New Country Music You Need To Hear This Week From Carly Pearce, Zach John King, Laci Kaye Booth & More
- All Country News
- 12 hours ago
- 5 min read
Carly Pearce - Honest Woman
There may not be a title track on Honest Woman, but there does not need to be. Every song earns that name. Each one carries Pearce’s truth so openly that, before long, it begins to sound a little like our own. That has always been Carly Pearce’s greatest gift. She can take the most personal chapters of her life and sing them without sanding down the details, yet somehow leave enough room for all of us inside them. On Honest Woman, she does more than share another season. She steps fully into herself, funny, wounded, wise, traditional, fearless and finally certain of the woman holding the pen. This is not Carly Pearce finding her voice. It is Carly Pearce trusting it completely.
Zach John King - I'm What You Get
Zach John King is not asking listeners to choose between the backwoods and the heartbreak, the hell-raising and the praying, the confidence and the vulnerability.
He is handing them all of it. I’m What You Get. Take it or leave it.
Laci Kaye Booth & Lukas Nelson - "The Illusion Of Love"
Do not let the 4:43 runtime deter you. Laci Kaye Booth and Lukas Nelson need every haunting second of “The Illusion of Love” to cast their spell—and once you are inside it, leaving feels nearly impossible. The track does not rush toward a hook or fight for immediate attention. Instead, it smolders. Spanish guitar curls through the production like smoke beneath a closed door, creating something cinematic, sensual and quietly unsettling. It feels less like a traditional country duet and more like stumbling into someone else’s half-remembered dream. Booth’s ethereal vocals float above the arrangement with an almost otherworldly grace. She does not simply sing about love’s deception; she sounds trapped somewhere between believing in it and finally seeing through it. Every breath carries a strange intimacy, as though listeners are overhearing a confession never meant to leave the room. Then Lukas Nelson enters like a distant memory, or perhaps a ghost. His weathered vocal provides the perfect counterweight to Booth’s softness. He never overwhelms the song or breaks its hypnotic atmosphere. Instead, he slips quietly into the shadows beside her, sounding like the lingering voice of someone she knows she should forget but cannot quite release. That tension is where “The Illusion of Love” becomes truly mesmerizing. Booth and Nelson do not approach the song as two artists competing for the spotlight. Their voices circle one another, each carrying a different shade of the same heartbreak. What emerges is not a clean conversation between lovers, but the emotional aftermath of one, a relationship replaying itself long after reality has set in. In an era when songs are often trimmed down for algorithms and shrinking attention spans, “The Illusion of Love” dares to linger. Its runtime becomes part of its power. The track unfolds slowly, allowing each guitar note, vocal fracture and moment of empty space to deepen the spell. By the final seconds, 4:43 does not feel indulgent. It feels necessary. “The Illusion of Love” is smoky, seductive and beautifully haunted, a duet that understands some relationships do not end when two people walk away. They remain in fragments, distorted by longing until it becomes impossible to separate what was real from what we desperately wanted it to be. Booth and Nelson do not merely sing about that illusion. For four unforgettable minutes, they make us believe in it too.
Ryan And Rory - Beer Wants Me
With “Beer Wants Me,” Ryan & Rory are not leaving anything in the garage. They are hitting the gas, turning up the volume and inviting fans along for whatever happens next.
Jenny Tolman - Music City Mutt
Country music is at its best when an artist can make you recognize pieces of your own life inside theirs. Jenny Tolman has always possessed that instinct, but across these 15 songs, it feels sharper than ever. Music City Mutt may proudly refuse to be one breed of country record, but there is nothing uncertain about the artist behind it. Funny, fearless, wonderfully specific and deeply human, Jenny Tolman has delivered her strongest work yet, and one of the year's most personality-packed reminders that sometimes the best country stories are hiding right in plain sight.
Trey Pendley - Signs Of Life
Country music has always been at its best when somebody can take an ordinary life and make you understand why it matters. Pendley seems to instinctively understand that assignment. So yes, you might press play on Signs of Life asking, “Who is Trey Pendley?” Don't be surprised if you finish it wondering why you weren't asking that question sooner. With Signs of Life, Trey Pendley doesn't just introduce himself. He makes a convincing case that he belongs.
Alicia Blue - Country Desire
Country Desire sounds like the closing scene of a Western where nobody rides away untouched. On her debut album, Alicia Blue builds a world of roadside ghosts, hard-earned freedom and desires too stubborn to stay buried. “Kentucky Cowboy” turns a real encounter into honky-tonk folklore, while the spurs still hanging on Blue’s bedroom wall give its unanswered romance a strikingly human pulse. The deeper the album travels, the darker its landscape becomes. “Hungry Ghost” moves with the chill of an old warning, and “Rose of Tennessee” lets Blue become the villain for once. “Ride” is its quiet revelation, a recording so intimate and instinctive that it feels less performed than summoned. Then Country Desire bares its teeth. “Clean” pushes back against the music business’s dirtier machinery, while “I Know What Doesn’t Fade” rejects art made on an assembly line. “Please Don’t Call” is the rowdiest escape: a full-throttle outlaw anthem made for disappearing without explanation. Blue never polishes away the dust or forces these songs toward an easy resolution. That is what makes the record feel so alive. Country Desire is not merely country music dressed in cinematic imagery; it is a beautifully unruly testament to making something real while the world keeps trying to manufacture everything. Alicia Blue does not knock before entering. She kicks up the dust and makes herself impossible to miss.
Timothy Wayne - Jack'd Up Truck
At 3:45, “Jack'd Up Truck” gives itself enough room to settle into the groove without overstaying its welcome. It is playful, proudly country and refreshingly uncomplicated. There will always be room in the genre for songs that break your heart, make you think or leave you staring at the ceiling at 2 a.m. But country music also needs songs that are simply a damn good time. With “Jack'd Up Truck,” Timothy Wayne proves he knows exactly how to write one.
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