Well there goes pretty much the only reason I would go to CMA Fest.
The festival announced this afternoon that Alan Jackson will no longer be performing at CMA Fest. The country music legend was originally scheduled to perform at Nissan Stadium on Saturday, June 11.
No reason was given for Alan’s absence, but he revealed last year that he was suffering from a degenerative nerve disease called Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease which is making performing harder and harder.
Of course Alan is also scheduled to kick off his Last Call: One More For the Road tour at the end of his month. And while he’s hinted that it may be his last, he hasn’t officially said that this will be your last chance to catch the legend on stage.
Obviously it sucks that Alan won’t be at CMA Fest, but most importantly we hope that everything’s ok and that he’ll still be able to take the stage for a long time to come.
Along with Alan’s absence, CMA Fest also announced that Old Dominion and Brothers Osborne would be taking his place on the Saturday night lineup. And they have also added a long slate of opening acts for the evening shows at Nissan Stadium, including artists like Deana Carter, Sara Evans, Everette, Randy Houser, Angie K, Kylie Morgan and Shenandoah.
The All-Time Best Alan Jackson Music Video Is…
It’s no secret that we’re BIG Chattahoochee fans here at Whiskey Riff.
And don’t even get me started on that glorious music video… Alan Jackson water skiing in jeans? It’s an absolute masterpiece.
But it’s not the best Alan Jackson video of all time….
If you’ve seen the movie Perfect, and even if you haven’t, you’re probably familiar with the overly flirtatious, hysterically bizarre, hyper-erotic aerobics scene when John Travolta’s character takes a class with instructor Jamie Lee Curtis.
So what does “Chattahoochee” have to do with this God-awful romantic drama from 1985?
Nothing really… until now.
Let me present to you… the greatest Alan Jackson video of all time:
Waylon Jennings Asks Alan Jackson What Chattahoochee Means
Ol’ Waylon…
You can always count on Waylon Jennings to tell is like it is, so when “Chattahoochee” hit country radio, he couldn’t help but ask Alan Jackson… what the hell is a “Chattahoochee?”
“I think Waylon said one time, Waylon Jennings, ‘what the hell is a Chattahoochee?'”
To be fair, unless you grew up near the Alabama/Georgia line, you’d probably have no idea as well. For those of you that don’t know, it’s actually a river that runs across northern Georgia, along the Georgia/Alabama border, and down into Florida.
And as it turns out, Alan was hesitant to release it as a single for the same reason.
“That’s why it was surprising to me when they decided to put ‘Chattahoochee’ out, I was reluctant because I said, ‘nobody is gonna know what that is.”
But according to Alan Jackson, Chattahoochee isn’t just a river, it’s a state of mind.
“The regular working people, the professional people, just trying to do the same things… make a living, raise a family, enjoy life… I learned that there’s a Chattahoochee everywhere.”
AKA, Chattahoochee isn’t just a river or a song… it’s a lifestyle.
TURN IT UP.
Shop the Chattahoochee River Rider shirt from Whiskey Riff Shop.
It’s hotter than a hoochie coochie…
