Simon RushworthIn the year Rushonrock finally laid down some roots in Nashville we covered the Country Music Awards live… and listened to a truck load of killer records.
As the lines continue to blur between country, Americana, bluegrass and rock we provided the clarity you needed to discover your next favourite new artist.
So settle back and see who’s made this year’s Best Country Albums Of 2023 list.
10. Cowboy Junkies — Such Ferocious Beauty (Cooking Vinyl)
The band’s first new material in five years displayed typically deft arrangements, lyrical heft and that trademark Junkies tone.
The lo-fi Canadian family band deals in quality, rather than quantity, and Such Ferocious Beauty represented a welcome and necessary return.
Emotive lead track What I Lost encapsulated what the Cowboy Junkies do best: its no-fuss, no-frills, high stakes storytelling, resonant of the Timmins’ finest work.
9. Jelly Roll — Whitsitt Chapel (BBR Music Group)
Jelly Roll was the country crossover name on everyone’s lips in 2023 and the former (we think) rapper dominated November’s CMA Awards.
Ex con Jason Bradley DeFord followed up huge hit Need A Favor with Whittsitt Chapel in June and shot straight to number three in the Billboard Charts.
Miranda Lambert co-write The Lost while Save Me (featuring Lainey Wilson) outshone Need A Favor to prove country’s hottest property’s on a Roll.
8. Ashley McBryde — The Devil I Know (Warner Music Nashville)
Grammy Award winner McBryde’s back on the Best Of list just 12 months after the brilliant Lindeville sneaked inside our Top 10 of 2022.
Rushonrock caught the alternative country queen tearing it up in Memphis earlier this year… and what a treat that Orpheum Theatre show proved to be!
The Devil I Know’s myriad highlights peppered a sensational set and Light On In The Kitchen could be our country song of the year.
7. Lori McKenna — 1988 (CN Records/Thirty Tigers)
Earlier this year multiple Grammy Award winner and go-to hitmaker Lori McKenna took centre stage again as a celebrated singer songwriter in her own right.
And the talent behind Little Big Town’s Girl Crush and Tim McGraw’s Humble And Kind — to name but a few — bagged our Red Hot Track Of The Week with the affecting Happy Children.
That was one of a slew of modern Americana classics that paced the unassuming, autobiographical triumph that was the Dave Cobb-produced 1988.
6. Margo Price — Strays (Loma Vista Recordings )
When Strays kicked off with the line ‘I’ve got nothin’ to prove’ it was kinda apt. Price doesn’t and this stunning collection proved it.
Keen to distance herself from country — although not entirely — this was a record that mixed classic rock with Americana and blues with stoner.
We loved everything about Strays but the tune that stood out was the typically biting piano ballad County Road. Price was right. Again.
5. The Cadillac Three — The Years Go Fast (Big Machine Records)
At the rockier end of our country picks, Rushonrock-approved Nashville trio The Cadillac Three continued to break new ground.
Driven by in-demand frontman Jaren Johnston, the creators of the Country Fuzz sub-genre crafted an album that majored on hurt and heartbreak.
Johnston’s notched 10 country number ones outside TC3 but saves his best for his own band: Double Wide Grave, Love Like War and Go To Bed Lonely were killer tunes.
4. HARDY — the mockingbird & THE CROW (Big Loud Records)
Way back in January, HARDY had the Rushonrock team humming Lainey Wilson collab Wait In The Truckover over and over.
The centrepiece of the mockingbird & THE CROW was stunning but this ambitious country rock project threw up plenty more surprises.
RADIO SONG saw HARDY bring the metal alongside A Day To Remember’s Jeremy McKinnon and yet the understated happy made us happiest of all.
Read the full review here.
3. Jaime Wyatt — Feel Good (New West Records)
What to do on your first night in Nashville, fighting the jetlag and craving some genre-bending country music?
Head straight to the Grand Ole Opry where Jaime Wyatt was due to deliver a jaw-dropping debut at the legendary venue.
Feel Good felt great from start to finish as an album recorded with Black Pumas’ Adrian Queseda revelled in challenging the norm.
We loved Where The Damned Only Go — it’s where Wyatt belongs.
2. Kezia Gill — Misfit (w21 Records)
Repping the UK’s buoyant country scene, Derby’s finest built on her unexpected lockdown bounce to deliver the magical Misfit to a loyal fanbase.
Rushonrock caught a sneak peak of the highlights during Gill’s sensational live show in Sunderland.
A few weeks later Misfit more than lived up to the pre-release hype: Whiskey Over Ice, Like I Did Before and Price Of Loving you perfectly hitting country’s sweet spot.
1. Restless Road — Last Rodeo (Sony Music Nashville)
Could Restless Road be standing on the brink of becoming country music’s biggest boy band?
The near-faultless Last Rodeo laid the foundations for what will be a career-cementing 2024 — Kane Brown’s star signings delivering on a decade of potential in consummate style.
New hits and radio staples packed an 18-track debut that included the Erin Kinsey co-write Most Nights and breakout banger Growing Old With You.
Colton Pack, Zach Beeken and Garrett Nichols hit the UK next year as part of the C2C line-up — if they’re not huge by then then we’ll eat our Stetsons.