2019 Golden Mic Awards: Vote Now for 2019’s Live Legend
In 2018, The Boot introduced the Golden Mic Awards, and in 2019, the reader-voted digital awards series is returning for another year! Recognizing the best in live country and Americana music, The Boot's Golden Mic Awards feature nine categories of staff-selected nominees who rule the stage.
This week (April 22-26), The Boot will reveal 2019's Golden Mic Awards categories ... and then, it will be up to you, our readers, to crown the winners. After each Golden Mic Awards category is revealed, readers will be able to vote for their preferred winner in each category as often as once per hour through 11:59PM ET on May 22. We'll announce the winners on the site the next day, May 23.
From the earliest Grand Ole Opry stars to today's living legends, veteran performers have long anchored the live performance side of the country music business. These 10 acts bring grandparents, parents and kids together for a common cause: celebrating such classic sing-a-long hits as "Dixieland Delight" and "Friends in Low Places" with a few thousand new friends.
For 50 years, Alabama have revolutionized country music by easing other bands' live shows from dancehalls and honky-tonks to amphitheaters and arenas. Thirty years after his mainstream arrival, meanwhile, Clint Black maintains the hunger and work ethic needed to sell out spaces ranging from concert venues to county fairs.
Garth Brooks, one of the all-time great entertainers and money-makers in American popular culture, will keep packing stadiums until he hangs up his multi-colored cowboy shirts for good -- not that we expect that to happen any time soon! Instant beach party-starter and veteran country stylist Kenny Chesney, too, has been selling out massive venues -- stadiums, specifically -- for a decade and a half.
Between celebrating Christmas with wife Amy Grant, keeping tradition alive with the Time Jumpers, living his teenage dream with the Eagles and performing his own material, Vince Gill might be the hardest-working man in country music. Another road warrior, Alan Jackson brings a parade of hits to ever live show.
Few pop culture icons bring together people from different generations, backgrounds and political beliefs as effectively as Willie Nelson, and the 85-year-old shows no signs of stopping. Country legend Dolly Parton also bridges gaps between people in polarizing times, through both philanthropy and her live sets.
Thanks to Jason Isbell, Margo Price and others, a new generation of listeners adore living legend John Prine and flock to see him perform selections from his massive catalog. And then there's the King of Country Music: George Strait seems to value downtime more than others on this list, as he now plays live sparingly, but that only makes his occasional stop in a city near you a must-see event.
Which of these 10 acts should be named Live Legend in the 2019 Golden Mic Awards? Vote below!
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