Singer-songwriter Lauren Watkins releases her third album If I'm Being Honest, available everywhere today. Across 12 unguarded tracks, the Nashville native captures an eye-opening chapter of her life, pairing her signature lyrical imagery with a plainspoken look at love, life, and the everyday truths most people won't say out loud. Produced by Will Bundy with co-production on select tracks from Joey Moi, If I'm Being Honest leans further into the honesty that has long defined Watkins' songwriting. Listen here. 

“If I'm being honest — no pun intended — this is the most 'me' I've ever felt making a record,” shares Watkins. “While much of the album comes from my own story, it was also inspired by the life unfolding around me…from conversations with friends over margaritas to everything I observed from the van window on the way to a show. At this age, some of my friends are going on first dates while others are getting divorced. Some are getting promotions and others are having babies. I wanted to capture all of it and make a record where, wherever you are in life, there's a song for you.”

Watkins approaches the album from the perspective of two dreams unfolding at once: the music career she once imagined and a life at home with her husband, a thriving garden and a sense of small-town peace. She co-wrote all 12 tracks, including the solo-written “Daydreams.” Across the tracklist, she finds something worth saying about the ordinary moments most people overlook.
 
The album kicks off with “Pulling Weeds,” as Watkins clears out old habits, bitterness and regret to make room for something better to grow. “Better Love Next Time” finds her looking on the bright side of a breakup with humor, grit, and a classic Nashville turn of phrase, while “Main Street” captures the realities of a small town where everyone knows everyone else's business — right down to who's taking the trash out. Watkins closes the album with “Curtains,” imagining the one heartbreak she isn't sure she could recover from.
 
If I'm Being Honest follows Watkins' 2024 debut, The Heartbroken Record, and 2025's In A Perfect World, carrying forward the bite of her earliest writing with the perspective that comes from a few more years of living it. 

Tickets are on sale now for Watkins' headlining If I'm Being Honest Tour, which includes her first hometown headline show at Nashville's Exit/In on Thursday, Oct. 8, along with stops in Chicago, Knoxville, and more. The tour follows recent dates with Dylan Scott and Luke Bryan as she continues bringing her old-school country grit and “direct-yet-poetic songwriting” (Billboard) to stages across the country. 

With her fourth studio album Hello, Honky Tonk set to arrive October 30 via Republic Records, Tulsa-born singer-songwriter Kaitlin Butts is taking the album’s colorful cast of characters, theatrical spectacle and late-night energy on the road to celebrate its release with the Hello, Honky Tonk Live and In Person Tour. 

The six-date run kicks off October 29 at Nashville’s Skinny Dennis, the day before the release of Hello, Honky Tonk, before making stops at Honky Tonks across Texas and Oklahoma in December with support from singer/songwriter Meels. Tickets go on sale Friday, October 2 at 10 a.m. CT at kaitlinbutts.com.

“I’ve spent so much time imagining this honky tonk and all the people who inhabit it, so getting to actually bring it to life in the rooms that inspired it feels really special,” says Butts. “I can’t wait to play these songs live and celebrate this record together.”

Hello, Honky Tonk Live and In Person Tour Dates
Oct. 29 — Nashville, TN — Skinny Dennis
Dec. 10 — College Station, TX — Harry’s Northgate
Dec. 11 — Helotes, TX — Floore's Country Store
Dec. 12 — Corpus Christi, TX — Brewster Street Ice House
Dec. 17 — Oklahoma City, OK — Tower Theatre
Dec. 18 — Fort Worth, TX — Billy Bob’s Texas

Named one of Rolling Stone’s most anticipated albums for 2026, Hello, Honky Tonk is a love letter to the honky tonks and nightlife that have shaped Butts while becoming a huge part of her life on the road. Recorded in Nashville with producer Tofer Brown (Carter Faith, Willow Avalon, Little Big Town), the album brings to life a bar like no other, populated by a cast of characters listeners might recognize from the dance floor, behind the bar or from the corner booth.

Inspired in part by the vaudeville vignettes of Chicago and Disney World’s Country Bear Musical Jamboree, Butts envisioned Hello, Honky Tonk as a place where all of these characters could coexist.

“The thought behind the concept was how in Chicago, the character Roxie Hart is dreaming up what her show would look like and all the people in it,” says Butts. “I picture all of this happening at Skinny Dennis here in Nashville. These are all the different people in the room. There's the bar fight that's happening. There's the bad girl that just got off work. There's me being the entertainer. There are so many people that really love the nightlife. It’s a connector for people.”

The upcoming tour follows a string of new music from Hello, Honky Tonk, including the recent releases “What More Could You Want,” “I Wanna Be Bad” and “Never Really Mine.” “What More Could You Want,” a Broadway-ready piano ballad and autobiographical sketch of a performer questioning how much more she has to give, offers an intimate glimpse behind the curtain of the album’s larger-than-life world.

“That song feels exactly word for word what I feel like every day,” says Butts. “This tug and pull of loving this and craving this and loving to be on stage, loving every creative moment but also being stressed out wondering, ‘Do you like me? Do I need to be shinier? Do you want more?’”

The album continues the momentum of Butts’ critically acclaimed Roadrunner! in 2024, a bold reimagining inspired by Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! that landed on numerous year-end best-of lists and featured her viral anthem “You Ain’t Gotta Die (To Be Dead To Me),” which has amassed more than 157 million TikTok views and 67 million global streams.

Miranda Lambert has never been interested in making the same record twice. For more than two decades, Lambert has followed her instincts wherever they lead, whether that’s hard-driving honky-tonk, stripped-down acoustic storytelling, rock influences or Texas singer-songwriter traditions. Today, the three-time GRAMMY winner releases Crisco, a new album via MCA that explores country music’s rich sonic history while embracing the freedom to follow the music wherever it leads. 
 
“Crisco started with a conversation,” Lambert explains. “Jesse Frasure and I were talking about all these records we love and wondering why country music doesn’t reflect back into its history more often, especially when we’ve got this incredible archive of music to inspire us – from artists like Patsy Cline, Glen Campbell, Conway & Loretta, to Kenny & Dolly and so many others.”
 
What began as a plan to write only a handful of songs quickly grew into something much bigger. Together, Lambert and co-producer Jesse Frasure immersed themselves in the sounds and spirit of an era that had long inspired them, creating an album that embraces sweeping strings, lush harmonies and countrypolitan production while allowing the musical traditions of country to stretch in unexpected directions.
 
“We weren’t trying to make a retro record,” Lambert notes. “We were channeling a feeling.”
 
That intention shaped more than the music. It inspired an entire creative world. The pair traded playlists, collected visual references and carefully crafted the atmosphere before recording a note. By the time they walked into Nashville’s Blackbird Studio – complete with disco balls overhead, intentional lighting, a handpicked band and a nine-piece string section – they weren’t simply recording songs. They were stepping into a world fully imagined.
 
“In twenty-five years of making records in Nashville, it was easily the most magical and moving project I’ve ever been part of,” Frasure says. “Everybody walked into the studio believing in the same vision, and you can hear that on every track.”
 
The title track captures that vision in a single word. “Crisco” is country and disco. Billy Bob’s and Studio 54. Rhinestones and roller skates. Playful, at times a little tongue-in-cheek, yet completely unapologetic about finding joy wherever the music leads. 
 
“I’ve made a lot of records with a lot of heavy subjects over the years,” Lambert reflects of her journey as a writer, performer, label founder and record producer. “This album feels mostly lighthearted. It’s refreshing to get up on stage and sing something fun. Making this record also unlocked a ‘time to do whatever I want’ feeling. Being able to create freely without putting parameters around my art has been really, really fun. I don't think I've ever smiled that much in the studio.”
 
That spirit runs through the entire album. Yet whether she’s writing about complicated love, restless spirits, resilience, regret or redemption, Lambert’s songs have never settled for easy answers. The women at the center of these stories are funny, fearless, flawed and fiercely human. They fall in love, make mistakes, keep moving forward and occasionally dance through the heartache because that’s what life asks of them.
 
Across Crisco, Lambert explores every corner of that emotional landscape. There’s the timeless heartbreak of “Cowgirl Curtsy” and “Two Things Can Be True,” the sly confidence of “Cuttin’ Onions” and the wanderlust of “Till The Going’s Gone.” There’s comforting familiarity in “Right Where We Left It,” hopeful resilience in “To Everything,” the effortless chemistry of “Whiskey Business” and the dreamy escape of “Sunset Marquis.”
 
Along the way, Lambert reunites with longtime friend Chris Stapleton on the GRAMMY-nominated “A Song To Sing,” teams with “Choosin’ Texas” cowriter Ella Langley on cinematic “Snakeskin Boots” and honors one of her songwriting heroes with a new interpretation of Jim Croce’s “I’ll Have To Say I Love You In A Song.”
 
Rather than looking backward for nostalgia’s sake, Crisco celebrates one of country music’s richest creative eras while proving the genre has always been bigger than any one sound. Built on curiosity, joy and fearless musicianship, the album honors tradition without standing still.
 
“I hope when people listen to Crisco, it feels familiar while also feeling fresh,” says Lambert. “They can grab onto something that feels nostalgic, put their roller skates on and go on the journey with us.”

Breaking star Carter Faith will join Chris Stapleton, Kacey Musgraves and Shaboozey this fall along with her own Cherry Valley Forever Tour, which includes headline stops at Raleigh’s Lincoln Theatre, San Diego’s House of Blues and Chicago’s Joe’s on Weed Street, among others. She plays her first show with Stapleton tonight in New York.

The new dates follow the recent unveiling of Cherry Valley Forever, the deluxe edition of Carter’s acclaimed debut album, Cherry Valley. Released last month via MCA, the expanded project adds five new tracks to the original record, including “Nothin’ Better To Do” with Wyatt Flores and “Pearl Handled Pistol” with Laci Kaye Booth and Baby Nova. The deluxe arrives on the heels of Faith’s historic ACM Album of the Year nomination for Cherry Valley—the first debut album to earn a nod in the category in a decade, following Chris Stapleton’s Traveller in 2016.

Cherry Valley is one of the most-lauded country debuts in recent memory: Rolling Stone named it their #1 country album of the year and #17 on their Best 100 Albums of 2025 alongside accolades from Billboard, Stereogum, NPR Music, The Hollywood Reporter and many more.

Carter made her late-night TV debut earlier this year with a performance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, where she had previously appeared with Fallon for their holiday single “Ugly Sweater,” and is set to make her acting debut later this year in the Netflix film Heartland, starring alongside Academy Award-winner Jessica Chastain. She was named an Amazon Music Breakthrough Artist and Music Row’s 2025 Discovery Artist of the Year.

Cherry Valley was shaped over two years of writing with longtime producer Tofer Brown before the pair entered the studio in 2024 to record. During that time, Carter was steadily rising through country music, signing with MCA and Universal Music Publishing Group, making more than a dozen appearances at the Grand Ole Opry, and earning hundreds of millions of streams. Following her Stagecoach debut and touring runs with Ella Langley and Carly Pearce, Carter joined Little Big Town’s Karen Fairchild at the 18th Academy of Country Music Honors for a duet of “Lies Lies Lies,” written by ACM Songwriter of the Year Jessie Jo Dillon, while also sharing stages with Post Malone, Jelly Roll, George Strait, Little Big Town, and Noah Cyrus across the country.

​CARTER FAITH LIVE
August 26––Wantagh, NY––Northwell Health at Jones Beach Theater||
August 28––Camden, NJ––Freedom Mortgage Pavilion||
August 29––Camden, NJ––Freedom Mortgage Pavilion||
September 18––Toronto, ON––Adelaide Hall
September 19––Niagara Falls, Canada––Misty City Music Festival 2026
September 20––Grand Rapids, MI––The Intersection – The Stache
September 22––Minneapolis, MN––Target Center#
September 27––Houston, TX––House of Blues – Bronze Peacock
October 1––Chattanooga, TN––Barrel House Ballroom
October 2––Raleigh, NC––Lincoln Theatre
October 3––Ocean City, MD––Country Calling 2026
October 7––Lincoln, NE––Pinnacle Bank Arena||
October 13––Denver, CO––Ball Arena#
October 17––Vancouver, BC––Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre§
October 18––Seattle, WA––Paramount Theatre§
October 20––Portland, OR––Moda Center§
October 27––Los Angeles, CA––The Greek Theatre§
October 30––Santa Ana, CA––Observatory OC – Constellation Room
October 31––San Diego, CA––House of Blues – Voodoo Room
November 12––Saint Louis, MO––Old Rock House
November 13––Chicago, IL––Joe’s on Weed Street
November 14––Lexington, KY––The Burl

headline dates in BOLD
||with Chris Stapleton
#with Kacey Musgraves
§with Shaboozey

Multi-platinum GRAMMY® Award-winning Little Big Town – Karen Fairchild, Kimberly Schlapman, Phillip Sweet, and Jimi Westbrook – unveil their highly anticipated new album It’s A Dying Art, via MCA. 

“We’ve said goodbye to loved ones together, we’ve raised families together. We’ve lived a whole lot of life together, and you can hear that in every note of this record,” says Karen Fairchild. "We’re in a different season of life, marked by both grief and gratitude, and we wanted to be honest about that journey. After all these years, we still have each other, and that human connection is at the heart of this music.”

The band will celebrate the release with an in-store signing at Grimey’s in Nashville today at 3pm CT - for more information check HERE. Continuing the celebration, Little Big Town will deliver a special performance on the TODAY Plaza on September 1 as part of TODAY’s Citi Concert Series, followed by an in-store signing at Rough Trade (Below) at 1250 6th Ave, New York, NY 10112.

Co-produced by two-time GRAMMY® winner Gena Johnson (Jason Isbell, Dolly Parton, Brandi Carlile) and Little Big Town’s own Karen Fairchild, It’s A Dying Art blends intimate storytelling, emotional balladry, and a focus on human-made music shaped by imperfection and lived experience. The album features collaborations with friends including Ashley Monroe, Jason Isbell, and Kelsea Ballerini, and reflects more than 25 years of chemistry and trust within the band. Little Big Town first previewed the project with the poignant “Hey There Sunshine,” which debuted at the 61st Academy of Country Music Awards to widespread acclaim, with The Tennessean calling it “a hopeful, healing moment” and Billboard praising it as “a timely message from one of country music’s greatest vocal groups.” They followed with “Over and Over,” which Billboard hailed as a “top-shelf post-breakup anthem,” “Sucker For A Sad Song” featuring Ashley Monroe, which Rolling Stone declared a “song you need to know,” the recent piano-driven ballad, “We Could Have It All,” and the flirtatious “Closing Time” with Keslea Ballerini. Additional standout tracks include the relationship-worn “The Door” featuring Jason Isbell, the fiery “It’s Coming Around,” and the visceral “The Idea.” 

Little Big Town will be returning to the famed Grand Ole Opry stage in Nashville for back to back performances on September 2nd and 3rd, capping off an exciting album release week. Next up, they’ll kick off their North American For The Art Of It Tour. Produced by Live Nation and in support of their brand new album It’s A Dying Art, the U.S. and Canada dates kick off Sept. 24 in St. Petersburg, FL, and include stops in Atlanta, Boston, Philadelphia, Dallas, Houston, Chicago, Toronto, and more this fall. In December, the band will bring their holiday magic to Nashville’s “Mother Church of Country Music,” The Ryman Auditorium, for a three-night holiday residency. The Christmas Shows Ryman Residency will take place December 8-10, and will feature a mix of holiday classics and fan favorites from the chart-topping vocal group. A complete list of tour dates follows below. For tickets and more information visit https://www.littlebigtown.com/tour.