Rolling Stone's 40 Best Country and Americana Albums of 2017

Songwriter Margo Price spent nearly a decade struggling around Nashville only to have her debut, *Midwest Farmer’s Daughter*, hit the country Top 10. Spirited, sharp-witted (“Do Right By Me”), class-conscious (“Learning to Lose”), and deeply bittersweet, *All American Made* cements Price’s place alongside artists like Sturgill Simpson and Jason Isbell—keepers of the flame but never slaves to tradition. “At the end of the day, if the rain it don’t rain,” she sings on the fingerpicked folk of “Heart of America,” “We just do what we can.” It’s a tale of blue-collar hardship drawn from her own life.

On her early albums, Lee Ann Womack made her home in the country mainstream, but her sound has grown increasingly idiosyncratic over the years. Here, she\'s closer to the bone than ever before. Sometimes she\'s downright ominous, on dark, gritty cuts like \"All the Trouble.\" Sometimes she taps her inner Bobbie Gentry on R&B-tinged tunes like the luxuriantly grooving \"He Called Me Baby.\" And when she leans those golden pipes into a spare, intense version of the country classic \"Long Black Veil,\" she shows she\'s holding her roots closer than ever.

Freedom Highway, Rhiannon Giddens' follow-up to her highly praised solo debut album, Tomorrow Is My Turn, includes nine original songs she wrote or co-wrote, a traditional tune, and two civil rights–era songs. She co-produced the album with multi-instrumentalist Dirk Powell in his Louisiana studio, with the bulk of recording done in wooden rooms built prior to the Civil War, over an intense eight-day period. "Giddens emerges as a peerless and powerful voice in roots music," Pitchfork exclaims. It's a "rich collection," says NPR; "hope comes back to life in Giddens' music."

A few years into his 80s, and Willie Nelson’s touch is as light and comforting as ever. *God’s Problem Child* is a mellow, often reflective set of outlaw country and folk that finds Nelson wrestling directly with mortality—sometimes gravely (the touching “Old Timer”), sometimes not (the hilariously straight-faced “Still Not Dead,” as in, “I woke up still not dead again today”). It concludes with a salute to his old friend and longtime duet partner Merle Haggard on “He Won’t Ever Be Gone.”

One can trace Kip Moore’s growth just from his album titles. *Up All Night* and *Wild Ones* were characteristically party-rocking affairs. On his third album, *Slowheart*, Moore pumps the brakes and allows himself to appreciate the journey so far. He shows off his non-country side, peppering his set with nods to alternative and soul. The latter makes itself known in “Blonde,” a biting rebuke of hometown kids who forget where they came from. Despite his maturation, “More Girls Like You” shows the Georgian still knows how to make a party jump.

On his stunning debut, Tyler Childers embraces the same cosmic country sound of coproducer Sturgill Simpson, mixing dusky twang and badass attitude. The songs of the Kentucky singer/songwriter are filled with seriously flawed characters. On “Banded Clovis” the jailed narrator recalls killing a friend while under the influence of “pills and the powder” over an Indian arrowhead they’d found together. On the bluegrass-steeped title track he pleads with his lover for help, certain she’s the only thing standing between him and hell.

Though Luke Combs was only 27 upon the release of this debut album, his deep, burly pipes bear the vocal gravitas of someone with a lot more miles in their rearview mirror. And whether the North Carolinian is getting reflective on the slow-rolling title track, digging into a four-on-the-floor country rocker like \"When It Rains It Pours,\" or playing with pop hooks on “Hurricane,” he leans all the way in for maximum impact.

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That period of time between leaving high school and fumbling into one’s mid-twenties is difficult enough. Kelsea Ballerini had to navigate those years with the added weight of a good chunk of the country-music world watching, having opened that decade with the youthful country-pop of her 2015 debut, *The First Time* and finding a more mature voice on 2017’s *Unapologetically*. If her sophomore record is any indication, she got through the growing pains with grace, proving her readiness for more ambitious levels of stardom and expanding her sonic palette to include grander pop arrangements and R&B elements. Maybe more significantly, the East Tennessee native embraces vulnerability in an intimate way on *Unapologetically*. The album is structured in three parts; in the first four songs, Ballerini deals with the fallout of the breakup she went through as her first album was released, delivering a pep talk to herself with the swaggering “Miss Me More.” In the middle third, she unpacks a period of self-discovery and acceptance of change, contrasting the leaps and bounds she’s grown since leaving home with the story of a former jock who can’t leave his football glory days behind on “High School.” And finally, she blossoms in the light of a new romance, as evidenced by the swelling title track, outfitted with choruses that seem to glow with the same energy as someone who’s just fallen in love. Like a typical Ballerini album, *Unapologetically* finds her in the writer or co-writer chair for every song (apart from a couple of bonus tracks), showcasing her nuance as a lyricist and emphasizing her development as a songwriter. She cleverly subverts the dreamy doo-wop rhythm of “I Hate Love Songs” with a laundry list of romantic clichés she hates, building a sincere love song in the process. And she asserts her multitudes on the gentle “In Between” by accepting contradiction. It’s no small feat to pack such subtleties into country-pop’s confines, but with her second record, Kelsea Ballerini proves herself a pro—unapologetically.

There\'s something wondrous about The Secret Sisters\' quiet folk-country harmonies. *You Don’t Own Me Anymore*, produced by Brandi Carlile, lets the vocals of Laura and Lydia Rogers shine in all their exquisite melancholy, ambling like a meditative autumn walk through the countryside. On songs like the John Prine–esque “He’s Fine,” the sisters’ voices slowly wrap around one another, revealing new emotions with every breath, while darker numbers like “Mississippi” and “The Damage” trudge along like haunted lullabies.

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The careful selection of covers on *Windy City* speaks volumes about Alison Krauss’ inspirations as an artist. Here, she offers a warmly nostalgic musical tour of mid-century Nashville. These are deep cuts—among the Bill Monroe b-sides and obscure bluegrass covers are only a few hits by Glen Campbell and Brenda Lee. But Krauss makes every song sound effortlessly her own, from the string-accompanied heartbreak “Losing You” to the gently swinging twang of “Dream of Me.\"

Four years after RaeLynn stunned on *The Voice* and landed Blake Shelton as a mentor, the Texas singer delivers a debut album of contemporary country-pop that’s honest, gritty, and delicately defiant. She masterfully balances confidence and vulnerability, sending an ex to voicemail on “Lonely Call,” fending off jealousy on “Insecure,” and letting herself daydream on “Diamonds.” On the standout title track, she refuses to be tamed: “If you wanna love me, understand/You gotta be down with the way I am/All my flaws and all my quirks/All my glitter, all my dirt.”

A little bit Americana, a little bit garage rock, Jade Jackson’s debut filters incisive revelations through a hint of bourbon and a patina of gravel and dust. The young Californian tapped Social Distortion’s Mike Ness as a producer, and he infuses her timeless tracks with brash energy: Punky snare propels “Troubled End”; crisp electric guitar rings out in “Good Time Gone.” There are traces of Kathleen Edwards and Lucinda Williams in Jackson’s candor and off-kilter delivery, but her blend of grit and guts feels bracingly fresh.

On their fifth album, Oklahoma alt-country heroes Turnpike Troubadours continue to strike the perfect balance of lyrical smarts and musical muscle. Whether the band are stomping through the fiddle-powered \"The Housefire\" (which finds frontman Evan Felker singing of surviving a blaze), or delivering a deep-twanging locomotive groove on the antihero anthem \"Pipe Bomb Dream,\" the Troubadours understand how to marry expertly penned tunes with tight-but-organic musicianship.

Crossover gold from the *American Idol* alum.

The first thing to grab you about Brad Paisley’s 11th album is the guest list. Skip to track four and you’ll find Mick Jagger living out some Grand Ole Opry fantasies on the gloriously louche “Drive of Shame.” Timbaland adds some down-home beats to the anarchic “Grey Goose Chase” and the introspective “Solar Power Girl,” while a Johnny Cash poem is adapted for the affecting “Gold All Over the Ground.” Despite the A-list help, this is still the sort of rollicking, relatable, and unmistakably good time that Paisley always delivers.