Alright, so we’ve already run down the most sad, sappy, and poetic songs of 2022 in the Song of the Year nominees. Now it’s time to crank it up a notch and to showcase the songs that are just so damn enjoyable to listen to, we can’t stop. These are the songs that burrow deep in your ears and won’t come out.
Whether you’re an adventurous traditional country music fan willing to cross enemy lines to seek out some of the best of the mainstream, or the mainstream country fan who insists on seeking out the country music of substance that the radio and awards tend to ignore, both paths will lead you to Randy Houser’s new album.
Infinite apologies if you came here looking for your next favorite boot scooter, because that’s not what Song of the Year is all about. There will be a Single of the Year category coming up too. But what we’re looking for here is the most unabashedly slow and sentimental sad bastard songs possible.
The real life stories of certain country music artists are sometimes even more intriguing and dramatic than the dramatized stories they tell in song. This was certainly the case for George Jones, Tammy Wynette, and their tumultuous marriage and working relationship.
2022 is a very unique year when it comes to albums to consider, since there are no clear front runners as we’re used to. No specific album or albums feel like undeniable masterpieces, but the albums at or near the top of the heap are so numerous, it’s painstakingly hard to delineate them from each other.
Here is the 2022 Saving Country Music Christmas Playlist. It is country. It is good. It is all new recordings of both classics and original songs released in 2022, delicately curated to remove anything that is too syrupy, too pop, or not cool. All the songs have been expertly arranged to be listened to consecutively.
And now for something a bit off the beaten path, San Antonio’s resident throwback country weirdo freak, Garrett T. Capps, has tapped into country music’s underutilized cosmic influences in a collaboration with NASA Country, and created an immersive experience titled under the name ‘People are Beautiful.’
Entrepreneur and small business owner, fashionista and self-made woman, singer and songwriter, Nikki Lane has staked her claim on being a woman in a man’s world, and on her latest album Denim & Diamonds, she doubles down. Full of affirmations on the importance of autonomy, self-reliance…
If there was an ideal time for Billy Strings to hop off the bluegrass train, it would be right now. So what does he do to codify his dominance of the live music space? He goes off and records the most straightforward album of bluegrass and country standards as possible, and invites his father.
For now the second time in a row and in as many years, Melissa Carper and her cohorts have crafted an exquisite work of audio goodness that mesmerizes with its wayback sound and style, stealing you to a simpler era in music when everything made more sense, and the foundations of music were set.
Uninhibited in attitude and untethered by genre, The White Buffalo is able to go places other artists just can’t, though the music still mostly comes across as familiar, intuitive, and strangely seamless unto itself, even when he works from rock, to folk, to country, while touching on everything in between.
What a year it has been for Charley Crockett, who has recently transitioned off the club circuit to full-blown theaters. And in country music, there is no bigger theater than the Mother Church of Country Music, the Ryman Auditorium.
On Saturday night, November 12th, the wild popularity that the boys from Oklahoma have been enjoying ever since they came back from an indefinite hiatus was given it’s ultimate test. Not only did the Turnpike Troubadours fill Oklahoma City’s Paycom Center, they sold it out.
Country artist Luke Bell was officially laid to rest in a private ceremony in Cody, Wyoming on September 9th. But on Saturday, November 12th, friends, family, fellow musicians and fans were given the opportunity to remember and celebrate Luke Bell publicly.
An treatise on the use of horses in warfare, it’s as studied and knowledgeable as it is entertaining, especially for a subject matter that could have come across as dry and dense. But that’s the skill of Corb Lund— taking subjects that may seem fey or mundane, and making you feel his passion.
Written by Tyler Childers some 10 years ago, and cherished to the point of being worn out via video renditions by many dedicated Childers fans, “Jersey Giant” is a unique composition for Childers since it features a bridge within the verse/chorus structure.
For your listening consideration is this slightly curious, but certainly seductive offering from a duo that once was, isn’t really any more, but nonetheless taps into something eternal in musical truth to offer an album that takes you back, and entertains wickedly. It’s called ‘Memories To Burn.’
If you can’t get enough of the country rock sound of bands like the Turnpike Troubadours, and also want your country music served up with a strong songwriting element, the new album from the Teague Brothers Band ‘Love and War’ will be right up your alley. There’s a reason Evan Felker made his return with them.
Every performance at Red Rocks is exceptional. But Zach Bryan’s stop on Thursday, November 3rd was extra noteworthy for a host of reasons. Many can say they’ve seen Zach Bryan live. Few can say they’ve seen him in the snow, at Red Rocks.
Originally from California, Emily felt the calling towards old school country music so resolutely, she dropped everything and moved to Nashville where she didn’t know a soul. Gifted in singing and writing songs though, she fell in with the right crowd around Nashville’s true country institutions.
A query to Saving Country Music headquarters from Wesley Hanna presented himself more as a songwriter than anything. But what immediately smacks you right across the face like a wet fish is Hannah’s stellar singing voice, which was tooled by the country music Gods to render good country music.
Not since the emergence of Miranda Lambert have we seen a woman surface in mainstream country music with such promise and passion that carries a wide appeal through an infectious personality, and at an advantageous time when everything is aligning to allow her to be utterly successful.
There are two kinds of people in America: those who leave, and those who stay. Either you were born to leave your hometown, and spend your adolescence and young adulthood plotting your escape, or see little need to ever go past the county line, unless its on vacation, or to land a better deal on a vehicle.
Plains is a passion project in every sense of the word. Forged as a partnership between Katie Crutchfield of the indie group Waxahatchee, and solo artist and songwriter Jess Williamson, it came together through the pair’s shared passion for country music. Since these two women’s primary musical projects…