Turn It Up - Nothing But Country, 2024

Charles and David with some favorite country tracks from the year

This month at No Fences Review, we’re spotlighting some of our favorite music of 2024, noting 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. We’ve got some new reading recommendations at the bottom of the page, too, along with links to our other Best of 2024 posts.

Carly Pearce – “My Place” (from hummingbird, 2024)

I think this is pretty nearly a perfect song, in that well-crafted, well-observed old-school way, like a modern version of “The Grand Tour” or “She’s Got You.” It’s none of cowriter Carly Pearce’s business, now, to try “to picture 4 X 6s with her in ‘em [or] if she does things that I didn’t.” It’s an all-too-familiar story about the life you’ve lost set to a rhythmic undertow that simulates depression and always circles her back to the same old bad thoughts, another spin around the block for another look at what she doesn’t want to see. – DC (originally posted 4/29/2024)

Willow Avalon – “Honey Ain’t No Sweeter” and “Getting’ Rich, Goin’ Broke” (from Stranger, 2024)

From one direction, Willow Avalon totally reads as a roots-inclined hipster. She’s the Georgia-born offspring of performance and visual artist, author and alt.country singer-songwriter Jim White. A tour of her southern-curio packed Hell’s Kitchen apartment went viral on TikTok. She used to have a pet opossum. The best pair of cuts from her short debut album (or is it a long debut EP?) establish her studied but nonetheless affecting range. Echoey and pulsing, filigreed with touches of atmospheric noise, “Honey Ain’t No Sweeter” pillowtalks a lover, or at least a loved one, into grasping that “Love don’t make you weaker.” “Getting’ Rich…,” meanwhile, is a bouncy, hyper-twangy working artist’s lament about how “every dollar that I make finds its way back home to my family.” The former cut works a kin-to-Esther Rose vibe, the latter would fit nicely alongside your fave Brennen Leigh cut. It’s a winning combo, wise even: Love may not make you weaker, but it does often require a side hustle to pay for it. –DC (originally posted 3/25/2024)

Beyoncé – “Texas Hold ‘Em” (from Cowboy Carter, 2024)

With “Daddy Lessons” in 2016, Beyoncé kicked off the musical plank of the now long-building Yee Haw Agenda. Her new “Texas Hold ‘Em” is a fantastic sequel and potentially consequential one too. Pushing a decade after “Daddy,” though, it also finds Beyoncé in the unusual position of playing catch up. To the phenomenon that was Lil Nas X and “Old Town Road,” most obviously, but also as to the best of Blanco Brown, Reyna Roberts and Tanner Adell, among several other Black country crowd movers, who’ve been steadily predicting a line-danceable workout like Beyonce’s latest for years. Not for the first time, I find Bey’s imperial class positioning here slightly off putting. Leaning into lives lived unabashedly in low places, for example, Roberts hits the Bass Pro Shop on her way to a barnyard “Country Club,” and “Beyoncé with a lasso” Tanner gasses up at the mini-mart and gets spoiled at The Cheesecake Factory. By contrast, Queen Bey pulls up in her Lexus with slumming memories, albeit fond ones, of “that dive bar we always thought was nice.” Beyoncé now has the power and privilege to do what she wants where she wants to do it (she’ll be damned if she can’t slow dance with you), though it’s too early to see if that includes even topping the country charts. But if this “real-life boogie and… hoedown,” led by Rhiannon Giddens on banjo, can open doors and stretch horizons for other Black country acts, and maybe even launch a new country dance craze (check out the irresistible instrumental version), then hold on tight. This is gonna be a party. –DC (originally posted 2/16/2024)

AJ Lee & Blue Summit – “He Called Me Baby” (from City of Glass, 2024)

This great Harlan Howard number has been recorded dozens of times over the last 60 years or so. The best-known versions are probably from Candi Staton and Patsy Cline. Waylon Jennings’ “She Called Me Baby” is another of my favorites. and now I’ll add this lonely, spare version by AJ Lee & Blue Summit to the list. They’re a California bluegrass outfit that includes mandolinist Lee and flat picker Sullivan Tuttle (both formerly of The Tuttles). Lee sings lead, and her phrasing, where she pauses and her lonesome tone, is low-key riveting. The track’s moody groove, call it country soul-grass, gains drive as the song progresses, and the breaks from guitarists Tuttle and Scott Gates cruelly remind Lee of all she’s been missing since baby’s gone. – DC (originally posted 8/26/2024)

Wonder Women of Country – “Another Broken Heart” (from Willis, Carper, Leigh EP, 2024)

These country wonder women are Kelly Willis, Brennen Leigh and Melissa Carper, and this time out Willis, on rhythm guitar and lead vocal, sounds nearly stunned to find herself suddenly broken hearted. She’s out drowning her misery in some “all smoke and mirrors” barroom, on the lookout for someone similarly afflicted. Leigh’s guitar solo out of the bridge seems to help her with the search while Carper’s bass keeps the three swinging tipsily but upright. Their simple harmonizing through the chords sounds as if they may all get lucky. My new favorite supergroup. –DC (originally posted 3/4/2024)

Allison Russell – “Many Mansions” (from My Black Country: The Songs of Alice Randall, 2024)

Revising both The Bible and Moe Bandy, Allison Russell’s beautiful version of “Many Mansions” switches the spiritual home from “my father’s house” to “my mother’s.” As Randall notes in her book, this subtle but clear shift both reframes the song’s discussion of urban poverty and affirms the song as testament to the woman-centered communities of music that Randall lives in and builds anew. This is a key part of the larger My Black Country project, and it is done so effectively here. But that thematic reimagining is only part of the transformation here. Russell and the other musicians open the arms of the song into a lush embrace of the listener – a stately rhythmic sway carries Russell’s clarion voice and the harmonies that support her, building to a cathartic final chorus that feels like the close of a prayer. As with the rest of Russell’s work, it’s both heartbreaking and heart-filling. As with the rest of the album, it’s the new definitive version of this song. – CH (originally posted 4/23/2024)

Dolly Parton and Family (feat. Jada Star), “The Orchard” (from Smoky Mountain DNA: Faith, Family, and Fables, 2024)

Dolly Parton’s epic Smoky Mountain DNA is the best album she’s made this century, gathering her multigenerational kin and community in a celebration of the music that made her and that she’s made throughout her celebrated career. The family sings songs old and new as Parton keeps the stylistic gates wide open, with everything from bluegrass to hip-hop (!) making their way to the reunion. (The rock-oriented tracks, including a joyous swing through her 1959 single “Puppy Love,” are so much better than the boring contrivance of 2023’s Rock Star.) My favorite track on this massive set is “The Orchard,” written by and sung with her niece Jada Star. A rolling banjo drives this tribute to the strength of family through the passage of time, with Jada Star trading lines and joining in close harmony with her Aunt Dolly. “A family tree becomes an orchard calling for us to sing their song,” they proclaim in the chorus, because “their memory goes on.” It’s a sparkling highlight of a collection motivated by that loving mission, and I’ll be damned if I don’t sing along through tears each time I listen. – CH

Adeem the Artist – “Plot of Land” (from Anniversary, 2024)

Adeem the Artist’s Anniversary is one of the best records of the year, an affirmation and expansion of their remarkable songwriting and crackling performances. (Don’t take my word for it. Ask David above!) It sounds great too: Adeem and their band sparkle in vibrant productions from Butch Walker. Near the end, for example, there’s “Plot of Land,” a dream of escape from the workaday grind that hurtles forward with a spitfire energy that recalls ‘80s Steve Earle or Jason and the Scorchers. Adeem’s lovely invocations of pecan trees and blueberry bushes would’ve worked well in a more restrained setting. But the full-throttle, big-drums arrangement gives “Plot of Land” a jump that links country-music dreams of pastoral independence with a come-on-let’s-go urgency that defines the best rock ‘n’ roll. If that wasn’t enough, Adeem adds a call for a more just world that we all should share, whatever plot of land we find ourselves on. – CH (originally posted 5/20/2024)

Charley Crockett - “America” (from $10 Cowboy, 2024)

I have to admit that Charley Crockett has never really connected with me. All the components are there – from the retro arrangements to the rich baritone singing to the classic country themes – but Crockett’s many records are things I admire rather than enjoy or absorb. The brooding “America” is quite the exception. Assaying a fractured landscape over a horn-driven arrangement that bridges the country-soul of the mid-South with the humid Southwest, Crockett delivers one of his best performances as he relates his bluesy narrative. Putting forth an urgency sometimes missing (for me) in Crockett’s skillful traditionalism, “America” is a critique and a plea that bracingly refers to a nation that Crockett’s protagonist both loves and fears, as he walks, works, and worries about his place in this place. As with everything he does, it’s expertly crafted. As with almost nothing else he’s done, it struck me at my core. – CH

Cecily Wilborn – “Rocking Chair” (from Kuntry Girl Playlist, 2024)

What a wonderful gift to learn of Kuntry Girl Playlist, an album from Arkansas artist Cecily Wilborn that is contemporary country-soul at its most vibrant. (Thanks to our friend Natalie Weiner at the great Don’t Rock The Inbox for making me aware of it.) It’s a fool’s errand to pick a standout track, but one that’s particularly hitting me is the swooning “Rocking Chair,” where Wilborn harmonizes with and responds to herself over a spare, easy-rocking arrangement. With its welcoming sound and calls to the dance floor, it’s an invitation not just to Wilborn’s intended but the whole audience, or at least whoever’s left when the hour gets late and the vibe gets loose. A fantastic track from a fantastic album. – CH (originally posted 8/26/2024)

Recommended readings:

-Sarah Kendzior on Elvis, America, and late capitalism, for her newsletter

-David Browne on when Motown went country, for Rolling Stone

-Elizabeth Nelson on the Replacements’ All Shook Down, for Take My Advice

-Greil Marcus on Robert Hilburn’s A Few Words in Defense of Our Country: The Biography of Randy Newman, for Letter in the Ether

-Will Hermes picks the 50 best Elton John songs, for Rolling Stone

-Will Hermes with more Elton songs and backstory, for his New Music + Old Music

-Craig Jenkins on Doechii, for Vulture

-Mark Anthony Neal on Richard Pryor, for Medium

-Mark Anthony Neal on Nikki Giovanni, for Medium

-Emily Lordi on Nikki Giovanni, for Washington Post

-I. Augustus Durham on Samara Joy, for Bomb

Don’t miss the rest of the Best of 2024!

Monday 12/9: Turn It Up, Everything But Country, 2024

Friday 12/13: Charles Hughes’ favorite albums of 2024

Coming Friday 12/20: David Cantwell’s favorite albums of 2024

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!