Forced to get creative when concerts with live audiences aren’t possible, three rising stars are supporting new albums — and charities close to their hearts — with streaming shows.
Tenille Townes, one of the up-and-comers profiled in our October 2019 country music issue, finally released her debut on Friday, and she’ll host her annual Big Hearts for Big Kids benefit concert at 7 p.m. CDT tomorrow (Tuesday, June 30) from the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville. Not only will the two-time ACM Award nominee perform songs from the new release, The Lemonade Stand, she’ll also share the spotlight with Dierks Bentley, Brandi Carlile, Mickey Guyten, John Osborne, and more. You can stream and purchase the album at this link, and tune into the concert at Townes’ YouTube channel.
And in other concerts-streaming-from-Nashville-to-support-an-album-and-charity news, bluegrass artist Billy Strings is embarking on his Streaming Strings Tour 2020 with nine shows at five venues in Music City July 16–26. The venues will be crowd-free and run with minimal crew and staff, tickets are $9.99 per show and on sale here, and a portion of proceeds will be distributed equally to the ACLU, Backline (a mental-health resource for music industry pros), and the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. Strings’ latest single, a beautiful cover of Neal Casal’s “All the Luck in the World” with Circles Around the Sun, was just released Monday. Last year, he was voted International Bluegrass Music Association Guitar Player of the Year following the well-received Home, which hit No. 1 on the U.S. Bluegrass and Heatseekers album charts. Also, check out the darkly humorous methamphetamine romp “Dust in a Baggie” from 2016 for another side of the young musician and his crack team of players.
Texas Americana-folk singer-songwriter Sarah Jarosz will perform songs from her latest, World on the Ground, on her YouTube channel at 7 p.m. CDT today. A portion of proceeds from the “pay what you can” virtual show will go to the National Museum of African American Music, set to open this fall in Nashville.
And as long as we’re sharing Nashville-related streaming show news, here are the Grand Ole Opry’s holiday weekend plans: Sara Evans and Opry members the Oak Ridge Boys and Mark Wills will perform for the 4,931st consecutive Saturday night broadcast on July 4 as part of Circle Network’s America’s Birthday Bash weekend.
Photography: Matthew Berinato
