Bonnie Raitt brought her terrific voice and exceptional guitar playing to the Robinson Center in Little Rock, Ark., on Wednesday, May 7, for a wonderful evening of music.

Raitt told the sold-out audience that she had been performing on the road for 54 years, which is remarkable, as she hasn’t lost a step. She sounds just as amazing live in person at 75 years old as she does on her records.

Raitt’s body of work holds a little bit of everything – blues, rock, folk, Americana and even a pop crossover or two – and she proved as much on Wednesday night.

Raitt began her 16-song set with the rocking “I Sho Do,” which she recorded on her 1994 album Longing In Their Hearts.

Throughout the evening, she would perform her most legendary hits, along with some deep cuts – some of which she told the audience she rarely played, like Paul Brady’s “Steal Your Heart Away,” which she told the crowd she wanted to practice on us with because she’d be playing it in front of Brady when she tours in his home country of Ireland next month.

One of the night’s best performances was when Raitt showed off her songwriting with “Just Like That,” the surprising Grammy Awards Song of the Year winner off her latest album, Just Like That… (2022). Raitt admitted she hasn’t done a whole lot of songwriting throughout her career, but was inspired by the incredible story songs of her good friend John Prine. It’s amazing that one of the times she writes her own stuff, it was not only this beautiful, tear-jerking song, but good enough to win the Grammy for overall Song of the Year. As a huge fan of Prine, one of the night’s highlights was her performance of his “Angel From Montgomery.” Her recording of it on 1974’s Streetlights helped bring both it and Prine to the forefront of some music lovers, who hadn’t been hip to Prine’s fantastic self-titled 1971 debut.  

Among the best blues output from Raitt’s set on Wednesday were her cover of Mabel John’s “Your Good Thing (Is About to End),” which she dedicated to the blues/R&B singer who died in 2022, and Sippie Wallace’s “Women Be Wise.” Raitt has done a lot to keep some of the lesser-known names of women blues singers alive throughout the years.

It was Raitt’s most well-known works that I found myself gravitating toward throughout the evening, as a fan of hers who isn’t all that familiar with her deeper cuts. This means performances like her John Hiatt cover, “Thing Called Love,” “Nick of Time,” and “Something to Talk About,” which nearly brought the house down, were among my favorites of the evening.

Perhaps the best performance of the entire night was her encore opener of “I Can’t Make You Love Me,” which is probably the song she’s most known for throughout her Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and award-winning career. The fact that she sounds just as good now as she did on her 1991 album Luck of the Draw was jaw-dropping. It’s one of those live concert moments that anyone who witnessed won’t forget anytime soon.

Raitt finished the show with performances of Michael McDonald’s “Matters of the Heart” and “Love Sneakin’ Up on You,” incorporating a bit of Chaka Khan’s “You Got the Love” into the mix.

Jon Cleary and the Absolute Monster Gentleman opened the evening with their fascinating mixture of New Orleans funk and R&B, mostly performing tracks off their latest album, The Bywater Sessions, which dropped April 25. Among the fun performances from that album were “Zulu Coconuts,” “Boneyard,” “Fessa Longhair Boogaloo” and “Just Kissed My Baby.”

Singer-songwriter Parker Millsap wrapped his month-long tour at the White Water Tavern in Little Rock, Ark., on Sunday, May 4. He fit about 18 songs into a brief, less than 90-minute set, showcasing his powerful vocals and excellent guitar playing.

I first saw Parker Millsap live at the Outland Ballroom in Springfield, Mo., in the summer of 2017. At the time, he had only two solo albums under his belt, and his most recent album, The Very Last Day, from the year before, had been one of my favorites.

In his early 20s, Millsap put forth one of the most energetic, foot-stomping shows I’d ever seen, completely drenched in sweat by the show’s end. His first two albums were the kind of gospel-tinged, alt-country-folk Americana that led to both performer and crowd constantly moving in unison to the raucous performances.

After that, Millsap’s music began to change. It became a little more bluesy, rock-ish and even poppier. On his latest album, 2023’s Wilderness Within You, his music changed again to a more stripped down folksy vibe. He’s a chameleon who loves different sounds and writes and records in these various sounds. I haven’t liked his three most recent albums nearly as much as I did The Very Last Day, but they’re still worthwhile, and Millsap showed on Sunday night in person that these sounds all mesh together fairly well in a live setting, even if they didn’t always catch my ear on the recordings.

On Sunday night, he performed three songs from The Very Last Day at the White Water Tavern: the title track, “Hades Pleads” and, my ultimate favorite, “Heaven Sent.” They were my favorite performances of the evening, but I could’ve told you going in that would likely be the case. It’s probably just my affection for these songs that makes me feel this way, but they, along with the similar fire-and-brimstone-sounding “Truckstop Gospel” from 2014’s self-titled album, seem to be Millsap at his best.

“Heaven Sent,” the story of the gay son of a preacher who struggles with his dad's inability to understand him, has been one of my favorite songs since I first heard it in 2016. On this website, I ranked it the best Americana/Country song of 2016 and the No. 8 best song of the decade (2010-2019) in 2019.

The bluesy tracks from Millsap’s three most recent albums, such as “The Real Thing " from 2021’s Be Here Instead and “Your Water” from 2018’s Other Arrangements, were the ones I liked the most from his post-The Very Last Day output.

Other highlights included “Front Porchin’” and “So Far Apart,” with which he opened the show, from Wilderness Within You.   

Millsap had a fantastic group of musicians playing with him on Sunday night: Michael Zimmerman on bass, Hayden Cotcher on drums and the fantastic Bobby Steinfeld on keys.

Millsap wrapped up the night with a solo performance of a beautiful new song called “Before the Curtain Closes,” which was a fitting way to end the evening. The song is a part of a four-song EP he’s recorded with the musical ensemble Lockeland Strings, which drops this upcoming Friday (May 9).

Sturgill Simpson and his incredibly talented band turned the Mane Stage into an hour-long jam session on Saturday, April 26, night two of the 2025 Stagecoach Festival from the Polo Empire Club in Indio, Calif.

Simpson has been a musical chameleon throughout his career, going from traditional country singer to more Americana/folk performer to a rocker to a bluegrass picker to the mixture of it all known as Johnny Blue Skies on his latest release. The Johnny Blue Skies persona and the tour that’s come along with it has seen Simpson as more of a jam-band and the musicians he’s brought with him, Laur Joamets on guitar, Kevin Black on bass, Miles Miller on drums and Robbie Crowell on keys, have left many comparing his shows to a modern day Grateful Dead.

He brought this jam session performance to the Stagecoach Festival on Saturday night. With a 10-song, hour-long set, Simpson and the band went from one song to another without much stoppage in between, giving the packed crowd a bit of an appetizer as to what they might get from a full-length Simpson road show, which has been going three-plus hours as of late.

Simpson peppered songs from most of his discography throughout the set, with perhaps the biggest surprise of the evening being that “Mint Tea” was the only track off last year’s Johnny Blue Skies record, Passage du Desir, to make the cut. It does happen to be my favorite track on that record, so that was pretty cool to see.

My favorite Simpson album is 2014’s Metamodern Sounds in Country Music, which broke him to a bigger following after 2013’s more traditional sounding High Top Mountain. He performed four songs off this album on Saturday night, including the first three songs of his set, which was my favorite portion of his show. Those songs in order were, “Life of Sin,” always a great way to begin a show, “Turtles All the Way Down” and “Long White Line.” Later in the set, he performed a rocking performance of “It Ain’t All Flowers” that flowed flawlessly into a reggae-influenced cover of the Eddie Murphy 1985 hit “Party All the Time,” which was a No. 2 hit – yes, you read all of that right. It’s certainly been a surprise at Simpson shows since he broke it out recently.

Among other highlights during the set were “Brace for Impact (Live a Little)” from his 2016 Grammy Album of the Year-nominated A Sailor’s Guide to Earth, “Railroad of Sin” from High Top Mountain, “Best Clockmaker on Mars,” from his 2019 rock album Sound & Fury, and his consistently stellar performance of the William Bell/Otis Redding R&B/soul classic “You Don’t Miss Your Water.”  

Frankly, I would’ve preferred more Simpson songs instead of some of the jamming and the Murphy cover, but this is what Simpson has been bringing to his live shows lately and when you’re getting three hours’ worth of great music, allowing his repertoire to be thoroughly enjoyed I’m sure it’s a blast of a show.

It wasn’t too long ago that Simpson considered being done with the music business as a recording and touring artist. Then he seemingly stopped giving a damn and set out to do it the way he wanted to do it and it seems like jamming with some of his friends and fellow musicians has done a lot of good for him. I hope to catch one of those epic shows on tour when possible.  

The 2025 Stagecoach Festival from the Empire Polo Club in Indio, Calif. got underway on Friday, April 25. The festival, country music’s version of Coachella, is held at the same venue the week after that event wraps.

​Though Stagecoach is primarily country music-focused, non-country acts have been added over the years, with Lana Del Rey and Mumford & Sons among the night one performers this year.

Over the last couple of years, the festival has partnered with Amazon Music and Twitch to stream some of the biggest acts for those who cannot attend in person.

On Friday night, I was able to catch the Mane (yes, as in a horse’s mane) Stage performances of Zach Bryan, the Friday night headliner, and Brothers Osborne.

Bryan, one of the brightest singer-songwriters in the country genre, though not in the mainstream (both seemingly of his preference and Nashville’s ridiculous closed-door policy to those who don’t “play the game”), put on a terrific show that packed 30 songs into a two-hour set.

Bryan’s career skyrocketed in 2022 with the release of American Heartbreak, after self-producing two stripped-down DIY albums in the years preceding. The album included the hit “Something in the Orange,” which became a top-10 Billboard hit despite having virtually no significant airplay (something that wouldn’t have been possible in the pre-streaming days). The Grammy-nominated song was one of many songs performed from the 34-track album on Friday night at Stagecoach. Among the highlights performed from American Heartbreak on Friday were the rodeo song “Open the Gates,” “Oklahoma City,” “’68 Fastback” and “The Good I’ll Do.”

One of the earlier songs in Bryan’s set on Friday night was the live debut of “Blue Jean Baby,” which he released as a single in January. I’m sure we’ll see the country-rocker on a future project by Bryan, who’s prolific in his number of releases – albums or EPs.

Bryan’s self-titled 2023 release also featured several great performances on the Mane Stage, including the No. 1 hit “I Remember Everything,” which was performed late in his set with Willow Avalon’s smokey voice as a stand-in for the smoother vocals of Kacey Musgraves on the recording. “Overtime,” “Hey Driver,” and “East Side of Sorrow” were memorable performances from the album on Friday, as well.

Bryan released The Great American Bar Scene last year. He peppered a few of the tracks from that album throughout his set on Friday, including “Pink Skies,” my favorite from the album. Bryan also brought Noeline Hofmann, who had performed earlier in the day at Stagecoach, to the Mane Stage with him to perform “Purple Gas,” which she wrote.

One of the highlights of Bryan’s set was the cover of Warren Zevon’s “Lawyers, Guns and Money,” which he preceded by announcing, “as my favorite song of all time,” which is pretty badass. He traded off on the song's vocals with his multi-instrumentalist bandmate, Read Connolly.  

I’ll be straight up … living in the Central Time Zone and the set lasting until after 2 a.m. (the Amazon Music streams were behind the live performances), I took Bryan at his word when he wrapped his set up with the appropriate “Quittin’ Time,” and didn’t stick around for his encore of “Revival,” which I should’ve seen coming having seen Bryan in person before. He ends every show with it. 
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Earlier in the evening, Brothers Osborne took to the Mane Stage for an hour-long set of their raucous and enthusiastic country-rock.

​The duo of TJ and John Osborne has been the most successful duo in country music over the last decade and continues to put out the type of music that leads to a fun live performance.

There aren’t any slow songs in a short festival set for these brothers, with TJ commanding the stage with his vocals and John ripping on guitar.

The duo began their set on Friday night with “Might As Well Be Me,” off their self-titled 2023 album. The sound was immediately off at the Mane Stage, but luckily, this was fixed by the time the band started into their second song, “Nobody’s Nobody,” at least on the Amazon Music stream.  

Both TJ and John remarked about the wind whipping through the venue on Friday night, which may have made their sound off to the many watching live, which is unfortunate. It seemed like the brothers were battling with possible malaise from the crowd, often trying to pump them up from the stage.

Among the band’s best and biggest hits performed on Friday night were a few of my personal favorites: “Shoot Me Straight,” off 2018’s Port Saint Joe, “I’m Not for Everyone,” off 2020’s Skeletons, and the show-ending “It Ain’t My Fault,” off their 2016 debut Pawn Shop. If one were to ask me for the best of their discography and where to start to get an idea of their sound, these are the three songs I’d recommend.

Brothers Osborne peppered a few covers throughout their set, the best being “I Won’t Back Down,” the Tom Petty classic. They welcomed actress/singer Kate Hudson to the stage for a lethargic performance of the Johnny and June Carter Cash classic “Jackson,” with Hudson proving to be a disappointing duet partner. They also did a version of Bob Marley’s classic “Three Little Birds,” in a “we’re all in this together” statement, but let’s face it, we’re no longer “all in this together.” They went from “Three Little Birds” into their first big hit, “Rum,” which made for a good transition.

During their set, Brothers Osborne debuted their newest single, “Finish This Drink." This song aligns with some of their career highlights and should be a good summer jam on country radio.

The following two nights at Stagecoach Festival will include performances by Jelly Roll, Luke Combs, Sturgill Simpson, Midland, Ashley McBryde, Shaboozey and more.

by Julian Spivey
On April 9, the National Recording Registry at the Library of Congress announced its 2025 class of inductees, which included 25 new recordings recognized for being culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant to the medium of recorded sound.

Here’s the complete list of the 2025 inductees.

This year’s inductees span more than 100 years from 1913’s “Aloha ‘Oe” by the Hawaiian Quintet to the Original Broadway Cast Album of “Hamilton” in 2015.

Here are my five favorite selections on the list (in order of when they were released). 

“Kiss An Angel Good Mornin’” by Charley Pride (Single) - 1971
Charley Pride is one of the more important figures throughout country music history, not only as one of its legendary hitmakers with 30 No. 1 country hits, but historically as its first African American superstar. Among Pride’s 30 No. 1 hits was 1971’s “Kiss An Angel Good Mornin’,” written by Ben Peters, showcasing his smooth-as-honey vocals on this love song where he advises about having a happy marriage. 

“Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” by Elton John (Album) - 1973
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road is likely Elton John’s most famous album, and possibly the greatest of his Rock Hall of Fame career. The double-album from 1973 features several of Elton John’s “greatest hits” like “Candle in the Wind,” “Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting,” “Bennie and the Jets,” which hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, and the title track. It also features the epic 11-minute “Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding,” which begins the album and is a favorite of loyal Elton John fans. In 2020, Rolling Stone magazine named Goodbye Yellow Brick Road the 112th greatest album ever.

“Before the Next Teardrop Falls” by Freddy Fender (Single) - 1975
Much like the aforementioned Charley Pride, another historically significant figure in the primarily white genre of country music was American Tejano singer Freddy Fender, who had four No. 1 country hits in the 1970s, and was a crossover pop hit – especially with “Before the Next Teardop Falls,” which was No.1 on the country and pop charts in 1975. Written by Vivian Keith and Ben Peters (who wrote Pride’s “Kiss An Angel Good Mornin’”), the song finds Fender crooning bilingually to a woman about how he’ll comfort her when another breaks her heart. 

“Tracy Chapman” by Tracy Chapman (Album) - 1988
Tracy Chapman’s eponymous debut album, released in 1988, immediately put her on the spot as one of the great singer-songwriters of the era. It’s hit single “Fast Car,” a top-10 hit in America, received Grammy Award nominations for Song of the Year and Record of the Year (it ridiculously lost both to Bobby McFerrin’s “Don’t Worry, Be Happy”), and the album was nominated for Album of the Year. Chapman would win three Grammys for her debut: Best New Artist, Best Contemporary Folk Album and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for “Fast Car.” In 2020, Rolling Stone magazine named Tracy Chapman the 256th greatest album ever. “Fast Car” was ranked the 71st greatest song ever by Rolling Stone in 2021.

“Hamilton” Original Broadway Cast (Album)  - 2015
Few Broadway musicals have the cultural impact that Lin-Manuel Miranda’s “Hamilton” did for about a half-decade period from its Broadway debut in 2015 through its recorded theatrical release on streaming in 2020. Miranda told the story of Alexander Hamilton, one of America’s greatest founding fathers, through rap music and diversity, featuring a cast of non-white actors in roles of Hamilton, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and more. “Hamilton” was all the rage, winning 11 Tony Awards and a Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Its cast recording is the best-selling cast album of all time. Some might believe it’s too early for this selection, but when was the last time a Broadway musical captured the masses like “Hamilton”?

Green Day co-headlined day two (along with rapper Travis Scott) of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Indio, Calif., on Saturday, April 12, and put on one helluva rock show that spanned the entirety of the band’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame career.

The band, all now in their early 50s, still performs with the same vigor and verve they did 25-30 years ago.

Green Day began its 18-song, 90-minute set with the great one-two punch of “American Idiot” and “Holiday,” off their magnum opus album American Idiot, which celebrated its 20th anniversary last fall. The crowd was thrilled when frontman Billie Joe Armstrong made the lyrical change from “I’m not a part of a redneck agenda,” to “MAGA agenda,” to reflect the changes in the country from the George W. Bush era to the era of Donald Trump.

It always cracks me up how some conservatives bitch and moan online when he does this as if they ever thought a band of guys heavy on the eyeliner and has made a career of speaking out against conservatives would approve of any of the current administration’s policies.

American Idiot would have the most songs performed of any of their albums, unsurprisingly, throughout the set, with memorable performances of “Boulevard of Broken Dreams,” “Wake Me Up When September Ends,” and “Jesus of Suburbia” sprinkled in. Never afraid to be political or ruffle feathers, Armstrong changed the line, “Runnin’ away from pain when you’ve been victimized,” to “Runnin’ away from pain like the kids from Palestine.”

The band played a couple of songs from its most recent album, last year’s Saviors, but didn’t play the Grammy-nominated “Dilemma” or “The American Dream Is Killing Me,” which I would’ve loved to have heard and would’ve felt perfect with the set. Instead, the band opted for “One Eyed Bastard” and “Bobby Sox” from the album.

For longtime fans of Green Day going back to the ‘90s, there was plenty of those hits performed during the evening, like “Basket Case,” “Longview” and “When I Come Around,” all from 1994’s Dookie, “Brain Stew” from 1995’s Insomniac, and back to “Welcome to Paradise” from 1991’s Kerplunk.

Among other terrific performances throughout the evening, which I streamed on the festival’s YouTube, were “21 Guns” and “Know Your Enemy,” from 2009’s 21st Century Breakdown, with ‘Enemy’ having a fan brought on stage from the crowd to perform a verse of, and “Minority” from 2000’s Warning.  

Anyone who’s seen Green Day before, whether in person or via an online stream, knows they’re going to end their show with “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life),” which is possibly the group’s most famous song, despite being so different sonically from much of their repertoire. The group has been known to bring a fan from the crowd to play guitar on the song and did so on Saturday night, choosing someone with a sign saying they could do it. The young man seemed to be having the time of his life, and Armstrong seemed to have quite the time messing with him on stage. It was a fun way to end a great show.

“Anything But Me” by Jesse Welles
Jesse Welles, a folk singer from Arkansas, has burst upon the scene relatively quickly, thanks to some songs that have gone viral on social media apps like TikTok. Don’t let the way he’s found stardom fool you, though; he’s the real deal when it comes to songwriting. One of my early favorites from his latest album, Middle, is “Anything But Me,” which is about everything he wishes he could have been but himself. It includes the excellent chorus: “I should’ve been a bird/a sparrow or an eagle/a crow or a seagull/flyin’ over the sea/I should’ve been a sailor/a cowboy or a jailer/anything but me.” The vocal flow of the chorus is beautiful. 

“Bury Me” by Jason Isbell
Jason Isbell’s solo album Foxes in the Snow is the early candidate for Album of the Year in the Americana genre. The album is just his voice and guitar and features some of his career's most emotional songwriting and singing, with tracks split between his divorce and his new relationship. I’m not sure if “Bury Me” will be my favorite track on the album – it’ll probably be a bit more personal – but with it being the first single released, it’s the one I’ve listened to the most so far. “Bury Me” has Isbell beginning with just his fantastic voice for the first verse before his guitar accompanies him on the second. It might be the countriest (particularly country & western) of his discography, with images of swinging bar doors, windy plains and typical Western artifacts. However, he admits he’s neither a cowboy nor an outlaw. 

“Casseroles” by Hailey Whitters
I don’t understand how Hailey Whitters hasn’t broken through to be a star yet in mainstream country music, but it might have something to do with how her songwriting (though she didn’t have a hand in this one) and performance are true to real life, both the good and the bad. She has the tragedy down pat with “Casseroles,” off her upcoming album Corn Queen. “After the casseroles stop coming” is a terrific line about how life follows a tragedy, and such a small-town way of putting it, with the tradition of neighbors and friends bringing over food like casseroles in the aftermath of devastation. Written by Hillary Lindsey, James Slater, and Tom Douglas, anyone who has suffered a loss can understand this. 

“Cinnamon Blonde” by Tony Logue
Tony Logue had one of my favorite songs of 2023 with “Thundertown,” a Bruce Springsteen-esque tune off his album, The Crumbs. He’s returned this year with another terrific album of heartland country-rock called Dark Horse, filled with songs that could’ve made this list. “Cinnamon Blonde” is the one I’ve chosen. The song is about thinking of the one you love back home, while you’re out on the road making a living for the two of you. If you’re a fan of early Steve Earle records, you’ll enjoy this. 

“Game I Can’t Win” by Charley Crockett
Charley Crockett’s output is unmatched among his peers. He released two albums in 2024, including one of my favorites of the year, $10 Cowboy. He’s now back with another, Lonesome Drifter, which will surely be one of this year’s highlights. “Game I Can’t Win” is one of the standout tracks on the album. It’s not a stranger of a theme for Crockett as he croons about the state of the music business and relationship with the quip: “I’ve always loved a game I can’t win.” 

“Hands of Time” by Eric Church
Eric Church has been worrying some longtime fans, whether right or wrong, due to changes in his sound, which has leaned more toward soul and gospel lately. “Hands of Time,” the first single from his upcoming album Evangeline vs. The Machine should go a long way in quelling those worries, as the North Carolina country-rocker feels in his sweet spot with a tune about helping him remain young by reliving all the great moments and songs of his past with terrific name and song drops of Bob Seger, Tom Petty, Waylon and Willie and more. 

“Memory Bank” by Drew Holcomb & Ellie Holcomb
One of the best, and surely underrated, musical couples today is Drew and Ellie Holcomb, who both have successful singer-songwriter careers solo, but have made magic coming together with Memory Bank. The title track sees the husband and wife duo singing about how moments spent together lead to long-lasting memories that make a relationship fun and successful. I particularly like the opening lines: “Singing Fleetwood Mac, reading Kerouac/with an old Kodak on the dashboard.” 

“Old Melodies” by Paul Thorn
I haven’t heard a line from a song yet this year that exemplifies 2025 more than: “’Amazing Grace’ used to be our favorite song, but now it’s ‘We Shall Overcome’.” The line from Thorn’s “Old Melodies,” the final track on his latest album Life Is Just a Vapor, blew me away the first time I heard it, and it has ever since. It’s a perfect statement about the country we’re currently living in, but came out of something experienced in Thorn’s life, according to his website: “We had a family problem a long time ago, a relative that ran off the tracks with drugs and everything. When my dad was dealing with the pain of the heartache that somebody he loved was in a dark hole, he was just standing there, crying. And he said, ‘Man, ‘Amazing Grace’ used to be my favorite song, but now it’s ‘We Shall Overcome.’ Boy, that just hit me right between the eyes. They’re both great songs, but ‘Amazing  Grace’ is more like a praise song. ‘We Shall Overcome’ is, ‘We got something we gotta deal with, and we’re gonna deal with it, and we’re gonna get past it.’ I thought that was a beautiful thing he said.” 

 
“Austin City Limits,” the longtime PBS music series, recently celebrated its 50th anniversary with a two-hour special that premiered on Friday, April 4. The special featured artists from many different genres who have performed on the ‘ACL’ stage.
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The special was interspersed with great clips of all the legendary musicians who performed at the Austin, Texas venue, as well as some history of the show and what it meant to musicians of today and the past.

The special was hosted by actors, Austin natives and couple, Jared and Genevieve Padalecki. It featured performances from Chris Stapleton, The Mavericks, Gary Clark Jr., Leon Bridges, Rufus Wainwright, Indigo Girls, Lyle Lovett, Shawn Colvin, Brandy Clark and more.

There was a surprising lack of star power on the telecast, which was taped in late November 2024, given the names of performers who have appeared on the show over the decades.

Willie Nelson, who appeared on the first episode of “Austin City Limits,” taped on Oct. 17, 1974, would’ve been an obvious choice, but didn’t appear. The special did show an abbreviated version of his “On the Road Again,” which he performed at the most recent ACL Fest last year – a performance the telecast should’ve shown in full. The evening opened with Chris Stapleton doing a terrific cover of Nelson’s “Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground.”

Ten years ago, “Austin City Limits” established a Hall of Fame for performers who have appeared on or had a lasting impact on the series. Among the living members of the ‘ACL’ Hall of Fame, only Lovett and Colvin appeared on the program. It would’ve been nice for others like Garth Brooks, Bonnie Raitt, Sheryl Crow, Wilco, Los Lobos, Rosanne Cash, and more to have appeared.
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But enough about what didn’t appear on the special.

Among my favorite performances on the special were The Mavericks, a group that combines so many wonderful styles of music, performing their hit “All You Ever Do is Bring Me Down,” Leon Bridges performing “Beyond,” and Lovett performing his beautiful “12th of June,” though it seemed like he was struggling to perform due to what I assume was illness.

Perhaps the best segment of the ‘ACL’ 50th anniversary special was the “In the Round” song swap that featured the Indigo Girls, Brandy Clark and Cam. The Indigo Girls began the segment with their song “Share the Moon.” Clark stunned with her Grammy-nominated “Dear Insecurity,” Cam performed her terrific “Burning House,” and the Indigo Girls were joined by Clark and Cam for their biggest hit, “Closer to Fine.”

One of the most famous and popular acts to ever perform on “Austin City Limits” was blues-rocker Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble. Vaughan was tributed by one of the great blues-rockers of today, Gary Clark Jr., with his friend and old schoolmate Eve Monsees, with “Pride & Joy,” a fitting way to end the special.

“Austin City Limits” is probably the most successful show in television history solely focused on musical performance. Its 50th anniversary is also a reminder of just how important PBS is when showcasing the arts – something we all should remind ourselves of in an era where some people and politicians are looking to bring public broadcast television (and radio) to an end to save a buck. Here’s hoping there’s no end to “Austin City Limits.”

by Julian Spivey
The 2025 Country Music Hall of Fame induction class was announced on March 25 with Kenny Chesney elected in the Modern Era Artist category, June Carter elected posthumously in the Veterans Era Artist category and producer Tony Brown elected in the Non-Performer category, which rotates every three years with the Songwriter and Recording and/or Touring Musician categories.

Here are the 10 greatest songs from the 2025 Country Music Hall of Fame Induction class:

10. “Wildwood Flower” by June Carter
When June Carter was announced as the Veterans Era Artist Country Music Hall of Fame inductee for 2025, some were surprised it took so long for her to be elected. I was surprised she was elected as a solo artist given that her only hits were either with the country comic duo Homer & Jethro or her husband, Johnny Cash. All three of her songs on this list are either with Johnny Cash (I limited it to one) or are songs written by her uncle, A.P. Carter, and originated by her family’s The Carter Family band.
“Wildwood Flower,” was one of the Carter Family classics, June Carter recorded toward the end of her life for her fourth and final solo album, Wildwood Flower. The album was released four months after her death. “Wildwood Flower” is a variant of the old-timey song “I’ll Twine ‘Mid the Ringlets,” composed by Joseph Philbuck Webster.

June Carter’s late-life version of “Wildwood Flower,” a tune she’d likely sung her entire life, was beautiful in its frailties. It featured her sweet but wavering voice, her plucking on her autoharp and Johnny joining in on the chorus. 

9. “A Lot of Things Different” by Kenny Chesney  
“A Lot of Things Different” is not one of Kenny Chesney’s “greatest hits.” If you’re not all that familiar with Chesney’s 2002 album No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems (though, if you’re a fan of his, you should be), you may not remember it, even though it was a single. It was a strange choice for that album and an even stranger choice as a single, even though it did top out at No. 6 on the country chart, but it’s a beautiful song, co-written by two legends of the craft in Bill Anderson and Dean Dillon. “A Lot of Things Different” finds Chesney pining about all of the things he wishes he could do over in life. It’s a quieter, more reflective side of Chesney than the one you’ll find on stage at his massive concerts. 

8. “Check Yes or No” by George Strait (Produced by Tony Brown)
Without George Strait, you can’t tell the story of newly elected Country Music Hall of Fame producer Tony Brown. Strait spent most of the ‘80s recording hits with producer Jimmy Bowen, but Brown took over starting with Strait’s “Pure Country” soundtrack, and pretty much everything after that was a collaboration between the two. Many of Strait’s biggest hits were Brown productions: “I Cross My Heart,” “Blue Clear Sky,” “Carrying Your Love with Me,” etc. To keep all three of my Brown selections from being Strait songs, I’ve limited just one to this list, and the one I’ve chosen is their 1995 No. 1 hit “Check Yes or No,” which tells the sweet tale of a schoolyard crush that turns into a lasting love. I’m honestly no expert in the production side of music, but I can tell you Brown and Strait make magic together. 

7. “Keep on the Sunny Side” by June Carter
One of the greatest Carter Family classics was the easy-to-sing-along, “Keep on the Sunny Side,” which they popularized in 1928. The origins of the song go as far back as 1899. It’s a song about the duality of light and dark aspects of life and how one will be better off trying to remain on the light, sunny or righteous path. June Carter recorded the song multiple times in her life – in 1964, with the Carter Family feat. Johnny Cash, on Johnny Cash’s 1974 album The Junkie and the Juicehead Minus Me accompanied by Rosanne Cash and Carlene Carter (Johnny’s daughter from a previous marriage and June’s daughter from an earlier marriage) and again for her final solo album in 2003. 

6. “You and Tequila” by Kenny Chesney
Kenny Chesney’s “You and Tequila,” a collaboration with Grace Potter, from his 2011 album Hemingway’s Whiskey, is one of the highlights from the second half of his career. The song, written by Matraca Berg and Deana Carter, is smooth in its vocals and sound, and tells of the things that turn the narrator crazy, and how that might not necessarily be a great thing. The song hit No. 3 on the country chart in 2011 and was nominated for two Grammy Awards, including Best Country Song. 

5. “When I Call Your Name” by Vince Gill (Produced by Tony Brown)
I think “When I Call Your Name” is the best song of Vince Gill’s Country Music Hall of Fame career, and Tony Brown produced that record. The tear-jerker, which hit No. 2 on the country chart in 1990, perfectly captures Gill’s high and lonesome vocal. In 2024, Rolling Stone magazine ranked “When I Call Your Name” as the 91st greatest country song of all time.  

4. “Better as a Memory” by Kenny Chesney
There are a good number of folks who have never been Kenny Chesney fans. They don’t believe he’s really country music. You saw this sentiment pop up recently when he was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame. And, while I can admit Chesney’s music isn’t exactly Merle Haggard, George Strait or Alan Jackson, I can’t deny the beauty and excellence of some of his output. Call it whatever you want, but how could you hate on something as beautiful as 2008’s “Better as a Memory,” written by Scooter Carusoe and Lady Goodman? The No. 1 hit off Chesney’s Just Who I Am: Poets & Pirates, sees Chesney addressing a lover he’s leaving, citing the reasons they’ll be better off without him in poetic phrases like: “I’m built to fade like your favorite song” and “goodbyes are like a roulette wheel you never know where they’re gonna land.” 

3. “Guitar Town” by Steve Earle (Produced by Tony Brown)
Steve Earle’s “Guitar Town” is my favorite song produced by Tony Brown. It was co-produced with Emory Gordy Jr. The title track of Earle’s breakthrough 1986 debut album was Earle’s first career top-10 hit, topping out at No. 7 on the country singles chart in 1986. Nominated for two Grammy Awards, including Best Country Song, “Guitar Town” is the perfect example of country (or roots/heartland) rock that showed Earle could be a crossover success. 

2. “Anything but Mine” by Kenny Chesney
Kenny Chesney has shown an incredible knack for choosing terrific songs that fit his sound and vibe, and Scooter Carusoe’s “Anything but Mine” is the best of his career. The No. 1 hit off 2004’s When the Sun Goes Down tells the story of a brief summer love and the final night of this relationship, where the narrator hopes to make a lasting memory before having to return home. It’s one of the great encapsulations of young love and emotions put to music. 

1. “Jackson” by Johnny & June Carter Cash
June Carter is, without a doubt, known more for the musical collaborations and duets with her superstar husband, Johnny Cash, than the solo stuff she recorded during her career, which unfortunately wasn’t a lot. Johnny and June were meant to be together, and you can tell this from their incredible duets that show off their bond, love and camaraderie. Among their greatest duets are “If I Were a Carpenter” and an exquisite cover of Bob Dylan’s “It Ain’t Me Babe,” but their absolute best was 1967’s No. 2 country hit “Jackson,” which finds the two playing off each other in a comical, rowdy way. The husband and wife duo make a meal of this tune, written by Billy Edd Wheeler and Jerry Leiber.