Margo Price: That’s How Rumors Get Started review – country survivor who can take on anything

Having lived through death, prison, homelessness and drug epiphanies, Margo Price is well equipped with country music’s subject matter – but treats it without sentimentality

Rose City Band: Summerlong review – a gorgeous record

One-man band Ripley Johnson casts an unashamedly sunny eight-song spell

Diplo: Presents Thomas Wesley Chapter One: Snake Oil review – country cash-in

Diplo’s first solo album in 16 years is more Cash Money Records than Johnny Cash

Waxahatchee: Saint Cloud review – fierce and ambitious but hard to love

Sobriety can smooth any artist’s fuzzy edges. Named after the Alabama creek that runs behind her childhood home, Katie Crutchfield, AKA Waxahatchee, ditched alcohol for good before making her fifth album, Saint Cloud, which sees her sound leap from reverb-laden … Continue reading →

Waxahatchee: Saint Cloud review – the best album of the year so far

With tracks that nestle in heartache and bask in hard-won wisdom, this is an artefact of American song that measures up to Dylan at his peak

Frazey Ford: U Kin B the Sun review – bright shoots from knotted roots of American song

The former Be Good Tanyas member develops her intimate version of southern soul – but fills it with strife from relationship breakdowns to gun issues

Sturgill Simpson review – a trudge along the highways of Southern rock

The expectation-defying, Grammy-winning country singer throws all his eclectic styles into the mix – with surprisingly boring results

The Teskey Brothers review – Aussie blues revivalists let the good times roll

With their blend of Muscle Shoals soul, boogie-woogie and pub rock, the Teskey Brothers are trapped in the past – but make gorgeous music nonetheless

Joan Shelley: Like the River Loves the Sea review – magnificent love-and-loss songs

Shelley’s fifth album was recorded in Iceland and her music seems more timeless, steely, sad and resolute than ever

Kalie Shorr: Open Book review – raw tales from a gifted country storyteller

On her self-released debut, the future country star discusses some hard knocks with an abundance of empathy, humour and honesty

Alabama 3 review – raucous ravers soak up mashup outlaws’ sin and soul

This was a rambunctious wake for founding member Jake Black – with their Sopranos’ theme a high point among club and country meldings

The Kacey Musgraves Christmas Show review – old-fashioned festive schmaltz

Apart from a blockbuster duet with Lana Del Rey, there are no new musical ideas on this twangy Amazon Prime Video special and soundtrack

Miranda Lambert: Wildcard review – pithy life-lessons

The Tennessee star’s seventh album is a robustly entertaining set of droll country songs about men, booze and doing the laundry

Sturgill Simpson: Sound & Fury review – country meets funk-rock

Of late, any number of pop artists – Gaga, Miley, Justin Timberlake – have made country-adjacent albums, perhaps as rootsy succour in difficult times, or perhaps as heartland-courting endeavours for the Trumpian era. Country singer Sturgill Simpson, meanwhile, won a … Continue reading →

Sturgill Simpson: Sound & Fury review – country’s outlaw catches fire

Another big shift in direction for Simpson, with anime visuals, glam rock, disco and grunge ornamenting never-more-country lyrics: it’s extraordinary