New Music Video From Aaron Watson - "Hit The Hay Runnin'"

New Music Video From Aaron Watson - "Buy The World A Round"

New Music Video From Aaron Watson - "Seven Year Ache" (feat. Jenna Paulette)

New Music Video From Aaron Watson - "Boots"

New Music Video From Jamie Lin Wilson & Aaron Watson - "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around"

That Nashville Sound Saturday Newsbytes: Drew Kennedy, Josh Grider, Kate Bowen, Tracy Lawrence, New EPs, New Music Videos & More

Welcome to That Nashville Sound this fine Saturday morning. I'd like to take a quick moment and just thank all of our readers for their continued support through coming to this site for the last 12 years. We're thankful and the opportunity to share in music that moves us is genuinely appreciated. There's lots to share this morning, so without further ado...

- Songwriter Kate Bowen (former Ella Mae Bowen) has traded her former Big Machine Records gig for a brand new music route and has a brand new EP that just came out this week. An accomplished songwriter, her song "I'll Go On" was included on Reba McEntire's chart-topping LP Love Somebody. Now, Bowen has found a new start as a writer and artist, penning a deal with Jay Joyce's Neon Cross Music and Warner Chappell Music. The project is called Waking Up From the American Dream and you can find all the details HERE.

New music videos:

- Aaron Watson - "Old Friend"
- Aaron Watson - "Riding with Red"
- Billy Ray Cyrus - "I've Been Around"
- Billy Ray Cyrus - "Guns, Gold & Guitars"
- Todd Snider - "Like a Force of Nature"
- Jimmie Allen - "Make Me Want To"
- Clare Bowen - "Let it Rain"

- Texan singer-songwriters and best friends Josh Grider and Drew Kennedy have unveiled both the album cover and the release date of their 6/14 album release together, Live at Main Street Crossing. Main Street Crossing, a great little non-profit venue that doubles up as a music hall and a Sunday-morning church, announced that they will be producing their first ever live record. This project will be a follow-up to the critically-acclaimed 2017 release At Home In The Big Lonesome by Kennedy and the terrific release last year by Josh Grider, Good People.

- CMA and ACM-award winner Luke Combs will release his highly anticipated new EP, The Prequel, June 7 via River House Artists/Columbia Nashville. Produced by Scott Moffatt, the EP features five new songs co-written by Combs including lead single, “Beer Never Broke My Heart, which recently premiered worldwide at country radio. The song is currently #2 on Billboard’s Country Streaming Songs chart with 11 million streams—setting the record for the best first week of streaming ever for a country song—and #1 on the Billboard Country Digital Song Sales chart.

- Maren Morris is also releasing a new EP, this one landing on May 31 called Maren Morris: Reimagined. It features reworked acoustic renditions of three of her biggest hits with influential Nashville producer Dave Cobb. Morris says on the project, "I think the mark of a good song is you can rearrange it up and it still is a very defining song. Dave you know, his production is so--rootsy and very soulful and Americana and he just understands that sound so intensely. I love the way it turned out."

- Tracy Lawrence will also be back with new music this summer, releasing Made in America on August 15, 2019. “I am extremely proud of my new album Made in America. It is possibly the most personal album I have ever released,” states Lawrence. “I co-wrote 8 out of the 12 songs, pouring my heart and soul in each of the songs. I feel it will resonate with my fans and country music lovers across this nation,” elaborates Lawrence. According to the press release,  "The album harkens back to authentic country music. Lawrence’s mixture of rock and blues, and by penning 8 of the 12 tracks himself, this album is one of his most personal and relatable to date." It should be noted that track number 8 is a song titled "Givin' Momma Reason's To Pray" written by none other than Chris Stapleton.

- Songwriter Glenn Martin passed away this month. Martin wrote top hits for such Country Music Hall of Fame members as Merle Haggard, Charley Pride, Bill Anderson and George Jones. Among his best-known songs are Pride’s “Is Anybody Goin’ to San Antone” (1970), Haggard’s “It’s Not Love (But It’s Not Bad)” (1972) and Tammy Wynette’s “I Still Believe in Fairy Tales” (1975).

- The last recordings of Troy Gentry will be making it onto a new Montgomery Gentry EP being released on June 14 called Outskirts. The project was recorded in September of 2017 and marks a return to the duo’s signature southern rock sound. Among the tracks on the new album are the title track, which touts the virtues of small town living and common core values, Montgomery’s version of Merle Haggard’s “What Am I Going To Do With The Rest Of My Life,” and Gentry’s take on the Darrell Scott classic “You’ll Never Leave Harlan Alive.” Writers contributing to the new project include Ashley Gorley, Darrell Scott, Dallas Davidson, Rodney Clawson, and more.

- Josh Abbott Band will release a new EP Catching Fire on June 28. The band released the first song from the EP, “Little More Of You.”  Produced by Marshall Altman (Marc Broussard, Frankie Ballard, Aaron Watson), the Catching Fire EP features "four songs of positivity, built on solid country textures and unified by Abbott’s congenial-but-experienced voice. The EP brings a sense of similarity back to JAB’s own foundation. It’s a return to the band’s sonic past, a revival of its bar-bred optimism and fiery individualism. And it’s a reflection of the group’s off-stage cycles as old chapters are closed and a renewed, upbeat storyline comes to life. Catching Fire captures a sense of personal renewal."

“We have a whole new refocused attitude on what we're gonna do now moving forward,” Abbott says. “Catching Fire is a reflection of what's happened over the last year and a half of my life.”

New Music Video From Aaron Watson - "Trying Like The Devil"

Aaron Watson To Release Red Bandana In June

Artist: Aaron Watson
Album: Red Bandana
Label: BIG Records
Release date: 6/21/19

“There’s nothing more classic, more country, or more cowboy than an old red bandana. It signifies hard work, grit and determination,” says Watson. “I made this record with the mindset that this might be my last one, though I believe this is the beginning of something big. That very mindset helped me focus on writing songs with heart and soul that could leave a lasting legacy. I needed a cover that would reflect the meaning behind the music. I needed something with more substance than just another cover with my picture on it. The title track is a cowboy poem, so I decided, why not just photograph my Dad’s old red bandana. We tilted the square red bandana 45 degrees and there it was, like a diamond in the rough.”

Aaron Watson continues to be “one of country music’s biggest DIY success stories” with his latest effort, “Kiss That Girl Goodbye,” the solely self-penned lead single from his forthcoming studio album. The up-tempo number is the first glimpse into Watson’s brand-new studio project, Red Bandana. Slated for release in June 2019 on his own BIG Label Records and distributed by ADA Worldwide, the album has already landed on “the most anticipated country albums of 2019” lists including Saving Country Music and The Boot.

Watson’s last studio album Vaquero launched into the Top 10 on the Billboard 200 Albums chart with his biggest career sales debut to date, and at #2 on the Top Country Albums chart. Texas Monthly, Billboard, Rolling Stone Country, Noisey, CMT, The Boot and more have all featured the new music. Vaquero is the follow up to his history-making album The Underdog, which debuted at #1 on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart, making him the first-ever independent, male country artist to debut in the coveted top spot. The album features “Outta Style,” his record-breaking Top 10 and BMI award-winning hit on country music’s national radio airplay charts and top 40 hit “Run Wild Horses.”

A Master List of Country & Americana Albums Scheduled For Release In 2018

As we gaze into the proverbial crystal ball, we can see lots of albums on the horizon in the second half of 2018- with another large batch most likely finished in the studio and awaiting a release date. Here's what we know today:

July 20
Lori McKenna/The Tree/CN Records-Thirty Tigers
Sarah Ross/Nervous Breakdown/Average Joes
Mason Ramsey/Famous [EP]/Big Loud Records-Atlantic Records

July 27
Kenny Chesney/Songs for the Saints/Blue Chair-Warner Bros. Nashville
Catherine McGrath – This Town
Cody Jinks – Lifers - Rounder
Various/The Music Of Nashville, Season 6, Vol. 2/Big Machine Records-Lionsgate Television Inc.-ABC Studios

August 3
Amanda Shires/To the Sunset/Silver Knife-Thirty Tigers
Lucero – Among The Ghosts
Jim Lauderdale – Time Flies + Jim Lauderdale and Roland White
Jim Lauderdale/Jim Lauderdale And Roland White/Yep Roc Records
Riley Clemmons/Riley Clemmons/Capitol CMG
Phil Wickham/Living Hope/Fair Trade Services
Dustin Collins/It’s Been Awhile/Average Joes Entertainment-DCDL Entertainment

August 10
Jason Eady/I Travel On/Old Guitar Records
Rhett Walker Band/Rhett Walker Band [EP]/Essential Records-Sony Music
Shooter Jennings – Shooter
Rhett Walker Band/Rhett Walker Band [EP]/Essential Records-Sony Music
The War and Treaty/Healing Tide/Strong World-Thirty Tigers
Liz Cooper & The Stampede/Window Flowers/Sleepyhead Records-Thirty Tigers
William Shatner & Jeff Cook/Why Not Me/Heartland Records Nashville
Various/Elvis Presley – Where No One Stands Alone/RCA-Legacy Recordings

August 17
Dillon Carmichael/Hell On An Angel/Riser House
Cole Swindell/All Of It/Warner Bros. Records
Buck Owens/Country Singer’s Prayer/Omnivore Recordings-Buck Owens Estate
Lydia Luce/Azalea
Joe Ely/The Lubbock Tapes: Full Circle/Rack'Em Records

August 24
Lucie Silvas/E.G.O.
Aaron Watson/Aaron Watson Live at the World’s Biggest Rodeo Show/Big Label Records
Devil Makes Three/Chains Are Broken/New West

August 31
Aaron Lee Tasjan/Karma for Cheap/New West

September 7
Ruston Kelly/Dying Star/Rounder Records
Mike Farris/Silver & Stone/Compass Records
Lauren Daigle/Look Up Child/Centricity Music
Kathy Mattea/Pretty Bird/Captain Potato
Larry Stewart/Shifting Gears/Independent

September 14
Asleep at the Wheel/New Routes/Thirty Tigers
Carrie Underwood/Cry Pretty
David Nail & The Well Ravens/Only This And Nothing More/One Five Sound
The Jaydees/Dandelions/WM

September 21
Amy Helm/This Too Shall Light/Yep Roc

September 28
Mandy Barnett/Strange Conversation/

October 5
Eric Church/Desperate Man/EMI Nashville
Will Hoge/My American Dream
For King & Country/Burn the Ships
Ward Thomas/Restless Minds/Sony

October 26
Rosanne Cash/She Remembers Everything/Blue Note

November 9
Kane Brown/TBD

Albums with "to be announced" release dates but presumed to be 2018:
Loretta Lynn - Wouldn't It Be Great (Sony Legacy)
Marc Cohn - TBD
Pistol Annies - TBD
Ronnie Milsap Duets Project
Crystal Bowersox - "Promises" EP [Pledge Music]
Damn Davidsons- TBD (GoFundMe)
Sam Hunt - TBA (MCA Nashville)
Julie Roberts- I Think You Know
Jack Ingram - An Album & Two EPs- Thirty Tigers
Jamie Lin Wilson - TBD
Aaron Watson - A Watson Family Christmas
Chris Roberts (Formerly of One Flew South) - EP
Terri Clark
Justin Moore
Sarah Buxton
Maren Morris
Garth Brooks - Live Album & New Album
Jake Owen
Deana Carter

Other Projects Rumored To Be In The Works:
Ashley Gearing - TBD
Blue Sky Riders - TBD
Breaking Grass - TBD (Mountain Fever)
Brooke Eden - TBD (Red Bow Records)
Candi Carpenter - TBD
Carolina Chocolate Drops - TBD
Catherine Britt - TBD (Universal/Lost Highway)
Chase Bryant - TBD (Red Bow Records)
Clare Dunn - TBA (MCA Nashville)
Clay Walker - TBA
Craig Campbell - TBA (Red Bow Records)
David Fanning - TBA
Del McCoury - Woody Guthrie tribute album
Drew Baldridge - TBA (Cold River Records)
Ego Brothers (Corb Lund, Hayes Carll, and John Evans) - TBA
Eric Paslay - TBA (EMI Nashville)
Gary Allan - TBA (MCA Nashville)
Haley Georgia - TBA (EMI Nashville)
Hayes Carll - TBA
Holly Williams - TBA
Jackie Lee - TBA (Broken Bow Records)
Jake Owen - TBA
James Otto - TBA
John King - TBA (Black River Entertainment)
Jordan Rager - TBA (Broken Bow Records)
Junior Sisk and Ramblers Choice - TBA
Kellie Pickler - TBA
Love and Theft - TBA (Curb)
Lucas Hoge - TBA
Maren Morris - TBA
Mark Collie - TBA (101 Ranch Records)
Martina McBride- Christmas Project
Mickey Guyton - TBA (Capitol Nashville)
Morgane Stapleton - TBA
Noel McKay - TBA
Oak Ridge Boys - Dave Cobb Produced Album
Pam Tillis- TBA
Randy Houser - TBA (Stoney Creek Records)
Rick Trevino - TBA
Rita Wilson - TBA
Robbie Fulks - TBA
Rodney Atkins - TBA (Curb Records)
Roland White - TBA
Ryan Kinder - TBA (Warner Bros. Records/Warner Music Nashville)
Scotty McCreery - TBA (Label TBA)
Secret Sisters - TBA
Shooter Jennings - TBA
Steve Wariner - TBA (project with Duane Eddy)
Tanya Tucker - TBA
The Railers - TBA (Warner Bros. Records/Warner Music Nashville)
Thompson Square - TBA
Trace Adkins - TBA (Wheelhouse Records)
Travis Tritt and Marty Stuart - TBA
Trick Pony - TBA
Wesley Dennis - TBA
Whitey Morgan - TBA
Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, and Merle Haggard - TBA

New Music Video From Aaron Watson - "Run Wild Horses"

New Music Video From Aaron Watson - "Outta Style"

Aaron Watson Covers George Strait - "Amarillo By Morning"

Aaron Watson was honored to be asked by George Strait's record label to cover his favorite George Strait song in celebration of the release of Strait Out Of The Box: Part 2.

That Nashville Sound's Best Albums From The First Half of 2015

For those that follow this site on a semi-regular basis, you recognize that we cast a very wide net with our definition of country music. The genres of traditional classic, bluegrass, Americana, red-dirt, pop-country and even a little Delta blues make it across these pages. Hell, we even give some print to the bro-country movement sweeping the FM dial. But for the most part, it isn’t that proverbial radio dial that is producing what That Nashville Sound considers to be the finest music released thus far this year.

Before I get commentary about how we consciously exclude any modern trends or mainstream artists, let it be known that they represent on the list as well. But clearly the finest music being released thus far is far from the party-first summer dirt road anthems that are claiming to be more country than you. No, these artists are releasing deep lyric-first songs with drama. They make you feel. Pleasure. Pain. Happy. Sad. They tell stories that, like a great movie, run the gamut of emotions and make you stop and take notice. And there have been some fantastic releases so far.

Rather than count them down numerically (which we’ll do plenty of at the end of this year), we’ve broken down our favorites into two different categories: Best of the Best and Best of the Rest.  There will certainly be some names on here that you don’t immediately recognize. I encourage you to track them down and sample some of their music. I promise you will not be disappointed in the least. Without further ado…

Best of the Best:

Chris Stapleton - Traveller

As I had written in an interview with Stapleton at Saving Country Music: It isn’t often that a musician achieves an illustrious 15-year career that includes five number one hits, Grammy Award nominations, feature film contributions, producer credits and the respect of his peers before he ever releases his first solo album. But Chris Stapleton isn’t your average musician. The near-universal critical acclaim that has been heaped upon his debut album Traveller has been nothing short of amazing.

With a ZZ Top look-alike beard, Stapleton doesn’t look like your average country artist. With a booming voice that Rolling Stone’s Jon Caramanica called “liquor-thick and three-drinks limber,” he doesn’t sound like your average country artist. And with an incredible songwriting sensibility that draws as much inspiration from blues and soul as it does from country in his birthplace of Kentucky, his music doesn’t even sound like the average country artist—which is one of the reasons, for nearly everyone who listens, it stands out as a superior piece of art.

His songwriting credits span all genres and include artists like Adele, George Strait, Luke Bryan, Kenny Chesney, Darius Rucker, Josh Turner, and Jason Aldean. His work with the The SteelDrivers gave the band nearly unprecedented success in bluegrass circles. He even dabbled with some southern rock with a project under The Jompson Brothers. But it is Traveller that has brought the proper spotlight on Chris Stapleton as a solo artist.

Courtney Patton - So This Is Life

As I had written in an interview with Patton for Saving Country Music: Come hell or high water, Courtney Patton was determined to make a true country record. Her Kickstarter headline read, “A Traditional Country Record.” Her notes on that same crowdsourcing campaign describe the end-product perfectly: “It’s country. And it’s full of waltzes. And I’m not apologizing for either of those things.”

The hell might be the life material that she’s been handed to draw upon for autobiographical lyrical fodder. It includes a divorce of her parents after 30+ years of marriage, a death of a college-aged sibling, a divorce of her own and the trials and tribulations of being a female singer-songwriter in the hugely male-dominated radio airspace that’s called Texas. (A location that just might be even more difficult to cut through the glass ceiling than even Nashville.)

The high water? It could be the title from her 2013 critically-acclaimed second album, Triggering a Flood. It could also be the devastating Texas floods that impacted Patton’s friends and family within the last month.

But like a diamond, true talent has a tendency to shine through the darkness and Patton’s skill as a singer-songwriter has done just that. She is quickly becoming a driving force within the Red Dirt and Texas music scenes. Patton married fellow musician Jason Eady in March of last year and released So This Is Life.

The album is phenomenal. In an era in which clichés and bravado is mistaken for bold noteworthiness, there’s something far more brave in peeling back highly personal and emotional open-book songs and delivering them with sensitivity and sentiment. Patton has done just that. She is the consummate storyteller on this project and her producer Drew Kennedy lets the soft arrangements breathe and let the truly intelligent lyrics be the focal point. Heartache isn’t just described, it’s tangibly felt. Nowhere is this more evident than on the title track. She channels the heartbreaking story of a stay-at-home mom whose supposed fairytale life crashes around her with such realistic honesty, it can only mirror life experience. It’s clearly one of the best songs of 2015.

Randy Rogers and Wade Bowen - Hold My Beer Vol. 1

The album, produced by Lloyd Maines (Dixie Chicks, Robert Earl Keen), is a studio extension of their Hold My Beer and Watch This Tour, a fun-loving, friends-first trek across Texas and nearby states off-and-on tour that the two have been on for the better part of the past decade.

The album is representative of everything that’s good about friends collaborating. They cover their personal favorites, including a cover of Willie and Merle’s “Reasons to Quit." But it's the originals that stand out on the album including the phenomenal story-song of "El Dorado" and the introspective "In The Next Life." As you would expect, it's full of the Texas-standards of fiddle and steel and is equal parts smiles and deep-thinking. It's terrific enough for us to hope for Volume 2 and beyond.

Whitey Morgan and the 78's - Sonic Ranch

The history of country music has no shortage of characters hit by hard luck: the hard-working man who can't seem to make ends meet, the heart-of-gold drunk who just can't seem to put down the bottle, the woman who wants to do right but ends up, time and again, doing wrong. No matter the tragedies at the center of the songs, in most cases those characters come off like just that – characters; inventions of either a particularly gifted songwriter looking to spin a tall tale or a lazy one looking to pad out an album. But in the case of Whitey Morgan, those characters – the drinker, the troublemaker, the struggling, hard-working man – all seem arrestingly real.

That's largely because the stories on Sonic Ranch -- a big, nasty, whiskey-slugging, bare-knuckle bruiser of a country record – are pulled from Morgan's own back pages.

Credit most of the album's fighting spirit to Morgan's childhood in the economically challenged town of Flint, Michigan. A teenager who, in his own words, "got my ass kicked on a daily basis," Morgan witnessed the toll the city's troubled economy took on the people closest to him. "I experienced Flint through my parents and relatives," he explains. "A lot of them lost jobs at General Motors, and I saw a lot of factories close and get torn down." Despite the turmoil, Morgan's family was close. "We never dwelled on the negative. My mom always had dinner on the table and my dad worked everyday for GM to make sure there was always food. They never let on that things were getting bad, ever. Growing up in Flint ignited the 'never give up' attitude I apply to every part of my life. That's what you learn when you grow up in that town. You also learn that you don't take shit from anyone, ever."

Morgan dishes it back out on 'Sonic Ranch.' On the grizzled, smoky cover of Waylon Jennings’ "Goin' Down Rocking," he digs his heels in against anyone who would dare try to steamroll him. On "Low Down on the Backstreets," over staggering piano and glistening apostrophes of pedal steel, he's pushing back against a broken heart with country songs and dancing girls. And on the harrowing cover of Townes Van Zandt's "Waitin' ‘Round to Die," he's staring down mortality with his jaw set and his eyes narrowed. "I have loved that song since the first time I heard it," Morgan says. "It's a dark masterpiece that looks in on a not-so-perfect, but not uncommon, life story. I did my best to put my own heart, soul and experiences into my version. I had a vision of making it sound as if it could be the score for the next Sergio Leone classic." Morgan achieved his vision; with its ominous, shadowy guitars and spectral lap steel, the song serves as the album's grim, potent centerpiece.

Even in its lighter moments – the holler-along revelry of "Ain't Gonna Take It Anymore"; the tender ‘Good Timin’ Man,” which tackles the pressures of love and persona – Sonic Ranch embraces the grit while maintaining a determinedly unvarnished sound. Much of that has to do with the relaxed atmosphere in the studio that gives the record its name. "My manager told me about this place he had been to outside of El Paso called Sonic Ranch," Morgan says. "That was a real departure from the usual studio vibe. My manager knows how much I do not like the 'studio' thing -- I never feel comfortable. This was exactly what I needed: a laid-back place with great gear where we could make a great record."

"The goal for me on this album was to keep moving forward musically, and try to give the fans my best album yet," Morgan says. "I don't really look at the big picture, I just always try and outdo myself." On Sonic Ranch, he's done exactly that.

Will Hoge - Small Town Dreams

As I had written in an interview with Hoge for Saving Country Music: With all the hullabaloo surrounding recent radio executive comments about the importance of radio in validating a country artist’s career, Will Hoge stands as a shining star example about how you can carve out a career in music doing it independently. Despite a year-and-a-half stint with Atlantic Records, Hoge has developed a significant following of fans and produced ten albums over the course of the last two decades. An extremely prolific songwriter, Hoge has written a small catalog of songs for others and even received a Grammy nomination for Eli Young Band’s number one hit, “Even If It Breaks Your Heart.”

What comes next is (the) release of Small Town Dreams, a new album produced by Marshall Altman and assisted by the likes of Chris Stapleton, Gary Allan and Vince Gill. Now with two boys at home, Hoge seems to have entered a new phase in his songwriting with plenty of nostalgia. It’s pure Americana. It’s Americana in its sound at times, but much more so in its topic of storytelling. He’s telling the small town American story of growing up, moving away to chase dreams, looking back and making a new home.

The album also includes “They Don’t Make ‘Em Like They Used To,” which should be one of the early favorites for Song of the Year. A dedication to his father, the song has a level of intimate poignancy that rivals anything else released to the marketplace in recent memory.

Best of the Rest (in alphabetical order):

Aaron Watson - The Underdog
Cody Jinks - Adobe Sessions
Darrell Scott - 10 - Songs of Ben Bullington 
Elenowen - Pulling Back the Veil
Emily Hearn - Hourglass
Jamie Lin Wilson - Holidays & Wedding Rings
John Anderson - Gold Mine
Kacey Musgraves - Pagaent Material
Levi Lowrey - My Crazy Head
Logan Brill - Shuteye
Mavericks - Mono
Ray Wylie Hubbard - The Ruffians Misfortune
Reba McEntire - Love Somebody
Statesboro Revue - Jukehouse Revival
SteelDrivers - The Muscle Shoals Recordings
T. Graham Brown - Forever Changed
Wade Hayes - Go Live Your Life
Zac Brown Band - Jekyll and Hyde