News

Whether it’s coming out of Nashville, New York, L.A., or points in between, there’s no shortage of fresh tunes, especially from artists who have yet to become household names. Rolling Stone Country selects some of the best new music releases from country and Americana artists. (Check out last week’s best songs.)

Gary Louris, “Almost Home”

The Jayhawks singer gears up for the June 5th release of his solo album Jump for Joy with this euphoric slice of jangle-pop. Structured around a handclap beat and a sprightly strummed acoustic,...

The Cadillac Three aren’t the Partridge Family — they don’t all live together. So it’s been next to impossible for band members Jaren Johnston, Kelby Ray, and Neil Mason to spontaneously play an online concert for their fans once the pandemic set in.

“None of us were going to leave our houses, so we couldn’t do a livestream by hopping on Facebook. We had to take the long view: What is it we want to do?” says Mason, the business-minded drummer of the Nashville country-rock trio, who,...

On March 8th, Nashville’s Big Machine Label Group sent out an email in honor of International Women’s Day featuring images of female artists on their roster. “Today, and every day, we celebrate the women of Big Machine,” it read, with photos of Lady Antebellum’s Hillary Scott, Carly Pearce, and Lauren Jenkins. The only problem: Jenkins wasn’t on the label. She was let go a few days earlier, just shy of the first anniversary of her debut LP No Saint.

“Two days after the tornado was when...

It’s been nearly a week since a series of tornadoes struck the Nashville area on March 3rd, causing widespread damage in the city’s densely populated neighborhoods — including the destruction of beloved music venue the Basement East — and killing more than two dozen people in the surrounding area. Volunteers have been working overtime to clear streets and yards or bring food and other necessities to affected areas, but it’s going to be a long road to recover and rebuild.

One of Nashville’s greatest, most plentiful resources is its deep well of talent,...

Lauren Jenkins prioritized songwriting over flashy production on her debut album No Saint, released last year, and it’s an aesthetic she adheres to on a pair of cover songs the Texas singer released today.

Jenkins interprets two Bruce Springsteen tracks off his 1980 double album The River, “Hungry Heart” and “Stolen Car.” The recordings, which premiered on Sirius Xm’s Springsteen channel E Street Radio, find Jenkins embracing hushed tones for her versions. Gone are the boardwalk drumbeats of Springsteen’s original “Hungry Heart,” replaced with simple guitar and Jenkins’ dusky vocal.

Brandi Carlile and Dierks Bentley will headline the 2020 Shaky Boots Festival. The country-music weekend, set for May 8th and 9th, returns after a five-year absence to stage its second incarnation at Atlanta’s Central Park.

The time off did the festival well: this lineup is particularly satisfying and eclectic, with mainstream country artists mixing with Americana luminaries. John Prine, Tanya Tucker, and Dwight Yoakam share a bill with Gary Allen, Morgan Wallen, and A Thousand Horses. Alison Krauss, Clint Black, and Jamey Johnson are also in the lineup, along with bluegrass phenom Billy Strings,...

When Austin Jenckes was just a teenager, his father committed suicide. Naturally, it was a tragedy that has shaped the Washington State songwriter’s life and informed his music. But the loss also turned Jenckes into a passionate proponent of mental health awareness. On December 2nd, he’ll host a benefit concert in Nashville to support the cause.

“My dad died when I was 16. He struggled with depression; he took his own life. He was everything that I looked at as what was cool,” says Jenckes. “When he died, I...

It’s been a little over a week since it was announced that supermanager Scooter Braun’s Ithaca Holdings would be buying Big Machine Label Group — and Taylor Swift’s masters — thus launching a war of words between Big Machine president Scott Borchetta and the superstar artist that made his label. But Music Row and country music in general are wondering about something more than just who is winning the PR battle: and that’s what the presence of Braun will mean to Nashville and the future of Big Machine itself.

With three free daytime stages and more than 110 artists performing across them, June’s Cma Fest offers plenty of no-cost entertainment options for fans over the event’s four days.

On Tuesday, the Cma announced a slate of artists who will appear on the free stages: Kassi Ashton, Kelleigh Bannen, Dillon Carmichael, Travis Denning, Cale Dodds, Love and Theft, Muscadine Bloodline, Brandon Ratcliff, Tenille Townes and Rachel Wammack are among the names set for the Chevy Breakout Stage at Walk of Fame Park, opposite the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.

There’s nothing but whiskey and a few ice cubes in Lauren Jenkins’ drink here at a bar in East Nashville, mostly because the Texas-born singer-songwriter can’t stand anything too sweet. Ever since she moved to Nashville in 2013, she’s found the cocktails in town to be overwhelmingly syrupy: she likes a little bitterness, and to taste the dimension in whatever she’s imbibing that day. Too much sugar, she thinks, just drowns out the character. Why dilute something, when you can have what’s real?

That’s the...

Lauren Jenkins took the Today show stage on Thursday for a performance of her single “Running out of Road,” a downcast breakup tune about being haunted by the memory of an ex. Jenkins’ Big Machine Records debut No Saint will be released March 15th.

During Jenkins’ Today appearance she was also revealed as Elvis Duran’s Artist of the Month. Announced by show hosts Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb, the high-profile distinction is bestowed on newcomers by longtime radio host and Today contributor Duran, who noted that the singer-songwriter...

Lauren Alaina’s Nineties nostalgia, Joy Williams’ call to action and Tim McGraw’s U2-evoking power anthem are among the must-hear songs this week.

Lauren Jenkins, “Give Up the Ghost”

Lauren Jenkins is frustrated with her man, who’s seemingly unable to forget the former flame who kept him warm before Jenkins’ arrival. “Two of us is one too many,” she sings during this song’s driving, meteoric chorus, urging her beau to “give up and the ghost [and] hold on to me.” Dressed up like an anthemic pop-rock song,...