Music Gets Hot In February!

Grammy Month ... Music around the Super Bowl ... The winter tours slide their way to the frozen North...The CRS convention and it's debut of the baby acts.

February with Valentine's Day and the Daytona 500. Everything has a music component.

Already a great month after listening the the new Vince Gill album, Down to My Last Bad Habit. After hearing so many projects with a dozen sound-alike songs, this is such a breath of fresh spring air! Vince is so talented and it all shows 360 degrees on this project. Just find it and listen ... The salute to George Jones is the best COUNTRY music song to come out in a very long time. "Sad One Coming On" ... and the new single, "Take Me Down," should light up the transmitter! The whole journey is just excellent. Long way from Grammy 2017, but hope it gets there!

The CRS and the new kids ... No big boat ride, but no shortage of live music. Probably politically correct not to pick pre-event favorites but there will be some breakout acts. Seeing is believing sometimes.

This is the year for Dierks ... Now an exhibit at the Country Music Hall of Fame. Mid-March is the opening ... ACM co-host ... all coming together.

Is the saddest story ever Joey and Rory? Hurts my heart every time I see something new. I know everyone they have touched are praying and wishing them well. Blake said this week he hopes they win a Grammy he is nominated for ... I know everyone wishes they could do something. Anything!

Merle Haggard is out for the month. Double pneumonia is taking longer than he would like to get better. Mel Tillis I'm sure is tired of being sick, too.

The Chris Stapleton train just keeps rolling ... The ACM nominations and now a part of Grammy salute to BB King. When that rock starts going down the hill around here, it is amazing to watch!

all these tours going out this summer going to make money? There sure seems to be a LOT of folks doing major tours. How do the fans budget all this? Can one city see a big tour or festival every weekend of the summer? In the Deep South from Memorial Day to Labor Day, huge new festivals, a few older one and lots of amphitheatre tours. One bit the dust in the NE recently. You have to wonder if the economy in the oil patch with 21,000 layoffs in January will affect the concert business.

The rodeos in Texas are very ambitious as always. Houston the king of them all, but layoffs are hitting and hitting hard. It is something to keep your eye on in Canada and in Texas and Oklahoma.

The beer concessions should be great on Colt Ford, Justin Moore and headliner Brantley Gilbert. That tour smokes even on paper. And on the subject of economics, you wonder how many opening acts actually sell tickets? Not sure how you prove the theory one way or the other. But you can wonder.

How did Blake Shelton get zero ACM nominations ... still wondering about that ... He did get a Nickelodeon nomination for a show he IS hosting.

Scotty McCreery is a talented young man. Sara Evans still can out sing most. Both free agents ... There is just so much talent around these days but two very different worlds, trends and tastes. You see it in the politics of the day and the music. We live in a time of polarization. Think about it. Middle ground seems very out of style.