Thomas Rhett on What It Means for a Nashville Artist to Be ‘Country Again’ on His New Album, ‘Side A’

Lucy Dacus has shared ‘VBS’, the third single from forthcoming album ‘Home Video’ ahead of its arrival next month.Short for vacation bible school – which Dacus attended many of as a child – the singer-songwriter wrote ‘VBS’ on the way to Nashville to record her new album, after seeing a sign advertising a “wholesome church camp for kids”.She explained: “I thought about my first boyfriend, who I met at VBS, the resident bad boy who loved Slayer and weed more than Jesus.

Patsy Bruce was a country music songwriter who co-wrote “Mammas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys” with her then-husband, Ed Bruce (1949–2021).Bruce and her husband co-wrote “Mammas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys” in 1975. She was responsible for the song’s iconic title: Ed had been working on a song called “Mammas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Guitar Players,” when Patsy suggested a tweak that made it work.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans EditorLGBTQ filmmaker Christin Baker has announced the launch of a new production entity, A Baker Production.A Baker Production will have offices in Los Angeles and Nashville, specializing in bigger-name productions across all genres.

© @Copyright HELLO! Hello! Magazine Dolly Parton has lived in the same home in Brentwood, Nashville, since purchasing it in 1999 for $400,000 (£283,100). She shares it with her husband, Carl Dean, and according to the Kiwi Report, it features its own tennis court, swimming pool, chapel and a farm.

A.D. Amorosi Twenty years since the release of her first album, Miranda Lambert still happily confounds country’s hardcore traditionalists as to who she is, precisely, while maintaining Texas and Nashville’s interest and fandom.

The full list of this week's key New Music Friday releases appears at the bottom of the page, but first, some highlights... 

That’s what you get when you showcase your homophobic actions, d**k!

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorJust days after Downtown Music sold nearly 150,000 publishing copyrights to Concord, the company has laid off an unspecified number of staffers in its Nashville office.  Among the affected employees was executive VP Steve Markland, the highest-ranking member of the Nashville team; the news was first reported by Billboard.Following Concord’s acquisition of Downtown Music’s 145,000-song publishing copyrights on Monday, Downtown has let go a number of its Nashville

Kip Moore is celebrating the “good life”.

“Nashville” star Kyle Dean Massey publicly shared his support for the LGBTQ+ community in an It Gets Better Project video 10-years-ago, and he is coming full circle.

Love is in the air! Kacey Musgraves and Dr. Gerald Onuoha’s connection “is off the charts,” a source exclusively reveals in the new issue of Us Weekly.

Kacey Musgraves has a new record coming, and there’s a new label partnership forming just for the release!

Kacey Musgraves’ next album, due out later this year, will be jointly released via Interscope Records and UMG Nashville. The partnership will find the labels collaborating on marketing, radio promotion and international marketing for the six-time Grammy winner’s new music.Musgraves’ most recent album, “Golden Hour,” released in 2018 via MCA Nashville, won four Grammy Awards, including album of the year, and landed her on most major critics’ consensus 10-best lists for the year.

Todd Snider, "First Agnostic Church of Hope and Wonder” (Aimless Records/Thirty Tigers)Freewheeling folkie Todd Snider’s weekly Sunday morning livestreams from Nashville during the past year have been a sanctuary of craziness amid the insanity of the pandemic.The title of his new album was inspired by those entertaining shows, and Snider's knack for high hilarity remains, but the music is different from anything he has done before.

Mickey Guyton gave a powerful performance of “Black Like Me” at the Grammys last month, it was a statement moment for her and all of the other African-American artists who are stomping across country music’s color lines.No doubt — black artists such as Guyton, Kane Brown, Jimmie Allen and Nashville veteran Darius Rucker are leading a diversity movement in the traditionally white country-music industry.

Chris Willman Music WriterThe Academy of Country Music Awards show is airing Sunday night. Come back here for a complete list of winners as the telecast proceeds.To watch the show live, tune in to CBS at 8 p.m.