Jesse Welles might be a barely-known beat poet with a blonde Stella guitar singing his guts out with a broken voice out in the middle of the woods, and for all we know he may not be able to manage his sock drawer.
As we reach the halfway pole of the musical year, it’s time to reflect back on the best albums that have been released so far. There are some great projects that you should make sure don’t slip under your radar.
They may not know him from Adam out on Music Row in Nashville. But in West Texas and parts adjacent, Red Shahan is considered a cult hero, a cooler cat than most, and a songwriter’s songwriter.
With an uncommon adherence to country sounds for a contemporary popular artist, and bolstered by reams of clever songwriting and spirited performances, Carly Pearce turns in an inspired and compelling album.
Jesse Daniel brings a loaded down Peterbilt’s worth of full-tilt twang to this one, and puts all worries about “wHaT’s HAppeNeD To TOdAyS COunTRY mUsIc!” to bed. You want country music? Listen to Jesse Daniel.
Willie Nelson continues to mesmerize with the confidence of his delivery and the exploration of his aged, but character-laden voice. By exploiting the near century we have with Willie, it sounds like we’re listening to a deity.
Carefully curated like MerleFest and the Telluride Bluegrass Festival, it features an eclectic lineup each year. It’s not unusual to find legends and veterans of the traditional bluegrass scene, the jamgrass scene, and younger acts.
Yes, yes, and yes. Finally we have a Swamp Dogg album that fits in the country music world. It’s bluegrass. It’s “blackgrass” if you will. And it’s also decidedly a Swamp Dogg album, which means it’s all served with offbeat weirdness.
Years ago an up-and-comer like Jayce Turley would be lucky to cause a stir locally in Kentucky. Now this is the sound folks crave. But it’s only native to a few distinct voices. One of those voices is Jayce Turley.
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.”
There’s not much better than a song from The Mavericks when they really get a hold of one, and do what The Mavericks do. You’re almost apt to forget or overlook them as a country fan, but you shouldn’t.
Jesse Welles has taken to social media, going where even many of the supposed bravest Americana songwriters are unwilling to go after weighing what sharing the honest truth might do to their careers.
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.
The 2024 ACM Awards had many pondering the question, is it better for an awards show to be bad for the inadvertent entertainment value as opposed to being so boring you want to gouge your eyeballs out?
If you’re looking for an album that avoids all the well-worn grooves and eye-rolling tropes of country music, “Hum of the Road” by Tylor and the Train Robbers is sure to sit right with you.
Country music doesn’t need Post Malone to be cool like it did back in 2020. Post Malone, Shaboozy, Jelly Roll, and Beyoncé, it’s these artists who need country to be considered cool as we head into the summer of 2024.
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.
Freyburg Hall is about the perfect spot for an afternoon destination that is just far enough to get away from it all, but not too far where it’s a tribulation to get there. In fact, the drive itself is a dream.
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.
An opportunity to see Charley Crockett at The Broken Spoke, and for a $10 cash-only fee, that was enough to have some brave individuals starting a line the night before. He brought the house down.