Fridays always a treat with all the new releases of great country coming out.

On todays “All New Country”-list from Spotify I want you to point your attention to two names that you will be seeing on the charts and on the stages.

REDFERRIN has been around as a writer and artist for a few years now, but finally seems to have put his dirtbike career aside to pursue a bright future in music. Today he release new single “Straight To The Chapel” and you better give it a spin and remember where you heard his name first. ;-)

GREYLAN JAMES is another name to put up one your remember-list. Todays new release “...Small Town” is just a part from a long chain of great songs penned by Young mister James  And trust me, there will be more from where that came from.

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All the best,

🏆 Women Take Over the Hot 100 as Ella Langley Stacks the Top 10 in Ways Country Has Never Seen: The chart dated May 9 belongs to country, and almost entirely to one artist's catalog. Ella Langley reclaimed #1 with "Choosin' Texas" for an eighth nonconsecutive week after Olivia Rodrigo's "Drop Dead" briefly took the spot, "Be Her" held at #5, and "I Can't Love You Anymore" with Morgan Wallen debuted at #7. The duet became the highest-charting debut by a country collaboration on the Hot 100, breaking the 1983 record set by Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton's "Islands in the Stream," and it made Langley the first artist primarily known as country to land her first three top-10 hits simultaneously, a milestone Taylor Swift never achieved. For a seventh straight week, seven songs by women filled the Hot 100 top 10, the longest streak since 2014.

🎸 Album-Release Friday Stacks Three Distinct Country Statements in a Single Day: Friday May 1 delivered three releases that moved the genre's center of gravity at once. Kacey Musgraves dropped Middle of Nowhere via Lost Highway/Interscope, the most country-leaning record of her catalog according to Saving Country Music, with features from Miranda Lambert, Willie Nelson, Billy Strings, and Gregory Alan Isakov, then surprise-released two bonus tracks ("All My Exes (Kacey's Version)" and "Caballero") within hours. Cody Johnson previewed Banks of the Trinity with second single "Hello Lonesome," a fiddle-anchored traditional ballad. ERNEST released his Deep Blue album. Coupled with Lambert's "Crisco" tease the day before, the genre is staring at one of the densest release weeks of 2026 so far.

🎖️ The ACM Field Hardens Two Weeks Out as Tucker Wetmore and Avery Anna Take New Artist Honors: The 11-day countdown to the May 17 ceremony reset this week with two pre-broadcast wins announced. The Academy of Country Music presented Tucker Wetmore with New Male Artist of the Year on April 30 via a surprise broadcast during the final London night of his Brunette World Tour, where his mother Sia delivered the trophy onstage and a video message from Thomas Rhett broke the news. Three days later Sam Barber surprised Avery Anna with New Female Artist at the Lone Star Smokeout. The performance lineup expanded May 1 with Blake Shelton, Carter Faith, Dan + Shay, Ella Langley, Jordan Davis, Kane Brown, The Red Clay Strays, Thomas Rhett, Zach Top, Avery Anna, and Tucker Wetmore added to the previously announced six.

To find great new countrymusic is not Easy, due to the shear fact that there is SO MUCH music being released every day and every week around the year.
But you can relax, I do the work for you. Here is my best finds this week. Enjoy!

Enjoy! Listen here!

Week of April 30 – May 6 2026 (generated: May 6)

Buzz Score: 100/100
Why She's Hot: This was arguably the single biggest week of her career so far, and it came without a festival, a tour kickoff, or a new album.

Buzz Score: 91/100
Why She's Hot: Middle of Nowhere arrived May 1 via Lost Highway/Interscope, ending one of the heaviest pre-release coverage rollouts country has had this year.

Buzz Score: 88/100
Why He's Hot: A maintenance week by his standards, but the I Can't Love You Anymore debut at #7 with Langley delivered another genre-shifting chart milestone (the duet broke the 41-year-old Rogers/Parton "Islands in the Stream" record for highest-charting Hot 100 debut by a country collaboration).

Buzz Score: 84/100
Why She's Hot: The largest single-week monthly listener acceleration in the dataset (+780K week-over-week, ending at +1.19M added in the past 7 days, second only to Langley among all country artists).

Buzz Score: 81/100
Why He's Hot: Two genuinely big news beats in 72 hours, and either alone would have moved his cycle. He released Hello Lonesome on May 1, the second single from Banks of the Trinity (out June 26 via COJO/Warner Records Nashville), a fiddle-and-pedal-steel traditional country song he described on Instagram as "no agenda on this one … just wanted y'all to hear it and think, that's a damn country song." The next night, May 2, he opened for George Strait at Clemson's Memorial Stadium alongside Wyatt Flores in front of more than 90,000 fans, breaking the venue's all-time attendance record (the prior mark was 86,092 from a 1999 Clemson-Florida State football game) and marking the first concert at Death Valley since 1999.

Buzz Score: 75/100
Why She's Hot: A natural cooldown from the Stagecoach wind-evacuation week, but with two strong forward-looking beats. She headlined New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival on May 1, her first major festival anchor since the Stagecoach moment that vaulted her cycle. The ACM Awards confirmed she will debut her March single "Can't Sit Still" on the May 17 broadcast, joining Riley Green's "Change My Mind" and Musgraves' new Middle of Nowhere material as the night's signature debut performances.

Buzz Score: 72/100
Why He's Hot: He remains the genre's most durable stadium draw at 73 years old, and his ongoing list of one-off mega-shows continues to redefine what country touring economics can support without a tour structure.

Buzz Score: 70/100
Why He's Hot: Won the ACM New Male Artist of the Year award on April 30 in a surprise broadcast on the final London night of his sold-out three-show O2 Forum Kentish Town residency, with a video message from Thomas Rhett interrupting the show before his mother Sia walked onstage to present the trophy in person, the first time in recent memory that the Academy has shipped the award internationally.

Buzz Score: 68/100
Why He's Hot: Closed the iHeartCountry Festival at Austin's Moody Center on May 2 with a duck-call opener.

Buzz Score: 65/100
Why He's Hot: A four-beat week. He announced the Outlaws Never Die Tour on April 28 with presales April 29 and general on-sale May 1 (Phoenix kickoff in early September with Brittney Spencer, Noeline Hofmann, Kashus Culpepper, Carter Faith, and Angel White as rotating support), tied to the July 31 release of concept album The Outlaw Cherie Lee & Other Western Tales.

Methodology: Rankings based on aggregated signals from primary country news sources (MusicRow, Saving Country Music, Taste of Country, Holler, Maverick Country, Country Standard Time, Country Beat Magazine, Lone Star Music Magazine, Texas Country Music Magazine, Roots Music Magazine, Feedspot) plus secondary editorial sources (Billboard, Rolling Stone, Variety, Consequence, American Songwriter, Pitchfork, Wikipedia 2026 country events, Entertainment Focus, NME). Gmail COUNTRY-labeled newsletters read, including MusicRow Weekly. Supplementary streaming and social signals from a Viberate 7-day data (Spotify streams, monthly listener growth, YouTube views, TikTok likes, TikTok followers, Instagram likes, Instagram followers, radio spins/stations, SoundCloud, Shazam).
Buzz score formula: news volume 40%, streaming/chart position 20%, news quality/prominence 15%, social media engagement 15%, recency 10%.