Neon Blue

As longtime Nashville stalwart Joshua Hedley declares on one of *Neon Blue*’s decidedly down-home standouts, the man is a bona fide “singing professor of country and western.” On his sophomore album, the singer, guitarist, and fiddle player eschews the glitzy sound of 2020s country-pop for the glorious heyday of ‘90s honky-tonk, evoking the likes of Alan Jackson and Garth Brooks with the electrifying chicken pickin’ of the title track or the raucous hard-times anthem “Broke Again.” And in the same tradition, Hedley offers a master class in songwriting about getting dumped (“Old Heartbroke Blues”), going on a bender (“Bury Me with My Boots On”), and offering his own take on a country icon’s work with a devotional cover of Roger Miller’s “River in the Rain.”

The Nashville songwriter brings country back to the barroom on a vibrant set that pays tribute to ’90s stars like Brooks & Dunn and Garth Brooks.

On Joshua Hedley's 2018 debut album, Mr. Jukebox, he delivered what sounded like the best country album of 1963, a brilliant, soulful evocation of Nashville's golden era that hit a sweet spot between countrypolitan polish and honky tonk heart.