George Strait may have travelled off the touring horizon with his "The Cowboy Rides Away" farewell concert at AT&T Stadium in Dallas last year but that doesn't mean he's done with performing, or even new music. In fact, the Academy of Country Music confirmed that the icon would be playing just that, new music, when he appears at the ACM Awards on April 19 (from The Boot).

If Strait were to, theoretically, drop a new record during 2015, it wouldn't be all that mind-blowing. After all, it will have only been two years at the most since he released his last new album, 2013's Love Is Everything. It's just good to know for country music fans that one of the genre's biggest icons will continue to release new music even if he doesn't tour in support of it. Strait is one of the most popular musicians in the genre's history, having sold more than 100 million albums during his career (trailing only Garth Brooks, who will also be performing for the ACM Awards, and—depending on how you file her—Taylor Swift).

He's not the only name in country music to have announced new music coming despite recent declarations that they were done touring. Shania Twain, who will partake in her supposedly final tour this year, also mentioned that she was working on a new soul-tinged album (but that she wouldn't be watering down her hits with it during the tour).

As this is the 50th anniversary of the ACM Awards, the rest of the lineup for the evening is pretty stacked. First of all, the ceremony will take place at AT&T Stadium, meaning that Strait is picking up live right where he left off. Other performers at the ceremony will include Jason Aldean, Luke Bryan, Kenny Chesney, Eric Church, Florida Georgia Line, Miranda Lambert, Reba McEntire, Blake Shelton and Keith Urban.

Join the Discussion