Tag Archives: Hot Country Songs

Raul Malo & The Mavericks to Receive Trailblazer Award at This Year’s Americana Honors & Awards

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Raul Malo and The Mavericks are officially trailblazers…

The 56-year-old Cuban American singer, songwriter, guitarist and record producer and his fellow The Mavericks band mates will be honored with the Trailblazer Award, as part of the lifetime achievement awards at the upcoming 20th annual Americana Honors & Awards show on September 22 at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium.

The Mavericks

The Mavericks join a roster of honorees that includes Keb’ Mo’, the Fisk Jubilee Singers, Trina Shoemaker and Carla Thomas.

Keb’ Mo’ will be honored with the Performance Award, the Fisk Jubilee Singers with the Legacy Award (which will be co-presented by the National Museum of African American Music), Shoemaker with the Producer-Engineer Honor and Thomas with the Inspiration Award.

The Honors & Awards ceremony serves as the highlight of the Americana Music Association‘s annual AMERICANAFEST, which will take place Sept. 22-25 in Nashville.

The Mavericks formed in Miami in 1989. In the 1990s they earned Top 20 hits on Billboard‘s Hot Country Songs chart, including “O What a Thrill” (peaked at No. 18), “All You Ever Do Is Bring Me Down” with Flaco Jimenez (No. 13) and “There Goes My Heart” (No. 20). In 2000, the group went on hiatus and lead singer Raul Malo released a series of solo albums. The group reunited in the 2010s and last year, they released their first all-Spanish language album.

Singing group the Fisk Jubilee Singers, of Fisk University, were inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 2000 and were awarded the National Medal of Arts in 2008. The original Fisk Jubilee Singers formed in 1871. Their music broke racial barriers both in the United States and abroad, while helping the group raise money for the school.

Since Kevin Roosevelt Moore launched his career in the early 1990s (and was rechristened Keb’ Mo’ around 1994), he’s earned five Grammy honors. In 1994, he released his self-titled debut project, which contained “Come on in My Kitchen” and “Kindhearted Woman Blues,” both covers of songs from blues icon Robert Johnson. Keb’ Mo’ has since performed everywhere from Sessions at West 54th to the Crossroads Festival to the White House. His 2019 album, Oklahoma, earned the best Americana album honor at last year’s Grammy Awards.

Illinois native Shoemaker aspired to become a record producer, first working in Los Angeles and London before moving to New Orleans. Shoemaker was noticed by producer Daniel Lanois, who made her a tape op and then a full engineer. She worked on projects for Iggy Pop, Giant Sand and on Emmylou Harris‘ Wrecking Ball. Then she began working with Sheryl Crow on Crow’s self-titled album and subsequent The Globe Sessions album, which earned Shoemaker her first Grammy honors, including a trophy for her engineering. Shoemaker has recorded, produced and/or mixed for artists including Whiskeytown, Matthew Ryan, and Josh Ritter, as well as more recent work on The Secret Sisters‘ You Don’t Own Me Anymore and Tanya Tucker‘s While I’m Livin’. Shoemaker is also the first woman to win the Americana producer/engineer lifetime award.

Thomas made a string of recordings for Stax and Atlantic Records in the 1960s, incorporating soul, country and gospel. The daughter of DJ, singer and performer Rufus Thomas, she began singing as a child, joining WDIA‘s Teen Town Singers at age 10. She earned an early pop and R&B hit “Gee Whiz (Look at His Eyes).” Thomas appeared on American Bandstand and recorded an album filled with duets with Otis Redding months before he died in 1967. In 1993, the Rhythm & Blues Foundation honored Thomas with its exclusive pioneer award. The inspiration award has only been granted once before, to fellow Stax/Atlantic recording artist Mavis Staples.

“We are beyond humbled to recognize this group of artists with our highest awards,” said Jed Hilly, executive director of the Americana Music Association. “All of these artists have transformed the way we listen and experience music and have helped to build a perennial foundation for Americana music to prosper as an art form today. Our community looks forward to welcoming them with open arms on our biggest night of the year in September.”

Scotty McCreery Earns Second No. 1 on Billboard’s Country Airplay Chart with “This Is It”

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Scotty McCreery is back at the top of the charts…

The 25-year-old part-Puerto Rican country singer and former American Idol champion has notched his second No. 1 on Billboard‘s Country Airplay chart, as “This Is It” ascends 2-1 in its 37th week on the chart dated February 16. 

Scotty McCreery

The ballad increased by 8 percent to 39.6 million audience impressions in the week ending February 10, according to Nielsen Music. 

On the airplay-, streaming- and sales-blended Hot Country Songschart, it enters the top five (6-4).

McCreery co-authored the song, with Frank Rogersand Aaron Eshuis, for his then-longtime girlfriend Gabi Dugal, and sang it at their wedding last June 16. 

“Two weeks before I proposed, we wrote ‘This Is It’ as a love song for Gabi,” McCreery tells Billboard. “It’s our story. If the song existed solely for she and I, that would be completely fine with me. But to have our story on the radio and then reach No. 1 on the Billboard chart just makes my heart sing. Gabi is my world, she inspires me every day, and I think people can feel the realness of our love story when they listen to the song and watch the video. The fact that so many couples are now using ‘This’ in their own weddings gives me chills.”

McCreery, who won American Idol in 2011, earns his second Country Airplay leader in a row from his album Seasons Change, which became his third Top Country AlbumsNo. 1 in March 2018. He notched his first Country Airplay No. 1 with the album’s first single, “Five More Minutes,” which led for a week the same month.

Dorough & the Backstreet Boys Return to the Billboard Hot 100 with Their Florida Georgia Line Collaboration “God, Your Mama, And Me”

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It’s the end of a decade-long drought for Howie Dorough…

The 42-year-old half-Puerto Rican singer and his fellow Backstreet Boys band mates have returned to the Billboard Hot 100 chart for the first time since 2007, as Florida Georgia Line‘s “God, Your Mama, And Me,” featuring the boy band, debuts at No. 92 on the chart (dated March 18).

Backstreet Boys

The Backstreet Boys had last appeared on the Hot 100 with “Inconsolable,” which reached No. 86 in September 2007.

The new collaboration is BSB‘s 17th Hot 100 hit (and first in a featured role). The group has tallied six top 10s, led by its highest-charting, No. 2-peaking 1997 breakthrough smash “Quit Playing Games (With My Heart).”

On the Hot Country Songs chart, “God, Your Mama, And Me” enters the top 20 (21-16) as the top Streaming Gainer, following the February 20 arrival of its official video, which stars both FGL and BSB. The song enters Country Streaming Songs at No. 15, up 31 percent to 2.8 million U.S. streams in the week ending March 2, according to Nielsen Music. It also pushes 6-5 on Country Digital Song Sales (20,000 downloads sold, up 27 percent) and 34-31 on Country Airplay (6.5 million in audience, up 14 percent).

Florida Georgia Line’s Brian Kelley remembers seeing Backstreet Boys in concert in 1998. “It was nuts,” he recently told Billboard. “People were just screaming, hooting and hollering all around.”

“To have the Backstreet Boys featured on [“God”] was something we kind of envisioned in the studio while recording it,” the duo’s Tyler Hubbard added. “To have that come to fruition was amazing. It really, really took that song to the next level.”

Said Backstreet Boy Kevin Richardson, “I’m a father of two boys, so I like how the song could have a double meaning. You could be talking about your children, or your spouse, or your love interest. I think it’s poetic, and it’s got a great melody.”