Country music is, firstly, quality storytelling. Instrumentation is important, particularly pedal steel and fiddle, but what makes a great and relatable country song is, primarily, songwriting. Leon Majcen is an artist who grew up, from a young age, listening to Townes Van Zandt, Guy Clark and John Prine. He knows about the importance of the lyrics, and has a great talent when it comes to pick up the appropriate words, put them together and create the kind of song that will make its path deep into your mind, little by little, and will stir your emotions. Son of Bosnian war refugees, Leon Majce ..read more

He’s only 22 years old, but he has a lot to say, and the way he does it with his songs makes him, from now on, one of the most prominent and authentic artists on the country music scene. With Wyatt Flores, we are witnesses of the spectacular breakthrough of a young and very talented artist who perfectly knows the meaning of “Three Chords and the Truth“. Only five months after his wonderful “Life Lessons“, the Oklahoma native artist released, on April 19th, his new EP, “Half Life“. via Island records. The whole record is a bunch of emotions and a masterful piece of of songwriting. Morrison, Wya ..read more

Ellis Bullard released his sophomore album, “Honky Tonk Ain’t Noise Pollution“, via Feels So Good Records, on February 9th. Two years after his acclaimed debut “Piss-Hot Freightlining Country Music“, this new LP is an unmissable record for honky tonk and real country lovers. Each and every song present on this album is a gem, starting with its title track, “Honky Tonk Ain’t Noise Pollution“. This song, named in reference to ACDC’s “Rock and Roll Ain’t Noise Pollution“, from their Back in Black album, was released as a single previous to the album, on October of 2023. With more rock vibes than ..read more

Duke Oursler is a Kansas native singer and songwriter, who now lives in Macomb, Western Illinois. His new studio album, “He Shot More Than Birds“, released on January 19th, via the Farm Way Records, that he coproduced with Mike Himebaugh, is a country rock LP with excellent storytelling about the life in midwestern little towns and rural areas. There are some outstanding songs on this album, starting with “The Mill“, an impressive 6′ blue-collar song about struggle in the forgotten rural parts of the Midwest. Both songwriting and music are really excellent, with amazing guitars in its last par ..read more

This post is the fifth and last one about Country Music France’s best of 2023. As we all know, it was a very special year for our genre, with a lot of talented artists, brilliant albums and fantastic songs. I tried to paint a portrait of the last year through a Top 10 EPs, a Top 7 debut albums, a Top 30 albums and the choice of the artist of the year. This portrait wouldn’t be complete without a ranking of the best 2023 songs. You’ll find below a Top 50 songs and a Spotify playlist including these tunes. Let me tell you that this wasn’t an easy choice and that all my favorite songs of the year ..read more

Photo : Brooke Stevens Country music is for the people, not for any industry. If it’s such an appreciated genre, it’s because country artists write relatable songs, about the real life of American people. A true country artist doesn’t care for any codes. What will make his success is his skill when it comes to mix storytelling and roots music and sing with emotion and authenticity about life, love, joyfulness, pain or death. What makes Gabe Lee such a brilliant artist is this impressive skill that we’re talking about but also the originality of his stories and the way he sings with such emotio ..read more

Since I created this blog, it’s the first time that I find it so difficult to choose the best albums of the year, due to the impressive quality and quantity of brilliant country records released this year. What you’ll find here is a Top 30, completed by a list of 20 other excellent albums (not ranked) that couldn’t be part of the Top 30 but that I wanted to mention. And despite such an important list, it’s not sufficient to include the totality of my favorite albums of the year. Here’s the Top 30, starting with the #30 and ending with a podium that was clear in my mind since the month of Septe ..read more

2023 was not only an exceptional year for established country artists. If it was such a fantastic year for our genre, it’s also due to a lot of young and talented singers and songwriters, who released their first LP record this year. That’s why I considered necessary to make a ranking of the best debut albums. With such tremendous quality, I came down to the choice of 7 albums. Here are these seven gems, that I strongly recommend you to listen to, if you haven’t done it yet. #7 Ritch Henderson – Fallacies and Four-Letter Words Ritch Henderson is a young artist from Cullman, Alabama. Brilliant ..read more

2023 will be remembered as an exceptional year for country music, due to the release of an impressive quantity of excellent albums. In this year of fantastic LPs, there were also a lot of excellent EP’s, and several artists who released great albums, also released EP’s, as did Charles Wesley Godwin, Drayton Farley and Zach Bryan. Since I created this blog, I’ve always made a ranking of the EP’s released, at the end of the year, as I consider it’s an important way for an artist to make a cohesive record, along with an album. So, here we are : let’s see what were my choices this year. #10 Zach B ..read more

Abby Hamilton is a young singer and songwriter from Wilmore, Southwest of Lexington, Kentucky. She was raised in a musical family, with great aunts part of a gospel group named The Hamilton Family, and a brother who’s the lead guitarist in her band. Abby Hamilton released two EP’s, “Broke Girl“, in 2017, and “Afraid of The Dark“, in 2020. This last one included some amazing songs, like “Fast“, “Big Time” and the wonderful “Change Things“. This last one is the song that put her on my radar, after listening to it during Taff Martin’s real country show, on Abbey 104, a show well-known by real cou ..read more