This year in country music was all about artists discovering ways to innovate old forms and traditions. In some cases, like Eric Church’s Evangeline vs. the Machine and Carter Faith’s stunning debut Cherry Valley , that meant bold studio production choices. In others, like Tyler Childers’ revelatory Snipe Hunter and Vandoliers’ Life Behind Bars , it was sharp, edgy lyricism that conveyed universal themes.

Whatever the route taken, the results were often startling and signaled country’s largest advances yet as a musical genre built for the present, not one rooted in the past.

Yet nearly forgotten songs, updated for modern times, also made up the fabric of 2025 country and Americana. Waylon Jennings was resurrected in all his outlaw glory on Songbird , a collection of recordings

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