Rolling Country 2025

Traditionally, I kick off a new year's Rolling Country with RC alum Check Eddy's Best Albums and Singles of prev. year----already linked his Top Country Singles blog post on RC 2024; here it is again:
https://accidentalevolution.wordpress.com/2024/12/14/20-24-best-country-singles-of-2024/
He hasn't done one for Top XX Country Albums of 2024, so I asked if I should extract them from his Top 150 Albums (of all kinds) for 2024. and he replied:

You can take them out of there, though I also list the artists in my top country singles post: "Miranda Lambert, Lainey Wilson, Beyoncé, Kaitlin Butts, Shawna Thompson, Elvie Shane, Zach Top, Karen Jonas, Willow Avalon (Homewrecker EP), Carly Pearce....Carsie Blanton album, Lola Kirke EP, Dwight Yoakam, Kassi Ashton, Megan Moroney, Lorrie Morgan, Kacey Musgraves, Carsie Blanton Red EP, Jesse Daniel, Georgia Webster. "

That should be more or less the same order that they're on my top 150 list; I may have switched a few slightly up or down. (The Top 150 list is more current, hence more accurate.) Also, it occurs to me that I should have included the Sheepdogs EP on that country list, so feel free to work them in wherever they are in my 150. (Pretty sure Lorrie Morgan moved down? Maybe some others, too. It's hard to keep track.)

Miranda Lambert Postcards from Texas (Republic)
Lainey Wilson Whirlwind (BBR)
Beyoncé Cowboy Carter (Parkwood Entertainment/ Columbia)
Kaitlin Butts Roadrunner! (Kaitlin Butts)
Shawna Thompson Lean On Neon (Sun)
Elvie Shane: Damascus (Wheelhouse/BBR)
Zach Top Cold Beer & Country Music (Leo33)
Carly Pearce Hummingbird (Big Machine)
Carsie Blanton After the Revolution (Carsie Blanton)*
Lola Kirke Where Have All the Cowboys Gone?/Country Curious (One Riot EP)
Dwight Yoakam Brighter Days (VIA/Thirty Tigers)
Kassi Ashton Made From the Dirt (MCA Nashville/Interscope)
Megan Moroney Am I Okay? (Columbia Nashville)
The Sheepdogs Paradise Alone (Right On Canada EP)
Kacey Musgraves Deeper Well (Interscope/MCA)
Carsie Blanton EP The Red Album, Volume 1 (Carsie Blanton EP)*
Jesse Daniel Countin’ the Miles (Die True/Lightning Rod)
Rod Modell Music for Bus Stations (13 Italy)
Georgia Webster Signs (River House Artists)
Lorrie Morgan Dead Girl Walking (Goldenlane)
Red Shahan Loose Funky Texas Junky (Lemon Pepper/Make Wake)

I liked her album less than its predecessors.

This is the free version of the freely cirulating enewsletter version of Don't Rock The Jukebox---nothing revelatory in this issue, yet apt and informative as always, at least to memo-chasing me:

Zach Top is on top [or insert whatever your preferred play on words RE “Top” is]

Country music is more popular than ever (yawn), but what are we really talking about when we say “country music” here? Is it a digestible to the masses, vaguely MAGA, Woodstock 99 Goes South version (Jelly Roll, Morgan Wallen), or is it connected to the roots of the genre and the instruments that have defined it? For the most part it’s been the former, but Zach Top seems poised to make classic country sounds mainstream. Though Top’s debut album Cold Beer & Country Music already came out, he’s been continuously on the rise: his single “I Never Lie” cracked the Billboard 100, his solo Cold Beer & Country Music tour sold out the second it was announced, and he’s was nominated for artist of the year at CMA’s. It’s one thing for Jelly and Morgan Wallen to boast mass appeal, who sound just as pop as anything else, but are lap steel and fiddle next? Walking through doors that Sturgill Simpson, Tyler Childers and Midland already opened, I’d wager to say yes. Top’s got the magic to mix it all together. Wouldn’t be surprised if he’s leading a ‘90s Country Revival by this time next year.
Zach Bryan threatens to never make music or tour again multiple times, still releases 2-3 albums.

You know it’s true.
Ella Langley is this year’s “one woman.”

Which is great - love Ella Langley. Hate that the only way we let women score a number one on country radio is still by appearing on duet with a man (“You Look Like You Love Me” with Riley Green), and hate that we only really let one woman at a time break through when it comes to mainstream Nashville. It’s Langley for 2025, we bet.
I continue to listen to Julien Baker and Torres’ “Sugar in the Tank” nonstop.

What will be will be!
Carly Pearce finally makes a bluegrass album.

This is not exactly a prediction as much as a manifestation. But come on Carly…it’s time.
Sierra Ferrell plays Saturday Night Live and truly breaks through to the pop/mainstream world.

It’s deserved, and it’s high time.
More “bros” try to get serious.

Thanks to Chase Rice’s (successful) heel turn from bro-dom with this year’s Go Down Singing, more bros will try to follow. Canaan Smith already has an album on the books that marks a more serious transition, and apparently so does Brian Kelley, the Florida half of FGL. Will any of them actually be good? I am skeptical, but I am open. Bless their hearts.
Speaking of FGL..they get back together.

Going out on a limb here, but between Trump being re-elected, Georgia going red again and some very RFK-esque content I’ve seen on the Instagram feed of a certain FGL wife, coupled with their lack of breakaway success as solo artists, it wouldn’t surprise me. Maybe a Vegas residency?
Margo Price releases a kickass country album.

Zero intel here - just going on clues, especially from her substack (Why I Left Country Music & Why I'm Coming Back To Kick Its Ass in particular).
Lana Del Rey’s “country” album sounds like…Lana Del Rey.

But the conversation worth having is how disconnected we have gotten from any ideas of folk tradition being part of pop music!
So does Chappell Roan’s.

I am very excited for an album version of “Gets the Job Done,” which is definitely country but also definitely Chappell Roan, and I hope helps lead the conversation around country music, along with Lana, into more interesting places that explore how folk and roots sounds are foundational.
With a second Trump presidency, country radio gets worse. Yes, even worse. It’s possible!

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news here, but the fight for any room for diverse representation on country radio - and all radio - is about to get a lot harder. Country radio is still making money peddling exactly what it always has (mostly white men, occasional white women), but now it will be emboldened and overseen by Trump’s pick to run the FCC, Brendan Carr, who wrote a whole chapter in the Project 2025 guidebook on the agency itself. Of course any initiatives and efforts to diversify the radio waves will be out the window, but consolidation and oversight - when it comes to whatever is deemed to be “political” on the radio, particularly against Trump - will further whitewash and sterilize what we hear. It’s going to be more important than ever to build systems outside of country radio and Music Row.
Mainstream Christian country will continue to rise.

Because of the above. Artists like Anne Wilson and Gabby Barrett are already pushing how much faith they can bring into the mainstream country room. With Trump as president and Carr at the FCC, I’m guessing any separation of church and state dissolves and more music that would normally be categorized as Christian just ends up in the Country pile.
There will still be incredible music. You just have to find it.

And we’re here to help. We’re anticipating new music from rising stars like Olivia Wolf and Sunny War, an album from The War & Treaty, maybe something from friends of the newsletter Vandoliers? And so much more. The climate won’t be pretty, but the music will be. That much we know.

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ahould have bolded in this:

]Sierra Ferrell plays Saturday Night Live and truly breaks through to the pop/mainstream world.

It’s deserved, and it’s high time.

Ferrell is saying a lot of weird things on social media. I don't really follow her but I see her fans talking about it.

Feels like she's a prime candidate for a slide into some unsavory spaces someday.

(Can't imagine her playing SNL, though, but I guess you never know.)

Everybody draws the line somewhere, but as long as she keeps the bad shit out of the music, or plays the Ignobarall with "Small Town" Aldean, I'll try to focus on the good shit.

What weird stuff has she been talking about?

xp or *doesn't play the IgnoniBall*, I meant to say.

Oops--Chuck pointed out that my xp round-up of the country albums on his Top 150 retains one ringer: Rod Modell's Music for Bus Stations, which I had checked out, meant to exclude---title could be good premise for a country album, but it's

"Generative sonic backdrop for bus stations. Designed to enhance space and portray a mod of progressiveness, grandeur, and ethereal calm. A slowly shifting static backdrop designed to enhance modern architecture, rather than compete with it. Sounding as if the structure itself was resonanting..."

I missed this Willow Avalon song when it came out six months ago, but it's on the album that just came out today. Rest of the album is quite good, too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iggSPCCSSTs

"Yodelayheewho" with Maggie Antone was the single that got worked to Americana and AAA radio late last year; it's also on the full album. Apparently, she's Jim White's daughter, per the press kit, which may account for some of the more minor-key flourishes throughout the album, which is pretty fantastic.

Strongly recommend Olivia Wolf's "Silver Rounds" album, also out this week.

My 2024 country favs:

Song of the Year: "Right Back to It" - Waxahatchee ft. MJ Lenderman
Album of the Year: Kaitlin Butts - Roadrunner!

Other songs I loved:
"Nightmare" - Adeem the Artist
"Spur" - Kaitlin Butts
"Hard Luck & Circumstances" - Charley Crockett
"Baggage" - Kelsea Ballerini
"We Broke Up" - Kelsea Ballerini
"A Bar Song (Tipsy)" - Shaboozey
"Wristwatch" - MJ Lenderman
"Pink Skies" - Zach Bryan
"Ramblin" - The Red Clay Strays
"Livin on the Run" - Miranda Lambert
"I Could Drive You Crazy" - Sierra Ferrell
"The Long Man" - Pony Bradshaw
"The Money Grows on Trees" - Willi Carlisle
"Halfsies" - Lizzie No
"Jean" - Hovvdy
"The Day the Mississippi Died" - Gillian Welch & David Rawlings
"Johnny Moonshine" - Maggie Antone
"Villain" - Angel White
"Am I Okay?" - Megan Moroney
"In the Clear" - Billy Strings
"Another Broken Heart" - Wonder Women of Country
"Sway" - Kacey Musgraves

Other albums I loved:
Blaine Bailey - Home
Lainey Wilson - Whirlwind
Adeem the Artist - Anniversary
Waxahatchee - Tigers Blood
Dawn Landes - The Liberated Woman's Songbook

Still finalizing the text for our albums lists, but picks for 40 best country singles of 2024 are now live, for those interested.

And our picks for the 40 Best Albums of 2024are now live, too.

I don’t know if Rose City Band qualifies as country but there is a pedal steel on every song. Their new album will not leave my ears. Might be my favorite of theirs.

Now available on Austin City Limits, as of Feb. 15 (but so far have to check local listings,also for inst Spectrum On Demand, where I watched this morning): Willie Nelson Family & Band, recorded 50 years to the day---10-14-24, I think---since their show was the pilot ep of ACL---brief excerpts of that, but mainly the scene is Now, with Willie riding Trigger in their classick Django Sharrock mode, though sometimes more lush than skronky when appropriate, with voice, perhaps making wise use of tendency to breathlessness, slightly rushing the beat (which wants to gallop, after all), alluding to melodies in cool, clear way, without undue exertion (we know how they go on record etc.) Lukas gets in a good original, Mickey Raphael pitches in late, but plays more and more (incl. accordion), Asleep At The Wheel very eventually, Billy English and others all through---whole set gave me "coffee tea or something stronger, to start off the day."

Only new 'un: bracing deep seasonal"Last Leaf on the Tree," promptly followed by "Roll Me Up And Smoke Me When I Die" ("Last Leaf" being rolling papers reminder that you're 'bout to run out, I hear)

Another recent Austin City Limits: Sturgill as Johnny Blue Skies,presenting songs from Passage Du Desir, at first seeming merely retro, self-importantly slow Southern Rock, but he and the other guitarist soon turn out to be as effective at accompaniment as solos, supporting songs of late-breaking self-insight, pushing out of the past, the weight of years, chain o' fools, personal and musical histories---and coming out country after all.
(only weak link is the keyboard player, w merely nostalgic organ and [that's not writing that's typing] piano, also an inert "sax solo," but Stur responds well on guitar and at least it's brie.f)
Haven't heard the album, but if it's like this, might be his best, in terms of writing, anyway.

Mickey Guyton's bombastic take on Ringo Starr's "You Don't Know Me at All" doesn't wow me, but many might hear it as a powerful ballad

Critic Natalie Weiner likes this Chappell Roan - "The Giver" one and compares it to Shania

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbHFi68E78k

Dierks Bentley has a new song "Cold Beer Can" feat. Stephen Wilson Jr . The latter I have learned from his website is a singer/songwriter from rural Southern Indiana. Self-described as “Death Cab For Country,” Stephen Wilson Jr. draws upon indie rock, grunge and country to create a distinct sound that is influenced by artists as diverse as The National, Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp and Nirvana. The song's ok

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9eAzg6-d0ww

I've never minded Dierks Bentley, and when he's good he's special.

I agree

Really digging Herb Pedersen‘s 1984 album Lonesome feeling. Looks like he has all sorts of connections in the 70s west coast country scene, mostly Chis Hillman.

Eric Church from press email re some of the songs on his new album Evangeline v the Machine

“Johnny” was written in the wake of the Covenant School shooting in Nashville. He sat in the parking lot the following morning after dropping his boys off at a nearby school, overcome by the tragedies in our world and how little we do to prevent them. Inspired by the timing of Charlie Daniels’ “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” coming through his speakers, he drove home and started writing immediately, using music as a salve to soothe those wounds. It all hinges on a central line: “machines control the people, and the people shoot at kids.” Phones, computers, misleading social media, a poisoned political climate. Suddenly, this is about far more than just art. It’s about survival....

The album ends on a cover of Tom Waits’ “Clap Hands,” a dystopian, wildly sonically experimental song. Church had been watching a movie on Netflix, and “Clap Hands” came on as the outro. He liked the anxiety of it, how it serves as a cautionary tale. Ominous, foreboding, a vision of the world if we keep going full force as we are. “Roar, roar, the thunder and the roar, son of a bitch is never comin' back here no more.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UUZykcidqE

video for 1st single from new Eric Church album

He's the best. Love the weird space he occupies in the outlaw country superstar landscape.

The "Clap Hands" cover is the only bad choice on an otherwise terrific album.

More Eric Church discussion is on his thread I see -

country singer Eric Church cancelled sold-out arena show to watch a basketball game tomorrow night

Press email I received :

TUCKER WETMORE SHATTERS RECORDS WITH DEBUT ALBUM WHAT NOT TO

What Not To Earns Spot as Biggest New Artist Country Album Debut in 2025

Wetmore Cracks 1 BILLION Total Global Streams as What Not To Notches No. 15 on Billboard 200 Albums Chart

Headlines Ryman Auditorium Wed, May 21 for First Time Ever with Sold-Out Show

Tucker Wetmore: What Not To Do.

from New West:

Modern Pain by Corb Lund, originally released in 1994, is finally getting its first vinyl release after over thirty years. The album by one of Canada’s most beloved and revered songwriters captures the raw and do-it-yourself nature of his early acoustic and folk records. The album showcases songs that range from upbeat, punchy numbers like “Expectation and the Blues,” which was one of the first songs Lund wrote, to sentimental tracks like “We Used to Ride ‘em,” inspired by his father's retirement from steer wrestling.

“Modern Pain was my very first record of folk / acoustic / western / non-metal songs. I did it when I was still in my rock band, The Smalls. I made it in a basement on the cheap and it sounds like it,” says Lund, “But I still dig the songs. And it has an innocent, indie charm that there’s no way I could recreate now. They say limitation is good inspiration. I gave away hundreds of these to people in the early days.”This limited edition release is part of the Corb Lund - Dark Horse Club.

New West Records will be releasing unreleased records and material from Corb Lund throughout 2025 and 2026.

Modern Pain (Dark Horse Edition) is out now on all streaming services. This Dark Horse Edition features a new acoustic version of the song, "Untitled Waltz" Listen below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unYiawqCF6I

I like this song “house again” by Hudson Westbrook with Miranda. If you were picking up on a connection, he covers “house that built me” with the single

"Tucker Wetmore" sounds like a name Bart Simpson would prank Moe with:

"Guys, pipe down! I need-a Tucker Wetmore! Would somebody check the bathroom for Tucker Wetmore?"

Wetmore's album is atrocious. He's the least talented of the billion Wallen knockoffs, give or take Gavin Adcock.

The Westbrook single is a remix that dropped just last week; it was already streaming well and making gains at radio, and the Miranda collab is only going to boost that.

Got a pr email for another upcoming country singer Jordan Davis whose new upcoming album has a single called “Jesus Wouldn't Do, with lyrics including --"'Cause I'll never walk on water, but I pour some in my bourbon
Sometimes, my straight and narrows got too much twist and turning
And He knows that I need more, so thank the Lord that He ain't through
Giving grace to folks like me doin' things
That Jesus wouldn't do"

Pretty cool that Jesus excuses him and gives him graces for doing everything that Jesus wouldn't do

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EaAq6cF6Fhk

Not linking it, but Oliver Anthony’s new terrible song about how his ex is taking him to the cleaners in their divorce feels like the next logical step for him.

Loliver

XP Jordan Davis has been charting since *2017,* taking up a spot on the axis of completely interchangeable white dudes who exist only to have radio filler singles that take 60 weeks to reach a label-pushed #1 that no one will remember another 60 weeks later.

Which is to say Dylan Scott also just released a dreadful new album. I've been publishing country music criticism since 2005 and genuinely do not know how anyone distinguishes among this current group of Music Row b-listers.

New Hot Club on Bandcamp---haven't listened yet, but whoo-hoo:
https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a3818720523_10.jpg

https://hotclubofcowtown.bandcamp.com/album/limelight-3

Almost the only track presented with *unbridled* enthusiasm in latest Don't Rock The Jukebox, an issue that has plenty of issues with the current state of Texas radio and theme songs:

"Who's Hanging the Moon," Josh Weathers: The kind of two-stepper I can't resist: we've got fiddle, a catchy title/hook, pedal steel, a good groove…I'm buying what Weathers is selling

that's a good 'un!

Ashley Gorley has co-written 82 number 1 country hits and 1 Weezer rock & alternative chart hit. Emily Yahr interviewed him for the Washington Post. The commenters on the Washington Post website call his hits cookie-cutter. He's co-written "I Had some Help by Post Malone & Morgan Wallen; Last Night by Morgan Wallen; What he didn't do by Carly Pearce; Don't Forget to Remember Me by Carrie Underwood

A ’90s MTV-addicted kid who grew up on pop, rock and rap, Gorley ranked Babyface, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis among his songwriting heroes. His affinity for R&B informed his own writing, along with first-hand knowledge of growing up in the South. A fluid freestyler, he brought hip-hop rhythms and rhymes to the familiar country narratives of pickup trucks, broken hearts and throwing back an ice-cold beer

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/2025/06/24/ashley-gorley-country-hits/

82 number 1 country hits

When you see numbers like this put on the board it really does underscore how worthless it is. Like, can *he* even name all 82 of those number ones?

Where does the line get drawn? Carole King is considered the Brill Building songwriter with the most hits, having written or co-written 118 pop hits on the Billboard Hot 100 between 1955 and 1999. Are those worthless?

Good question! How many were number 1s, I wonder. But churning out hits is nothing new (impressive though it is). Churning out number 1s, however, just makes it seem easy to get number 1s, imo. Like, Max Martin has written or co-written 27 number 1s. That this country guy has apparently written or co-written three times as many ...

Maybe its harder to co-write #1 pop hits than #1 country hits

That's exactly what I meant. If it's easy (or easier) to write #1 country hits, then should I be impressed by 82 #1 country hits? I mean
https://preview.redd.it/3xe8b7vim2031.jpg?width=320&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=8ef79ed9ccaa1adea3a97447c6fa345c89d3d680

it's just a function of country radio working in specific ways, there is (well, was) more churn at the top of the country chart by design. in 2009 when ashley gorley was named ascap country songwriter of the year there were 30 country number ones, w/ no song being no 1 for more than 5 weeks (lady antebellum "need you now," absolute classic song). by comparison in 2009 there were 15 hot 100 number ones, w/ black eyed peas "i have a feeling" being number one for 14 weeks. there were only 9 r&b/rap number ones in 2009, w/ jamie foxx & t pain "blame it" and maxwell "pretty wings" both being number one for 14 weeks (tea)

so idk -- was it "harder" for black eyed peas to write a number one hit? was it like... a better world to live in? like, as a listener of the radio at that time, i would say that the experience was much worse than if there was more churn at the top. i wouldn't necessarily defend pop chart inertia as something that is good

When you see numbers like this put on the board it really does underscore how worthless it is. Like, can *he* even name all 82 of those number ones?

― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, June 25, 2025 11:47 A

Huh? Why does this matter?

for what it's worth, it's 83 (not 82) country radio airplay #1s, which is not quite the same as country #1s. it's still an insane run of hits, and plenty of 'em, but not all 83, also topped the main country chart.

xpost Someone above mentioned "completely interchangeable white dudes who exist only to have radio filler singles that take 60 weeks to reach a label-pushed #1 that no one will remember another 60 weeks later." So in that context, I was asking, can even the successful songwriter who fuels these interchangeable dudes remember all the stuff he keeps cranking out to keep them in hits? It reminds me a bit of the KLF's "The Manual." If there is a formula to crack the charts, and sticking to that formula consistently results in hits, then does it even matter if they're hits? If number ones can be cranked out at will, then what value is that achievement? I'm not saying the guy isn't talented, it's just a greater testament to the standards of many country fans than it is to the quality of the songs.

A fluid freestyler, he brought hip-hop rhythms and rhymes to the familiar country narratives of pickup trucks, broken hearts and throwing back an ice-cold beer

no, not saying he isn't talented, though I don't feel the need to find out just yet (w/o getting paid to write about him)

I'm not saying the guy isn't talented, it's just a greater testament to the standards of many country fans than it is to the quality of the songs.

These guys exist in every genre.

Agree, but most writers are not racking up 83 number one hits.

He's a subject for further study---but also, I've always enjoyed, say, Elvis's Top Ten Hits collection more than his Number Ones: to go that high, you gotta get narrow, "universal"---not that some Ones don't get me, or that it's entirely fair/practical to judge a whole album of them/ Think I still have a promo of 50 George Strait Ones--and I've always enjoyed/appreciated about half, which was pretty damn unexpected, maybe especially because he's George Strait, who's never been my Johnny Cash, or---quite a few others (no offense, George). But also, no question, because they're Number Ones.

Prob because Dean Dillon wrote most of them

I'm in an outdoor country bar in bumblefuck, drinking beer and listening to a country cover band. The dude that just left on a Harley flashed me the devil horns, the server looks like a jacked Timotee Chalomet, and the band just played "Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy."

Thanks for the update. Sounds good, wish I could get out more.

So Lightning Rod Records, mostly known to me for James McMurtry albums, is putting this out:

Alex Williams wears his Heavy Metal fandom on his sleeve. On Space Brain, Williams revisits his favorite '80s hard rock tunes and gives them some Outlaw Country grit.

"My dad got me into 80s metal. When I was a kid, he had a bunch of Skid Row, Cinderella, and Motley Crue CDs that I would pick through. A couple summers ago, I was shooting an acoustic session in Illinois with my friend Luke, and we got to talking and listening to our favorite tunes from that time. He mentioned doing an album of covers, and I thought it was a cool idea.The next day, I called Logan at Lightning Rod Records, and he was excited about the project.

I spent the next several months working up alternate versions of my favorite songs from the 80s. I think the best part of the process was being able to strip back and rework those songs, and discover the great lyrics underneath the loud guitars that I hadn’t noticed until I started working on them. Working with longtime friend and great producer/engineer Ben Fowler, these songs were elevated in the best way by an incredible crew of musicians." - Alex Williams

Space Brain Tracklist

1) Flying High Again (feat. Cody Jinks): Ozzy Osbourne cover
2) Night Train: Guns n' Roses cover
3) Ace of Spades: Motörhead cover
4) Nobody's Fool (feat. Tom Keifer): Cinderella cover
5) Round and Round: Ratt cover
6) Look What The Cat Dragged In: Poison cover
7) Wild Side: Mötley Crüe cover
8) Youth Gone Wild: Skid Row cover
9) You've Got Another Thing Coming: Judas Priest cover
10) Gettin' Better: Tesla cover

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sod2JcyUpeU

Topping the Mediabase Country chart after a 71-week trek, the historic chart-topper puts Ross in elite territory, making him the first Canadian male to king the chart in nearly 30 years, and joining Paul Brandt and Hank Snow as the only three Canadian men to ever reign atop the U.S. country radio charts. Ross has achieved three #1 singles at Canadian Country radio: “Single Again,” “Ain’t Doin’ Jack,” and “Trouble.”

This is so formulaic musically and lyrically but I see why it has topped the country radio charts and I kinda like it.

That’s Joel Ross, Nashville based Canadien singing “Single Again”

Band Together Texas is a star-studded August 17 concert benefiting The Community Foundation of the Texas Hill Country, the leading charity behind the ongoing flood relief efforts, and Central Texas Community Foundation. Featuring performances from an all-star roster of Texas talent, including Miranda Lambert, Parker McCollum, Ryan Bingham, Wade Bowen, Kelly Clarkson, Ronnie Dunn, Dylan Gossett, Jack Ingram, Cody Johnson, Lyle Lovett, Lukas Nelson, Jon Randall and Randy Rogers Band.

New Tyler Childers album Snipe Hunter is out. Produced by Rick Rubin with additional production from Sylvan Esso’s Nick Sanborn, and mixing by Shawn Everett (Kacey Musgraves, Alabama ). Lyrics reference trips to India and Australia. "Down Under" sounds a bit like a country-rock Replacements

Marissa Moss wrote this profile

https://www.gq.com/story/tyler-childers-snipe-hunter-profile

Saw a reference to Cody Jinks playing a fairly large Baltimore hall and had never heard of him. He's a former metal band guitarist/singer from Texas who has gotten popular as a country singer pretty quickly. He's got the formula down - singing about whiskey, and then going sober and giving up alcohol. He's got a song called "Hippies and Cowboys."

I like the Childers a lot but, boy, that GQ headline! Always gotta be a country savior to make the world safe for people who don't like country.

You mean you don't think adding garage, barband rock, and pop touches, producers Rick Rubin & Nick Sanborn, plus spiritual references to the Bhagavad Gita is "visionary"? Yea, maybe not.

Anyway, I'm delighted he's writing shitkickers like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mi7ZSIrF6wI

Koala bears get livid when they don't get eucalyptus
Most of 'em carry syphilis
Or chlamydia what's the difference
All I know is I don't want no koala cuddlin' up to me
I can see it fine from here it is a pretty cute koala

That is a verse from Childers’ “ Down Under “ song

so?

I think he's trying too hard to be clever with that lyric

Nah, he sings it like a fuckin' beast: some of his most playful, committed singing to date is on this album.

Haven't heard it yet, but *looks* like he's doing a take-off of the "globe-trotting rube," as Kurt Vonnegut referred to his fellow Hoosier, Ernie Pyle (koalas do have such tendencies, who sez one wants to cuddle up with you, podner?) Could also be having fun with his expected liberal sensitivity.

Just heard a Tiny Desk Radio Hour incl. very compatible sep sets by Charley Crockett and Leon Bridges, who are touring together this summer. Bridges has gotten past his early NPR retro R&B "for white people," as he sums it up here, by getting further into it, using trad elements for self-expression, as Crockett does, though Bridges is a more extroverted/bolder singer, with this Sam Cooke as Jimmie Rodgers thing at times, good interplay with his musos here too.
Crockett's crew are less audible than in some other live sessions I've heard, the best of which was televised from the Ryman.
Can't find this Tiny Desk online yet, but would like to go see these guys (must check some Bridges albums too).

I should listen to Bridges and Crockett's latest efforts, as in part based on the marketing had found the little I heard too mannered and rigid. Interesting how Bridges is trying to get past his rep

Koala bears get livid when they don't get eucalyptus...

i luvvvvvvv that opening verse. i love everything about that song. power pop country! another lyrical bit that makes me smile: "vegemite and flying kites the opposite way."

Livestream of aforementioned Texas flood charity concert, w Miranda and many more, available through Sunday:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ei7pnbiwjLI

https://www.billboard.com/music/country/charley-crockett-defends-beyonce-calls-out-morgan-wallen-1236047859/

Just came across my 2012 show preview for a couple of pretty good country bands, will have to check whether they're still around:

Whitey Morgan & 78s/Slim White & Averys

Two Midwestern crews brew the honky tonk blues tonight. Whitey Morgan and the 78s are from Flint, Michigan, also home of Michael Moore. Like Moore’s documentaries, Morgan’s “Buick City” graphically follows Flint’s lost wages, although his sing-along theme song is the equally stubborn, living truth, “Waylon’s Still The King.” Merle Haggard is another inspiration, shared with Columbus’s Slim White & the Averys, who can take Haggard's and Buck Owens’ migrating Cali-visions further afield than Morgan’s backstreet outlaw jukebox. Both bands find the party in classic country, so let your history books have the night off.

11/15 @ Woodlands Tavern, 1200 W. 3rd Ave., 8 p.m.

(Last sentence was word to students of The OSU.)

Looks like Whitey Morgan who was / is on Bloodshot hasn’t put out a record in a bit, but he and his band are doing a tour starting in Baltimore in late September then heading south and finishing in Louisville

https://www.whiteymorgan.com/tour/

Thanks! I Hope it's the post-bankruptcy-sale Bloodshot, which I hope is making up for bad old ways.
Just now came across another preview reference in my rusty files, to another (very various artists) show incl. Slim, and quoting him:
...Slim White & the Averys at the classic country crossroads of “suffering, redemption, and full-on honky tonking. “

The new Tyler Childers album is a hoot. It's not a direct analog - it's kind of the opposite, I thought - but I thought "Bitin' List" was one of the goofier redneck animal kingdom songs I've heard since "Ticks." "And if there ever come a time I got rabies/You're high on my bitin' list" is a ridiculous chorus.

I also like how there is a song about how long it takes to get to Australia, and how you're rewarded for the trip by the risk of catching chlamydia from a Koala.

"Down Under" is still stuck in my head.

been working on a "best of the 21st century so far" list and Purgatory certainly belongs

i didn't love his last one, but yeah, Snipe Hunter is great

^ I'd like to see it, and yeah, Purgatory would make mine.

New artist discovery for me this weekend was Sam Stoane. Her debut Tales of the Dark West is a really nice addition to the country & western resurgence that Childers is a part of.

Childers is a wonderful singer. He loves words that push him to its full expressiveness. I don't doubt he dropped "koala" in there because he liked its vowels.

That’s a great observation. His voice certainly has a lot of character, even if he couldn’t place third in a local singing competition.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGhHWsjVVWw

R&B singer K Michelle released a country song “Tennessee “ in 2023, and now she’s back with another one “Jack Daniel’s “

Sam Stoane's album is one of the year's best, for sure. Happy to see others have found it. Her voice reminds me of Ashley Monroe's, which is of course a great comparison.

Alfred generally OTM re: Childers. His enunciation choices are so culturally specific, and his phrasing is straight out of the pews of every holler church. Like the way he bends the word "days" ("I let him hang for several days") early on "Eatin' Big Time" is a whole thesis on linguistics. He's just the best.

And the writing is his sharpest and funniest; people way too steeped in the insistence on every song ever written being strict autobiography-- y'know, SCM and his bullshit "authenticity" fetish-- aren't getting "Down Under" and "Tomcat & A Dandy."

Still think Rubin's production sounds pretty terrible on at least half the album, alas. Songs will cook live, I'm sure.

Curious what other country albums from the year you'd rank? My list is awfully skimpy, and I could use some direction.

xpost I had no idea Rick Rubin produced the album! And tbh, never would have guessed.

Rubin's production is the chief complaint among Childers fans.

There's a subset of them who are mad he isn't making Lady May / Feathered Indians / Follow You to Virgie over and over again.

After "Nose on the Grindstone" was released, they were convinced he was going to empty to vaults and officially release all his old songs that have never been on an album. Hoo boy were they mad when they got what they got.

The ones *slightly* more reasonable than those think Rubin ruined this record - as if Childers isn't the one who gets final say on any and all decisions.

The man has a batshit faction of his fanbase that is larger (relatively speaking) than most, imo.

Or maybe I just joined the subreddit and that was a mistake.

Here, read this if you have a drink ready:

https://savingcountrymusic.com/how-tyler-childers-made-the-most-polarizing-country-album-of-the-year/

Honestly, I just assumed he produced it himself, it had that sort of dry and eccentric quality to it.

I mean, I've been publishing country criticism for a full 20 years, y'all, I don't think I need to be painted with the broad brush as some of Childers' more rigid (and yes, batshit) fans or those who don't understand the idea of his agency as an artist...

It's been a really great year for country albums, honestly. Other strong picks: Tami Neilson, Tony Kamel, Margo Price, Valerie June, Frankie Ballard, Kip Moore, Trisha Yearwood, The Kentucky Gentlemen, Moe Reem, Sunny Sweeney, Kane Brown, Olive Klug, Dee White, Vandoliers... So much good stuff, really.

I don't think anyone did, jon_oh.

Nope, I certainly didn't. Or didn't intend to.

Fair enough, all. I was just grumpy earlier and read intent that wasn't there!

https://daily.bandcamp.com/best-country/the-best-country-music-on-bandcamp-august-2025?fbclid=IwRlRTSAMoN-hleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHuaeEWt1rVWZShcglSxyFQ3G3ed7uaBgPKSducYeQHAjZUsaZK0yjsgnVunZ_aem__SGZCy-JnaSG9tCR0ndQxQ

Thanks jon oh. Seeing Price tomorrow evening!

I'd forgotten Ashley Monroe released an album earlier this year. It's good!

K. Michelle also nearly murdered Jelly Roll on the duet they recorded for the-- mostly fantastic, outside of the completely tone-deaf Megan Moroney-- Judds tribute album last year: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pd79ICq92zc