Senate Democrats have hypocritically used the filibuster to block a continuing resolution 13 times, and it's hitting airlines, food stamps, and their poll numbers.

Skip to content Home Courts Education Elections Politics Health Mission Statement Subscribe Contact Us Donate October 24, 2025 Alaina Moore BEHIND BARS: Former Elections Director Howard Knapp & Deputy Paige Salonich On Friday morning, October 24, 2025, Former South Carolina Elections Director Howard “Howie” Knapp and Deputy Director Paige Salonich were arrested by the State …

Big news for the men of Treaty Oak Revival. Treaty Oak Revival is on a roll, earning EIGHT new RIAA certifications this month. This is added onto the three previous RIAA certifications that the West Texas country rockers earned this year, bringing their total to eleven gold and platinum singles and records to their name. But for those who are not familiar with the RIAA certification system, let’s do a quick teaching lesson: Starting with their background, the RIAA is a trade organization consisting of major record labels and distributors that aims to “support and promote the creative and commercial vitality of music labels in the United States.” With that being said, however, their primary feature, in terms of public discussion of music, is undoubtedly their tracking of artists’ sales. These sales, of course, are tracked in terms of “gold,” “platinum,” and “diamond” certifications once a song or album hits the required criteria. RIAA Criteria When a single or an album has sold at least 500,000 units, it is eligible for Gold certification; when it hits 1 million, it is eligible for Platinum certification. And finally, a song or record must sell 10 million units for it to be certified Diamond. There have been only 13 Diamond-Certified songs in country music history. And keep in mind, the RIAA doesn’t just keep a running tab on these awards and hand out plaques… an artist’s label will actively pursue certification by applying, submitting some stats, and paying a few hundred bucks to undergo an audit to verify the sales. And then… You have to buy a plaque for every person involved. Well, only if you want to… As for what constitutes as a “unit,” there are distinctions between sales regarding both singles and albums. Starting with singles, one paid download or 150 on-demand streams constitutes a unit. Albums, on the other hand, are a bit different. Given how popular streaming is in today’s age, there are three different ways an album can sell a single unit: 1) a permanent digital album or physical album sale, which basically means someone bought the record; 2) 10 permanent track downloads from the album, which laughably wouldn’t even be 1/3 of a Morgan Wallen album these days; or 3) 1,500 on-demand audio and/or video streams from the album. Of course, streaming is how a bulk of the units are earned these days. Earlier this year, Luke Combs beat out Garth Brooks (who had 162.5 million units sold) as the highest-selling country artist of all time. This accomplishment is a huge feat. Country fans knew that Combs was on a hot streak, securing new certifications from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) over the past few months —34 certifications, if you’re interested in the exact number. So, we knew the possibility of him surpassing Brooks was coming, but it came much faster than I think even he could have imagined. Although Treaty Oak Revival might have a ways to go to catch up to Luke Combs, the band earned eight new RIAA certifications on October 23, an insane accomplishment for an indie band. Artists dream of earning a gold or platinum record, and the group just secured certifications for both of its LPs and a handful of singles, too. Both No Vacancy and Have A Nice Day are officially RIAA gold. Their singles “Happy Face” and “See You In Court” were also given gold certifications. And as if that wasn’t enough good news, “In Between,” “Ode To Bourbon,” “Stop And Stare,” and “No Vacancy” have all earned platinum certifications. Treaty Oak was even shocked to hear this news, noting it was “insanity.” Insanity https://t.co/cxnRaRtrw7 — Treaty Oak Revival (@TreatyOakMusic) October 27, 2025 I am sure that the men of Treaty Oak are on cloud nine right now. Congrats boys. Fire up a few before you go: “Stop And Stare” “In Between” The post Treaty Oak Revival’s ‘No Vacancy’ & ‘Have A Nice Day’ Are Officially Gold-Certified Albums first appeared on Whiskey Riff.

Dolly has taste. I think many country legends in their own right would say that Dolly Parton wrote many of their favorite country songs… but do you know what Dolly’s favorite country song of all time is? To the surprise of probably no one, as it turns out, Dolly loves her some classic country… and George Jones wrote one of her favorites. She says she loves “He Stopped Loving Her Today” impacted her deeply, because it “touches every cell in our body” and heart. She says it’s her favorite song, and Jones is her favorite artist, because no one can tell a story like he did: “To me, that song is so well written, but it touches every cell in your body, in your heart. It’s just like he stopped loving her today, they hung that wreath upon the door. He was never going to stop loving her in his lifetime. He had to die. It is so beautiful and, of course, George Jones is my favorite country singer in the world – always was, always will be. Nobody can tell that story like he did. So to me, that is the country classic of all time.” Amen to that, Dolly… And you might be surprised to know how Jones came to record what many consider to be the greatest country song of all time, which was a co-write by Bobby Braddock and Curly Putman, who also penned Tammy Wynette’s “D-I-V-O-R-C-E,” producer Billy Sherrill liked the song enough to take it to Jones. At the time, Jones was in a bad downward spiral in the wake of his divorce from Tammy in 1975 (mostly due to his drug and alcohol abuse problems), and he hadn’t had a #1 hit song in six years. His career was stalling because of everything going on in his personal life. On top of that, he was beginning to fall out of love with playing country music, and was in a lot of debt due to his legal issues and battle with addiction. Needless to say, he was at a crossroads in both his career and life. When George headed into CBS Studio B in Nashville to eventually record “He Stopped Loving Her Today,” they could never get it in one try, and actually wound up putting different bits of different takes together. In Bob Allen’s biography about George, George Jones: The Life and Times of a Honky Tonk Legend, he recalled Billy saying George wouldn’t even attempt to learn the melody because he hated it, and Billy told him that Kris would love it, because he was the one “who wrote it”: “He thought it was too long, too sad, too depressing and that nobody would ever play it. He hated the melody and wouldn’t learn it.” And actually, George thought it was such a bad recording and such a dark song, that he told Billy no one would even to listen to it. It’s a wonder how they ever got him in the studio for this at all… They ultimately released it as the lead single from his 1980 I Am What I Am album, and he wrote in his 1996 autobiography I Lived To Tell It All,: “I looked Billy square in the eye and said, ‘Nobody will buy that morbid son of a b*tch.’” Of course, he was dead wrong, as it became his first #1 single in six years, and ultimately, one of the greatest country songs of all time. He famously admitted himself that it wound up saving his career: “To put it simply I was back on top. Just that quickly. I don’t want to belabor this comparison, but a four-decade career was salvaged by a three-minute song.” Pretty wild that his signature song, and one of the all-time classic country standards (which is probably even an understatement), he didn’t even like at first and didn’t want to record. As a result of the wild popularity of the hit, CBS Records renewed his contract, and it earned him the Grammy Award for Best Male Country Vocal Performance in 1980. He also won the ACM for Single of the Year and Song of the Year in 1980, as well as being the CMA’s Song of the Year in both 1980 and 1981. And Dolly Parton’s favorite song of all-time was born, too… “He Stopped Loving Her Today” The post What Is Dolly Parton’s Favorite Country Song Of All Time? first appeared on Whiskey Riff.

A country music classic. “Seven Spanish Angels” is one of the most iconic country duets ever recorded, a truly haunting, Gospel-tinged ballad performed by Willie Nelson and Ray Charles in 1984. The song was written by Troy Seals and Eddie Setser, and it tells a tragic story of love, loss, and redemption set against a Western backdrop. The lyrics paint the picture of an outlaw couple making their final stand against a posse of lawmen. The man dies in a gunfight protecting his lover, and in heartbreak, she picks up his gun to join him in death. As they fall, “seven Spanish angels” gather to pray for their souls…  a powerful image that gives the song its spiritual weight. Of course, the song was released on Ray Charles’ album Friendship and became his most successful country single, spending a week at #1 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart in March 1985. It also became one of Willie Nelson’s signature duets, in a long line of many iconic duets, and was included on Willie’s 1985 duets compilation album, Half Nelson. Even today, the song remains a timeless classic — blending the soul of Ray Charles, the grit of Willie Nelson, and the storytelling tradition of country music into something truly unforgettable. It’s often covered in tribute performances and is still regarded as one of the most moving duets in country history. Speaking of tribute performances, we’re taking back to the 2016 when Chris Stapleton teamed up with the great Dwight Yoakam for a cover of the country music classic at the CMA Awards. Being the 50th Annual CMA Awards that year, the night featured a number of iconic covers including a multi-star medley of classic country hits; a Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood medley of songs like “Jackson,” “Rose Garden,” “Don’t Close Your Eyes,” and more; a Dolly Parton tribute from the women of country music; and this soulful duet from the great Dwight Yoakam and Chris Stapleton. This was the year after Chris’ breakout CMA Awards performance alongside Justin Timberlake, and in about a year’s time, Chris had become one of the biggest country music acts in the world. The performance also featured stellar vocals from Chris’ wife and backup singer, Morgane Stapleton, and was met with a resounding standing ovation from the CMA Awards crowd. Everyone in the building knew that were witnessing greatness, and Chris would go on to become the most decorated CMA Awards artist ever with 19 wins… tied with Brooks and Dunn. Chris has 3 nominations this year, and Brooks and Dunn have 1, so Chris could take sole possession of the crown next month. But back to the performance… go ahead and watch this and try to tell me this isn’t as good as it gets. Chris Stapleton Announces 2026 Tour Dates Already gearing up for a busy 2026. Chris Stapleton has formally announced that he is extending his All-American Road Show tour into next year with two-night stands in Las Vegas, Thackerville, Oklahoma and Uncasville, Connecticut. While Stapleton has been on tour this year both opening for George Strait, as well as playing his own full band shows, these new ones will be a little bit different in that Stapleton will be the only name on the bill, performing alongside his full band with no openers. While I obviously appreciate hearing up-and-coming artists and discovering new music with a typical large tour that usually has two different openers, there’s something special about just getting to hear the headliner and having all of the time dedicated to them performing. It doesn’t happen often, especially with someone like Stapleton, so if you’re able to make it to any of these shows, it will certainly be a special experience. If you haven’t seen him before, he’s as incredible as you would imagine live, and I highly recommend getting to one of his shows at some point because he’s truly one of the best in the business. And if you don’t see your city, or anywhere near your state, on this list, I have a feeling more shows will be announced down the road so you’ll likely (hopefully) end up with at least one near you by the time 2026 rolls around. Tickets are already on sale. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Chris Stapleton (@chrisstapleton) This announcement comes during another massive year for Stapleton, who recently earned three nominations at the 59th Annual CMA Awards in Entertainer of the Year, Male Vocalist of the Year, and Music Video of the Year for “Think I’m In Love With You.” Earlier this year, he named Male Artist of the Year at the 60th Annual ACM Awards, marking his fifth time winning the category. In addition, he recently released a duet with Miranda Lambert called “A Song To Sing,” which channels their inner Dolly and Kenny and is super groovy and fun, finding them reflecting on a timeless love that only gets better with time. In terms of solo music, Stapleton put out his most recent album Higher in 2023, so hopefully fans can expect new music sometime next year too. Tour Dates November 1—Gonzales, LA—Boots on the Bayou February 4—Las Vegas, NV—Dolby Live at Park MGM February 5—Las Vegas, NV—Dolby Live at Park MGM February 20—Thackerville, OK—WinStar Lukas Oil Live February 21—Thackerville, OK—WinStar Lukas Oil Live February 27—Uncasville, CT—Mohegan Sun Casino February 28—Uncasville, CT—Mohegan Sun Casino May 26—Panama City Beach, FL—Gulf Coast Jam “A Song To Sing” The post Watch Chris Stapleton & Dwight Yoakam Cover The Ray Charles & Willie Nelson Classic, “Seven Spanish Angels,” Back In 2016 first appeared on Whiskey Riff.

The story behind “Am I Okay?” Megan Moroney scored her second chart topping hit with her single “Am I Okay?” earlier this year, which was the title track to her 2024 sophomore album. It was written by Meg alongside Jessie Jo Dillon and Luke Laird, and is certainly a far cry from her typical self-described “emo cowgirl” sad songs she loves so much, and finds her shockingly content and happy in a relationships for the first time in a long time. Megan explained to CMT how it came to be: “When you look at the title ‘Am I Okay?’ know that I’m the emo cowgirl, I knew my fans were gonna be like, oh, it’s gonna hurt, I can’t wait to listen. This is gonna be my crash out song. And then it’s actually a happy song. It’s about being happy for once, and you’re like, I don’t wanna sabotage this. This guy is treating me really great, I think I might need to be put in rice. Something is wrong. Oh my god, am I okay? When I wrote it, I actually had Kenny’s tour in mind. I wrote it in January of 2024, and I knew that I would be on tour with him in the summer, and I was like, I need some sort of song that feels really big and fun to sing and stadiums, because I don’t want my whole set to just be sad. So I brought it into the writers room with Luke Laird and Jesse, Jo Dillon, and I was like, guys, I don’t feel like writing a sad song today. And they were like, ‘Huh?’ I actually haven’t said that I fell really hard, And I thought everything he did was fantastic, wonderful, amazing, never been done before.” Well, as fate would have it, the day she went into the recording studio to cut vocals, things ended guy she wrote the song about, leaving her in a much different emotional state than she was in when she wrote it. Megan says she was “crying” while singing the vocals, though now, she can appreciate the song as a special moment in time with her fans when life was going really great, even if she wasn’t in a romantic relationship: “I think we wrote it in like 45 minutes, maybe. It’s just like such a fun song to jump up and down and sing to, and I remember liking it but I had no idea that it was gonna be the title track when we wrote it. And I had no idea that it was gonna be a hit, but I guess everyone liked it, which is great. So funny story, me and that guy had broken up the day before I went to sing vocals. He was love bombing me. I was literally crying while I was singing these vocals, which is crazy to look back and think that I almost didn’t put the song out because I was like, I’m so sad right now. How am I gonna sing this song about this guy being so great, like, name a whole album after it, name a whole tour after it, like, how am I gonna get through this? And I’m here to tell everyone I got through it. I got over it, and now when I think of the song, it’s kind of like a song of me and my fans and where I’m at in life just being happy and wanting to stay.” Megan also talked about co-directed the music video, winning winning the first-ever Best Country award for the song this year. She says that it’s really just about being honest about her life in her music, because that’s what she admires in her favorite artists and what she knows fans connect with most in her music too: “I try to be really honest about situations I’ve gone through, because I know that the artists I look up to and love have done that in their music, and they’ve helped me throughout my life. And I hope that I can just be an artist that people can go to for any emotion, whether it’s happy or sad, and my music can just be an outlet for my fans” Considering Megan admits she cried through the recording process, I would never, ever have guessed that when I listen to it so she did more than okay I would say… Here’s the clip: @cmt The power of an #emocowgirl anthem knows no bounds #CMTHitStory #meganmoroney #amiokay #amiokaytour ♬ original sound – CMT I’m pretty sure I said it at the time, but this is easily my favorite song on the album and I wasn’t surprised at all to see it become such a big hit… turn it up: “Am I Okay?” The post Megan Moroney Broke Up With The Guy She Wrote “Am I Okay?” About The Day Before She Recorded It: “Literally Crying While I Was Singing” first appeared on Whiskey Riff.

Just tragic. This week, country star Luke Bryan is the guest on CNN podcast All There Is with Anderson Cooper, and he opened up about a completely horrific time in his life, when his sister,  Kelly, died unexpectedly in 2007 at age 39. Seven years later, Kelly’s husband and Luke’s brother-in-law, Ben Lee Cheshire, passed away from a heart attack in 2014. They shared three children, Jordan, Kris, and Til, and Luke and his wife Caroline stepped up and adopted their nieces and nephews and raised them as their own. Luke’s brother, Chris, also tragically passed away in a car accident in 1996 at just 20 years old. It happened on the night before Luke had planned to move to Nashville to chase his country music dreams, so obviously that got put on pause for a few years, and even though he’s enjoyed a lot of success in the music industry, Luke’s life has not been without a lot of pain and tragedy. His hit song “Drink a Beer” was written for his siblings and family members, and it’s really an inspiring story… even if his music isn’t your favorite, there’s no denying that he’s a great guy and stepped up for his family when they needed it the most. At the time of his sister’s passing, the family understandably never revealed a cause of death, and due to some misinformation on the internet, Bryan revealed what happened during the interview. He says Kelly was part of a “very very small percentage of people” that “die for no reason,” called “sudden death syndrome.” He explained that his family never tried to cover anything up, but it was obviously “tragic beyond words,” especially for her three young children. It happened while she was at home doing laundry: “I’ve never really explained what happened to my sister. There’s some misinformation out there on the internet, and I think some people kind of like, wonder what happened and think that we’ve tried to cover it up. But there is a very very small percentage of people that die for no reason in the world. And it’s called sudden death syndrome and that’s essentially what they they described my sister’s death as she was in her home doing her laundry, and it was Anderson, it was like, you know, somebody just turned the switch off on her and it was just- it was- it was just tragic beyond words.” Cooper asked if it took a while to get that diagnoses, because there were articles out there saying that they had a “number of autopsies” done, and Luke explained that the family wanted to get to the bottom of it because there were so many unanswered questions. She at home without any adults around, and Bryan says they’re still unsure if she fainted first, but she did have a “severe orbital bone injury,” and he still wonders if she would’ve been able to survive if someone had been there to help. He called his sister the “best mother you could ever dream of,” and he still can’t wrap his brain around her being gone sometimes: “Yeah, yeah, we had- obviously we wanted to know what had happened because there was so much, there was just so much unanswered questions. And we wanted to know, could there be a family history of something that her children might have or may have? Your typical findings of an autopsy of someone 39 would be an aneurysm or an embolism or a blood clot of some kind and everything was inconclusive. She had a pretty severe, uh, like orbital bone injury. So whether she fainted or not, I think she may have went into the floor and kind of knocked herself out. My nephew, uh was three at the time. And I just think I think if someone could have been there, maybe, maybe her chances of surviving would have been- they would have been a lot better. She really was just a, she was everything in our lives. She was a mother of three children and she was, I mean, the best mother you could ever dream of. And we all leaned on her for so many things and it’s hard to really wrap your brain around her being gone.” Bryan also opened up about her funeral, and he explained an incredible experience when he walked in the building that day to put her to rest: “The morning of her funeral, I mean Anderson, I don’t know how to vocalize what I was feeling. I mean the nausea. I did not want to go in the funeral home and see my sister. I was just really… not not processing this well. And the fact that I knew at 5:00 pm I was going to walk in that funeral home and have to deal with this- it was just really I just wasn’t doing well with it. And we get in a car and it’s the sensation you get in the car and you know that this has got to happen. And Anderson when I walked in the room- and I’m a pretty spiritual guy and I’m pretty grounded in my belief in Christ and Christianity- and I would say it was the first time in my life I felt a spirit of another world take away my burden in that room. When I saw her, it was like something, it was almost like a pressure valve released. And, and I just feel like between… I don’t I can’t explain it. It was truly like she let – she set me free in that room. And you know, my mother did not have that experience and and I think I was the only one in the family that had that experience.” I can’t even imagine how difficult that whole experience was and continues to be for their family, but he has really stepped up, to put it lightly, and supported his nieces and nephew who lost two parents at such young ages. He also talked about how he’s dealt with the loss of both of his siblings throughout life and into adulthood, and it’s an incredibly honest conversation that will give you some real insight into who Bryan is and what he’s overcome. The full podcast is available below: The post For The First Time Ever, Luke Bryan Shares What Caused His Sister’s Tragic Passing In 2007: “Like Somebody Turned The Switch Off” first appeared on Whiskey Riff.

Vice President JD Vance spoke candidly about potentially running for president in 2028, and revealed that President Trump actually suggested he and Marco run about six months ago. Here’s what he said . . .

CNN had more bad news for Democrats this morning regarding one of their top issues, and one that most of us believe is a religion for them. Chief Data Analyst Harry Enten . . .

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