Since there were dozens of new albums in the last week alone, there’s no way to listen to but a tiny fraction of all the new music that is available. My starting place yesterday was Reba McEntire’s new song Stronger Than The Truth. This is the best song I’ve heard from her in many years. It also happens to fit very well after Leigh Madison’s “Red,” especially since Reba is also from Oklahoma. Target will have a deluxe version of Reba’s album. One of the deluxe songs is either a Stapleton write or has the same title as one of his. Chris mentioned in a Rolling Stone interview that he probably won’t have a new album of his own this year.
Yesterday’s new songs also prompted me to create a three-song “Elvis block.” Ashley Monroe’s Keys to the Kingdom and Dale Watson’s “Tupelo Mississippi & a 57 Fairlane” join the list. TG Sheppard’s Elvis tribute song, which I had trouble fitting on my list before, fits right in with this block of songs.
The Kinky Fingers join my block of western songs toward the end of my 2019 list with Crooked Nose , and I added a bunch of other artists to my list this week. At this rate, I might need to cap it at a hundred and just have a January-February list, and start in with a new one in March ? We’ll see.
One song that doesn’t necessarily fit with “country” or any other genre is Brushy One String’s One String Play. It fits on my list after James Carothers’ “Crazy Man.”