Matt is a very impressive young man, indeed. He went to college on a basketball scholarship and played 4 years. He is very tall so that shouldn’t be too surprising. After college he worked farming and construction jobs while studying for a master’s degree in communications at the University of Arkansas. A medical mission’s trip to Haiti inspired him to apply to a post-baccalaureate premedical program to complete pre-med coursework not taken as a religion and philosophy major. He applied to Harvard University’s Extension School part-time pre-med program, and he was accepted. But in 2014, shortly before the program would have begun, he had the opportunity to sign a publishing deal with Wide Open Music, and he chose music over starting the part-time pre-med program. Let’s repeat that…he chose music over Harvard?

Music was his passion and in the 2010’s he released independent music and played many gigs. He moved to Nashville in 2014 and signed a publishing deal soon later. He released “I Prayed For You” in 2018 which Rolling Stone Magazine named it one of the “top 10 country songs to hear now”. It reached #36 on the Billboard Charts. Listen to it here:

It caught the attention of CEO of Jive Records and was signed to a record deal in 2018. He went on to open for great artists like Luke Bryan and Eric Church.

Still very new to today’s country air play but I am interested to see how far he will go. Tune into 103.7 The Gator each day to hear more from Matt Stell.

This week I thought we should give a little attention to this amazing new artist professionally known as Hardy. Like most of the artists on air, he started his career as a song writer. He has a passion for writing music and even graduated Middle Tennessee State University with a song writing degree. After moving to Nashville to pursue song writing he got a big break writing with Florida Georgia Line. He wrote the song “Up Down” by Morgan Wallen and FGL and it got so much attention that he was then signed by Big Loud Records in 2018. His career is taking off like a shot. He immediately released an EP entitled “This Ole Boy” followed up by the single “Rednecker” and a new EP called “Where to Find Me”. “Rednecker” is a great song.

Listen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sn2RBKPMpU0

Hardy also co-wrote Florida Georgia Line’s singles “Simple” and “Talk You Out of It”, Blake Shelton’s singles “God’s Country” and “Hell Right”, “Drop” by Dallas Smith, along with Chris Lane’s single “I Don’t Know About You”.

In September 2019, Hardy released a collaborative album titled Hixtape, Vol. 1, which featured a total of 17 artists including Thomas Rhett, Keith Urban, Tracy Lawrence, Jake Owen, Trace Adkins, Joe Diffie, Zakk Wylde, Cole Swindell, Dustin Lynch, and Morgan Wallen.  (RIP Joe Diffie)

Check it out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWN8R1xw8IA&list=PLmoOJX8ck0EN_ZmEBS44wfN5_hloMao4n

This collection has my new favorite song: “One Beer” featuring Lauren Alaina and Devin Dawson and I love to jam out to it while listening to 1037 The Gator. Hardy was set to be on tour with Thomas Rhett in 2020 for Rhett’s Center Point Road Tour, but the tour was postponed in lieu of the COVID-19 pandemic. That is definitely a concert I do not want to miss. Hurry up 2021…We need to jam!

I am very excited to do this week’s blog on Taylor Swift. She is absolutely one of my favorite artists and although she has mainly been doing mainstream music these days, she has country roots and a new country song entitled “Betty”.

A little backstory on Taylor Swift and her drive in which she did not take no for an answer. Determined to make her dreams come true. Her family relocated to Nashville in 2004 when Taylor was just 14 years old. At the Bluebird Café in Nashville, she caught the attention of Scott Bruschetta of Big Machine Records. I have been to the Bluebird Café. They have amateur Sundays where new talent can go and show off their skills. Other nights they have well known song writers from all genres playing their tunes and sharing the stories behind the music. It is so interesting to meet the song writer behind many years of music’s top hits. Now, I have mentioned Scott before as he is also represents Rascal Flatts and Florida Georgia Line. She caught his eye. Swift was the youngest to be signed to a label at just 15 years old. Other record labels thought Scott was making a mistake signing her and they received some ridicule but who is laughing now? In 2006 she released her debut album which was the longest charted album in the 2000’s on the Billboard 200. Its third single, “Our Song”, made her the youngest person to single-handedly write and perform a number-one song on the Billboard Country Airplay chart. Swift’s breakthrough second studio album, Fearless (2008), won four Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year, and has been certified Diamond by the Recording Industry Association of America. It yielded the Billboard Hot 100 top-five singles “Love Story” and “You Belong with Me”.

My Taylor experience includes taking my teenage daughter to one of her shows and I was blown away by how multi-talented she is. I became a lifelong fan that day. Not only does she play the piano, guitar, harmonica, banjo but you may not know this but she plays the harp as well. What I loved most about the show was how she did the second part of her show in the back of the stadium giving those of us in faraway seats a first row experience.

Now, I could go on and on about her many accolades in her amazing career but what I am excited about is her new country song (it’s been a few years since a new country song came our way) This song is off her new album entitled “Folklore” which just won the number one spot making this her 7^th number one album on the Billboard 200 chart. The song is entitled “Betty” give it a listen here:

Check her out on Netflix as well. She has a few of her concerts available and they are amazing. So glad to have a new Taylor song back on Country Radio.

Becky D’s Nashville Blog-Jake Owen

This week’s blog is about Jake Owen. Yes, I have a back story. The year was 2011. I was a promoter at THE Country Western Night Club in Florida, The Round Up. Barefoot Blue Jean Night just hit number 1 when Jake came to perform. It was PACKED! Since Jake was back in Florida, as he was born in Winter Haven (just 3 hours from the venue), his family joined. One in particular was his TWIN brother. Yes, Jake has a twin brother, Jarrod Owen. They are not identical twins but twins non-the-less. Total opposites too. Jake is outgoing and a great performer and his brother is a little shy and does not sing.

Jake brought Jarrod up on stage that night to sing with him. I think my favorite memory of the night was watching Jake with his then Fiancé, Lacy Buchanan. Before he went on stage, the prayed together. They were so sweet. I was so sad to hear of their divorce because if you got to see the two together, they were so in love.  She is featured in his Barefoot Blue Jean Night video: https://youtu.be/aRh-vBOS-dU Still my favorite all time song. I got to meet Jake after the show and he is a total sweetheart and loves to have fun.

What is Jake up to these days? What isn’t he doing?

Spending time with family. He recently posted a video of his daughter Pearl and himself belting it out together. Too Cute. https://www.instagram.com/tv/CBqb1ILF3Tp/?utm_source=ig_embed In April he welcomed to the world his second daughter, Paris with his girlfriend, Ericka.

A Podcast called Good Company: Listen in as he is so much fun. https://www.iheart.com/podcast/834-good-company-with-jake-owe-28671523/

And now a movie? Get this….he is also dabbling in acting. He is currently featured in a movie called     The Friend being filmed in Alabama and stars Dakota Johnson and Casey Affleck. Looking forward to seeing his acting skills. He says about this adventure: “I have always been intrigued by challenging myself to do things I am not necessarily comfortable with. No one hired me for this because they saw me act in a film before. I think they’re putting faith in me that I can do this, and that gives me some energy.”

He is the son of Country Music artist Rhett Akins who had songs on the charts in the mid 90’s with a number one hit entitled “Don’t Get Me Started”. In my opinion, Thomas inherited his father’s best traits. His musical talent for sure! I absolutely love every song Thomas has written and recorded. My top favorites include: “Die A Happy Man”; “Look What God Gave Her”; and “Life Changes” (which was an in-depth look into his own life). What you may not know is that before he made it big as a singer, he wrote songs for artists like Jason Aldean, Lee Brice and Florida Georgia Line. Also, with Big Machine Records and Scott Borchetta who I mentioned in a previous blog (Justin Moore). I have a confession. When I first heard about him becoming an artist, I thought, “Lucky little rich kid of a huge Country Star gets to play rock star” Then I heard his music and lyrics and was like….WOW, he’s amazing and I’m and idiot for judging him. He has definitely earned his status and has become one of my all-time favorite artists. I love his new song “Ain’t Nothing That A Beer Can’t Fix” as heard on 1037TheGator.com. New projects include a collab with Kane Brown and AvaMax for the upcoming Scooby Doo movie called “On ME”. Check it out here.

Now these days are crazy. The riots and COVID are rocking our nation. Thomas has a lot to say about it. I will not elaborate as he says it best on his own. Click here to read his testimony.

Luke Combs has to be one of the most talented artists I have seen in years. I seriously think he could sing “Mary Had a Little Lamb” and it would be a hit. He has a great sense of humor as well as seen in his latest interview with ET Canada and Taste of Country. https://tasteofcountry.com/luke-combs-wedding-nicole-hocking-update-pandemic/. LOL he is hunting turkeys and working out even if it doesn’t look like it, says he.

He is also writing more music in quarantine. His new song is based on the pandemic: It’s real good and appropriately called “6 Feet Apart” Give it a listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6d9XjnV2iKA      

I bet yet another number 1 song, as Luke is no stranger to number 1 status. I mean everything he has released has hit number one so far on Billboards Country Airplay. You know the songs: “Hurricane“, “When It Rains It Pours“, “One Number Away“, “She Got the Best of Me“, “Beautiful Crazy“, “Beer Never Broke My Heart“, and “Even Though I’m Leaving“. His first album, This One’s for You spent 44 weeks at number one on Top Country Albums, setting the record for the longest reign at the top of that chart by a male artist. Beating out Shania Twain.

“Does to Me” featuring Eric Church, is his second single off his second album, What You See Is What You Get, and is climbing the charts fast as it currently sits at number 5 and will most likely be added to his number 1 hits. How amazing is that? Every song he releases makes number 1? He still has a long way to go to get anywhere near George Strait’s 61 number 1 hit record. So keep on writing, Luke…We love it! Personally, I absolutely love his music and am excited to say I am set to see him live in New York City this November as long as this pandemic comes to an end. It would be so cool to see him play in the Big Apple then after get me some white New York Pizza and take a stroll around Time Square.

This week I decided to write about Justin Moore. This man is incredibly successful in the music industry with his list of 7 number one hits including: “Small Town USA”, “If Heaven Wasn’t So Far Away”, “Til My Last Day”, “Lettin’ the Night Roll”, “You Look Like I Need a Drink”, “Somebody Else Will”, and “The Ones That Didn’t Make It Back Home”.

He is coming to Florida in September on the 24th at the St. Augustine Amphitheatre. Hopefully all this Virus stuff will be way over by then and we can all take a road trip.

A little background on Justin. First, I have to tell you he is one lucky guy to have met the people he did in Nashville in 2002. See, when he got there he met a young producer named Jeremy Stover who made Big Machine Records their first number one hit with “Where Ever You Are” by Jack Ingram. (Big Machine is also responsible for Taylor Swift’s success as well as Florida Georgia Line and Rascal Flatts) With this relationship, Justin got introduced to one of the top executives of Big Machine Records, Scott Borchetta. I have seen Scott in person a couple of times but never had the pleasure of meeting him but yea, he is the one you want in your corner. Scott promised to sign him if he would be patient. 6 years he waited and he got signed as promised.

I believe he will hit number 1 again with his latest single “That’s Why We Drink” played right here on 1037 The Gator. Check out the official music

Now, I absolutely love this song and have to share that it has become my favorite work out song. I take long walks here in beautiful NW Gainesville and the beat keeps my time perfectly. I will play it over and over again to get up that hill. Here was my view yesterday.

Keep listening to 1037 the Gator to hear Justin’s new song.

Maren Morris has a new song and you are going to love it. It is entitled “To Hell and Back”. In my opinion, it has a great deep meaning. This has the potential to be her next big hit.

This is a powerful song by new mommy, Maren. Her son, Hayes Andrew, was born on March 23, 2020. You could say this song represents the birth experience. 30 hours of labor that ended in an emergency C-Section during the Covid-19 Pandemic. That sounds very hellish to me however, let’s take a deeper look into what compelled her to express herself in this way in this new song.

Maren stated: “I wrote ‘To Hell and Back’ about a week after my first record came out, so it was almost gonna make it on the first record but just missed the cut off. And ‘To Hell And Back’ was just sort of my song too … well, at the time we had just started dating, but Ryan and I were really falling in love and I wrote this song out of gratitude to him because I was in a previous relationship where they didn’t really understand why I loved this so much, and they were always sort of trying to make me feel guilty about having success, and being excited about things that were going well, and it’s only because they were insecure and it wasn’t really about me. So, ‘To Hell and Back’ was my love letter to Ryan saying thank you for accepting me as I am, and not trying to save me or patch me back together. Because I don’t need that, but I like that he loves my sort of weird, crazy.”

Wow, it is actually a letter of gratitude to her husband, Ryan Hurd. I love that! I am very inspired by the lyrics of this song. I can share openly that I have not found love like that yet myself so many of you ladies out there like me will relate to this song too.

Give it a listen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdSflq8Imqw

What’s next for Maren? She is forming a group called Highwomen with Brandi Carlisle and Amanda Shires (in reference to The Highwaymen-The Super group that held Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, and Kris Kristofferson) with the fourth slot being filled by a rotating line-up of guests, such as Sheryl Crow, Chely Wright, Margo Price and Courtney Marie Andrews. I can see that this new group will be making headlines very soon.

Give us a like or tell us what you think below. Meanwhile, I am going to give this song another listen.