Music

Hardy is engaged! 

The hit singer-songwriter revealed in an Instagram post that he proposed to girlfriend Caleigh Ryan at The Lyric, a historic theater and live music venue in Oxford, Mississippi. 

Surrounded by white roses and with red rose petals decorating the floor, the pic shows Hardy down on one knee as Caleigh smiles in shock. “I’m not her boyfriend anymore,” he captions the moment.

Among Hardy’s friends to comment is Breland, writing, “Beautiful moment. Congratulations to you both.” Actor Taylor Lautner and professional golfer Zach Johnson also extended their congratulations. 

Caleigh, who works in marketing at the Graduate Hotel in Nashville, also shared photos from the special occasion that shows the newly engaged couple sharing a kiss outside the theater and raising glasses of champagne. “WE’RE GETTING MARRIED!!!” she celebrates in the caption. 

Hardy is the songwriter behind such hits as Blake Shelton‘s “God’s Country” and “Simple,” by Florida Georgia Line. His current single, “Give Heaven Some Hell,” is currently in the top 40 on country radio.

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Alice Cooper, Pearl Jam‘s Eddie Vedder and Elvis Costello are among the artists hosting new episodes of Audible’s ongoing Words + Music series, an audio program described as a combination of music and storytelling.

Cooper will give a rare inside look at the real person behind his iconic shock-rock persona in Who I Really Am: The Diary of a Hollywood Vampire, debuting October 7.

Vedder’s installment, titled I Am Mine, is set to premiere October 21, and will find the grunge rocker “reflecting on a life at the intersection of art, sensitivity, masculinity, and ascendant pop/rock-super stardom that defined an age.”

Costello will host an episode titled How to Play the Guitar and Y that premieres September 16. The program is described as “[p]art masterclass, part madcap guitar-manual” that will feature the eclectic singer/songwriter delivering “a love letter to the guitar, to music, and to the restorative power of ‘play.'”

Other artists taking part in new installments of the Words + Music series include Dave Matthews and Against Me!‘s Laura Jane Grace. Previous episodes have been hosted by Sting, James Taylor, Patti Smith, Sheryl Crow, and Green Day‘s Billie Joe Armstrong.

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My Morning Jacket has announced a new, self-titled album.

The ninth studio effort from Jim James and company arrives October 22. You can download the lead single, titled “Regularly Scheduled Programming,” now via digital outlets.

My Morning Jacket is technically the follow-up to 2020’s The Waterfall II, but since that album was made up of recordings from the sessions for 2015’s The Waterfall, it’s really MMJ’s first collection of all-new music in six years.

Here’s the My Morning Jacket track list:

“Regularly Scheduled Programming”
“Love Love Love”
“In Color”
“Least Expected”
“Never in the Real World”
“The Devil’s in the Details”
“Lucky to Be Alive”
“Complex”
“Out of Range, Pt. 2”
“Penny for Your Thoughts”
“I Never Could Get Enough”

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The Louder than Life and Welcome to Rockville festivals have announced lineup additions after Nine Inch Nails canceled their 2021 touring plans.

Disturbed, Volbeat and Atreyu have joined the Louder than Life lineup, while the Welcome to Rockville bill now includes Slipknot, A Day to Remember and Gojira.

Additionally, festival promoter Danny Wimmer, whose production company Danny Wimmer Presents puts on both Louder than Life and Welcome to Rockville, confirms that Metallica is still set to headline both events.

Louder than Life takes place September 23-26 in Louisville, Kentucky. Welcome to Rockville will be held November 11-14 in Daytona Beach, Florida.

Last Thursday, Nine Inch Nails announced that they were scrapping all of their 2021 live shows due to the continuing COVID-19 pandemic. Along with Louder than Life and Welcome to Rockville, affected shows include two scheduled headlining dates in Cleveland this September, as well as the Riot Fest in Chicago.

Slipknot and Morrissey have replaced NIN on the Riot Fest bill.

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Shinedown has premiered the trailer for ATTENTION ATTENTION, an upcoming film based on the band’s 2018 album of the same name.

The clip features several striking images — from a woman screaming underwater to a building exploding — as a sinister voiceover warns, “It will keep pushing and pushing and pushing you until everything around you completely collapses.”

You can watch the trailer streaming now on YouTube.

The ATTENTION ATTENTION film features all 14 songs from the album, including the hit singles “GET UP,” “DEVIL” and “MONSTERS,” coming together to form a narrative arc. It’s set to premiere digitally and on-demand September 3.

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The new season hasn’t aired yet, but Ariana Grande has already been gushing about her time on The Voice. On the Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon Monday night, it was fellow coach Kelly Clarkson‘s turn to gush.

“I love her!” Kelly said of Ariana. “We had actually run into each other a couple of times before, but not really like, been able to talk and she so’s funny. Like, very witty.”

“We’ve already taped everything up to the lives, and she’s hysterical,” she continued.

Kelly adds that The Voice has never had a coach quite like Ariana. “I’ve only been there for eight seasons, but in all my seasons, I’ve never heard a coach talk about vocal health as much, and I’m like, ‘I guess we should have mentioned that,'” she laughed. “No one’s ever mentioned it, and she’s really into it.”

Over the weekend, Ariana posted one of her looks from the show and captioned it, “One month @nbcthevoice ! you just ….. have no idea. i love this show and everyone involved so much and yes, i will continue saying this repeatedly until september 20th goodbye.”

The new season of The Voice premieres September 20 on NBC.

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Shawn Mendes enjoyed hyping his music the old fashioned way — by performing it live for unsuspecting fans.

The 23-year-old singer, who released his new song, “Summer of Love,” last Friday, stole his way inside five New York City nightclubs over the weekend and jumped on stage before a crowd of unsuspecting fans.

Page Six reports that Mendes started his impromptu PR tour by singing his new single when having dinner at NYC’s Beauty and Essex.

Later, he palled around with friends and wandered into the PHD rooftop bar, where a source tells the outlet that he “immediately got on the mic and told the crowd, ‘Let’s be thankful that we’re healthy and happy!'”

The Grammy nominee also performed similar stunts at Marquee, Tao and the Lavo Nightclub, even taking a selfie at the latter with a fan who boldly crossed the velvet rope.  A witness says Mendes also “poured a glass of Don Julio.”

“His friends’ excitement and the crowd’s excitement never lessened after he did it again and again,” the source claimed.

Girlfriend Camila Cabello was not in attendance, but the source claimed Mendes became excited when one of the clubs that night played their “Señorita” duet.

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After sending social media into a frenzy when she went platinum blonde, Billie Eilish has changed her hair yet again.

The singer unveiled a brand new chop Monday on her Instagram Story. She’s now rocking a shaggy blonde bob.

Billie posted some old photos of her mom sporting a similar hairstyle, captioning one of the pics, “Like my mama.” She also posted a short video clip of her tousling the new ‘do, writing, “I love it.”

Of course, fans were instantly obsessed.

“Billie Eilish cut off her hair like she cut off her exes,” one fan tweeted. Another wrote, “BILLIE EILISH WITH THIS MARILYN MONROE STYLE HAIR FOR THE MET GALA????????????? GOODBYE.”

Yet another added, “that one women who breaks the internet just by cutting her hair: BILLIE EILISH.”

This week, Billie’s album Happier than Ever topped the Billboard 200 chart for the third week. She leads an all-female top three on the chart, along with Doja Cat and Olivia Rodrigo, marking the first time that’s happened in over 10 years.

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Lauren Daigle‘s latest single, “Hold On to Me,” is doing well, but it remains to be seen if it can match the record-breaking success of “You Say.” Lauren says she doesn’t expect a repeat — and that’s O.K.

“You Say,” released three years ago last month, topped numerous Billboard charts, including Adult Top 40, Adult Contemporary and Hot Christian Songs.  On the latter, it stayed at number one for an astonishing 129 weeks.  In fact, it was the first song to spend 100 or more weeks on any Billboard chart, ever.

“That was a one and done, probably,” Laure laughs. “I mean, unless there’s other plans out there, I have no idea if that will ever happen again. That’s why you have to revel in the moment when it happens.”

“Being present is so…rich because moments will pass you by and you’ll realize, ‘OK, I missed out on the joy of what that moment had. And now I’m longing for that moment in a different season,'” she cautions. “And it just doesn’t work out.”

Lauren, who’ll kick off a world tour on September 24, says for her, that’s the only way to approach any sort of overwhelming achievement.

“Being present and really reveling in, like, the ‘Wow, I can’t believe that happened,’ because it may never happen again,” she says. “But hopefully, fingers crossed, you wish for the best!” 

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