Every week, the Wide Open Country team rounds up our favorite newly released country, folk, bluegrass and Americana songs. Here are six songs we currently have on repeat.
Videos by Wide Open Country
"This Town," Trixie Mattel (feat. Shakey Graves)
Drag superstar and singer-songwriter Trixie Mattel teams up with Texas artist Shakey Graves on "This Town," a plaintive tune about growing up in a small town -- and the bittersweet feeling once you've finally left.
"You either work the land or the fiberglass plant in town/ You maybe got out or you never did settle down," Mattel sings.
The song's video features clips of Mattel's hometown of Wausaukee, Wisconsin.
"This Town" is featured on Mattel's forthcoming double LP, The Blonde & Pink Albums.
-- Bobbie Jean Sawyer
"River of Sins," O.N.E The Duo
Nashville-based mother-daughter duo O.N.E The Duo (Tekitha and Prana Supreme Diggs) sing of redemption and healing on "River of Sins."
Prana Supreme is the daughter of RZA, the founder of Wu-Tang Clan. Tekitha was a featured vocalist of Wu-Tang Clan and performed on the hit album Wu-Tang Forever. (She released her debut album The Prelude in 2010.)
"Growing up, my mom used to host these big jam session parties at our house," Prana Supreme said in a press release. "It was probably one of the highlights of my childhood, getting to hang out with all these singers, musicians, rappers, poets, etc. Usually, at these jams, Mom and I would freestyle a song together — and it was the morning after one of these jam parties that the idea of us singing and writing our own songs together came to my mind."
The duo previously released their debut single "Guilty" last year.
-- Bobbie Jean Sawyer
"I Hate Everything," Croy and the Boys
Corey Baum, the namesake of Austin country band Croy and the Boys, captures the despondent feelings that come with loneliness and cynicism with new song "I Hate Everything."
Baum's pandemic-era blues leaves him contemplating the futility of paying off loans with credit cards, the fear of hanging out at swanky spots where the parking lot's full of Audis and other understandable frustrations.
Per a Facebook post, Baum wrote the song in the neoclassical Texas style of Robert Earl Keen and Adam Carroll and recorded it at home. It's inspired by a friend's snarky response to a Facebook comment: "Don't mind Corey. He hates everything."
-- Bobby Moore
"Quittin' Time," Jason Scott & The High Heat
"I swear the time clock must be punch drunk, cause these days they go on for years" goes a particularly gripping line in "Quittin' Time," Jason Scott & The High Heat's story-song about a laborer's feeling that they're spinning their wheels for 40 or more hours per week.
"To anyone who's ever felt trapped at a dead-end job, or in a dead-end town, and can't seem to escape despite their damndest efforts," Scott told Holler. "This song's for you."
The Oklahoma City-based band's vivid lyrics plus a two-guitar attack and that honky-tonk piano solo make this one a refreshing blend of folk, country and Heartland rock traditions. It and other songs on forthcoming album Castle Rock (out Feb. 11) were informed by the experiences of Scott, a former Pentecostal pastor whose limited view of the secular world as a child was shaped by an uncle's collection of Conway Twitty cassette tapes.
"Dates in Pickup Trucks," Kassi Ashton
Find a little trouble we can get into
What else are you gonna do in a small town
"Girls Just Wanna Have Fun," Kylie Frey and Bri Bagwell
"I cut my version of this cover because it felt like my song ever since I started playing it at dive bars and Mexican restaurants in my hometown," Frey told Taste of Country. "Adding my friend and fellow artist, Bri Bagwell, to the cut made it more of a girl-power anthem than it was before. Hopefully, we made Cyndi proud!"
"I was so honored to be singing this track with Kylie!" Bagwell adds. "There isn't a more iconic girl-power anthem as this one. I love the country spin they put on the tune, and we had a total blast on this entire project."
