With such a lot of brilliant country albums released this year, some great records had probably not all the success that they deserved. If 2023 would have been a “normal” year for country music, there’s absolutely no doubt that Scott Southworth’s new album would have been part of all the talks for best album of the year. And if we lived in a normal world, almost all the songs included in this album should be played on country radios and several of them would be country hits. “Comin’ Round To Honky Tonk Again“, Scott Southworth’s fourth studio album after “The Last Honky Tonk in Town“, “Hey Hil ..read more

Here’s the second part of my “gig stories” dedicated to Equiblues festival, a rodeo and country music festival that takes place in a french little town, in August. After a first post about Jesse Daniel’s gig (you can read it here), the second post is about Jake Bush’s gig. You’ll find some videos made during this concert at the end of the post. Jake Bush is an artist from Pasadena, Texas, whose songs are regularly at the top of Texas radio charts. I strongly recommend you to listen to “7“, a brilliant record released on October 2020, that includes the amazing singles “Gravity & You“, “Bet ..read more

Equiblues is a 5 days summer festival dedicated to rodeo and country music, that takes place in the little town of Saint-Agrève, Ardèche, Southeastern France, in August. It’s one of the two main summer country festivals in France, along with “Festival Country Craponne“. This year, it celebrated its 24th edition, after a 5 year suspension, due to Covid and also because of the construction of a big saloon, the Red Fox saloon, inaugurated for this occasion. When you see the beauty of this new saloon, overlooking the site of the festival, you now that it was worth the wait… and the trip to get to ..read more

If you love quality music, you couldn’t miss Joe Stamm Band, this summer. After a brilliant EP, “Fort Smith“, released on July 14th, they released a new album, on August 11th, named “Wild Man“. Defining their music is a hard task. If you ask them, this Midwestern band from Central Illinois will tell you that it’s black dirt country rock. Indeed, you’ll find on their new album traditional country music, rock songs and red dirt music. But no matter the genre, what makes “Wild Man” unique is the captivating songwriting and the high quality of the music. Produced by Joe Stamm (who wrote all the so ..read more

I always said and repeated on this blog that country music, even though it’s rooted in American South, has no frontiers. I’ve listened and reviewed excellent and real country music from Rhode Island, Ohio, Washington State, Canada, even from UK or France. The album reviewed on this post was made by an artist from Frederick county, Maryland. And I can certify that all its songs belong to traditional and real country music. Mike Kuster, who grew up on a little farm, is a new artist. After releasing his excellent debut album, “Better Late Than Never“, last year, he just released his sophomore LP ..read more

Austin Gilliam is an artist from South Texas who grew up in Corpus Christi and started on the Texas music scene as a sideman, for artists such as Brandon Jenkins, Drew Kennedy and Matt King, before moving on to frontman of his own band and songwriter. His flagship single, “Strawberry Lemonade“, released 10 years ago, is a great rock song, that I recommend you to listen to. On May 26th, he released a new EP, “I’m Sorry, I’m Fine“. The first word that comes to my mind when listening to this record is : eclectic. Indeed, its five songs, quite disparate, reflects the diversity of Austin Gilliam’s ..read more

The last update of Country Music France Top 30 playlist was made in November of 2022, six months ago. So, it seems that I’m very late for a new one, with such a lot of great country songs and albums released since the beginning of 2023. For its 11th update, as it’s almost reaching 1000 listeners on Spotify, the playlist is completely renewed, with 30 songs recently released. They’re all part of actual country, red dirt or southern rock scenes. But beyond the genres, the most important is that they’re all part of the greatness of actual American music, and they put on the spotlight the talent o ..read more

The Canadian singer and songwriter Del Barber released his eighth album named “Almanac“, via Acronym Records, on April 28th, almost two years after the excellent “Stray Dogs (collected B-Sides/Vol 1)“. This new album was written in Del Barber’s farm, located in Manitoba’s Parkland, and then recorded at No Fun Club, Winnipeg, with co-producers Grant Siemens and Scott Franchuk. All songs were written by Del Barber, with one, “On my Way Out The Door“, cowritten with his Dad and another, “Bulls“, cowritten with his neighbors, Andrea and Sarah Heide. One of the best songs present on this album is ..read more

Five years after his beautiful debut album, “South Texas Homecoming“, James Steinle released, on April 7th, his new album, “The Echo Sound“. Produced by David Beck, it was recorded in a house in Martindale, Texas, in November of 2022. It’s the first album of the South Texas singer and songwriter since the brilliant “Cold German Mornings“, that had been released on December of 2020. All songs were written by James Steinle, with the exception of “Old Song“, written by Gabe Wooton. Sam Kossler plays pedal steel and Dees Stribling plays drums. If you listen to this album, you’ll find great music a ..read more

The legendary band Eleven Hundred Springs ended its history in 2021, but the Texan band’s front man and songwriter, Matt Hillyer, is still very active. He coproduced, last year, Squeezebox Bandits’ album, “Check To Check“, a fantastic record reviewed on this blog (check it out here), and wrote o cowrote several songs on it, including the amazing “Never Again” and the title track. Y’all need to listen to this album if you’ve not done it yet. He also cowrote last year another great song, “Someday, Not Today“, for The Broken Spoke’s amazing album, “Where I Went Wrong“. But now, let’s talk about h ..read more