I’ve never heard of Kelsea Ballerini, but apparently that puts me in the minority. The 23-year-old Tennessean sent her first three singles to the top of the country charts, a first for a solo female country act in nearly a quarter century.
Ballerini seems to be filling a void in the country landscape left behind when Taylor Swift made the leap to full-on pop star. And that’s appropriate, because Swift has been a major backer, calling her “little sis” and promoting her heavily on social media.
Mickey Guyton has yet to release her first album but she already has a country hit on her hands with today’s SOTD, ‘Better Than You Left Me.’
An early cut on American Idol (released just before the live shows), she is now an American Country Music Award nominee for New Female Vocalist of the Year.
Margo Price is one of those overnight sensations whose “overnight” lasted more than a decade. A Nashville singer-songwriter originally from Illinois, she has lived a life worthy of the traditional country songs that inspired her.
Price lost one of her twin newborns to a fatal heart condition, then turned to drinking and spent some time in jail before cleaning up her act and recording an album independently. She pitched the record to Jack White’s country label and the White Stripes frontman snatched it up for a proper studio release.
Miranda Lambert’s sixth album, The Weight of These Wings, comes out this Friday. It’s been two years since her brilliant last record, Platinum, and during that time she went through a very public split from Blake Shelton.
A break-up album from one of my very favorite artists — can’t wait!
But I have to wait, of course, so I figured this would be a good week to feature some up-and-coming female country singers who no doubt were inspired (professionally if not creatively) by Ms. Lambert.
Here’s my first Tom Waits song since February of 2013, when another track from Rain Dogs popped up as a Random iTunes Weekend selection. As usual, this is the first time I’ve heard a song from that album since that earlier post.
I’ve never paid much attention to Waits, though he’s clearly worthy of it. He’s particularly effective as a poet of the streets, a role Bruce Springsteen rode to much greater heights.
Meet Me In Montauk 