Country Chatter

Vegas at the Mandarin, High Roller Gamblin’

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…Me and Diddy drippin’ diamonds like Marilyn

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HBD @marenmorris !!! ❤❤❤

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Maren Morris celebrated her birthday a bit early this year during her time in Vegas for the ACM Awards. This Grammy winning “hard to get starlet” turns 27 on April 10th, but who can resist the chance to throw a birthday bash in Las Vegas?! Complete with friends and family, boyfriend Ryan Hurd, and decorations matching her tattoo that she got back in July, this one was for the books!

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THE CAKE MATCHES HER TATTOO!!

BLOG CAKE MAREN

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Brett Young Caught The Bug For Music In Church

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“You know, it started in the church for me. My dad’s a pastor and I went to a Christian school. My sophomore year, I had played a little guitar. All the kids walking around in Christian junior high learned to play guitar. One day, in my sophomore year, one of the kids who leads worship every Friday said, ‘Hey, I need somebody else to play guitar with me this week.’ So I did. And he said, ‘You did great, I’m not gonna be there next week and you need to lead.” So next thing I know, I’m 15 years old and playing in front of 700 kids for the first time. From that moment, I knew I loved it. It wasn’t until I hurt myself, I played baseball, I had to have elbow surgery, until I really started pursuing it as a career.”

Brett Young is being dubbed a “Nashville Newcomer” with his debut single, “Sleep Without You” currently sitting at number 12 on the Mediabase Country Chart and number 17 on the Billboard Chart. I’ve been following Brett for a couple years of course via social media, and actually was surprised to meet him at a backstage party after a Sam Hunt show in Boston in February of 2015, nearly 2 years ago. First of all, as a California native and a Nashville local, I was wondering what on earth he was doing in Boston?! Just hanging with friends from the band and partying Foundation Room style! He was nice enough to chat with me for a few minutes while sipping on his drink and take a photo with me too. (Man is he TALL! Ok, and handsome!!!)

I’m hoping to catch him live for the first time in a couple of weeks! I’m thinking we need a more recent photo! 😉

You can check out more of Brett Young on his official website or twitter feed!

 

Sprinkling Pixie Dust & Making History

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I am SO beyond proud of this wonderful, beautiful, humble, kind, bright and shining STAR! I’ve listened to her debut album so many times that it should be a crime. I’ve wholeheartedly supported her since day 1… and now she is the FIRST debut female artist in country music history to have her first 3 singles go #1! Can’t wait to see how far her next single, “Yeah Boy” goes! I’m willing to bet it will be another #1 for her career.

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Love you. Mean it. 

 

Kelsea Ballerini Celebrates Her 23rd Birthday!

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Kelsea Ballerini woke up on Saturday morning to a decorated bus in early celebration of her 23rd birthday and she squealed with excitement. Later that night, her bandmates popped a bottle of champagne, lit her candles on birthday cupcakes, and sang ‘Happy Birthday’ to her after their show in Bristow, Virgina.

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This weekend also marked another reason for a huge celebration… her 3rd single off her debut album, “Peter Pan” HIT NUMBER ONE! All it takes is faith, trust, and a little pixie dust! Congrats, girl!

The day has just begun, and I’m sure Kelsea has something pretty big planned for today, her special day! She deserves every wonderful and amazing thing that has happened to her so far and all the success that is still to come! HAPPY BIRTHDAY KELS! ❤

Sunday Funday with BK & Chase Rice

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Brian Kelley, of Florida Georgia Line got some new ink this weekend. Chase Rice was there for some emotional support and a little liquid courage. Of course they were drinking some Old Camp Whiskey, which is Florida Georgia Line’s new brand of whiskey. (Read more about that here!) This tattoo session happened right on BK’s bus! No photos yet of the final product, but where would we all be without life/twitter updates?!

FYI, in case you didn’t know, I’ve been busy posting to my ‘POR Heartbeat blog for my radio station. I would love it if you checked out those posts! It would mean so much to me! Thanks for being a part of this journey with me!

Miranda’s Portland Stop

countryheartbeat Country Chatter

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Most of you know that Miranda Lambert’s Keeper of The Flame Tour stopped in Bangor at Darling’s Waterfront Pavilion last Sunday night. What you may not know is that her road crew stuck around Maine and spent all day Tuesday in Portland. Her road crew has their own band which likes to switch up their name between “Immnent Jamage” and “Permnent Damage“. They love Gritty’s and every time they come to Maine, they stop in and put on an impromptu show there.imminet jamage for blog

They showed up Tuesday night and started the jams around 9pm, allowing crowd participation, doing some karaoke, and basically winging it. They announced several times that they had no plan or set list, and encouraged suggestions from the crowd. Gwen Sebastian even came up and sang a powerful version of Tammy Wynette’s “Stand By Your Man”. Sebastian sings backup for Lambert on tour as well as has a blossoming musical career of her own.

For those of you driving in Portland, you may have noticed the FIVE tour busses lined up on Pearl Street. Miranda’s crew spent a couple nights at the Regency Hotel and parked their busses nearby. Bus call was at 4pm on Wednesday, with a 7pm departure time.

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Miranda’s adorable airstream (complete with it’s own twitter account!) affectionately named “Wanda The Wanderer” was also spotted in a private parking lot in Portland adjacent to where the tour busses were lined up. Supposedly Miranda had already gone back to Nashville, but no one really knows for sure!

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That (Old Camp) Whiskey Whispers Temptation In My Ear…

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Florida Georgia Line are not only sitting on a mountain of talent in terms of both songwriting and performing, but entrepreneurship also runs deep in their blood. BK and THubb have already created a name for themselves in the music and fashion industry (BK and his wife BCole have their own clothing line, Tribe Kelley!)… but now the boys have expanded to another one of their true loves… whiskey!

That’s right, you heard it hear first. FGL have been perfecting their own brand of whiskey for the past 5 years and will soon be doing a national release to stores everywhere! They’ve dubbed their brand “Old Camp Whiskey” and one of the first flavors to be released has a true Georgia feel, Peach Pecan. For those that don’t already know, Tyler Hubbard hails from Georgia, while Brian Kelley is the Florida half of the duo.

Of course, Tyler and BK love to share, so they brought out a special “radio cup” backstage for us to taste test… and this is coming from a non-whiskey drinker… it was AMAZING! Little bit of sweetness, no burn, and absolute deliciousness with both peach and pecan notes. Smooth and easy to drink! (Note: Must be of legal drinking age to consume.)

Old Camp Whiskey is gearing up for an August 2016 release nationwide! Check out their official facebook page to stay up to date on the release date!

You Should Be Here

countryheartbeat Country Chatter, Songwriting Secrets

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Last Thursday at Darlings Waterfront Pavilion, I had the opportunity to hang and chat backstage with Cole Swindell (yes, complete dream come true!). Swindell is a part of the Dig Your Roots Tour with Florida Georgia Line this summer and couldn’t be happier!

We got a bit of insiders info about his number one song, “You Should Be Here”, which Swindell says that is the song that he “came to Nashville to write” about his father who unexpectedly passed away in 2013, just as his music career was taking off. “You Should Be Here” was written with Ashley Gorley in the parking lot of Gillette Stadium in August of 2014 while Swindell was on the That’s My Kind of Night Tour with Luke Bryan. Gorley sent his daughter a text about being at such an infamous football stadium and told her simply, “you should be here.” The rest is history, and Swindell and Gorley drafted up the song right there at our very own Patriot’s stadium!

If you don’t have Swindell’s new album featuring the title track “You Should Be Here”, do yourself a favor and go pick up a copy! One of my favorite songs on the album is the first one, “Flatliner” featuring Dierks Bentley. It’s such a fun upbeat song, and I was lucky enough to hear it live for the first time on Thursday night during Cole’s set. I had to ask Cole if they had plans of releasing it as a radio single, and his response was that it’s difficult when they both come from different labels, however he loves Dierks and loves that song! Cole said he would love it if it were released as a single, but he’s not sure if it will happen. Hopefully I will be lucky enough to see them perform the duet together live one day! Have a listen for yourself!

 

Old Port Fest Was A Success!

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WPOR Staff with Brooke Eden & Drew Baldridge

I had the honor of taking photos for my station, WPOR, at this year’s Old Port Festival in Portland, Maine. The weather held out and despite it being extremely windy, it was a warm afternoon! Opening our show were local favorites, American Ride. They’re a country cover band and every song was something that you could sing along to!

Next up was Nashville newcomer, Matt Gary. He tested out some songs on us that he will be putting on his EP; we were some of the first people to hear this new music! Check out his official lyric video for “It’s On You”.

With Matt Gary!

Soon-to-be-superstar Drew Baldridge was our headliner for the show, and he put on one hell of a performance! His debut album Dirt On Us was just released a couple days before and his first single, “Dance With Ya” is currently sitting at number 45 on the media base country charts. Baldridge is an enthusiastic and energetic performer and has some dance moves that rival those of Luke Bryan.

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Cole Swindell Prepares For Album Release Day

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Cole Swindell performed for some VERY lucky Southwest Airlines passengers today before gearing up for his sophomore album release party! “You Should Be Here” is being called the song defining his career, and Cole himself said that this is the song he “came to Nashville to write”. “You Should Be Here” was the first single of his new album and it’s already held at No. 1 on the charts for multiple weeks, sold nearly half a million tracks, and surpassed 25 million streams.

Cole announced via Twitter today that he would be participating in Southwest Airline’s #LiveAt35 series.

If you follow Cole on snapchat, you got a preview of his “mile-high” performance earlier today! (I’ve always wondered what people who are non-country fans think of these Southwest Performances. Cole isn’t the first artist to do one!)

You Should Be Here is available everywhere tonight at midnight (May 6th, 2016), but those who pre-ordered (like myself of course!) have already gotten a download of 5 of the 12 amazing songs! See the track listing below! I’m obviously loving “Flatliner” with Dierks Bentley, “Stars”, and I’ve always loved “Middle of a Memory” from hearing it live at his shows. Actually, “Middle of a Memory” will be the second single released off this album! Can’t wait to convince my radio station to add it! 😉

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