Who Will Replace Little Big Town at Boots & Hearts 2015

Update: We have an answer…

The Boots & Hearts schedule now shows Dallas Smith moving out of his original time slot on Sunday and into the empty slot on Saturday opening for Eric Church. Emerson Drive will now be joining the B&H lineup, taking over in Smith’s Sunday spot.

Got it? Good!

——————–

Sadly, Little Big Town has announced that they will be cancelling all of their shows for the first 3 weeks of August as Jimmy recovers from his vocal condition by doctors orders.

That means that as of right now (or whenever the announcement is made public by Boots and Hearts) there is an empty time slot of 7:00pm to 8:30pm on Saturday night. And that means we need to figure out who could replace the Girl Crush singers on the main stage before Eric Church headlines the night.

We’ve brainstormed a few options… let us know what you think.

Little Big Town Replacement Option 1: Chad Brownlee

Chad Brownlee is currently scheduled to play before the Little Big Town slot. So why not just bump the Canadian country star up to 7pm?

It would mean adding a half hour to the 1 hour set that Brownlee has been planning, but we’re confident that he can take tracks from his 3 albums + maybe a cover of Thinking Out Loud to fill that time and keep the fans happy. We just saw him in the spring on the When The Light Go Down tour, and he was excellent!

But, if we move Chad Brownlee up to 7pm, we have to replace him from 5:30pm to 6:30pm… why not Tebey? There are no shows currently showing on his website and we know he puts on a great show. So we say get him in there and let him show the Boots & Hearts crowd why he won the 2012 Emerging Artist Showcase.

Little Big Town Replacement Option 2: Another BIG Name

If you’re itching for another big name to fill the LBT slot and leave Chad Brownlee where he is, we’ve got some options that we think could work based on availability, and awesomeness…

Darius Rucker: We’ve seen Rucker’s name online already as a replacement that people want to see. And we’d agree. The former Hootie and the Blowfish lead singer is on our list of artists we need to see. He’s a member of the Opry and if the Republic Live team can get him – we’ll be happy!

Kacey Musgraves: One of the hottest names in the genre right now, Musgraves is cool, talented, and pushing her Pageant Material album. We can only imagine the volume of the crowd singing along to Biscuits and Gravy, Merry Go ‘Round, and Follow Your Arrow as the evening fades and night begins.

Terri Clark: Canadian country legend, member of the Grand Ole Opry, hit maker, crowd pleaser, all around awesome entertainer – why wouldn’t we want to see Terri Clark. With a HUGE career and a list of hits longer than your arm, Clark can own a Canadian crowd. We saw her years ago opening for Brad Paisley in Ottawa, and it was damn near a double headlining show with the pop that she got from the audience. We say yes, bring on live versions of Boy Meets Girl, The World Needs A Drink, Emotional Girl, Dirty Girl, No Fear, etc.

Brantley Gilbert: The tattooed singer always looks like he’s having a good time, and more than anything that’s what we need to be looking for here. With the requisite hits (Country Must Be Country Wide, You Don’t Know Her Like I Do, Bottoms Up, One Hell Of An Amen) and a big attitude, he’d be a great fit leading into Eric Church!

Jennifer Nettles: We included Nettles in our 2015 predictions, but she didn’t make it to the schedule. But now she’s got Sugar to share with the world plus That Girl, Me Without You, Who Says You Can’t Go Home – and the entire Sugarland library. In fact, we’d love to see Sugarland play as a duo, but Kristian Bush has a show in Illinois on Friday night, so we’re not as hopeful about that.

Little Big Town Replacement Option 3: Eric Church

Right now Eric Church is scheduled to play from 9pm to 11pm… but what if he played longer? What if he took a page out of Neil Young’s WayHome playlist and put on a 3 hour show for the Boots & Hearts crowd?

3 hours is a long time, so we’re probably asking for too much there. But there is a way this could work. If Church comes on at 8:30pm and plays until 11pm we’ve got that covered – and if Chad Brownlee comes on from 6pm to 7:30 instead of 5:30pm to 6:30pm, we’re in better shape. A hour between sets isn’t awful, people could deal with it.

The only thing we don’t like about that plan is that it doesn’t replace Little Big Town…

Now we want to know, who do you want to see replace Little Big Town at Boots and Hearts 2015? Tell us in a comment – we’ll see you there!

Work Hard. Play Harder. Be Awesome!

Author profile

Joshua Murray

creator of content, daddy blogger, writer, coffee drinker, fan of the Batman. proud mo bro. prouder dad.