10 Country and Americana Artists You Need to Know

It's time for another of our monthly round-ups of the 10 Country and Americana Artists You Need to Know.

This month, we've got a Hawaiian roots reggae-star who's blending it all up with classic traditional to make an intoxicating cocktail of laid-back country, a hi-NRG bluegrass band from Richmond, Virginia raised on Doc Watson and the Osborne Brothers blowing up on TikTok and an eclectic singer songwriter from Jacksonville Beach, Florida, who's enjoying a viral moment of her own with a Brent Cobb duet.

There's all this and more as we dive into another of Holler's monthly roundups of our latest loves; a who's who of the most exciting prospects to begin leaving their mark on the country and Americana landscape.

Here's Holler's 10 New and Upcoming Country and Americana Artists You Need to Know for April 2025:

We're almost overrun with country artists infusing their sound with hip hop and R&B; their trappy beats and booming G-Funk basslines blasting out of both their studios and our stereos. But when it comes to reggae music, country singers have seemed reluctant to get the melting pot bubbling.

We've had a Kacey Musgraves' cover of Bob Marley's 'Three Little Birds,' Niko Moon partnering up with Michael Franti and Shaggy, Ziggy Marley working with Kenny Chesney and Florida Georgia Line and Willie Nelson's entirely reggae Countryman album, but it still feels like no one has really taken up that space. Until now that is.

“That island-boy country mix. It’s not a vacation, it’s a real lifestyle,” Maoli explains, a native of upcountry Maui on the island’s northern shore. “It’s very special to me because I’m very proud of where I come from, and I feel like Hawaii has something really special to offer the world – but until now, you’ve had to live here to understand it."

"I feel like it’s my kuleana – my job – to share that with the world.”

The birthplace of steel guitar, Hawaii has always been synonymous with reggae and rock, but it was the classic country that Maoli’s grandmother loved, like Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson and George Strait, that spoke directly to the farm boy’s everyday life.

“It’s funny how the things they would talk about in country music was everything that we did here,” Maoli says with a laugh. “I was like, ‘Man, that’s how we do things over here in the country, too!’”

Originally establishing himself with a mix of island pop and roots reggae, a string of hugely successful independent albums garnered him a committed fan base that first stretched across the Hawaiian islands, then the whole of Polynesia, the American West Coast and eventually as far east as Texas.

It was there that he began to connect the dots and rediscover his country roots. The tropes of country songs resonated with the rural farm life that had been central to Maoli’s early experiences, and it was only a matter of time before the country sound of his youth caught up with him again.

Around 2018, he began mixing in country motifs and tropical rock into the smooth, laid-back swaying melodies, heart-on-his-sleeve delivery and solid rhythms of his sound, slipping a few originals and covers of emotionally charged country ballads like Blake Shelton's 'Who Are You When I'm Not Looking' and Brett Young's 'Mercy' and 'In Case You Didn't Know' into his albums.

Maoli and Brett Young eventually collaborated on 'Broke Heart Break,' as they blended breezy backbeats and brassy horns over a lesson in exercising caution in a new relationship. Now working in Nashville for the first time with hit producers Dann and David Huff, Maoli's forthcoming studio album, Last Sip of Summer, is set for June, and if the singles so far are anything to go by, it's going to be spending a lot of time on our turntable when the sun comes out.

“Nobody has brought the island-reggae feel to it yet,” Maoli explains. “The only ones that I’ve seen get close were guys like Jimmy Buffet and Kenny Chesney. But the thing is, the stuff they sing about is actually who I really am.”

We might need to get ourselves one of those portable record players so we can take it on the boat with us.

Last Sip of Summer is released on 27th June. 'In a Bar,' 'Yours Truly' and the title-track are available now.

Listen If You Like: Jimmy Buffett, Kenny Chesney, Niko Moon

"I would describe my sound as campfire-music," Anna Bates says curiously. "Storytelling heavily rooted in indie-folk and Americana with a whimsical-cinematic edge."

Born in Fresno, California, Anna Bates spent most of her formative years honing that whimsical edge, living in a quiet and religious household filled with books and with limited access to electronics in the Santa Clarita Valley, at the base of the San Gabriel mountains. It's there, in the shadow of that mountain, that her delicate, end-of-the-worldly folk songs still seem to exist in some way.

"From an early age, I was aware of how vast the mountains were," she says, "and how mysterious nature, the universe and life seemed to be."

"These observations and ideas fueled my writing - there was nothing more I wanted to do than to explore both the immensity and smallness of life through writing and storytelling."

There is something oddly delicate and almost otherworldly about her country-tinged take on traditional folk music. Listening to songs like 'Rare Disease' and 'Green Glass Head' feels like looking through a hole into the hollow of a tree and finding a family of strange mice-like creatures living in there, sitting around a miniature piano wearing hand sewn outfits, singing old forgotten folk songs.

"This probably comes as a surprise to most people, but I did not grow up listening to much music outside of my parent’s religious CD collection," she says. "In fact, I would say most of my music is fueled more by poets and books I read, than musical artists. However, in my teen years, I discovered Gillian Welch and Bob Dylan, both of which have greatly impacted my writing."

Following on from her debut EP, Here’s to the End, in 2022, she's released a string of standalone country-folk curiosities over the last few years that have confirmed Bates to be one of Americana's most unique and singular storytellers.

Her fresh perspective on the minutiae of everyday life and everything that happens after it explores themes of death, identity, faith and transcendence, while her latest single, 'Kids in Cardigans,' is a giddy, twee country anthem for doomed youth. If the noughties anti-folk scene had been based in Nashville not New York, the Juno soundtrack would have sounded more like this.

"It's a story of infatuation that takes place under the disco ball, from the perspective of a wallflower," she says. "It is my personal reflection of youth, wanting to fit in, wanting to find love, and watching friends disintegrate into shells of themselves. Simply put, it is a coming-of-age story and an homage to a generation of beautiful people searching for fulfillment in all the wrong places. But mostly, it is a song that I hope people will dance terribly to whenever, wherever, and with whomever they want."

Now living in Nashville, Bates is working on her debut album with close friend and creative Sully Bright, and is set to release it Summer 2025. Without wanting to wish away the Spring, it can't come soon enough for us.

'Kids in Cardigans' is out now on Westinghouse Records

Listen If You Like: Clover County, Gillian Welch, Lana Del Rey

"I think the biggest influence I've taken from this town is the fact that you know everything about everyone, and everyone knows everything about you," Cole Phillips says about his hometown of Bridge Creek, Oklahoma, with its population of just 336. "There’s honestly a lot of cool stories to tell coming out of a town like this."

Bridge Creek might have to get used to there only being 335 residents for the foreseeable future, because Cole Phillips isn't going to be spending much time at home in 2025.

Inspired by Hank Williams Jr. and David Allan Coe, he grew up listening to a little bit of everything, from Creed and J Cole to Oasis and Nirvana, with a little Zach Bryan and Cody Jinks in there too.

"I mainly grew up on red dirt and older country," he says. "Folks like Jason Boland, Stoney LaRue, Turnpike Troubadours, Merle Haggard, Earl Thomas Conley and Don Williams."

His breakout single 'Drinking Alone' went viral in 2023, amassing millions of streams and introducing him as a compelling new voice in country music, but it's Phillips' debut EP, Steel Toes and Texacos, released in April, that cements his status as a natural heir to those red dirt heroes who inspired him. From the rattling, Waylon-esque outlaw country of 'West Tx' to the introspective, gently strummed foot-tapper 'American Dream,' this is the sound of a true country artist hitting his stride and not showing signs of slowing down any time soon.

Named after the opening line of the 'Magnolias in May,' each track on Steel Toes and Texacos was co-written by Cole and produced by Trevor Thornton, offering a raw and vivid snapshot of life, heartbreak and resilience in small-town America.

"This EP has a little bit of everything for everyone, including an old timey train beat in 'West Tx' and a more commercial feel in 'Junk Drawer,' he says. "I think all the different styles of music sum me up as a person."

Steel Toes and Texacos is out now on RECORDS

Listen If You Like: Muscadine Bloodline, Braxton Keith, Charles Wesley Godwin

Growing up in Jacksonville Beach, Florida, a place where Madison Hughes says, "music feels like it's stitched into the rhythm of everyday life," it's easy to see where one of Americana's most consistently surprising contemporary voices gets her eclecticism from.

"I was surrounded by a mix of blues, classic rock and folk," Hughes says. "Fusion naturally made its way into my vocal style. I learned that I simply love singing anything with soul. I was captivated by melodies from a young age - I loved how skilled musicians could make a guitar sing, and how a talented vocalist could evoke deep emotions with just their voice."

Released last week, the follow up to her debut album, Renditions, from 2022, Madison Hughes' All That I Am is as all-encompassing as the title suggests, taking in everything from sultry blues and twisted folk to softly strummed, mellowed out country, 90s AOR pop and upsized indie-pop. Co-produced by Lera Lynn and Todd Lombardo, it includes Hughes' soulful, low-key viral duet with Brent Cobb, 'Nobody Knows Your Love.'

"All That I Am is probably the most personal thing I’ve put out," Hughes says. "Every track feels like a snapshot of a moment I had to live through to write about - some beautiful, some brutal".

"It’s about love, loss, self-reflection, and the spaces between," Hughes continues, "I wanted the record to feel like a conversation with someone at 2 a.m. - honest, unfiltered, and full of heart. It’s not just stories I’ve told, it’s stories I’ve lived."

"I try to blend raw honesty with melody, leave enough space for emotion to breathe, but keep things grounded," she says, explaining how her mix of countryfied indie, americana and soul is always rooted in storytelling. "Vocally, I carry a lot of that R&B influence with me, even when I’m singing over more organic, acoustic-driven arrangements. It’s not about genre-hopping - it’s more about chasing a feeling and letting the song tell me where it wants to go."

We're happy to follow these songs wherever they want to take us.

All That I Am by Madison Hughes is out now.

Listen If You Like: Brandi Carlile, Nicole Atkins, Kacey Musgraves

Picking up the torch of strong-willed women in country, Grace Tyler's latest EP, Everything I Didn't Say, is filled with the kind of self-assertive, emotionally charged no-holds-barred songwriting that country music was built on.

"Grit and grace," the singer says, trying to describe her sound. "I really love music that's extremely vulnerable as well as has attitude."

Songs like 'She Wasn't Crazy,' 'Weak Man' and 'I Hope You Have a Daughter' proudly centre women's stories and experiences in the same way that classics like 'Independence Day' and 'Never Wanted To Be That Girl' always have. These are songs by women and about women, that give a voice to all the thoughts and emotions that the world too often doesn't want to listen to.

"This EP was such a passion project of mine," she says. "I went through a really difficult breakup last year- and after we broke up, there were so many things I thought to say after that I wish I could've thought of in the moment- thus Everything I Didn't Say was born."

"It's six songs that explain my emotional journey throughout the heartbreak and the healing through the aftermath" Tyler adds. "Each song feels like it is a different perspective on what happened - and I am so proud of the art we created when I was at my lowest."

Growing up in Frisco, Texas, Tyler moved to Nashville to attend Belmont University and hone her songwriting – taking mentorship from multi-Platinum recording artist and unequivocal storyteller, Lee Brice. Her breakthrough, the viral breakup single 'My Mistake', set her stall out early as the sort of singer she intended to be and four years later, armed with her debut EP, it feels like she's finally, fully arrived. A raw and honest recounting of all the things we hold back from saying in relationships just to hold on to them, this is the sound of Grace Tyler staring her emotions down and not flinching.

Everything I Didn't Say by Grace Tyler is available now.

Listen If You Like: Carly Pearce, Ingrid Andress, Mickey Guyton

Scoot Teasley is one of those artists who has so many ideas bubbling away, that the only way to get anything cooked is by throwing them all in the pot. Luckily for us, it's a concoction that packs a lot of flavour and some real heat.

He's been pushing hard against the boundaries and expectations of what country music is by blending his classic country roots with modern hip-hop and R&B influences. Raised in Toccoa, Georgia, his musical journey began behind the drum kit and in church pews, which sparked off a lifelong love for rhythm and melody.

"Growing up in the south and in the church had a huge impact on who I am and the music I make," he says. "The church is where I learned how to play and sing, and it’s where I first felt the power of music to move people. Being from Georgia, I was surrounded by so many sounds - country, gospel, soul, hip hop - so all of that ended up shaping how I hear and create music."

It's a sound that blends the small-town storytelling of Sam Hunt with Max Martin's stadium-sized pop hooks and the emotional punch of Morgan Wallen.

"I’d call it country soul with a sway of R&B and gospel influences," he says about his sound, explaining how he'd hear everything from New Edition and Fantasia to Mary J. Blige playing around the house when he was growing up. "It’s grounded in country storytelling but with melodies, a groove… I’m just trying to be honest with what I’m living and blend the music that raised me into something that feels real to who I am."

On his latest single, 'Dirt Road Dropout,' he glances in the rearview mirror to pay tribute to his upbringing, making sure he stays authentic to his roots and his raising.

"It's about choosing your own path and carrying where you’re from with you. It’s about holding on to the things that raised you - the lessons, the values, the reminders that keep you grounded and true to who you are. Not changing just because your surroundings do," Teasley explains.

"I was never the kid who checked every box - I learned more from life, love, and my mistakes than anything else. It’s gritty, soulful, and honest… a reminder that life has a way of leading you where you’re meant to be. But never forget who you are on the way there."

'Dirt Road Dropout' is available now on Amigo Records

Listen If You Like: Sam Hunt, Morgan Wallen, Dylan Scott

After releasing her 8-track collection Too Far Gone last year, Ashley Ryan hasn't wasted any time getting new music out there in 2025.

'Wrong Post,' her classic 'woman scorned' anthem released last month, is the sound of an artist firing on all cylinders, and she's got a lot more left in the barrel yet.

Originally from Corona, California, Ashley Ryan's early penchant for poetry led her onto songwriting at 16, when her grandfather gifted her her first guitar, and the rural storytelling of country music resonated with the teenager who felt like she'd never quite fitted in out in the suburbs.

“I didn’t have anyone to sing my songs, so I started singing them myself, and it just seemed to work,” Ryan says. "Deep down, I always longed for a slower, simpler life - being on a farm, around horses, and close to the kind of blue-collar, small-town values that country music reflects. I didn’t grow up in that world, but God used country music to plant those desires in my heart.

"It became my escape and also a glimpse of the life He was calling me toward," Ryan adds. "Jesus has been at the center of my journey, even when things didn’t make sense. I truly believe He gave me this passion and purpose, not just to make music, but to tell stories that reflect His goodness, even through heartbreak or struggle. That’s what drives me."

Her latest single, 'My Crazy,' betrays the influence that the women of noughties country had on her, mixing the gritty country sass of Miranda Lambert with the glossy country power-pop of Carrie Underwood.

“I grew up singing ‘Before He Cheats’ and ‘Gunpowder and Lead.’" Ryan mentions. "I really love fiddle in a song - I love that old traditional country, the grungy female country with the sassy drop D guitar and rolling banjo. So that’s what you’ll get from me.”

"It's a fun, playful song that really captures the whirlwind of falling for someone unexpectedly," she adds. "It’s about that wild feeling of being swept off your feet and realizing you’re suddenly in a place you never thought you’d be."

"The song explores the shift from being a free spirit, kind of a drifter, to feeling like you’ve found someone who makes you want to stay put. There’s a raw, unfiltered emotion to it—like realizing you’re crazy about someone and embracing that feeling. It’s a mix of vulnerability and excitement, and I love how it speaks to that ‘out-of-control’ feeling of love - when you’re just all in, no looking back."

'My Crazy' is released on 18th April on Spinville Entertainment

Listen If You Like: Miranda Lambert, Carrie Underwood, Meghan Patrick

Hailing from Richmond, Virginia, The Jack Wharff Band are "on a mission to see people Be Saved, Be Freed, and Be Serving," and they've got life affirming, soul-stirring bluegrass doing the Lord's work with them.

Comprised of vocalist and frontman Jack Wharff, drummer Garrett Howell, bassist Ryan Atchison and guitarist Evan Novoa, the band feel like they're balanced on the edge of blowing up in a big way.

Raised on Doc Watson, Tony Rice, the Osborne Brothers, and by "Jack’s dad who played in a bluegrass band", their sound is an infectious blend of rattling, hi-NRG jugband bluegrass and off-kilter country rock that they describe simply as “American Music."

"Virginia is very big on bluegrass and that influences every song we write in some way," the band says, but that undersells what they're doing with that influence when they supersize it up and reimagine it for a younger audience on songs like 'Picture Perfect,' 'Burnin' It Down' and their cover of Tyler Childers' 'Messed Up Kid.'

While "Bluegrassifying" songs like 'Tennessee Whiskey' and Teddy Swims' 'Lose Control' has helped them crack TikTok's algorithm, opening up for everyone from Evan Honer and Nolan Taylor to Josh Meloy and Sam Barber over the last few years has fueled the fire of their already incendiary live shows. Recent single, 'Washed,' is a breakneck bluegrass spiritual that sounds like Tyler Childers on speed.

"This one means more than anything to me," Jack Wharff says. "This is a testimony song about how Jesus saved my life. It has everything to do with Him and very little to do with my own strength. Frankly, it is the only reason we are here and do this."

'Washed' by Jack Wharff Band is out now on Big Machine

Listen If You Like: Zach Bryan, Crowe Boys, Mumford and Sons

"I was raised just outside of Moody, TX on a little piece of land in the rolling hills surrounded by radio towers, trains and coyotes," Dustin Brown says of a childhood that primed him for the raw, heart-on-sleeve country folk songs he's making a name for himself with. "I imagine the solitude and time alone allowed a mind to wonder, and that influenced a lot of who I am today and my writing"

“Being raised running wild in the woods with just my dog and my thoughts, I feel deeply about everything," he adds. "I’m a writer and a poet first, and a music creator second.”

As a child he grew up on the classics, the songs his dad put him onto - Johnny Horton, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson and George Jones - while he picked up on Alan Jackson, Keith Whitley and Garth Brooks from the '90s country radio stations his mom was tuned into.

"In my teenage years I found Texas Country with Wade Bowen, Randy Rodgers and the like," he says. "Found my grit and storytelling with the likes of Steve Earle, Robert Earl Keen, Jerry Jeff Walker and Billy Joe Shaver. Then I found my lighthouse in Townes, Blaze, Prine, Guy, Dave Van Ronk, Nick Drake and the Jackson C. Franks of the world."

As a result, his third, self-titled album, released at the end of March, is a mix of dashboard pounding, life-affirming heartland rock and reflective, roughly picked red dirt ballads. Dustin Brown is a storyteller with an old soul, a wandering troubadour returning home from years spent out on the road, learning about the world from the little bits of life he's seen unfolding before him wherever he goes.

"This album is me getting out of my own way and doing what I know is right," he says. "It's also a goodbye letter to my wilder years with maybe a nod to my raising. It's an apology or love letter to those who know me, and an invitation to understand who I am for those who don't."

Dustin Brown's self-titled album is available now

Listen If You Like: Jason Isbell, Lukas Nelson, Justin Townes Earle

Chicago-based Tobacco City are country misfits who make the kind of records that sound like they could have been cut fifty years ago, soaked through with the kind of sadness and heartache that will never get old. The follow-up to Tobacco City, USA, their second album, Horses, builds on the timeless cosmic country of their 2021 debut, adding a spritz of soulful psychedelic folk and an extra layer of wry humour and melancholy to their peculiarly modern-day anxieties.

"I’m from the Milwaukee, Wisconsin area," says lead vocalist Chris Coleslaw. "Grew up in a small town on Lake Michigan. A lot of my songs are about growing up there and how much I hated it as a teenager. As an adult, it actually seems like a pretty cool place to live but, at the time, I really felt isolated there."

"It's about the hilarious pains of growing up in a shitty small town," he says about album opener 'Autumn,' which is typical of the themes they've explored on the new album. "All of the embarrassment and humiliation of being a teenager all seems so funny and sad from years away. All of it distorts as it becomes crystallized as memory. This memory takes place in permanent Autumn."

Growing up listening to his mom’s CD collection - "lots of Lilith Fair-adjacent stuff, as well as lots and lots of Paul Simon and Van Morrison" - it was Chris Coleslaw's grandma's interest in country music that explains the direction his own music took in later years for a teenager who was into local hardcore bands and indie outfits like Modest Mouse and the Flaming Lips.

"My favorite descriptor is 'poser-country,'" says lead vocalist Chris Coleslaw. "I usually think of our sound as a country-tinged, folk rock type of thing. I think the new album is way more folk inspired than straight country. In my opinion there’s only a couple of real country songs on there. Horses is a big leap for us. We really put a lot into the sound of this album. Nick Broste took our idea of a big, clean, pretty album and made it real!! The songs on it have been with us in our live set for a while, so they’re sort of already old favorites to us, but the sound of the album was a lot different than our previous recordings."

Horses is out now on Scissortail Records

Listen If You Like: Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris, Honey Harper, Beachwood Sparks

Listen to a selection of songs from our 10 Artists You Need To Know on the playlist below.

For more of the monthly editions of Holler's 10 Artists You Need To Know, see below: