20 Favorite Albums of 2022: 1/3 Report

(Trailer's top 20 so far - Year end list will be staff voted)

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1. Kaitlin Butts - What Else Can She Do

2. Ben Chapman - Make the Night Better

3. Joshua Hedley - Neon Blue

4. Ian Noe - River Fools & Mountain Saints

5. The Wilder Blue - s/t

6. Jason Scott and the High Heat - Castle Rock

7. Band of Horses - Things Are Great

8. Pusha T - It’s Almost Dry

9. Hailey Whitters - Raised

10. Yelawolf / Shooter Jennings - Sometimes Y

11. Sarah Shook and the Disarmers - Nightroamer

12. The Whitmore Sisters - Ghost Stories

13. Jamestown Revival - Young Man

14. Tony Logue - Jericho

15. William Clark Green - Baker Hotel

16. Brent Cobb - And Now Turn to Page…

17. Ray Wylie Hubbard - Co-Starring Too

18. Pinegrove - 11:11

19. Lost Dog Street Band - Glory

20. Alma Russ - Fool’s Gold

More Monday Memes: Willie Nelson, Luke Bryan, Kaitlin Butts

 

Stolen Memes: Alan Jackson, Kaitlin Butts, Trace Adkins

By Lindsey Folkerts

Jim Carrey Country Reaction Gifs

What people who started liking Morgan Wallen after 'the incident' look like to me

When somebody at the party puts on some Turnpike

🎵 Got it goin' on like Donkey Kong 🎵

Carrie Underwood fans when they see a non-superlative opinion about her latest song

"People said Waylon and Willie weren't country in the 70s"

Chad Russell or Thomas Jordan or Dylan Hardy has the number 1 country song this week?

You're the one person who liked Billy Currington's last album?

Don't mind me, just listening to the new Kaitlin Butts album again

When it took you 42 years to get the twist in "He Stopped Loving Her Today"

 

Album Review / Kaitlin Butts / What Else Can She Do

By Megan Bledsoe

For years now, Kaitlin Butts has been releasing singles, slaying live performances, and generally making us all--or at least those smart enough to pay attention--eagerly anticipate the day when she would at last grace us with her second album. Now that day has finally come, with a record that will hopefully establish Kaitlin Butts as one of the best emerging artists in the Red Dirt scene. Though the seven-song project might seem a little short, especially given the long time between albums, the resulting record tells a complete and powerful story. Short albums like this one work when they have something specific to say, and Kaitlin Butts certainly does, delivering a message of hope and resilience and painting a portrait of those who face the worst that life has to offer and yet somehow prevail.

The women of What Else Can She Do face very different trials. There's the mother in "It Won't Always Be This Way," constantly comforting herself and her child with these words as she tries desperately to think of a way for them to leave her abusive husband. There's the brokenhearted narrator of "Jackson" who laments the fact that she may never get married, while the young wife in "Bored if I Don't" bemoans the fact that she did. The hapless, homesick waitress of the title track dreams of life back home in the country, all the while knowing she will never return. But though their circumstances are different, all of Butts' characters share a common desperation, each of them standing at the various crossroads in their lives and forced to face the consequences of their choices. And Kaitlin Butts displays her talent as a songwriter in that she is able to empathize with each of them individually while simultaneously uniting them all in the bonds of struggle.

The struggle, however, is only half of the picture and only a part of what unites these characters and makes this record cohesive. All of these women also share a common bond of resilience and strength. The narrator of "It Won't Always Be This Way" never stops echoing the words, even though she has no idea how many more times she'll need to repeat them, and eventually, she and her child are able to begin a new life. The young girl in "She's Using" fights to overcome her addiction with the help of supportive family and friends. The narrator of "Jackson" finds new resolve to leave the man who keeps letting her down. Through it all, Kaitlin Butts weaves a powerful tale of hope, instilling the message that we can survive the worst of circumstances and even come out on the other side having been made stronger by the experience.

Country music has historically been for the downtrodden, for the lonely, for all those who can find comfort in a sad story which sounds achingly similar to their own. Kaitlin Butts understands this instinctively and offers us all this comfort, telling the stories of abuse, addiction, heartbreak, and regret with candor, with warmth, and with understanding. But more than that, she cautions that these situations do not define us. She paints a compelling picture of strength and determination, gently reminding us that, although there are "lots of sad stories," as the title track states, our stories do not have to end sadly. Instead we may change our stories, so that, like the tales of these women, ours may become stories of enduring hope and unwavering perseverance.

What Else Can She Do is available today everywhere you purchase or stream music.

Kaitlin Butts Performs Her New Single "Blood"

Saturday Night Music / Kaitlin Butts w/Jamie Lin Wilson / "Jackson"

Kaitlin Butts Performs "Wild Rose"

More Tuesday Morning Memes: Blake & Gwen, Kidd G, Willie Nelson

Modern Artists, 90s T-Shirt Designs

Kaitlin Butts / "Bored If I Don't" / Mile 0 Music Fest

Jamie Lin Wilson & Kaitlin Butts Cover "There's Your Trouble"

Toy Story Country Reaction Gifs

Reporting from the Thomas Rhett concert...

When somebody asks if you wanna hear a country song and plays Blanco Brown

When you meet that guy who's obsessed with Walker Hayes in person

Country radio fans be like...

Luke Bryan be like...

When you find out your friend went to the FGL concert

How Cleto Cordero introduced himself to Kaitlin Butts

♬ She just started liking cheatin' songs ♬

Kaitlin Butts Covers "Lovesick Blues"

Monday Morning Memes: A Star is Born, FGL, Flatland Cavalry

Kaitlin Butts & Cleto Cordero Cover "It Ain't Me Babe"

Album Review: Dalton Domino - Corners

"People like me have to live in hell to see if Heaven is worth it"

Dalton Domino's second album, Corners, is a sober but intoxicating look at the journey of a young man moving from the partying days of youth into the first blush of accepting adulthood. It's a fitting portrait of life, given that its painter is recently sober himself.

"Who I was ain't who I am"

Domino hasn't changed his sound for his second outing, though things are a bit more shaded and a little more guitar-driven. It's still a hearty mix of mid-American rock, red dirt country, and thoughtful singer-songwriter fare. Things are just seen through clearer eyes this time. With that clarity brings sharper detail; a little less giving 'em what they wanna hear, a little more giving 'em what I need to say.

The title track finds Dalton trying to mend fences by admitting the state he was in when he tore them down in the first place. He's okay with it if you can't get past his transgressions, but he's also confident in the transformation he's gone through. Jack Ingram guests on the song, adding gravity to the message and support to its messenger.



"Decent Man" is a funkier cut. A measured but rocking honky-tonk number with some southern rock swagger and another heady dose of truth …this time, gleaned from a run-in with the law

The lead single, "July," is a catchy, radio-friendly (in Texas anyway) mid-tempo rocker. It's a co-write with Kaitlin Butts about figuring out who's really to blame in a broken relationship: the dude she's cheating with, her, or himself (hint, it's the last two).

Thinking things through. That's one of the important distinctions between boys and men, and one of the main themes on this album.

On Corners, Dalton Domino has declared that honest confessions are more valuable than false optimism. It's a mature approach, and though it's a bit darker sound than his debut album, there's a boldness in being more assured of who he is.  Corners is a powerful second release, and one that should see Domino continuing to climb the ranks in Red Dirt and Americana music.

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Corners is available on Lonestar Music, iTunes, Amazon, etc.