superstars Dirk Spentley, L. King, and Laney Wilson host CMAFest, the music event of the summer.

The three-hour prime time concert special brings country music's ultimate fan experience

to a national television audience. Watch CMAFest, the music event of the summer,

airing Wednesday July 19th at 8-7-Central on ABC. Available next day on Hulu. Don't miss it.

Welcome to the Jesus Calling Podcast. This week in celebration of CMAFest 2023,

a country music festival that takes place in national Tennessee. We've got a special episode

showcasing country music and faith. We'll revisit some favorite episodes from country singers

who share their stories of heartache, joy, struggles, and success, and how they trusted God

through it all. First up, we'll hear from multi-platinum-selling artist Brett Young.

Music has been nothing short of a very long journey for me. I was one of the few

guys in my group of friends in Los Angeles that were pursuing music that was actually making money

in music. The problem was I was making money playing bars and restaurants, singing other people's

songs to a bunch of people that didn't know I was there. After 10 years of quote-unquote success,

I hadn't met a record exactly. I hadn't written an original song. I didn't really feel like I was

doing what I wanted to do in music. I decided that it was time at my age to switch gears and write

songs for other people because I wasn't going to be given the platform that I needed in order

for people to care about my songs. I moved to Nashville, started writing songs for other people,

and then somebody needed to sing the demo. So I would sing on the demo and we would pitch the

songs to other artists. Within a couple months of living in Nashville, everybody wanted to know

who the demo singer was. I would say if you want to make God laugh telling me plans, that's kind

of how my situation worked out. I felt like I was a little too old to start a career and I moved

to Nashville and God said, here you go, here's your career. And from that moment on, I made writing

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