Watch exclusive coverage from CMA Fest
Earlier this month, CMA Fest marked its 50th anniversary in Nashville with four straight days celebrating record-breaking milestones and more. The golden anniversary of the legendary festival delivered everything country music fans could want as an estimated more than 90,000 fans attended the festivities in Downtown Nashville each day, cementing a new attendance record for the largest and longest-running country music festival in the world.
Unlike other festivals, CMA Fest acts donate their time to perform so ticket proceeds can directly benefit high-quality music education initiatives across the country through the CMA Foundation.
Reporter Matt Bailey was on hand to capture the action and conduct interviews with some country legends, established artists and newer acts. He attended countless events, including the Nissan Stadium Nightly Concerts where Alabama was honored with the CMA Pinnacle Award, and had the rare opportunity to interact with Reba McEntire during her Artist of the Day on the CMA Close Up Stage panel. The latter moment is featured in this episode.
This episode marks our longest one yet, clocking it at just over 100 minutes with guests including Kidd G, Pillbox Patti, Jake Worthington, Ian Munsick, Travis Denning, Chrissy Metz, Callista Clark and more. We have three very special interviews with Rita Wilson, Kimberly Perry and Randy and Mary Travis, who all discuss their music and careers.
Following CMA Fest, Bailey attended a No. 1 party for Tyler Hubbard’s “9 Foot 5” and “Dancin’ in the Country” which included a surprise appearance by Keith Urban. Matt’s question to both artists can be seen in this episode.
We wrap the feature length episode with coverage of Garth Brooks and TuneIn launching The Big 615, a new global country radio station that’s hosted by former GAC-TV and SiriusXM personality Storme Warren. The Big 615 is the flagship station of Brooks’ Sevens Radio Network, exclusively on TuneIn, and launched June 15th with a new single from the country legend. The stations featured on the network are conceived and directed by Brooks with more on the way.
All CMA Fest coverage can be seen at our website.
Be sure to subscribe to The Music Universe Podcast wherever you get your podcasts.
Become a supporter and support this podcast with a small monthly donation to help sustain future episodes.
