In our eyes and to our ears, there’s no better family of musical genres to usher in the holiday season than roots music. Bluegrass, Americana, old-time, country, blues, and beyond – they’re all perfectly suited for the coziest time of year, for togetherness, for parties and gift-giving and cookie icing. Whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, or Winter Solstice – or even if you feel like opting out of the ruckus altogether – there is roots music for you.
Each year, we like to share our picks for the rootsiest time of the year in BGS Wraps, a weekly collection of songs, videos, albums, shows, tours, and events that celebrate the season. We share a few of our favorites, mostly brand new but often classics and timeless selections, too. Plus, we collect all that we can into a running playlist so you’re ready when the family or party hands you the aux cable.
We hope you enjoy BGS Wraps and tune in the next week as we continue our series celebrating the holiday season. (Catch up on week one here. And check out week two here.)
Merry Happy Whatever, The Doohickeys
Country duo the Doohickeys go fully original with their brand new Christmas EP, Merry Happy Whatever. Their trademark wit and humor are evident across the project’s five songs – including gut-busters like “Santa Needs A Beer” and “Santa Is A Stoner.” (Does Santa need a breathalyzer, as well?) On the EP’s title track, the delightfully crowd-pleasing and all-encompassing “Merry Happy Whatever,” Haley Spence Brown and Jack Hackett are joined by the Wolves of Glendale, with rich background vocals and holiday winds and brass to accomplish that full-tilt holiday sound. And a merry happy whatever to you, too!
A Cherry Valley Holiday, Carter Faith
A favorite of ours from the mainstream country space, Carter Faith released an excellent A-side/B-side holiday single this season, pairing “Nothin’ For Christmas” (featuring William Beckmann) with “Please Come Home For Christmas.” Packaged as a two-song collection titled A Cherry Valley Holiday, both tracks are perfectly suited for your countriest Christmas playlists. Faith’s duet with Beckmann showcases how both artists keep tradition alive while still looking to the future. You may be reminded of iconic duets like Lee Ann Womack with George Strait or Dolly Parton with Kenny Rogers. The holiday cheer doesn’t stop there, either, Faith recently joined Jimmy Fallon himself on “Ugly Sweater,” a funny seasonal track produced by Dave Cobb that the pair unveiled together on The Tonight Show. Between the Christmas singles and “Ugly Sweater,” there’s a country holiday flavor for everyone. Carter Faith does it all.
“Christmas in Yuma,” Cameron Knowler
One of our favorite albums of the year was released by guitarist, archivist, writer, and composer Cameron Knowler (who sometimes writes for BGS, too). CRK was released in April and, being set in the desert in and around Yuma, Arizona, the project feels properly warm and sunny, painting sonic pictures of red rocks and cactuses and blacktop baking in the sun. If that doesn’t sound properly Christmas-y to you, take a moment to inhabit the album’s lead track, “Christmas in Yuma.” A gorgeous prose poem set to sparse, textural guitar, the text was written by Knowler but is read by his friend and fellow Southwesterner, Jack Kilmer. It’s a truly stunning beginning to the project and we’ve been holding onto it all year for just this occasion. It may not be the most sing-along ready track of the holiday season, but its transportive feelings of nostalgia, grief, longing, and pain at seismic transformations – or at cloying, gluey stagnation, or both – are altogether more than perfect for the holidays.
“Christmas Love Song,” Willie Nelson
If the only present any of us received this year was a “Christmas Love Song” from Willie Nelson, well, that would feel like a pretty complete holiday season, wouldn’t it? With just one simple offering, every “need” could be checked off our wish lists. Written by fellow legend Bill Anderson (with help from Bobby Tomberlin and Marv Green) and produced by fellow legend Buddy Cannon, “Christmas Love Song” includes plenty of Nelson’s signature charm, whether in his languid phrasing or his tasteful nylon-string licks on his trusty guitar, Trigger. In the lyric itself Nelson is remarkably humble about his holiday offering: “It ain’t a lot, but every word of it’s true/ It don’t sparkle or shine/ But it’s one of a kind…” For all of us who’ve received this holiday gift from the legendary Willie Nelson, it feels like more than enough. And we will certainly cherish it.
“Oh, It’s Christmas,” Sage Palser and Prairie Wildfire featuring Danny Paisley
New bluegrass holiday hits are all too rare, so we relish them when we find them. This release from 2024 is a great example, cheery sleigh bells giving way to burning bluegrass that will warm the winter right out of your heart. Sage Palser joined Danny Paisley and the Southern Grass on a recent single that ended up on Paisley’s most recent album, Bluegrass State of Mind, and their knack for collaboration is showcased on “Oh, It’s Christmas,” as well. Paisley and Palser sing in duet while backed up by Palser’s band, Prairie Wildfire. This one has got us in the mood for Dollywood’s Smoky Mountain Christmas. It’s the perfect bluegrass track for some cinnamon bread and roller coasters.
“Office Christmas Party,” Brittany Ann Tranbaugh feat. Carsie Blanton
Ah, at long last, a tribute to everyone’s favorite events of the holiday season – the dreaded office Christmas party. From Brittany Ann Tranbaugh and Carsie Blanton, “Office Christmas Party” is silly and light-hearted, but with a message direct from Ebenezer Scrooge’s counting house employees: Sure, gifts of appreciation from our employer at this time of year are appreciated, but we’d much prefer workers’ rights, collective bargaining, and a living wage. Enjoy the free beer, cookies, and pizza at your corporate party, of course – and commiserating with our coworkers is solidarity, whether they know it or not – but focus on what will really bring the reason for the season into focus. A union! Tranbaugh and Blanton continue to showcase their penchant for making mission-focused music that’s also fun, engaging, and joyous.
“Where My Heart Is,” Randy Travis
Thanks to technology, AI, and contributions from vocalist James DuPré, Randy Travis “got his voice back” last year and began releasing brand new music featuring the low, smoky, dulcet tones for which he was adored. It’s one of the more interesting use-cases of AI in music, leveraged to give an artist their agency back instead of stealing it away forever. Travis’ pair of singles with his new AI-enabled voice are well-executed for what they are, but a newly released from-the-vault track like “Where My Heart Is” still reaffirms the ineffable in his hitmaking voice that we won’t ever get back. Even the best AI just cannot compare. “Where My Heart Is” was recorded prior to Travis’ fateful 2013 stroke that would render him unable to sing. It’s a lovely, heartfelt track that falls in perfect step with his beloved holiday albums An Old Time Christmas and Songs of the Season. We’ll take any/all Randy Travis songs we can get, but this one feels extra special.
Christmas with el Twanguero, Twanguero
Spanish guitarist Diego Garcia is Twanguero, maker of one of the finest holiday collections to be released this year, Christmas with el Twanguero. Recorded entirely to analog tape, the album of instrumental renditions of holiday favorites is tasteful, warm, and cozy. It would fit just perfectly bookended by Vince Guaraldi Trio and Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings. It’s understated in its execution, relying on retro vibes and sounds to do the heavy lifting holiday pomp and bling would normally bring on such a project. For an album centered on the guitar, it never feels like it has to rely on showboating or hot licks, instead leaning into familiarity to bring us something that feels refreshing and new. It’s cinematic and lush, but down to earth and intimate, too. Plus, the album supports El Patojismo, a school of arts and social transformation based in Jocotenango, Guatemala, fostering education and creativity within its community. All around, it’s a lovely holiday discovery.
Peace, Love, and Cowboys (Holiday Edition), Lainey Wilson
Not sure if or when we’ve ever enjoyed such a holiday treat as this! Lainey Wilson returns to “Peace, Love, and Cowboys” from the deluxe release of her 2024 hit album, Whirlwind, to offer us a lovely holiday rewrite of the track. Retooled for the season, the message of the song resonates all the same – we need more hippie cowboys, cowgirls, and cowbabes, this time of year and beyond. The Christmas EP also includes a duet with Bing Crosby himself on “Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow!” – Wilson can get anyone on a feature! Plus, she revisits a prior holiday single, “Christmas Cookies;” she also includes instrumental versions of each number, if you happen to have a word-free playlist that needs new transfusions of seasonal songs. We love the way Wilson approaches country music, and this little collection shows the creativity and outside-the-box-thinking she brings to the table.
Lead Image: Randy Travis by Marisa Taylor; Carter Faith by Bree Marie Fish; The Doohickeys by Jesse DeFlorio.
In 1853, a 29-year-old Parisian photographer, Adolphe-Alexandre Martin, delivered a paper to the French Academy of Sciences. In his text, he proposed a process for creating a photographic image on thin, chemically coated metal sheets: the tintype. Between the late 19th and early 20th centuries, his invention became the portrait medium of choice, especially across North America, eventually falling out of fashion in the 1930s. Strikingly evocative, tintypes imbue subjects with a surreal, dreamlike quality, offering an emotional portal into the past.
Over a century and a half later, the New Orleans-based Haitian American singer-songwriter Sabine McCalla, younger sister of the influential classical and folk musician Leyla McCalla, asked the tintype revival photographer Meg Turner to take her portrait. For an artist who draws from the past while seeking pathways forward, using an old medium to capture something new was an instinctive choice. Turner’s image became the cover art and a lodestar for the central feelings underpinning McCalla’s debut album, Don’t Call Me Baby, released through Kurt DeLashmet and Nick Shoulders’s Gar Hole Records label.
As we discuss later in this interview, the inspiration for Don’t Call Me Baby wasn’t born from a happy moment. Rather than sinking into sadness, McCalla juxtaposes joy and heartbreak, using narrative storytelling as a vehicle for catharsis across nine haunting, surreal songs. On “Sunshine Kisses” she recalls being lost in liminality after a breakup before letting loose on the classic rock and roll slanted singalong “Louisiana Hound Dog” (a co-write with Dan Auerbach from The Black Keys and Pat McLaughlin). By the time “Two of Hearts” arrives, our protagonist is singing about three different suitors.
Amid the paradisiac instrumentation surrounding her soothing voice, McCalla and her producers, Sam Doores (of The Deslondes) and Ajaï Combelic, collaborate with a cast of more than a dozen musicians from her musical community in New Orleans. Together, they blend rhythm & blues, country, folk, jazz, Tropicália, quiet storm soul, and doo-wop into hypnotic roots music. Song by song, the results reflect a lifetime spent studying traditions from across the Americas, Europe, the Caribbean, and Africa. Equal parts comforting, adventurous, and spicy, she serves up an Americana hotpot that speaks to the world while being informed by it.
Last month, McCalla joined BGS on a video call. Sitting on a yellow couch surrounded by rosebud-hued walls and framed art, she spent just under an hour with us. In a discursive conversation, we explored the influence of life in Louisiana, her passion for musical history, and, given her background, the inevitability of her worldly confluence of sensibilities. A thoughtful speaker, McCalla isn’t the type to rush her answers. She’s also happy to keep a point simple or, when needed, throw in some extended anecdotes. Sometimes it’s not that deep; other times, it really is.
How important is a sense of place and location to your music?
Sabine McCalla: I don’t know. I mean, it is important. Louisiana and New Orleans have been characters in, or influenced my music a lot. But I’ve certainly written songs outside of New Orleans and Louisiana. I think any land we connect with is important when we’re writing songs.
From the outside looking in, it’s easy to surmise that there is a quality to New Orleans and the musical community that lives there that unlocked something in your artistry.
Yeah, it’s definitely been very inspiring. New Orleans is a very musical city. Nearly everyone you meet is a musician or plays more than one instrument. It’s incredibly culturally rich here. Learning to play music in this environment, you learn certain styles, or you learn with a focus on dancing. There’s a lot of rhythm & blues, soul, and second-line music, and people dancing in the street. I think dancing is something I was thinking of when I thought about how I want these songs to be listened to. Like I’m thinking of a honky-tonk dive bar, hot and steamy, lots of close dancing.
Who says you can’t dance to misery, right?
You certainly can. In fact, you’re probably a better dancer.
There’s something about the juxtaposition between a sad sentiment and a happy rhythm or melody that can be so moving.
I think innately we all want to experience pleasure, and we all have our pains that go with it. I think that’s what people are connecting with.
Unfortunately, or perhaps, fortunately, what is pleasure without pain?
Just a high.
New Orleans looms large in my mind as one of those places where traditions have been kept alive that don’t still exist elsewhere.
Yeah, for sure. There’s a tradition of passing down songs. There’s also so much space to create music here.
Don’t Call Me Baby is an ambitious album, but you succeed in your ambitions. You’ve braided a lot of threads together: different places, genres, periods of time. Was there a specific time in your life when you became interested in musical history, or looking to the past to find new ways to go forward?
I grew up playing classical music. Then I studied some old-time music from Appalachia. I’m interested in learning lots of old songs. I like listening to Harry Smith’s Anthology of American Folk Music. I feel like I’ve dug into a lot of pre-war recordings throughout the South and been inspired by ballad singing.
Like many people, I learned about the Anthology of American Folk Music through Bob Dylan and Joan Baez. There’s something about songwriters who go back and listen to their influences’ influences.
Totally. Shape-note singing is coming back into fashion now. I keep hearing about shape-note festivals around the country. My drummer, Howe Pearson, who also plays in The Deslondes, has been hosting a shape-note singing workshop every Monday.
What was it about the Anthology of American Folk Music that excited you?
They were songs I’d never heard before. I liked the quality of the voices on tape. So emotive and raw. And not just the Harry Smith anthology, Alan Lomax recordings too. I’ve always been interested in ethnomusicology. When I was younger, my sister and I had a mentor who played a lot of blues and jazz. I remember thinking he wrote these songs, until I realized, no, this white man from New Jersey did not write these songs. There’s this beautiful history of Black people in America who sang the blues and jazz and wrote so many songs that have been passed down.
Sometimes I wonder about the impact recorded music had on community singing. I’ve read that after phonograph records turned up, people became more self-conscious about singing at home. They’d hear these great singers and a shyness would set in.
People were keeping the songs they heard alive. They lived when there was no radio, so they were better keepers of songs than we are today. Now everything is so fast. There’s so much music, AI music, the industry pushing constant output, and not reviving songs. But I think a new resurgence of song revivals is happening.
You grew up in a Haitian family in New Jersey. Were your parents encouraging about music?
Yes and no. My sister’s also a musician. My mom was like, “Leyla’s the musician. You need to figure out your own path.” I was like, “No, I think I want to do this.” Both of my parents always encouraged choosing your own path and focusing on it.
It’s not always immediately obvious, but there’s a strong Haitian influence in American music.
Yeah, the Fugees! Lauryn Hill went to my high school. Her album The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill is like a bible to me. It’s a perfect album – the intros, outtakes, transitions. Lyrically empowering. I grew up on her songs. I’m grateful for my high school. We had amazing music teachers.
I graduated with SZA and Dave Authors, and a few others who’ve done great things. My sister Leyla McCalla went there, too. New Jersey is incredibly diverse. A lot of people immigrate to New York and then move into the suburbs, which my family did as well.
Did you grow up on a bit of everything musically?
Classical music. School trips to the opera. My parents played the Haitian groups Boukman Eksperyans and RAM. We listened to The Beatles, Bob Marley, and Rod Stewart.
When I think about Americana, I think about this confluence of cultures and musical traditions that came together in the South. When did it become attractive to you?
It all came together naturally. I was focused on pre-war songs, then going through decades of music. When I moved here, I got interested in The Boswell Sisters and songs collected in New Orleans in the early 1900s. Then I learned about Lonnie Johnson, the godfather of rock ’n’ roll. Through studying songs, I realized that it’s all Americana music. It influenced how I sang and created songs.
In a sense, there’s an inevitability to where you arrived.
I originally wrote and sang songs a cappella. That became my EP, Folk. My friends Leonie Evans and Steph Green helped with backup vocals. There wasn’t much thought about creating a larger sound until I met Eli “Paperboy” Reed. I’d already been listening to New Orleans R&B and soul, and when he put chords to my songs, I was like, “Oh, this is the sound I’ve been looking for.” That changed how I thought about songs. I also grew up listening to [the Tropicália singer-songwriter] Caetano Veloso. I’ve been trying to read his book Tropicalism, but there are so many references to Brazilian artists. It’s going to take forever.
After growing up in New Jersey, you moved to New Orleans, where this was all even more concentrated. There was a weekly jam session you’d go to called the All-Star Covered Dish Country Jamboree.
Yes. The first time I went was in 2014, probably in February. Joy Patterson came up to me – she runs it – and said, “I know who you are.” I was like, “Oh no, this lady…” But I loved it. My sister had been living here, so people were like, “Oh, you’re Leyla’s sister.” I think I saw Sam Doores’ doo-wop group with Casey Jane, Camille Weatherford, Emma Eisenhower, Jon Hatchett, and Max Bien Kahn; they did a little doo-wop show. I thought it was so cute. I wanted to know these people. And I’ve ended up working with all of them.
From there, it became a weekly ritual in your life, right?
Yeah, it was like a church. Going to this country night where I could talk about songs with people and hear a lot of old songs: classic country, classic R&B and soul. Those things lit my soul up.
After all these experiences, what’s your understanding of country music and where you could fit into it in 2025?
I don’t know. Maybe giving voice to other women of color who are interested in country music, not just hip-hop or R&B, but a diversity of sounds. I also lived in Ghana growing up, and lots of people listen to country music in Africa. What surprised me was going to Ghana and someone saying, “Where’s your cowboy hat?” I was like, “I’m from New Jersey, not Texas!”
I get the sense that a lot of your music is therapeutic storytelling.
Yeah, it is. It comes from the heart.
What sort of stories do people tell you about their experiences with your music?
The best one was in London. Someone said their friend’s father passed away and left her a boat. She went sailing for three months. They didn’t listen to music for most of it, then one day she put on my record and that’s all they listened to. That made my heart swell. It’s making me tear up now. Another woman told me she’d separated from her husband and, after hearing my music, reached out to him, saying she was ready to compromise. I was like, damn… Hopefully, this music lets people feel they’re not alone in their feelings.
How much has loneliness driven your music?
It’s been a huge component. I value my alone time, but sometimes it’s a detriment when I’m alone too long or ruminating too long.
You need something to break the feedback loop. Tell me about the backdrop to this album?
I was playing with a lot of ideas. Not everything made it onto the record. A friend visited – she’s an amazing stylist – and I wanted to get a tintype photo done by Meg Turner. We did makeup, hair, clothes, jewelry, so much dazzling stuff, so I’d be shiny in the sun. It was hot in New Orleans. Right before taking the photo, I got a text from someone I was dating, and that’s the true look of shock on my face. After I saw the picture, I was like, “Everything needs to be based around this photo.”
It’s an amazing photo.
Right after that, I wrote “Sunshine Kisses” and then I thought, “What else goes with this?”
What sort of ideas did you have about the threads you wanted to bring together in the music?
I was like: What are all my breakup songs? I wanted it to be haunting, but warm. Some songs I wrote during the pandemic felt too cold for this album. I originally wanted to name it Sudden Blue because I was thinking of a colder feeling. But something transpired while making it; the songs were given a new breath by the people I was working with: Sam Doores, Gina Leslie, Roy Brenc, Howe Pearson, and Ajaï Combelic. It was a warm feeling in the room, lots of laughter. And we were doing it during Mardi Gras, during carnival season, which was wild, because we’d play shows at night and then go into the studio in the morning.
It’s amazing how much other people can make a difference to a creative process.
Yeah. We fed off each other. If there’s negativity or self-consciousness, it’s felt in the music. We were all happy to work out ideas and nerd out about music.
Did you have a heartbreak record, not necessarily one you idolized, but a north star to look towards?
A few albums inspired me. Lauryn Hill’s The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. Fiona Apple’s When the Pawn… There were also songs: Irma Thomas’s hits, and “Andromeda” by Weyes Blood. It’s such a powerful song about all the emotions we face. Feeling lonely, then liking the loneliness, then changing your mind five times a day.
Photo Credits: Lead image by Camille Lenain; album cover tintype by Meg Turner.
As one of Nashville’s key classic-country connoisseurs, fiddle maestro Joshua Hedley has long been a musician of many hats. In 2018 his first solo album Mr. Jukebox tapped 1960s-style countrypolitan. 2022’s Neon Blue embraced the lush warmth of the ‘90s-era format, and he regularly thrills crowds with cover sets from across time at the famed Nashville honky-tonk, Robert’s Western World. Yet with his new album All Hat, Hedley dons the metaphorical cap he’s long obsessed over – the wide-brimmed stetson of his Western Swing heroes.
A titan of twang and perhaps Broadway’s finest down-home devotee of the traditional arts, All Hat finds the lifelong Bob Wills fan going back to his roots. Produced by Western Swing icon and Asleep at the Wheel founder Ray Benson, the album captures the upbeat joy of an eminently danceable (yet often overlooked) country style, which Hedley has been loving and learning since he was 8 years old.
Over 11 tracks of old-style originals, he celebrates a genre defined by jaunty rhythms and euphoric solos meant to keep a crowd dancing long into the night. With an already-respected resumé, Hedley still calls All Hat his “pièce de resistance,” and feels Western Swing deserves its due in this era of cultural callbacks.
“It’s definitely not seen the renaissance that say bluegrass or the outlaw country sound have,” he laments.
Joshua Hedley spoke with Good Country about the new album, the differences between Western Swing and other country styles, and what it’s like to be produced by one of your heroes. Plus, he explains how “getting stoned and playing country music” is the best cure for creative burnout.
Your new album is called All Hat. But that term is famously used to describe posers – and you don’t fit that bill when it comes to country. So why are you calling it All Hat?
Joshua Hedley: Well some people disagree, man. [Laughs] I don’t know what constitutes “not a poser.” I would think playing country music since you were 8 would take care of that, but apparently not.
Really?
It is what it is. I don’t really give a shit, but it was just kind of poking fun at myself and those criticisms. I just think it’s funny. But honestly, for the album, I was working on a different album. I was writing for something else and I was on the road with Asleep at the Wheel and Brennen Leigh – we were doing a package show tour together – and I was just hanging out with Ray. He was like, “You ought to let me make a record on you.” I’ve been wanting to do another Western Swing album for a long time and I was just like, “This is it.” When Ray Benson wants to make a record on you, you make a fucking Western Swing record.
It came out really great. I’m enjoying it for sure. I wonder, how are you feeling about your craft these days? Like you said you’ve been doing this since… well, your whole life really.
Man, I’m feeling good about it these days. This album in particular has been just a joy all the way around. Writing – it was really fun. Recording – it was really fun. Playing these songs live is super fun, and it’s something I’ve been needing. You get pretty burned out when you do it this much. I come off the road and I go back to playing music just at home. When you play like that, you get burnt out hard – and I was really burnt out. This record is kind of pulling me out of the burnout.
That’s interesting. I’ve been watching you at Robert’s Western World for years and it’s always felt like you had that dialed in. I mean, you’ve earned the respect of everybody in the field, and you could probably be making a more commercial play, but it seems like you’re more inspired to make music with your friends and do small residencies. Is that a more satisfying life?
Definitely. I’ve done a lot of touring and all of that, but when I’m really having fun is when I’m down at Robert’s or Dee’s [Country Cocktail Lounge] or Skinny Dennis. I’ve been playing these solo acoustic shifts at Dee’s, it’s just two hours a week and I just sit there with my guitar and get stoned and play country songs. It’s kind of empty in there, and I get to do whatever I want. I forgot how much fun I have doing that, so I’ve been leaning more towards playing at Robert’s and doing the honky-tonk thing lately, just because at the end of the day, you got to do what makes you happy. If I was going to do something I wasn’t enjoying, then I could get a desk job and probably make a lot more money than I make doing this.
Maybe.
I wonder, do you ever feel like you know a secret that some of your peers are missing? I mean, when you talk about that burnout phase, and being able to sit down and just get stoned and play country music, is that a secret hack of the lifestyle?
I don’t know about a hack or anything like that, but for me, I am having the most fun when I am playing covers and just singing old songs that I really love. You hear a great song on the radio and the feeling that you get from hearing that song? Imagine the feeling you get from singing it. That’s my jam.
You’ve been calling All Hat your “pièce de resistance.” And I cannot speak French, so I can’t say that phrase. But how do you figure?
I love country music in all its forms – well… maybe not all its forms. But most of its forms. Western Swing has always been my very favorite thing to play and sing, and I actually made a tribute to Bob Wills when I was 15 with Buddy Spicher and his band up here in Nashville.
What? Really?
Yeah, it’s all Bob Wills covers, and a lot of ’em, I think probably I learned them from Asleep at the Wheel. … It’s just always been on my mind that I should write one of these instead of just doing Bob Wills songs, and always wanted to do it. And then getting to do it with somebody like Ray and with the players who are on the album – guys I’ve looked up to my whole life. I don’t know, it’s just the vibe was in the room and this record came out better than I could ever imagine.
Tell me a little bit about your songwriting on this one. What do you do differently when you’re writing a Western Swing tune?
Oh yeah. It is actually quite different because a lot of those melodies come out of the pop world. And when I say pop, I mean like ’30s and ’40s pop.
Like the original pop.
The original pop. Big band music and stuff like that. Country’s very structured, at least the classic kind that I do to where you’re verse, chorus, turnaround, chorus, outro, something like that. It’s real regimented and formulaic and it’s a different approach to writing Western Swing. A lot of those songs are just one verse, and then you play a bunch of solos, and then you just repeat that verse and take it home, which is a very jazz standards thing to do.
I guess I never thought of that.
Like on “Fresh Hot Biscuits.” I kind of approached that how Bob and them would approach “Ida Red” or something, which is really just a fiddle tune that he wrote words to. I leaned into borrowing old lines from old blues songs and tried to find some of those old lines. Like in “All Hat” – “I know a gal up over the hill/ She won’t do it, but her sister will.” That line’s as old as time.
Right. So the structure, is that because it’s made for dancing?
Yeah, the vocal is secondary a lot of the time, and the lyrics certainly are. It’s more about dancing and the whole thing evolved out of square dance culture and callers where there weren’t lyrics to the songs. It was just a guy telling you what to do on the dance floor. The lyrics are kind of secondary to the overall vibe, and the musicianship is really a big part of it, too.
I did want to ask you about “Stuck in Texas” because that one’s got Ray on it. It’s got that jumpy beat, and a little bit of yodeling in there, too. Where did that one come from?
I had wrote several songs that had really similar chord progressions at that time. I had written them in a row, and I was trying to get out of that. And I’m also trying to push myself on guitar to write outside of three chords, four chords. I just kind of came up with that. I was thinking about the Sons of the Pioneers when I wrote that song, wanting a real good guy, cowboy-movie cowboy. Thinking about Gene Autry and stuff. Then it was just a no brainer for Ray to step in on. Mr. Texas.
What’s it like to be produced by a guy like Ray Benson? Is it different than playing in his band?
It is different than playing in his band because his band is his brainchild and he knows exactly what he wants it to sound like. I think he recognized that this was my brainchild and we all kind of did it together. Ray, he kind of choreographed a lot of it being like, “We should throw the ensemble part here and twin this,” and “We got to have fiddle on the intro,” that sort of thing. But a lot of it was just a group of guys that play together all the time getting together and playing these songs. And what happened was just natural.
You said somewhere in your bio that you grew up playing fiddle with guys who were in their 50s and 60s, and learning from them. I just wonder, is that what you aspire to be one day?
Yeah, definitely. There’s actually this kid Nash [Grier] that comes down to Robert’s whenever Brazilbilly plays and it’s always a treat. He’s like six or seven years old and he’s a really great fiddle player. He comes up and he sings “Hey, Good Lookin'” and he plays “Orange Blossom Special” behind his back – all the little things I used to do when I was his age. Now that I’m 40 years old, I’m like, “Man, look at that little guy.” It really brings back memories. I was that kid and I love seeing a new generation embracing all this stuff. It’s really special to get to pass it on.
What you hope people take away from this one. I know it’s a labor of love for you and a lot of fun to do, but what do you hope people get from this thing? Do you want to spark a revival?
I don’t know about any revival, but I hope people have fun with it. I hope that they don’t take it too serious. Music can get so heavy these days, and I get it. But I want to remind folks that you can just keep it light and make a great record. Sometimes it’s nice to just dance, to just do some two-stepping, learn how to polka and not be so serious all the time. It’s all fun. That’s why we got into this. So I just want people to remember to enjoy themselves.
In our eyes and to our ears, there’s no better family of musical genres to usher in the holiday season than roots music. Bluegrass, Americana, old-time, country, blues, and beyond – they’re all perfectly suited for the coziest time of year, for togetherness, for parties and gift-giving and cookie icing. Whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, or Winter Solstice – or even if you feel like opting out of the ruckus altogether – there is roots music for you.
Each year, we like to share our picks for the rootsiest time of the year in BGS Wraps, a weekly collection of songs, videos, albums, shows, tours, and events that celebrate the season. We share a few of our favorites, mostly brand new but often classics and timeless selections, too. Plus, we collect all that we can into a running playlist so you’re ready when the family or party hands you the aux cable.
We hope you enjoy BGS Wraps and tune in the next week as we continue our series celebrating the holiday season. (Catch up on week one here.)
Christmas at the Ryman, Amy Grant & Vince Gill
“When I Think of Christmas” I think of Amy Grant and Vince Gill holding down the holiday fort with their iconic annual Christmas at the Ryman series. This year, they’ll offer 12 performances over eight days at the lauded venue known as the most famous former home of the Grand Ole Opry and the birthplace of bluegrass. Grant and Gill epitomize Music City and how tightly knit this town and its music creators are. There are sure to be plenty of memorable and one-of-a-kind moments across their holiday residency. Limited tickets are still available, so secure yours today. The series begins today, Wednesday, December 10 and concludes on December 20.
“Joy,” Kirby Lyle
Nashville-based songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Kirby Lyle is joined by Maya de Vitry on a brand new seasonal track, “Joy.” Featuring trickling banjos, fiddles, cellos, and guitars in a cozy and grooving 6/8 time, “Joy” feels like a folk holiday mantra, with Lyle and de Vitry singing in a call-and-response style perfect for the often ecclesiastical vibes of this time of year. “Joy” centers the feelings of working class and downtrodden folks in the holiday season, finding radical hope not through toxic positivity but through intention and community. It’s both a sonic and rhetorical antidote for those weary of capitalism and consumerism masquerading as togetherness and holiday cheer.
“Merry Christmas, Baby,” Miko Marks
Does Christmas give you the blues? Well, the blues can cure your holiday blues, too – as evidenced by Oakland-based artist and singer-songwriter Miko Marks’ brand new rendition of “Merry Christmas, Baby.” With twangy resonator guitar and whining harmonica, Marks’ ensemble stomps their way through the deep-pocketed number. The classic form and chord progression are as comforting as Christmas cookies and a mug of hot cocoa, and Marks’ soaring and soulful voice is more than angelic enough for the season.
“Santa Claus Is Coming to Town,” Parker McCollum on CMA Country Christmas
Young country superstar Parker McCollum performed a quintessential classic, “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town,” on this year’s primetime broadcast of CMA Country Christmas. Flanked by thousands of twinkle lights and backed by brass, strings, and background vocalists, McCollum wore a crisp white “Fresh Western” trucker cap as he brought his trademark country energy to the beloved carol at Belmont University’s Fisher Center for the Performing Arts. If you missed the original broadcast of CMA Country Christmas on December 2 and the encore broadcast on December 9, don’t worry – you can stream CMA Country Christmas via Hulu or Disney+. The single version of the track is also available exclusively via Apple Music.
“Every Season,” MORGXN
On the opposite end of the mainstream country continuum from bro country and country trap you have artists like MORGXN innovating on the genre in similar sonic ways, but without the genre cognitive dissonance, toxic masculinity, or petty litmus testing of the other end of the spectrum. See how much fun, engaging, and innovative country can be with pop and electronic influences from other territories than what we most commonly find on the country airwaves? “Every Season” is the first holiday release from MORGXN, an original song that draws as much upon rootsy textures and tones as crisp and modern software sounds.
We always love when we find new seasonal music that’s inclusive of everyone’s faiths and traditions, too, so we’re especially excited to add “Every Season” to our holiday playlists this year.
Opry Country Christmas
Are you also devastated our Opry 100 Artist of the Month series concluded already? Here’s your solution, as mere days after the Grand Ole Opry’s special 100th Anniversary shows on November 28, Opry Country Christmas began in earnest at the Grand Ole Opry House on November 30. The festive, star-stacked shows will continue through December 23, each performance featuring Opry members the Gatlin Brothers, Riders In The Sky, Mandy Barnett, and Charlie McCoy plus varying special guests each night like Connie Smith, Marty Stuart, Maddie & Tae, the Isaacs, Ricky Skaggs, Marcus King, and many more.
If you’re nearby or traveling to Nashville this December, get your tickets and more info here. Not able to make it in person? Stream Opry Country Christmas on WSM Online and the Opry’s digital platforms, or listen like we do most often, over the good ol’ fashioned airwaves at 650 AM. When you hear Country Music Hall of Famer Charlie McCoy wail through a medley of Christmas carols on his harmonica, you’ll be glad you did.
Snow Globe Town, Brad Paisley
Brad Paisley’s brand new country Christmas album, Snow Globe Town, was inspired by him being asked by Hallmark Channel to write and record music for their brand new A Grand Ole Opry Christmas movie. Paisley has already taken his festive songs to The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and NBC’s “Christmas in Rockefeller Center” – and the album rose rapidly to the very top of the Billboard Current Country Album chart, scoring a No. 1 while it landed on their Top Country Albums and Holiday/Seasonal Albums charts, too. With his signature croon and hearth-hot telecaster licks, Paisley offers brand new numbers and favorite classics. Snow Globe Town has been called “unmistakably Brad” and we certainly agree.
Wrapped in Paper, Sofia Talvik
We’ve enjoyed featuring Swedish singer-songwriter Sofia Talvik’s holiday songs in BGS Wraps over the years. Now, she’s collected all of her Christmas singles and tracks since 2018 into a new holiday album, Wrapped in Paper. The project also includes three brand new tracks, two originals – “Merry Christmas, Adios, So Long” and “Let Peace be the Song” – as well as her version of “Silent Night.” “Let Peace be the Song” is more than apt for the uncertain and extreme times we find ourselves living in. Seemingly a response to the attention economy of social media and the sensationalism of the news cycle, Talvik calls for peace – the true meaning of this season, regardless of faiths or traditions – while wars, conflicts, and political frays are fought all around us. If only peace could be the gift we all give each other this year.
Heart of the Holidays, Tenille Townes
A new three-song EP from singer-songwriter Tenille Townes, Heart of the Holidays, is inviting, cozy, and classic. The collection’s title track is warm and jazzy, with round hollow-body electric guitar tone that feels like a comforting hug. The drum kit shuffles along as Townes gives us an excellent track for all kinds of wintry holiday celebrations. “I love writing and singin Christmas songs,” Townes said on social media, “because it brings out all the jazzy, cozy melodies.” The project continues with “Auld Lang Syne” – preemptively add that to your New Year’s playlist now! – and a lovely three-part harmony rich version of “Go Tell It On The Mountain” featuring Caylee Hammack and Fancy Hagood rounding out the vocal trio. It’s a perfect fit for BGS Wraps!
Lead Image: Miko Marks by Karen Santos; Amy Grant & Vince Gill by Robby Klein; Tenille Townes by Robert Chavers.
We wouldn’t ever begin to even try to define it. Good Country is a place. A feeling. A sense of knowing it when you hear it. Whatever you consider to fall under the term or qualify for the moniker, there certainly is plenty of Good Country to be found these days – and especially in 2025.
To wrap up the year in country, we asked our GC contributors not to simply select their favorite country song or album of the year, but to consider that titular question. We gave our writers no parameters or qualifiers for what their picks could be or include, leaving the prompt as open-ended as possible, asking our folks to focus in on the music that stuck with them, whatever the reason or impulse or staying power. Most selections are albums and songs, but some are artists, books, soundtracks, live shows, or other more intangible moments.
The results perfectly illustrate how much easier it is to triangulate the location of Good Country by showing, rather than telling. Spanish-language and Mariachi-infused country fall alongside twangy Mississippian working class messages over hip-hop beats and contemplative singer-songwriter mental health reckonings. Bluegrass pickers can be found beside books and motion picture soundtracks and songs sung in te reo Māori. Smash hits and household names bump up against newcomers and fresh discoveries. It’s all here. It’s all Good Country.
As you scroll, we hope you enjoy the broad, borderless, and endlessly entrancing territory we’ve come to know as Good Country. As we turn the page from 2025 to 2026, we’re proud of the community of folks who love and make Good Country – and beyond excited to hear what they’ll continue to bring to us in the very near future.
Sammy Arriaga, “Before The Next Teardrop Falls”
Freddy Fender’s masterful 1974 hit, “Before The Next Teardrop Falls,” with its Tejano guitar and half-Spanish chorus, is so cemented into the history of the place it was made that it sounds as contemporary as Willie in Austin, and older than the Carter Family, even maybe older than Nashville itself. Recording a cover of it, especially in this era of ICE raids and xenophobic facism, is to argue for a kind of double heartbreak – where the loss of a lover and the oppression of a culture work concurrently. I would have never thought that Sammy Arriaga was capable of this, his previous work was often vapid and derivative, but 2025’s Heart in Texas has an immediate, difficult tenderness.
If Fender’s work has hope that his lover will eventually need him in the same way that country music will need him, then Arriaga’s work is devastating because he knows that he will not be asked to be there at all. – Steacy Easton
William Beckmann, “Por Mujeres Como Tú”
Few things brought me more joy this year than videos of country crooner William Beckmann performing Pepe Aguilar’s “Por Mujeres Como Tú” at Floore’s Country Store in Helotes, Texas, in September. Beckmann was joined by Mariachi Campanas de America, a San Antonio-based group that’s been active in different iterations since 1978.
A native of Del Rio, Texas, Beckmann has made no secret of his bilingual roots – he sang Vicente Fernández’s “Volver, Volver” during his Opry debut in 2023 and included a cover of “Por Mujeres Como Tú” on his major-label debut, Whiskey Lies & Alibis, earlier this year. But this was clearly a special moment, as evidenced by the triumphant expressions on Beckmann’s and the mariachis’ faces and the sounds of the delighted crowd singing along. It offered proof of what many generations of Texans already know to be true: Mariachis make everything better. – Will Groff
Luke Bell, The King is Back
Luke Bell was a country music chameleon like no other. Western swing, country blues, classic country, outlaw, cowboy, trucker songs, and rowdy barroom country – he sounded at home in it all. Enigmatic and tough to pin down, Bell was a quintessential driving force in the Americana and independent country scene as it blossoms now. He also struggled with mental illness and substance abuse, and was found dead at 32, truncating his musical contributions.
Now, a posthumous double album, The King is Back, delivers both Bell’s ineffable joie de vivre and his remarkable songwriting in the most complete form yet. The King is Back’s 28 tracks range from bravado on “Rattlesnake Man,” “Long Gone Love,” and “Cold Stew,” to vernacular country with “Roofer’s Blues” and “Irrigator’s Blues,” and classic country weepers like “Seven and Steady” and the album’s spectacular, tragic closer, “Tiger’s Mouth.” Bell’s songwriting was often stunningly prescient. And on the album’s title track, it’s easy to imagine Bell’s just stepped back on stage with a wink and a grin: “I heard things just ain’t the same without me/ Hold your hats, the party’s on, the king is back,” he sings. This album is as close as it gets. – Meredith Lawrence
Cole Chaney, In The Shadow Of The Mountain
In 2023, as I was wrapping up an interview with music industry counselor JT Nolan about the mental health benefits of playing music, he asked, “Have you heard Cole Chaney? Go to YouTube and listen to ‘Spirit.’” When friends and family turn away, houses of worship slam-lock their doors, and society at large stigmatizes and ostracizes, the broken take refuge in the arts. Sometimes it’s complex work. Sometimes it’s the gentle strumming of an acoustic guitar and a high lonesome refrain: “I want to let go, I don’t want to hurt no more, I want to let go … spirit … I’m tired of holding on …”
A lot can happen in two years. Cole Chaney grew his hair, plugged in, turned up, and released In The Shadow Of The Mountain. The result owes as much to Cobain and Cornell as it does to Doc and Merle. Chaney describes it as “a little bit of a darker album.” That’s saying something, considering the emotional outpouring that is his debut, Mercy. Settled in midway on the new release is a revisited “Spirit,” somehow even more plaintive than the OurVinyl session.
Albums like In The Shadow Of The Mountain, in all its aching beauty, are reminders that while our brokenness may never truly leave us, music is the kintsugi that helps fill its deepest cracks. – Alison Richter
Tyler Childers, Snipe Hunter
Sure, Tyler Childers’ grungy Rick Rubin-produced masterpiece, Snipe Hunter, has been nominated for a GRAMMY Award in the Best Contemporary Country Album, but placing the project alongside releases by fellow nominees Miranda Lambert and Kelsea Ballerini illustrates how limiting this buzzworthy category split really is. To this listener, every single fascinating song on Snipe Hunter is built upon a centuries-old foundation of country and Appalachian tradition.
While the album has certainly had a polarizing effect among those who describe themselves as Childers fans, folks “in the know” inside and outside of the region – be it central or southern Appalachia, Kentucky, the South, or rural haunts in general – found endlessly artful complications and narrations of country (and country-ness) throughout the collection. Childers’ lyrics are all at once demonstrable and fantastic, far-fetched and absolutely grounded in reality. Over the half-year since its release, I find myself returning to Snipe Hunter over and over again to delight in new discoveries and freshly raised eyebrows and first time laughs-out-loud as I find more and more whimsical magic flowing from Childers’ true country pen. You may not see yourself reflected in this EP, but to those of us who do, the sensation is joyous – and addicting. – Justin Hiltner
Madeline Edwards, FRUIT
When Madeline Edwards started turning in songs for her 2025 album, FRUIT, an “industry leader” on her team suggested she package the project as a “grief EP” – a moment of catharsis in the wake of her younger brother’s death that would not distract her from more commercially viable musical pursuits. But the grief songs kept coming and the suits lost faith.
Edwards stuck to her guns and delivered the brilliant concept album independently. The pangs of mourning ring out throughout FRUIT, but so do hard-won determination and joy. Edwards’ range as a storyteller is on marvelous display from the instantly memorable piano ballad “Just A Dream” to the wall of guitars on “American Psycho” and gospel timelessness of “Holy Fire.”
Edwards is at home among the many different shades of contemporary country, while also dipping her toes in soul, rock, indie and her very own brand of classical pop vocals. Somebody please put this multifaceted performer on a massive headlining tour ASAP so we can watch her soar to even greater heights. – Lizzie No
Sierra Hull, A Tip Toe High Wire
With the release of her latest album, A Tip Toe High Wire, Sierra Hull has broken through a new level of national and international notoriety. With a songbird voice and soothing stage presence, the mandolin virtuoso took her deep bluegrass roots and blended it with a heady helping of Americana and indie-folk stylings.
Always cognizant of her traditional bluegrass foundation, Hull continues to use that steady footing to step over musical fences and into new realms of sonic possibilities, as seen with her appearances onstage in recent years with the likes of Slash, Cory Wong, and the Allman Betts Family Revival. If anything, A Tip Toe High Wire is, in many respects, Hull finally arriving into her own space and signature sound, something she’s chased after since she was a young kid playing alongside legends like Alison Krauss, Sam Bush, and Béla Fleck. The album itself is a testament to the unlimited possibilities she possesses and radiates with such ease and pure enthusiasm.
Not to mention, Hull also took home her seventh Mandolin Player of the Year honor at this year’s International Bluegrass Music Association Awards. – Garret K. Woodward
Nicholas Jamerson, The Narrow Way
Those plugged into Kentucky’s music scene will often put Nicholas Jamerson’s songwriting on the same level as that of Tyler Childers, Chris Stapleton, and Sturgill Simpson. With his latest record, The Narrow Way, it’s easy to see why.
On the 12-song project, the singer’s humility shines through as he tackles topics like the bond he’s built with his partner (“One With You”), remaining hopeful in life’s dim moments (“Dark In Every Day”), not taking your time for granted (“Running Out Of Daylight”) and reflecting on moments you can’t get back (“Prater Creek”).
Further recognition of Jamerson’s prowess as a writer can be found in the feature spots littering the project, which range from its producer Rachel Baiman to Ketch Secor (Old Crow Medicine Show), Tim O’Brien, Shelby Means (Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway), and his sister, Emily Jamerson (another artist to keep your eye on). Altogether, The Narrow Way follows the same formula Jamerson has rode to success for over a decade now – serving the song above everything else – and the best part is he’s showing no signs of slowing down. – Matt Wickstrom
I spend more time on TikTok than I’d like Good Country’s readers to know, and it seems like most country artists’ content sits on a continuum between “here’s a bonfire scene that cost two million dollars to produce” and “pardon my PJs, the label made me post this :(.”
Mississippi songwriter KIRBY, however, used short-form vertical video as a canvas for her Southern Gothic storyscapes to great effect all year, turning album promotion into an opportunity for site-specific performances. In July, KIRBY posted a lyric video for “The Man,” a song from her then-forthcoming album, Miss Black America. She sings straight to camera in front of the yellow Dollar General sign you see on every block in the hood. Her vocal winks at Ann Peebles and the caption explains the prevalence of food deserts in America.
This fall, clips of “Na$ty” created their own cultural moment on the Black Internet. You kinda had to be there, which is a lesson in itself. On KIRBY’s internet, everything is text and anything can be useful. Hair, thighs, grooves, intertextual comparisons, and accents are thick, and AAVE will not be translated. We are cordially invited to keep up. – Lizzie No
Olivia Ellen Lloyd, Do it Myself
West Virginia native, now New York-based songwriter Olivia Ellen Lloyd taps into a deeper sense of love, heartbreak, liberation, and resilience on her sophomore album, Do it Myself. The release features an all-star band with Dave Speranza on bass, Connor Parks on drums, Duncan Wickel on fiddle, James Woodall on pedal steel, Sarah Glades on percussion, and Mike Robinson as producer – as well as playing guitar and pedal steel.
Lloyd’s storytelling is vivid, emotional, and quite powerful. Listening to both this album as well as her first, it’s beautiful to watch her story unfold in sentimental songs, which have a country twang, but you can also hear influences from other genres. Whether punchy songs or soft ones, all of her music has a groove that makes you want to sing and dance along – while also giving you a space to experience your own feelings, as she does while singing. – Emma Turoff
Rob Miller, The Hours Are Long But The Pay Is Low: A Curious Life in Independent Music
A question anyone who pursues a creative life will ask themselves: Why do we take a vow of poverty to put art into the world? As put forth in Bloodshot Records co-founder Rob Miller’s memoir, The Hours Are Long But The Pay Is Low, it’s because not doing it is not an option.
Chicago-based Bloodshot caught the wave of mid-1990s alternative country, releasing seminal works by Old 97s, Waco Brothers, Robbie Fulks, Sarah Shook, and more. Miller comes across as an OCD character straight out of High Fidelity, and his memories of the label’s hardscrabble early days are refreshingly unpretentious.
Bloodshot’s story wasn’t entirely positive. Its original incarnation ended badly amid disputes between Miller and his business partner (the label was ultimately purchased by Exceleration Music, which operates it now under new management). But Miller summarizes the bad-vibes part only briefly, concentrating instead on telling one man’s love story for music. It’s honestly impossible to imagine him doing anything else. And as the cherry on top, Miller dedicates the book to a pair of late friends including Dex Romweber, who he writes “left this world before he could read what his music meant to me.” – David Menconi
Kristina Murray, Little Blue
Little Blue is an understatement. Kristina Murray’s sterling third LP could convincingly have been called “Huge Bummer,” which is coincidentally the mark of a great country record.
“It’s gonna get worse, just give it time,” Murray incants on “Has Been,” a cheekily dour turn-of-phrase that just may stop you in your tracks. (Surely she means it’s gonna get better, right?) Later, on the dreamy “Fool’s Gold,” Murray tries her best at seeing beyond the proverbial grey skies, only to come up short: “It’s just more clouds,” she sighs. Such moments are appropriately slathered in pedal steel, but there’s also a swampy, rock ‘n’ roll groove to tracks like the deliciously jaded “Watchin’ the World Pass Me By” that makes the whole set go down easy. – Will Groff
Drew Parker
My introduction to Drew Parker was his 2020 single “While You’re Gone,” about missing a girl and drinking a gas station PBR while waiting for her to come back. That song had the classic hallmarks of a contemporary country breakup song. Little did I expect the curveball to come five years later.
For over a month earlier this year, Parker teased a big announcement with cryptic social messages like, “Some chapters end. Some chapters begin. This one… isn’t about me. 9•15•25.” The day came and Parker revealed in a short film testimonial that he’s felt God speaking to him, culminating in Parker’s non-religious manager calling and saying Parker should record Christian (country) music. This “moment” stuck out to me not only for the unexpected manner in which Parker revealed his decision, but because it’s obvious this isn’t a creative “phase.”
I don’t see Parker putting together a “token” record about believing and then going back to just girls, beer, and his pickup. Furthermore, Parker exudes unwavering peace about it all – whether he loses fans or faces mean-spirited judgment. There’s tangible risk to this move and there’s something to be said for Parker’s resolve and frankly, his faith in making this change. – Kira Grunenberg
Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats Live at the Kia Forum
Thinking back on all the great music I saw this year, the concert topping my list is one I saw at Los Angeles’ Kia Forum in February. The amazing triple bill – a solo Sam Beam, Waxahatchee, and headliner Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats – all delivered dynamic performances. But it was the unexpected parts of the concert that really made it so memorable.
During his set, Rateliff welcomed several special guests: Lucius’ lead singers Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig, Taylor and Griffin Goldsmith from Dawes, and Grateful Dead bassist Bob Weir. What especially impressed me, however, was how Rateliff generously let his guests take the spotlight – a gesture that conveyed his joy for making music, particularly in a “more-the-merrier” collaborative way.
The Colorado-based Rateliff and his band also made the extraordinary gesture of using the concert to raise funds for victims of Southern California’s January wildfires as well as partnering in a purchase of a mobile food pantry to assist those left homeless by the destructive fires. This night reminded me how musicians can not only create a genuine sense of community through their rousing performances, but also through their inspiring actions. – Michael Berick
Sinners (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Ryan Coogler’s Sinners is the horror film of 2025. It’s been hard to ignore, and for good reason. Michael B. Jordan, who plays double duty as twin outlaws Smoke and Stake, leads the cast which also includes Hailee Steinfeld, Wunmi Mosaku, and Thomas Pang (also known by his stage name, Yao). The film ultimately raked in $367 million in worldwide box office receipts. From its unique spin on vampires to its rootsy, blues-driven music, Sinners excels in celebrating the rich history of Black music and connects the dots between African tribal music to modern day hip-hop and R&B.
Songs like “Travelin’” (a standout moment from newcomer Miles Caton as musician hopeful Sammie) and the mind-blowing time-traveling song “I Lied to You” (paired in the movie with a visual mixing all the styles of Black-made music throughout history) mark the soundtrack as one of the year’s best releases. It’s sure to give the audience a renewed sense of Black history that’s often correlated to specific moments and eras in time. The film and its soundtrack will be talked about for decades as being a vital cinematic moment. – Bee Delores
Ringo Starr, Look Up
Way back at the beginning of 2025, Ringo Starr reminded us how different the world would look today if not for his love of American roots music. Teaming up with GRAMMY-winning producer T Bone Burnett, Starr’s country album Look Up is a love letter to the sound that drove his imagination.
Over 11 new songs written mostly by Burnett for the occasion, a classic American art form got a British Invasion makeover, with modern masters like Billy Strings, Molly Tuttle, and Alison Krauss joining Starr’s fun. Yet, what made this project a year-end highlight was not just the tunes. It was what they represent. As Starr openly declared, his first musical love was American blues and country. Artists like Lightning Hopkins sparked a creative impulse that would ultimately help redefine pop forever. From releasing music as a self-contained band and writing their own songs, to making youth culture a dominant force, The Beatles would change the world – and who knows? With a different drummer behind the kit, maybe none of it happens. Look Up shows where Starr was coming from. – Chris Parton
Vandoliers, Life Behind Bars
Vandoliers’ fifth studio album, Life Behind Bars, is both joyous and contemplative as the raucous country-punk band dive deep into themes of gender, grief, and sobriety in equal measure. “Dead Canary” blasts eardrums with a Mariachi flavor that barrels full steam ahead, setting the stage for their most impressive record to date. Other essentials such as “Bible Belt” and “Thoughts and Prayers” take aim at the current social and cultural moment, addressing religious fanaticism and how it clouds any sense of empathy.
Songs like “You Can’t Party with the Lights On” and “Valencia,” another Mariachi-intoned moment, are just plain fun. These round out the album into a well-crafted snapshot of the group right now and where they fit into the ever-changing world. Additionally, Vandoliers have never sounded so in tune with one another, vocally and musically, opting for compelling and intricate choices that expand their style without sacrificing what’s made them so good. – Bee Delores
Kelsey Waldon, Every Ghost
As the editor for Good Country and BGS, I listen to hundreds of albums a year, but they rarely stop me in my tracks. That happens even more rarely when album creators are longtime close friends of mine. But despite having met Kentuckian singer-songwriter Kelsey Waldon nearly 15 years ago and adoring all of her LP releases in that time, when Every Ghost first arrived in my email inbox earlier this year, I was floored.
In a world – and industry and genre – absolutely dripping with affectations of country music in lieu of the “real deal,” Waldon’s sixth studio album is dyed in the wool, but unconcerned with meeting those expectations or checking the boxes of trends and salability. These honky-tonking songs are infused with old-time, bluegrass, outlaw, confidence, and Prine-ian philosophizing. Waldon somehow turns introspection and identity into gritty and engaging wit and metaphor, without ever needing to obscure her messages to make them feel artistic or serious or poetic.
Even listeners like myself, who have been in Waldon’s fan club for a decade and a half or who have swapped vegetable seedlings and chicken pics with her, or who have crisscrossed her Ohio river floodplain homeland dozens of times, will learn much more about Waldon, her approach, her sonic loves, and her inner machinations as she pulls back the curtain for all of us on Every Ghost. – Justin Hiltner
Marlon Williams, Te Whare Tīwekaweka
Down here at the bottom of the globe in Aotearoa and Te Waipounamu (the North and South Islands of New Zealand), 2025 has very much been the year of the Māori singer-songwriter Marlon Williams (Kāi Tahu, Ngāi Tai).
Back in April, I interviewed Williams for a Good Country cover story to celebrate his stunning fourth solo album, Te Whare Tīwekaweka (The Messy House) and director Ursula Grace Williams’s equally affecting documentary film Marlon Williams: Ngā Ao E Rua – Two Worlds. Since then, he’s brought his antipodean blend of country and western, folk, rock and roll, and mid-to-late 20th-century pop to audiences across the U.S., UK, Australia, and at home, culminating in taking home the coveted APRA Silver Scroll songwriting award for his single “Aua Atu Rā” in late October.
Written and sung entirely in te reo Māori, the indigenous language of New Zealand, Te Whare Tīwekaweka is a masterful example of how music can use mood and emotion to cross geographic borders and linguistic barriers effortlessly. Even when we don’t speak the same language, we can still find common ground. Sometimes a sense of connection is only a song or two away. – Martyn Pepperell
Photo Credit: Tyler Childers by Sam Waxman; Kelsey Waldon courtesy of the artist; Olivia Ellen Lloyd courtesy of the artist.
Artist:Jenna Torres Hometown: New York, New York Latest Album:Firebird (released December 5, 2025) Personal Nicknames (or rejected band names): I have been known to answer to JT, Jen, JenJen, Sugar, Honey, and Baby, but my favorite by far is Mom.
If you had to write a mission statement for your career, what would it be?
Living a song-driven life has filled me with a sense of purpose over and over again. It has always been more than a career to me. There is something about being a singer-songwriter that has always felt like a mission. If I have to break it down to a single statement, I would say my mission is to “touch as many hearts as I can.”
What has been the best advice you’ve received in your career so far?
There are a few, but these are my top two. Be you! Be true to your own voice. The world is filled with great artists, but there is only one you. So follow your heartbeat, dance to your own drum, and try not to give too much of a shit about what other people think, because it can get in the way of finding you.
The second piece of advice I got from my A&R person when I signed a fancy deal some time ago. She said, “Celebrate when things are good, because the world of music is full of ups and downs and if you don’t celebrate when things are going well, you will wake up and whatever was worth celebrating will be gone.” Being somewhat superstitious, I missed out on quite a few moments when I could have been having fun. She was right – when things are going well, raise a glass of gratitude and be sure to enjoy the moment!
Which elements of nature do you spend the most time with and how do they impact your work?
I am into human nature. I like to say people are my trees. Growing up in NYC, people have always been my inspiration. My songs are born out of the endless fascination with how we handle what life gives us. I probably get more from riding the subway than a walk in the woods, although there is magic in the woods and the waves. I love to walk down a city street – it inspires me to tell stories.
What’s one question you wish interviewers would stop asking you?
“What or who is your favorite ‘fill in the blank’?” I am kind of an equal opportunity appreciator, if that is a phrase. I do have old favorites, but I seem to have new favorites every day. I am always open to loving something I have never seen, heard, or done before. So yeah – I can’t pick a favorite!
If you didn’t work in music, what would you do instead?
I would be a fortune teller. I love the unseen world. I tend to dig the deep end of the pool, so some helping profession that involves exploring healing from within – which is not that much of a departure from songwriting when you think about it.
Evan Honer opens his new album, Everything I Wanted, with a charge of electric guitar – an unexpected twist for a singer-songwriter who has mostly recorded with a stripped-back sound. And after commanding attention with that blast of energy, Honer carries the listener through a range of emotions familiar to any twentysomething (and beyond). There are breakup songs, of course, but also entanglements with loneliness, self-doubt, and even the relationships that seem to be going well.
Recorded in Honer’s garage studio just outside of Nashville, Everything I Wanted documents a creative moment where sonic exploration may be the biggest priority. However, the fans who discovered Honer in 2022 through a TikTok cover of Tyler Childers’ “Jersey Giant” will likely embrace the songwriting on the new album, with lyrics that reflect a day in the life of someone who’s still figuring things out.
Honer was raised in Surprise, Arizona and excelled in competitive diving at California Baptist College in Riverside. Although a spot on the U.S. Olympic team was within reach, Honer turned instead to a career in music and established his own label, Cloverdale Records. From his home office, Honer called into Good Country to talk about his new album, his relationship with fans, and the road ahead.
I listened to your catalog, and this album seems more electrified than your previous work. Why it was important for you to show another side of your musical approach?
Evan Honer: I felt like the first two albums were… I guess it was what I was into and the production that I was a fan of at the time. I was so new to everything, too. I just thought, “I’m gonna record the guitar, then maybe we’ll have drums.” But I hardly had any drums at all with my first two albums. I guess I just didn’t know the possibilities. And the more I grew as an artist, and thankfully, with the resources that I have, the more things I can do. If I want this exact sound, I know I can do it and I can do it in my garage. My taste has changed. I grew as an artist, and I realized, why not? I can do whatever I want literally.
Are you pretty consistent with your writing routine?
Yeah, most of the time I’m working on something. And it could be one line the whole day, but I sat there for three hours. That’s very common. Now I’m writing with other people more – with artists that I am inspired by. And when I’m back home, it takes a long time. Sometimes it’s sitting with my guitar for hours, and I don’t get anything except a couple words. Or I go backwards and I change everything, then I don’t even have lyrics anymore. I try to do some type of writing every day, but on the road it’s a lot more difficult.
The song “Curtain” captures your relationship with your fans. What does that relationship between artists and audience look like for you personally?
It’s such a difficult thing for me. Recently I’ve been able to enjoy a tour more and not be so affected by it emotionally. On my first tour, I was so not used to how you’re running on no sleep at all and you’re around the same people for a month. You have a bad show, and it feels like your life is over. That is sort of what I wrote [“Curtain”] about, just the ups and downs of being on tour.
I still am upset after a bad show and I don’t know if I ever will not be. In my opinion, a bad show could be, like, one person talking for one song. It was tough for me to realize – and it still is tough for me to realize – that I have such a different perspective on it. There’s my perspective, and their perspective. I felt like I needed to write that song where it’s like, “I’m looking out at you, and I’m just grateful that you guys bothered showing up to hear me scream about my problems.”
And it really helps me, now that I let it. They’re constantly telling me, “Oh, your music means the world to me,” and that is the greatest thing to hear. But them being there is like the whole reason and it means so much to me. That relationship is not one-sided at all. It’s completely: “I need you as much as you need me.”
Listening to “Not There Yet,” I can remember that phase in relationships where it’s like, everybody wants me to be all in, except I’m not sure myself if I’m ready. When you finish a song like that, who is the first person that gets to hear it?
Most of the time, my best friend Blake Abernathy. He was a big reason why I started doing music. When I graduated high school, I went to go sell AT&T Internet and DIRECTV. I moved out to Minnesota with Blake and that’s where we became best friends. We worked together and he shared his music tastes. Tyler Childers was the first person he showed me and I’d never had felt that feeling before, from hearing a true songwriter, someone that makes me feel something.
And from that point, I went down a rabbit hole with my favorite songwriters, like Benjamin Tod, James Taylor, Jim Croce, and so many that I can’t even think of. And that’s how I started and fell in love with writing. From then on, I sent every single song to Blake and he always shoots me straight. He’s always such a big supporter in anything I’m doing, and he always gets it. He’ll tell me, “This is very different, I’m not sure if I like it yet,” or stuff like that.
For the record, can you explain how the “Jersey Giant” video took off?
The first song I ever posted on TikTok was the first song I released, called “How Could I Ever.” I had a good reaction to it and that was literally one of the only songs I had finished. At that point I was like, “Holy crap, I have to write another song because I don’t have any.” Maybe four months later, I was like, “All right, I got a new one.” So, I released “Comfort the Fall” and then “Foolin’ Ourselves,” and maybe a couple other ones, I’m not sure.
Then I released “Jersey Giant” as a cover and it went crazy. Then a bunch of label people were in my email! That was so funny. “Jersey Giant” was a big moment, for sure, but I think the songs that made people come to the shows were from my first and second album, rather than “Jersey Giant.”
I saw you playing banjo and singing a Noah Kahan song, “Dial Drunk,” on a TikTok video. When do you find yourself reaching for the banjo? Is there a certain mood where you think, “Banjo is going to make this better”?
Yeah, there’s a good amount of banjo that I played on this album. I don’t know, I just love the banjo. It’s always so interesting to me to have a song like “Long Road.” It’s not super country. And then you throw in a very country instrument, like a banjo. I love having really country instruments in songs that are not country and have very different melodies than what a traditional country song would normally have. It’s always fun to just throw in a banjo, whenever it feels like it needs it. Maybe I overdo it sometimes. [Laughs]
Do you remember when you first reached for the banjo, or what led you to it?
My grandma actually got me that banjo. I just wanted a new and different instrument to write on, to create new ideas. I think that’s always helpful with piano and banjo. Just writing on a different instrument to hopefully get a different outcome, because sometimes I’m writing on the guitar and it feels like “I’ve written this song already” and I don’t feel excited about it. Now I’m trying to explore every option to write a song, even if it’s writing and producing at the same time.
That’s a scary thing to me. It’s like, we’re writing this song as we’re making it. Normally you have a whole song, or at least how I do it, and you produce it out, and the creative part is producing it. But it’s kind of scary when you don’t have the lyrics. You don’t even know what the chorus is going to be, but you’re already starting to produce it.
Is that because you’re on deadline or just trying to stretch your boundaries? What leads you to a situation like that?
There’s no deadline at all. [Laughs] I’m a fully independent artist, so it’s all up to me when I want to release stuff. I think that’s why I feel like I’ve released a lot more than maybe somebody that kind of started the same time. Three albums in, it’s just me trying to make something different.
I read you released an album the day you graduated from college. Was that like a mission statement? Like, “I’m gonna do this. I’m a musician from this day forward”?
Yeah, pretty much. It’s called West on I-10, because I would go west on I-10 driving back from home to college. Funny enough, the navigational voice would always pop up in my voice memos with, like, “I-10 West.” I had already decided that I was going to do music full-time. I was a diver in college and I originally made plans with my coach to do my fifth year and go for the Olympic trials. That was tough, making that big change. First, my dad was very much like, “Wait, are you sure you want to do this?” But now he’s the biggest supporter ever. There was just a lot of uncertainty and releasing that album on the day I graduated just felt like the most normal thing for me. All those songs I’d written in college are now on that album, and I felt like then I can move on to whatever else.
What goes through your mind now when you hear this new album in its entirety?
This is always tough for me. In January when I recorded it, listening through the album, I’m, like, incredibly stoked on it. And I still am, but it’s a different type of stoked now. I’m stoked that it’s out and I don’t have to sit on these songs anymore. I can move on to what I’m liking now. Because right now, my taste has already changed, where I’m into different production styles, I’m into different, really weird lyrics, or whatever it is. I’m in a different spot now.
That’s always an interesting thing to see how delayed the music industry is. Even if I’m independent, it still takes time to do all these things. So that’s always a hard thing for me, but I’m so happy that it’s out, and I’m so happy that we recorded that way, just 18 straight days of recording. That helps with the cohesiveness of it. I’m really proud of it, and I’m really proud that it’s my third album, and I’m excited to make something else.
If you’ve listened to bluegrass made in the last decade, odds are you’re not only familiar with but absolutely enamored by the utter powerhouse that is Vickie Vaughn. Named the IBMA Bass Player of the Year thrice in a row (2023, 2024, & 2025), Vaughn has established herself as more than a class act – she’s an integral anchor of today’s bluegrass scene and beyond. Presently touring with the acclaimed all-women supergroup Della Mae, Vickie has a slew of accolades under her belt, having sung background vocals with Patty Loveless, toured with High Fidelity, and collaborated with just about every esteemed bluegrass musician under the sun.
November 21, 2025 saw Vaughn set sail unto uncharted waters with the release of her debut full-length solo album, Travel On. Released by Mountain Home Music Company, Vaughn deploys an all-star cast to bring her dynamic compositions to light. The record features guest vocals from Ronnie McCoury, Casey Campell on mandolin, Wes Corbett on banjo, Cody Kilby on guitar, Dave Racine on drums, harmony vocals from Justin Hiltner, Lillie Mae, and Frank Rische, and fiddle from Deanie Richardson, who also serves as the record’s producer.
Travel On champions Vaughn as its frontwoman, a role she hasn’t chronicled in studio since her six-song EP came out a decade ago. Her songwriting is full of dynamic abundance, from the deeply stirring gospel song “The Pilot,” to the absolutely raging “Sleepin’ in the Rain” to the emotive and heartfelt “Mama Took Her Ring off Yesterday.” Vaughn manages to strike a full range of emotions throughout the album’s thoughtful arc, a narrative bound by her buoyant relationship to both rhythm and melody alike.
Ahead of the album’s release, BGS had the unmatched pleasure of sitting down with Vickie Vaughn for a chat about Travel On, music, machinations, musicianship, and more.
Congratulations on the album release! I want to hear all about Travel On, but I’m wondering if you’d be able to take us back to the start for a bit and tell us about your personal musical history.
Vickie Vaughn: Oh golly! I started really early because of my cousins, who I adored growing up. I really looked up to them and they were just great singers who sang all the time and could play piano and guitar. I grew up in a Baptist church. When I was little, maybe six years old, the preacher’s wife found out that I could sing, so she asked me to come sing in the choir. I grew up singing in church and then when I was nine years old, back in Kentucky where I’m from, I got hired as a background vocalist. I know it sounds insane – I’m so normal now, but I was like a freak kid! I could hear harmony and sing every part. When the guy running the Kentucky Opry found that out, I was hired as a kind of novelty act at nine years old. I was there every weekend from when I was nine to when I moved out at 17 as a resident female vocalist and background vocalist.
As for the instrument side of things, my parents had me play classical piano and I hated it so much. I honestly got into bluegrass kind of late for a bluegrass musician – around 14. You know, Sierra Hull, Kimber Ludiker – they started when they couldn’t speak words, but I was a little late to the game. I would go to these bluegrass jams and there would be a bass there, but nobody would be playing bass. So I would pick it up, and I could add decent rhythm, stay on beat, learn the open chords. But then I started taking lessons from this guy named Scottie Henson. He traveled with the Grand Ole Opry touring band back when that was a thing. He was a banjo player, but he taught me how to play bass, which is incredible.
When I was 17, I moved to Nashville to go to Belmont and I was a classical vocalist there. I moved to commercial vocals my junior year and bass was a hobby. I got involved in the bluegrass ensemble and that’s kind of how I got known as a bass player in school. And then I got hired by a touring band from a girl I knew from bluegrass ensemble. The rest is history!
As you were growing up drenched in music, do you recall any songs that particularly sparked inspiration or curiosity for you as a child?
I remember when I was in the car with my dad, I used to love the music he listened to. Mama would always listen to Southern gospel and that was just not my jam. I remember telling Dad, “I hate the stuff that mom listens to.” And he was like, “Oh god, me too.” And I just remember thinking, “You’re so cool, Dad.” Once, we were listening to a classic rock station and the freaking “Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” came on – I know there are all these memes about it now. But I remember having a moment with him in the truck where I was just like, “What is this?” And he was like, “Oh yeah, it’s a true story.” And I was like, “Get out!” That one really struck me.
Another one, which isn’t really a song, but there was this radio station, the local country station – 93.3 WKYQ. On the weekends, starting at 10 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, there was a radio program called the Outlaw Hours, and they would play stuff like Waylon Jennings, Merle, Steve Earle, Charlie Robison. It was outlaw music, edgier rootsy stuff, even some edgier bluegrass stuff. I remember riding in the car back from the Kentucky Opry and I’m just like, “Daddy, let’s listen to Outlaw Hours.” He was like, “You like that stuff??” Because I was little, and you know, a lot of that was not appropriate for a child to listen to, but I just loved it.
I can totally see how that influence carries through into your music today.
Well, I liked the subject matter. It wasn’t all about love. I don’t really like to write songs about love. There are already a lot of songs about love. I don’t have anything unique to say about love. I have something unique to say about the way I process a hangover. Or my faith! My faith is so individualistic and personal. If I feel like I don’t have a new idea, I’m not gonna write it or sing about it.
What is the songwriting process like for you? How did you go about selecting the songs on this album?
This might sound silly too, but do you ever walk around the house and just sing about what you see? So many of my songs come out that way. Like with “Bottle of Wine” – I collect wine, so I always have some on hand. Then it was the day after a breakup and I was super hungover, because I had decided to just drink about it. I walked out of my bedroom and I saw all these empty bottles of wine on the coffee table. And I thought, “I don’t want to see another bottle of wine. Maybe I’ll write that into a song when I’m feeling better.” That’s how most of my songs come out, the hook will come to me and then I’ll just expand on it. Sometimes I like to co-write, like with Thomm Jutz, we co-wrote “Bottle of Wine.” But then “The Pilot,” a song about my faith, I wrote by myself. Faith is so, so personal. Even if a person of faith and I could agree on some fundamental levels, my faith and my walk are so different than literally anyone else’s. So I had to write my own unique faith-based song.
Then “Mama Took Her Ring Off Yesterday” I co-wrote with Deanie Richardson. I brought that idea to her because my dad passed and he was one of my best friends in the world. He hated sappy sad songs, so I didn’t want to write that. I knew I needed to write a song, then I went to visit my mom about three months after he passed. We went to a Mexican restaurant and she slid her left hand over past the chips and salsa, showing me that she took her ring off. I support her and everybody grieves differently, but I still told her I thought it was early for that. But she’s bootstrap Kentucky and she was like, “We have to move on. Life doesn’t stop.” I was just left thinking, “Wow, Mama took her ring off yesterday. That’s the moment I need to write about.” I took it to Deanie because she knew my dad and knows my mom and she really walked with me through my grieving process.
That one turned out so beautifully! I’m curious – you’ve had an extremely successful bluegrass career for a number of years. What made now feel like the right time to put out a solo album?
The awards. Women always apologize for winning and here I am, apologizing for saying “my awards,” but that’s really what it was. People are paying attention. If I’m gonna write a song, I don’t want it to hit deaf ears. Making a record is such an expensive and painstaking process and your heart and soul go into it. After my dad died – well, he was such a cheerleader for me. And an inspiration – he just inspired me. If I was feeling bad about something, I felt like if he believed in me, then I could do it, you know? I didn’t believe in myself without him for a long time, so I couldn’t do it. Especially in the music industry, you can’t do shit if you don’t believe in yourself. It’s too hard. So I waited a while until I felt like there were enough people who believed in me and then I believed in myself. That’s when I felt like I had the energy and the belief to make a record that people would actually hear.
That makes a ton of sense. How do you feel like your relationship to music has changed now that you’ve taken on the role as captain of a project?
This is the first time I’ve ever made a full-length record that’s my own and not just playing on somebody else’s. And of course, Deanie is producing it, but being in control of the material and the direction of the record – it’s funny that you ask, because I almost didn’t realize the direction of the record until it was done. I realized after I heard it all in one setting. The concept is vulnerable joy.
Working on anybody else’s record and supporting them in that way – especially with the bass, which is such a big vibe creator as an instrument – I never felt like I could choose, or was confident enough to choose, the direction. But finally, here I am in my mid-30s, and I’m ready. It was so fun taking the reins artistically, getting to sign off on every bit of it. Every choice I felt in my heart. I was able to say, “If this doesn’t scream Vickie as fuck Vaughn, then I don’t want it!” I would rather not make a record [any other way]. Because when I was younger, I made EPs that I thought other people would like. That was the point for me. But now I’ve traveled around and I know what works. I know what an audience likes to hear; that base is covered. The process of just having to make it totally “me” – that was my favorite part.
How did you go about choosing the community to help you out with bringing this record to life?
So the engineer, Sean Sullivan, I’ve worked with him for a long time on other people’s records, and then I did a small project with him that never got released. This might sound nitpicky, but I feel like the sound engineer in a recording process makes one of the biggest differences. It’s hard when there’s too much input – that’s the producer’s job. But I wanted to work with Sean because he’s so efficient, he’s quick and he has such a calm spirit. He gives direction or a suggestion so seldom that when he does I really take it to heart.
And then, as for Deanie Richardson, my producer, I always knew that she was an amazing musician, but this is the first time that I have really been enamored with her production abilities. It’s the first time I’ve worked with her as a producer. She has taken each song and made it into my record. I would come to her with just bass and vocals, and she would just shape each song and make them each sound different. She’s a freaking genius! And she’s totally unafraid to just be herself. She’s an unashamed woman and that’s the energy I wanted in my record.
The band on the record is all folks that I’ve known and played with here in town. I didn’t want there to be anybody on the record I hadn’t played with or loved or traveled with. Because it’s my first record and I know me, and I know that I would be self-conscious if there was a stranger in the room. And then Justin, my best friend, he just matched my freak so hard on there. We have such a beautiful community.
It’s so beautiful how y’all uplift and support each other! How is it feeling for you to finally have this piece coming out into the world?
I’m terrified, but I don’t know – I kind of like that! I like a challenge. If I’m not scared, then I don’t care. I’m really excited to hear what folks think about it. I want to see what songs touch people and learn from that. And I’m really excited for Deanie to be introduced as a producer, and for everybody to see her talents in that area. I’m really excited to learn from the release. I’ve learned so much in the process already, because there’s so many firsts, and I’m excited for the reception of this record to influence my next. That one will be even more me. I never want to stop growing!
In our eyes and to our ears, there’s no better family of musical genres to usher in the holiday season than roots music. Bluegrass, Americana, old-time, country, blues, and beyond – they’re all perfectly suited for the coziest time of year, for togetherness, for parties and gift giving and cookie icing. Whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, or Winter Solstice – or even if you feel like opting out of the ruckus altogether – there is roots music for you.
Each year, we like to share our picks for the rootsiest time of the year in BGS Wraps, a weekly collection of songs, videos, albums, shows, tours, and events that celebrate the season. We share a few of our favorites, mostly brand new but often classics and timeless selections, too. Plus, we collect all that we can into a running playlist so you’re ready when the family or party hands you the aux cable.
To kick off the season this year, we’ve got a BGS Wraps full of Good Country, jingle bells, Texas snow, holiday generosity, and plenty of glittering lights and joyous cheer. We hope you enjoy BGS Wraps and tune in the next two weeks as we continue our series celebrating the holiday season.
A Very Carper Christmas, Melissa Carper
One of our favorite purveyors of Good Country in the most legit old-school, Texas, Western swing, and outlaw styles, Melissa Carper has just launched her own album of holiday music, A Very Carper Christmas. It boasts quite a few originals and co-writes and a couple covers of classics, too. The collection is silky smooth and timeless, a perfect accompaniment to holiday cooking, decorating, gallivanting from store to store, or cozying up by the fire with your loved one of choice.
Starting December 4, Carper will join JD McPherson’s “Socks: A Rock & Roll Christmas” tour around the Southeast, East Coast, and Midwest. So don’t miss your chance to catch these Good Country seasonal songs live in person. Melissa Carper tour details here.
“When It Snows in Texas,” Chaparelle & Sierra Ferrell
Let’s keep it going with more Austin-based Good Country! Last month, alt-country supergroup Chaparelle announced a brand new co-write and collaboration with everyone’s current favorite old-time Americana goddess, Sierra Ferrell. “When It Snows in Texas” is the perfect seasonal holiday number, apt for each and every rootsy holiday playlist and certainly suited to occasions beyond just Christmas. With a languid, loping groove, it’s all wrapped up in alt sounds that remind of Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and a casual sing-along sidled up to a shiny wooden bar all at the same time. This is the country & western (heavy on the ampersand western) vibe we all crave – this time of year or anytime.
Feels Like Christmas, Mickey Guyton
Singer-songwriter and country star Mickey Guyton is no stranger to festive song releases, but Feels Like Christmas is officially her first full-length holiday album. From the adorable “Sugar Cookie” to the classic pop trappings of the title track to her “Christmas Isn’t Christmas” duet with the Michael Bolton, Feels Like Christmas feels… well, grown up. Fully realized. Ready for your moody, ambient Christmas cocktail hour or a laughter-rich, full kitchen, too. Guyton makes some of the best crisp, modern, radio-ready country around today, and this holiday collection – like most if not all of her discography – feels made to last the ages, too.
Further leaning into the festivities of the season, Guyton will also appear in a brand new Hallmark movie, A Grand Ole Opry Christmas, which is premiering this year during Hallmark Channel’s 16th annual Countdown to Christmas programming event. Guyton certainly has our number, and we’ll be camped out in front of the TV with our hot ciders and sugar cookies ready and waiting for this incredible Opry, country music, and Hallmark crossover.
I’ll Be Home for Christmas, Drew & Ellie Holcomb
Drew & Ellie Holcomb have added to their deep-and-wide catalog of holiday and seasonal music with a brand new EP entitled I’ll Be Home For Christmas. The project adds three lovely covers of Christmas favorites to the stacked roster of selections the couple and their Neighbors trot out each winter for the season. This year, they’ll perform two “Neighborly Christmas Special” shows in Tennessee – in Memphis on December 5 and in Nashville on December 12 – before heading out on their next headline tour in February. Find ticket info here, then put on I’ll Be Home For Christmas while you make your holiday lists and check them twice.
The Greatest Christmas On Earth, Robert Earl Keen
Now this right here sounds like our kind of Americana Christmas circus! Robert Earl Keen kicks off his “The Greatest Christmas On Earth” tour this week, crisscrossing the South and Southeast through the month of December spreading cheer, joy, silliness, and light – and keeping the party going down the road forever, as he does.
The tour will kick off on December 4 in REK’s hometown of Kerrville, Texas, and you can be sure each night will feature his paean to the beauty and dysfunction of families at the holidays, “Merry Christmas From The Family.” Put all your own rowdy relatives in the van and don’t miss these shows. Ticket info here.
“Dream a Dream of Christmas,” Lydia Luce
Lydia Luce just released her excellent brand new album, Mammoth, in late October, but even before the project’s release she was looking ahead to the winter and holiday seasons with a A-side / B-side single release, “Dream a Dream of Christmas.” Like her songs in general, the A-side selection is contemplative, emotional, and rich with text painting and lush piano and vocals. Resonant strings play along with the contours of her vocal, punctuated by Christmas-y percussion and scoring, like Hollywood holiday offerings of the ’50s and ’60s. The track’s B-side is a delightful rendition of the beloved carol “Silent Night” that’s dramatic and rich – and features guest vocals by Caroline Spence. Both songs would be excellent additions to your themed playlists for the season.
OCMS XMAS, Old Crow Medicine Show
It’s hard to believe one of bluegrass and old-time’s longest running party string bands, Old Crow Medicine Show, have just released their first holiday album this year – but it’s true! OCMS XMAS is zany, rollicking, and unhinged. (As it should be.) It’s a collection of stories, songs, and tableaus that are just as fantastic and engaging as any of their rip-roaring live shows or any of their adored albums from their stacked discography. It’s a Christmas album as only Old Crow could make, and frontman Ketch Secor’s fingerprints are all over the track listing. From “Corn Whiskey Christmas” to “Breakin’ Up Xmas” to “Krampus Night” and beyond, this set of material will certainly be a Holiday Hootenanny on stage. Catch their Holiday Hootenanny on tour through December 20, before the band returns yet again to the Ryman Auditorium for their iconic annual New Year’s celebration performances to close out the year.
Sweet Relief’s Annual Holiday Auction
Sweet Relief is a non-profit organization with a mission that we all – in the music industry and outside of it – can get behind. For more than 30 years Sweet Relief has worked to provide financial assistance to musicians and music industry workers who are facing illness, disability, or age-related challenges. Just last week, they launched their annual holiday auction yet again, offering signed memorabilia and in-person experiences with a variety of artists in roots music and beyond, all of which benefit their important mission and vital work supporting music professionals’ mental and physical health.
Folks can bid on offerings from artists and musicians like Billy Strings, Hozier, Pearl Jam, Walker Hayes, The Decemberists, the Black Keys, Amanda Shires, Gregory Alan Isakov, and many, many more. If you’re planning your Giving Tuesday donations and also wondering what to get the music lover in your life who already has everything, perhaps you can check two things off your list in one go by supporting Sweet Relief. Learn more and view the auction items here.
Jingle All The Way Tour, Béla Fleck & the Flecktones
No holiday season would be complete without regularly returning to one of the best roots holiday albums ever made, Béla Fleck & the Flecktones’ Jingle All The Way. Released in 2008, the GRAMMY Award-winning album is beloved in and outside of roots music spheres – it even landed a mention in Oprah’s O Magazine back in ’08! Now, Fleck and the band – including Victor Wooten, Roy “Future Man” Wooten, Howard Levy, and special guests Jeff Coffin, Alash, and Sierra Hull (on select dates) – are taking their virtuosic cheer back on the road with a full slate of Jingle All The Way Tour shows. The tour kicked off in Nashville and will continue through December 20 hitting performing arts centers and theaters in the Midwest and across the Eastern U.S. To mark the occasion, Fleck & the Flecktones released their first holiday music since Jingle All The Way, a single medley of “The First Noel/Joy To The World.” If you can’t make the shows, put the original album and new single on the stereo – but we really recommend snagging tickets and seeing them live, with this superlative lineup, if you can.
Lead Image: Mickey Guyton, Feels Like Christmas; Melissa Carper by Lyza Renee; Old Crow Medicine Show courtesy of the artist.
Artist:Jess Jocoy Hometown: Bonney Lake, Washington (South Seattle region) Latest Album:Cul-de-Sac Kid (released October 24, 2025)
What’s your favorite memory from being on stage?
There have been so many cool moments on stage, but the first one that comes to mind would probably have to be the first time I played a Sunday Spotlight show at the Bluebird Cafe here in Nashville. My mom has a picture hanging on the wall of me, almost in this euphoric state, and I think that encapsulates the night perfectly. It was my first time playing the Bluebird and it just so happened to be my birthday. The Sunday Spotlight shows are full band, so I had the privilege of sharing the moment with some dear buddies and my family and friends. It was just really, really special.
What has been the best advice you’ve received in your career so far?
Honestly, the best advice I’ve received hasn’t come from the industry, but rather my family. There are a lot of “best practices” and “you need to do this in order to achieve that” kind of advice that goes around and all of that can get overwhelming. In a time when I was really carrying the weight of anxiety from this (especially in my younger years), it was offered to me that I should “filter in what I need and filter out what doesn’t serve me.” It took a little bit for that notion to sink in, but once it did, I started to enjoy music more in the same way I did before I started chasing it as a career.
Genre is dead (long live genre!), but how would you describe the genres and styles your music inhabits?
I think my music is a collection of what moves me: I have always loved country music – the twang, the storytelling, the fearlessness to be real. And sometimes just the simplicity. I’m also influenced by music that is ambient and ethereal and almost cinematic, often found in post-rock instrumentals or even movie scores. I’ve been leaning into this idea of “cul-de-sac country,” because my music hasn’t really ventured too far into twangy (just yet! but there’s always room to keep exploring), but I so appreciate the depth of a good story in a song and a “swelly” instrumental, so my goal is to find a crossroads somewhere in there.
What is a genre, album, artist, musician, or song that you adore that would surprise people?
I love Irish/Celtic music (instrumental, ballads, jigs/reels) — all of it. One song I love that might surprise people is “The Parting Glass” (ironically enough, though, my favorite version I’ve heard thus far is Abigail Washburn’s). I just love everything about that genre and style of music. It can be fun and dance-y or lilting and heartbreaking. It’s great!
If you were a color, what shade would you be – and why?
I blame my roots in the Pacific Northwest for my love of a deep green! It’s earthy and moody and can go with dang near everything!
Photo Credit: Sam Wiseman
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