That Nashville Sound Saturday Newsbytes: New Albums, New Record Deals, New Videos & More

With Country Radio Seminars in Nashville, news is coming out fast and furious about lots of your favorite artists.  Here's some headlines in bite-size form...

* Brandi Carlile has been named this year's Record Store Day Ambassador.  This years date of what will be a massive release of new releases on vinyl is April 18, 2020 and Carlile went on video to discuss what this means to her.

* Gary Allan has recently reassembled the band and producers behind his smash album Smoke Rings In The Dark, Tony Brown and Mark Wright, to record his first new music in years. Six 90's-country-inspired songs have already been tracked.

Several new music videos out including:

- Ashley McBryde - "First Thing I Reach For"
- RaeLynn - "Keep Up"
- Darrell Scott - "The Day After"
- Marc Broussard - "Baton Rouge"
- LeAnn Rimes - "Someone You Loved"

* Songwriter Gretchen Peters will pay homage to one of her songwriting heroes with the forthcoming album The Night You Wrote That Song: The Songs of Mickey Newbury out May 15th on Peters’ own Scarlet Letter Records. 

* Toby Keith, Chris Stapleton and more have contributed songs to Willie Nelson's next album. Nelson is releasing his 70th solo studio album, First Rose Of Spring, on Friday, April 24, which falls right before the legend’s 87th birthday on April 29. 

* Singer/songwriter Johnny Bulford (Lee Brice's "A Woman Like You" and Chris Young's "Flashlight") has released a fantastic new sentimental track dedicated to his grandfather called "Raised Me" that's definitely worth a listen. 

* On March 27th, Lukas Nelson and Promise of the Real will release Naked Garden, a companion album to 2019’s Turn Off the News (Build a Garden) featuring previously unreleased tracks and alternate versions of songs from the same sessions. 

* Lauren Alaina will release a six-track EP entitled Getting Good, which releases March 6.

* Reba McEntire has resigned with her original music label. Reba made an appearance during the UMG Nashville CRS luncheon to announce returning to her former label home.

* Not to be undone, Tim McGraw did the same thing, moving back to Big Machine Records. McGraw’s return to Big Machine follows his recent exit from Sony Music Nashville.