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City of Valdez (FILE)
Day: June 9, 2026
The couple are spending more and more time in Colorado these days. Continue reading…The Boot – Country Music News, Music Videos and Songs
The couple are spending more and more time in Colorado these days. Continue reading…Country Music News – Taste of Country
At 18 years old, Lainey Wilson wrote a letter to her fellow Louisiana native, Tim McGraw, in a desperate effort to make her dreams of being a singer/songwriter come true. Unfortunately, the letter went unanswered…until now.
Even though she never received the advice she was seeking at the time, Wilson still managed to break her way into the music industry and over the weekend things came full circle when she finally got to meet McGraw for the first time and get that long-overdue response.
That simple but powerful letter now hangs in Nashville’s Country Music Hall of Fame. When she wrote it, Wilson was still just a dreamer living in her hometown. She saw how McGraw, someone who lived just a 30-minute drive down the road, was able to make it in the business so she thought what better person to get advice from than him?
Fans got to hear Wilson read the letter out loud in a clip of her Netflix documentary, Lainey Wilson: Keepin’ Country Cool.
Lainey Wilson reads the letter she wrote to Tim McGraw when she was 18 in nursing school 🥲
Lainey Wilson: Keepin’ Country Cool is now playing! pic.twitter.com/vAu5xHaIxA
— Netflix (@netflix) April 22, 2026
It reads:
Dear Mr. Tim McGraw,
My name is Lainey Wilson from Franklin Parish, Baskin, Louisiana. I am 18 years old and have just entered my first semester at Louisiana Delta Community College of Monroe to pursue a nursing degree.
I have been writing songs since I was 9 years old. When you listen to my CD, I want you to know that this is a sample of what I write. I have many others and they are just as good.
Please consider meeting with me and my family. Singing, writing and performing are the most important things in my life. All I need is the opportunity and I can do the rest.
Sincerely, Lainey Wilson
Up until last week, the “Somewhere Over Laredo” singer still hadn’t gotten the chance to meet Tim McGraw and personally tell him about that very special hand-written note from many years ago. The two finally came face-to-face on Saturday night, June 6, while sound checking for their surprise duet that would take place later that night at Nissan Stadium for CMA Fest.
A behind-the-scenes video shows the moment Wilson feels all the emotions as she realizes she was just moments away from fulfilling her childhood dream.
“He don’t understand how much of an influence he is to me. I made up dance routines to every song he ever had and I might show him,” she said jokingly.
After sharing a hug on stage, McGraw admits, “I finally found out about your letter.” They went on to swap memories from their hometown and Wilson opened up about him being her first very concert back in Louisiana before ironing out details for their CMA Fest performance, where she joined him in singing his 1995 hit, “I Like It, I Love It.”
While backstage preparing for the epic on-stage moment, McGraw went over to Wilson holding a white envelope in his hand and admitted that he was embarrassed when he first learned he had missed the letter from her.
Wilson brushed it off saying she probably gave it to a family member of his who never ended up passing it on. Tim McGraw wanted to make right by not only writing her a letter back but also penning a song inspired by the entire experience.
“I wrote you a letter back and I wrote it as though I had gotten a letter. So I wrote it like, had I gotten it, this is what I would have said,” he shared before adding, “Tom Douglas also wrote a song about the letter. So I’ll send that to you to hear it.”
“You are lying,” Wilson responded as a wave of shock washed over her face. She admitted his words were going to make her cry.
The two shared a hug and McGraw emphasized how proud he is of his fellow Baskin native.
“Mama and daddy are not going to believe this,” the female songstress continued. “I did text them earlier and I was like, ‘you won’t believe it. You won’t believe what finally happened after all these years.’”
While the response took years to arrive, the timing couldn’t have been more fitting. That hopeful young girl who once asked Tim McGraw for a chance is now standing beside him as one of country music’s biggest stars.
The post WATCH: Lainey Wilson Finally Gets a Response to the Letter She Wrote Tim McGraw at 18 appeared first on Country Now.
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If you’re in your protein-maxxing era or simply want hearty fuel to better start your day, you can grab one of these high-protein frozen breakfasts.
Food Republic – Restaurants, Reviews, Recipes, Cooking Tips
MONEY TALKS: Sherif Soliman, Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s budget chief, privately briefed members of the Democratic Socialists of America on the state of New York City’s finances last week — a move that could raise ethical concerns, according to a person at the meeting and a prominent government watchdog.
The meeting, billed as a “debrief” on the DSA’s “Tax the Rich Campaign,” was held on June 1 at the Brooklyn Masonic Temple in Clinton Hill. An invitation to the event obtained by Playbook encouraged people to sign up to become dues-paying DSA members in order to participate in the briefing.
During the gathering, Soliman told DSA members he has “the privilege of working alongside our mayor to lead the Office of Management and Budget,” according to the person who attended the closed-door affair and was granted anonymity to divulge details about it.
“So I have the power of the purse,” the OMB director added, per that person’s retelling.
Soliman, the mayor’s lead negotiator in budget talks with the City Council, then delivered a 10-minute presentation on how Mamdani’s administration has plugged a multibillion-dollar municipal deficit this year using savings initiatives, state funding commitments and new revenue generators, including a new tax on wealthy homeowners, said the person.
Soliman’s participation in the DSA confab is a strong sign of the deep ties between Mamdani and the socialist group, which the mayor has said remains his “political home.”
A former city government official, granted anonymity to speak candidly about an issue he didn’t have direct knowledge of, said the briefing Soliman delivered sounds like the sort of detailed budget breakdowns mayoral administrations usually reserve for Council members as part of financial plan negotiations.
Under city ethics law, a non-elected public servant like Soliman cannot use “any city resources,” such as their “city title” or “city personnel,” for “any non-city purpose,” according to a municipal government handbook.
Richard Briffault, a former chair of the city’s Conflicts of Interest Board, said there are scenarios where it’s okay under the law for senior municipal employees to deliver remarks in their official capacity at events hosted by political organizations.
But given that last week’s DSA forum included a membership drive component, Briffault said that Soliman’s participation — and use of his full city title — could raise legal concerns. “This strikes me as maybe on that line of using his title to promote a political organization,” he said.
Briffault said the situation would be even more serious if Soliman used municipal resources, like staffers or city government time, to help prepare for the briefing. If no city resources were used, he said, any violations at play would likely be minor.
“If there was anything wrong, it was likely minimally wrong,” he said.
Mamdani spokesperson Dora Pekec would not say whether Soliman — who delivered budget testimony before the City Council this morning (more on that below) — used city staff or other resources in preparation for his DSA presentation. She also would not say whether he consulted the Conflicts of Interest Board beforehand.
Pekec, however, did say it’s common for mayoral administration officials to “engage with a wide range of external stakeholders on matters concerning the city.”
Due to confidentiality protocols, the Conflicts of Interest Board doesn’t comment on possible ethical infractions involving individual city government employees.
Speaking in general, Carolyn Miller, the board’s executive director, said it “might” be an ethics law violation for a public servant to use their title in connection with a political club event where participants are encouraged to become dues-paying members.
“However, meetings of political clubs are also gatherings of City residents, and there may be circumstances where a presentation by a City official about a City policy issue (such as a DOHMH official speaking about virus transmission and prevention) would have a City purpose for which the use of City title would be appropriate,” Miller wrote in an email. — Chris Sommerfeldt
From the Capitol
HOMAN SPEAKS: Trump administration border czar Tom Homan insisted today that the upcoming surge of ICE agents into New York won’t be like Minneapolis.
“You will not see a Minnesota,” he told SiriusXM’s Chris Cuomo in an interview. “I will not let Minnesota happen.”
Concern is high among Democrats that an aggressive enforcement effort in New York will create similar unrest that led to the deaths of two U.S. citizens earlier this year in the North Star State.
Flooding New York with federal immigration enforcement agents would be a different prospect, though — something Gov. Kathy Hochul’s administration has been bracing for since the start of the year.
Homan maintains that the stepped-up enforcement is needed after Hochul and the Democratic-led Legislature approved a package of measures meant to put legal guardrails around Trump’s deportation campaign.
The New York-focused push will be “well planned,” Homan said.
“It’s gonna be a controlled operation,” he said. “It’s gonna be a targeted enforcement operation. Every day we leave the office and we know exactly who we’re looking for, more likely where we will find them, because we have a targeted operation.”
On X, Hochul said the measures she backed would not provide “sanctuary” for dangerous criminals.
“We will continue working with federal authorities to target violent offenders,” she said. “But we will not stand by if ICE floods our communities with agents, separates families, and turns our neighborhoods into the backdrop for a campaign of fear.” — Nick Reisman
FROM CITY HALL
RED WHITE AND BLUE: French jets with red, white and blue exhaust plumes flew over the Hudson River and the Statue of Liberty this morning as part of the country’s 250th birthday present to America. The Patrouille de France, the French equivalent of the Blue Angels, are touring the region and expected to be back in New York for a multinational armed forces review on July 4 that President Donald Trump is expected to attend.
During a Monday press conference at the French consulate on the Upper East Side, Brigadier General Pierre Gaudillière, head of the Liberté 250 mission, said planning for the flyovers began months ago to celebrate a military alliance that dates back to when the French provided aid to George Washington during the Revolutionary War.
“As Americans observe our 250th anniversary, it is especially meaningful to have one of our oldest allies helping us mark the occasion in our skies,” U.S. Air Force Maj. General Ricky Mills told reporters.
Asked about ongoing rifts over the Iran war, both Mills and Gaudillière emphasized ongoing cooperation.
“In some arenas of the world, we can share the premises where our forces are deployed and sometimes the missions differ for political reasons,” Gaudillièr said. “But there still is a very strong bond between the French and the American air and space forces.” — Ry Rivard
COUNCIL’S WISH LIST: Council Speaker Julie Menin telegraphed some of the body’s budget priorities during a four-hour hearing today.
The marathon session with the Office of Management and Budget nearly finishes the latest round of oversight hearings before lawmakers begin final negotiations with the Mamdani administration. The Council must then approve the final spending plan before the start of the fiscal year on July 1.
“The Council and administration can agree to fund many programs for the success, health and safety of all New Yorkers,” Menin said before rattling off some of lawmakers’ top priorities.
She specifically name-checked the Fair Fares program, which provides discounted public transit fares to lower-income New Yorkers. She floated the idea of bringing the budget for the Department of Parks and Recreation in line with historic spending. She wants to expand the New York City Kids RISE program, which helps young New Yorkers start scholarship funds early. And Menin wants to funnel more money to oversight agencies like the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection and the Department of Investigation.
While Mamdani just got through precariously balancing the city’s finances with a major assist from Albany, Menin’s beancounters predict the city will have around $2 billion in even more revenue this fiscal year and next to pay for some of the Council’s asks. — Joe Anuta
FROM THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL
ZONED OUT: Assemblymember Grace Lee’s sleek white Tesla has accumulated two dozen parking, bus-lane and speed-camera tickets around the city over the past three years — and her car-less political opponent is trying to make it an issue as they compete for an open Lower Manhattan state Senate seat.
Records from howsmydrivingny.nyc show Lee’s vehicle has been fined $1,800 by the city in the last three years. Four of the six school-zone speeding tickets her car has received came at the exact same location — right by P.S. 97 at FDR Drive and East Houston Street, which is located in the senate district she’s running to represent. She also snagged a parking ticket for the “misuse” of her Assembly parking placard, something Niou said indicates her callous attitude toward the law.
“People make mistakes, but abusing her placard and getting six school zone speeding tickets in just the last three years, seems like she doesn’t care about the danger and doesn’t believe that the law applies to her,” former Assemblymember Yuh-Line Niou, who is challenging Lee for retiring state Sen. Brian Kavanagh’s seat, told Playbook in a statement.
Lee was part of previous pushes to tighten restrictions on drivers in the state and city. She joined city officials in 2024 to applaud the lowering of speed limits in the city, and the same year appeared with Hochul to celebrate a state law expanding red light camera programs.
“In Lower Manhattan, where heavy traffic and busy pedestrian areas meet daily, these expanded and newly established programs will reduce accidents and hold reckless drivers accountable,” Lee said at the time. “Together, we are building safer streets for all New Yorkers by protecting lives and preventing tragedies.”
Lee’s campaign spokesperson Austin Shafran responded to Niou’s attack in a statement.
“This attack reeks of desperation from a flailing candidate who’s been absent from the community and doesn’t have much of a record of public service to run on,” he said. — Jason Beeferman
IN OTHER NEWS
— BLANK SLATE: After pressure from Mamdani and tenant organizers, a landlord agreed to forgive millions of dollars in back rent for 5,100 apartments. (Gothamist)
— MOM AND POP: A Long Island official is pushing a resolution that would require the use of the words “mother” and “father” in town code in response to a state bill on surrogacy that seeks to remove those labels. (New York Post)
— UNEQUAL BURDEN: A new report finds New York City’s property tax system, which Mamdani campaigned on fixing, places the tax burden more on rent-stabilized buildings than high-end homes. (The City Reporter)
Missed this morning’s New York Playbook? We forgive you. Read it here.
Politics
A NY strip steak is an excellent option for a meaty, tender cut. I taste tested options from several grocery stores to find out which one is best.
Mashed – Fast Food, Celebrity Chefs, Grocery, Reviews
The idea that a hot dog should be in proportion to its bun is a convention this company blatantly defies, but it’s what makes this East Coast brand unique.
Mashed – Fast Food, Celebrity Chefs, Grocery, Reviews
The trans-Alaska pipeline and Dalton Highway are seen on July 4, 2014, in the Brooks Range area near the pipeline’s Pump Station 4, about 270 miles south of Prudhoe Bay. (Photo by Bob Wick/U.S. Bureau of Land Management)
I have heard talk of a North Slope gas pipeline since my childhood. Growing up in Fairbanks around adults who built the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System, I saw how it gave them financial security, so I planned on joining Laborers’ Local 942 to be part of the gas line construction. I became a camp tradesman and teacher instead. And while I want a new gas line, I do not want to give pipeline developers the huge tax cuts they say are necessary to make the project financially viable, especially when they don’t have international LNG buyers lined up. That is the deal Alaska lawmakers are considering now with House Bill 381.
History matters here. The trans-Alaska pipeline was not built because Alaska handed the Alyeska consortium a 90% tax cut. It was built because the consortium companies financed the roughly $8 billion construction — that’s in 1970s dollars — themselves.
The deal with Alaskans was simple: you build it, you pay your taxes and we share the wealth. That deal built modern Alaska.
What is being asked of us today is the opposite deal. Glenfarne is telling Alaska’s Legislature that a $1 billion annual property tax break is required to build a project described as economically viable one year ago by Governor Mike Dunleavy, the Alaska Gasline Development Corporation’s CEO and Glenfarne’s own CEO. As Senator Giessel has correctly named it, this would be “a huge give,” particularly when Alaska needs money to keep itself functioning.
Alaskans are being pushed to lock in a 36-year, approximately $13 billion loss to the Fairbanks North Star Borough, Kenai Peninsula Borough, the North Slope Borough, and every community in between by a Lower-48 company, a lame-duck governor and yet another Begich. Compare this to the trans-Alaska pipeline’s construction, where severance taxes and property taxes on the pipeline itself were paid in full, and there was an actual demand for the stuff.
We are being told to move “swiftly” by a governor whose political future is tied to his “friend” Donald Trump’s energy dominance rhetoric, by a New York developer with no previous experience with an LNG export project at this scale and by lobbyist Mark Begich.
“Swiftly” is a word con artists use to manufacture a sense of urgency and pressure their victims into impulsive financial decisions. We weren’t swift in the 1970s. We were stubborn, suspicious of outside money and protective of the state’s leverage. That is an Alaskan tradition worth defending right now — especially in an era when federal guardrails against corporate self-dealing are being actively dismantled in Washington.
If Alaska LNG is the genuinely transformative project its sponsors claim, it can carry a fair tax. If it cannot, then no amount of municipal sacrifice in Nenana, North Pole or Nikiski will make it pencil out — but Alaskans will have given away our present and future leverage and received a stranded asset in return. Alaskans deserve full financial disclosure from Glenfarne before any tax structure is set. I stand by the principle the pipeline generation fought for: Alaska’s resources belong to Alaskans first.
![<a href="https://countrynow.com/hannah-harper-reflects-on-dream-come-true-opry-debut-with-carrie-underwood-exclusive/" target="_blank">Hannah Harper Reflects on Dream-Come-True Opry Debut With Carrie Underwood [Exclusive]</a>](https://countrynow.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/Hannah-Harper-by-Chris-Hollo-683x1024.jpg)
Hannah Harper’s Grand Ole Opry debut became something even more unforgettable when Carrie Underwood surprised the audience by joining the American Idol Season 24 winner on stage for a duet that felt like a true full-circle moment.
A lot has changed for Harper in the past year. While standing inside the coveted wooden circle, the Missouri native admitted that it felt like there was a “power coming through my boots.” She took a moment to reflect on the fact that just one year prior, she was sitting on her couch at home hoping and praying that she would one day have the chance to share her original music with the world. Over the past few months, she has gotten to do that through her Idol journey.
When the time came for her to bring the song that started it all at her Idol audition, “String Cheese,” to the Opry stage, Harper admits she wanted to make it even more special by asking one of this season’s judges, Carrie Underwood, to join her in singing it.
Speaking to Country Now ahead of her performance at 19 Recordings’ “American Idols Live in Concert” event, Harper revealed she invited Underwood during the show’s season finale.
“Carrie and I were taking pictures and somebody popped up and was talking to us and so I kind of pinned her down. I said, ‘You want to sing ‘String Cheese’ with me? Verse two?’ And so she couldn’t say no. She was like, ‘Yeah!’ So we got to share that moment on the Opry and…it was a great time.”
Harper began by sharing the personal story behind the song to all those gathered in the pews of the Opry that night.
“When you get home and you have multiple kids and everybody needs something at the same time, its overwhelming,” she admitted. “But there’s no place that I would rather be. And it was in that moment, one of my babies was crying, the other was like, ‘I want to watch Bluey’ and then my son was like, ‘open my cheese’ and he was just flinging his cheese in my face and I was like, ‘leave me along with the dangum cheese,’” she recalled.
“The lord shook me in that moment and reminded me that my house is the greatest ministry that I’ll ever have and this is a song that I wrote for myself that I never thought the world would hear,” Harper added with tears flowing down her face.
“String Cheese” was first released on Mother’s Day 2025. The song that captures the reality of motherhood clearly resonated with Underwood, her fellow judges and the rest of the world during Harper’s stand-out audition.
After this moving introduction, it was finally time for Harper to showcase it on one of the most beloved stages in country music. Shortly after beginning the tune, she said “Welcome my momma friend, Mrs. Carrie Underwood.”
The country music superstar made an appearance in a stunning floor-length gown with pastel colors flowing through the multi-tiered ruffles. She confidently took the mic and joined Harper in a set of stunning harmonies before taking the lead on the second verse.
This moment marked a major milestone in Hannah Harper’s life and career, made even more meaningful by sharing the stage with Underwood. Harper also made history as the first female country artist to win American Idol since Underwood’s victory in 2005.
The rising star went on to explain that the entire experience of her Opry debut was a “dream come true.”
“One of my friends was holding my hand prior to me walking out and was like, ‘Something comes through the floor, just calm your nerves because so many legends have stood on that stage and you get to be one of them.’ And she was right as soon as I stepped on the floor, I felt like something came through my boots and helped me get through it and calm my body. And it was just an absolute dream to be there. It was amazing,” she reflected.
This was just one of many performances to come from Hannah Harper this year. Following the big night, she took the stage alongside fellow American Idol alums including Jordan McCullough, Keyla Richardson, Chris Tungseth, Braden Rumfelt, Brooks, Lucas Leon, Rae, and more for the 19 Recordings Presents Your American Idols event on June 3 at 6th & Peabody in Nashville.
Hannah Harper also plans to headline her String Cheese Tour and will join Lauren Alaina on select dates of her The Stages Tour in the fall.
The post Hannah Harper Reflects on Dream-Come-True Opry Debut With Carrie Underwood [Exclusive] appeared first on Country Now.
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