BROTHERS OSBORNE / "Runnin' Down A Dream"
Writers: Tom Petty/Jeff Lynne/Mike Campbell; Label: Big Machine

Hand the Osbornes a Tom Petty classic and stand back. The original came from a writing trio you do not bet against: two Traveling Wilburys in Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne, with Heartbreakers guitarist Mike Campbell making the third. Nobody out-Pettys Petty, and the brothers are sharp enough not to try. Instead they grab the song by the collar and haul it somewhere fresh. TJ's baritone rolls through the open-road verses with a swagger all its own while John tears the solo wide open, and the 1989 staple comes out the far side an invigorating, full-throttle country burner that sounds reborn rather than rehashed. Cut for racing legend Bobby Rahal's documentary, and it tears down the road like it. Built for the highway and loud enough to drown the road noise. Toss the energy drink and play this instead.

MIDLAND feat. CLINT BLACK / "Up In Texas"
Writers: Jess Carson/Cameron Duddy/Josh Osborne/Bryan Simpson; Producers: Mark Wystrach, Cameron Duddy, Jess Carson, Trent Willmon; Label: Blue Highway

A swaying three-quarter dancehall waltz built for a Saturday night, with bluebonnets and Shiner Bock stitched into the lyric and fiddle floating over the top. The band wrote it with two ringers. Josh Osborne is the tell, the two-time Grammy winner with more than thirty No. 1s ("Body Like a Back Road") who also wrote Midland's own breakout "Drinkin' Problem," so he knows this band's sweet spot cold. Beside him sits Bryan Simpson, the Cadillac Sky frontman turned hitmaker behind Blake Shelton's "A Guy with a Girl," Joe Nichols's "Yeah," and Tim McGraw's "Better Than I Used To Be," whose bluegrass roots are tailor-made for a fiddle waltz like this. Then Clint Black strolls in, and the whole thing snaps into place. His voice and Midland's neo-traditional cool were made for each other. It name-checks the Lone Star State without ever feeling like a postcard, because the band actually lived this music in the Hill Country bars. Made for a slow turn around the dance floor. Order another round.

CHARLIE WORSHAM / "Powers That Be"
Writers: Charlie Worsham/Jaren Johnston/James McNair; Producers: Charlie Worsham, Jaren Johnston; Label: CW

One of Nashville's most respected pickers finally aims the spotlight at himself, and the result rips. Charlie Worsham cut it with the ideal partner for the job: Jaren Johnston, the Cadillac Three frontman and Grammy-nominated hitmaker behind Keith Urban and Eric Church's "Raise 'Em Up," Tim McGraw's "Meanwhile Back at Mama's," and Jake Owen's "Beachin'," who co-wrote and co-produced here. Worsham built the verse-to-chorus lift off Zeppelin's "Ramble On," and you can feel that rock muscle flexing under the country bones. The message is the opposite of a midlife crisis. He's made peace with the life he's already got, and he sounds free for it. Guitars snarl, the groove kicks, and the man's joy is all over it. His first record as an independent artist announces itself loud. Highly recommended.

LAUREN WATKINS / "Heartbreakaholic"
Writers: Lauren Watkins/Will Bundy/Nicolle Galyon/Rodney Clawson; Producer: Will Bundy; Label: Big Loud

Lauren Watkins wrote this with a room that doesn't miss. Nicolle Galyon has ten No. 1s to her name — "Automatic" for Miranda Lambert, "Tequila" for Dan + Shay, "Thought You Should Know" for Morgan Wallen — and she also runs Songs & Daughters, the female-focused label that is Watkins's own home, so this is the boss in the writing chair. Beside her sits her husband Rodney Clawson, who's racked up close to thirty chart-toppers of his own ("I Saw God Today," "American Kids," "Amarillo Sky"), with Big Loud's Will Bundy rounding it out. The hook lives up to the lineup: heartbreak as a habit she can't quite kick. Pedal steel opens the door, a contemporary groove walks in behind it, and Watkins delivers the whole confession low and conversational, like she already knows how it ends and goes back anyway. Husband Will Bundy's production keeps it warm and roomy. Sharp writing, real moxie, a star stepping into a bolder chapter. A keeper.

CAITLYN SMITH / "Peace in My Mind"
Writers: Caitlyn Smith/Mike Robinson/Brandy Clark; Mixer/Studio Producer: Jarrad K; Label: Independent

Caitlyn Smith, who has written for Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton, Rascal Flatts, and Garth Brooks, is one of the great voices working, and on her first fully independent run she uses it to chase something simple and hard-won: letting the little things be the big things. She keeps deep company here: Brandy Clark, the Grammy winner and sixteen-time nominee behind "Mama's Broken Heart" for Miranda Lambert, "Follow Your Arrow" for Kacey Musgraves, and the Tony-nominated Broadway score for "Shucked," joined by Mike Robinson. Two writers' writers chasing plainspoken gratitude, and Smith's soaring instrument does the rest. It's rootsy and soulful and completely her own, the sound of an artist who answers to no label but her own taste. Lovely work from a singer finally cutting it her way.

THE CASTELLOWS / "Love Is A Game"
Writers: Rick Nowels/Ilsey Juber; Producer: Rick Nowels; Label: Warner Records Nashville

The Balkcom sisters reach outside the family for this one, and the names they reach for are a surprise: Rick Nowels and Ilsey Juber, two of the biggest writers in pop. Nowels is a Songwriters Hall of Famer with "Heaven Is a Place on Earth," Madonna's "The Power of Goodbye," and much of Lana Del Rey's catalog to his name, and he produced the track too. Juber, the daughter of Wings guitarist Laurence Juber, has her pen on Mark Ronson and Miley Cyrus's "Nothing Breaks Like a Heart," Panic! at the Disco's "High Hopes," and Beyoncé's "All Night." That a pop brain trust like that ends up serving a country-bluegrass sister act tells you how strong the song is. The fear underneath it is real, being left alone in a big empty house, and three sisters' voices over banjo and pedal steel sell it harder than session pros ever could. Modern country-pop with a neo-traditional heart and singing you can't fake. These three are the real deal.

THE WAR AND TREATY / "You Can't Hurt Me Anymore"
Writers: Jeff "Gitty" Gitelman/Jessi Alexander/Jon Randall/Kenneth B. Edmonds/Tanya Trotter; Producers: Babyface, Jeff "Gitty" Gitelman, The War and Treaty; Label: War and Treaty/ATL Outpost

Country heartbreak lyrics married to an old-school R&B ballad, and the reason it sounds that way is right there in the credits: Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds wrote and produced this one. That's the man behind Boyz II Men's "End of the Road" and "I'll Make Love to You," Whitney Houston's "Exhale," Toni Braxton's "Breathe Again," and Madonna's "Take a Bow," a multiple Grammy Producer of the Year and LaFace Records founder who shaped a whole era of soul. He brings that vintage-ballad architecture to a country-gospel duo, and the match is gorgeous. Tanya Trotter, one half of the husband-and-wife act and singing her own co-write, takes a wound and turns it into a stand: "I got Jesus on my side / and an army full of angels at my door," conviction enough to level a building. The names beside her are every bit as serious. Jessi Alexander and Jon Randall are a married team carrying a combined mantel most writers would kill for: Alexander swept Song of the Year at the CMA, ACM, and NSAI Awards for Lee Brice's "I Drive Your Truck," wrote Miley Cyrus's worldwide smash "The Climb," and lately stacked back-to-back No. 1s with Luke Combs's "Ain't No Love in Oklahoma" and Dustin Lynch's "Chevrolet." Randall is a Grammy, CMA, and ACM winner who wrote "Whiskey Lullaby" and Miranda Lambert's "Tin Man," cut his teeth in Emmylou Harris's Nash Ramblers, and made The Marfa Tapes with Lambert and Jack Ingram. Co-writer and co-producer Jeff "Gitty" Gitelman adds a pedigree from another world entirely, the guitarist-turned-hitmaker behind much of H.E.R.'s Grammy-winning catalog and sessions with Alicia Keys and Lauryn Hill. The arrangement glows like classic soul while the storytelling stays pure Nashville. This couple remains the best thing to happen to roots music in years. Righteous singing, and a writing room for the ages.

LITTLE BIG TOWN / "Over And Over"
Writers: Karen Fairchild/Ashley Ray/Johnny Simpson/Madi Yanofsky; Producers: Gena Johnson, Karen Fairchild; Label: MCA

After more than 25 years, LBT can still stack a harmony that stops you cold. Karen Fairchild co-produced the track with two-time Grammy winner Gena Johnson and co-wrote it with Ashley Ray, Johnny Simpson, and Madi Yanofsky. The lineup mixes country and pop blood: Ray already shares a Grammy-nominated LBT co-write in "The Daughters," so this one is a reunion that pays off. Simpson and Yanofsky bring the pop side, Simpson a producer-songwriter with credits for Jennifer Lopez, Lauv, and MAX, and Yanofsky a Universal-signed writer with cuts for Madison Beer, Reneé Rapp, and Nessa Barrett. The four voices circle a love that keeps reigniting no matter how many times it's been burned down. They debuted it live at Stagecoach, and you can hear why it killed in the open air. Wistful and sung to perfection. A vocal group at the top of its craft.

BRAD PAISLEY / "Treading Whiskey"
Writers: Brad Paisley/Chris DuBois; Producers: Brad Paisley, Luke Wooten; Label: EMI Nashville

Paisley and longtime running mate Chris DuBois dig back into the catalog and pull out a barroom heartbreaker that should never have stayed on the shelf. DuBois is no mere sidekick: beyond the mountain of Paisley No. 1s, his pen is on Mark Wills's "19 Somethin'," Josh Turner's "Your Man," Darius Rucker's "It Won't Be Like This For Long," Chris Janson's "Buy Me a Boat," and Chris Stapleton's "You Should Probably Leave," so the man knows a hook when he sees one. The lead idea here, treading whiskey to keep from going under, is the kind of plainspoken country pun Paisley does better than nearly anyone, and his Telecaster does half the crying. He's not reinventing the wheel; he's reminding you why the wheel works. All drawl and steel, with not one wasted move. This is the sound that built him, and it's good to hear him reach for it again.

MO PITNEY / "Fiddle Around"
Writers: Mo Pitney/Wil Nance/Johnny Dailey; Label: Curb

Pitney has been carrying the traditional-country torch for a decade, and here he just grins and lets it burn. He wrote it with a nice mix of old and new Nashville: Wil Nance, the veteran behind George Strait's 1998 No. 1 "Round About Way," and Johnny Dailey, a rising Alabama writer-artist cut from the same hard-working, blue-collar cloth as Pitney himself. The whole thing plays out like a back-porch party you wandered into, with Jenee Fleenor sawing away on fiddle and Pitney watching the local boys make eyes at a girl whose heart already belongs to him. His wife Emily slips in on harmony, which turns the joke into something tender without slowing the fun. The wordplay is clever, the melody struts, and nobody oversings a note. Pure good-time twang from a guy who knows exactly where his music comes from. A delight.

EMILY ANN ROBERTS / "Things You Didn't Know"
Writers: Emily Ann Roberts/Trent Willmon/Michael Farren/Laura Veltz; Label: Sony Music Nashville/RECORDS

Roberts wrote this the morning after her parents drove in from East Tennessee to watch her play, and the gratitude pours straight off the track. The writers were built for a tender one: Laura Veltz, a Grammy Songwriter of the Year nominee behind "The Bones" for Maren Morris and "Speechless" for Dan + Shay, plus producer-writer Trent Willmon and Michael Farren, and they aim all that craft at a thank-you to her father for everything he taught without meaning to: "my favorite parts of who I am I owe to the things you didn't know." Acoustic guitar and fiddle keep it close and unfussy, and that clear mountain twang of hers sells every line. Roberts is one of the few young singers this devoted to honest, traditional country, and her voice is the reason it lands: pure-toned, unforced, with a natural bend that can't be taught. She sings it like she was raised on it, never reaching for a vocal trick when a plain true note will do, and that restraint hits harder than any big finish could. Tender, true, and the kind of song that'll have folks calling their dads. A beauty.

SKIP EWING / "Play On"
Writers: Skip Ewing; Producers: Bryan Sutton, F. Reid Shippen; Label: Write! Records

Forty years in, Skip Ewing wrote this one alone and handed it to a room of Nashville's finest, resulting in the rare music-business song that draws blood without whining. He's earned the right to narrate the hustle: as a songwriter Ewing has eleven No. 1s, from Collin Raye's "Love, Me" to Kenny Chesney's "You Had Me From Hello," Diamond Rio's "I Believe," and Clint Black's "Something That We Do." It opens with a nod to a Martin acoustic—a "Jesus box made in Nazareth"—and Hank turning up in a spotlight dream to lay down the law: the game never stops, so you play on. Sonically, the track mirrors the very journey it describes. It begins as a sparse, rootsy bluegrass tune, guided by clean acoustic flatpicking and Josh Matheny's sliding dobro, before Sol Philcox-Littlefield's electric guitar and Derrek Phillips' stomping drums transition the track into a heavy, full-band Southern rock groove.

The gut-punch hook warns that the devil owns the money in Guitar Town, grinding you down and cashing checks long after you're gone. Between Ewing's own seasoned acoustic talents and the formidable chops of co-producer and nine-time IBMA Guitar Player of the Year Bryan Sutton, the track's acoustic guitar work is exceptionally sharp, with Sutton also layering mandolin and bouzouki to add further depth. This rich musical backing frees Ewing's weathered, unhurried voice to deliver the song's cynicism like a man who has watched the machinery up close and lived to tell of it with a grin and a scar. Backed by Lex Price's steady bass, David Dorn's keys, and F. Reid Shippen's clean, punchy mix, "Play On" is sharp, wry, and built to last. A veteran reminding the town how it's done.

REBA McENTIRE / "Ain't Gonna Keep It Waitin'"
Writers: Brett Beavers, Connie Harrington, Kelley Lovelace; Producer: Dave Cobb; Label: Rockin' R Records

This one comes with a backstory: to mark 50 years in country music, Reba is putting out a new song every month of 2026, each capsule pairing fresh material with a cut from her own catalog. "Ain't Gonna Keep It Waitin'" is the road-trip entry. In it, she's drumming on the dash to "Hotel California" to stay awake on a long Texas tour run when a late-night call from her guy turns a tired drive into a race home. From there it's a Dodge pushed as fast as the law allows, truckers in the mirror, and a hook that won't overthink a good thing: she can't say yet whether it's love, but she's not about to keep it waiting. The writers know this lane cold. Connie Harrington has the most storied pen of the bunch: she dreamed up "I Drive Your Truck" after hearing a Gold Star father on the radio, then wrote it with Jimmy Yeary and Jessi Alexander, the writer behind Miley Cyrus's "The Climb," into a Song of the Year for Lee Brice. Her own cuts range from Blake Shelton's "Mine Would Be You" to Megan Moroney's "No Caller ID," and she's got Reba history of her own, having co-written the Reba and Kenny Chesney duet "Every Other Weekend" with Skip Ewing. Brett Beavers spent years as Dierks Bentley's producer and right hand, co-writing "Come a Little Closer" and "Free and Easy (Down the Road I Go)" and producing Dustin Lynch's "Cowboys and Angels." Kelley Lovelace made his name beside Brad Paisley on "He Didn't Have to Be" and "I'm Still a Guy," and reached outside that partnership for Terri Clark's "I Just Wanna Be Mad." Dave Cobb produces, and his live, analog touch is all over it. The track opens sparse and rootsy, then Paul Franklin's pedal steel and Stuart Duncan's fiddle lend traditional bones before the band swells into a fuller Southern-rock cruise, capped by a clean, melodic solo that stays smooth instead of flashy. The Isaacs stack the harmonies high. Reba sings it loose and certain, tossing in runs and ad-libs like a woman who's run this victory lap a hundred times and still loves every mile. A country queen with a full tank and the radio up. Floor it.

ALAN JACKSON / "Still The One"
Writers: John Hall/Johanna Hall; Label: EMI Nashville

Fifty years ago a Georgia cheerleader practiced a routine to an Orleans hit, and the boy watching her ended up marrying her. The song was the work of John and Johanna Hall, the husband-and-wife team behind Orleans' "Dance with Me" as well. Here's a wrinkle worth savoring: John Hall later served two terms in the U.S. Congress representing New York, so the man who wrote this love song also wrote veterans' legislation on Capitol Hill. Now, days before his farewell concert, Alan Jackson hands the song back to Denise drenched in fiddle and steel. His voice sounds as strong as it did two decades back, and the country dressing fits the old pop melody like it was always meant to wear it. A love letter, a victory lap, and a flat-out charmer. What a way to say thank you. Let's hope he has more new music in store for us.