50 More Weeks To Go...

End of week number two of 2018 ... People better be getting tax rebate checks or something if they plan to make it to all the different tours still making announcements. From the high price Taylor Swift shows to The Opry at Bonnaroo!

This week Little Big Town and Miranda Lambert announced a co-headline tour. Alan Jackson adding Lauren Alaina, Runaway June, Lee Ann Womack and Randy Houser to various stops on his Honky Tonk Highway tour. Jason Isbell added spring dates everywhere from Panama City to Montgomery and he's also a nice hall in Sugarland, TX, the Smart Financial Center. The road is where the money is!

Air conditioners on this week in Nashville as the temps rebound to 65 from six degrees a week or so ago. Now snow and ice in forecast and 16 degrees as Luke Bryan's Crash My Playa gets ready to head out to Mexico. Blake, Sam Hunt and many more on that growing Mexican vacation/playdate. Nine degrees forecast for Tuesday in Nashville; Mexico sounded pretty good.

It's very interesting if you stop and really look at what the Country music media is pushing these days. The superstars are for the most part quiet except for Mr. and Mrs. Aldean's mega-social media presence.

The publicity machines for some artists are really working to keep their clients name in the press. Brothers Osborne comes to mind. The return of Sugarland for sure ... Radio airplay may be absent for a few people in the media but that doesn't stop CMT, for one, from pushing the edgy hip fringe artists. Chris Stapleton was once one of those artists and look where his profile went and for the most part, without broadcast radio help. Anderson East, Walker McGuire, and a dozen others knocking on the door ... or at least their people are.

Dixie Chicks Live out Friday the 12th ... will be interesting to see how it does ... if it does ... and how a live album dies in general scores. Garth has one on the way later this year, we think.

CRS is getting close and that is where big PR pushes will come for all kinds of artists ... Brett Young is sure doing a good job getting seen and scoring with his radio music. He may have a big 2018.

Dolly Parton taking the word "Dixie" off of her dinner theaters in Missouri, Tennessee and South Carolina is a sure sign of cultural changes. The Dolly Parton Stampede is a better name anyway, but the fact they felt that Dixie had to be removed makes a lot of Southern born folks cringe. The times they are still a changing. Will everything with Dixie in it get tossed? I hope not.

And again for all the Georgia football fans still in mourning after the big game Monday night ... You have a good team that will only get better ... and for the few of us graduates and fans of Alabama. Roll Tide ... worst halftime show in history and one of the best most exciting games! Who thought it was a good idea to feature Kendrick Lamar? Music Row agents didn't have enough juice to get us in that?