MARTIN: Morgan Wallen’s antics make headlines again and Cattle Country Festival gets national praise

With his baseball career over, he got a job with a landscaping company and started teaching himself to play guitar. He auditioned for The Voice in 2014 and was chosen by Usher to be on his team. Wallen was eliminated near the end of Season 6. He moved to Nashville and wrote songs for artists like Jason Aldean and Florida Georgia Line. He eventually landed a record deal with the record label Big Loud and released his first album, If I Know Me in 2018. The song “Whiskey Glasses” was his first huge hit and kept his album on the Billboard charts for two years. It hit the Number 1 spot in 2020. 

When Covid hit, he hunkered down and wrote over 50 songs for his next album, Dangerous: The Double Album. The album ended up with 30 songs and sold so many copies, the pressing plants couldn’t keep up with orders. 

Then disaster struck. Wallen was out drinking with his buddies when a neighbors doorbell camera caught him uttering a racial slur to one of his friends. The fallout was swift. His booking agent and record label immediately dropped him. The award shows removed him from the ballots. 

Then, something strange happened. His fans came to his rescue and purchased so many of his CD’s that, once again, the pressing plants couldn’t keep up. Some fans bought as many as 30 copies of his album and gave them to their friends. With sales figures way over 200% and earning Wallen millions, his record label and booking agent quickly welcomed him back with open arms. Award shows begged him to come back, but he refused. When the CMA’s awarded him the Entertainer of the Year award, he didn’t attend. 

He broke all sales records previously held by Garth Brooks and his bank account hovered around the $20 million mark. In 2023, he released One Thing at a Time, a 36-track album that once again sold more copies than all his other releases combined. He had to move to stadiums and play multiple nights in each city just to meet ticket demands. 

During his rise to fame, his off stage antics continued to land him hot water. He was arrested at Kid Rock’s Nashville bar for public intoxication. In 2024, he was arrested for throwing a chair off the roof of Eric Church’s bar in Nashville. The chair landed next to two police officers who promptly arrested him and charged him with two felonies for reckless endangerment. He served seven days in a DUI education center and has to serve two years of supervised probation. 

He recently announced his upcoming album, I’m The Problem, will be released on May 16. He also opened his own bar in downtown Nashville so he would have his own place to party. Chances are he won’t get kicked out of this one. 

Last week, he appeared on Saturday Night Live to play two songs from his new album, the title track and “Just in Case.” During his performance, a TV screen in the background flashed the song titles to his new album. When the show was over, rather than stay on stage and mingle with the cast, Wallen walked off stage and out of the building. A few minutes later he posted a photo of his private jet on Instagram with the caption “Get Me to God’s Country” written across the photo. Instantly, the photo went viral and before long it was major news across the world. Once again proving that some people have too much free time on their hands. 

Wallen’s people defended his exit, saying he thought the show was over and was ready to go home. The cast of SNL posted photos of a Krispy Kreme donut truck parked outside and said they thought he was just in a rush to get a donut. Whatever the reason, Wallen is under the microscope but chances of it harming his career seem slim. Whatever stunt he pulls, his fans seem to take it all in stride.

Cattle Country Festival voted one of the best in Texas

We are just a few days away from the second Cattle Country Festival in Gonzales beginning on Thursday, April 10, and lasting until Saturday, April 12. The website HollerCountry.com just announced that the young festival made their list of the Top 15 festivals in the U.S. for 2025. 

A few weeks ago, I interviewed festival founder Marcus Federman about how the event earned such high praise after just one year. 

“I think the big advantage we have,” he explained, “is that our whole team is very experienced at this. That makes it easier for us to foresee any issues that might come up. This makes for a much better experience for the fans and the artists. We all work very hard on this so that the fans can enjoy a more upscale event than what they might expect. Our team also has deep long lasting relationships with artists and booking agents. This helps us get some of the top acts in the business. We have all been in this business for over 20 years and have built a lot of trust with the managers and agents. I also think it is a great idea to hold a large scale camping festival in the birthplace of Texas. It’s a very intriguing concept and I think artists like unique experiences. So, combining that with the unique location helped us a lot.” 

Marcus and I agreed that fans seem to be embracing these festivals for a number of reasons.

“It’s a fun experience,” he said. “I think people are looking for new ways to engage with entertainment. We wanted to create a good event for a fair price. There’s someone here to please almost any taste of music you might prefer. If you do the math, I think it averages out to about $7 per artist. Sometimes you go to a concert and pay $75 or more to see one good act and two support acts. For our festival, yes it’s a destination to get there, but once you are there, you can stay for three days if you want too. We also looked real hard at concession prices to make sure they were reasonable. The town of Gonzales has been very welcoming, so everything has been great so far.” 

We also talked about the incredible lineup of artists playing at the festival. “My team and I come up with the list of talent,” Marcus explained. “Plus, we ask the fans, our families, I take whatever advice I can get. We put all the names in an opinion pot then try to come up with the best lineup possible. A lot is contingent on your budget, the availability of the artist and what others shows are playing in the area. Some people don’t understand how incredibly difficult it is to book acts for a major festival like this.” 

Our own Parker McCollum will be one of the headliners along with Nickelback, Clint Black and Tanya Tucker. Other acts include Midland, Wyatt Flores, Clay Walker, Chase Rice, Gretchen Wilson, Ty Myers, 49 Winchester and Wade Bowen, just to name a few. For a full list of performers, daily schedules and to purchase tickets, go to CattleCountryFestTX.com.

Random notes from the music scene

Gruene Hall just added a second Robert Earl Keen show on May 18, plus Jesse Daniel on June 27 and Josh Weathers on July 5. Tickets go on sale Friday, April, 4 at 10 a.m. at GrueneHall.com. 

Devils Backbone Tavern has new shows on their calendar. First up is Jack Ingram on Saturday, June 14, Terry McBride on Sunday, June 15, and Ben Nichols on Saturday, July 5. Get your tickets now at DevilsBackboneTavern.com. 

Red Bird Listening Room has some good artists on their upcoming schedule including Jessee Lee, Jeff Plankenhorn, Jade Marie Patek, Max & Heather Stalling, Will Sexton, Gunnar Latham, Willis Alan Ramsey and Jamie Lin Wilson, just to name a few. 

Megan Moroney is starting her massive summer tour to promote her Am I Okay album. She will be in Houston on May 2, Austin on May 3 and Dallas for three shows on October 10, 11 and 12. 

Americana rockers Southall have added six more shows to their current tour. They will be at Floores Country Store on May 9 and in Waco on May 10. 

Ty Myers fans can now buy a deluxe version of his debut album, The Select. The new two disc version has five bonus tracks, two are new songs and three are acoustic versions of songs on the original release. 

Whitewater Amphitheater has been nominated for venue of the year by the Academy of Country Music Awards. The award show will air on May 8 on Prime Video. 

Elton John and Brandi Carlile recently recorded a duet album together titled Who Believes in Angels. A few weeks ago, they performed a concert together at the London Palladium and it will air on Sunday night, April 6, on CBS and Paramount Plus. 

Bon Jovi will release a massive anthology book documenting the bands career. Jon Bon Jovi tells their story in over 35,000 words and 1300 rare photographs. It will be released worldwide on Sept. 23. 

Austin’s famous blues club Antone’s will celebrate their 50th Anniversary with a blues festival on April 26 and 27. Performers will be Gary Clark Jr., Jimmy Vaughan, Ian Moore, Mavis Staples, Jackie Venson and many more. The folks at Austin City Limits will film the festival to be broadcast at a later date. 

Australian singer songwriter Kasey Chambers will return to America for her first tour here in 15 years. Unfortunately, there are no Texas dates announced yet but hopefully a few will be added. The closest she will get is Nashville on June 24 for a show at City Winery. 

Zach Top is having a fantastic year. If you haven’t purchased his debut album, Cold Beer & Country Music, you are missing out on one of the best albums to come out of Nashville in the past decade. It has been nominated for album of the year by the ACM Awards, making it the first time since 2016 that a debut album was nominated for this award. Chris Stapleton did it in 2016 with his album Traveller and look how well his career has gone. Zach also released a live video for his single, “I Never Lie,” that was filmed at his last performance at the Ryman Auditorium. Trust me, Zach Top is destined for big things. 

This Sunday at the 6040 Pumphouse Concerts, you can see Ruben V and Lisa Morales. For more information, go to their 6040 Pumphouse Concerts Facebook page. 

John Cafferty has a new album coming soon and I’ll review it as soon as it’s released. He is still one of my favorite rock singer songwriters, he just never got the recognition he deserved. 

The 2025 Country Music Hall of Fame inductees are producer and former MCA Records CEO Tony Brown, June Carter Cash and Kenny Chesney. 

On Friday night, the Seger System will be performing the music of Bob Seger at the Brauntex Theatre. 

On Saturday night at Floores Country Store, Justin Trevino will perform a special tribute to legendary singer Johnny Bush. 

If you like the dueling pianos of Howl at the Moon, you can witness all the fun when they bring their pianos to the stage at Freiheit Country Store on Friday night. 

Linda Gail Lewis, the youngest sister of Jerry Lee Lewis, will bring her rockabilly sounds to Riley’s Tavern on Friday night. Opening the show for Linda will be Annie Marie and Danny B. Harvey. 

Tonight, the Tavern on Castell is celebrating their one-year anniversary with music by Josh Holden. Stop by at 4 p.m. and show your support for this cool downtown venue.