WPOR

Happy Holidaze!

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Happy Holidays from Country Heartbeat! Enjoy these holiday photos of Michael Ray and Parmalee that I took at WPOR’s Jingle Jam a couple weeks ago! Michael is wearing his Nana’s Christmas sweater for his performance, but when Parmalee took the stage, M. Ray came out dancing and wearing an ELF SUIT! He was such a good sport about it!

Then, check out the hilarious parody video that Parmalee made with Jake Owen singing about getting into the Christmas “spirits”. This video was released a couple days after Jingle Jam… I wish Parmalee had been wearing those outfits for our show!!!

And lastly, check out these awesome Christmas cards from BK & B.Cole and Hayley and Tyler, Florida Georgia Line and their wives! (And the Kelley’s 4 dogs. Sunday looks adorbs!)

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Best wishes for a happy holiday season! Whatever you celebrate, I hope that it’s merry and bright!

Love, Jess

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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This is My Heartbeat Song

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POR-Heartbeat

By now, it’s well known that my heart beats for country music. It runs through my blood and nourishes my soul. I’ve been fearless in the pursuit of what sets my soul on fire, and following my heart has been the smartest move that I’ve made thus far. The amount of happiness that working in the country music industry brings me is immeasurable.

I am so thankful that a little over a year ago I was given the chance to work for my local country radio station, WPOR 101.9 on their street team! (You can read about my dreams coming true here!) Since then, being hired for the street team, I have also become the station photographer for shows and events, filling in at the front desk as a receptionist on a regular basis… and now…

photo of me taking pix for blog

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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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WPOR Announces Old Port Festival Lineup!

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The 43rd annual Old Port Festival will be held on June 12th, 2016 from 11am to 5pm! There will be four stages with live music scattered throughout downtown Portland, Maine. I of course, will be there at the WPOR stage! See the lineup below!

WPOR Stage (Middle & Temple Streets)

12pm — American Ride (local cover band)
1pm — Matt Gary
2pm — Drew Baldridge
3pm — Dylan Scott
4pm — Brooke Eden

First of all, I’ve been dying to share this news with you since I spoke with Brooke Eden in Vegas at the BBR Music Group brunch on Sunday April 3rd before the ACM Awards. But because I knew my station had not officially announced the lineup yet, I kept it to myself. I went up to Brooke at the brunch and told her that I was that girl who made her come out of her bus in the freezing cold to come into WPOR so that I could meet her and take a photo with her, and that I needed a re-take since I was in my “work clothes” lol. She informed me that she would be coming back to Portland the same weekend as CMA Fest and I was ecstatic! She also told me she would be performing later that night at the ACM Official After Party, All Star Jam, which was officially my first time seeing her live!

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Brooke Eden and I at the BBR Music Group brunch in Las Vegas!

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ACM Week – Day 3 – Women Of Country

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Friday 4/1/16

Total girl confession first off; I totally loved my outfit for Friday and wanted to have a mini photo shoot by the pool where we were staying with Jencita’s family. So we did.

First on our agenda for Friday was a meet and greet with Thomas Rhett at the BMLG Music Has Value pop-up store at the MGM Grand at 1:30pm. One hundred people received wristbands to meet Thomas by purchasing some Music Has Value merchandise from the shop and then there was an “if he has time” line. Since I didn’t have a physical copy of his recent album Tangled Up (I know, shame on me!), I purchased that for him to sign. One thing I learned that day? I probably shouldn’t wear white/ivory. My shirt had a lipstick stain on it within 5 minutes of arriving at MGM. So typical of me!

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Party For a Cause festival gates opened at 3pm on Friday, so Jencita and I drove down to the other end of the strip, to the new MGM Grand Festival Grounds, across from the SLS Hotel. Part of my goal during this years ACM week was to keep my radio station and all of it’s listeners, WPOR 101.9, informed with an inside look!

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Vegas Bound for “The Week Vegas Goes Country”!

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I’m a strong believer in chasing dreams, and I know that you must do whatever it takes to make your dreams happen! Blood, sweat & tears! I spent the entire month of March picking up extra jobs and extra hours from various places, hustling, and busting my butt to be able to afford to go to Vegas for ACM week this year. I’ve worked HARD, and I’ve earned it! I wasn’t willing to accept not being there this year, especially with this being the last ACM week before the big Nashville move! There are a lot of connections to make, tons of networking opportunities, and some amazing performances that I hope to catch! I’m also extremely excited about escaping the cold and the upcoming snow predictions!

I will be sharing my adventures LIVE on snapchat! You can add me manually at @country_hrtbeat or scan my snap code below! I can guarantee that my “stories” will be filled with some exclusive behind-the-scenes stuff! You definitely don’t want to miss out!

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I will also be posting photos to an album on my facebook page, so go LIKE my page and follow along for updates throughout the course of the week! It will almost be like you’re right there with me! Feel free to live vicariously through me!

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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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I’m the Dreamer, Soaking Up Every Line…

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NEW MUSIC MONDAY!

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I’m the dreamer, soaking up every line
Searching for truth all the time
The believer, that music can save a soul
The one who’s at every show, in the front row,
Singin’… 

Trying my best to not be a “basic white girl” right now, but… I can’t even. I can’t even get over the goosebumps that I felt hearing this song for the first time today, I can’t even describe to you how much joy my heart felt and how much that I could relate to every note and every lyric. I was literally blown away when I heard Charles Kelley’s new song, “The Driver” on WPOR this morning. Upon returning home and immediately looking up the lyrics/video and downloading it from iTunes, I discovered that Eric Paslay and Dierks Bentley also collaborate on what is SURE to be the 2016 ACM Vocal Event of the Year… if not DECADE. This song is going to soar to the top of the charts and win many, many awards. This masterpiece was beautifully written by Charles Kelley, Eric Paslay and Abe Stoklasa. It’s the story of the road… these artists on tour that pour their hearts and souls into every show. Me? I’m one of those dreamers, a believer, a singer… at every show, in the front row. I wouldn’t have it any other way! Please take a look and listen! You won’t be disappointed!

If you’d like to purchase this song from iTunes, click here!

Please let me know what you think below in the comments. I would love to hear from you. 🙂

 

 

 

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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