Country Daypop Archives

Dolly Parton will be named the MusiCares Person of the Year, making her the first country-music artist to earn the title. She will be honored by the Recording Academy in February 2019 during Grammy Week. The event will feature musical guests paying tribute to Parton. Proceeds from the MusiCares benefit concert will go to the MusiCares charity, the Recording Academy’s campaign to give music industry members a “place to turn in times of financial, medical, and personal need.” Parton’s nonprofit, Imagination Library, mails free books to children. The organization recently delivered its one-hundred-millionth book, and just last year Parton released a children’s album called I Believe In You. 

Big & Rich’s John Rich slammed Nike via Twitter on Sept. 3 for featuring Colin Kaepernick in its “Just Do It” 30th anniversary campaign. Former NFL quarterback Kaepernick wore a pair of socks to training camp in 2016 when he played for the San Francisco 49ers, which featured pigs dressed as policemen. Kaepernick, who also sparked controversy in 2016 by passively protesting during the national anthem before games, has been out of the NFL since 2016. In a long series of tweets, John Rich expressed his disdain for Nike and Kaepernick; and even predicted Nike’s stock to fall. You can check out the controversial tweets in the article below.

Singe Cam announced via social media that she has postponed her headlining Road to Happiness Tour.  Cam’s new single, “Road to Happiness,” was released via RCA Records in July after her previous singles were released via Arista Nashville; both labels are under Sony Music Entertainment. Cam’s 16-date Road to Happiness Tour was scheduled to make stops in Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Denver and more. Cam said in her statement: “My friends who bought tickets for my tour this Fall: I had planned these shows to celebrate the release of my new music with you, but for reasons I can’t get into here, I decided I would NOT release my forthcoming album through Sony Nashville. This is an incredible step forward with RCA New York and means this new music will have the best launch possible and the perfect tour will be happening with this music at a later date.”  Cam will still perform at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium on Sept. 26.

After dropping his self-titled EP on Aug. 10, Morgan Evans announced that he will release his debut album, Things That We Drink To, on Oct. 12. Morgan co-penned all the tracks on the 11-song offering with songwriters such as Chris DeStefano, Josh Osborne, Jaren Johnston, Jon Nite, Ashley Gorley and more “My album is a collection of songs that I wrote over the last two years,” says Morgan. “It’s my story. It’s leaving behind everything and everyone you know to chase down a country music dream on the other side of the world.” You can pre-order the album now with five instant-grat tracks, including “Day Drunk,” “Kiss Somebody,” “American,” “I Do” and “Young Again.”

Country superstar George Strait’s longtime drummer, Mike Kennedy, died in a car accident in Lebanon, Tennessee. Strait’s publicist confirmed the news on Sunday. According to a report by the Tennessee Highway Patrol, Kennedy was driving an SUV westbound on Interstate 40 on Thursday when he merged into the right lane of the highway and collided with a tractor-trailer, which in turn collided with a pickup.  The 59-year-old Kennedy was not wearing a seat belt, and was killed in the collision. No one else was killed or injured. The longtime musician played drums with Strait for nearly 30 years, first appearing on Strait’s 1992 album, “Holding My Own.”  Strait said in a statement on Facebook: “The band will never be the same. A part of us is gone forever. We all loved Mike and will miss him terribly. He was just as solid a friend to us all as he was a drummer, and that was damn solid. Our hearts and prayers are with his family.”