This week’s stack of new country music includes a new one from the prolific Zach Bryan, as well as new tunes from Jamey Johnson, Midland, 49 Winchester and Shaylen.
Zach Bryan, “Pink Skies”
The prolific Bryan is known for releasing music sporadically, with little-to-no leadup to an album in terms of promotional singles (think his previous self-titled LP and its Billboard Hot 100-topping Kacey Musgraves collab “I Remember Everything,” released for the first time as part of the album). But as he releases his new song, “Pink Skies,” stadium-headliner Bryan noted on social media that he’s set to soon release a new project, The Great American Bar Scene.
The harmonica-dipped, acoustic guitar-driven track — which Bryan previously previewed on social media under the title “Elegy”– describes preparing for a funeral, but in true Bryan fashion, infuses his melancholia-hued lyrics with stately percussion, lifting the somber track to crowd singalong status. A collection of memories tie together as Bryan sings to the departed familial patriarch on lyrics like, “You’d be proud/ But you’d think they’s yuppies/ Your funeral was beautiful/ I bet God heard you coming.” The new song seems poised to become another fan-favorite, cementing Bryan’s current ranking as a top-tier purveyor of conversational, poetic heartland rock.
Jamey Johnson, “21 Guns”
Jamey Johnson releases his first new music in nearly a decade, turning his potent songwriting talent and burnished voice to paying homage to military members who gave the ultimate sacrifice. Johnson wrote the song with Jim “Moose” Brown, inspired by the funerals that Johnson (who served in the U.S. Marines for nearly a decade) has attended for many of his fellow servicemembers whose lives were cut short. The song depicts attending a service for a fallen comrade, as the preacher gives the eulogy and the serviceman is given a customary 21 gun salute, before Johnson goes directly for heart-crushing truths on the line “The rifles fire and your life flashes right before my eyes,” adding, “I don’t need no one to tell me you’re a hero/ Hell I’ve known that ever since you were young.”
Johnson, one of the top songwriters of this generation, won two CMA song of the year honors for crafting “Give It Away” and “In Color.” Here, he offers his masterful songwriting pen and world-weary vocal in service to the memory of his fellow service members, speaking truth with a grizzled grace.
Midland, “Old Fashioned Feeling”
The Texas-formed trio returns with their first new music since 2022 with this sumptuous slow-burn they recorded at Savannah, Georgia’s Georgia Mae Studios, with Dave Cobb producing. Lead singer Mark Wystrach depicts coping with the last embers of a burned-out relationship by turning to a dim-lit bar, a stiff drink, and a cavalcade of memories. The track is brimming with old-school, soulful country sounds, and spearheaded by the trio’s harmonies, which are as smooth and warm as any top-shelf bourbon.
49 Winchester, “Fast Asleep”
Sextet 49 Winchester dusts off one of the group’s earliest songs and revitalizes it with help from the Prague-based Czech National Symphony Orchestra. The song launches with pared-back instrumentation, featuring little more than acoustic guitar and lead singer Isaac Gibson’s plaintive vocal, depicting the struggle and resolution of romantic ties, before the rest of the group and the orchestra joins in on the choruses, with the orchestra lending further heft to the band’s alright exemplary musicianship. The song is featured on the group’s upcoming album Leavin’ This Holler, out Aug. 2, via New West Records.
Shaylen, “Let Me Let You”
This Chattanooga, Tennessee-born, Dallas-raised singer-songwriter deftly blends elements of country, soul and punk on this new track. Shaylen wrote this track with Brett Tyler and Lindsay Rimes, pouring out the angst of someone who’s trying to pick up the pieces of a shattered relationship and transition to a new life chapter, only to find her ex keeps showing up at her door. “When it’s 2 a.m. missing me again/ Why you gotta let me know?” she sings. Shaylen’s strong, confident vocal inhabits a punk edge and ripples over polished country-pop construction of careening rock guitar, eruptive percussion and a chorus tailor-made to get audiences chanting along.
