Girl Cuntry

Despite growing up in the south, country music really isn't my thing overall. The exceptions to that, in the past and now, have always been women. Grab your light -up pink sparkly cowgirl hat and saddle up.

Waxahatchee/Plains

Following P.S. Eliot, Katie Crutchfield was responsible for bringing us Waxahatchee and Plains and was my second most streamed artist for 2024 (Losing to Chappell Roan). Katie's lyricism is top tier and she is the only person I can think of that has defeated my ADHD autocomplete.

I have left the first few Waxahatchee albums off the list as they are not country, but I absolutely love "Cerulean Salt". I will make another post in the future covering Katie's other work including Snocaps.

Saint Cloud +3

The country flavor of Waxahatchee comes in with "Great Thunder" and "Saint Cloud +3" which switches off the distortion lets Katie's twang come out to play. "Fire" is one of my all time favorite songs and my other favorite from this album is "Can't Do Much".

Plains

Between Waxahatchee albums, Katie released an album with Jess Williamson as Plains titled "I Walked With You a Ways" and contains some of my favorite songs from her. I have included my most played songs but I recommend listening to the entire album start to finish to get the full narrative of a woman in rural America.

Tiger's Blood

"Tiger's Blood" is when things get really good and I literally could not stop listening to this album for weeks. The difference between "Saint Cloud +3" and "Tiger's Blood" is a new pair of jeans vs the pair you have had for five years and I think the Plains project definitely contributed to this. "3 Sisters", "Ice Cold", "365", and "Much Ado About Nothing" are my favorites from this album.

CMAT

My first introduction to CMAT was with "Aw, Shoot!" and I then found she's a fellow Irish and isn't really a country artist. I couldn't leave her off the list because I went so long thinking she was, so I included "Aw, Shoot!" and "When A Good Man Cries".

Emily Nenni

My introduction to Emily was seeing her album release on TikTok and buying a signed copy her gorgeous pink vinyl of "Drive & Cry". She released a new album this year titled "Movin' Shoes". Emily is very much classic Dolly Parton style country, which isn't really my thing, but she is very good at it.

Stella Lefty

After a lot of song clips on TikTok, Stella is about to release her first full length album. Half of it is already available to stream and I absolutely love it.

You can hear Stella's smile in her voice and I think its a perfect blend of country and pop. She also has Pop/Rock songs that aren't included here that you should check out! My favorites from the new album are "Lean In, Kiss Me", "Thinkin' Bout You", and "Good at Leaving".

Abbey Cone

Just found out about her today (which is what prompted this article) and, while I haven't listened to her older songs, her new release with Madison Kozak is great. What's not love about a three song EP rejecting manchildren?

Tashi T

One of my favorite parts of life is just constantly being impressed by a seemingly endless stream of talented people and Tashi is no exception. 10/10 no notes. Genuine country music from the heart with an amazing voice perfectly suited to it.

Sierra Ferrel

The veil between traditional country, fairies, and the past is thinnest at Sierra Ferrel and I have been so happy to see her find herself and find her fans over the years.

I first discovered her in 2018 with the "Gems on VHS" video of her song "Dreams". This was a time long after I listened to 90s country music and long before I would even consider listening to any new country music but she was the exception.

Sierra went from traveling country punk kid to country fairy princess in the time since that video and now has the recognition and fan base she deserves. Sierra, if you ever see this, I'm proud of you girl!

Sabrina Carpenter

OK, we all know Sabrina is not a country artist but I have to include "Manchild" on the playlist.

We Did It Girl!

Even if you don't consider yourself a country music enjoyer, give it a chance. Maybe warm up with the Sabrina song and then come back and try again. 💜