CMT GIANTS: Charley Pride is an uplifting celebration honoring the extraordinary life and legacy of trailblazing country music titan Charley Pride. The star-packed, 90-minute event which airs Wednesday, August 25th at 9p/8c on CMT features special performances and interviews from family, friends, and collaborators who appear to share their personal memories and reflect on Pride’s lasting legacy, his wife Rozene and son Dion, blended alongside rare archival photos, interviews, and performances, with clips and commentary from Charley Pride himself.

Charley Pride celebrated more than 50 years as a recording artist, enjoying one of the most successful careers in country music history, and is credited with helping break color barriers by becoming the first black superstar within the genre. A true living legend, he sold tens of millions of records worldwide with his large repertoire of hits. A three-time GRAMMY® award and Recording Academy “Lifetime Achievement Award” winner, Pride garnered no less than 36 chart-topping country hits, including “Kiss An Angel Good Morning,” a massive #1 crossover hit that sold over a million singles and helped Pride land the Country Music Association’s “Entertainer of the Year” award in 1971 and the “Top Male Vocalist” awards of 1971 and 1972. A proud member of the Grand Ole Opry, Pride performed concerts worldwide and has toured the United States, Canada, Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand over the last several years. He received the Crossroads Of American Music Award At the 2019 GRAMMY Museum® Mississippi Gala in November of 2019, and the Country Music Association’s Willie Nelson Lifetime Achievement Award one year later in November 2020. On December 12, 2020, Pride died at the age of 86 from complications due to COVID-19. His memory and storied legacy will live on through his vast library of stories and songs, with forthcoming plans for a final album release, public celebration of life ceremony, tribute concert, and biopic film.

​The special brings together Charley’s superstar friends and some of the biggest names in music today to celebrate his most legendary hits, including Alan Jackson, Darius Rucker, Garth Brooks, George Strait, Gladys Knight, Jimmie Allen, LeeAnn Womack, Reyna Roberts, Mickey Guyton, Wynonna and more. Plus special appearances from Neal McCoy, Nolan Ryan, Reba, Ronnie Milsap, Janie Fricke & Charley Pride's wife Rozene Pride.

CMT GIANTS: Charley Pride is executive produced by CMT’s Margaret Comeaux and Taillight’s Tom Forrest. The Executives in Charge of Production are Jackie Barba and Heather D. Graffagnino. Leslie Fram is Executive in Charge of Talent; Shanna Strassberg is Talent Producer.

For more information, visit CMT.com

​Canadian country singer Madeline Merlo has some of the most successful years recently. Merlo was born and raised just outside of Vancouver, Canada in Maple Ridge and grew up riding horses. Her Mom was a major country music fan, and her grandmother was an opera singer. Madeline believes that music is “truly hereditary”, and that music fed her emotions as a kid. Merlo Always sang country songs in talent shows and at local coffee shops and enjoys the genre the most because of what it represents. At age 10, Merlo saw Shania Twain live and never looked back. 
 
Madeline has had lots of commercial success in Canada, but once she relocated to Nashville, Tennessee, she felt like it was a restart on her career as she was not as known. The country pop artist had a lifechanging experience when she was invited to perform on the NBC songwriting show “Songland”. The casting director for the show actually reached out to Merlo years ago for another show that did not air, so they reached out again for Songland. The Canadian born artist brought her original song “I’ll Drink to That” to the set of the show and did not find out she was performing for Lady A until about an hour before she took the stage. Once her song was selected, she got to work with country producer Shane McAanally (Kacey Musgraves, Old Dominion, and Kelsey Ballerini) and ended up with “Champagne Night”. 
 
“Champagne Night” turned into Lady A’s radio single in April 2020 and has been the most successful song to come from “Songland” since it premiered. You can check out the song here. Madeline wants aspiring artists to know that you should “figure out who you are and what you want to say. You get into the music industry and everyone tells you what you should do. Fight for the songs you love”. Merlo continues to build on the success of “Champagne Night” and is now focusing on singing and songwriting with some of Nashville’s best songwriters and producers and will have new music coming soon! 
 
Check out Madeline Merlo’s website for all information regarding tour dates, merchandise, and music.

Grace Morrison has released her album “Daughter”, it can be found here. Grace grew up in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and took piano lessons. While she always loved music, she never thought of it as a career but as a life. It took her a while to get into country music as her dad kept telling her to listen to The Chicks. Music has always been her strength. Morrison loves artists like Tori Amos and Alanis Morrissette. Morrison was not sure if she would have recorded this album if it was not for COVID-19 as she had booked small venues all of the country for the year and they all got canceled. 
 
The Massachusetts born singer performed for years but could not afford to record any music. The new album is Grace’s first time she wrote songs with being a solo album and career in mind, “This album is my voice”. The very first song Morrison wrote for the album was “Just Loving You” which she collaborated with hit country music singer-songwriter Lori McKenna (The Highwomen, Carrie Underwood, and Little Big Town). Another collaborator on the Album is Lloyd Maines, father of Natalie Maines from The Chicks. Grace’s dream venue is the Melody Tent in her hometown of Cape Cod. Her advice to new artists? “Play and do not look for other people’s approval on your music, tune out others”.
 
You can find more information on Grace Morrison at www.gracemorrison.com. 

​Breakout star Morgan Wade is only getting started with her debut album, “Reckless,” listen here. Morgan grew up in a small Virginia town and was surrounded by bluegrass music. She took music lessons after her grandma bought her very first guitar. Morgan never shared her incredible singing and songwriting talents until college. After going through a breakup in her first year of college, Wade took to Craigslist to find band members to play a few shows, and she loved it. She played on the weekends and her “family was surprised at first, but they are super supportive. It was a shock to them, but not because they didn’t believe in me”.
 
The debut album “Reckless” was a two-year writing process after linking up with guitarist and songwriter Sadler Vaden. At a festival, Wade’s set caught the eye of Vaden’s sound technician who put her in touch with him. Days later, Wade played Vaden her now hit song, “Wilder Days" and the rest is history.  
 
Recently, Wade has been touring with Ashley McBryde telling us, “Ashley is super nice, sometimes it can suck travelling with bands, but not Ashley, she is very genuine person.”  Wade loves playing for a crowd but especially loves “When you have a crowd singing your song word for word, that is a feeling that never gets old.” Morgan is currently on tour; you can find her touring schedule here. 
 
Morgan has gone from finding band members on Craigslist to inking a record deal with Sony Nashville and reflects on it by saying “Looking back, I can see it now. I spend so much time writing for me, no one else. That has helped me grow into the writer I am because I don’t know any other way.” The Wilder Days singer wants aspiring artists to know to “be honest. As cliché as it sounds, stay true to yourself because you can compare yourself but there is only one you.” 
 
Check out her website for all information regarding tour dates, merchandise, and music.

Jessica Lynn announces the "Reimagined" EP. During the pandemic, Jessica Lynn hosted a livestream where she reworked many of her songs, finding new angles and nuances in them. “That’s how the ‘Reimagined’ EP was born,” she says, “We felt it was well-suited for the times, and would be an interesting way to present some of my most well-known releases.” The 4-song acoustic EP, due out next month, September 17, 2021. 
 
The first song released from the EP was "Not Your Woman." Listen here. Jessica telling us why she chose to rerecord it saying, “A few months ago, one of my UK fans requested one of my most well-known songs “Not Your Woman” as a ballad, and this reimagined version was literally written on the spot. Everyone in the stream urged me to eventually release it… and here we are. I referred back to that livestream video actually while recording the track to capture my emotion and excitement of the moment and I am so proud of how it came out and also so grateful for this time I have been able to spend at home to be creative and explore opportunities like this. I have never released anything before where I was the only instrumentalist on the track, but I am very excited to share with everyone such an intimate and honest version of myself with this new music.”
 
The new, reimagined release reworks the song of infidelity, and moving on as an acoustic piano track. The reimagined recording wonderfully shows off Jessica’s vocal and emotional range, set to her thoughtful piano playing, which touches on melancholy and sadness but is full of female strength and survival. It makes for a fascinatingly different take compared to the brasher, more up-tempo original version of the song,  released in 2016.  She hopes it will be an inspiration to women everywhere.