The Best Country Singles of 2025 So Far

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We’ve run down the Best Albums of 2025 So Far, as well as the Best SONGS of 2025 So Far, meaning songs that really move you and evoke a deeply emotional response—songs that can change a life or change the world.

But what about the toe tappers, the booty shakers, and the boot scooters? That’s what the best SINGLE distinction is for. They can be great “songs” too. But these are the tracks that get stuck in your head, that you hum the melody to all day, and unlock the sheer joy in music. Here are some of the best of them in 2025 so far.

Joshua Ray Walker – “Keys to the Tacoma”


When you talk about catchy country singles that you don’t feel embarrassed to listen to, Joshua Ray Walker has assembled an entire album of them in his latest release Tropicana. With his knack for constructing big melodies and singing them like a songbird, he decided to write and record an entire album around the concept,sseding a track list with the kind of summer radio singles and beach songs that we all get nostalgic for.

Really you could pick multiple songs from Tropicana to highlight here (Honorable Mention goes to “I Don’t Wanna Be Alone”). But “Keys To The Tacoma” feels like that summer song that becomes part of your lasting memories from 20 years ago that just happens to be brand new. That’s the magic Joshua Ray Walker pulls off.

Jake Worthington – “It Ain’t The Whiskey”


When talking about the surge of young new traditionalists saving country music in real time, make sure you don’t forget to mention Jake Worthington. Not dissimilar to Zach Top and others, Jake Worthington has captured the greatness of ’90s country, but with new songs and a fresh face that young and old can enjoy together.

Worthington might have discovered his breakout single. “It Ain’t The Whiskey” has been on fire since its release. It was inspired by the true story of when a love interest got Jake’s heart fluttering and tires swerving, resulting in getting pulled over for suspected DUI.

Kelsey Waldon – “Tiger Lilies”


Kelsey Waldon’s writing has always been uncommonly involved and thoughtful for country. But on her new album Every Ghost, she’s dials it back a bit if anything. Instead of trying to wrap enigmas in riddles, she focuses on simply telling relatable and personal stories in song, resulting in a more accessible experience. “Tiger Lilies” is about the flowers bequeathed to Waldon by her grandmother. Though she’s no longer around, the lilies keep her grandmother’s memory alive in the corporal world.

But as opposed to being rendered all sweet and sentimental, “Tiger Lilies” is a hard-charging Outlaw country song, just with a personal aspect to it. Sentimental as it may be, the song is also just a banger that you can’t help but keep pressing repeat on.

Hailey Whitters – “High On The Hog”


Endearing herself to you with simple but prophetic country-isms sung on top of traditional but sensible instrumentation, Hailey Whitters makes for one of the most navigable bridges between the independent and mainstream, and the classic and contemporary. She offers something entertaining and enlightening to just about everyone on her new album Corn Queen.

The opening song “High On The Hog” was written by Hailey Whitters herself, and is an excellent little traditional country tune about how despite all of her recognition, Whitters remains in the up and coming class, still fighting for all the attention she can get, and not taking anything for granted.

Matt Daniel – “Long Way Home”


Daniel made it onto the musical map of many with his previous album All I’ll Ever Need from 2022, especially the song “Weatherman” that burrowed deep in our souls, and has refused to leave since. His new 2025 album The Poet picks up where that last album left off, including another one of those one-in-a-million masterpiece country songs with an incredible melody called “Long Way Home” that closes out the album.

Matt Daniel has a voice that is pitch perfect for this type of traditional country. And when get gets a hold of a great song like “Long Way Home,” the result is country music bliss.

Kathryn Legendre – “Here’s Your Honky Tonk”


You want some damn honky tonk music? Well here it is. Kathryn Legendre’s no trend chaser. She’s been keeping it country for a dozen years or so. And now that everyone else wants to be a honky tonker, she cracks a smile, picks up her guitar, and rips into the title track to her new album that shows the trend chasers and carpetbaggers how it’s done, tapping into some of the richest talent in Austin to make it happen.

There’s no dipping your toes in, wading up to the knees, then going to the waist and shoulders to get acclimated with The Honky Tonk Sweetheart of Austin, TX. With songs like “Here’s Your Honky Tonk,” you dive right in and immerse yourself immediately in the twangy country music goodness, clever songwriting, and killer instrumentation that only the best country music can afford.

Turnpike Troubadours – “Heaven Passing Through”


“Heaven Passing Through” was also mentioned as one of the Best SONGS of 2025 so far, along with “On The Red River” from the 2025 Turnpike Troubadours album The Price of Admission. And perhaps, one or both will end up being the best song or songs of the year. But with the way “Heaven Passing Through” doesn’t just boasts superior writing, but has a way of seeping into your bones, and lingering with you hours and days after you last heard it, it feels worthy of being considered in the SINGLE category as well.

There’s a lot of specificity to the verses to this song that seem to speak to a deeper story or parallel narrative, like the reference to working a late shift at the nursing home, or washing X’s off your hands. But “Heaven Passing Through” might just be a song about gratefulness and the beauty of moments that employs a multi-generational perspective to its timeline. Either way, it’s a great song, and one that proves that great songs can also come with an infectiousness and immediacy, and don’t always have to go down like a bitter pill.

Randall King, Braxton Keith – “Cheatin’ On My Honky Tonk”


There’s no escaping that when it comes to 2025, some of the greatest boot scooters are directly inspired by the retro sounds of ’90s country that are surging in popularity at the moment. So what better way to take those influences and put them into hyper drive than to have two of the best neotraditionalists of our time tag teaming on a track that puts you right back in that’s ’90s country mood.

Randall King’s been doing it for a while, and is one of the most underrated country vocalists of the era. Braxton Keith is quickly emerging as one of the hottest neotraditionalists himself. “Cheatin’ On My Honky Tonk” is a Grade A example of why the ’90s country sound is so hot with that baritone guitar transporting you right back to 1992.

Silverada – “Texas 42”


Leave it to Mike Harmeier to do right what so many mainstream/Bro-Country songs get wrong, which is running through lists of cultural references to rural America without any story or any soul to tie them together. The Silverada frontman’s greatest knack has always been to understand how words can jar loose vivid memories through song, but only if you know where to poke the brain, and how.

You can sing about a dominoes game, carburetors, tobacco stains, but if it doesn’t come with that lived blue collar experience, they’re just words. “Texas 42” is the title track to a living acoustic album Silverada is releasing throughout 2025.


HONORABLE MENTION:

Dan Lepien – “Neon Dream”

Sunny Sweeney – “Diamonds and Divorce Decrees”

Walker Montgomery – “Almost, so Close, so Long, Goodbye”

Spencer Hatcher – “The Way She Lies” 


© 2025 Saving Country Music

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