August 21st, 2026 is a Busy Day for New Albums. Here’s Your Guide

You’re being warned now. The next couple of weeks are going to be the busiest weeks for cool releases in country and roots in 2026, with a cavalcade of albums coming out that could include some of your favorites of the year. There might not be any big headliners names, but some of the best critically-acclaimed artists in country are releasing highly-anticipated records that it’s worth being on top of.

For a more extensive list of each week’s releases, make sure you’re following Saving Country Music’s Release Radar updated in real time.


Kimmi Bitter – Bittersweet

Kimmi Bitter is country music’s throwback honky-tonk sweeatheart with a voice like Patsy Cline, and a style like The Ventures. With guitartist Willis Farnsworth, Kimmi earned herself a nomination for Album of the Year for her 2024 effort Old School. 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.

Her new album Bittersweet once again produced by throwback wizard Michael Gurley looks to double down on Kimmi’s classic sound, while imbuing it with even more of the old school West Coast surf vibe that comes natural to her as a resident of San Diego. There is nothing regional or even genre-specific to Kimmi Bittter’s appeal though. It’s a vibe most anyone can catch and ride into musical bliss.


Tony Hannah – Love It Or Leave It

Those who’ve been on the case of Tony Hannah for years now know just how highly anticipated this album of ’80s and ’90s-inspired country is. Produced by Elijah Ocean, it takes years of Tony Hannah cutting teeth in honky tonks, along with working on farms in California, and being a model in New York City all encapsulated into the perspective of a preacher’s daughter from East Tennessee.

Tony Hannah’s uncle is actually the late country songwriter AJ Masters, and she includes one of his songs “An Old Pair of Shoes” originally recorded by Randy Travis on the album. Also included on the album are drummer Aaron Goodrich of Colter Wall’s band, Mary Meyer out touring with Molly Tuttle, and multi-instrumentalist Jeremy Long. At a time that old is new in country music, the time is right for Tony Hannah to have a deserved breakout.

Ray Wylie Hubbard – Reel 2 Reel 4 Real

Most musical performers tend to grow old with their music, slowing down, smoothing the edges off, and settling for more quiet, acoustic tones. Not Ray Wylie Hubbard. The Patron Saint of “Grit, Groove, Tone and Taste” is set to release his latest record Reel 2 Reel 4 Real on August 21st. And as opposed to singing his way quietly into the sunset, Hubbard is bound and determined to shake the devil’s cage and see what kind of trouble he can make as his horoscope sign nears 80 years circling the sun.

Mostly produced by Jonathan Tyler at his studio in Austin, Ray Wylie Hubbard solicited his road band of drummer Kyle Schneider, bassist John Michael Schoepf, and his guitar-slinging son Lucas as the studio band, with assists from Cody Braun of Reckless Kelly on fiddle and mandolin, Bukka Allen on organ, and guitarist Tobin Dale. The results are said to be loud, dirty, dangerous, and defying of age as opposed to showing it. (read more)


Grace Potter – Trespasser

The four-time Grammy nominee is back with a new album that is said to be the spiritual sequel to her 2023 album Mother Road. It was recorded on a “journey” between multiple locations, including Topanga Canyon in California, Nashville, and Vermont, with Potter’s husband Eric Valentine (Queens of the Stone Age, Weezer) acting as producer.

“We’ve always been taught that the trespassers are the bad guys, but to me it’s not about reckless rebellion—it’s about exploring, physically and mentally and emotionally, and being willing to step outside the narratives we’ve accepted,” Potter shares. “Because in my experience, the places we’re told not to go are exactly the ones that show us who we really are.”

Adam Chaffins – Trailer Trash: Doublewide

From the same region of Eastern Kentucky as Tyler Childers, Ricky Skaggs, and many others, Adam Chaffins has been a well-respected session musician, side player, and songwriter for others for years. An EP version of this album released in 2025 got the attention of quite a few, and now Chaffins is looking to double down on his critical-acclaim with this new full-length album.

“These songs were born somewhere between the hills of eastern Kentucky, the roads of the world I’ve traveled, and the easy love I’ve found in Tennessee,” Adam Chaffins says. “It’s timeless and current at the same time. We focused on making things sound good for modern speakers, but still sounding like they could’ve existed during any year, too.”

Brandon Flowers – Thrasher

Now the frontman for The Killers, Brandon Flowers, has announced he’s made a bona fide country record that was cut in Nashville with country musicians to express influences that have been itching to come out of him for years. Where Pressure Machine was a half measure, his new album Thrasher goes all in. It will be a solo effort as opposed to a proper Killers record, but one that has the possibility of being an interesting and/or important bridge between two musical worlds.

“The fact that I love new wave and rock and roll has been well-documented. But a life is long enough to allow for more,” Flowers said in a statement earlier this week. “Walt Whitman said it best, ‘I am large, I contain multitudes.’ Well, I’m larger now than I was 20 years ago, and I’ve unlocked a room that feels like it’s been waiting for me all along: country western music, my father’s music. It has offered itself to me and the stories I have to tell at the moment with a breezy enthusiasm.”



The Po’ Ramblin’ Boys – Welcome to the Club (bluegrass)

The Po’ Ramblin Boys are one of the premier acts in more traditional bluegrass, with the Grammy nominations and IBMA Awards to prove it. Welcome to the Club will be the first album featuring new members John Gooding and Max Silverstein, hence the album’s name. Don’t worry though, that award-winning chemistry the band is known for is still going strong.

“’Welcome to the Club’ is a collection of new songs alongside a few timeless gems written by some of our closest friends and biggest musical influences,” says CJ Lewandowski, bandleader of The Po’ Ramblin’ Boys. “From the redwoods of California to the lighthouses of Maine, with the Great Smoky Mountains in between, the influences on this record stretch across the country … [It] represents a new chapter for The Po’ Ramblin’ Boys—a fresh perspective, new creative chemistry, and a group of like-minded musicians coming together simply because we love making music.”

David Allan Coe – Texas Moon (Deluxe)

Texas Moon (Deluxe) was originally recorded in 1973 with Coe’s road band at the time for Plantation Records. It finds Coe covering songs from Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson, Billy Joe Shaver and Jackson Browne, and others, along with the Coe originals “Mary Magdeline” and “Fuzzy Was An Outlaw.”

The album wasn’t actually released until 1977 when Coe had already signed to Columbia since they bought the rights to it but never released it. It was also reissued on CD in 1993. Texas Moon was also notorious because the cover featured Coe and his band (and even a dog ) “mooning” the camera. Now it’s being reissued to include previously unreleased demos David did with Plantation Records’ Shelby Singleton. This will also be the first time the album is being issued on vinyl in four decades.

(8-22) Cross Canadian Ragweed – Live and Loud at Boone Pickens Stadium (Vinyl Only)

If you weren’t one of the 180,000 fans who packed Boone Pickens Stadium in Stillwater, Oklahoma to witness the official reunification of Cross Canadian Ragweed in April of 2025, now is your opportunity to experience it second hand via a vinyl release that was compiled as a “best of” from the performances over four days. It’s being released on August 22nd since this is also the date for the latest installment of the concert series, with this one happening in Lincoln, Nebraska.

This also happens to be the first Cross Canadian Ragweed record release in 17 years. Though this is starting off as a vinyl-only release, don’t be surprised if it eventually comes to the digital realm. The next question is, will the band release a proper new studio album? We’ll just have to see.

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More Releases:

David Nail – Flowers

Kate Waters – Some Comfort

Jeff Mamett
 – Fortunate Son

Ian Munsick – The Mountain Goat

Blaine Todd – Angle of Repose

Stephanie Sammons – Head Noise

Kara Cole – In The Garden

One Acre West – Self-Titled

Cory Branan – You’ll Live (Americana)

The Kennedys – Smoketree (folk, Americana)

Taylor Hollingsworth – Folk N’ Roll (folk, Americana)

The Northern Belle – Even Cowgirls Get Sad (Nordicana)

American Cosmic Revival Vol. 2: Miles From Nowhere

Clay Street Unit – Live From The Road, Vol. 1 (live album)

Slater Nalley – Hey Georgia EP

(8-19) The Divorcees – Another Round

(8-20) Ken Pomeroy – Tonight’s News EP

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