Country Update BILLBOARD.COM/NEWSLETTERS JULY 8, 2019 | PAGE 1 OF 21 INSIDE BILLBOARD COUNTRY UPDATE [email protected] Blake, Blanco Country’s New Kids On The Block: ‘Git Up’ To No. 1 >page 4 Fresh Sounds For The Last Half Of 2019 Songland Pays Dividends The world at large may seem combative and difficult at stance that threads a psychedelic-throwback element into a >page 10 the moment, but new country artists are approaching the solid Southern foundation. atmosphere harmoniously. Here’s a look at the six acts breaking out during the back Six acts are expected to file their first album or EP during half of 2019 with the equivalent of their first album or EP for the last six months of 2019, and two of them are groups with a prominent country label: ‘Highwomen’: distinct harmonic • Avenue Beat A Song To Die For approaches at their (Valory/Tape Room) >page 11 cores. — Songwriter Ashley Valory’s Avenue Gorley (“Rumor,” Beat b r i n g s “Living”) expands together three i n t o p r o d u c t i o n Old Dominion Sets female 2016 as his firm, Tape Album Date graduates from a Room, launches >page 11 Midwestern high female harmony school with age- trio Avenue Beat in appropriate slang conjunction with Big Makin’ Tracks: and sly sarcasm. Machine Label Group. Andress Packs An And Stoney Mixing acoustic Emotional Punch Creek’s K i n g instrumentation >page 16 Calaway, plotting and programmed its first full album sounds, the act after a January EP, formed in Quincy, Ill., stacks six males in PHILLIPS WILSON COUNTS a short skip across the Country Coda: harmony while Mississippi River from Underwood, pinpointing a sonic residence somewhere between a boy band Mark Twain’s hometown, Hannibal, Mo. It ought to appeal to Lambert, and Restless Heart. college-aged peers with lyrics that reference Macklemore as ‘Bad’ News Arista’s Robert Counts and Big Machine’s Josh Phillips well as two fast-food chains, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut, that fit >page 21 lean traditional, and Curb solo male Filmore pushes the most young adults’ budgets. progressive-pop edge of the genre. Broken Bow’s Lainey • Robert Counts (Arista) — Officially added to the Sony Wilson, the lone solo female in the bunch, offers a drawling artist roster in January, Counts resides in the same rough-cut BERINATO MATTHEW COUNTS: STEDDOM. JESSICA WILSON: MYERS. JASON PHILLIPS: BILLBOARD COUNTRY UPDATE JULY 8, 2019 | PAGE 2 OF 21 vocal territory as Brantley Gilbert and Tyler Farr, but his arrangements are more centrist, framing him less as a dangerous country-rocker than as a thoughtful country mainliner with occasional folk leanings. Co-produced by Dann Huff (Keith Urban, Brett Young) and Jimmy Ritchey (Jake Owen, William Michael Morgan), Counts’ initial output packages fatherly advice, love and religion with street-wise common sense. • Filmore (Curb) — After a lengthy developmental period as a self-driven indie act, Filmore finally will lob his debut album into the market in December. Favorably compared to Sam Hunt, his brand of country skews modern and positive, appropriate for a solo artist who has aligned himself with Kane Brown headlined when KBEQ Kansas City hosted its Y’allapalooza the Musicians On Call program for recovering show on June 29 at the Providence Medical Center Amphitheater in hospital patients. Filmore’s first national radio Bonner Springs, Kan. From left: KBEQ PD Todd Nixon, Brown, KBEQ single, “Slower,” is at No. 49 on Country Airplay, music director T.J. McEntire and RCA director of regional promotion and his tour calendar already has him working Mallory Michaels. FILMORE into November, thanks in part to early exposure on multiple streaming platforms. • King Calaway (Stoney Creek) — The six-piece band’s self-titled debut EP emerged on Jan. 25. Now a full album is in the mix for an Oct. 4 release. The all-male ensemble brings a youthful outlook and tight, full- band harmonies to the party. The group already has opened a stadium date for Gar th KING CALAWAY Brooks and sung at the Grand Cassadee Pope (center) signed a songwriting deal with BMG Music Ole Opry with Ricky Skaggs. Publishing. She is shown with BMG Nashville creative director of A&R Its inaugural single, “World for Two,” resides at No. 55 on Country Airplay. Courtney Allen and BMG Nashville executive vp Kos Weaver. • Josh Phillips (Big Machine) — A product of rural Lee County, N.C., Phillips’ voice mixes a Jason Aldean dialect with a tone that resembles both Riley Green and Alabama’s Randy Owen. His self-titled EP, which snuck into the marketplace on July 5, features some laptop-era influence but owes a greater debt to Southern-rock snarl and honky-tonk bravado. Jonathan Singleton and Randy Montana — two songwriters previously signed as artists in their own right — produced Phillips’ four-track debut. • Lainey Wilson (Broken Bow) — The Louisiana native self-released her first EP in 2018, and it functioned a bit as an audition for her first formal EP with a Music Row firm. It also brought the attention of producer Jay Joyce (Eric Church, Ashley McBryde), who’s overseeing the new effort. None of that music is available yet, though her previous tracks are edgy and Waterloo Revival performed a show for WPOR Portland, Maine, loaded with attitude, appropriate for such titles as “High on Somethin’ ” on June 27. From left: WPOR morning host Jon Shannon, Waterloo and “Middle Finger.” Her Janis Joplin/earth mama fashion tendencies Revival’s George Birge, WPOR brand manager J.R. Ruppel and Waterloo also give Wilson a freshly distinct country countenance. Revival’s Cody Cooper. HECKBER CODY POPE: DECISIVE INTELLIGENCE. DELIVERED DIGITALLY. CLICK HERE FOR FREE DELIVERY DIGITAL NEWSLETTERS BILLBOARD COUNTRY UPDATE JULY 8, 2019 | PAGE 4 OF 21 ON THE CHARTS JIM ASKER [email protected] Blake Shelton’s ‘God’s Country’ Crowns Country Airplay; Blanco Brown Moves ‘Up’ To No. 1 On Hot Country Songs Blake Shelton banks his 26th Billboard Country Airplay No. 1 as “God’s Country” in its fifth week on Hot Country Songs. It also leads Country Streaming Songs (Warner Music Nashville/WMN) ascends 2-1 in its 15th week (on the list dated and Country Digital Song Sales for a second week each, with 21.6 million streams July 13). It reaches the summit with an 8% increase to 40.2 million audience (up 19%) and 34,000 sold (up 39%). It increases by 9% to 786,000 country radio impressions in the week ending July 7, according to Nielsen Music. audience impressions as it ranks just below Country Airplay (while sporting On Hot Country Songs, which comprises airplay, streaming and sales data, 3 million in all-genre radio reach, up 55%, thanks to pop play). the song is No. 2 after leading Aiding the “The Git Up” is a viral for six weeks, Shelton’s longest dance challenge on TikTok and reign. It also drew 12.4 million U.S. YouTube; Brown himself posted a streams and sold 19,000 in the week tutorial in May. The Atlanta native, ending July 4. who wrote and produced the song “I can’t say enough about the solo, previously produced songs for power of this song,” Shelton tells pop/hip-hop acts including Chris Billboard. “The first time that I heard Brown, Fergie and Pitbull. “When ‘God’s Country,’ I knew I wanted to I got done [writing it] and danced record it after hearing just one verse through the whole thing, I was like, and chorus. I feel the song fills a ‘Man, I have to get in shape!’ ” he gap not being served [musically] in recently told Billboard. “This is a country right now. I’m so glad to be a great workout song.” part of it, and I’m thrilled the fans are “The Git Up” is dedicated to finding the same [connection] with Brown’s grandmother, who told it that I do.” him every morning, “Get up. Go do Shelton now ties Alan Jackson something productive in the world.” and George Strait for the third- SHELTON BROWN “It’s about messages [in] my music,” most No. 1s in the chart’s history, he said. “Bigger than anything is which dates to January 1990. Kenny chasing your purpose in life.” Chesney leads with 30, followed by Tim McGraw with 29. Notably, “The Git Up” completes the quickest trip to the Hot Country Songs Devin Dawson, Jordan Schmidt and Hardy co-wrote “Country,” which is summit since Sam Hunt’s “Body Like a Back Road” pushed 2-1 in its second Shelton’s first Country Airplay No. 1 since “I’ll Name the Dogs” on Dec. 30, 2017. week on the Feb. 25, 2017-dated tally. The latter proceeded to rule for 34 weeks. He first led with his debut hit, “Austin,” for five weeks in 2001. On the all-genre, multimetric Billboard Hot 100, the song soars 29-16 for a Concurrently, Garth Brooks’ “Dive Bar,” featuring Shelton, bumps 26-24 on new peak. Country Airplay (8.7 million, up 10%) and re-enters Hot Country Songs at No. 47; it debuted at its Nos. 16 and 34 respective highs two weeks ago. DAN + SHAY + ‘MYSELF’ Dan + Shay notch their seventh Hot Country Songs top 10 as “All to Myself” (Warner Music Nashville) rises 11-9. The track reaches BROWN ‘UP’ TO NO. 1 Blanco Brown’s breakthrough hit, “The Git Up” (Trailer the upper tier with 6.8 million U.S. streams (up 13%) and 5,000 sold (up 28%).