It’s been a pretty interesting past few weeks for Charley Crockett. After scoring his second-career Grammy nomination for the brand-new Best Traditional Country Album category, he’d arrive in style and represent the genre alongside the likes of Zach Top, who would go on to win the award with Ain’t In It For My Health, Lainey Wilson, Reba, Jelly Roll and more. A week later, the “Jamestown Ferry” singer, who has never been one to shy away from speaking about what’s on his mind, would find himself in hot water with many after taking aim at the likes of President Trump, Elon Musk, Peter Thiel and even Jelly Roll. In case you missed it, this came directly ahead of Bad Bunny’s controversial Super Bowl halftime appearance and ultimately saw Crockett call Trump a “cosplay president” while also calling for both Musk and Theil to be deported in a lengthy Instagram rant. Now that the dust has (hopefully) settled in regards to the controversy surrounding the post, Crockett is reading the release of his brand new album, Age of the Ram, which will serve as the final part of his “Sagebrush Trilogy” that began last year with the release of both Lonesome Drifter in March and Dollar A Day in August. Just announced, Age of the Ram will be released on Friday, April 3rd. View this post on Instagram Like Lonesome Drifter and Dollar A Day, Age of the Ram will once again be produced by the incredibly talented Shooter Jennings, with Crockett himself co-producing alongside of him. As for what to expect from the record, it’s coming in at a lengthy 20 songs, which include not one but five different tracks containing a subtitle containing either a numbered or main/end theme throughout. In a Substack post, Crockett would dive into the evolution of the “Sagebrush Trilogy” thematically, noting how the protagonist started out as a wanderer in Lonesome Drifter, evolved into a rustler in Dollar A Day and finally became a bona fide outlaw in Age of the Ram. “The ‘Sagebrush Trilogy’ has always been about a man trying to find his name in this world. ‘Lonesome Drifter’ was the wanderer. Boots full of highway dust, chasing a song and a dollar. ‘Dollar A Day’ was the rustler. A man learning what hunger will make you do. Now the ‘Age of the Ram’ tells the story of the outlaw. The kind that don’t set out to be a legend, but winds up one anyway.” Additionally, the Texas native would dive more into the backstory of the protagonist in Age of the Ram, whose name is Billy McLane. As Crockett explains, he serves as a representation of the everyman and outlaw fighting against the powers that be and the machine itself, likening it to David vs. Goliath. “This record follows Billy McLane, a field hand out of West Texas, raised up in cotton rows and hard weather. He heads north chasing cattle and horses, thinking honest work might buy him a little peace. Colorado turns to Montana, and somewhere between driving cattle and counting somebody else’s money, he crosses a line he can’t uncross. He rides straight into the range wars and the Santa Fe Ring. Into a world run by men who shake hands with one hand and steal with the other. Billy don’t figure himself no criminal. He’s just trying to stay free. But when the game’s rigged, even an honest man can wind up outlawed. That’s how it goes. The unknown man against the machine. David and Goliath. Fighters swinging up at giants. Coal miners standing their ground. A ram lowering his head and charging anyway. Billy runs for the high country, and somewhere up there in the cold and the quiet, the story outgrows the man. His life’s short. The legend ain’t. And that’s the way of it. This is the life and times of Billy McLane. This is the Age of the Ram.” At the time of its inception upon the release of Lonesome Drifter last year, the entire concept of the “Sagebrush Trilogy” seemed extremely bold in nature and rich in subtext. With the sprawling nature of Age of the Ram, it’s looking like we’re in for an all-time, potentially career-defining effort from Crockett come April 3rd. Age of the Ram Tracklist “Life & Times Of Billy McClain (Theme I)” “Lonesome Dove” “Rancho Deluxe (Main Theme)” “My Last Drink Of Wine” “Fastest Gun Alive” “Diamond Belle (Country Boy)” “I Shot Jesse James” “Life & Times of Billy McClain (Theme II)” “Crazy Woman Ridge” “Remembering Pat” “Sweet Mother Texas” “Kentucky Too Long” “Border Winds” “Rancho Deluxe (End Theme)” “Billy Mclain” “Life & Times of Billy McClain (Theme III)” “Powder River” “Low Down Freedom” “Me & Shooter” “Cover My Trail Tonight” Before you go, fire up “Kentucky Too Long.” The post Charley Crockett Announces Release Date For New Album ‘Age Of The Ram,’ The Final Part Of His ‘Sagebrush Trilogy’ first appeared on Whiskey Riff.

They say if you love what you do for work, you never work a day in your life. HARDY is obviously living every musician and artist’s dream right now as he continues to be a hitmaker for himself and others. He’s one of those country stars that has the ability to craft a No. 1 song with ease. Sometimes he releases them himself (like “ONE BEER” and “TRUCK BED”). Other times, he pens hits for others (like Morgan Wallen’s “Up Down”). But long before he the singer-songwriter the world knows him as today, HARDY was just working to make ends meet as he tried to figure out what he wanted to do with his life. Everybody has powered through an odd job at some point in their life, right? The only thing is… most people aren’t crazy about those quirky career stints. HARDY evidently loved his. While speaking to Jimmy Fallon in a recent interview, HARDY revealed that one of his earliest jobs was a gravedigger. On the list of most morbid jobs, being the one that digs the six-foot-deep holes for others to eternally rest in is way up there. You’d think prepping graves for the dead would be a horrible way to make a living, but HARDY says he loved it: “It was really fun. Other than this job, it was the most fun I’ve ever had as a worker. I just had a great boss. Our departments were so small because our town was so small. It was the cemetery department/animal control. So in the summer, when it would get really hot and all of the grass would die, we’d just chase stray dogs around. But yeah, I was a gravedigger.” Glad that HARDY found joy in what’s typically considered a dead-end job (thanks, I’ll be here all week). And now, when you think about all of the songs that HARDY has about death… it kind of all makes sense. Tracks of HARDY’s like “Six Feet Under” and “Everybody Does” stand out as mortality-focused, and it was actually back in September of last year that the country star joined Katie & Company and explained why he likes to sing about death: “People were just like, ‘Man, you got a lot of songs about dying.’ And I always have, but I’ve just always thought like, in a world where everybody’s just always… nobody can agree on anything. The sky is not blue to some people. and, you know, it’s like people say death and taxes, but in reality, some people don’t even pay their taxes. But the only thing we have in common is death, and if that’s if that’s a theme that I wanna write about just to bring people together and make sure everybody you know in the room relates to one thing, then so be it.” Another song in HARDY’s catalogue that touches on death? That would be “Bottomland,” which the country star released as a single for COUNTRY! COUNTRY!. For much of the music video for the song, HARDY is laying down in a pine casket… and considering his past work experience, he probably felt right at home down there: “Bottomland” by HARDY The post HARDY Loved His Job As A… Gravedigger… Before Making It In Country Music: “It Was Really Fun” first appeared on Whiskey Riff.

She said what she meant, and she meant what she said. Megan Moroney’s third studio album will be out everywhere in just a few short days, as it’s set for release this Friday. The tracklist of course features already-released songs like “6 Months Later” and “Beautiful Things,” as well as collabs with two of her favorite musicians, British pop star Ed Sheeran, and country star Kacey Musgraves. But a song called “Who Hurt You” has already caught the attention of fans, because they think it might finally reveal all about Megan’s relationship, or potentially situationship, with Riley Green. In an interview with Elaina Smith at the beginning of the year, Megan talked about how she got very vulnerable on that song in particular, which she wrote with Luke Laird and Jessie Jo Dillon. Megan said that she went “bar for bar” and “said everything” so she no longer has to answer interview questions about the “situation,” which she didn’t elaborate on, and I’m only assuming could be about all the rumors about her and Riley that were everywhere last year. That was obviously the biggest news story about her personal life, but we’ll just have to wait and listen to the song to figure it all out. It sounds like there won’t be much guessing involved based on what Megan has to say about it already, and she says there should be “no further questions” once everyone hears it: “Like you said, I’m pretty consistently vulnerable, but there’s one song, ‘Who Hurt You,’ that I’m really excited for. Bar for bar, didn’t lie, said everything so that I don’t have to answer interview questions about the situation. Yeah, and here’s my piece, and there’s no reason to ask me any questions about it because I told you what I needed to say. I’m try to just be efficient here… I’m like, have you heard the song? Like, there should be no further questions.” The rumors about her, Riley and Ella were all-consuming for a few months last year, and let’s be honest, that kind of thing is unfortunately good for business, so I think putting it all into a song where she doesn’t hold back is going to play very well for her, and at the very least, will likely put up massive streaming numbers. And in an interview this week with Katie Neal for her radio show Katie & Company, Megan was asked if there are any songs she’s nervous for people to hear for the first time, which I can only imagine was a round about way of asking if she’s worried about the reaction of “WhoHurt You.” But I could also be ready way too much into it, but either way, Megan says she said the entire album “with [her] chest,” and it all came from a very authentic place: “No, no, because I said this whole album with my chest. I’m just like, it is what it is. I feel like…I  know I’ve got the best fans in the world, and they make me confident enough to where they’re gonna get behind my songs. They know that it’s coming from an honest, authentic place, and that just has given my more confidence as a songwriter to not give a crap what people are going to saw about it. I’m excited.” I think a lot of fans will be listening to that one first, myself included to be honest, because I just need the tea… on the one hand, I’m really tired of hearing about it, but on the other hand, I’m extremely nosey, so I do want to hear her side of the story, whatever story it is, so to speak… and all will be revealed very, very soon. The full interview is available below. Cloud 9 Tracklist 1. “Cloud 9” (Megan Moroney, Luke Laird, Jessie Jo Dillon, and Ernest Keith Smith)* 2. “Medicine” (Megan Moroney, Connie Harrington, Jessie Jo Dillon, and Jessi Alexander)* 3. “6 Months Later” (Megan Moroney, Ben Williams, Rob Hatch, and David “Messy” Mescon)* 4. “Stupid” (Megan Moroney, Amy Allen, and David “Messy” Mescon)* 5. “Beautiful Things” (Megan Moroney, Connie Harrington, Jessie Jo Dillon, and Jessi Alexander)* 6. “Convincing” (Megan Moroney, Connie Harrington, Jessie Jo Dillon, and Jessi Alexander)* 7. “Liars & Tigers & Bears” (Megan Moroney, Luke Laird, and Jessie Jo Dillon)* 8. “I Only Miss You (ft. Ed Sheeran)” (Megan Moroney, Ben Williams, Mackenzie Carpenter, Micah Carpenter, and Ed Sheeran)* 9. “Wedding Dress” (Megan Moroney, Ben Williams, and Colin Healy)+ 10. “Change of Heart” (Megan Moroney, Ben Williams, Mackenzie Carpenter, and Micah Carpenter)* 11. “Bells & Whistles (ft. Kacey Musgraves)” (Megan Moroney, Ben Williams, Mackenzie Carpenter, and Micah Carpenter)* 12. “Table for Two” (Megan Moroney, Ben Williams, Mackenzie Carpenter, and Micah Carpenter)^ 13. “Wish I Didn’t” (Megan Moroney, Emily Weisband, Hillary Lindsey, and Luke Laird)* 14. “Who Hurt You?” (Megan Moroney, Luke Laird, and Jessie Jo Dillon)* 15. “Waiting on the Rain” (Megan Moroney, Luke Laird, and Jessie Jo Dillon)* * Produced by Kristian Bush + Produced by Luke Laird and Megan Moroney, additional production by Kristian Bush ^ Produced by Luke Laird and Megan MoroneyThe post Megan Moroney Says There’s Not One Song On ‘Cloud 9’ She’s Nervous For People To Hear: “I Said This Whole Album With My Chest” first appeared on Whiskey Riff.

The Louisville, Kentucky, festival is back again with another stellar lineup. This festival is a dream, featuring a lineup of artists showcasing country, alternative, rock, and more. The four-day event also features top-notch food and bourbon. Sad country songs and whiskey neat. What more could you need? This year, Bourbon & Beyond will take place from September 24-27 at the Kentucky Expo Center in Louisville, Kentucky, and the lineup features over 100 acts. Yes, you read that correctly. That’s a massive number of artists featured on this bill, and Bourbon & Beyond is bringing in some of the best. Last year, the festival brought you a stellar list of performers, including Sturgill Simpson, Megan Moroney, 49 Winchester, Dylan Gossett, Flatland Cavalry, Trampled by Turtles, Muscadine Bloodline, Morgan Wade, and more. While that incredible list is hard to beat, Bourbon & Beyond has outdone itself again, delivering a lineup that surpasses last year’s. Your 2026 Bourbon & Beyond headliners include the Foo Fighters, Mumford & Sons, Chris Stapleton and the Dave Matthews Band. However, that is just where the fun is getting started. Also slated to take the stage are the Red Clay Strays, Kacey Musgraves, Jessie Murph, Charley Crockett, Gary Clark Jr., Marcus King Band, Max McNown, Noah Cyrus, Buffalo Traffic Jam, Cheap Trick, Avery Anna, Gabriella Rose, Uncle Lucius, The Creekers, The Infamous Stringdusters, Sierra Hull, Ben Chapman and much more. While the names we chose to feature highlight country acts, as mentioned, the festival showcases talent far beyond the country music stratosphere, making it a well-rounded festival for music lovers of all kinds. “This is the one you have been waiting for. Your 2026 Bourbon & Beyond lineup is here with Foo Fighters, Mumford & Sons, Chris Stapleton, Dave Matthews Band, Queens of the Stone Age, Kacey Musgraves, The Red Clay Strays, Hootie & The Blowfish, and 100+ total artists. Four days. Five stages. Endless singalongs, unforgettable first discoveries, and moments that live long after the weekend ends.” David Wimmer of David Wimmer Presents shared in a press release with the announcement: “Bourbon & Beyond is built to be the best weekend of your year. Plain and simple. From the second you arrive, everything is designed so you can fully experience what a music festival should be. It’s an escape with soul — a place where you can unplug from real life, let loose, be a kid again, and really live in the moment. You can ride roller coasters at Kentucky Kingdom, discover new artists and see your favorites, sip great spirits, and eat incredible food — and it all just works. At its core, it’s about creating memories. It’s a vacation inside a vacation. This lineup reflects everything Bourbon & Beyond stands for. And I say this with humility and confidence — there is nothing else quite like it in this space. It truly is the best weekend you can have at a festival of this scale.” Tickets for Bourbon & Beyond are now on sale, and with a lineup like this, it’s certain that tickets will be in high demand. This is not a festival to miss if you haven’t made your way to Louisville, Kentucky, yet. Before you go, check out the 2025 festival recap: The post Chris Stapleton, Red Clay Strays, Mumford & Sons, & More To Take The Stage At Kentucky’s Bourbon & Beyond Festival first appeared on Whiskey Riff.

In a jam-packed alt. country scene, there are seemingly an endless number of bands that can nearly be described as generational. With stellar groups such as Turnpike Troubadours, Flatland Cavalry, Shane Smith & the Saints, Whiskey Myers, The Red Clay Strays and many, many more outdoing themselves with every release, 49 Winchester has continually proved that they should be named at the top of the list as well. Between the combination of their perfect blend of southern rock and country, their tight live band and world-class vocals from frontman, Isaac Gibson, it’s become more and more apparent every year that the Virginia group is becoming one of the most overlooked bands in the genre today. As 2025 came to a close, 49 announced they had signed with MCA Records through its Lucille Records imprint, which is run by producer extraordinaire Dave Cobb, the Chief Creative Officer. No one has put in more work than they have to get to this point, and Gibson says they’re “thrilled” to be working with Cobb: “We’re thrilled to be joining the MCA and Lucille family. Working with Dave Cobb is a dream, and we can’t wait for our fans to hear the new music we’re creating together.” In case you’re somehow unfamiliar with Dave Cobb, it’s pretty easy to argue that he’s the best producer in the genre right now. Over the past 15 years, he’s produced the likes of Chris Stapleton’s Traveller, Sturgill Simpson’s Metamodern Sounds in Country Music, Whiskey Myers’ Mud, Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit’s Southeastern, Colter Wall’s self-titled 2017 album, the A Star is Born soundtrack and a countless number of other incredible projects. In case that wasn’t already exciting enough, back on February 6th, the Virginia band announced that their fifth studio album, Change Of Plans, is officially releasing on May 16th. Additionally, they would confirm that the album would contain 10 songs and, most importantly, be produced by Cobb himself. Fresh off the album announcement, Gibson recently appeared on Troy Cartwright’s 10 Year Town Podcast. Diving into working with Cobb, the frontman would call him the “gold standard” in terms of producers for today’s alt. country scene, noting how incredible it was to work with him. “Working with Dave’s a pretty incredible thing. That’s one of those producers that, for somebody in our kind of vein of country music, that’s kind of the golden standard… Getting the opportunity to work with somebody like that is pretty incredible. Dave’s great at capturing emotion in a particular moment. You know what I mean? So this is the first record we’ve ever done with live takes and stuff like that. Most of the stuff that we’ve done in the past has been very sort of analytical, overanalyze everything, listen to every single thing as closely as possible.” Additionally, Gibson would dive into what made working with Cobb so special. As he noted, in the past 49 would always strive for a perfect-sounding record. With the Traveller producer, however, he urged the band to lean into the raw and authentic nature present in their live shows, focusing on capturing the energy and emotion in each song instead. As the frontman would explain, this resulted in what he describes as their best album to date, noting it’s a “step above anything” they’ve ever recorded in the past. “I think we took a lot more of that approach into it as opposed to being [like], ‘How can we compose a perfect record?’ This was like let’s capture energy, let’s capture an emotion, let’s capture a moment in time. And I think that was a really eye-opening thing for us to make a record that way. I think it really brought the best out in us, too. It’s a step above anything we’ve ever done before.” Given how stellar the album’s first two tracks, both their cover of Black Sabbath’s “Changes” and “Pardon Me” are, it’s safe to say that Cobb worked his magic once again. We are in for an absolute treat come May 15th. Watch the full podcast here: 49 Winchester Tour Dates 2.05.26 Oxford, MS The Lyric Oxford 2.06.26 Fayetteville, AR Ozark Music Hall 2.07.26 Springfield, MO Gillioz Theatre 2.10.26 Bloomington, IL The Castle Theater 2.12.26 West Des Moines, IA Val Air Ballroom 2.13.26 Hays, KS The Fox Theatre 2.14.26 Wichita, KS The Cotillion 2.17.26 Davenport, IA Capitol Theatre 2.19.26 North Little Rock, AR Simmons Bank Arena* 2.20.26 Kansas City, MO T-Mobile Center* 2.21.26 St. Louis, MO Enterprise Center* 2.24.26 San Antonio, TX San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo 2.27.26 El Paso, TX Lowbrow Palace 2.28.26 Tempe, AZ Extra Innings Festival 3.05.26 Knoxville, TN Thompson-Boling Arena at Food City* 3.06.26 Greensboro, NC Greensboro Coliseum Complex* 3.07.26 Charleston, SC North Charleston Coliseum* 3.13.26 Tulsa, OK Cain’s Ballroom 3.14.26 Austin, TX Rodeo Austin 3.19.26 Birmingham, AL Legacy Arena at the BJCC* 3.20.26 Atlanta, GA State Farm Arena* 3.21.26 Nashville, TN Grand Ole Opry 4.09.26 Washington, DC 9:30 Club 4.10.26 Pittsburgh, PA Stage AE 4.11.26 Newport, KY MegaCorp Pavilion 4.13.26 Albany, NY Empire Live 4.16.26 Columbus, OH KEMBA Live! 4.17.26 Cleveland, OH Globe Iron 4.18.26 Detroit, MI Majestic Theatre 4.24.26 Lexington, KY The Burl Outdoors 4.25.26 Lexington, KY The Burl Outdoors 4.29.26 New York, NY Webster Hall 5.02.26 Santiago, MX DuckFest 5.15.26 Pelham, TN The Caverns 5.16.26 Pelham, TN The Caverns 5.29.26 Ponte Vedra Beach, FL Ponte Vedra Concert Hall 5.30.26 Orlando, FL The Plaza Live 5.31.26 Panama City Beach, FL Gulf Coast Jam 6.02.26 Wilmington, NC Greenfield Lake Amphitheatre 6.05.26 Dewey Beach, DE Bottle & Cork 6.26.26 North Platte, NE NebraskaLand Days 6.27.26 Lubbock, TX Cotton Fest 7.09.26 Bethel, NY Bethel Woods Center for the Arts^ 7.10.26 Holmdel, NJ PNC Bank Arts Center^ 7.11.26 Hershey, PA Hersheypark Stadium^ 7.16.26 Toronto, ON RBC Amphitheatre^ 7.17.26 Cuyahoga Falls, OH Blossom Music Center^ 7.18.26 Burgettstown, PA The Pavilion at Star Lake 7.23.26 Camden, NJ Freedom Mortgage Pavilion^ 7.24.26 Wantagh, NY Northwell Health at Jones Beach^ 7.25.26 Saratoga Springs, NY Broadview Stage at SPAC^ 7.30.26 Boston, MA Fenway Park^ 7.31.26 Syracuse, NY Empower FCU Amphitheater^ 8.01.26 Darien Center, NY Six Flags Darien Lake^ 8.06.26 Virginia Beach, VA Veterans United Home Loans^ 8.13.26 Birmingham, AL Coca-Cola Amphitheater^ 8.14.26 Charlotte, NC Truliant Amphitheater^ 8.15.26 Bristow, VA Jiffy Lube Live^ 8.21.26 Kansas City, MO Richard L. Berkeley Riverfront Park^ 8.22.26 East Troy, WI Alpine Valley Music Theatre^ 8.23.26 Minneapolis, MN Target Field^ 8.27.26 Cincinnati, OH Riverbend Music Center^ 8.28.26 Clarkston, MI Pine Knob Music Theatre^ 8.29.26 Grand Rapids, MI Acrisure Amphitheater^ 9.10.26 Austin, TX Moody Center^ 9.11.26 Dallas, TX Dos Equis Pavilion^ 9.12.26 Rogers, AR Walmart Arkansas Music Pavilion^ 9.17.26 Maryland Heights, MO Hollywood Casino Amphitheater^ 9.18.26 Noblesville, IN Ruoff Music Center^ 9.19.26 Tinley Park, IL Credit Union 1 Amphitheatre^ 9.24.26 Alpharetta, GA Ameris Bank Amphitheatre^ 9.25.26 Tampa, FL Midflorida Credit Union Amphitheatre^ 9.26.26 West Palm Beach, FL iThink Financial Amphitheatre *Eric Church Support ^Tim McGraw SupportThe post “A Step Above Anything We’ve Ever Done”: Isaac Gibson Says 49 Winchester’s Upcoming Album, ‘Change Of Plans,’ Is Their Best Project Yet first appeared on Whiskey Riff.