This week, “You Look Like You Love Me” hitmaker Ella Langley returns with the deluxe album album Still Hungover, while Zach Top partners with Billy Strings to give Top’s “Bad Luck” a jam-band fusion. Elsewhere, Megan Moroney gets into the holiday spirit with a new three-song EP, while indie newcomer Belle Frantz and bluegrasser Ashby Frank also offer up new tunes.
Check out all of these and more in Billboard‘s roundup of the best country songs of the week below.
Ella Langley, “Girl You’re Taking Home”
Langley sinks into a swirl of self-torment, angst and confusion on this slow-burn ballad, lamenting “She gets the version I wanted of you” with a wounded worldliness to her vocal that suggests she’s lived the heartbreak in the lyrics. Layers of guitar and understated percussion, providing a stately foil for her purring vocal drawl. “Girl You’re Taking Home” is from Langley’s deluxe version of her Still Hungover album.
Megan Moroney, “All I Want for Christmas Is a Cowboy”
Moroney is getting into the holiday spirit with her new three-song EP, which includes not only a cover of the holiday classic “Blue Christmas,” but this unabashedly country, flirty track which finds her creating a meticulous list of the “tall, hot, in a Stetson” gift she’s hoping to see under her tree on Christmas morning. The song’s jaunty ’90s country vibe and Moroney’s charismatic performance make this song poised to become a worthy, enduring addition to the canon of country holiday classics.
Sam Barber, “Different Kind of Pain”
Sam Barber broke through last year with his song “Straight and Narrow,” and he returns with his sprawling 28-song debut album, Restless Mind. Tucked into the album is musical vignette pinpointing the moments one realizes a relationship is fragile, and the consequential decisions that get made in those moments. “I’ve been lost before/ But losin’ you is a different kind of pain,” he sings, bolstered by understated by piano and guitar. Whereas the bulk of his early songs have been sparse and acoustic, “Different Kind of Pain” evinces his musical trajectory, infused with shot of energy in the chorus thanks to churning guitar and echoey background vocals.
Zach Top feat. Billy Strings, “Bad Luck”
Classic country advocate Top and and bluegrass rocker Strings team up for a revived rendition of this song from Top’s 2024 album Cold Beer & Country Music, as part of a three-song EP crafted for Apple Music. This fusion leans on blistering instrumentation and lifts off with their silk-and-sandpaper harmonies, highlighting why each is a master of his craft. The trio of songs also includes a version of Ricky Skaggs’ “Don’t Cheat in Our Hometown.”
Belle Frantz, “The Last One to Know”
Covering a Reba McEntire classic is a tough ask for any artist, given McEntire’s formidable range and instantly recognizable vocal style. But newcomer and Mississippi native Belle Frantz does an admirable job there, covering McEntire’s “The Last One to Know” as part of her EP Why I Sing This Way. The album features Frantz lending her dusky voice to a trio of songs that also includes George Jones’ “The Grand Tour” and Conway Twitty’s “Hello Darlin’.” On each and particularly the McEntire cover, Frantz is in full control of her vocal instrument, wielding each vocal lilt and swoop and maximizing each moment of heartache. The covers are promising; hopefully some original songs are soon forthcoming.
Ashby Frank, “Blue Night”
Bluegrass stalwart Ashby Frank has played this bluegrass standard for years in concert, and has now recorded his take on “Blue Night,” which Kirk McGhee song from 1966 with Bill Monroe recording the song a year later. A swirl of breakneck and top flight musicianship, Frank’s vocals and mandolin are bolstered by Seth Taylor’s acoustic guitar, Matt Menefee’s banjo and Travis Anderson’s bass playing.
