A little bit more than halfway through the year, and the women of country music are already putting out some of the best music I've heard in a while. Even though this is a list of strictly female artists, I firmly believe that even if the men were included, these are still five of the best records released this year. In no particular order, here we go.

Before Maren Morris was taking the music industry by storm, she was in Texas, writing songs and charting on Texas radio. She released three records before her major label debut Hero, titled Walk On, All That it Takes, and Live Wire, so there's a fair bit of older music from her floating around the internet.

In the two years since her debut record The First Time, pop-country singer Kelsea Ballerini has transitioned from a brand new artist to one of the biggest female stars in the genre. Her sophomore record, due out this year, is set to be a career-defining moment for her, and here's all the info we have so far.

It's been about ten months since we last heard new music from Mickey Guyton, and just so no one forgets how talented and incredible she is, here are 5 of Guyton's best performances.

It feels like it's been years since we've heard from Maddie & Tae, especially since their last fairly successful radio single was "Fly" in 2015. But even though they haven't put out anything new recently, and their label situation is a bit murky currently, they've been working on some awesome new music. This is just one of the songs they've been playing out recently, and it's a great one.

As everybody in Nashville is currently obsessing over Carly Pearce, I thought it would be fitting to throw it back to a song that Pearce wrote and recorded a few years ago.

If you don't know songwriter Lori McKenna, get out from under the rock you've been living under. Winning Country Song of the Year at the Grammys two years in a row, and writing some of the best songs in the genre, McKenna is not a songwriter to be overlooked. McKenna is an incredible singer in her own right, but here are three artists that took the words that McKenna wrote and transformed them into something new and beautiful.

Over the years, YouTube has become the home to unreleased songs by various artists. Some new additions to that collection of rare cuts are the unreleased songs of Kelsea Ballerini. Today's find is "Teach Me," a song that is baby Ballerini at her best.

Welcome to Year 3 of Queens of Country.

​I can't believe that two years have already passed, and we're about to embark on the third year of supporting women of country music. Tomorrow, you'll see the list of the Women to Watch 2017, ten women who are likely to kill it in 2017. But today, here's a quick note about something that's been circling the country music community lately.

My favorite part of writing about country music is getting to listen to the mass of music that is out there, but then finding those great records that make listening to hundreds of Taylor Swift wannabes worth it. These 20 albums and EPs from 2016 are in my opinion, some of the best listens of the year. From soul country, to pop-country to traditional records, this list covers the best records from all forms of country, released by women who are killing it right now.

*Note: some of these records were released towards the tail-end of 2015, and therefore were not eligible for last years categories, so they were included this year.