Come one, come all, and get your dose of Idols Gone Country! We welcome Scotty McCreery and Lauren Alaina into the mix, with new music news for Casey James, Carrie Underwood, Kellie Pickler, Josh Gracin, and Kristy Lee Cook, plus word on when we can expect Bucky Covington’s long delayed sophomore album, some new performance video and music from Bo Bice, and a photo of Crystal Bowersox getting involved in a charity event with a bunch of country acts.
- Josh Gracin is a country Idol gone pop/soul with his new single “Long Way To Go”. Check out the song, which has been sent to Adult Contemporary radio here and has already reached #35 as reported by Kirsten: mms://wm.allaccess.com/allaccess/joshlong.wma
Josh’s 3rd album is set to be released on September 6, 2011 according to his official site. His new single is available for purchase: here.
- Bo Bice joins CNN Headline News anchor Robin Meade on her newly released country album for a duet cover of “Right Here Waiting, ” originally a pop smash by AI’s biggest fan (snerk), Richard Marx. Check them out performing the song live at CMA Fest and buy the song here.
Also check out ADORABLE video of Bo’s sons Aidan and Caleb joining him for a mashup of Mel McDaniel’s “Stand Up”, Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Sweet Home Alabama, ” and Bo’s own “Long Road Home.”
- Casey James’s “Drive” writing credits, REVEALED! The song is cowritten by CaseyJ and Brad and Brett Warren. Brad and Brett Warren are frequent collaborators with Tim McGraw with whom they cowrote songs like “If You’re Reading This”, “I’ve Got Friends That Do”, and “Between The River & Me.” They’ve also cowritten a lot recently with Martina McBride for songs like “Anyway” and “Teenage Daughters”. Casey now has a writer ID with performing rights organization BMI. When he starts registering songs, you can check out the list here.
- Meanwhile as Carrie Underwood gets set to begin recording her 4th album, the titles of 6 new Carrie cowrites have surfaced. Credit to Typo for finding the first 2, the rest surfaced at CarrieFans.com.
” I Heard It In A Song” and “Set It On Fire are cowritten by Carrie, Luke Laird, and Shane McAnally. Shane McAnally cowrote Lee Ann Womack’s “Last Call” and Kenny Chesney’s recent #1 hit “Somewhere With You.” He has also cowritten with Casey James and had a couple of his cowrites recorded by Kellie Pickler for her upcoming album (though it’s not known whether those songs have made her album). Luke Laird has been a frequent collaborator of Carrie’s starting with Carnival Ride, where he cowrote “So Small” and “Last Name, ” as well as “Temporary Home, ” “Undo It, ” “Mama’s Song” and the title track of Carrie’s 3rd album Play On.
The “Undo It” and “Mama’s Song” team of Carrie/Luke Laird/Kara DioGuardi/Marti Frederiksen has 2 new cowrites: “Heartbreak Boots” and “Neverlasting Love”
The 6th cowrite that’s surfaced is called “Do You Remember When” and it’s written by Carrie with her friend and frequent collaborator Hillary Lindsey and Mike Elizondo. Mike Elizondo is mainly a pop/rock/hiphop guy (who’s worked with Kris Allen among others) but he cowrote “Cowboy Casanova” with Carrie. Speaking of “Cowboy Casanova, ” its writers Carrie, Mike Elizondo, and Brett James have teamed up again to cowrite “Girls Like Us.”
Yesterday, Carrie spent the day hanging out with participants in the ACM Lifting Lives camp as reported in today’s Headlines thread. Check out more pictures from the session at Gossip Girls.
- Taste Of Country’s article on Scotty‘s top 20 country hit “I Love You This Big” confirms that the song was originally written by Jay Smith and Ronnie Jackson (as we previously reported here), but its verses and bridge were rewritten by Brett James and pop writer Ester Dean to fit Scotty.
Meanwhile Scotty may have started recording more tracks. Songwriter Thomas Rhett Akins, Jr. recently tweeted:
Scotty mccreery just cut one of my songs! Wool hoo!!!
He’s the son of songwriter Rhett Akins, one of the Peach Pickers (arguably country music’s hottest songwriting trio in terms of hits lately) who is also confirmed to be pitching songs to Scotty. Akins Jr. landed his 1st major cut when Jason Aldean recorded “I Ain’t Ready To Quit” for his current smash album My Kinda Party.
- In this interview with WIZS, Bucky Covington reports that he has just about worked out a deal with a new record label that he hopes will allow him to release a new single in July/August and his sophomore album I’m Alright by the end of the year. Check out Bucky performing an acoustic version of the title track of his upcoming album here:
- In his latest blog David Hodges writes:
oh, and there’s a good chance you’ll hear a song i cowrote on Lauren Alaina’s new album.
David Hodges has worked with Idols aplenty including Kelly Clarkson, Daughtry, David Cook, Allison Iraheta, Kris Allen, Katie Stevens, Lee DeWyze, and maybe most relevant for Lauren, Carrie Underwood with whom he cowrote “What Can I Say” from Play On and “There’s A Place For Us” for The Chronicles Of Narnia: Voyage Of The Dawn Treader (they have also cowritten for Carrie’s upcoming album).
- A new Kellie Pickler cowrite has surfaced. It’s called “I Do” and it’s cowritten by Kellie, Brandy Clark, and Jessie Jo Dillon. Awwwwww, a wedding song perhaps? Based on the credits this is a different song than “Say I Do” which Kellie’s husband Kyle Jacobs wrote for her. Brandy Clark cowrote “Cry” and “The Day She Got Divorced” from Reba’s current album <i>All The Women I Am</i>. Jessie Jo Dillon is the daughter of Dean Dillon who is also writing for and cowriting with Kellie for her new album. The father/daughter duo teamed with Casey Beathard in writing George Strait’s “The Breath You Take”.
- Check out Kristy Lee Cook performing an acoustic version of a song she has on hold for her next album, which will be released by Broken Bow Records. The song is called “Night Out In The Country” and Kristy Lee is performing it at a Key West Songwriters Festival showcase (since she has the song on hold, she didn’t cowrite it):
- Crystal Bowersox recently joined country acts like Steel Magnolia, Carter’s Chord, Jimmy Wayne, Margaret Durante, and Coldwater Jane to stuff backpacks as part of Feeding America’s BackPack Program as part of CMT’s donation to the program. Check out a photo from the event via Music Row:
NOTE: Couldn’t find anything newsworthy on Aaron Kelly and Danny Gokey that wasn’t already covered before. “Big Old World” is a Danny cowrite now registered at BMI but we’d already covered the existence of the song 6 months ago. But at least there’s a confirming link now.
As always, discuss, and if there’s additional news items that should be up here, please post in comments! Enjoy!!
