Country Music In 2005: What You Could Buy for $500

The year was 2005 in country music and Carrie Underwood had just won American Idol launching her on the path to superstardom. Also that year, Jason Aldean released his self-titled debut album and Keith Urban was crowned the CMA's Entertainer of the Year for the first time. Dierks Bentley won the CMA's Horizon award and Kenny Chesney took home the ACM for Entertainer of the Year. Big Grammy nominees in 2005 were Keith Urban as well as Tim McGraw and Faith Hill who would later win Grammys in February of 2006. And we're still enjoying new music by some of the same big stars as we did 15 years ago, but some things have changed. For one: there have been tons of new stars on the country music charts since then. To find some other differences, we decided to see what you could buy with $500 dollar bill in 2005. You could buy sixteen and half tickets ($30 each) to the CMA Fest 2005's nightly concerts which at the time features performances from Diamond Rio,Sara Evans, Josh Gracin, Andy Griggs, Alan Jackson, Miranda Lambert, Jo Dee Messina, Craig Morgan, Joe Nichols, Dolly Parton and The Grascals, Rascal Flatts, Julie Roberts, Kenny Rogers, Keith Urban, Phil Vassar with Carrie Underwood, Gretchen Wilson, Lee Ann Womack, Wynonna, Trisha Yearwood and more. At 9.99 each, you could buy roughly 50 top country albums of the era including number-one albums of the year like All Jacked Up by Gretchen Wilson, Be as You Are (Songs from an Old Blue Chair) by Kenny Chesney, Delicious Surprise by Jo Dee Messina, Fireflies by Faith Hill, Hillbilly Deluxe by Brooks & Dunn, Honkytonk University by Toby Keith and Kerosene by newcomer Miranda Lambert. Five tickets to the red-hot Rascal Flatts "Here's To You Tour" at about $100 each. Four tickets to the "Alive In '05" Keith Urban tour, which costs about $150 a seat at the time, and you'd still have change so you could buy a few beers. At $3.16 a gallon for gas, you could buy 158 gallons of gas to travel to see concerts by touring acts like Brad Paisley on his "Time Well Wasted Tour," Toby Keith's "Big Throwdown ll Tour" and  Kenny Chesney's "Somewhere In The Sun Tour." [embed]https://995qyk.com/contests/keiths-country-cash/[/embed]