Turn It Up - Country Music, 2023

David and Charles with some favorite country tracks from this year

It’s that time of year again. This month at No Fences Review, we’ll be spotlighting some of our favorite music of 2023, spotlighting songs and albums that are staying in our rotation and making our listening lives better. Today, we’re turning up some of our favorite country tracks - some of these are re-ups from previous weeks, and some are brand new, some were singles and others album cuts, but all of them are things we hope you like as much as we do. Stay tuned all month for more of the best of 2023!

Molly Tuttle – “Next Rodeo” (from City of Gold, 2023)

Tuttle’s one of my favorites, a singer-songwriter-guitarist exploring what she terms the “big backyard” of country/bluegrass/whatever. “Next Rodeo,” off her predictably great new album, sees Tuttle signifying on ramblin’-man tropes from country’s history with a smile and swagger that winks back at everyone from Kitty Wells to Shania Twain. It all builds to a soaring, two-stepping chorus, with Tuttle and Golden Highway again mixing their top-level musicianship with a spirited gift for hooks. Don’t fence her in. - CH (originally posted 8/21/2023)

Jordyn Shellhart – “Dreams Chase You” (from Primrose, 2023)

Shellhart’s sparkling, cascading track draws from a 21^st-century tradition that extends from Vanessa Carlton to Taylor Swift and beyond, with a narrative of hard traveling and a poignantly punning chorus that are as old as the first “hillbilly” records. This befits the work of a songwriter who has placed tracks with everyone from Kelsea Ballerini to Don Williams, and “Dreams Chase You” is the standout track from Shellhart’s debut album. Over aching drums, Shellhart sings with equal delicacy and perseverance as she reminds listeners that the sweet dream and the sleepless night are two sides of the same restless coin. When it’s delivered with such a knockout hook and arrangement, it’s impossible to miss the full richness of Shellhart’s message. - CH

Reyna Roberts – “Louisiana” (from Bad Girl Bible, Vol. 1)

A lot of us were waiting on Reyna Roberts’ debut album, and Bad Girl Bible, Vol. 1 didn’t disappoint. “Louisiana” – a song whose Beyonce influence is clear even without Roberts saying as much in interviews – is the kind of track that ought to be all over country radio. (But we know why it won’t be, now don’t we?) The character-study lyrics are fine – especially when delivered with Roberts’ fierce clarity – but it’s the track itself that knocks this one out of the park. Spooky and evocative, with a post-“Daddy Lessons” groove, spirit-raising background voices, and a subtle fuzz-guitar line, “Louisiana” sounds like everything at once and yet also like nothing else you’ve ever heard. And, most importantly, it rocks like hell. - CH

Cory Walker – “Far Away Again” (feat. Tim O’Brien) (from School Project, 2023)

Banjo ace Cory Walker released his first solo album this year, School Project, whose cheeky title belies its joyous contents. Mostly instrumental, Walker also teams up with a couple of high-profile collaborators, including Tim O’Brien, who delivers this rolling track (written by Walker’s brother) with his trademark knowing sweetness. O’Brien’s warm tenor soars above banjo, mandolin, and guitar as he charts his protagonist’s journey down roads both welcome and lonesome. And then, for the last 90 seconds, with only one more brief chorus, the band carries each other forward with the joyous interplay that ensures the circle won’t be broken. - CH

Luke Combs – “Growin’ Up and Gettin’ Old” (from Gettin’ Old, 2023)

Combs hit the jackpot this year with his faithful cover of “Fast Car,” but this track offers a far better demonstration of his talents. “Growin’ Up and Gettin’ Old” is both lament and celebration for the transition into early middle age. Combs doesn’t crave the wilder side of life – giving thanks for the more reasonable hours he’s keeping, the lessons he’s learning, and the “peace of mind” that he’s achieving – except when he does, like in a chorus that allows Combs’ teddy-bear baritone to roar at full blast. The song’s wax-and-wane dynamics offer perfect accompaniment to a proud, bittersweet and often funny song about the mixed emotions that accompany aging and that strange thing called “maturity.” This sort of reckoning with maturity speaks to a grand country tradition that too often gets lost in this post-bro tailgate era, as well as offering a musical and lyrical example of how this new generation of rowdy friends might settle down. - CH

O.N.E. The Duo – “Feels Good” (from Blood Harmony, 2023)

Here’s yet another example of why Black women should be ruling country radio. The mother-daughter team of Tekitha and Prana Supreme just released a wonderful debut album that’s grounded in country but inclusive of almost everything. (It’s no surprise that the group has roots in the alchemic magic of the Wu-Tang Clan.) The opener lays out the duo’s refusal to live by boundaries of genre or generation, with the vocals and backing track – including an intro where guitar, handclaps, and harmonica mix in a funky invocation that recalls Nappy Roots – making sure that you don’t miss the point. Or try to fence them in. - CH (originally posted 9/5/2023)

Roberta Lea — “Small Town Boy” (from Too Much of a Woman, 2023)

The best country answer record since… Billy Bragg’s “Rich Men Earning North of a Million”? That’s how I’m choosing to hear it. Roberta Lea, whose 2021 EP Just a Taste was among of the highest of country’s many recent off-the-charts high points, tells off her toxic title-character ex while she’s busy traveling to Dublin, Lagos and Yokosuka. Just try to keep this woman of the world in a small town! “You can keep your small town…,” a two-stepping Lea sings, arms to the world. She pauses, then adds the perfect bro-country-dude put down: “Boy.” - DC (originally posted 9/5/2023)

Robbie Fulks — “Old Time Music Is Here to Stay” (from Bluegrass Vacation, 2023)

This voice-and-banjo-only performance, about locking the door and sitting out on the porch, is a sly, if grim, nod to CCR’s “Lookin’ Out My Back Door.” And maybe also a tip of the hat to Ferlin Husky AKA Simon Crum’s 1958 novelty “Country Music Is Here to Stay.” But the reason I kept coming back to what Wrapped tells me is my year’s “Top Song” is Fulks’ voice. His pitch-perfect writerly voice, yes, but also just the plain-spoken gut punch of his vocals, lining out the way nothing lasts (“Everything built just crumbles”), the way everything changes (“What kills joy and sorrow? A little thing called tomorrow”), the way music helps. -DC (originally posted 8/21/2023)

Ian Munsick — “Barn Burner” (from White Buffalo, 2023)

Figured from the title that this one came with apologies to William Faulkner. Turns out that it deploys a different freshman curriculum staple, the “post hoc ergo propter hoc” fallacy. Wyomingite Ian Munsick catches his girlfriend “birthday suitin’ it” with some dude and sings a ridiculously catchy chorus of “She broke my heart, then her barn burned down—like one thing led to the other.” For a while, he’s coy about claiming any cause and effect. But the way he encourages his country-rock band to “Burn it down, boys!” at the blazing, Brad Paisley-ed, double-time coda sure sounds like a confession to me. – DC (originally posted 10/9/2023)

Hailey Whitters — “I’m in Love” (from I’m in Love, 2023)

The title cut from a Hailey Whitters ep released in the summer, “I’m in Love” sketches love’s giddy beginnings, when everything feels spontaneous and fun and the world fits your heart like a glove. Troubles ahead appear to lurk throughout: Hard to get “six songs into a Jones LP,” let alone very far into a relationship, without a few tears. But that’s later. Right now, to a springy mandolin rhythm, Whitters sings like her heart’s skipping a beat and like she’s skipping. A low-key perfect record. – DC

Reyna Roberts — “Country Club” (from Bad Girls Bible, Vol. 1, 2023)

This just sounds better and better every time I hear it. Like Nelly’s 2021 “High Horse” (my beau ideal of the type), or “Buckle Bunny” or, of course, this party’s starter “Old Town Road,” “Country Club” is a perfect example of the delightful hip hop and modern country blend that should be in heavy radio rotation but is not. Roberts’ record waves back to peak Shania in her sound and her spunk, and nods lyrically to Garth. More importantly, it shouts what we want—“no old-members-only club”—and when we want it—“all day, all night,” right now. – DC (originally posted 10/9/2023)

Iris DeMent — “The Sacred Now” (from Workin’ on a World, 2023)

If “The Sacred Now” isn’t the catchiest song DeMent’s ever written, it’s at least the poppiest—and teaming with pop potentials. Someday someone will redo it as a dirge; someone else will lean into the hippie vibe of its “San Francisco” changes; and someday soon I hope that someone cranks it up as a shouted guitar anthem. As I listen right now, Iris reminds that within every moment, even the most divided ones, there is a new and better world waiting to be imagined and achieved. “See these walls? Let’s bring ‘em all down.” – DC

Stay tuned for the rest of our Best of 2023!

Friday 12/8: David Cantwell’s favorite albums of the year

Monday 12/11: Turn It Up: Everything But Country, 2023

Friday 12/15: Charles Hughes’ favorite albums of the year

Recommended reading:

-Kaleb Horton on Shane MacGowan, for GQ

-Jenn Pelly on Paramore’s Riot, for Pitchfork

-Steacy Easton on Tyler Childers, for Rainbow Rodeo

-Natalie Weiner on Zach Bryan, for Don’t Rock the Inbox

If you like what you’re reading here, please think of subscribing to No Fences Review! It’s free for now, although we will be adding a paid tier with exclusive content soon. Also, if you’d like to support our work now, you can hit the blue “Pledge” button on the top-right of your screen to pledge your support now, at either monthly, yearly, or founding-member rates. You’ll be billed when we add the paid option. Thanks!