5 Reasons Why 2017 Will be the Best Year Yet For Country Music
Tim McGraw and Faith Hill Tour. New Shaina Twain music. These are a couple things to look forward to in country music for 2017!
As 2016 winds down, we’re looking ahead to all the possibilities that 2017 holds. Once the clock strikes midnight on Dec. 31, the New Year brings the promise of new music, tours and festivals bound to please every country fan. The options are endless and will likely last long after that New Year’s resolution is made and inevitably broken. Check out our top five reasons why 2017 will be the best yet for country music!
1. New Music
Shania Twain. Luke Bryan. Lady Antebellum. Brad Paisley. Little Big Town. Kip Moore. Eric Paslay. Brett Young. The list goes on and on. While not much is known as far as subject matter or collaborations off these projects, each artist has hinted at a 2017 release and with names as iconic as those above, 2017 is sure to bring plenty of new tunes to add to our playlists.
2. Festivals
The New Year will kick off with the return of Luke Bryan’s Crash My Playa. The third year of the festival also happens to be the biggest with acts like Bryan, Blake Shelton, Little Big Town, Randy Houser, Dustin Lynch, Brothers Osborne, Old Dominion and many more set to take the beachfront stage in Riviera Maya, Mexico, in January. Florida’s Tortuga Music Festival will also return in April for its fifth year with islands-lover Kenny Chesney slated as headliner.
If beachside festivals aren’t your thing, there’s also LakeShake in Chicago in mid-June and Route 91 Harvest in Las Vegas in late-September to keep on the radar. And for those looking for an excuse to visit Music City, CMA Fest will be held the second weekend in June. The list goes on and on!
3. Tours
The biggest tour announcement of 2017 is Tim McGraw and Faith Hill’s Soul2Soul The World Tour. The 65-city trek kicks off April 2017 in New Orleans and celebrates the 10th anniversary of the couple’s record-breaking Soul2Soul II Tour. Meanwhile, the Garth Brooks World Tour with Trisha Yearwood continues into the New Year whereas newer acts like Maren Morris and Drake White will head out on their first-ever headlining tours.
Eric Church will host his Holdin’ My Own Tour which starts Jan. 13 and marks the first time he won’t have an opener. Instead, he will play two full sets each night. Blake Shelton will also hit the road with special guest RaeLynn while Brad Paisley will extend his Life Amplified Tour and take out fellow guitar slingers Lindsay Ell and Chase Bryant. Suffice it to say, there are plenty of country tours to keep concertgoers happy throughout 2017.
4. Female Domination
While we’ve been predicting females taking back country radio for several years now, it seems 2017 is the year the ladies will own their rightful place on the airwaves. Need proof? Simply look at Maren Morris’ four 2017 GRAMMY nominations. The country newcomer has amassed more GRAMMY nods than any other country artist this year and she is paving the way for radio success alongside acts like Kelsea Ballerini, Cam, Lauren Alaina, Runaway June, Kacey Musgraves, Cassadee Pope, Clare Dunn and of course Miranda Lambert and Carrie Underwood.
5. Return to Songwriting Roots
While the past several years country has embraced aspects of the pop, urban and even EDM genres, 2017 marks the promise of the return to the country songwriter. Debut albums from respected Nashville songwriters like Caitlyn Smith (Kenny Rogers, Garth Brooks) and Natalie Hemby (Miranda Lambert, Little Big Town) start the trend with Hemby’s Puxico being released Jan. 13. Expect new music from fellow songwriters Ryan Hurd and Seth Ennis, too.
