10. “Die With A Smile” by Bruno Mars and Lady Gaga 
Bruno Mars and Lady Gaga have always been favorites of mine. I have had the privilege to see both of them in concert. Both were extraordinary. When I heard the news they had teamed up for a song, I made sure that I was one of the first to hear it when it was released. They didn’t disappoint. It is such a romantic and soulful song. Life is fragile, and we aren’t going to be here forever. When the world is ending, they’d want to be next to each other, and because of that, they could “die with a smile.” It is one of the year’s best. It was nominated for Song of the Year at the Grammys but did not manage a Record of the Year nomination. This blew my mind! This song is two of today’s hottest artists doing what they do best. TG

9. “Dammit Randy” — Miranda Lambert
Miranda Lambert has been my favorite female artist for years, and her 10th studio album, Postcards from Texas, did not disappoint. However, I wouldn’t say it’s one of her best albums. I’d classify it as steady Miranda. It’s nothing groundbreaking, but it’s something her fans can enjoy that sounds like what they’re used to hearing from her. While her single “Wranglers” was a fiery hit and could have easily made my top songs, I’d have to give it to “Dammit Randy.” Written by Lambert, Jon Randall and her husband Brendan McLoughlin — had no clue the former cop was a songwriter, but when you’re married to Lambert, maybe you can absorb some of that talent — the song is about leaving someone behind. According to a July article from Whiskey Riff, Lambert explained during one of her concerts that the song was about “somebody who you need to get the hell away from because they don’t serve you anymore.” She has also mentioned the song is about the excitement of starting with a new label, Republic and Big Loud Records, after leaving Sony. It’s relatable to anyone who has moved on to something new. It’s a short tune at just two minutes and 59 seconds, but it packs a punch with lyrics like, “You were livin’ in the dark, but you couldn’t see the light of day / We were picture perfect, but you couldn’t put it in a frame.” AHS

8. "White Lies, White Jesus and You" by Katie Pruitt
Katie Pruitt had one of my favorite songs of 2020, “Loving Her,” a beautiful song about same-sex love. Now, “White Lies, White Jesus and You,” off her latest album Mantras, is among my top songs of 2024. It’s a devastating look at people failing to respect and love others because of their sexual identity or preferences and the hypocrisy of using religion. The line: “speaking of some things I’ve put behind me: white lies, white Jesus and you” might be the best all year. JS

7. “We Can’t Be Friends (Wait For Your Love)” by Ariana Grande 
Ariana Grande is an artist that I have always liked. I would hear her singles and usually enjoy them. She just wasn’t an artist I followed and made sure I listened to every song on every album. I decided to listen to her eternal sunshine album this year and became an Arianator. This song is my favorite song on that album. Grande is singing about a failed relationship and how she cannot be friends with her ex. Sometimes, you love someone so much that you cannot hang out with them and pretend you don’t want to be back together. Sometimes, you must move on and let that person leave your life. However, Grande hopes they will get back together one day. She will wait for him. My favorite lyrics in the song are: “I don’t wanna tiptoe, but I don’t wanna hide/But I don’t want to feed this monstrous fire/Just wanna let this story die.” It is such a heartbreaking song but one of the year’s best. TG

6. “But Daddy I Love Him” — Taylor Swift 
Taylor Swift’s 11th album, The Tortured Poets Department, included 16 tracks, with another 15 added for The Anthology extended version. It’s one of those albums the listener must digest over time. I’ll admit when I first heard it, it didn’t grab me like Midnights or Folklore did. However, I believe it’s one of the most profound albums of her career, with several standout songs that continue to unveil new gems of wisdom with each listen. Because of this, it’s tough to pick a standout track with so many to choose from, so I can only really choose one of the best: “But Daddy I Love Him.” The song, written by Swift and Aaron Dessner, focuses on a controversial love story and how people should not interfere with relationships that are none of their business. Swift sings from the female character’s perspective about her “wild boy and all this wild joy” and how she will not let the “most judgmental creeps” get in the way of the love she’s found. In the end, her family comes around. While there was some controversy about the song “attacking” religious people with several lyrics — like “Sarahs and Hannahs in their Sunday best / Clutching their pearls sighing ‘What a mess’” — as a person of faith, I didn’t hear it that way at all. I can understand how some might take it that way, but that’s likely the people who are more concerned about using their faith as a weapon of judgment rather than being Christ-like to others. The song absolutely pokes at people who use their faith that way. The song is full of beautiful, powerful lyrics. My favorite lines are: “I’ll tell you something right now / I’d rather burn my whole life down / Than listen to one more second of all this bitching and moaning / I’ll tell you something about my good name / It’s mine alone to disgrace / I don’t cater to all these vipers dressed in empath’s clothing.” AHS

5. "Cherokee Purples" by American Aquarium
Nostalgia can be a powerful thing. American Aquarium’s B.J. Barham knows that well. Some of his best work of the last decade has been built around nostalgia, and that feeling can come out of nowhere from something as simple as a sandwich, as he mentions in the excellent “Cherokee Purples” from the band’s latest album The Fear of Standing Still. The song is a beautiful tribute to memories of a grandmother and the simplicity of one’s youth. It’s a slice-of-life song, something Barham is one of the best at crafting today. JS

4. “I Can Do It With A Broken Heart” by Taylor Swift 
Anyone who knows me knows that Taylor Swift is THE artist of my life! Swift has a way of writing songs about her own life that reach her fans and help them feel seen and heard in this crazy world. This song is a clear example of that. At the beginning of her world-spanning and record-breaking Eras Tour, Swift and her boyfriend of six years, Joe Alwyn, broke up. Swift did not let it deter her from continuing to deliver for her fans on the tour. However, she was going through severe pain and heartbreak while having to put on a smile and give her fans all she had. In this song, Swift sings that even though she was in her beautiful outfits and smiling, she was really going through it. This song is such a powerful anthem for those struggling badly but who have to go to work and still live. Even through the pain, we have to go on. She sings, “I was grinning like I’m winning/I was hitting my marks/Cause I can do it with a broken heart.” Many times this year, I cried in my car and listened to this song to help empower me to get through my day despite the pain. TG

3. “Texas Hold’ Em” — Beyoncé 
“Texas Hold’ Em” was the most-played song on my Spotify Wrapped this year, which is crazy because I’ve never been a huge Beyoncé fan. I’ve liked a few of her songs but never actively sought out her music. But with all the bro-country stuff dominating the Nashville music scene, I really wanted to give her “country” album, Cowboy Carter, a shot. Released in March, it’s the second in a trilogy of albums and her eighth album overall. “Texas Hold’ Em,” the first single, is the most country-ish song on the 27-track album. It’s a catchy, upbeat song that makes you want to line dance in a honkey tonk somewhere. It was written by Beyoncé and five other writers, Brian Bates, Elizabeth Lowell Boland, Megan Bülow, Nathan Ferraro and Raphael Saadiq. The gem of this song is the phenomenal musician Rhiannon Giddens, who plays banjo and viola on the track. My main criticism is the weird last lines: “Furs, spurs, boots / Solargenic, photogenic, shoot.” But just because it didn’t quite stick the landing doesn’t mean it wasn’t a fun, top song of the year. AHS

2. "Flower of the Everglades" by Joe Stamm & Charles Wesley Godwin
I had the pleasure of seeing Joe Stamm Band perform “Flower of the Everglades” at the Peacemaker Festival in Fort Smith, Ark., in October, and I can say for certain it’s one of the few times a live performance of a song has ever made me teary-eyed. It was already one of my favorites of the year, from his Allegheny EP, but hearing the tale of a woman refusing to give up her home in the eye of a powerful storm and the reasons why one would do such a thing was a memorable moment. Stamm, along with Charles Wesley Godwin, who both co-wrote the song and collaborates on it vocally, have crafted such a beautiful tragedy of a woman who grew up an orphan, married a rich man, found the home she always dreamed she’d one day have and going down with it in a blaze of glory. “Flower of the Everglades” sounded like an instant country classic from my first listen.   JS

1. “Good Luck, Babe!” by Chappell Roan 
Earlier this year, many of my co-workers became instant fans of this artist and wanted me to check her out. After about two weeks of endless chatter about Chappell Roan, I decided to look into her. When I heard “Good Luck, Babe!” for the first time, I realized what all the hype was about. This song is my favorite song of 2024 and deserves to win Record and Song of the Year at the upcoming Grammy Awards ceremony. In this song, Chappell Roan is singing to a girl who she is in a situationship with. The girl keeps her sexuality a secret and appears to the world as a heterosexual. Chappell Roan is telling her that she can “kiss a hundred boys in bars” but “you have to stop the world just to stop the feeling!” She is telling her good luck with that. The lyric where she says that you have to stop the world just to stop the feeling is very powerful. Sometimes, people act like we can turn off our feelings, but that is a very hard thing to do, if not impossible. This song exemplifies why Chappell Roan is such an exciting new artist. I cannot wait to see where her career takes her.  

Mike Cooley, one of the double-headed monster that makes up Drive-By Truckers, appeared at The White Water Tavern in Little Rock, Ark., for the second of a two-night gig on Saturday, Dec. 21, for an evening of some of his finest penned songs, just him and his guitar.
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Cooley has a song called “Filthy and Fried,” which appeared on the Truckers' critically acclaimed 2016 album American Band. The phrase is excellent for his general music brand — a look into Southern American life's dark and seedy side.

Cooley performed 18 songs on Saturday night, highlighting his output with the Drive-By Truckers. Don’t worry if you’re a fan of the band. They’re still together. Every year around the holidays, the songwriting/frontman duo of Cooley and Patterson Hood take time out of their busy touring schedule as a band to do solo shows across the country. This was Cooley’s first trip to The White Water Tavern, a small room with a lot of heart and memories.

Cooley opened the show with “Maria’s Awful Disclosures,” off the band’s most recent album, Welcome 2 Club XIII, from 2022.

He would perform a song from almost every Truckers’ album over the band’s nearly 30 years, with the exceptions being 2010’s The Big To-Do and the dual 2020 releases of The Unraveling and The New OK, the latter two of which were written mainly by Hood.

Among my favorite performances of the evening were “Gravity’s Gone,” from 2008’s A Blessing and a Curse, and “Marry Me,” from 2003’s Decoration Day, both of which I’d heard done with the full band previously.

My favorite of the evening was “Carl Perkins’ Cadillac,” off 2004’s The Dirty South, which is one of my favorite Truckers songs, and I’ve never had the pleasure of seeing them do it live. The song tells of the riches that came to the artists who recorded for Sam Phillips’ Sun Records and how Perkins, the original performer of “Blue Suede Shoes,” got the short shrift.

Cooley is a frank songwriter. The short stories he tells in a musical form never shy away from the darkness of the world. However, he can also wring beauty out of the songs simultaneously, like with the line: “They’ll be after me by the time the buffet closes/making sure Sin City still shines brighter than creation’s dark,” from “Checkout Time in Vegas.”

While nobody would ever accuse Cooley of having the world’s finest singing voice, his Southern growl perfectly brings out all of the character in the character-rich stories he tells, like “Cottonseed,” about a local gangster who brags about putting more lawmen in the ground than Alabama has cottonseed or “Uncle Frank,” about a veteran who buys land cheap and gets screwed out of it by the government leaving suicide as his best option.

When done with a full band, the performances are a sight to behold – it’s a kickass rock show - but when it’s just Cooley and his guitar, you realize you’re watching one of the best Southern Gothic short story writers around – the poignancy truly hitting home.

by Julian Spivey

50. "Bonneville Salt Flats" by Luba Dvorak feat. Ryan Bingham 
Album: Dumpster Fire
Songwriters: Luba Dvorak

Luba Dvorak, born in Czechoslovakia, raised in Canada and now calling Houston home, has come out with his finest Springsteen-esque song about needing to feel the speed in “Bonneville Salt Flats,” off his latest album Dumpster Fire, featuring Texas country star Ryan Bingham on backing vocals and a terrific harmonica performance. It’s one of the best story songs of 2024. 
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49. "Anywhere But Here" by Silverada 
Album: Silverada
Songwriter: Mike Harmeier

​Mike and the Moonpies may have decided to change their name in 2024 to the more palatable, but perhaps too basic Silverada (Oh well!), but at least its sound is still as kick-ass as ever. My favorite track off the band’s latest self-titled album is “Anywhere But Here,” written by frontman Mike Harmeier. The song sees the narrator standing his ground in his hometown, growing with outsiders to his chagrin and threatening that if they want to make trouble, they can do it “anywhere but here.” It’s the kind of song that Silverada can get away with when lesser artists (and we’ve seen it recently in country music) can’t.  

48. "Olustee" by JJ Grey & Mofro
Album: Olustee
Songwriter: John Grey Higginbotham

When you can make your song sound like the natural disaster you’re singing about, you’ve done a terrific job as a musician, and JJ Grey & Mofro do just that on “Olustee,” the title track from their latest album. The song, about a wildfire burning out of control in Florida, just feels like a disaster in the process, with the wailing of harmonica and shrieking of guitars as they tell of both wildlife and humans trying to outrun the deadly flames. The bluesy-roots rock features one of the year’s best guitar solos that feels like the devastation blowing across the Florida wetlands. 
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47. "Sober Thing" by Cody Jinks
Album: Change the Game
Songwriters: Cody Jinks 

“Sober Thing,” the lead-off track on Change the Game, paints a picture of a man fighting, and potentially losing, a battle against alcoholism. It’s a classic country music theme, and Jinks’ baritone fits the song perfectly.
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46. "Trust" by Richard Thompson
Album: Ship to Shore
Songwriter: Richard Thompson

Richard Thompson, one of folk’s greatest and still somehow underrated performers, released his first album in six years in Ship to Shore. My favorite track on the album is “Trust,” which sees the 75-year-old Thompson singing about how complicated a thing trust can be and just how hard of a thing it is to accomplish and be comfortable with. The rhythm section of bassist Taras Prodaniuk and drummer Michael Jerome keep the suspicious feel alive throughout as Thompson’s voice works as an actor unsure of what to believe.   
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45. "The Last Frontier" by Reckless Kelly feat. Kelly Willis 
Album: The Last Frontier
Songwriters: Willy Braun, Gary Braun & Jeff Crosby

It wasn’t that long ago that Reckless Kelly decided to retire from touring – I saw them at the Peacemaker Festival in Fort Smith, Ark., this fall, and they don’t seem to be settling down. But their latest album, The Last Frontier, sort of has the sound of finality to it, although the proposed retirement was merely from touring. The title track, a duet with the terrific Kelly Willis, sees a former couple reminiscing fondly about a relationship that didn’t work out and wondering what the other one was doing at that moment. Reckless Kelly’s vocalist Willy Braun’s voice melds perfectly with Willis’s on the track that he co-wrote with his brother Gary Braun (of Micky and the Motorcars) and Jeff Crosby.  
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44. "Old Fox" by JP Harris 
Album: JP Harris is a Trash Fire
Songwriter: JP Harris

JP Harris’s “Old Fox,” off his latest album, JP Harris is a Trash Fire, is reminiscent of some of the best stuff Jerry Reed recorded. It has this twangy guitar picking accompanying a wry, fun-loving lyric like: “If I said that I loved you like an old fox loves chicken, would you let me up in your hen house tonight.” It’s a particular kind of deep friend horniness you don’t see often (or enough) on record these days. 
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43. "Messy As A Magnolia" by American Aquarium
Album: The Fear of Standing Still 
Songwriter: BJ Barham

“Messy As A Magnolia,” off American Aquarium’s latest album, The Fear of Standing Still, is familiar territory for frontman/lyricist B.J. Barham and the band over the last decade in being about how the love of a good person can completely turn around someone’s life, as Barham’s wife Rachael, undoubtedly did for him. Its driving guitar from Shane Boeker, drums from Ryan Van Fleet and catchy chorus make it a terrific window rolled down, letting the wind blow through your hair performance.
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42. "Memphis: The Blues" by Zach Bryan & John Moreland
Album: The Great American Bar Scene
Songwriters: Zach Bryan & John Moreland 

One of the great things about Zach Bryan being an independent artist who has made a career in a nontraditional way of getting his music out to a fan base via the internet is that he has respect for other independent artists and isn’t afraid to showcase them. He did it last year with The War and Treaty on “Hey Driver.” This year, it’s John Moreland’s turn in the spotlight on “Memphis: The Blues,” off Bryan’s The Great American Bar Scene. The song, penned by Bryan and Moreland, sees the two trading verses about one they need as much as Memphis, the city, needs blues music. That’s, like, a lot. 
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41. "Wranglers" by Miranda Lambert
Album: Postcards From Texas
Songwriters: Audra Mae, Evan McKeever & Ryan Carpenter

“Wranglers” is a quintessential kickass, take no prisoners Miranda Lambert song about what happens when her character’s been wronged by a man. She may have tamed a bit with age, as she’s no longer gunning men down for their misdeeds, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t still a fire burning deep within her, and apparently, that fire takes forever to burn her ex’s old pair of Wrangler jeans. It’s a tried and true theme for Lambert that still works for her after over two decades. 
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40. "Hard Luck & Circumstances" by Charley Crockett
Album: $10 Cowboy
Songwriter: Charley Crockett

Charley Crockett has that perfect twang in his voice that you believe him immediately when he begins a song: “When it comes to bad luck/I got perfect timing.” “Hard Luck & Circumstances,” one of the finest tracks off his Grammy-nominated $10 Cowboy, see Crockett crooning about a narrator who’s suffered so many troubles he’s on the verge of just fading away. The crying guitar, played by Chris Bishop, hammers the feeling home.  
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39. "Ain't No Love in Oklahoma" by Luke Combs
Album: 'Twisters' Soundtrack 
Songwriters: Luke Combs, Jessi Alexander & Jonathan Singleton

Luke Combs is one of the most popular country stars in the business and has already had a bunch of hits and won a bunch of awards but frankly, I think this track – which was co-written with Jessi Alexander and Jonathan Singleton for the “Twisters” soundtrack – is one of the best of his career. It’s also Combs at one of his most powerful, almost Southern Rock vocals. 
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38. "Green Light" by Drew Holcomb & The Neighbors feat. Vince Gill
Album: Strangers No More, Vol. 2
Songwriters: Drew Holcomb & Lori McKenna 

“Green Light,” off Drew Holcomb & the Neighbors' latest Strangers No More, Vol. 2, is the perfect marriage of voices, with Holcomb teaming with one of the most legendary voices in country music, Vince Gill, on a fantastic foot-stomper about finding the right partner to share your life with. Holcomb wrote the song with one of the country genre’s best writers, Lori McKenna, on a song that should be a hit, with its fantastic chorus, if Nashville knew what it was doing these days. 
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37. "Roulette on the Heart" by Connor Smith & Hailey Whitters
Album: Smoky Mountains 
Songwriters: Connor Smith, Jessi Alexander, Chase McGill & Mark Trussell

One of the best country duets of 2024 was “Roulette On the Heart” by Conner Smith and Hailey Whitters. The song, written by Smith with Jessi Alexander, Chase McGill and Mark Trussell, sees the narrator consumed by a love he can’t give up, even if it may be bad for him in the long run. Smith and Whitters sound perfect together on this track on Smith’s Smoky Mountains. 
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36. "I Don't Know How to Say Goodbye (Bang Bang Boom Boom) by Dwight Yoakam feat. Post Malone
Album: Brighter Days
Songwriters: Dwight Yoakam

I’m excited Dwight Yoakam has new music with Brighter Days, released in mid-November, his first album of original music in nearly a decade. One of the album's highlights is an unlikely collaboration with pop superstar Post Malone. Sure, Post Malone released his own mainstream country album, F-1 Trillion, this year, but that country music ain’t exactly Yoakam’s country music. “I Don’t Know How to Say Goodbye (Bang Bang Boom Boom)” is a typical Yoakam weeper about heartbreak, told in his usual Bakersfield Sound manner with a lot of twang and crying instruments (steel guitar and fiddle). It’s the type of song that would sound right at home on any Yoakam album released in the artist’s almost 40 years of recording, and while Post Malone certainly doesn’t have the perfection of Yoakam’s twang in his voice, he holds his own with the living legend. 
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35. "Break Mine" by Brothers Osborne
Album: Break Mine EP
Songwriters: John Osborne, TJ Osborne, Shane McAnally & Pete Good

“Break Mine” by the brother duo Brothers Osborne is a universal feeling. The song, written by John and T.J. Osborne with Shane McAnally and Pete Good, is about needing someone to love, whether they’ll remain with you in the morning or not, to make it through the night. T.J. Osborne’s vocals make you feel the longing in the lyrics. The duo was nominated for a 2025 Grammy Award for Best Country Performance by a Duo/Group for this song. 
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34. "Mosquito" by Presley Haile
Album: Non-Album Single 
Songwriter: Brian Martin

Presley Haile’s “Mosquito,” written by Brian Martin, is one of the most heart-wrenching songs of the year in its tale of a young child trying to drown out the sound of their parents fighting by daydreaming of riding on the range on a horse named Mosquito. It’s a simple production, allowing Haile’s vocals to wring out all the appropriate emotion in the tragic lyrics, made all the more by it being a familiar setting for many young children worldwide. 
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33. "Dollar Bill Bar" by Sierra Ferrell 
Album: Trail of Flowers
Songwriters: Sierra Ferrell & Melody Walker 

I thought “Dollar Bill Bar” was a terrific idea for a song by Sierra Ferrell, written by Ferrell and Melody Walker, for her latest album Trail of Flowers. Having been into places before with dollar bills tacked up on the walls and ceilings, I’m surprised it’s not a specific setting I’ve heard much about. It’s a lighthearted tone, at least until the final verse, which turns more melancholic – as dive bar romances often will - with a great play on words and a catchy chorus.  
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32. "Welcome to the Plains" by Wyatt Flores
Album: Welcome to the Plains 
Songwriter: Wyatt Flores & Ketch Secor 

Wyatt Flores reached heights early in his career, with success on three EPs and growing a fan base via plays on social media outlets like TikTok. Before releasing his first album he’d already been nominated as an Emerging Artist of the Year candidate by the Americana Association’s annual awards. That first album, Welcome to the Plains, was released on October 18, and its title track shows Flores, who is only 23, has a great career ahead of him. “Welcome to the Plains” is a greeting from Flores’s Oklahoma, where “dreams go drying up like a rain,” in a Turnpike Troubadour-esque tale showing a darker side to red dirt living. Flores co-wrote the song with Ketch Secor, the frontman of Old Crow Medicine Show, and with influences like Secor, Turnpike’s songwriter Evan Felker and a sound like this he’ll be hanging around a while. 
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31. "Jealous Moon" by Sarah Jarosz
Album: Polaroid Lovers
Songwriters: Sarah Jarosz & Daniel Tashian 

“Jealous Moon,” off Sarah Jarosz’s Polaroid Lovers, is the kind of jam that could’ve been a hit in the ‘90s in the vein of Sheryl Crow’s biggest hits. Written by Jarosz and producer Daniel Tashian, the song has this propulsive drive that makes it perfect for a summertime ride with the window rolled down. Jarosz told American Songwriter: “It started as a quiet melody on ukelele and nylon string guitar, but when we got to the studio, it became something much more powerful. It’s a song about the times when the parts of ourselves that we try to keep hidden rise to the surface, and we have no choice but to ride the wave.” It's a wave well worth riding. 
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30. "Mint Tea" by Johnny Blue Skies
Album: Passage Du Desir
Songwriter: Sturgill Simpson

Sturgill Simpson is a man of many talents and sounds, and he’s shown that throughout his career with albums of traditional country music, psychedelic country music, rock music, bluegrass music, and concept album country and western. It’s like he doesn’t want to record the same type of music twice. And yet, when he does something different, it still sounds terrific. His latest project involved him stripping his name from the project, adopting the moniker Johnny Blue Skies, and recording an album that mixes much of what he’s done before into one blend, with a hint of laid-back yacht rock. It’s an interesting concoction that mixes it all perfectly in “Mint Tea,” a gentle, warm number being a song to a significant other and just getting lost in the comfort of each other. 
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29. "Thelma & Louise" by Meg McRee & Harper O'Neill 
Album: Non-Album Single 
Songwriters: Meg McRee, Harper O'Neill & Andrew Petroff

“Thelma & Louise,” by Meg McRee and Harper O’Neill, is one of those songs that keeps a smile on your face throughout its entire run and makes you want to join these ladies on their wild spree. Written by McRee, O’Neill and Andrew Petroff, the song is from the point of view of a woman threatening her best friend’s new partner, saying, “I’ll break you if you break her heart.” The song references The Chicks’ classic “Goodbye Earl” in a more modern, perhaps less violent take on the theme. 
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28. "Still in the Runnin'" by The Wilder Blue 
Album: Non-Album Single
Songwriter: Zane Williams

The Wilder Blue continues to amaze me with some of its unique and not traditional country music-sounding melodies and general vibes, especially knowing Zane Williams, the band’s vocalist and chief songwriter, from his more traditional country solo albums. “Still in the Runnin’” finds the group with a funky vibe and bluesy guitar riffs on a catchy tune featuring a narrator with no shortage of confidence. He knows he’s hot shit and one day is going to end up “runnin’ this town.” 
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27. "Love Song From A Dog" by Shovels & Rope feat. Gregory Alan Isakov
Album: Something Is Working Up Above My Head 
Songwriters: Cary Ann Hearst & Michael Trent 

I’m a sucker for a dog song, but most dog songs are tear-jerkers that end in tragedy. It’s nice to find one in Shovels & Rope’s “Love Song From A Dog” that doesn’t end in tragedy. You might still cry, but from the sweetness of it and past experiences with your favorite four-legged friends. Shovels & Rope, the married couple of Michael Trent and Cary Ann Hearst, team up with singer-songwriter Gregory Alan Isakov on this tale about the unconditional love of man’s best friend. You’ll want to stick around for the fun dog howling from the group at the song’s end. 
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26. "A Little Devil" by The Dead South
Album: Chains & Stakes
Songwriters: Colton Crawford, Nate Hilts, Scott Pringle & Daniel Kenyon 

“A Little Devil,” off The Dead South’s Chains & Stakes, is one of the best pickin’ songs of the year with Colton Crawford’s banjo mixed in nicely with the guitar and mandolin played by Nate Hilts and Scott Pringle, though I’m not sure which is playing which on record as both musicians are adept at the instruments. “A Little Devil,” penned by Crawford, Hilts, Pringle, and the other band member Daniel Kenyon, is a fantastic folk-bluegrass tale that splits its time between being in love and being cautious of this love. 
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25. "Backsliders" by Sarah Shook & the Disarmers 
Album: Revelations 
Songwriter: River Shook 

I love that “Backsliders” off Sarah Shook & the Disarmers’ latest album, Revelations, sounds like the kind of song that could’ve just as easily appeared on the group’s debut album, Sidelong, seven years ago. It’s not that the band hasn’t grown, it’s just so quintessentially this band. The Disarmers’ website states the song brings the band’s vocalist/songwriter River Shook back to their days tending bar in Chapel Hill, N.C., and how tumultuous romantic entanglements and falling back into bad habits can come easy to service workers. It’s terrific alt-country by one of the best in business.    
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24. "What a View" by Jamey Johnson
Album: Midnight Gasoline 
Songwriters: Jamey Johnson, Dallas Davidson, Randy Houser & Rob Hatch

Hell must’ve frozen over in 2024 because Jamey Johnson released his first album of new music – Midnight Gasoline – since 2010, snapping a streak that I didn’t think would ever end. My favorite song on the new record is the love song “What a View,” which he wrote with Dallas Davidson, Randy Houser and Rob Hatch. Reminding me of something George Strait would’ve taken to No. 1 on the country charts, I particularly love the duality of the lyrics “what a view/what have you.” It’s nice to have one of country’s best songwriters back at it.    
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23. "Honky Tonk Hall of Fame" by George Strait & Chris Stapleton 
Album: Cowboys and Dreamers
Songwriters: Chris Stapleton, Jameson Clark & Timothy James

George Strait and Chris Stapleton is a dream pairing. A living legend matched with the best of country mainstream today. The two team up for one helluva honky tonker in “Honky Tonk Hall of Fame” from Strait’s Cowboys and Dreamers. The two, who sound as if they’re having a blast, trade off verses about the ups and downs of a life spent in honky tonks. Two of country music’s all-time greatest voices mesh perfectly together on this retro number. 

22. "Hawkmoon" by Hurray for the Riff Raff 
Album: The Past Is Still Alive
Songwriter: Alynda Segarra

Alynda Segarra has always had a knack for telling stories you don’t often hear about in Americana adjacent genres and has managed to do so through different sounds ranging from traditional folk to a more indie rock sound. Hurray for the Riff Raff’s latest album, The Past Is Still Alive, has been hailed as one of the group’s best and the standout is “Hawkmoon,” a song about running away and trying to find out who you are while also being a tribute to an old friend. Segarra told Rolling Stone: “[It’s] a song about running away – a trans song, and memories of the first trans woman I ever met. Miss Jonathan was a German rapper, poet and train-riding crusty homeless who loved to wear the skimpiest outfits she could get away with and was a surprisingly great shoplifter. We became best friends for a winter, before I learned to play music in New Orleans, and I would ride shotgun in her beat up car and search for abandoned houses to sleep in.”  
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21. "I'd Be Lying" by Will Hoge
Album: Tenderhearted Boys 
Songwriter: Will Hoge & Tristan Bushman

Will Hoge has been one of the better songwriters in the Americana/country genres for more than two decades now, and I’m not sure he ever truly gets his due. One of his best modes is gently sung and guitar-picked folksy blues like “I’d Be Lying,” which tells the tale of a narrator trying his best to keep a past love off his mind and failing mightily at it.   
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20. "Real Love" by Willie Watson 
Album: Willie Watson
Songwriter: Willie Watson & Morgan Nagler

Willie Watson had a big 2024, releasing his first solo album of original material, self-titled, after many years as a member of the fantastic folk-bluegrass group Old Crow Medicine Show, a frequent artist on this annual list. “Real Love,” written for his wife Mindy, is a gorgeous ballad of what finding real love can do for one’s life. It’s done so with such care in lyrics, vocals, and melody, making it timeless and reminiscent of the finest folk balladeers of the past.  
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19. "Watch Me Gone" by Mark Knopfler 
Album: One Deep River
Songwriter: Mark Knopfler 

Mark Knopfler has had an interesting career going from guitar hero and frontman of one of the biggest rock bands of the late ‘70s through the mid-‘80s in Dire Straits, to premier Americana singer-songwriter as a solo artist. His return on One Deep River, his first album in six years, shows him not having lost a step. The breakup tune “Watch Me Gone,” which sees Knopfler in his famous whispery growl, is my favorite off the album – even if I find the chorus of female voices on backing vocals annoying. 

18. "Yearnin' for You" by 49 Winchester
Album: Leavin' This Holler
Songwriter: Isaac Blaine Gibson & Matt Koziol 

49 Winchester’s song “Russell County Line” and album Fortune Favors the Bold were among my favorite country songs and albums of 2022, so the band’s follow-up, Leavin’ This Holler, was one of my most anticipated of the year. The album’s first single, “Yearnin’ For You,” a roaring testament to longing to be home with the one you love while living the life of a touring musician, was my favorite. It’s a more up-tempo, raucous take on “Russell County Line.” 
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17. "Big Wide Open" by Red Shahan
Album: Loose Funky Texas Junky 
Songwriter: Red Shahan

Red Shahan has released two of my favorite songs of 2024, “Big Wide Open” and “Wish Me Well,” neither necessarily sound similar nor really sound like anything I can pinpoint in country music right now. Do you know how hard it is to have your own unique sound in this genre? “Big Wide Open,” off Loose Funky Texas Junky, is about all of those missed chances due to circumstances that one might have in their life, especially when it comes to love – like catching the eye of a beautiful woman only to lose her in a crowd. It’s a beautifully crafted story with an incredible underlayer of organ following along, giving it a soulfulness you don’t often hear from country music. 
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16. "Things To Do" by Zach Top
Album: Cold Beer & Country Music 
Songwriters: Zach Top, Carson Chamberlain & Mark Nesler 

Zach Top honestly does sound like he’s straight out of the mid-‘90s with some of the finest tunes on his sophomore album Cold Beer & Country Music, like “Things to Do,” a kiss-off song to a woman, who claims she’s leaving him but might not be fast enough in doing so. It’s witty, tongue-in-cheek chorus is reminiscent of some of the hits Clint Black or a young Brad Paisley may have recorded in their heydays. 
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15. "House Parties" by Dawes
Album: Oh Brother
Songwriter: Taylor Goldsmith 

Taylor Goldsmith of Dawes knows there’s often more fun to life in the little things like get-togethers with friends at house parties than extravagant trips to NYC or Disneyland. He conveys this excellently in his typically witty way and lived-in lyrics. I also dig the snide remark about Kanye West. 
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14. "A Few More Ghosts" by Cody Jinks 
Album: Change the Game 
Songwriters: Cody Jinks, Adam Hood, Brad Martin & Jake Worthington 

“A Few More Ghosts,” co-written by Cody Jinks, Adam Hood, Brad Martin, and Jake Worthington, is one of a handful of standout tracks on Jinks’s Change the Game, one of 2024’s best country albums. “A Few More Ghosts” sees the song’s narrator waking up screaming in the night thanks to his own demons inside his head and wishing it were more supernatural apparitions keeping him up at night than his dark thoughts. Jinks told Billboard that the song came from an accidental triple-booked writing appointment with Hood, Martin and Worthington. It may have been an accident, but it definitely worked out for the best. 
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13. "Rotations" by Adeem the Artist
Album: Anniversary
Songwriter: Kyle Bingham

I’m not a parent, and Adeem the Artist’s “Rotations” about their daughter growing up and how fast it happens almost crushes me every time I hear it. I can’t imagine the feeling from a parent’s point of view. It’s a lightly guitar-picked tune with Adeem wringing out all the emotion in their vocal. We all want to grow up, but Adeem reveals a little hurt in the running out of days with the ones you love.  
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12. "Same Water" by The Secret Sisters
Album: Mind, Man, Medicine
Songwriters: Laura Rogers & Lydia Slagle 

The Secret Sisters – Laura Rogers and Lydia Slagle – have always had brilliant harmonies. That’s one of the best aspects of their music. “Same Water,” off Mind, Man, Medicine, sees that beautiful harmonizing on a serious song about dealing with depression and extending an empathetic hand to others dealing with the same problems. “We’re all drowning in the same water as you” is a beautiful line about struggling through these moments and this world together. 

11. "When the Lilacs Bloom" by Joe Stamm Band 
Album: Memoirs 
Songwriter: Joe Stamm 

Joe Stamm wrote a couple of my absolute favorite country story songs of the year on his Allegheny EP this year in “When the Lilacs Bloom” (which also appears on his album Memoirs) and “Flower of the Everglades). “When the Lilacs Bloom” is told entirely through wartime letters written by a soldier fighting the Germans in World War II to his beloved Azelia back home in Kentucky. These kinds of stories are always sure to bring tears to the listers because of how true they are. There must’ve been thousands writing letters to loved ones back home during wartime, only for the letters to stop coming. Stamm has found a way to make something beautiful out of something so tragic and I feel like that’s one of the marks of a truly great songwriter. 
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10. "Right Back to It" by Waxahatchee feat. MJ Lenderman 
Album: Tigers Blood
Songwriter: Katie Crutchfield

Waxahatchee has often been considered more of an indie or indie-folk artist, but her latest release, Tigers Blood, certainly has an alt-country/Americana sound, especially the album’s lead single, “Right Back to It.” The song sees Katie Crutchfield dueting with MJ Lenderman, who was called in to play guitar on the album, and the harmonization between the two is incredible. Crutchfield told NME that she wanted to write love songs that are “gritty and unromantic” but find a “newness or an intimacy” with the same person. She accomplished it brilliantly. 
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9. "Highway Queen" by Mt. Joy 
Album: Non-Album Single
Songwriter: Matt Quinn 

One of the truest showings of love I can imagine is knowing one’s faults and loving them through them. It’s the imperfections in one that make them an authentic, honest living being. Mt. Joy’s “Highway Queen” hits me with the lines in the chorus: “I want you to know nobody’s leaving/No, I ain’t scared of your demons/That’s just what makes you a real thing.” The song, written by vocalist Matt Quinn, is such a beautiful sentiment, and the indie-folk sound fits it perfectly.

8. "I Would" by Cody Jinks
Album: Change the Game 
Songwriters: Cody Jinks & Josh Morningstar

“I Would,” from Cody Jinks’s excellent Change the Game, is one of the sweeter songs in the country-rocker’s output. The song, co-written by Jinks and Josh Morningstar, sees the narrator promising his partner anything; all she has to do is give the word, and he’ll do it. A modern take on one of my favorite Waylon Jennings tracks, “You Asked Me To,” showcases one of Jinks’s best vocals.
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7. "Solitary Road" by Charley Crockett
Album: $10 Cowboy 
Songwriters: Charley Crockett & Billy Horton

There are multiple terrific songs on Charley Crockett’s excellent $10 Cowboy on this list, but the one I feel is No. 1 is “Solitary Road,” which opens with a fantastic guitar that follows along for its entirety. Written by Crockett and Billy Horton, it comes off almost as a country version of the Bob Dylan/Jimi Hendrix classic “All Along the Watchtower” in tone and theme telling a tale that feels almost mythical and apocalyptic. 
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6. "Wish Me Well" by Red Shahan 
Album: Loose Funky Texas Junky 
Songwriter: Red Shahan

I can’t get enough of the swashbuckling swagger of Red Shahan’s “Wish Me Well,” from his aptly titled album Loose Funky Texas Junky. The song is undoubtedly loose and funky in its tale of a man who’s probably a bit too old for the fun he had last night and is trying to hide the drunken, hungover evidence from his wife, who, in my favorite verse of the song mistakes for a five-foot-tall, purple bunny rabbit he mistakenly asks to keep his secret. 
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5. "I Never Lie" by Zach Top
Album: Cold Beer & Country Music
Songwriters: Zach Top, Carson Chamberlain & Tim Nichols 

Zach Top’s sophomore album Cold Beer & Country Music has shot him to the forefront of the nonmainstream country music world. With opening slots on Lainey Wilson’s tour this year, he might even trickle into the mainstream, with his throwback sound that hearkens back to the best of the neo-traditionalists of the early ‘90s. There’s a lot to love on the album, but the one I enjoyed the most is “I Never Lie,” co-written by Top,  Carson Chamberlain and Tim Nichols, about the futility of coping with heartbreak. It reminds me of something Tracy Lawrence or Mark Chesnutt would’ve knocked out of the park 30 years ago. 
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4. "Damn My Love" by John Craigie feat. TK & The Holy Know-Nothings
Album: Pagan Church
Songwriter: John Craigie

I’m the type of music lover who often has to hear a song a few times before genuinely knowing how I feel about it – to separate it from average to something a bit better (I can usually pinpoint why I don’t like a song on first listen). But I loved “Damn My Love” by John Craigie featuring TK & the Holy Know-Nothings from the first listen. It has this infectious, bouncy melody throughout. Some of the lyrics are an absolute chef’s kiss that makes me jealous of Craigie’s songwriting like: “pink trees raining such a beautiful mess/walking in on nature like she’s still getting dressed” and “I was over-dressed and under tattooed/cowboy hats and neck tats all around the room.” I’d bottle this song up and wear it if I could. 

3. "White Lies, White Jesus and You" by Katie Pruitt
Album: Mantras
Songwriter: Katie Pruitt 

Katie Pruitt had one of my favorite songs of 2020, “Loving Her,” a beautiful song about same-sex love. Now, “White Lies, White Jesus and You,” off her latest album Mantras, is among my top songs of 2024. It’s a devastating look at people failing to respect and love others because of their sexual identity or preferences and the hypocrisy of using religion. The line: “speaking of some things I’ve put behind me: white lies, white Jesus and you” might be the best all year. 
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2. "Cherokee Purples" by American Aquarium 
Album: The Fear of Standing Still
Songwriter: BJ Barham 

Nostalgia can be a powerful thing. American Aquarium’s B.J. Barham knows that well. Some of his best work of the last decade has been built around nostalgia, and that feeling can come out of nowhere from something as simple as a sandwich, as he mentions in the excellent “Cherokee Purples” from the band’s latest album The Fear of Standing Still. The song is a beautiful tribute to memories of a grandmother and the simplicity of one’s youth. It’s a slice-of-life song, something Barham is one of the best at crafting today.    

1. "Flower of the Everglades" by Joe Stamm & Charles Wesley Godwin
Album: Allegheny 
Songwriters: Joe Stamm & Charles Wesley Godwin

I had the pleasure of seeing Joe Stamm Band perform “Flower of the Everglades” at the Peacemaker Festival in Fort Smith, Ark., in October, and I can say for sure it’s one of the few times a live performance of a song has ever made me teary-eyed. It was already one of my favorites of the year, from his Allegheny EP, but hearing the tale of a woman refusing to give up her home in the eye of a powerful storm and the reasons why one would do such a thing was a memorable moment. Stamm, along with Charles Wesley Godwin, who both co-wrote the song and collaborates on it vocally, have crafted such a beautiful tragedy of a woman who grew up an orphan, married a rich man, found the home she always dreamed she’d one day have and going down with it in a blaze of glory. “Flower of the Everglades” sounded like an instant country classic from my first listen.   
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by Julian Spivey

10. "Long Haired Country Boy" by Charlie Daniels Band 
Songwriter: Charlie Daniels

Charlie Daniels was at his coolest in “Long Haired Country Boy,” off his 1974 album Fire on the Mountain. In the song, the fiddle hero takes on hypocrisy, like television evangelists, politicians who’ll sell any lie for a vote and those who put down rock ‘n’ roll music. The country-tinged Southern Rock anthem sees Daniels merely wanting to relax in the shade next to his loyal blue tick hound with a bottle and joint. As Daniels aged and became too close to those TV evangelists he once mocked, he would change some of the more memorable lines in the song to fit his change of heart. 

9. "The Ballad of Curtis Loew" by Lynyrd Skynyrd 
Songwriters: Al Collins & Ronnie Van Zant  

I think Lynyrd Skynyrd is often misunderstood because of the Southern Rock label and the appearance of its fan base. Sometimes people think of the harmful stereotypes of Southerners when they hear the band’s name, but of the group’s best was the tribute to an old black blues man, which is supposedly a composite of multiple people who lived in frontman/songwriter Ronnie Van Zant’s Jacksonville, Fla. neighborhood. It’s a lovely tribute to someone who most people would pass on by without a second thought.  

8. "Angel From Montgomery" by Bonnie Raitt
Songwriter: John Prine 

John Prine’s self-titled 1971 album was a bit of music perfection but was one of those hidden secrets for many not in the world outside of top-40 radio hits. So, when Bonnie Raitt covered that album’s finest track, “Angel from Montgomery,” for her 1974 album Streetlights, it was the breakthrough both the wonderful story song and Prine’s music needed. Raitt’s warm vocal fits the story of an old woman recounting tales of her old lover like a glove. Raitt and Prine would go on to perform the song together many times. 

7. "The Grand Tour" by George Jones 
Songwriters: Norro Wilson, Carmol Taylor & George Richey

If you made a list of the saddest country songs of all time, there would likely be a couple from George Jones near the top, and his 1974 Billboard Hot Country No. 1 “The Grand Tour” might top it. The song, written by Norro Wilson, Carmol Taylor and George Richey, has Jones’s one-of-a-kind country croon telling the devastating story of the end of a relationship via a home tour, including one of the most heartbreaking lyrics ever put to record: “as you leave you’ll see the nursery/oh, she left me without mercy/taking nothing but our baby and my heart.”  

6. "Rebel Rebel" by David Bowie 
Songwriter: David Bowie  

The great thing about David Bowie is you can take something from 50 years ago like “Rebel Rebel,” and it sounds like it could plausibly be released as a song today – there aren’t too many songs on this list that you could say that about. The song, the lead single off Diamond Dogs, has both been cited as Bowe’s farewell to glam rock, as well as his foray into proto-punk with its tale of an androgynous rebel (it was initially meant for a Ziggy Stardust musical). The distinctive guitar riff created by Bowie and played on record by Alan Parker that runs through the song is reminiscent of some of Keith Richards's best work with The Rolling Stones, most notably “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction.” 

5. "Band on the Run" by Paul McCartney & Wings
Songwriters: Paul McCartney & Linda McCartney 

“Band on the Run” has always been my favorite Paul McCartney song of his post-Beatles career. The opening track from the Paul McCartney & Wings album that shares its name is unique in its three passages that vary in sound and style, with lyrics about trying to escape to freedom from oppressors vague in who they are. However, I love how critic Robert Christgau put it: “the oppression of rock musicians by cannabis-crazed bureaucrats.” The song hit No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1974. 

4. "Sundown" by Gordon Lightfoot
Songwriter: Gordon Lightfoot

“Sundown,” the first No. 1 hit for Gordon Lightfoot, is the kind of song that probably makes other songwriters jealous. The song has an easy-going, folksy melody, as Lightfoot sings lyrics with a darker tone about a troubled relationship with a woman who doesn’t exactly hide that she’s running around on him. Lightfoot told American Songwriter in 2008: “I think my girlfriend was out with her friends one night at a bar while I was at home writing songs. I thought, ‘I wonder what she’s doing with her friends at the bar.’ It’s that kind of feeling. ‘Where is my true love tonight? What is my true love doing?”

3. "Louisiana 1927" by Randy Newman
Songwriter: Randy Newman

Randy Newman’s 1974 concept album, Goold Old Boys, about his take on viewpoints from inhabitants of the Deep South, is one of the year’s best albums, but its finest song, “Louisiana 1927,” is one that would have a place on any of Newman’s classic releases. The song tells the story of the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927, which killed around 500 people and left around 700,000 people homeless. The piano-driven leading into full orchestra lament does hit home one of the themes of the record of Southerners as a forgotten or uncared-for people – the kind of people that could be faced with such devastation for their own country’s government to turn a blind, indifferent eye toward them. 

2. "Sweet Home Alabama" by Lynyrd Skynyrd 
Songwriters: Ed King, Gary Rossington & Ronnie Van Zant

It’s perhaps become too ubiquitous over the years, but there’s no escaping, even if you’ve heard it a million times, the greatness of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Sweet Home Alabama.” There’s the immediately catchy opening guitar riff from Ed King, the now legendary “turn it up” spoken by vocalist Ronnie Van Zant and a fascinating Southern Rock classic that pokes fun cheekily at fellow legendary rockers like Neil Young, as well as controversial Alabama governor George Wallace. In ways, the song is more profound than its haters, and probably many of its lovers give it credit for.    

1. "Come Monday"/"A Pirate Looks at 40"/"Trying to Reason with Hurricane Season" by Jimmy Buffett
Songwriter: Jimmy Buffett 

I’m going to admit my bias here. Jimmy Buffett is one of my favorite singer-songwriters of all time (thanks, Dad!), and 1974 was a banner year for him with the releases of Living and Dying in ¾ Time and A1A, both top five albums for Buffett. Limiting his output from that year to three songs was hard for me. And, since I didn’t want to knock too many other worthy candidates off the list by pumping it with Buffett tunes, I’m just placing all three together – but here’s the thing: they’re all going to be tied for the top spot. 

If I were forced to cut two of these and keep just one song, it would be “Come Monday” from Living and Dying in ¾ Time. The beautiful love song written about and for his future wife, Jane (they would marry in 1977), has been my favorite Buffett song for as long as I can remember. I understand lines like: “we can go hiking on Tuesday/with you’d I’d walk anywhere” might sound corny to some, but Buffett sings the tune with so much sincerity you can’t help but believe him and wish you were in his old hush puppy shoes. Despite his passionate and loyal fan base that would become known as Parrotheads, Buffett never had many hits, but this was his first top-40.

“A Pirate Looks at Forty,” my favorite track off my favorite Buffett album A1A, became one of his most played and biggest tunes. It’s a laid-back ballad serving as a bittersweet confessional of one who’s lived life fast and hard but looking back on his first 40 years – Buffett wasn’t yet 40 when he wrote it – figures he wouldn’t have done it any other way after all his preferred occupation of piracy no longer really exists.

“Trying to Reason with Hurricane Season” is similar in theme to “A Pirate Looks at Forty.” The narrator wakes up late one day, his head throbbing from a wild night before, and wants to take it easy while life around him races. He knows he can’t keep up the pace of life he’s living and needs the quiet of a beach with a severe storm impending to get him back on the right path.