iHeart Country Fest

BIG HATS & BASEBALL CAPS AT THE LONGHORNS CORRAL: The inaugural iHeartRadio Country Festival, which went down in Austin’s Frank Erwin Center on the UT campus all day on Saturday, featured performances by Luke Bryan, Jason Aldean, Florida Georgia Line, Eric Church, Lady Antebellum, Hunter Hayes, Carrie Underwood, Jake Owen and Dan + Shay, with Bobby Bones handling emcee duties. Among the highlights were Owen doing an impromptu rap of the theme song from Fresh Prince of Bel-Air during his performance of "Barefoot Blue Jean Night"; FGL joining Aldean onstage for a never-before-done collaboration on "The Only Way I Know;" Aldean smashing his guitar to pieces, Pete Townshend-style, as he left the stage, and Church borrowing a page from the Jimi Hendrix playbook, setting off his performance with a pyrotechnic display—though he didn’t actually spray his guitar with lighter fluid and ignite it with a match. In the fest’s most poignant moment, Bryan went down to the front row, took a Make-A-Wish kid in one arm and brought her on stage with him while he sang. In other country news, on 3/20, Omnivore will release The Garden Spot Programs, 1950, a collection of Hank Williams recordings unheard since they originally aired. Can we get a “Yee-haw”? (3/31a)