Critic’s Pick

With American Love, Jake Owen finds a way to tell his story without divulging the dirty details of a very trying 12 months.

You won’t find much fluff on David Nail’s Fighter album. In fact, lack of levity is about all a country fan can complain about on the singer’s personal fourth studio album.

Like so many of her songs, there’s a fairytale quality to RaeLynn’s “Love Triangle.” It’s not that her story is unbelievable or not personal — in fact, the opposite is true of this autobiographical ballad, her first on Warner Music Nashville.

Caitlyn Smith’s gift is storytelling, and her just-released Starfire EP is a master class on assigning one's self to life events absolutely. Her vocals are imperfectly perfect, with cracks that only show raw, genuine emotion.

With "Road Less Traveled" Lauren Alaina gives her audience what they need at a time when there’s so much pressure to give people what they want.

No one makes old sound quite as cool as Tim McGraw on songs like "How I’ll Always Be."

Songs like "80s Mercedes" continue Maren Morris’ introduction as country music’s most unique female newcomer.

Great albums include great songs, and Brandy Clark’s Big Day in a Small Town is fat with them. The singer’s songwriting relationship with Shane McAnnally is among country’s most delightful pairings. They’re simply working on another level.

Thomas Rhett's new song "Vacation" may or may not fall firmly within one's subjective parameters of what country music should be. But if you’re thinking about that, you probably aren’t a whole lot of fun to be around.

Strong songwriting carries Maren Morris’ Hero album, an 11 song project that epitomizes a sub-genre of the Nashville country sound. It’s East Nashville cool, with subtle hooks and digs replacing obvious overtures.