Best New Country Songs

It’s National Help A Horse Day, and what better way to celebrate than with our favourite cowboy. Charley Crockett releases his brand-new album, $10 Cowboy today, and we’ve got the song ‘America’ featured in our Best New Country playlist today.

$10 Cowboy was recorded at Arlyn Studios in Austin, TX, produced by Crockett and his long-time collaborator Billy Horton. It was recorded live to tape, with anywhere from 6-12 musicians on each track, giving the songs the feel of a live performance. It’s a sound Crockett has been after for years.

“The reason I cut it on tape is, when you get the right folks in the room, great players rise to the occasion,” he says. “When that red light is on and the tape is rolling, you get the magic of a performance”.

“I’m not the first or the best but I’m different. I’m just me,” Charley says. “To make a long story short, it ain’t how you say it. It’s havin’ somethin’ to say”.

Off the back of his appearances at Two Step Inn and Moon Crush festivals, Crockett makes his way to Stagecoach this weekend, before he hops across the pond in early May for three sold out solo shows at Hoxton Hall and an appearance at the legendary Rough Trade East in London town.

This week’s Best New Country cover star is GRAMMY nominee, CMA nominee and double ACM award winner Lee Brice. With Garth Brooks, Jason Aldean and Kenny Chesney among the artists that have recorded his songs, it’s fair to say Lee Brice has more than a few friends in high places.

He toasts some of those tried-and-true friendships on his new song ‘Drinkin’ Buddies,’ where he’s joined by two more of his famous friends, Nate Smith and Hailey Whitters. Cracking open a cold one, ‘Drinkin’ Buddies’ serves up a celebration equally fit for the shiniest honky-tonk or the dingiest backwoods dive bar. Either way, the ACM and CMA award winner and his crew cheers to always ending a bad day on a high note.

It’s Eeyore’s Birthday this weekend! Falling on the last Saturday in April every year, it’s a day-long celebration of A.A. Milne’s gloomy donkey, who famously believed his friends had forgotten his birthday only to discover they’d planned a surprise party for him.

Fittingly, the country queen of sad, Maggie Antone, has a new single out today. She leaves her usual mooniness at home for this one, bringing a big bag of fun to the party with her brilliant new single, ‘Johnny Moonshine’.

“It's one of my favorite songs we've written,” she told Holler. “It's so fun and cheerful. I always joke that Johnny Moonshine is my future husband. It's just a joke, but I hope he's real, that'd be kind of cool".

Written with Natalie Hemby and Aaron Raitiere, ‘Johnny Moonshine’ has its thumbs stuck firmly in its belt loops as it repurposes the ‘70s slow disco groove of ‘Stuck in the Middle with You’ and turns it into an outlaw country funk party anthem. It follows her previous singles ‘Suburban Outlaw’, ‘I Don’t Wanna Hear About It (feat. Brendan Walter)’ and one of our Holler Songs of the Year, ‘If Only You Played Football As Well As You Played Girls’.

“I feel like a lot of the stuff before that I had been putting out has been sad,” Antone says about her new single. “I'm a very sad person, but I'm also a very happy person, and sharing that part of me is fun. It's not just about the sad songs. The sad, sad songs are great, but sometimes you need a little pick-me-up”.

After first coming to our attention with the critically acclaimed, chart-dominating, six-week U.S. No. 1 Dustin Lynch duet ‘Thinking 'Bout You', rising country pop sensation Mackenzie Porter releases her full length Big Loud debut, Nobody’s Born with a Broken Heart, today, and we’ve included ‘Confession’ on our Best New Country Playlist this week.

The ambitious 19-track project, which culminates six years of writing, is teeming with Porter’s magnetic swagger and intimate country-pop anthems, as she mines the facets of heartbreak that have shaped her life.

It’s also National Remember Your First Kiss Day! Porter probably knew this, because ‘Confession’ is a stripped-back, sweeping power ballad all about comparing your future relationships to your first love.

Nashville-based Aussie artist Wesley Dean releases his new album Music from Crazy Hearts. Check out the music video for a neon-imbued kaleidoscopic romp through the seedy Las Vegas streets.

Filmed on his Crazy Hearts Across America summer tour, he and his family traveled over 5000 miles in an RV via towns steeped in musical history. Honouring the well worn paths of the greats before him, the experience was captured as part of the upcoming feature Crazy Hearts: The Documentary.

Travis Denning releases another track off his forthcoming album, Roads That Go Nowhere, due out at the end of May.

‘Add Her To The List’ tells the story of someone who lives in a world of deep regret, racked with guilt over decisions they instantly wish they could take back.

“I think it goes back to the Roads That Go Nowhere theme,” says Denning. “It’s easy to look back and go, ‘That was a dead end, that one worked out, I got stuck in traffic on that one and I drove 100 miles an hour down that one’. This song is almost totally parallel to that theme”.

After teasing us all week on her socials, Karley Scott Collins has finally revealed the identity of her mystery duet partner on her new single ‘How Do You Do That’, to be none other than Charles Kelley from Lady A. Of cooooourse!!!

Another one of country’s unmistakeable voices, Josh Turner is also back with a brand-new single, ‘Heatin’ Things Up’. The South Carolina native wraps his creamy baritone around the steamy slow burner and had us all checking the thermostat in the Holler offices. Someone crack a window! Crikey. How many little country babies are going to be conceived to this one?

Elsewhere we’ve got new ones from Ole 60, Johnny Cash (!?), Flatland Cavalry & Randy Rogers and Teigen Gayse.

Happy Best New Country Day!

Check out this week's new country song releases and listen to the full playlist below:

1. 1.

   Drinkin' Buddies

   Lee Brice, Hailey Whitters and Nate Smith

2. 2.

   America

   Charley Crockett

3. 3.

   Confession

   MacKenzie Porter

4. 4.

   Johnny Moonshine

   Maggie Antone

5. 5.

   Well Alright

   Johnny Cash

6. 6.

   Next To You

   Ole 60

7. 7.

   Better Mistake

   Teigen Gayse

8. 8.

   Cold

   Jessie Murph

9. 9.

   Let It Roll (feat. Randy Rogers)

   Flatland Cavalry & Randy Rogers

10. 10.

    How Do You Do That

    Karley Scott Collins and Charles Kelley

11. 11.

    Heatin' Things Up

    Josh Turner

12. 12.

    I Should have Known It

    Chris Stapleton

13. 13.

    Baby Daddy's Weekend

    Elle King

14. 14.

    Something You Can Hold

    Mason Ramsey

15. 15.

    Never Been Over

    Darius Rucker and Jennifer Nettles

16. 16.

    Lifetime Of Work

    Lost Dog Street Band

17. 17.

    Bail Money

    Matt Schuster

18. 18.

    Lonesome Highway

    Rainy Eyes

19. 19.

    Add Her To The List

    Travis Denning

20. 20.

    In My World

    Callie Twisselman

21. 21.

    Wrong Kind of Keepin' Me Up

    Ashland Craft

22. 22.

    Aurora

    Bowen*Young

23. 23.

    Hillside

    AJ Lee & Blue Summit

24. 24.

    On My Mind

    J.M. Clifford

25. 25.

    Great Again

    Ben Burgess

26. 26.

    I Ain't A Cowgirl

    Tiera Kennedy

27. 27.

    After Party

    The Lostines

28. 28.

    The Loneliest Girl In The World

    Laci Kaye Booth

29. 29.

    See It Like You

    Spencer Crandall

30. 30.

    Sunsets

    Rett Smith

31. 31.

    Scary Love

    Mickey Guyton

32. 32.

    Made In Texas

    Willie Nelson

33. 33.

    Hold On Tight

    Amos Lee

34. 34.

    Didn't I

    Austin Burke

35. 35.

    Mercy

    Wesley Dean

36. 36.

    21 Days

    Sara Evans

37. 37.

    Letting It Go

    Alice Wallace

38. 38.

    Bleedin'

    Alisan Porter

39. 39.

    Change In My Life

    Highway Natives

40. 40.

    Still Make Cowgirls

    Karli June

41. 41.

    Pretty

    Juliet Lloyd

42. 42.

    Light and Sweet

    Oliver Wood

43. 43.

    It's All Good 'Til It Ain't

    Struggle Jennings & Caitlynne Curtis

44. 44.

    Too Late

    David J & Anella Herim

45. 45.

    Go Baby Go (Part One)

    Mr. Sam & the People People

46. 46.

    My Vision Is Coming Back

    Gileah Taylor

47. 47.

    Now That I Found You

    Terri Clark & Ben Rector

48. 48.

    Down In New Orleans

    Drew Dangerfield

49. 49.

    Making It Up

    Bronte Fall

50. 50.

    Red Mustang

    Sarah Darling

51. 51.

    Carhartt

    Dylan Schneider

52. 52.

    I Know You Won't

    Sarah Hardwig

53. 53.

    Woman Outta Love

    Kylie Frey

54. 54.

    Neon Baby (Last Call)

    Annie Bosko

55. 55.

    I Wanna Know

    Maddox Batson

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For more of the finest country playlists from Holler, see below: