genre country
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Released Feb. 14 on the deluxe version of Sabrina Carpenter’s album Short n’ Sweet, the remix of her originally solo smash “Please Please Please” — adding Dolly Parton in a featured role — debuts on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart (dated March 1). The remix opens at No. 17 on the survey after it drew […]
Mom+Pop Music has become the latest coastal label to open an office in Music City, naming Katie Fagan as president of Mom+Pop Music Nashville.
Fagan was previously head of A&R for Prescription Songs in Nashville for the last eight years and had opened Prescription’s first office outside of Los Angeles.
“I will continue M+P’s legacy by signing tastemaker artists and bands, leaning into the local talent pool in the Americana, folk, alt-country and indie spaces,” Fagan tells Billboard. “While expanding our footprint in Nashville is a priority, we know that these genres span worldwide, and I want to be cognizant of talent within these spaces globally as well. We hope to provide a home to both legacy acts and up-and-comers looking for a strategic creative partnership where we can elevate and uphold the integrity of their artistic vision.”
For now, Mom+Pop Nashville will rely on existing staff in New York and Los Angeles “with the goal of hiring locally when the timing aligns appropriately and strategically,” Fagan says.
“Katie has proven herself an important voice and advocate for creatives in the Americana, folk, and Alt-Country spaces,” said Michael Goldstone, founder of Mom+Pop, in a statement. “No one is better suited to reinforce and grow Mom+Pop’s presence in Nashville and globally as we broaden our industry aesthetic.”
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At Prescription, Fagan, who has been featured on Billboard’s 40 Under 40 and Women in Music lists, worked with a number of acts, including Joy Oladokun, Anderson East, Maggie Rose, Nick Bailey, Sarah Hudson, Malibu Babie and Cirkut, as well as songwriters/producers who landed placements with Lana Del Rey, Chris Stapleton and Noah Kahan, among others.
Fagan is also co-founder of The Other Nashville Society (TONS), which helps promote non-country music in Music City through its 1,500 members; a member of She Is The Music’s songwriting and publishing committee; and a governor of the Recording Academy’s Nashville chapter.
Mom+Pop, which was formed in 2008, includes Caamp, Chaparelle, Del Water Gap, Magdalena Bay and Pablo Pablo on its current roster. The self-distributed label has a staff of 25 with offices in New York, Los Angeles, London and Nashville.
Beyoncé had yet another groundbreaking night at the 2025 Grammy Awards earlier this month, where the superstar was at last awarded her first win in the album of the year category, thanks to Cowboy Carter. Bey’s shocked reaction has since become a hilarious meme, and her mother Tina Knowles was just as surprised by the […]
Morgan Wallen opened up about hard times, and ponders the long-tail familial impact of his lower moments in a personal new song he wrote for his 4-year-old son, Indigo Wilder. On Monday (Feb. 24), the reigning CMA entertainer of the year and 19-time Billboard Music Awards winner shared a snippet of the track titled “Superman” to social media.
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In an accompanying caption, Wallen explained why it has taken a while for him to craft a song for his son.
“Been trying for a long time to write a song I loved to my son. None of them ever feel good enough because of how perfect I want something like this to be,” he shared. “And not saying this is perfect, but I am very proud of it. Here is a clip, It’s called ‘Superman.’”
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The song starts off with Wallen’s thoughts of how Indigo will grow to learn more about the life his father has led to this point — surely, the incredible career accomplishments, but the low points as well.
The song opens candidly, with lyrics that seemingly reference Wallen’s arrest last year, when the singer-songwriter was briefly taken into custody after allegedly throwing a chair from the roof of a Nashville bar. (He later pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor charges, and was sentenced to seven days in a DUI education center, as well as two years probation.)
“One day he’s gonna see my mugshot from a night when I got a little too drunk/ Hear a song about a girl that I lost/ From the times when I just wouldn’t grow up,” Wallen sings. He continues describing his fears as a father in the vulnerable lines, “And when you ain’t a kid no more/ I hope you don’t think less of me/ I try to hide my fallen soul/ But you’re gonna see.”
The self-aware lyrics continue: “Now and then, that bottle’s my kryptonite … brings a man of steel to his knees/ Don’t always know wrong from right/ Sometimes I’m my own worst enemy/ No I don’t always save the day, but you know for you I’ll always try/ I’ll do the best I can, a Superman is still just a man sometimes.”
Wallen has been steadily sharing new music over the past few months, including “Lies, Lies, Lies,” “Smile,” “Love Somebody” and the title track to his upcoming new album, I’m the Problem. He’s set to launch his 2025 I’m the Problem Tour in June.
Hear Wallen’s snippet of “Superman” below:
For years, record labels have lamented country radio’s pokey approach to single cycles. But at this year’s Country Radio Seminar (CRS), which started Feb. 19 and concluded Feb. 21, even radio programmers are frustrated with the approach.
“It shouldn’t take a year for a good song to get to No. 1,” Cumulus vp of country Travis Daily said during the “Why Can’t We Be Friends” panel on Feb. 19. “We, on my side, are like, ‘People get bored easy, so let’s slow it down.’ It’s dumb.”
Panelists used Cole Swindell’s “Forever to Me” as an example: The track reached the top 10 on the Country Airplay chart dated March 1 after 45 weeks (see On the Charts, page 4). It had all the hallmarks of a hit — an emotionally appealing release from one of country’s most consistent hit-makers — and yet stations had a difficult time committing to it. Meanwhile, digital streaming providers, based on the data from customer reaction, responded commensurately and ran it through their hit cycle. Thus, country radio — once the genre’s primary source of music discovery — seems slow, uncertain and sheepish next to more nimble competition.
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“[DSPs] had to come off of it because the audience wants fresh,” Warner Music Nashville senior vp of radio and streaming Kristen Williams said. “They want something new and they want it faster.”
As a result, Williams’ team is using a bifurcated marketing campaign for Swindell, pushing country radio toward the label’s goal of a No. 1 single with “Forever to Me” while talking with DSPs about the singer’s latest track, “Kill a Prayer.”
“This is actually more commonplace than not,” Williams said.
The conversation took place as the country industry again reevaluates its tactics and relationships at the annual seminar, founded as an event for broadcasters and labels that has expanded in recent years to include streaming-related panels. CRS hosts a series of educational panels daily with plenty of showcase opportunities available during label-sponsored lunches and nighttime performances. This year’s event has already featured performances by Brothers Osborne, Jelly Roll, Jordan Davis, Avery Anna, Old Dominion, Dylan Schneider and Brad Paisley, who apologized to programmers who had to wait in single-digit wind chill for entry into the Ryman Auditorium at the Universal Music Group Nashville lunch on Feb. 20.
“The temperature outside,” Paisley said sarcastically, “is what it’s like to play for you.”
The joke received an appreciative groan from the programmers in the audience, who have enjoyed a mutually beneficial relationship with Paisley since his introduction to radio in 1999. Country artists have typically gone on expensive radio tours for decades, performing for radio staff in conference rooms and forging a rapport that would hopefully lead to personal investment in the artists’ careers. But the relationship has changed with the maturation of the streaming business.
In an earlier time, country artists released three or four singles per year, and those that succeeded would peak on the chart in 12 to 18 weeks. Around the time that Paisley debuted, CRS attendees were encouraged to hang on to their hits longer, which slowed the number of singles and made it more difficult to establish careers.
With the growth of DSPs, artists are once again able to release more music and cycle through the hits quicker, creating stronger relationships with their consumers. Those expensive radio tours have mostly dried up — Cox Media/Houston director of operations Travis Moon estimated that KKBQ has had only four or five artists visit the station on a radio tour in the last year. Programmers seem to be recognizing that playing the same hits for longer periods may be a competitive disadvantage.
“Music is moving faster than ever, [while] the charts are going slower than ever,” said Sticks Media owner Todd Nixon during the Feb. 20 panel “Cycle of a Song” that focused on Tucker Wetmore’s “Wind Up Missin’ You.” “We just got to go faster on this record.”
Programmers have long believed that listeners prefer familiar music over new songs, though a Nuvoodoo study, “The Country Fan — Reviewing, Retaining, and Recruiting Your Listeners,” presented Feb. 20, suggested that overfamiliarity may be hurting radio more than new music. Commercial breaks are the top reason for tune-out, with 47% of the study’s respondents citing them as a factor. Three different kinds of repetition — playing songs too frequently, burnout and tracks appearing at the same time on successive days — were each cited as a problem by more than 40% of respondents. But only 34% of listeners said they turned off the station because they “don’t know” a song.
Therefore, feeding a healthy amount of new music, slotted in the right position on the playlist, may be one of the ways to counter the repetition issues.
“If you just take conventional wisdom constantly, you create narratives and biases in your own head and you’ll bore the audience to death,” Bonneville/Denver director of operations Brian Michel said during “Sound Off: What Is ‘Mainstream’ Country?” on Feb. 20.
Stations with minimal research of their own might consider watching Spotify’s Hot Country playlist, which features material that’s previously proved itself in other forums.
“You can trust that if something is in Hot Country, it is performing well with the mainstream country audience,” Spotify Nashville head of editorial Rachel Whitney said during the “Sound Off” panel. “Then use your own judgment about whether or not it matters to your audience.”
Even if country radio is considering a course correction, the medium remains a venerable institution, and the artists — all of whom grew up with it playing a significant role in their exposure to the music — continue to show their appreciation.
“You guys have changed my life in the last year,” Wetmore said during the “Cycle of a Song” panel. “Truly, from the bottom of my heart, thank you.”
That’s one aspect of CRS that remains the same.
Big Machine Records has signed to its roster duo Something Out West, featuring actor/musician Chet Hanks and musician Drew Arthur. The duo’s debut song for the label, “Leaving Hollywood,” is set to release Feb. 28, while Something Out West is currently working on a project with producer Julian Raymond. Big Machine Records’ roster also includes Tim McGraw, Carly Pearce, Midland, Rascal Flatts, Jackson Dean and more.
The duo formed after Hanks and Arthur were roommates in California while each was setting out on a journey toward sobriety. The friendship evolved into musical collaboration and songwriting sessions. In 2018, Hanks and Arthur recorded under the name FTRZ, releasing the song “Models.” Eventually, they made their way to Nashville to continue writing and recording.
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Hanks previously told US Weekly the upcoming new music is based off of “a lot of meaningful life experiences and heartbreak and all that good stuff.”
“Drew and Chet are building a one of a kind sound and story with Something Out West, powered by their undeniable energy and creative connection,” Big Machine Label Group chairman & CEO Scott Borchetta said in a statement. “We’re thrilled for them to join the Big Machine Records family and for the world to experience this fresh, dynamic duo.”
“Upon the first moment meeting Chet and Drew, I was immediately struck with their creative spirit and artistic vision,” added Kris Lamb, evp/general manager of Big Machine Records. “Something Out West know exactly who they are, and Big Machine Records is thrilled to fuel their journey.”
“We’re thrilled to partner with Big Machine and Scott Borchetta,” Hanks said in a statement. “The support they’ve shown for ‘Leaving Hollywood’ and the rest of the music has been incredible. Drew and I have been making music together for a long time, and we feel really proud to have a home at Big Machine for this upcoming project.”
“I wrote ‘Leaving Hollywood’ five years ago, but it feels like the timing and the way we’re releasing it were always meant to be,” Arthur added. “We’re excited for people to hear what we’ve been working on.”
Women lead the way on this week’s crop of new songs. Carly Pearce returns with “No Rain,” while Hailey Whitters teams with bluegrass luminary Molly Tuttle for “Prodigal Daughter.” Avery Anna, known for her collaboration with Sam Barber on “Indigo,” issues a new song, “Mr. Predictable.”
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Meanwhile, HARDY and Nate Smith team up for a hilarious-yet-pointed new track sure to relate with scores of people who have buddies in less than stellar relationships, on “Nobody Likes Your Girlfriend.”
Check all these and more of the best new country songs of the week below.
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Carly Pearce, “No Rain”
Carly Pearce previews her upcoming deluxe album Hummingbird: No Rain, No Flowers (out March 14) with this gentle, optimistic outing. Swaths of strings and acoustics elevate this soft-focus, hopeful track, with Pearce singing about how times of despair often dovetail with mountaintop moments. Pearce’s warm, earthy vocal tones highlight the song’s graceful melody. “If you never feel fear/ you’ll never need faith,” she sings, urging listeners to hold on during days of struggle. Since launching her career, Pearce has always managed to sound both timely and timeless, and this song floats in gingerly like a much-needed balm for society’s trying times.
Hailey Whitters feat. Molly Tuttle, “Prodigal Daughter”
Hailey Whitters’s latest release interweaves defiant, stomping country with bluegrass leanings, as she welcomes Molly Tuttle on vocal harmonies and guitar. Together, they sing a coming-of-age story about a young woman enticed by a new love. “She did a devil’s dance to a fiddle in a holler,” they sing, joined by a dazzling mesh of instrumental work from bluegrassers Stuart Duncan, Justin Moses and Bryan Sutton in addition to reigning CMA musician of the year Charlie Worsham.
Carter Faith, “If I Had Never Lost My Mind”
Faith debuted this song last week during the UMG Nashville showcase at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium as part of the annual Country Radio Seminar. Commanding, dramatic and deeply introspective, “If I Had Never Lost My Mind” is a post-breakup, emotional postmortem as she ruminates over what aspects could have changed and whether they could have halted the romantic bustup from happening. “I couldn’t stop it and you couldn’t take it/ I gave you my heart and I forced you to break it,” Faith sings as the song builds in intensity towards its final chorus, surging into a superb musical showcase for one of Faith’s most powerful, dramatic vocal renderings to date.
Ashley Cooke feat. Joe Jonas, “All I Forgot”
At last week’s New Faces of Country Music Showcase during the annual Country Radio Seminar, Cooke gave the audience of country radio programmers a surprise when she invited Joe Jonas to perform their new duet “All I Forgot.” The pop-tilted, radio-ready track finds the two contemplating how sometimes the emotional connection between two people is so stout that even copious amounts of top-shelf liquor fail to drown it. “I just killed a bottle and all that I forgot/ Was I was moving on,” they sing. Vocally, they prove they can match each other note for note.
Avery Anna, “Mr. Predictable”
Avery Anna recently saw her Sam Barber collaboration “Indigo” reach No. 48 on the all-genre Billboard Hot 100. On her latest, she proves that while she’s known for moody pop-tinged ballads, she can also handle a churning rocker just fine, too. She’s hurt by a lover’s betrayal, but more hurt that her suspicions of his disloyal nature were proven right from the beginning. Lyrically, she goes for the jugular on lines such as “I tried to trust an untrustablе, cynical, typical, self-centered man,” as the song builds from a pensive, sparse piano track to a rock-seared, scathing indictment.
Nate Smith and HARDY, “Nobody Likes Your Girlfriend”
Country music hitmakers Nate Smith (“World on Fire”) and HARDY (“Truck Bed”) team up for this slice of cut-to-the-bone, friend-to-friend honesty, wrapped in a country-rock package. Smith and HARDY offer up a perspective of friends directly laying out the facts that a buddy’s new girlfriend is far from beloved by his circle of family and friends and they have the reasons why: she’s mean-spirited, she hates the bands he likes, she puts her boyfriend down in front of his friends, and is likely cheating on him. “Everyone you love hates seeing you with her,” they sing. To the point and punchy, this is sure to be a hit addition to their setlists. The hilarious video for the song, featuring Kevin James, Sophia La Corte and Amanda Mertz, further drives home the song’s message.
The Bee-Hive reacts and share their thoughts on the expensive tickets to Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter tour tickets and how Ticketmaster has impacted fans ability to buy tickets at affordable rates.
Bee-Hive Member: Ticketmaster is ruining the concert experience. I’ve never had a problem.It’s a monopoly.
Tetris Kelly: ‘Cowboy Carter’ herself, Beyoncé is saddling up for her highly anticipated newshow the ‘Cowboy Carter’ and the Rodeo Chitlin Circuit tour, and with the release of new tour dates come new prices, and the ‘Cowboy Carter’ ticket prices are sending fans into a frenzy as they try to cop tickets among soaring prices and Ticketmaster mishaps, with ticket prices reaching over $3,800 in some places, we took to the streets of Hollywood to hear what Beyoncé fans were feeling about these high ticket costs. Would you pay $1,800?
Bee Hive Member: I would not. Yeah, I would not. I mean, I love her, but I’m not, like, one of thosesuper fans, you know.
Bee Hive Member: That’s doing too much, that’s doing too much in this economy, but, you know,Beyoncé going, people gonna, it’s gonna sell out. Somebody got it.
Bee-Hive Member: Oh, my God, it’s a lot of money. I mean, I get it, though, I do get it. It’s a lot of money. I heard people be like, saving up, you know, and stuff like that. So it’s possible.
Bee-Hive Member: I paid $1,200 for Renaissance tickets, for floor seats here in LA, they were resale, so they were up, but it was still, you know, that’s a lot. That’s my rent.
Watch the full video above!
Billboard’s THE STAGE at SXSW is back, and we’re breaking down the star-studded performances for March 2025. Keep watching to learn more! Who are you excited to see perform? Let us know in the comments! Buy your tickets here! Tetris Kelly: We’re getting lit in Austin! Billboard just announced the opening acts to the already […]
Since releasing her first project, 2021’s Stones, country singer-songwriter Allie Colleen has been focused on building her own career and putting her own musical talents and vision at the forefront. She’s toured with Jelly Roll and Lee Brice and issued songs like “Halos and Horns” and “Tattoos.”
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But on her new five-song EP, Sincerely, Rolling Stone, she’s pulling back the curtain, revealing every facet of her life and personality.
She crafted Sincerely, Rolling Stone by turning to a close-knit group of friends and fellow songwriters, including Lockwood Bar, Megan Barker, Eric Dodd, Stephen Hunley, John Kraft and Craig Wilson.
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She wrote “Rolling Stone (Sincerely),” the first song written for the project, with Hunley, Dodd and Connor Sweet after coming off the road in 2021. The song sheds light on how having a fanbase who intimately knows an artist can bring immense joy for the act, but also carry with it an emotional weight for artists who are always on the move.
“It’s like Allie Colleen’s ‘Turn the Page.’ It’s my road song,” Colleen says, referencing Bob Seger’s classic about fame and life on the road. “It’s just saying, ‘I wish so badly that I could give you guys everything on the planet and be that, because you put artists on a pedestal, but I can’t.’ I champion Ashley McBryde, and to Ashley, that’s probably a little heavy — because I know I’m not the only person who has put this artist on a pedestal, whose music has saved me in seasons of my life. I’m very lucky to get that as an artist from certain people in my audience as well. So ‘Rolling Stone’ lands on [the lyric], ‘I want to be your rock, and I’m sorry that I’m not — sincerely your Rolling Stone.’ It’s my little sincerity message to my audience and to anyone who’s cared, especially the people who have followed me throughout the last couple of years.”
Sincerely, Rolling Stone also marks the first time Colleen has released a song inspired by her relationship with her father, Garth Brooks.
“Household Name,” which she wrote with Hunley and Dodd, opens with a roll of thunder, which may have some music fans instantly drawing ties to Brooks’ own 1991 two-week Country Airplay hit “The Thunder Rolls.” (“I listened to 47 minutes of consecutive thunder pre-roll to pick that out, and I think it’s perfect,” Colleen says).
“I write about my mamas all the time,” Colleen says, referring to her mother Sandy Mahl and her stepmother, Trisha Yearwood. “I have so many mama songs out there for both of my moms, and that always poses this silly question in the back of people’s brains — ‘What do you feel about your dad?’ And I’m like, ‘You guys can’t hear a song about my dad and just hear a song about Allie’s dad. You already have such a narrative of that.’ So I’ve never done a dad song.”
Colleen continues, “I’ve always kept those really personal, and just a between-him-and-I kind of thing. This was the first time I felt I could recognize my dad for who he was to me as an artist, and the way that I have never even second-guessed myself as an artist, because I saw it every day. I saw just a crystal-clear example of this is feasible. Someone can work their tail off and do this for a living. My dad has worked his tail off his whole life for everything he has — and that’s why I’m the way that I am, because I want to be just like my dad. I feel like so many people separate us because I don’t involve my family in my career in a commercial way, but I couldn’t be more clear that I am just like my dad, and I’m approaching my career like he did, which is working my tail off. I think ‘Household Name’ gave me an opportunity to say that.”
Elsewhere, “Oklahoma Mountains” touches on the grind any artist faces in building a career, but also includes the lyric, “If there ain’t no mountains in Oklahoma, then why have I always had to climb/ Carrying a shadow on my shoulder” — a line Colleen says she struggled with including.
“’Carrying this shadow on my shoulder’ is one of the lines I fought for a long time on, like, maybe it should just be ‘saddle,’” she explains. “[If someone] sees ‘saddle,’ you’re just going to see that she’s just a hard worker. I don’t want there to be any resentment toward what people think that shadow is. I’ll be honest—Allie is a bigger shadow to herself than her dad is. We all are. I compete against Allie every day; I’ve never even had to compete against Garth, not one time. I hope the listener finds resilience from this song and I hope they recognize what their own mountains are.”
At the time of the interview, Colleen noted that Brooks hadn’t heard the entire project, though she had sent him “Oklahoma Mountains” and “Household Name.”
“We did have that vetting process moment where I want to reflect well on my family,” Colleen. “So, I do send him songs that could ever possibly have anything to do with him. And he’s been nothing but encouraging towards me, and has never been controlling of any narratives at all… he’s excited for me, as well as for this project to come out.”
The EP ends with the ballad ‘Nicotine,’ a co-write with Barker and Bar that likens a tendency to fall hard into relationships to the insatiable pull of nicotine.
“Cigarettes are quick fixes, even if you do 17 a day,” she says. “For me, my quick fix is relationships. That is something that I lean into. So, this was just something I wanted to tuck away in this beautiful little project of sincerity of what my world looks like, between being the daughter that I am, the partner that I am and all of these things that Allie is. I do think ‘Nicotine’ is one of the more commercial songs on the album. The verse itself is literally that eerie time and space where you’re kind of holding your breath, because you got a cig between your lips and you’re about to light your lighter, and then your chorus strikes that, and then the second verse comes in and there’s your exhale.”
Since the beginning of her career, Colleen has had a view toward building her artistry and brand on her own. She studied songwriting at Nashville’s Belmont University and began making connections with fellow writers early on, wading into the Nashville’s co-writing circles — something she says has been an immense blessing, but also a challenge.
“I came to this town as a solo writer, and I’m so happy in my co-writing world, but I would be lying to say that Nashville didn’t discourage individual writing for me,” she relates. “I was going to publishing meetings and they were saying, ‘Can you write well in other rooms with our people?’ And I think that was because I was so young. I think it made sense, honestly, at the time for my age, but I think 28-year-old Allie is still holding on to, ‘Was I a good enough writer by myself?’”
Her next project will aim to answer that question, with Colleen setting out to write every song on the album alone.
“I’m hoping I’m brave enough to write the whole thing by myself, and again, just show up for Allie as a writer and prove that I’m the same writer that showed up in this town,” she says, “just better, because of my co-writers — but also because of the work that I’ve done on my own this last year of writing by myself again. I’m excited, but also a little scared because I don’t have anybody to blame for that project. Every creative decision is on you when it’s an all-solo thing.”
Still, that challenge falls squarely in line with her overall mission, which is to unravel the layers of her own perspectives, whether she’s co-writing songs or crafting them by herself — in short, to make sure she’s creating music that she is proud of, regardless of others’ opinions.
“Praise for anything other than authenticity doesn’t matter,” Colleen says.