Category: News Feeds

Over the weekend, Avery Anna reached a major career milestone, earning her first-ever ACM Award during her set at the Lonestar Smokeout festival in Texas. The emotional moment unfolded surrounded by a packed crowd of fans and was met with strong support from fellow female country artists online.

In the midst of performing her duet partner, Sam Barber, appeared on stage next to the excited and shocked songstress. His voice rang clear through the speakers as he proudly stated, “Hello everyone. I’ve had the amazing honor to tell Miss Avery Anna that she is the winner of an ACM New Female Artist of the Year.”

Cheers erupted from the crowd and Anna fell to the crowd and covered her face in absolute awe. Once she was able to collect herself, she took a moment to hug her family members while another voice read off the list of impressive female acts who have previously won the same award.

“Today, Avery Anna joins the ranks of Ella Langley, Megan Moroney and Lainey Wilson. She is this year’s ACM New Female Artist.”

The video shared online shows tears of joy following down the Arizona native’s face as the coveted trophy is presented to her. She stepped up to the mic and delivered a moving speech, celebrating the journey that has led up to this moment and the people who have been by her side through it all.

“Everybody that I love dearly is on this stage and this is my family right here. And my manager, David, he’s fought this fight with me this whole time and I’m just so grateful for this. I’m so honored,” she reflected.

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She continued with even more gratitude for God as well as all the fans who have rallied around her, supported her and cheered her on as she lives out her dreams each day.

 “I thank God every day that I get to do this and that he put this passion on my heart. And I’m so grateful for people like you that show up for artists like me and embrace the things that we have to say. So thank you guys so much. This is such an honor. Thank you, Jesus Christ. And thank you, Sam. You just faced your fear speaking on stage. Thank you so much,” Avery concluded.

Shortly after the excitement started to sink in, she again took to Instagram this time sharing a heartfelt post to her story that reads, “I cannot believe this. I can’t even behind to process it, thank you all so much from the bottom of my heart. Thank you thank you thank you, ACM Awards.”

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This marked Anna’s first time ever being nominated for an ACM Award. She was named in the New Female Artist category alongside Mackenzie Carpenter, Dasha, Caroline Jones and Emily Ann Roberts.

As soon as news began to spread that Avery Anna had claimed the title, the kind messages began pouring in on her social media pages. Tons of fellow female acts jumped in the comment section to celebrate her win.

Megan Moroney wrote, “So happy for you 🩷😍” while Mackenzie Porter said, “Yesssss the best of the best” and Katilin Butts added, “Ahhhh!!! So happy for you friend!! ♥️♥️♥️”

Carly Pearce praised her stating, “Yes girl ❤️,” and Ella Langley wrote “👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼,” among so many other messages.

Anna’s fellow nominee Emily Ann Roberts even shared the news to her story, championing her fellow rising star. Roberts wrote, “Such a fan of yours and this is sooo deserved sister! Congratulations.”

It’s safe to say that Avery Anna had a weekend to remember. Along with claiming her first ACM Award, she made her Mane Stage debut at Stagecoach 2026 on Friday, April 24, 2026. Sam Barber also joined her in singing their standout collaboration, “Indigo.”

“I think stagecoach has seen me from the very beginning, from me just playing on the piano and now singing ‘Indigo’ with Sam, I mean it’s changed my life,” she told Palm Springs Life magazine ahead of her performance. “To share that with the Stagecoach journey is really exciting and fun. We’ve grown into kinda this new sound and new rock era of my life and it’s really fun to get to play that set for the first time at Stagecoach so I’m excited.”

Avery Anna is currently in the midst of her Girl of Constant Sorry Tour, which runs through May 9.

Fans can see Avery Anna take the stage as a performer during the 61^st ACM Awards on Sunday, May 17. The show will be streaming live exclusively on Prime Video for a global audience across more than 240 countries and territories at 8 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. CT / 5 p.m. PT from the iconic MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.

The post Avery Anna Surprised With ACM Award for New Female Artist of the Year appeared first on Country Now.

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Cody Johnson has a new album on the way, and while discussing the process of narrowing down the track list, he opened up about a song he and his wife, Brandi, wrote more than a decade ago that ultimately didn’t make the cut. He reflects on the meaning behind the unreleased song and explains why it may serve a better purpose down the line on a different project.

The Texas native started with over 20 songs that he had ready to build out his next full-length album with, but after dropping a double album in 2021 and a deluxe project in 2024, he knew that he wanted this album to be made up of only 16 songs.

“I feel like a lot of songs on Human didn’t get credit. And then Leather Deluxe we’ve already did that. So I wanted 16 songs because it’s not too little, it’s not too much, it’s just enough to fill your day,” Johnson explained during his appearance on the Amazon Music podcast, Country Heat Weekly.

His highly anticipated cover of “Travelin’ Soldier” was the first to be cut, with Johnson saying it didn’t fit the album’s sound. He instead decided to release it on Veteran’s Day. “Blame Texas” and “Footlights” also landed outside the project, arriving on Texas Independence Day and April 6, Merle Haggard’s birthday, respectively.

Johnson then revealed that there was a separate storyline spread across three songs that didn’t make the final 16-track cut for Banks of the Trinity, arriving June 25. Among these tracks is his first-ever co-write with his wife, Brandi.

“There were three other songs that once I really started listening to the record, the first song was when they broke up, they fell in love and they broke up. The second song is when they’re both drinking their sorrows away because they broke up. The third song is a song that’s 12 years old that me and Brandi, my wife, wrote together.”

While Brandi is not a songwriter in her everyday life, she does know a thing or two about a woman’s perspective and that’s exactly what Johnson needed around 2012 when he began this unnamed track. At the time, the couple was living in a two-story rented house. He recalls his other half being upstairs enjoying a bath one evening while he was writing this song about two people who find themselves to be miserable without one another.

“I had this idea of like, this is the guy’s perspective, but what if the girl talks next? But I’m a man and I don’t really know how she would say those things. So I went up to her and was like, ‘this is what I feel like she should say. But how would a woman put it? You know, like, what’s a woman’s perspective on it?’ And so she just talked and I just wrote it down and it worked.”

In the end this turned out to be one of the “Dirt Cheap” singer’s favorite songs in his collection. The story follows the next phase of the couple’s journey, and the emotional push and pull of wanting to pick up the phone and call, but feeling too much pride to be the first to make the move.

He joked that while Brandi would get the credit she deserved, he would put it all under his publishing so that the checks went to the same place. However, she insisted, ‘no, I need my own publishing.’

Johnson responded, “it goes to the same bank account. And she said, ‘my fans need to know.’”

It’s unclear when the song will be released, but Johnson hinted a fourth song could eventually be added with help from a mystery female artist. He shared that he asked the singer-songwriter to listen to the three tracks in order, and she suggested they eventually team up to write an ending that would complete the story.

Since this write together, Cody Johnson and his wife have expanded their family. They welcomed their third child and first son, Jaycee Daniel in October, joining their two daughters, Clara, born in 2015 and Cori, born in 2017. With his baby boy being so young still, Johnson shared that his kids will likely not be joining him on the road in 2026, even at the end of the run when he heads overseas.

“People think that like we get to go over there and sit on the beach. No, it’s show, plane, show bus, show, plane. And it’s just, you just get through it,” he explained honestly. “I told Brandi, I was like…’if we wanna go anywhere in the world for a vacation, let’s just say this is when we’re gonna go and I’ll block my schedule off. But you don’t want it to live like I live when I go over there. ‘Cause it’s straight out of a bag and it is go, go, go.’”

Fans saw the country act take the Stagecoach stage over the weekend, and next up he’ll head to Las Vegas on May 16 to perform at the 61st Academy of Country Music Awards. The appearances come amid his ongoing Cody Johnson Live 2026 headlining tour, which kicked off March 28 and runs through November.

The post Cody Johnson Shares Story Behind Unreleased Song He Co-Wrote With Wife Brandi 12 Years Ago appeared first on Country Now.

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Lauren Alaina is reflecting on a full-circle life and career moment after opening for Jason Aldean and Luke Bryan at Sanford Stadium, calling the night one where “all of the stages of my life collided at once.”

The Georgia native took the stage inside the home of the Georgia Bulldogs in Athens, Georgia, performing in front of a sold-out crowd of 63,000 fans with both her family and her husband’s family cheering her on. She described the moment as especially meaningful, not only because of the massive crowd but because of how many chapters of her life came together in one night.

Alongside a series of photos from the milestone performance, Alaina shared just how special it felt to have her loved ones there supporting her, including her daughter Beni Doll. 

“For the first time ever, I had all of my family and my husband’s family watching me on one of the biggest stages I’ve played in my career. I’ll never forget looking out and seeing my big brother with his wife and babies standing next to my husband holding my baby,” she wrote.

Alaina also reflected on the deeper meaning of sharing the stage with Aldean and Bryan, who played a key role early in her career after her run on American Idol.

“To top it all off, I opened up for my big brothers in music, Jason and Luke. The first time I stepped off of the Idol stage, they took me on my first ever tour. They have both taken me out on tour more than once since then. Turns out… all stages lead to Georgia. Last night I celebrated the ones you stand on and the ones you live through. I’m one happy girl.”

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The “All My Exes” singer was part of a historic night at Sanford Stadium, performing in front of one of the largest crowds of her career alongside Aldean and Bryan. The evening also featured surprise appearances from Brantley Gilbert, who co-wrote Aldean’s No. 1 hit “Dirt Road Anthem,” as well as Georgia Bulldogs head coach Kirby Smart, who joined the Georgia natives on stage during the show.

Lauren Alaina continues to climb the charts with her Chase Matthew duet and recently released her first song of 2026 with ‘Raining Whiskey.” 

Of the song, she shared, “’Raining Whiskey’ is what happens when heartbreak meets happy hour. It represents a completely different stage of my life than the one I am in now, but it reflects one that I’m glad I lived through. I am happy to finally be able to tell the story of my twenties while living a new chapter in my thirties.”

The Grand Ole Opry member is set to perform at the 2026 iHeart Country Festival on Saturday, May 2 alongside Parker McCollum, Riley Green, and more. 

For a full list of her upcoming appearances, click HERE.  

The post Lauren Alaina Reflects on Full-Circle Moment After Opening for Jason Aldean & Luke Bryan at Sold-Out Sanford Stadium appeared first on Country Now.

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