The trend of country music festivals “taking pauses” continues. Festival pauses, also known as “cancellations,” have become commonplace in the past couple of years. Festivals like the Iron Hills, Country Roads, Faster Horses, and Watershed (the Pacific Northwest’s largest country festival) have all made the tough decision to waive the white flag in the past year or so, with most citing “softer than expected demand” as the main reason for shuttering. And another just announced that it’ll be calling off its plans for 2026, and country music fans in the Sacramento, California area aren’t going to be happy. GoldenSky, which started its run in 2022 and would normally take place in October, recently took to social media to make the announcement that they will not be putting on their festival in 2026. Like many other festivals before them, they’ve decided to describe their decision as in the best interest of fans and artists: “We’ve made the decision to take one additional year to ensure that GoldenSky returns at the right time and at the level our fans, artists and partners expect. Our goal is to return in 2027, and we appreciate your continued support.” View this post on Instagram The country music festival that’s typically been held at Sacramento’s Discovery Park boasted headliners and big names like Eric Church, Tim McGraw, Lainey Wilson, Luke Bryan, and Keith Urban in its first three years. But in 2025, they decided to take a pause… and now that cancelation is extending through 2026. As you can see in the post above, GoldenSky is hoping to make a comeback in 2027 (but I wouldn’t hold my breath). The pause may come as a surprise to some, but we’re entering into a time where more and more festivals are struggling, postponing to future dates, and even closing up shop altogether. It’s truly become a crowded landscape, and despite many bigger festivals faltering, it seems like a new festival pops up every single year. There’s also the issue of cost. Festivals need to charge fans a certain amount to justify putting on the whole kit and caboodle, and that price can sometimes be too steep for even the most passionate music lovers. Tack on the fact that festivals often require fans to travel, book lodging, and pay for food and drinks… and you’ve got yourself an economic activity that not everyone can pull off during these times. But just taking a peek at the lineup for the last GoldenSky that was held, it looks like fans got their money’s worth with all of the artists that performed at the Northern California music festival in 2024. Supporting headliners Keith Urban, Thomas Rhett and Luke Bryan were the Turnpike Troubadours, Clint Black, Shane Smith & The Saints, Riley Green, Charles Wesley Godwin, Ashley McBryde, Shaboozey and Paul Cauthen, among others. That’s a little bit of everyone for everybody, as far as I can tell. To think that they rolled out a star-studded lineup like that, and then haven’t been able to put on a festival at all in 2025 and 2026, is pretty concerning. Though as I’ve touched on throughout this story, it’s becoming par for the course in the crowded country music festival landscape.The post California’s GoldenSky Country Music Festival Announces 2026 Hiatus first appeared on Whiskey Riff.

This one should already be on your Valentine’s Day playlist… but if you don’t know the full story behind it, you really should. Luke Combs penned a massive hit with his song “Beautiful Crazy,” which was inspired by his lovely wife, Nicole, when they were still just dating. You might actually be surprised at how quickly into their relationship he did write it, though. Combs previously told CMT that he wrote it even before they had officially started dating, and so in some ways he was a little nervous to play it for her for the first time because he was afraid she might think he was “a creep”: “I wrote that song about her before we had even started dating officially. So, I mean, that was the song, I’ll never forget playing it for her the first time. And how nervous I was for her to hear it. I didn’t know if she would think I was a creep or not. She’d be like, ‘This guy, I’ve been on three dates with this guy, and he’s already written a song about me.’ But hey, it worked out. It worked out, you know?” It certainly did, and during an appearance on Lindsay Czarniak’s The Artist and The Athlete podcast, he explained that not only did he win Song of the Year with it at the 2019 CMA Awards, which had long been a goal of his, it became incredibly meaningful and sentimental to both Luke and Nicole because they used it as their first dance song at their wedding: “I mean, it won song of the year, which was probably the number one goal on my bucket list. I wrote that song about my wife before we were even dating and it ended up being the first dance at our wedding. There’s no way that any other song will top that as far as sentimental value for me.” Of course, she loved it, and Combs says that it was a “baller move” for him, because he doesn’t consider himself a ladies man, but he obviously won her over with such a beautiful song… and let’s honest, there aren’t many girls who wouldn’t want a song  like this written about them: “Oh, she loved it. She always deflects the attention, which I get. If someone played me a song about me three, four months in, I would be probably pretty uncomfortable about it. So I get it. A total baller move for sure. I’m not much of a ladies man. But I was pretty proud of this one. I had written it, maybe two days before I played it for her.” Luke also remembered where he played it for her for the first time, when he had gone over to her place, and one of her friends was there hanging out, which he was glad about, because he knew he could win her over too and get her on his side early on, which is incredibly smart, I must say. He played it on a Victrola record player he had given her as a gift, and of course, Nicole and her friend both loved it: “One of her friends was over there. I was like, ‘Well, this is perfect.’ Because if I play it while the friend is over, there’s no way the friend is going to not think this is the sweetest thing that anyone’s ever done for someone. So, I played the song when the friend was over there. Of course, her friend was like, ‘Oh my God, it’s so sweet.'” I’m a tough critic when it comes to my friends boyfriends and even I must say, this would probably work on me… well, it would certainly help put a few points in his column, that’s for sure. “Beautiful Crazy” ended up on the deluxe edition of his debut album This One’s for You Too, which was released in 2018, and he wrote it alongside Wyatt Durrette and Robert Williford. It shot to the top of the Billboard U.S. Country Airplay chart, and has since been certified Diamond, meaning it recognize albums and singles that were certified 10x Platinum, meaning they had sold 10 million units. He joins a very small list of artists with Diamond-certified country songs, and he has three other songs on that list including “Hurricane,” “She Got The Best Of Me,” and “When It Rains It Pours.” Combs married Nicole in 2020, and have since welcomed two boys, Tex and Beau, with their third child set to arrive any day now: View this post on Instagram They say it’s the thought that counts, and in this case, I would say Luke absolutely nailed that part and got a country classic for his beautiful wife out of it in the process… it doesn’t get better than that. “Beautiful Crazy” The post Luke Combs Knew Exactly What He Was Doing When He Played “Beautiful Crazy” For Nicole For The First Time first appeared on Whiskey Riff.

President Trump and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin unveiled what they called the biggest red tape removal in US history Thursday, axing a sweeping Obama-era anti-greenhouse gas policy and predicting it could save $1.3 trillion, or about $3,823.50 per US resident.

The Trump administration on Thursday revoked a landmark scientific finding that serves as the legal foundation for federal regulations to limit greenhouse gas emissions, in a devastating blow to efforts to combat climate change.

The Trump administration repealed the Obama-era scientific finding that serves as the legal basis for federal greenhouse-gas regulation, in the most far-reaching rollback of U.S. climate policy to date.

From the moment that he started making music, Billy Joel wasn’t exactly known to be the most dangerous musician in the world. His meagre attempt... The post Billy Joel on how Otis Redding made the “most exciting records I ever heard” first appeared on Far Out Magazine.

The "I Love Lisa" episode premiered in 1993.

by Mike LaChance, The Gateway Pundit: What is currently happening to the Washington Post may soon be coming to the newsroom at CNN. The far-left, Russia collusion hoax pushing network has reportedly lost almost a third of its viewership since 2016. It turns out the public eventually walks away if you keep on lying to […]