FOCUS on the 615
Nashville's premier entertainment blog including album, song and show reviews and exclusive artist interviews.
The United States of America’s top selling solo artist of all time and current CMA Entertainer of the Year nominee Garth Brooks revealed “Baby, Let’s Lay Down And Dance” as the first single from his upcoming 11th studio album set to be released later this year by Pearl Records, Inc. Available now at Country radio, the uptempo track embodies Brooks’ unmatched energy and trademark sound, while remaining undeniably timeless. Continue Reading →
Photo credit: Danny Clinch
Continuing the success of his critically-acclaimed album Damn Country Music, three-time Grammy®-winning singer, songwriter, and actor Tim McGraw released the record’s anthemic second single, “Humble And Kind,” today.
RCA Nashville hitmaker Chris Young follows the three-week #1 success of his RIAA Gold-certified smash, “I’m Comin’ Over,” with the release of “Think of You,” a duet with award-winning Republic Nashville rising star and The Voice winner, Cassadee Pope. Featured on his chart-topping I’m Comin’ Over album, “Think of You” was co-written by Young, Corey Crowder, and Josh Hoge and is available at Country radio today for an official airplay impact date of January 25.
Continue Reading →
Photo credit: Michael Elins
RCA Nashville Old Dominion’s, the group that Billboard says is “helping to usher in a new wave of country,” new single “Snapback” hit the country radio airwaves yesterday with a thunderous pop. 126 first week chart reporting Country radio stations across the country are now spinning the new single that is the follow-up to the band’s debut, GOLD-certified, two week No. 1 hit song, “Break Up With Him,” the first single off the band’s debut album Meat and Candy an album that NPR Fresh Air describes as “an enjoyable and a calculated album, very clever and very self-conscious.”
GRAMMY®-nominated, Sweet Honey in the Rock gears up for their upcoming album #LoveinEvolution (out January 22nd) via SHE-ROCKS 5, Inc./Appleseed Recordings (distributed by E1 Entertainment). A Capella ensemble releases their second single and music video, “Second Line Blues,” available now on iTunes and Amazon.
Trace Adkins is back with “Jesus and Jones,” a song about walking the line between temptation and good intentions. It’s Adkins’ first single with Wheelhouse Records, part of the BBR Music Group, and was written by Jim McCormick, Casey Beathard and Tyler Farr. The official lyric video is now live and the song will be available across all digital retailers and streaming partners this Friday, January 8th.
Watch the official lyric video for “Jesus and Jones” HERE.
Prior to the holidays, a live recording of the song appeared online and TasteofCountry.com observed, “Adkins’ return hardly comes hat in hand. Physically and sonically he’s a leaner version of the singer that returned to rehab in 2014, but no less aggressive. With “Jesus and Jones” he’s doubled-down on roughneck with no promises that he won’t cross that line again.”
In a special email to fans with a limited-time free download of the new song, Trace stated, “this is our first single off a new album that’ll come out later this year. This is a song that’s auto-biographical. The first thing I ever did behind a microphone was singing bass in a gospel quartet. At the same time, I was playing guitar and singing in honky tonks, so, that’s when the struggle began…the wrestling match between ‘Jesus’ and ‘Jones’ and I still struggle with that.”
Like its subject matter, the uptempo, hard-driving song juxtaposes Adkins’ rich baritone with Gospel choirs, electric guitars and lyrics both pious and risqué. The song opens with a confession: “I’m the last one standing every Saturday night, all the rights feel wrong and the wrongs feel right but every Sunday morning I see the light again.” Later, it struggles with walking the line: “I need to find some middle ground between let ‘er rip and settling down, but I go from dry to drowned, lost to found, stone cold sober to just plain stoned.”
ABOUT TRACE ADKINS:
Trace Adkins’ trademark baritone has powered countless hits to the top of the charts and sold over 10 million albums, cumulatively. His hit list includes “You’re Gonna Miss This,” “Ladies Love Country Boys,” “Songs About Me,” “Every Light In The House,” “Hillbilly Bone (Blake Shelton & Trace Adkins),” and “Just Fishin’,” to name a few. Trace kicked off 2016 with the release of “Jesus and Jones,” his first single with BBR Music Group’s Wheelhouse Records. The Grammy-nominated member of the Grand Ole Opry is a TV personality, actor, author, spokesman for the Wounded Warrior Project and the American Red Cross, for whom he raised over $1.5 million dollars as winner of NBC’s All-Star Celebrity Apprentice. Thus far, Adkins has performed 11 USO Tours.
In his 2007 autobiography, A Personal Stand: Observations and Opinions from a Freethinking Roughneck, the former oil-rigger recounted his rise to fame, brushes with death, and battles with personal demons. Trace has played a tough as nails biker in The Lincoln Lawyer (starring Matthew McConaughey) and a wise tattoo artist in the family-friendly Moms’ Night Out (starring Patricia Heaton, Sean Astin, Sarah Drew).
The Cains are pulling out all the stops in their haunting, hard-edged new single, “Knock Knock.” Featuring angst-filled vocals with a country-rock twist, while also showcasing The Cains’ signature sibling harmonies, “Knock Knock” is destined to catch the ears of music fans all over.
Born and raised at the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains in Hokes Bluff, Alabama, Drake White grew up scanning his radio dial for anything he could relate to from country to blues to rock ‘n roll. In the rural south, White’s musical tastes knew no boundaries, labels or discriminations, a trait that has taken root in his performance style with Rolling Stone Country observing, “He doesn’t play music so much as become possessed by it, shaking, clomping and hopping up on his toes like a cowboy Michael Jackson. It’s a celebration of his country roots and, really, of being back in control.” That verve is encapsulated in White’s new single “Livin’ The Dream,” and it’s a message he knows audiences worldwide need to hear.
“Country as cornbread” newcomer TARA THOMPSON is plotting new chapters and sweet revenge with her debut single “Someone to Take Your Place” (The Valory Music Co.), available now. Penning the track with her producer Alex Kline and hit songwriter Leslie Satcher, Tara candidly reveals My sister did this make-up she calls it get over your break-up / She said get out there and work it girl so I’m workin’ it / I’ll have two Coronas one for me one for the hot girl I just turned into yeah / I came in here to get a man and I know the man I want / Do you like the new me I am ’cause that’s the one he’s takin’ home. The track, executively produced by Spoon James Williams, will officially hit airwaves in early 2016 and Tara is spending the next several months introducing her sound to Country radio stations.
EMI Records Nashville breakthrough country artist Eric Paslay releases his new single “High Class” from the celebrated singer-songwriter’s highly-anticipated sophomore album. Co-penned by Paslay, Corey Crowder and Jesse Frasure, the back beat-driven groove premiered exclusively with The Bobby Bones Show and is the No. 1 most added song at Country radio this week.
