Month: April 2025

Inside Track on Music Row bonus April edition!

But wait, there’s more… country music news you can use

By Preshias Harris

April is showering us with a cloudburst of new music! In fact, it was SO much that it overflowed the April 2025 edition of my column, Inside Track on Music Row. I couldn’t let it get away, so here’s my “Special Added Extra Bonus Supplement” edition. Here you’ll find news about and links to new music from Lainey Wilson, Brandi Carlile & Elton John, Tucker Wetmore, Allison Krauss & Union Station, Jason Isbell, Onoleigh, Junior Sisk, Larkin Poe, Lauren Watkins, Caroline Jones, Bryan Ruby, Maddie Riccardo, Bobby Rush & Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Jason Boland & The Stragglers, Shane Smith & The Saints plus tour updates, Opry news and more. It’s all here so keep scrolling. (If you missed the ‘real’ April 2025 column, you’ll find it directly below this post.)

ALBUM NEWS

JASON BOLAND & THE STRAGGLERS

JASON BOLAND & THE STRAGGLERS: Texas-via-Oklahoma band Jason Boland & The Stragglershave released their new album The Last Kings of Babylon, out now via Thirty Tigers. Listen / play Last Kings of Babylon here. The album marks a full circle moment for the band as they reunite with legendary producer Lloyd Maines, who produced the band’s debut album Pearl Snaps.

The release of The Last Kings of Babylon arrives on the heels of the band’s 25th anniversary. A quarter of a century ago, Boland and his Stragglers cemented themselves in the alt-country and Red Dirt scenes with the release of their 1999 breakthrough Pearl Snaps. Hailed by the New York Times as “one of the country scene’s most multidimensional songwriters,” Boland would go on to sell more than half a million albums and collaborate with Shooter Jennings and Robert Earl Keen over the course of his career.

In 2024 alone, Boland and his band mounted a 30-date anniversary tour, released a live album Live From Cain’s Ballroom, and cemented their status as one of the pillars of the Red Dirt movement with “The Boys of Oklahoma” concerts which have sold over 180,000 tickets.  Tour and ticket info at https://thestragglers.com. #JasonBolandTheStragglers

JASON ISBELL

JASON ISBELL has released his first entirely solo acoustic album, Foxes in the Snow, out now via his own Southeastern Records. Listen/play Foxes in the Snow here.

Continue reading “Inside Track on Music Row bonus April edition!”

No foolin’! April’s country music news

New releases, tour updates music news and more!

by Preshias Harris

It’s April in Nashville and this is Inside Track on Music Row, America’s longest-running monthly country music column.

You’ll find links to listen to new releases from Trace Adkins, Lauren Alaina, Walker Montgomery, Tucker Wetmore and Rascal Flatts (teaming up with Blake Shelton)…. There’s tour and ticket info about stars out on the road including Brooks & Dunn, Kane Brown, Wyatt Flores, Megan Moroney and Zach Top… New albums from Rebecca Lynn Howard, Willie Nelson (his 154th!) and Cole Swindell… plus news about country stars such as Joe Nichols, Cody Johnson and Jeannie Seely as well as rising artists like Huneyfire, Something Out West and more. Scroll down and catch up! 

QUOTE OF THE MONTH: “I feel like every time I’m [writing], it peels back a layer of who I am. I find something that I didn’t know was there. Whenever you get the song completed, there’s no more holes in it.” – singer-songwriter Koe Wetzel in an interview with Melinda Newman, Executive Editor Nashville, Billboard, March 8, 2025 

BIBLE VERSE OF THE MONTH: May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. – Romans 15:13

ALBUM NEWS

REBECCA LYNN HOWARD

REBECCA LYNN HOWARD: A new album is on the way from two-time Grammy and IBMA winner Rebecca Lynn Howard. Howard — a songwriter who has written hits for country royalty and “possesses one of country music’s most powerful voices” (Billboard) — released the song “Seventeen” on February 28th(play/download here). The official music video for “Seventeen” was released a week later and has already surpassed 1.2 million views. “Seventeen” is from her 11-track album, I’m Not Who You Think I Am, due out May 2 via Lee Brice‘s imprint, Pump House Records. Pre-save/add the album here. The album was produced by Howard’s husband, Elisha Hoffman and executive produced by Brice.

“When I wrote ‘Seventeen’ almost 20 years ago, I had no idea that I was penning a song for my future self,” shares Howard. “This song has just the right amount of longing and nostalgia to fill my heart to the brim. I’m instantly transported to my youth…a more innocent time, when my parents were annoyingly right all the time. It’s humbling to reflect on how far I’ve come and how many ups and downs I’ve survived along the way since then. They say you can’t go back, oh but I do, every time I sing this song.” Follow Rebecca Lynn Howard at Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, X, Spotify and TikTok. 

WILLIE NELSON

WILLIE NELSON: Legacy Recordings is set to release Willie Nelson’s latest studio album, his 77th solo studio album and 154th overall.  Oh What A Beautiful World will be available on April 25th, just in time for his 92nd birthday. Pre-save the album here.  The album is the latest in Willie’s storied history of focusing entire records on a single songwriter’s work, this time featuring new interpretations of 12 classic songs written or cowritten by Rodney Crowell.

Continue reading “No foolin’! April’s country music news”