Officially Declaring August 28th, 2026 a Country Music Holiday

Hear ye, hear ye: By the power vested in Saving Country Music, Friday August 28th, 2026 is officially being declared a country music holiday, with all the rights and privileges thereof due to the excessive amount of cool releases coming out in country and roots music. Feel free to present this proclamation as legal tender from playing hookey from work, school, or others obligations, though it is non-transferrable, and holds no cash value.

This is the second week in a row where the amount of album releases is so overwhelming that making sure the public is informed about them all in one place feels essential.

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Billy Strings – So Much For Goodbyes

“This album came at a time in my life when I had a lot to write about,” Billy Strings explains. “I had just lost my mother last June and still felt the talons of grief piercing my back. Before she passed, she and I had planned on trying to use some of her poetry to make songs from, but that just hasn’t panned out yet. A lot of her poetry is very stream-of-conscious, and I just couldn’t figure out how to put it to a tune. Maybe someday I will.”

Instead we get 16 new tracks from Strings that you can expect once again will explore the boundaries of bluegrass, but also adhere and deeply respect the genre’s roots. It’s been this combination of reverence for tradition, while also breaking its bounds that has earned Strings a massive audience full of bluegrass purists right beside jamgrass party kids and old stoner hippies. Even though Billy’s mom did not contribute any lyrics to the new album, the artwork and inspiration for the album is hers. (read more)


Mountain Grass Unit – Appalachian Smoke

Over the last couple of years, Alabama-based up-and-coming bluegrass band Mountain Grass Unit has really been lighting the bluegrass world on fire, impressing audiences at big festivals, enjoying bigger and bigger opportunities, and generally presenting themselves the future of the genre. However, one thing they’ve been lacking is new music to match their recent evolution and growth, and represent what they do to folks who haven’t seen them on stage.

Now all of that changes as Drury Anderson (mandolin), Luke Black (guitar), Sam Wilson (bass), and Josiah Nelson (fiddle) have announced they’ve signed with Dualtone Records, and will release what they’re presenting as their debut album. Billy Strings once said of the band’s guitar player Luke Black (on an Instagram post by Saving Country Music, nonetheless), “Kinda rude of him to be this good honestly… luckily for me we’re on the same team.” Strings has also shouted them out as the future of bluegrass and as “killer pickers.” (read more)

The Wilder Blue – Cinco

Singer/songwriter Zane Williams, guitarist Paul Eason, bassist Sean Rodriguez, multi-instrumentalist Andy Rogers, and drummer Lyndon Hughes will release Cinco on August 28th. Produced by Lyndon Hughes and The Wilder Blue and recorded at Sonic Ranch in Tornillo, Texas, it’s said to be the band’s most “fully realized” album yet, featuring their incredible five-part harmonies, while also featuring more outside contributions than ever before.

“We set out to make an album that pairs well with campfire coffee kettles, dusty neon band signs, and sun-bleached dashboard Polaroids,” lead singer Zane Williams says. “We figured it out together, as friends, the five of us. It was exhausting and exhilarating. Our memories, now your music. We hope you enjoy ‘Cinco.’” (read more)

Chasen Wayne & The Honky Tonk Machine – The Diamond Saloon

Bringing imagination and an expansive view of what “country music” can be, Austin-based artist Chasen Wayne and his backing band The Honky Tonk Machine have been mesmerizing audiences with their music that mixes country, psychedelia, elements of surf, punk, and jazz, with very involved narrative storytelling for a few years now. Now he’s taking the conceptualized approach even further with his new album with the Honky Tonk Machine called The Diamond Saloon.

Joining Chasen Wayne in the Honky Tonk Machine are Jamey Maness on pedal steel guitar, Jared Standish on fiddle/violin, Alex Riegelman on electric guitar, Conner Church on drums, and Will Felty on bass and harmony vocals. Jordan Hillman also appears on the album on piano, as does Denis O’Donnell as the narrator of the story. O’Donnell is an Austin legend both as a musician, and the co-owner of bars like The White Horse (previously) and Sagebrush. (read more)


Alicia Blue – Country Desire

In what promises to be a big debut album, Nashville-based singer and songwriter Alicia Blue will release Country Desire, produced by Shooter Jennings. It’s inspired by her time growing up on the South Borderlands of Texas and the orange groves of Southern California, and when it comes to the album’s lead single “Kentucky Cowboy,” a beau she met on the Tennessee border.

“What didn’t lead to ‘Country Desire?’” she asks. “I’d say a lifetime of parts of myself that came to the surface, that needed airtime, the spotlight, so they could stop sitting in the driver’s seat. Parts that wanted the rush of a poetic life, at the cost of personal power and stability. Romance with cowboys, men with working hands but a notebook and guitar in the back. Mirrors and smoke and mirrors.” 

Mason Lively – Hill Country Sound

Texas-based singer/songwriter Mason Lively is looking to pay homage to the sights, sounds, and players of the Texas Hill Country, while continuing to contribute a few of his own. In this unique album consisting of half covers and half originals.

“Inevitably, what’s impacted me the most about this land is the music,” Mason Lively says. “Iconic venues like Luckenbach or Gruene Hall became the meccas that the legendary songsmiths of Robert Earl Keen, Jerry Jeff Walker, Willie Nelson, Billy Joe Shaver, and so many more would build foundations of a body of work that would touch generations of Texans, and even folks beyond the state lines. In this album, I embark on paying homage to this region’s musical heart.”

Riley Downing – Landfill Poetry

Leave it to the husky-voiced member of The Deslondes to make trash into treasure. On his debut solo album on John Prine’s Oh Boy Records called Landfill Poetry, Riley Downing looks to eulogize the working man, and specifically trash men, of which Downing can claim to be an alumnus of. Before he was a musician, Riley worked as a garbage technician in rural Missouri.

“It is an absolute honor to have my record come out on one of the oldest artist owned independent labels in the U.S. as well as to be able to work alongside John’s family and friends at Oh Boy! Records, and the artists who understand the mission is to do something good with music,” says Riley Downing. It’s officially his sophomore solo album, and don’t be surprised if this is the one that puts him on the map outside the Delondes universe.

Carly Pearce – Honest Woman

The women of country are on the rise, especially in the mainstream. And even though Ella Langley, Megan Mornoey, and others are making lots of noise these days, Carly Pearce remains one of the good ones in the mainstream that doesn’t deserve to be overlooked. She was pushing country that sounded more country before any of them, and using her roots in traditional bluegrass and country performing at Dollywood from a young age as her foundation.

“When I started making ‘Honest Woman,’ I found myself rediscovering who I am and why I wanted to be a country music singer in the first place,” says Pearce. “This album takes me back to the beginning of my story, where the sounds of classic country and bluegrass music shaped who I am. I’m so proud of this body of work, and I truly feel like it’s my best yet.”

Jenny Tolman – Music City Mutt

Jenny Tolman is a traditional-leaning country artist from Nashville that’s been able to touch the edges of the mainstream, and do it with meaningful songs. Music City Mutt is her first album after becoming a mom, and touches on motherhood, family, and other major themes, with writing helped by her husband and producer Dave Brainard.

“Music City Mutt is my most personal album yet,” shares Tolman. “I started calling myself the ‘Music City Mutt’ because I’m a Nashville native with parents from two completely different worlds. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that’s really what Nashville is – a city full of people who came here from somewhere else, all chasing the same dream. This album is about finding home, embracing every part of your story, and celebrating the beautiful patchwork that makes us who we are.”

Ruby Dice – Take Me Back

Austin’s most beloved bass player is paying homage to the town that took her in with open arms. Her new album works like a love letter to the city. Covering country, blues, Americana, and rock, Take Me Back will find Dice collaborating with the likes of Suzanna Choffel, Shinyribs, Nakia, Jordan Matthew Young, Grey Horse, Scott Strickland, Sean McHargue, Garrett Jay Brown, and Sophia Johnson, and more. It was recorded Buds Recording Services, and was produced by the Ruby Dice Band led by Austin’s “Best Bassist” (according to the Austin Chronicle).

“The record became something much bigger than an album,” says Dice. “It’s really a snapshot of the incredible music community that’s lifted me up over the years. Every collaboration represents a friendship, a late-night jam, or someone who believed in me along the way.”

Daniel Donato’s Cosmic Country – Ryman To Robert’s (live album)

Daniel Donato is a Telecaster player extraordinaire who cut his teeth at the acclaimed Robert’s Western World right across the alley from the Ryman Auditorium. He’s gone on to become like the Billy Strings of country, taking an expansive, cosmic view of the genre and expanding its borders while still respecting its roots. Similar to Strings, the best context to experience Donato is live. All the better to get a live album from him, and from The Ryman.

“At the age of 14, I started busking on the street in front of the Ryman, and soon after that, I discovered Robert’s Western World,” says Donato. “For 464 shows, I played at Robert’s, and after most shows, I would go and gaze at the majesty of the Mother Church in the late hours of the night. It is said that Nashville is a 10-year town. On the day of performing and recording this live album, it was the 10-year anniversary of my last show at Robert’s, and the first time headlining the Ryman Auditorium.”

Two Runner – Porchlight

With a bold perspective on roots music that both back-looking and forward-thinking, Two Runner looks to make a strong statement with their new album Porchlight. Though the band only boasts one front person now—bluegrass prodigy turned roots music badass Paige Anderson—previous member Emilie Rose also appears on the record, as do a host of other musicians helping to bring Anderson’s vision to life. The band has already been booked at big festivals like Telluride Bluegrass, and opened shows for the likes of Sierra Ferrell and Molly Tuttle.

Porchlight comes at a time of transition for Paige Anderson and Two Runner, and is said to “boast beautiful string arrangements, intimate confessionals, and rollicking hymns for the lost and determined.”

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More Releases:

Trey Pendley – Signs of Life

Hill Country Revival – A Place Much Better

Fruition – Something More

Leslie Waugh – Night Bloom

Kent Blazy – The Tulsa Sessions

Alabama Shakes – I Must Be Dreaming (Americana)

David Quinn – Down & Dirty (Americana)

Sera Cahoone – I’ve Missed You All These Years (Americana)

The Jayhawks – Sanctuary Park (alt-country)

Bryan Sutton – From Roots to Branches, Vol. 1 (bluegrass)

Richard Peter Morris – Gratuitous Grace (bluegrass)

Kate Prascher – Sunday Afternoon (folk)

Podge Lane – Ebb & Flow & The Great Unknown (Irish folk/Americana)

Dan Seals and Friends – The Last Duet (duets album)

Saralyn – Goldline EP

(8-31) Buddy Greenbloom – Gothic Cowboy

(9-1) V Torres – Woman (Americana, country rock)

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