Confirm Appropriation of Name ‘Lady A’ from Black Singer

Jason M. Reynolds

The white country band formerly known as Lady Antebellum has chosen to show racial “sensitivity” by suing to appropriate the name “Lady A” from Anita White, a black singer who has used the moniker for decades.

Lady Antebellum on June 11 said they would start going by the name Lady A since “antebellum” carried racial connotations, Billboard said. The suit was filed July 8 in Nashville’s U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee.

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Music Spotlight: Adam Sanders

Bethany Bowman

Nashville, Tennessee –  A native of Lake City, Florida, Adam Sanders knew at an early age that music would be his life.

“My mom likes to say I could sing before I could talk. It was as far back as I could remember. My earliest memories were dressing up like Alan Jackson and singing ‘Chattahoochee’ and ‘Don’t Rock the Jukebox,’” he said.

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Emily Hackett Releases Heartfelt ‘Handle’

Bethany Bowman

NASHVILLE, Tennessee – I first interviewed Emily Hackett in October 2018 when she was featured in my Music Spotlight column. There has been a lot of shifts in the music world since then and we were able to talk about how that is affecting her/the industry.

As mentioned in my column, in 2018 Hackett released her EP By the Sun, and in 2019 she released its counterpart By the Moon which landed her as one of CMT Next Women of Country for 2019.

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Music Spotlight: Brian Callihan

Bethany Bowman

Born and raised on a small farm in South Georgia, Brian Callihan was your typical country boy as he hunted and played baseball and football. However, he found his true passion when he started listening to Keith Whitley.

Callihan said when he was around 10 or 11 years old he got a “Keith Whitley’s Greatest Hits for Christmas,” which was his dad’s favorite singer.

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Music Spotlight: James Robert Webb

Bethany Bowman

Nashville, Tennessee-  You may have heard of the story Longwood Symphony Orchestra which is a symphony comprised exclusively of Boston physicians and health-care professionals. The link between music and medicine is well-documented. So when 117 Entertainment Group asked me to interview a traditional country crooner from Tulsa named James Robert Webb who happened also to be a renowned radiologist, I was eager to hear his story.

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Music Spotlight: Andrew Hopson

Bethany Bowman

NASHVILLE, Tennessee- Rarely do I agree to write a story on a person based on one single. But when I heard the song “Stronger Than That,” it was a no-brainer for me. I knew I had to interview this up and coming artist. Andrew Hopson is a true country boy from Tazewell, Tennessee (located where West Virginia meets Kentucky), whose music will bring you back to the traditional honky-tonk sounds of Hank, Willie, and Waylon.

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Music Spotlight: Heidi Raye

Bethany Bowman

Nashville, TN  It is not surprising at all when a country music singer says they come from a small rural town. What is surprising is when that small rural town is in Canada. Heidi Raye was born and raised on a hobby farm Dawson Creek, British Columbia, a place that she describes as the Texas of Canada. Her dad was a John Deere salesman and a Pro Team Roper while her mom was a Pro Barrel Racer. She began singing in church when she was 3, learned to play guitar when she was 12, and then began exploring songwriting soon thereafter. The only genre of music she was exposed to was Country Music. “We say ‘y’all’. I didn’t know it was only a southern thing until I moved to America.”

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Free Admission to the Country Music Hall of Fame December 15

Bethany Bowman

The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum is pleased to partner with the Ford Motor Company Fund for the museum’s 11th Ford Community Day, on Sunday, December 15. Museum admission will be FREE from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. next Sunday, as a way to say “thank you” to the Middle Tennessee community and to reward lucky out-of-town visitors. Tours of Hatch Show Print and Historic RCA Studio B will also be free and are available on a first-come, first-served basis.

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Music Spotlight: Levi Hummon

Bethany Bowman

Nashville, TN Levi Hummon is a rarity when it comes to singers and songwriters. He was actually born and raised in Nashville, Tennessee, “literally on ‘The Row’” as he explains. His father, Marcus Hummon, was and still is an accomplished songwriter and he wrote songs like the Grammy Award Winning “Bless the Open Road” (Rascal Flatts), “Ready to Run” and “Cowboy Take Me Away” (Dixie Chicks), “Born to Fly” (Sarah Evans) along with songs for many country music artists, including Top 40 singles for Tim McGraw, Wynonna Judd, and Alabama. His mother, Becca Stevens, runs a non-profit, Thistle Farms which helps women who have survived trafficking, prostitution, and addiction get a second chance at life.

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Kalie Shorr Releases First-Ever Full Link Album, ‘Open Book’

Bethany Bowman

After her album release party on September 26, Music Spotlight artist, Kalie Shorr’s long-anticipated, brutally honest first-ever full-length album, Open Book, is finally available.  She had already released “Too Much To Say” which is an introduction to Shorr’s new sonic direction where she daringly plunges into an abyss of vulnerability. Tapering the rock n’ roll sound to a more sustained acoustic vibe, her second song “Escape,” is an emotionally raw but hopeful piece that has proven to be a fan favorite at Shorr’s live shows. Recently Shorr released a music video for one of my personal favorite’s “Lullaby.” Hurt and anger become exposed with this pop-rock inspired fragile anthem for the wounded.

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Michael Ray Celebrates 3rd Number One Hit ‘One That Got Away’

Bethany Bowman

The “One That Got Away” is a song written by Jesse Frasure, Josh Osborne, Matthew Ramsey, and Trevor Rosen, and recorded by American country music singer Michael Ray.  Matthew Ramsey and Trevor Rosen are part of the blazing hot country band, Old Dominion, and are among the top songwriters in Nashville and America. They, along with Jesse Frasure and Josh Osborne decided to “let this one go” and not put the song on their own album. Yet somehow, in the back of their heads, they knew they had written a likely hit.  It got tossed in the pile with all the other “later” songs.

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Music Spotlight: Kalie Shorr

Bethany Bowman
Kalie Shorr

When I first heard Kalie Shorr, it was on Sirius XM’s The Highway in 2016.  Fight Like a Girl was a gutsy song by a cute girl who was trying to navigate the murky waters of country music in Nashville.  But when I sat down to speak to her, as is so often the case, I found out there was so much more to Kalie Shorr, a lot more. Kalie Shorr literally wrote her first song when she was just seven years old.  By thirteen, she was highly influenced by pop, rock and country and begin posting cover songs on the popular app, YouTube.  Since Kalie lived in Maine at the time, it was the only way she could get her music out there.  “I always wanted to be in Nashville and it gave me an opportunity to reach Nashville without actually being there.”  She received validation from viewers that this was something she should be doing.  The door opened in 2010 when Kalie was 16. Blogger Perez Hilton, noticed her on YouTube.  He paid for her first official recordings and her initial trip to Nashville.  “[Perez Hilton] introduced me to a lot of people that I needed to know and…

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A Nashville Weekend That Will Live in Legend

Bethany Bowman
Tennessee Star

  This weekend in Nashville, something happened that has never happened before. CMAFest, Bonnaroo and the Stanley Cup Final all occurred at the same time.  The first two were planned, but the final came as a little bit of a surprise. CMAFest started in 1972 at Nashville’s Municipal Auditorium and with 5000 fans attending 20 hours of country music.  Today, the CMA Music Festival encompasses four days of country music on 11 stages with over 150 acts performing with 100,000+ fans attending. Beginning musicians just starting out to the most famous who are selected to sing at Nissan Stadium are proud to be a part of this historic festival each year. Country favorites such as Miranda Lambert, Luke Bryan, Blake Shelton, Thomas Rhett, Florida-Georgia Line, Keith Urban and Brad Paisley were just few of the superstars to thrill fans nightly at the Nissan Stadium main event. Sixty-three miles southeast off I-24, the legendary rock event, Bonnaroo, was occurring at the exact same time as CMAFest.  Bonnaroo is also a four-day musical and arts event on a 700-acre farm in Manchester, Tennessee. Bonnaroo started in 2002 to immolate the feel of the 1960s and 1970s rock concerts like the original Woodstock.…

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