Beer Barrel Polka Gets 8+ Million Listens And I'm Now A Viral Sensation!

This past weekend my nephew Ethan informed me that my version of "Beer Barrel Polka," from our recent Fear the Beer Brewers project, has officially gone viral. I didn't believe him at first, but apparently it's a very popular backing track for "beer-themed" Instagram reels. In terms of views last week, it was second only to some Luke Combs song, and one of those reels alone has more than 8.6 million views! Whoa! Hot damn! Thanks again for the heads up, Ethan!

I couldn't wait to login to distrokid to find out just how much my newfound viral celebrity status paid out. Turns out, it's $1.30 and I have to fill out a W-2 to get it. Not quite what I expected, but maybe Luke Combs will hire Nate Gibson & the Stardazers as his opening act?

Beer! Beer! Beer! We Want Beer! On Back To The Country via WORT 89.9fm 8/12/26

Howdy Friends, tomorrow morning I'll again be hosting Back to the Country on WORT FM and the theme this week is Beer. Thanks to my pal Brad Serdan, who works at the Miller brewery, I just recently received this amazing LP filled with beer. It's a fun listen and it also got me thinking about all the great classic country music songs about beer.

But I'm also thinking about all of the not-so-great country songs about beer. And how most of the drinking songs in country music are actually about wine, moonshine, whiskey, tequila, "drinking" (generally), or getting "drunk/high." But how many good classic country songs are explicitly about beer? Well, actually, quite a lot.

I'll play three hours of the good ones tomorrow morning, including this here record filled with the High Life and Dive Bar Sounds! Hopefully by then we'll know how the WI primary election turned out and some folks may also want to drink a few beers during the show! Either way, be sure to VOTE today and TUNE IN tomorrow! 89.9fm in southern WI or streaming at wortfm.org.