Hillbilly Live!

Eric Church is not a person who’s known to be afraid of trying something different.

Stagecoach 2024 went down in California and you like Church’s set or not. It’s differently the most talked about set of the festival. The man literally took the festival attendees to church.

Some people are already saying it was the most polarizing set to ever grace Stagecoach and some are disagreeing with that. There’s always going to be fans split down the middle into truly diametric opposed camps. Which causes entertaining online discussions.

The 70,000 festival attendees will definitely not lack for anything to talk, or argue, about. The debate will also continue among fans who also watched the livestream on Prime Video and Amazon’s Twitch channel.

After already upsetting concert patrons with about a 20-minute delay in starting the show…Church adopted a truly churchy aesthetic feel. He was sitting on a stool in front of a giant stained-glass video wall and joined by a 16-member choir, fronted by the return of his longtime vocal accompanist, Joanna Cotton. That woman can sing her ass off by the way.

For the final two songs of the 75-minute performance, including the always-rousing “Springsteen”, Church’s band finally showed up for what, at that point, counted as a surprise cameo.

Church has ben known to piss off fans at a show and this was definitely one to fit into that category. Of course you would expect this at his standard arena show and not at a festival. The unique decision of going with a full on church service at a music festival people who consider themselves hardcore Church-heads, described it as Church causing a mass exodus.

To be fair, his name is not Church for bullshit reasons. Most of the fans in attendance probably need church.

Cody Johnson got to throw out the first pitch at a Texas Rangers game this week. So, did he bounce it and embarrass himself?

Before the game, he told reporters he actually chose to do it. They asked if he’d rather throw out the first pitch, or sing the National Anthem.

He’d never done a first pitch before, so he went with that…and he fired a strike. He did it from the mound too, not closer up on the grass. 

Cody also got to take batting practice with the team…and he did all of this in his cowboy hat and jeans, by the way.  

He said it was a fun experience, because he’s a huge fan of all Texas teams. He’s originally from Sebastopol, about 90 miles north of Houston.

It was also a work trip though. He’ll be back in a few months for a show at Globe Life Field on November 9th. So, he was there promoting that too.

Cuts with CoJo. 🤠@codyjohnson x #StraightUpTX pic.twitter.com/xeOLdsWEqC

— Texas Rangers (@Rangers) April 23, 2024

Last August, Oliver Anthony took the country world by storm when he uploaded “Rich Men North of Richmond” to YouTube.

When that was uploaded it spread like wildfire. He then went on to become the first artist to debut as number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart without previously appearing on any other Billboard chart. Which is still impressive to me.

That video now has 134 million views to date, but it hasn’t changed his mindset about the business side of things. He said, “people in the music industry give me blank stares when I brush off 8 million dollar offers…I don’t want to play stadium shows. I don’t want to be in the spotlight.”

Then he said, “I wrote the music I wrote because I was suffering with mental health and depression. These songs have connected with millions of people because they’re being sung by someone feeling the words in the very moment they were being sung.”

It seems like he may stay an independent artist forever, because when asked about record labels, he said, “I’d rather not have a career than feed those people. I hate the way some of those people treated artists. They look at them like a big dollar bill, and they don’t give a [S-word] about anything they do.”

Oliver is a trailblazer in every sense of the word. He’s so far rejected fame and fortune, and stayed true to himself. You can tell when you listen to his music, this man feels every word that he sings.

He has a really refreshing take on his new found “celebrity” status. He said, “I’ll just do it myself and stay true to myself…and if it doesn’t work out, then I still got to experience what I did…even if I had to go back to my old job, I wouldn’t even be upset.”

The 59th annual ACM Awards announced their official host for this year’s show.

Reba McEntire has officially been selected to host the 59th Academy of Country Music Awards on Thursday, May 16 at 7 p.m. CST. The show will also stream live exclusively for a global audience on Prime Video from Ford Center at The Star in Frisco, Texas.

This years show will mark the 17th time that McEntire has been asked to host the show. The 16-time ACM winner is also set to perform some brand new music of hers. I mean she knows what she’s doing.

Reba is obviously excited and she said, “I am tickled to pieces to get to host the ACM Awards for the 17th time. What an honor to have been part of the past, present and now the future of the Academy of Country Music with Amazon Prime Video. I can’t wait to get to Texas and see everybody May 16th!”

ACM CEO Damon Whiteside said, “we are thrilled for the homecoming of Reba to the ACM Awards stage for the 17th time. There is simply no one better to continue to elevate this show in our new global streaming era with Amazon Prime Video. No one has a deeper and richer history with the Academy than Reba, from her many years hosting the ACM Awards, and from her 16 ACM Awards wins including Entertainer of the Year and two ACM anniversary Milestone Awards. With exciting new music coming, extensive television presence and a worldwide fanbase, Reba’s back and better than ever!”

If you would like to try and go to the awards show…there are a limited number of tickets to the 59th ACM Awards available for purchase on SeatGeek.

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In case you’ve missed this completely, Colt Ford suffered a near-fatal heart attack earlier this month after playing a show in Arizona at Dierks Bentley’s Whiskey Row. 

He finally took to his social media to talk about what happened. He revealed how he actually died twice. He had to be revived on the tour bus, and then a second time on his way to the hospital.

Colt saI’d, “I had so much trauma in my body and my heart, I had to have three stents put in…the Lord had more for me to do. I have more music to make, and hopefully some more differences to make in people’s life.”

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Jelly Roll is the perfect example of how you should live your life once you’ve hit celebrity status. 

The is actually using his time and money for good and I mean actual good. Case in point, he just built a music studio inside the Davidson County Juvenile Jail, a place where he spent a lot of time growing up.

He teamed up with a non-profit called “Beat for Life” that “aims to create songwriting and music programs for vulnerable populations across the country.” Also in attendance was the Mayor of Nashville, plus 35 hit songwriters.

Jelly said, “I never would’ve dreamed when I was sitting right there that I would one day come back and introduce the studio and all these songwriters would come out to support the cause and the [effing] Mayor would introduce me.”

This got a huge laugh, then he said, “I would never guess this. It wasn’t in my bingo card in life.”

But this all means more to him than we might ever know. He said later, “When I was in juvenile, we never got a visitor. We never had a mentor…nobody ever came to see us.”

He also performed for the incarcerated kids, who then got to sit down with songwriters and write their own songs. Then if they wanted, they had the opportunity to showcase them to the whole room.

Now before anyone gets upset. We’re not talking about number one songs. George Strait is still the King in that category with 60 number ones under his belt to date. No one even comes close to that record.

This news comes as “Take Her Home” clinched a spot in the Top 10 on the Billboard Country Airplay chart.

Just one day before kicking off of his highly anticipated summer tour, Kenny Chesney got some really good news. He matched the Billboard chart record of one of his musical idols, King George Strait.

Kenny Chesney tied George Strait’s record for the most Top 10 singles on the Billboard Country Airplay chart. They now both have 61 songs that made the Top 10. Kenny’s latest song, “Take Her Home”, just hit the #9 spot.

.@kennychesney officially ties @GeorgeStrait for the all-time most Top 10’s in Billboard Country Airplay chart history.

Both artists have reached the Top 10 a record 61 times. pic.twitter.com/hltxyPgHl5

— U.S. Radio Updater (@USRadioUpdater) April 19, 2024

This is real y’all. Get your boots ready for the party of the year. Here’s your Born & Raised 2024 lineup.

Your rowdy friends are going to love this. Cody Johnson, Hank Williams Jr. and Koe Wetzel are set to headline the festival. The rest of the lineup is country gold and headliners in our book too to be honest. This entire lineup is pure country festival perfection.

The party happens in Pryor, OK September 13th through the 15th and tickets go on-sale this Friday (4/26/24) at 10am CT. Everything you need to know….please visit bornandraisedfestival.com.

Here we go. She found herself a new label to call home and new music is on the way.

Miranda Lambert announced some big news today on her socials. News is she found a new label home in the house of Republic Records. Which is a New York City-based label. It also includes support from Big Loud…their Nashville-based label for country radio promotions along with other marketing efforts.

After leaving her longtime label Sony last year, she announced the news just last week in starting a new venture as she partnered with , Jon Randall, for a brand new label, Big Loud Texas. So, I’m not surprised to see her making this deal. It all makes sense now.

Now with her being apart of the Republic family, she’ll be able to have a broader reach with Big Loud and her label co-workers Morgan Wallen, Ernest, HARDY. She’ll have the continued support within country directly.

Miranda also announced a brand new song called “Wranglers” dropping next Friday, May 3rd. She’s been teasing it on her social media. Miranda is no longer a free agent.

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Scotty McCreery was officially welcomed into the Grand Ole Opry on Saturday by Josh Turner. 

Of course Randy Travis also joined Josh onstage for the official induction. Scotty said, “If you’ve listened to any of my interviews over the last 15 years of doing this, I’d always say, ‘One day I wanna be a member of the Grand Ole Opry’. I gotta go home and start writing a new bucket list.”  Yeah he does.

Scotty also performed “Cab in a Solo”, “Fall of Summer”, “Five More Minutes”, and a cover of “Three Wooden Crosses”. The induction ceremony will air sometime this spring.