Each week the Wide Open Country staff rounds up our favorite newly released country and Americana songs. Here are five new songs we can't stop listening to this week.
"Truck I Drove in High School," Devin Dawson
The popularity of Devin Dawson's acoustic take on his immensely successful co-write "God's Country" inspired him to launch a #MyTake YouTube series of stripped-down performances. For the inaugural episode, Dawson redid "Truck I Drove in High School," a co-write with Mitchell Tenpenny that appeared on Tenpenny's breakthrough 2018 album Telling All My Secrets. As an acoustic number, whip-smart lyrics that liken a teenage boy's first vehicle to a first love shift to the forefront and prove both cowriters' way with words.
—Bobby Moore
"Everywhere I'm Goin'," Maddie & Tae
Maddie & Tae deliver the tight harmonies and vivid storytelling we've come to expect on the title track of the duo's forthcoming Everywhere I'm Goin' E.P. The new song and its accompanying video celebrate life on the road while placing both members' significant others on a pedestal higher than even the most high-profile tour. The song arrives while Maddie & Tae head down the highway with Carrie Underwood and Runaway June as part of Underwood's Cry Pretty 360 tour.
—Bobby Moore
"Life Ain't Fair," Canaan Smith
Canaan Smith praises God for gifting him the woman in his life in this song that's thematically like Garth Brooks' "Unanswered Prayers." Friends with strict definitions of "country" who're willing to give Dierks Bentley a fair shake because he clearly knows his stuff about older music and bluegrass might be interested in Smith's latest song because of its content and execution. Just don't tell them that it's a Tyler Hubbard co-write.
—Bobby Moore
"Feet Off the Ground," Brent Cobb and Jade Bird
Two of Americana's best — Brent Cobb and Jade Bird — team up for your new favorite slow dance song: "Feet Off the Ground." Cobb and Bird wrote the sweet tune while Cobb was on tour in Europe and their natural chemistry was perfectly captured by Brent's cousin, Dave Cobb, when the two recorded it at Nashville's historic RCA Studio A.
— Bobbie Jean Sawyer
"Don't Blame It On Whiskey," Jon Pardi ft. Lauren Alaina
Jon Pardi's newly released third album Heartache Medication finds him fully leaning into the traditional country he's long championed. Anyone searching for another youngster to carry on the neo-traditional '90s country music they were raised on should look no further than Pardi. One of the album's many standouts is the Miranda Lambert and Eric Church co-write "Don't Blame it One Whiskey," which pairs Pardi with Lauren Alaina for a stunning duet about a couple facing the end of their relationship in the sober light of day.
— Bobbie Jean Sawyer
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