Rucker Goes Platinum, Plus Updates From 821, CMHF, And CMT

Darius Rucker’s debut country album Learn To Live on Capitol Records Nashville has been certified Platinum by the RIAA. His third single from the album, “Alright,” helped push shipments over the 1 million mark. The song spent one week at the top of MusicRow’s Country Breakout chart and also landed at No. 1 on other charts.

In celebration of Live’s success, Rucker will be giving a free performance at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville on Aug. 24 that will air on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Aug. 27. He will also appear Aug. 31 on ABC’s CMA Music Festival: Country’s Night to Rock special. He is currently on the road with Rascal Flatts’ Unstoppable Tour.

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Nashville’s 821 Entertainment Group and Strike Entertainment are working on a new Hank Williams biopic that will be a feature film. Check tomorrow’s (8/12) subscriber-only @MusicRow for the rest of the story.

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The second season of CMT’s original series Can You Duet ended on a ratings high note this past weekend when the finale episode revealed Steel Magnolia as the winning duo. More than 4.2 million viewers (Nielsen Media Research) tuned in for the show’s four weekend airings, with 1.9 million of those falling in the P18-49 demo. Across all airings to date this season, Can You Duet was seen by some 26 million total viewers, with 12 million P18-49.

Steel Magnolia (Meghan Linsey and Joshua Scott Jones) won a recording contract with Big Machine and the day after the finale, “Keep On Loving You,” the single they performed on the show was a Top 30 Country track on iTunes and the most streamed video on CMT.com.

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The Country Music Hall of Fame And Museum’s annual All for the Hall fundraiser makes its West Coast debut on Thursday, October 1, at Club Nokia in Los Angeles. The benefit will feature ensemble performances by Vince Gill, Emmylou Harris, Dwight Yoakam and others. Paid subscribers can look for all the details in @MusicRow on Friday.