The Dang-it Bobbys, whose sound The New York Times described as “lovely riffs on bluegrass, country and folk music,” will release on September 20 its sophomore album, BIG TROUBLE, the follow-up to its 2009 debut, SOMETHING IN THE AIR. While many of the band’s riffs are lovely, there is much more: ingenious combinations of musical styles as well as smart, funny lyrics and a special energy that is downright contagious.

The Dang-It Bobbys will play the CD Release Show at 10 p.m. Saturday, September 24, at Rockwood Music Hall, 196 Allen St. in New York City. Complimentary Cover; information: 212.477.4155.

Country music‘s newest renegade Christian Kane (Bigger Picture Group) raised the temperatures on the already-hot summer with the release of the video for his sophomore single “Let Me Go.” The steamy, angst-ridden song coupled with Kane’s first-rate acting skills brings the song to life, and fans are eating it up. The Roman White-directed love story debuted on Friday, August 5 at No. 2 and quickly rose to No. 1 on CMT.com and remained there throughout the weekend, beating out country video heavy hitters and their co-stars, including Brad Paisley (featuring Carrie Underwood); Jason Aldean;  Kenny Chesney (featuring Grace Potter); and Miranda Lambert. “Have You Seen Christian Kane's New Video? Fans can't get enough of his sexy new video, 'Let Me Go,'" advocates CMT’s feature block.

The country power ballad from Kane’s rowdy, debut album, “The House Rules,” tells a vivid and relatable story of the challenges and surprises that come with being in love. “I believe this ballad speaks to everyone,” says Kane. “Women are always smarter than us, but we never listen…they seem to always know what's better for us than we do.”

Shot on location in the desert of East Lancaster, California, the video was directed by the legendary Roman White, whose credits include videos for Carrie Underwood, Kelly Clarkson, Reba McEntire, Justin Bieber and Martina McBride, as well as the 2011 CMT Music Award for “Video of the Year” for Taylor Swift’s hit “Mine.” Passionate about storytelling, White has been nominated for 11 Emmy awards and has taken home three. White and Kane previously worked together on the 2007 Carrie Underwood video for “So Small.”

The video highlights the beautiful desert landscape of Southern California, which creates a distinctly vintage tone, while the moving lyrics coupled with Kane’s powerful narrative vocals create an effect that is simultaneously heartbreaking and hopeful. The visual response to the song hits all the right notes, depicting a couple very much in love, but on the brink of big changes.

“[Let Me Go”] is one of my favorite powerful songs on the album,” says Kane. “I never sing about stuff I don't know about. It's just not me.” While Kane’s acting credentials are second to none, it is clear that his performance in the video goes beyond acting.  “This one hits way close to home,” confirms Kane.

“Let Me Go” is holding strong on the fan-voted site, CMT.com, and Kane says he is grateful for the support of loya

Reigning CMA and ACM Vocal Group of the Year Lady Antebellum celebrate their career fifth No. one song this week as the lead single “Just A Kiss” tops the Billboard Country Singles chart. The track simultaneously earns PLATINUM certification and spends a third week at No. one on the Billboard Canada Country chart. “Just A Kiss” is setting the pace for the multi-platinum group's upcoming third album OWN THE NIGHT due out Sept. 13.

“Seeing country radio and the fans embrace the first single off our new album like this has been amazing and also a little relieving,” said Lady A’s Charles Kelley. “There are definitely some nerves and anxiousness involved when you are introducing new music, and this reaction has been beyond what we hoped for.  It just makes us even more excited for Sept. 13 to get here."

“Just A Kiss” resonated with fans immediately, debuting at No. seven on Billboard’s Hot 100 Chart to become the highest debut by a country group in the chart’s 52-year history. OWN THE NIGHT follows the band’s GRAMMY winning second disc NEED YOU NOW. Since its release in Jan. 2010, the album has sold over five million copies across the globe, spawned three multi-week No. one hits (“Need You Now,” “American Honey,” “Our Kind of Love”), taken home five GRAMMY Awards (a career total of six) and scored over a dozen other award show trophies.

For updates on OWN THE NIGHT, visit www.ladyantebellum.com.

Suzy Bogguss had a revelation on stage with Garrison Keillor in 2008. Everyone loves to sing along on “Red River Valley” – except the children who somehow don't know the song. Folk songs are the scrapbook of the American experience, but as music education fades from our public schools, she worried; these beautiful melodies are in danger of being overlooked. She resolved to record these timeless songs in an updated but reverent way – so that everyone can sing along on “Red River Valley.”

And who better than the golden throated Suzy? The platinum selling songstress already has a full bookshelf of Grammy and CMA awards and now with the release of American Folk Songbook she can put her own book up there too. After an initial release with Cracker Barrel, The CD and companion Songbook are available everywhere today.

As Suzy writes in the introduction to the book: “Music has always been my purest joy even as a child. One of my favorite memories is my grade-school music teacher pounding on the piano and leading the class in rousing renditions of folk songs from all around the world. In the summer of 2008 I toured with the brilliant and engaging Garrison Keillor. The energy that passed between the audience and Garrison was overwhelming at times. Several thousand people standing and singing together—old songs, hymns, the Beatles and the Everly Brothers. People of all ages, sharing music. Ahhh, pure joy."

But Bogguss was not content to present the songs as dusty museum pieces, instead she chose to breath new life into them with contemporary arrangements and a crack squad of Nashville's acoustic A-Listers. Jerry Douglas, Stuart Duncan, Pat Bergeson, Charlie Chadwick and Jeff Taylor all join the band for Suzy's self-produced project. Ultimately though it's the voice that lovingly weaves through the guitars and mandolins to find the new in these old songs. As John Lomax III writes in the forward to the book, 'Prepare yourself for enchantment! ...This work is, in a word, delightful!"

Suzy says she modeled the songbook after her "good old 5th grade songbook." The hardcover, 96-page book is filled with illustrations, fascinating historical stories about the songs, easy to read sheet music arrangements for piano, voice and guitar as well as personal insights and anecdotes from Bogguss. Her intent from the beginning was to make the book attractive to music lovers and musicians at every level. Again from her introduction: "that way, younger generations could share these slowly fading gems with their families and tell their stories of how they learned a few chords on the guitar or a couple of favorites to play at family gatherings.”

Cracker Barrel, with its devotion to families and appreciation for authentic Americana was the obvious choice for the initial release.

American Folk Songbook is the natural progression of an artist who has demonstrated skill and passion for all types of music in her career. Songs like “Aces,” “Drive South,” “Someday Soon,” “Outbound Plane” and "Letting Go" took her to the top of the country music charts. Along the way she won raves from critics and peers including winning a GRAMMY in 2005 for Traditional Folk Album, the Country Music Association’s Horizon Award in 1992 and album of the Year Award in 1994.

2007’s Billboard Jazz Chart topping Sweet Danger, the universally praised album, Swing recorded in 2003 with Ray Benson of Asleep At The Wheel and Simpatico, her beloved collaboration with Chet Atkins showed the world Bogguss was willing to both embrace tradition while continuing to grow and challenge herself as an artist. However, it is an appreciation for tradition that really shines through on American Folk Songbook.  The album is filled with songs that are the very fabric of American musical history and Bogguss reclaims this history and revives it with a fresh and beautiful take on classics like “Shenandoah,” “Wayfaring Stranger,” “Ol’ Dan Tucker,”  “Beautiful Dreamer” and of course, "Red River Valley." Everybody sing along!

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Tour Dates

08/13/2011 - Logan, UT - Cache County Fair

08/20/2011 - Dubois, WY - Dubois High Country Cowboy Gathering

08/25/2011 - Kent, OH - The Kent Stage

08/26/2011 - Ann Arbor, MI - The Ark

09/02/2011 - Highlands, NC - Highlands Performing Arts Center

09/03/2011 - Clinton, AR - World Champion Chuck Wagon Races

09/22/2011 - New Hope, PA - New Hope Winery

09/23/2011 - Annapolis, MD - Ram's Head Tavern

09/24/2011 - Staunton, VA - Fortune Williams Festival

Sugar Hill Records is proud to announce the September 13th release of V, the long-awaited solo debut from Nashville’s not-so-secret weapon: Kenny Vaughan. Since first arriving in Music City in the late ‘80s from his home state of Colorado, Vaughan quickly set himself apart as a different breed of guitar-slinger—technically assured and, more importantly, armed with a deeply felt reverence for a wide range of musical traditions encompassing vintage country, classic pop, hard bop, and beyond. The ten tracks that comprise V dip toes in all of these waters, forming a handy crash course in the trademark wit, flash, and unfailing musicality that has kept Kenny Vaughan so in-demand for the past quarter-century.

Starting in 2001, Vaughan has been a member of Marty Stuart’s Fabulous Superlatives, a multi-faceted outfit capable of delivering anything from rollicking bluegrass to classic honky tonk to simmering gospel soul. Aside from one track featuring Vaughan’s Nashville-based organ trio, the Fabulous Superlatives back him throughout V, which opens with the show-stopping Superlatives rave-up “Country Music Got a Hold On Me” and continues through an eclectic program that touches upon western swing (“Hot Like That”), evocative low-twanging instrumentals (“Minuit Sur La Plage,” “Mysterium”), Rockpile-inflected country-pop (“Things I Do”), and even a bit of gutbucket swamp-funk featuring the Oak Ridge Boys (“Okolona, Tennessee”), before concluding with a righteous gospel shuffle, “Don’t Leave Home Without Jesus.”

Recipient of the 2006 Instrumentalist of the Year award from the Americana Music Association, Vaughan is one of the most prominent guitarists of today’s ongoing roots music renaissance. An early pupil of fellow Coloradoan (and fellow eclectic roots alchemist) Bill Frisell, Vaughan has since performed and recorded with an array acclaimed artists, including Lucinda Williams, Kim Richey, Rodney Crowell, Tim O’Brien, Jim Lauderdale, Elizabeth Cook, Greg Garing, and too many more to list. Equally comfortable on stage or in the studio, Vaughan can be relied upon for hot, twitchy country leads, bittersweet melodic jangle, and everything in between—all dispatched with the utmost taste and subtlety.

And, as V so aptly demonstrates, Kenny Vaughan is no slouch as a frontman, either. His songs and singing are charmingly conversational, with no shortage of memorable hooks and clever verbal volleys. His cohorts in the Fabulous Superlatives (including bossman Marty Stuart on guitar and mandolin) offer honest, road-tightened support that is honest and heartfelt. Sterling confirmation of the potential implied by each sideman gig, session, and walk-on, V may have been a little too long in arriving…but, after all, Kenny’s a busy guy.