entury traditionalist, Nichols is an artist who is both timely and timeless – one who has racked up more than TWO BILLION cumulative audio streams/ views including a half-dozen No. 1 singles and ten Top 10 hits with a sound that blurs the boundaries between country music's past and present. It's an approach that has earned Nichols three GRAMMY nominations, a CMA award, an ACM trophy, a CMT “Breakthrough Video of the Year” Award as well as multiple gold and platinum-certified records. Nichols’ additional honors include awards from Billboard, Radio & Records and Music Row Magazine as well as a New York Times “Best-Albums-of-the-Year” nod. The celebrated star has appeared on national media programs ranging from the ACM Presents: Superstar Duets in CBS primetime to The Tonight Show, Jimmy Kimmel Live, The View, Entertainment Tonight and Austin City Limits. He also made his big screen debut in the feature film, Murder at Yellowstone City. Nichols’ 11th career studio album, Honky Tonks and Country Songs, is available now and includes Nichols’ first radio single from the album, “Better Than You,” (a duet with rising star Annie Bosko). 2d:T538,The Messenger is the newest release from Frankie Ballard. Produced by Tyler Bryant, the album showcases Ballard’s songwriting sweet spot between country, gospel, blues and rock ’n’ roll. “I thought, I’m just going to make a record that I want to make, one that sounds like the music I fell in love with when I first started playing guitar,” Ballard says. From the heavy riffing opener Dirty Church Clothes to the classic story-song with a backbeat Freight Train of Trouble (featuring backing vocals from Larkin Poe’s Rebecca Lovell) and the countrified stunner Cussin' In My Prayers, it’s a fresh and life-affirming answer to those well-intentioned questions he’s been getting about new music. “It’s like I’m starting all over again, with a whole new perspective,” he continues. “But at the same time, I feel like I’m in my prime.” The Messenger is out now on Rattle Shake Records.

Josh Turner, Joe Nichols, Frankie Ballard

Josh Turner

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