Twang Town Lowdown - Thursday, January 7th

KACEY MUSGRAVES: SUSPECTED BOOT BURGLAR HAS BEEN ROUNDED UP

A suspect has been arrested and charged with breaking into Kacey Musgraves's car and stealing her boots on Monday night.

According to reports, 30 year-old Darnell Cunningham also stole the receipt from the purchase, and tried to return the boots to the Lucchese store where Kacey had bought them. The store manager noticed Kacey's name on the receipt and questioned Cunningham, who reportedly grabbed the boots and out of the store.

Cunningham is in a Nashville jail on $25,000 bail. The damage to Kacey's car is estimated to be about $1400.

LIVE FROM NEW YORK, IT'S CHRIS STAPLETON:

NBC's Saturday Night Live (SNL) is kicking off the New Year with a performance from Chris Stapleton. Stapleton will appear as a musical guest on the live sketch comedy show on January 16, with the guest host for that evening being Star Wars: The Force Awakens actor Adam Driver. SNL recently announced the news by posting a picture on Instagram of a corkboard that had different colored cards pinned to it. Each card pinned to the board had the names of the hosts and musical guests for two different weeks written on them. The post also revealed that mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter Ronda Rousey will host the January 23 show, with pop star Selena Gomez set to be the musical guest during that night's show. In January of 2015, Blake Shelton pulled double duty for SNL as the host and musical guest on the program.



NO BREAK IN SIGHT – DARIUS RUCKER



It hasn't even been a full year since Darius Rucker released his fourth country album, Southern Style, but Darius says he's already looking forward to that album's follow-up. "We're working on it," Rucker told The Boot, adding, "We're always writing for the next record." For Darius, it's important to keep his foot on the gas right now and continue his musical momentum. Rucker shared, "I will take a break sometime, but not right now; I don't feel like it right now. I'm just having fun putting out records and touring, so it's working." As for where he is in the album building process, Darius said, "I'm just really starting to write songs. I'm always trying to find myself little holes where I can do some songwriting. I've just started writing, so as soon as it starts coming together, I'll let you know."

Darius also talked about the rise of his Universal Music Group (UMG) label mate Chris Stapleton and how the growing popularity of Stapleton's brand of country might affect the music he makes. "I'm just gonna make the record I'm gonna make and hopefully have a little more success before my time's up," Rucker said, adding, "I'm happy for Chris. We've written a couple of my #1s together, and I love him; I think his record is amazing. I hope (his success) affects me in a positive way."

"JESUS AND JONES" – TRACE ADKINS



Trace Adkins is getting new music out to fans! After it was announced last August that Trace had signed a recording deal with BBR Music Group's newly-launched Wheelhouse Records, he's finally set to release his debut single for the label imprint. Adkins will release his new single "Jesus and Jones," a song about walking the line between temptation and good intentions. Trace recently sent a special email to fans about the song, telling them it's his first single off a new album that's set to come out later this year. Adkins then said, "This is a song that's auto-biographical. The first thing I ever did behind a microphone was singing bass in a gospel quartet. At the same time, I was playing guitar and singing in honky tonks, so, that's when the struggle began…the wrestling match between 'Jesus' and 'Jones' and I still struggle with that."

Written by Tyler Farr and fellow Nashville songwriters Jim McCormick and Casey Beathard, "Jesus and Jones" will be available across all digital retailers and streaming partners this Friday (1/8). The official lyric video for the song has already been released and can be seen here.