Luke Bryan

ACM Week – Day 4 – Party For A Cause

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Saturday 4/2/16

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Day 2 of the ACM Party For A Cause Festival was INSANE. Live country music from today’s top acts from noon to midnight! That’s twelve full hours of fun for myself and thousands of other country fans! It was a lot hotter in the desert today, and this Mainer was loving every minute of the heat!

Gates opened at noon and the Cabela’s Archery Tournament was finishing up inside the gates. Team Luke Bryan (consisting of Dustin Lynch, Eric Paslay and Kristy Titus) was competing against Team Justin Moore (consisting of Chase Rice, Chris Janson, Granger Smith and Wade Middleton)in a tic-tac-toe archery tournament. (Literally shooting arrows at the space where they wanted to place their “X” or “O”.)  People were everywhere, trying to get the artists attention, waving their cameras and posters for them to sign. A few lucky groups got some selfies with Luke!

The only one that I was lucky enough to snag a photo with was Granger Smith (thank you for that Granger! Much appreciated!). I can’t wait to see where his career leads him after his first number one song, Backroad Song.

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Yee Yee Nation!

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Faux-Chella: My Perfect Country Music Festival

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Country Heartbeat Day1 Fixed

With Coachella just around the corner, TickPick and I have teamed up to present with Country Heartbeat readers my ideal country music festival! I have so many favorites that they had to divide the festival between two days! If you’ve been following this blog for a while now, it’s pretty obvious who my favorite country artists are. Whenever someone asks who my favorite artist is, I ask them if I can give them a top-5 or top-10 list instead, because it’s entirely way too hard to narrow down. I then proceed to list the above 10 artists, and a few others… depending on whose show I may have seen recently and re-fell in love with.

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For All Those Underappreciated Supporting Musicians Out There!

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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!
Adam and the Kip Chicks
Adam Browder and some loyal #kipchicks!

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Tour Bus Hang with Lee Brice

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THROWBACK THURSDAY!

Lee Brice letting us preview some unreleased songs!

May 16th, 2015

Today was the day that I realized that my dreams were starting to come true. Today marked a very important day in the history of my future career in the country music industry. I was able to obtain an official photo pass (aka special access to the stage for the first 3 full songs) to photograph Lee Brice at his show on the Maine State Pier in Portland. I’ve always photographed every concert that I’ve ever been to, but point and shoot camera photos do NOT compare to a SLR with a long zoom lens! Photography has always been a passion of mine, and combining that with country music basically makes me one of the happiest girls alive.

Official Photo Pass!
Official Photo Pass!

The radio station that I work for, WPOR 101.9, gave two lucky listeners the opportunity to “hang” with Lee Brice on his tour bus before the show. Obviously a photographer needed to be there to cover the event 😉 and that was ME! This amazing opportunity left me basically speechless. (No, really, I didn’t say more than two words on his bus… I think I said “Thank You” after taking a photo with him and that was about it!) You couldn’t wipe the smile from my face if you tried!

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New Music Monday

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Songs you should be listening to (and downloading!) right now:

Kelsea Ballerini, “Dibs”

Kelsea’s debut album, titled The First Time, came out last week… and I really hope that you all bought a copy! Kelsea is definitely the next big thing in the female country genre… you might know her from her first Top 10 Single, Love Me Like You Mean It. While her whole CD is amazing (even Taylor Swift thinks so!), I’m really liking this one right now. It screams girl power and confidence, knowing exactly what you want and going out to get it. I don’t see how anyone could not love Kelsea, she’s just so sweet and talented!

Michael Ray, “Run Away With You”

This song will always be special to me, because I got to hear the demo version back in October of 2013, way before it was released. I was at a bar in Nashville, hanging with some of Michael Ray’s band mates, and he let us listen to this song. My first thought was, “that’s totally going to be a big hit!” While Big & Rich cut it for their album, Gravity, you’ve got to hear Michael Ray’s original version, which I will always be partial to! (John Rich and Michael Ray wrote the song together.) Michael Ray’s version can be found on his EP which is ONLY available at Walmart! Get your copy here!

Drake White, “It Feels Good”

Just like the title suggests, this is really a “feel-good” song that perks you right up and makes you want to dance and/or stomp your boots! White combines some blues with his natural twang, and it’s nothing like all the other songs that you hear on the radio! This song has a very unique style and is sure to be a hit with both new-country and old-style country lovers! This is totally a fun-loving country summer jam! View the lyric video on YouTube!

Luke Bryan, “Kick The Dust Up”

I’ll always be partial to Luke, despite all of the cr@p he gets for his bro-country-hip-hop style. This song automatically had me bopping my head a long to the beat. Lyrically, it’s much like all of his other songs about partying in the middle of nowhere, moonshine, trucks burning up a back road, boots on, etc. Despite this, Luke knows what the radio stations want and he continues to deliver. It’s sure to be a summer hit! It’s definitely not my favorite Luke song, but I do love the guitar/banjo picking beat!

Outshyne, “Moonlight Crush”

This song is a bit older, being first released to Sirus/XM Radio in August of 2013. I’ve liked it since day one, but I’ve been really getting into it more lately with summer on it’s way. Boy meets girl, boy develops crush on girl. You know how you tend to love songs that you can relate to the lyrics? This song is magic to me for that reason. Everyone loves a good summer romance, right? 😉  Check out the music video!

 

Summer is Coming! Shop for Sandals at CountryOutfitter.com Today!

This Week in Country Music News

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Have you heard?

luke crash my playa 2016

Luke Bryan announced a save-the-date for his second “Crash My Playa” in the Rivera Maya, Mexico. Tickets go on sale April 9th at 11am CDT. Go to www.crashmyplaya.com for more event details!

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Earlier this week, Canaan Smith released his debut EP on iTunes. It includes his radio hit single, Love You Like That as well as 4 other great songs. Grab your copy here! (No, really, go buy it, it’s less than $7 bucks!)

TR Promo

Thomas Rhett‘s sophomore album is largely inspired by Bruno Mars! TheBoot.com wrote up a great article that you can read here! T. Rhett has been known to cover a few Bruno Mars songs during his set. Check out this swoon-worthy cover of When I Was Your Man. Last show of his that I saw, he ended it with an AMAZING rendition of Uptown Funk! He’s also got some killer dance moves, for those of you who haven’t seen him in concert yet! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1iAxyLzBT8

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TBT – First “Official” Luke M&G

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THROWBACK THURSDAY! 

Throwing it back this week to my first time at an actual Luke Bryan “Meet & Greet” (not my first time meeting him though!)

WHEN: June 2nd, 2013
WHERE: Comcast Center, Mansfield Massachusetts
HOW: Was one of the lucky 18 to win from the Fan Club

Guest Pass and Meet & Greet!
Luke Meet & Greet Pass

Luke’s Meet & Greet was scheduled for 7:15pm. Luke did not show up until about 7:45 and FGL went on at 7:55 so I had to run back so fast to find my friends in the pit as their set was starting. Of course I was in line by 7, so needless to say by 7:45 my anticipation and anxiety of “meeting” Luke sober had grown itself way out of proportion. It was super quick, and a big blur. All I remember is that the person on the other side of Luke was supposed to take our purses to hold so that they wouldn’t be in the picture. He didn’t… I had to awkwardly overstep Luke and place it on the ground a few feet away and remember feeling slightly embarassed and annoyed. I can’t even remember if I told him my name or shook his hand!? I was flustered, handed him the CD insert to his “Tailgates & Tanlines” CD for him to sign, and posed for a quick picture. He squeezed my shoulder a couple times after the picture as a way of saying goodbye/thank you I suppose. I think I said thank you to him? All I know is that he smelled amazing and I was way too nervous to sound like a 5 year old and ask, “Can I have a hug?” Maybe next time… I do have one M&G opportunity left for this year!

First M&G with Luke, June 2nd 2014
First  “official” M&G with Luke,  June 2nd 2013

PS. It was NOT Monaco (Black Mike) taking the photos! Slight disappointment there! Most likely he was filming for Cole/Swindell Vision since Cole’s performance was during Luke’s M&G. To see a review of the concert, click here.

Is Luke coming to your town any time soon? Check below for local concert tickets. And be sure to sign up for his fan club, The Nut House for a chance to win 1 of 18 meet and greet passes that are up for grabs for each show! Details provided when you join! You typically need to get online to request them 2 weeks prior to the show date.

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That’s My Kind of Night with Luke & FGL

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Cole Swindell, Florida Georgia Line, & Luke Bryan
at the Comcast Center in Mansfield, Massachusetts (June 2nd, 2013)

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On our way to the show!

 

Comcast Center Venue Review:

Apparently purses that resembled “backpacks,” even when clearly being held like a purse/pocketbook, are NOT allowed into this venue. I had brought my cute little bag that I had made for ACM week with all of the girlie necessities that I would need, including my camera, phone and chargers, autograph book, CD inserts, sunscreen, sunglasses, rain ponchos in case, money, makeup, perfume, etc. This caused QUITE an uproar between the event staff letting people in at the gate and myself, who tried extremely hard to make them understand that this bag was NOT a backpack. “Go put it back in your car,” they suggested. Umm, sorry, I can’t do that, my car is at some park and ride 2 hours away, and we took a shuttle from the hotel to the venue. Nor could I survive without everything that I had carefully planned and packed with items specific for this one night only. Long tumultuous story short, the event staff/security were EXTREMELY rude and harsh and unwilling to budge or listen to my explanation of WHY it’s not a backpack and WHY I need each and every item that it was holding. My blood pressure rose quite a bit and I required a $10 beer to calm me down afterwards. Oh, that’s right… $9.75 for ONE beer. Needless to say the quarter left over was the only tip he got…

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