Despite already being one of country music's biggest stars, Lainey Wilson may have just earned herself a whole new group of fans. If you're anything like me, you may have looked at the Thanksgiving slate of NFL games, spotted the Dallas Cowboys versus the New York Giants, and earmarked that as the perfect time for a nap. With a combined 6 wins between the two teams, backup quarterbacks galore, and two seasons pretty much in the tank, there wasn't a whole lot to look forward to between the NFL's best(?) Detroit Lions and the frozen tundra game up in Green Bay, except of course the halftime show. Last year, Dolly Parton (recently named the greatest country artist of all-time in a highly contentious Billboard list) lit the world on fire, donning the iconic Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders outfit for a performance that will go down in history as one of the best. You ever see a 77 year old look or sound that good? https://twitter.com/hoangcrab_/status/1727863919778349060 As you may remember, Dolly had dudes everywhere reconsidering, well, just about everything, including Tony Romo, who was actually at a loss for words after last year's show. https://twitter.com/TravisMangone/status/1862245666090610951?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1862245666090610951%7Ctwgr%5E48bfbc14851dea1c3e86dd57855a2d696aa0fac4%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.whiskeyriff.com%2F2024%2F11%2F29%2Flainey-wilson-jelly-roll-put-on-respectable-thanksgiving-halftime-show-but-it-didnt-top-dolly-partons%2F This year, the halftime show for the Dallas Cowboys featured a female country star that's doing her best to fill the boots created by Dolly (and a number of other iconic women in country) and safe to say, people took notice. Lainey Wilson put on a great show, singing a couple of her big hits, such as "Things A Man Oughta Know" and "Heart Like A Truck", and was even joined by Jelly Roll for a duet of "Save Me". The two released a revamped version of Jelly's signature song on his debut country album Whitsitt Chapel last year. https://twitter.com/PatDoneyNBC5/status/1862280825770799456 While Lainey's already had a number of bigtime achievements in her career, winning seven CMA's (including Entertainer of the Year), six ACMs, and a Grammy, getting to perform in front of nearly the entire country, not to mention over 92,000 people in AT&T Stadium, is a moment that few artists get in their careers and it's safe to say that Lainey absolutely made the most of it and probably won over a ton of new fans in the process. Looking at Google search trends over the last 24 hours, it's pretty obvious to see the country's reaction when Lainey took the midfield stage yesterday. In another view, we can see how popular the Google search "Lainey Wilson" has been over the past year. This chart batches searches by week (this period ends on November 30th), meaning the popularity line may be adjusted before it's completely accurate, but just look at that explosion from yesterday. Clearly the most search interest she's has in the last 12 months. So yeah, safe to say that the American public was very interested in what Lainey Wilson was bringing to the Thanksgiving table, a sentiment that was equally apparent on Twitter/X. https://twitter.com/ThereWBBourbon/status/1862280378913796101 https://twitter.com/Broncos4six/status/1862281622445556143 https://twitter.com/CycloneLarry69/status/1862286058437714113 https://twitter.com/mike_stanton/status/1862280969660547405 https://twitter.com/j_twizzzy/status/1862280148579406327 https://twitter.com/49ersSportsTalk/status/1862281027760042266 Now, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the number of comments mourning the supposed loss of Lainey's, uhmm, assets, but come on, let's all be honest for a minute. If you're into Lainey for the visuals, they're still there, but you're really missing out on the great music that she makes. Few mainstream artists are keeping traditional sounds in country music to the extent that she does, she writes a lot of her own music, and she's an all around great person, so how about we keep those other comments to ourselves, shall we? Yesterday, Lainey Wilson solidified herself as a force to be reckoned with not just in country, but in all of music, and we're all the better for it. The NFL is an absolute buzzkill and won't let me embed her full performance from yesterday here, but you can watch the full performance here. Here's Lainey's current single "4x4xU" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1zFk58Dohw

Seems to be no love lost here. Almost two weeks ago now, Morgan Wallen won the coveted CMA award for Entertainer of the Year at the 58th annual year of the Nashville-based show. He didn't attend the ceremony, and we haven't heard from him since in terms of his thoughts on winning the award... not even a simple Instagram story, let alone post. The last thing Morgan posted on Instagram was from three weeks ago, about his upcoming Sand in My Boots festival: https://www.instagram.com/p/DCDVAS5v4RR/ Now, let's just say, the CMA's and Morgan have a pretty complicated history... in 2021, the country music superstar was banned from the attending the show after he was caught on video earlier that year dropping a racial slur. And the past two years, fans have sounded off after believing Morgan was snubbed from the night’s top prize, losing to Luke Combs in 2022 and Lainey Wilson in 2023. He has been nominated for 14 CMA awards overall (seven of them were from this years show and he was the most-nominated artist), the first one being for New Artist of the Year in 2019. He was nominated for that same award in 2020, and he won it the second year, bringing his total up to two CMA awards in total as of a couple weeks ago. It's pretty shocking that the biggest thing in country music, and arguably music overall, has only won two awards from what has historically been viewed as the "most prestigious" academy in country music. My position is that awards really don't even matter, so I use those words lightly, though many in the industry live and die based on certain accolades, so it's a matter of opinion, I guess. But the fact that the CMA has continued to block Morgan from winning awards, until the pretty much couldn't anymore, does them a much bigger disservice than it does Morgan in terms of credibility (or lack thereof). I mean, Morgan recently wrapped up his One Night At A Time Tour, which ended as the highest-selling country tour of all time. And over the past year, he’s scored five #1 songs, including his monster hit “I Had Some Help” with Post Malone that sat at the top of the all-genre Billboard Hot 100 chart for six weeks. So yeah, it's not like he needs the EOTY to validate anything he's doing... And I'm not exactly his biggest fan, either. I mean, I like some of his music, in college I listened to him a lot when he was first getting started, and while I don't condone a lot of his offstage antics, either, but it gets to a point where you just have to call it like it is. He's the biggest thing in music. This isn't any argument for Morgan winning more awards, like I said, I don't care if anyone does, really... it's more about the fact the he doesn't seem to care that much. The mainstream country industry, and all of its institutions, labels, PR agencies, etc... actually care a hell of a lot about these bullsh*t awards and shows, so at the very least, to appease the powers that be, I expected a press release with a quote from Morgan, or even a post on Instagram about what an honor it is to win, which is what everyone always says, especially if you're trying to play the Nashville game, so to speak, so that you can continue winning big awards. It's clear from how loud his silence is that Morgan isn't worried about that, because he doesn't need to be, and I can't say that I blame him, either. It marks a shift in how the awards have been viewed in the past by some of the genres biggest stars, who always make a big to-do about winning anything. When people like Willie Nelson and Loretta Lynn were winning Entertainer of the Year, sure, that feels more appropriate (though Waylon Jennings never did, so that tells you a lot too, but I digress...). And this isn't meant to take anything away from the hard work of artists who have won EOTY, and many other CMA awards, because many deserving people have win and will win the EOTY again... But it's a pretty bad look when show ratings continue to fall (the CMA awards hit an all-time low in terms of ratings this year), and the biggest star in the genre not only skips the show, but wins the biggest award and doesn't even mention it. It seems like we're experiencing a changing of the guard in country music, and power seems to be slipping from country radio and the mainstream labels. We've seen artists like Tyler Childers and Zach Bryan jump to the forefront of the genre without being a part of the machine. Red Clay Strays and Wyatt Flores are becoming superstars, Turnpike is playing huge venues, Cody Jinks and Sturgill Simpson are playing huge venues... it's a great time to be a country music fan. It might help their case to make sure presenters know how to say his name right, too... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgQXThpbnbE

Hitting a major milestone. Ashley McBryde boasts about herself for good reason. She recently celebrated 900 days sober. Along with a handful of other artists, she has opened up considerably over the past two years about her sobriety journey. And while the "Cool Little Bars" singer might know a thing about a wild night out, she realized that drinking was "really detrimental" when she was no longer able to feel what was really going on in her heart and mind. In 2023, McBryde sat down with Kelleigh Bannen from Today’s Country Radio and chatted about everything related to her most recent record, The Devil I Know. During the conversation, she opened up about her sobriety journey, and although she was over a year sober at that point, she was just now ready to open up about it. “Turns out it was just really detrimental. And then when you’re finding out the reasons that you’re going so overboard all the time was because of your inability to feel something that your brain was like, I can’t do it. I can’t do it. I’m like, well, that’s weak. I’m not going to accept that. I’d rather just hurt. This morning, I was at the boxing gym working out with my coach. We were doing something that was hard, and he said, ‘Are you okay? Do you need a break?’ And I said, ‘I know how to hurt.’ I do now. I mean, I knew how to hurt before and add extra to it for no reason.” During the interview, she also told Bannen that she wrote her song "Blackout Betty" hungover and realized she was acting like a "real piece of sh*t" because her drinking habits were spiraling out of control. “There’s even a line in Blackout Betty that says, ‘Why can’t I have just one glass of wine? Hey, I’m a real piece of shit sometimes.’ And at the time, I was. Pretty often. But you’ll hear it in co, text, and you’ll be like, yeah, it’s kind of sad in a jabbing you in the ribs kind of way… And I know that my therapist would be like, ‘We’re not going to say that I’m a piece of shit sometimes. We can say I’m messy, we can say I’m complicated.’ But at the time, it was absolute truth. I mean, I wrote the song hungover.” While McBryde admitted during that interview that there were still times on her sobriety journey when she felt uncomfortable, her sharing her story might not only help other people but also help her outgrow that awkward feeling. Over the weekend, McBryde took to social media to share how proud she is that she has passed 900 days of sober. A full circle moment sharing a clip of her in her boxing gym is a true full-circle moment of her story. She shared that she is so grateful for the life she currently lives and the choice she made to give up alcohol. "The gut punch (understatement) when I realized a choice HAD to be made. It was either continue and die or stop and learn to live. The pain I caused and was in myself… it’s the hardest thing I’ve ever chosen to examine and take action on. And the best decision I’ve ever made. 900 days Sober is worth celebrating. And whatever day you may be on is worth celebrating, too!" https://www.instagram.com/p/DC7Xf8pvNQl/ Ashley McBryde has always been one of the most badass women in country music, and her vulnerability in sharing this part of her life amplifies that statement. It's not easy to be honest with yourself or sometimes your fans, but she has taken on both challenges with grace and, in turn, lifted up many others facing similar hardships. Cheers to 900 days under your belt. We can't wait to see you cross these milestones, cheering you on every bit of the way. While you're here, fire up "Blackout Betty." The tune might carry a different meaning after you read about how the song came to be. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4YFxwmVfuc

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