Whirlwind Week: Country Singer Joe Nichols Performs for Merle Haggard and the Dalai Lama

Posted by Lisa L. Rollins Sep 21, 2009

Country artist Joe Nichols has a big week ahead of him. For starters, he’s been invited to perform his Believers single at The Missing Peace Concert in Memphis, Tenn., on Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2009, but just as part of any show.

The concert, which is inspired by the peace efforts of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, also will feature several artists, including Natalie Cole, and each will perform with the Memphis Symphony Orchestra at that city’s Cannon Center.

However, on Tuesday, Sept. 22, the eve of the benefit show, Nichols has an equally exciting performance on the books when he takes part in an invitation-only ceremony for traditional country’s Merle Haggard.

Per Nichols’ publicist, the Arkansas-born singer has long been known for his love of traditional country music and during the Tuesday event perform a song in tribute to one of his all-time favorites, Haggard, who’s presented with the Poet's Award at the second annual ACM Honors at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center in Nashville.

"It just doesn't get any better than this," Nichols said in a Sept. 21 press release. "A performance for a legend like Merle Haggard one night, and then the following day being on the same stage as Natalie Cole, and meeting the Dalai Lama. I'm just a country boy from Rogers, Ark. Stuff like this doesn't happen every night."

As for his latest number, Believers is the lead single from the Broadway-bound Nichols new CD, Old Things New, that’s set for release Oct. 27. The forthcoming disc, which will be the singer’s fifth studio recording for Universal Records South, is the follow-up to his critically acclaimed 2007 release titled Real Things, an album that the New York Times named one of the "Best Releases of the Year" in all musical genres.