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The Boot – Country Music News, Music Videos and Songs
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The Boot – Country Music News, Music Videos and Songs
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The Boot – Country Music News, Music Videos and Songs
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The Boot – Country Music News, Music Videos and Songs
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The Boot – Country Music News, Music Videos and Songs
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The Boot – Country Music News, Music Videos and Songs
Luke Bryan rang in his 49th birthday with a bang, bringing his Country On Tour to Bon Secours Wellness Arena in Greenville, South Carolina on Thursday, July 17. The hour-and-45-minute set delivered hit after hit, his signature charm, and undeniable proof that at 49, he’s still got it.
Taking the stage just before 9:15, Bryan was preceded by a montage of highlights from his rise to fame playing across the giant screens: Farm Tours, stadium shows, red carpets, national anthem performances, award shows, and clips from American Idol, all set to Aerosmith’s “Love In An Elevator.” As the music faded and the lights dropped, the arena erupted as Bryan stepped into the spotlight, flashing his signature smile.
He kicked off the show with his 2012 chart-topper “Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye,” then kept the momentum going with fan favorites like “I Don’t Want This Night To End” and “Kick the Dust Up.” True to form, he threw in a few of his signature hip-shaking dance moves, adding to the crowd’s excitement.
“It’s my damn birthday out there tonight,” he proudly shouted from the stage, but the real birthday celebration didn’t come until later in the show.
The hits kept coming with fan-favorites like “Sunrise, Sunburn, Sunset,” “One Margarita,” and “Country Song Came On,” only slowing things down for heartfelt moments like “Love You, Miss You, Mean It” and “Crash My Party.” As always, “Drink A Beer” was a standout, with fans hugging and swaying to the emotional lyrics.
In honor of his birthday, homemade “Happy Birthday” signs filled the arena, including one massive sign that caught his attention, stretching several yards across the floor.
“Where did the sign go? Sh**, I want it back,” he said.
As a group of fans rushed to get their sign back up, Bryan quipped, “I’m so happy I get to celebrate my 35th birthday with y’all.”
Amused by the sign, Bryan joked that the group must’ve done a number on Hobby Lobby while making it and asked how long it took. He then made his way to the end of the catwalk to get a better look, playfully teasing that they spelled his name wrong.
“Where’s the E? It says Luk! Have y’all recycled this sign?”
All jokes aside, the five-time Entertainer of the Year then got real with fans, opening up about his recent health struggles and revealing that he battled COVID just a few weeks ago.
“So three weeks ago, I got COVID…and I had to cancel some shows and now I’m back. I’m not a hundred percent, it’s still kicking my a**. And you know what? I don’t give a sh**. When I can sing, I’m gonna sing. And when I can’t, y’all are going to sing. All right? And you’re going to see me hack. I can’t take any more medicine, I can’t do anything else but just try to breathe. We’re gonna have fun tonight, we’re gonna make the most of it.”
Despite still recovering, Bryan kept his word, giving the South Carolina crowd all he had and making the best of the situation.
Another birthday moment unfolded when Bryan’s touring crew surprised him with silly videos on the screens, while other crew members and tour openers Drake Milligan and Avery Anna rushed the stage bearing “gifts,” including a hockey stick, a pineapple, a jar of moonshine, a giant L, and more.
After a few jokes about the pineapple, Bryan tossed it into the crowd and made his way to the piano for a solo moment. There, he delivered a heartfelt medley that included covers of Adele and Lionel Richie, followed by his own hits “Strip It Down,” “Buy Dirt,” and “Do I.”
The final portion of the show found Luke Bryan in his true element, cranking up the energy and working every inch of the stage. He saved some of his biggest hits for the end, including “That’s My Kind Of Night,” “Rain Is a Good Thing,” and “Country Girl (Shake It for Me),” leading the capacity crowd in a massive sing-along.
Despite a few minor vocal hiccups, Bryan delivered a memorable performance, something fans have come to expect from him. Nearly two decades into his career, he still commands the stage with ease and proves time and again why he’s one of country music’s top entertainers.
Luke Bryan’s Country Song Came On Tour runs through mid-September.
The post Luke Bryan Celebrates 49th Birthday with Hit-Filled, High-Energy Show in South Carolina appeared first on Country Now.
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Jamey Johnson shared a deep bond with the late country legend Toby Keith. When Keith passed away in early 2024 after a battle with stomach cancer, Johnson was left not only with cherished memories of their friendship, but also with all the plans they never got to finish.
Sitting down for an interview with Dillon Weldon on the Drifting Cowboy podcast, filmed inside Johnny Cash’s iconic Cash Cabin Studio in Tennessee, Johnson revealed that one of the things they didn’t get around to completing was a song they had written over the phone.
“It wasn’t too long before he passed, I called him up with an idea and sang it to him over the phone,” Johnson recalled. “He laughed his a** off, and before I knew it, we’d written a whole verse and chorus on this thing, just over the phone without even a guitar, just sitting there laughing, carrying on. And he was like, ‘man, I’ve got to run. I got people here at the house. I’ll see you.’”
After that call, the pair of hitmakers never got the chance to see what the song might’ve become. Johnson didn’t reveal much about its storyline, but the moment brought back memories of the many things they had dreamed up together, some of which was far more ambitious than just finishing a song.
“One of the things he and I were talking about doing, he was absolutely dead a** serious. He said, ‘let’s go do 365.’ I was like, ‘how?’ He’s like, ‘you let the agents sort that s**t out?’ He’s like, ‘let’s just go do a 365.’ That means playing every night for a year,” Johnson explained. “That’s how Toby was, man. He looked at things that were impossible to do and would just laugh at it.”
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Johnson Say Keith As A “Big Brother” Figure
The “In Color” singer went on to admit that he always viewed Toby Keith like a big brother, who was always around and trying to give advice whether it was wanted or not. On top of that, he was always there when Johnson needed him, whether it be drawing a crowd for a local charity event or encouraging him creatively.
“He helped me out with a charity of mine down in Montgomery and came down there and sold every seat out of the baseball stadium and had people lined up on the rooftops downtown Montgomery. That was Toby Keith. Powerful,” Johnson recalled.
He says that Keith, as well as Willie Nelson and another late legend, Merle Haggard, were artists who he always looked up to. Keith and Haggard, particularly, made a constant effort to push Johnson to keep writing, even when he was in a creative slump.
“[They] would both constantly remind me, ‘Hey, I’d like to hear another one of your albums before I go.’ And yeah, when Merle passed away, it kind of stung a little bit. Wish I had gotten another one out before he passed away so he could hear it. And I guess I got caught not really thinking about it much, but Toby was always there nudging me along, ‘Hey, why aren’t you writing? What are you doing?’ It mattered to him.”
Staying Busy With Touring And Writing New Music
Even though his dear friends have since passed on, Jamey Johnson still hears their constant reminders in his head and because of them, he’s still staying busy writing new music. When questioned about what he’s currently working on, Jamey Johnson simply shared that he continues to add to his massive list of songs that he’s written but have yet to be recorded and released.
“I am writing quite a bit right now,” he revealed.
Between his current trek, The Last Honky Tonk Tour, running through October, performing at the Grand Ole Opry and making time for days off with his loved ones, including his new wife, Brittney Eakins, Johnson doesn’t have many available days to spend in the studio. So while there are new songs in motion, it’s unclear when they will see the light of day.
“All I can tell you man, is I’m working hard,” he added.
The post Jamey Johnson Recalls the Song He and Toby Keith Never Got to Finish appeared first on Country Now.
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The 8th Annual Nashville Songwriter Awards will take place on September 23, 2025 at Nashville’s famed Ryman Auditorium. The event, hosted by Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI) along with presenting partner City National Bank, will honor Alabama and Brenda Lee and will recognize the top songs of the past year.
NSAI has revealed the first round of performers set to to take the stage, including Jason Aldean, Kelly Archer, Drew Baldridge, Marc Beeson, Johnny Clawson, Travis Denning, Jessie Jo Dillon, Josh Dorr, Aaron Eshuis, Tyler Hubbard, Lalo Guzman, Cameron Jaymes, Tony Lane, Josh Miller, Lukas Nelson, Tim Nichols, Old Dominion, Josh Phillips, Daniel Ross, Chris Stevens, Kyle Sturrock, Chris Tompkins, Trisha Yearwood, and Jimmy Yeary.
This special event will recognize Song of the Year, Songwriter of the Year, Songwriter-Artist of the Year, and the 10 Songs I Wish I’d Written awards These honors are awarded to songwriters whose work is so well-crafted that their peers in the industry say they wish they had written it themselves. The Song of the Year award goes to the song that receives the most votes in the “10 Songs I Wish I’d Written” selection process..
Additionally, the honor of Legendary Song will be awarded. Introduced in 2024, the Legendary Song award was created to recognize a single song that stands out as truly iconic from a specific era. For this year’s award, songs released between 1968 and 1984 were eligible. The NSAI Board of Directors selected 10 influential tracks from that period, and professional members anonymously voted to determine the top legendary song.
Teddy Gentry, Randy Owen, and the late Jeff Cook of ALABAMA will be honored with the Kris Kristofferson Lifetime Achievement Award, NSAI’s highest recognition. The award celebrates the band’s monumental impact on the American songbook. With 43 No. 1 hits and more than 80 million records sold, ALABAMA remains one of the most influential groups in country music history, continuing to inspire generations of songwriters and artists. Past recipients of this prestigious honor include Alan Jackson (2024), Bobby Braddock (2023), Garth Brooks (2022), Bill Anderson (2018), and Willie Nelson (2013).
Brenda Lee will receive the NSAI President’s Keystone Award, an honor given to individuals who have made a lasting impact on the music industry for the benefit of all songwriters. Selected personally by NSAI Board President Lee Thomas Miller, Lee is being recognized for her groundbreaking achievements, legendary career, and undeniable influence on music history. She signed her first record deal at age 11, has sold over 100 million albums worldwide, and was the first woman inducted into both the Rock and Roll and Country Music Halls of Fame. Among her many milestones, Lee also holds the record for the longest span between No. 1 hits—from “I’m Sorry” in 1960 to “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” topping the charts in November 2023.
Tickets for the 8th Annual Nashville Songwriter Awards are on sale now.
The post What to Know About the 2025 Nashville Songwriter Awards appeared first on Country Now.
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Kaitlin Butts helped orchestrate an unforgettable moment during a recent show when she paused her set to allow for her college roommate–turned–tour manager to get engaged to a member of her band. Over the weekend, the emerging songstress shared a video across social media capturing the heartfelt milestone that took place in front of a crowd of 5,000 people.
In order to get her tour manager, Sophia Wells, on stage without raising suspicion, Butts told the audience she was having a wardrobe malfunction. As Sophia made her way onto the stage to fix what she thought was an issue with Butts’ corset top, the singer began explaining that this particular show was so meaningful because it was set in Oklahoma City, which is where she also happened to meet Sophia about 13 years ago.
To keep her friend from running off stage too fast, Butts went on to reflect on how their bond grew while they were college roommates. She shared that about two years ago, Sophia drunkenly messaged her on Instagram to point out how cute one of her bandmates was. That message ended up being the start of a lifelong partnership.
“This beautiful woman DM’d me on Instagram and she said, ‘Hey,’ she was kind of drunk. She said, ‘Hey, your guitar player is really cute and really hot. Or am I just drunk? Do you need a background singer?’ And I said, ‘no, but I need a tour manager.’ And she’s been working for me for the last two years and I’m just honored to have her,” Kaitlin Butts shared.
The friends, while both donning trendy all-black ensembles, smiled from ear to ear as they recalled their journey together. But it wasn’t just about their friendship because suddenly, Butts told Sophia to turn around. As she looked to the side of the stage, Butts’ guitar player and her boyfriend, Adam Duran, was waiting down on one knee with a ring in hand.
Sophia covered her face in shock before sharing a kiss with her man and accepting his proposal. The crowd screamed as Butts yelled into the mic, “She said yes!”
As the camera followed the Oklahoma native off stage at the end of her set, she high fived her guitar player to celebrate pulling off their surprise plans and then proceeded to embrace her now engaged best friend in a warm hug.
The video ended with text that read, “And that’s the story of how my college roommate became my tour manager …and how my tour manager and my guitar player found love and it all started with a DM.”
Sophia Wells later took to her own Instagram page to commemorate the milestone in her relationship with a sentimental message that honored both her dear friend as well as her soon-to-be-husband.
“Forever the Johnny to my June ♡ ⋆˙⟡ ,” she began. “Got engaged in front of 5,000 people this week and I don’t know if I will ever fully recover. On tour we joke that “the road giveth & the road taketh”…….well the road has officially given me the greatest gift of my life. A thousand times yes, my love. I’ll continue to tell more of our story soon, but for now I’ll just leave this here 😭🤍🍒💍✨”
Adam also shared a few snapshots of the unforgettable day and simply wrote, “My love.”
Kaitlin Butts has had a big year and gained thousands of new fans in the process. It all began when her original song “You Ain’t Gotta Die (To Be Dead to Me),” off her acclaimed 2024 album Roadrunner!, went viral on social media. The hilarious, yet catchy, tune has not only caught the attention of fans, but also fellow artists and influencers who used the trending song across TikTok in their own videos. That engagement helped Butts reach new heights in her career.
@ellalangleymusic1 💋 @kaitlinbutts ♬ You Ain’t Gotta Die (To Be Dead To Me) – Kaitlin Butts
As of today, July 21, over 44k videos of have been made of users lip-syncing to the iconic lines leading up to the chorus, “You know, I think I have heard of that man/ I think, I think I heard he got run over by a train/ Mauled by a bear, maybe, hopefully/ You ain’t gotta die to be dead to me.”
Kaitlin Butts has a packed touring schedule for the rest of the year, including dates with Lainey Wilson, Sierra Ferrell, Flatland Cavalry, Ella Langley and The Lone Bellow.
The post WATCH: Kaitlin Butts Fakes A Wardrobe Malfunction To Pull Off Surprise On-Stage Engagement appeared first on Country Now.
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