Maren Morris has left "The Middle" in the past and has finally begun the process of releasing her second album.

Morgan Johnston is always playing Writer’s Rounds. For those of you not familiar with the term, a ‘Writer’s Round’ is when a group of songwriters take the stage at a venue in Nashville and simply go around and play the songs they have been writing. Hence the term, ‘Writer’s Round.’ Johnston is an artist, but being an artist includes being a songwriter, at least to her. So it's not uncommon to see her playing one.

Singer/songwriter Emily Hackett just dropped another new song from her upcoming record. Following the more upbeat tunes "Nostalgia" and "Good Intentions," "Josie" takes on a more somber tone. 

...and we're back.

After a brief hiatus, Queens of Country is back, here to inform you of the great music we've been listening to this summer that you don't want to miss. Without further ado, here are the tunes that stuck with us the most this summer and you can take with you into the fall.

In Cam’s latest song, she questions the elusive concept of ‘happiness.’ How do we get to that pinnacle of life? How much are we willing to sacrifice in order to find it? And what, in actuality, is it? Do we even know it when we find it?

From American Idol to her first number one song last year, Lauren Alaina’s journey has not been an easy one. Her first record, Wildflower, was released shortly after Idol, full of songs she didn't write and songs she rarely plays out anymore, save the uptempo “Georgia Peaches.” A couple of singles were released following the record, but none were successful and Alaina fell off the map for a while. But in 2017, she re-emerged with her new record Road Less Travelled, one of 2017’s best.

Alabama-born Regan Stewart has only just released her debut single, but she’s already known around Nashville for her sweet, unapologetically twangy voice. She’s played with the Song Suffragettes several times, released two songs with coreNashville, and reliably posts a cover on Instagram every Tuesday, filmed in her bathtub (makes for some great acoustics, and a compelling hashtag.) She took the time to answer some questions about her upcoming debut single “Stereotypical Girls.”

Half-way through July, and SoundCloud is bursting with great new songs and demos. Read more to listen to our favorites of the month and quick little descriptions of the songs.

In popular music, production is always the most important aspect of a song. Bad singers can be autotuned, lyrics can be sent through ten or fifteen writers to make something mediocre something somewhat relatable, but production is what makes people remember a song. That’s why acoustic music is so risky, because the production can no longer carry the song and the artist. But it also can pay off in extraordinary ways like it does on JoLivi’s brand new Raw EP.

Kelsey Lamb’s song “Little By Little” sounds like the country-pop perfection of a seasoned professional, but it’s actually the first song the singer/songwriter has ever released. She wrote the song with Jesse Labelle and Erik DiNardo. “It actually took us three writing sessions to finish it!’ Lamb said in a recent email interview. “I originally brought this title to Erik and immediately knew this was going to be a special song. Erik then brought Jesse on to help us finish the song, which is exactly the extra creative mind that we needed to wrap the song up.”