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Month: September 2026
We’ve never heard a song like this from Luke — or maybe even in country music at all — before. Continue reading…Country Music News – Taste of Country
We’ve never heard a song like this from Luke — or maybe even in country music at all — before. Continue reading…The Boot – Country Music News, Music Videos and Songs
This is it. With one week remaining in the regular season, the National League playoff field looks nearly complete. The Brewers, Dodgers and Braves have already clinched their respective divisions, while the Cubs, Padres and Phillies are jockeying for wild-card seeding while hoping to hold off the Diamondbacks, who haven’t been eliminated yet but are four games back of the final wild-card spot. In the American League, meanwhile, much is yet to be determined. The Rays, Yankees and Red Sox are the only teams who have already clinched a spot in the playoffs. Tampa Bay can clinch the AL East as early as Tuesday. The other AL division races are much tighter. In the West, the Rangers lead the Astros by one game for the division lead. The Guardians also lead the White Sox by one game in the Central. As we wait to see how it all shakes out, our final regular season power rankings below include every team’s biggest surprise of the year. (Note: Only teams within five games of a playoff spot entering the final week of the season were included in our rankings.) Do they belong on this list? No. This is the most disappointing team in baseball. Technically, however, they’ve yet to be eliminated from the playoff race. They’re five games back in the AL West, though, so it won’t be long before this debacle ends. Cal Raleigh going from MVP contender last year to a below league-average hitter with the worst batting average in the sport was the biggest surprise (a terrific final month won’t change that), but it’s worth pointing out that the entire offensive operation was a disaster, and a talented rotation didn’t do nearly enough to make up for the lineup’s spiral. The biggest surprise is that Adley Rutschman is no longer on the team. But in terms of on-field production, Gunnar Henderson — who combined for 20.2 bWAR his last three seasons — being a league-average hitter in his age-25 season is the most shocking part of this discouraging season in Baltimore, especially coming off his standout World Baseball Classic. Things are starting to crumble in Toronto. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. left Sunday’s game with back stiffness. Dylan Cease is getting an MRI on his shoulder. The Blue Jays dropped both of their series last week while fighting for a playoff spot. Not good. Guerrero finally went deep at the Rogers Centre, but he is currently sitting on nine home runs for the season in what has been the worst year of his career. He entered Sunday with the 12th-lowest slugging percentage among all qualified MLB hitters, which is almost incomprehensible. But it’s not just a lack of power hurting the reigning AL champs on offense. As a team, the Blue Jays went from having the highest on-base percentage in MLB last year to the fifth-lowest this year. If I told you the Astros’ pitching fWAR leader this year was someone who pitched in Japan last season, you might assume it’s Tatsuya Imai, the guy who signed for three years and $54 million before the season. But if you’ve watched any Houston baseball this year, you know that’s not true. Instead, it’s a player who signed a minor-league contract before the season. Peter Lambert, who pitched for NPB’s Yakult Swallows last year, has thrown more innings than any Astros starter this season and provided a semblance of stability to a rotation that desperately needed it. The AL West-leading Rangers had one All-Star this year. Corey Seager? Nope. Jacob deGrom? Surprisingly, no. Wyatt Langford? Try again. It was Jacob Latz, who has 30 saves this year and has emerged as a key piece of an otherwise uninspiring Texas bullpen. Latz has the same WHIP as Jacob Misiorowski (0.81) and the same batting average against as Mason Miller (.144). Things have started to spiral in September, but the big surprise is that the White Sox — after losing more than 100 games each of the last three seasons — are in this position at all to contend for a division title. No one expected things to flip so quickly. Specifically, an offense that ranks sixth in MLB in home runs has been a major stunner (even taking into account the recent downturn). Nolan Arenado’s go-ahead grand slam Sunday helped keep the Diamondbacks’ hopes alive, as slim as they may be. FanGraphs currently gives them a 5.9% chance to make the playoffs. The biggest surprise is not their offense but their pitching staff, which was expected to be among the worst in the sport but instead ranks 12th in MLB in ERA. Specifically, rebound seasons from starters Eduardo Rodriguez (2.89 ERA) and Michael Soroka (3.45) stand out. It’s not nearly the same as last year’s extraordinary division comeback, but the Guardians are doing the Guardians thing. On Aug. 16, they were six games back in the AL Central. Now, they have a one-game lead entering the season’s final week. The good surprise? Parker Messick has the third-lowest ERA among all qualified AL starters and is a legitimate Rookie of the Year candidate who will likely also receive Cy Young votes. The bad surprise? The Guardians are doing all this despite Jose Ramirez being a below league-average hitter for the first time in more than a decade. (Worth noting: He has looked a lot better lately.) It was a bad week on the field for the Red Sox, who dropped series in Texas and Tampa Bay, but they also punched their ticket to the postseason. So, considering where they were early this year after firing their manager, there’s plenty of reason to celebrate. It’s not a surprise that the Red Sox have a good rotation; it is a surprise that the best pitcher of the bunch might already be rookie Payton Tolle, who leads all qualified Boston starters in strikeouts, fWAR, WHIP and expected ERA. Late last year, Zack Wheeler had a blood clot removed in his shoulder and then a rib removed during thoracic outlet decompression surgery. The procedures ended his 2025 season and threatened to derail the end of his sensational career. Instead, at 36 years old, he hasn’t missed a beat. Wheeler has bounced back to again be one of the best arms in baseball — all the more important now, with Jesus Luzardo’s shoulder giving the standout left-hander trouble at a bad time. What if I told you Shohei Ohtani had a .953 OPS as a hitter and a 1.79 ERA as a pitcher in the first half…and two months later wasn’t the MVP favorite? Pete Crow-Armstrong was obviously an immense talent already, but what he’s doing this year — and the way he has improved his plate discipline and selectiveness while only getting more powerful at the plate — is extraordinary. He’s producing one of the greatest seasons in Cubs history. What a late-season run. The Padres have won 14 of 16 games to not only put themselves in prime position to make the postseason but also to potentially host a wild-card series if they can outplay the Cubs and Phillies over the season’s final week. Fernando Tatis Jr. and Jackson Merrill are heating up, but neither has been the team’s best hitter this year (min. 300 plate appearances). In a career year, that honor belongs to Ty France, who leads the Padres in every slash-line category (.301/.366/.519). Entering this year, Tarik Skubal, Garrett Crochet, Hunter Brown, Jacob deGrom and Max Fried were among the top contenders for the American League Cy Young Award. And none of them will win it. Cam Schlittler was coming off an encouraging rookie season, but his swift development into the unquestioned ace of the Yankees’ staff has been the biggest surprise. Now, he’s the runaway favorite to earn MLB’s top pitching honor — and might even receive MVP votes. The second-lowest ERA among qualified starters since the trade deadline belongs to the Braves’ Tyler Mahle, who is making Atlanta’s seemingly quiet deadline look a lot more impactful in retrospect. Mahle has a 1.28 in eight starts since the deadline and has gone at least six innings in seven of those outings. He doesn’t have the strikeout stuff you’d desire from a postseason standout, but right now he looks like the best option to start a Game 2 after Atlanta ace Chris Sale. The big surprise on the pitching staff this year was All-Star Justin Wrobleski, and the fact that he’ll be pitching out of the bullpen come October (barring a starting pitching catastrophe) is a reminder of the Dodgers’ embarrassment of riches on the staff. The big surprise on the offense is that both of the Dodgers’ corner outfielders — Kyle Tucker and Teoscar Hernández — were below league-average hitters for most of the year. That’s no longer the case, though, as both are playing their best baseball at the right time. The Rays’ offense has the highest batting average in MLB, their starting rotation ranks third in ERA, and they’re trending toward winning their first division title in five years. Any of those facts would constitute a surprise for a team that was projected to finish with a losing record this year. But the biggest surprise of all might be 31-year-old closer Bryan Baker, who had a 4.06 ERA last year and is now an All-Star closer with the most saves in the sport. They’ve already set a franchise record with 98 wins as they barrel toward their first ever 100-win season. That’s probably the team’s biggest surprise considering, yet again, they were overlooked and underestimated entering the year. Both the offense (hi, Jake Bauers) and the pitching staff have their fair share of surprises, but Jacob Misiorowski going from intriguing rookie to the best pitcher in baseball in just one season might stand out more than anything.Latest Sports News from FOX Sports
Jake Owen recently said goodbye to an incredibly beloved person in his life: his granddaddy Bryan Yancey Owen, a World War II veteran who passed away at 103. To the country star, Bryan was much more than a grandfather. He was someone he looked up to, leaned on and continued to learn from well into adulthood.
Their bond was something that Owen has spoken about many times throughout his career. In fact, when asked in October 2025 about the most important person in his phone, Jake didn’t name any of the major celebrities that he likely has stored in his contacts. Instead, he said his grandfather.
“I’d say the best number that I got in my phone is my granddad, who’s 103. There’s nobody on Earth that’s more important in my phone than him,” he told Evan Paul on Taste of Country Nights at the time. “There’s nobody on Earth that I can call that can give me the wisdom and insight and knowledge [that he can]. I could call him right now and he would answer the phone: ‘Hello there, grandson.’”
Even at 103, with his grandmother at 102, Owen revealed that the two were still strong enough to live together on their own in Winter Haven, Florida. And it’s clear that Bryan’s wisdom never faded.
Owen also recalled asking his grandfather how he was able to live such a long life, to which Bryan responded, “’I’m grateful…You can’t truly be grateful with a bitter heart.”
When the unfortunate loss came, Jake Owen honored his memory by taking to Instagram and sharding a powerful video singing Randy Travis’ “He Walked on Water.” The caption paired with the heartfelt clip found Owen admitting that his grandfather’s loss had him feeling “heavy on my heart.”
“Lost my Grandaddy recently. Been heavy on my heart. He was an angel on this Earth, here to tell us about the importance of Christ and Heaven on the other side of life,” he wrote. “I know he’s there, and he’s smiling down… see ya up there one day, Grandad.”
Bryan Yancey Owen was just a few weeks shy of his 104th birthday in October. Owen had celebrated his granddad’s 102nd birthday back in October 2024 with a heartfelt tribute that captured just how much Bryan meant to him.
He reflected on the incredible life Bryan has lived, from being born in Hopkinsville, KY to serving with the 13th Armored Infantry Division in 1944, and then coming home to work as an Executive Vice President of Hays Supply Co. until retiring in 1988.
“Born in a time when the world was tougher, you served with the 13th Armored Infantry Division in 1944, and even now, you remain the definition of strength, consistency, and grace. You’ve been the guiding star I’ve looked up to since I was a kid always wanting to walk through life like you do. Your steady presence grounds me every time I feel scattered, and your example teaches me what it means to live with intention and heart,” he wrote at the time.
“You’re not just an unbelievable grandfather, but a great-grandfather, a great-great-grandfather, and a loving husband to your 100-year-old sweetheart. The love story you share is nothing short of magic…something the rest of us can only hope to touch in our lives. Thank you for everything you’ve built for this family and for being the unshakable rock of the Owen legacy. You’ve shown me what it truly means to be a man, and I’m so grateful for the lessons you’ve passed on.”
Along the way, Bryan also had an 85+ year love story with his wife. Together they raised four children and had 11 grandchildren, 13 great-grandchildren, and 2 great-great-grandchildren.
Their longstanding relationship inspired Jake’s hit song “Homemade” and its music video. Earlier this month, before performing the heartfelt tune, Jake Owen told a room full of fans the story of how his grandparents met and fell in love.
“My granddad met my grandma on leave from the army. He was in a town of Mumfordville, Kentucky. He just happened to be trying to get to where he was from in Hopkinsville, Kentucky. They hitchhiked. He’s like, ‘That was the best way to do it.’ At the time he saw my grandma walking into a house he thought was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. He took a picture of the house. This is a true story. He took a picture of that house and he went back and when he had time, he started writing letters and just putting a picture of the house on the letter and he put Munfordville, Kentucky underneath it,” Owen explained.
@ms.shaymedina This is a story Jake Owen told that his concert about how his grandparents met it tugged on my great strings. His grandpa recently passed away at 103! What an amazing life this man had my heart goes out for Jake and his family I know he is surly missed ❤️ ##jakeowen##sweetstory##grandparents##lovestory##concert ♬ original sound – AdventurousShay
Bryan’s persuasion worked because eventually, she replied. Years later, they met up again and the minute she saw Bryan come back from war, she vowed to marry him.
“They were married for 79 years and as much credit as my granddad gets for being an awesome man, you can’t be a great man without an awesome woman behind you. I know my nanny is the reason he lived to be 103,” Owen added.
Even though his granddaddy will no longer be at the other end of the phone, the lessons, stories and love he gave Owen will continue to live on through his family and through the music he helped inspire.
The post Jake Owen Opens Up About Losing His Granddad, Bryan Yancey Owen, At 103 appeared first on Country Now.
Country Now
After stepping away from the road earlier this year to focus on his health, faith and family, Randall King is officially back onstage and he isn’t taking a single moment for granted.
The Texas country singer recently returned to his home state to headline the Lee Street Jamboree in Greenville, Texas. While on stage, he opened up about the five months he spent away from touring, and revealed that in that time, he checked himself into rehab.
As of this month, he is officially six and a half months sober and while this new chapter is an incredibly important part of King’s journey to finding happiness again, he noted that the biggest thing he reconnected with along the way was his faith.
“I went absent for about five months, cancelled my tour, put myself into rehab. I’m six and a half months sober. But the most important thing to me is that I got my faith back. I got my family back,” he told the crowd.
King went on to stress that it’s okay not to be okay. He encouraged listeners to never be afraid to tell someone that you need help “‘cause it happens to all of us.” Especially being in the music industry, King admitted that it can be “really hard” to stay focused on the things that are most important when surrounded by so many distractions.
“I put my career before anything else, and I put myself before anything else. That ‘ol ego had to be put in check,” he admitted.
@lilyjjoseph I contemplated posting this, but then I realized there is no shame in being real. And I think Randall’s message could touch so many more people than just those who were in the audience tonight. “I think music is the most powerful tool in the world besides prayer.” There’s truly nothing stronger than having God on your side through whatever you’re facing. #RandallKing #countrymusic #faith #powerinprayer #Christian ♬ original sound – Lily Joseph
By stepping away for those few months, it seems that the rising star came out on the other side a much better version of himself. Now that he’s back, King hopes that his music and his story will continue to make an impact.
“I can tell you, man, I’m just grateful to be here. I’m grateful that God turned it all around, and that music’s still a part of my life, because I think music is the most powerful tool in the world besides prayer. If my music’s meant anything to you over the years and it’s touched your life in a way that’s changed some things for you, that means everything — because that’s what it’s here for.”
Randall King first made the announcement that he would be canceling his tour and taking a break from social media last March. The “You In A Honky Tonk” singer admits he got to a point where he knew that something had to change in order for him to continue on.
“It’s easy to get lost in this world. Sometimes you have no idea how deep into it you are until you step back and look. Over the past couple weeks I’ve dug deep and taken a hard look at areas of my life that need serious attention and change because not only have my choices effected myself, they have affected the people I love the most.”
He continued, “My faith comes first and right now I don’t feel right stepping on stage without the confidence that I’m living as the man God has called me to be. For that reason, I’m pausing touring for the time being. I’m actively seeking professional help and focusing on my faith, my health/mental health, and my family.”
Making the call to cancel several shows throughout the spring and into the summer months was no easy decision, but he knew it was ultimately the right one to make for himself and his family.
“Let me take this time, commit to getting well, and through this, return stronger, focused, and more grateful than ever.Thank you to everyone who has supported me and prayed for me. I’ve always looked at music as a way to heal but this is bigger than music. I appreciate any prayers you have. Through God’s grace and mercy I will rise from this and see yall soon.”
He made his first appearance back on social media in July, when he told fans that he would be easing back into life on the road. His return to the stage was a memorable one. On August 8 the 36-year-old stepped into the circle of the Grand Ole Opry, and introduced his next chapter.
King has since resumed his headlining shows in addition to joining Luke Bryan for several dates on his Word On The Street Tour. Fans will have plenty of opportunities to catch Randall King on stage, with shows scheduled all the way through December 12, when he will wrap up for the year in El Paso, TX.
The post Randall King Shares Major Life Update: I’m ‘Six And A Half Months Sober’ appeared first on Country Now.
Country Now
The president is going after the press again.
On Sept. 19, 2026, journalists from CNN, MS NOW and Politico were denied access to the White House after President Donald Trump revoked their credentials, citing “their constant ‘reporting’ FAKE NEWS!” On social media, Trump posted, “Media Outlets shouldn’t be able to constantly write or report FICTION and LIES when they’re covering the President.”
This is not Trump’s first attempt at banning journalists from the White House. During his first term, he sought to ban CNN’s Jim Acosta by revoking his credentials following a contentious news conference about the 2018 midterm elections.
In that conflict, CNN quickly filed a lawsuit, arguing that, “If left unchallenged, the actions of the White House would create a dangerous chilling effect for any journalist who covers our elected officials.”
Journalism organizations also responded. The Committee to Protect Journalists, the Radio Television Digital News Association and even Acosta’s peers at The Daily Caller – a right-leaning news outlet – condemned the White House ban.
A federal court granted CNN a temporary injunction – reinstating Acosta’s press pass. The Trump administration later restored Acosta’s credentials, and CNN dropped its lawsuit.
Many commentators and members of the press have called Trump’s latest ban on the three news organizations a violation of the First Amendment.
Truth Social Donald Trump account
White House Correspondents’ Association President Jacqui Heinrich said on X, “Today’s action revoking access for journalists from CNN, POLITICO, and MSNOW violates the First Amendment.”
Even George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley, who staunchly supports Republicans and frequently criticizes the press, said on X that the ban “would be an assault on long-honored principles of a free press.”
As Turley and many others have argued over the weekend, Trump’s ban is almost certainly unconstitutional under the First Amendment, which states that “Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press.” Media law professor Frank LoMonte argued in 2018, “The First Amendment guarantees all Americans freedom to speak and publish without government interference.”
But they may be missing a crucial point. In fact, there’s more than one constitutional right involved in such a case. The judge who restored Acosta’s press pass in 2018 primarily based his ruling on the reporter’s Fifth Amendment rights to due process, not on the First Amendment.
And in my view as a constitutional law professor, it is less clear whether the press has a constitutional right of access to the White House even though past presidents have honored and respected the press’s access to the executive branch.
While several Supreme Court cases, such as Richmond Newspapers v. Virginia, unequivocally provide the press with a right of access to criminal trials, there is no Supreme Court precedent that specifically provides a clear constitutional right of access to the White House.
Make that two constitutional rights
In one case from 1977, Sherrill v. Knight, Robert Sherrill, the Washington correspondent for The Nation, was – after holding press passes over several years – denied a press pass because the Secret Service advised he should not be given one. The Secret Service refused to disclose their justification.
Sherrill sued, and the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals concluded that the Secret Service cannot deny a White House press pass absent “narrow and specific standards by which applications are to be judged.”
The court required the White House to provide the press with “notice of the factual bases for denial, an opportunity for (them) to respond to these, and a final written statement of the reasons for denial (of a press pass).”
In the court’s view, these requirements – notice and an opportunity to rebut the bases for the denial of a press pass – are protected by two constitutional guarantees working together, the press protections in the First Amendment and the Fifth Amendment’s protections from arbitrary deprivations of “life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.”
In other words, before the federal government can deprive an individual of their life, liberty or property, the federal government must provide that individual with due process, whose purpose is widely accepted as preventing “arbitrary governmental actions.”
Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images
Due process is key
There are a number of Supreme Court decisions that could be key in the current journalists’ lawsuit, which was filed on Sept. 21, 2026.
Among them is Mathews v. Eldridge from 1976, in which the Supreme Court stated that due process is flexible depending on the extent of the liberty or property interest at stake. But in general, the justices said, due process requires the government to provide notice to the individual and an opportunity for the individual to present their case before the deprivation occurs.
In Sherrill v. Knight from 1977, the court ruled that the denial of a press pass implicated a First Amendment liberty interest. That interest, the court wrote, “undoubtedly qualifies as liberty which may not be denied without due process of law under the fifth amendment.”
This nuance – the First and Fifth Amendment working in tandem – is what most commentators and critics are missing in their response to the recent ban of CNN, MS NOW and Politico. In fact, these outlets collectively lead with their claim that the Trump administration violated their Fifth Amendment right to due process in their lawsuit to block Trump’s ban.
“Even if attending a White House event is not a constitutionally guaranteed right, that doesn’t mean the government is free to take it away as punishment,” LoMonte argued in 2018.
Based on public reporting, it is clear that the Trump administration did not provide CNN, MS NOW or Politico with clear written notice stating the reasons for the revocation of their press passes. It certainly did not provide the outlets with an opportunity to rebut Trump’s unsupported claim that they report “FICTION and LIES.”
The same Trump-appointed judge who decided the CNN Acosta case has been assigned to the latest press ban case. So, if the CNN Acosta case is any indication, I expect the federal judge to promptly, but temporarily, reinstate the news outlets’ press passes while Trump tries to argue that his actions are constitutional, which in my view, they are not.
Wayne Unger does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Politics + Society – The Conversation
Here’s why this performance with Guns N’ Roses is different. Continue reading…Country Music News – Taste of Country
Here’s why this performance with Guns N’ Roses is different. Continue reading…The Boot – Country Music News, Music Videos and Songs
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Well, at least someone is glad that the Kansas City Chiefs are back at the top of their game.
The rest of the country might be rolling their eyes at the prospect of another year of Chiefs dominance, but newlywed Taylor Swift is loving every minute of it.
Tay was on hand Sunday night as the Chiefs edged out the Indianapolis Colts in overtime and Travis scored his first touchdown as a married man.
And his wife had a rather memorable way of celebrating.
Patrick Mahomes connected with Kelce for a 13-yard touchdown in the first quarter, giving Kansas City an early 10-7 lead.
The NBC broadcast then cut to Taylor in the suite, where she was celebrating enthusiastically alongside family members.
In a memorable celly moment of her own, Taylor pointed directly at her wedding ring.
Yes, after all these years of watching Travis find the end zone, she wanted to make absolutely certain everyone knew that this particular touchdown belonged to her husband.
“That’s my husband!” Taylor seemed to shout during the celebration. We couldn’t hear her on the broadcast, but we could certainly read her lips.
Hey, subtlety has never exactly been the name of the game when it comes to Taylor and Travis. And we’re fine with that.
The couple, who began dating in 2023, got married at Madison Square Garden earlier this summer.
Taylor has since continued showing up to support Travis and the Chiefs, and Sunday marked her second consecutive appearance at Arrowhead this season.
It remains to be seen if she’ll skip the Chiefs’ away games, as she did last season.
Travis, meanwhile, reminded everyone that he can still make plenty of noise on the football field.
The 36-year-old tight end finished the game with nine catches for 101 yards and a touchdown. His score was his first of the season after he caught three passes for 71 yards in Kansas City’s season-opening victory over the Denver Broncos.
And while the Chiefs ultimately needed overtime to defeat the Colts 33-30, Travis’ touchdown gave Taylor an early reason to celebrate.
The game also provided another reminder that Taylor and Travis remain one of the NFL’s most closely watched couples.
It’ll likely be Travis’ last season in the NFL — and clearly, he and Taylor intend to make the most of it.
Taylor Swift Points at Wedding Ring, Screams ‘That’s My Husband!’ as … was originally published on The Hollywood Gossip.
The Hollywood Gossip