Miranda Lambert released one of her best singles to date, "Vice" as the lead single off of her coming album (date and title to be announced). She followed up the stellar single with a moving video, that reflects the vibe of the song perfectly.
Maren Morris's debut record Hero is a genre-blending masterpiece. The record mixes country with her soul and pop influences, while maintaining an extremely high quality of songwriting throughout. A highlight from that record is the album closer, "Once," a soulful track about moving on from a relationship, but also remembering and celebrating the relationship for what it was.
The simplest songs are sometimes the best, as Ashley Monroe proves with "Has Anybody Ever Told You." The love song is a classic country song, and sounds as if it was written in a different decade. With the simple hook, "has anybody ever told you, they'd be lucky just to know you," this song stuns in a way that not many country songs are able to these days. Monroe recently pointed out, when talking about the track, that this song says things that everyone wants to be told, but not many people are. It's about a flawless love, something that people crave.
Country singer April Kry is known for her big, bold voice, and her new cover of the Maren Morris hit just reiterates the power of her voice. But she also countrifies the pop-heavy pop-country track, and gives the song a whole new sound and twang not present on Morris's version. Throughout the video, Kry is as energetic and infectious as her voice, showing off her strong stage presence and amazing performing skills.
Summer is a season full of sun and new music, but it's not often that you can find a song as catchy as Brittany McLamb's new single to be your summer soundtrack. Released to iTunes on April 29, "I Like Where This Is Going" is a fun mid-tempo country pop song that could easily be the song that catapults McLamb into stardom. Written by McLamb, Phillip Howard and cousin Lauren McLamb, this song is perfect for summer. It's a song about living in the moment but also about being excited for the future, and in this case, the future of a potential relationship. McLamb's vocals shine and this song brings out the best parts of her as an artist.
The newest song from Ruthie Collins, who broke out in late 2014 with her transformative cover of the classic Hank Williams song, "Ramblin' Man," is back with a ballad that is quite possibly her best work yet. This new track was written by Collins with Natalie Stovall and Jessica Roadcap, and it is an open letter ( in song form) to a country music great, Dolly Parton.
This week's Video of the Week is a song written by two women of country, recent Belmont University graduates Kassi Ashton and Emily Landis. The tune that Ashton sings in this live performance is "Tumbleweed," a blues-driven country tune that sounds like a hit-in-the-making.
If there's a female country artist who gets the least recognition for her unbelievable talent in this industry, it would be Jenna McDaniel. She's from Texas, and she's not very well known in the music scene yet, but that doesn't stop her music from being incredible. She's young, but her vocals and lyrics are 100% there. More there than a lot of artists her age, artists much more well-known than her. Her last two projects, the EP, Summertime, and Little Miss Understanding were an evolution from good to great, and the most recent songs that she posted on SoundCloud, including this song, “Unknown” and other stellar songs “Coming Back to Texas” and “It Hurts So Good,” are excellent.
A new acoustic performance by Danielle Bradbery regained the 'potential' she lost when she released "Friend Zone." Bradbery has always been extremely talented, but now finally, she's writing and performing songs that actually show the extent of that talent.
Video of the Week: "Peter Pan" establishes Kelsea Ballerini as a serious country music star4/4/2016
Kelsea Ballerini entered the country music industry with two No. 1's, but both for fun, flirty pop country singles that weren't quite able to show the extent of her ability as a country singer or songwriter. Her newest single and the video for it show the country music industry that Ballerini is more than the persona she exuded in her first two singles: she is a serious, and incredibly talented singer/songwriter.
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