Brad Paisley ‎– Who Needs Pictures

With the promise of more than a dozen live performances – and more than a few surprises – it sounds like Country Music’s Biggest Night will be living up to its name this year. The 49th Annual CMA Awards will take place Wednesday, November 4, live from Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, TN. The show will be broadcast live on the ABC Television Network. Returning as co-hosts for the eighth year in a row are country superstars Carrie Underwood and Brad Paisley. (The latter ranked #13 on Forbes’ 2015 Country Cash Kings list; Underwood, who took several months off this year to be with her 8-month-old son, finished just below the list’s cutoff.) The hosts have garnered rave reviews from critics and fans alike in past years with their memorable monologues and original songs. In addition to the banter from Underwood and Paisley, fans can look forward to performances from country’s top stars and rising talents. Scheduled performers include Jason Aldean, Kelsea Ballerini, Dierks Bentley with Lindsey Stirling, Luke Bryan, Eric Church, Florida Georgia Line, Sam Hunt, Miranda Lambert, Little Big Town, Maddie & Tae, Kacey Musgraves, Paisley, Chris Stapleton, Blake Shelton, Underwood, and Zac Brown Band.

This CD's 15 newly recorded tracks includes a 20-page commemorative booklet with The Journey of Mr. Guitar by Robert K Oermann, liner notes by award winning journalist Holly Gleason, rare photos and extensive session notes by Grammy winning producer Carl Jackson. Few artists have been as influential in multiple music industry roles and reached across genre as smoothly as the charming Chet Atkins, the original C.G.P. (Certified Guitar Player).

Alison Maria Krauss (born July 23, 1971) is an American bluegrass-country singer-songwriter and musician. She entered the music industry at an early age, winning local contests by the age of ten and recording for the first time at fourteen. She signed with Rounder Records in 1985 and released her first solo album in 1987. She was invited to join the band with which she still performs, Alison Krauss and Union Station (AKUS), and later released her first album with them as a group in 1989.

If it feels as if Honk treads familiar ground, it's because it does. Arriving seven years after the career-spanning Grrr! – a compilation available in a variety of iterations, all spanning from the earliest years to the 2010s – Honk focuses squarely on the music the Rolling Stones made after leaving London/Decca, a catalog that now resides with Abkco. In other words, its ground zero is "Brown Sugar," a staple that arrives just after "Start Me Up" kicks off the double-disc set. Such sequencing indicates how Honk bounces through the years, letting the '70s sit next to the '80s, finding space for latter-day songs that only showed up on previous greatest-hits albums (there have been five since 1984), and shining the spotlight on such excellent latter-day cuts as "Rough Justice."

Though Michael Feinstein remained in the public eye throughout the latter half of the 2010s, performing live and appearing intermittently as a presenter on the Turner Classic Movies network, the onetime Ira Gershwin archivist went nearly a decade without releasing any albums. It was his first gap of more than two years since his 1987 studio debut, Pure Gershwin. He comes back to key influences George and Ira Gershwin, for more than the first time, on his return, 2022's Gershwin Country. A set of 11 duets, each with different guests, it navigates timeless romantic ballads and what prove to be playfully old-fashioned, vaudeville-esque takes with giants of country music (and one with album executive producer Liza Minnelli).

For a good portion of his solo career, John Fogerty refused to play any of his old Creedence Clearwater Revival songs – not because he hated them but because he was tied up in a nasty legal battle with Saul Zaentz, the head of his former record label Fantasy. After a few decades, Fogerty's position softened and he started playing the tunes in concert, then, after Concord purchased Fantasy in 2004, he celebrated CCR, first with a new hits compilation combining his old band and solo work, then eventually working his way around to Wrote a Song for Everyone, a 2013 album where he revisits many of his most popular songs with a little help from his superstar friends.

Ringo Starr, Dolly Parton and Merle Haggard are also included on the wide-ranging two-disc collection, out August 31st.