Rolling Country 2026

The traditional kick-off with Chuck Eddy: this time, he sez,

Hey Don -- All's I've got is this:

40 (+5) Best Country Singles of 2025

https://chuckeddy.substack.com/p/40-5-best-country-singles-of-2025

Still finalizing the writing for my 2025 best-of and will share here when that's live.

In the meantime, definitely think it's worth highlighting how massive a single Ella Langley's "Choosin' Texas" is turning out to be. It's currently at #5 on the Hot 100 on the strength of both streaming and terrestrial radio, and it's turned up on a bunch of the 2025 year-end lists for country.

Also mentioned on BlueSky that it's far and away the highest peak on the Hot 100 for one of its songwriters... Miranda Lambert.

ella langley 2026 takeover let's go

Good post-Xmas x New Year's winter music, country adjacent, broody and sparkly (from recommend me some country music thread, with a few more words)

Listening now to Annahstasia's Tether, rec so far to fans of Brandi Carlile, Patty Griffin, with emphasis on voice x acoustic guitar, some distinctive melodic and other turns eventually, so evident influence of early Joni Mitchell, though not that much vocally: https://annahstasia.bandcamp.com/album/tether Nice!

can be a bit gritty, like snow.

Tyler Childers making many rock critic 2025 lists (lists that tend to be mainly rock albums )

Just posted this on Rolling Obit:

On his Substack, Chuck has now posted an amazing eulogy for, vivid bio of his gifted and accomplished son---also links to Will's YouTube channel and much more:
https://chuckeddy.substack.com/p/william-linus-eddy-1985-2025

ENTERPRISE, Ala. – Tiny living…it’s the hot new trend that many people are embracing! It’s also a good alternative to overnight hotel stays with more amenities. Now, in Enterprise, Alabama, which is located in the middle of a 75-mile corridor where 12 million cars pass through annually on their way to the Florida panhandle, Darryl Worley’s “Awful Beautiful Life” Luxury Tiny Home Resort has broken ground and scheduled to open in late Spring 2026.

Located within miles of Fort Rucker, Darryl Worley’s “Awful Beautiful Life” Luxury Tiny Home Resort will offer short-term/convenient lodging for government contractors, flight graduation class family members and guests, as well as those visiting the Army Aviation Museum.

“I won’t forget getting that phone call from my dear friend Ronnie Gilley as he shared this incredible vision with last year. I’ve done lots of good things with Ronnie, but this one sparked something in me as I knew we could help the families of those stationed at Fort Rucker,” says country music star Darryl Worley. “We’re building a project that’s a two-for-one for the military. One, there is a constant need for short-term lodging due to the constant in and out flow to and from the base and, two, we are building a lifestyle community with 5 star amenities, while also delivering a home option for the military at an incredibly affordable price.”

Darryl Worley’s “Awful Beautiful Life” Luxury Tiny Home Resort will include 75 tiny homes, a resort lagoon pool, dog walking park, and more! Though the floor plans are compact, guests won’t have to sacrifice having friends over or entertaining. The unit is designed for comfort with a bedroom downstairs, kitchen, sitting area and a covered porch with large overhang meaning guests can utilize outdoor living spaces during different weather conditions. Other specific amenities will include an event center, fully equipped fitness center, pickle ball court, cornhole court, a clubhouse and a chill lounge. The entire area will have a 24/7 security gate entrance for privacy and safety.

“You know, the previous administration drove home prices and interest rates through the roof. That prompted Ronnie to come up with a very special, unique and different product that is going to be a perfect fit for our military!,” adds Worley. “I might also add, the lifestyle Awful Beautiful Life Resort is creating will also be very inviting to the massive migration of retirees that are moving south in record breaking numbers!”

For more information or investment opportunities visit: www.darrylworleyawfulbeautifulliferesort.com

# # #

About Darryl Worley:
Worley debuted on the country charts with a trio of top-15 hits in 2000-01, “When You Need My Love,” “A Good Day to Run” and “Second Wind.” His breakthrough year was 2002 when Worley’s touching ballad “I Miss My Friend,” the title tune to his second CD, became his first No. 1 hit. After he spent Christmas 2002 entertaining America’s troops in Afghanistan, Kuwait, and Uzbekistan, he came home and wrote the patriotic anthem “Have You Forgotten?,” which became his second No. 1 song and remained at the top of the charts for six weeks. In the summer of 2004, “Awful Beautiful Life” was released and soon rocketed up the country music charts to become a multi-week No. 1. Darryl has continued to release albums and participate in philanthropic endeavors.

Chuck in a group discusion of Frank Kogan's dental appointment:

By the way, I agree with your dental assistant that Megan Moroney is an excellent singer. (She only put out a couple singles in 2025, if I remember right, but I liked her version of Toby Keith's "Who's Your Daddy" quite a bit.)

Megan Moroney, and I say this with my whole chest and had been for three years, is completely fucking tone-deaf. She's the worst singer I can recall attaining her level of status in any genre in my lifetime, and there are so many people who ought to see through her entire persona for what it is.

*have been, etc.

As someone who's just getting into some of Moroney's songs, I'm intrigued by how intense your reaction to her is! I feel like her voice has a kind of weary/melancholy sound--I haven't dug into a whole album of hers, but I'm at least into "6 Months Later" and "No Caller ID". I hear a bit of Kelsea Ballerini in her voice too, though I think Ballerini has more range. What do you think of her?

I've come up with a Country & Adjacent list based on (and adding to) my Fol Alley and No Dep ballots, as posted on the Americana thread, doing the same w my comments on those picks. The ones here are the most RC relevant, I think:

Country & Adjacent
Top albums

Annahstasia: Tether
Ashley Monroe: Tennessee Lightning
Brandi Carlile: Returning to Myself
Cam: All Things Light
Grey Delisle & Friends: It's All Her Fault: A Tribute To Cindy Walker
James McMurtry: The Black Dog and the Wandering Boy
Jason Isbell: Foxes in the Snow
Joe Ely: Love and Freedom
Joshua Ray Walker: Stuff
Kieran Kane & Rayna Gellart: Volume 4
Lukas Nelson: American Romance
Margo Price: Hard Headed Woman
Mavis Staples: Sad and Beautiful World
Michael Hurley: Broken Homes and Gardens
Patty Griffin: Crown of Roses
Tommy Talton: Seven Levels
Tony Joe White: The Real Thang
Tyler Childers: Snipe Hunter
Willie Nelson: Oh What A Beautiful World
Willie Nelson: Workin' Man: Willie Sings Merle

also good: Brennan Leigh: Don’t You Ever Give Up On Love, S.G. Goodman: Planting By The Signs Mackenzie Carpenter: Hey Country Queen, Hot Club of Cowtown: Limelight, Rodney Crowell: Airline Highway

About Half Good Sunny Sweeney: Rhinestone Requiem

Ace EP! Summer Dean, Live AF

Singles/Favored Tracks incl. Mackenzie Carpenter: “Don’t Mess With Exes,” Ella Langley: "Wish I Didn’t Know Now,” Big Thief: “How Could I Have Known,” :Willie Nelson: “What Kind of Love?,” Kaitlin Butts: “Red Wine Supernova,” “The Middle” (both versions from The Yeehaw Sessions EP)

Comments, maybe more later:

Annahstasia's Tether is sparkly and broody, sometimes crunchy like snow, rec to fans of early Joni Mitchell, Patty Griffin, Brandi Carlilie, current Cam ( necessary details of topography in the atmosphere).

ssshhhh: Ashley Monroe's afternoon views and fly-away plastic castles are wrought with the same cool intensity as several more outright oops upside the head (it's her alright).

It’s All Her Fault: A Tribute to Cindy Walker: for one thing, it was a good balance of singers new to me---Summer Dean, Kimmie Bitter, Jolie Holland, Ginny Mac, Mazzy Dee, Gail Davies--and (mostly) my favored knowns: Kelly Willis, Katie Shore, Amythyst Kiah, Brennen Leigh, Rosie Flores, Melissa Carper, Mandy Barnett---did not know, 'til I heard Barnett rocking it, that Walker wrote "Dream Baby.” Hats off to Grey Delisle for putting it together (she duets well w Leigh too):
https://greydelisle.bandcamp.com/album/its-all-her-fault-a-tribute-to-cindy-walker?search_item_id%3D288252752%26search_item_type%3Da%26search_match_part%3D%253F%26search_page_id%3D4958483242%26search_page_no%3D0%26search_rank%3D1
Willie Nelson did a good tribute too: You Don't Know Me: The Songs of Cindy Walker
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_lLOj5TR_MCMUfxYItqVg98t5s9IsibhmI

Joe Ely, from Ex-Flatlanders thread:
New one, from stash of tracks recorded over quite a few years, is refreshingly sung and played, with Lloyd Maines doing some more polishing, and Ely provides continuity, as writer, interpreter of well-chosen covers, and compiler of well-sequenced tracks. He does a Guy Clark show-stopper that Clark never released, also "Deportee," "Waitin' Around To Die," and "For The Sake of the Song," another TVZ, which goes with several (sometimes Dylan-y) originals re pushing and twisting verbosity into agreeably melodic word-balloons, though as w some previous Joe of recent decades, I had to listen a couple times to get into some of those. Hope there's more.

Joshua Ray Walker: "Yes, I'm still workin' on the cancer, but also I can still do this, heee!" (It's him alright.

Kieran Kane and Rayna Gellart: Volume 4—-their latest has even more low (1975 East Nashville coffee table)-key sound, but I got used to it within first listen: original ballads, with some hooks, even, interspersed w perky trad instrumentals:
https://kanegellert.bandcamp.com/album/volume-4

Mavis Staples: Sad and Beautiful World (eventually just trying to convince herself that it'll be a little better or something, which makes the whole orbit even more poignant and relatable)

McMurtry's set is playful and ugly, esp guitar and words, nostalgic monster aholes on trampolines etc., c'mon along!

Tommy Talton: Seven Levels—-RIP TT was, with Scott Boyer, co-founder of the somewhut misleadingly named Cowboy, whom I've posted about on the Southern Rock thread---here, with early cohorts like Randall Branblett and Chuck Leavell, he delivers a swan song with characteristic discipline x warmth.
https://tommytalton.bandcamp.com/album/seven-levels

Re Tony Joe. from an email response to Chuck E.:
Your "sounds like his understanding of rap music ends around 1980, which I always appreciate,"
goes with Tony Joe's early 80s (maybe 80?)-as-hail "Swamp Rap," which kicks off a sled team of uptempo country hybrids, also "Even Trolls like Rock 'N' Roll," and a version, maybe the hit one, of "Polk Salad Annie." but it seems faster than the hit, mebbe cos of context----all this following a first half of mellow yet candid candle post-Outlaw songs---"Pour me another memory, before this one is gone," also taking women " too lightly...one day you go to the Bank of Texas and you're overdrawn." Until he seems to experience ego-death in an ambient fried-egg sunset(of cumulative memories) ----but then: "Swamp Rap." "I Get Off On It.": and other new adventures. That's The Real Thang, which finally came out this year. PS: Since I brought up this Tony Joe Thang, should add that the post-Outlaw first half usually gratifies the appetite for apt detail as "Swamp Rap" and subsequent tracks.

Willie Nelson: Oh What A Beautiful World---
Exemplary vocal poise clarifies, w/o flattening, the jittery, horny, memory/dream-infested, philosophical (sometimes prolix) chronicles of Rodney Crowell's songs, bringing out their own melodic poise and shrewds (also, Willie picked a lot of the right ones, and it's far too late for early classick "I Ain't Livin' Long Like This."). Strong opener: the disturbed "What Kind of Love?," which is not a rhetorical question: a Crowell-Orbison collab, reminding me that (increasing Crowell influence?)Dylan said in Chronicles that Orbison influenced him by demonstrating a right way to break the rules.

Willie Nelson: Workin’ Man: Willie Sings Merle—-singn' & pickin' with Big Sister Bobbie (apparently her last record, but that there pianner's up front on pert near ever track). Good grove w his band, o course, and he’s in the pocket, leading the way through the job, after initial vocal frailty (not evident on Oh What a Beautiful World: when were these recorded?)(Merle’s writing, incl. Esp. the deepest, “If We Make It Through December,” and springing “Ramblin Fever,” is so to the point, so razory at times, that I had to get used to the relatively messy, wistful realness and such of Crowell’s approach all over again, as covered by Willie and on his own album.)

Brennan Leigh’s honky tonk kitchen sink is growing on me:going for a Loretta Lynn Lysol lucidity, she’s still got that sometimes whiplash turn of phrase like when moving out of retro on Obsessed With The West, but I’m spoiled by that ‘un’s faceted flair and fun.

Likewise, S.G. Goodman’s latest is not bad but not wild.

Hot Club’s set exhibits all the things they’re good at, except outstanding, self-defining, or frame-pushing originals: if they wrote any of these (not seeing credits), those blend in a little too well with the vintage gold and semi-precious lights, in and under Western skies (but I’ll take it all).

I gotta have at least one big loud pop hat country album every year: women usually do it better, and Mackenzie Carpenter is goin’ back in like George Costanza, to the night life whirl and daylight stabs, wailing through her nose and thus shredding bar napkin valentines, also her fairly frequently flimsier material, doing some kinds of justice to it all. Love the dramatic pauses in “Don’t Mess With Exes,” and it’s one of those “why have I never heard a song about this?” songs. More please, for her and me.

Also thanx yall for tips about Ella Langley, Mackenzie Carpenter, and the Summer Dean EP.

New Ella, "Dandelion": on first listen, video seems like a home furnishing showroom, gilding the inert dandelion, better to have had her driving a pickup, moseying down by the crick----track maybe overproduced too, or maybe I played it too loud---anyway, here are the options (I think the audio-only will grow on me)https://ellalangley.lnk.to/dandelion-single

I got my wife a Summer Dean shirt. Hope she (Dean) doesn't go all MAGA or some shit.

Oh yeah, heard a four-song rerun of Sturgill's solo Tiny Desk Concert last night, from 2014: voice and guitar sounded good, maybe 12-string? Fave was "Water From The Well," which I'd like to hear Willie cover--maybe more songs here, haven't listened yet:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5cMqD0WqYE

Rolling Country 2014 is thataway

Super belated, obvs, but will share here for posterity all the same: Top 40 Country Albums of 2025.

Thanks, Jon! Will check it out, was looking fwd.

I never go around awards shows, so didn't know, as yall prob did, that Childers won for "Bitin' List." Just now got the memo, and also so learned:

In addition to Childers, the record features his band The Food Stamps: James Barker (guitar, pedal steel), Craig Burletic (bass), CJ Cain (guitars), Kory Caudill (keyboards), Rodney Elkins (drums), Matt Rowland (keyboards) and Jesse Wells (guitar, fiddle).
In celebration of the new music, Childers will return to the road this spring with 2026’s Snipe Hunt, which includes stops at Chicago’s Wrigley Field, Dallas’ Dos Equis Pavilion, Birmingham’s Coca-Cola Amphitheater, Boulder’s Folsom Field, Seattle’s Climate Pledge Arena and Portland’s Moda Center among others. See below for complete itinerary.
TYLER CHILDERS CONFIRMED TOUR DATES
March 3—Dublin, Ireland—3Arena^
March 6—Glasgow, U.K.—OVO Hydro^
March 8—Manchester, U.K.—AO Arena^
March 10—Brussels, Belgium—Ancienne Belgique^
March 13—Paris, France—Salle Pleyel^
March 15—Berlin, Germany—Uber Eats Music Hall^
March 17—Copenhagen, Denmark—K.B. Hallen^
March 21—Amsterdam, Netherlands—AFAS Live^
April 23—Dallas, TX—Dos Equis Pavilion*
April 25—New Orleans, LA—New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival
June 4—Birmingham, AL—The Coca-Cola Amphitheater~
June 5—Greenville, SC—Bon Secours Wellness Arena~
June 7—Lexington, KY—Railbird Festival
June 10—Darien Center, NY—Darien Lake Amphitheater†
June 11—Hershey, PA—Hersheypark Stadium†
June 13—Columbus, OH—Buckeye Country Superfest
July 9—St. Louis, MO—Hollywood Casino Amphitheater‡
July 12—Chicago, IL—Wrigley Field#
July 14—Kansas City, MO —Morton Amphitheater§
July 15—Des Moines, IA—Casey’s Center§
July 18—Boulder, CO—Folsom Field# (presented by AEG)
September 30—Sacramento, CA—Golden 1 Center§
October 2—Seattle, WA—Climate Pledge Arena§
October 3—Portland, OR—Moda Center‡
^with special guest Molly Tuttle
*with special guests Robert Earl Keen and Scott T. Smith
~with special guests Evan Honer and Scott T. Smith
†with special guest Evan Honer
‡with special guests Wednesday and Scott T. Smith
#with special guests Jon Batiste and Wednesday
§with special guest Wednesday

xpost wow---Top Ten incl. several albums & some artists I'd never heard of, must catch up.

Still can't get into or through that latest Tami Neilson album, keep losing the thread, as it gets to seeming several shades of bombastic above all---much prefer Kingmaker, where she seems to take over and make over big Lee Hazlewood-associated production moves.

I totally agree, dow. Major disappointment.

This morning I'm listening to the new Emily Scott Robinson record Appalachia. Produced by Josh Kaufman, it's maybe more folk than country, but she's a criminally underrated songwriter worth your time. Her track "The Dress" from 2019 about the experience of being sexually assaulted, as well as "The Time for Flowers" from 2020, a hopeful rumination during the height of the pandemic, are good starting points.

Here's the title track from the new one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3aXlQxR8CY