Last week I got a message that a nice lady named Emily Yahr had called me. She writes for the Washington Post and wanted to use a quote of mine from last year after the CMA Awards.

I think the first thing I said was, "Are you serious?"

She was and is.

The blog is called "A Year After Chris Stapleton's Shocker, Country Music Is Still Wondering How Much It Mattered."

Despite that headline and the excellent accompanying blog, my hope is not dimmed.

Rome was not built in a day.

Stapleton's back in the spotlight THIS year, along with another rootsy country rocker in Maren Morris.

She and Stapleton are tied with Eric Church for the most nominations. It's something I find interesting since I'm of the opinion that Church is the biggest country music star most reflective of the Stapleton style.

In the blog, names like Jon Pardi and William Michael Morgan are rightly mentioned as new artists who've just hit number one with more traditional-sounding country songs.

I absolutely take that as a positive sign.

But nobody should give up just because Stapleton hasn't reeled off seven straight number one songs since last year's magic moment.

Here's the video from which Emily Yahr took the quote:

 

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