Jewly Hight

For years, Church has wagered that rewarding the devotion of highly engaged fans will serve him better than country's promotional orthodoxy. In his new video, he takes the concept to its extreme.

At age 67, Rodney Crowell has become the literarily inclined elder statesman of the Americana scene. His new album, Acoustic Classics, is a look back at the songs of his career's many seasons.

On the group's second album, Kam Franklin and The Suffers revel in the multidimensional, multicultural possibilities of their take on soul.

Renea unfurls her musical vision with the brazenness and conviction of someone expecting her ideas, and maybe even her very existence, to be challenged.

One of the soul music's most outlandish singers collaborates with Poliça's Ryan Olson on his new album, Love, Loss And Auto-Tune.

Herzig's trajectory probably doesn't much resemble what you'd expect a professional Nashville songwriter's career to look like. That seems to suit her just fine.

At the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, an exhibit casts the Outlaw country movement of the 1970s as a fluid exchange between the Nashville establishment and raucous outsiders.

Sugarland's first album in eight years sees the country duo not only mount a comeback but address social crises in a grounded, unpretentious way.

On her second album, the gospel and soul singer makes temperate use of dramatic gestures.

Lori McKenna is a master of the eloquently plainspoken gut punch. Hear the first single from The Tree, out July 20.

Willis' first album of solo material in 11 years has the pillowy, R&B-glazed texture of country-pop in the disco era, without abandoning the singer's alt-country roots.

Tenille Townes has been focused on country music stardom since her childhood in Alberta, Canada. Now the 24-year-old singer-songwriter is balancing Nashville's many resources with her own instincts.

Nobody is more fluent in country-funk than Brent Cobb.

The Tennessee-raised artist's upcoming album Life Away From Home is occasionally combative, but more often artfully composed or confiding.

Having found early success in the Americana scene, Parker Millsap explores pop songwriting with playful magnetism.

The venerated songwriter discusses learning to love his voice and how years of scribbled lyrics on yellow legal pads became The Tree of Forgiveness, his first album of new material in over a decade.

Be prepared to be swept up by Monroe's subtle and breathtaking Sparrow, a record fluent in the communal languages of folk, country, gospel and pop.

On Rearview Town, his first album since the mass shooting at a festival in Las Vegas while he was on stage, the country singer — one of the genre's definitive stars — isn't changing course.

The duo comprised of Mary Bragg and Becky Warren deliver songs of nerdy solidarity on the new album Comeback.

With wry intelligence and savvy positioning, Musgraves carved out a comfortable space for herself at country music's boundaries — now she's letting her millennial guard down.