Music

Nanci Griffith wrote songs that the music world loved to cover. With news of her death on August 13th at the age of 68, many are revisiting her folk and country standards — or learning about her incredible singing and songwriting gifts for the first time. But throughout the 1980s and into the Nineties, she was a stalwart for many in the folk and evolving country music scene — what Steve Earle termed “the great credibility scare” when Nashville “opened its doors (and ears) to such left-of-center artists” as Griffith,...

Tim McGraw's daughter, Audrey McGraw, plays the lead in his new music video for the song "7500 OBO." The just-released clip is about a truck, but it's so much more than that.While in the song "7500 OBO" the truck is up for sale became it reminds the protagonist too much of an ex, the video focuses on a young woman's relationship with a boyfriend who eventually leaves town. After she earns the money to buy the truck from her father, viewers watch their love story unfold from the truck's backseat:...

Rauw Alejandro has had a prolific summer after releasing his breakthrough album Vice Versa and collaborating with everyone from Tainy and Yandel to Jennifer Lopez. Now, he’s teamed up with the Mexican pop band Reik for the unexpected “Loquita,” a slow-paced, popetón romantico that shows off a smoother side of the artists. The song was written by Reik and the Colombian producer Keityn, and it fits in with the more tempered sound of Keityn’s past songs, like Karol G’s “Tusa” and Maluma’s “Hawaii.” And while Reik and Rauw might seem...

Trisha Yearwood's new song "I Dare You to Love" might sound familiar. In April of 2020, Kelly Clarkson released the same song as a multilingual collaboration; in fact, by the time Yearwood heard the demo of the song, the pop and sometimes-country star had already claimed it."What happened is, publishers play you songs, and when I was listening to songs for  Every Girl and I heard it, they didn't know the pop division of their publishing company had already pitched it," Yearwood explains of the Natalie Hemby, Laura Veltz and Best West-penned song....

DJ Snake has collaborated with Rick Ross and Rich Brian on a new single, “Run It.” The track comes from upcoming Marvel Studios’ film Shang-Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings. “Run It” appears in the new trailer for the film, and will also serve as the anthem for ESPN’s coverage of this year’s College Football season, which kicks off on August 28th. “I grew up inspired by @marvel heroes so it’s been hard to keep this secret,” DJ Snake wrote on Instagram. “I’m honored to play a part...

AEG Presents has announced that it will require proof of vaccination in order to gain entrance to its live events moving forward.Billboard reports that AEG Presents, which is the concert and live events wing of AEG, announced on Thursday (Aug. 12) that it will require all fans and staff in attendance at its club venues, concert theaters and festival events to furnish proof that they have been vaccinated against COVID-19.The news comes amid alarming surges in new cases and deaths in the U.S. and worldwide due to the Delta variant...

Seconds into the video for “Borracho Bailando Champeta,” the singer Kevin Florez walks by a neon-bright pico, the booming sound systems known for roaring out Afro-Colombian melodies at dance parties in predominantly Black communities across Colombia’s Caribbean coasts. These iridescent selectors have been called the “radio stations of champeta,” a genre that’s deeply rooted in African music traditions and originated in the Palenque region around the 1960s and 1970s — and the sound that Florez and the producer Captain Planet proudly highlight on “Borracho Bailando Champeta.” Florez, who grew up...

Carrie Underwood's album of hymns has earned her two nominations for the 2021 Gospel Music Association Dove Awards. Her My Savior album and the song "Great Is Thy Faithfulness" were revealed as nominees on Wednesday (Aug. 11).Lifetime, Underwood now has three GMA Dove Awards nominations. My Savior is up in the Bluegrass/Country/Roots Album of the Year category. "Great Is Thy Faithfulness" with CeCe Winans is up for Inspirational Recorded Song of the Year. When it debuted in March, My Savior hit No. 1 on the Billboard Country chart.Previous GMA Dove...

Machine Gun Kelly has dropped the video for new song “Papercuts.” The track will appear on his upcoming album, Born With Horns. The Cole Bennett-directed clip opens with black-and-white footage showcasing MGK riding a motorcycle with gigantic horns down Sunset Boulevard. The lyrics delve into the struggle with finding balance amid fame, and the surreal video features an outsized MGK surrounded by masked characters who rage as the video progresses. “Bleach my hair, mess it up/Take my life, dress it up,” he sings. “Signed a deal, I got paper cuts/They...

Dolly Parton is ready to prove that her way with words extends beyond songs. In early 2022, she'll release her first novel, Run, Rose, Run.The country music megastar has teamed up with bestselling mystery author James Patterson to put together a Nashville-based thriller about a young singer-songwriter with a dark secret. “She’s a star on the rise, singing about the hard life behind her,” explains a description on publisher Little, Brown and Company’s website.“Nashville is where she’s come to claim her destiny," the description adds. "It’s also where the darkness she’s fled might...

UPDATE (8/10): Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit canceled a Houston show for Wednesday claiming that the venue, Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion, “was not willing to comply with the band’s updated Health and Safety standards,” according to a statement from Isbell’s label. Reporter Sally MacDonald objected to Isbell’s statement, writing on Twitter, “The pavilion statement doesn’t say they weren’t willing to comply. It says they couldn’t implement a change like that on short notice. Like everywhere else they are short-staffed, too.” To which Isbell responded: “The pavilion statement is false....

Gangstagrass returned to the stage on America's Got Talent on Tuesday night (Aug. 10), stunning the judges and the viewers at home with an outstanding original song titled "All for One."The country-meets-hip-hop group begin the song with crystal-clear a capella harmonies in the clip below, after which they launch into a rap section that gives way to a more melodic and vocal harmony-laden chorus:The group's audition for Season 16 of the iconic reality talent show aired in June, when they earned universal approval from the judges to move forward.The five-piece...

Julien Baker will release a new EP, Little Oblivions Remixes, on September 1st via Matador Records. The release features select tracks off her album Little Oblivions that are remixed and reworked by artists like Helios, Half Waif, Gori and Jesu. Baker previewed the EP with an atmospheric remix of “Bloodshot” created by Helios. “It was one of the most fun remixes I’ve done to date,” the producer noted in a statement. “With such strong original material it gave me a lot to play around with.” View this post on Instagram...

Near the end of Martina McBride's recently opened Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum exhibit sits a red T-shirt with the word "tomato" printed on it. After a radio programmer compared female artists to the tomatoes in a salad — that is, to be sprinkled into playlists sparingly — in 2015, the country star was one of the first artists to speak out against the programming theory, and began selling the shirts for charity.Four years later, McBride took Spotify to task in her Instagram Stories, after scrolling through pages of recommendations before finding...