“They said that I was too big/damn straight now I’m a giant,” Potenza sang on “I Work for Me.” Loaded with full-throttle soul, the genre-playful Road to Rome was a locomotive journey of self-acceptance and empowerment delivered with so much conviction that it’s nearly contagious. And yeah, Potenza doesn’t do anything subtly, but why have a light touch when you have a voice like that? Hers is monstrous. “I’ve always been the kind of person who was too much,” Sarah Potenza told Rolling Stone earlier this year about Road to Rome over a lunch of hot chicken. He reconnected with his country-boy roots on “Beer Can’t Fix” with guest Jon Pardi, and threw a dance party on “VHS,” a kinetic blast of pop that shows him to be modern country’s most eclectic creator. But Rhett is still comfortable hosting an adults-only kegger too. Center Point Road then firmly planted the father flag, as Rhett offered personal and emotional statements like “Blessed,” “Things You Do for Love,” and “Remember You Young.” The concept of family runs all through the record. Thomas Rhett has been carving out a persona as a country music dad, putting his kids and his wife in his videos and all over social media. But I’m trying to be the first something.” P.D. Simpson summed up his mission on the last track, “Fastest Horse in Town”: “Everybody’s trying to be the next someone. Those left-field choices paid off: Simpson is now headlining arenas for the first time.
He spends minutes on end jamming on his Les Paul, with a sound that channels Trans-era Neil and T. Simpson torches flash-in-the-pan artists (“Everybody’s worried about a good look/But they need to be worried ’bout a good hook”) and yes-men trying to surround him “(They come backstage and on my bus pretendin’ to be my friend.”) Simpson, who started out with a bluegrass band, couldn’t sound farther from his roots. For Sound & Fury, he blew up the ship, making a “sleazy synth-rock dance record” that serves as a fuck-you to Music Row and beyond. On 2014’s A Sailor’s Guide to Earth, Sturgill Simpson made a psychedelically soulful album that successfully blended themes of fatherhood and a mariner’s journey. Here’s the 40 best country and Americana LPs of the year. See the Highwomen, yes, but also Our Native Daughters, Maren Morris, Michaela Anne, and Emily Scott Robinson, who all put out albums with a message.Īnd some albums, from Jon Pardi’s good clean fun to Paul Cauthen’s don’t-tell-your-mama-about-it, just wanted to further the party. And Dan Auerbach cemented his old-meets-new production style with three knockouts albums from Yola, Kendell Marvel, and Dee White.Īnd then there was Brandi Carlile, who not only formed one of the most vital and versatile supergroups in recent memory with the Highwomen, but also revealed a whole new side of country veteran Tanya Tucker by co-producing her marvelous comeback LP While I’m Livin‘.Īn undercurrent of solidarity was also detectable this year, as artists rallied behind both musical and cultural causes. Sturgill Simpson made his skronk-country record. Buzzy masked singer Orville Peck brought an air of mystery and gothic grandeur to the genre. Texas band Mike and the Moonpies decamped to London to record with a symphony. Miranda Lambert mixed alt-rock with her country twang by teaming up with producer Jay Joyce. The country and Americana genres were responsible for some fantastic albums in 2019, with many of them defined by a left-field approach that resulted in bold new sounds.
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