In this week's issue: Finally, it’s here! This year’s TOP 10 ALBUMS of 2025 are just in, and Honky Tonk Hansson offers you his boldest choices this week. Also, we are getting natural high with Girls In Low Places, the British creator who puts the FUN back in country music. And, please follow me inside the famous Nashville Palace on the outskirts of Music City. THAT is what a real honky tonk should look and feel like. Come on in, have a look.

Ideas and feedback are always welcome at [email protected] (just hit reply!)

IN right now:

OUT right now:

Christmas songs have to wait for next year, they say. Ha!!! Whatever they say, I will listen to them all year around. Starting with this year’s new effort from Abby Anderson: “Merry Merry-achi Christmas”. Listen here: (Listen!)

Choosing was not easy this year, as it never is. So many good-to-great albums were put out in the broad country genre this year. But I finally came to a Top 10 conclusion, and the result is revealed below. Do you agree with me? If not you can take the poll and highlight your own top favorite from the list. Now we are looking forward to all the great new releases scheduled for 2026. As they say in the song, it will be another good year for the roses, for sure.

The viral podcast and social media sensation Girls In Low Places is actually named Katie Atkin.
I met her at a not so low place recently: the front row at Lainey Wilson’s press conference in Nashville ahead of her hosting this year’s CMA Awards gala show. Beside me at the conference (and later on the red carpet), I had the chance to chat briefly with Katie. And, yes, she IS funny, and her take on country music with a Monty Python-ish female Mr. Bean-type humour is resonating all over the country world right now. And most artists approve too. (However. I saw Billy Bob Thornton just shaking his head beside her – maybe it’s just the age gap. Oops!).

Follow Katie here so you can form your own opinion (now you know mine): Instagram @thegirlsinlowplaces or her podcast. Click on the pictures below and you will be right there.

If they allowed me, I would love to move in at Nashville Palace and just stay there forever.

Nashville Palace is more than just a honky-tonk—it's a living, breathing piece of country music history. Since opening in 1977, the Palace has served as a launching pad for some of country music’s biggest and brightest names. The atmosphere here is unbeatable. Do not miss it when in Music City!

Long before he was selling out arenas, Randy Travis was a dishwasher and part-time performer at the Palace. Over the years, the Palace has echoed with the voices of countless country icons—George Jones, Waylon Jennings, Alan Jackson, and Lorrie Morgan—each leaving a mark on its hallowed stage.

The late great Waylon Jennings is not only on my year’s end top list (see above) but on MANY of the same lists all over the media right now. What all real fans also have discovered is that, of all the dead heroes, the legendary Waylon Jennings brand is serving up the best, coolest, smartest and most good looking merchandise in the country-sphere right now. The basic set of apparel (the hats, oh, the hats!) is always a treat and that is topped with regular collabs with other fancy brands. Check em out here: https://waylonshop.com/

One of our favorite country-creators out there, Dillon Weldon is always seen wearing a Waylon-hat from waylonshop.com. The hat has become a natural part of Dillon’s own personal graphic brand (pictured here with another great personal brand creator, artist Marcus King).
Follow Dillon here: @dillonweldon
Follow Marcus King here: @realmarcusking

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