This week’s stack of new country songs includes fresh entries from two artists featured on Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter: Shaboozey and Tanner Adell. In addition, Riley Green offers up songs from his new EP Way Out Here, while Trisha Yearwood releases a song she performed during the CMT Music Awards, the Luke Combs-celebrated group The Wilder Blue issues a ’90s country-influenced track and Kimmi Bitter offers a 1960s vintage vibe.
Shaboozey, “A Bar Song (Tipsy)”
Shaboozey has been in the headlines and gaining traction thanks to his work on songs on Beyonce’s Cowboy Carter project. He follows with this mesh of perfect singalong melodies, acoustic guitar, horns and handclaps on this tip of the hat to boozy bar escapades. From his viral hit “Let It Burn” earlier this year, to his latest outing, this artist-writer knows how to craft a memorable song. This single, lifting from J-Kwon’s 2004 smash “Tipsy,” previews his album Where I’ve Been, Isn’t Where I’m Going, out May 31.
Trisha Yearwood, “Put It in a Song“
Yearwood debuted this ballad on the recent CMT Music Awards, by performing it with its co-writers, Erin Enderlin and Jim “Moose” Brown. Yearwood’s vocal is pristine as always, never overpowering a lyric but collecting every nuance on this gorgeous song. Not unlike one of Yearwood’s signature hits, 1993’s “The Song Remembers When,” this song nods to the power of music to serve as a keeper and vessel for any number of emotion-stirring memories, from heartbreak to love.
Morgan Wade, “Time to Love, Time To Kill”
From Wade’s upcoming Aug. 16 album Obsessed comes this stellar preview. Like all of the songs on Obsessed, Wade is the sole writer here, depicting the hazy moments of a relationship’s conclusion in visceral detail. Though they’ve each vocalized their intent to move on, as she sings in the song, “The truth is I’m at the starting line/ Just waiting on you.” As on previous songs, including her breakthrough hit “Wilder Days,” Wade’s voice crackles with unfiltered honesty, managing to be simultaneously sweet and bitingly truthful.
Connie Smith, Love, Prison, Wisdom and Heartaches
On Friday (April 12), Smith surprise-released her new album Love, Prison, Wisdom and Heartaches, which pays homage to songs from country artists including Dottie West, George Jones and Loretta Lynn. She also includes a rendering of the 1970 Dolly Parton and Porter Wagoner song “Once More,” her crystal-clear voice bolstered by steel guitars, fiddle and superb harmonies. Her take on “One of These Days,” originally recorded by the Glaser Brothers, highlights her soaring vocal, while elsewhere, she offers versions of Merle Haggard’s “The Fugitive” and Lynn’s “World of Forgotten People.” The album also marks the late pianist Hargus “Pig” Robbins’ final recording with Smith prior to his passing in 2022. Smith’s voice is still an instrument of formidable power and style, while this gorgeous record is an essential listen for fans of old-school country.
Riley Green, “Jesus Saves”
From his new seven-song EP Way Out Here, Green delves here into the life story of a homeless man and Army veteran who regularly sits by the side of a road, holding up sign emblazoned with “Jesus Saves.” A solo write from Green, this story also puts some of his most poignant songwriting on display. He chronicles the series of life twists that led the man to the side of the road: by the time he was eight, his father had left and his mother had died. The young boy grew up to join the military and headed off to war but upon returning, as the lyrics portray, “my whole world didn’t love me anymore.” From there, “Jesus Saves” traces a downward spiral of lost jobs, tragedies and broken relationships, all the while calling for compassion. This is undoubtedly one of Green’s new set’s strongest tracks.
Kimmi Bitter, “I Can’t Unlove You”
Like the bulk of Bitter’s new album Old School, “I Can’t Unlove You” is immersed in a detailed study of 1960s countrypolitan sounds, from the Jordannaires-esque harmonies to the hushed percussion. Meanwhile, Bitter possesses a smooth, polished vocal that unmistakably draws comparisons to the late Patsy Cline (or even, to a much lesser extent, “Blue”-era LeAnn Rimes). Bitter and her musical cohorts on the album, most notably writer-producer Michael Gurley, fashion a superb vintage sound, but smartly meld it with original songs.
Tanner Adell, “Whiskey Blues”
Adell surged to mainstream attention with her album Buckle Bunny and, like Shaboozey, is currently enjoying a rush of attention thanks to her inclusion on Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter. In her newly released song, she’s hellbent on (but not quite succeeding at) getting an ex-lover off her mind. The pop-country hybrid is catchy and polished, led by Adell’s airy, sparkling vocal, and a swirl of radio-ready production.
The Wilder Blue, “I’m Your Man”
This versatile Texas quintet lays deep into ’90s honky-tonk on this toe-tappin’, flirty barn burner that makes the most of their tight-knit harmonies and top-notch lead vocals from frontman Zane Williams. They are part of Luke Combs’s current Growin’ Up and Gettin’ Old Tour, having previously featured Combs on a cover version of the Eagles’ “Seven Bridges Road.”
