Proving to everyone he still has it. Despite dropping arguably the most profound album of his career in 2024 with Fathers & Sons, there were quite a few fans online who claimed that Combs “fell off” given the record did not produce any smash hits that were comparable to the likes of “She Got the Best of Me,” “Beer Never Broke My Heart” or even “Where the Wild Things Are.” But Luke knew that going in, confessing that it was kind of a passion project. Of course, ask any dad out there and they’ll probably tell you it’s the best work of his career. As we sit with his brand new, 22-track album, The Way I Am, coming out in a little over two months on March 30th, it’s becoming increasingly clear that Combs is looking to prove those doubters wrong. If you recall, back in July upon the release of “Back in the Saddle,” which served as the lead single off of The Way I Am, Combs was already in this mindset. In an interview with Apple Music’s Kelleigh Bannen, he’d tell her that the single served as a reminder to fans that he can still “kick your teeth in” with some classic, crowd-pleasing anthems. “It’s not an arrogance thing. It’s this mindset you need; you have to have this unwavering confidence in yourself to just keep going and to succeed. My mindset is, ‘Let me make you remember if you can’t.’ Just ’cause I don’t make enough TikToks doesn’t mean I can’t kick your teeth in, ’cause I can. That’s the mindset.” Unsurprisingly, it did just that and ended up being Combs’ 19th-career #1 hit on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart. Since then, he’s followed that up with a plethora of other previously-teased tracks such as the highly-anticipated “My Kinda Saturday Night along with “15 Minutes” and ‘Days Like These.” He’d then follow that up with the release of “Giving Her Away.” Most notably, he’d release the long-awaited “Sleepless in a Hotel Room” back on January 7th, which is currently surging up the charts and sitting all the way at #4 this week on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart. Just in case you thought that Combs having a “prove ’em wrong” mindset only applied to the release of “Back in the Saddle,” he would confirm he’s still out to prove that he’s back like he never left with the release of The Way I Am as well. Last week, Combs would sit down for an interview with NBC’s Sunday Today host, Willie Geist, for a taping of his “Sunday Sitdown” interview series. Though the interview in its entirety will air this Sunday, February 1st, TikTok user, Club Combs, captured some footage from the crowd. @clubcombs So excited for this next era!! #lukecombs #country #music #interview @Luke Combs ♬ original sound – Club Combs During the interview, Geist would ask Combs what he was specifically writing about during the creation of the upcoming album. Bluntly, the “Hurricane” singer would allude to not having a particular theme in mind, unlike Fathers & Sons, instead saying that he was just focused on delivering “fastballs” throughout the record. “To be quite frank with you, this album’s just fastballs. You know? To kinda be like, “I still got it.'” He’d follow up by alluding to the fact that his main goal while recording The Way I Am was simply to deliver hits throughout the lengthy runtime. “Just basically make a whole record in hopes that anyone will like one of those 22 songs. That would ultimately be a win at the end of the day. I’d love to have five or six, you know? One is great.” At the end of the day, I can’t blame Combs for having this mindset. We’ve already seen that he can strip back his approach and deliver a concise, thematic record on Fathers & Sons. At this point in his career, if he wants to let loose and deliver some crowd-pleasers up and down a large record like The Way I Am, I say all power to him. From what we’ve heard so far, it looks like it’s going to work out pretty well for him. Before you go, fire up his latest release, “Sleepless in a Hotel Room.” My Kinda Saturday Night Tour Dates March 21 Allegiant Stadium – Las Vegas, NV April 4 Scott Stadium – Charlottesville, VA April 11 Jack Trice Stadium – Ames, IA April 18 Notre Dame Stadium – South Bend, IN April 25 Ohio Stadium – Columbus, OH May 2 Neyland Stadium – Knoxville, TN May 9 Gaylord Family – Oklahoma Memorial Stadium – Norman, OK May 15 Lambeau Field – Green Bay, WI May 16 Lambeau Field – Green Bay, WI May 30 Parc Jean-Drapeau – Montreal, QC June 5 Rogers Stadium – Toronto, ON June 6 Rogers Stadium – Toronto, ON July 4 Ullevi – Gothenburg, Sweden July 7 Accor Arena – Paris, France July 11 Johan Cruijff ArenA – Amsterdam, Netherlands July 18 Slane Castle – Slane, Ireland July 19 Slane Castle – Slane, Ireland July 25 Scottish Gas Murrayfield – Edinburgh, UK July 31 Wembley Stadium – London, UK August 1 Wembley Stadium – London, UKThe post “Just Fastballs”: Luke Combs Says He Wants To Prove He Still Has It With The Release Of His New Album, ‘The Way I Am’ first appeared on Whiskey Riff.

The 68th Annual Grammy Awards are set for this Sunday, February 1st at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, California. It will be broadcast live on CBS with Trevor Noah is set to host the event, and while some very deserving country artists are nominated in the country categories, the genre was left off of the big four categories in Record of the Year, Album of the Year, Song of the Year and Best New Artist, though that certainly isn’t the norm and traditionally there are typically at least a couple country artists included in at least one of those. While a select few amount of people might be upset about the country snub, I honestly think people largely don’t pay any attention to these kinds of award shows, or cares who wins, so it really doesn’t matter… but Harvey Mason Jr., who is the CEO of The Recording Academy, says there are no hard feelings towards country, and he hopes it isn’t perceived as political. In interview with Variety, Harvey explained that it simply came down to what the voters chose to vote for this year, and like anything, it’s cyclical. There was a time where people had that complaint about hip-hop too in terms of them being left out, and he says they do try very hard to make sure the voters associated with the all-genre categories are balanced. Country music is as popular as ever, and with Morgan Wallen dominating music, but declining to submit anything for this year’s Grammy awards, I think that says a lot about what kind of weight these trophies carry in the world of streaming in 2026… little, if any at all. It certainly doesn’t matter like it used to, though Harvey explains that sometimes, the chips just fall where they fall: “Yeah, and I really hope it doesn’t turn into that type of dialogue based around politics or right or left, because it really is not that; it’s really about what the voters choose to vote for every given year, and it is cyclical. There have been other times where there’s been different representation. We will be looking into all our genre categories and the voters associated with them and making sure they are balanced, like we do every year. And after this year, we’ll do it again. It’s generally not based on who gets nominated, though, to tell you the truth. It’s based on, do we have a representative voting body of the different genres? And provided that we have the right percentage and ratios, then we’ll be in the right spot. We can’t tell what those people will vote for, but we can make sure that we have a representative voting body.” I honestly haven’t heard that much discussion about country not being included in the big four categories, and in fact, I find it to be a more interesting year than normal due to the fact that there is a brand new country category this year. The previously titled Best Country Album category has been changed to Best Contemporary Country Album, and a Best Traditional Country Album category has been added, which includes a stacked group of nominees in Charley Crockett’s Dollar A Day, Margo Price’s Hard Headed Woman, Zach Top’s Ain’t In It For My Health, Luka’s American Romance and Willie’s, Oh What A Beautiful World all up for the award. Yes, the category is 40% Nelson, and it’s only the second time in history that’s happened at the Grammys, in terms of a father and son both being nominated in the same category for different albums. It’s the first time for a country father/son duo. Turnpike Troubadours being snubbed from the country category entirely is the real crime here… Of course, more mainstream genres like pop and hip-hop/rap dominate music, so that’s obviously going to translate when it comes to the kinds of trophies the Recording Academy hands out, and I really don’t see a problem with that. Country music’s own award shows carry very little weight and have very little influence in terms of the success an artist can have in the genre, and with social media and streaming being the driving force for music discovery these days, that will only continue… the ratings for all of these shows seem to drop every year, which only continues to proves that you don’t need a trophy to become a household name. Simply put, people just don’t care about award shows anymore, and why should they? They know where to find the music on their own, and they have a direct line to the artists that they love… you don’t need some group of random voters to tell you that. Thus far, no country performers have been announced either, but I personally think they need to get someone from the Best Traditional Country Album category to perform, because it would be the highlight of the night… The full list of 2026 Grammy Nominees is below. 2026 Grammy Nominees The full list of country nominees is below. COUNTRY Best Traditional Country Album Dollar A Day, Charley Crockett American Romance, Lukas Nelson Oh What A Beautiful World, Willie Nelson Hard Headed Woman, Margo Price Ain’t In It For My Health, Zach Top Best Contemporary Country Album Patterns, Kelsea Ballerini Snipe Hunter, Tyler Childers Evangeline Vs. The Machine, Eric Church Beautifully Broken, Jelly Roll Postcards From Texas, Miranda Lambert Best Country Solo Performance “Nose on the Grindstone,” Tyler Childers “Good News,” Shaboozey “Bad as I Used to Be [From F1® The Movie],” Chris Stapleton “I Never Lie,” Zach Top “Somewhere Over Laredo,” Lainey Wilson Best Country Duo/Group Performance “A Song to Sing,” Miranda Lambert And Chris Stapleton “Trailblazer,” Reba McEntire, Miranda Lambert, Lainey Wilson “Love Me Like You Used to Do,” Margo Price & Tyler Childers “Amen,” Shaboozey & Jelly Roll “Honky Tonk Hall of Fame,” George Strait, Chris Stapleton Best Country Song “Bitin’ List,” Tyler Childers, songwriter (Tyler Childers) “Good News,” Michael Ross Pollack, Sam Elliot Roman & Jacob Torrey, songwriters (Shaboozey) “I Never Lie,” Carson Chamberlain, Tim Nichols & Zach Top, songwriters (Zach Top) “Somewhere Over Laredo,” Andy Albert, Trannie Anderson, Dallas Wilson & Lainey Wilson, songwriters (Lainey Wilson) “A Song to Sing,” Jenee Fleenor, Jesse Frasure, Miranda Lambert & Chris Stapleton, songwriters (Miranda Lambert and Chris Stapleton) AMERICANA/ROOTS Best American Roots Performance “LONELY AVENUE,” Jon Batiste Featuring Randy Newman “Ancient Light,” I’m With Her “Crimson and Clay,” Jason Isbell “Richmond on the James,” Alison Krauss & Union Station “Beautiful Strangers,” Mavis Staples Best Americana Performance “Boom,” Sierra Hull “Poison in My Well,” Maggie Rose & Grace Potter “Godspeed,” Mavis Staples “That’s Gonna Leave a Mark,” Molly Tuttle “Horses,” Jesse Welles Best American Roots Song “Ancient Light,” Sarah Jarosz, Aoife O’Donovan & Sara Watkins, songwriters (I’m With Her) “BIG MONEY,” Jon Batiste, Mike Elizondo & Steve McEwan, songwriters (Jon Batiste) “Foxes in the Snow,” Jason Isbell, songwriter (Jason Isbell) “Middle,” Jesse Welles, songwriter (Jesse Welles) “Spitfire,” Sierra Hull, songwriter (Sierra Hull) Best Americana Album BIG MONEY, Jon Batiste Bloom, Larkin Poe Last Leaf on the Tree, Willie Nelson So Long Little Miss Sunshine, Molly Tuttle Middle, Jesse Welles Best Bluegrass Album Carter & Cleveland, Michael Cleveland & Jason Carter A Tip Toe High Wire, Sierra Hull Arcadia, Alison Krauss & Union Station Outrun, The Steeldrivers Highway Prayers, Billy Strings ALL-GENRE Record of the Year DtMF, Bad Bunny Manchild, Sabrina Carpenter Anxiety, Doechii WILDFLOWER, Billie Eilish Abracadabra, Lady Gaga Luther, Kendrick Lamar With SZA The Subway, Chappell Roan APT., ROSÉ, Bruno Mars Album of the Year DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS, Bad Bunny SWAG, Justin Bieber Man’s Best Friend, Sabrina Carpenter Let God Sort Em Out, Clipse, Pusha T & Malice MAYHEM, Lady Gaga GNX, Kendrick Lamar MUTT, Leon Thomas CHROMAKOPIA, Tyler, The Creator Song of the Year Abracadabra, Henry Walter, Lady Gaga & Andrew Watt, songwriters (Lady Gaga) Anxiety, Jaylah Hickmon, songwriter (Doechii) APT., Amy Allen, Christopher Brody Brown, Rogét Chahayed, Henry Walter, Omer Fedi, Philip Lawrence, Bruno Mars, Chae Young Park & Theron Thomas, songwriters (ROSÉ, Bruno Mars) DtMF, Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, Scott Dittrich,, Benjamin Falik, Roberto José Rosado Torres, Marco Daniel Borrero, Hugo René Sención Sanabria & Tyler Thomas Spry, songwriters (Bad Bunny) Golden [From “KPop Demon Hunters”], EJAE & Mark Sonnenblick, songwriters (HUNTR/X: EJAE, Audrey Nuna, REI AMI) Luther, Jack Antonoff, Roshwita Larisha Bacha, Matthew, Bernard, Ink, Scott Bridgeway, Sam Dew, Kendrick Lamar, Mark Anthony Spears, Solána Rowe & Kamasi Washington, songwriters (Kendrick Lamar With SZA) Manchild, Amy Allen, Jack Antonoff & Sabrina Carpenter, songwriters (Sabrina Carpenter) WILDFLOWER, Billie Eilish O’Connell & Finneas O’Connell, songwriters (Billie Eilish) Best New Artist Olivia Dean KATSEYE The Marias Addison Rae Sombr Leon Thomas Alex Warren Lola YoungThe post “It’s Not Political”: Recording Academy CEO Breaks Silence On Country Music’s Snub From The All-Genre Categories At The 2026 Grammys first appeared on Whiskey Riff.

I guess it doesn’t hurt to go to school to be a scientist before you become a songwriter? In case you didn’t know, Stephen Wilson Jr. has lived many lives in his 46 years on this Earth. At first, he was a boxer – as his father had trained him to be. Then, he went to Middle Tennessee State University and studied microbiology. After he graduated with his bachelor’s degree, he went to work for the MARS company. Unaffiliated with space… rather, the MARS company that makes candy and pet food. Wilson Jr. got into more detail about that portion of his life during a recent interview on This Past Weekend with Theo Von. The late-blooming country star told the comedian and podcaster that his educational background actually set up him to be a scientist rather than an artist: “I have a lot of training in science. I went to Middle Tennessee State University, and I worked at MARS, the food company, in research and development for them as a food scientist. I worked in pet food for them, which is based out of Nashville.” But being well versed in science has actually helped Stephen Wilson Jr. in the long run. While a guest on Audacy’s Katie & Company, the “Father’s Son” singer shared that he still uses the scientific method in his post-scientist life. It was a rather interesting explanation from the country star, but it’s perfectly on brand for Stephen Wilson Jr. and what we’ve come to know from him: “Science is a big part of my process. Having a hypothesis or an idea and then testing it against the world. It is pretty much what science is, but doing it in a controlled setting and doing that experiment over and over again and trying to keep your emotions out of the results. That’s, I think, what songwriters try to do at the end. You wanna have an emotion to start with because I’m more in the emotion business than I am in the music business, at least that’s what I think of it as. So it’s got to start with an emotion, but then you kind of got to separate your emotion from it to get to the truth, because then you’ll have, they call user bias, and then that’ll affect your results.” So does that mean that every song that Stephen Wilson Jr. rolls out is technically a science experiment? I’m going to choose to believe so. And it’s funny to read that and then digest what Wilson Jr. also said in that very interview. He basically called himself “uninteresting,” but said that his life up until this point helped prepare him for all of the songwriting that his current career calls for: “I don’t think I’m interesting, but it has provided, I guess, a wealth of dialogue and narrative to to pull from. I’ve been habitually quiet most of my life, so I got to work a lot of jobs and kind of keep my mouth shut and listen and take notes, and from those learnings that’s where the songs kind of came from.” Stephen Wilson Jr. doesn’t think he’s interesting? I beg to differ. How man boxers-turned-scientists-turned-country-stars do you know of? I only know of one, and it’s the guy who sings “Grief Is Only Love.” And the talented artist just so happens to also be the person who invented the dog dental treat known as Dentastix.  If that’s not interesting, I don’t know what is… The post “Start With An Emotion”: Stephen Wilson Jr. Explains How He Uses Science In His Songwriting Process first appeared on Whiskey Riff.

Would love to be on a beach right now. In Nashville and across much of the south and eastern United States, a massive winter storm has caused chaos after dropping snow and ice over the weekend. Unfortunately it doesn’t seem like things are going to get much better any time soon, with temperatures here in Music City expected to dip down into the single digits tonight and remain below freezing for much of the week. Sure would be nice to be at the beach right now listening to some country music… Well you’re in luck, because Gulf Coast Jam is right around the corner, and is bringing you four jam-packed days of some of the best artists in country music, all just steps away from the white sand beaches of Panama City Beach, Florida. The annual festival returns to PCB on May 28-31 and this year will feature headliners Keith Urban, Chris Stapleton, Riley Green and Post Malone, along with performances from artists like Treaty Oak Revival, Koe Wetzel, Marcus King, Muscadine Bloodline, 49 Winchester, Ole 60, Jackson Dean, Wyatt Flores, and MANY more. View this post on Instagram It’s honestly one of the better festival lineups we’ve seen in 2026, which means that it’s likely to sell out pretty far in advance of the festival – especially with everybody snowed in right now and dreaming of being at the beach. Over the past few years, Gulf Coast Jam has grown into one of the premier country music festivals in the country, and it’s pretty easy to see why: Great lineups, great location, and a great experience for fans. With theme nights and an official late night afterparty stage at one of the best bars in PCB, Ms. Newby’s (I’ve spent many late nights there, and can even remember some of them), there’s nonstop entertainment all weekend long. View this post on Instagram Oh, and did I mention the beach? Because what more do you really need right now… Tickets for Gulf Coast Jam are on sale now, but are selling quickly: Tiers 1-4 of general admission tickets are already gone, so if you want to lock in your tickets at the lowest possible price you’re not going to want to wait much longer. There are also VIP pit tickets available, and the festival offers both a standing room only pit as well as a VIP pit area that allows you to bring your own chairs – so whether you prefer to stand and party or need to sit down after a long day at the beach, you’ve got plenty of options when choosing your experience. If you need some help with sleeping arrangements, the festival also offers ticket and hotel packages, as well as a wide variety of official lodging partners to make planning your trip as simple as possible. You can get more information about Gulf Coast Jam presented by Jim Beam at their website, GulfCoastJam.com, and you can get your tickets now by clicking HERE. It’s going to be a hell of a weekend – and a hell of a lot better than being stuck inside staring out at the snow.The post Sick Of Winter Already? Trade The Snow For Sand By Getting Gulf Coast Jam Tickets Now first appeared on Whiskey Riff.