This week’s crop of new country music finds Post Malone continuing his winning collaborative ways with a new track with Luke Combs, while Wyatt Flores and The Castellows also team up for the new track “Sober Sundays.” Furthermore, Jordan Davis trades in his signature sentimental tunes for a dusting of flirtatious attitude in his new song, “I Ain’t Sayin’.”
Check out all of these and more in Billboard‘s roundup of the best country songs of the week below.
Post Malone feat. Luke Combs, “Guy For That”
So far, the songs Post Malone has released to preview his upcoming country debut F-1 Trillion have been uptempo heaters including the Morgan Wallen hit “I Had Some Help” and the Blake Shelton collab “Pour Me a Drink.” He continues his high-octane, stadium-sized slate of anthems with this Luke Combs collaboration, in which a heartbroken guy muses that over the years, he’s amassed a network to help with almost everything — from resoling boots to designing rifles — but there’s no high-profile connection that can do the life-transformational work of changing to help convince an ex-lover to return. Post’s and Combs’ voices pair mightily and they are both co-writers on the track (with Charlie Handsome, Ernest, Hoskins, James McNair and Louis Bell). This song seems poised to join his previous collabs in surging up the country charts.
Wyatt Flores and The Castellows, “Sober Sundays”
Two of country music’s brightest new upstarts team up for this gorgeous, piano and mandolin-inflected track. “I’ll steady your hands/ Even when they shake,” they sing, as this song centers around offering a supportive, non-judgmental refuge as a friend navigates a journey toward sobriety. Wyatt Flores has steadily been establishing his reputation as a formidable singer-songwriter with a slate of open-hearted, relatable songs such as those on his EP Half Life, while sibling trio The Castellows, with their winsome vocal blending and roots-driven arrangements, are providing a fresh, down-home, Americana-influenced sound for a new generation. Flores wrote the song with The Castellows’ Powell, Eleanor and Lily Balkcom.
Jordan Davis, “I Ain’t Sayin’”
With previous releases such as “Buy Dirt” and “Next Thing You Know,” Jordan Davis has established a reputation for singing earnest love songs, but on his new breezy toe-tapper, he serves up a potent reminder that he knows his way around a song with some attitude, too. This sleek, groovy summer song finds Davis singing a tale of a guy who finds a lonely young woman at a bar, and he has no trouble reminding her that while he may not be a long-term lover, the guy who left her spending her time alone sure isn’t, either. Travis Wood, Steve Moakler, Mark Holman and Emily Reid crafted the song, with production from Paul DiGiovanni.
Greylan James, “Who Broke Up With You”
Knoxville, Tennessee native James has steadily ascended the ranks as one of Music City’s top tunecrafters, penning songs recorded by artists including Kenny Chesney, Cole Swindell, Darius Rucker, Chris Janson and more, as well as his work as a co-writer on the Jordan Davis hit “Next Thing You Know,” which also earned James his first CMA nomination for song of the year. But James also possesses a voice capable of translating his songs in his own relatable, laid-back vocal. He previously released his debut single, “Young Man,” and follows it with this uptempo track that centers around someone who meets a potential lover on the dance floor and is bewildered that anyone would break up with her. “I’d hate to be him when he comes to his senses and he figures it out,” he sings over a latticework of electric guitars and relentless percussion, proving that he can not only craft hits — he can sing them just fine, too.
Tigirlily Gold, Blonde
This sister duo was raised in North Dakota and spent years playing all-nighters, honing their sound in Nashville’s downtown bar scene. Now, they celebrate their first full-fledged album, Blonde. Scattered across the album’s 10 polished, contemporary country tracks are sassy romantic kiss-offs (“Leroy,” “Stupid Prizes”), breakup anthems (“I Tried a Ring On”), rowdy night-on-the-town soundtracks (“Shoot Tequila”) and even an ode to both Marilyn Monroe and Dolly Parton (“Blonde”). Threading all of them together is an energetic confidence and buoyant charm, while the album is underpinned by a stout adherence to heart-on-the-sleeve, slice of life songwriting.
Ryan and Rory, “This Town”
Nashville native Ryan Follese teamed with North Carolina native Rory John Zak to create their debut, six-song EP, on which Follese co-wrote every song, five of those with his parents and fellow hit songcrafters, Keith and Adrienne Follese. Meanwhile, Zak further elevated these song constructions with his instrumental contributions, layered with swirling production and the duo’s warm, effervescent harmonies. Among the standouts on the project is “This Town,” packed with feelings of young love and wanderlust, and a desire to flee their overly-familiar hometown to “Get way on out where the lost get found.” A promising effort from this new duo.
Jeannie Seely, “Suffertime”
Seely had a full-circle moment in recording “Suffertime” in tribute to her late friend and fellow artist, Dottie West, at Nashville’s historic RCA Studio B; she had her first recording session at the same studio, nearly six decades ago. At 84, Seely still retains much of the “country soul” style of singing; on this harmonica-laced track, she turns in a raw, forlorn vocal rendering of someone who returns to the same old places that she frequented with a one-time lover. Backed by a slate of ace musicians, she makes this 1966 West classic sound simultaneously intimate, fresh and timeless.