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.
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"Same Train as You," Jenny Tolman
Jenny Tolman looks forward to a lifetime with the love of her life on the gorgeous, fiddle-driven "Same Train as You," from her newly released Married in a Honky Tonk.
"Our wheels will turn together," Tolman sings. "Two hearts, bound forever."
Married in a Honkytonk is the follow-up to Tolman's debut album There Goes the Neighborhood.
-- Bobbie Jean Sawyer
"Death Row," Thomas Rhett ft. Tyler Hubbard and Russell Dickerson
Thomas Rhett navigates redemption, compassion and hope on the stirring "Death Row," which he wrote with Tyler Hubbard (Florida Georgia Line) and Russell Dickerson. The song was inspired by the songwriters' visit to a men's prison in Tennessee.
"Tyler, Russell and I went and played some songs for a men's prison here in Tennessee," Thomas Rhett said in a press statement. "We left with a lot of complex feelings, so I started writing as a way to process the heaviness. Our goal was for people to understand our experience by way of music - it's basically a page directly from our journal that day."
"Death Row" is featured on Rhett's forthcoming album Where We Started (out April 1).
-- Bobbie Jean Sawyer
"Turn Off the News (Build a Garden)," Kathy Mattea
Some songs written before 2020 sum up our current situation better than any on-the-nose rehash of recent headlines ever could. Sure, that claim has gotten cliche over the past two years, but it's easy to believe when giving Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real's 2019 selection "Turn Off the News (Build a Garden)" a spin.
Kathy Mattea feels the same way about Nelson's championing of neighborly love in contentious times.
"With some of the polarization that we're experiencing culturally, it's like 'Okay, I might not be able to sit down and talk with you about political things, or cultural things,'" Mattea told American Songwriter. "'But if we get in the dirt, and we work on this project together, we're on the same side of something, and we are making something that's real in the world—not just on the internet, or on the television. It is a real-world living thing ?we're going to nurture together.'"
Mattea recorded her version live for the West Virginia-based radio show she hosts, Mountain Stage.
-- Bobby Moore
"Happyland Trailer Park," Catie Offerman
Native Texan Catie Offerman's built a reputation in recent years as a country traditionalist to watch, from her appearance on the Josh Abbott Band's 2020 track "The Luckiest" to her fiery fiddle performance while backing Lady A at the 2021 ACM Awards. The first taste of her slow-burning, well-seasoned plot to conquer Nashville as a solo artist, "Happyland Trailer Park" praises seeking your own truth while adding a personalized spin to the anthemic sounds associated with '90s country.
"Everybody's got a different definition of the 'good stuff' but what is the 'good stuff?' It's what makes you happy, it's what makes you feel alive," Offerman shared in a press release. "'Happyland Trailer Park' is the place your spirit leads you. It's about searching out the parts of life that aren't mapped out. I love the uncertainties in the adventure and finding the happiness of the journey along the way. The heart is the key-- just going with it and taking the ride."
-- Bobby Moore
"The Last Resort," Midland
The title track on Midland's upcoming third album has some Jimmy Buffett vibes, which I definitely enjoy. This county trio comprised of Mark Wystrach, Cameron Duddy and Jess Carson immediately manage to transport you to the shores of Florida with this breezy new song which is perfect to get in the mood for the upcoming sunny summer months. With lyrics about hitting all the Key West bars "on A1A" and "shooting tequila 'cause it's all my fault" this is one I'll be singing along to for months.
-- Courtney Fox
"Country Outta My Girl," Morgan Evans (feat Rivers Cuomo)
While Morgan Evans released his original version of "Country Outta My Girl" back in September, there's just something special about his new remix with Rivers Cuomo of Weezer. It's unexpected but somehow Cuomo's voice adds some fun dimension to this country pop tune all about how Evans' country transplant love still maintains her country roots.
"She's a map dot with a welcome sign/ She's a truck stop cherry Coke with ice/ Still reppin' that Bobcat pride," Evans sings. "Still callin' from an 865/ She's a ragtop on a hand-me-down Jeep/ She's a flat rock skippin' 'cross a creek/ She's waffles with the chicken fried/ Hungover from a neon Friday night."
-- Courtney Fox
Check out Wide Open Country's Six Pack roundup playlist below.
