Jett Holden
Despite early music marketers’ call to profit on racism by segregating “hillbilly” and “race” records, mainstream country and mainstream pop have kept a lot in common below the surface. This year, country albums by two pop megastars — Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter and Post Malone’s F-1 Trillion — drove much discussion about country music. The differences in the records and how they were received illustrates longstanding systemic issues in the industry: Bey brought a ton of Black collaborators into the mix and was all but ignored by institutions like the CMA, while Posty worked largely with established white folks and was welcomed in.
But there was a great deal happening beyond these records (and beyond Morgan Wallen continuing to be a fool and a menace while selling out stadiums). Not all of it was great: Paramount Global, the parent company of Country Music Television, laid off a huge amount of the network’s staff, seemingly halting highly visible efforts to spotlight a broader diversity of country musicians.
Fancy Hagood
In better news, Black Opry Records made its debut with incisive songwriter and gently drawling singer Jett Holden’s album The Phoenix. Denitia brought ’90s R&B and other influences into the country sound of Sunset Drive, her first record since returning to Nashville. Chris Housman’s debut album Blueneck arrived feeling like the work of someone who’s been playing for decades, and Fancy Hagood’s American Spirit served as a stunning follow-up to his 2021 country debut Southern Curiosity. Orville Peck chose Nashville for his Sixth Annual Rodeo, celebrating queerness and its rightful place in country music in a huge way with a three-day blowout.
Alice Randall
Meanwhile Alice Randall, who was a commercial country songwriter before she became a revered author, shared the stories of Black country pioneers in My Black Country. Oh Boy Records released the companion album, featuring Black women performing songs Randall wrote that were originally recorded by white artists. The new singers restored perspective and meaning that were lost in the earlier versions, or as Randall put it, they “rode to the rescue” of her legacy.
Talking with stellar songsmith and producer Brittany Howard, counting down the year’s top local albums and more
