ClearChannel Launches iHeartRadio Country Festival in Austin

[a1aara]

Something just not right about this?

Luke Bryan, Jason Aldean, Eric Church, Carrie Underwood, Lady Antebellum and Florida Georgia Line will helm the upcoming festival in Austin


Clear Channel Media and Entertainment got such an overwhelming response to country music performers during the iHeartRadio Music Festivals, they've decided to start one geared toward country fans.



The first iHeartRadio Country Festival will be held Mar. 29 in Austin, Texas, with Luke Bryan, Jason Aldean, Eric Church, Carrie Underwood, Lady Antebellum and Florida Georgia Line heading up the initial lineup.
Clear Channel is giving listeners across its more than 120 country stations a chance to win their way to Austin when a six-week promotion kicks off next week.
Other artists scheduled to perform include Hunter Hayes and Jake Owen, with more to be announced later. Fans who can't attend can watch the festival via stream on the websites of Clear Channel and its stations.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/earsho ... try-669181

[Tiki Torches]

Something just not right about this?

I think it's all right there in the subject line with the dead giveaways being "Clear Channel" and "iHeartRadio".

On the Aldean tip, No Depression magazine founder Peter Blackstock had this to say about him in regards to a show he did with George Strait on Friday night at Austin's Erwin Center which was part of Strait's current farewell tour:

Ten songs in, opening act Jason Aldean joined Strait on “Fool Hearted Memory,” the headliner’s first No. 1 hit back in 1982, and “Nobody in His Right Mind Would’ve Left Her” from 1986. “Growing up listening to George Strait songs helped shape what I do,” Aldean said between the songs, telling Strait that “if it wasn’t for you, there wouldn’t be a Jason Aldean.”

We won’t hold that against Strait, but it’d be nice if the understudy’s music actually showed more evidence of the mentor’s influence. Too much of Aldean’s hourlong opening set testified to all that has gone awry with mainstream country in recent years. Where Strait’s approach was smooth and true, Aldean’s was bombastic and contrived.

A rare moment that revealed a connection was “Amarillo Sky,” a memorable tune with a nice pedal steel solo. More telling, though, was the contrast between Aldean’s wretched “Johnny Cash” — an arena-rockish abomination that ventures nowhere near the spirit of The Man in Black — and Strait’s decision to go straight to the source in his encore by covering Cash’s classic “Folsom Prison Blues.” Aldean would do well to learn from the master, while he still can.

If so inclined, you can read the rest of the review here.