Jewly Hight

When the two songwriters sat down to pen their new one, "Let's Just Have Supper," they found themselves in the spirit of invitation rather than agitation.

In this melancholy country-pop song, the singer-songwriter aims to raise awareness of domestic violence within the LGBTQ community while returning the focus to her slain cousin's humanity.

Country singer Sunny Sweeney's frank and personal ballad wrestles with the desire for motherhood while recognizing how a female musician's lifestyle can look to a harried mom.

The Tennessee-bred quartet charges forth with a bright-eyed take on throwback rock 'n' roll. Bassist Alexis Fitzgerald says its defining ideals are "freedom and fun and family."

As many of country's male artists have moved in new directions, the rough-voiced, Georgia-born singer and songwriter offers a refined take on trucks, girls and back roads on his new album.

Winans has spent her long career expanding what gospel can sound like and where it can go. To pull off her first release in nearly a decade, she adapted once again — by letting go of the wheel.

Fifteen years after her debut, the Americana singer-songwriter teams up with Iron and Wine's Sam Beam to craft an album that's both gentle and gnarled.

Though some moments seemed to indicate a pop takeover, 2016 was also a year when country tended to its traditions. In the end, the genre decided it was big enough to hold both.

Until his dying day, Clark saw himself as a working artist. Both his biographer and co-songwriter Holly Gleason illuminate this late-career demo.

Hillary Lindsey co-wrote two songs on Gaga's new album. With songwriting partners Lori McKenna and Liz Rose, she's also crafted hits for Little Big Town and Carrie Underwood.

Welch and partner David Rawlings sift through their musical archives and select 21 tracks that document their early- to mid-'90s rise, before they emerged as leaders of an ascendant Americana scene.

The collaboration stirred up controversy, but in the room at the CMA Awards, the performance of Beyoncé's "Daddy Lessons" felt like a precise recalibration of pop for a country setting.

Three albums after wrapping his run with one of the most successful country duos of the '90s and early '00s, Dunn deftly carves out a role for himself amid the genre's current youthful landscape.

Carter got her start in the U.K. electronic scene singing for the Bugz In The Attic and Massive Attack, but her first love was always Dolly Parton.

Natalie Mering's performances are framed in ebbing-and-flowing chamber-folk, set off by psychedelic detours and surreal manipulations of captured sound.

Welch celebrates Revival's 20th anniversary with a two-disc set of unreleased songs. "I have always learned more from other artists' imperfect works than from their masterpieces," she says.

On his first full-length album, the young country singer-songwriter imaginatively teases out the subtle textures of small-town life.

William Michael Morgan, who will soon release his debut album, Vinyl, traces his lineage to country music heritage through the 1980s and '90s, and — of course — YouTube.

On the 30th anniversary of his debut, the country star releases his first-ever bluegrass album — though this isn't quite the simple, back-to-roots affair the concept suggests.

Tara Thompson comes from a long line of women who find humor in life's messier situations, including distant relative Loretta Lynn.