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How will Willie Nelson be celebrating his upcoming birthday? With the release of a new album, of course! Nelson’s 70th studio album, A Beautiful Time, is set to be released on April 29—the country music legend’s 89th birthday. The first single off the album, “I’ll Love You Till the Day I Die,” which was released yesterday, was written by which Rodney Crowell and Chris Stapleton. Other famous songwriters featured on the 14-song collection include Shawn Camp, Leonard Cohen, and John Lennon and Paul McCartney....

For many, turkey is the centerpiece of the Thanksgiving table. But how that turkey is cooked can be a real debate. Should you roast, smoke, or fry your Thanksgiving bird? All methods can result in a delicious showstopper, so to help you decide let’s explore the pros and cons of each method. Brining Your Bird No matter how you end up cooking your turkey, it will benefit from a brine beforehand....

There is nothing like a fresh-out-of-the-oven apple pie, a staple in Americana and pretty much any fall dinner table, summer picnic, or 4th of July barbecue. Baking a pie is complex work though, and even with the ideal recipe, it’s hard to achieve perfection on the first go around. That’s why we rounded up the most common apple pie mistakes. We’re offering our best advice on how to fix those pie-making errors so you can quickly become the apple pie expert in your family....

If you have a habit of dropping in on open houses just for a quick peek or spending your evenings scrolling through house tours on Zillow, you may have noticed a trend among modern homes: There’s no room for a dining room table. As open concept homes become the preferred style for home buyers—and nearly every home improvement show on HGTV—formal dining rooms seem to be less and less common. Instead, there are eat-in kitchens, breakfast bars with high stools, and maybe benches around a dining nook....

Dierks Bentley treated the crowd at RodeoHouston to a special daddy-daughter duet on Sunday. The country crooner closed out his eighth appearance at the world’s largest livestock show and rodeo with a surprise performance featuring his oldest daughter, 13-year-old Evie. “We’re thinking about doing one for a legendary Texas rock band,” Dierks teased in a pre-show interview with RodeoHouston Unplugged. “I’m very excited,” Evie said of sharing the stage with her famous dad, though she admitted that singing to so many people was “a little nerve-wracking....

It’s been a big few weeks on the music front for Dolly Parton. Recently, she announced that her first Christmas album in 30 years will debut on October 2. Now, the Queen of Country has chartered new territory for her career with her first number one song on Billboard’s Christian Adult Contemporary Songs. The chart-topping song? “There was Jesus,” a duet with Christian rock singer Zach Williams, which appeared on Williams’ 2019 album Rescue Story and was released as the record’s second single last fall....

Imagine telling Dolly Parton what to do or how to look? While it might sound inconceivable now, the country legend recently shared that she’s had other people’s opinions pushed upon her throughout her career. Fortunately for all of us, she didn’t listen. In the latest episode of the WorkLife with Adam Grant podcast, Parton reveals the terrible career advice she’s received numerous times over the course of her 50 years in the spotlight....

After months of waiting, Gatlinburg’s new treehouse resort is finally open. Nestled in the woods of the Great Smoky Mountains you’ll find Treehouse Grove at Norton Creek Resort, a one-of-a-kind vacation experience boasting eight unique treehouses designed by Pete Nelson, host of the Animal Planet series Treehouse Masters. “It’s just so cool to kind of be standing here. When a year ago today, I would literally be in the middle of the woods....

Buffet or potluck-style meals are among the events we Southerners do best. Tables are often brimming with casserole dishes stacked atop trivets and potholders and filled with delectably simple favorites and secret family recipes. While the piping fare is always a crowd-pleaser, the real proof of the pudding is in our chilled foods. From pimiento cheese to congealed salads, there’s nothing as satisfying as a cold bite of one of these classics....

The relationship we have with our hair stylist is not unlike those we have with our closest confidants, significant others, or the girl who waxes our eyebrows. Three things are important: trust, communication, and honesty. These are the pillars of any healthy relationship. But even if your hair stylist is basically a long-lost bestie, sometimes sitting down in the salon chair can be daunting when you’re not totally sure how to ask for the haircut you want....

Cast-iron skillets are one of the most beloved items in many kitchens—and what’s not to love? You can whip up smashed fried okra, potato-bacon hash, perfectly crisp pizza, and drool-worthy apple pie all in the same pan! Cast-iron skillets are versatile, durable, and practically indestructible. It seems daunting, the somewhat mysterious metal pan your grandmother swore by and that takes two hands to move around. The lore surrounding our cast irons is hard-earned considering the use of this metal pan is nothing short of household physics and chemistry, but the confusion surrounding the care of this pan is a product of wives’ tales and myths about the alleged ways to “ruin” a cast iron....

It’s no surprise that during the coronavirus quarantine, the ‘round the clock togetherness is bringing on strife for many couples. But for country superstar Luke Bryan and his wife Caroline Boyer Bryan, it’s had the opposite effect. In a recent interview, Bryan chatted with Good Morning America via video chat from his Wyoming quarantine quarters to talk about ABC’s “CMA Best of Fest” and hear more about what’s been going on in the Bryan household....

Stephen “tWitch” Boss, beloved DJ and television personality has died at age 40 by suicide. Boss’s wife, Allison Holker Boss exclusively confirmed the sad news to Southern Living’s sister publication, PEOPLE on Wednesday Morning. “It is with the heaviest of hearts that I have to share my husband Stephen has left us,” she said of the father of three. She continued, “Stephen lit up every room he stepped into. He valued family, friends and community above all else and leading with love and light was everything to him....

On most weekdays, you’ll find LaShenda Williams working as a self-checkout associate at the Kroger in Nashville’s Inglewood neighborhood. Seeing her smiling eyes (above her mask) now, it’s hard to believe that less than a year ago, the 46-year-old was homeless and living in her car in the grocery store’s parking lot. Williams’ life changed 10 months ago, when Kroger hiring manager Jackie Vandal decided to take a chance on her....

Philip Morris was a newspaper reporter in Oklahoma when Southern Living recruited him as Building Editor back in 1969. He would later enjoy a long tenure as Executive Editor of the magazine and become Editor at Large for Southern Living and two sister titles, Southern Accents and Coastal Living, before he retired in 2000. “Before Phil came along, we were just publishing houses, with no clear vision of what a true Southern Living home should look like,” said former Editor in Chief John Floyd....

When it became clear that cancer patient Maria Isabel Cipple Leon wouldn’t be healthy enough to attend her own wedding earlier this month, staff at UNC Hospitals in Chapel Hill teamed up to give her the nuptials she deserved. Leon’s medical team joined forces with the chaplain’s office to pull off a hospital wedding in just one week. On the big day, the physical therapy team and Leon’s nurses helped her into a wedding dress....

Every spring presents me with a monumental challenge – how to get non-stop color in my front yard flower bed. The bed gets half-sun, half shade, so anything that needs full sun wimps out. For years, sun coleus was my go-to. It never failed, but in the interest of experimentation to keep my brain’s neurons firing for several moments on end, I decided to find a substitute. I did and it’s great....

For someone who hasn’t put brush to canvas in more than a century, Vincent Van Gogh is having a serious moment, spurred along by the jaw-dropping Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience, which has officially made its stateside debut in Atlanta. The stunning exhibition, for which more than 225,000 tickets have already been sold, includes moving projections, an ethereal soundtrack, virtual reality, 3D recreations of some of the places that inspired him, and poignant historical insights into his life....

When apple-picking season transitions into pumpkin-picking time, make the most of those fresh, end-of-fall apples. Our list of favorite apple recipes spans from slow-cooker wonders to too-tempting homemade desserts. Apple pie may be a classic, but Caramel Apple Cake is the stuff of dreams. These decadent desserts are sure to impress the crowd at any fall gathering—but you don’t need an occasion to channel the seasonal spirit. Feeling Summer, Year-Round In the summer, we love canning and pickling fresh produce to bring a bit of sunshine to the colder months....

If you’re thinking a tea cake is the South’s take on coffee cake—think again. Traditional Southern tea cakes are more akin to a cookie, but with a pared-down ingredient list that results in a simple flavor that lends itself to pairing with a cup of—you guessed it—tea. The history of old fashioned tea cake cookies is a bit elusive, but it most likely originated in the rural South where rations were meager and pantries were rarely stocked with more than the basics—if that....