Nvidia acquired SchedMD, the lead developer of Slurm, and launched the Nemotron 3 family of open source AI models.

Yes please. 2025 has been nothing short of a big year for the talented women in country music. Though country radio is still failing to give them the love they deserve, highlighted by the depressing fact that only five songs inside the Top 50 were performed by women, the year was undoubtedly filled with some major wins in a few key areas. Obviously, from a mainstream perspective, the CMA Awards were highlighted by Ella Langley, Megan Moroney and Lainey Wilson leading the nominations with Langley and Moroney becoming certified stars over the course of the year. However, when you look at the flourishing independent and alt. country scene, you get a feel for just how star-studded today’s class of female talent truly is. And for my money, the next artist who’s bound for a massive breakout heading into 2026 is none other than Willow Avalon. In case you’re somehow not familiar with Avalon, she has firmly placed herself atop the ranks of today’s new generation of female country acts, along with the likes of Maggie Antone, Kaitlin Butts, Sierra Ferrell, Kat Hasty and many more. Sounding somewhere between Dolly Parton and Loretta Lynn with a modern edge, the “Homewrecker” singer released her debut album, Southern Belle Raisin’ Hell, back in January to incredibly high praise, recently being named as one of our top country albums of 2025 here at Whiskey Riff, coming in at #31. Couple that with a live TV debut on The Late Show with Steven Colbert back in January, a surprise appearance with Zach Bryan on “I Remember Everything” at Stagecoach and the success of tracks such as “Tequila or Whiskey” and the Waylon Wyatt collaboration, “Smoke & Embers,” and you have an artist who’s primed for continued success heading into 2026. Despite the success throughout the year, Avalon turned heads back in September when she cancelled the remainder of her 2025 tour dates (excluding her festival and international shows) outright to focus on her upcoming album in an Instagram post simply titled, “Very sad news…” Noting it was a difficult decision, the Georgia native would promise fans that she’s sitting on a ton of new songs and that the new project will be well worth the wait. “After much thought and consideration, I’ve made the difficult decision to step away from touring the rest of this year to fully dedicate myself to the process of making my next album and spending much needed time with my family. (all festivals for the rest of this year and next year touring eu/uk are still on yall!!) This wasn’t an easy choice, especially knowing how much love and support I’ve received from everyone looking forward to the shows. Performing live is one of my greatest joys, but with our touring schedule next year there wouldn’t be time for us to get yall a new record and play all the amazing shows that we are so lucky to play.  I’ve been sitting on a ton of songs that I’m itching to get recorded and out for yall, and touring the rest of this year into next year wouldn’t allow that sadly. Thank you to everyone for understanding, and to my team and tour partners for their support. I can’t wait to share this new music with you—and I promise it will be worth the wait.”   Since then, she’s continued to play a few shows, namely at Red West Fest in Salt Lake City, Utah, in addition to sharing some photos from her life off the road and her red carpet appearance at last month’s CMA Awards. Yesterday, however, Avalon provided a major update regarding her sophomore effort… and fans are bound to be excited. Though she never confirmed the specifics of the album in the aforementioned Instagram post, many assumed that she’d be delivering a standard album much in the vein of Southern Belle Raisin’ Hell, which came in at a fairly standard 14-track, 43-minute runtime. This time around, the “Baby Blue” singer is swinging for the fences with the ever-popular double album, which has undoubtedly become a prominent trend in the genre today, being used by everyone from Morgan Wallen and Zach Bryan to Cody Johnson and Jason Aldean over the past five years. In an Instagram story posted Sunday afternoon, Avalon would share a selfie from the studio with the caption: “2nd record of the month starts todayyyyyy:) I’m not sure whose idea it was to make two separate 14 song records in a month buttt (it was my idea )” Though she wouldn’t share any more specifics about the record, it’s safe to say we’ll be receiving at least 28 new tracks from Avalon at some point in 2026. And I, for one, cannot be more excited to hear what she follows up her stellar debut album with. While you’re here, fire up “Tequila or Whiskey” before you go. The post Willow Avalon Teases Possibility Of 2 Albums Coming Next Year first appeared on Whiskey Riff.

How this song didn’t get recorded for almost 30 years is beyond me… Last year, Ernest put out an album called Nashville, Tennessee, which included a duet with Lainey Wilson called “Would If I Could.” And it actually has an incredibly interesting backstory, seeing as it was written in 1996 by two of the all-time great country music songwriters Dean Dillon and Skip Ewing in what was somehow their only writing collaboration together. He sent a solo version to country radio because Lainey had at least one other single starting to take off at radio, but nothing beats the duet version in my humble opinion. It’s already stood the test of time, because the song is actually almost 30-years old. A little while back, legendary songwriter Dean Dean told Lost & Found Radio with Lori McKenna that he always knew it was a great song that for whatever reason just got tossed aside like so many unfortunately do: “Skip and I had never written before, I don’t know who had the melody or who had the idea, but when we finished, I thought we had a great song. There was more to it than a lot of other stuff I’ve written, but for whatever reason, and you know this yourself, it happens a lot. They just get pitched a couple times and that’s it. You never hear about them again. And then somebody somewhere dug this out of the trash can somewhere.” Lainey actually first covered “Would If I Could” solo for a special Apple Music Sessions feature in 2023, and I was obsessed from the very first time I heard it. So when Ernest announced that they were turning it into a duet for his aforementioned project, I knew it would be special because it’s such a timeless and beautiful song. Classic is the word that comes to mind every time I hear it, which is a huge compliment especially in the music industry in 2025. And during an appearance on RFD TV, Skip Ewing says it was “a treat” to have Lainey and Ernest finally cut this song, and he explained what a great job they did with it: “Well, I mean, first of all, to have those guys do that song, what a treat. I think they are both just real artists, I like them both. I don’t know them personally, but for them to choose to do that… what happened was, Apple Music sort of discovered this song, and asked Lainey if she would sing it as a version for Apple Music. That’s what she did first, and then Ernest heard it, and said, ‘Wait a minute… I want to put this on my project, why don’t you come sing a duet on that?’ Lainey did one version of it, and then Lainey and Ernest did another version of it, and then Ernest put the single out and it’s been on the charts now for 50-something weeks.” He is still surprised that “Would If I Could” got uncovered and recorded, calling it “country as all get out” and pointing out how special it is: “I mean, you just go, wow, how does that happen? It’s country as all get out. It is. I wanna say 1996, we might have written it back that far. It’s the only song that Dean Dillon and I ever wrote together, and it never got recorded, not sure why. But I’m sure glad it got recorded… and I love, I can’t tell you… you get songs cut, and that’s wonderful, but some tings come together like that. Everything I know about Lainey and Ernest is talented in about every way that you can be talented, so what a blessing that was.” Lainey and Ernest even performed it out on the road this year while Ern opened up her Whirlwind tour, and while I would’ve loved to see it become a chart-topping hit, it’s done very well, and it really is crazy to think how long it just sat around untouched and passed up by so many artists. @maddygreeeen probably one of my favorite parts of the entire concert. they sounded so good together!! #laineywilson #ernest #phx1 #country ♬ original sound – maddy It has such a classic sound and feel to it, but if there was anyone who could bring it into modern day and make it still sound like a timeless country hit, it’s Ernest and Lainey, and it’s cool to hear from Ewing’s perspective how much he loves what they did with it: View this post on Instagram It makes you wonder how many other great songs like that have been left on the cutting room floor, and in a town like Nashville, where there are so many talented songwriters, it’s sad to think there’s probably thousands and thousands of great ones we’ll never hear. But even though it took almost three decades, we did finally get to hear this one, and I couldn’t love it more. If you haven’t heard it yet, you’re missing out: “Would If I Could” The post “Would If I Could” Co-Writer, Skip Ewing, Says It Was A “Blessing” To Have Ernest & Lainey Wilson Cut The Song Almost 30 Years After He Wrote It With Dean Dillon first appeared on Whiskey Riff.

President Trump was just asked by a reporter about the criticism from some Republicans of his comments on Truth Social today regarding Rob and Michelle Reiner. In short, Trump didn’t budge from . . .

A tough competition. The post Frank Sinatra vs The Beatles: Who won the most Grammy Awards? first appeared on Far Out Magazine.

Sting claims his lyrics were misinterpreted by the masses. The post The one Police song Sting called “grossly misunderstood” first appeared on Far Out Magazine.