New Country Music You Need To Hear This Week From Kaitlin Butts, HARDY, Lady A, Carter Faith & More
Kaitlin Butts - Hello, Honky Tonk!
If country music needed a Broadway musical, Hello, Honky Tonk! makes a pretty convincing audition tape. Kaitlin Butts has the characters, the plot twists, the charm and the voice to carry the whole production. She’s the homecoming queen of this honky-tonk universe, and by the final song, you’ll be glad she invited you in.
HARDY - Sides
Across four songs, Sides feels less like a detour than a statement of intent. HARDY can make room for faith, grit, humor, volume and a fully realized story and make each one feel like it belongs. He doesn’t just switch sounds; he finds the song inside each one. That’s what makes Sides hit: It captures an artist still stretching, still surprising himself and, most importantly, still writing songs that make you want to follow wherever he goes next.
Lady A - Bigger Picture
That is where the song’s message finds its strength, and where Lady A continue to affirm their place among country music’s most trusted voices. They understand the value of giving people language for feelings that are hard to express. Here, that feeling is the fragile, persistent hope that we can keep going before we understand why.
Carter Faith - Still The Sparrow Sings
Some songs know exactly how to sit beside a hurting heart. Carter Faith’s “Still the Sparrow Sings,” from the Netflix film Heartland, offers that kind of comfort: gentle, honest and willing to acknowledge the ache before looking toward the light. The ballad finds the CMA nominee at her best, vulnerable and unvarnished, with a tenderness that feels tailor-made for its message. Faith gives emotional weight to the idea that hope can survive even when happiness feels far away. “The willow may weep but still the sparrow sings.” That image is the song’s beating heart. Sorrow and beauty exist in the same landscape, each carrying on in the presence of the other. It’s a quietly powerful way of understanding grief: we can still be hurting when something gives us a reason to smile. That emotional honesty makes the song’s optimism meaningful. Moving forward rarely happens all at once. Sometimes it begins with noticing something small, a familiar sound, a little warmth, the possibility that tomorrow might feel different. The sparrow’s song becomes a reminder that life still has something to offer. Faith’s vulnerability gives that sentiment its strength. A ballad this tender needs someone willing to let its sadness linger, and her presence suits the delicate balance between heartache and reassurance. “Still the Sparrow Sings” offers a simple promise with lasting weight: sorrow will circle our lives, but the sun will come up. Faith makes that next morning feel worth waiting for.
Chase McDaniel - Pick Mine
The outrage might start on a screen, but the fallout lands at the family dinner table. On “Pick Mine,” Chase McDaniel examines what happens when choosing a side starts costing us the people we love. Written with Jon Nite and Lindsay Rimes, the track channels frustration with a world increasingly willing to turn disagreement into estrangement. McDaniel recognizes that beliefs come from lived experiences, and questions the pressure to reduce complicated people to opposing teams. That perspective gives the song its emotional weight. At its center is the struggle to hold your convictions while maintaining relationships with people who see things differently. McDaniel also challenges politicians and media outlets that benefit from keeping people angry, while families and friendships absorb the damage. The spare production, co-produced by McDaniel and Jerry Jacobs, keeps the focus on the writing. Its stream-of-consciousness approach suits the subject: frustration spilling into questions that have no comfortable answers. “Pick Mine” strengthens McDaniel’s standing as one of Music City’s most timely and thoughtful voices. He brings a sprawling cultural conflict back to something painfully personal: the empty seat, the unanswered call, the relationship we might never repair. When everyone demands that we pick a side, McDaniel asks us to consider what and who we’re giving up.
Cody Lohden - Good Ole Boy
Cody Lohden puts some weight behind a familiar country phrase on “Good Ole Boy.” Out now via DeVille Records / Big Loud Records, the track draws from his Garfield, Kentucky, roots to explore the frustration of trying to keep your footing when life keeps pushing back. “It’s a tough tough ride for me and my kind,” he sings, setting up a hook that turns the title into a weary declaration: “It’s a bad bad day / To be a good ole boy like me.” The repetition gives those lines their punch. “Tough tough,” “down down,” “long long,” the language suggests setbacks that have accumulated over time. There’s little interest in dressing up the feeling. The writing gets straight to the exhaustion of people who believe they’ve been fighting uphill for too long. Co-written by Lohden, Rian Ball and Cole Miracle, and produced by Jordan Schmidt and ERNEST, “Good Ole Boy” follows a string of backroad anthems with a premise rooted in something heavier. Here, hometown identity carries both pride and pressure. That tension gives Lohden something worth exploring. He’s a voice you need to be paying attention to, especially when he brings this kind of personal perspective to familiar country territory.
Terri Clark - Live At The Ryman
Consider this fair warning to your car speakers: Terri Clark’s Live From The Ryman packs a setlist built for singing until your voice gives out. “A Little Gasoline,” “Emotional Girl” and “I Just Wanna Be Mad” are just the beginning. Across 17 tracks, Clark brings together the attitude, vulnerability and unmistakable personality that have made her catalog endure. Seeing “No Fear” alongside “Now That I Found You” is a reminder of her range, and how much life she’s covered in these songs. The medleys make the tracklist especially enticing. “Every Time I Cry” meets “You Get What You Give,” while “I Wanna Do It All” stretches into “All I Wanna Do” and “Ants Marching.” A rock medley spanning “The Heart of Rock and Roll” to “Footloose” adds another invitation to turn it up. Then come the guests: Ashley McBryde joins “Better Things To Do,” and Trisha Yearwood steps into “Poor, Poor Pitiful Me.” Both pairings give already irresistible songs another reason to demand the repeat button. With standing ovations, surprises and a deep bench of hits, Live From The Ryman offers plenty to sink your teeth into. Clear some space on the road-trip playlist. Terri’s riding shotgun.
Koe Wetzel With Stephen Wilson Jr. - Hard Way
Duet of the year? Koe Wetzel and Stephen Wilson Jr. are making a compelling case with “Hard Way,” a guitar-driven collision of grit, bad decisions and lessons that leave a mark. The pairing is the draw. Both artists thrive where country storytelling meets rock’s rough edges, and this song gives their growling voices a shared purpose: delivering a little hard-earned wisdom with the bruises still showing. “If you wanna get to Heaven, there’s gonna be some hell to pay” is the line that drives it home. It gives the song’s central idea some teeth, consequences are coming, even when you’re convinced you can outrun them. There’s defiance in that premise, but also the weary recognition of someone who’s already tried. The hard-charging guitars match the stakes, giving the collaboration the muscle its cautionary tale demands. As the final addition to Wetzel’s project, which began rolling out in June, “Hard Way” makes for an emphatic closing statement. Two distinctive voices, one combustible pairing. This one belongs on repeat, with the volume firmly up.
Redferrin - Don't Slow Down
“Don’t Slow Down” puts a title to his current pace. His ambitions reach beyond the next loud song, though. With hundreds waiting in the wings, Redferrin is making room for both the rockin’ tracks fans expect and the harder conversations he still wants to have.
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