Country music may have come in for some criticism, but this year saw many fantastic records from musicians on both sides of the mainstream/indie divide

Despite all the criticism lobbied at country music this year, the genre had an undeniably great 2015. In the mainstream, radio tropes that became tired years ago finally began to crumble. In the indie world, artists stopped worrying about whether they were called “country” or “Americana” and just started making the records they wanted. On both sides of the mainstream/indie spectrum, people cheered the success of Chris Stapleton, who broke out in a huge way at the CMA awards. And, best of all, listeners everywhere were blessed with good, honest music that wasn’t hard to find. I mean seriously good music. I’m so excited about the albums on this list it’s hard to contain myself. Country music is alive and well, folks!

So, with all of the usual caveats firmly in place (of course I haven’t heard every album released this year … of course these rankings are subjective … of course some people will argue some of these shouldn’t be called real “country” albums) here are my 10 favorite country albums from the past year.



1. Kacey Musgraves – Pageant Material

Musgraves’ second album is pleasantness personified – and not the bland kind that evokes images of vanilla lattes and Everybody Loves Raymond. It’s pleasant in the same way an old friend’s company is pleasant, since Pageant Material’s assured, laid-back presentation of life and all its messiness makes a listener feel known and understood. I wrote back in March that “Musgraves has a way of making people feel special … by reminding them that no one really is,” and that’s exactly what the expert song craft on this album does so effectively. Songs like Biscuits and Cup of Tea ask people to mind their own business and be themselves, plainly. “We all have the right to be wrong,” she wryly reminds us.

It’s a credit to producers Shane McAnally and Luke Laird that the sound of the album, which is often as lush and lovely as a Hawaiian beach, helps that message go down easy. Family is Family and Dime Store Cowgirl marry Musgraves’ frank wit with the whimsical music flourishes of classic Disney songs, creating a sense of camp around Pageant Material that’s more disarming than it is distracting, though it’s not Tinkerbell we’re listening to here. The album ends with a downbeat one-two punch in the breakup track Fine and the Willie Nelson duet Are You Sure that are as incisive and lovely as any of the great classics of yesteryear. Pageant Material is like a beauty queen you can actually relate to. It is a career-galvanizing achievement that proves Musgraves’ Same Trailer Different Park was no fluke.

2. Turnpike Troubadours – Turnpike Troubadours

After years of buzz on the indie circuit, Oklahoma natives the Turnpike Troubadours are ready for their closeup. The band defies the assumption that making real country music in 2015 is somehow antiquated or uncool, and their fiddle-laden Red Dirt compositions resonate with a new generation of country music fans. The Troubadours’ self-titled third album demonstrates a pitch-perfect balance of old school instrumental music (the sound of real drums is so sweet to ears too used to electronic drum beats) and memorable melodies with lyrics by lead singer Evan Felker and bassist RC Edwards that offer up a smart take on life, as seen through the eyes of young men that spend much of their time in smoky bars.

Fall Out of Love contains what may be the smartest line of any song I heard this year: “Well, you bet your heart on a diamond/And I played the clubs in spades,” and single Down Here is a fine song about friendship that features the encouraging refrain, “You’re gonna be alright, you’ll be fine/You can have a nickel out of my last dime.” The album has a casual, earthy quality that makes it an unpretentious and crowd-pleasing listen, and that’s good because there are so many crowds that will want to keep listening to these rising country stars in the future.

3. Eric Church – Mr Misunderstood

Dropped by surprise on the night of the CMA awards, Church’s latest album, a collection of songs about the star’s love for both music (see Record Year, Mistress Named Music) and family (see Holdin’ My Own, Three Year Old), is his very best work yet. Whereas The Outsiders made occasional forays into hard rock and heavy metal, Mr Misunderstood is a more focused album that melds country music with heartland rock and, thanks to some excellent production choices from Jay Joyce, establishes Church as something of a modern-day Bruce Springsteen. Too many stars in Nashville are trying desperately to maintain their relevance, but Church is acting like an industry leader. This is a career album that deserves to be heard. (I wrote much more about it here.)

4. Leigh Nash – The State I’m In

No album took me by surprise more this year than Leigh Nash’s superb set The State I’m In, on which the Sixpence None the Richer lead singer made a full leap into country music and reflected upon her Texas homeland. This year marked a resurgence of the “country and western” sound once popularised by artists like Gene Autry, and The State I’m In possesses so many lovely moments of lonesome mariachi and pedal steel that you can almost see the desert sun setting behind a cactus while listening.

Nash’s willowy vocals are as vulnerable as they are seductive on songs like Spider and the Moth, on which she sheepishly explains to an ex, “I’m sorry, so sorry I came/Like a spider to a moth/I just can’t turn it off like a light.” Thematically, the album deals with homesickness and heartbreak, tackling both with quiet humor and wise reflectiveness. “Tell me now, Tennessee/Is there anything left for me?” Nash wonders at one point, offering a glimpse into the mind of an artist who weaves her moments of insecurity into musical gold.

5. Chris Stapleton – Traveller

What more can be said about Chris Stapleton at this point? He’s the real deal – a man who has written hits for half of Nashville, won a slew CMA awards, collaborated with Justin Timberlake, scored the No 1 album in the country, and, overnight, become the coolest man in country music. (Fun fact: Adele was way ahead of the bandwagon. She covered Stapleton’s If It Hadn’t Been For Love on 21.)

At the core of Stapletonmania is the fact that Traveller, his first album as a solo artist, is a downright great collection of songs that are carried in dazzling fashion by Stapleton’s husky, soulful voice. He conveys a fearsome swagger on tracks like Outlaw State of Mind and Was It 26, but reveals a forlorn sensitivity on Whiskey and You and Daddy Doesn’t Pray Anymore. These are songwriter’s songs that don’t try to say too much – and they’re laced with expert production by Dave Cobb that adds a vintage touch to the whole thing.

6. American Aquarium – Wolves

Self-loathing never sounded as hopeful as it does on the North Carolina troupe’s latest release, a beautifully subdued southern rock album that finds leading man BJ Barham expressing gratitude about his stable place in life (and his sobriety, too) after years of hard living on the road. Losing Side of 25, my favorite song of 2015, is worth the price of admission alone. It exemplifies the duality of insecurity (“Every week at the Food Lion/All the other parents boast”) and hope (“There are different roads to happiness/I took a different path, I guess/Came out on the other side just fine”) that makes this album so special. Other songs, like Who Needs a Song and Man I’m Supposed to Be, dwell in the same space, and they’re supported by intricate arrangements that make the band far more than just a songwriter’s showcase.

7. Sam Outlaw – Angeleno

A former advertising professional based in LA, Sam Morgan, at age 30, made an abrupt left turn two years ago to pursue his only real passion: music. Taking on his mother’s maiden name, he entered the music world as Sam Outlaw, and frankly, we’re all better off for his decision. His debut LP is a polished and cosmopolitan west coast take on traditional country music (he’s called it “SoCal country”) with songs that are moody and wry all at once. One chorus memorably begins: “Jesus take the wheel/And drive me to a bar.” There are elements of mariachi here, too, that augment the enchanting melancholia of the whole affair and sell the Angeleno concept.

8. Jason Isbell – Something More Than Free

Hey, look, another Dave Cobb-produced album! (There’s a reason guys like Jason Isbell and Chris Stapleton flock to him. He’s that good.) Isbell followed up his breakout smash Southeastern with another set of songs that grapple with life’s hardships and complexities. Something More Than Free possesses a strong musical backbone thanks to Isbell’s band and his wife, fiddle player Amanda Shires, but on the whole, it opts for a rather spare sound and relies primarily on its lyrics, penned by Isbell alone, to carry the emotion.

Fortunately, Isbell has the writing chops to make this strategy work. Standout track 24 Frames describes life’s curve balls thusly: “You thought God was an architect, now you know/He’s something like a pipe bomb ready to blow.” On Children of Children, Isbell reflects on the hardship young mothers face while raising their children, lamenting: “All the years I took from her/Just by being born.” The songs on this album revere the people who put in long hours and work hard, a lifestyle that both makes and breaks them.

9. Maddie & Tae – Start Here

When Maddie & Tae burst on to the scene with their hilarious protest track Girl in a Country Song last year, some wrote the duo off as a novelty act – a pair of young women in over their heads in their quest to bring fiddles and comedy back to country music. But those critiques were effectively silenced by Maddie & Tae’s excellent debut album, a confident and wide-eyed set about chasing dreams and young love that evokes the Dixie Chicks’ best material.

They demonstrated comedic wit on tracks like Sierra and Shut Up and Fish, and they proved equally effective on elegiac efforts like After the Storm Blows Through, a song about helping a friend through a tragedy. Their harmonies are often exquisite, and their instrumental choices hearken back to the jovial pop-country sounds of the 1990s. It takes a tremendous degree of self-assurance to convince producers to let you make a debut record that sounds this country in 2015, but fortunately, Maddie & Tae have that in spades. (More on them here.)

10. Andrew Combs – All These Dreams

Andrew Combs’s second album is filled with waltzes and countrypolitan ballads that are nicely driven by his restrained croon, which often adds a touch of theater to these lovely songs. The gentle 1970s inflections of pedal steel and acoustic guitar give the album a dreamy quality that makes tunes like Strange Bird and Slow Road To Jesus feel like jukebox songs that might play in bars on rainy nights. Combs writes about the world with a patient and curious candor, and it’s a pleasure to hear his reflections laid out so simply.

Honorable Mentions: Everything listed in former columns here and here and here. Not all of it is country per se, but country fans will absolutely appreciate it.

