Every week, the Wide Open Country team rounds up our favorite newly released country, folk, bluegrass and Americana songs. Here are six songs we currently have on repeat.
"All My Love Is Coming Back to Me," S.G. Goodman
Kentucky singer-songwriter S.G. Goodman unveils a positive ode to good things to come on the pulsing rocker "All My Love Is Coming Back to Me," the latest release from her forthcoming album Teeth Marks (out June 3).
"I needed a positive mantra, I was just willing good things to come to me," Goodman told Paper about the song.
Teeth Marks is the follow up to Goodman's 2020 album Old Time Feeling.
— Bobbie Jean Sawyer
"Nothing With You," Logan Mize & Grace Leer
There's something special about this breakup song. Sometimes it's not about the drama or the big moments shared together, it's the simple everyday mundane you'll miss the most after a relationship ends. Logan Mize invited his tour opener, Grace Leer, to collaborate on "Nothing With You" and the mix of their two voices really brings the song to life. Leer was a contestant on Season 18 of American Idol, which took her from Nashville bars to national recognition. Her stunning vocals add some extra dimension to Logan Mize's heartland charm. According to Mize, the song ended up being a sequel to his previous breakup anthem "Grew Apart."
"I thought 'Grew Apart' needed a part two, or as Donovan Woods calls it: 'grew together,'" says Mize in a press release. "Having Grace on 'Nothing With You' gave it the mojo it needed! I think yer gonna dig it."
— Courtney Fox
"She Had Me at Heads Carolina," Cole Swindell
As a fan of the Jo Dee Messina song "Heads Carolina, Tails California," Cole Swindell's new release from his latest album Stereotype stopped me in my tracks. "She Had Me At Heads Carolina" is a reimagining/tribute to Messina's song and adds something extra to the old '90s classic. Apparently, Swindell got permission from everyone involved in the original song before working on his new single that he conceptualized with Thomas Rhett while they were on tour together. As a major fan of '90s country, I absolutely loved this new song and plan on having it on repeat for the foreseeable future.
Swindell also told Messina she's welcome to join in on the song at any time. Does this mean we're going to have one heck of a music video coming our way soon?
— Courtney Fox
"Inbred," IV and The Strange Band
Coleman Williams, the son of Hank III and great-grandson of Hank Williams, found refuge at a young age in Nashville's DIY house show scene. Time spent favoring punk and metal gigs over honky-tonk daydreams impacts the amalgam of sounds heard on his group IV and The Strange Band's debut album, Southern Circus (out June 17 via Shooter Jennings' Black Country Rock).
A blend of country instrumentation and outsider aggression fuels "Inbred." A press release describes the song and its chilling music video as turning "the true-life tale of the Fugates —a Kentucky family whose inbred history attracted the attention and anger of religious zealots during the 1800s— into a song about Christian hypocrisy."
With songs like "Inbred," Williams isn't trying to be like anyone else from country or rock's back pages, kinfolks included.
"I like to say, 'What doesn't kill you makes you stranger,'" Williams shared in a press release. "I love strangeness and I love my Strange Band. The most genuine people in this world are those who allow themselves to be the weirdos they truly are, because once you repress yourself, that's when you become someone you're not."
— Bobby Moore
"Single Wide Dreamer," Aaron Raitiere
Nashville songwriter Aaron Raitiere's narrative-style "Single Wide Dreamer" points back to comparable musical yarns spun by Tom T. Hall, Bobby Bare and others known for tongue-in-cheek realism.
Even if this wasn't their intention, Raitiere and co-writer Jon Decious crafted a character study that can't be pinned to a particular time or place. "He's a shoulda, coulda, woulda, maybe still he oughta be/ A preacher or professor of highfalutin philosophy" could describe some know-it-all from the same rural neighborhood as the set-in-his-ways lead from Bare's 1978 song "Yard Full of Rusty Cars." Or Raitiere's telling us about a reckless millennial who's learned the hard way that a college education hardly guarantees an easy path to the American dream.
It's the title track from Raitiere's debut album (out May 6 via Dinner Time Records/Thirty Tigers), which was produced by Anderson East and Miranda Lambert.
— Bobby Moore
"We Did It Anyway," Chris Janson
Chris Janson is back with a beautiful nostalgic track, the latest from his forthcoming album All In (out April 29). Written by Janson, Ashley Gorley, Dallas Davidson and Chris Stevens, the song reflects on his childhood, celebrating the good times. The song is one of 16 tracks on the new album, which features collaborations with Travis Tritt and Eric Church.
"This is my kids' favorite song on the album, and I love hearing them sing along. They usually pick the hits - so I'm excited for the fans to hear it!" Janson told Warner Music Nashville. "The video was a blast to shoot. Everything was exactly how we did it growing up - a hay trailer with guitars and amps in a big, open field. It doesn't get better than that."
Throughout his career, Janson has collected four chart-topping singles, has 1.7 billion on-demand streams, and seven billion airplay impressions. He is currently headlining his Halfway to Crazy Tour, alongside Shane Profit and Ray Fulcher.
—Silke Jasso
