Feel-Good Friday: Uplifting Country News From Brett Young, Dolly Parton & Kip Moore
Here's some good news to head into your weekend!
Welcome to Feel-Good Friday, a weekly roundup of heartwarming stories, lighthearted videos, and inspiring country news that reminds us all there is still good in the world.
Country artists enjoy April Fool’s Day by pranking fans
Brett Young and Josh Abbott Band enjoyed a day of pranks on Thursday as part of April Fool’s Day. After topping the country charts with “Lady,” Young teased a new collaboration featuring Vanilla Ice. “I’ve been wanting to change things up for a while now and following ‘Lady’ going No. 1 felt like the perfect time,” Young wrote on Instagram. “I’m excited to announce my next single at country radio is a cover of one of the classics, ‘Ice Ice Baby’ featuring the man himself, Vanilla Ice.”
Josh Abbott Band also shared that the group would be breaking up via Twitter. “Sometimes you gotta know when the ride is over,” JAB wrote. “It’s with a heavy heart that we announce we’ve decided to close this chapter of our lives. I realize what today is, but it was time to let it out. To all of you that have supported us over the years, we can’t thank you enough.”
Hours later JAB reassured fans who thought they were really breaking up that it was simply an April Fool’s joke. “April Fools! We aren’t going away! In fact, we have a new album, The Highway Kind, out now!”
Dolly Parton’s comic book is here
A national treasure, Dolly Parton is now forever immortalized in a new comic book. On Wednesday, TidalWave Comics released “Female Force: Dolly Parton,” a 22-page comic book about the country singer’s life. The book, available digitally and in hardcover and softcover print editions, was written by Michael Frizell, with art by Ramon Salas. Dave Ryan contributed cover art for the hardcover edition.
“Writing about Dolly was a joy,” Frizell says. “I’m thrilled with the expressive way the artist visualized the pages. The book feels timeless.”
Kip Moore duets with Ashley McBryde at The Ryman
Kip Moore returned to the stage last month for a sold-out headlining set at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium. For those unable to attend or tune in on the livestream, he’s released one of his performances from the evening featuring Ashley McBryde.
“I had such a blast a few weeks back performing live at The Ryman with all of you,” he says. “The feedback was incredible, and it felt so good to play on a stage again. I wanted to release ‘Janie Blu’ direct from the livestream performance as its own video so you can experience one of my favorite moments from that night in case you missed it!”
Luke Combs shares new song inspired by fan’s tweet
“We’re writing songs for album three and we were sitting here today starting to work on this song and I happened to go on Twitter and saw this guy who tweeted me and Miller Light,” Luke Combs says. The fan’s tweet was from a man named Billy on his wedding day who shared a photo of himself kneeling on the ground with a box of Miller Light on his head as his groomsmen chugged beers beside him.
Inspired by the photo, Combs and his collaborators wrote a song for his fan. “I know I got a lot of beer songs, but here’s another one,” Combs said before performing “We Still Drink Beer.”
Tyler Hubbard shares video of son cruising in his new set of wheels
The smile and laughter on Tyler Hubbard’s son Luca’s face while driving his new miniature Mercedes is infectious. Donning a backwards baseball cap and flannel, Luca is Hubbard’s mini me in an adorable video featuring a snippet of dad’s latest collaboration with Lathan Warlick, “My Way.”
