Transcript

2.6.26 · Country Weekly

0:05
Speaker 1: Now it's time to catch up again with Country Weekly,
0:08
where we check out news and gossip from the world
0:11
of country music. I'm your host Ken Dawkins as always,
0:15
and I will be reading from various sources found online.
0:19
As a reminder, RADIOI is a reading service intended for
0:22
people who are blind or have other disabilities that make
0:26
it difficult to read printed material. We'll begin with the
0:29
first article, dated February third from the Lexington Herald Leader
0:34
from music contributor Walter Tunis, and of course, the Grammys
0:38
this past weekend were the big story. Big wins for
0:41
Kentucky at the Grammys. Tyler Childers wins first, Stapleton his twelve.
0:47
It was a pretty good Grammy Hall on Sunday for
0:49
Eastern Kentucky's country music coalition Lawrence Country sensation. Tyler Childs
0:54
won his first ever honor for Best Country Song at
0:57
the sixty eighth Grammy Awards in Los Angeles. The award
1:00
was for biton List, a tune Childers wrote for his
1:03
twenty twenty five album Snipe Hunter. Lexington born Johnson, Kentry raised.
1:09
Stapleton took home his twelfth Grammy and the Best Country
1:13
Solo Performance category for Bad as I Used to Be.
1:17
The song was featured as part of the soundtrack for
1:19
the recent Brad Pitt car racing movie f One. It
1:22
is Stapleton's first new recording since the release of his
1:25
fifth album Higher back in twenty twenty three. Neither Childers
1:30
or Stapleton were in attendance, although Childer's banned the food
1:33
Stamps accepted on his behalf and a ceremony held Sunday
1:36
afternoon ahead of the Grammys evening telecast. He keeps us
1:40
all grinning like mules eating saw Briers, said food Stamps
1:44
multi instrumentalist Jesse Wells of Childers. During the acceptance speech
1:48
for the award an instructor and archivist at the Kentucky
1:53
Center for Traditional Music at Moorhead State University. When not
1:56
on the road with Childers, Wells told the audience that
1:59
he was not that Jesse Wells. The reference was to
2:03
an artist with the same name but slightly different spelling,
2:06
Jesse Wells, who was nominated at the same ceremony for
2:09
four Folk at Roots and Americana Grammys. Childrens in Stapleton
2:13
actually competed against each other in three Grammy categories, including
2:17
the ones each artist won Children's won over a Song
2:21
to Sing, a work Stapleton co wrote and recorded it
2:23
as a duet with Miranda Lambert. For Best Country Song.
2:27
Stapleton won over Childers Nose on the Grindstone for Best
2:30
Country Solo Performance. Childrens is set to return to Lexington
2:34
for headlining performance on June seventh at Railbird. Stapleton, who
2:38
headlined Railbird in twenty twenty four, will make his closest
2:41
concert appearance to Central Kentucky on August first, with a
2:45
performance at pay Court Stadium in Cincinnati. For a more
2:50
extensive list of the winners from the Grammys, we go
2:52
over to USA Today with the article dated February first,
2:57
The Grammys have come and gone and who won big
2:59
this year year and who made history well. Kendrick Lamar,
3:02
now five wins, dethroning jay Z, is the most awarded
3:05
rapper in Grammy history. Puerto Rican Global star Bad Bunny
3:09
took home the coveted Album of the Year award, marking
3:11
the first time a Spanish language album has won. In
3:15
totally upcoming Super Bowl halftime show, Performer took home three awards.
3:20
The other Big Four awards went to Olivia Dean from
3:22
Best New artists Billy Eilish and Phineas O'Connell for Song
3:25
of the Year for Wildflower, and Lamar and SCA for
3:29
Record of the Year. The Actual list Album of the
3:33
Year d TMF from Bad Bunny that was the winner.
3:37
The Record of the Year Luther from Kendrick Lamar with
3:40
SSZ A Song of the Year which goes to the songwriter.
3:44
The winner was Wildflower Billie Eilish, written by Billy Eilish,
3:48
O'Connell and Phineas O'Connell. The Best Pop Solo Performance winner
3:53
Lowly Young for Messi. The Best Pop Vocal Album Lady
3:57
Gaga's Mayhem. Best Contemporary Country album jelly Roll with Beautifully Broken.
4:04
Best New Artist winner was Olivia Dean. Best Rap Album
4:08
gn X by Kendrick Lamar. Best Comedy Album Your Friend
4:12
Nate Barkatzi from Nate Barkatzi of Course. Best Musical Theater
4:16
album Buena Vista Social Club. Best Traditional Country album Ain't
4:20
in It for My Health from Zach Topp. Best Country
4:24
song biten List Tyler Childers, As We Said, written by
4:27
Tyler Childers. Best Country Duo group Performance Amen Shaboozy and
4:32
jelly Roll. The Best Country solo performance Bad as I
4:35
Used to Be from F One, the movie from Chris Stapleton,
4:38
As We Did Mention, the Best Rap song TV off
4:42
Kendrick Lamar featuring a whole bunch of people on that One.
4:45
Best Rap performance, Chains and Whips from Clips, pusha T
4:49
and Malice. Best R and B Album from Leon Thomas
4:52
was Mutt. Best R and B Song folded from Kellani.
4:56
Best Rock Album from Turnstile, Never Enough, Best Rock song
5:01
as Alive as You Need Me to Be from Nine
5:03
Inch Nails. Best Rock Performances or performance changes Live from
5:07
Villa Park Back to the Beginning from Young Blood. Best
5:11
Music Video Anxiety from DOCI. Best Song Written for Visual Media,
5:16
Golden from K Pop Demon Hunters. Now it's on over
5:20
to people dot Com with the first article dated February first,
5:24
jelly Roll thanks fans for believing in the overweight white
5:27
trash kid from Tennessee. Jelly Roll is expressing his gratitude
5:32
after winning big at the Grammys, having scooped up three
5:35
awards at the twenty twenty six Grammy Awards. He's now
5:38
forty one. He told reporters, including People, that his wins
5:41
at the ceremony were a result of the support he's
5:44
received from fans since the early days of his career.
5:47
I want you all to know that we did it. Baby.
5:49
This would have never happened without them, said jelly Roll.
5:52
Imagine they're one of the few people in the world
5:54
in the very beginning of believe in me, This overweight,
5:56
white trash kid from Tennessee was going to figure it
5:59
out one day and be standing up here going that's
6:01
my time. We actually get it. Jelly Roll, who attended
6:05
the Grammys with his wife Bunny XO, shared hopes of
6:08
reaching more people after being awarded. I think there are
6:11
a lot of people who are watching the Grammys tonight
6:13
and somebody just feels like they have been represented for
6:16
the first time in a long time. I decided to
6:19
be that guy, he said. Jelly Row won Best Contemporary
6:23
Country Album for his twenty twenty four album Beautifully Broken,
6:26
Best Contemporary Christian Music Performance Song with Brandon Lake for
6:30
Hard Fought Allelujah, and Best Country Duo Group Performance with
6:34
Shabuzzi for Ahmen. The singer got emotional on stage while
6:38
collecting his award for Best Contemporary Country Album as he
6:41
credited his wife of ten years, Bunny XO. Who's forty six,
6:45
for saving his life. They're going to try to kick
6:48
me off here, so just let me try to get
6:50
this out. First of all, Jesus, I hear you, and
6:52
I'm listening. Lord, I am listening. Second of all, I
6:55
want to thank my beautiful wife. I would never have
6:58
changed my life without you, Jilly Rowl said, tearing up.
7:01
I would have ended up dead or in jail. I
7:03
would have killed myself if it wasn't for you, and Jesus,
7:06
I thank you for that. This was a time in
7:08
my life. You all that I was broken. That's why
7:10
I wrote this album. I didn't think I had a chance,
7:13
you all, he said. There were days that I thought
7:16
the darkest things. I was a horrible human. Jelly Roll
7:20
also recalled his troubled past being incarcerated and how this
7:23
led to his journey of recovery as he spoke about
7:26
the experiences that inspired the album. There was a moment
7:30
in my life that all I had was a bible
7:32
this big and a radio the same size and six
7:35
by eight foot cell, he said. And I believe that
7:38
those two things could change my life. I believe that
7:41
music had the power to change my life, and God
7:44
had the power to change My life. Of course, saving
7:48
country music has plenty to say about the Grammys. With
7:51
the first article dated February fourth, once again country goes
7:55
underrepresented in the Grammy telecast. The Grammy Awards were Hannah
8:00
Out on Sunday with Zach Topp, Jelly Roll, Tyler Schilders
8:03
being some of the big winners in country and Billy
8:05
String's Mavis Staples and I'm with Her the big winners
8:09
in the American Roots categories. But for the second year
8:12
in a row, country and roots music went virtually unrepresented
8:15
in the televised presentation of the awards. Instead, it was
8:19
a constant parade of pop and hip hop performances, even
8:22
as country remains a very popular genre. A lot has
8:26
already been made about how not a single artist's song
8:29
or album from country or roots competed in the Grammys
8:32
big all genre categories in twenty twenty six, namely Album
8:36
of the Year, Song of the Year, Record of the Year,
8:39
and New Artist of the Year. A recent breakdown of
8:42
the Grammy voting population exposes a dramatically underrepresented block where
8:47
the country and roots voters should be that results in
8:49
such outcomes. Only seven percent of Grammy voters come from
8:53
the country genre, according to the Recording Atomy Academy, compared
8:57
to twenty four percent for pop and six exteen percent
9:00
per jazz. That's the report, while only one percent of
9:03
this year's new voting members identified as being most aligned
9:07
with the country genre. But while voting in Grammy membership
9:10
is not entirely in the Grammy's control, the performances are
9:15
In twenty twenty five, aside from Brad Paisley appearing in
9:18
a multi genre opening segment with Dawes centered around the
9:22
La Fires, Lady Wilson appearing in a tribute to Quincy Jones,
9:26
and a quick appearance by Shaboozi, country music was nowhere
9:29
to be seen. Similarly, rock music was also absent from
9:32
the presentation. In twenty twenty six, the sum total of
9:36
country's participation in the three and a half hour show
9:39
was the four minute, forty four second performance by Reba McIntyre,
9:43
Brandy Clark and Lucas Nelson of Reba's Trailblazer as part
9:48
of an in memoriam segment, which clickly was forgotten when
9:51
Post Malone and a bunch of a list rock guys
9:54
came out in tribute to Ozzy Osbourne, which was the
9:56
sum total of the rock feature in the presentation. In
10:00
other words, says saving country music aside for aside from
10:04
the in Memoriam time, country and rock were once again
10:07
shut out. Grammy member, music historian, performer, and author John
10:12
Lomax the Third has let it be known that he
10:14
found the Grammys curation of the performances unacceptable in a
10:18
letter he sent to the Nashville Recording Academy's executive director.
10:22
This is a quote. There was no country, bluegrass, folk, jazz, blues, gospel,
10:26
or classical music performances, so music's biggest night was confined
10:31
to rap, hip hop, pop, alt rock, and K pop.
10:34
Lomax wrote, last year, at least we had a Herbie
10:37
Hancock jazz segment. My conclusion is that the Recording Academy
10:41
does not consider American roots music performers worthy of national exposure.
10:46
As a longtime member of the Academy, I find this
10:49
very disturbing. Some have also pointed out a pretty glaring
10:53
omission during the Grammys in Memoriam segment. Generally speaking, the
10:57
Grammys do a great job with honoring falling music greats
11:00
in such a much better job than countries, CMAS and
11:03
ACMs do. Songwriter Brett James, Genie Seely, Todd Snyder, Joe Eely,
11:09
raul Malo of the Mavericks, even Roger Sovine, the son
11:12
of Red Sovin, and the Songwrights Executive were honored. But
11:16
the Grammys forgot to mention one of the biggest losses
11:19
in country music in twenty twenty five, Johnny Rodriguez. For
11:23
an organization that prides itself in representing diversity, this was
11:26
an especially unfortunate omission. Johnny Rodriguez was instrumental to an
11:31
integrating country for Hispanic performers and fans. On Tuesday, Billboard
11:37
published an article asking when did the Grammys and VMAs
11:39
swap places? With the subhead reading MTV's Marquee event used
11:44
to be the hippier, younger alternative to music's biggest night,
11:48
but Sunday Nights Grammy showed how it has become the
11:50
more urgent awards show. The article goes on to point
11:54
out how it used to be the VMAs where the pop,
11:56
rock and hip hop stars built their iconic legacies, with
11:59
performers acceptance speeches and red carpet moments, where the music
12:04
defining the era's youth culture was ably represented by the
12:07
artists on stage and in the audience. Now that's the Grammys,
12:11
while the VMAs are focused more on paying tribute to
12:13
legacy acts, something the Grammys used to do more of.
12:17
This underscore is the culture shift happening at the Grammys
12:20
from being the nonprofit record Academy of Recording Arts and
12:24
Sciences to chasing the cultural zeit guests and those shocking
12:28
moments that used to be resigned to the VMAs. This
12:32
shift is what has locked out many actual musicians, actual
12:34
musical performances as opposed to lip SYNCD presentations with choreographed
12:39
dance routines, and left more organic performances from all genres
12:43
on the outside looking in. At the least one of
12:46
the nominees from Best Contemporary Country Album could have performed
12:50
Jelly Roll might not be that country according to a
12:52
lot of actual country fans, but being the big winner
12:55
of the night, at least he could have performed. At
12:58
one point during the introduction, Trevor Noah said that hip
13:01
hop was no longer just a genre of music, but
13:04
a lifestyle and cultural movement, But that was an anecdote
13:07
that would have been more relevant to issue in twenty fourteen,
13:11
when even country was adopting hip hop via bro country.
13:15
Today it's country music that's dominating American culture, with artists
13:18
like Beyonce, Post Malone and others donning cowboy hats and
13:22
making supposed country records. But for some reason, the Grammys
13:25
are not paying attention to that cultural shift in their performances.
13:29
Then that shift won't be around forever. These things ebb
13:32
and flow. But while they're flowing, they Grammys. The Grammys
13:36
should be working to represent country equitably on their stage
13:39
and televised presentation. In twenty seventeen, when Sturgil Simpson won
13:44
Best Country Album for A Sailor's Guide to Earth, they
13:47
moved the handing out of Best Country Album to the
13:49
pre telecast premiere ceremony. During his speech, Sturgel said, I
13:54
guess the revolution won't be televised. That remains the case
13:57
for the rising popularity of country when it comes to
14:00
the Grammys. Moving on, and then there were two the
14:05
Super Bowl halftime dilemma. There's an old saying in football,
14:10
if your team has two primary quarterbacks, you actually have none.
14:14
That's because your quarterback must stand out, excel be the
14:17
undisputed leader and be respected by the rest of the
14:20
team Universally, When you have two of them, it usually
14:23
becomes or usually because both of them are inferior and
14:26
are failing at their job. This year, the super Bowl
14:30
will have two halftime performances, which in truth means that
14:33
it will have no true halftime performance at all, because
14:36
neither will command the universal audience it needs to bring
14:39
the United States together, which the super Bowl is supposed
14:42
to do, says Saving Country Music. Beyond being a football game,
14:46
the super Bowl has become one of the most important
14:48
musical events of the entire year. This is because of
14:51
the massive audience the event draws. It's also because of
14:54
all the secondary musical performances beyond the halftime show, including
14:59
the national anthem, America the Beautiful, and the numerous other
15:02
high profile pregame performances. But now that you have two
15:06
halftime shows instead of one, it parses the audience, polarizes
15:10
both sides, and destroys the unipopular moment the super Bowl
15:13
once presented just like everything else in American culture, says
15:17
Saving Country Music. The super Bowl halftime show has now
15:20
been bifurcated and balkanized like the results of a bad divorce.
15:26
On Monday, conservative political organization Turning Point USA announced the
15:30
lineup for their long threatened alternative halftime show in response
15:34
to the NFL and Jay Z's Rock Nation booking Bad
15:38
Bunny as the twenty twenty six Super Bowl halftime performer.
15:42
Called the All American Halftime Show, of course, focusing on faith, family,
15:46
and freedom, the TPUSA presentation will feature Kid Rock, Leebrice, Brantley, Gilbert,
15:52
and Gabby Barrett's performers. In many respects, the NFL egged
15:56
this on by booking Bad Bunny in the first place,
15:59
which has turned out to be quite a polarizing pick.
16:02
Though the Puerto Rico natives music is super popular worldwide
16:06
and he just won the twenty twenty six Grammy for
16:08
Album of the Year, he doesn't perform in English, though
16:12
some especially uninformed critics have claimed he not even is American. Yes,
16:17
Puerto Rico is still a US territory. The Bad Bunny
16:20
performance seems like yet another effort by the NFL to
16:23
expand its reach into Central and South America as the
16:26
interests of core NFL fans go underserved. Even then, Bad
16:31
Bunny is not a bad pick, says Saving Country Music.
16:34
Perhaps if skeptical fans gave him an opportunity, they would
16:38
like his music. Country music fans have been interfacing with
16:41
Spanish language songs for decades, from, as they said, artists
16:44
like Johnny Rodriguez, the Texas Tornadoes, and the Mavericks down
16:48
in Texas, it's common to hear song in Spanish at
16:51
a danceall or hockey talk. But as Saving Country Music
16:55
has been pointing out for years now, you have to
16:57
go all the way back to nineteen ninety four to
16:59
find the last and really only time country music was
17:02
featured during the Super Bowl halftime. Clint Black, Tanya Tucker,
17:06
Travis Stritt, and the Judge performed that year. That means
17:09
it's been thirty two years since country music was featured.
17:12
There hasn't even been a country artist featured as a
17:15
guest in twenty three years, since Shania Twain appeared briefly
17:18
with No Doubt. Instead, it's been a steady diet of pop, rock,
17:22
and most recently, hip hop performers during the Super Bowl halftime.
17:27
After the NFL partnered with Jay Z's Rock Nation in
17:29
twenty nineteen as their official live music entertainment strategists. Completely
17:35
ignoring large swaths of American population with their Super Bowl
17:39
halftime was bound to result in a backlash at some point.
17:42
It appears this is the year the NFL could have
17:45
booked Luke Colmmes to perform, who then could have brought
17:48
out Tracy Chapman for their version of Fast Car. Or
17:51
they could have booked Chris Stapleton, who's universally beloved, or
17:54
even George Strait, who is responsible for the second and
17:57
fourth biggest ticket events in North American history. Someone launched
18:01
a petition to get Straight to be the halftime performer
18:04
that now has one hundred and twenty thousand signatures. Zach
18:08
Bryan is now responsible for the number one ticketed event
18:10
north American history, and it would have been a good
18:12
selection as well. Country music is as hot as it's
18:16
ever been, and if the NFL had booked Post Malone
18:18
or Garth Brooks, they probably wouldn't be fielding this problem
18:21
right now. Dolly Parton is one of the few universally
18:25
beloved personalities still left out in American culture. Some surmise
18:29
with a new football stadium being built in Nashville, when
18:33
that lures a Super Bowl to Music City, they'll do
18:35
a big country music bash, but ignoring country music and
18:39
the tastes of the core NFL fans for so long
18:41
has created the appetite for alternative programming. Kid Rock is
18:46
commonly misappropriated as a country star, which he categorically isn't,
18:51
even if he owns a home in a bar in
18:52
Nashville and has released a few country songs in his career.
18:56
Lee Brice, Brentley Gilbert, and Gabby Barrett very much of
18:58
the country universe, even if all three strongly inhabit the
19:01
B level of country music has beens. It looks like
19:05
country music finally did get its Super Bowl halftime we'd
19:07
all been clamoring for, but it's not exactly the one
19:10
we ordered up. Who knows the whole All American halftime
19:14
show could go off like the XFL and become a
19:16
laughing stock of history and a boon googgle for promoters.
19:20
They definitely would have been better served by trying to
19:22
put together some bigger and better talent for the show.
19:25
The Puppy Bull might pull in equivalent numbers, though perhaps
19:29
curiosity or even the car crash factor might result in
19:32
elevated ratings for the kid Rock Show, regardless of the
19:35
quality of the presentation, And for sure, half of America
19:39
will be rooting for this alternative halftime show to spectacularly fail,
19:42
while the other half will be rooting for a ratings
19:44
cratering for the official one. And in many respects, that's
19:48
the biggest problem with this entire thing, says Saving Country Music.
19:52
We're dividing ourselves down the middle, rooting for the demise
19:55
and failure of the other half. Even though our destinies
19:58
are all intertwined in our communities home mingled. We couldn't
20:01
commence a civil war even if we wanted to, since
20:04
the battle lines would be drawn right down the middle
20:06
of states, communities, neighborhoods, and sometimes even families and households. Now,
20:11
even cultural touchstones like the super Bowl and music are
20:14
being asked to choose sides, usurping their important capability of
20:18
bringing people together across the ideological strata. Things like the
20:22
super Bowl halftime show are being used to divide and conquer.
20:26
Whatever super Bowl halftime show you watch will be a
20:28
litmus test. And as long as we're all warring over
20:31
trivial things like the super Bowl halftime show, we're ignoring
20:34
how we're all being fleeced by the super elite and
20:37
larger swaths of our country get engulfed by the homelessness
20:40
and addiction crisis. As saving country music, if you have
20:44
two quarterbacks, you have none. If you have two halftime shows,
20:47
you have none. And if you have two countries attempting
20:50
to live side by side while undermining each other at
20:53
every turn, you have no country. And that's no damn
20:56
way to win a football game. Now, we had back
21:00
to people dot Com with this article dated February third.
21:03
Tim McGraw to play three stadium shows with The Chicks
21:06
and Lady A this summer on Pawnshop Guitar Tour. Tim
21:11
McGraw is hitting the road and some very special guests
21:14
are joining him for a few shows. On Tuesday, the
21:17
Live Like You Were Dying singer who's now fifty eight,
21:20
announced his Pawnshop Guitar Tour will span thirty three dates
21:24
throughout North America this summer, including three stadium shows with
21:28
The Chicks and Lady A on the bill. The band
21:31
and I are so excited to get back out on
21:33
the road this summer, said McGraw in a statement. And
21:35
we've got these really special stadium shows with some really
21:38
special guests. I can't believe they all agreed to join me,
21:41
the Chicks and Lady A. I dare you to find
21:43
more hits in one show. McGrath continued, this will be
21:47
a great night of incredible songs and Musicianship forty nine
21:50
Winchester and Timothy Wayne will join us for select dates,
21:53
and we can't wait to see everyone. Kicking off on
21:56
July ninth in Bethel, New York, the Grammy Winner will
21:59
play and cities including Toronto, Kansas City, Cincinnati, Austin, Dallas,
22:04
Saint Louis, and Moore before wrapping up on September twenty
22:07
sixth in West Palm Beach. The Chicks and Lady A
22:10
will join for shows on July eleventh in Hershey, Pennsylvania,
22:14
July thirtieth in Boston, and August twenty third in Minneapolis.
22:18
The Goodbye Earl Van wrote of the tour on Instagram,
22:22
More chances to come together and sing in twenty twenty six,
22:25
announcing we'll be joining Tim McGraw for three shows on
22:28
his tour this summer. Lady A also wrote on social
22:32
media platform we've been friends and fans of Tim McGraw
22:35
for the longest time. Would a dream come true to
22:37
join him on the road again with the Chicks for
22:40
these select dates this summer on the pawn Shop Guitar Tour.
22:44
The Cincinnati date is August twenty seventh at the River
22:47
Bend Music Center, and that's the only area show they'll
22:50
be doing near us next. Hunter Hayes software crashed the
22:56
night he recorded Too Late, I almost lost everything. Over
23:00
a decade after Hunter Hayes broke out with his hit
23:02
single Wanted, the Country singer is Embracing Change as the
23:06
final single before the unveiling of his forthcoming studio album.
23:10
The Country Singer chose to release Too Late because it
23:13
was written from a place of growth and that was
23:15
essential to his writing process. That was the biggest word
23:19
last year of growth. I want to grow. I want
23:21
to write about growing, and I want people to feel
23:22
like it's safe to grow. The Invisible Singer thirty four says,
23:26
this record found me growing and found me starving for
23:29
growth and starving for expansion and learning and more experiences.
23:34
Reflecting on the song, Hayes says, it's a love song
23:36
to the process and a way to appreciate the natural
23:39
unfolding of his life. My favorite lyrics are from the
23:42
second verse because it just talks about nature. You know,
23:45
you can cut through stone. Even mountains change sometimes, he says,
23:49
I just spent a week in Mount Zion looking up
23:51
at the mountains and realizing that that's however many bazillion
23:54
years of change that used to be sand, and now
23:57
it's the giant mountain that you look up on with awe.
24:00
I think life is just the same. Though he acknowledges
24:02
the trusting the process feels like a cliche theme, it
24:05
even rang true to the story of the night he
24:07
recorded it. At the time, he says, I almost lost everything.
24:11
My software crashed and I had no idea how to
24:14
get it back. I almost gave up on the song,
24:16
and I didn't at the time. I was really practicing
24:19
one step at a time, he says with a laugh.
24:21
So at two o'clock in the morning, I put the
24:23
song back together, one piece at a time, and fell
24:26
back in love with it by four am and had
24:28
a version that we listened to for six months. And
24:30
that's what made me fall in love with the song again.
24:34
Too Late follows the release of Weight, Fragile, Every Piece
24:37
and around the Sun. His fourth Cooming album, Evergreen, is
24:40
out on March sixth. Now it's on to Taste of
24:44
Country with an article dated February fourth. Luke Colmbs never
24:47
dreamed of music as a career. That's just not something
24:51
you do, he says, sold out stadiums, Entertainer of the
24:54
Year Awards, multi Platinum songs. It was a time when
24:57
Luke Colmbs didn't dare dream that big for himself. During
25:01
a chat with Willie Geist on Sunday sit Down, Comb's
25:04
explained that being a full time musician didn't feel like
25:06
a real job, you know, as crazy as that sounds.
25:10
The country singer responds to being asked, I've always thought
25:13
he'd do music, and I kicked myself all the time,
25:15
like how did I not put this together sooner? All
25:18
I did was sing all the time, and never one
25:20
time I was like, oh maybe I could sing for
25:22
a living. He continues, I don't know. I guess my
25:25
mind was like, well, I mean, that's not something you do.
25:27
It's just not a job you can have. He even
25:30
said his idols didn't feel like real people. When you're
25:32
growing up and you see Alan Jackson on TV, you're like,
25:35
that's not a real guy, he explains, like it is,
25:38
but you don't process that it's his job. Even though
25:42
he loved singing, the idea of doing it for a
25:43
living felt so out of reach. Instead, comb set his
25:46
sights on something out of the spotlight. Maybe you could
25:49
open a restaurant or something. Maybe just stick to banking
25:51
or something, he recalls telling himself those things felt more
25:55
tangible to the country hit maker. But it's not because
25:57
his parents were dousing water on the flames of his dreams.
26:01
In fact, they encouraged him to chase after what he wanted.
26:05
I came from a real working class family and my
26:08
parents were always like, chase your dreams, you know. But
26:10
then in my mind I'm going like, I mean, to
26:12
what extent right, chase your dreams within reason, you know
26:16
what I mean. Let's not get crazy with it out there.
26:18
He adds. Had Combs opted for a simple life, he
26:20
would have never nominated or been nominated for three Grammys
26:24
or held multiple trophies from the CMAS and ACMs, and
26:28
he certainly wouldn't have been producing multi platinum songs and
26:31
stadium shows. I forget about it. The singer songwriters preparing
26:36
for a sixth headlining tour and My Kind Of Saturday
26:39
Night Tour kicks off March twenty first at Allegiant Stadium
26:42
in Las Vegas. The trek will take him across the
26:45
nation in overseas, all in support of his new album
26:48
The Way I Am. It's the sixth studio album. It
26:51
will be released on the eve of the tour March twentieth.
26:54
Luke Colmbs has proven to a lot of people that
26:56
they were wrong over the years, but perhaps the most
26:59
significant person has been himself. Finally, here's an interesting short
27:04
list country artists who are having babies in twenty twenty six.
27:08
The country music families growing once again. Twenty twenty six
27:11
will bring new additions to several artists and their families.
27:15
Speaking of Lou Combs, he and his wife Nicole are
27:18
expecting their third child early this year. The couple announced
27:21
they were expecting with a video shared in social media
27:24
back in September. As for the baby's gender, everyone will
27:27
have to wait, including the Combs family. The pair opted
27:30
to keep the news of surprise until he or she
27:32
arrives sometime this winter. They're already parents to two sons,
27:35
text Lawrence, who's three, and Bo Lee who's two. It's
27:40
soon to be a party of seven for Thomas Rhett
27:42
and his wife Lauren. The couple are expecting their fifth
27:45
child in spring twenty twenty six. News of their new
27:48
edition came last August, and so did the countdown to
27:51
having five children under the age of ten. The couple
27:54
have opted to keep the baby's gender as surprise, even
27:57
for themselves, until he or she makes their debut way
28:00
in March. Reht and Lauren have four daughters, Willie Gray nine,
28:03
eight of James eight, Lennon Love five, and Lily Carolina,
28:07
who is three. Parker McCollum and his wife Haley Rade
28:11
shows Christmas Day twenty twenty five to announce their expecting
28:14
a second baby. They also opted to reveal their second
28:17
baby is a boy. McCollum Party of fours making their
28:21
debut this summer, although a specific due date is yet
28:24
to be announced. The couple are parents to Major Yancey
28:27
Tyler one and Yes, the country singer has some unique
28:30
names picked out for this baby two well. This concludes
28:33
the reading of Country Weekly for this week. If you
28:36
have any comments or suggestions about this program, kindly call
28:40
us at eight five nine four two two sixty three ninety.
28:43
Thank you for joining me on behalf of everyone here
28:46
at RADIOI. This is Ken Dawkins, wishing you a great day.