Country

This week’s batch of new music includes ERNEST’s bluegrass-tinged latest, a promising debut from Alexandra Kay, a heartfelt, timely song from Frank Ray and Shy Carter, as well as a pair of songs from Red Clay Strays and Shaboozey that are surging on streaming platforms.

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Also, Texas music mainstay Aaron Watson pairs with several female artists, including Kylie Frey and Jenna Paulette, to honor songs from women artists in various decades.

ERNEST, “Kiss of Death”

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On his breakthrough hit “Flower Shops,” the mononymed singer-songwriter drew upon traditional country influences, while his Flower Shops (The Album) was chock-full of twangy songs about heartbreak and alcohol. Here, ERNEST launches his “new era” by wrapping himself in bluegrass harmonies on “Kiss of Death,” with lyrics that find him willingly walking a fine line, willing to accept the inevitable heartbreak his “angel in a fire-red dress will bring,” if it means he gets a single evening of lust-fueled passion. “I think I like the pain/ And if it ends tonight, that’ll be okay,” he sings, on this track he co-wrote with Andy Albert and Ryan Vojtesak.

Alexandra Kay, “Everleave”

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Kay follows her breakthrough 2021 hit “That’s What Love Is” with the 11-song debut album All I’ve Ever Known — featuring this vulnerable, solo-penned ballad that traces a woman’s decade spent languishing in an unfulfilling relationship and honors the notion of her resolve to leave. “I can’t keep pouring from a cup so empty/ Then turn my back and try to sleep at night,” Kay sings with both stunning intimacy and verve, underscoring the portrait of someone always giving to a lover who refuses to reciprocate the same kindness. The glossy, piano-led “Everleave,” like the rest of the album, presents Kay as an adept, propitious singer-songwriter.

Aaron Watson, Cover Girl

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Texas music circuit mainstay Watson helps spotlight the mighty talents of numerous women artists on his latest project, Cover Girl, filled with duets on many female-fronted, classic country songs (and a pop song or two), spanning different decades. Watson and Jenna Paulette pair up on Rosanne Cash’s “Seven Year Ache,” while he teams with Kylie Frey for Dolly Parton’s “9 to 5,” Bri Bagwell for a take on Sheryl Crow’s “Can’t Cry Anymore,” Kimberly Kelly for “You’re the Reason God Made Oklahoma” and with Morgan Myles for Lady Gaga’s “Million Reasons.” The album closes with a familial collaboration, with Watson teaming with his daughter Jolee Kate for a rendition of Taylor Swift’s “Never Grow Up.”

Frank Ray and Shy Carter, “Jesus at the Taco Truck”

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Shy Carter and Frank Ray posted a snippet of this song on TikTok last month and the song has quickly amassed over two million views, thanks to a vivid storyline. “Jesus at the Taco Truck” is heartfelt, timely and bridge-building. The lyrics detail meeting a man who made a harrowing journey, walking across the Rio Grande into Texas, and working long hours at a taco truck to help provide for family members still living in Mexico. Crafted by Ray, Carter, Ben Burgess and Nathan Chapman, this is a tender, compassionate tribute to the hardships so many face in a quest for freedom and a better life. This marks a crucial new release from Carter and Ray.

Red Clay Strays, “Wondering Why”

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Known for their soul-meets-southern rock stylings, The Red Clay Strays have been on the road over the past year opening shows for Eric Church and Elle King. The quintet’s soulful Alabama roots and fiery live performance style permeate this song. “Wondering Why” was included on the group’s 2022 debut album A Moment of Truth, but it has been surging on streaming platforms of late, landing on Spotify’s all-genre Viral 50 chart. Written by the group’s Brandon Coleman and Drew Nix with songwriter Dan Couch (Kip Moore, Cody Johnson), the song details a highbrow-meets-hardscrabble romance that, on paper, shouldn’t work–but does. Lead singer Coleman’s gruff, impassioned vocal shines here as always, bolstered by the group’s exemplary musicianship.

Shaboozey, “Let It Burn”

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“Grab the matches/ start a fire,” Shaboozey sings on this aptly-titled track, as it has been a red-hot track on streaming platforms as of late, appearing on Spotify’s all-genre Viral 50 chart. The song is a heady marriage of guitar-driven country, R&B and hip-hop elements, meshing into a distinct blend of pop melody and empowering message, as the singer-songwriter urges someone to leave bad memories and experiences behind and embrace the courage to seek a brighter future.

On March 2, 1983, a mother-daughter duo from Kentucky, Naomi and Wynonna Judd, auditioned for then-RCA Nashville label chief Joe Galante, in hopes of scoring a record deal. They had spent months working with producer-writer Brent Maher, finding and recording songs and crafting their twangy, harmony-driven sound.

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“We had a three-song package that we auditioned for Joe and a few of his staff members,” Maher recalls to Billboard. “The three songs we played them were ‘Had a Dream (For the Heart),’ ‘Mama, He’s Crazy’ and ‘John Deere Tractor.’ When ‘John Deere’ finished, I mean to tell you, you could have heard a pin drop in that room. People were trying to start breathing again, because of that beautiful melodic structure and those harmonies.”

Galante ultimately signed The Judds to the RCA Nashville label roster, and the duo’s cover of the Elvis Presley tune “Had a Dream” became their debut single, reaching the top 20 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart. The song’s follow-up, the tender “Mama, He’s Crazy,” became The Judds’ first No. 1 country hit, signaling the duo’s upward trajectory to stardom. In the five-year span between 1984-1989, The Judds earned 14 No. 1 Hot Country Songs hits, including “Young Love,” “Why Not Me” and “Turn It Loose.” They released six multi-platinum studio albums, were named the Country Music Association’s vocal duo or vocal group of the year seven times, won five Grammys and were ultimately inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2022. Maher produced all six of The Judds’ studio albums and worked with Wynonna on some of her solo projects.

Four decades after that fateful audition, and nearly 18 months after the death of The Judds’ matriarch Naomi in April 2022, nearly three dozen artists have come together for A Tribute to the Judds, out Oct. 27 on BMG, recognizing the duo’s significant influence by offering refreshed versions of 14 of the mother-daughter duo’s biggest hits.

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Galante, Maher and A&R executive Renee Bell spearheaded the new project, which welcomes veterans of the format to today’s chart-toppers, including Reba McEntire, Blake Shelton, Dolly Parton, Lainey Wilson, Trisha Yearwood, LeAnn Rimes, Ashley McBryde, Cody Johnson, Jelly Roll, bluegrassers Trey Hensley, Rob Ickes and Molly Tuttle, Sonya Isaacs (of southern gospel group The Isaacs), and O.N.E the Duo and Wendy Moten. Wilson and Parton perform “Mama, He’s Crazy,” Rimes sings “Have Mercy,” and Johnson and Isaacs offer up “Grandpa (Tell Me ‘Bout the Good Ole Days).”  McEntire, Jennifer Nettles, Carly Pearce and Gabby Barrett helm “Girls Night Out.”

“It’s a bittersweet process to be going through all of this and be seeing things like this happening in the tributes coming in, and it’s just life moving forward,” Wynonna tells Billboard of the project, recalling hearing Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani performing “Love Is Alive.”

“I immediately reached out to Blake — my brother that I never wanted,” Wynonna says with a hint of a grin in her voice. “I still do that song every night onstage. It’s still very much a part of my process and musical journey, so hearing it was strange and wonderful at the same time. It’s like somebody else wearing your clothes or something. When you do a song, you make it your own, you breathe it in. The fact that it is mom’s and my song, makes it interesting to listen to somebody else’s voice on it.”

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A few weeks after Naomi’s passing, Bell lighted on the idea of making the tribute album. Maher recalls, “Renee said, ‘Naomi’s battle that she lost with mental illness, we cannot just let that fade away; there’s too much of it going on in the world and in our industry.’ She wanted to bring support and awareness to the issue.”

Toward that aim, the album will support National Alliance of Mental Illness (NAMI).

“I think we were all stunned when the revelation came out on what happened with Naomi,” Galante tells Billboard. “Being part of the [Country Music Association] board, we have been dealing with mental health in the music industry, as that has been on everybody’s mind since the pandemic. We are doing what we can to honor Naomi’s memory and honor this cause, to help people across the board.”

Maher tracked a number of the songs in the same Nashville studio where The Judds originally recorded many of their hits. Three of the musicians on the tribute album also played on The Judds’ records — drummer Eddie Bayers and pianist Bobby Ogdin and guitarist Don Potter.

“We didn’t want these songs to sound like karaoke tracks,” Maher says. “We wanted all the signature licks — the ‘Why Not Me’ lick or the ‘Grandpa’ lick, but we wanted every song to have a freshness and for the musicians to try new things.”

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Wynonna Judd herself sings on one track, a bluesy collaboration with Trisha Yearwood on “Cry Myself to Sleep,” produced by Judd’s husband and bandmate Cactus Moser. Yearwood joined Judd at a studio on her Nashville-area farm, marking the first time Judd and Yearwood had recorded together.

“We sat on the back porch and talked and laughed about life, and then we’d get up and go record together,” Judd recalls. “Nowadays that just doesn’t happen, with all the technology and the way things are flown in and sent over email — so to have her in the studio standing next to me was an absolute joy. At some points, I caught myself listening to the playback and going, ‘Wait, is that me or is that her?”

O.N.E the Duo and Wendy Moten collaborate on The Judds’ debut single, “Had a Dream (For the Heart).”

“We met Wendy not too long after starting our journey as O.N.E the Duo and we are such big fans of her,” the duo’s Prana and Tekitha told Billboard in a statement. “When Brent told us we were gonna do the song with her, we were thrilled. And the fact that the song we did together was ‘Had a Dream,’ which was the Judds’ first single, felt like a really precious task was being handed to us.”

“I was overwhelmed,” Judd said of hearing the song. “Being really honest, my first knee-jerk reaction was ‘Oh my God, this is happening,’ just because of walking through this personal season of loss. That was our first song. I cried and I thought, ‘This is what they mean by a tribute, because we’re done. That chapter’s closed.’ So there was sadness, but also real joy in realizing that someone else is breathing new life into this music, so it is really cool. The most important thing on this project is honoring the legacy from mom and me.”

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One of the more curious recordings on the project is a rendition of The Judds’ 1989 hit “Let Me Tell You About Love,” with vocals from Raul Malo, as well as the late rock ‘n roll architect Carl Perkins, who originally wrote the song with Paul Kennerley and Maher.

“This was when Paul was married to Emmylou [Harris], and we wrote this at their house. We had some high-quality microphones and all that, a little analog eight-track machine, so we made the demo there,” Maher says. “Carl played electric guitar and sang on the demo.”

For the updated version, Glen Wharf plays upright bass, Bayers plays drums over the top of the drum machine from the demo and the guitar is Perkins’ original from the demo. “The thing sounds like it was cut yesterday, but everything other than the bass and drums was done the day we wrote it.”

Ella Langley teams with Jamey Johnson on “Young Love.”

“There are only a handful of phone calls you can receive in your artist career that fill your soul with such fulfillment and honor,” Langley told Billboard in a statement. “To record ‘Young Love (Strong Love)’ alongside Jamey Johnson and to be included on this record is an honor of a lifetime.”

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The album closes with Jelly Roll teaming with K. Michelle and the Fisk Jubilee Singers offering The Judds’ Grammy-winning, signature hit “Love Can Build a Bridge.” Maher recalls the recording session being one of the most special moments of the album-making process.

“We recorded his vocal on a Sunday afternoon,” Maher says. “He texted me and said, ‘I’m running about 20 minutes late,’ and when he got there, he said, ‘I’m not usually late, but I am so over the moon excited. My 13-year-old daughter just got baptized,’ and I said, ‘Well, I think we picked the right day for this song.’ His voice was so sincere, and that first verse and chorus is just him and a piano. It took my breath away. And he was just so excited to be performing with K. Michelle and The Fisk Jubilee Singers on the song.”

Looking ahead, Wynonna is currently embarking on her Back to Wy Tour, which focuses on her solo catalog of hits. She’s also working with Jelly Roll in the studio, and is looking into releasing a book, a new album and a cookbook.

“We’re just talking about ideas — I’m always cooking something, so 2024 will be one of my busiest years,” Wynonna says. “I was sitting in the car yesterday and Jelly Roll called and asked me to do something with him, so I’m going to his house to work on a song. Everywhere you go, there’s something there, and I’m still included. Right now, I’m just feeling real gratitude, that I’m still included.”

Jessi Colter hadn’t planned on making a new album, but then Americana luminary Margo Price came to town.
After attending one of Price’s shows in Phoenix, Colter was talking to Price’s husband and fellow musician Jeremy Ivey, who mentioned how he wished Colter would make another album.

“I didn’t think much more about it at the time, but then Margo came back through Phoenix and was playing at Fort McDowell Casino, which is about 15 minutes down the road from where I lived,” Colter recalls via a phone interview with Billboard (Colter now splits her time between Phoenix and Wyoming). “I picked her up and she visited at my house.”

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Artist-producer Shooter Jennings, son of Colter and her late husband, Country Music Hall of Famer Waylon Jennings, happened to be visiting Colter’s home, and the timing proved fortunate. “We talked about some songs I had written. Margo wanted to hear them, so I played a few I’d kind of tucked away,” Colter recalls.

Among those selections were two that ignited Price’s passion: “Angel in the Fire,” written as a tribute to Colter’s longtime friend Lisa Kristofferson (wife of singer-songwriter Kris Kristofferson) and “Standing on the Edge of Forever.” Soon Colter found herself in a Nashville studio with Price, Jennings, Ivey and a close group of fellow musicians, with Colter playing piano, singing and recording live. Price produced and Jennings mixed the project. The result is Edge of Forever, out Friday (Oct. 27) on Appalachia Record Co., Colter’s first album in six years.

“Those were some great days that energized me, for sure,” Colter, 80, said. “Margo wanted my new songs, but we also threw in a few older ones. We pulled out what songs I had, things she really liked that I had done, and added new things.” Of Price and Jennings, she says, “They’re keeping the history and yet moving forward in a good way.”

Edge of Forever marks Colter’s first project since 2017’s The Psalms, produced by longtime Patti Smith collaborator Lenny Kaye. The soulful energy and confident air embedded in these recordings hark back to the music she crafted five decades ago when her song “I’m Not Lisa” became a crossover hit in 1975, topping Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart, reaching No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100, and garnering Grammy and CMA Awards nominations. The First Lady of Outlaw Music followed with the top 5 country hit “What’s Happened to Blue Eyes.”

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In 1976, Colter stood alongside her husband, Willie Nelson and Tompall Glaser on Wanted! The Outlaws, a compilation project that became country music’s first platinum-selling album and included the Grammy-nominated Colter-Jennings duet of the Elvis classic “Suspicious Minds.” Colter’s subsequent solo albums, including 1976’s Jessi and Diamond in the Rough, also reached the top 5 on Billboard‘s Country Albums chart.

Edge of Forever is a heady mix of new tunes, older compositions, revamped spirituals and a collaboration with her daughter, Jenni Eddy Jennings. Price sings with Colter on a trio of songs, “I Wanna Be With You,” “Maybe You Should” and “Lost Love Song,” a tune Colter became reacquainted with after discovering a demo recording in one of her late husband’s briefcases.

“He liked the song and he had played it for me,” she recalls, quoting lyrics from the song including “Treated me just like a prisoner, I never tried to escape/ ‘Cause one night with you made up for all my bad days.” “I love that song and kind of took it as mine.”

Long before her own musical success and her association with two music icons (she was married to Duane Eddy from 1961-1968 and then to Jennings from 1969 until his death in 2002), Colter was writing songs for other artists, including Hank Locklin and Dottie West. Beyond the originals, she contributed heavily to the writing for her new project, including rewriting lyrics to the classic spiritual “Can’t Nobody Do Me Like Jesus,” to reflect her own journey.

“I’ve wanted to do that song for a long time,” she says, recalling an Apostolic church she attended in Nashville for many years. “I was the only white person there for about 10 years. It was wonderful because I was raised worshipping together, and that’s been my experience. There were no racial barriers.”

The Psalms drew its lyrics from the Old Testament’s Book of Psalms, and that same practice spills over into one of the songs on Edge of Forever, “Secret Place,” which takes lyrics from Psalm 91 and features writing and a vocal assist from Colter’s daughter, Jenni Eddy Jennings. The pair created the song prior to Waylon’s death. “When he heard that, he said, ‘You’ve got to cut that.’ It was something we always had in mind,” Colter says. “Margo loved it, and Jennifer’s voice is so melodious.”

Given the caliber of the trio of artists working on the album, one can’t help but compare Edge of Forever with a recent project helmed by Jennings and another Americana stalwart for a country music icon: Tanya Tucker’s 2019 project While I’m Livin’, co-produced by Jennings and Brandi Carlile, which went on to win two Grammys.

Whether Edge of Forever ultimately garners awards recognition remains to be seen, but it is a testament to a new generation of artists showing respect for and craving the music of artists such as Tucker and Colter — as is another project Colter has been working on for the past few years. Shooter Jennings, Price and Charley Crockett are among the younger artists featured in They Called Us Outlaws: Cosmic Cowboys, Honky Tonk Heroes and the Rise of the Renegade Troubadours, a six-part documentary series executive produced by Colter, which also features Kris Kristofferson and Steve Earle. Colter says the project is slated to be released in 2024.

“It began with the difference between Austin and Nashville,” Colter recalls of the 1970s Outlaws era. “Nashville was such ‘old-guard’ recording, and Austin had been exposed to rock. The country music people were conservative — doctors, lawyers — but Austin was ready for something more progressive, which is what Waylon and Willie were doing. The Outlaw thing itself was a brand and Waylon didn’t ever like that, really — but it was something that marketed well, so the brand has been used ever since.

“The documentary is going to be a revelation to a lot of people,” she continues. “This is more underground, what was really going on. It’s exciting to see a lot of young people looking back to the past and getting turned on to that.”