Best of 2018

To determine the five biggest stories of each month of 2018, The Boot's staff looked at website traffic; the featured stories received the most visitors throughout the month in which they broke.

A death, a secret, an arrest, a close call and a confession that brought tabloid attention — they all make this list of country music news stories that had us saying O-M-G.

What a good year for fashion!

It certainly was not all good news.

The fans have spoken.

The best country albums of any given year are situational.

The year 2018 was a pretty great one for country and Americana music.

Congratulations to all of the newly expanded families!

Best wishes, y'all!

Which country, Americana, alt-country, bluegrass and folk artists have been on tour in 2018?