Sacramento fans should be familiar with the Eli Young Band: they opened for Dierks Bentley at Country in the Park 2010 the year it was held downtown.

There is of course, no “Eli Young”. The band name is a combination of James Young and Mike Eli, the guitarist and lead singer, respectively. Jon Jones plays bass and Chris Thompson, drums. The band has been one of the hardest-working groups in country, touring well over 200 dates a year, for the past decade.

And all that hard work, paid off. “Crazy Girl”, a song written by Lee Brice, was named ACM song of the year and there wasn’t an artist in the room that night who didn’t think the Eli Young band finally were receiving some long-overdue recognition. Here, they catch up for a few minutes with KNCI at the ACM broadcasts from Las Vegas…