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It's CMA Fest in Nashville. Pretty much the busiest week of the year! It's suitably jam packed in our round up of all the biggest and best new releases from the world of country and Americana this week too, with everyone from Zac Brown Band and Jordan Davis to Jessie Murph and Whiskey Myers turning up to join in the party.
Listen along to our Holler Best New Country playlist on Spotify, YouTube, Amazon and Apple Music.
This week's Best New Country cover star is Hailey Whitters. We've been partying with the self-styled Corn Queen all week in Nashville to celebrate her brilliant new album. We even threw her an exclusive album launch party at Skinny Dennis in Nashville where she treated her most loyal fans to an early listen to some of the songs from her new album, Corn Queen.
Produced once again by her longtime collaborator (and now-husband) Jake Gear, the 16-song collection is a rousing reflection on Whitters’ midwestern roots and the joys and struggles of small-town living, featuring special guests Molly Tuttle, Charles Wesley Godwin and The Wilder Blue.
“Well, as corny as it sounds, corn is literally the backdrop in my entire life," Whitters told the audience. "My mom and dad brought me home from the hospital to a baby blue single-wide trailer, in the middle of a corn field. My dad worked night shifts for the corn plant in town. So it may just be this simple, humble crop, but it truly is the lifeblood of where I come from. This record is equal parts labour and love”.
Watch the video for 'White Limousine' below.
After debuting the song at Morgan Wallen's Sand in My Boots festival two weeks ago, Laci Kaye Booth pays tribute to fellow Texan, the King of Country George Strait and men who get better with age on her new single.
“My very first concert was George Strait, the nosebleed seats at Houston Livestock show and rodeo,” Booth shares. “The majority of his music I’ve known by heart since I was a little girl. This song is about admiring and loving a cowboy as he ages, with the prime example being the King of Country music, the Troubadour himself.”
Watch the video for 'George F****** Strait' below
Jordan Davis contemplates his failings on 'Jesus Wouldn't Do' as he gives us another preview of his forthcoming studio album, Learn The Hard Way, due out in August. While Dylan Gossett pays tribute to the 'Sweet Lady' in his life and Bailey Zimmerman finally releases the much-anticipated 'Comin' In Cold.'
Zac Brown Band are kicking back and taking it easy on their new single, 'I Ain't Worried About It,' and Old Dominion announce their new album, the intriguingly titled Barbara, a 13-song exploration of what it means to be positive, to seek the light and own your place in the world without denying reality.
Jessie Murph has announced her sophomore album, Sex Hysteria, for 18 July . A bold departure from the introspective grit of her debut, That Ain't No Man That’s The Devil, the album dives headfirst into uncharted territory - opening up about themes of sexuality, generational trauma, and self-discovery with a vulnerability and honesty that marks a new chapter in her artistic evolution.
Across 15 tracks, she reckons with the past, interrogates inherited trauma, and explores the emotional complexities of growing up in environments where feelings are buried deep. From confronting family wounds to reclaiming her body and desires, she pushes back against the shame and stigma that often silence women who dare to be loud, sexual, or emotionally honest.
She gives us another taste of the album with the seductive new single 'Touch Me Like A Gangster' after debuting it at the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Show in Miami.
Watch the official visualizer for 'Touch Me Like A Gangster' below.
Elsewhere we've got new singles from Joshua Quimby, Molly Tuttle, Dominique & The Diamonds, Adrien Nunez, Corey Kent and Drayton Farley. Plus, Yellowstone star Ryan Bingham releases his haunting new single, 'Dangerous' – an original song written for the upcoming thriller Dangerous Animals, which hits theaters nationwide tomorrow, Friday, June 6.
Written and performed by Bingham and recorded with the Texas Gentlemen, 'Dangerous' is raw and cinematic, mirroring the tension at the heart of the film: a relentless threat and the one bold enough to face it. With haunting lyrics, sparse instrumentation, and a steady, atmospheric rhythm, the song blurs the line between predator and prey. Gritty, evocative, and unmistakably Bingham.
As well as Hailey Whitters new album, we've got songs from freshly released long players and EPs from Waylon Wyatt, Lanie Gardner, Crowe Boys and Mary Chapin Carpenter. Plus, Rascall Flatts bring along their buddies as they hit the road for another once around the block on Life Is A Highway: Refueled Duets.
The Californian neo-traditionalist Jesse Daniel releases his fifth studio album, Son of the San Lorenzo, and we've got the brilliant title track for you in our playlist today.
"Everyone's got their own story to sell," he sings on the song. "There's truth and there's lies / but it gets hard to tell which one is which in the big magazines, in the stories they feed us from our glowing screens."
"Trouble found me like the hair on my chin," he sings, confronting the demons that afflicted him and the addictions that began in his teenage years. "Each time I'd get clean it'd just grow back again / I got strung out and locked up but I made out alive, did a life worth of living in a short block of time."
Born and raised in Ben Lomond, CA, Daniel got his start playing guitar and drums in a variety of local bands, but trouble found him early. By the age of 12, he was already drinking, and by the time he hit 18, he was addicted to heroin and crystal meth. He bounced in and out of jail and rehab for several years with little hope for recovery until he began devoting himself to music and fell in love with his now-fiancé, Jodi Lyford.
"I can't say I'd like to go through it again, but I put down the spoon and I picked up the pen," he sings towards the end of 'Son of the San Lorenzo.' "Now I travel and sing with the love of my life, proud to say I made that decision right."
“I grew up in the San Lorenzo Valley on California’s Central Coast,” he explains, “and I carry it with me everywhere I go. The mountains and creeks and redwoods, all the people who lived and worked and died there, they’re what made me the artist I am today.”
Read our full reviews of all of this week's biggest albums over on Holler.
Every week we like to shine our Holler spotlight onto a song we're particularly smitten with and this week we're crazy for Nikki Lane's new single. The Highway Queen returns with 'Woodruff City Limit' ahead of her free show in her hometown this weekend.
"My Dad’s first anniversary of his death is quickly approaching and I’ve found it’s largely influenced my new recordings and life in general," she said about the show as she teased more new music on the way. "Many people I’ve met in my hometown of Woodruff, SC speak of how much my dad bragged about my music and career. One of those was my childhood friend and likeminded buddy Ben Harrison - they used to chat about me playing a concert in the ballpark under his old 'bedroom' at City Hall. 🙃 Well, they generously agreed to host us for a FREE show 6/7 with Gritty Flyright and the response has gotten too big for the ball field so they’ve taken things up the street to Main Street in front of Ben and Erin’s bar Tap Three."
"Woodruff was a one red-light town when I was growing up," she added. "Things are changing really quickly for this old town - and I’m hoping our show will be a record blowout day where you can bring your family to see some great free live music, and visit the place I was born and half raised - just outside of Woodruff City Limit."
Check out this week's new country and americana song releases and listen to the full playlist below:
Hailey Whitters
Bailey Zimmerman
Laci Kaye Booth
Dylan Gossett
Zac Brown Band
Jesse Daniel
Jordan Davis
Nikki Lane
Waylon Wyatt
Lanie Gardner
Old Dominion
Jessie Murph
Crowe Boys
Josua Quimby
Molly Tuttle
Dominique & The Diamonds
Adrien Nunez
Hannah Ellis
Whiskey Myers
Corey Kent
Ketch Secor
Kat Velasco
Adeem the Artist
Patty Griffin
Mary Chapin Carpenter
Olive Anthony Music
Drayton Farley
Chris Lane
Rascal Flatts and Brandon Lake
Ryan Bingham
Bo Staloch
Remy Garrison
Mario Flores
Poi Rogers
Eva Ricci
Caamp
S.G. Goodman
Hayden Pedigo
Jenna DeVries
The Kentucky Gentlemen
Brett Eldredge and Pedro Capô
Janet Simpson
Medium Build
Jake Banfield
Tyler Rich
James Barker Band
Shane Profitt
Madeline Edwards
Ruston Kelly
Louis TheSinger
the Bones of J.R. Jones
Philip Bowen
Kristen Budde
Jeremy Short
Emily Roth
Lori Rayne
Bex Lindsey
Brady Bazeal
Neal Casal
Florence Somerville
Bigg Vinny
Judy Blank
Mae Powell
Luke Tyler Shelton
Rob Wheeler
Toby May
Ryan Jesse
Morgan St. Jean
ryman leon
Creed Fisher
Austin Brown
Colt Graves
Tequila Sunrise
Wade Forster
Ty March.
Julia Vos
Bill Nash
Chasen Wayne
Nate Good
Tucker Zimmerman
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For more of the finest country playlists from Holler, see below: