Music

A week after being recorded on video using a racial slur, Morgan Wallen has issued a lengthy video statement in which he addresses the controversy, says he’s spoken to leaders in the black community, shares that he’s attempting to get sober, and admits that “my words matter.” He also delivered a message directly to fans who have been defending him: don’t. “I have one favor to ask. I appreciate those who still see something in me and have defended me. But for today, please don’t. I was wrong. It’s on...

Jason Isbell has announced that he's donating any payments he receives from Morgan Wallen's Dangerous: The Double Album, which contains a version of Isbell's "Cover Me Up," to the Nashville division of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).The singer-songwriter's decision comes after Wallen was caught on video using a racist slur, which has caused significant fallout for the 27-year-old Wallen in multiple areas of country music. He's been suspended by his label and dropped by his agent, seen his songs removed from radio and playlists, and has been rendered ineligible for the 2021 ACM Awards.Yet,...

Nashville singer-songwriter Joy Oladokun made her late-night television debut on Tuesday with a sparse, haunting version of her piano-driven pop ballad “Breathe Again.” “Follow me down where the water runs deep,” Oladokun sings, switching from full-throated pop belting to a folky whisper from one line to the next. “I’ll let you drown in the worst of me.” In an interview last year, Oladokun explained the origins of the song. “It’s about letting go of perfectionism and embracing the warm flickering thing between light and dark that is our humanity,” she...

Dwight Yoakam is suing Warner Music over the rights to some of his older, best-known recordings. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Yoakam filed suit against the music giant in federal court in California on Monday (Feb. 8), claiming that the label has refused to confirm his right to reclaim the copyrights to some of his music.Yoakam's suit hinges on Section 203 of the Copyright Act, a law passed in 1976 that allows the authors of copyrighted works to cancel their copyright grants and regain the rights to those works after a...

Liz Phair addresses the romance between Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson, pondering how they might’ve felt and interacted privately in her new song “Hey Lou.” Produced by longtime collaborator Brad Wood, it’s Phair’s first new song in two years following the Wood-produced “Good Side.” “Hey Lou/Are you feeling all right?” she sings on the catchy, retro reverb-tipped hook. “What you want to do/Are we staying all night?” The video features Lou Reed, Laurie Anderson and Andy Warhol puppets. The song and video touch on debauchery and character flaws, but the...

Brooks & Dunn's "Neon Moon" is just one of the latest country songs that a Houston softball team has covered from the dugout. Their depth of country knowledge even has major artists making requests.Clay Walker asked to be next, but he may have to get in line. The group's profile on TikTok (under Varo Trujillo) is growing massive, with more than 138,000 followers and 1 million likes. The two videos showing them patiently working through Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn's 1992 hit have tallied close to 3 million views in two days.Other recent covers include "Heaven"...

A few nights ago, Tanya Tucker was listening to Apple Music at her Texas ranch. She heard songs by her favorite singers including Nina Simone, Gordon Lightfoot, Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson — and then she heard herself. The song was “Mustang Ridge,” from her 2019 album While I’m Livin’, produced by Brandi Carlile and Shooter Jennings. “I thought, ‘You know what? I’m so much better now,'” says Tucker, who turned 62 in October. “I feel like I sing better, I sound better. I don’t know, I guess the stars lined...

Florida Georgia Line's creative resolve only strengthens when the duo work separately on outside projects, as the group's Tyler Hubbard explains. That's good news for fans who worry that Hubbard and his FGL foil, Brian Kelley, may one day go their separate ways as solo artists.For now, Florida Georgia Line are busy gearing up to release their fifth studio album, Life Rolls On, on Friday (Feb. 12). But in January, listeners got a sample of what Hubbard can do apart from the FGL identity when he appeared on Tim McGraw's Here on Earth bonus song "Undivided."The...

Foo Fighters partnered with Apple Music for their new Medicine at Midnight Radio series. The six-part project, which celebrates the band’s recently issued 10th LP, launched Monday with a debut installment featuring bassist Nate Mendel. In a statement about the show, frontman Dave Grohl noted, “We’re going to listen to some music. I’ll tell you some stories, play you some new songs, play you some songs that inspired me when I was young…kind of take you from the beginning all the way up to today.” Fans can listen each day...

Thomas Rhett has made a habit of teasing unreleased songs on social media, and his current single, "What's Your Country Song," will likely be included on an unannounced album on the horizon.In a new video posted to Instagram, Rhett reveals that he has "some new music coming pretty soon," adding that he's continued to work on new material during the pandemic. He then debuts an acoustic version of one new song called "Your Momma's Front Door," which he'd written just a couple weeks prior.It's a song that looks back at his life...

Morgan Wallen spent his fourth consecutive week at Number One on the Rolling Stone Top 200 Albums chart. Once again, he did not face a serious challenger: His 30-song set Dangerous earned 144,200 album-equivalent units, far more than Lil Durk’s deluxe edition of The Voice, which earned the Number Two spot with 84,400 units. Wallen’s chart success continues even as the singer lost the support of the country music industry after a video surfaced of him using a racial slur. In the following days, various music industry players condemned Wallen’s...

Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani made an unexpected (and very funny) cameo during Super Bowl LV on Sunday night (Feb. 7), during a T-Mobile commercial. The new ad envisions a substandard cell phone network as the reason for the pair's relationship.At the start of the clip, Stefani calls up her The Voice comrade Adam Levine after her divorce from fellow artist Gavin Rossdale and tells him she's ready to start making her way out into the dating world again. Levine responds with a cheerful greeting and asks what she's looking for."I'm...

The Weeknd headlined the Super Bowl LV halftime show with a career-spanning, sequin-bombed medley of his biggest hits — from songs from 2011’s House of Balloons to tracks from 2020’s After Hours. Abel Tesfaye kicked things off in a sleek convertible in front of a Vegas-themed backdrop. A choir with glowing red eyes (a nod to Daft Punk) parted to reveal the man himself — magically — in front of a glowing background in a red, sequined suit before he launched into “Starboy.” The choir shed their masks for a...

Sales and streams of Morgan Wallen's new Dangerous: The Double Album surged last week amid controversy over his use of a racist slur, which was caught on video. His album is No. 1 on the all-genre Billboard 200 chart for a fourth straight week since its release in January.The last country album to spend its first four weeks at No. 1 on this chart was Shania Twain's Up! in 2003. Per Billboard, Garth Brooks' Double Live album is the most recent from a male artist to top the Billboard 200 for four straight weeks, doing...