Every other week, the Wide Open Country team rounds up our favorite newly released country and Americana songs. Here are 6 songs we currently have on repeat.
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"Joyride," Carter Faith
Rising country singer-songwriter Carter Faith delivers a perfect summer love song with the breezy "Joyride," an ode to cruising literally anywhere and catching the sunset with your sweetheart. Put this one on your playlist between Taylor Swift's "Fearless" (Taylor's Version, of course) and Kacey Musgraves' "Golden Hour" for a dreamy summer evening drive.
"Joyride" is from the North Carolina native's forthcoming debut EP Let Love Be Love.
-- Bobbie Jean Sawyer
"Sober & Skinny," Brittney Spencer
On "Sober & Skinny," Brittney Spencer sings about vices and the things people try to change about one another.
"'Sober & Skinny' started as a quirky story-idea that I started writing from my bed," Spencer says in a press release. "It's the story of a couple, where each wants the other to change something about themselves. The song goes back and forth between facing reality and fantasizing of a perfect world where things could suddenly become better if only this couple aims for a sort of perfection that probably doesn't exist. Songs like this one make me want to keep writing stories."
Spencer will join Jason Isbell on tour this fall.
-- Bobbie Jean Sawyer
"Nobody's More Country," Blanco Brown
After debuting his new song at the 2021 CMT Music Awards, Blanco Brown officially releases "Nobody's More Country." The catchy new tune was co-written with Tyler Hubbard of Florida Georgia Line, Jordan Schmidt and Quintin Amey and nods to the singer's southern upbringing and deep love of country music. The song is upbeat and fun, and I haven't been able to stop listening to it.
"I've been all around the world and have seen people of all ages, nationalities and backgrounds uniting over their love of country music — the music ties us together," says Brown in a press release. "It's the sound of home. It's the sound of my Georgia heart. It's hard to imagine anybody loving it more than me."
-- Courtney Fox
"How It Comes Off," Clare Dunn
Like many artists, Clare Dunn spent her time locked away during the 2020 coronavirus pandemic working on new music. After releasing several songs last year she announced her new EP, In This Kind of Light. She worked on the 5-song EP on her family's farm in Colorado and "How It Comes Off" has proven to be the perfect choice for lead single.
"This is a song about the start of the end of a relationship. I wrote, produced, and recorded it on the farm & ranch I grew up on in Colorado. I wrote several songs about this ending while going through it. 'How It Comes Off' was the beginning of that," Dunn explained to Sounds Like Nashville.
-- Courtney Fox
"City of Music," Brad Paisley
Recent 2021 Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame nominee Brad Paisley tells two dreamers with country stardom in their sights' Lower Broadway love story with his Ross Copperman and Lee Thomas Miller co-write "City of Music."
Paisley paints a vivid picture of what aspiring country singers encounter in the land of pedal taverns without relying on cliches. For instance, he incorporates lyrical nods to Harlan Howard and Mother Maybelle Carter without either mention coming across like your typical, overplayed Hank Williams (though he's mentioned, too) or Alabama name drops. Even our young lovers' choice of a George and Tammy song as a go-to karaoke jam instead of "Fishin' in the Dark" is a nice departure from the obvious.
-- Bobby Moore
"Red Temple Prayer (Two-Headed Dog)," Margo Price
The meaning of blanket term "Texas music" goes well beyond the sounds of Willie Nelson, George Strait, Guy Clark and your southernmost Red Dirt faves and incorporates everything from the trails blazed by foundational blues artist Lightnin' Hopkins to the bizarre lyricism of the late Roky Erickson, a member of garage rock pace-setters the 13th Floor Elevators and a true outsider as a solo performer.
Margo Price is among the artists honoring a psychedelic rock god on upcoming Record Store Day exclusive May the Circle Remain Unbroken: A Tribute to Roky Erickson (out July 17 via Light in the Attic Records). Her contribution inverts the title of "Two-Headed Dog (Red Temple Prayer)," a trippy tale of Soviet scientists experimenting with head transplants which was originally produced for Erickson by Texas country great Doug Sahm.
Price matches a punk rock innovators' earthy howls throughout a fuzzed-out preview of a covers project which also features contributions from Lucinda Williams, Neko Case and another pillar of Texas music, Billy Gibbons.
-- Bobby Moore
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