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Technical issued led to a haphazard Billy Ray Cyrus performance at the Liberty Ball during Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration and on Tuesday (Jan. 21), the star responded to critics. “I wouldn’t have missed the honor of playing this event whether my microphone, guitar and monitors worked or not. I was there because President Donald J. […]
Three-time Grammy-winning country singer-songwriter Miranda Lambert‘s MuttNation Foundation is helping to bring aid to animal shelters in California. Those shelters are among the many infrastructures impacted by the widespread damage in parts of greater Los Angeles since a series of wildfires began in Los Angeles County in early January, impacting thousands of acres of land, homes and businesses.
Lambert’s MuttNation Foundation has teamed with guitar dealer Norm Harris of Norman’s Rare Guitars to help animal shelters in the Los Angeles area. Harris and a close friend have each donated a Gibson R9 1959 Les Paul Reissue Custom Shop Murphy Lab guitar to an online auction to benefit animals.
The auction is now ongoing through Saturday, Jan. 25, at 5 p.m. CT, with 100 percent of the funds raised from the auction going to benefit Los Angeles-area animal shelters.
“The fires have displaced so many people and animals, and I wanted to do something that would immediately help the overcrowded animal shelters,” Harris said in a statement. “When my friend said he wanted to buy one of these guitars — but that he didn’t want the guitar — he wanted to auction it and have the funds go support animals, I jumped right in and said I’d donate one, too. These are two incredibly special guitars, each with a slightly different finish that I hand-selected. The guitars have a value of over $8,000 each, but this is for charity, so I hope people will be generous.”
“Although I haven’t met Norm, I’ve heard about him and his guitar store for years and the next time I’m in L.A., it will be my first stop,” Lambert said in a statement. “There’s nothing better than finding another like-minded music and mutt-loving person and I’m really honored that he chose to partner with MuttNation.”
Harris, known for his deep and expansive knowledge of guitars, was spotlighted in the Netflix documentary Norman’s Rare Guitars, and has authored two books about vintage guitars. Norman’s Rare Guitars was established in 1975 and became a mainstay in the Los Angeles community, drawing artists and musicians to the store to shop for vintage instruments and accessories.
The MuttNation Foundation was founded by Lambert and her mother Bev in 2009 and has since raised over $10 million to support its mission to promote the adoption of shelter pets, advance spay and neuter and education the public regarding the benefits of these actions.
Learn more about the guitars going up for auction to help Los Angeles animal shelters below:
After fellow country star Carrie Underwood‘s version of “America the Beautiful” was delivered a cappella after two awkward minutes of silence at Donald Trump’s inauguration ceremony on Monday (Jan. 20), the technical issues appeared to continue later that night during a shambolic set by Billy Ray Cyrus at the Liberty Ball.
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In video of the performance, a confused-looking Cyrus, 63, begins strumming his electric guitar after playing the video intro to Lil Nas X’s Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 hit “Old Town Road” on the screen behind him. As the audio from the song cued up, Cyrus attempted to play guitar and sing along, with his instrument and vocals inaudible as he looked around in confusion.
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At one point he turned his back to the audience for several seconds, then moved back to the mic to no avail in what turned into a bizarre lip synch ramble that went viral for all the wrong reasons. “I think y’all was just getting warmed up, to be honest. You wanna do a little more of it,” Cyrus croaked, as he strummed the song’s melody on his guitar and whistled the chorus through his teeth to a silent audience just after the video’s credits rolled behind him.
After singing the song’s chorus in a crackly voice and rapidly skipping back and forth across the stage while the crowd finally came to life and sang the lines back to him, Cyrus tried to get the audience to clap along to his a cappella singing, explaining, “they told me to kill as much time as possible,” and wondering if they knew the words to his signature 1992 breakthrough hit, “Achy Breaky Heart.”
“Is my guitar still on?” Cyrus asked. “I think they cut me off. I don’t hear my guitar anymore.” Looking around for help, while saying “check” into his mic, Cyrus said, “is anybody awake? I don’t hear it. Do y’all hear this? Where’s everybody at? Check. Is anyone back there? Can someone turn my guitar back on? We gonna sing a little bit more.”
As the awkward silence continued, Cyrus looked in vain for help, asking the crowd, “Do y’all want me to sing more or do you just want me to get the hell off the stage? I don’t give a damn.” A guitar tech finally came out and tried to remedy the sound problems with the guitar to no avail.
Cyrus then made reference to Underwood’s performance just hours earlier, where she sang without the planned accompaniment from the Armed Forces Chorus and the U.S. Naval Academy Glee Club after a long, awkward silence during the swearing-in for Trump.
“I could try it like this… After what Carrie Underwood did today — wasn’t Carrie Underwood fabulous? — Carrie Underwood, you were amazing today,” Cyrus said, taking off his hat and bandana to mild applause. “They had technical difficulties too. And in life, when you have technical difficulties you just gotta keep going. Or as President Trump would say, you gotta fight!”
After another try, Cyrus asked his fans to “just snap your fingers” as he did a raspy a cappella bit of “Achy Breaky Heart” before leaving the stage. At press time it did not appear that Lil Nas X had reacted to Cyrus’ performance and Cyrus had seemingly not reacted to posts dubbing his set an “epic disaster.”
Cyrus did post a pic from his performance on Instagram, writing, “Honored to kick off the Liberty Ball at the request of our 47th President and Commander-in-Chief @realdonaldtrump. When you get knocked down, you get back up. You fight and persevere,” which followed up an earlier image from his sound check at Capitol One Arena.
Watch Cyrus’ performance below.
Jason Aldean is mashing the pedal this year, announcing the dates for his 2025 Full Throttle North American tour on Tuesday (Jan. 21). The Live Nation-produced outing is slated to kick off on May 23 at the Blossom Music Center in Cuyahoga Falls, OH and take the “Try That in a Small Town” singer across the country to a mix of arena, amphitheater and stadium shows as he winds his way through an Oct. 4 gig at the iTHINK Financial Amphitheatre in West Palm Beach, FL.
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The tour will feature opening acts Nate Smith, RaeLynn and Dee Jay Silver, and a previously announced co-headlining stadium show with Brooks & Dunn at Fenway Park in Boston on May 30. Tickets for the tour will go on sale first with an artist presale beginning on Wednesday (Jan. 22), with additional presales slated to run throughout the week ahead of the general onsale slated for Friday (Jan. 24) at 10 a.m. local time.
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According to the release announcing the tour, Aldean is currently in the studio working on new music. A recent interview with Hook & Barrel magazine revealed that the as-yet-untitled LP will feature 10 new songs, “one of which he promises will be another iconic” one of his anthems.
“We got a new one on the album, it’s just a powerful type of song that people are going to relate to,” he teased, adding, “and it has nothing to do with politics or any of those things.” The latter appeared to be a response to the controversy surrounding the video for “Small Town,” which was yanked by CMT in July 2023 after just a few days of airing. The clip features Aldean performing in front of a courthouse festooned with an American flag; the performance footage is interspersed with images of burning flags and protesters clashing with police and robbing a convenience store.
Some critics labeled the song and video as pro-gun and pro-violence, and akin to a “modern lynching song,” noting that it was filmed in front of the Maury County Courthouse in Columbia, TN, the site of the 1927 lynching and hanging of 18-year-old Henry Choate over allegations that he sexually assaulted a white girl, as well as the spot of a 1946 race riot in which two Black men were killed.
Speaking to the magazine, Aldean re-iterated that the song was not meant to stir a national discussion, but was a reflection of what he felt as going on in America at the time. “I don’t think that song came about because we were trying to step out there and do something that really moved the needle,” he said. “It was never intended to go in and specifically write something that was gonna stir the pot. It just came from a place of, this is on our mind. I’m 47 years old now, things change.”
Check out the dates for Aldean’s 2025 Full Throttle tour below.
May 23 — Cuyahoga Falls, OH @ Blossom Music Center &May 24 — Toronto, ON @ Budweiser Stage &May 25 — Saratoga Springs, NY @ Broadview Stage at SPAC &May 30 — Boston, MA @ Fenway Park #July 17 — Tulsa, OK @ BOK Center &July 18 — Rogers, AR @ Walmart AMP &July 19 — St. Louis, MO @ Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre ^July 24 — Albuquerque, NM @ Isleta Amphitheater &July 25 — Denver, CO @ Ball Arena ^July 26 — Salt Lake City, UT @ Utah First Credit Union Amphitheatre ^Aug 7 — Nashville, TN @ Bridgestone Arena &Aug 8 — Noblesville, IN @ Ruoff Music Center ^Aug 9 — Pittsburgh, PA @ The Pavilion at Star Lake &Aug 14 — Dallas, TX @ Dos Equis Pavilion &Aug 15 — Houston, TX @ The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion presented by Huntsman @Aug 16 — Austin, TX @ Moody Center ^Aug 21 — Raleigh, NC @ Coastal Credit Union Music Park ^Aug 22 — Charlotte, NC @ PNC Music Pavilion ^Aug 23 — Alpharetta, GA @ Ameris Bank Amphitheatre ^Sept 4 — Grand Rapids, MI @ Van Andel Arena ^Sept 5 — Green Bay, WI @ Resch Center &Sept 11 — Detroit, MI @ Pine Knob Music Theatre &Sept 13 — Tinley Park, IL @ Credit Union 1 Amphitheatre ^Sept 18 — Lincoln, NE @ Pinnacle Bank Arena &Sept 19 — Des Moines, IA @ Wells Fargo Arena &Sept 20 — Sioux Falls, SD @ Denny Sanford PREMIER Center &Sept 25 — Lafayette, LA @ CAJUNDOME &Sept 26 — Birmingham, AL @ Coca-Cola Amphitheater &Sept 27 — Charleston, SC @ Credit One Stadium &Oct 3 — Tampa, FL @ MIDFLORIDA Credit Union Amphitheatre &Oct 4 — West Palm Beach, FL @ iTHINK Financial Amphitheatre @
( #) co-headline with Brooks & Dunn
(%) already on-sale
(&) on-sale Jan. 24
(^) on-sale Jan. 31
(@) on-sale Feb. 21
The show must go on! Carrie Underwood proved why she’s a country superstar during Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration on Monday (Jan. 20).
After an awkward two-minute technical glitch, the 41-year-old American Idol alum took control of the situation, singing “America the Beautiful” a cappella at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., just as Trump was being sworn in as the 47th president.
“You know the words, help me out here,” Underwood told the crowd before delivering the patriotic anthem solo.
An earlier program indicated Underwood was scheduled to perform with the Armed Forces Chorus and the United States Naval Academy Glee Club, with her performance originally slated just before Trump’s swearing-in.
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The country star’s fans quickly took notice of her professionalism and praised her stunning solo rendition on social media.
“Now that is a flex. Imagine being so talented that when technology fails, you just go, ‘Fine, I’ll do it live!’ and crush it a cappella in front of thousands,” one user on X observed. “Carrie Underwood doesn’t need auto-tune; auto-tune probably takes notes from her.”
Another wrote, “Carrie Underwood don’t need no band! That was bada–!”
“This is what a professional looks like,” a third commenter noted on X. “With grace, when the military band audio failed, she sang her song with the audience. All American and perfect.”
Before the event, Underwood shared a statement expressing her gratitude and pride: “I love our country and am honored to have been asked to sing at the Inauguration and to be a small part of this historic event. I am humbled to answer the call at a time when we must all come together in the spirit of unity and looking to the future.”
Underwood joined a roster of performers at the inauguration, including Lee Greenwood, the Village People, Nelly, Snoop Dogg, Rick Ross, Rascal Flatts, Kid Rock, Gavin DeGraw, Jason Aldean and Parker McCollum.
Carrie Underwood was among the performers during the presidential inauguration ceremony held for Donald Trump, which took place at the U.S. Capitol Rotunda on Monday (Jan. 20).
The country superstar’s performance took place after Trump took the oath of office as the 47th president of the United States and made his inauguration speech, beginning his second presidential term.
Technical difficulties delayed Underwood’s performance, causing the singer to stand for two minutes near the podium prior to her performance. An early program showed that Underwood had been slated to perform with the The Armed Forces Chorus and the United States Naval Academy Glee Club, and that she had initially been set to perform just prior to Trump’s swearing-in.
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Instead, Underwood — clad in a pale-colored dress — performed a rendition of “America the Beautiful” a cappella. “If you know the words help me out here,” the singer said before her performance, with the audience joining in to sing with her.
Prior to her performance, Underwood released a statement regarding her performance, saying, “I love our country and am honored to have been asked to sing at the Inauguration and to be a small part of this historic event. I am humbled to answer the call at a time when we must all come together in the spirit of unity and looking to the future.”
Underwood joins a slate of performers who are taking part in presidential inauguration events, including Lee Greenwood, the Village People, Nelly, Rascal Flatts, Kid Rock, Gavin DeGraw, Jason Aldean and Parker McCollum.
News of Underwood’s performance at Trump’s inauguration ceremony was met with both praise and criticism, with LGBTQ+ fans expressing anger and disappointment with the country singer’s decision to perform during the event. Underwood had previously spoken out in support of same-sex marriage in 2012, prior to same-sex marriage being legalized in 2015. Members of the LGBTQ+ community have expressed disapproval with the singer for performing at the event, given that Trump has campaigned for restrictions on trans and queer rights in the United States.
Underwood recently revealed the trailer for her upcoming concert special Carrie Underwood: Reflection, which spotlights her long-running Las Vegas residency. The concert special debuts Friday (Jan. 24), on Disney+ and Hulu. She is set to conclude her Las Vegas run on April 12. Her most recent country album, 2022’s Denim & Rhinestones, reached No. 2 on Billboard‘s Top Country Albums chart and became her 10th consecutive album to reach the top 10 on the all-genre Billboard 200.
See Underwood’s performance here.
Chris Stapleton fans will have more chances to see him on the road in 2025. The Grammy-winning singer-songwriter has added nine new concerts to his 2025 All-American Road Show Tour.
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This year will find Stapleton playing shows in Australia and New Zealand in February and March, before returning to the U.S. for shows starting in June.
The newly-added slate of dates find him doubling up performances in nine U.S. cities, adding shows in Charlottesville, Va. (with a new show on June 6), Grand Rapids, Mich. (June 13), Tinley Park, Ill. (June 28), New York, N.Y. (July 26), Noblesville, Ind. (Aug. 2), Phoenix, Ariz. (Aug. 9), Salt Lake City, Utah (Aug. 16), Denver, Colo. (Aug. 23) and Hollywood, Fla. (Oct. 11).
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Special guests on various dates on the tour are Allen Stone, Brittney Spencer, Grace Potter, Maggie Rose, Marcus King, Marty Stuart and His Fabulous Superlatives, Mike Campbell & The Dirty Knobs, Nikki Lane, and The War and Treaty.
Tickets for the new shows will be open for pre-sale starting Tuesday, Jan. 21 at 10 a.m. local time. General on-sale will start Friday, Jan. 24 at 10 a.m. local time. Fans can gain early access to tickets through signing up for Stapleton’s fan club.
Beyond his headlining tour, Stapleton is nominated for two accolades at the upcoming 67th annual Grammy Awards: best country album (for Higher) and best country solo performance (for “It Takes a Woman”). In November, Stapleton added three additional CMA Awards wins to his already stacked collection, including lengthening his own record for the most CMA male vocalist of the year wins, with eight trophies.
See Stapleton’s Instagram post regarding the new shows below:
Women artists lead this week’s crop of stellar new songs, including Hailey Whitters‘ somber examination of grief and friendship, as well as Sierra Hull’s shimmering new bluegrass offering and Lanie Gardner’s raw, rock-fueled new track.
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Check out all of these and more in Billboard‘s roundup of several top new country, bluegrass and Americana tracks of the week.
Hailey Whitters, “Casseroles”
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ACM Award winner Whitters, known for her charming, sunny songs such as “Everything She Ain’t,” returns with her first new music since 2023. This time, she offers a somber ballad reflecting on how the pain, loss and realities of a life irrevocably shifted by the passing of a loved one don’t pause for those navigating grief. In the song’s later verses, the song veers more introspective, as Whitters ponders the caliber of friend she has been to those going through grief–a friend whose concern is fleeting, or one who keeps showing up with long-term support. Whitters is known for her own wisdom-filled songwriting prowess, but on this elegantly-instrumented ballad, written by Hillary Lindsey, James Slater and Tom Douglas, Whitters gives a reminder that her nimble voice is a potent emotional translator.
Sierra Hull, “Boom”
Multi-IBMA Award winner Hull is set to release her first album in five years (and first independently-released project) on March 7, with A Tip Toe High Wire. The lead single from that project is a slab of sparkling mandolin, steady acoustic guitar, syncopated rhythms and high-flying harmonies. Written by Hull and Adam Wright, “Boom” has been part of Hull’s live shows for a couple of years. Hull wraps her conversational, angelic vocal around lyrics of moving past mistakes and regrets to embrace new eras of hope and love. “Promises break like little figurines,” she sings knowingly, but reminds listeners that it takes is a heart-shifting moment to turn heartbreak to love.
Lanie Gardner, “Buzzkill”
Gardner has seen her musical profile ascend thanks to her breakthrough cover of Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams,” and having a song included on the blockbuster Twisters: The Album. She follows it with this funky, bold takedown of a certified “mean girl,” turning this defiant blast of wisdom into a communal rallying cry. Gardner’s voice is at once searing and sultry, and she stands from a crowded pack of country music newcomers by infusing her music with seething rock fusions.
Emily Ann Roberts, “Easy Does It”
On her previous debut album, Can’t Hide Country, Roberts cemented her current status as one of country music’s most engaging, neo-traditional voices. She follows that project with this new song, one in which her butter-soft voice in a single breath encapsulates both the sting of painful memories and the emotional exhale of relief at a current romantic situation. “I thought doors were meant to slam/hate and love went hand in hand,” she sings, reflecting on an emotionally-battering relationship, juxtaposing that past toxic experience with her present easygoing, faith-restoring love. Roberts wrote this song with Jason Haag and Autumn Buysse.
The Droptines, “Old Tricks”
Texas band The Droptines formed in 2019 and has since been growing their audience in a time-tested, one-show-at-a-time fashion, becoming an in-demand live act. The group’s unfiltered alt-country sound continues on “Old Tricks,” written by The Droptines frontman and lyricist Conner Authur. “I try to change, but I’m a stray after all,” he sings, musing about brief romantic flings and jilted lovers that war with an un-dimming desires. The Droptines released their self-titled project last year, and keep building their reputation as a must-hear group.
Willow Avalon, “The Actor”
Avalon’s vivid songwriting and signature vocal warble have commanded attention with her previously released songs such as “Gettin’ Rich and Goin’ Broke.” Here, she pours her distinct drawl over a tale of rueful reflection over romantic mistakes on this song from her newly released project Southern Bell Raisin’ Hell. “I was a fool and he was an actor,” she sings over robust guitars. The song teems with regrets over a ex-lover, but Avalon sings it with a grit that seems to suggest someone who’s learned the lessons and moved on with defiant confidence.
Olivia Wolf, “The Veil”
Northern California native Olivia Wolf transcends the boundaries between temporal and the ethereal, blending incisive, observant lyricism with elements of bluegrass, folk and country. Wolf’s debut album Silver Rounds released today (Jan. 17), featuring tracks including the somber song “The Veil,” which Wolf wrote with Sean McConnell. Backed by sparse guitar, she ponders the fast-arriving sense of loss on lyrics such as “I won’t be here tomorrow/ But this midnight is ours.” Her voice is imbued with an earthy elegance as the song slowly builds around her, frothing into dramatic tension before concluding with a feeling of stoic resignation as she sings, “It’s heavy sometimes seeing behind the veil.” This album marks Wolf as an astute singer-songwriter well worth listening to.
Taylor Swift and Kenny Chesney have long had a very sweet mutual admiration society. But when the “Take Her Home” country star appeared on The Tonight Show on Thursday night (Jan. 16), he revealed that the early stages of their friendship famously got off to a rocky start.
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Chesney recalled the oft-repeated story about how when Swift was 17 she was booked to open a tour for him that was sponsored by a beer company. “They came to us right before the tour started and said, ‘We can’t have a minor on the tour,’” Chesney recalled. “Which made sense. But I had to call Taylor personally and tell her she couldn’t go on tour with me, which now seems absurd, right?”
Chesney said he made the difficult call and told Swift he felt terrible about the bait-and-switch because he knew she was going to lose money from the scotched gig. “I gave her a specific amount of money… it was quite a bit of money, because I wanted to make it up to her,” said Chesney.
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Later, both singers were nominated for CMAs entertainer of the year. “Well, she won,” explained Chesney, a four-time winner of the award, of Swift’s first of two CMA top honors in 2009. “So, backstage, I went up to her and gave her a big hug. I said ‘congratulations, but gimme my money back.’”
The question came after Fallon mentioned that Swift gave Chesney a shout-out in her TIME magazine Person of the Year essay in 2023, noting that she got kicked off his tour when she was 17, at a time when she thought the outing was “going to change my career… I was so excited.”
She confirmed then that the generous country star sent her a card and a check for her 18th birthday, “for more money that I’d ever seen in my life. I was able to pay my band bonuses. I was able to pay for my tour buses. I was able to fuel my dreams.” Chesney was one of the first to congratulate Swift her her Person of the Year honor, writing on Instagram at the time, “Taylor, I knew looking in your eyes that first time on stage with us, you had ‘it.’ It’s been awesome watching you shine!”
During the chat, Chesney also shared a funny pic from his summer tour with Megan Moroney, when the “Am I Okay?” singer surprised the headliner by going to his tour bus and put on one of his signature tank tops and whit cowboy hats before taking the stage dressed as him. “It just goes to show you that not only is Megan a great songwriter, she’s got a really good personality,” he said.
Chesney also talked about his long friendship with Jimmy Buffett, his tribute to the “Cheeseburger in Paradise” singer at last year’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony alongside James Taylor and and longtime Coral Reefer Band member Mac McAnally. “That was a tough night. It really was,” Chesney said. “Jimmy taught a lot of us how to paint pictures with words. For that reason I’ve always looked up to Jimmy Buffett.”
The singer who just announced an upcoming residency gig at the immersive Sphere in Las Vegas, told Fallon that he signed up for the run despite never seeing a show at the eye-popping, state-of-the-art venue. But when he went to check it out, he said, “it’s like we’re all just… the band, the audience, is all in a completely different state of consciousness. And I looked at my crew and my team and I went, ‘There’s no way we’re not not doing this!’”
The only downside he said, is that because all the mind-bending visuals are shot in super hi-def 36K, all the visuals and footage Chesney has used over the years during his stadium shows were not gonna cut it. “Which is good, because it just makes it really new and fresh,” he promised of the show that he’s already in rehearsals for.
Chesney’s Sphere residency will kick off on May 24.
Watch Chesney on The Tonight Show below..
The class of new country artists with debut projects coming in the first six months of 2025 looks a little different. Thankfully.
Of 13 acts readying their first album or EP for a major label or indie of significance, three are projects by solo females and three belong to vocal duos. Those subsets include Kat Luna, a singer with Cuban-American roots; and two multi-racial duos: Neon Union and 2 Lane Summer.
That development comes at a time when country labels are recognizing the nation’s changing consumer base, which practically requires a universe of artists that better resembles those shifts.
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That doesn’t mean that the genre’s history is being overlooked: John Morgan, Tucker Wetmore and Bryce Leatherwood continue to work the kind of musical vein that country listeners expect. Luna, Neon Union and 2 Lane fit within those historic boundaries, too, while owning their own sonic brand.
“The country market is a lot of male country singers,” says 2 Lane’s Chris Ray, “so we were like, ‘Let’s just come together. Let’s do something that’s bigger than our solo careers.’”
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Release schedules can change, but here’s a look at 13 acts expected to launch a first album or EP between Jan. 1 and June 30, and how they’re staking out unique territories:
• 2 Lane Summer (Quartz Hill) – Illinois-bred Joe Hanson and Mississippian Chris Ray were both chasing solo careers when they found harmony. Big harmony. Their combined voices are bold and beautiful, evident in their Jan. 10 release “Eyes That Ain’t Yours (Wedding Version).” An EP is in progress, possibly for spring.
• Bayker Blankenship (Lone Star/Santa Anna) – His 2024 indie breakout “Maxed Out” garnered 60 million streams on Spotify alone in 2024, and Blankenship’s label is teaming with Sony Music Nashville on a spring EP release, his first with major-label assistance. The Tennessean’s lonesome tone and somnolent phrasing make him easily relatable.
• Mackenzie Carpenter (Valory) – A co-writer on Lily Rose’s “Villain” and Megan Moroney’s “I’m Not Pretty,” Carpenter owns a cutting tone that allows her to sound country without seeming backwoods. The Georgian’s 13-track Hey Country Queen, due March 7, frames small-town scenarios with subtly engaging melodies, delivered with a fierce confidence.
• Carter Faith (Capitol Nashville) – Faith wears her heart on her breath, exuding fragility with a smoky resonance. She’s played the Grand Ole Opry a dozen times, collaborated with Alison Krauss, opened for Willie Nelson and issued a well-received 2024 EP, The Aftermath. A full album is currently in the works.
• Zach John King (Sony Music Nashville) – King might be the first artist to cite George Jones and Switchfoot among his influences, and those threads are both faintly evident in his just-released “Slow Down.” After issuing a series of singles and EPs independently, King’s first major-label EP likely arrives in March.
• Bryce Leatherwood (Mercury Nashville) – Leatherwood’s understanding of country music was formed first by a Conway Twitty compilation during his youth, and a tinge of that influence comes through in his adult approach to a song. A former Blake Shelton apprentice on The Voice, Leatherwood’s first album blooms in the spring.
• Kat Luna (Sony Music Nashville) – Her original Nashville recordings came as one-half of Latin country duo Kat & Alex, but Luna – to quote a subsequent solo outing – is not “That Girl” anymore. The Miami product owns powerful pipes, and she’s got a spring EP on the way to showcase them.
• Vincent Mason (Interscope/MCA Nashville) – Heartbreak and loneliness come in multiple gears, and the Roswell, Ga., native leans on ballads and midtempos with a languid vocal style that conveys emptiness without throwing in the towel. His first headlining tour is around the corner, as is more music – perhaps a debut album.
• John Morgan (Night Train/Broken Bow) – Currently in circulation with the Jason Aldean collaboration “Friends Like That,” Morgan likely unleashes his first album in the first quarter. Whether he’s crafting a country ballad or riding a ‘90s-rock pulse, Morgan’s work is consistently melodic, designed to hook a listener in a heartbeat.
• Ty Myers (RECORDS Nashville/Columbia) – Raised on a central Texas cattle ranch, Myers wraps a little blues-rock and a fair amount of red-dirt alternative texture around a commercial vocal tone and Black Crowes phrasing. His first album – The Select, featuring already-released “Ends of the Earth” – is set for Jan. 24 release.
• Neon Union (Red Street) – Miami native Leo Brooks and North Carolina-bred Andrew Millsaps met in Nashville and quickly discovered they shared an appreciation for edgy, spirited, party-time country. The duo’s first album, Good Years, arrives Jan. 31, with shades of Montgomery Gentry and Brooks & Dunn influencing its grinding, upbeat sound.
• Pitney Meyer (Curb) – Longtime Curb solo act Mo Pitney paired with bluegrass vet John Meyer for a concert at Nashville’s Station Inn, and the blend was so inspiring they started a duo. They cut their first album – Cherokee Pioneer, due April 18 – in three days, with rippling acoustic rhythms and aptly lonesome harmonies.
• Tucker Wetmore (Back Blocks/EMI Nashville) – With “Wind Up Missin’ You” in the Hot Country Songs top 10 and two RIAA-certified platinum singles in his favor, Wetmore’s first full-length album is due this spring. His ultra-country vocals are tempered by a mix of sharpened steel guitar and reverberant classic rock beats.
