6 Must-Hear New Country Songs: Benjamin Tod, Midland, Kaitlin Butts, Bailey Zimmerman & More

This week’s crop of new country tunes includes Benjamin Tod highlighting a range of country sounds on his new album Shooting Star. Elsewhere, Bailey Zimmerman and Max McNown both offer up songs about finding and offering hope when mental health struggles rage, while Scotty Hasting teams with Lee Brice and Dolly Parton for a new version of a song previously recorded by Trace Adkins.

Check out all of these and more in Billboard’s roundup of the best country songs of the week below.

Benjamin Tod, Shooting Star

Tod, known for his work as part of the Lost Dog Street Band, issues his fourth solo album with Shooting Star, a set that weaves through a sampling of sounds drawn from the spectrum of country music decades, with each song helmed by his raw, aching vocal. He articulates the honkytonk of “Tramp Like Me,” the string-laden countrypolitan in “Nothing More,” and the heaps of gospel-tinged, piano-laced sounds on his Sierra Ferrell collaboration “One Last Time.” His raw, aching vocal shines on “I Ain’t The Man.” Elsewhere, on the title track, this Nashville-area native delivers a stinging criticism of machinations of Nashville’s Music Row, singing, “I don’t kneel for you or anyone.” As with his previous output, Shooting Star evinces Tod’s masterful songwriting and offers a balm for lovers of traditional country sounds.

Midland feat. Kaitlin Butts, “Vegas”

Midland just released a deluxe version of their recent album Barely Blue, including a revised version of “Vegas,” their satiny, Strait-esque ode to Sin City. This time they welcome Red Dirt stalwart Kaitlin Butts, who earlier this year made waves with her theatrical album Roadrunner! The trio’s knack for preternatural harmonies remains front and center, further elevated by Butts’ self-assured twang, as the song bristles with a neo-traditional country sound.

Max McNown, “Hotel Bible”

The Oregon-born, Nashville-based McNown first broke through with “A Lot More Free,” which propelled him to the top of Billboard’s Emerging Artist chart this year. He follows with “Hotel Bible,” a raw, heartland-folk track shot through with textured guitar and a burst of joyous percussion. Here, he comes alongside a lover who “can’t shake that sinking feeling,” provides a heartening, hope-filled reassurances, reminiscing on times they “sipped on wine and swore we’d change the world.” Overall, “Hotel Bible” marks a solid follow-up to McNown’s breakthrough hit, one that positions him as a newcomer worth watching.

Bailey Zimmerman, “Holding On”

Zimmerman follows his “Holy Smokes” single with this pleading track written by Austin Shawn and Blake Whiten. “Holding On” finds Zimmerman delving into themes surrounding mental health on lyrics such as “There was a time when I had the fight/ And I could’ve made it through one more night, but I’m losing my mind.” Ultimately, however, he finds the strength and comfort he’s seeking in the commitment of a loved one, which helps him overcome darker moments. Sonically, this bruising track falls squarely within Zimmerman’s wheelhouse, a vessel for his grainy vocal — though it pares back slightly on the heavily rock-oriented instrumentation of some of his previous efforts, enough to let the song’s timely message shine through.

Kelsea Ballerini, “First Rodeo”

Ballerini offers a preview of her upcoming album Patterns with this languid track about taking risks and establishing new patterns in the wake of a breakup. “Take my heart but take it slow/ ‘Cause this ain’t my first rodeo,” she sings, infusing her vocal delivery with a tenderness as she examines a newfound relationship with hope and a bit of trepidation. Meanwhile, as she continues to deepen her emotionally-excavating style of songwriting, she melds it with her signature brand of hazy, glistening country-pop. Ballerini’s album Patterns releases Oct. 25.

Scotty Hasting, Lee Brice and Dolly Parton, “’Til The Last Shot’s Fired”

Hasting welcomes Brice and Parton for this remake of Trace Adkins’s somber 2009 tribute to fallen military personnel. Hazy guitar lays the soundscape, as U.S. Army veteran and Purple Heart recipient Hastings takes the first verse, sung from the perspective of a soldier killed during the Civil War, before Brice picks up the second verse depicting the story of a soldier who dies during World War II. Both plead for the end of life-taking battles and wars; toward the end, their weathered voices are balanced as Parton’s airy, shimmering soprano joins in, offering levity and infusing the song’s somber message with hope.

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