Trisha Yearwood returns this week.
Sam Williams
ACT II: COUNTRYSTAR [EP]
As an extension of his evolving artistic persona, it doesn’t really work and isn’t a patch on his most distinctive, legacy-challenging songwriting. But as a whip-smart parody of contemporary “countrystar” posturing? Hoo boy, is it ever savage.
Every tired narrative trope of current radio country is here, set to the exact type of hip-hop appropriating arrangements that have made the men of the genre’s A-list so interchangeable for years now. Thing is, Williams actually half-raps better than they do. So does it become what it’s parodying?
Joe Stamm Band
Little Crosses
As ever, there’s nothing revolutionary about their brand of corn-fed heartland rock, which they play better than just about anyone in this space today. It’s the songwriting here, though, that makes this one a new career-best: The title track, especially, is a stunner.
Ketch Secor
Story the Crow Told Me
To the consternation of the authenticity fetishists, he’s throwing his hat into the ring as the heir apparent to Marty Stuart (who guests here, and it’s great) as a preservationist of the genre’s off-trend variations. No surprise he has the goods to pull that off.
No surprise, either, that he’s doing so in ways that are a lot more ribald and seedy than what Stuart, who’s perhaps too prone to playing stuffy museum curator, typically offers. The self-mythologizing elements are smart, too, in how country acts have historically crafted a persona. Great stuff.
Scotty McCreery
Scooter & Friends [EP]
He and his friends are all game, but the quality of the songwriting here went off a cliff after last year’s career-best Rise & Fall. Troubling that this seems to be working in terms of keeping him in prime rotation at radio, when he’s capable of so much more.
Niko Moon
American Palm
This overserved, underwritten beach-themed atrocity had me sneering, “Or we could go home,” like Goth Kid On Vacation long before the worst cover of “Margaritaville” you’ll ever hear closed it out. For the love of Jimmy Buffett, listen to Joshua Ray Walker instead.
Cam
All Things Light
A wild, heady ride that plays as a natural follow-up to her genre-spanning contributions to COWBOY CARTER. No matter the sonic palette she chooses, she remains a singular, recognizable singer and writer and a major talent that Nashville should never had written off.
The best tracks here are the most straightforwardly country: “Everblue” and “Kill the Guru!” are hits in a better timeline. Some of the folktronica tracks sound as dated as that term implies, even if it’s a great fit for her idiosyncratic sensibilities. And she takes a few big swings that connect.
Dylan Gossett
Westward
This week’s This Exact Guy is notable for a mostly acoustic and intermittently twangy aesthetic and for the unearned confidence to open his album with 45 seconds of a capella singing that should’ve had someone saying, “Bro, don’t.” A few strong melodies here, for what it’s worth.
Riley Green
Midtown Sessions 2025 [EP]
The “mid” joke’s right there in the title for the low-hanging fruit. This acoustic set demonstrates that he clears the low bar of being a more competent singer than most of his new A-list peers, but little more than that.
Trisha Yearwood
The Mirror
Already the finest vocalist and the deepest albums artist of her generation of country A-listers, she’s now dropped an album that recontextualizes her entire career. She does so not by making a “roots music” pivot like others have done; this is contemporary country.
Instead, she unveils a heretofore hidden gift for songwriting that impresses for a fearless personal candor (there’s a line about her first marriage that stopped me dead), a shoulders-back confidence, and an unapologetic feminism. She’s pulling the threads on these career-long throughlines.
The result is an album about fully claiming one’s agency and owning both good and occasionally questionable decisions. It’s as inspiring as it is instructive. Here, an icon of the 90s country boom puts the current generation of stars on notice about the compassion and empathy missing in their work.
The aesthetic of the album is important, too. Yearwood is not ceding one single inch of space here: Instead, this album reaffirms that her values belong in the center of the country mainstream and always have, and that the genre is all the better when those values show up in the music.
Yes, I’m loving the Trisha Yearwood album! I heard an interview where she said that Leslie Satcher is the one who kept pushing her to write songs with her and that’s what got her to really start writing. I wish I could find songwriter credits for the album though. I’ve been doing a very deep dive into songwriters lately and it’s frustrating when albums don’t have the writing credits readily available.
01. Bringing The Angels [Trisha Yearwood, Leslie Satcher, Bridgette Tatum, Bethany Barnard]
02. The Wall Or The Way Over [Trisha Yearwood, Maia Sharp, Emma Lee]
03. Little Lady
04. The Mirror [Trisha Yearwood, Leslie Satcher, Bridgette Tatum]
05. Fearless These Days [Trisha Yearwood, Leslie Satcher, Makayla Lynn]
06. So Many Summers [Trisha Yearwood, Erin Enderlin, Jim Moose Brown]
07. The Record Plays On (feat. Charles Kelley) [Trisha Yearwood, Chard Carlson, Melissa Marie]
08. Girls Night In [Trisha Yearwood, Rachel Thibodeau, Rebecca Lynn Howard]
09. Drunk Works (Duet) (feat. Hailey Whitters) [Trisha Yearwood, Chard Carlson, Hailey Whitters]
10. Fragile Like A Bomb [Trisha Yearwood, Chard Carlson, Melissa Marie]
11. The Ocean And The River [Trisha Yearwood, Leslie Satcher, Makayla Lynn]
12. The Shovel (feat. Jim Lauderdale) [Trisha Yearwood, Bobby Terry, Matt Rossi]
13. When I’m With You [Trisha Yearwood, Leslie Satcher, Brett Boyett]
14. Goodnight Cruel World [Trisha Yearwood, Erin Enderlin, Sunny Sweeney]
15. When October Settles In [Trisha Yearwood, Leslie Satcher, Steve Dorff]
Thank you, Jordan!!!
Check out Pam’s Every Time album from 1998. She was the first champion of Satcher and cut three of her songs for that album. (I Said a Prayer, You Put the Lonely On Me, Whiskey On the Wound). Satcher also wrote “Something Burning Out” on Rhinestoned.
My favorite Satcher track is the hidden one on her album, “White.” I won’t spoil it for anyone who hasn’t heard it.
My favorite Satcher track is the hidden one on her album, “White.”
Oh, YES. That was a hell of a way to cap off a set of such great recordings. ”Alright, so we’ve got some really good stuff here, how do we finish it? Oh, with a hidden track about -redacted-, that’ll do the trick.” Yeah, anyone seeing these comments who hasn’t heard that, go listen. Now.
Hidden tracks are one of the things I rather miss about the cd era. They were always such a cool little surprise. Satcher’s ”White,” Gary Allan’s ”No Judgment Day,” Lee Ann Womack’s ”Just Someone I Used To Know”…there have been some great ones over the years.
Holy cow, I don’t know what I was expecting, but it wasn’t that. That’s a stunner of a song and echo that everyone should listen to it.
Yes. I agree. It’s a stunner. So chilling.
Even Big and Rich had a very good hidden track with “Live This Life.”
I had no idea Niko Moon was still around. I had the misfortune of hearing “Good Time” on the radio in my car yesterday. One of those trainwreck songs that’s so bad I feel like I have to listen to it just for the spectacle when it plays.
I had no idea Niko Moon was still around.
Yeah, I am baffled and aghast that he is still a thing. I saw Farce the Music making fun of him about the time he came along and I went to listen to ”Good Time” — the song, not the album, I am not that big of a glutton for punishment — just to see if he was as bad as FTM made him out to be.
Spoiler alert: he absolutely was. And still is, apparently.
Niko Moon would’ve had the worst album I heard and reviewed in 2024, if not for Jessie Murph.
Niko Moon would have had the worst album I’ve heard and reviewed thus far in 2025, if not for Jessie Murph.
A hat tip to both of them for making new albums somehow worse than their prior ones.
Niko Moon is the only country singer who ever blocked me on Twitter.
It’s no secret to this group that I’m a diehard Trisha Yearwood fan. That said I’m not afraid to say when her material falls below my expectations. This album absolutely blew the roof of what I expected. This is quickly in my top 3 if not top 2 of my favorite albums from her. For an artist who hasn’t written for her album, this songs are all classic Trisha. It shows the lengths she went to when finding material for her previous releases. I originally expected a big shift from her usual style when I heard she was writing. This is the exact opposite. As someone who lost both of their parents, “When October Settles In” perfectly captures how those anniversary’s hit. I also love her ripping loose on “Little Lady”, as soon as I heard that track I knew Leslie Satcher had to be one of the writers. It has “Pistol” written all over it.
I’ll go all the way here. I think it’s the best album of her career.
I think you might be right!
Now that I’ve had nearly a week of this album, I have to agree. I have no idea what my expectations were for this album, but they were blown out of the water.
Also Kevin-was there some recent review on her or maybe it was Jonathan saying you wished she went full Leslie Satcher “Pistol” on a track? Maybe it was “Bringing the Angel” or another, but I feel like she went above and beyond in delivering that on “Little Lady”. I’m loving the vocals on that one.
Yeah, “Little Lady” is one of my favorites. She’s great on Bring the Angels too. One of my other favorites is Goodnight Cruel World. I was going to name other favorites, but I’d just be naming almost the whole album.
Trisha has had one of the better track records of any singer, female or otherwise, in the country genre since the end of the 1980’s, so it wouldn’t surprise me if this album sells a lot. What may be a bit concerning is whether country radio will give her enough of a lift at this time since she is 60 years old–not, by the way, that there’s anything wrong with that. But it would be nice if a certain amount of love came Trisha’s way for this album.
And as a note, tomorrow (July 22nd), Trisha will be hosting a salute to the L.A. country-rock movement of the 1970’s in general, and to her spiritual role model Linda Ronstadt in particular, at the CMA Theater in Nashville, along with Emmylou Harris, Rodney Crowell, Patty Scialfa (of the E Street Band), and James Taylor.
MCA Nashville is supporting the album from a distribution standpoint, but there’s not been any effort to get any of the singles through the “proper” channels for country radio play. She’s relying more on daytime TV promo (Kelly Clarkson, of course, has already had her on to perform) and paid algorithm placement bumps, which is probably the better strategy at this juncture. Country radio is still paying lip-service to 90s country without having a real connection to that era’s artists or substance.
I’ve not heard the Yearwood album, but I would like to say it does me good to know that people still remember Leslie Satcher. She is actually a very good singer, too. I have her 2000 album Love Letters and it is excellent.
I agree. As I said, I’ve been doing a deep dive into songwriters lately and I am a big Leslie Satcher fan, as a songwriter and singer.
…”the mirror” is a collection of good songs, of which the yearwood/satcher penned ones stand out. the title song is a great one that has some of the power of her best ones that could stop you in your tracks, that good they were. nonetheless, it is first and foremost a testament of a life that went very well. yearwood and satcher made it – no wonder, they can be “fearless”, or like yearwood, ponder about how many (sweet) summers there will be left. to me this album fits perfectly into her album discography which has always been reflecting her progress as an artist and human being over time. i always liked the song “real life woman” – incidentally written by the most gifted bobbie cryner, who got a well deserved shout-out here just the other day – “the mirror” feels like the series that follows that pilot belatedly. enjoyable status report by one of coutry’s greatest vocalists.
Yearwood is candid on this album about multiple traumatic experiences in her life, especially on “Fearless These Days” and “So Many Summers.” It’s funny that you quoted those titles to support such a fundamental misunderstanding of this album.
…i’m pretty sure that you have a good idea what your blog is good for, kevin. i had been pondering loosely about writing something about the latest albums of trisha yearwood and mary chapin carpenter before commenting specifically here. just a little feature comparing the coincidental efforts of two singers with largely similar age and career spans. after your reply i had to double-check my initial understanding of yearwood’s “the mirror” before writing the thing. here’s my final take/verdict on “the mirror” (quickly translated by ai from the german original into english, the chapin carpenter part is still work in progress):
A Deep Breath and a Long Sigh
It’s a rare moment when two major voices in American music release new works almost simultaneously — albums that actually feel more like musical memoirs than mere collections of songs. This summer, Trisha Yearwood and Mary Chapin Carpenter present records that go beyond melody and lyrics. Two artists, two albums, two reflections of life. Yearwood and Chapin Carpenter — both influential figures in country and folk since the early 1990s — have returned with new releases that aim higher than just assembling songs. These are retrospectives, self-examinations, even life assessments. And what they reveal couldn’t be more different.
Trisha Yearwood – “The Mirror”
A life worth looking at. At 60, Yearwood looks into the mirror and sees a confident woman who has arrived. “The Mirror” is her first album largely written and produced by herself, with support from gifted songwriters like Leslie Satcher, Sunny Sweeney, and Hailey Whitters. The result is a distinctly female-driven statement of empowerment and self-acceptance. Some songs speak of loss — such as the grief over her mother — and of doubt, but they do so with warmth and maturity. At times, you can almost hear a smile between the lines. Listening to the vinyl edition, one might imagine a well-lived life resonating from every groove — one not untouched by everyday drama, but gracefully weathered.
The choice of title is most likely no coincidence. If the title track of her 2000 album “Real Live Woman” was the pilot episode, then these new songs feel like follow-up chapters, aired a quarter-century later. In that time, fate has been kind to the woman who once sang: “I work nine to five and I can’t relate to millionaires whose fortune has somehow smiled upon and turned their lives into a better place…” And yet, that’s exactly what happened to her. Sometimes fate leans toward irony, other times toward generosity. Yearwood seems to recognize both in her latest reflection.
Her album is not a triumph over pain, but a testament to its transcendence. It reflects a life well lived—not as a polished surface, but as one shaped by endured depths and celebrated highs.
I’m interested in the Yearwood album. I didn’t like “Every Girl in This Town” or “PrizeFighter” at all. Those two songs in particular suggested she was going to go the same route Mary Chapin Carpenter did after 1999 and just record sleepy pretentious acoustic ballads that all sound the same.
The involvement of Leslie Satcher also had me questioning, as I loved early Satcher but I hated “Politically Uncorrect”, “For These Times”, and “Troubadour” and just thought she’d lost that spark.
But today, what would have been the second anniversary of my mom and stepdad’s anniversary — and the death of Ozzy Osbourne, a musician both of them loved — coincides with a very low point at my current job, a search for a new one, and a couple other life changes all pressing down on me at once. July has been a hellish month for me, and I just needed some positivity.
And “The Mirror” gave that positivity to me right when I needed it. It reminds me in a way of “Letter to Me” in terms of showing that the future is going to be better because the past and present were better than you thought they were.
Ha. I’d say that both Prize Fighter” and “Every Girl in this Town” still have a ton of tempo compared to anything on Mary Chapin Carpenter’s recent albums.
I’m sorry about the difficult period of time that you’ve been having. I’m glad music is a good escape and a way to try to make sense of the tough parts of life.
Noting for posterity that the track “Swim Up Bar” on the McCreery EP also includes a lyric about “looking out on the Gulf Of America,” a prime example of the mainstream’s eager embrace of the current administration.
Ugh! I’m surprised the record company would allow or have any desire for an act as mainstream as McCreery to go there. Feels like 2003 all over again.
…clearly, a very strong subversive note of protest by “scooter” there. you just don’t embrace anybody with a treat like that. a wet kiss from the winner of the kentucky derby right after the race could not taste more foul than this trainwreck from the beach.
O, wow!:(
Sad, yet unfortunately unsurprising. I have a question for you Jonathan–I’ve been of fan of your reviews ever since the Slant days and I’m curious how you feel or reconcile when an artist who’s work you typically enjoy traffics in, shall we say, “unpleasant” politics or displays views that are diametrically opposed to what you believe. I ask because I came across a song several months back called “Hey Mr. President” by Deborah Allen (she of Baby I Lied fame and singer behind one of my favorite country albums of the nineties, Delta Dreamland). As you might surmise from the title, it’s a song extolling the virtues of and praising the “hard work” done by Predator…..uh, President Trump. I’m now torn because I was a fan of this artist’s music but the endorsement of someone who doesn’t have the understanding of basic human decency or the human condition in general (beyond his own) has left me at something of a crossroads with the artist and her music and it makes me question how to separate one from the other. Thanks for listening.
Leaving a “placeholder” comment here to come back and edit later: Have been working on a full reply to this for a bit and want to make sure I respond at length.
Until then: I very much appreciate the kind remarks and the thoughtful question, Chris!
Thanks for replying Jonathan!
All politicians stink and have deep flaws, which is why it is so dangerous to come out in support of any of them. Judge the music on its own merits and be done with it. Trisha Yearwood is one of the great (and dare I say, transcendent) female vocalists and I am delighted to have new music available from her.
I also am looking forward to Ketch Secor’s album. I have quite a bit of Old Crow in my collection and am eager to see him outide of that context
If ever there were a “mainstream in 2025” hit for Trisha Yearwood, it feels like “Drunk Works,” her duet with Hailey Whitters, would be the one. I wholly love this album (and bought a physical copy of it a few days after release) and concur that it is amongst the best of her career, if not THE best.