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Niko Moon Goes Back to Where He Came From on New Album ‘Roots,’ Out July 17th

Eric Alper
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Niko Moon Goes Back to Where He Came From on New Album ‘Roots,’ Out July 17th

Niko Moon has a new album coming and a new direction to go with it. ‘Roots’ arrives July 17th via Empire, and first single “Rich Man” is out now alongside a visualizer that depicts Moon sitting outside a trailer beside his pregnant wife, a direct visual reference to the humble origins the album is built around.

‘Roots’ follows Moon’s 2025 project ‘American Palm’ and trades that record’s beachside energy for something more personal and grounded. The album draws from Moon’s upbringing across Tyler, Texas, Atlanta, and Georgia, shaped by a young mother, a truck-driving father, and years spent moving between trailers and extended-stay motels. It’s the origin story he hasn’t fully told until now.

“I started feeling pulled back toward the places that raised me,” Moon says. “This album is an homage to those places, those memories and the stories that shaped me. Instead of writing about taking somebody to the beach or out to a party, I wanted to take people back to where I come from.”

“Rich Man” captures the album’s core directly. Wealth here gets measured in family, love, and connection, not material terms. Moon’s vocal delivery on the track is warm and specific, and the visualizer reinforces the message with striking simplicity. It’s one of the most emotionally direct releases of his career.

The Back To My Roots fall headlining tour kicks off September 11th in Youngstown, OH, with stops in Chattanooga, Columbus, and more. Tickets are on sale now.

Moon also returns with his Good Time Fest in Charleston, SC, May 23rd and 24th, an expanded festival blending live music, community, and wellness. A portion of proceeds supports his Happy Cowboy Foundation, dedicated to increasing access to mental health resources.

‘Roots’ is out July 17th via Empire.

Jelly Roll’s “Rise Up” Is the Official Theme Song of the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs

Eric Alper
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Jelly Roll’s “Rise Up” Is the Official Theme Song of the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs

Jelly Roll and the NHL are a natural fit, and “Rise Up” makes that case immediately. The Grammy Award-winner’s new Amazon Music Original track is the official theme song of the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs, featured across game broadcasts, in-arena integrations, and NHL digital and social channels.

The music video debuted during the first game of the Western Conference Final, pairing Jelly Roll with the Stanley Cup and NHL highlights in a multi-faceted creative collaboration that extends well beyond a standard licensing deal. A documentary short on the making of the video, featuring Jelly Roll alongside NHL stars Jack Eichel of the Vegas Golden Knights and Seth Jarvis of the Carolina Hurricanes, drops in June. NHL players also contributed personally curated pregame soundtracks for “The Power Play(list)” on Amazon Music.

Jelly Roll is clear about where the song comes from. “This song was written for the guys grinding every night for the Cup,” he says. “This isn’t just the theme song of the NHL Playoffs. This is their song. It crawls over your skin, that dirty, swampy, nasty, distorted rock and roll.”

That description lands. “Rise Up” doesn’t ease into the moment. It matches the playoff intensity directly, built for rinks and crowds and everything on the line.

“Rise Up” is out now as an Amazon Music Original.

Madonna, Shakira, and BTS Co-Headline the First-Ever FIFA World Cup 2026 Final Halftime Show

Eric Alper
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Madonna, Shakira, and BTS Co-Headline the First-Ever FIFA World Cup 2026 Final Halftime Show

History gets made July 19th. Madonna, Shakira, and BTS will co-headline the FIFA World Cup 2026 Final Halftime Show at New York New Jersey Stadium, the first halftime show in FIFA World Cup Final history. The event is broadcast live around the world, produced by Global Citizen in partnership with Live Nation and Done + Dusted, and curated by Coldplay’s Chris Martin in his ongoing role as international curator of the Global Citizen Festival.

The show supports the FIFA Global Citizen Education Fund, a campaign targeting $100 million to expand access to quality education and football for children worldwide. The fund has already raised over $30 million, with $1 from every ticket sold to FIFA World Cup 2026 matches going directly to the initiative throughout the tournament.

Shakira, a FIFA Global Citizen Education Fund Board Member, connects the show directly to her broader work. “I’ve spent my life doing two things, making songs and building schools,” she says. “At the FIFA World Cup, those two paths come together.” She’ll perform “Dai Dai,” the official song she created for the tournament and the Education Fund.

Madonna frames her participation around access and opportunity. “Without education, children are denied opportunity before they even have a chance. Every child deserves access to quality learning, because education expands possibilities and creates lasting change.”

BTS add their own perspective: “Music is the universal language of hope and harmony, and we’re honored to celebrate that power at the World Cup by connecting with millions of viewers around the world in support of children’s education.”

The show also features Muppets from Sesame Street and The Muppets from The Walt Disney Company, whose inclusion reflects the event’s focus on children’s education and joyful learning. Chris Martin revealed the lineup in a short film and described the show as being “all about togetherness, and everyone’s invited.”

Keith Urban Drops “Steal Away” and Previews His Yacht Rock Album ‘Flow State,’ Out June 12th

Eric Alper
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Keith Urban Drops “Steal Away” and Previews His Yacht Rock Album ‘Flow State,’ Out June 12th

Keith Urban’s cover of Robbie Dupree’s classic 1980 track “Steal Away” is out now via MCA, and it does exactly what great yacht rock should: it transports you somewhere warm and unhurried before the second verse arrives. The track is 1 of several covers on his upcoming album ‘Flow State,’ out June 12th, which also includes takes on “Baby Come Back,” “Just the Two of Us,” and “Summer Breeze,” plus an original song, “We Go Back,” featuring Michael McDonald.

‘Flow State’ was produced by Urban and Dann Huff and recorded at Urban’s own The Sound studio in Nashville. The collaborator list is well-matched to the material: Michael McDonald, Little Big Town, and John Mayer all appear across the record, making it as much a gathering of musical friends as a solo project.

Urban is everywhere over the next few weeks. He headlines ACM Next Wave: Country’s Beach Bash at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, alongside Flatland Cavalry, Ashley Cooke, Dasha, Braxton Keith, and Tucker Wetmore. He also presents the Album of the Year award at the 61st ACM Awards, performs at the American Music Awards on CBS and Paramount+ on May 25th, and takes the Nissan Stadium stage at CMA Fest on June 5th.

The ACM Triple Crown honoree and 14-time ACM Award winner continues to be one of country music’s most active and versatile performers, and ‘Flow State’ signals a deliberate, sun-soaked creative detour that suits him exceptionally well.

“Steal Away” is out now. ‘Flow State’ arrives June 12th via MCA.

Little Steven’s Underground Garage Cruise 3 Sets Sail in 2027 With The Damned, X, Buzzcocks, and More

Eric Alper
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Little Steven’s Underground Garage Cruise 3 Sets Sail in 2027 With The Damned, X, Buzzcocks, and More

Little Steven Van Zandt and Sixthman are taking the Underground Garage out to sea for a third time. Little Steven’s Underground Garage Cruise 3 sails April 24-28, 2027, from Miami, FL to Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic aboard Norwegian Jewel, and the lineup is loaded.

The roster includes The Damned, X, D Generation, Buzzcocks, Stiff Little Fingers, Glen Matlock, The Return Of Jackie and Judy (Carrie Brownstein and Corin Tucker with Fred Armisen), The Zeros, Texas Headhunters, The 5.6.7.8’s, The Fleshtones, The Chesterfield Kings, The Courettes, The Dollyrots, The Coolies, The Cocktail Slippers, Jessie Wagner, Goons, and special guest Kathy Valentine of The Go-Go’s, with more to be announced.

Every artist plays multiple sets across the 4-day run, with once-in-a-lifetime collaborations built into the program. SiriusXM Sessions at Sea feature up-close performances and conversations hosted by Underground Garage DJs including Palmyra Delran, Kelly Ogden, The Mighty Manfred, and Count Peter Zaremba, with recordings set for broadcast on the SiriusXM Underground Garage channel. Add meet and greets, theme nights, an onboard merch store, a tattoo parlor, and the full amenities of Norwegian Jewel, and the package covers everything.

The shore excursion stop in Puerto Plata, the ninth largest city in the Dominican Republic, offers options ranging from summit views at over 2,600 feet atop Pico Isabel de Torres to a visit to the 16th-century Fortaleza San Felipe.

First Round Presale Signups are open through May 28th at 11:59 pm ET, with Final Round Presale Signups closing June 2nd. The public on sale begins June 4th at 2 pm ET. Presale cabins carry a $100 per cabin savings, and bookings are available for just $100 down per person until August 24th with automatic monthly billing. Exclusive presale incentives include a signed poster from The Damned, X, or Buzzcocks, subject to availability.

Emily Ann Roberts Pays Tribute to Her Father With the Quietly Powerful “Things You Didn’t Know”

Eric Alper
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Emily Ann Roberts Pays Tribute to Her Father With the Quietly Powerful “Things You Didn’t Know”

Emily Ann Roberts wrote “Things You Didn’t Know” the morning after her parents drove in from East Tennessee to watch her play The Listening Room with Vince Gill. The new single is out now via Sony Music Nashville, and it carries that specific, lived-in warmth throughout its entire runtime.

Over soft acoustic guitar and fiddle, Roberts traces the quiet, unspoken influence of her father’s life on her own, the lessons absorbed not from direct instruction but from watching how he moved through the world. “He hasn’t had an easy life, but he has never let the hard times define him,” she says. “He modeled hard work, how to be a friend, and introduced me to all his favorite records, which in turn shaped my songwriting and artistry.”

Roberts wrote the song at a retreat alongside Trent Willmon, Michael Farren, and Laura Veltz, immediately after her parents had joined them for breakfast. The proximity of the moment to the writing shows. “Things You Didn’t Know” is specific and unhurried, the kind of song that earns its emotional weight honestly.

Roberts arrives at this release with serious industry recognition behind her. An ACM New Female Artist of the Year nominee, she’s also a MusicRow Next Big Thing and was recently honored as AIMP Nashville Rising Artist-Writer of the Year. She’s a member of the Opry NextStage Class of 2026 and performs tomorrow at ACM Next Wave: Country Beach Bash in Las Vegas.

The year ahead is packed. Roberts has already appeared at C2C, Tortuga, and more, with Carolina Country Music Fest, Barefoot Country Music Fest, and Boots and Hearts ahead, plus her Nissan Stadium debut at CMA Fest. She joins Thomas Rhett for his Soundtrack to Life Tour this summer and fall, including stadium dates with Niall Horan, and closes the year on UK dates with Cody Johnson.

“Things You Didn’t Know” is out now via Sony Music Nashville.

Charles Wesley Godwin Announces ‘Christian Name,’ His Most Personal Album, Featuring Luke Combs

Eric Alper
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Charles Wesley Godwin Announces ‘Christian Name,’ His Most Personal Album, Featuring Luke Combs

Charles Wesley Godwin’s fourth studio album ‘Christian Name’ arrives July 24th via Big Loud Records, and first single “Better That Way” featuring Luke Combs is out now. The album was written through one of the most difficult periods of Godwin’s life, and every song on it reflects that directly.

In 2024, Godwin and his wife Samantha lost their third child, Samuel, to stillbirth. “To put it simply, my heart was broken,” Godwin says. “It took me a few months to get myself back up off the ground, so to speak, and get back into the game and to write songs again.” Rather than pulling him away from his faith, the loss deepened it. “Coming out of that, I recommitted to my faith in God more so than I have at any point in my life. It really changed me.”

‘Christian Name’ documents that journey across 13 tracks, opening with a sermon and moving through grief, redemption, and reaffirmation. The album title and cover art draw direct inspiration from Godwin’s late grandfather, Charles Godwin, a Methodist preacher, grounding the project in family and legacy as much as personal faith.

Alongside “Better That Way” with Combs, the album features “Hey There, Son” with Wyatt Flores, and contributions from some of country music’s most respected songwriters: Liz Rose, Lori McKenna, Travis Meadows, Scooter Carusoe, Stephen Wilson Jr., Aaron Raitiere, and Tom Douglas. Godwin is clear about the role they played. “I had a lot of help with this album. They brought a lot of the hope and the light and the lighter moments. The album needed that.”

Producer Al Torrence, Godwin’s Alleghany High bandmate and decade-long collaborator, shaped the record across sessions in Nashville, New York City, and Torrence’s Music Garden Studios in Pennsylvania. “He’s world-class,” Godwin says. “Al knew exactly what I was going through throughout this process.”

Godwin tours extensively behind the album, including a co-headline run with Dylan Gossett this summer and a fall stretch joining Kacey Musgraves on her Middle of Nowhere Tour.

‘Christian Name’ Track Listing:

Sermon

Try Again

“Better That Way” (feat. Luke Combs)

Hallelujah High

“Hey There, Son” (feat. Wyatt Flores)

I Caught the Sunrise

Place I Know

Street Advice

Every Once in a While

Christian Name

God’s Been Good to Me

Gospel of the South

Brand New

The 52nd AMAs Adds BTS, New Kids on the Block, Pussycat Dolls, and a Full Presenter Lineup

Eric Alper
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The 52nd AMAs Adds BTS, New Kids on the Block, Pussycat Dolls, and a Full Presenter Lineup

The 52nd American Music Awards presenter lineup is set, and the full picture of Monday night is coming into focus. The show airs live May 25th at 8 pm ET/5 pm PT on CBS and Paramount+ from MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, hosted by Queen Latifah.

Presenters include Alysa Liu, Anthony Ramos, Ejae, Gabriel “Fluffy” Iglesias, Hannah Berner, Hilary Duff, Jason Derulo, John Legend, Lisa Rinna, Ludacris, Mariah the Scientist, Matt Rife, Megan Stalter and Paul W. Downs, Melanie Martinez, Nikki Glaser, Paula Abdul, Rei Ami, and Russell Dickerson.

BTS will make a special appearance, their first on the AMAs stage in 5 years, adding considerable weight to an already stacked broadcast.

The performance lineup covers serious ground. Billy Idol receives the Lifetime Achievement Award and performs a medley of his greatest hits in his first-ever AMAs performance. Karol G receives the International Artist Award of Excellence. Darius Rucker receives the Veterans Voice Award Presented by USAA’s Honor Through Action and performs alongside his Hootie & The Blowfish bandmates. New Kids on the Block and The Pussycat Dolls with Busta Rhymes join Katseye, Keith Urban, Maluma, Riley Green, Sombr, Teddy Swims, Teyana Taylor, and Twenty One Pilots on the performance roster.

The broadcast also carries a meaningful tribute to the U.S. military community. USAA’s Poppy Wall of Honor returns to the National Mall in Washington, D.C. for its seventh year, with 600,000-plus hand-placed poppies representing every American life lost in the line of duty since World War I. Gold Star families will attend the AMAs, with U.S. service members and veterans seated in USAA’s Military Appreciation Section.

Ahead of the broadcast, Entertainment Tonight airs “ET Vault Unlocked: Queen Latifah,” a special celebrating the career of the night’s host. Tickets are available now on AXS.

Voïvod’s ‘Symphonique’ Pairs 40 Years of Progressive Metal With a Full Symphony Orchestra

Eric Alper
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Voïvod’s ‘Symphonique’ Pairs 40 Years of Progressive Metal With a Full Symphony Orchestra

Voïvod have been building toward something like this for 40 years. ‘Symphonique,’ a live album recorded with the Quebec Symphony Orchestra at the Grand Théâtre in Québec City on June 4, 2025, arrives June 5th via Century Media Records, and the second single “The End Of Dormancy (Symphonique)” is out now alongside an official visualizer by Cloud Motion Design.

The album spans 73 minutes across 12 songs, presenting a best-of Voïvod setlist reimagined with full orchestral accompaniment. The result is exactly what the band’s progressive, sci-fi metal architecture has always suggested was possible: a dystopian cinematic soundscape that expands the original material into something larger and fully realized.

Drummer Michel “Away” Langevin calls it a longtime dream made real. “It’s the closest we’ve ever come to sounding like a dystopian sci-fi movie soundtrack, another dream of ours,” he says, adding that the band will perform the show again in 2027 with the Orchestre Symphonique du Saguenay-Lac-St-Jean in the region where Voïvod formed in 1983.

Guitarist Daniel “Chewy” Mongrain speaks specifically about “The End Of Dormancy.” “I wrote the riffs imagining Roman naval battles with a full orchestra, like the movies from the 50s and 60s. It has a very dramatic vibe. Little did I know that what we synthesized for a four-piece band would eventually explode into its primary, original imagined form.” He describes the crowd’s reaction at the grand finale as one of life’s rare perfect moments.

‘Symphonique’ follows Voïvod’s Juno Award-winning 2022 studio album ‘Synchro Anarchy,’ which charted in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and the Netherlands, and their 40th anniversary release ‘Morgöth Tales’ in 2023.

Megan Moroney Releases Fan Favorite “Traitor (Roles Reversed)” as The Cloud 9 Tour Kicks Off

Eric Alper
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Megan Moroney Releases Fan Favorite “Traitor (Roles Reversed)” as The Cloud 9 Tour Kicks Off

Megan Moroney’s “Traitor (Roles Reversed),” previously exclusive to the Target edition of ‘Cloud 9,’ is now available on all streaming platforms. Written by Moroney alongside David Mescon, Emily Weisband, and Hillary Lindsey, the track has been a fan favorite since the album’s release, and its wider availability arrives at exactly the right moment.

The Cloud 9 Tour launches later this month at Schottenstein Center in Columbus, OH, and covers 43 dates across North America, Europe, and the UK through October 1st in Belfast. The run includes Barclays Center in New York City, Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, United Center in Chicago, and Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, along with Moroney’s first-ever performance in Paris.

Moroney built serious touring momentum heading into this run. Her sold-out Am I Okay? Tour closed out with a 24-song live album, ‘Am I Okay? Tour (Live),’ documenting the record-breaking trek in full. She then headed to Australia for dates including a sold-out show at Riverstage in Brisbane, the 2-stop Ridin’ Hearts Festival 2025 at Sydney Showground and Melbourne’s Caribbean Gardens, where she brought Avery Anna onstage for a confetti-filled surprise duet of “Am I Okay?”

Multi-platinum, arena-headlining, and with a fanbase that already knows every word, Moroney enters The Cloud 9 Tour with considerable forward momentum behind her.

“Traitor (Roles Reversed)” is out now on all streaming platforms via Sony Music Nashville/Columbia Records.

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That Eric Alper

Eric Alper is a 6-time nominee for Publicist of the Year during Canadian Music Week and has overseen the publicity campaigns for over 183 JUNO Award-nominated albums (and 16 in 2025), 45 Grammy-nominated albums, including 47 JUNO Award, 58 Canadian Folk Music Award, 126 Maple Blues Award-winning albums and is also truly honoured to work with some of the biggest and most important artists of our time.

Contact me: eric@thatericalper.com

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