New music is finally on the horizon from the “No One Else On Earth” singer. Though you typically hear names such as Dolly Parton, Reba McEntire, Shania Twain and the like being named as the defining voices of country music in the late 80s and 90s, there’s no doubt that Wynonna Judd deserves to be in the same company. As we know, she and her mother, Naomi Judd, were nothing short of a power duo in the ’80s, scoring five Grammys, nine CMA Awards and 14 #1 hits. As a solo artist, Wynonna also carved her own path in the ’90s, scoring huge hits with the likes of her rendition of “I Saw the Light,” “No One Else On Earth,” “She Is His Only Weakness” and “To Be Loved By You.” The past decade has been nothing short of trying for Wynonna, however, highlighted by the death of her mother in 2022. Thankfully, it seems as if she’s doing much better recently. This led to her debuting her first new song since 2022 at Stagecoach, “Kentucky Queen,” which was released today. In tandem with “Kentucky Queen’s” release, the Virginia native announced the release of her first album since 2016, The Hard Truth, on Friday, October 2nd. View this post on Instagram Discussing The Hard Truth, Wynonna would explain that it’s her most personal album to date, diving deep into her journey of heartbreak, healing and faith throughout the difficult past few years. Additionally, she’d note that the record challenged her unlike any other before, making her face her perfectionism and embrace honest emotion. “I’ve spent a lifetime singing about heartbreak, healing, faith, and survival, but I’ve never made a record like this one. These songs tell the truth about where I’ve been, what I’ve lost, what I’ve overcome, and who I’ve become. This album asked me to be brave enough to tell the truth—even when my voice shook. It challenged me to let go of perfectionism and embrace the beauty of honest emotion.
” Additionally, Wynonna tells fans that she hopes that they feel seen, through their personal struggles and heartbreak, while listening to the record. “My hope is that when you hear these songs, you feel what I was feeling while writing and recording them. If they help someone feel seen, understood, or a little less alone, then every hard truth was worth telling.” She’d note that the album took over five years to fully develop, with every song being written and recorded on her farm in Franklin, Tennessee, and her husband, Scott “Cactus” Moser, producing the record. In addition to the album announcement, the “Tell Me Why” singer also announced a short run of album release shows in Lexington, Somerset and Ashland, Kentucky from September 30th to October 2nd. Pre-sale for members of her fan club will begin on Monday, June 15th, with general sale beginning on Friday, June 19th. The Hard Truth Tracklist “Prelude (All Downhill From Ashland)” “All Downhill From Ashland” (feat. The War And Treaty) “Everything” (feat. Patterson Hood) “Am I Missing Out” “Broken And Blessed” “Hear Me Now” (feat. Iron & Wine) “The Hopeful Lie” (feat. The War And Treaty) “Kentucky Queen” “Girl Who Could Sing” “Drive” “Love Ain’t Got The Best Of Me” Before you go, fire up today’s lead single, “Kentucky Queen.” The Hard Truth Album Release Show Dates September 30 – Lexington, Kentucky – Lexington Opera House October 1 – Somerset, Kentucky – The Virginia October 2 – Ashland, Kentucky – Paramount Theater AshlandThe post “It’s Time To Tell My Story” – Wynonna Judd Announces Her First Album In 10 Years, ‘The Hard Truth’ first appeared on Whiskey Riff.

Mother Nature forcing a change of plans. It’s been a rainy couple of weeks in the south. Here in Nashville, we had a beautiful spring with almost no rain, but the past month or so has been as wet as I can remember since I moved here 10 years ago. And down in Alabama, it’s been much the same story: Yesterday, on June 8, parts of Alabama received up to 9 inches of rain, with Huntsville reporting over 7 inches in 24 hours. And unfortunately, all the water has forced Rock the South to make a change to their schedule. The festival was originally slated to kick off on June 11 in Decatur, Alabama, featuring headliners Riley Green, Zach Top and Jason Aldean. But Rock the South announced today that they have been forced to reschedule due to what organizers called “unprecedented rainfall” – though fans who are able to make it to the new dates are getting a reward: An additional day at no extra charge. Rock the South will now take place on October 1-4, with all three of the original headliners slated to return for the rescheduled dates, and Jessie Murph added as a headliner for the fourth day. Ticket holders who are able to make it to the rescheduled dates will get the fourth day at no additional cost, but the festival also announced that details will be sent out next week for those who will be unable to attend in October. Updated daily lineups will also be announced in the coming weeks, though the festival says that fortunately most of the scheduled artists are going to be able to make it to the new dates. You can read their full statement here: “Due to unprecedented amounts of rainfall across the state of Alabama this past week we’ve made the difficult decision with the City of Decatur to reschedule the festival from this coming weekend to the weekend of October 1st through 4th. All three previously announced headliners will remain on the lineup: Zach Top on Thursday, Oct. 1; Jason Aldean on Friday, Oct. 2; and Riley Green on Sunday, Oct. 4. The festival weekend will now expand to four days with a headlining performance from Jessie Murph on Saturday, Oct. 3 at no additional cost to ticket holders. Most scheduled artists are able to perform on the revised dates and we will announce the updated daily lineups in the coming weeks. The safety of our festival attendees, artists, and staff is paramount, and we’re confident that the rescheduled dates will ensure an enjoyable festival experience for all. Festival tickets and camping packages for the original dates will be honored on the newly rescheduled dates. We will email purchasers next week with details for those unable to attend Rock the South this October. Please continue to check www.rockthesouth.com for details surrounding the new dates of the festival and additional information.” This year’s festival will be bigger and better than ever, with not only an additional day but with the festival also moving to a new home. Starting in 2026, Rock the South will be moving to The Fields at Decatur, located in Decatur, Alabama, just south of Huntsville and about an hour from Birmingham. The new home for the festival will be owned by Peachtree Entertainment, the creative geniuses behind Rock the South and several of the country’s other top festivals and live events. And with 150 acres, the new location will allow for expanded campgrounds and long-term investments in infrastructure and improvements to help make it the best experience possible for fans. But what does that mean for fans? Well for starters, more shaded areas, improved campgrounds with professionally engineered drainage to provide a better (and dryer) experience for campers, and – for the first time ever – a second stage, presented by Raised Rowdy. It’s obviously a bummer that the festival is being forced to postpone due to factors outside its control, but fans are not only going to get an additional day for no extra charge and hopefully much better weather in October than we’re getting right now. Gonna be well worth the wait.The post Rock The South Rescheduled To October Due To Historic Rainfall, Adding An Extra Day At No Additional Charge first appeared on Whiskey Riff.

He’s now one of the most recognized and successful mainstream artists in country music… but there was a time when Eric Church was the undisputed underdog. Eric has spent decades in the industry, doing things his way, and now, he has tons of other business ventures and mentors younger artists, like Ella Langley, and he’s certainly made it in terms of his legendary career up to this point. And during an appearance on the Bussin’ With the Boys podcast today, Eric says he very much saw other artists as competition when he was coming up, and there were tons of them that he had real beef with. He often felt like he was overlooked for others who most people wouldn’t even know now, so many years later, and it’s because he just believed so much in his music and was working his a** off to build a solid career. But for a long time, he saw others getting nominated for awards, and as he put it, “flying past me” to achieve success when it might have been undeserved. Eric admitted that he had a chip on his shoulder, so to speak, because of it, though not everyone he was up against was unworthy. Eric described it as a “lion know[ing] a lion,” and eventually, the cream rises to the top and it all worked out: “Oh, there’s been a bunch. Well, early on, the thing that aggravated me is, we’re out there grinding and working hard, and I believe in our music, and I think it’s good, and then I’m seeing all these guys who will have a hit that, you don’t even know them now. But at that time, they were all flying past me and they were the new thing. They’d win the award, they would get nominated, all that stuff. So I took that personal. I wore a chip on my shoulder for a while with that stuff. And then there’s been competition, yeah, there’s been a bunch. I mean, guys that are great. That’s just like sports though, like, I always say this, a lion knows a lion. And I know the ones that I’ve encountered that are good and are real, and I know the ones that aren’t. And it won’t be long before the other people realize the same thing, but there are some that have been lions, that are lions, and I know it. And those are the ones that are fun to you know get there and mix it up with.” He thinks it’s actually a good thing to have that kind of healthy competition with people who are just as good, if not better, than you, and he welcomes that sort of challenge even still: “You actually look at him and go, yeah man, that’s a dude, you know. And it’s a good thing. It’s a good thing when I go to make a record, or I go to write a song, I know that dude‘s out stalking around. That’s good. It’s a competition. It’s a good thing.” In many ways, Eric is in a class of his own in terms of being a mainstream country star who has managed to still fight against the machine so many times, and I think that has given him a really unique perspective and honestly, most country artists usually say there isn’t any competition, or there’s never any beef, so it’s really refreshing to hear actually admit that’s true, just like any other profession. And like he says, that can actually be a good thing. Check out the full podcast below. The post “You Don’t Even Know Them Now” — Eric Church On The Frustration Of Watching Other Artists Have Success Early In His Career first appeared on Whiskey Riff.

Alan is very proud of his grand niece and her music. Continue reading…

And just like that, a new legend was born. The stars were out in full force at Carolina Country Music Fest in beautiful Myrtle Beach, South Carolina this past weekend, which featured performances from Riley Green, Tracy Lawrence, Justin Moore, Post Malone, Luke Bryan, Blake Shelton, Lauren Alaina, and many, many more. But the biggest star of the weekend might have been Randy. Who’s Randy? Well settle in – and prepare your liver – to meet a new Carolina Country Music Fest legend. It all started on Friday night, when headliner Luke Bryan broke out a bottle of Casamigos tequila and took a quick swig himself before passing it down to a fan in the crowd to pass around. The fan, as it turns out, was Randy Lookabill, who decided to tip up the bottle of tequila and polish off the whole thing, much to the astonishment of the crowd and of Luke Bryan himself. Luke stopped his show in amazement and spoke to Randy: “Hold f— up. Hold the s— up. I need a disclaimer. I need to sign an NDA. … Do you typically drink a whole bottle of tequila? Are you gonna be ok?” Well Luke signed the tequila bottle for Randy and passed it back down to him and his wife, Ashley. And shortly after, there was a medical emergency in the crowd – but as it turns out, it wasn’t Randy, but was a woman behind him, with Luke reassuring the crowd that Randy was alright: “Randy drank so much the woman behind him passed out.” Videos of the wild scene quickly went viral, and Randy became an overnight sensation at CCMF. But the next day, everybody was asking: Has anybody checked on Randy? Well as it turns out, Randy was just fine: Contrary to the rumors, he didn’t have to have his stomach pumped, he wasn’t taken out in a wheelchair, and he was now a celebrity in Myrtle Beach. And after some rest and fluids, he was right back at the festival the next day. Hundreds of fans spotted Randy in the crowd and stopped him to get their picture taken, and Native Sons even got shirts printed overnight and had them at the merch tent the next day: Whiskey Riff actually caught up with Randy backstage at Carolina Country Music Fest, and he assured us he was fine the next morning and just had a little headache: “Still feeling good.” Well that evening, Locash welcomed the new CCMF legend onstage as the crowd chanted his name. View this post on Instagram And they weren’t the only artist who got to meet the legendary Randy: On night 3, Dasha also brought him out on stage, where they two did a shoey out of her boot. https://www.instagram.com/reels/DZTqUORxKNV/ Then on night 4, Randy was back on the front row for Post Malone as he had been for the rest of the festival. And when Posty started handing out beers to the crowd, who did he toss one to? Well, Randy of course. View this post on Instagram Randy has been attending Carolina Country Music Fest for years now, and often lines up the night before to secure his spot at the front of the pit. He’s also a super nice guy, and though I’m sure he didn’t expect to leave the festival as an overnight celebrity, I have a feeling he’s going to be getting recognized around Myrtle Beach and CCMF for years to come. And just like that, a legend was born at Carolina Country Music Fest. Meet Randy.@CCMFLive pic.twitter.com/vrjyrKalgI — Whiskey Riff (@WhiskeyRiff) June 7, 2026 The post Who Is Randy, The Viral Star Who Left Luke Bryan Stunned & Became A Legend During Carolina Country Music Fest? first appeared on Whiskey Riff.