CLICK HERE to check out photos from the event!

Following is the list of final nominees. Winners in each of the following categories, except where noted, will be presented with an ACADEMY OF COUNTRY MUSIC AWARD during the live television broadcast:
ENTERTAINER OF THE YEAR
•Kenny Chesney
•Toby Keith
•Brad Paisley
•George Strait
•Taylor Swift
•Carrie Underwood
•Keith Urban
•Zac Brown Band

TOP MALE VOCALIST OF THE YEAR
•Kenny Chesney
•Brad Paisley
•Darius Rucker
•George Strait
•Keith Urban

TOP FEMALE VOCALIST OF THE YEAR
•Miranda Lambert
•Reba McEntire
•Taylor Swift
•Carrie Underwood
•Lee Ann Womack

TOP VOCAL GROUP OF THE YEAR
•Lady Antebellum
•Little Big Town
•Randy Rogers Band
•Rascal Flatts
•Zac Brown Band

TOP VOCAL DUO OF THE YEAR
•Brooks & Dunn
•Joey + Rory
•Montgomery Gentry
•Steel Magnolia
•Sugarland

TOP NEW SOLO VOCALIST OF THE YEAR *
•Luke Bryan
•Jamey Johnson
•Chris Young

TOP NEW VOCAL DUO OF THE YEAR *
•Bomshel
•Joey + Rory
•Steel Magnolia

TOP NEW VOCAL GROUP OF THE YEAR *
•Eli Young Band
•Gloriana
•The Lost Trailers

ALBUM OF THE YEAR [Awarded to Artist(s)/Producer(s)/Record Company(s)]
•American Saturday Night – Brad Paisley (Arista Nashville)
Produced by: Chris DuBois, Frank Rogers
•Lady Antebellum – Lady Antebellum (Capitol Records Nashville)
Produced by: Victoria Shaw, Paul Worley
•Play On – Carrie Underwood (19/Arista Nashville)
Produced by: Mark Bright
“Quitter” Produced by Max Martin & Shellback for Maratone Productions and Mark Bright
•Revolution – Miranda Lambert (Columbia Nashville)
Produced by: Frank Liddell, Mike Wrucke
•The Foundation – Zac Brown Band (Southern Ground / Bigger Picture / Atlantic)
Produced by: Keith Stegall, Zac Brown
SINGLE RECORD OF THE YEAR [Awarded to Artist(s)/Producer(s)/Record Company(s)]
•Need You Now – Lady Antebellum (Capitol Records Nashville)
Produced by: Lady Antebellum, Paul Worley
•People Are Crazy – Billy Currington (Mercury)
Produced by: Carson Chamberlain, Billy Currington
•Red Light – David Nail (MCA Nashville)
Produced by: Frank Liddell, Mike Wrucke
•Toes – Zac Brown Band (Southern Ground / Bigger Picture / Atlantic)
Produced by: Keith Stegall, Zac Brown
•White Liar – Miranda Lambert (Columbia Nashville)
Produced by: Frank Liddell, Mike Wrucke

SONG OF THE YEAR [Awarded to Composer(s)/Publisher(s)/Artist(s)]
•Cowboy Casanova – Carrie Underwood
Composers: Mike Elizondo, Brett James, Carrie Underwood
Publishers: Brett James Cornelius Music (ASCAP), Carrie Okie Music (BMI), Rincon Ave Music
(ASCAP), Stage Three Songs (ASCAP)
•Need You Now – Lady Antebellum
Composers: Dave Haywood, Josh Kear, Charles Kelley, Hillary Scott
Publishers: EMI Foray Music (BMI), Darth Buddha (ASCAP), Dwhaywood Music (BMI), Hillary Dawn Publishing (SESAC), Radiobullets Publishing (BMI), Warner-Tamerlane Publishing Corp. (BMI), Year Of The Dog Music (ASCAP)
•People Are Crazy – Billy Currington
Composers: Bobby Braddock, Troy Jones
Publishers: Crozier Music Enterprises LLC (BMI), Mighty Nice Music (BMI), Sony/ATV Tree Publishing (BMI), Tiltawhirl Music (BMI)
•White Liar – Miranda Lambert
Composers: Natalie Hemby, Miranda Lambert
Publishers: Pink Dog Publishing (BMI), Sony/ATV Tree Publishing (BMI), Tiltawhirl Music (BMI)
•You Belong With Me – Taylor Swift
Composers: Liz Rose, Taylor Swift
Publishers: Sony/ATV Tree Publishing (BMI), Taylor Swift Music (BMI)
VIDEO OF THE YEAR [Awarded to Producer(s)/Director(s)/Artist(s)] (Off Camera Award)
•Boots On – Randy Houser
Producer: Eric Welch
Director: Eric Welch (Drake footage: Vickie Vaughn)
•Need You Now – Lady Antebellum
Producer: Clarke Gallican
Director: David McClister
•Welcome To The Future – Brad Paisley
Producers: Mark Kalbfeld, Jim Shea, Peter Tilden
Director: Jim Shea
•White Liar – Miranda Lambert
Producer: Tameron Hedge
Director: Chris Hicky
•You Belong With Me – Taylor Swift
Producer: Randy Brewer
Director: Roman White
VOCAL EVENT OF THE YEAR [Awarded to Artist(s)/Producer(s)/Record Company] (Off Camera Award)
•Hillbilly Bone – Blake Shelton featuring Trace Adkins (Reprise Records / Warner Music Nashville)
Producer: Scott Hendricks
•Honky Tonk Stomp – Brooks & Dunn featuring Billy Gibbons (Arista Nashville)
Producer: Ronnie Dunn, Terry McBride
•I Told You So – Carrie Underwood featuring Randy Travis (19/Arista Nashville)
Producer: Mark Bright
•I’m Alive – Kenny Chesney with Dave Matthews (Blue Chair/BNA)
Produced by: Buddy Cannon, Kenny Chesney
•Seeing Stars – Jack Ingram featuring Patty Griffin (Big Machine Records)
Produced by: Jack Ingram, Jeremy Stover

During Nashville’s
Country Radio Seminar, the trio played a late night concert for several country radio programmers, including songs like “Need You Now,” “American Honey,” and “Hello World.” Halfway through the concert, label president Mike Dungan came onstage to present them with a plaque commemorating sales of 1 million for Need You Now.

The group took the time to personally thank and hang out with radio programmers for playing their songs before leaving the party around midnight.

The trio also posted a behind-the-scenes look at their new “American Honey” video on their website.

Courtesy of CountryWeekly.com

Brad Paisley’s recent trek to the West Coast yielded some pretty good results—he sold out four shows in Fresno, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and Reno. His concert at the Staples Center boasted 13,000 fans and celeb attendees like Sheryl Crow, members of The Jonas Brothers, William Shatner, and members of REO Speedwagon. Not a bad weekend.

Brad’s set to make another journey to California when he appears on March 1 as the musical guest for Jay Leno’s first show back as host of The Tonight Show. Also on the line-up are Jamie Foxx and Olympic Gold medal skier Lindsey Vonn.

Courtesy of CountryWeekly.com

Source: theboot.com

There’s no quaking at the music chart summit this week, but there’s lot of lyrical lava boiling underneath. Josh Turner’s “Why Don’t We Just Dance” and Lady Antebellum’s Need You Now still sit at the top of Billboard’s country songs and albums charts, respectively — Turner for the second week, Lady A for the third.

And Turner has more to celebrate. His new album, Haywire, makes its muscular debut at No. 2, with first-week sales of more than 85,000 copies.

The other new albums and their curtain-opening spots are Reckless Kelly’s Somewhere in Time (No. 22), The Best of Chris Cagle (No. 34), Rascal Flatts’ Fourteen Love Songs for the Fourteenth (No. 41) and the various-artists collection, Best of Country Gospel (No. 70).

Five CDs return to the chart: Bill Engvall’s Aged and Confused (No. 71), Robert Earl Keen’s The Rose Hotel (No. 72), Three Wooden Crosses: The Inspirational Hits of Randy Travis (No. 73), Willie Nelson’s American Classic (No. 74) and Rodney Carrington’s El Nino Loco (No. 75).

Kenny Chesney scores the highest charting new song, “Ain’t Back Yet,” which enters at No. 23. Also presenting their calling cards this week are Katie Armiger’s “Kiss Me Now” (No. 57), Jessica Harp’s “A Woman Needs” (No. 58) and Steve Azar’s “Sunshine (Everybody Needs a Little)” (No. 60).

Rascal Flatts’ “Close” comes back on at No. 56.

Parading behind Need You Now and Haywire within this week’s Top 5 albums cluster are Taylor Swift’s Fearless, the Zac Brown Band’s The Foundation and Carrie Underwood’s Play On, in that order.

The No. 2 through No. 5 songs are Brad Paisley’s “American Saturday Night,” Jason Aldean’s “The Truth,” Darius Rucker’s “History in the Making” and Billy Currington’s “That’s How Country Boys Roll.”

Have you spotted the song yet you’ll be singing all summer?

Click here to see this week’s Top 30 Country Songs

Josh Turner Photo Gallery>>>

Josh Turner Live Country at Joe’s Bar>>>

Reba McEntire & Blake Shelton will read the nominees for the 45th ANNUAL ACADEMY OF COUNTRY MUSIC AWARDS, Country Music’s Party of the Year™, LIVE from CBS’ The Early Show. Blake Shelton will also perform.
The 45th ANNUAL ACADEMY OF COUNTRY MUSIC AWARDS, a three-hour special hosted by Reba McEntire, will be broadcast LIVE from MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas Sunday, April 18, 2010 at 8:00 PM live ET/delayed PT on the CBS Television Network.

Read more!

Source: theboot.com

She’s a multi-platinum selling recording artist who’s conquered the pop, folk and country worlds. And in addition to penning the majority of songs on her eight studio albums, she’s also written books of poetry. If there’s one thing in which Jewel prides herself, it’s being a writer.

In today’s blog, Jewel tells the sweet story of meeting her future husband. She also shares some painful, yet poignant, memories from her childhood. Read below, in Jewel’s own words, the first in her series of exclusive blogs, as she opens up to fans like never before.

I’d like to tell you a love story. I warn you first though, that I do not believe in “love like the story books say.” I guess it’s the overly simplified romance movie plot lines that fill our heads since birth that could be partly to blame for our unrealistic expectations of what love is actually like – and frankly, for depriving us of a lot of the grit it takes to not only be in love, but stay in love.

Love doesn’t mean you are never annoyed, it means being annoyed isn’t enough to make you squeamish. I know it doesn’t sound romantic, but what cowboys refer to as “intestinal fortitude” has a lot to do with how happy and fulfilled we can be in love. It takes equal measures of determination and romance.

I guess I did not come from what you would call a happy home. My mom left when I was 8, and my dad raised my brothers and me in his hometown of Homer, Alaska on the family ranch. I am grateful my father stood up and raised us. I can’t imagine that finding yourself suddenly divorced with 3 kids and living in the saddle barn of your dad’s place is what he had in mind when he took his vows. It certainly was stressful for us all.

My dad was a very charismatic man and very popular with the ladies. He was part cowboy, part mountain man and part poet. He would woo ladies with songs he wrote just for them. Much of my childhood was spent living at a succession of girlfriends’ houses and bouncing back to Anchorage to visit my mom, who was always house-sitting at random people’s places. When I’d return to Homer, I’d find myself at a new girlfriend’s house sleeping on a couch or sharing a twin bed with a small daughter of said girlfriend.

Around age 15, I came to a sobering realization: you become what you are around. What led me to this realization is I had been reading a lot, the classics – Plato, Pascal, Dante – and as my mind began to grapple with these grand topics I found in books, it led me to contemplate the grand topics of my own life and heart. I began to write feverishly and try to apply an analytical and objective eye to myself.

Most children grow up to become their parents, whether they like it or not. No matter how much we want to be different, we learn from our surroundings, and unless we learn new ways of being, we simply repeat, for better or for worse, what we absorbed around us. What that meant for me was not what I wanted for myself. Statistically, I should have ended up with an abusive alcoholic who was controlling as I played the unconfident and scared female lead that was never told she was good enough or “loved enough” as a child. I should have ended up bar singing the rest of my life, or any number of other jobs I had over the years. This is not how things ended up for me though. I did find love. A great love. And I want to tell you how: I learned French.

Ok – not literally. I didn’t learn the French language, but this was the code word I used with myself as I undertook my great project – to learn a new emotional language.

The reason I use language as a metaphor is because it helped me understand that emotions are a language we speak to each other in. Emotions are a series of feelings and habits and actions and reactions all rolled into one.

If you were raised speaking Spanish and say you hated the language and swore that when you grew up you’d never speak Spanish, the chances are that no matter what, you would grow up and speak Spanish – unless you learned a new language! It takes dedication and conscious learning to do that. Well, I decided emotional habits were the same. I needed to figure out a new emotional language for myself.

I moved out at 15 and began my “Project French.” I wanted to get away from everything that was unstable and random in my life and afford myself some stability and peace. I wrote faithfully, documenting myself with brutal honestly. It wasn’t always pretty – I was a mess of mistrust, and overly eager to impress everyone due to a really low self-esteem. But I kept writing and reading, tried to find people I respected, and tried to learn from them a new way of being. Over the years I would take bits and pieces of lots of people I met as I tried to build how I wanted to be. Honest. Loyal. Self-assured. But it was a brutal and painful process, made more painful by the honesty reflected back to myself through my pen.

Fast forward many years. Amazing years. I famously went from homelessness at 18 to worldwide fame by 21. The girl who grew up with an outhouse was on the cover of Time Magazine. Talk about surreal! And the writing I had done for all those years is what suddenly made me famous. My evolution was now on CDs and in books of poetry for the world to see.

I sure had gone a long way – but as far as actual bona fide love goes, I never found it. I had never been held in my entire life and told it was all going to be ok. There was no unconditional love. I never had any one person there who had my back. My life was a feat of sheer will and stubbornness, but not one I could share. And so I wrote love poems, but to no one. I wrote love songs (”Kiss the Flame,” “What’s Simple Is True”), but for a man I hadn’t met yet. I even wrote love poems, as though they were from a man, and they said all the things I wished would be said.

To tell you the truth, my fictional love poems were better than the real thing quite often, and even after laying with a man, I would turn to my pen at night to rewrite the evening, so it could be more magical than the clumsy fumbling of reality. Until one day in Denver, Colorado January 11, 1999.

I had just finished a show in Aspen, celebrating the launch of my second album Spirit, and my hit single “Hands.” I had a night off and decided to go to the Denver Rodeo and Stock Show. It was sold out, so I asked my label if they knew anyone at the venue to get me in. As fate would have it, the car service they used sponsored a cowboy, and was able to get me tickets.

After the rodeo I found the cowboy I should thank for the tickets, having no idea this soft spoken man would be my future husband, Ty Murray.

It didn’t happen all at once. It wasn’t even love at first sight. I had a flight to NYC right after the rodeo, but we exchanged numbers.

I toured Europe and when I got back I left him a message. I toured Australia and Asia, and when I got back he had left me a message. I began a US tour, and we began to talk on the phone frequently until we decided to finally have a first date – about 6 months after we first met.

I know the exact moment I fell in love with him. We were sitting by a river in northern California, and his thick, calloused hands worried a lure while we talked. Small silver fish were strung on a line, their silver bodies glittering like diamonds in the clear mountain water. The ripples shattered the sun’s rays into a million particles of white light, dazzling my eyes. It wasn’t any one thing he said – it was his whole being. It was his quietness. It was his toughness and strength, but it was the counterpoint of his kindness that set it apart. I knew I would love him. I knew instantly that he would be solid as a rock and someone I could depend on. I felt like I knew everything about him in an instant, and I swear to you, that after 11 years he is everything I thought he was and more.

It wasn’t a straight, smooth line from that day to where we are now. It hasn’t been all riding off into the sunset, with “The End” popping up in fancy scroll as the music swells over the credits. But it has been the best experience of my life. I am a better person and human for loving and being loved by him. Love has transformed me from a scrappy, mistrustful vagabond, to a healthy, still slightly scrappy, stable human being. (Click here to hear my favorite song I ever wrote for Ty called “Break Me.” I wrote it when I was first falling in love and knew I could not resist and had to make myself vulnerable to be in love.)

And none of it would have been possible if I hadn’t asked myself to learn “Emotional French.” And even once I met Ty, I have had to task myself to let go of fear, let go of doubt, let go of remoteness and emotional detachment. I have done all this because the prize is so worthwhile. I did not want to be a statistic, especially considering my background with the added trap of fame. How many normal couples, much less celebrity couples make it? Celebrity marriages have a short shelf life! I didn’t want to become a singer who perpetually chased success at the expense of a stable love life. Even my favorite novelists ended up with great works of art but were often estranged from their own families.

I decided around 2000 to make my love life as important and beautiful as my artistic life. I wanted to make my entire life my greatest work of art. I didn’t want just my words to thrive, but my relationship too. This meant making choices. I have let go of acting so I could live in Texas and actually have days off when I’m not touring or making music. I turned work down regularly and took time between albums because my goal wasn’t to be richer – it was to be happy!! And building happiness is like building anything – it takes conscious attention.

My love with Ty has been my favorite living song, and it’s one I write every day. If I quit creatively participating, it withers, as with anything, and so love and life and writing are my garden and I tend to it daily.

And now I write songs and poems for a real man, and amazingly, my cowboy writes me love letters that are better than anything I had hoped would one day be said to me. In fact, Ty and I exchange love letters on every holiday, including Valentine’s Day. I wrote some lyrics for him that are actually in the movie and soundtrack for ‘Valentine’s Day.’ I am including the lyrics here. It’s about enjoying the person you’re with so much that going anywhere is fun, but staying home can be even better.

STAY HERE FOREVER

LAYIN’ HERE DREAMING
STARING AT THE CEILING
WASTING THE DAY AWAY

THE WORLD’S FLYIN’ BY
OUR WINDOW OUTSIDE
BUT HEY BABE THAT’S OK

THIS FEELS SO RIGHT
IT CAN’T BE WRONG
SO FAR AS I CAN SEE
WHATCHA WANNA DO
BABY I’LL DO ANYTHING

CHORUS
IF YOU WANNA GO BABY LET’S GO
IF YOU WANNA ROCK I’M READY TO ROLL
IF YOU WANNA SLOW DOWN
WE CAN SLOW DOWN TOGETHER

IF YOU WANNA WALK BABY LET’S WALK
HAVE A LITTLE KISS HAVE A LITTLE TALK
WE DON’T GOTTA LEAVE AT ALL
WE CAN LAY HERE FOREVER
STAY HERE FOREVER

THAT ITALIAN TOWER LEANIN’
BABY WE CAN LEAVE RIGHT NOW

IF THAT’S TOO FAR
WE CAN JUMP IN THE CAR
AND TAKE A LITTLE TRIP AROUND TOWN

THEY SAY THAT CALIFORNIA
IS NICE AND WARM THIS TIME OF YEAR
BABY SAY THE WORD AND WE’LL JUST DISAPPEAR

CHORUS

BRIDGE
IT’S A BIG WORLD FOR A BOY AND A GIRL
LETTING GO OF IT ALL HOLDING ON TO ONE ANOTHER
THERE’S A WHOLE OTHER WORLD TO DISCOVER
UNDER THE COVERS

CHORUS

(Listen to the song, along with the entire ‘Valentine’s Day’ soundtrack, for free here.)

So as this Valentine’s Day rolls around, if you don’t have someone yet, take the time to learn your own personal “French.” Practice every day being the person you want to be, so when you do find someone, you don’t sabotage yourself and you’re ready to do everything it takes to follow that rabbit down the rabbit hole for the craziest, most hair-pulling, most romantic journey of your life.

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. (AP) – Tiger Woods has apologized for having affairs and says he is unsure when he will return to competitive golf.

“I was unfaithful. I had affairs. I cheated. What I did was not acceptable,” said Woods, looking composed and speaking in a steady voice. His wife, Elin, was not obviously present.

As for coming back to the PGA Tour, Woods said: “I do plan to return to golf one day. I just don’t know when that day will be. I don’t rule out it will be this year.”

Woods talked for more than 13 minutes Friday from the clubhouse at the TPC Sawgrass, home of the PGA Tour. About 40 people were in the room, including his mother.

Woods said he is solely responsible for his actions and was in treatment for 45 days. He said he will return for more therapy. He also insisted there were no instances of domestic abuse in his marriage.

The world’s No. 1 golfer had not talked in public since his traffic accident Nov. 27 triggered shocking revelations about Woods’ serial infidelity.

Friday’s event was tightly controlled, with only a few journalists allowed to watch Woods live.

Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. CLICK FOR PHOTOS RELATED TO THIS STORY

Source: www.theboot.com

He may be an Olympic athlete, but alpine skier Will Brandenburg has something on his mind besides a gold medal — specifically, Taylor Swift!

“I have one of her albums,” he admits to MTV (quote via CMiL) Listing Kings of Leon and Rogue Wave as two of his favorite bands, Taylor may seem like an odd choice in that company, but he admits it’s much more than her musical talents that he finds appealing.

“It’s just the girl next door image that she has going on. I think it’s great,” says the 23-year-old, adding that his teammates “like to give him a hard time about that.”

Not only does Will have a crush on the recent Grammy winner, he took to the airwaves to ask her out on a date! “I think me and Taylor could have a good time. I was just thinking a nice little dinner and a movie date, something like that, so if you’re out there, Taylor … ,” he said during an interview.

Not embarrassed to ask her out in front of millions of fans, he says that’s just the way he is. “I’ve had a crush on her for a little while, so I thought I’d give it a shot and see what happens. I’m a straight shooter, so I just went at it and asked her out. I’m a simple guy, so a nice little dinner and a movie, and if she wants to learn how to ski, I’ll take her skiing — anything like that.”

He may have to wait awhile to get some one-on-one time with his crush. The singer is currently in Japan as part of her worldwide Fearless tour before bringing her live show back to the States.

Blake Shelton participated in a live chat on Facebook Tuesday night, to answer a variety of questions from fans on a variety of subjects, including hunting, NASCAR, and, of course, music.

One fan wanted to know if Blake was a fan of pop star Lady Gaga. And while he admitted he doesn’t really know what she sings, Blake did say he likes the way she dresses, especially her outfit at the recent Grammy Awards, “because some of that stuff could come in handy.” He joked, for instance, that if you’re “sitting next to her in the audience, you could set your beer on her hat. It’s practical.”

As for his absence from Twitter for the past several days, he says he needed a break. “Twitter got to be for me a little bit of an addiction,” says Blake. “About a week ago or two weeks ago, I deleted [the application] off my phone because I wanted a break for two or three weeks … it [also] gives the tree huggers a deep breath knowing I won’t be popping off at ‘em anytime soon.”

Blake also discussed his interest in pursuing acting roles. “It’s not like anybody is beating down my doors. I have read for some parts, gotten a part or two for movies that never were made. I think I’m doing what I was meant to do. God’s plan was for me to be a country singer.”

He also revealed that in addition to the Six Pak album, ‘Hillbilly Bone,’ he’ll be releasing in a couple of weeks, there will also be another one in stores this summer, and hopefully, a third one in the fall. The Oklahoma native loves the idea and says, “If I find a great song or write a great song … in a matter of months, I can get it to the fans.” He wrote one of the songs on the new album titled ‘Delilah,’ after watching girlfriend Miranda Lambert’s dog, Delilah, for a day.

During the course of the chat, Blake also performed a handful of songs, including ‘You’ll Always Be Beautiful,’ which is on his new album, as well as a pre-order bonus cut, ‘Kiss My Country Ass,’ which pal Rhett Akins wrote and recorded a few years ago. He wrapped the chat up with one of his favorite songs he loves to perform live, ‘Ol’ Red.’

A few other gems Blake revealed during the chat: he made the decision to himself four months ago that he wanted to become a member of the Grand Ole Opry; if he does get inducted, he’d like Trace Adkins to induct him; his favorite NFL team is the Arizona Cardinals; his favorite singer of all time is Earl Thomas Conley; and Miranda has so many pets, it’s like a petting zoo at her farm in Oklahoma. In fact, the couple just picked up a stray dog at a Pilot gas station in East Texas Monday night.

‘Hillbilly Bone’ hits stores March 2.

Lady Antebellum is on fire — winning a pair of CMA Awards, having a multi-week No. 1 album and song, performing on the Grammys and coming home with their first Grammy award. Now they’re celebrating another amazing first … a call from Oprah! The trio is set to make their debut appearance on the Oprah Winfrey Show, live on Friday (Feb. 19).

Lady A will perform a medley of their No. 1 hits, ‘I Run to You’ and ‘Need You Now, as part of ‘Oprah Fridays Live’ show, where the talk show host chats about the latest news and headlines. They believe the coveted invitation, along with the rest of their success, all goes back to a hit song. “There’s nothing more powerful than a No. 1 song or even just a Top 5 song,” Lady A’s Charles Kelley tells The Boot. “But once a song gets up to a Top 10, that means the fans are responding to it, and so it’s special when you know you’re connecting with the fans. Then you start seeing in a live show setting, the numbers start to grow and more fans in the seats, you’re selling out bigger venues … to see the tangible effects of it is important.”

In other news, the group’s current single ‘American Honey’ is sitting at No. 12 on the country charts, and they’re headed back out with Tim McGraw on Friday night in Roanoke, Va.