Illegal Foreign Object

If your idea of country music is 99.9% of what you’ve heard on the radio for the last two decades, well, as we say in Texas, “Bless your heart.” Modern-day country is little more than bad glam metal with a steel guitar or fiddle solo. Sorry, I really do preach that you should listen to whatever you love, but not that mess, especially when you can dig a little deeper than the radio and find artists like the ones I’ve highlighted below.

For my money, there isn’t a better singer in country music than Chris Stapleton. His unique blend of blues, soul, country, and rock never sounds anything but authentic, and his songwriting abilities are nearly untouchable. Higher is not only one of my favorite country albums of the year, it’s one of my all-time favorite country records.

Required listening: “Higher”, “White Horse”, “It Takes A Woman”, “The Day I Die”

Following in the footsteps of an international treasure can’t be easy, but Lukas Nelson deftly walks the tightrope. There are certainly elements of his iconic father in his vocal style, but it’s a sound he leans into rather than on. Sticks And Stones is a fun collection of modern country, southern rock, and nods to a glorious past.

Required listening: “Alcohallelujah”, “Sticks And Stones”

No matter how you slice it, Jason Isbell is an outstanding songwriter. With Weathervanes, Isbell’s brand of Americana and Van Morrison-esque country results in yet another in a long line of beautifully written and performed records.

Required listening: “King Of Oklahoma”, “Cast Iron Skillet”, “Middle Of The Morning”, “Vestavia Hills”

With I Saw The Arkansas, Dylan Earl fuses ’70s style rhinestone country with enough low-end crooning to make John Anderson and Conway Twitty grin ear to ear.

Required listening: “I Saw The Arkansas”, “White Painted Trees”, “Blessing In Disguise”

Colter Wall was put on this earth to write prairie ditties and he’s damn good at it. Little Songs is a collection of high plains drifters, fire-lit crooners, and cowboys songs that tug at your heart.

Required listening: “Corralling The Blues”, “Evangelina”, “The Last Loving Words”

Amarillo, Texas’s Hayden Pedigo paints panhandle portraits with his acoustic guitar and a collection of beautifully simplistic soundscapes. This is music for laying on the ground, staring up at the sky, and watching the clouds roll by.

Required listening: “Looking At The Fish”, “The Happiest Time I Ever Ignored”, “Elsewhere”, “Nearer Nearer”

Quite dead philosopher Jacques Derrida’s favorite country & western singer (I mean, probably), Nick Shoulders (backed dutifully by bassist Grant D’Aubin, guitarist Jack Studer, and drummer Cheech Moosekian) yodels, croons, waltzes, and wails his way through 14 tracks that continually pose the question, “Is this it?”

Required listening: “All Bad”, “Hook, Line, And Sinker”, “Won’t Fence Us In”, “Whooped If You Will”

“I lost my family to a bad disease / I got a mean, mean gene in my family tree / That grows in Grandfather, and his daughters, and me, you see?” On this eponymous release, Zach Bryan re-plants his flag as one of country music’s most important singer-songwriters.

Required listening: “Overtime”, “Summertime’s Close”, “I Remember Everything”, “Spotless”

Wednesday is so important to the continued growth of country music, a genre that has, for the most part, accepted its mainstream fate as half-assed cock rock fodder for the brainless. Anything but formulaic, Rat Saw God is a swirl of catchy, indie country mixed with shoegaze and grunge-era songs that, at times, conjure memories of prime Cranberries.

Required listening: “Bull Believer”, “Formula One”

Many, many listens later, I still get goosebumps when Noah Kahan sings “So I thought that if I piled something good on all my bad / That I could cancel out the darkness I inherited from Dad” on his amazing song “Stick Season”. Kahan is one of my favorite lyric-writers in music. His ability to get in your heart in a single line is reminiscent of John Prine, Hank Williams, and Tom T. Hall, three of country music’s greatest storytellers.

Required listening: “Stick Season”, “Dial Drunk”, “Homesick”

If T-Rex’s Marc Bolan had started a country and western band, it would have sounded a lot like Tommy and the Ohs. Infused with elements of psychedelia, Monkees folk-pop, and “Seven Spanish Angels” balladeering, Box Truck Boogie is a fresh-while-nostalgic take on country and western music.

Required listening: “Pig On A Train”, “I Don’t Know What I Was On (But Honey I’m Off It Now)”, “So It Seems”

I bumped into folksy balladeer Austin Stambaugh’s music while digging through YouTube for Nick Shoulder cover songs. Stambaugh’s brand of Glen Campbell meets Time Out Of Mind-era Bob Dylan is perfect for a lazy day of letting the breeze swing your hammock.

Required listening: “Ain’t Through Being Lonely Yet”, “If It Doesn’t Matter Now”, “My Pennsylvania Girl”

That’s all for today, cowpokes! See y’all tomorrow for a big bag of 10-pound hammers!