Ronnie said this on Facebook:

We were up all night firing texts and emails. Toby and I climbed over Garth’s fence. He’s in…just rying to figure out how to make it all happen for the best !!!!….but, “he still has to clear things with Trisha” . Janine (Oklahoma girl) just wants me out of the house…period.
We’re ALL in agreement…”it’s Toby’s town and we want to be respectful and do the right thing by following his lead.”
Everyone involved is feeling like THIS needs to be organic and REAL…..”get down in the dirt”. Take it straight to the people without a tremendous amount of pomp….but BIIIIIG !!!

THIS IS REALLY EXCITING !!! RD

We can’t wait to see who else will join this line-up for a great cause. Our thoughts remain with Moore, Oklahoma.

Related posts:

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2. Oklahoma country stars reflect on tornado
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In an interview with the Associated Press, Toby admits he’s been thinking about putting together a benefit concert for the area:

“I know as soon as I start sending out some feelers that I’ll get a lot of people in there,” Keith said. “Hopefully, we can use music to heal some of the money problems right away.”

Toby is currently in the area surveying the damage. He was on NBC and FOX news this week discussing the need for relief help and how he knows the town is resilient.

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Toby Keith said:

“This storm has devastated the community that I grew up in. I rode my bike through those neighborhoods. I have family and friends in Moore. My heart and prayers go to those that have lost so much. But Moore is strong and we will persevere. God be with you all.”

Krystal Keith:

“Please pray for my Okie’s today and in the coming days. I am devastated to watch the footage from afar. Feeling pretty helpless today.”

Carrie Underwood:

“I’m thinking about and praying for my beautiful home state and the people in it tonight. Growing up in Tornado Alley, you always know what could happen. It doesn’t change how devastating it is when something does happen. #pray.”

Miranda Lambert:

“Pray. That’s all we can do. Pray for peace for Oklahoma.”

Blake Shelton:

“Just landed in LA and hearing about all the tornados in Oklahoma right now… Get somewhere safe!”

See more reactions below:

Joe Don Rooney of Rascal Flatts:

“My thoughts & prayers are with my home state of Oklahoma. May God’s love & grace be with all affected by these horrible storms.”

Reba McEntire:

“All my prayers go out to the folks in Oklahoma dealing with these tornados. Stay safe everyone!”

Ronnie Dunn:

“Stopped to spend the night in Shawnee, Okla. Just woke up to another tornado hitting Moore. Right in front of it! We got out just before it hit. Those poor people. We will help when and where we can.”

Related posts:

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2. Country stars react to George Jones’ passing
3. Country Stars React To 9/11 Anniversary

Make sure to pick up your copy of her self-titled EP, which is available now on iTunes or other digital music retailers, and get to know Krystal in our exclusive interview below:

 How hard was it to keep “Daddy Dance With Me” a surprise from your Dad?

It wasn’t really that hard. I recorded an Elton John cover for my dance with my husband, and I told my Dad I was going to do that months before. If he did find out I was in Nashville recording, if someone had said they saw me or something, then it wasn’t that far fetched that I’d be there recording without him. It really wasn’t that hard, I didn’t tell a whole host of people – maybe ten people knew. I kept it under wraps. I didn’t record it until a week and a half before the wedding; we didn’t finish the song until two weeks before. It wasn’t a really long period of time of when I had to keep the secret.

So how did he react to it?

He laughed, and I think he was shocked. We can’t ever prank or do surprise birthday parties because he figures everything out. I think he was shocked that I pulled one over on him and got something done in his field without him knowing or without him being a part of it. I had just called my manager and asked him to set up an engineer, who had set up a piano player. The original track just had my vocals and a piano on it, it was super simple and just really intimate. He said, “when did you do this?,” “who did you do this with?,” “how did you get out there?,” “who set it up?”. He was just full of questions. He didn’t really get the chance to listen to the lyrics, I kind of told him the lyrics and he’d cut me off to talk about it. I tease him that it was his way of dealing with it.

We had 65 people in Chicago for my wedding, it was just really intimate. Every single person, including my sister-in-law’s husband, who is is a very country boy, he was blubbering. Everyone was crying and we walked off the dance floor and my husband said “you didn’t cry a little bit, not even a little!” Dad said “I almost shed one tear but I’m a professional.”

So, for fans who aren’t quite familiar with you yet, how would you describe yourself as an artist?

I’m really kind of a raw person. I’ve never had any formal vocal training or anything. I have quite a bit of vibrato and I’m real rootsy. I tend to get a little bluesy sometimes – it kind of depends on the vibe of the song. I have a big range, and I showcase that a lot in the songs that I write and the songs that I do. It’s one second to another. This EP, for instance, has a pretty good sampling of what’s on the album: song to song is so different. There are still songs on the album that are completely different than the ones on the EP. There’s a song on the album that’s bluesy and rock-y. People won’t expect it who listen to my EP, and then get my album, who will be able to get that bluesy rock sound out of it.  I’d say that I’m pretty versatile.

How does it feel to finally have your EP out?

Oh, it’s amazing! I celebrated a lot more than I thought I would. I thought that I’d pop some champagne and wear a party dress all day, but I got flowers from my parents and my in-laws. It felt like my birthday. To get the reaction from my fans, that’s the most important thing that the fans can relate to it, I haven’t heard one negative thing. It’s been pretty amazing to get that reaction. To finally be able to get my fans some music to listen to other than Mockingbird, they can see what I’ve been working on for the last couple of years.

 I’ve heard about this cute story about you trying to join your Dad on-stage at a 4th of July BBQ…

(laughs) Yeah, I have a picture on my phone in my little bathing suit and I am throwing a fit because I was telling my mom “I wanna go up there,” and she was like “you can’t, Dad’s working.” This was long before he had his record deal and he did a lot of local shows, and this was a huge 4th of July BBQ that he was hired for through a family friend, and they hired the Easy Money Band. One of the breaks my Mom went to my Dad and said “you’ve gotta do something about your daughter, she just wants up there, so put her up there and let her pretend, and we’ll put her back down when you go on.” He was like “yeah, put her up there!”. I had wanted to sing “You Are My Sunshine,” it was the song my mom used to always sing to us before bed and it was the only song I knew at that age. She got me up there and I looked out at a ton of people, and was like, okay I think I’m done.

That was the first time that my Mom and Dad saw that I had any interest in being on stage or performing or anything. Even though I didn’t follow through at that age, I don’t think I was quite prepared. I think I just wanted to sing with him, not so much in front of everybody. I guess I thought it was cool that he was on stage. It’s always been intriguing to me.

Do you still get nervous getting on stage?

Oh Lord no. Other than maybe the first time I went on stage by myself when I was 13, I was in a competition at our state fair, I think I was really nervous because it was really the first time I had ever performed ever. I was nervous then, and I’ve never really been nervous since then. I think I’m weird and there’s something that God didn’t put in me to make me nervous. I get more nervous getting off-stage, but I think it’s from pure adrenaline. Getting on stage I just kind of love it.

If you could put together your dream tour, who would you hit the road with?

Right now I’m digging Miranda Lambert. I love everything she’s doing, she’s totally bad-ass. Her style and she does a lot of cool, gritty stuff that you don’t really expect to come out of a girl’s mouth. I love that she’s completely fearless and not afraid to be herself. Myself, I tend not to have a filter sometimes. I just appreciate what she’s doing and I think it would be a really cool thing if I got to tour with her.

If you could be in the studio with anybody, who would it be?

Oh, I’ve already been so blessed. I have Mac MacAnally playing on the album, so I can’t be greedy! I have the most amazing people ever on the album, but if I could chose a singer to maybe do a duet with… I don’t know, I think Loretta Lynn would be pretty amazing. I mean.. it’s Loretta Lynn!

Who would you consider to be your biggest musical influence?

My Dad, for sure. I’m a fourth-generation musician; my Great-Grandmother was in a quartet, and my Grandmother was actually offered a record deal but got pregnant with my Dad, so she gave up that opportunity so she could have him and be a mom. Obviously, he’s a successful musician, and now I’m doing my thing. My family has always been very music-centered, there’s always music playing, there’s always music being sung, there’s always a guitar in the corner. I think that being in a house with my Dad and all his band mates and writing friends has definitely very much influenced the musician I’ve become.

I saw on your Instagram that you love to cook, but what’s your favorite thing you’ve ever made?

I cook so much that I don’t really have a favorite. I won my husband over with my pan-seared Tilapia and country green beans and biscuit fried pies. I make pasta from scratch, I love to make Ravioli, and I love to make Parmesan from scratch. You just can’t beat fresh pasta. I love pretty much any Italian food.. pretty much all food in general (laughs). I don’t really have one favorite dish, I just love to be in the kitchen!

Is there a song that’s been released in the last few years that you wish you wrote?

Oh, there’s so, so many. Again, Miranda Lambert. She has The House That Built Me, and I grew up in a house but moved out to a farm that my parents live out on now, when I was 12. So the house that I really grew up in is the house that my parents bought when my Dad had his first record deal. It’s the first nice house that we bought, and I cried and sat in my room when we moved. When my husband and I were looking for our first house, I would drive by to see if it was for sale.  I would tell him, “just go to the door and see if they’d be interesting in selling it,” ’cause I would buy it back in a heart beat. I remember a little closet in there, just under the stairs, it was made out of plywood, it was just an unfinished closet. Me and my friends used to write in the wall in there, and I know that it’s still there.

The House That Built Me, the first time I heard it I just bawled. It was so much like what I was going through, I was actually working on buying my first house right when it came out, so I was like “damn it! Why didn’t I write this song?” (laughs).

What do you think is the one rule to make a happy marriage?

Communication and good food doesn’t hurt. Just communicating and not bottling things up is the most important part.

Who are your favorite people to follow on Twitter?

I love Wynonna Judd, because she actually replies to all her fans. I actually replied to one of her tweets and she responded and I got all giddy. I had just met her at the BMI Award show, and my Mom was scolding me for taking off my shoes, and I looked back and said “well, Wynonna has her shoes off and if she can do it, then I can do it too!”. She had actually turned to look and she goes “Did I hear my name?”.  I was like “Umm.. you weren’t supposed to hear that, but…” (laughs). Anyway, I had just met her and I love following her. I’m a huge Dodgers fan, so a lot of the time when I’m out on the road and don’t have a t.v. I’ll keep up with the scores and stuff through their Twitter account.  I love Stephen Colbert. I love people who are funny and will put random things and no one will understand but it’s still funny anyway. Blake Shelton, he’s a great one to follow.

Since it’s finally getting warm out, what’s your favorite thing to do in the summer?

Fish! I’m a huge fisherman. I’ve already been out – I’ve got to go two days in a row on our first warm weekend. I took my niece and nephew and took them out to my parents’ house and fished off the dock with them for the day. Any warm day I love to either go play with my dogs, go fish, go ride horses. My husband just bought me a bike so I’ll be biking a lot this summer.

What do you think is the coolest thing to happen to you so far?

Musically, or?

Either way.

Well, I was in the studio with my Dad and Willie Nelson when he recorded Beer For My Horses. That was one of my favorite musical memories. That and that I showed up at my manager’s house one night, and he was like, “we’re going to have a jam session tonight,” and I was like “cool!”. It wasn’t just your regular musician jam session, there was Glen Campbell and his two kids that are both musicians, so him and his kids and Bobby Pinson, and Liz Rose, and me and My Dad… there was twenty of the top singer-songwriters and musicians. I just literally had to leave the table with tears in my eyes. I was just watching Glen play guitar and sing with my Dad. It was one of the coolest experiences that I’ve ever had. I’ll never forget the reaction that my Dad had, and it was kind of just the same for me.

If you could give one piece of advice for somebody that wants to get into the industry, what would you tell them?

Get some life experience first. Start with songwriting, songwriting is incredibly important. I think it broadens your horizons if you never get the opportunity to get a record deal and sing, you can always write songs and hopefully have one picked up by another artist. Songwriting is incredibly important. Life experience helps one become a songwriter, they go hand-in-hand.

——

Krystal’s self-titled debut EP is available NOW! Get your copy today from iTunes.

Connect with Krystal by:
@KrystalKeith
facebook.com/KrystalKeithMusic
krystalkeith.com.

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The NMPA’s Songwriter of the Year Award recognizes songwriters for their accomplishments throughout their career, and for achieving goals that match with NMPA’s mission. Toby has been spending time overseas performing for USO troops, and he is also being recognized for his Toby Keith Foundation charity.

NMPA President & CEO David Israelite had this to say about Toby:

“The NMPA is pleased to recognize Toby keith and U.S. Rep. Ted Deutch for their contributions to songwriting, music publishing and creator’s rights. Toby Keith’s talent as a singer/songwriter is remarkable, but his dedication to fans, his work with the USO, and his commitment to music and songwriting as a craft has greatly influenced the industry.”

We want to send our congratulations to Toby on this cool honor! What’s your favorite Toby moment?

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Since his first USO tour in 2002, Keith has performed 11 USO tours and traveled to 15 countries plus the USS Enterprise, USS Abraham Lincoln and USS Cape Saint George. In total, the singer-songwriter has lifted the spirits of 225,984 servicemen and women.

During the tour, the singer/songwriter is scheduled to perform seven USO shows exclusively for military families. Check out the pictures below sent from Toby’s team of his visit:

Singer-songwriter Toby Keith makes the first stop of his 11-day, three-country tour in the Philippines on April 28. While in the region, Keith greeted troops at various JSOC military bases and performed his first 2013 USO concert. At left, Keith performs his acoustic show with Scotty Emerick.

“It feels so good to be back out visiting and performing for our troops in uniform and their families,” Keith said. “I’ve toured a lot in my lifetime but nothing beats traveling with the USO, having the opportunity to uplift the spirits of our nation’s service heroes and showing them that America is always by their side no matter where they are in the world.”

This summer, Keith will hit the road on the “Toby Keith Hammer Down Tour Presented by Ford F-Series.” The tour will begin June 8 in Ozark, AR.

The troops applaud Keith and Emerick as they entertain on April 28. Last year, Keith celebrated a decade of touring the globe with the USO and capped off the year with a return USO visit to the Middle East.

(USO photos by Dave Gatley / Produced by Christian Pelusi)

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Other major starts performing at the event include ZZ Top, Aerosmith, Joan Jett, & The Blackhearts, Blue Oyster Cult, Gaslight Anthem and more.

Additional entertainment to be announced soon

• Whiskey of the Damned
• Lynyrd Skynyrd (H.O.G. Members only)
• Elvin Bishop
• Blue Oyster Cult
• Dropkick Murphys
• The Doobie Brothers
• Joan Jett and the Blackhearts
• Lupe Fiasco

• Gabriel Sanchez & The Prince Experience
• MAD MEX
• Jonathan Tyler and the Northern Lights
• ZZ Ward
• Shooter Jennings
• The Dirty Heads
• Foxy Shazam
• ZZ Top
• Gaslight Anthem
• Sublime with Rome
• Buckcherry

• D.B. Bryant Band
• Moderatto
• The White Buffalo
• Tyler Bryant & the Shakedown
• The Whigs
• Halestorm
• Katey Sagal & The Forest Rangers
• Common
• Brantley Gilbert

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Up next in our polls are the boys with the “Male Vocalist” category!

Blake Shelton is the reigning Male Vocalist of the Year. Do you think Blake is going to take it again this year? Or is the award going to Jason Aldean, Luke Bryan, Eric Church, or Toby Keith?

Let us know your vote!

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BMI Vice-President/Writer-Publisher Relations Jody Williams and Assistant Vice President/Writer-Publish Relations Clay Bradley gave Toby the award at a ceremony in Nashville last night. Toby was in-studio on Music Row when he was presented all of the certificates, which you can check out below:

Toby Keith with his certificates from BMI last night.

Clay shared why BMI is so excited to give Toby the special title:

“Toby Keith is a stalwart BMI songwriter, who we’ve been honored to work with since early in his career. With these honors, he now stands at over 80 million performances and shows no signs of stopping.”

What’s your favorite Toby Keith song of all time?

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“This time last year as we were getting ready to announce the first year of this festival, we knew we had a great location and a unique concept for country fans, but we didn’t know how amazing the weekend would turn out to be,” said Brian O’Connell, five-time ACM Promoter of the Year and President of Live Nation, Nashville.  ”We were blown away by the fans and the support from the artists.  We have some new surprises planned for this year and hope to keep making it bigger and better year after year.”

Watershed Music Festival features a versatile lineup of artists,  late night sets, outrageous camping sites, collaborations and more.   The Gorge Amphitheatre, located in George, Wash., is undoubtedly one of the most scenic concert venues in the world and offers sweeping views of the Columbia River Gorge.  The area itself is a watershed for the Columbia River, thus inspiring the name of the event.

What an exciting line-up! Will you be going?

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