Taking a quick detour from her towering albums of original songs, the “Pearl of Kentucky Country Music” Kelsey Waldon stops down to leave behind some signature versions of her most favored songs.
If you’re looking for some hard-charging, hard-twangin’, old-fashioned truck drivin’ honky tonk music, Bo Outlaw and Løiten Twang Depot kick in like a handful of truck stop Mini Thins with “Bars – Brunettes – Big Rigs.”
For many listeners, this is exactly what they think of when they think “country music,” and hearing a young man like Alex Key sing these songs doesn’t just fill the ears with favorable sounds, it fills the spirit.
This is the moment for artists like Scotty McCreery to step up and take advantage of the music opening up and sounding more country. It’s the moment he’s been waiting his whole career for.
Hearkening back to a time when country sounded country, and singers were required to come with a distinctive sound, Emily Nenni has released a fun, infectious, twangy, diverse, and career-defining album.
“Easin’ On” is not just another country album. Meech finds an interesting moment in country history to be inspired from, and turns in something different than everything else you will hear in 2024.
Alright. So it goes without saying that this really isn’t a “good” song, and that it’s not especially “country” either, aside from a few tokenary and surface inferences. But regardless, according to Billboard, it’s the #1 song in country.
“Half Life” might be marked by ruminations on the inherent mortality of carbon-based life we all must reckon with, but the future is bright and sky is the limit of where Wyatt Flores can take this music.
Crockett may have made it to the top, but his new album $10 Cowboy isn’t about where he’s at. It’s about how he got here, the struggles he incurred, the setbacks he overcame, the perseverance he had to exhibit.
You don’t really need a conventional album review to help navigate you through or understand Ernest’s 26-song treatise, Nashville, Tennessee. What you need is a road map, a sherpa, someone to point your nose in the right direction.
Steel your emotional equilibrium for the roller coaster of stimulus you’ll experience listening to this four-song gem that combines the songwriting prowess of Midwest musical superhero Joe Stamm and Charles Wesley Godwin’s band.
‘Revelations’ by Sarah Shook and the Disarmers will wrap you in the warm embrace of electric and angry underground country, while also serving it up through curiously infectious melodic prowess.
“Deeper Well” might have a few more memorable songs and mark a return to a more organic sound for Musgraves, but that “something’s missing” feeling persists. It seems to be marked by boredom.
Music might be marked by the presence of sound, but it’s the music of John Moreland that compels the hushing of everything else to allow the quietest and most reflective of moments to prevail.
There is perhaps no better sign of the country resurgence than the surging popularity of 25-year-old Zach Top. His music has caught fire like he’s the next new thing, even though his sound is older than he is.
You better make room on your record shelf or playlist because ‘Sweethearts Only’ is coming in hot, and will be demanding your attention like a hyperactive dachshund with detachment anxiety for months to come.
Few of the other artists we’ve experienced in the modern era stun with their reinterpretation and revitalization of the classic sounds of music from the early sixties like Kimmi Bitter, in the country genre and beyond.
Cody Jinks succeeded at changing the game. But it’s those that continue to change, continue to challenge themselves and refine who they are that will squeeze the most out of this life.
Similar to Colter Wall, Sierra Ferrell has taken entirely outmoded and archaic music, and through her weaving of magic, made it more wildly popular and appealing than anyone would ever have imagined it could be.
Patient, purposeful, authentic, vulnerable, and expressive, Ol’ Kayce Dutton isn’t just relying on his Yellowstone cred and what your girlfriend thinks is a cute butt to get by. He put in his time, paid some dues…
Texas music songwriter and performer Kelly Willis, bass player and throwback marvel Melissa Carper, and country traditionalists/killer guitar player Brennen Leigh have been an occasional tour bill over the last couple of years.
You’ll find it just about right for a long drive through the countryside, or a quiet evening away from the of the shrill droning of modern reality. It’s the trip far away and back in time that makes “Wild Onion” so enjoyable.
“Home” (ᎣᏪᏅᏒ in Cherokee syllabary) is a bold, auspicious, full, rich, and entertaining specimen of authentic Northeast Oklahoma country rock, reminding you of some of the best up-tempo tracks of the Turnpike Troubadours.
From Greensboro, North Carolina, Addison Johnson is an under-heralded Outlaw traditionalist who’s been seen hanging out and touring with the likes of other dangerous men like Ward Davis and Alex Williams.