CMA Fest was only three weeks ago, but Dylan Scott‘s already reliving the memories.
“Felt good to take my kids with me to #CMAFest!” he shared on his socials, along with a photo with son Beckett and daughter Finley. “Makes a daddy's heart feel good.”
“Also, yall keep making an ol' boy feel good showing up to these shows, it's like we're just getting started!!!!” he added.
Dylan played the main stage at Nissan Stadium during CMA Fest 2025. You can see his performance of “Country Til I Die” on Thursday’s annual three-hour concert special starting at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.
Year 11 of Luke Bryan‘s Crash My Playa is officially on the calendar.
“I know y'all have been waiting,” the superstar shared on his socials. “@crashmyplaya coming January 2026. Stay tuned!”
The accompanying graphic reveals the 2026 fan getaway vacation will be held Jan. 15-18 at Moon Palace in Rivera Cancun, Mexico.
Of course, you’re guaranteed two nights of shows headlined by Luke, along with an array of his fellow country stars. Jason Aldean, Kane Brown, Lainey Wilson, Dustin Lynch and Dylan Scott were all part of the 10th anniversary in 2025.
You can sign up for more details at CrashMyPlaya.com to be among the first to find out when the 2026 lineup is revealed.
Lady A hitmaker Charles Kelley is officially in a new phase, as his Songs for a New Moon is now available to stream or download.
“9 years since my debut solo album, The Driver,” he remarked on Tuesday.
Though Charles’ first effort was nominated for a country Grammy, it failed to get the radio airplay he’d hoped for. That’s certainly not the case with his more pop-oriented second record, since “Can’t Lose You” is already a top-10 adult contemporary hit.
In addition to 14 originals he co-wrote himself, it includes covers of Cyndi Lauper‘s “Time After Time” and The Killers‘ “Here with Me.”
On his Instagram Story, Charles reveals that he bought his own album – “I still do that, I love doing that” – and notes, “This whole record is dedicated to my wife [for] helping me come through the other side,” seemingly a reference to his sobriety journey.
“I hope y’all enjoy it, I hope it brings you joy,” he adds. “I hope you can find some stuff in there too that really inspires you, that you can relate to. But most of all, I hope that you really just feel it, and enjoy it and share it. It was a labor of love, this record and so happy that it is out.”
You can tune in to see him perform “Can’t Lose You” Wednesday on The Kelly Clarkson Show.
Taylor Swift returned to where her career started – Nashville – on Tuesday night, with a little help from Kane Brown.
As Variety reports, Taylor took the stage at Nashville’s Brooklyn Bowl during a benefit for Tight End University, the annual summit for NFL tight ends that is spearheaded by Travis Kelce and others. Travis was one of the hosts of the event, which featured performances by Kane, Luke Combs, Jordan Davis and Chase Rice.
As Variety reports, Kane asked at the end of his set, “Do y'all care if I bring out a really, really, really, really special guest?” Taylor then walked onstage with a guitar that she borrowed from Chase. She told the crowd, “We were thinking, like, How loud could this place get? Theoretically, how loud could the singing be in here?' So, I was like, ‘I don't have a guitar,’ but then Chase Rice was like, You can use mine.'”
She said she wanted to dedicate a song to “our favorite players who are going to play,” before launching into “Shake It Off.”
If you want to see the performance, it’s currently all over social media.
Could a Florida Georgia Line reunion be on the horizon? The quiet release of a new EP seems to raise that question.
The duo’s longtime label, Big Machine, dropped a new EP, Deep Cuts & Lost Tracks, Vol. 1, on June 13. The collection includes six unheard tracks, all co-written by Tyler Hubbard and Brian Kelley, save for one: “Smile.”
“Life Is a Honeymoon” is a collab with reggae royalty Ziggy Marley, while HARDY co-wrote “Small Town.” ERNEST and Canaan Smith helped craft “Beer:30,” while “Live Like You Were Dying” legend Craig Wiseman collaborated on “What Are You Drinking About.”
FGL’s last album was 2021’s Life Rolls On, though an expanded edition of 2011’s Here’s to the Good Times came out in 2025.
Since February 2022, Tyler and BK have pursued solo careers. Tyler’s “Park” is currently in the top 10, while Brian just released his Sunshine State of Mind Season Two, Chapter One and competed on Fox’s The Masked Singer.
President Donald Trump departed early Tuesday for the NATO summit in The Hague, Netherlands, coming just one day after Iran carried out retaliatory strikes at a U.S. base in Qatar, and hours after he announced a ceasefire in the Israel-Iran conflict. The NATO summit will be the first time Trump will face European U.S. allies since returning to the White House in January.
Per CNN, Israel accused Iran of firing several missiles and vowed to respond “with force,” while Tehran denied violating the truce. A visibly agitated Trump told reporters as he left for the summit that both Israel and Iran had violated the ceasefire, several hours after it was to take effect. Trump said: “We basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don’t know what the f**k they’re doing,” however the President indicated he did not believe the ceasefire was broken. Trump said he is “not happy” and that “Israel, as soon as we made the deal, they came out and dropped a boat load of bombs the likes of which I’ve never seen before. The biggest load that we’ve seen, I’m not happy with Israel. OK, when I say now you have 12 hours, you don’t go out in the first hour and just drop everything you have on them. So, I’m not happy with him [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu]. I’m not happy with Iran either.”
Netanyahu said Israel agreed to the ceasefire with Iran, in coordination with Trump, after the country achieved all of its war goals, including removing the threat of Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs. In a televised statement late Tuesday, Netanyahu said that Israel took out top generals and nuclear scientists and destroyed nuclear facilities in Natanz, Isfahan and the Arak heavy water reactor.
Trump later posted on Truth Social stating the ceasefire was saved: “ISRAEL is not going to attack Iran. All planes will turn around and head home, while doing a friendly “Plane Wave” to Iran. Nobody will be hurt, the Ceasefire is in effect!”
Upon his arrival in the Netherlands on Tuesday night, Trump attended a formal dinner at the Netherlands Royal Palace alongside the King and Queen of the Netherlands. On Wednesday, Trump will attend the NATO summit where he will participate the first plenary session with NATO leaders. The president will then spend a few hours engaged in bilateral meetings with several world leaders, a senior U.S. official told reporters on a conference call, and will later hold a news conference before leaving the Netherlands to return to the U.S.
Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., will be the House Democratic Party’s top member on the House Oversight Committee, after beating Massachusetts Rep. Stephen Lynch in a 150-63 caucus vote made on Tuesday. Lynch, 70, is one of the most senior members of the Oversight Committee who had been serving as acting ranking member after the late Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va. took a leave of absence in April.
Politico reported that Garcia, 47, won a first-ballot majority after winning the backing of the caucus’ powerful Steering and Policy Committee. Garcia said following the vote: “We’ll get immediately to work,” adding that first on the agenda was meeting with the Oversight Committee staff “to let them know that we’re ready for consistent leadership. It is an opportunity for us to continue holding the corruption of Donald Trump accountable and also doing incredible work on government reform. Efficiency is not DOGE. Efficiency is actually making government work better for our constituents across the country, and that’s what we’re going to focus on.”
The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee oversees federal government activities and has the power of subpoena to compel witnesses to appear before the committee during investigations. Garcia would be in line to chair the powerful Oversight and Government Reform Committee if Democrats win control of the House in next year’s midterm elections. If that were to happen, Garcia would work to hold President Donald Trump accountable for “corruption” while working to reform the federal government, he told media after the caucus vote.
Garcia is in his third term in the House; before coming to Washington, he made history as the first Latino and first openly gay mayor of Long Beach, California. Garcia served as Long Beach mayor from 2014 until 2022, when he won election to succeed Rep. Alan Lowenthal, D-Calif., who did not seek re-election.
Bailey Zimmerman already has plenty of country hits under his belt, but he owes his first major crossover, “All the Way,” to his collaboration with rapper BigXthaPlug.
The way it came together, it’s almost like he manifested it.
“I had heard that X was gonna release a country EP or a country project,” Bailey recalls. “And I thought, ‘Man, how cool would that be to do that? I would love to get a song with him.’ I love his music. I’ve been listening to him for years.”
“And then about four months later I get a text on my phone. BigXthaPlug: ‘Hey, do you like this song?’ And I’m like, OK … that’s crazy. Listen to the song, I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh. This song is insane, dude!'”
Bailey happened to be in his studio at the time, so he immediately laid down a vocal and sent it to his potential collaborator.
“He was like, ‘Dude. There’s a lot of people that tried this song, but man, you crush it. I want you on it,'” Bailey remembers. “I feel like it was the perfect blend of our music. Even though I didn’t write the chorus and the hook, it feels like I could have written it myself, which is usually what I’m looking for when I’m collabing with somebody.”
BigXthaPlug joined Bailey to play their hit at Nashville’s Nissan Stadium during CMA Fest. You can check out their performance when the annual three-hour special airs Thursday at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.
Eric Church released his new album, Evangeline vs. The Machine on May 2, and this fall he will take that new project on the road when he launches the Free the Machine Tour
The tour will make stops at 22 arenas kicking off on Sept. 12 in Pittsburgh, and will include stops in Boston, Detroit, Salt Lake City, Seattle, Philadelphia and more before concluding on November 15. Joining Church on varying dates are openers Elle King, Marcus King Band and Charles Wesley Godwin. T
Church shared in a video sent directly to his Church Choir members: “These shows will be unlike anything we’ve done before—from start to finish. I’m fired up to get out there and share this with you. From front to back, these shows will be different than anything you’ve ever seen or heard.. I cannot wait to see you on the road for this tour.”
Cody Johnson and Chris Stapleton are set to headline the inaugural Boots on the Bayou Festival in Gonzales, Louisiana this fall.
The two-day event features 12 main acts on the scenic six-acre front lawn of The Lamar Dixon Expo Center – a premier 247-acre venue, conveniently located less than 30 minutes from Baton Rouge and under an hour from New Orleans.
Friday, October 31st will see Johnson headline with Parker McCollum, Carly Pearce, Maddox Batson, Tyler Braden, and Chase Tyler. Stapleton will close the event on Saturday, November 1st with Riley Green, Marcus King Band, Elle King, Ashley Cooke, and Kruse Brothers.
According to the festival’s Instagram page, tickets will go on sale “soon” — but you can signup for ticket alerts on their website here.
