Billy Dukes

Willie Nelson's 80th birthday celebration begins with the release of a new album. The country music legend will reveal 'Let's Face the Music and Dance,' which you can listen to in full in advance with this online stream on Taste of Country.

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Two days after 'Set You Free' was released in January, Gary Allan began thinking about his next album. He tells Taste of Country that he was at an event with songwriter Hillary Lindsey -- whose credits include 'Every Storm (Runs Out of Rain)' and 'Two Black Cadillacs' -- during release week, and he tried to corner her to write. She laughed and reminded him that his last project was just days old. "That means we have one year to get this done," he remembers telling her, semi-seriously.

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In 1996 a doctor told Clay Walker he'd be in a wheelchair by 2000, and dead by 2004. It was a grim prognosis for a singer who was just beginning a superstar career. He was 26 years old, had a handful of No. 1 hits and a baby girl waiting for him at home. At first, the Texan just accepted the news. 

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Singer Sarah Darling has announced she is engaged to marry her boyfriend James. The two are still enjoying the glow of a romantic vacation and proposal, and haven't dug deep into wedding planning quite yet, but the 'Home to Me' singer revealed she's thinking May 2014 for the ceremony.

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'Let's Face the Music and Dance' is a great place for a young country music fan to meet Willie Nelson. It won't be his most famous, and it won't create any hit singles. This wonderfully consistent effort proves what longtime fans of the legend already know: At 79 years old (80 on April 30), Nelson is still as important and skilled a vocalist as there is in country music. 

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A pacemaker won't slow Charlie Daniels down. The Charlie Daniels Band frontman says his fiddling or movements on stage won't be compromised with the device implanted in his chest. He underwent the procedure last month after being hospitalized with pneumonia. He returns to the stage Friday night (April 12) in Verona, N.Y.

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Can anyone stop Carrie Underwood? 'Two Black Cadillacs' has built a house on top of the ToC Top 10 Video Countdown, but there are more than a few big bad wolves looking to blow it down. New videos from Florida Georgia Line and Taylor Swift enter the voting poll this week, in addition to returning Top-10ers from Miranda Lambert, Blake Shelton and Toby Keith. 

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An outsider may look at the rough-and-rowdy Brantley Gilbert and actress and model-turned-country singer Jana Kramer and wonder why they work so well together. It sounds like they do, too. In an interview with Taste of Country, Gilbert described his relationship with his fiance with one simple phrase...

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Luke Bryan's new song 'Crash My Party' would fit well on his last album 'Tailgates and Tanlines.' The ballad is a continuation of themes introduced with 'I Don't Want This Night to End' and 'Drunk on You,' two No. 1 hits for the ACM Entertainer of the Year. At first listen, it's difficult to become excited about a song that's so familiar. 

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Carrie Underwood changed directions with the release of 'See You Again' as the fourth single from 'Blown Away.' The ballad is anything but dark and stormy. Instead it's an inspirational reminder that will be especially meaningful to fans who have lost someone close recently. 

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Brad Paisley's 'Wheelhouse' delivers a familiar mix of humor, life lessons and scorching guitar solos, but it does it in a way different from any of the other eight albums the 'Beat This Summer' singer has released. He took his old formula, balled it up, lit it on fire and tossed the ashes in the garbage. The result is a meaty and ambitious project that doesn't always click, but clears new ground when it does.

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Granger Smith releases his ninth studio album next week (April 16) -- one he calls his most ambitious project to date. 'Dirt Road Driveway' features singles 'We Do It in a Field' and 'The Country Boy Song' in addition to 10 other tracks from the pen of the the Red Dirt singer-songwriter. Listen to the entire album early via this exclusive stream on Taste of Country.

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