Each week the Wide Open Country staff rounds up our favorite newly released country and Americana songs. Here are five new songs we can't stop listening to this week.
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"Death of the Last Stripper," Terry Allen & The Panhandle Mystery Band
Early 2020 album wish lists should include Terry Allen's Just Like Moby Dick, out Jan. 24 on Paradise of Bachelors. Teasers of Allen's first album since 2013 include this master's thesis from the Guy Clark School of Character Sketches. Allen's macabre story about a dead stripper should sound at home an album featuring tales of bloodthirsty pirates and a vampire-infested circus. What reads like next year's Halloween playlist includes co-writes by fellow Texans Joe Ely and Dave Alvin as well as musical accompaniment by Natalie Maines' dad, Lloyd Maines.
--Bobby Moore
"The Rock and The Hill," Allison Moorer
Allison Moorer gets deeply personal on new album Blood, a companion piece to her autobiography Blood: A Memoir. The interconnected pieces of media address the 1986 murder-suicide that claimed the lives of her and fellow recording artist Shelby Lynne's father and mother. Candid examples include this song, a statement on her mother's resolve to avoid the same monotonous string of defeats represented in the Greek myth of Sisyphus.
--Bobby Moore
"Use Me Again," Erin Enderlin
If you're looking for a perfect collection of devastatingly sad and gorgeous country songs by one of the genre's brightest young stars, look no further than Erin Enderlin's Faulkner County. The lovelorn "Use Me Again" is possibly my favorite "I know I shouldn't, but I'm gonna anyway" country heartbreaker since Lee Ann Womack's "Never Again, Again," which is fitting since Enderlin's 14-song LP also includes a cover of the Bobby Carmichael and Leslie Satcher-penned ode to truckers, "A Man With 18 Wheels," a tune Womack recorded for her self-titled 1997 debut album.
-- Bobbie Jean Sawyer
"Far From Home," Aubrie Sellers
"Far From Home," the title track to Aubrie Sellers' forthcoming album (out Feb. 7), finds the singer-songwriter searching for a place to belong and delivering a stunning lullaby for lonely hearts. Sellers previously released "My Love Will Not Change," a collaboration with Steve Earle.
-- Bobbie Jean Sawyer
"Fear," Kyshona
Kyshona, a Nashville-based singer-songwriter and former music therapist, dishes some sound advice on "Fear," the latest release from her forthcoming album Listen. "Fear is that boogieman that sits quietly in the corner of our minds that can paralyze us the moment confidence enters the picture," Kyshona says of the song's inspiration. "Rather than listen to that voice that's telling you why change isn't possible, call it out. Recognize the fear and move past it. It's just another wall to be knocked down. We can't let fear rule our every move. Fear is what has kept us so divided."
-- Bobbie Jean Sawyer
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