My summer has been everything but eventful, with the exception of the best week of my year: the CMA Music Festival. This was my eighth year attending the festival in Nashville, Tenn., and I spent most of my time chasing new talent and up and coming artists. I discovered one during that week that I cannot help but scream about.

If you haven’t heard of Sam Hunt yet, I promise you, you will soon. His single “Leave the Night On” was released to country radio in July and became the highest debuting new artist single in the history of country air check. So yeah, he is going to be a big deal.

The first time I ever heard him play was during the festival on an outdoor stage downtown and I instantly fell in love with his voice, style and the songs he sang.

I then heard about a private show he was doing later that night at Silver Dollar Saloon, a bar on 2nd Street.

The only catch was that his show was at the same time Tim McGraw was supposed to perform at LP Field the same night and I have never had the opportunity to see Tim perform live.

My friends and I made the sacrifice to see Sam Hunt again and my friend even had to flash a fake radio press pass at the door to get us in, but luckily we made it.

As soon as he walked in my friends and I were the only ones who noticed him immediately. We ran over to him and were all able to snap a few pictures together right before he walked up on stage.

Sam sang songs off his already released acoustic mix tape “Between The Pines” and covered iconic country songs like “Strawberry Wine” for the crowd of about 75 people.

He sang “Cop Car” and “Come Over,” songs he wrote that were picked up by Keith Urban and Kenny Chesney.

He shared the story behind the songs. It was incredible to hear the passion in his voice as he sang the songs, knowing they were not just songs to him, but that they were real life.

So trust me, if you want to hear good country music with a modern spin to it, download Sam’s new EP “X2C” which was just released to iTunes a few weeks ago. You will not regret it.

Column by Breanna Sill, Assistant Features Editor