CMAT review – every song is like an encore in this fizzing, sad-happy show

Touring her masterly new album, one of the best of this year, Irish country-pop auteur Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson brings unruly energy, wit and guitar heroics to her searing tales of heartbreak

Dolly Parton: Rockstar review – country legend’s first rock album is like endless karaoke

Parton’s own songs are great and her voice is still strong and characterful, but it often doesn’t suit these rock covers aided by stars from Paul McCartney to Lizzo

Luke Combs review – country star ploughs the middle of the road

Chugging beers with the cowboy-hatted crowd, Combs is a skilled performer and musician, but the set is too slick and formulaic to be special

CMAT: Crazymad, for Me review – Irish award-winner’s ambitious second album

(AWAL)Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson sets her characteristic lyrical blend of wit and defiance to a more expansive country-pop sound

Shania Twain review – soaring self-confidence leaves fans much impressed

Backed by cowboys and aliens, the all-conquering country-pop outlier dons that leopard-print catsuit and leads her crowd through hit after hit

Mitski: The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We review – a songwriter with stunning melodic power

Playing country-inflected orchestral pop with sardonic wit and deep feeling, Mitski underlines why she’s one of the very best singer-songwriters working today

Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway: City of Gold review – gritty country with pyrotechnics

The bluegrass star’s new record picks up where last year’s Crooked Tree left off, with a whirlwind of virtuoso Americana

Bonnie Raitt review – a blues fireball in full bloom

With typically charismatic fervour and to a star-studded audience, the master of heartbreak brilliantly honours her singular path through modern music

Brandy Clark: Brandy Clark review – country provocateur holds too much back on faltering fourth album

There are some gorgeous songs here, and some inventive arrangements, but the wit and honesty of her previous work seems diminished

Lucinda Williams review – dirt mixed with tears in an evening of consummate Americana

The singer-songerwriter leaned in to the precariousness of life as she paid tribute to lost friends, including Jeff Beck and Tom Petty

Margo Price: Strays review – a magic mushroom-fuelled trip that packs a lyrical gut-punch

The Nashville star brilliantly rattles through country, psych and Patti Smith-style poetic rock’n’roll on a fourth album that creates a feeling of wild landscapes

Kevin Morby: This Is a Photograph review – exemplary songwriter wrings light from darkness

Morby’s seventh album was inspired by sickness and mortality but his elegiac songs focus on life’s transience and joys

Billy Strings review – sombre melodies and high-speed shredding from bluegrass’s young buck

Strings and his Michigan jam band show off their mastery of classical American rural music – with a hard-rock twist

Plains: I Walked With You a Ways review – Katie Crutchfield and Jess Williamson find a deep sense of ease

Waxahatchee and the Texas songwriter unite new and old country traditions to create something magical

Michelle Branch: The Trouble With Fever review – solid country-pop, not notes on a scandal

While the album lands some damning jabs, the songwriting is insightful and even-keeled