Country
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A recent hunting trip led to the emergency room for country singer/songwriter Riley Green.
“At the emergency room ’cause I stepped on a nail,” Alabama native Green said in a video posted to his Instagram Stories, which showed Green and a friend sitting in a hospital room. The camera panned down to show that one of Green’s boots had been removed. “Impaled my foot, and when I took my boot off, corn fell all over the floor,” Green said in the video, before laughing.
“The lady came in here wanting to know where all the corn came from. It’s from my boot. You don’t want me to take this other one off, either,” he said, laughing again and adding, “It’s real-world problems.”
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He posted other photos and videos to his IG Stories chronicling his emergency room visit; one photo depicted Green’s bootless foot (the photo was captioned “Hospital vibes”). In another video, Green’s friend gets to the important matter: asking when Green can resume hunting.
“Just hit us with it straight, doc,” Green said, before the doctor replied that Green could resume hunting immediately.
Indeed, Green wasn’t off his feet for long. On Monday afternoon (Jan. 6), he posted another video to his Instagram Stories, which depicted Green back out in the snowy woods, ready to put in another round of hunting.
“Somethin’ might be wrong with me at this point,” he captioned the video.
Beyond hunting, Green has been gearing up for his headlining Damn Country Music Tour, which launches in March. The tour will feature his “You Look Like You Love Me” collaborator Ella Langley on all tour dates, while Drake White, Vincent Mason, Lauren Watkins, Jake Worthington, Preston Cooper, Erik Dylan, Wyatt McCubbin, and Channing Wilson will open various shows throughout the tour.
Green recently earned the Billboard Country Airplay chart-topper “You Look Like You Love Me” in collaboration with Langley. The tour follows Green’s most recent album, Don’t Mind If I Do, which also includes another Langley collaboration on the title track, and features the fan-favorite favorite track “Jesus Saves.”
In this week’s batch of new releases, Billboard Hot 100 chart-topper Morgan Wallen issues a tender ballad, while crooner Brett Eldredge releases a new, non-holiday track. Also featured in this week’s new releases are fresh music from Americana queen Sierra Ferrell, country group Restless Road, and bluegrass luminary Becky Buller.
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Check out all of these and more in Billboard‘s roundup of the best country songs of the week below.
Morgan Wallen, “Smile”
Nineteen-time Billboard Music Awards winner Wallen gave fans a surprise on New Year’s Eve, releasing the introspective ballad “Smile.” Written by Wallen along with Rocky Block, John Byron, Ernest Keith Smith, Ryan Vojtesak and Luis Witkiewitz, the song finds Wallen singing about having a photo taken at a bar with a lover, knowing that his lover’s bright smile “was only for the picture” — and far from representative of their crumbling relationship. Still, seeing his lover’s smile elicits memories of their happier times together. Melodically, this pensive, pop-tinged ballad makes the most of Wallen’s polished falsetto and heartfelt vocal rendering. The song’s breakup-centered lyrics build upon his recent hits, “Lies, Lies, Lies” and “Love Somebody.”
Brett Eldredge, “Gorgeous”
Eldredge marks the second release on his own Warm and Cozy Records with the lush, pop-leaning uptempo track, “Gorgeous.” The track is stratified with vocal harmonies, melding for a gospel-tinged choral sound that elevates the composition’s uplifting lyrics of praise and admiration for a significant other–even when they are seemingly at their lowest points. As always, Eldredge relates the song’s message with his nimble, soulful vocal rendering. The song is Eldredge’s first non-holiday music since 2022’s Songs About You, and is a welcome return from this gifted singer-songwriter.
Sierra Ferrell, “The Garden”
Sierra Ferrell’s intricate songwriting, exuberant performance style and signature musicianship have made quickly established her one of the most heralded artists in Americana, bluegrass and folk music over the past few years, and she continued amassing accolades in 2024, including taking home the artist of the year and album of the year (Trail of Flowers) at the Americana Music Awards. She’s also nominated for several Grammys at the upcoming ceremony, including best Americana album (Trail of Flowers). She previews the upcoming deluxe version of her Trail of Flowers album (out Jan. 31 on Rounder Records) by offering up an expanded arrangement of her song “The Garden.” The new arrangement is bolstered by layers of piano, pedal steel and stringwork, all framing Ferrell’s distinct voice.
Restless Road, “Work on Me”
Tender piano highlights this trio’s flawless harmonies and individual vocal talents, as Restless Road’s Zach Beeken, Garrett Nichols and Colton Pack release their latest song, centered on someone who realizes they are far from perfect, but are inspired by love to make better life choices and embark on a journey of building better habits. Written by Restless Road, Jacob Davis and Joe Fox, this powerful, pop-inflected ballad marks an auspicious musical start for the new year.
Becky Buller, “Reach”
Bluegrass vocalist/fiddle player/songwriter Buller teams here with her fellow First Ladies of Bluegrass members (who each became the first woman to win IBMA Awards in their respective instrumental categories): banjoist Alison Brown, mandolin player/vocalist Sierra Hull, bassist Missy Raines and guitarist/vocalist Molly Tuttle. Together, they construct this fleet-fingered, female-led, and harmony-heavy anthem about balancing ambition with contentment, while continually pushing forward with new personal challenges. Though a new single from Buller, “Reach” was written by rock group Orleans’ Johanna and John Hall, and previously recorded on New Grass Revival’s 1981 album Commonwealth.
Jelly Roll and Bunnie XO are celebrated the new year by adding three new members to their extended family. In a video posted on Sunday (Jan. 5), the “Son of a Sinner” singer’s wife revealed that the couple’s farm is filling out thanks to the adoption of three mini-cows. In the cute clip, podcaster Bunnie introduced followers to “da boysss.”
The adorable trio, Brownie, S’mores and Crunch, are center stage in the accompanying clip, in which Bunnie re-enacts an iconic scene from Bridesmaids alongside the caption, “when you went for one mini-cow, but cam home with three.”
“How many of those did you take?” her friend lip synchs, as Bunnie — dressed down for farm work in a black hoodie, and “sobriety sucks” Jelly Roll baseball cap — mouths “I took nine… I did, uh, slightly overcommit,” while opening the gate to a stock trailer to reveal the white, black and brown cows.
In another video, Bunnie gets the whole gang hyped for the reveal, with Jelly excitedly asking, “Hey, where are the cows?” as she says, “let’s go see the new additions.” In the next scene, she’s saying, “the cows are here! The cows are here!” Followers then get a closer look at the three horned, with Jelly’s kids, 16-year-old daughter Bailee and eight-year-old son Noah getting geeked about their new pets.
Noah was especially psyched when asked why Crunch is his instant favorite. “I just feel that he is gonna be a great bull for me,” he says. “He’s small, he has the same hair and he’s probably nice.” Later, Jelly rolls out to the pen on the couple’s 500-acre Nashville farm while cooing, “Ooooh! We got cows!” as he gets up close and personal with Crunch and croons a few lines from Secondhand Serenade’s “Fall For You” to his new furry pals.
So he doesn’t feel left out, in another video Jelly Roll gets how own special friend, a strutting donkey named Griz. “He’s a stubborn f–ker,” Jelly jokes about his obstinate new pal. “I like the donkey,” he admits a few seconds later as he smiles at the sight of the little guy in his new enclosure. “I can’t believe he’s that small,” Jelly marvels.
Jelly Roll is gearing up to hit the road this year for the continuation of his Beautifully Broken tour in Canada, which will resume on March 6 with a show at the Memorial Centre in Victoria, British Columbia; he will also play the Tortuga Music Festival in Florida and Stagecoach in Indio, CA before hitting the road with Post Malone for their BIG ASS Stadium tour this summer.
Check out the cow reveal below.
If Beyoncé is performing for halftime, you know you’re in for a very special treat. From her landmark two previous Super Bowl halftime show appearances (2013 and 2016) to her landmark Coachella headlining performance (2018) and record-breaking Renaissance World Tour (2023), Beyoncé has consistently delivered jaw-dropping performances that showcase her vocal virtuosity, dance skills and […]
Bunnie XO is healing through trauma as she plans for motherhood.
The star, who is married to country singer Jelly Roll, sat down with a psychic medium on the Jan. 2 episode of her Dumb Blonde podcast, revealing that despite going through a number of pregnancy losses, she’s now ready to become a parent — especially as she experienced being a stepmother to Jelly’s 15-year-old daughter, Bailee.
“I just feel like I’ve been healing so much trauma with my parents that I finally am ready to be a parent,” Bunnie said. “Like, I’ve helped raise Bailee since she was 7, and I think that also showed me that, hey, I’m not gonna f— up a kid’s life too badly.”
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She added that she also wants “a little piece of J and I together.”
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The podcaster also touched on some fertility “trauma” she’s gone through, including ectopic pregnancies, a sometimes life-threatening event in which a fertilized egg cannot survive because it grows outside the uterus.
“I have been pregnant three times in my life. When I was 16, I got pregnant the first time I had sex, and I ended that with an abortion because I was scared,” she shared. “I didn’t know what to do. I was a runaway. And then after that, three years after I had an ectopic pregnancy. I had two ectopic pregnancies.”
Bunnie previously opened up about her IVF journey on a July episode of her podcast. “I’m in my baby mama gardening era,” she joked, adding that Jelly said he would “love” to have a baby with her. “That was not the response that I thought he would say,” she admitted, noting that he’s “so excited” about the possibility of having children together.
“We were going to keep it from the Internet, because how the Internet is, they love to ruin beautiful things,” she recalled, before finding out that her husband broke the news during an appearance on the Bussin’ With the Boys podcast. After the episode dropped, Bunnie XO also shared a snippet from the podcast on her social media, adding in the caption, “God willing–Baby DeFord 2026,” and revealing that the couple is undergoing IVF.
She added, “Papa Bear dropped a surprise on this pod today. We had planned on doing this privately, but decided our IVF journey needed to be shared because we’ve always been so open. And w/ all odds stacked against us, it’s already been hard and we have only just begun. We have been meeting with IVF doctors & exploring all our options to add to our family.”
CMA Fest, June 5-8, Nashville. Performers: TBA
Carolina Country Music Festival, June 5-8, Myrtle Beach, S.C. Headliners: Jelly Roll, Lainey Wilson, Rascal Flatts, Kid Rock
Tailgate N’ Tallboys, June 5-7, Clinton, Iowa. Performers include: Whiskey Myers, Jason Aldean and Riley Green.
The Country Fest, June 11-14, Orrville, Ohio. Headliners: Warren Zeiders, Dierks Bentley, HARDY, Bailey Zimmerman
Tailgate N’ Tallboys, June 12-15, Bloomington, Ill. Headliners: Koe Wetzel, Cody Johnson, Hardy, Bailey Zimmerman
Rock the Country Festival, June 13-14, Hastings, Mich. Headliners: Kid Rock, Nickelback, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Travis Tritt.
Gordys HWY 30 Music Fest, June 21-24, Filer, Idaho. Headliners: TBA
Rock the South, June 19-21, Cullman, Ala. Headliners: Hank Williams, Jr., Kid Rock, Nickelback
Barefoot Country Music Festival, June 19-22, Wildwood, N.J. Performers: Jason Aldean, Jelly Roll, Lainey Wilson
Telluride Bluegrass Festival, June 19-22, Telluride, Colo. Performers: TBA
Rock the Country Festival, June 20-21, Little Rock, Ark. Headliners: Kid Rock, Nickelback, Hank Williams, Jr., Travis Tritt.
Winstock Country Festival, June 20-21, Winstead, Minn. Headliners: Jordan Davis, Thomas Rhett
Buckeye Country Superfest, June 21, Columbus, Ohio. Headliners: Jelly Roll, Kane Brown
ROMP Fest, June 25-28, Owensboro, Ky. Performers include: Wynonna Judd, Del McCoury Band, Sam Bush, Molly Tuttle and Golden Highway
Jackalope Jamboree, June 26-28, Pendleton, Ore. Headliners: Midland, 49 Winchester, Paul Cauthen.
Country Jam, June 26-28, Grand Junction, Colo. Headliners: LUke Bryan, Bailey Zimmerman, Cody Johnson
Country Stampede, June 26-28, Bonner Springs, Kan. Headliners: Luke Bryan, Miranda Lambert, Cole Swindell, Ashley McBryde
Hoofbeat Country Fest, June 26-28, Cadott, Wis. Headliners: Brooks & Dunn, Lainey Wilson, Riley Green
Dauphin’s Countryfest, June 26-29, Dauphin, Manitoba, Canada. Headliners: Jordan Davis, Josh Ross, John Michael Montgomery.
Country Summer Music Festival, June 27-29, Santa Rosa, Calif. Headliners: Sam Hunt, Kane Brown, Dustin Lynch
Lakes Jam, June 26-28, Brainerd, Minn. Performers: Bush, Riley Green, Gary Allan
Jelly Roll celebrated the end of the year with another homage of one of his musical heroes. During the Nashville’s Big Bash New Year’s Eve special on Tuesday night (Dec. 31), the singer performed Toby Keith’s 1993 debut single, “Should’ve Been a Cowboy” as part of a five-song set that also included his own hits […]
Carrie Underwood‘s Las Vegas residency show Reflection: The Las Vegas Residency is coming soon to Disney+ and Hulu, with the upcoming concert special Carrie Underwood: Reflection giving fans a chance to see the three-time ACM entertainer of the year winner’s mix of spectacular performances, hit songs, aerialists, acrobats, theatrical production and flashy costumes all over […]
Long before 2025 even kicked off, many artists were already starting to tease fans, hinting or downright saying they should expect new music in the upcoming year.
Take The Weeknd, for example. The artist born Abel Tesfaye began teasing his fans on Jan. 7, 2024, via social media. In an Instagram carousel, he shared the covers for After Hours and Dawn FM, followed by a black square with a giant white question mark in the center and a tiny parental advisory sticker in the bottom left. His caption? A single “3.” He finally revealed the title of the final album of his trilogy — Hurry Up Tomorrow — in September, and the day before Thanksgiving, shared its release date.
Then there was Lady Gaga. Mother Monster surprised the Little Monsters with a simple message at the end of the Gaga Chromatica Ball concert film, confirming that her seventh album is indeed in the works: “LG7 GAGA RETURNS.” But the tease, which debuted on the HBO Max film in late May, did not offer any hints as to when the highly anticipated release would arrive. It wasn’t until her September Vogue cover story that Gaga revealed LG7 would arrive sometime in February 2025. As of press time, a specific release date has not yet been revealed.
And of course, things don’t always go as planned. Joe Jonas announced in July that his new solo album, Music for People Who Believe in Love, would arrive Oct. 18, then shared in a September tweet that the set “is gonna come out later now” because he wanted to add some “final touches.” A new release date has not yet been announced.
With surprise album news, moving release dates and the sheer number of album announcements, it can be hard to stay on top of when new music by favorite artists is arriving. To help make sure fans don’t miss out on big arrivals, Billboard‘s calendar of 2025 new album releases — which will include the most notable releases from artists across genres, spanning hip-hop, K-pop, Latin, rock, pop, country and more — will be updated regularly as new music is announced.
The calendar is organized chronologically by month and week, and includes a section for albums that artists have announced, but have not given an exact release date.
Keep checking back for the latest 2025 album release dates!
January
Morgan Wallen ended 2024 on a somewhat somber note with the surprise release of the contemplative ballad “Smile” on Monday (Dec. 30). The song — written by Wallen along with Rocky Block, John Byron, Ernest Keith Smith, Ryan Vojtesak and Luis Witkiewitz — is described in a press release as being a continuation of themes established in the singer’s previous lovelorn singles, “Lies Lies Lies” and “Love Somebody.”
In the accompanying video directed by Justin Clough, Wallen plays himself gearing up to perform on a New Year’s Eve-style broadcast. Sitting nervously in his green room as the announcer teases his set, Wallen stares anxiously at a woman sitting silently across the way before getting his call. Glumly marching to the stage, Wallen appears to tune out the anxious producer’s notes about looking at the camera and remembering to smile. “People will love that,” he says as Wallen seems to ignore him completely.
Introduced as one of the “biggest pop stars in the world,” the host tells viewers that Wallen is gearing up to perform “Love Somebody,” the Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 single he released in October that is slated for his upcoming fourth studio album. Wallen pulls an Elvis Costello, though, snapping on his Field & Stream baseball hat and staring at the song’s lyrics in the Teleprompter before going rogue and playing “Smile” instead.
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“I can’t remember the last time/ You looked as happy as you did tonight/ Your tipsy friend grabbed that bartender/ Gave him her phone and pulled us over there with her,” he sings over gentle acoustic guitar as the TV show’s crew freaks out about the bait-and-switch while the prompter reads “[OFF SCRIPT].”
Wallen is unbothered, though, crooning the song’s gentle, pleading chorus, “It was good to see you smile/ Girl you know it’s been a while/ It was good to see you smile/ Even if it was just for the picture,” lamenting that after all the good times what’s left is only happy memories caught in photos.
Though it was an unplanned detour, Wallen’s sincerity appears to click, with the network brass turning from exasperated to elated as they watch the viewing numbers spike during the performance. As he sings about capturing a precious moment in time, Wallen’s love comes out to watch the performance, with the two sharing a last, longing look before she walks away.
“Smile” is the third single Wallen has release this year from his as-yet-untitled fourth album, the follow-up to 2023’s Billboard 200 No. 1 double LP One Thing at a Time.
Check out the “Smile” video below.