Music

Eleven years ago today, on Jan. 1, 2010, singer-songwriter Jimmy Wayne kicked off the new year by starting a 1,700-mile walk, called Meet Me Halfway, to raise awareness about youth aging out of the foster care system.Wayne first had the idea for the walk in December 2009, while enjoying the comforts of his warm home: "This guilty feeling came over me," he recalls. "Here I am, living life. I'm comfortable. I'd been on the Brad Paisley tour for a lot of the year, and I just didn't feel like I'd done anything to make...

Rissi Palmer is a passionate voice for country artists of color and those who have been marginalized in mainstream country music. When Taste of Country asked her to curate a list of songs that are essential to know going into the new year, she delivered a strong and exceptionally diverse list of artists and songs, some of which might otherwise escape fans' attention.Palmer debuted with "Country Girl" in 2007, making her the first Black female country singer to chart a single on Billboard's Hot Country Songs chart in 20 years....

“I feel like you, Joe Biden and Dua Lipa are the only people that had a good 2020,” Jimmy Kimmel joked to John Mulaney last month. Kylie Minogue agreed, tapping her dance-pop peer for a “Studio 2054” remix of “Real Groove,” the third single off her recently release album Disco. The original song was a perfect slice of dancefloor disco-pop, blending a throbbing funk bassline with Minogue’s Europop-inspired vocal melodies. The remix speeds up the original, adds some more layered instrumentation and features Lipa layering her vocals over Minogue’s sultry coo....

So, How Was Your 2020? is a series in which our favorite entertainers answer our questionnaire about the music, culture and memorable moments that shaped their year. We’ll be rolling these pieces out throughout December. 2020 found the Old 97’s making a new album under conditions that encapsulated this disastrous year: Recording in Nashville amid a devastating tornado and on the precipice of a deadly pandemic. The resulting LP was Twelfth, released this summer, but frontman Rhett Miller still found time to do things in quarantine, like hosting his Wheels Off...

Rascal Flatts singer Gary LeVox gave a radio interview on Wednesday morning (Dec. 30) to clarify his position about a controversial post he made to social media after the Nashville bombing on Christmas morning (Dec. 25), explaining that he's simply asking questions about what might have taken place.Investigators say that 63-year-old Anthony Quinn Warner packed his RV with explosives, parked it near Second Avenue North and Commerce Street in downtown Nashville in the early morning hours and blew it up, causing tremendous damage to a historic section of Music City.Bizarre...

Wedding bells are in the air for a Runaway June bandmate for the second time in a month. Jennifer Wayne shared on Wednesday (Dec. 30) that she's engaged to country singer-songwriter Austin Moody.Moody popped the question on Monday afternoon (Dec. 28) outside of Nashville's Ocean Way Recording Studios, according to People, who also shares a series of photos of the special moment.Wayne's happy news comes just a couple of weeks after her fellow trio member Naomi Cooke also got engaged, to Boys Like Girls singer Martin Johnson. Johnson co-wrote "Christmas on the...

When Jan. 1 rolls around, people all over the world make their resolutions for the new year, but Dolly Parton isn't one of them. The country music hitmaker says she learned a long time ago that the motivational tool doesn't work for her."It's always the same thing: I'm gonna exercise more this year, I'm gonna eat better," Parton shared in 2014. "And that lasts for a couple of weeks, and then I'm right back where I started. So I don't make 'em 'cause I always break 'em."That's not to say...

So, How Was Your 2020? is a series in which our favorite entertainers answer our questionnaire about the music, culture and memorable moments that shaped their year. We’ll be rolling these pieces out throughout December. Dierks Bentley and his family were vacationing in Colorado when the pandemic began and Tennessee schools went remote, so they spent several weeks after that getting outdoors on mountain trails and riding their bikes. In the midst of it, Bentley was helping promote the debut album by Hot Country Knights, a faux Nineties country group in...

Carrie Underwood took a step out of her comfort zone earlier in December, when she sang in Spanish for the first time ever on "Tears of Gold," her duet with Spanish star David Bisbal.Not only did the pop collaboration give Underwood a chance to broaden her horizons, but it also reinvigorated her interest in learning a second language. She shared during a recent press event that she had to dust off her high school Spanish skills to record the song."I did, and am continuing to do so," she explains. "I...

In a move that’s sure to reignite thousands of millennials’ scorn for their oblivious, insensitive middle school crushes, Aly and AJ have released an explicit version of their 2007 hit “Potential Breakup Song.” The new version is nearly identical to the previous one, but the infamous “my stupid birthday” line in the song’s first verse has been replaced with “my fucking birthday,” and instead of wanting their stuff back, the two sisters want their “shit back.” The duo is riding their hot hand as “Potential Breakup Song” resurfaced on TikTok...

Fifty-one years ago today, on Dec. 29, 1969, Merle Haggard's Okie From Muskogee album was released. The record, along with the title track, soared to the top of the charts."Okie From Muskogee" -- with lines like, "And I'm proud to be an Okie from Muskogee / A place where even squares can have a ball / We still wave Old Glory down at the courthouse / And white lightnin''s still the biggest thrill of all" -- was considered by many to be a statement against the political condition of the country...

Dave Grohl on Monday expressed a “huge, heartfelt thank you” to supporters of the Save Our Stages Act, which provides approximately $10 billion for independent concert venues amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The funding is part of a long-delayed economic stimulus bill that President Trump signed into law on Sunday. “The preservation of America’s smaller, independent venues is not only crucial to the millions of whose lives are bettered by experiencing their favorite artists in the flesh, but to the future of music itself, as it gives the next generation of...