genre country

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This week, Kaitlin Butts celebrates inking a label deal with Republic by issuing a tender revamping of a Jimmy Eat World hit. Meanwhile, Riley Green teams with Jamey Johnson for a robust new collab, and ERNEST, Sammy Arriaga and newcomer Joshua Slone also offer new tracks.

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Check out all of these and more in Billboard‘s roundup of some of the best country, bluegrass and/or Americana songs of the week below.

Kaitlin Butts, “The Middle”

Butts, who recently inked a deal with Republic Records, offers up a revamped version of Jimmy Eat World’s 2001 hit, transforming it into a soothing, hopeful, acoustic-driven track driven by guitars, fiddle and understated percussion. Butts’ version comes across as tender, wise and thoughtful, particularly on lines such as “Just do your best, do everything you can/ And don’t you worry what their bitter hearts are gonna say.” That’s a timeless message people of all ages can cling to.

Jamey Johnson and Riley Green, “Smoke”

Jamey Johnson welcomes Riley Green for this barn burner, intertwining Johnson’s weathered, gravelly vocal with Green’s burnished twang as they explore the motif of “smoke” with varying meanings throughout the heartbreak-driven track. At various points throughout “Smoke,” the titular phrase references the plumes billowing from an ex’s tires as she speeds away, or the wisps of smoke curling from the end of the lit cigarette he’s using to obscure his pain. Green and Johnson wrote the song with Erik Dylan and recorded the track at the Cash Cabin and Big Gassed Studios, with production from Kyle Lehning and Jim “Moose” Brown, which captures complementary ties between Johnson and Green’s distinct styles.

ERNEST, “Blessed”

In his latest, ERNEST weaves a tale of love and legacy, as this song looks at a piece of land being handed down generation after generation. “Granddaddy bought this slice back in 1962/ It came with a barn, a dog in the yard and a Chevrolet painted blue,” he sings, before sketching his own dreams of passing the land down to his son. Reserved guitars, bass and drums put ERNEST’s vocal at the fore, as he brims with pride about passing down wisdom he hopes his son will continue learning from. “Blessed” precedes ERNEST’s upcoming project Live From The South, out Nov. 21.

Sammy Arriaga, “Before the Next Teardrop Falls”

First-generation Cuban American Sammy Arriaga bridges cultures and languages, combining English and Spanish-language tracks on his bilingual country Latin album Heart in Texas, which released Oct. 31. The album also includes Arriaga’s heartfelt, Spanglish rendition of Latin country trailblazer Freddy Fender’s classic “Before The Next Teardrop Falls” (Fender’s original topped both the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart and Hot 100 in 1975). Arriaga’s version simultaneously pays graceful homage to Fender’s original, while, like the rest of the songs on the album, Arriaga stamps every lyric and message with his unique artistry and warm, welcoming vocal tone.

Joshua Slone, “Your Place at My Place”

Slone makes a striking entrance with his 16-song, debut album Thinking Too Much, which features Slone as the sole writer on each track. The angst-fueled “Your Place at My Place” finds him musing about unfruitful attempts to move past a faded relationship. “No one’s ever taken your place at my place,” the Kentucky native concisely laments. His full project showcases his vivid, vulnerable songwriting, cementing Slone as one of country music’s most compelling new voices.

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In his memoir, Heart Life Music, Kenny Chesney takes the reader on the journey of how he developed from a sports-loving young boy growing up in a tiny East Tennessee town raised by a single mom to one of the biggest country stars of all time.

The engrossing tale, co-written with award-winning journalist Holly Gleason, is a love story to the music that inspired him and, ultimately, to Chesney’s fans who make up the No Shoes Nation and who have helped the recent Country Music Hall of Fame inductee realize success beyond his wildest dreams.

Below, Chesney, who will return to Las Vegas’ Sphere in June, highlights more than 30 songs of the dozens mentioned in the book, which is available starting Tuesday (Nov. 4). He’s exclusively sharing with Billboard what the songs mean to him, including ones that influenced him, such as Conway Twitty’s “Hello Darlin’,” which he heard at the first concert he attended.

“Someone asked me if there was a soundtrack for the book. It’s easy to say, ‘Just listen to [SiriusXM’s] No Shoes Radio,’ but someone else asked, and I thought, “Well, why not? I just looked at my life, so lets look at the music,” Chesney says. “This isn’t the definitive list, nor is it the only list,” he continues, “But it’s one collection of songs that you could listen to and enjoy while you’re reading. To me, that was the fun of this playlist: make a playlist that would be fun to listen to while reading. Though now I hear getting the audio book and listening to that while you read is the thing. Anyways… Enjoy the book. Enjoy the music. But especially, enjoy your life.”

Find his explanations behind the songs chosen below, and check out the full playlist on Spotify here.

“The Tin Man”