Category: country music

The Beatles have influenced many artists in every genre. While Dolly Parton came from a vastly different background than The Beatles, she was still struck by one of their earliest hits in America that left her “feelin’ all kinds of emotions.”

‘I Want to Hold Your Hand’ is one of The Beatles’ earliest hits

In the early 1960s, The Beatles became one of the biggest artists in the U.K. “She Loves You” and “Please Please Me” were two early singles that put the band on the map in their native country. In 1963, The Beatles finally began to take over in the U.S. with “I Want to Hold Your Hand.” 

The single was released in the U.S. with “I Saw Her Standing There” as the B-side. Its success in the U.S. marked the beginning of the British Invasion as the track peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming the first Beatles song to achieve this accomplishment in the U.S. The track gained even more momentum after The Beatles performed it on The Ed Sullivan Show in February 1964. 

Dolly Parton said The Beatles track is the first song that left her ‘jarred’

Dolly Parton grew up in a small cabin in the mountains of Tennessee, but The Beatles could still reach her home. While Parton would become a country superstar, rock n’ roll still managed to leave an impression on her. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Parton said she always listened to music, but “I Want to Hold Your Hand” was the first song she became obsessed with. 

“I loved all kinds of songs, and I grew up singin’ all sorts of songs, but the first time I ever remember totally being jarred and feelin’ all kinds of emotions was when that song came out. I couldn’t get enough of it. This girlfriend of ours had an old trap car, so we used to ride around — she was a little older than us. I just remember us hearing that on the radio any time we had a chance — because they played it night and day when the Beatles first came on the scene.”

The “Jolene” singer also said the catchy tune reminds her of her first kiss because it came out around the same time she was “beginnin’ to date a little bit.”

Parton is collaborating with Paul McCartney for her upcoming rock album

Dolly Parton could be having a full-circle moment with a member of The Beatles as she teased an upcoming collaboration with McCartney on her forthcoming rock album. The album comes after her induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and will reportedly feature covers of songs by Led Zeppelin, Elton John, and The Rolling Stones. One song she said will be on the album is a cover of The Beatles’ “Let it Be” and will feature McCartney. 

“Paul McCartney sang with me on ‘Let It Be’,” Parton said on The Rachael Ray Show. “I’ve got a lot of wonderful iconic songs that people love and wonderful iconic singers joining me on them.”

Eight-time Grammy winner Chris Stapleton will become the latest country artist to usher in the Super Bowl, with a performance at Super Bowl LVII on Sunday, Feb. 12 on FOX, just prior to the game’s kickoff at 6:30 p.m. ET at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona.

Stapleton is known for his bluesy, supple vocal delivery as well as his songwriting chops (in addition to his own material, he’s written hits for Kenny Chesney, Josh Turner and Darius Rucker, among others). He’s also the reigning CMA male vocalist of the year, having won in the category six times. This year’s Super Bowl pregame performance lineup also includes R&B artist Babyface performing “America The Beautiful,” while Abbott Elementary star Sheryl Lee Ralph will perform “Lift Every Voice and Sing.” Rihanna is this year’s Super Bowl Halftime Show performer.

Stapleton is the third consecutive country singer to handle national anthem duties prior to the big game since 2021–Eric Church joined Jazmine Sullivan for a rendition of the anthem in 2021, while Mickey Guyton performed the national anthem last year.

Here, Billboard looks back at other country music artists who have performed the national anthem throughout the years.

“He’s like if … Chris Stapleton had a son or something.”

It’s roughly 20 minutes into Big Machine Records-signed Jackson Dean’s sold-out headlining set at Nashville’s Basement East on a Thursday evening. A female 20-something fan has turned to her similarly aged boyfriend and, with transfixed, starry-eyed joy, is having a hyperbolic musical reckoning.

Onstage with a band of musicians that he’s primarily known since before he was old enough to dream of drinking or voting, the 22-year-old Dean is ripping his way through material from “Greenbroke,” his nearly year-old debut studio album.

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Dean’s age and status as a mainstream country music chart-topper (his crunching, heavy- and outlaw-rock-styled country track “Don’t Come Lookin'” topped Billboard’s Country Airplay charts before the close of 2022) would imply that at some point during the show, he would stop, turn around, and take a reel, selfie or TikTok video with his crowd to frame the moment for perpetuity.

That’s likely never going to happen while he’s onstage.

“I’m up there playing a live show with a four-piece band,” Dean says. “I’m not there to make you laugh and be a comedian. I’m there to sing my ass off, play my guitar, headbang and give you something raw [emerging] from my hands.”

© Stephanie Amador / The Tennessean
Jackson Dean was raised near the banks of Eastern Maryland’s Severn River. “Fifty yards off my back porch dropped into a bunch of nothing,” he jokes.

Dean was raised near the shore of Eastern Maryland’s Severn River between Baltimore and Washington, D.C. He is used to living a life where the joys of urban extravagance exist on the fringes of the fishing holes, hiking trails and wild animal refuges along stretches of Maryland’s Robert Crain Highway.

Dean’s five-year journey wasn’t from a Southeastern Conference football town to somewhere off Gallatin Pike in East Nashville. Instead, he’s evolved from being a teenage handyman able to splinter flint into stone knives, craft leather into bags and wallets and living in a tiny cinderblock house on his family’s property to being a Music Row-signed artist.

“Fifty yards off my back porch dropped into a bunch of nothing,” jokes Dean to The Tennessean when describing the property where he grew up with his family of bricklayers, attempting to engage with civilization peaceably.

© Stephanie Amador / The Tennessean
Jackson Dean practices with his band during a sound check at the Basement East in Nashville on Jan. 19.

“You have to walk through life lawlessly and never lose your wild,” he says. “The society we share is full of laws, though.”

Dean’s sound is inspired by days of highway drives with his father on the way to pouring slabs at commercial work sites, listening to modern country and oldies radio, and nights spent with his dad hearing bluesy dive bar bands.

Ask Dean to boil that down a bit deeper, and the root of the noise that left Nashville in stunned silence for large parts of Thursday evening gets mentioned:

Hearing Black Rebel Motorcycle Club’s “Shuffle Your Feet” and “Ain’t No Easy Way” from San Francisco-based rock act’s 2005 album “Howl.” The album was released when he was 5 years old.

Dean’s been getting deep and heavy for quite some time.

© Stephanie Amador / The Tennessean
“I write songs that try to define intangible, intense things I’ve seen, done and felt,” Jackson Dean says.

The blend of Americana, country, gospel and rock on that Black Rebel Motorcycle Club record was deemed by Pitchfork as “T-Bone Burnett-inspired, south-thieving, gothic country goo.”

Fascinatingly, 2023’s mainstream country music scene is so slickly-polished that finding something that sticks has fallen back into favor.

“I need to make music that makes the crowd at my shows say ‘holy s—.’ I might not always get it right, but we all should be striving for that.”

As of late, with follow-up songs “Fearless” and “Wings,” he’s achieving his goals.

The words, and how they’re phrased, that are being laid upon Dean’s well-defined sonic bed are where the magic currently best lies in his work.

Dean’s only a year past legally being able to understand what the combination of sex and drugs can best achieve when combined with rock ‘n’ roll. That’s not to say he hasn’t spent the better part of a decade wrestling with understanding how they all interweave.

“I write songs that try to define intangible, intense things I’ve seen, done and felt,” he says.

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Dean is currently working with music publisher Arturo Buenahora Jr. at Little Louder Music and Luke Dick — a veteran Nashville singer-songwriter whose work includes Miranda Lambert’s “Bluebird” and Kacey Musgraves’ “Velvet Elvis” — on how to phrase his songs to better flow into cinematic visions that resonate as live performance and radio winners.

To make a long story short, it’s working.

Like his heroes Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, his songs being sync licensed to television and commercials has keyed his renown of late. Alongside being covered by Kelly Clarkson, his songs have appeared on Netflix’s “The Ice Road.” Plus, like fellow rock-tinged country favorites like Lainey Wilson, he’s also achieved visibility via Paramount’s hit series “Yellowstone.”

© Andrew Nelles / Tennessean.com
Carly Pearce performs with Jackson Dean at the Ryman Auditorium in October.

“I was sitting back in a hotel room in Santa Fe, New Mexico, having a drink and living my dreams,” he says. “It’s dope as hell, man. Kevin Costner? Lieutenant Dunbar from ‘Dancing With Wolves’ is being soundtracked by ‘Don’t Come Lookin’?’ That’s easily one of the coolest things to happen in my life.”

Regarding overall hopes for his sound and style moving forward, Dean offers a well-rounded thought.

“I’m trying to exist and produce at the center of the creation of two things people can’t completely explain: beauty and music,” he says. “When I achieve that, it’ll be the most intoxicating feeling in the world and I’m here for that. I’m a country redneck looking to have a good, big time.”

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Jackson Dean is a thoughtful country star in search of ‘a good, big time’

While discussing career longevity, country music star George Strait revealed he always hoped for a long career like Merle Haggard or George Jones.

He’s earned dozens of number-one hits on the country charts and is among the artists with the most gold-and platinum-certified albums behind Elvis Presley and The Beatles. He also turned 70 in 2022 and is still popular with his fans, so he seems to have durability in the bag.

Here’s what he had to say about it.

George Strait said his secret to success was believing in what he was doing: ‘You have to believe in yourself.’

In an interview with Cowboys and Indians Magazine, Strait shared his secret to longevity, though he wasn’t confident that’s what it was. He noted, “Staying focused and believing that what you’re doing is good [and] is important; you have to believe in yourself.”

“I always felt like I knew what worked for me and what didn’t,” he offered, adding, “That might not be the key to longevity — but who can honestly even say what might be?”

Strait, who’s been married for more than 50 years, explained that he hasn’t been able to play live shows as he used to, which changed how he views his time onstage with his fans. “It’s kind of a Catch-22 situation for me,” he shared. “I miss it sometimes, but I know if I went hard like I used to, then I would wind up burning myself out.”

He added, “I think I’m on the right pace now, but I do love playing live shows. There’s nothing like it and words can’t describe the feeling you get playing for a big audience. I’ve got great fans, and I count my blessings that I’m still able to do that.”

George Strait hoped for a career like Merle Haggard or George Jones: ‘Those guys are still relevant.’

Strait explained that when he thought of longevity, he “just always knew that [he] wanted a career like Merle Haggard or George Jones.”

“I wanted to still be relevant when I got older,” he said. “Those guys are still relevant and always will be in my book.”

According to CMT, Jones scored almost 80 top-10 and 10 number-one country singles in 50 years as a solo artist. And, per the Country Music Hall of Fame, Haggard “stands, with the arguable exception of Hank Williams, as the single most influential singer-songwriter in country music history. He was one of country music’s most versatile artists, stylistically mining honky-tonk, blues, jazz, pop, and folk.”

George Strait is a consistent country music artist

According to the Country Music Hall of Fame “Strait’s musical consistency and unadorned performing style continue to make him as one of American music’s most popular artists. He has earned forty-four #1 Billboard country hits, more than any other artist, and ranks third — behind Elvis Presley and the Beatles — among artists with the most gold-and platinum-certified albums.”

With a new album in the future for 2023 and still touring at 70, Strait has undoubtedly solidified that long career he hoped for. So, what might be next for him? “I have given serious thought to a documentary, although I tend to procrastinate these days, so right now, a thought is all it is,” he told Cowboys and Indians.

He also shared, “I love to be outside. I play a lot of golf now so, if the weather is good, I’m usually doing that. I just came back from a golf trip to Scotland, and it was amazing.”

Country music superstar Blake Shelton knows Las Vegas well enough to know that “if you’re going to do something here, you’ve got to do it big,” he said during a January 19 event on the Strip.

That’s why Ole Red Las Vegas, Shelton’s four-story, 27,000-square-foot live music venue, bar and restaurant set to open in front of the Horseshoe this fall, will be his largest and most ambitious location yet.

What’s more, it should shake up the Strip entertainment scene, which Shelton believes is lacking a strong honky-tonk presence.

“You’ve gotta have a break at some point from what you do for 36 hours in a row in Las Vegas,” Shelton said. “Every time I’m here I want some damn country music and a beer. I think Ole Red is a remedy to that.”

Earlier this month, Shelton and Ryman Hospitality Properties celebrated the groundbreaking of the new Vegas venue, which joins five other locations in Tennessee, Oklahoma and Florida. Ole Red will be a sophisticated addition to an already advanced Las Vegas market, Ryman executive chairman Colin Reed said. “We’re gonna be building the Bellagio here as it relates to country music.”

Guests on the first two floors of Ole Red will enjoy Southern-inspired bites while listening to concert-caliber country performances. Later in the night, the space will become a dancefloor. In keeping with the “Vegas way,” as Shelton put it, Ole Red’s third level will offer a more VIP lounge feel, complete with bottle service and a menu of restaurant favorites exclusive to that level.

Ole Red’s rooftop should prove popular, too, with its sweeping Strip views, live music, DJs and curated cocktail and food menus.

To a simple Southern soul like Shelton, the music will always be the main draw. After judging for 22 seasons on The Voice, he said, he’d seen one too many contestants step off that stage and into the unknown. The weighted question of “now what?” always hung in the air. But “Ole Red became what’s next for many of these artists,” he said.

“Perception is everything in this business, and when you come to Ole Red, you feel and look like a superstar no matter what level you’re at. I toured for seven or eight years before I’d ever had anything like this,” Shelton continued. “For a lot of artists, the most important gigs they have in a year are at Ole Red. That’s when they invite the booking agents and the managers and the record labels.”

Wendy Moten, a Nashville singer-songwriter who finished second during The Voice’s 21st season and debuted at the Grand Ole Opry in 2019, performed at Ole Red’s flagship in Nashville last year.

“It’s a great opportunity for new artists to have a place to play,” she said. “At every Ole Red, you feel like at any moment, Blake is gonna walk through that door. They’ve captured his presence so much that you feel like that’s a place he would hang out.”

He just might. Shelton has teased some pop-up appearances at the venue once it’s open. And don’t be surprised to see more talent from The Voice playing there, along with other red-hot stars looking to be discovered.

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When it comes to legendary voices in country music, Clint Black is among the many on the list.

In the more than 30 years since his debut album, “Killin’ Time,” he’s seen the world.

The Grammy Award-winning musician has accomplished a lot during his career – 22 No. 1 singles, two dozen gold and platinum awards. That’s just the beginning.

Black has been on tour with his wife, Lisa Hartman Black and daughter, Lily Pearl on the “Mostly Hits & the Mrs. Tour,” which makes a stop at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 29, at Kiva Auditorium.

“It’s been great having my family on the show,” Black says. “Usually, I’m the one homesick when I’m on the road. With this tour, it became a family affair.”

Black says the Grammy-nominated duet, “When I Said I Do,” which won an Academy of Country Music Award, is part of the show.

Black and Hartman Black were a part of “The Masked Singer,” season 4, as the first-ever duo, The Snow Owls.

With a catalog of music that continues to grow, Black admits that it is difficult to string together a set list.

“Playing the hits is easy,” he says. “The hard part is making sure it doesn’t get stale. I’m looking at the set list every day and thinking about what I want to change. I’ll throw in an acoustic number for some fun. We’ve got a new song in the set because we put out an album in the middle of 2020.”

Black still enjoys touring after decades in the music industry.

He’s also well aware that the industry is constantly changing.

“It’s hard to lay on the couch,” he says. “Every now and then, I have to get up and make music or tour. I try to adapt. I learn more about my video editing software each day. I’m trying to figure out the drum sampler so I can write songs to actual drum beats.”

Black also keeps himself busy with ventures outside of music.

He’s the host of “Talking in Circles with Clint Black,” where he interviews musicians.

He’s also at the helm of Clint Black Cowboy Coffee.

“Having these other projects keeps me busy,” he says. “Being on stage with music is always my first love.”

By Paul T. Mueller

RB Morris, a singer-songwriter, poet and playwright based in Knoxville, doesn’t tend to venture too far west from his Tennessee base. So it was something of a rare treat for his Texas fans when Morris played a Jan. 21 show at Live Oak Listening Room, a former church turned intimate concert venue in the East Texas city of Nacogdoches.

Morris writes with the sensibility of a poet and performs with the soul of a rock ‘n’ roller. He opened with several songs played solo, including the wistful “Old Copper Penny,” and “Thin Air,” which he dedicated to the late Leonard Cohen. Next came readings of a couple of his poems, one about the mockingbird – which, he noted, is the state bird of both Texas and Tennessee.

Other highlights included a lovely rendition of “A Winter’s Tale,” which has become something of a latter-day holiday classic; “That’s How Every Empire Falls,” a cautionary tale once covered by John Prine, one of Morris’ early fans; “Distillery,” which draws parallels between the commercialized and organic forms of liquor and religion, and the powerful “Take Time to Love.”

Morris was backed for most of the show by electric guitarist Tim Lee and drummer Susan Lee, a husband-and-wife duo from Mississippi who perform their own shows under the moniker BARK. Tim Lee’s guitar, by turns subtle and powerful, and Susan Lee’s strong and precise drumming provided effective texture behind Morris’ acoustic playing and vocals.

BARK opened the show with a rocking set consisting mostly of jangly power-pop originals, plus a cover of David Olney’s “James Robertson Must Turn Right.”