All You Need Is Heat

Just got back from the deep-fried state of Texas. There’s hot and there’s hot! 110 degree heat indexes, whew!

Timing has worked out pretty good this summer for all the touring artists. No reports of anyone in Country not able to play due to heat.

Carlos Santana did collapse on stage, and his people have extended his get-well time by few weeks.

July is festival month all over. The weather is always in play with heat/rain/lightning.

Country Thunder festival is happening this week in Craven, Saskatchewan, in Central Canada. High 80s and dry, nighttime lows around 60. Morgan Wallen and Blake Shelton are the biggest names, and the crowds will be great!

Eric Church and Tim McGraw are the big headliners at the Big Valley Jamboree South of Edmonton later in the month.

Watershed on the Columbia River Gorge will headline Morgan, Miranda Lambert and Kane Brown.

This is the “Summer of Morgan” (to the frowns of his detractors). He’s been at #1 for three weeks with “Wasted on You,” and his album, “Dangerous,” is back at #1 after a week’s disruption by Luke Combs.

Huge tour dates, a #1 single and album for multiple weeks: That’s swimming around the Entertainer of the Year part of the swimming pool. No way will the gatekeepers allow that, but how can you NOT make him one of the top Entertainer of the Year nominees? This might get complicated for the CMA and ABC.

While in the Nashville twin city of Austin, I heard Willie Nelson on the radio doing an interview for the 10th anniversary of KOKE-FM. Willie sounded good, in a good mood and sharp. He got on stage with Kacey Musgraves at a Rose Bowl-based festival last weekend. They did “On the Road Again,” and the crowd loved it.

Parker McCollum is hot as a Texas firecracker right now along with Morgan, at least in Texas. His resume this year includes a sellout of NRG Stadium during the rodeo, and the three-night sellout (15,000 tickets) for the amphitheater in San Marcos.

Back to the charts, look at how well the smaller independent labels are doing! Triple Tigers’ Scotty McCreery’s going to get that next #1!

The hot weather is awful. Europe’s getting it too. Brad Paisley is there most of July.

Jason Aldean is back, Luke Bryan and Keith Urban too. It’s mid-summer moneymaking time!

Off duty and having the time of her life, Miranda is on that 20-day Airstream adventure out West. Her smile could light a room!

Heat is a big challenge for sure. Always is, but this summer it seems 10 to 15 degrees hotter. And don’t forget about Covid. No one wants to hear about that, but it is most certainly picking off people. Don’t let your guard down!

Arena tours sure sound good this time of year. A perfect night outside listening to music is hard to beat. That scenario has been hard to come by in the South and West in 2022.