Music

There was no shortage of surprises at CMA Fest on Sunday (June 12). Day 4 of the country music party in Nashville brought surprise guests and tributes to Nissan Stadium. See pictures of the best moments below.CMA Fest host Dierks Bentley finally got his time to perform and he closed out Sunday night with two guest artists help. One was his co-host Elle King, who earlier brought her own surprise to the stage in the way of Ashley McBryde. A Billy Ray Cyrus cameo at CMA Fest was also welcomed enthusiastically by fans...

Cole Swindell isn't done with his Down to the Bar Tour just yet: On Monday (June 13), the singer announced a fall leg of shows for 2022, called the Back Down to the Bar Tour.The fun returns on Sept. 23 with a stop in Helotes, Texas, and will extend through mid-November, including an early November headlining engagement at Nashville's famed Ryman Auditorium.Ashley Cooke — who was the singer's opening act for his spring dates, and also co-stars in his music video for "Down to the Bar" — will return for...

When Luke Combs took the stage at Nashville's Nissan Stadium during CMA Fest on Saturday night (June 11), it officially marked the last show he'll play before his son is born.The singer and his wife Nicole are currently expecting their first child, and Nicole has indicated that she's due in June, which means baby boy Combs could be making his appearance any day now."I just figure I'll be changing my fair share of diapers after tonight, for sure. This is my last show as a not-dad. Confirmed," the country superstar...

The Ryman Auditorium was filled to the brim on Wednesday, June 6, as country artists and fans packed in for Darius Rucker's 13th annual charity event, Darius & Friends.This year's fundraising concert raised a record-setting $516,000 for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.Proceeds from the show were combined with Rucker's corresponding golf tournament and silent auction. The money will go toward furthering the efforts of St. Jude to put an end to childhood cancer and care for patients during their treatments. Over the course of 13 years, the country singer's charitable efforts...

Chris Lane and Lauren Bushnell are among several member of the country music family who are expecting babies this year. This will be the second child for the Lanes — who share son Dutton Walker — but according to People, things are not going as smoothly this time around."I was recently diagnosed with something called marginal cord insertion," Busnell Lane reveals on Instagram Stories. "I was incredibly stressed out when my doctor told me that but I'm trying to stay optimistic."Marginal cord insertion means the umbilical cord has attached to the edge of...

Chris Stapleton fans attending the singer's show in Los Angeles on Friday night (June 10) were treated to an epic surprise: The singer brought his friend, country-curious pop superstar Justin Timberlake, to the stage during his set.Before bringing Timberlake out, Stapleton had high praise for his special guest. He began the first few bars of his breakout hit, "Tennessee Whiskey," while introducing his band, including his wife and backing vocalist, Morgane Stapleton, and then telling the crowd that there was one person he needed to introduce who wasn't out on...

Toby Keith won't be touring in 2022. The singer has cleared his concert calendar to take time off this year. This news comes one day after the 60-year-old revealed his stomach cancer diagnosis to fans.A note from Keith's team to Taste of Country confirms the cancelations and ends any speculation about if he'd be keeping any touring commitments in 2022. There had been more than a dozen dates on the country staple's calendar through early November, but his official website now has no shows listed.On Sunday night (June 10), the Associated Press reported that some tour dates would be canceled,...

Chris Stapleton took his All-American Road Show to the west coast over the weekend, playing to a packed house at Los Angeles' Kia Forum on Friday (June 10). On a stage adorned by his tour's signature light bulb-centric decor, Stapleton delivered a set packed with new songs and classics from his catalog.The night included a big surprise — Justin Timberlake was a special guest, and the pair performed a rafter-rattling duet performance of "Tennessee Whiskey" — but before that, Stapleton and his band charged their way through a powerhouse set...

Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood’s Radiohead side project the Smile have announced dates for their first American tour. It kicks off Nov. 14 at Providence, Rhode Island’s Veteran’s Memorial Auditorium, and wraps up Dec. 21 at Los Angeles’ Shine Auditorium. The Smile, which also features drummer Tom Skinner, released their debut LP, A Light For Attracting Attention, on May 22. The group came together during the global pandemic when Yorke was unable to complete his solo tour, and he suddenly found himself with a lot of free time. “The album...

Dead & Company kicked off their 2022 tour Friday evening with an epic show at L.A.’s Dodger Stadium that was heavy on Dead standards like “Casey Jones,” “China Doll,” “Jack Straw,” and “Scarlet Begonias.” Toward the end of the second set, they broke out a cover of Traffic’s “Dear Mr. Fantasy” that transitioned into an instrumental coda of the Beatles’ “Hey Jude.” Check out the fan-shot video above. “Dear Mr. Fantasy” was a regular part of the Grateful Dead’s live repertoire from 1984 to 1990, but this was the first...

The Kid Laroi invited some veritable legends of Australian music to join him on stage Sunday, June 12 — and not anyone from AC/DC, not Olivia Newton-John, Keith Urban, Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker, Kylie Minogue, or Sia. Rather. Nope. It was the titans of down-under children’s entertainment, The Wiggles.  The Kid Laroi gave the Wiggles probably the most hype introduction they have ever received as he welcomed them to the stage in the middle of his headlining gig at the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne. Fan-shot video captured Laroi and...

Tame Impala will celebrate the 10th anniversary of Lonerism with a full-album performance of the 2012 LP at this year’s Desert Daze festival. Iggy Pop will also stage his only North American gig of 2022 at this year’s fest, invading Lake Perris, California from September 30 to October 2. Other artists on the bill for Desert Daze’s 10th annual festival include King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, Sky Ferreira, Chicano Batman, the Marías, Nilüfer Yanya, Perfume Genius, funk greats Cymande, Reggie Watts, Badbadnotgood, Duster, Grizzly Bear’s Daniel Rossen, Viagra Boys...

One of ​​Sunny Singh’s proudest moments as a videographer was the night he got punched in the face with his own camera. Singh — who for the past decade-plus has singlehandedly built up one of the web’s most robust and widely admired archives of live-music footage on his hate5six YouTube channel — was filming a DIY hardcore show in Baltimore when a would-be stage diver swung his arms wildly, accidentally shoving Singh’s camera square into his mouth and breaking two of his teeth in the process. “If you watch the...

Maluma knows that sex sells. One need only refer to his last full-length effort, 2020’s Papi Juancho, which returned the Colombian singer and bonafide superstar to smutty form following the arena ambitions of the preceding 11:11. His ability to pivot between the after hours sinful pleasure seeking of “Felices Los 4” and the Hollywood-polished rom-com accessibility of this year J. Lo starrer Marry Me shows that he’s a successful smooth operator in the music industry. In the roughly two years since Papi Juancho, the Latin pop landscape has somehow both...