Tag Archives: WCW

NECM’s WCW: Hillary Scott

We, at New England Country Music, have decided to continue 2020 with our popular WCW (Women Crush Wednesday) series, where we spotlight women in country music. Each month we will feature a talented woman who is crushing the country music scene.

For March, we’re featuring the lovely singer/songwriter Hillary Scott. Unlike many of the WCW that have come before her, Scott was born right in Nashville, Tennessee. Her mother, Linda Davis, was building a career as a country music artist, and her father, Lang Scott, was working as a musician. With music running in her veins, at the young age of fourteen, she decided to follow in her parent’s footsteps. It was without a doubt that Hillary was bound for musical greatness.

Scott attended Middle Tennessee State University. After college, she began writing with Charles Kelley and Dave Haywood. With Hillary Scott taking the role of co-lead singer, the trio began performing as Lady Antebellum in 2006. In 2007 they signed with Capitol Nashville.

Lady Antebellum dropped their debut single, ‘Love Don’t Live Here,’ in the fall of 2007. Their self-titled, eleven-track, debut album was released in the Spring of 2008 and debuted at Number One on the Top Country Albums Chart. The trio released their second album, ‘Need You Now,’ in the winter of 2010. It sold over 481,000 copies the first week. In 2011, they released ‘Own the Night’ and in 2012 they dropped a Christmas album, ‘On This Winter’s Night.’ They went on the release three more albums: ‘Golden,’ ‘747,’ and ‘Heart Break.’ Their most recent single, ‘What if I Never Get Over You,’ dropped last spring from their latest album ‘Ocean.’

Lady Antebellum took home their first Academy of Country Music Award in 2008 for Top New Duo or Vocal Group. Since then, the trio has received seven more ACM Awards. Over the years, the trio has won six CMA Awards, seven GRAMMYS, four American Music Awards, and two Billboard Music Awards.

Alongside from her success with Lady Antebellum, Hillary Scott has also released some faith-inspired music. With her mother, father, and sister, the Scott family released their first album together, ‘Love Remains,’ in 2016. The thirteen-track record includes singles ‘Thy Will,’ ‘Beautiful Messes,’ ‘Love Remains,’ and ‘Still.’ At the 2017 Grammy Awards, Hillary Scott and the Scott Family’s ‘Love Remains,’ won for Best Contemporary Christian Music Album and ‘Thy Will’ won for Best Contemporary Christian Music Performance/Song.

Hillary Scott will be in New England this summer with Lady Antebellum. You can see them here:

Hartford, CT at the Xfinity Theater on June 14th.

Gilford, NH at the Bank of New Hampshire Pavilion on June 18th.

Bangor, ME at Darling’s Waterfront Pavilion on June 19th.

Mansfield, MA at the Xfinity Center on June 20th.

Be sure to download Lady Antebellum’s latest album, ‘Ocean,’ on Apple Music here.

You can stay connected with Hillary Scott by following her on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

Stay tuned for our next installment of WCW in country music. It is set to hit our page in April.

NECM’s WCW: Stephanie Quayle

We, at New England Country Music, have decided to continue 2020 with our popular WCW (Women Crush Wednesday) series, where we spotlight women in country music. Each month we will feature a talented woman who is crushing the country music scene.

For February, we’re featuring the lovely singer, songwriter, and musician, Stephanie Quayle. Her interest in music began when she was a young girl growing up in Bozeman, Montana. She began playing the piano when she was four and picked up the guitar a few years later. This WCW sang in her very first band when she was only sixteen.

Stephanie Quayle dropped her first single, ‘Drinking with Dolly,’ in 2016. She released her second single, ‘Winnebago,’ in 2017. Winnebago, along with The RV Loft and KOA, decided to sponsor her first U.S. tour. This same year, Rolling Stone Magazine named Quayle one of their Top 10 Artists to Watch. Rebel Engine Entertainment released her first album, ‘Love the Way You See Me.’ One of the eleven tracks, ‘Selfish,’ was her first song to reach the Billboard Country Airplay chart. This past fall, she released her five song EP, ‘If I Was a Cowboy.’

While talking about her latest EP with Rolling Stone, Stephanie Quayle mentioned: “When I think of cowboys, it’s not a gender thing to me. It’s a state of mind. That has been a huge part of me persevering and making decisions. When you’re out on the range, you don’t have always a lot of time to make choices. You have to really look at today and what has to happen today for tomorrow to show up.”

Quayle had the honor of performing alongside Lady Gaga and Alabama at a hurricane relief benefit concert, Deep from the Heart: The One America Appeal. She made her Grande Ole Opry debut in the spring of 2018. And she had the honor of being part of CMT’s 2019 Next Women of Country class.

We hope you were lucky enough to catch Stephanie when she was here in Foxboro at Six String Grill and Stage on February 7th. Her loyal fanbase, known as the “Flock of Quayle’s” really showed up that night. With the support of her fans, Quayle definitely got the crowd’s energy up for Jimmie Allen to hit the stage.

Be sure to download her latest EP, ‘If I Was a Cowboy,’ on Apple Music here.

You can stay connected with Stephanie Quayle by following her on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

Stay tuned for our next installment of WCW in country music. It is set to hit our page in March.

NECM’s WCW: Maddie & Tae

We, at New England Country Music, have decided to continue 2020 with our popular WCW (Women Crush Wednesday) series, where we spotlight women in country music. Each month we will feature a talented woman who is crushing the country music scene.

We’re kicking things off with a double dose of talented females, Maddie and Tae. This country music duo, both twenty-five-years old, is comprised of Madison (Maddie) Kay Font and Taylor (Tae) Elizabeth Dye. Maddie is from Sugarland, TX and sings lead vocals and plays the guitar as well as the mandolin. Tae is from Ada, OK and sings background vocals and also plays the guitar. While in high school, the pair met through their shared vocal coach and became friends. They started performing under the name ‘Sweet Aliana.’

Upon graduating high school, they both moved to Nashville and were picked up by Dot Records. These talented ladies wrote their debut single, ‘Girl in a Country Song,’ alongside Aaron Scherz. It was released in July 2014 and it peaked at number one on Billboard’s Country Airplay Chart in December. This was only the second time in history that a female duo’s debut single reached number one. The only other women to accomplish is was The Wreckers with their 2008 single ‘Leave the Pieces.’ ‘Girl in a Country Song’ was certified platinum by the RIAA and went on to sell over 650,000 copies in the USA. Later in 2014, Maddie & Tae dropped their four song, self-titled EP. They released their first album, ‘Start Here,’ in 2015. In early 2018, this WCW duo signed with Mercury Nashville and released two singles, ‘Friends Don’t’ and ‘Die From a Broken Heart.’ They went on to release two more Eps: ‘One Heart to Another,’ in April 2019 and ‘Everywhere I’m Goin’ in October 2019.

Maddie and Tae were nominated for Vocal Duo of the Year at the 2017 ACM Awards held in Las Vegas, NV.

Just this month, Maddie and Tae announced some super exciting news. They are heading out on their first headlining tour in over five years, the Tourist in This Town Tour. The tour will run from mid-April through mid-July, but will not be stopping anywhere in the Northeast.

Following their headlining tour, Maddie and Tae will be joining Jake Owen on Lady Antebellum’s Ocean 2020 Tour. Definitely grab your tickets now as they’ll hit four New England states this summer!

You can see them on June 14th at the Xfinity Theater in Hartford, CT, on June 18th at the Bank of NH Pavilion in Gilford, NH, on June 19th at Darling’s Waterfront Pavilion in Bangor, ME, and on June 20th at the Xfinity Center in Mansfield, MA.

Be sure to download ‘Girl in a Country Song’ on Apple Music here.

You can stay connected with Maddie and Tae by following them on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

Stay tuned for our next installment of WCW in country music. It is set to hit our page on Wednesday, February 26th.

NECM’s WCW: Jessie James Decker

We, at New England Country Music, are continuing our series spotlighting women in country music. While the acronym WCW, standing for ‘Women Crush Wednesday,’ is often used for physical attraction, that is not the case here. This series will feature talented women who are crushing the country music scene.

This week, we are introducing your country/pop singer/songwriter, reality television personality, and fashion designer Jessie James Decker. The thirty-one-year-old was born in Vicenza, Veneto, Italy. With her dad in the US Airforce, Decker lived all over the US including Iowa, Kentucky, Texas, and Louisiana. She is the oldest of three children. Just when she started to learn to talk, she began singing. She won her first talent contest, performing ‘I Want to Be a Cowboy’s Sweetheart,’ at the age of nine. A few years later, when she was fifteen, Jessie James Decker was already making trips back and forth to Nashville to work on her songwriting.

She signed with Mercury Records and dropped her debut, self-titled country/pop album in 2009. She released two more albums, ‘Southern Girl City Lights’ in 2017 and ‘On This Holiday’ in 2018. One of the tracks on ‘Southern Girl City Lights,’ ‘Almost Over You,’ is a collaboration with country sensation, Randy Houser.

Her musical influences include our recent WCW, Shania Twain, as well as Christina Aguilera, Jessica Simpson, and Janis Joplin.

Jessie James Decker had a role in the popular E! reality show Eric & Jessie: Game On, with her husband Eric Decker, an NFL wide-receiver. She has designed and launched, Kittenish, a clothing line with retail stores in Nashville and Florida.

We can’t wait to see where this WCW goes from here.

Jessie James Decker is busy raising her three children and does not have any tour dates scheduled for our area.

To get in the Christmas spirit, be sure to to download ‘On This Holiday,’ on Apple Music here. You’ll find four of Decker’s originals as well as covers of classic’s like ‘It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year,’ ‘Santa Baby,’ and ‘I’ll Be Home for Christmas.’

You can stay connected with Jessie James Decker by following her on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

Stay tuned for our last installment of WCW in country music. It is set to hit our page on Wednesday, December 18th.

NECM’s WCW: Shania Twain

We, at New England Country Music, are continuing our series spotlighting women in country music. While the acronym WCW, standing for ‘Women Crush Wednesday,’ is often used for physical attraction, that is not the case here. This series will feature talented women who are crushing the country music scene.

This week, we are featuring Eilleen Edwards, also known as Shania Twain! If you watched the 2019 American Music Awards last Sunday, 11/24, you caught an incredible performance. Twain hadn’t been on that stage in sixteen years, but she knocked it out of the park with some covers including Post Malone’s ‘Rockstar,’ Taylor Swift’s ‘Shake It Off,’ and Drake’s ‘God’s Plan.’ Of course, she sang some her own hits as well: ‘Any Man of Mine,’ ‘Don’t Impress Me Much,’ and ‘Man! I Feel Like A Woman.’

This Canadian born singer/songwriter has sold over one million records. Dubbed the “Queen of Country Pop,” she is one of the best-selling female country music artists. Twain grew up as Eilleen Regina Edwards with two sisters in Ontario, Canada. After a divorce, her mother remarried Jerry Twain, a full-blooded Ojibwa. Mr. Twain adopted all of the Edwards children. The family was quite poor and Shania started singing at local bars at the young age of eight to help her family pay the bills. She wrote her first song when she was ten. Her interest in music continued throughout high school where she played in the band ‘Longshot.’ After high school, she joined the band ‘Flirt’ and took singing lessons. When she was twenty-two, tragedy hit the Twain household. Both her mom and step-dad died in a car crash and she took on the responsibility of raising her siblings. When her siblings were grown and moved out of the house, Twain returned to her passion – music. She recorded a demo tape that was picked up by Mercury Nashville Records and they signed her shortly thereafter. In 1993, Eilleen changed her name to Shania, meaning “I’m on my way” in Ojibwa. She dropped her debut, self-titled album, this same year. Twain went on to release four more albums: ‘The Woman in Me,’ ‘Come On Over,’ ‘Up!,’ and ‘Now.’ Over her career, this WCW has headlined four tours.

Shania Twain was the first non-US citizen to win a CMA Award. In 1999 she took home the CMA Award and ACM Award for Entertainer of the Year. She was inducted into the Canadian Music all of Fame in 2011. And she received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. From 2017-2018 Shania Twain had her own exhibit at the Country Music Hall of Fame.

We can’t wait to see where this WCW goes from here.

Hopefully you were lucky to see Shania Twain in June of 2018, as she stopped at the TD Garden in Boston then. She will be filling up 2020 by playing ‘Let’s Go! – The Las Vegas Residency’ starting in December.

Be sure to download some of her earlier songs including ‘Any Man of Mine’ and ‘Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under?’ from ‘The Woman In Me’ on Apple Music here.

You can stay connected with Shania Twain by following her on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

Stay tuned for our next installment of WCW in country music. It is set to hit our page on Wednesday December 4th.

NECM’s WCW: Kacey Musgraves

We, at New England Country Music, are continuing our series spotlighting women in country music. While the acronym WCW, standing for ‘Women Crush Wednesday,’ is often used for physical attraction, that is not the case here. This series will feature talented women who are crushing the country music scene.

This week, we are featuring country singer/songwriter Kacey Musgraves. The thirty-one year old grew up in Texas and has one younger sister. Musgraves began showing an interest in music at a young age. When she was only eight, she wrote her very first song for her elementary school graduation. She started playing the mandolin, and before she was a teenager, she could play the guitar. Her family is pretty artsy as her mom is an artist, her dad owns a printing company, and her sister is a photographer!

When Kacey was eighteen, she moved to Austin, TX and was picked up by the independent record label, Triple Pop. Here, she recorded acoustic covers of One Republic’s ‘Apologize’ as well as Miley Cyrus’ ‘See You Again’ and both did well. Musgraves later signed with Mercury Nashville in 2012 and released her first single, ‘Merry Go Round.’ Her debut album, ‘Same Trailer Different Park,’ dropped in 2013. This WCW released three more albums: ‘Pageant Material,’ ‘A Very Kacey Christmas,’ and ‘Golden Hour.’ She has toured with starts such as Kenny Chesney, Lady Antebellum, Katy Perry, Willie Nelson, Alison Krauss, Little Big Town, and George Strait.

Over the years, Kacey Musgraves has taken home six GRAMMY Awards. In 2013 she won the CMA Award New Artist of the Year. A year later, she won the ACM Award Album of the Year for ‘Same Trailer Different Park‘ and a CMA Song of the Year for ‘Follow Your Arrow.’ In 2016 Musgraves won the CMA International Achievement Award. In 2017 she won the ACM Award Female Vocalist of the Year. The list continues in 2018 when she won the CMA Album of the Year for ‘Golden Hour.’ And this past year she took home the ACM Award Album of the Year for ‘Golden Hour.’

We are excited to see where #spaceykacey goes from here.

Kacey Musgraves does not have any New England dates on her current tour schedule but be sure to download her latest album, ‘Golden Hour,’ on Apple Music here.

You can stay connected with Kacey Musgraves by following her on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

Stay tuned for our next installment of WCW in country music. It is set to hit our page on Wednesday, November 20th.

NECM’s WCW: Trisha Yearwood

We, at New England Country Music, are continuing our series spotlighting women in country music. While the acronym WCW, standing for ‘Women Crush Wednesday,’ is often used for physical attraction, that is not the case here. This series will feature talented women who are crushing the country music scene.

This week, we are featuring the one and only Trisha Yearwood. You may know her as the country singer that is married to Garth Brooks, but you may not know that she is also an actress, author, television personality and celebrity chef.

Trisha Yearwood grew up in Georgia, the daughter of a schoolteacher and a banker. The fifty-four-year-old has always been passionate about music. Throughout her childhood, she performed in talent shows, community events, church functions, and musicals. She received an associate degree in business from Young Harris College and moved to Nashville in 1985. It was her job with MTM Records that really kicked things off for Yearwood. This is also where she first recorded demo tapes with her future husband, Garth Brooks. The two struck up a friendship, and in 1990, Yearwood sang background vocals on Brooks’ album ‘No Fences.’ She toured with Garth and released her debut, self-titled album in 1991. The lead single ‘She’s In Love With the Boy’ peaked at Number One on the Billboard Hot Country Songs Chart. This album went on to be certified double platinum by RIAA, making Trisha Yearwood the first female country artist to sell one million copies of her debut album. Over the next twenty-eight years, she released twelve more albums. We are excited to mention that she just released her latest single, ‘Every Girl in this Town,’ this past summer.

Trisha Yearwood has been on various television shows including Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman, Ellen, JAG, and Nashville. She has hosted a popular cooking show, Trisha’s Southern Kitchen, since 2012. And she has written several cook books including ‘Home Cooking With Trisha Yearwood,’ ‘Georgia Cooking in an Oklahoma Kitchen,’ and ‘Trisha’s Table: My Feel-Good Favorites.’

As far as awards go, this WCW has earned quite a few. She has received three GRAMMY Awards, 3 CMA Awards, 3 ACM Awards, and 1 Daytime Emmy Award.

We can’t wait to see Trisha Yearwood continue along the path of success.

Lucky for us, Trisha Yearwood will be at the Wilbur Theatre in Boston, MA on Friday, November 22nd. You can purchase tickets here.

Be sure to download ‘Every Girl in this Town’ on Apple Music here.

You can stay connected with Trisha Yearwood by following her on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

Stay tuned for our next installment of WCW in country music. It is set to hit our page on Wednesday, November 6th.

NECM’s WCW: Ingrid Andress

We, at New England Country Music, are continuing our series spotlighting women in country music. While the acronym WCW, standing for ‘Women Crush Wednesday,’ is often used for physical attraction, that is not the case here. This series will feature talented women who are crushing the country music scene.

This week, we are introducing you emerging country artist, Ingrid Andress. She grew up in Denver, CO along with three sisters and one brother. Ingrid was homeschooled throughout her elementary and middle school years and wrote her first song before her age reached the double digits. As a little girl, Ingrid loved playing sports, specifically soccer, just about as much as she loved music and songwriting. She learned to play both the piano and the drums. Andress attended a public high school where she enjoyed jazz and chamber choir as well as acting and musical theater. She earned a vocal scholarship to Boston’s Berklee College of Music and pursued a duel major in songwriting and performance. It was here that she was mentored by Kara DioGuardi and eventually joined the acapella group Pitch Slapped. The group competed on season two of NBC’s The Sing-Off and earned a CARA nomination. She also competed on season three of The Sing-Off with an all-female acapella group, Delilah, and placed sixth. After college, Andress moved to Music City to pursue her career in songwriting.

Ingrid Andress has cowritten songs for last month’s WCW, Lauren Jenkins, as well as Sam Hunt and Alicia Keys. She has recently released two singles ‘Lady Like’ and ‘More Hearts Than Mine.’

Though Ingrid Andress is fairly new to the country music scene. She is starting to make a name for herself. She was mentioned as one of Sound’s Like Nashville’s 19 New Country Artist’s to Watch in 2019 list. And she was recognized as one of CMT’s Listen up 2019 Artists and one of their Next Women of Country.

We can’t wait to see where this WCW goes from here.

Although Ingrid Andress has ties to Boston, she does not have any New England tour dates scheduled. She’s spending the next couple of weeks in the UK.

Be sure to download ‘More Hearts Than Mine‘ on Apple Music here.

You can stay connected with Ingrid Andress by following her on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

Stay tuned for our next installment of WCW in country music. It is set to hit our page on Wednesday, October 9th.

NECM’s WCW: Caylee Hammack

We, at New England Country Music, are continuing our series spotlighting women in country music. While the acronym WCW, standing for ‘Women Crush Wednesday,’ is often used for physical attraction, that is not the case here. This series will feature talented women who are crushing the country music scene.

This week we are excited to introduce you to Caylee Hammack. The twenty-four-year-old was raised in the rural town of Ellaville, Georgia. She grew up listening to legends like Loretta Lynn, Dolly Parton, Tammy Wynette, Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, and Merle Haggard. As a teenager, Caylee would often use fake IDs to get herself into bars and clubs to play gigs. At the age of nineteen, she made the move north to Nashville. Grinding it out in Music City, Hammack spent the daylight hours writing songs and the evening hours playing show after show on Broadway. Saving money wasn’t easy and she spent many nights sleeping in her car. Eventually, she landed a record deal with Universal Music Publishing Group.

She released her debut single, ‘Family Tree’ back in January. And has another single ‘Just Friends,’ which was released this past May. Hammack is currently working on her first album. In an interview with iHeart Radio this past June, she mentioned: “Country Music is telling stories. It is the stories of our lives. It’s the loves we’ve loved and lost. It’s everything that makes us, us – And I am just so excited that this is my very first record. These are all of my brand-new songs coming out, and these songs really tell my story. They tell the growing pains of growing up, figuring out who you are in a world that wants to tell you who you should be, and trying to find love, losing love, and trying to find yourself after that and the aftermath. This is a collection of stories for my life because this is my way of connecting to others, is telling stories and listening to theirs. So, here’s mine.”

She has joined names like Lori McKenna and John Mayer and won the ASCAP’s Sammy Chan Lyricist Award. Her music has been featured on the CMT Network show, Nashville. Also, she has been named one of Bobby Bones’ Class of 2019.

We can’t wait to see where this WCW goes from here.

Lucky for us, Caylee Hammack will be in Uncasville, CT at the Mohegan Sun Arena on Friday, September 13th and Saturday, September 14th.

Be sure to download ‘Just Friends‘ on Apple Music here.

And keep your eyes peeled for her debut album.

You can stay connected with Caylee Hammack by following her on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

Stay tuned for our next installment of WCW in country music. It is set to hit our page on Wednesday, September 11th.

NECM’s WCW: Lauren Jenkins

We, at New England Country Music, are continuing our series spotlighting women in country music. While the acronym WCW, standing for ‘Women Crush Wednesday,’ is often used for physical attraction, that is not the case here. This series will feature talented women who are crushing the country music scene.

This week, we’re happy to introduce you to our WCW, Lauren Jenkins. The twenty-seven-year-old singer/songwriter was born in Texas and raised in South Carolina. As a youngster, she swam competitively and had always enjoyed film making and photography. LJ, a nickname given to her by friends and family, began playing guitar and touring throughout the east coast when she was only fifteen. A few years later, she moved to New York to study acting and continue pursuing a career in music. LJ spent time modeling for Mellow Yellow and Coke while she also worked as a host for a wrestling TV show. She soon landed a record deal with Big Machine Label Group.

Lauren Jenkins dropped her first EP, ‘The Nashville Sessions,’ in 2016. In March of this year, Jenkins released her debut album, ‘No Saint.’ Fun fact: LJ co-wrote every track. And she even created and starred in an 11-minute short film for one particular song, ‘Running Out of Road.’

You can view that here.

In an article by Red Light Management, Lauren Jenkins said: “At its core, ‘Running Out Of Road’ is about persistence. The will to keep going, even after it feels like there’s no road left to travel. I’ve lived a lot of places and traveled a lot of miles and I’ve learned that there are some things you can’t escape…No matter how far you run. Sometimes, memories follow you wherever you go. It’s in the air, the sky, a stranger’s face, or, sometimes, some unexplainable feeling in a single moment. The lyrics of this song serve as a map: snapshots of places and moments I’ve lived through.”

Her accomplishments include being named one of Rolling Stones’ and New York Times’ New Artists to Watch.  She has been recognized as one of Bobby Bones’ 2019 Artists to Watch. Jenkins has also been named one of Billboard Magazine’s 10 Hot Country Artists to Watch. And she made her national television debut on NBC’s Today Show as Elvis Duran’s Artist of the Month for February 2019.

We’re excited to see this WCW’s path unfold.

Unfortunately, she doesn’t have any shows scheduled in the New England area.

Be sure to download ‘Running Out of Road’ on Apple Music here.

You can stay connected with Lauren Jenkins by following her on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

Stay tuned for our next installment of WCW in country music. It is set to hit our page on Wednesday, August 28th.