Ed's Picks - Spring Country
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.
Born and raised on my home turf in Georgia, country and Americana singer-songwriter Kristina Murray is no longer watchin’ the world pass her by. On May 9 she’ll release Little Blue, after spending a decade working tirelessly in Nashville, the project has “breakout” momentum built upon its charming, down to earth, and real songs. It’s finally Kristina’s moment.
Honkytonk Hollywood? Sounds like our kinda Good Country! Jon Pardi continues holding down the trad country beat in mainstream and radio circles, while infusing so many genres, textures, and styles into his sound. He shows country & western, however modern or throwback it may be, has always gone hand-in-hand with Southern California.
Rebecca Porter brings together Appalachia and the Pacific islands with her singular style of honky tonkin’ country. Born in Guam and raised in the Shenandoah Valley, her music seems like down-the-middle country, but her identity and perspective bring in delightful subversions to so many expectations of the genre. Get ready, she just announced her debut LP, Roll With the Punches, out August 8.
Two of my best flatpickin’ pals dropped an earth-stopping surprise duo album and the entire GC team has been obsessed. Anytime you get to be in the room with Billy and Bryan is magic, and Live at the Legion invites everyone to experience the six-string sublime, as if from the front row.
You may recognize this energetic Virginian bluegrasser from American Idol or touring with Old Crow Medicine Show, but now Mason Via is stepping out on his own with an excellent self-titled album (out now). It’s innovative and old-timey, bluegrass meets country, and it shows his musical pedigree while being fresh and new.
Photos: Kristina Murray by Schuyler Howie; Jon Pardi courtesy of Red Light Management; Rebecca Porter by Heather Goodloe; Billy Strings & Bryan Sutton by Joshua Wilkins; Mason Via by Ashli Linkous.