Within the songs and verses of ‘Signs,’ others might also find a path through questions, travails, or difficult times in their lives, or be inspired to take their own journey of personal discovery and enlightenment. It’s not ‘just’ a country album.
The Red Clay Strays are American music. And most any genre should want to claim them as their own since they immediately up the ante of talent among it. The Red Clay Strays also can’t be anything but themselves.
Coby Acuff goes full-blown Outlaw on ‘Handmade Horsepower,’ laying grooves down, giving into two-tone beats, featuring a little phaser on the guitar every now and then, and getting outright mouthy about the ills of the music industry.
As we near the halfway pole of the musical year, it’s time to reflect back on the best albums that have been released so far. The top ten albums listed below should be considered early Album of the Year contenders.
Herein lies what might be one of the greatest Western-inspired albums released in this year, or frankly, in many other years. With his debut album produced by Dave Cobb, the young-in-age, but old-in-soul…
All of these songs sound like Don Williams, and despite their orphaned history, still present a really strong effort, and one you’re more than happy to receive since it’s a Don Williams gift from beyond.
This marked DelFest’s 18th year since its inception in 2008, and founder Del McCoury and his family continue to bring in arguably one of the finest festival line-ups year after year.
Kaitlin’s first original single after signing to Republic Records is absolutely everything you want from a Kaitlin Butts song. If anything, it utterly defines who she has been throughout her career.
He sings with a deftness nearing the angelic, allowing the stories and messages to stir the inner soul of his captive audience, resulting in an experience difficult to impossible to achieve through other conventional means.
In 2024, the young men had played the festival’s indoor music hall as virtual unknowns from Birmingham, Alabama. In 2025, they played the secondary stage to great acclaim, and the momentum has been building ever since.
On this album, he’s not trying to be Waylon or anyone else. He’s just trying to be Whey. And if that’s not good enough for a modern world that often settles for the trendy or familiar, that’s not going to sway Whey.
Always a Delfest favorite, Grammy winner Sierra Ferrell and California string band Water Tower brought joyful vibes and old-timey music to an enormous crowd trying to stay dry.
The set was one for the ages as they say, and it amply demonstrated that bluegrass, country and Southern rock really aren’t that far apart musically, and in the end are all worth celebrating and enjoying.
The story of William Alexander doesn’t start way out West. It starts way Down Under. But the wide open spaces, the horse, tack, fence, and cattle, the hard-working days and the lonesome nights are no different no matter the hemisphere.
49 Winchester can do what many other artists and bands can. But few artists and bands can turn around and do what 49 Winchester does. That’s because they don’t have Isaac Gibson.
There’s something about the songs, the voice, and the visage of Ryan Bingham when he’s at his best that evokes the grandeur and imagination of the rugged American experience in a uniquely compelling manner.
It’s Ella Langley and Texas for the win in 2026, as Academy of Country Music voters chose Texas artists, and Ella Langley’s “Choosin’ Texas” as the top winners. You could also say the ACMs chose authenticity.
What’s undeniable is that we’re in a retro moment in country, and Miranda Lambert is betting hard that moment includes a little nostalgia for both sides of the John Travolta dance movie craze.
Any and all rebuttals against declaring that we’re in a full-throated traditionalist revival are rendered weak and ineffectual after a spin through this Braxton Keith record.
Bobby Dove once again creates a vibrant and enriching listening experience that reminds you why you devote time to digging deeper than the surface to discover the best stuff.
If Ashley isn’t blowing out your speakers with flamethrowing chainsaw guitar, she’s drowning you in a torrential downpour of waterworks with a power ballad. Even the more hushed moments come with intensity.
It finds Musgraves understanding the moment country music is in, leaning into her traditional country influences, and deserves to be a retrenching of her as one of the top women in country music.
Only time will determine if Clovis is a career-defining record for Crockett. But what Clovis clearly is already is a turning point in Crockett’s career where he’s re-asserting who’s in control.
You see Dale Watson standing up there on stage in your local honky tonk with his pompadour, popped collar, sliding in and out of Lone Star jingles like a pro, and you’d swear he gives up nothing to all the old greats.