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:
"My Best Thinkin'," Clint Black
Prior Clint Black recording and Steve Wariner co-write "America (Still in Love With You)" brought hope that Black's forthcoming album Out of Sane (out June 19) would roll the clock back to the '90s, when fiery fiddles plus steamy love stories equaled country hits. New album cut "My Best Thinkin'" ups those expectations with its straightforward lyrics about new love making a man plumb dumb. It's classic Black from start to finish, with bonus points awarded for a brief railroad analogy.
—Bobby Moore
"Give Me Back the 90's," Joe & Martina Feat. John Berry
Duo Joe & Martina, formerly known as Terra Bella, might as well be called Karen Brooks & Randy Sharp because their newest song sounds like it came from the decade that brought us "Baby I'm the One." Indeed, "Give Me Back the 90's" is a purposefully on-the-nose celebration of a simpler time, on the country charts and in day-to-day life. The song and its music video get sweetened by the inclusion of John Berry, one of the best storytellers from those halcyon days.
—Bobby Moore
"Say It Simply," Mike & The Moonpies Feat. Johnny Bush
Joe & Martina isn't the only contemporary group honoring the past alongside a living legend. Mike & the Moonpies' latest addition to the Red Dirt discourse is a version of "Say It Simply" featuring Johnny Bush, the still-active 85-year-old best known for writing "Whiskey River." In the process, a song first heard on the Moonpies' 2015 album Mockingbird became a more vivid daydream about honky-tonks and dance halls of yore.
—Bobby Moore
"All Night," Brothers Osborne
Brothers Osborne are back with another party anthem: "All Night," an ode to letting loose that showcases the duo's outlaw attitude and signature shredding.
"That's the type of song I feel like the world could use right now with all the stress that we're going through, so put on your dancing boots, crank this one up and commence to dancin'," John Osborne says in a press release.
The song is the debut single from the duo's third album, the follow-up to 2018's Port Saint Joe.
— Bobbie Jean Sawyer
"Options Open," Kathleen Edwards
After stepping away from music in 2014 to run her Ottawa coffee shop Quitters, Kathleen Edwards returns with the gorgeous, reflective "Options Open," the debut single from her forthcoming album Total Freedom (out on August 14), her fifth-studio album since her 2003 debut Failer.
— Bobbie Jean Sawyer
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