Latest / Country Weekly / 4.17.26
Transcript
- 0:05Speaker 1: Now it's time to catch up with Countryweekly, where we
- 0:09check out the very latest news and gossip from the
- 0:11world of country music. I'm your host as always, Ken Dawkins,
- 0:16and I will be reading from various sources found online.
- 0:20As a reminder, RADIOI is a reading service intended for
- 0:23people who are blind or have other disabilities that make
- 0:26it difficult to read printed material. We'll begin with the
- 0:29first article, dated April thirteenth from countryanow dot com. Leading off,
- 0:35Zachtop extends Cold Beer and Country Music Tour with new
- 0:39summer dates and it includes Lexington. After teasing big news,
- 0:44Zachtop is officially extended as headlining Cold Beer in Country
- 0:47Music Tour through the summer. The South of Sanity singer
- 0:51will now bring the trek to additional cities including stops
- 0:54and Orange Beaches, The Wharf, Amphitheater, Boise's Extra Mile Arena,
- 0:58and Pittsburgh ppge G Paint's Arena. Among others. Joining Top
- 1:03on select dates are Marcus King Band, Lucas Nelson, Marty
- 1:07Stewart and his Fabulous Superlatives, Jake Worthington, Cole Goodwin and
- 1:11Wyatt mccubbn. There's nothing better than summertime Colvier and Country Music.
- 1:16So We're hitting the road again with a brand new tour.
- 1:19Top Road on social media following the announcement. Tickets for
- 1:23the newly added dates will be available via pre sale
- 1:25beginning this week. The newly added shows arrive ahead of
- 1:28a packed season for the rising star, who is set
- 1:31to perform at Nissan Stadium during CMA Fest in June,
- 1:34as well as joining George Strait and Chris Stapleton for
- 1:37select stadium dates. The extension also follows a major career
- 1:41moment at the Grammy Awards, where Top took home Best
- 1:44Traditional Country Album for his sophomore project, Ain't In It
- 1:47for My Health. Ain't In It for My Health debut
- 1:50at number one on Billboard's Top Current Country Albums chart
- 1:53and number eleven on the Billboard two hundred, racking up
- 1:56over thirty million global streams in its first week. Continuing
- 2:00his momentum, the Washington native also recently earned five nominations
- 2:04at the sixty first Academy of Country Music Awards, including
- 2:08Male Artists of the Year, Album of the Year, and
- 2:10Song and Single of the Year for I Never Lie. Twur.
- 2:14Dates are extensive, but the one we care about most
- 2:17probably is at the Railbird Festival in Lexington on June seventh. Next.
- 2:23Morgan Wallen and Ella Langley among top nominees for the
- 2:26twenty twenty six American Music Awards. Nominees for the American
- 2:30Music Awards were unveiled early Tuesday, with Morgan Wallen and
- 2:34Ella Langley emerging as the two top contenders. Waller earned
- 2:38seven nominations, trailing only Taylor Swift overall, and picked up
- 2:42nods and Artists of the Year, Album of the Year,
- 2:44Song of the Year, Collaboration of the Year, Best Male
- 2:47Country Artist, Best Country Song, and Best Country Album. Langley
- 2:52follows closely as the most nominated female country artist with
- 2:56five nominations, including New Artists of the Year, Song of
- 2:58the Year, Song of the Summer, an interesting category, Best
- 3:02Female Country Artist, and Best Country Song. Other top nominees
- 3:06include Olivia Dean, Sabrina Carpenter, Somber, Alex Warren, and Lady Gaga,
- 3:11while Big ex to Plug, Megan Moroni and Shaboozi each
- 3:14earned three nominations. The American Music Awards stand is the
- 3:17world's largest fan voted awards show, honoring today's biggest artists
- 3:22and their dedicated favorites. The fifty second A Awards will
- 3:28return Memorial Day weekend in May of this year with
- 3:30a must see live broadcast from Las Vegas hosted by
- 3:34Queen Latifa. The show will air live from the MGM
- 3:36Grand Garden Arena and will kick off summer on Monday,
- 3:40May twenty fifth. The ceremony will air on CBS and
- 3:43stream on Paramount. American Music Awards winners are decided entirely
- 3:48by fan votes, as you probably know, with the process
- 3:51independently audited to insure accuracy. Nominees are based on key
- 3:55fan driven metrics like streaming, sales, radio airplay, touring performers.
- 4:00All his track by Billboard and Luminate. There are two
- 4:03ways to vote via Instagram by commenting on the vote
- 4:06here pinned post with a valid hashtag or visiting voteamas
- 4:10dot com. Next, Willowavalon announces new album, Pink Pocket Pistol
- 4:17drops Jason Isbel collaboration Cardinal Sin. Rising star Willow Avalon
- 4:23has announced her new album, Pink Pocket Pistol, set for
- 4:26release June twenty sixth, via Atlantic outpost as Symbol Sound.
- 4:31Alongside the announcement, Avalon debut a new track, Cardinal Sin,
- 4:34featuring six time Grammy winner jasoni Isbel. The collaboration marks
- 4:38a milestone moment for the singer songwriter, as she has
- 4:41been a longtime fan. It's one of my favorite songs
- 4:45on the record, and it's one of the favorites I've
- 4:46ever written, Avalon shared of Cardinal Sin having Jason on
- 4:50it was icing on the cake. I've loved him forever.
- 4:53I have four Jason Isbel CDs in my car, another
- 4:56four hundred in my house, and I've driven around for
- 4:59the last five years ermonizing with his voice and thinking
- 5:02how insane it would be to sing with him. I'm
- 5:04still so honored that it happened. Pink Pocket Pistol follows
- 5:08Avalon's January twenty twenty five debut Southern Bell Raisin Hell,
- 5:12which was praised by fans and critics alike. The upcoming
- 5:16project expands on her signature storytelling style while introducing new
- 5:20sonic elements. Pink Pocket Pistol is a mix of lyricism
- 5:24and sassy storylines. I've continuously written with more darkness, mystery,
- 5:29and the sixties countries feel, Avalon explained, I went in
- 5:33with an idea in my head and we walked out
- 5:35a week later with it fully executed. Every single person
- 5:38in the room was on the same page. It felt
- 5:40wonderfully hearing the record out of speakers after really intensive
- 5:44hard work, exactly what I heard in my head. The
- 5:47album will also include her previously released single Easy on
- 5:51the Eyes and arrives during a breakout period for Avalon.
- 5:54Since her debut, she's performed on The Late Show with
- 5:57Stephen Colbert, CBS Mornings and The Grand Old Opera, and
- 6:00as part of the Opry's twenty twenty six Next Stage
- 6:03Class Looking Ahead. Avalon is set to make her official
- 6:07Stagecoach debut on April twenty fifth in Indio, California, after
- 6:12a surprise appearance during Zack Bryan's headlining set at the
- 6:14festival last year. She will also appear at several festivals
- 6:18this summer, including Railbird Festival here in Kentucky and Headwaters
- 6:22Country Jam in Montana. Originally from Georgia and now based
- 6:26in Nashville, Avalon will began her musical journey at a
- 6:30young age, teaching herself guitar at twelve and using songwriting
- 6:34as a form of self expression with Pink Pocket pistol.
- 6:37She continues to carve out her place as one of
- 6:40country music's most promising new artists. Moving on, Zach Brown
- 6:45visits Truest Park with fiance Kendris Scott to celebrate Sunday
- 6:49Night Baseball opening debut. Zach Brown, frontman of the Grammy
- 6:54winning Zach Brown Band, had a full circle moment at
- 6:56Truest Park on Sunday as he appeared during the Cleveland
- 6:59guard Bardians versus the Atlanta Braves game to celebrate the
- 7:02debut of the band's Sunday Night Baseball opening. Brown was
- 7:06joined by his fiancee, Kendri Scott, and spoke with legendary
- 7:09sportscaster Bob Costas during the game. Reflecting on what the
- 7:13moment meant to him as a lifelong baseball fan and
- 7:16devoted supporter of the Atlanta Braves, he shared that the
- 7:20experience felt especially meaningful because of his deep rooted connection
- 7:23to the team, recalling attending Braves games as a child
- 7:27and describing it as part of growing up for him.
- 7:30Brown also noted that he once sang the national anthem
- 7:32at just fourteen years old at Fulton County Stadium before
- 7:36the team moved to its current home, adding another layer
- 7:38to his long history with the franchise, Zach Brown Band's
- 7:42new show, Opened Now Opens Now joins a legacy of
- 7:45major sports collaborations, alongside iconic openings like Carrie Underwood's Sunday
- 7:50Night Football theme and Lenny kravitz Sunday Night Basketball theme.
- 7:55It's an honor. We love what we do. We're blessed
- 7:57to have a career that's lasted and just still pushing
- 7:59the boundaries of what's possible. But absolutely love her partnership
- 8:03with MLB and love being here and being able to
- 8:06be a part of it. It's the most American thing
- 8:08there is. Brown shared. For their opening, Zach Brown reimagined
- 8:12carn Evil nine First Impression Part two by Emerson lacoln
- 8:15Palmer and blended in lines of the classic take Me
- 8:18Out to the Ballgame, creating a high energy intro set
- 8:21to kick off Sunday Night Baseball each week for the
- 8:24rest of the season. Looking ahead, the moment marks just
- 8:28the beginning of a big year for Zach Brown Band
- 8:30as they prepare to launch their Love and Fear to Her. Okay,
- 8:34we'll float into this next story. Casey Musgraves claims she
- 8:38spotted three UFOs on flight from Texas to Tennessee. Casey
- 8:44Musgraves had a very out of the ordinary moment on
- 8:46a flight recently. Now she's opening up about what she
- 8:48saw with proof of unexplained objects spotted in the sky
- 8:52that she's calling the craziest orb UFO experience. The country
- 8:57star admits she's seen plenty of crazy and unexplainable things
- 9:00in her life okay, but this encounter is one she
- 9:03won't forget anytime soon. In her new Instagram story, Musgrave
- 9:06shared that she was flying from Fort Worth to Nashville
- 9:09with one of her managers when something outside her window
- 9:12immediately caught her attention as she was getting ready to
- 9:15take a nap. According to her, she saw a set
- 9:18of lights that just didn't look normal. We just watched
- 9:21these orbs. There were three of them, she recalls. I
- 9:24watched them for a minute and they were definitely trailing
- 9:26each other. They were about fifty thousand feet up. Let's
- 9:30remember she was too anyway. The Grammy winning star says
- 9:33she first noticed the orbs while flying over Little Rock
- 9:36and continued to keep an eye on them for about
- 9:38forty five minutes. She was able to catch some of
- 9:41the objects on video. However, the quality of her iPhone
- 9:44seventeen made it difficult to clearly make out the phenomenon.
- 9:48It looks like I filmed them on a toaster, but
- 9:51that's the quality we're working with. She noted. It was
- 9:53hard to focus because they were far off and it's nighttime.
- 9:57She already ruled out that it could have been any
- 9:59other normal air craft, just based off the flight patterns
- 10:02and the abnormally colored lights they were giving off. These
- 10:05orbs who are not moving like any craft we can control.
- 10:09They were intermittently coming and going and forming triangle patterns.
- 10:12She explained. Sometimes they would get extremely bright and change
- 10:16color and then change size. Musgraves goes on to say
- 10:21that this was the craziest thing was that the orbs
- 10:23continued to follow them all the way from Little Rock
- 10:26to their destination in Nashville. We were like, oh my gosh,
- 10:30this is insane. Once the plane had safely landed, she
- 10:34finally got the chance to ask the pilots if they
- 10:36had witnessed the same thing. And we're like, did you
- 10:39all see something weird? She asked. Strange enough, both pilots
- 10:43recalled seeing exactly three orbs. They were laughing kind of
- 10:47and were like, Yeah, we've seen these every single night,
- 10:50and all the other pilots are seeing them too, and
- 10:52nobody knows what they are. The story doesn't end there,
- 10:56because she says when she got home the Golden Hour
- 10:58singer saw yet another string orb. This just adds to
- 11:02a growing list of strange and unexplainable experiences. However, Musgrave
- 11:07seems to just have accepted that she continues to have
- 11:09these moments in her life and now wonders if anyone
- 11:12else has similar experiences. She entered a message by saying,
- 11:15keep it weird you all, before adding the video and
- 11:18photo proof she attempted to catch from the plane window.
- 11:21The clips were pitch black except for the lights emanating
- 11:25from the city below and the individual particles in the sky,
- 11:29aside from the orbs that captured her focus. Momentarily, Casey
- 11:33Musgraves has been busy promoting her new album Middle of
- 11:36Nowhere Sounds Appropriate, which she just announced will be arriving
- 11:39May first. She has already shared a look into the
- 11:42project through the first single, dry Spell. Fans can expect
- 11:46to hear stories rooted in Texas and inspired by a
- 11:49chapter of reflection and clarity that she found after a
- 11:52breakup resulting in her leaning intentionally into open space and
- 11:56traditional Western elements. The collection of thirteen tracks All SOO
- 12:00includes collaborations with Willie Nelson, Miranda Lambert, Billy Strings, and
- 12:05Gregory Allan Isakov. No word if there will be three
- 12:08orbs on the recordings. Now we skip on over to
- 12:11parade dot com with the article dated April twelfth, nineties,
- 12:16Country's King seventy three leaves fans breathless at recent concert.
- 12:21George Strait just proved again why they call him the
- 12:24king of country, and at seventy three, is showing absolutely
- 12:27no signs of slowing anytime soon. The legendary artist took
- 12:31the stage at the Austin Moody Center on April ninth,
- 12:34delivering a performance that had fans nostalgic about his nineties
- 12:37heyday while marveling at how little has changed. Simultaneously, When
- 12:42Straight launched into classics like Amarillo by Morning, the crowd's
- 12:45response was immediate and overwhelming. Just saw him last year
- 12:49and I cried hearing this live When emotional fans shared,
- 12:52capturing the kind of reactions Straight consistently inspires cross generationally.
- 12:58The comments flooding social media after show, Oh, tell the
- 13:00whole story. Take me to a George Straight concert date, please,
- 13:04because apparently experiencing Straight live has become relationship goals for
- 13:08country music fans. Here's what makes George Strait absolutely remarkable.
- 13:12He's been doing this, of course, for forty years, without
- 13:15changing his approach to fit the trends. No chasing anything,
- 13:18no imagery inventions, just genuine, authentic country music, delivered exactly
- 13:23the way fans fell in love with it in the
- 13:24first place. The statistics behind his career border on unbelievable.
- 13:29Sixty number one singles, more than any artist in any
- 13:32genre ever. He has over seventy million albums sold, in
- 13:35thirty three platinum or multi platinum albums, a number exceeded
- 13:39only by the Beatles and Elvis Presley across all recorded
- 13:43music history. Perhaps most impressively, Straight maintained a top ten
- 13:47hit every single year for more than three decades straight,
- 13:50something no other artist in popular music has accomplished. He
- 13:54didn't achieve this dominance by playing industry games. He did
- 13:57it by refusing to be anyone other than himself and
- 14:00refusing to play anything except the music he believed in.
- 14:04After his two thousand and six Country Music Hall of
- 14:06Fame induction. Strait could have easily coasted by on his
- 14:09legacy alone, but instead he kept recording, kept performing, and
- 14:13kept topping charts. He literally was keeping his nose to
- 14:16the grindstone and staying in his lane. He did the work,
- 14:20and now he's reaping those benefits. In its twenty fourteen
- 14:23country Rides Away to Her. The finale at at and
- 14:27T Stadium in Dallas drew over one hundred and four
- 14:30thousand people as we remember, breaking North American indoor concert
- 14:33attendance records for a single night at seventy three. George
- 14:38Strait delivers the same authentic heart on his sleeve country
- 14:41music that he's been perfecting since nineteen eighty one. His
- 14:44cowboy hat hasn't changed, the voice hasn't diminished, and most
- 14:48impressive is that his connection with audiences remains as strong
- 14:51as ever. Some art to spend their entire careers searching
- 14:55for their professional identity, their place. Straight walked onto the
- 14:59scene knowing exactly who he was, and four decades later,
- 15:02fans are still happy. He never wavered. Now we engage
- 15:06the turn signal to move over to Kentucky's the Lane Report.
- 15:11This is from the April edition and mac Wickstrom's Authentic
- 15:15Notes column, where we look at Kentucky music news and notes.
- 15:20Kentucky Music Hall of Fame and Museum Executive Director Jessica
- 15:23Blankenship has been named to the International Bluegrass Music Association's
- 15:28Leadership Bluegrass Class of twenty twenty six. The Female Forward
- 15:33Hollergirl Music Festival will return to the Cliff to Creek
- 15:36Camping Resort, which is outside Irvan, July June fifth through
- 15:40the seventh, with performances from Madeline Edwards, Tory Forsyth, Them
- 15:44Lasses and the Old Dogs, and Gracey Yates, among others.
- 15:49Tyler Childs and Jason Carter are both featured inside the
- 15:52updated American Currents exhibit at the Country Music Hall of
- 15:55Fame and Museum in Nashville, which is available to view
- 15:58through January of twenty twenty six. Chris Stapleton, Shelby Means,
- 16:03the Creakers and S. G. Goodman will perform at Bourbon
- 16:06and beyond September twenty four through the twenty seventh. Other
- 16:10scheduled to appear at the Louisville based festival include goose Casey, Muskgraves,
- 16:15The Red Clay Strays, and the Dave Matthews Band. Northern
- 16:19Kentucky bluesman Nat Myers joined Wicks Picks February seventeenth to
- 16:23talk about his ongoing battle with sarcoma, returning to the
- 16:26stage after a month long hiatus last summer, and new music.
- 16:31Then a week later, the trailblazing cellist Ben Solee joined
- 16:35the writer The Matt to discuss the new album Time
- 16:38on Hold. Prestonburg duo Sunday Best was surprised with the
- 16:42announcement that they'd be included in the twenty twenty six
- 16:45class of inductees to the Kentucky Music Hall of Fame
- 16:49during a sold out concert at Manchester Music Hall on
- 16:52February twenty first Louder than Life will bring hard rock
- 16:57and metal music back to the Kentucky expos Center in
- 16:59Louisville September seventeenth through the twentieth. The Creakers and Cole
- 17:04Cheney will headline the Manchester Music Festival, which will also
- 17:07include appearances from the likes of Bee Taylor, Jason Scott
- 17:10in the High Heat, and Tony Logue. From September third
- 17:13through the fifth, Healing Appalachia, the recovery focused Music Festival
- 17:18that moved to Ashland in twenty twenty five following several
- 17:22years in West Virginia, will return to the East Kentucky
- 17:25river Town September tenth through the twelfth. A full lineup
- 17:28will be unveiled at a later date. Bedford and the
- 17:32Creakers tied for Album of the Year honors at the
- 17:35twelfth annual Lexington Music Awards held March eighth. Other victors
- 17:40included Nicholas Jamerson for Songwriter of the Year, Male Vocalist
- 17:44of the Year, Natt Myers t D Young Blues Excellence Award,
- 17:47and the local Honey's American Folk Act of the Year.
- 17:51And as we mentioned in recent week, Sturgil Simpson of
- 17:54course officially released his second record under his Johnny Blue
- 17:58Sky's Moniker Mutiny after midnight on March thirteenth. Now we
- 18:04scoot on over to Saving Country Music for news and commentary.
- 18:08First article dated April fourteenth, the Rock Hall of Fame
- 18:12beats Country to inducting Graham Parsons. Well, it finally happened,
- 18:17something that many fans of Graham Parsons and his legacy
- 18:20with The Birds, the Flying Burrito Brothers, the International Submarine Band,
- 18:24and of course his solo work and membership of Emmy
- 18:27Lou Harris have been strongly advocating for as finally unfolding.
- 18:31Graham Parson will be inducted into the Hall of Fame,
- 18:35but no, it will not be in the Country Music
- 18:37Hall of Fame, where much of that advocacy work has
- 18:40been directed over the years. Instead, Graham Parsons will be
- 18:44going into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which
- 18:47announced its newest inductees on Monday. Graham Parsons was only
- 18:51twenty six when he died back in nineteen seventy three,
- 18:54and November fifth, twenty twenty six, will mark his eightieth
- 18:57birthday and true Graham Parsons fashion, you might have missed
- 19:01the Graham Parsons was one of the new Rock and
- 19:04Roll Hall of Fame inductees because in many of the
- 19:06news stories the headlines about her, he wasn't even mentioned.
- 19:09Phil Collins, Billy Idol, Iron Maiden, Joy Davison, New Order, Oasis, Chade,
- 19:15Luther Vandross, and Wu Tang Clan were the top line
- 19:18names everyone was touting, with only a few even paying
- 19:21attention to Graham. Graham Parsons is being inducted into the
- 19:24Rock and Roll Hall of Fame via their Early Influence category,
- 19:28the same category that got father of Bluegrass Bill Monroe
- 19:31and Hank Williams inducted in previous years. Graham goes in
- 19:35with Cuban singer Celia Cruz, Queen Latifa mclight, and Nigerian
- 19:40singer Phela Couti. Country artists Emmy Lou Harris and Steve
- 19:44Earle both wrote letters of recommendation to the Rock Hall
- 19:47to consider Graham for induction. Graham Parsons could have been
- 19:51inducted with his fellow members of The Birds when they
- 19:53went into the Rock Hall back in nineteen ninety one,
- 19:57but since he was officially considered a hired hand in
- 19:59the band as opposed to a permanent member, despite his
- 20:02widely influential role in the band's landmark country record Sweetheart
- 20:06of a Rodeo, they excluded him from the induction. Now,
- 20:10the overlooking of Graham and his musical legacy is made right,
- 20:14but is it in the wrong institution. When taking stock
- 20:18of the Graham Parsons legacy, it's pretty clear his primary
- 20:20influence was in country, though he's commonly described as a
- 20:24country rock guy. Now this is more of a misnomer
- 20:27due to the proximity to the country rock scene as
- 20:29opposed to his true early influence on the music, which
- 20:33is why Graham is being recognized. Few, if anyone, can
- 20:36say they were more responsible for helping sway West Coast
- 20:39music in the direction of respecting, honoring, and performing country
- 20:43music than Graham Parsons. Sure there were others, most notable
- 20:46fellow Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Jerry Garcia of
- 20:49The Grateful Dead, but in his time, the work of
- 20:51Garcia was mostly compartmentalized around the Bay Area scene and
- 20:56post psychedelia. You can give Graham credit as a country
- 21:00rock pioneer too, but with the way Graham compelled the
- 21:02Birds to record in Nashville and play the grand Old Opry,
- 21:06this is what truly broke down barriers and open doors.
- 21:09While the music itself was decidedly country, despite the country
- 21:12rock moniker regularly assigned to it. Granted, when Sweetheart of
- 21:17the Rodeo was first released back in nineteen sixty eight,
- 21:20it was renounced by critics and became a commercial flop.
- 21:23It was too ahead of its time. Two years before
- 21:25The Grateful Dead's country shift. The Birds were also bowed
- 21:29or tweeted since many made bird sounds when they debuted
- 21:32at the Grand Old Opry, but time has proven they
- 21:35were pioneers and legends. That is why the Rock and
- 21:38Roll Hall of Fame is making the wrong shown to
- 21:40Graham Parson's right. Over the last few years, the Hall
- 21:44of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has gone down
- 21:45the slipwer slope of starting to induct country stars, and
- 21:49not just as early influences. Dolly part and Willie Nelson
- 21:52are now Rock and Roll Hall of Famers, while folks
- 21:55like Phil Collins and Billie Idol had to wait in line,
- 21:57and the Black Crows and so many more are st
- 22:00still outside looking in. The biggest difference between the Rock
- 22:04and Roll Hall of Fame and the Country Music Hall
- 22:06of Fame, says saving country Music is the amount of
- 22:09inductees each year and the permissiveness of the institutions. It
- 22:13might not be possible for the two Halls of fame
- 22:15to be more polar opposite. Where the Country Music Hall
- 22:18of Fame only allows three inductees each year, the rock
- 22:22halls just allowed eight in via their primary category and
- 22:25thirteen total with their early influence inductees. Just as strong
- 22:31a case can be made that the Country Music Hall
- 22:32of Fame is being way too austere in their inductions,
- 22:35leaving worthy names out, including performers who pass away before
- 22:38being able to enjoy their induction. A strong case can
- 22:41be made that the Rock Hall is being too permissive,
- 22:44diluting the importance of the honour while also leaving the
- 22:47definition of rock more ambiguous or simply meaning popular music.
- 22:52But what is hard to argue against is the induction
- 22:55of Graham, Parsons says, saving country music in the Rock
- 22:58and Roll Hall of Fame or its country counterpart. Granted,
- 23:01one of the reasons Graham seems to always been named
- 23:04but never to be a front runner for Country Hall
- 23:06of Fame is that so many other worthy names continue
- 23:08to be dumped into the veteran's era category from the
- 23:11modern era category that are probably more worthy or high
- 23:15profile than Graham. In an ideal world, Graham and others
- 23:18would have been inducted a decade ago, but the Country
- 23:21Hall backlog keeps a whole list the whole host of
- 23:24worthy names out. Dwight Yoakum continues to be systematically snubbed
- 23:29by the Country Music Hall of Fame with his California
- 23:32legacy and cowpunk roots. Could we envision a scenario where
- 23:35he gets inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of
- 23:37Fame first. That's not completely out of the realm. In fact,
- 23:41the rock Hall might be where Dwight Yoakam fans should
- 23:43start training their advocacy. But if Dwight and people like
- 23:47John Prine went into the Rock and Roll Hall of
- 23:49Fame first, it would send a bad message. The fact
- 23:52that Graham Parsons is being inducted into the Rock and
- 23:55Roll Hall of Fame is a wrong being done right,
- 23:58but it also illustrates how the insular and restrictive nature
- 24:01of the Country music Hall of Fame is putting it
- 24:03on the outside looking into cultural relevancy. Nobody's asking for
- 24:08country Hall to throw the barn doors wide open like
- 24:10the Rock Hall, but adopting something like the Rock Hall's
- 24:13early Influence category would allow worthy names like Graham Parsons
- 24:17and others to finally get in, alleviate pressure on the
- 24:20other categories, and give more fans an opportunity to celebrate
- 24:23like Graham Parsons fans are today, and to preserve the
- 24:27legacies of critically important and influential artists as Whaling Jennings,
- 24:32who skipped his Country Hall of Fame induction once said
- 24:35we need a change. Next a Texas Music Revolution Fest
- 24:40reveals twenty twenty six lineup and a new documentary. Twenty
- 24:44twenty six will mark thirty years of the Texas Music
- 24:47Revolution Fest in McKinney, Texas, hosted by radio station ninety
- 24:51five point three KHYI in Dallas. That shirks the same
- 24:55tired pop country format that has infected the airwaves coast
- 24:58to coast to folks on Texas Music, bluegrass, and just
- 25:02about everything else that's great. Shane Smith and the Saints, Ray,
- 25:06Willie Hubbard, William Beckman, Wade Bowen, Shelby Stone, the Creuz Brothers,
- 25:10Ellis Bullard, King, Margo, Two Tons of Steel, Lance Roark,
- 25:14Mason Lively, Wesley Hannah, Katrina Kaine, special guest Keifer Sutherland
- 25:19and many more will be taking the stage June fifth
- 25:21and sixth at the multi stage festival, held about thirty
- 25:25miles north of Dallas. It's not a festival, It's a revolution,
- 25:29says saving country music. It's also great opportunity to see
- 25:32some of the best bands in Texas and beyond, all
- 25:34in one place. Both kh YI and the Texas Music
- 25:39Revolution Fest are known for helping to develop talent that
- 25:42goes on to have a major national impact like Turnpike, Troubadours,
- 25:46Casey Musgraves, Whiskey Myers, Ryan Bingham, and Charlie Crockett. As
- 25:51part of this year's festival, they've announced the release of
- 25:54The Texas Music Revolution documentary that chronicles the twenty fifth
- 25:58anniversary of the festival that took place back in twenty
- 26:01twenty one, right after the Pandemic. Directed by filmmaker Troy Path,
- 26:07Emmy nominated for Dirty Jobs, and featuring Keefer Sutherland, the
- 26:11documentary showcases some of the biggest names in Texas music
- 26:14like Charlie Crockett, Ray Willie Hubbard, Joshua Ray Walker, and
- 26:17Zane Williams. The full film is planned to be available
- 26:21for streaming around the time of the twenty twenty sixth festival.
- 26:25Now we grab a pair of socks and head over
- 26:27to the boot dot com. With the first article dated
- 26:30the fifteenth of April, Thomas Rhet reveals details of next album,
- 26:34It's a Major Shift. Thomas Rhet has released seven studio
- 26:38albums so far, and he just revealed that He's coming
- 26:41at us with an eighth one, likely by the end
- 26:43of twenty twenty six, but according to Redd himself, there
- 26:46will be a major shift for this record. The Dire
- 26:49Happy Man singer was a guest on Country Countdown USA,
- 26:52where he told host Lon heldon the details of the
- 26:56next project, it'll differ in at least one major way
- 26:59from previous record. I've been writing for a year and
- 27:02a half For this project, I'm thinking on making a
- 27:04short record, only ten songs, and let's go with that.
- 27:08This is a major shift for the singer whose previous
- 27:10albums have all had more some way more than ten
- 27:12songs on them. For example, he goes like this had
- 27:15eleven songs, tangled Up, thirteen songs, sixteen on the deluxe
- 27:19version The Life Changes Album fourteen songs, Center Point Road sixteen,
- 27:24Country Against Side A eleven songs where we started fifteen songs,
- 27:28and the seventh album About a Woman fourteen songs. So,
- 27:31as you can see, a ten song album would be
- 27:34a pretty big change from his previous work, especially his
- 27:37last two records, which were extra long. The Life Changes
- 27:41singer Way says, we're going into the studio next week
- 27:44to start working on our next record and hopefully have
- 27:46a song or two come out in between April and May,
- 27:49hopefully a record by the end of this year. In
- 27:52the interview, Rihtt details how his process has been going.
- 27:55I've been writing for a year and a half for
- 27:57this project, he says. I feel the word on this
- 27:59next project is timeless. The Boot lists what they think
- 28:04are the top ten Thomas rhet songs Star of the
- 28:06Show number ten, Beer with Jesus number nine, number eight,
- 28:10T shirt, Look what God gave Her. For number seven,
- 28:14the Boot says, Crash and Burner is number six, Number
- 28:17five would be unforgettable, Death Row featuring Tyler Hubbard and
- 28:21Russell Dickerson, number four, Marry Me number three, number two,
- 28:25Life Changes, and the Boot says Thomas Rhett's best song
- 28:29is Die a Happy Man. That's number one. Well. This
- 28:32concludes the reading of Country Weekly for this week. If
- 28:36you have any comments or suggestions about our program, kindly
- 28:39call us at eight five nine four two two sixty
- 28:42three ninety. Thank you for joining me and on behalf
- 28:45of everyone here at RADIOI. This is Ken Dawkins, wishing
- 28:49you a great day.