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The Boot – Country Music News, Music Videos and Songs
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The Boot – Country Music News, Music Videos and Songs
Due to overwhelming demand, Kenny Chesney was given no choice but to add more dates to his upcoming book tour. After several of his previously scheduled stops sold out in less than an hour, the East Tennessee native decided to give fans a few more chances to hear the stories behind his new memoir Heart Life Music.
The expanded tour will now include dates across Philadelphia, Bergen, NJ, Beverly Hills, Key West, and Tampa. Those in attendance will listen in on the stories, laughs and experiences that shaped the book as Chesney sits down for a conversation with longtime collaborator and co-author Holly Gleason.
“Four of those cities have stadiums where we’ve had some incredibly memorable nights… whether selling standing room only around the pirate ship at Raymond James Stadium, the crazy, unbelievable crowds in Philly and MetLife that no one saw coming – and Key West, where so many of my great friends and memories are, all of these places truly are in my heart, my music and my life,” Kenny Chesney explained.
What To Expect From The Tour Experience
These five dates round out Heart Life Music: The Book Tour. At each event, the country music superstar will share stories about his journey, the things that kept him going when others might have quit, the legends who inspired him, his love of sports, a dog named Cookie, and the ocean he fell for long before he ever picked up a guitar.
Writing a book is no easy feat, as Kenny Chesney quickly found out through this process. However, it gave him the opportunity to take the last year to take a hard look back at his journey from a small-town dreamer to Billboard’s top country artist of the 21st century. Along the way, he uncovered old memories, fresh realizations, and plenty of laughs.
“If you’re living in fast forward,” Chesney shared, “you don’t really stop to think about how this all fits together. I’m someone who wants to find the next dream, the great song, the chance to maybe change how we do this… so looking back is mostly for when I’m writing songs. Over the course of countless days, talking or reading what was there, I was amazed at how that little kid staring at the sky, the one being blown away by the response Conway Twitty got with two words or how Alabama made me feel coming in on a helicopter in a field was able to do some of the things we’ve done… and to be fortunate to feel the incredible passion we do.
Sharing Personal Stories Of His Journey
He adds, “I didn’t think I had a book in me, but the more we worked, the more I realized: this is a love letter to a Nashville that’s forgotten, legends who gave me wisdom along the way, friends who kept me grounded, the horrible addiction to great songs I may’ve always had – but didn’t realize. The more we worked, the more excited I got, because I realized for the next kid out there who doesn’t know how to get out of the backyard to chase their dreams, this is the treasure map!”
This process became something much bigger for Kenny Chesney. He was given the unique opportunity to establish a voice for himself in a whole new way. Now, he wants to share that experience with his No Shoes Nation fans by making each stop on the tour special. With this run, he hopes to inspire others to pursue their own dreams, no matter how big.
Each ticketholder who attends a stop on the tour will receive a signed copy of the book.
Newly Added Book Tour Dates
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 3
7:00 PM: Ensemble Academy of Arts & Music
Philadelphia, PA
Bookseller: Barnes & Noble
Tickets on sale Friday, September 26 at 10 am ET
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 4
7:00 PM: Bergen Performing Arts Center
Bergen, NJ
Bookseller: Bookends
Tickets on sale Friday, September 26 at 10 am ET
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 7
8:00 PM: Saban Theater
Beverly Hills, CA
Bookseller: Barnes & Noble
Tickets on sale Friday, September 26 at 12 pm ET
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 10
7:30 PM: Tennessee Williams Theater
Key West, FL
Bookseller: Books & Books
Tickets on sale Friday, September 26 at 10 am ET
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 11
7:00 PM: Tampa Theatre
Tampa, FL
Bookseller: Oxford Exchange
Tickets on sale Friday, September 26 at 10 am ET
The full list of dates for the book tour can be found HERE.
The post Kenny Chesney Expands ‘Heart Life Music’ Book Tour Due To Fan Demand appeared first on Country Now.
Country Now
The performance lineup for Stagecoach 2026 just dropped and it’s safe to say the star-power is stacked. The three-day festival is set to return to Indio, California’s Empire Polo Club from April 24 to 26, 2026 with an estimated 75,000+ fans expected to attend. Leading next years’ highly anticipated event are headliners Cody Johnson, Lainey Wilson and Post Malone.
Taking a look back on his Stagecoach journey, from his debut performance to now preparing to leave a lasting mark on the Mane Stage, Johnson shares, “I’ll never forget the first time I got the call to play Stagecoach. We were on one of the smaller stages and I remember wondering if anyone would even know our songs. Now here we are invited back to headline the Mane Stage. What a ride. I hope y’all bring the energy…because it’s gonna get Western”.
Wilson, a fellow Stagecoach alum, revealed what it means to her to snag a headline slot. “My first Stagecoach was in 2022 on the SiriusXM Stage at 2:30pm in the afternoon. Look how far we’ve come y’all! I’m honored to headline this year. This is a career highlight and I can’t wait to see everyone there.”
Malone matched the excitement of both his fellow headliners as he stated, “Had a hell of a time at Stagecoach in 2024 alongside so many incredible artists and friends. Can’t wait to be back next year!”
While this is the first time all three of these superstars have headlined Stagecoach, they are certainly not new to the festival lineup.
“None of those three people will come as a surprise,” Stacy Vee, EVP of Goldenvoice, who oversees the festival every year, tells Variety. “Although it will be their first time headlining, they are certainly all headliners that we have been talking to for a long time. Cody is straight-up rodeo, working-man country. Lainey is as big as you can be, with so many hits. And Post Malone is the new class, but he has a really authentic, classic sound and appreciation for it.”
Since launching in 2007, Stagecoach has been deemed the world’s largest country music festival. Each year the three-day event brings together an eclectic mix of artists from nearly every corner of music while also offering a plethora of unique attractions such as Guy Fieri’s Smokehouse BBQ and Diplo’s HonkyTonk.
This year’s diverse lineup features some of the hottest rising country stars, including Ella Langley, Bailey Zimmerman, Riley Green, Red Clay Strays, Warren Zeiders, Nate Smith, Sam Barber, Gavin Adcock, as well as veteran acts like Brooks & Dunn and Wynonna Judd.
Fans will also get their fill of acts beyond country with chart-dominating pop-hitmaker Teddy Swims, hip-hop acts old and new with BigXthaPlug, Ludacris and Pitbull and vintage rockers like Journey, Bush, Third Eye Blind, the Wallflowers, and Hootie & the Blowfish.
BigXthaPlug and Counting Crows will also take the stage at the newly revived Mustang Stage, which promises interactive fan experiences.
These artists, along with many others, will perform across several stages throughout the 1,000-acre grounds of Southern California’s Coachella Valley.
Vee continued, “With Riley Green, who is having such a moment right now, Bailey Zimmerman, Ella Langley, and everyone from Teddy Swims to Brooks & Dunn, I just think that every part of country music is represented on the lineup this year.”
General admission tickets begin at $549, with VIP packages, suites, hotel and resort stays, and camping options offered at a range of price points. Festival passes go on sale October 2 at 11 a.m. PT at stagecoachfestival.com.
Listed alphabetically, here are the first confirmed performers for the 2026 Stagecoach Festival.
Full 2026 Stagecoach Lineup
Below, you’ll find the first confirmed acts for the 2026 Stagecoach Festival, listed alphabetically:
- Adrien Nunez
- Amos Lee
- Avery Anna
- Bailey Zimmerman
- Bayker Blankenship
- Benjamin Tod
- BigXthaPlug
- Billy Bob Thornton & The Boxmasters
- Brandon Wisham
- Braxton Keith
- Brett Young
- Brooks & Dunn
- Bush
- Cameron Whitcomb
- Charles Wesley Godwin
- Chase Matthew
- Chase Rice
- Cody Johnson
- Corey Kent
- Counting Crows
- Diplo
- Eli Young Band
- Elizabeth Nichols
- Ella Langley
- Gabriella Rose
- Gavin Adcock
- Guy Fieri
- Hannah McFarland
- Hudson Westbrook
- Ink
- Jake Worthington
- Josh Ross
- Journey
- Julia Cole
- Kameron Marlowe
- Kevin Smiley
- Lainey Wilson
- Lane Pittman
- Larkin Poe
- Little Big Town
- Ludacris
- Lyle Lovett
- Marcus King Band
- Max McNown
- Michael Marcagi
- Nate Smith
- Neon Union
- Noah Cyrus
- Noah Rinker
- Ole 60
- Pitbull
- Post Malone
- Redferrin
- Red Clay Strays
- Riley Green
- Ryan Hurd
- S.G. Goodman
- Sam Barber
- Something Out West
- Tayler Holder
- Teddy Swims
- The Road
- The Wallflowers
- Third Eye Blind
- Treaty Oak Revival
- Tyler Braden
- Ty Myers
- Warren Zeiders
- Willow Avalon
- Wyatt Flores
- Wynonna Judd
- Zach John King
The post Cody Johnson, Lainey Wilson & Post Malone To Headline 2026 Stagecoach Festival appeared first on Country Now.
Country Now
HARDY recently shared another look into his next album, COUNTRY! COUNTRY!, with the emotional track “Dog Years.” Written back in 2013, the song stayed unreleased for years, and it wasn’t until HARDY had the chance to perform it with Miranda Lambert that he finally decided to bring it to life.
While speaking with Audacy’s Katie Neal, HARDY explained that “Dog Years” evolved from the pain he felt from losing his childhood dog. It was a solo write that chronicles a moment he will “never forget.”
“I had probably gone a solid six or seven years without crying…I’ll go through phases, but a long time. And I remembered I went home for dear season over the holidays, and I knew that my dog was getting old, and when it was cold, they’d let him sleep in the front part of the hallway next to where the laundry room was because he was an outside dog,” he explained. “And I laid with him one night and I fell asleep and I woke up at five in the morning and went and got in the bed, and then I slept a couple more hours and I drove back to Nashville and my dad called me the next morning and he had passed away. So that was the first time that I had cried in seven or eight years.”
“It was really sad…I had him from a child to an adult, that entire, very important part of my life. So yeah, God, his name was Nugget. So that one’s for Nugget,” HARDY added.
The emotions that stirred up inside him after hearing that heartbreaking news led the country rocker to pen a detailed story about a dog finding his forever family and ended up having “the best life I could ask for.” The best part about this story, that listeners will realize in the chorus, is that it’s told from the four-legged pet’s perspective.
“Dog Years” turned out to be a really special song for HARDY. Not only did it honor his childhood dog’s memory and the strong bond they shared, but it also earned him his first publishing deal. He explained that a relative of his, Dennis Matkosky, who works as a publisher and songwriter in Nashville took him under his wing and helped him make this next leap in his career. HARDY would play him songs and while most of them weren’t quite up to par, “Dog Years,” turned out to be the track he needed to seal the deal.
“I was playing him songs I was writing, and he kept telling me, ‘they’re good, but they’re not good enough for me to take this to a publishing company yet and be like, I want to sign this guy,’” HARDY recalled. “He was like, just keep taking some time and write and write and write and write. And I did. And finally, I wrote ‘Dog Years’ in 2013, right after I graduated from college…so that song got me my first publishing deal, which was a joint deal with Kobalt, and it was really special song.”
Even though the song earned him the deal, HARDY admits he never recorded it. It sad untouched until last year. During that time, he tried pitching the song around, and it nearly made its way to Miranda Lambert, but the track proved too emotional for her, given her deep love for animals.
“A few years ago, Miranda hit me up and she was like, ‘this dog your song?’ And I was like, ‘yeah.’ And she was like, ‘I would cut it, but I would never be able to sing it. I would cry.’ Cause you know how much she’s an animal lover. And I was like, screw that. Cut my song, please,” HARDY joked.
@hardy #DogYears @Miranda Lambert @MuttNation #HARDY #MirandaLambert #MuttNation ♬ original sound – HARDY
Lambert didn’t record the song, but HARDY gives her credit for giving him the boost to finally record it after all these years.
“Last year she had her…MuttNation event at Ascend and she called me and asked me if I would sing ‘Dog Years’ and have her sing harmonies. And I was just like, ‘yeah, sure.’ And that was kind of the moment that I was like, okay, this is cool and I need to give this song a chance.”
“Dog Years” was the latest track to be released from his brand new album, COUNTRY! COUNTRY!, set to arrive Friday, Sept. 26 via Big Loud. The project also includes previous releases including “Favorite Country Song,” “Bro Country (feat. ERNEST),” “Luckiest Man Alive,” and more.
The post HARDY Says Miranda Lambert Inspired Him To Record ‘Dog Years’ 12 Years After Writing It appeared first on Country Now.
Country Now
Andre Harrell was a foundational figure in urban music and the pioneer of hip-hop soul. Through his label Uptown Records, he created the architecture for the modern urban music landscape.
Andre O’Neal Harrell was born in The Bronx, NY on September 26, 1960. While growing up in Bronxdale projects, Harrell’s father, who worked at the local Hunts Point Market, encouraged him to do something he loved for a living. Harrell took that to heart, and cultivated his entrepreneurial instincts throughout high school, raising money with candy drives and picking up extra jobs with a local messenger service. After graduating from Lehman College, he started climbing the ranks as a junior executive in radio, first at a gospel station and then in ad sales at WINNS. However, he later said his real education and career training came once he managed to get on the guestlist for NYC hotspots of the era like Bentley’s; clubs where he learned everything about the music business and politics.
From artist to exec
Harrell had an inside view of hip-hop’s formative days as one half of duo Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, with childhood friend Alonzo Brown. The group gained local notoriety and garnered success with their 1981 hit ‘Genius Rap’. The suit-clad rappers were an early precursor to the lifestyle hip-hop Harrell’s Uptown Records would later popularise. Soon after, Harrell met and became fast friends with Def Jam founder Russell Simmons, who encouraged him to join the Rush Management team. Andre quickly rose to Vice President, and grooming superstar acts like LL Cool J prompted him to retire his own artistic pursuits and focus on developing and promoting talent instead.
The discovery of Mt Vernon rapper Heavy D, whom Simmons was uninterested in signing, spurred Harrell to form his own company, and he founded Uptown Records as a subsidiary of MCA in 1986. The hip-hop scene was bustling with young rap labels like Def Jam and Tommy Boy Records, but Harrell was an R&B aficionado, and saw the future of the genre in the emerging new jack swing sound. Uptown was created as a place to merge hip-hop and R&B – not just the music, but the cultures – to capture the unfiltered “ghetto fabulous” style and energy of Harlem.
Changing the face and look of R&B
Uptown quickly put out hit releases from hip-hop group Heavy D & The Boyz, R&B singer Al B Sure and R&B group Guy, led by new jack swing producer Teddy Riley. The young label wasn’t just selling music, but a lifestyle. Like his idol, Motown founder Berry Gordy, Harrell had an acute instinct for artist development and imaging. Heavy D’s affable “overweight lover” persona and innocuous lyrical content primed the rapper for the first wave of mainstream crossover. Uptown-crafted imaging was later a central part of newcomers Mary J Blige and Jodeci changing the face and look of R&B by mixing in hip-hop and street style.
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Harrell expanded Uptown’s reach to film and TV in 1991 with Strictly Business, a movie starring In Living Color’s Tommy Davidson and Halle Berry in her first major role. The film’s success led MCA to grant a $50 million multi-media deal with Harrell in 1992, propelling the 32-year-old into an exclusive circle of Black entertainment moguls. “A guy like Andre doesn’t appear on the scene but every once in a while,” MCA chairman Al Teller told the LA Times at the time. “Ultimately, this business is about instinctive creative judgement, and Andre’s instincts about artists and music and what audiences want are absolutely superb.”
In the next two years, Uptown was the leading urban record label under Andre’s leadership. He brokered the first label-centric MTV Unplugged special and album (which hasn’t been done again since); launched a TV show called New York Undercover, a hip-hop spin on Miami Vice co-produced with procedural veteran Dick Wolf; and mentored a young, ambitious intern-turned-A&R executive named Sean Combs, who was learning a formula he would soon emulate as founder and CEO of Bad Boy Entertainment.
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A “lifestyle entertainment entrepreneur”
In 1995, Harrell left Uptown Records to step in his idol Berry Gordy’s shoes at the helm of a struggling Motown. He stayed in the role for two years, and then joined Bad Boy Entertainment as President, lending his wisdom and expertise to the quickly growing label alongside Combs. In the years that followed, Harrell co-founded Nu America records with singer/songwriter/producer and fellow label founder Kenneth “Babyface” Edmunds, and, proving he still had the instinct for talent, signed a young Robin Thicke. When Combs founded REVOLT, he tapped Harrell as Vice-Chairman, where Harrell remained until his death.
Last year, BET announced a mini-series based on Harrell and Uptown Records’ legacy. The careers Harrell helped launch; including Mary J Blige, celebrity stylist June Ambrose, movie producer Brett Ratner, hip-hop producer Pete Rock, and Sean “Diddy” Combs are just part of Andre’s impact.
In an interview with Upscale, Andre Harrell referred to himself as a “lifestyle entertainment entrepreneur;” he was the first executive to see the value in highlighting all aspects of Blackness for entertainment rather than segmenting based on audience. He saw that edge complemented polish, in both aesthetics and music. He saw a future when hip-hop culture would be mainstream culture.
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