ACM Party For A Cause Set Times!

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Who else is counting down to The Week Las Vegas Goes Country? The schedule has been finally announced so that all of us going can start to plan our weekends! I’ve already printed and highlighted the artists that I absolutely cannot miss, and then those whom I would like to see, but willing to miss if it interferes with a meet and greet or something. I’m still undecided about Sunday, because I really want to try to find a way into the awards show at night… however, Sunday has THE BEST LINEUP! Ahhhh! I’m thinking festival then “home” (aka back to the hotel) to nap then shower and get all fancy for the after parties?! I guess I will play it by ear and see what my friends want to do! 🙂 Let me know in the comments below if you will be there!

Bookmark this page to save this map of the Festival Grounds!

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New Country Themed Bar Opens at MGM Grand

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This discovery had me jumping out of my chair this morning. GUESS WHAT MGM GRAND NOW HAS JUST IN TIME FOR ACM WEEK?!?!?! LOSERS Bar & Grill! Straight from Nashville! This is going to be a SUPER popular place for those staying at MGM Grand during the epic “Week Vegas Goes Country”! Opened in late 2015, this place took the place of Rouge in “The District” section of MGM Grand. Maybe there will be some live entertainment over the weekend! Keep checking in with Country Heartbeat as the dates get closer! (Most up-to-date information can always be found on our Twitter!)

For those of you who aren’t familiar, Losers is a bar in Midtown (Nashville) that is popular spot among tourists and country fans visiting the area. Full of dive-bar charm, Losers hosts live bands and cheap drinks and is usually packed. Ironically, it’s also next door to a bar called Winners. It’s definitely a must-visit place if you ever take a trip to Music City!

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Are you going to be in Vegas for ACM Week? Let me know in the comments below what you are most excited for! If you don’t have plans to go this year, make sure to add it to your bucket list if you’re a huge country fan! I’ve been hooked since 2011 when I first won the “Dream Trip of a Lifetime”!

ACM Awards Spotlight: New Female Vocalist of the Year Nominees

The ACM Awards are right around the corner and there is a new category this year- ‘New Female Vocalist Of The Year.’ My passion for the ACM Awards runs deep, and I’ve been lucky enough to get the opportunity to team up with Variety Beat for some pre-ACM coverage! You can check out the article that we wrote below! There’s even a poll at the bottom, so please vote for your favorite!

Source: ACM Awards Spotlight: New Female Vocalist of the Year Nominees

ACM Party For A Cause Survival Guide!

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I’m so exited to share with y’all that I’ve officially written my first guest post for the website, Stage Right Secrets!

As all of you may already know, my passion for the ACM Awards and “The Week Vegas Goes Country” runs deep. My first trip in 2011 changed my life! All of my dreams of finding a soulmate and starting a family did a complete circle and I realized that I wanted to be a part of the country music scene that I fell so deeply in love with that weekend in Vegas. It became a goal to find a way to get there every year afterward! Since then, I’ve gone in 2011, 2013 and 2014. (I had no interest in going last year when it was in Dallas, TX.)

Are you planning on attending the 3 day festival this year? If so, take a look at these tips and tricks from a seasoned veteran, so that you’re fully prepared!

ACM Party For A Cause Survival Guide

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Hey HIGH VALLEY, Can I Make You Mine?

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I’ve been waiting for a day like today in the office since I started working for my local country radio station, WPOR! Mid morning my boss told me that High Valley would be coming in around noon to play us some songs. I’ve been covering at the desk at the radio station (which I absolutely LOVE) and switching off days with another girl. On one of the days that she was here covering, Dan + Shay came in unexpectedly and I was so jealous and bummed that I had missed them! So this definitely made up for it!

Surprisingly, I had yet to hear of High Valley and did some research immediately. Turns out, these two musicians from a rural Canadian town about as high up as Alaska are pretty talented! I guess they are a pretty big deal already in Canada, earning many accolades including 10 GMA Canada Covenant Awards, multiple CCMA Award and JUNO Award nominations and the 2013 CCMA Award for Interactive Artist of the Year. In 2014, their top 5 single, “Country Line”, held the record as the longest running Top 10 hit on the Canadian country music charts! They’ve opened up for several major acts including Little Big Town, Alan Jackson, and Shania Twain.

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You Just Gotta Believe

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“How are you going to make enough money to survive? How are you going to make this happen? Where are you going to work? Do you even have a plan?”

In the words of Big Kenny (of Big & Rich):

“You just gotta believe. You come to this town and you start meeting all these people and you become inspired. Everywhere you go there’s someone who can play, someone who can write a song. You finally meet enough of them that you start to think to yourself, ‘Wow, maybe I am kind of normal after all.'”

Nashville. “It’s a crazy town full of neon dreams, everybody plays, everybody sings.”

Although I don’t have the typical musician dream, I do have a dream of working in the country music industry. I fully believe that once I am there, surrounded by the people that make this crazy passion of mine feel “normal,” that this dream is going to really take flight. Thriving most on inspiration, I am positive that, although I might feel slightly threatened by the competition at first, it’s what I truly need.

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For All Those Underappreciated Supporting Musicians Out There!

I’ve always felt that the band members never get as much credit as the artists themselves. They can go out in public without being recognized (for the most part), and they rarely get to attend awards shows or join the main singers on stage when they win. Half of the time, they don’t even get to record their instruments on the record (there are of course exceptions to this rule!). After following certain bands for several years, I’ve noticed a lot of changes. It seems like just after I’ve finally located all of the band members on twitter and/or instagram, next show I go to, they’ve already been replaced! I guess the supporting musicians aren’t as set in stone as the singers, but I still feel like they play a very important role. I highly respect artists like Kip Moore who make it a point to include his band members in all that he does, and publicly recognizes “The Slow Hearts” as part of his success. We need more artists like him that truly believe in their band, and who know that it’s the support of the guys behind them on stage that make the live shows an amazing experience.

TO ALL OF THE BAND MEMBERS: Thanks for all that you do! Your efforts and kick ass performances do not go unnoticed by the true fans!

 

I think I will start with Kip Moore & The Slow Hearts, because I have so much friggin’ respect for those guys! Besides, who else’s band has their own name? With the exception of a change in drummer, Kip has stuck with his original crew that he started off with. 

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Manny Medina, my favorite Scorpio & Kip’s amazing bass player!
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Adam Browder and some loyal #kipchicks!

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New Music Monday

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Maren Morris – My Church

This song is starting to explode on country radio! Marren Morris is going to be someone who will rise to fame very quickly this year. For those of you who haven’t heard it, no the song isn’t religious or about going to church, so don’t shy away from it out of fear of that. It’s a powerful song about the healing powers of country music, and how one can just get lost in the music on a long drive and end up feeling so much better about everything. “I find my soul revival, singing every single verse / Yeah, I guess that’s my church.” I’ve always been a huge believer that music can save a soul, much like God or a church can, and this is the message that Maren is trying to get across in this single that is going to soar up the charts over the next few months!

Russell Dickerson – Yours

Can I just take a second and personally say, “Awwwwwww” and that I want a guy to feel like this about me one day? I yearn to make someone the best version of themselves, more than I want to find someone who is going to make me the best version of my own self! The fact that there is a “Wedding Version” on his EP for this song speaks magnitude about the power it will hold over people’s emotions. This song is going to touch hearts and that’s what makes or breaks a song in my opinion. His vocals are strong and the lyrics are touching and powerful. You need to give it a listen!

Brooke Eden – Daddy’s Money

Brooke has been in the Nashville scene for a few years now, and after releasing an EP in early 2014 and the single American Dreamin’ later that year, now she’s come out with a brand new single that country radio is going to love! This song isn’t about being handed everything on a silver platter, it’s just the opposite! Brooke sings about working hard for everything she has gotten, and encourages all of the girls around town to not let it hold them up or slow them down if they don’t have the ease of living off of “Daddy’s Money”. It’s a sassy single with attitude and girl-power that is going to be her big break in 2016 and just goes to prove that hard work (and of course talent) will get you far. Sometimes it’s about who you know, but in Brooke’s case, she wants it known that pure determination and hard work got her to where she is today!

Brothers Osborne – It Ain’t My Fault

I had the pleasure of hearing this song live, acoustically, for the very first time at the Brothers Osborne CD Release Party. So let’s just start out by saying that as a kid, one of my favorite games was Mouse Trap, simply for the fact that it was a game of cause and effect based on a chain reaction… where one action influenced the next. (Memory refresh here!) Same with my obsession for the Back to the Future… do you remember Doc’s alarm clock contraption in the opening sequence? (If not, refresh your memory here!) Basically, these type of Rube Goldberg machines intrigue me, and It Ain’t My Fault is a song with that same basic idea, but reversed. It’s all about blaming the previous night’s behavior on a plethora of things, each one leading to the next. It’s a fun song about someone who is guilty of a “damn good time”. Not sure which track BR-OS plans on releasing as their next single, but this would be my pick for sure!

Be sure to follow along on twitter and like our facebook page! I would love for you to join me along in my journey through the country music industry and help me chase my dreams!

Do We Have Your Vote?

I normally wouldn’t reach out on the blog like this, but…

Would you guys do me a giant favor and help me win a trip to Tortuga Music Festival (in case I don’t make it to the ACM’s this year!) This trip would help with the depression that would result in not being in Vegas during The Week Vegas Goes Country. Perhaps a chance to heal a broken heart!

All that you have to do is click and vote a 10 on our photo! I believe it asks for your email address as well. I would appreciate it so much! Voting ends 2/10/16! I would truly appreciate it! 🙂

Vote for Boston’s Cutest Country Couple

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Nashville Happenings

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Hello Country Heartbeat readers! This week has been packed with events from the NHL® All-Star weekend where Dierks Bentley, Eli Young Band and Kelsea Ballerini preformed on a packed street in front of the Country Music Hall of Fame on Sunday. The Sunday show was the last of the daily concerts that were being preformed in downtown Nashville starting on Thursday. Other great musicians such as Big and Rich, Lo Cash, Lee Brice, Chris Young, Clare Bowen, Charles Esten and Russell Dickerson were part of the IntelliCentrics Honda NHL® All-Star Festivities Outdoor Concert Series presented by Bridgestone.

Unfortunately I was not able to attend these shows because I was up in Cincinnati, Ohio at the Kip Moore Wild Ones Tour concert at Bogarts. Kip Moore and The Slow Hearts put on a great show as always, full of energy playing some classic Kip songs and new songs off the long awaited Wild Ones Album.

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To end the weekend, on Tuesday I attended a benefit for the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation at the High Watt on Cannery Row, hosted by Chris Cavanaugh and sponsored by Galena Garlic Company. Chris has been throwing this benefit for the past three years. Though Chris was the main performer, there were guest/friends who also performed. Chris invited some fellow songwriters who have written hits for many artists. Matt Rogers (“We Went” for Randy Houser), Jody Stevens ( “Lemme See Ya Girl” for Cole Swindell and “Home Alone Tonight” for Luke Bryan), Doug Johnson (“Love Like Crazy” for Lee Brice and “3 Wooden Crosses” for Randy Travis), and Scott Stepakoff (“Looking At Stars” and “Underage” on the new Kelsea Ballerini album) also came out to help raise money. Chris Cavanaugh is a touring Nashville based musician from Missouri; he just released his new EP Footprints on My Windshield, which is available now on iTunes, Google Play, Amazon MP3 and Spotify. The benefit ended up raising over $3,000 for the CCFA even with the horrible weather and tornado warnings. Congrats to Chris for a successful night!

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I’ll be posting in the next day events going on in Nashville for the week that people might want to attend…

~CK