The Biggest Takeaways from SXSW 2025

You don’t enjoy SXSW—the annual musical gathering in Austin, Texas every mid March. You endure it. You survive it. Here are Saving Country Music’s biggest takeaways from SXSW 2025.
You don’t enjoy SXSW—the annual musical gathering in Austin, Texas every mid March. You endure it. You survive it. Here are Saving Country Music’s biggest takeaways from SXSW 2025.
The last couple of weeks of November have seen a cavalcade of excellent singles being released, from incredible original songs, to some choice covers that rarely make it on this playlist, but are so good they can’t be denied.
With a lineup that included Silverada, Reckless Kelly, Shinyribs, Rattlesnake Milk, and the legendary Willis Alan Ramsey, it truly was some of the best of Austin music. “Most of us can walk home from this gig,” Willy Braun said.
One of the reasons independent acts have been rising in popularity to rival and even surpass their mainstream counterparts in popularity is due in part to events like the Jackalope Jamboree.
If you’ve been waiting for the right opportunity to catch the Turnpike Troubadours on their reunion tour and got locked out of the first round of shows due to the crazy run on tickets, the opportunities to see them live just got a lot more lucrative.
The annual Essential Albums list is Saving Country Music’s most comprehensive guide to the music of a given year. Drawing from the over 100 album reviews published during the year, this is where you come to find what you might have missed in a very busy year for releases.
New for 2021 are the Single of the Year nominees, which are songs whose primary litmus test is simply the enjoyment they convey. The Single of the Year are more well-rounded offerings that have proven infectiousness.
The Saving Country Music Top 25 Current Playlist is built to keep you informed on all the best songs and albums coming out right here, right now in country and roots music. It’s available on most all streaming formats. New songs have just been added.
On ‘Blood, Sweat, and Beers,’ Rob Leines puts all of his hard-earned odometer time on the open road into work hard and play harder road stories, rendering blue-collar country music that breaks out into groove-heavy and hook-laden Southern rock at a moment’s notice.
Texas-based Southern rock band Whiskey Myers is set to launch their own personally-curated festival and annual gathering for their fans called the Firewater Festival, and they have just announced the inaugural lineup. The event has been cleared by state and local officials to move forward.