Eric Church adds another layer of nostalgia to his hard-rocking anthem, “Heart on Fire,” with a music video that looks back at the history of the singer’s career.

Only true fans of the Chief will catch all the subtle references that the clip includes to past hit songs and videos. That emphasis on staying loyal to his fan base is par for the course for Eric: He has a long history of releasing new music to his Church Choir fan club first, and his latest triple album, Heart & Soul, contains one disc that he made available exclusively on vinyl for Church Choir members.

No detail is too small in the “Heart on Fire” video. For example, even the singer’s older hairstyles make an appearance in the clip.

“Heart on Fire” is currently inside country radio’s top 25. It’s the third single to come off of Heart & Soul, following “Stick That in Your Country Song” and the chart-topping “Hell of a View.”

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This week, newcomer Elvie Shane reaches the pinnacle of the country chart with his debut single, “My Boy.”

While the moving take on step-fatherhood is several years old, Elvie and his co-writers knew from the very beginning it was special. 

“From the day we wrote that song, we’ve called it a God song, and we felt like it was a gift,” Elvie tells ABC Audio. “And I like to say it was like four years before I wrote another song that anybody was interested in doing anything with. So there’s the proof in the pudding, right?”

Now that Caleb, the inspiration behind “My Boy,” is a teenager, Elvie says his stepson is just beginning to realize the significance of the song.

“He was only nine, ten when I wrote the song, so not much response out of him at that age, not really having a grasp on the emotion or what the song really meant,” Elvie reveals. “But I have seen that song grow with my son, and I’ve seen our love grow during the life of this song.”

He continues, “And I think, you know, at this point, he’s really realizing what a blessing this song has been and how much it’s done for our family and how much it’s, you know, doing for our family at this point in our lives.”  

Elvie’s family continues to grow, as he and his wife, Mandi, welcomed a baby girl they named Zaelyn Journey in July. His full-length debut, titled Backslider, arrives October 29.

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Eric Church is releasing the video today for his latest single, “Heart on Fire.” He’s already released a teaser. 

Charley Pride will be posthumously honored with the RIAA Lifetime Achievement Award at the National Museum of African American Music in Nashville. Garth Brooks will present the award to Charley’s son, Dion, at the ceremony on October 25.  

Riley Green‘s debut #1 single, “There Was This Girl,” has been certified Platinum by the RIAA. 

“One Big Country Song” duo LoCash has extended their publishing deal with BMG. 

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Ahead of the release of their album, What a Song Can Do, Lady A has dropped a preview of their all-star collaboration with Thomas Rhett, Carly Pearce and Darius Rucker, “Friends Don’t Let Friends.” 

“You know friends don’t let friends drink alone/Gotta have a little help to get that memory gone/If you’re gonna make a bad decision/You shouldn’t make it on your own/Yeah friends don’t let friends drink alone,” they sing in unison over a lively, guitar-heavy melody.

The trio offered a teaser of the track in an Instagram clip that shows scrolling photos of the longtime friends through the years, including a photo of Darius inviting Lady A to join the Grand Ole Opry, Thomas and Lady A’s Charles Kelley playing a round of golf, and Carly performing on stage with the group as the opening act on their What a Song Can Do Tour. 

“Friends don’t let friends drink alone…it’s true! Loved getting to collaborate with some of our friends on the upcoming record,” the trio writes. 

What a Song Can Do drops on Friday. It includes seven new songs, alongside the original seven featured on What a Song Can Do (Chapter 1) that was released in June.

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Luke Bryan is ready for the new season of American Idol. 

On Tuesday, the country superstar shared a selfie of him and fellow judges Lionel Richie and Katy Perry and host Ryan Seacrest on the set as they film auditions for the show’s upcoming 20th season. 

“Things are looking UP for our 20th year of @americanidol. Who’s ready?” Luke writes alongside the photo, which shows the foursome smiling while gathering around a cake celebrating the milestone season with a “20” topper. The caption also references his new single, “Up.” 

The official AI Instagram account also shared a snap of the team posing around the cake, which bears the show’s famous logo.  

“We’re filming on the Sunset Strip this week! Season 20’s gonna rock, no matter how you slice it,” the picture is captioned. 

This marks Luke’s fifth season as a judge on the American Idol reboot. Season 20 will air in 2022 on ABC. 

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Cuteness overload! Before a recent show, Kane Brown captured a sweet moment of his two-year-old daughter Kingsley dancing around the stage, and by the looks of it, she takes after her dad’s love of music.

Donning a pair of noise-cancelling headphones and a pink fuzzy bunny-ear headband to match, Kingsley can be seen moving and shaking on stage along to the instrumental beat as the band rehearses one of her dad’s songs in the background.  

The superstar himself gets in on the fun, too, swaying and shaking his hips alongside the infant. Kingsley gets particularly excited during the breakdown, running in circles around the stage.

“Adorable Katelyn and Kane love this,” a fan comments. “She is absolutely precious!! The love this family shows is beautiful. Thanks for sharing,” praises another, while yet another fan predicts, “She is too cute. They are going to come to see her sing soon.”

Kane and his wife Katelyn welcomed Kingsley in October 2019. Kane’s in the midst of his Blessed & Free Tour, which continues through early next year.

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Russell Dickerson has written a banger, and he couldn’t wait to share it with fans. 

Russell turned to TikTok to show off the chorus of an untitled track he’s penned, in which tequila and the music of John Denver set the tone for a romantic night at home with his wife. 

“She likes it when I pour tequila/’Cause she knows that we about to/Have ourselves a little night/When I play John Denver/Through that little Bose speaker/And I start dimming those lights/And she knows by the way that I’m kissing on her/That we ‘gon take our time,” Russell sings in the chorus, poised in front of a microphone at a desk in his studio as he lip-syncs along to the hip-hop infused number. 

“Yoooooooo! Just wrote this one!!! Somebody please put a verse on thissssss,” the singer excitedly writes in the caption. 

“That sounds awesome dude!!” one fan cheered in the comments, with another raving, “Give it to us RD!!!!” accompanied by several fire emojis. 

While he’s still putting the finishing touches on this new track, Russell is climbing the charts with his single “Home Sweet” that’s currently in the top 20 on country radio.

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Garth Brooks is heading to the Mother Church of Country Music for a special show next month.  

The icon announced on Inside Studio G on Monday that he’s hosting An Intimate Evening with Garth Brooks at The Ryman Auditorium on November 19 and 20. The two-night series at the famed Nashville venue finds Garth performing an up-close and personal set wherein he shares the stories behind the songs. 

Tickets cost $250 and are available in limited quantity; the venue will not be sold to capacity. 

“Always team your name with something much bigger than your name,” Garth expressed upon announcing the show on Inside Studio G. “Tickets are going to be extremely limited. We didn’t want to put a seat in the house that didn’t feel like you were sitting right there onstage with us.”

Tickets go on sale Friday at 11 a.m. ET.

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When Darius Rucker sings “I can’t play piano like Ray Charles” in his latest hit, “My Masterpiece,” he’s telling the absolute truth.

But it’s not for lack of trying.

“The one thing that I’m starting to do… is I’m learning to play piano,” he told reporters in August of 2020. “I got this big keyboard in my house…And so finally, I’m going online and taking probably, you know, an hour a day, four or five days a week, and trying to learn how to play that thing.”

By February of this year, however, Darius confessed he hadn’t exactly been keeping up with his piano lessons.

“Oh, of course, I didn’t stick with it, come on!” he laughs. “This is me. Come on! Of course, I didn’t. I took two lessons and haven’t been back on the piano since.”

The experience did inspire a line in his latest single, however.

“The funny thing is, one of the guys I write with saw an interview with me and he was talking about me playing the piano,” Darius explains, “And… one of the lines I used was, ‘I can’t play piano like Ray Charles.’ And now that’s like the big payoff in the song… because it was just so funny.”

Darius adds, joking, “I can’t play piano like, you know, David Charles right now. I’m awful! I didn’t even stick with it. I should have.”

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Zac Brown Band will perform on Good Morning America on Thursday on ABC.  

Mickey Guyton will perform at the 2021 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony in honor of new inductee, Tina Turner. The show will air on HBO and HBO Max on Nov. 20 at 8 p.m. ET.   

Lee Brice, Dustin Lynch and Michael Ray are among the artists who performed for Lee Greenwood at his recent tribute concert at the Von Braun Center in Huntsville, Alabama. It was the third-highest-grossing event in the venue’s history.  

Carly Pearce will perform a free concert October 23 at The Royal Beach at Atlantis Paradise Island, a resort in the Bahamas. 

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