Church breaks mold with new album

Haggard cancels April concerts

NASHVILLE, Tennessee, March 31, (AP): Eric Church knew that his latest album wasn’t going to be a No. 1 record. And he didn’t care.

The country singer had done no interviews or photo shoots, no radio promotion or exclusive song premieres for “Mr Misunderstood.” Instead, he gave the surprise album away for free to his fan club members. It was just the way he wanted it. “I don’t care about the hype,” Church said last week, four months after he released the album. “Everyone is so focused on your first week. But I am more concerned with week 80 than week one.”

Evolving

Church’s penchant for unpredictability has proven to be what keeps his career evolving, his legion of fans growing and the accolades mounting. He is heading into Sunday’s Academy of Country Music Awards with six nominations, including his first-ever entertainer of the year nomination and an album of the year nomination for “Mr. Misunderstood.”

“It’s about the life of the album,” Church said in an interview after finishing a day of shooting for his next music video. “Does it is stand up over time and does it grow over time? This record does.”

Since the release of his third studio album, “Chief,” in 2011, Church has

music-making community,” said Nicholas Petricca of Walk the Moon. “Our fellow artists and those who surround and support us somehow create more and more stylish, original work each year, and we are very proud to receive this award in such an exciting time, among such prolific people.”

The gala, which celebrates the songwriters and publishers of ASCAP’s most performed pop songs of 2015, takes place at the Loews Hollywood Hotel in Los taken country music by storm. That album debuted No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart, earned him his first Grammy nomination and spawned his first two No. 1 country songs, “Springsteen” and “Drink In My Hand.” He followed that with the hard-rocking “The Outsiders,” which also debuted at No. 1 on the all-genre chart in 2014 and went platinum. His 2015 Outsiders World Tour had him headlining Madison Square Garden in New York City and the Staples Center in Los Angeles.

So Mike Dungan, chairman and CEO of Universal Music Group Nashville, was surprised to get a call from Church last year saying he had recorded a new album a year early that he wanted to give to his fans as a present without any announcement.

“We’ve had a great deal of success with Eric,” Dungan said. “Artists earn the right to dictate on their terms sometimes.”

Beyonce, U2 and Drake have all dropped surprise albums, but no other major country artist has tried such a model. And Church had to put his unique spin on the process.

First he delivered the music to about 80,000 members of his fan club for free in some form: vinyl, CD, downloads or streaming.

Then for the general public, instead of doing a digital-only release, Church’s album was also available in vinyl and on CD, which meant he had to hide the music through the physi-

Angeles. (RTRS)

LOS ANGELES:

Samsung is starting to back out of its Milk Music streaming service, at least Down Under: The company informed users in Australia via email this week that Milk Music will be shutting down in the country at the end of next month.

“With a heavy heart, we will be closing cal manufacturing process. The vinyl records were pressed in Germany in secret and shipped back to the US. The CDs were sold to major retailers under the guise of a Christmas compilation album and Church’s manager, John Peets, even called independent record store organizations to encourage them to order the title.

Record

“My biggest beef with the music industry is the labels get it first, the critics get it, the press gets it and the last people to get the record are the fans,” Church said. “It was important to let our fans be the mouthpiece and tell everyone else about it.”

Everything was revealed to the public on the day of the Country Music Association Awards last November, when Church premiered the album title song on the telecast.

The album is a raw and emotional tribute to those who keep him motivated, such as Stevie Wonder, Jeff Tweedy and even his own son, at a moment in Church’s life when he is hitting on all cylinders.

“Normally it takes me 100 songs to find 10,” Church said. “Not this time.”

So is everyone happy with how it turned out? The answer is mostly yes.

The album still peaked as high as No. 2 on the Billboard 200, in part due to Chris Stapleton’s breakout record topping the chart. And four

the service in Australia on April 28, 2016,” the email reads. “After this date, you will no longer be able to stream music or access your cached music from Samsung Milk Music on your Samsung devices.”

Samsung is giving Milk Music users a kind of departing gift in the form of a 3-month free trial for Google Play Music, the subscription music service run by longtime frenemy Google. It already stopped charging paying users earlier this month. months in, the album has sold a respectable 334,000 copies.

“I’ve got to trust the music on that,” Church said. “We’ve got a long way to go from where I want to be. But we will get there.”

“This will be a big Eric Church record,” Dungan said. “Is it the way I would have wanted it? No. But that’s OK.”

And if Church walks away from the ACM Awards on Sunday with any trophies for his unconventional effort, it would be a recognition that the risk is worth the reward.

“We’re still making the kind of music we want to make, how we want to make it and how we want to present it,” Church said. “So for me, that’s the thing I am most proud of.”

NASHVILLE:

Country icon has canceled his April concert dates as he recovers from a recurring bout of double pneumonia.

“I want to thank my fans for their prayers and well wishes. I hope to be back on the road in May, but I’m taking it one day at a time,” the singer said in a statement from his publicist on Tuesday.

The 78-year-old singer of hits like “Okie From Muskogee,” “Mama Tried” and “Workin’ Man Blues” had also cancelled dates in February and March. He had a battle with lung cancer in 2008 but still keeps up an ambitious touring schedule.

Samsung first launched Milk Music as Pandora-like streaming service in the US two years ago, and has since also launched local offsprings in Australia, New Zealand, South Korea and Malaysia.

However, it looks like the service didn’t perform as expected: Multiple sources told Variety earlier this month that Samsung was likely going to shut down Milk Music. The company said at the time that it was committed to its Milk-branded media services, which also include the Milk VR video streaming service on Samsung’s Gear VR headsets. (RTRS)

MIAMI:

Also:

Nick Carter, a singer with the 1990s heartthrob band Backstreet Boys, has agreed to 25 hours’ community service for his role in a bar room brawl, US media reported on Tuesday.

Carter, 35, was due to stand trial Monday on a misdemeanor battery charge for his role in the January melee, but he reached a deal with prosecutors to drop the charges in exchange for the community service and payment of about $300 in court costs.

The Miami Herald wrote that Carter is alleged to have struck and choked the bartender during the fight at the Hog’s Breath Saloon in Key West, Florida.

Carter allegedly became aggressive after the bartender refused to serve him and a friend, who were already inebriated when they arrived at the establishment.

The bartender, Skylar Carden, reportedly has also filed a civil complaint seeking damages for “pain and suffering” after sustaining injuries in the attack. (AFP)