COUNTRY MUSIC NEWS & EXTRAS:
LUKE BRYAN held a press conference yesterday to announce his plans for what is going to be a very busy year. The biggest news is his "Kick The Dust Up" world tour, which launches May 8th in Grand Forks, North Dakota.
The tour will feature seven stadium shows and it wraps October 30th in Detroit, Michigan. Dustin Lynch, Randy Houser, Florida Georgia Line, and Thomas Rhett will open select shows. Dates and ticketing info are at LukeBryan.com.
He's also doing his final Spring Break-themed album and concerts. The album is called "Spring Break . . . Checkin' Out", and it'll be out March 10th. The final two Spring Break concerts are March 11th and 12th in Panama City, Florida.
Finally, the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville is putting together a Luke Bryan Exhibit that will open in May, and run through November. You'll find more information at CountryMusicHallOfFame.org.
BLAKE SHELTON and "Saturday Night Live" cast member CECILY STRONG recorded a few promos for Blake's appearance this Saturday. I kind of liked their takeoff on "The Voice". (Here's the video. "The Voice" one starts at 1:28.)
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6FhxSHP-qM]
Tim McGraw, Brad Paisley, Brantley Gilbert, and Rascal Flatts will be performing at this year's iHeartRadio Country Festival, which is going down May 2nd in Austin, Texas. More acts will be announced the closer we get to the show. (Tickets go on sale March 28th. You'll find details at this link.)
JAKE OWEN posted a photo on Twitter of his two-year-old daughter . . . and it's a good thing he's making a nice living because it appears horseback riding lessons are in her future. He wrote, "Pearl's first pony. My little girl likes country music and horses."
VINCE GILL is bringing Ashley Monroe, Charlie Worsham, and his daughter Jenny Gill on a four-day tour. It starts March 19th in El Dorado, Arkansas, and then moves on to St. Louis, Missouri on the 20th . . . Cincinnati, Ohio on the 21st . . . and Milwaukee, Wisconsin on March 22nd. (Rolling Stone)
Three Tips for Balancing Work and Side Projects
When you've got a 9-to-5 job, it can be hard to find time for side projects . . . like that novel you want to write, or that board game idea you came up with. So here are three tips to help you FIND more time.
1. Carry a notepad. When you have a job AND a side project, you have to be more efficient with your time. So keeping a notebook handy is good, because then you can jot something down whenever you have an idea.
2. Don't work unpaid overtime. Meaning don't volunteer to take on more than you can do in normal hours at your day job, unless it'll advance your career somehow. If you're just working extra hours because "someone" has to, that someone shouldn't be you.
Because if your job is 40 hours a week, working on a side project could add another 20. And most people can't work much more than that without getting burned out.
3. Force yourself to keep going. After eight hours at work, you'll have days where you just want to sit on the couch and FORGET about your side project. But that's how you lose momentum.
So pick a specific number of days per week that you're going to work on your side project, and stick to it. If you do at least 45 minutes of work on each of those days, you'll start getting into the HABIT of doing it.
Happy 63rd birthday to Teddy Gentry of Alabama!
