With all the negativity surrounding immigration in the news, Jimmy Kimmel wanted to remind us all that people are still coming to America and taking the oath of citizenship, and he thinks becoming an American should be more exciting than a trip to the DMV. So as a part of a very exciting welcome to some new American citizens, he invited Brad Paisley to sing a never-before-heard song about all the benefits and  possibilities open to them now. Marry a Kardashian? Check. Eat a stick of butter at a county fair? Yep. Blow off your fingers on the 4^th of July? Sleep outside an Apple store? Dress your dog like Lady Gaga and make him his own Instagram? Check, check and check. Sing along with Brad like a real American here. Because ‘MERICA. 

Dierks Bentley played the Today show August 1^st, which happens to also be known as “Dogust,” aka National Mutt Day, aka the official birthday of any pooch whose birthday is unknown. He performed on the plaza for thousands of screaming fans, and then fate stepped in and he went inside to talk to the Today crew.

To celebrate Dogust, they also had the founder of Muddy Paws Rescue in New York City on the show with some pups who were looking for forever homes. So there’s Dierks, holding an adorable little 8-week-old border collie mix named Goose. Or Garrett. Nobody’s sure which is which. But Dierks feels a connection with the little guy and says, “my kids have been hammering me for a third dog.” And he says his nickname for one of his daughters is Goose, so it’s obviously meant to be. So he calls home and talks to the wife, and… yep. Goose (the name he’s going with) is now a Bentley.

You know, there are a ton more shelter dogs who need forever homes. Can we help you find one perfect for your pack? https://www.petfinder.com/

Happy Dogust, y’all.

You’ve heard the new all-girl super group The Highwomen, right? And their debut song “Redesigning Women?” If you haven’t, you’re missing out, and you can remedy that by listening to our Nashville Now and #WCE Country stations, among others.

What you need to know is that four very talented women – Brandi Carlile, Amanda Shires, Natalie Hemby, and Maren Morris -- wanted to start a movement, a project that supports and gives voices to the women struggling to find success in country music. Brandi said the idea was to fix the problem from the inside, not to battle it. And the name has two meanings – one, a nod to The Highwaymen (made up of Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, and Kris Kristofferson), and the other meaning “high, like exalted. Above the fold,” she said in an interview.

And along with the four core members, we can expect collaborations from women across the musical spectrum, including songwriter Lori McKenna, Sheryl Crow, Miranda Lambert, and maybe some “feminist-adjacent” men, like producer Dave Cobb and Amanda’s husband and performer himself Jason Isbell. 

It looks like their biggest fan is Dierks Bentley, who, armed with a pipe and a smoking jacket, performed a dramatic reading of the lyrics. Watch here (and then watch it again)

The guys in Sister Hazel (and their crew) are basically heroes right now. 

It started when a crew guy heard a noise on the tour bus and told the tour manager, who was all, yeah, it’s probably the air compressor problems we’ve been having. But no. He went out and heard something too, so he shut down everything on the bus and heard.. meowing. WHAT. 

The guys tracked down the noise to the front battery compartment of the bus, where they found kittens. Six of ‘em. All little bitty and missing their mama.  A call to the bus company revealed that mama cat lived in an abandoned bus on the lot and had just had those babies a couple of weeks ago, and she must have moved them over to the Sister Hazel bus. Check it out here! 

That means they were under there when the bus left Nashville last Wednesday night, through a nine-hour drive to Florida, where the bus sat all day, and then through another six-hour drive to Ocala, where they were found Friday afternoon. Those babies are survivors! In fact, if I were going to name them, the choices would be obvious: Gloria Gaynor, Destiny’s Child, Beyonce, Bee Gee, Hank, and Tiger (as in “Eye of the..”) (think about it… there it is).

The good news is that someone at the venue happens to run a rescue and she gathered them all up and took them in. They’re all doing just fine and they’re called the Hazel Heads. There’s one boy and 5 girls, and they’ll be ready for adoption in about 9 weeks, so if you’re interested, reach out to Melissa Bell’s rescue. 

Nice work, Sister Hazel team.

If you haven’t seen the bottle cap challenge yet, you’ve probably been living under a rock. The idea is to deliver a perfect roundhouse kick to the top of a bottle, knocking the twist cap off without knocking over the bottle. 

This list of challengers in the country music world who’ve made the effort is relatively small, but fun. Like Blake Shelton, for example, who tried it on a bottle of his own brand Smithworks Vodka… and the results are funny, but not great. 

Songwriter and comedian Joe Denim put his own “spin” on it, also using a bottle of Vodka (his was Tito’s), but instead of a roundhouse kick, he did a roundhouse… uh.. guitar. Watch here.

Blanco Brown (of “The Git Up” fame on our Nashville Now station) tried it TWICE. Well, kind of. He was trying to follow Mariah Carey’s example of knocking it off with a high note (I call shenanigans). First, with a plastic water bottle.

And then, with glass. It still didn’t work, but props for hitting the same note, dude. DANG. Check it out here. 

A quick search of #bottlecapchallenge on Instagram shows there’s no shortage of people trying this, so it’s just a matter of time before we get them from other people. You know who should do this? Carrie Underwood. She’s super fit and with those legs she could do any dang thing. Come on girl, get on this!

It’s Pride Month, and Jake Owen Instagrammed his support for his friends and coworkers in the LGBT community, saying, “I’m inspired by people loving people no matter who you are.” So he googled “gayest songs of all time” (yes, really) and put his own spin on Cher’s “Believe” along with a message to love everyone. Check it out here.

P.S. Haters need not comment. One who did so on Jake’s post, saying she was sick that she had tickets to his show, got the following response:

BOOM. Mic drop. Happy Pride, y’all.

Yeah, Maren Morris did pose for Playboy, and she’s not sorry.

She also did an interview – did you know those were in that magazine? And most of it is about her career, and learning to love herself, and understanding that vulnerability isn’t a flaw.

She talks about those body shamers and slut shamers on social media: “Anytime someone is courageous or doesn’t try to blend in, it pisses people off.”

She says body shamers are asking to be shut down and she doesn’t regret a single time she’s done it.

Oh yeah, and she’s topless in several photos. She was inspired, she says, by Dolly Parton, who shocked the world when she graced the cover of the magazine in 1978. Other artists, too. “So many of the moves Dolly made in her career were about bucking the status quo, especially when it came to sexuality and gender norms within country music,” she says. “As a woman in country music—as a woman in any genre—it always fascinated me. So when I heard this magazine wanted to interview and photograph me, I thought, Okay, I’ve seen a lot of wonderful spreads you guys have done with artists I love, such as Halsey, so what the hell?”

Read the whole interview (and see the stunning photos) here.

Right now, everyone is talking about Lil’ Nas X and whether “Old Town Road” is or is not a country song. For the record, according to Live X Live listeners, at least the version where he collaborates with Billy Ray Cyrus is – it started on Nashville Now and so many people hit the heart button, we put it on Country Hits too, and from there it became so popular with our country listeners, it’s now in the top 40 country songs on our Weekly Country Countdown.

But Lil’ Nas X isn’t the first artist from outside the genre to make a “country” song that got people arguing about what is and is not country, nor is he the first to add an unexpected country collaborator to the song. So we took a look at some of the most unexpected collaborations between country artists and those from other genres, dug up all the back stories, and put them together in a new station:

The Twenty: Pop Goes Country

Remember the song that failed for Sting in pop, but when he added a country artist it became a hit? How about the boy band and the man band that worked together to make a pop hit one in country, too? Or the pot-and-KFC-fueled friendship that resulted in THREE unlikely collaborations? There’s a Columbian with a hillbilly, a singing competition winner and a rap star, and a rock legend who did a whole album with a bluegrass legend. Those stories are all in there, along with others that have fascinating stories.

You gotta hear it! And let me know what you think! Tweet us at @livexlive and @jesswrightradio.

There weren’t really a lot of surprises at this year’s CMT Music Awards, which aired live from Nashville. Carrie Underwood was the biggest winner, taking home trophies for Female Video of the Year for “Love Wins” and overall Video of the Year for “Cry Pretty.” Ashley McBryde finally got some love for “Girl Goin’ Nowhere” when she was awarded the Breakthrough Video of the Year win. Kane Brown, Keith Urban, Dan and Shay, Luke Combs and Zac Brown Band also took home a trophy each.

But let’s talk about Zac Brown for a second. Zac read from a scripted speech when he accepted his award, and that script included an F-bomb for his haters.

https://twitter.com/CMT/status/1136448622843834369

Luckily the censors were on the ball with that mute button – the way you hear it in that video is exactly the way I heard it live, although I’ve seen some internet chatter about some folks hearing him actually say the word. But come ON, Zac Brown. First, it’s a family show. As a dad himself, Zac should have noticed the kids in the room and thought about the ones watching and thought, “maybe there’s a different way I can express myself in my pre-planned speech I’m going to read from index cards.” Second, it was disrespectful to CMT to use that particular word – what if they hadn’t caught it? Would he be the one to pay their fine? But third, he’s not totally wrong. Haters CAN… well, you know.

Other moments of note: Seeing Luke Combs in a nice suit jacket and NOT looking like he’s about to change your oil. And don’t think we didn’t see that he switched out his usual red Solo cup for a much fancier blue Solo cup. Kelsea Ballerini’s acoustic opening to “Miss Me More” was FIRE. When Dan + Shay’s “before” picture was Brothers Osborne. And how are you gonna have Boyz II Men on there and not let them do even a little bit of Motownphilly? I’m still mad. And finally, today’s leg day workout was dedicated to Carrie Underwood, because on top of being an amazing vocalist and the biggest winner of the night, she is 100% #LegGoals.

I can’t believe you have to wait until September 27^th to hear Jon Pardi’s new album Heartache Medication. He had a few of us out to his house this week to listen to it, and it is SO. GOOD. And so very country – if you’re one of those people who complains about “today’s country” not being country enough, this album will make you very, very happy.

Jon Pardi introducing his new album at a listening party at his house. Photo credit: Jess Wright

In addition to the title track, which you can already hear on our Nashville Now station (https://www.slacker.com/station/nashville-now), the 14-song album also includes a duet with Lauren Alaina, which was written by Eric Church and Miranda Lambert. Jon himself wrote half of the songs.

Right after the party, he released the album cover and track listing, which will have to tide you over until September 27^th.

HEARTACHE MEDICATION TRACK LISTING

1.  “Old Hat” (Jeff Hyde, Matt Jenkins and Ryan Tyndell)
2. “ Heartache Medication” (Jon Pardi, Barry Dean and Natalie Hemby)
3.  “Nobody Leaves A Girl Like That” (Bart Butler, Marv Green and Jimmy Yeary)
4.  “Ain't Always The Cowboy” (Brandon Kinney and Josh Thompson)
5.  “Me And Jack” (Jon Pardi, Rhett Akins, Bart Butler and Luke Laird)
6.  “Don't Blame It On Whiskey (Featuring Lauren Alaina)” (Eric Church, Michael Heeney, Luke Laird and Miranda Lambert)
7.  “Tied One On” (Bart Butler, Chase McGill and Jamie Paulin)
8.  “Oughta Know That” (Jon Pardi, Bart Butler and Luke Laird)
9.  “Tequila Little Time” (Jon Pardi, Rhett Akins and Luke Laird)
10. “Buy That Man A Beer” (Clint Daniels, Justin Lantz and John Pierce)
11. “Call Me Country” (Jon Pardi, Bart Butler and Driver Williams)
12. “Just Like Old Times” (Jon Pardi, Jeff Hyde and Michael Heeney)
13. “Love Her Like She's Leaving” (Bart Butler, Dean Dillon and Jessie Jo Dillon)
14. “Starlight” (Jon Pardi, Bart Butler and Jeffrey Steele)