CMT Blog: Wildhorse Saloon

I had an amazing time this week at the CMA Music Festival! Things got kicked off early with the CMT Music Awards show. I got to perform on the Nationwide stage and actually took home the Nationwide award due to the fans voting! So thank you for voting for me! The next day we had a No. 1 party for "The Man I Want to Be" that was open to my fans. People showed up in force and the two songwriters, Brett James and Tim Nichols, were both there. My band and I played a few songs and I am still humbled by the legendary Gene Watson getting on stage and singing "Mama Tried" with me as a duet. It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience all the way around. I was also surprised with a plaque commemorating 500,000 digital transactions of "Gettin' You Home." Amazing! The next two days kept me busy with a HUGE crowd at Riverfront Park, playing the Opry guitar auction, my annual fan club party/birthday celebration (had an awesome time guys) and the CMT Fan Social at the Wildhorse Saloon. Finally, on Sunday (June 13), I signed in the booth without stopping from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. I was so excited that many people wanted to come by and see me. It was an amazing experience and I hope I get to do it again next year!

Prior to his performance at the Wildhorse Saloon in Nashville last night (June 7), Darius Rucker explained his new single, "Come Back Song," like this: "It's a little country tune that I wrote with Chris Stapleton, who's got that R&B groove to his writing, and Casey Beathard. It's one of those groovy little tunes about that guy who really messed up, you know? And he knows it."

So ... would that be an up-tempo single? Rucker burst out laughing at the thought. "Oh yeah! It would be something else if it didn't have tempo, you know that!" It will impact radio on June 28.

Read more...

You may want to change your CMA Music Festival travel plans for this. I know I am. Because if you come into Nashville a couple days early, on June 7, you could see Darius Rucker, Jamey Johnson, Jake Owen, Randy Houser and Radney Foster at the Wildhorse Saloon in Nashville. This is Rucker's first annual "Darius and Friends" concert to benefit St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. You can get general admission, standing-room-only tickets for $39.06. Or really dig down deep and pay $84.33 for the best seats plus some time in the meet-and-greet VIP lounge. Rucker is generous with so many charities, but St. Jude seems to be a priority for him. He has visited patients there and has performed at all kinds of events in support of the hospital. "The friends joining me for this benefit concert all share the same dream I do for a cancer-free world, but until that can happen, we need to raise awareness and funds for this incredible organization," says Rucker.

When does "sold out" not really mean a show is sold out? Rascal Flatts, Kellie Pickler, Jason Michael Carroll, Keith Anderson and Little Big Town have set aside super special VIP tickets for their fundraising Gift of Music show on Feb. 22. It's going to be at Nashville's Wildhorse Saloon. The reserved seats and general admission tickets sold out in 20 minutes, but if you want to do it up right, you can get a prime seat, a nice dinner and valet parking. It'll cost you $500 a ticket, and there's no word on what dinner will be (Stampede Platter? Delta Catfish? Fried Pickles?), but the money will go to a very good cause: the W.O. Smith Music School, which has been providing 50-cent music lessons to Nashville's underserved children for 25 years with a 160-member volunteer faculty of area musicians.

She may consider herself a "Backwoods Barbie," but today (Nov. 24), Dolly Parton is a bona fide city girl with the opening of her Dolly Parton's Trinkets & Treasures store right in downtown Nashville. It's in an old storefront on 2nd Avenue, right next door to the Wildhorse Saloon. Her music and videos will fill the air as her fans can pick up CDs, DVDs, T-shirts, hats, mugs and things for kids and tweens. And if you are one of the first 500 shoppers to spend more than $20, you'll get a free Backwoods Barbie tour book. I know from her video blog that Parton loves this time of year because she says, "The colors that God paints all the leaves with are amazing, and that cool morning air that you only feel in the autumn is just this side of heaven." So it makes sense that she'd choose fall to open the store. Well, that and the fact that even in a crummy economy, music memorabilia makes a perfect Christmas gift for any country lovers on your list.

Can the freshly crowned winner of CMT's Can You Duet really perform immediately after being named winners? I mean, won't they be too overwhelmed to sing? I guess we'll find out Saturday (Aug. 8), right after the show's big season finale. It's down to two twosomes: JB Rocket and Steel Magnolia. And the winning duo will head straight over to Nashville's Wildhorse Saloon right after the announcement. The only problem is, if you want to see the winners perform live, you really should get in line early at the Wildhorse. Hopefully, you'll be through the doors in time to watch the broadcast when it begins at 9 p.m. ET/PT. And you'll have a spot up front for listening to all that good country music.

I've only seen the Charlie Daniels Band live once, and it was excellent. A once-in-a-lifetime experience, I thought at the time. They did all their big hits, and Daniels fiddled like crazy and charmed the audience like no one I've seen since. But now the Grand Ole Opry member is going to be performing right at the Wildhorse Saloon in Nashville on Aug. 27. He hasn't done a downtown show since 2005, I've heard. But now he's doing this gig as part of the Nashville Songwriters Association International's "It All Begins With a Song" series. Best of all, though, if you pay a little extra for your ticket ($100), you get a meet-and-greet with the legend himself.

Can You Duet ? If not, can you at least go and watch other people duet? Yes, if you are free tonight (April 21) and live somewhere near Nashville's Wildhorse Saloon. That's where Naomi Judd will be holding court as the top-notch judge on CMT's Can You Duet music competition and spawner of acts like Joey & Rory, who will be performing at tonight's taping. It starts at 8 p.m. and is free of charge. So you'll get to hear some good country music, watch Judd impart her years of wisdom, see show host Lance Smith charm the contestants and maybe, just maybe, get your split second of fame during one of the audience shots. If you do go, report back here and tell us all about it.

When I think of camp, I think of campy things. Middle-of-the-night pranks, bologna sandwiches in the mess hall, catching fireflies, roasting marshmallows on a stick and singing "The Zulu King" with reckless abandon.

But this new camp is so not that kind of camp. For starters, CMT Camp Nashville gives you a country star name before you even register. Mine was Jesse Walton, then I put in a friend's name and his was John Boy Hickman. And there's no real camping involved in this camp. (You actually bunk at the boutiquey Hotel Indigo near downtown Nashville.)

Read more...

Last night (Feb. 2), I had the opportunity to see Dolly Parton and Ronnie Dunn, as well as members of Slaughter, Chicago and Night Ranger, plus many, many others performing under one roof at the Wildhorse Saloon in Nashville. These acts were brought together for a benefit concert, called Gift of Music, by the Dustin J. Wells Foundation in hopes of raising money for the W.O. Smith Nashville Community School to fund musical instruments for the less privileged.

Excited for the opportunity to see Dolly Parton perform, I arrived nearly three hours early in order to secure a good seat. I found a small table towards the front and made myself at home, chatting with those around me about what we were most excited to see. "Do you think she will sing ‘Jolene,'?" a lady asked me. "I sure hope so," I told her. But I don't think any of us realized just how many acts we'd be witnessing in one night. Though we knew there were more than a few, we had no idea there would be well over a dozen. We saw country, rock, ‘80s, bluegrass. ... You name it, we probably saw it.

Throughout the course of the evening, I'd have to say I most enjoyed Ronnie Dunn's "Red Dirt Road," and of course hearing Dolly on "I Will Always Love You." Although I was not as familiar with some of the other music, what a nice thought that so many artists and supporters came together to embrace the Gift of Music.