Kane Brown teased a big tour announcement last week, and yesterday he delivered. The “In The Air” tour runs through most of the spring and summer and Kane will be joined by a bunch of his country music friends along the way.

The tour kicks off March 28 in Charlottesville, Virginia and continues through the next several months, wrapping with a stop in Arlington, Texas on September 14. Depending on the night and the city, Kane will have various openers along the way, including Tyler Hubbard, Parmalee, Jon Pardi, Chris Young, Bailey Zimmerman, LoCash and RaeLynn.

Tickets for most of the dates on Brown’s “In the Air Tour” will go on sale next Thursday (September 28) at 10AM, though a handful will not be available until Oct. 5. For more details visit the singer’s website.

Source: TasteOfCountry

The Oaks are calling it a day. After eighty years as a band, and fifty with their current lineup, the legendary Oak Ridge Boys have announced they are embarking on their farewell tour.

They formed in 1943 as the Oak Ridge Quartet, and had many lineup changes before the current and longest running lineup got together in 1973: lead singer Duane Allen, tenor Joe Bonsall, baritone William Lee Golden, and bass Richard Sterban. 

Dubbed “American Made: The Farewell Tour,” the first set of dates have been announced. The tour will kick off today with two dates at the Mansion Theater For The Performing Arts in Branson, Missouri, before running through the rest of the year. Beyond that, even the band has no idea how long this final tour will run, with Allen saying, “I don’t know how long the tour will last, but we hope to return to as many parts of the country as we can. Thank you so much for these 50 years. For me, it’s 57 1/2 years. I have given you the best part of my life and you have rewarded me with a wonderful career.” See the updated list of show dates here.

Source: WhiskeyRiff

Keith Whitley was considered a generational talent – a superstar in the making whose career – and life – was cut far too short, like those of legends like Patsy Cline and Hank Williams before him.

Though he passed in 1989 at the age of 34, his career left a lasting impression on artists that have followed him, as well as fans. The Grand Ole Opry is set to honor the late singer with an evening of music and memories, and a roster of big names will be on hand to lend their talents.

Titled “I Wonder Do You Think Of Me: The Opry Remembers Keith Whitley,” the evening honors a man who ironically hever became a member of the Opry; Whitley passed just three weeks before he would have received the call for his induction. To celebrate the life and legacy of Whitley, the Opry is hosing two shows (7:30p and 9p) the night of October 14, featuring big names like Ashley McBryde, Garth Brooks, Terri Clark, Whitley’s widow Lorrie Morgan and son Jesse Keith Whitley. Tickets for the event are available here.

Source: WhiskeyRiff

Maren Morris has confirmed what many thought was coming – she’s leaving country music behind. The singer released a new “two-pack” of songs Friday that, along with the accompanying videos, made it pretty clear she was done with country music. The hints were there: her dabbling in pop music, her switch of record labels from Columbia Nashville to Columbia, the singer increasingly finding herself at odds politically and ideologically from many of her country music peers and fans.

With the release of “The Tree” and “Get The Hell Out Of Here” Friday, along with an interview with the “LA Times,” it was made quite clear: Maren Morris was putting country music in the rearview mirror. “I thought I’d like to burn it to the ground and start over,” she said of the genre, “But it’s burning itself down without my help,” Morris told the outlet. She admitted she felt “very distanced” from the music format, saying “I had to take a step back. The way I grew up was so wrapped in country music, and the way I write songs is very lyrically structured in the Nashville way of doing things. But I think I needed to purposely focus on just making good music and not so much on how we’ll market it,” she told the publication. “The last few records, that’s always been in the back of my mind: Will this work in the country music universe?”

Morris says a full-length album is coming; for now the two songs, packaged as “The Bridge,” are exactly that for the singer – a bridge between her country past and the music she hopes will take her and her fans into the future.

Source: CountryNow

Carrie Underwood visited the “Today” show yesterday, to not only sit in with the hosts but to play some live music for the fans on hand for the show’s Citi Concert Series.

Carrie talked homelife with the “Today” crew, her new “Denim & Rhinestones Deluxe Album” coming next week, and she revealed that her last tour raised $420K for “The Tunnel To Towers Foundation” by using one dollar from every ticket sold for the charitable organization. Then came what the fans were on hand for – the live music.

Carrie played a five-song set that repped old and new hits: “Out Of The Truck,” “She Don’t Know,” “Before He Cheats,” “Church Bells” and “Take Me Out.” Check out her interview to the right.

Source: TasteOfCountry