Imagine stepping on stage, heart racing, while a migraine turns the lights into daggers. That’s the reality Jessie James Decker faced during a live show. Continue reading…The Boot – Country Music News, Music Videos and Songs
Month: January 2026
Imagine stepping on stage, heart racing, while a migraine turns the lights into daggers. That’s the reality Jessie James Decker faced during a live show. Continue reading…Country Music News – Taste of Country
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Country Next: Myles Morgan
For Myles Morgan, what began as picking up his dad’s guitar after high school has quickly turned into a fast-rising career rooted in Alabama grit, honest songwriting, and a real connection with fans.
Before becoming a regular on stages across the country, the rising act spent most of his time on the baseball diamond. That changed after a summer of playing bars and restaurants along the Gulf Coast, a passion he carried to the University of Alabama, where he studied general business, joined a fraternity, and balanced college life with building his artistry. Once the music started gaining traction, Morgan packed up and headed to Nashville.
In just over a year, he’s released his debut single, “Nobody’s Fault But Yours,” signed with WME for global representation, opened for artists like Miranda Lambert, Blake Shelton, and Riley Green, and launched his first headline run. He’s keeping that momentum going into 2026 with the release of his next single, “Never Been Better,” arriving January 30.
Ahead of the song drop, Morgan described “Never Been Better” as a slight departure from his previous work as he explores more emotional depth with the idea of masking heartbreak at its core. A true songwriter at heart, Morgan pens all of his own music. Previous releases like “Jon Boat or a Yacht” to “Is This Seat Taken” and now “Never Been Better” continue that practice while keeping authenticity at the center of it all.
With new music on the way and major moments ahead, Myles Morgan sat down with Country Now for this installment of Country Next to reflect on his journey, recent milestones, new music and what’s next.
Your love for music started when you picked up your dad’s guitar after high school. What motivated you to do that?
So I would say I’ve always kind of liked music, I guess more than the average person, but nobody in my family ever had a music background or anything like that. And I’m born and raised in Birmingham, Alabama, so we were still living there…But my junior year of high school before I moved, I picked up a guitar and started picking around a little bit and taught myself how to play a few chords. And then my senior year, I moved down to Orange Beach and was playing for my friends and stuff when they would come over to the house. And then after I graduated high school, got done with baseball season and I started playing the guitar and my dad said, “Hey, you got to get a job before you go to college.” And I was like, “Okay, well if I make money playing music, does that count?” And he said, “If you can figure it out.” So I picked up the guitar and learned a few songs and then started playing at some restaurants down at the coast.
What was it like carrying that passion into college with you?
I went to the University of Alabama and started playing some shows in college and came back to Orange Beach over that summer and started playing at the Flora-Bama a lot. And I got a band together in Tuscaloosa and started doing a bunch of stuff. And then what really started everything was my first headline show in April of 2025 at Soul Kitchen in Mobile.
What were those first performances like over that summer when you really started getting into music?
It was amazing. I had gone from playing two different types of gigs very quickly. So it was a mindset switch for sure, to say the least, because I had to go from the mindset of playing a small little show at a college bar where it doesn’t really matter what’s going on, to I’m playing on stage in front of 25,000 people at Barefoot Country Music Fest in New Jersey. And you’ve got Ella Langley playing right after you and you’ve got to sound and look like a professional, like you’ve been there doing this for years. And my band and I are just students from Alabama, we’re all buddies and I’ve taken them everywhere with me. And so we’ve had to really have some meetings and be like, “Hey guys, we’ve got to take this seriously and do everything we can.”
You also released your debut single, “Nobody’s Fault But Yours,” during that time. How did it feel to see it rack up so much success so quickly?
After we saw the feedback with that song, it was definitely something that we wanted to keep rolling. And so we kept writing and I was working with my producers in Nashville a lot, and then we released “Jon Boat or a Yacht” shortly after that and just kept the ball rolling, kept putting out singles. And then I think I had three singles out at the time when I played my first headline show at Soul Kitchen.
Who would you say are some of your biggest musical influences?
Well, I have influences from a lot of different people and a lot of different types of music. I would say I grew up listening to the Luke Bryan, Jason Aldean era of country music, the Florida Georgia Line’s and everything like that. And I’m a big fan of Morgan [Wallen]. I’m a big fan of HARDY and Ernest and Bailey [Zimmerman] and all those guys, but I also love Southern rock music. I grew up, my dad was playing Guns and Roses all the time. And I know that’s not Southern rock, that’s classic rock, but I was listening to Leonard Skynyrd all the time too. And actually, I’m a big Post Malone fan, also. I was listening to Post Malone a lot back when he had his first couple albums in 2017, 2018. I was bumping that all the time. And then when he went country, I was like, “Man, this is the best of both worlds.” So I pull from a lot of different areas.
It seems like 2025 was such a pivotal year for you and your music career. How does it feel to reflect on everything you achieved?
It’s crazy. We were sitting there talking about that the other day, just when you look back and when everything is happening, it all happens so fast and it’s all just bang, bang, bang, and you never really get a chance to take a step back and think about what all you’ve done. But we were having a conversation about that just the other day. I mean, it has been crazy. We’ve been able to go play multiple festivals. I mean, I had a bunch of firsts in 2025, and it was definitely something special, but I want to keep it up in 2026 for sure.
Can you take us into the writing session of your next single, “Never Been Better”?
I wrote this song. This one’s a little bit different than my others. It’s got a little bit more of a deep vibe. It’s more of a six-eight traditional style song, but I really, really like it. And it’s kind of one of those songs that you don’t fully understand it until you get to the end of the chorus. So you think it’s going one way and then it hits you that it’s going another way. So I’m really excited about it and I think hopefully everybody else is going to like it too.
Talk to me a little bit more about the story and what you’re hoping that fans kind of take away from hearing this one.
It’s like sometimes a relationship may end and you may have to put on a face and pretend like you’ve never been better and go out and have a good time and pretend like nothing’s really bothering you, but in reality, you may not be okay and you have never been better at pretending that you’re okay.
What has it been like for you to see fans fall in love with each one of your releases so far?
It’s special. One of the coolest feelings that, I mean, probably the coolest feeling that I’ve gotten from this whole thing is when you see a crowd of people that you don’t know singing a song that you wrote back to you for the first time, that happened. We played a show in Hattiesburg, Mississippi this past fall tour, and the kids were singing “Is This Seat Taken.” It was my third single, and that was the first moment I was like, “Man, this is surreal right now. Everybody’s singing this song.”
What else can fans look forward to from you in 2026?
Well, we’re going to have a lot of music coming out this year. We’re going to have a song just about every single month so far for the rest of the year. And I’m going to be playing Rock the South this summer, and I’m going to be back at Carolina Country Music Fest and Barefoot Country Music Fest. And we got a lot of good stuff coming up. I would say look out for my social media because I’m going to be teasing a bunch of stuff very frequently.
Fans can follow Myles Morgan on Instagram HERE.
The post Country Next: Myles Morgan appeared first on Country Now.
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It’s one of the best Super Bowl performances of all time. Continue reading…The Boot – Country Music News, Music Videos and Songs
It’s one of the best Super Bowl performances of all time. Continue reading…Country Music News – Taste of Country
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Kyle Richards would like to set the record straight.
Way back in July 2023, The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star split from Mauricio Umansky, her husband of 27 years.
The estranged spouses had been “separated” for awhile even at that point, according to People Magazine.
Fast forward all the way to last February and Richards tried to explain where her marriage went wrong.
“Every situation, every marriage is different. For us, it had nothing to do with the show. We did the show together for many years, and we were fine through it … I was very happily married. The show did not affect us in that way at all,” Richards emphasized back then.
She emphasized that Umansky was “a great husband” and “a great dad” and admitted that her being “busy and traveling” did not help the situation.
Two appear to have remained quite amicable since they went their separate ways.
Just how amicable, however? To the point where they might get back together?
There have been rumors of late that Kyle and Mauricio “were canoodling” in Aspen on New Year’s Eve, sparkling these kinds of reconciliation rumors.
On the January 29 episode of Andy Cohen’s talk show Watch What Happens Live, the host asked his guest to respond to such speculation.
“It honestly was…someone just made that story up,” Richards simply said about the alleged Aspen sighting.
The 57-year-old also provided an update on whether or not she and her ex have plans to finally file for divorce after her costar Dorit Kemsley speculated on the latest episode of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills that Kyle was holding off in the hopes that they might be a couple again someday.
“We have had conversations that we had not had during this season since then,” Kyle told Andy. “We still haven’t filed, but we’ve had conversations since then about what it’s going to look like and all of that.”
It can be a long and complex process, that’s for sure.
From what we’ve read, Umansky at one point had a girlfriend.
Richards also dated someone, but the relationship didn’t last.
“Since separating from Mau, I was in a relationship I was in a very vulnerable place in my life and I fell hard for this person,” she said on the December 11 episode of RHOBH, adding that she had been willing to share the romance with the world, but the individual she was seeing wasn’t.
“All the speculation and the gossip and the talking is what ultimately ended it.”
Kyle Richards Responds to Mauricio Umansky Reconciliation Rumors was originally published on The Hollywood Gossip.
The Hollywood Gossip
In Oakland County, a miniature donkey named Dolly Parton took a little adventure, leaving her farm and the cops with quite a story to share. Continue reading…The Boot – Country Music News, Music Videos and Songs
In Oakland County, a miniature donkey named Dolly Parton took a little adventure, leaving her farm and the cops with quite a story to share. Continue reading…Country Music News – Taste of Country
Reading Time: 3 minutes
Is he okay?
A recent viral video has fans doing a double take at Ryan Seacrest’s gaunt appearance.
Is it Ozempic? A secret cancer battle? The ravages of time?
Take a look at the clip for yourself and decide if he’s unwell, if fans should clam up, or maybe both.
Is he okay?
This January, Vanna White announced her marriage to John Donaldson.
On Wheel of Fortune, she shared the news, even poking fun at numerous false reports (like those that we here at THG have debunked in the past) that are now simply premature reports about her tying the knot.
Naturally, the show uploaded the clip of her announcement to Instagram.
There, footage circulated beyond Wheel of Fortune‘s usual day-to-day audience.
As you can see, Seacrest offered her a congratulatory hug. But his appearance startled many fans.
To be blunt, Seacrest appears gaunt.
His clothing looks almost oversized at certain angles.
Additionally, his neck and cheeks appear extremely thin, almost sunken.
We would argue that he isn’t unrecognizable — he is, particularly from the front, still a very famous face.
But Seacrest’s dramatically different appearance left fans wondering — and speculating — about what had happened.
Shock and theories came pouring in
People took to social media to share their shock and even to speculate as to the cause.
“That’s Ryan Seacrest??? No way. Absolutely no way,” one person tweeted.
Another remarked: “Ryan Seacrest looks like an entirely different human.”
One tweet reads: “Ryan Seacrest looks like a shell of his former self. What in the name of Ozempic is happening?”
An alternative theory in one tweet mentioned how the late Chadwick Boseman “was relentlessly body shamed while he was battling illness privately and everyone who was talking about him felt like crap when he left this Earth.”
We should keep in mind that not everyone believes that Seacrest is either using GLP-1 medications to starve his body of essential nutrients or that he is privately battling cancer.
(Anyone considering doing the former should perhaps stop to consider that something that people might mistake for cancer is probably not the best choice for your health)
In fact, some took to social media to point out that some folks are picturing Seacrest from past projects.
While obviously many of us have never watched American Idol, that is when he became a household name for many.
It was also over 20 years ago. Seacrest is now a 51-year-old man. Obviously he’s not going to look like he once did.
Even if he’s deathly ill, is that really our business?
We should point out that Seacrest’s worrisome new look is not new.
In 2025, fans fretted over his “frail” appearance.
The reason that he’s once again getting attention is that some people simply haven’t seen him in years — and certainly not since he appeared to be withering in this manner.
We of course hope that there’s nothing wrong with his health, be it cancer or medicalized starvation or something else.
But we should emphasize that simply being a public figure doesn’t mean that someone has to explain why they look different. That’s his business, folks.
Ryan Seacrest Alarms Fans with Gaunt Appearance was originally published on The Hollywood Gossip.
The Hollywood Gossip
Just a few days after sharing the news that her sophomore album Dandelion is arriving on April 10, Ella Langley is giving fans another reason to get excited with the release of the title track.
When announcing the album, Langley described the collection as an “easy and effortless” listen, and that laid-back, free-spirited energy shows up right away in “Dandelion.” The song leans on a delicate groove with lyrics that evoke a quiet confidence, as Langley delivers a message of self-acceptance.
Even though the melody is gentle, she describes it as being a “sneaky jam,” due to beats and textures that build, slowly pulling the listener in as a result. Lyrically, her instantly recognizable vocals center around the idea of celebrating your uniqueness over perfection and trying to fit in with everyone else.
Throughout the verses, Langley pulls from her own life story to let listeners know that no matter how hard she may have tried to fit into a champagne and crystal vase kind of world, that’s just not who she is or how she was raised. Instead, thanks to the “’Bama in my veins,” she will always prefer Jack Daniels, dirt roads, old blue jeans, and being the “dandelion” instead of “a pink bouquet in the flower store.”
“Dandelion/ Born to live free/ Riding on a breeze/ On a summer night/ Tucked back in the weeds/ Guess that’s just me In a bed of red roses/ I’m the one growing/ Up on the wilder side/ So if you’re tired of thorns/ I’m a little more/ Dandelion,” she sings on the chorus.
The track arrives alongside a stunning, flower-filled visualizer co-directed by Langley and Wales Toney of Whale Tale. The country star appears in two separate, but closely related scenes, both featuring her in an elegant white ensemble. In the first, she’s draped across a floral couch, surrounded by arrangements of dandelions in varying colors. The second places her in the bed of a pickup truck with guitar in reach and a backdrop of greenery and the same blooming florals.
The songstress recently shared a look into the making of the track, which she co-penned with Joybeth Taylor, Austin Goodloe and Brett Tyler while Miranda Lambert and Ben West co-produced. Footage captured inside the studio offers a nostalgic vibe as viewers see the Alabama native watch as her vision comes to life.
She also revealed that the concept behind “Dandelion” developed over a “long debate” about the different kinds of the perennial.
“I learned that there are two different kinds of dandelions, the ones like the little yellow ones and then the ones that are like the puff. And they grow from the yellow ones that are the puff and I never knew that,” she explained, while referencing the yellow blooms that transform into puffballs full of seeds that can be blown away with a wish.
With “Dandelion,” Ella Langley sets the tone for her upcoming 18-track album. If this track is any indication, the full-length project is shaping up to be something that blooms with themes of honest storytelling, reflection and joy. She also previously promised that it’s set to be her most personal body of work to date.
Dandelion is expected to serve as a brighter follow-up to her 2024 debut album, hungover. In addition to today’s release, the only other track to drop from the album is the lead single, “Choosin’ Texas,” which is currently rising up the charts and gaining more love from fans each day.
The post Ella Langley Releases Free-Spirited Title Track ‘Dandelion’ Ahead of Sophomore Album appeared first on Country Now.
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