(CMT Offstage keeps a 24/7 watch on everything that's happening with country music artists behind the scenes and out of the spotlight.)

Josh Kelley is in the Chicago area Friday night (Nov. 19) as part of Miranda Lambert's CMT on Tour with Eric Church, and I can't go. But that hasn't stopped me from spending all week wishing I was. I spent a leisurely lunch hour with Kelley in a Nashville studio last week for a listening party for his new music. I never really knew him as a pop artist, so I only know the Southern-sound Kelley. And the song I've been loving the most is an super-infectious one called "Raining Whiskey." Kelley has said of the song's lyrics ("It's hard staying dry when it's raining whiskey" and "It's gonna pour as long as we're together") that it's his favorite forecast. It doesn't hurt that he's charming and has boy-next-door good looks. Or that he's still in touch with his old youth minister, Gus, who came out to his show in Boston earlier this week. So if a guy can love whiskey and ministers, he's good people.