Ed's Picks - Country of the Moment
Editor’s note: Each issue, our co-founder Ed Helms will share a handful of good country artists, albums, and songs direct from his own earphones in Ed's Picks.
Two of the finest fiddlers in the world – with 18 IBMA Fiddler of the Year wins between them – team up for their first record together. It’s full of bluegrass, twin fiddle, alt-country, an all-star cast of pickers, and so much more. A highlight among 2025 country and roots albums so far.
Does Charley Crockett ever slow down!? Already on his 15th studio album, the “gulf & western” country troubadour released the Shooter Jennings-produced Lonesome Drifter last week. Put simply– this is good country. But you already knew that.
Country and Americana’s poet laureate returns with Foxes in the Snow, a stark, stunning, and truly solo album all tracked on one guitar in one week. The mark of an expert songwriter is their songs shine in any context and with any production style; Jason’s lyrics are perhaps even more powerful this focused and unadorned.
New music from Alison Krauss & Union Station is like Christmas for bluegrass fans the world over. Arcadia (arriving March 28) finds AKUS picking up where they left off 14 years ago with melancholy ballads, mashin’ barn burners, and a heaping helping of that heavenly voice. Plus a new member, bluegrass crooner Russell Moore, joins the group for the record and their coast-to-coast tour.
Read more about Russell Moore joining Union Station in our exclusive interview on BGS.
Everyone’s talking about Warren Zeiders! The grizzled 25-year-old heartthrob has taken the internet by storm – and Music Row, too. His second album, Relapse, Lies, & Betrayal, is the latest stellar offering in what’s become a flourishing 2020s outlaw movement. Relapse will quickly show listeners how Zeiders has already racked up billions of streams with just a handful of releases under his belt.
Read our Good Country feature on Zeiders here.
Photos: Carter & Cleveland courtesy of the artist; Charley Crockett by Bobby Cochran; Jason Isbell courtesy of the Oriel; Alison Krauss & Union Station by Randee St. Nicholas; Warren Zeiders by Alex Screws.