Editor’s Note: Each issue of Good Country, our co-founder Ed Helms shares a handful of good country artists, albums, and songs direct from his own earphones in Ed’s Picks.
A premier modern bluegrass duo, Dailey & Vincent return today with a brand-new album, A Beautiful Life. Their harmonies, polish, and showmanship are unparalleled in bluegrass – and beyond. Yes, they have bluegrass and string band music in their bones, but limiting them to just ‘grass would be selling them short. They’re also country, gospel, Americana, and so much more.
Watch for more coverage of Dailey & Vincent and A Beautiful Life coming soon to BGS.
From Sturgill Simpson to Abbie Callahan, from the Cowgays to Miranda Lambert, the intersection of country and disco is a hoppin’ address at the moment! Lambert’s quippy, light, and fun track built on a portmanteau of the two genres is as Southern as it gets, from vegetable shortening to the dance floor sparkling under a disco ball. Country-disco is a decades-old tradition and we’re here for this resurgence.
Speaking of blending styles, the Red Clay Strays are doing it better than almost anyone these days. To the GC team, the skyrocketing Alabama outfit always sound like country, but it’s obvious their sound is so much more – rockabilly, soul, grunge, punk, golden-era rock and roll, garage country. Whatever they infuse into their music, it always feels right at home in Good Country. Their brand new album, Grateful, is out now.
Last month, Texan country crooner Joshua Ray Walker returned with a new LP, Ain’t Dead Yet. Don’t be dissuaded by the thread of winking mortality and silly macabre that he continues to trace through his songs; after his own brush with death – he was diagnosed with cancer in 2024 – Walker’s sardonic and witty style of country & western has found a charming and entertaining edge by staring the shortness of life dead in the eye. (Pun intended?) Another excellent set from an essential contemporary traditionalist.
Another excellent artist who bridges country, bluegrass, and more – but perhaps from the opposite end of the continuum from Dailey & Vincent. Bella White’s music feels elemental, channeled from across time, but never anachronistic. Her songwriting and style feels in the vein of other country oracles like Gillian Welch, Iris DeMent, and Lucinda Williams. But it’s also all her own. Her latest album, A Sign In The Weather, was released June 5.
Listen to this issue of Ed’s Picks in one YouTube playlist here.
Listen to the full Ed’s Picks archive playlist here.
Photo Credits: Dailey & Vincent by Gregg Roth; Miranda Lambert by Robert Ascroft; The Red Clay Strays, Grateful album cover; Joshua Ray Walker by Mike Dunn; Bella White by Tamara Flemming
