Editor’s Note: Each issue of Good Country, our co-founder Ed Helms shares a handful of good country artists, albums, and songs direct from his own earphones in Ed’s Picks.

An exciting emerging voice in indie and country, singer-songwriter and fiction author Creekbed Carter Hogan will release his second studio album, PEASANTS REVOLT!, on July 24. Toggling smoothly between twanging Americana and cozy indie-folk, it’s a collectivist country album tackling some major timely issues – war, labor rights, the climate crisis, queer survival, and the isolation of individualism. Carter reminds us all what being “outlaw” can really mean, in country and beyond.

Three-time GRAMMY winner, Fantastic Negrito doesn’t always make country music, but the music he makes is always Good Country. A genre-blender of the highest order, Fantastic Negrito (given name Xavier Amin Dphrepaulezz) is most often typified as a blues, soul, and Americana artist. But as his new live collection Alive! – out now – can attest, his albums and live shows boast just as many truly country moments as well. And, dare we say, it’s sounding pretty “outlaw” to us, too. If you know his story, you know it’s a fitting descriptor for this roots music renaissance man.

REK may be “retired,” but we’re certainly beyond happy that, indeed, “The Road Goes On Forever.” Earlier this month he released a special 25th anniversary reissue of his seminal 2001 album, Gravitational Forces, with Lost Highway Records. Available in limited edition forest green vinyl, it also features brand-new album notes penned by his daughter, Clara Rose. And that’s not all, next month Lost Highway will reissue Ready for Confetti for its 15th anniversary, as well. (That one will be available in limited edition confetti vinyl!) It’s time to add a couple more essential records to the collection, isn’t it?

Speaking of outlaw, here’s a fella that does it all on his own terms. West Virginia-raised Americana singer-songwriter John R. Miller released his latest album, The Great Unknowing, in physical formats more than a month ago and now it’s available everywhere you listen to music digitally, too. It’s this sort of mindset that permeates his writing, giving his music a strong sense of community, place, connection, and folklore amid the grit and gristle of his authentic, worn-in sounds. There’s quite a few reasons he gets compared to folk songwriting luminaries like John Prine.

Get on the ground floor of this quickly rising country artist now, because he’s going places! Arkansan Waylon Wyatt’s highly anticipated debut album, Dustpiles, was just released last week. His 2024 EP, Til the Sun Goes Down, was a sensation, amassing more than 225 million streams and launching his career into the stratosphere. His streams – and view, like, and follower counts on social media – continue on almost vertical spikes driven by his catchy, thoughtful songwriting and his limitless Arkansas charm. You can read our just-published Good Country interview with Wyatt here.

Listen to this issue of Ed’s Picks in one YouTube playlist here.

Listen to the full Ed’s Picks archive playlist here.

Want more? Check out our recent Basic Folk episode with Lizzie No and Kimaya Diggs about compilation album Outlaws’ Almanac that ponders the same questions – what is an outlaw and who gets to be an outlaw? 

Photo Credits: Creekbed Carter Hogan by Emily April Allen; Fantastic Negrito courtesy of the artist; John R. Miller by Larry Nieheus; Robert Earl Keen by Patrick Dunn; Waylon Wyatt by Cole Silberman.