ACM Awards news

Country star Parker McCollum to headline 2024 ACM Awards benefit in The Colony

Parker McCollum will headline the 2024 ACM Awards Lifting Lives concert in DFW.

Photo via Parker McCollum/Facebook

UPDATE 4-23-2024: The entire concert lineup has been revealed and includes Old Dominion, Jordan Davis, Kameron Marlowe, Ashley Cooke, along with additional surprise guests.

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The ACM Awards will make Dallas-Fort Worth a country music mecca for the second year in a row when they arrive in May. Among the many Awards-adjacent events will be the ACM Lifting Lives LIVE benefit show, headlined by Texan Parker McCollum.

Officially called "Parker McCollum and Friends: ACM Lifting Lives LIVE, Presented by Choctaw Casinos & Resorts," the concert, a release says, "will raise money and awareness for ACM Lifting Lives, which works to improve lives through the power of music with a specific focus on health-related initiatives that use music therapy as a way of healing."

The show will take place on the golfing green at Topgolf in The Colony on May 15, the night before the 59th ACM Awards at The Star in Frisco. (Also exactly a month before McCollum takes the stage in College Station with another Texan, country icon George Strait.)

Fans might remember that the ACM Lifting Lives benefit was the event that Morgan Wallen was slated to headline in 2023; he had to cancel due to illness the day before and was replaced by Jason Aldean. Also taking the stage for the sold-out show were HARDY, Lainey Wilson, ERNEST, Bailey Zimmerman, and DJ 13lackbeard.

Additional performers for the 2024 edition will be announced in the coming weeks, organizers say.

"I am truly honored that ACM Lifting Lives has given me the opportunity to host the Parker McCollum & Friends: ACM Lifting Lives event this year at Topgolf in The Colony, TX,” McCollum says in the release. “The work they do to improve lives through the power of music and the funds they raise are vital to helping folks in and out of our country music community. I can't wait to have some of my really talented friends join me for a great night supporting the mission of ACM Lifting Lives and help them continue their incredible work."

General admission tickets on the green will be available to ACM Members, ACM A-List subscribers, 59th ACM Awards ticket holders, and Topgolf Friends and Family through an exclusive presale starting Thursday, March 21 at 10 am. Remaining tickets will be available for a general public on-sale, beginning Friday, March 22 at 10 am, through ACMLiftingLives.org/Concert. Tickets are $150.

All proceeds will go to ACM Lifting Lives, whose beneficiaries include the ACM Lifting Lives Autism Lab at Vanderbilt Kennedy Center and their annual Music Camp for individuals with Williams syndrome. The nonprofit also gives to various organizations that provide mental health support for the country music community, the release says.

McCollum, a native of Conroe outside Houston, earned his first ACM Award for New Male Artist of the Year at the 2022 ACM Awards. He also won “Breakthrough Video of the Year” (a fully fan-voted honor) at the 2022 CMT Music Awards and earned two back-to-back CMA Awards nominations (2022 & 2023) for New Artist of the Year. He made his RodeoHouston debut as the Opening Day act in 2023.

He's currently on the road for a 41-date "Burn it Down" tour in support of his latest album, Never Enough.

“We have been massive fans of Parker for years, and we couldn’t be more excited that he chose to volunteer his time to help us raise money and awareness in his home state, says ACM Lifting Lives Executive Director Lyndsay Cruz in the release. "We can’t wait to party with the fans in North Texas so soon.”

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Movie Review

Andrew Garfield leads peasant rebellion in medieval film The Uprising

Photo by Betina La Plante/Focus Features

Andrew Garfield in The Uprising.

Writer/director Paul Greengrass made his name with a cinéma vérité style of filmmaking that brought immediacy and depth to three Jason Bourne films, United 93, Captain Phillips, and more. In The Uprising, he uses those skills to tell the story of the so-called Peasants’ Revolt in 14th century England.

Greengrass wastes no time starting the main plot as Ploughman (Andrew Garfield) and his fellow villagers object to onerous taxes put on them by the country’s nobility, led by the young King Richard II (Woody Norman), to fund an ongoing war. Ploughman initiates a violent response over the tone-deaf — and unseemly — way the king’s guard go about their business, and the rebellion soon starts to spread across the countryside, with the citizens looking for a degree of autonomy.

The ever-expanding group makes their way toward London to try to make their case to the king himself. Meanwhile, the king’s top advisors, including Archbishop Sudbury (Stephen Dillane) and Treasurer Hales (Tom Hollander), try to usurp power from the inexperienced monarch even as the king’s mother (Katherine Waterston) tries to get him to be more assertive.

The history of the English monarchy is long and lurid, as Shakespeare detailed in multiple plays, including Richard II. Though the events in the film took place almost 650 years ago, it’s easy to see parallels between what the peasants were fighting for and modern-day politics. Greengrass’ storytelling intent is solid, and the righteous anger the citizens feel is initially relatable and palpable.

But the populism theme of the story soon gets bogged down in drudgery and minutiae that is difficult to understand, especially when the details are lost in the thick regional English accents. The leaders of the rebels — including John Ball (Jamie Bell), Wat Tyler (Cosmo Jarvis), and Alyce (Thomasin McKenzie) — are shown doing a lot of planning, but the strong feelings they have about their quest don’t come across well, leaving the audience as passive observers.

When there is action, Greengrass and his team employ a frenetic style that is not great for comprehension. While the gist of what is happening and what side is winning is legible, individual moments go by so quickly so as to be nearly meaningless. Save for Ploughman, any connection that has been made with various characters proves futile, as Greengrass doesn’t seem to have any time for emotion. Scenes that should feel thrilling or heartbreaking instead come off as empty.

Garfield is a two-time Oscar nominee who has done great work across multiple genres. He’s fine in this role, but whether it’s the story, the filmmaking, or something else, he’s not as captivating as usual. The same goes for other strong actors like Bell, McKenzie, Dillane, Hollander, and Waterston, who each seem to be giving their all to their performances but are somehow muted in the process.

Done right, The Uprising could have been a rip-roaring account of people standing up against their oppressors. What Greengrass has made, though, is a film that can’t translate its medieval story for a modern audience and concentrates too much on unexciting elements and too little on thrilling ones.

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The Uprising is now playing in theaters.

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