Priscilla Block (2025)

One Liner: Country pop that veers between sad, confessional tunes and funny, self-deprecating tunes

Wikipedia Genre: Country, Country pop, southern rock

Home: Nashville (but originally Raleigh, NC)

Saturday.

Thoughts: Another one who was last here in 2023.  Didn't see her back then though, so still time to check it out!

Block grew up in North Carolina, but then moved to Nashville once she graduated from high school.  She had wanted to do that from an early age, playing at talent shows and small shows around home.  When she got to Nashville, she struggled at first, working odd jobs, and considering giving up.  But, per Wikipedia, "One day, she had a chance encounter with Taylor Swift while walking down a Nashville road. Swift pulled the car over and invited her inside. "That was truly the day that I decided that I really needed to give music a fair shot and do this thing," she commented."  WTF?!  Like, if TayTay just saw me walking down the road she might pull over, invite me into her car, and chat about my music career?  I need more details...

Here is what an interview says: "I was a year into Nashville, I was working at this yogurt shop from 9 to 5 and I had class from 6 to 9, and it was the day that I was literally having a conversation with my sister that I was going to leave town. That day, Taylor Swift was driving by and I was wearing a Taylor Swift t-shirt. She literally pulled her car over to the side of the road and hopped into her passenger seat, opened up her car door and waved me down. That was truly the day that I decided that I really needed to give music a fair shot and do this thing. From then on, I quit my job and I quit school and I was like, “I’m going to figure out a way to pay my bills. I’ll do whatever.” So, I worked every odd job in Nashville. I started co-writing with people, started learning the town and I would go and sit for hours and watch shows and just see how Nashville worked. I started writing with my friends and slowly but surely started building my group of people out here."  Pretty cool!

Her first hit ended up being a viral TikTok track - "Just About Over You."  After that one hit, she got to really record the song, and it was successful on the iTunes charts, leading to a record deal.  That one is still her top track, with 65.2 million streams.

Honestly, that is a very good song.  The idea of still looking for your ex's car when you are out driving, but also the cinematic bit of her almost making it out of love and then seeing him to throw her life back in to disarray.  I wouldn't normally aim for the pop country stuff in my tastes, but I will readily admit that this is a good tune.  "I Bet You Wanna Know" and "Wish You Were The Whiskey" are similar tunes, semi-sad songs sung to a lover.  "My Bar" is sort of like that too, but it is more of a tough song telling him that she doesn't care anymore.  That is her second-most streamed tune.

For whatever reason, in 2023, she released three different EPs and then another in 2024, instead of just putting out an album.  I'll never understand what that makes sense.  And also, her hits from the first album were included on those EPs?  Don't get it.  But the 2024 EP has a track that has gotten some traction re-arranging the phrase "Good on You."  15.4 million streams.

Sounds like there is some autotune type effects on that voice there, which is annoying.  That one is not as good to me as the earlier hit, but I still get the sentiment.

But she also has some party tunes and funny songs.  She's also got "PMS" and "Thick Thighs" for levity and fun.  I'll give you that second one here - "Thick Thighs," with 8.5 million streams.

A little Lizzo-esque body positivity action.  Sort of reminds me of some of the clever lyrics that Kacey Musgraves has done in her catalog.  And also, "I never eat the produce that I buy" rings very extremely true.  That would be a fun song to sing along to.  I'm genuinely shocked, but I've enjoyed listening to her.  I know that I have been crapping on some of the other pop country stuff on this poster, but this is much more enjoyable.

Gavin Adcock

One Liner: Raw young country guy from Georgia giving me nothing

Wikipedia Genre: No Wikipedia - country

Home: Watkinsville, GA

Sunday.

Thoughts:  I figured this guy must be a star to have his name up there on the poster, but I've never heard the name before.  My initial impression is that this is pretty terrible.  A rough voice that doesn't quite get where it wants to go, and some generic lyrics.  Sorry, I'm sure that someone out there thinks this is great, but I'm surprised at how lo-fi and unpolished this sounds.  Like a kid in high school made this in his bedroom hoping to get noticed by a girl.  And she turned him down.

Let's find out who he is - maybe then we'll understand?  He doesn't have a Wikipedia page, but I now know that he is from Oconee County, GA.  He grew up in Watkinsville working his family ranch and dreaming of riding bulls in the PBR.  He went to Georgia Southern to play football but hurt his knee in 2021 and turned to making music during rehab.  So, good to know that he isn't some long-established star I should have known.  But I am also disappointed that a sub-headliner is this uninteresting to me.

As I keep listening, I'm wondering if this is just the Gen Alpha version of Charlie Robison.  Ex-football player going into music about good times and hard drinking and whatnot.  And because I'm old, I just don't get the appeal anymore and would rather just hear "My Hometown" and "Indianola" again instead.  Interesting.

2022 EP called Thrivin Here, 2023 album Bonfire Blackout, and 2024 album Actin' Up Again (at least by now he learned how to use an apostrophe).  The early stuff is somehow even more raw, and a little more twangy.  I could see that one being released so that he could sell something after playing the local bar in the Georgia Southern strip.  But "Ain't No Cure" from that first EP has 40 million streams, making it one of his top tracks.

There we go with the usual - frequent mentions of his truck and his lady's nice legs and cruising down the road.  This song also made it on to the 2023 album, and is his second biggest streamer overall.  HIs top streamer is from the new album, named "A Cigarette" with 67.9 million streams.

You know that scene in Big when the annoying prick at the toy company is trying to explain his stupid building transformer thing, and Josh is like "I don't get it."  That is running through my mind right now as I keep listening.  Maybe this one is tapping in to the Zach Bryan whirlwind because its basic and stripped down?  Dunno.  I have no interest in seeing this one live.

Diamond Rio (2025)

One Liner: 90's Nashville country, power harmonies, supreme mullets, and that "Meet in the Middle" tune

Wikipedia Genre: Country

Home: Nashville

Saturday.

Thoughts:  Back again after being here in 2023.  This was my fear about the Two Step format, you are going to run out of the classic stuff and have to go back to the same guys over and over.

But hell yeah.  "Meet in the Middle," I remember this tune.  Solid classic country tune from 1991.  Not sure I remember hearing it back when it came out, as country was not on my radar back in the heyday of grunge, but between my wife's music tastes and the music exclusively played at the one bar in Sherman, Texas during college, I definitely know the chorus to this one.  Also, money mullets, baby.  151.4 million streams (up almost 50 million since 2023!).

They really leaned into the cinematic start on that video.  Also, the start reminded me of the characters in Road House, meeting and maybe arguing in a barn and then driving away in a jeep with the feathered blond hair.  The Uke player in the mountain man fringe jacket is also super dope.  Honestly, a really fun song with great harmonies.  On that same debut album, "Norma Jean Riley," with its chorus of "fool! fool!" also rings a bell.

The band was originally formed in 1982 as an attraction at the Opryland USA theme park in Nashville, but they were originally known as the Grizzly River Boys (after a ride at the park), and then the Tennessee River Boys.  They went through some lineup changes in the early days, but have stuck with the same core six members since 1989.  When "Meet in the Middle" blew up, it became the first time ever for a band's debut single to go to number 1 on the Billboard Hot Country charts.  Since then, they've put a bunch of singles into the charts, had three platinum albums, a Grammy, and a bunch of other awards and nominations.

They have 8 studio albums, 5 greatest hits compilations, a live disc, and two Christmas specials, but nothing new since 2015.  After listening to their top songs, the strange thing to me was that many of these songs sound really familiar.  They don't have the stream counts of that one big hit, which would lead me to think they were not big time hits, but "Beautiful Mess," from 2002's Completely, "One More Day" from 2001's One More Day (feels like a song that would have been in an old romcom), and "Love a Little Stronger" 1994's album of the same name - all of those definitely ring a bell.  That last one definitely does, I wonder if it got play at camp dances back in 1994?  14.1 million streams.

Again, top notch harmonies make the difference.  Strong tune.  I mean, don't get me wrong, this is some cheesy ass country stuff.  "You're Gone" kind of woke me up to that fact, after I'd been generally bopping along to most of these songs and thinking that this was better than I expected.  It is definitely better than I expected, but it is also mid-90's to mid-00's Nashville formula tunes.  But that being said, I'd absolutely go watch it live.

Also, they actually do have a "new" song.  "The Kick" is an instrumental freakout released in 2023 that showcases that they still have the chops to jam out.  Not many streams but still I think it shows that they sound pretty good!

#1, looks like we added new members with the fiddle and drums and #2 that almost sounds like a jam band song.  Let's goooooooo!

Randall King (2025)

One Liner:  Pure country in a classic sense but from a new guy

Wikipedia Genre:  No Wikipedia, but country

Home: Amarillo

Poster Position: 3 (14) 
Both Weekends.
Sunday at 1:30.

Thoughts:  Part of the 2023 ACL lineup who has joined his fellow country friends here in the Two Step Club.

I am guessing this is not the American-born former professional tennis player that Wikipedia wants to tell me all about.  Because it would be surprising to me if the guy singing this straight-forward Nashvillian country was ever playing tennis professionally for Hong Kong in the Davis Cup.

Several of his photos online make me laugh - like he practiced for SO LONG in the mirror just the perfect smirking half-smile that would match his cowboy hat brim.  It is too excellent.  The music itself is pure country traditionalism.  A man raised on King George, Garth, and Alan, and now here to hew as closely as possible to that world like a hip-hugging pair of Rocky Mountains painted on to a line-dancing queen.  His website bio says that he grew up "on the endless plains of West Texas," and says that he grew up emulating Keith Whitley, George Strait, Alan Jackson, and John Anderson.  Two out of four for my guesses!  I was really hoping that somewhere it would tell me he is from Dallas, or something, so that I could make fun of people not understanding Texas geography again.  Sadly, he's from Amarillo, and while that is pretty dang north in Texas, I'd also agree with the fact that when people say west Texas, that includes Amarillo (while "north Texas" is more of DFW and surrounding areas).  No less than the Texas Dept. of Transportation agrees.

Three albums - 2018's Randall King, 2022's Shot Glass, and 2024's Into the Neon - and a handful of EPs over the years.  His top streamer is from that second album - "You in a Honky Tonk" with 40.2 million streams.

I mean, you know what you are getting in the first three seconds - that is 100% an old school country tune.  Loogit that smirking smile as he's singing!  Cracking me up how perfect that is.  I have to say, this takes me back to some good times in college dancing at a shitty honky-tonk bar (not that I was dancing with skill that was even in the 10th percentile of how those dudes are throwing the ladies around in that video).

HIs cover of "I'll Fly Away" is straight up beautiful.  And to add to the beauty (and sadness), here is a little tidbit he has said about it: "King's cover of the gospel classic "I'll Fly Away," which appears on his 2020 EP, is the song he was singing when his sister Leanna died.  "When she passed, she was in the ICU, and me and all my family were gathered around an oak tree — only my dad could be in there [with her]," King recalls. "He sort of put us on speakerphone, laid it by her head. Me and the whole family sang gospel songs for about 45 minutes, and then we get into that song, and that's when she went.""  Sad stuff, but it really is a lovely song.

His second-biggest streamer is from the first album.  "Mirror Mirror," with 20.7 million streams and another purely country sound.

Did he sing about the mirror because of how much time he had spent practicing that smirk/smile thing in the mirror and it was his best friend?  Inquiring minds.

The brand new disc brings the same stuff - a little cheese, a pure country voice, the usual assortment of instruments and sound - without any fluff or weird rap turbulence.  The big track from it is "Burns Like Her," and I know you can easily guess that this is a metaphor for a drink that will burn a hole in his throat.  19.6 million streams.

Sounds like Nashville to me, Pop.  

This is reminding me of the Midland dudes who are so purely traditional that it takes me back to the things I fell in love with in the 90's.  I'm sure if I dug through his catalog, I'd find some mention of TIGHT FITTIN' JEANS DRIVIN' ME CRAAAAZEEEE! or something, but after listening along to these albums a few times, I'm enjoying it.

Tanner Usrey (2025)

One Liner:  Really great, low-key Americana guy in the vein of Zach Bryan

Wikipedia Genre:  No Wikipedia, but country and americana

Home: Prosper, Texas

Poster Position: 4 (20) 
Weekend One Only.
Sunday at 5:15

Thoughts:  This fella was at ACL in 2023, but I missed the show.

While on the beach for Labor Day, a friend asked me about what country artists would be at the Fest this year.  I told him about Randall King and Morgan Wade, and said that I guess Mumford and Lumineers are in that wheelhouse.  But I hadn't yet heard this cat - got a basic but powerful sound that makes me think of Zach Bryan, Charles Wesley Godwin, and personal favorite Chris Knight.  That kind of country that leans into southern rock sounds and great lyrics.

Originally from Prosper, Texas, which is one of those far north suburbs of DFW that probably used to be a little slice of small-town nothing, but is now likely a mega-suburb in the making full of cheap D.R. Horton homes and a high school with an 80 million dollar football stadium.  Matt Carpenter, LaTroy Hawkins, and Torii Hunter, all accomplished MLB players, were from Prosper, as are Deion Sanders and Dak Prescott.  Kind of wild to have that many stars from a little squirt of a town.

He says that he used to belt out music all the time as a little kid, that his family would tell him to shut up.  In high school he picked up a guitar and leaned into making music.  His favorite band is Whiskey Myers, which is something I have heard of before, but I don't know that I have ever heard one of their songs.  He released the Medicine Man EP in 2019, which gathered a bunch of streams, and then was featured on Yellowstone and grabbed even more listeners.

"Come Back Down" was that initial big single that got people streaming - 41.3 million streams.

Basic on the instrumentation, but a classic lost love lyrics tune.  Great sound.  "Take Me Home," a 2023 single is also great even though it is basic.  I have wondered before how it is that Zach Bryan, the most basic of singer-songwriters, using the most basic of acoustic guitar tunes underneath, can turn into such a massively HUGE phenomenon.  His show at the Two Step blew my mind because of the crowd's fervent participation.  But listening to this, I can't really see the difference.  Maybe it's all about social media or something.  Or maybe one is a good-looking ex-Navy guy and the other is a chunky bearded bro?  Who knows.  "Josephine" is lovely too.  Funny thing, the Yellowstone tune doesn't even make his top ten.  Only 3.1 million streams - and the opening of it makes me think of Stapleton's song about getting stoned.  I'll give you the top tune from his 2023 EP called Who I Am. "Take Me Home" with 22.5 million streams.

Those fan-created slip videos are so weird.  Like, setting up in a stairwell to do rock-paper-scissors and then sending that video to a country music artist for a video for a love song?  So strange.  But I like the song a lot.

Also in 2023, he released his next full album, Crossing Lines.  It features that "Take Me Home" track, and it also has his biggest song overall - "Beautiful Lies" which sounds familiar because it was also a 2019 single.  Funny thing too, there are two versions on his album, the first one features a woman named Ella Langley, but only has 1.7 million streams.  But then the non-duet version at the end of the album fires up 42.7 million streams.  I guess it got a lot of play as the 2019 single version and they just decided to add it to the new album a few times?

Parts of the new album go into more of a southern rock country type angle, but this one stays true to my feelings I had before about the Zach Bryan basic vibe.  "Down Here at the Bottom" almost sounds like the Black Crowes.

I'd definitely go check this out - this guy feels like he would put on an electric show.

Braxton Keith (2025)

One Liner:  Young guy doing classic-sounding Nashville country

Wikipedia Genre:  No Wikipedia, but country

Home: Midland, Texas

Sunday.

Thoughts:  This cat was at ACL last month, pulling an afternoon slot on Weekend Two's Saturday.  I wasn't there.

Picture-perfect classic Nashville country.  The kind of stuff singing about all of the different tropes he can come up with for "Honky Tonk City."  Also, he looks like he is eight years old, but with a little fake moustache glued to his upper lip.

I mean, WTF is that.  For real.  

Not to be confused with Keith Braxton, who was a professional basketball player who played his college ball for Saint Francis.  That is who Wikipedia thinks I want to know about.  But this fella is from Midland, Texas.  There is honestly not enough written about him.  I know he has two little brothers and counts country royalty like Bob Wills, Hank Williams, and Merle Haggard as his heroes.  So, we'll just let the tunes do the talking.

First single was in 2019, and his first EP was 2020's Neon Dreams.  That one has his top streamer with "Cold Hard Steel and Sand."  3.2 million streams.

Kind of like good old Don Edwards singing classic cowboy tunes, and yet he's singing about oil men instead.  I like it.  His voice is silly good, like he just sounds effortlessly cool.

After that one EP, its just more singles.  No real album here in the collection.  His currently most popular tune is 2024 single "Cozy," with 803k streams.

That is way too much foot movement.  I don't care what they are up to, that is too much foot movement.  His cover of "Driving My Life Away" is excellent.  "Mama's Song" is lovely, kind of reminds me of an early Pat Green sound, but with a cool autobiographical tilt.  I guess his dad is a doctor from Ft. Stockton.  Now I know even more about him!

Pretty solid.  Definitely a better fit for Two Step Inn than ACL, but this guy has a cool thing going on.

Sammy Kershaw (2025)

One Liner: "She Don't Know She's Beautiful" plus some other classics from the 90's

Wikipedia Genre: Country
Home: Kaplan, Louisiana

Saturday

Thoughts:  Another casualty of the bad weather last year, he's back on the menu!  No new music, so here is last year's review.

Words that just came out of my mouth - "oh hell yeah, that's a BANGER."  Had no recollection of what this cat sang, but "She Don't Know She's Beautiful" is a legit classic.  Those pesky One Direction kids tried to copy the message of it and became insanely popular, but this classic still abides.  This was the kind of song you use to carefully choose the girl you are going to dance with, so that as you sing the lyrics gently near her ear she can feel in your passion that you are talking about her.  RIP 13 year old Jack at a summer camp Rodeo dance.  RIP 19 year old Jack at Calhoun's in Sherman, Texas.

Samuel Paul Kershaw was born in south Louisiana, and is a third cousin to Doug Kershaw.  His father died when Sammy was 11, and so he started playing local roadhouses to try to support his family.  That sentence is hard AF.  When he was 12, he met his idol, Beaumont's-own, George Jones.  After that, he got the opportunity to open for Jones, Merle Haggard, and Ray Price, while still a teenager.  Unfortunately, this time also saw him grab on to a drug addiction.  But, he got clean in 1988 and started releasing albums in 1991.

Sixteen studio albums.  Three platinum and two gold.  More than 25 singles in the top 40, with ten of those into the top ten, but strangely only one #1.  The first album, Don't Go Near the Water, was released in 1991 and boasted his second-best charting song, with "Cadillac Style."  11.1 million streams now.

Amazingly awful video right there.  Love it.  He actually sounds like George Jones there.  Awesome that the trolleys in N.O. still look exactly the same, 30 years later.  But still, good song.  Classic move of combining something like car details with loving details.  I seriously love that video.  So bad and so good.

HIs second album had the banger - Haunted Heart was released in 1993.  "She Don't Know She's Beautiful" is the jam.  124.7 million streams.

Bummer, I was wanting an official video.  How do these artists not just go get the original master from CMT and get those suckers uploaded.  Obviously still a market for them.  His voice is great, the lyrics rule, just an all-timer right there.  Also on that album, "Neon Leon" has the tune (or piano line) of "Elvira," and makes me think he is talking about Deion Sanders the whole time.  "coolest man in the world for a town this size" is a great line.  And his other major hit is also on that album, "Queen of My Double-Wide Trailer."  51 million streams.

Oh come on, the start of that video looks like it is going to be the best there has ever been, and then he goes all moody like he's too good for the tried-and-true.  I do like that the guy in his story is named Earl, I wonder if that is where The Chicks got that name for their song.  "The king of the torque wrench."  I also very much like the descriptives with the "polyester curtains and the redwood deck."  "Love of My Life" is some smooth, easy-listening action.  Kenny Rogers has entered the chat.

My guy made a boss move as well, with his third album being a Christmas album.  Just flips a bird at fame and throws out an album of classic Christmas action.  But in 1994 he got back to business and releasing the normal country gold.  1994's Feelin' Good Train (which sounds like something that happens at a swingers party) included the hit "Third Rate Romance."  16.8 million streams.

Comes out of the gate like that "Baby's got her blue jeans on" song.  Wait, is that this guy too? (he actually covered it - I wonder if his is the version I know or if it was the original?)  Apparently, this was a cover, which I did not know.  The next album has an awful title - Politics, Religion and Her.  Ugh.  I'm not going to go through all of these albums now, because their popularity is steadily decreasing over time.  But in here somewhere he married singer Lorrie Morgan, who is sadly not on this lineup because that would have been fun (oh, nevermind, they are now divorced).  He's still throwing some music out in to the ether, but not much in the way of stream counts now for his last few albums.  He cracked a million with a cover of "Won't Back Down" in 2015, but it is pretty bad so I'm not bringing that to you.  I guarantee he created it so that he could use it on stage for political rallies without getting a C&D from Petty's estate.

Because, in a strange, and more recent development, he ran as a Republican for Governor of Louisiana twice - 2007 and 2010.  Both times, he finished third.

Just for "She Don't Know She's Beautiful," this guy is a real one.  Not sure if I care enough to go see the show, but it would likely be fun.

Ernest (2025)

One Liner: Buddy to Morgan Wallen making some cheesy but solid bro country

Wikipedia Genre: Country
Home: Nashville (for real - born and raised)

Saturday

Thoughts:  Why is this the freaking guy to come back again?  Couldn't they just bring Clay Walker or Clint Black back instead?  Although, as you'll see below, I am coming around on the guy with his 2024 album...

Seeing this on the poster made me grin, just because of my childhood trauma associated with the name Ernest.  My middle name is Ernest, named after my grandmother who was named Ernestine, who was named after her father, Ernest.  I am the only one of my four siblings to have a middle name, and for some demented reason my folks happened to grace me with that name just in time for this dumbass to appear in pop culture and make it hell every time some other kid learned my middle name.

After a string of awful commercials, this guy parlayed that into a string of similarly awful movies, with wonderful titles like Ernest Goes to Camp, Ernest Goes to Jail, Ernest Goes to School, or Ernest Scared Stupid.  Which of course made the other kids say these stupid movie titles as I was headed to camp, or school, or jail.  It was all very annoying.  I will say though that one of my best friends still affectionately calls me Ernie, and I'll allow it.

Anyway, this is not Ernest P. Worrell.  This is some Morgan Wallen-adjacent country singer who has the audacity to try to claim an entire first name as his own.  Ernest is a name derived from the German word ernst, which means serious.  This guy's real name is Ernest Keith Smith.  He got his start writing songs for Morgan Wallen, Florida Georgia Line, and others, and then signed his own contract in 2019.  He was actually born and raised in Nashville, which feels like a rarity among these artists who mostly moved there from somewhere else.

A few weird facts from his Wikipedia bio:

• he cites a CD of Eminem songs given to him by a friend, as well as the Space Jam soundtrack, as his "main influences."  Which is super weird for a country artist.
• He had a heart attack at age 19 because of a viral infection.  Jeez!
• He developed a drug addition while playing baseball in junior college 
• He used to play baseball against Morgan Wallen in high school and they have remained friends.
• He has a podcast called Just Being Ernest.

Sadly, his Spotify is scrubbed of his early music, which was apparently country rap with titles like "Dopeman" and "Bad Boy."  Instead, his first thing on Spotify is a 2019 album called Locals Only that is pretty straightforward country music in the Bro Country vein.  Top track is the album opener, "I Think I Love You."  14.5 million streams.

Got some of that Buffet-barefoot-in-the-sand vibe in there.  The other big song on here is even more polished and modern-country than this one ("Hard Way").  I know that the mainstream country audience isn't looking for the things that make me happy with country, but I still wish that these guys were a little less clean and a little more real.  Also, I watched a rad version of "Pancho and Lefty" recently that made me extremely happy, so maybe I'm just feeling nostalgic and this is definitely not scratching that itch.  "Takes After You" is prime cheese ("if he don't take after Jesus, I hope he takes after you!"), but it is also a pretty good song.  Dangit.

After that initial album, he dropped FLOWER SHOPS in 2022, which featured his biggest hit by far.  That track just happened to include Morgan Wallen on it, so of course that carried him up into the upper echelons of stream count.  "Flower Shops," with 264 million streams.

oooooh, wide screen video!  So cinematic!  You know what, I don't hate it.  Slightly generic song, but I like the chorus.  And I just don't know what to think about Wallen.  He sounds good on this tune, and there are no drum machines in sight, so it feels like he's okay.  Has the world actually forgiven him for the n-word incident?  Or is he remaining popular through the stubborn intransience of the country crowd?  I don't actually know.  But their voices sound nice together.  No other song on that album breaks 13 million, so pretty obvious why that was a hit.

You know what is good in his catalog?  He's got a 2023 album called ERNEST & The Fellas Unplugged.  Which is a shit album name, but I think those arrangements are good.  Also, he covers John Mayer, which is entertaining.  However, I'd like to lodge a complaint that the instruments here are, in fact, not unplugged.

New since I wrote most of that for the last time he was here, he went with a newest album, 2024's NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE, which is a ridiculous 26 songs.  An hour and twenty-eight minutes?  Who you think you got, Kelsea Chinton?  I know, dear reader, that you will be shocked by this but his top track on here features Morgan Wallen!  Who would have known?  He's also got one on here with Jelly Roll.  I had a weird moment at Labor Day this weekend when the group at the beach was very surprised that I didn't know a single Jelly Roll song.  I don't know what to say, I don't listen to country radio, and the normal stations here in Austin aren't playing that crap.  Dunno.  But I will readily admit that this Jelly Roll song is pretty classic.  In fact, I'm giving the album a shot as I get some stuff done at the desk and I'm coming around on the guy.  These songs sound really damn good.  OK, wait, the Morgan Wallen song is less good, and the one right after it is a little poppier.  Come on Ernst!?!

There are some drum machine-assisted tunes among his early tracks, but overall, I'm not mad at this guy.  And the new disc is really good.  I think I might enjoy his show, even if I wouldn't probably add these songs into my saved song rotation.

The Droptines (2025)

One Liner:  Alt-country and good lyrics are still alive and well

Wikipedia Genre:  No Wikipedia, but this is alt country and Americana and Southern Rock

Home: Concan, Texas

Sunday.

Thoughts:  Love the band name.  You'll want to make sure to pronounce it like the pokey parts of a fork, not like "teens."  This is a semi-useless aside, but I was very proud of one particular mule deer I shot one time, because it had a drop tine on it, and everyone at the deer camp was confused because supposedly a muley should never have a drop tine.  May have been some sort of hybrid white tail/mule deer.  I know you are on the edge of your seat with anticipation after that amazing anecdote.  Maybe someday I will write a novel.

The band is from Concan, Texas.  So, I guess we should tell more stories now, right?  Concan is near Leakey, and both of them get to enjoy some of the Frio River.  I've been floating on the Frio in Concan many a time, used to dove hunt near there and stay in Concan after the hunts, and that hybrid deer's head got mounted for me by an old friend who lives in Leakey and does some taxidermy on the side.  Good times.  

Well, this music is likewise some good times - their Spotify bio calls it alt-country/post-country, but it sounds like the Old 97's with the Avett Brothers to me.  Maybe a little psych rock nibbles into the edges as well, as I keep listening through the catalog.  Maybe its more like that 49 Winchester band that was at Two Step Inn last year?  Their current touring schedule is pretty rad though, if you ask me - playing the Lake Charkes Golden Nugget with Dwight Yoakum, then the 40 Watt Club in Athens, GA (RIP REM), and then the Bluebird Theater in Denver.  Legit.

Four guys, led by the vocals and lyrics of Conner Arthur.  One article out there calls him the "King of Concan," so I think they should have a song named that so that I can compare it to "King of Oklahoma" and "King of Alabama."  3 EPs and one album - 2019's The Droptines, 2021's Here's 3, 2022's 4 More, and finally 2024's The Droptines.  "Bill of Sale," originally a 2023 single, has the most streams at 2.3 million.

That voice is a little bit of the deep sound of Cash at the start.  Funny that this is the top streamer, I would definitely not say it is their best tune.  Has a cool throwback sound, but their other tunes definitely are more interesting to me.  Although I do love when it switches up the tempo in the middle.  "Army Green" is pretty damn sad.  Singing to a girl who is living it up back home while he is watching his buddy's blood melt into the sand as he eats MREs and smokes weed.  "Kammi's Pants" sounds kind of like Kings of Leon.  "Raining Where You Are" is a rockin' slice of spiteful poetry.  "New Girl," a 2022 single that never made it onto an EP or album, is the second biggest streamer with 1.1 million streams.

There's some of that Old 97's guitar jangle and driving drums.  Like the other top single, I'd actually prefer some of these other songs than that one.  But I kinda want to play that horrific goat track of a golf course.  While he can definitely veer off into questionable lyrics, like in "Things I Ain't Got" I'd still say that overall, this is a pretty great little band.  I'd definitely go watch it.

Tracy Byrd (2025)

One Liner: High Cheese rating 90's Nashville country and a DWI PSA

Wikipedia Genre: Country

Home: Nashville (but originally from Vidor!)

Saturday.

Thoughts:  Last here in 2023.

Oh hell yeah. The "Watermelon Crawl" guy!  Amazingly, several of the other songs in his top ten are also familiar to me, even though when I started this listening experience, I legitimately thought that I had never heard of anything from Byrd.  "I'm From the Country," "The Keeper of the Stars," and "Don't Take Her She's All I Got" are all classics.  But they don't have nearly the stream count of "Watermelon Crawl," so you get to kick it off with that song about avoiding DWIs.  141.4 million streams (fascinatingly, up from 90.9 in 2023?).

His face in that screen grab looks a little like a young, unfurry Ted Cruz.  That lady painting that sign and trying to sexily wipe away sweat with her forearm is amazing.  Why is Byrd singing over his shoulder like that?  Did he hurt his neck in a DWI incident and the State of Georgia made him write this song as a PSA?  Also, have you ever been to the Luling Watermelon Thump?  I went once and had a spectacular time.  Pretty sure whoever drove me home that night, likely one of my cousin-in-laws who is now in law enforcement, did not participate in the watermelon crawl to get me home.  Good times!

Oh no.  The fourth most popular song is right where my bemused enjoyment of this ends.  "Drinkin' Bone" is one of those awful, just deeply terrible country songs.  "The drinkin' bone's connected to the party bone, the party bone's connected to the stayin' out all night long, and she won't think it's funny and I wind up all alone, and the lonely bone's connected to the drinkin' bone."  Ooofff.  I mean, he's not wrong, but that is just a terrible set of lyrics right there that lives up to all of the issues with country music of this ilk.  The "Ten Rounds with Jose Cuervo" song is also terrible schlock that feels like he is trying to copy Buffett/Jackson.

But then "The Keeper of The Stars" fires up - this is a great song!  I had zero clue that it was by Tracy Byrd, but that is a cheesy-as-hell modern country classic.  A love song, leaning on God, just righteous.  That one is definitely a camp rodeo dance classic.  35.6 million streams.

Soft focus camera-work.  Little girls with pigtails.  The moon.  A white dove.  Bubbles!  They used freaking bubbles!  This video is cheese heaven.  That song is apparently popular for weddings and also won Song of the Year at the 1995's ACMs.

57 years old, Byrd got his initial break in 1993 with a single called "Holdin' Heaven," which is still in his top ten but with a very low stream count relative to the rest of his popular tunes.  Funny stuff, when I started it, I figured I had never heard it before, and then the chorus kicked in and I somehow know the whole dumb thing.  The brain is weird, man.  7.1 million streams.

I don't understand what is happening.  Do I actually like Tracy Byrd?  This one feels like it could have been George Strait, or maybe Clay Walker.  Despite my preconceptions, I like it!

Tracy Byrd is even his real name.  That is probably more normal in country than in other genres.  He grew up in Vidor, Texas, which has some sad history in the area of race relations.  But is also the hometown of Clay Walker and Don Rollins, the guy who wrote "It's Five O'Clock Somewhere."  He left Vidor and went to Lamar University and then Texas State.  A friend talked him in to singing "Your Cheatin' Heart" at one of those mall recording studios (do you remember those?  More on those in a minute) and the owner of the studio liked it so much he entered Byrd into a talent contest, leading to him signing with MCA Records.  Discovered in a mall!

The mall recording studio!?!?  I totally remember those!  I never went in to one - I wasn't much of a mall person - but I absolutely recall those things existing.  You could go into the "studio" and record yourself with a karaoke-style backing track, and they'd make you a tape or VHS of your sweet performance right there on the spot.

Reddit is telling me that the store was called Soundtracks.  I can't recall, but that is awesome.  I can't find much online about them, but I was always a little jelly of the people who went in there and got sweet recordings of their awesome singing...

His first eponymous album was 1993's Tracy Byrd, and then 1994's No Ordinary Man must have been the big hit, with several songs on there that I recognize.  After that, 1995's Love Lessons has very low stream counts, and 1996's Big Love really only has "Don't Take Her She's All I Got."  1998's I'm From the Country has that title track as a big hit.  After that, it's a wasteland of either the bad songs I outlined above or low stream stuff.  Including the awful-looking All American Texan album from 2016 with songs like "Texas Truck" and "Only Jesus."  "Texas Truck" actually sounds like he's trying to copy Lyle Lovett's "You're Not From Texas."  "Don't Call Me Momma" kind of made me smile, as goofy as it is.

Anyway, Tracy freaking Byrd!  Actually, pretty not horrible!  I'm shocked.  I literally just caught myself singing "I'm From the Country" while walking the halls a minute ago.  What is happening.

Nelly (2025)

One Liner: THE St. Louis Rapper, as far as I'm concerned, with loads of hits you know (and a new country angle that is depressing)

Wikipedia Genre: Hip hop
Home: The Lou

Day: Sunday

Thoughts: I could have sworn that he already did a Two Step, but I went back and looked and the rappers so far have been T-Pain and Ludacris (with other weird things like Diplo around as well).  I guess in my head, he is pretty much a lot like Ludacris - past his prime, famously from a certain city, and with a HUGE catalog of fun songs.

And it is good that he has a good old catalog, because there is no new album.  At least as of today.  However, he does have a terrible rap/country crossover that popped up in 2022.  MOre on that in a moment.

This guy was awesome.  If you don't agree with me, then you are a crazy person.  Or you just don't remember the power of 2000 and 2002 Nelly.  I'm going to run through the power tunes, and you're going to be like - OH YEAH!  THAT ONE RULES TOO! 

First, his freshman album, Country Grammar, from 2000.  Boasts two major hits, as well as another tune that I still love even without the major playcounts.  First, the big hit.  "Ride With Me."  672.2 million streams.

"Heeeyyyyyy, must be the money!"  Weird that they cut out the "get high with me" part of each chorus on that video.  I like the guitar strum part of the beat.  Next, my favorite from the album, "Country Grammar (Hot Shit)," which has a freaking fantastic beat and is key to my running songs mix.  262.7 million streams.  Sadly, a censored version of this too.  

Hot beat.  So fun.  He can't say "street sweeper?"  Because it connotes guns?  Censorship is weird.  Lotsa views of that video too, so this is a big hit.  Such a cool ass beat.

One more from this album, because I always like it.  "E.I.," with 80.8 million streams.

Love the Scooby Doo sound at the start, and I dig the beat of this one too.  Why can't I hear the proper cuss words?  Dammit, Nelly!  Uh ohhhhhhhh!  "Batter Up" and "Luven Me" were also popular tunes on that album, but I'll save your additional viewership for the next mega album.

Country Grammar went Diamond, meaning it sold more than ten million copies in the U.S.  Pretty sure no one does that now except for TayTay and Drake, so, pretty impressive.

2002's Nellyville also had a pile of hits.  I still randomly sing snippets of them, even 22 years later, so I think this one stands the test of time.  Also peaked at #1 on the charts, but only sold six million copies.  The top song, in my mind, is not his most streamed song (somehow).  I'll get to that #1 song in a moment, after I play the best song.  "Hot in Herre," with 575.8 million streams.

Another great beat - done by the Neptunes (Pharrell, and you can hear his little cowbell influence on it throughout).  Another unforgettable chorus (that I randomly sing to my kids all the time).  Also, "I was like, good gracious, ass is bodacious."  Word.  And, "I think ma butt gettin' big!"  This would be the best song to jam out to at the fest.  Bar none.  

Somehow, the tune with Kelly Rowland (of Destiny's Child) on it is the top track, and his overall most streamed tune.  "Dilemma" with 928.2 million streams (creeping on a billion).

Fine, although the slow jam style kind of sucks the energy out of the room to me.  Gimme those jams with the dope beats and the slick rhymes, yo!  This album has a few other hits, and a few others that I remember from owning this album 20 years ago, tracks like "#1 (24.7 million)," "Air Force Ones (87.6 million)," "Work It" (with Justin Timberlake, 7.6 million), and this next one, that I randomly sing to annoy my wife with some frequency, "Pimp Juice."  21.1 million streams.

Yessir.  That beat, which uses a little flute-ish lilt in the background (that I recognize from the outro from Geto Boys' Til Death Do Us Part), is groovy as hell.  I'm sure you can all understand how fun it is for my wife to hear me sing to her about my "Pimp Juice."  She is literally a saint.

Now, after the golden age of Nelly, I honestly didn't even know if he kept making albums.  But yep.  Looks like he just kept on plowing along, without the public along for the ride.  He really got deep with his album naming for a short while, with 2004's Suit (includes a song with freaking Tim McGraw), 2004's Sweat, and then 2005's Sweatsuit.  See what he did there?  Sweat did better than Suit, but neither of them crushed the charts.  The next album was 2008's Brass Knuckles, and the hit from that was "Body on Me," with Ashanti, with 113.6 million streams.

I don't recall ever hearing that song.  Like, ever.  But I do recall Akon now.  That guy was huge for a minute.  Not a great song.  Nelly released 5.0 in 2010, and one song on their blew up - "Just a Dream" fired up 530 million stinkin' plays.  Let's see what is up with that one.

Oh yeah.  I've heard that.  Honestly wouldn't have said it was Nelly on that one.  One of his biggest tunes, now that I see that.  Which is weird!  

In 2013, he released M.O., and it has a collaboration with Florida Georgia Line, which is the most depressing sentence I can think of writing.  Also has songs with Future, T.I., Nicki Minaj, and a bunch of others - but those don't have much in the way of streams.  Somehow, one without a collab is the top song from this album, "Hey Porsche," with 83.3 million streams.

Oh God.  No.  Oh, what just ...  oh, my ears ...  Please God, make that stop!  What is happening?  NOOOOOOOO!!!  I would not advise listening to that rap/EDM/Country pile of shit.  Just avoid it at all costs.  Stick to the good old stuff.  And a quick run through the rest of this album finds the songs more generally terrible, and not so especially, intentionally, horrifically awful.  But this album is bad.  

And then, you get the turn of the wheel that gets him on the poster to the Two Step Inn.  In 2021 he released Heartland, which is an obvious crossover attempt.  Features Florida Georgia Line, Breland, Kane Brown, Darius Rucker, etc. to get him some of that sweet,. sweet Country action.  Of course, the FGL song has 267 million streams.  Dammit.

Oh man.  Yeah, that is awful.  It makes me very sad that if I went to see his show at TSI, we might end up having to listen to this trash because he thinks the country fans want to hear him pander with this awful stuff.  He also released a 2022 single called "Birthday Girl" that is similarly countrified and awful.  Bummer.

Nelly should stick to his post-rap life, of being a generally good dude in the St. Louis community (and not the part of his post rap life that includes two sexual assault charges).  Or acting!  He was pretty solid as generic inmate #7 in the remake of the Longest Yard.  Just stop making bad new country/rap.  Either make rad old rap like you used to or keep collecting a million pounds of food to fight hunger.

I doubt that I will see this show, being that he will likely be against Ryan Bingham, but if he'll stick to the classics it would be a killer show!

Shane Smith & The Saints (2025)

One Liner:  Damn fine Texas-centric country

Wikipedia Genre: red dirt, country

Home: Austin!

Sunday at ___

Thoughts:  They came through ACL in 2016 and I remember enjoying the vibe.  The first comp that comes to mind is Turnpike Troubadours.  Not the same sound here, but these guys sound like the kind of band that has a huge following at Texas State and Sam Houston State and can sell out a frat party or small town barroom in the blink of an eye.  Basic red dirt stuff, but with a massive band all playing well to combine their forces into a party.

Four albums, 2013's Coast, 2015's Geronimo, 2019's Hail Mary, and 2024's Norther (with a pair of live albums among the rest).  This isn't quite outlaw country, but is a little bit more country than straight Americana would be, but its right in that same area of the musical map where those two nations border. Some electric guitar, some fiddle, some acoustic guitar, and pretty great lyrics that should be easy to sing along with.  Maybe it sounds a little like the Avett Brothers, if they were a little more traditionally "country."

The most streamed is one off of the 2015 album, called "All I See Is You," with 62.6 million streams.  Was under a million back in 2016, for what it's worth.

Live version, so the sound isn't quite as good as their studio version, but you get it.  High energy and fun, almost jam band-ish if it weren't for the insistent fiddling.  You also get the Yellowstone effect - that song was apparently used in Season 4 of the show, and that may be why it has popped into a major hit for them.

Huh.  Wikipedia says they are actually from Austin, which I did not realize.  I wouldn't say that you hear their name a bunch around town as a band about town.  The entire episode of Yellowstone where that song was used was named after the song, which probably ramped up the excitement a little more.  They also even appeared in the show, playing songs at an inaugural ball.  I really enjoyed parts of the first season of that show - mainly the landscape porn - but after a little while the drama and soapyness of it removed the pleasures for me.  Since then, they've gotten to play to a sold out show at Red Rocks and a jam at the Ryman, so their star is definitely shining these days.

Their old official bio claimed: "Hints of folk, rock, country and Americana all shine through an aggressive, rootsy fiddle beat stew that’s connecting with students, hipsters, bikers, roughnecks and songwriter buffs at every stop."  Fiddle beat stew.  Not going to get those words out of my mind for a bit.  They then name check Mumford & Sons, Band of Horses, Flogging Molly, and Creedence.  Bold and weird choices there, but whatever.  

Before that one hit so big, the first album boasted "Dance the Night Away," with 12.7 million streams.

A little banjo, tambourine, and you've got a good time song.  I like it, and I bet it's fun as hell to jam out to in a live setting.

However, this is also that kind of name-checking country that I used to make fun of, as pioneered by Robert Earl and Pat Green, singing about Copenhagen, Wolf Brand Chili, and Shiner Beer to establish their bona fides as real Texas boys.  That track above goes to the tried and true "cajuns and zydeco" well.  "Work Was Through" is a name-checking paradise, from Stevie Ray Vaughan to Kurt Cobain to Johnny Cash (and the Broken Spoke, although that ain't dead yet).  Other songs drop Austin, oil, Neil Young, whiskey, headin' for the coast to heal your soul, and a prayer to be buried in Texas when your time is through.  That being said, this doesn't taste as craven, so I'm not as hung up on the dropping of names and well-used tropes.  

What you realize after a few listens is that the lyrics are remarkably clear - which I love - meaning that you can really hear and understand the lyrics.  And I think these lyrics are good, worthy of being heard.  "The Mountain" is a good example, going from an a capella lament until it morphs into a fiddle breakdown, all about miners who have to go down into the under-mountain dragon who keeps the coal in his lungs.  Or "Oil Town," which evokes Springsteen over an almost Irish (maybe Boston Irish) fiddle/harmonica rock track.

The two newer albums don't stray from the system that got them here - maybe the new album is a little darker-sounding?  Like they were pissed when they made it?  You know what is funny, I then came back to the new album today, and it sort of sounds like Springsteen tried to make an Americana album.  Strange to put some space between your thoughts.  

Not too many streams for the Hail Mary album - nothing breaks 3 million - but the Norther disc has one that must be on playlists somewhere because it is over 6 million streams.  "Fire in the Ocean."

This almost has some U2/Edge guitar going on in there at the start, and when the drums come in I hear Coldplay.  No, wait, is that Kings of Leon? Something about that drum piece sounds 100% borrowed.  But I also feel like this song would force me to just start yelling WOOOOOAOAAHGAHAHHHHHH along with the chord progression if I heard it live.  If you listen to their Red Rocks live album, you can catch a feel for the experience live.  And it sounds amazing.  I'd go see this for sure.