Best New Country Songs

It's National Jimmy Buffett day tomorrow! Time to kick back with a frozen margarita or two and celebrate a simple life filled with music and joy, and what better soundtrack than our weekly roundup of all the biggest and best new releases from the world of country and Americana.

This week we've got big new songs from Braxton Keith, Carson Beyer and HARDY, as well as album tracks from big new albums by Zach Top, Riley Green and Preston Cooper.

Listen along to all the songs in the playlist on Spotify, Amazon, Apple Music and YouTube.

This week's Best New Country cover star is Margo Price. The living country legend releases her new album, Hard Headed Woman, today as she returns to claim her place as the undisputed queen of country.

Reunited with producer Matt Ross-Spang, recorded in the historic RCA Studio A, the album marks the first album that Price has made in Nashville, a town she has called home for more than 20 years, and vitally helped to transform, creating a lane where independent and insurgent country music can exist and thrive alongside the mainstream.

Hard Headed Woman is a hell-bent collection of country music that reconnects with her roots, and further redefines what it means to be a modern outlaw, the album captures Margo Price at her wisest, funniest, toughest and most vulnerable.

"I always hope to do like Johnny Cash did, which is speak up for the common man and woman," says Margo Price about the album. "But there have been so many threats and anger and vitriol over the years, when I am only coming from a place of love. So I made the decision to rebuild everything from the ground up. I hope this album inspires people to be fearless and take chances and just be unabashedly themselves, in a culture that tries as hard as it can to beat us into all being the same."

We've got 'Love Me Like You Used To Do,' featuring the one and only Tyler Childers kicking off our playlist today.

Elsewhere in this week's playlist we've got new songs from Brett Kissel, Scoot Teasley and Tyler Rich. Plus, hot on the heels of the release of their amped up new album, Ain’t Rocked in a While, Brent Cobb & The Fixin's bring in Cody Cannon of Whiskey Myers for 'Power Man.'

“I've known the Whiskey Myers boys goin' on 20 years now," Cobb says. "Like me, they're a band who have done it their way, on their terms, steering their own ship. I knew they’d get this song. ‘Bar Guitar, and a Honky Tonk Crowd’ was one of the first real rock songs I ever wrote, I think it might’ve been my second official cut as a writer. It’s another one of those ‘songs that could.’ It’s kept my lights on, my babies fed, and changed my life. Having Whiskey Myers on ‘Power Man’ just felt right. Cody seemed fired up to do it, and John even told me he wished there’d been a spot to lay down some guitar. The song’s got a rock edge, and so does our history. It all lined up."

They're not the only ones pairing up in this week's Best New Country playlist. Taken from his forthcoming album COUNTRY! COUNTRY! Big Loud Records heavy hitter HARDY is joined by his longtime buddy and labelmate ERNEST as they celebrate 'Bro Country,' while Leon Majcen and Riley Downing from The Deslondes trade croons on 'Tallahassee.' We've also got two country legends duetting from beyond the grave on the country classic 'He Stopped Loving Her Today' to celebrate the 100th Anniversary of the Grand Ole Opry as George Jones’ live performance of the song on the Opry stage in 1993 gives way partway through to Alan Jackson’s emotion-laden take on the classic delivered at Jones’ funeral in 2013, where he performed the legend’s signature song at the end of the service.

Mexican singer songwriter Carin Léon and Kacey Musgraves are getting 'Lost in Translation,' Western rapper Ryan Charles adds a little country to his hip hop with Sierra Ferrell on 'Momma Loves Me' and Colbie Caillat finally gets together with Lee Brice for 'Kinda Single,' her fifth advance track from the highly anticipated duets album This Time Around, as they capture the push and pull of a love that refuses to fade.

“I’ve wanted to do a song with Lee for so many years - he has one of my favorite voices, with such unique inflections and heart in everything he sings,” says Caillat. “Writing this together with him and the guys was so much fun—we even nicknamed ourselves ‘zest and pep’; I’m the lemon zest and he’s the pepper. ‘Kinda Single,’ is about that space between moving on and holding on—when no matter how hard you try to close the door, part of you keeps drifting back. It’s messy, honest, and real, because sometimes love doesn’t fit neatly into all-or-nothing.”

Two of our Holler 10 Artists You Need to Know for August have got new songs out today. Ramona & the Holy Smokes release the second single off their upcoming self-titled record, due out in September, 'This Little Heart' and Thomas Edwards releases 'I See You.'

Scoot Teasley is 'Runnin' Outta Summer' on his new single and with that in mind, Kolton Moore & The Clever Few are getting ready to 'Brave the Weather.' While Zach John King is looking for a little 'Space' on his new song.

"I wrote ‘Space’ after a month-long stretch of shows where I was constantly in and around cities," Zach John King says about the new song. "No woods, no quiet, just noise and nonstop movement. I got off a red-eye flight and walked straight into a writing room and said, 'I want to write a song about what I’ve been missing.' I missed home. I missed simplicity. Most of all, I missed being out in God’s creation instead of surrounded by buildings. ‘Space' is just an honest song about missing home.”

Elsewhere we've got new songs from Faith Hopkins, Laci Kaye Booth, Jillian Jacqueline, Erin Kirby and Amanda Shires, who teases another song from her highly anticipated new album, Nobody’s Girl, due out 26 September on ATO Records.

“This one came when I was finally done being polite about pain," Shires says about 'Piece of Mind.' "I wrote this song because I never got closure. 'Piece of Mind' became the place I said everything I didn’t get to say. Writing it gave me an ending. Not tidy. Not bitter. Just mine.”

Watch the video for 'Piece of Mind' below.

It's a big week for new albums this week. As well as Margo Price's new one, Zach Top follows up last year’s breakthrough debut album, Cold Beer & Country Music, with Ain't In It For My Health.

Riley Green gives his recent album, Don’t Mind If I Do, the deluxe treatment adding new songs 'Make It Rain, 'What Am I Supposed To Do Now,' 'One To Willie' and 'Bet They’re Bitin,' plus duets with Randy Houser, and the tender duet 'I Just Need You' with Holler fave Hannah McFarland.

Rodney Crowell releases the brilliant Airline Highway, while Preston Cooper treats us to his debut full length, Toledo Talkin' and Max Gomez is trying to get over a Memory Mountain on his new project. Plus we've got songs from new albums from Levis Foster, Pecos & The Rooftops and another of our Holler 10 Artists You Need to Know for August, KIRBY releases Miss Black America.

We've got all that and new songs from EPs by Kacy Hill and Stephen Wilson Jr., with his new covers EP, Blankets, featuring interpretations of songs by Nirvana, The Postal Service, Temple of the Dog and The Smashing Pumpkins. While Irish pop country superstar CMAT explores economics and the pressure of fame on her new album EURO-COUNTRY.

“The album title works on three levels: the kind of country music I make; the fact that Ireland is a European country, a country run by the euro, and capitalism is one of the worst things to ever happen to us," she says about the album. "So I would consider this my most country record, as in, steeped in the traditions of country. But neither Oli [Deakin, Producer] or I wanted to make something that we'd heard before. If we know that the thing we're doing already exists, we have to fight against it, and find a more interesting, more beautiful way of making it. So there’s slide guitar and fiddle playing, but to a lot of listeners it will sound not country, but it is! We were just trying to bend the barriers of it a bit."

"And on a wider level, EURO-COUNTRY is the name I’ve given to the pain of the loss of community that has happened over the last twenty to thirty years," she adds. "Nobody is hanging out anymore, nobody is talking to each other, nobody is living together anymore. The shape of life, not just family life, but adult life, has completely transformed from the way it was before the internet and gig economy and I feel like it’s so responsible for so much of the societal and mental health issues that are really drilling everyone under the age of 35 right now. It feels so individualistic. It feels like such a product of late capitalism. And I couldn’t get it out of my head.”

Watch the video for 'When a Good Man Cries' below.

Each week we turn our Holler spotlight onto a song that we think deserves a little extra light shining on it and this week we've got the brilliant new single from Blue Ridge Mountain boy Will Jones, whose Appalachian soul meets outlaw country sound is causing a stir down in the valleys. Raised in the Blue Ridge Mountains and born into the family band The Cana Ramblers, Will was singing lead and playing guitar by age six.

“I knew three chords and the truth before I even knew my ABCs,” he says — a sentiment that still fuels his music today. Now based in Nashville, his sound blends front-porch storytelling with a highway-worn edge, honouring bluegrass pioneers like Tony Rice and Flatt & Scruggs while forging something distinctly his own in the country music scene. It's a little bit Dwight Yoakam, a little bit Jerry Reed, a little bit Ricky Skaggs and a whole lot of everything we love about country music.

“Figured the people needed some high energy honky tonk music with some gas on it,” he says about the new song and he's damn right about that.

Watch the video for 'Come On In' below

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

1. 1.

   Love Me Like You Used To (feat. Tyler Childers)

   Margo Price

2. 2.

   When You See Me

   Zach Top

3. 3.

   I Just Need You (feat. Hannah McFarland)

   Riley Green

4. 4.

   Bro Country (feat. ERNEST)

   HARDY

5. 5.

   Lost In Translation

   Carin Léon and Kacey Musgraves

6. 6.

   Luck Of The Draw

   Laci Kaye Booth

7. 7.

   Kinda Single (feat. Lee Brice)

   Colbie Caillat

8. 8.

   Runnin' Outta Summer

   Scoot Teasley

9. 9.

   When A Good Man Cries

   CMAT

10. 10.

    He Stopped Loving Her Today (Full Circle Mix)

    George Jones and Alan Jackson

11. 11.

    A Long Way

    Ryan Charles and Sierra Ferrell

12. 12.

    Come On In

    Will Jones

13. 13.

    Open Book

    Faith Hopkins

14. 14.

    Space

    Zach John King

15. 15.

    Wind Blows

    Braxton Keith

16. 16.

    Toledo Talkin'

    Preston Cooper

17. 17.

    Moral of the Story

    Katie Noel

18. 18.

    Rainy Days in California (feat. Lukas Nelson)

    Rodney Crowell

19. 19.

    Cautiously Optimistic

    Baylee Lynn

20. 20.

    Reason To Stay

    Carson Beyer

21. 21.

    Reperations

    KIRBY

22. 22.

    Tallahassee

    Leon Majcen and Riley Downing

23. 23.

    Brave the Weather

    Kolton Moore & The Clever Few

24. 24.

    This Little Heart

    Ramona and the Holy Smokes

25. 25.

    I See You

    Thomas Edwards

26. 26.

    I Got to Thinkin'

    Brady Brazeal

27. 27.

    Nowhere Everywhere

    Erin Kirby

28. 28.

    Rearview

    Ben Gallaher

29. 29.

    Million Dollar Bill

    Kade Hoffman

30. 30.

    Piece Of Mind

    Amanda Shires

31. 31.

    Tonight, Tonight

    Stephen Wilson Jr.

32. 32.

    Criminal

    David Morris

33. 33.

    Back in the Bottle

    Pecos & the Rooftops

34. 34.

    Jack Daniel's

    K. Michelle

35. 35.

    Made Up My Mind

    Tyler Rich

36. 36.

    What Would've Been

    Kacy Hill

37. 37.

    Vindicated

    Ryan Hurd

38. 38.

    Cult Classic

    Jilian Jacqueline

39. 39.

    Gooseneck Party

    Wade Forster

40. 40.

    Bad Boy Fever

    Hueston

41. 41.

    Ask God for That

    Canaan Cox

42. 42.

    Archer Street

    Steady Habits

43. 43.

    Gotta Be Tough

    Kyle Clark

44. 44.

    Blue Mountain

    The Brothers Comatose

45. 45.

    Haunted

    Logan Michael

46. 46.

    Heart To Forget

    Brett Kissel

47. 47.

    Pocket Aces

    Clayton Mullen

48. 48.

    Good As It Gets

    Christian Hayes

49. 49.

    All Over Again

    Chandler Dozier

50. 50.

    Boys in Red Wings

    Ashley Brooks

51. 51.

    Hurt Like Hell

    Noah Brigden

52. 52.

    Lonely

    Bella Kay

53. 53.

    My Best Dance Moves

    Ryan Langdon

54. 54.

    Girls Are Pretty

    Ryan and Rory

55. 55.

    Clean

    Sheyna Gee

56. 56.

    Hometown Like My Hometown

    The Wolfe Brothers

57. 57.

    She Ain't You

    Wynn Williams

58. 58.

    As Long As There's A Bar

    Gord Bamford

59. 59.

    Speed Of Summer

    Derek James

60. 60.

    Country Country

    Amy Sheppard

61. 61.

    Perfume On My Jersey

    Caleb Lathrop

62. 62.

    Selfish Man

    Blake Henderson

63. 63.

    Honky Tonk Pie

    SJ McDonald

64. 64.

    Headed West

    Sam Grow

65. 65.

    Me & Mine (feat. THEBROSFRESH)

    Telander

66. 66.

    Power Man (feat. Cody Cannon and Whiskey Myers)

    Brent Cobb & The Fixin's

67. 67.

    The Quiet - Southbound Sessions

    Hayden Redwine

68. 68.

    Got Me Here

    Garrison Nunn

69. 69.

    Dyslexic Palindrome

    Bright Eyes and Hurray For The Riff Raff

70. 70.

    Born To

    Bo Staloch

71. 71.

    Memory Mountain

    Max Gomez

72. 72.

    California Gold

    Levi Foster

73. 73.

    Angus Valley

    Thomas Dollbaum

74. 74.

    Walkin' Around

    Marshall Crenshaw

75. 75.

    My Baby Likes To Slow Dance

    Barefoot Joe

76. 76.

    Kentucky Kiss

    Kimberly Dawn

77. 77.

    Tattletale Eyes

    Alyssa and Wayne Brewer

78. 78.

    Everything But Lonely

    Nick Cain

79. 79.

    The Universe Is Hungry

    Damn Tall Buildings

80. 80.

    HIGHWAY KIND

    Fabrizio

81. 81.

    When You Did

    KIANA

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