Arts & Culture

Kelsea Ballerini Has Rolled Up the Welcome Mat for the Second Time, and It’s Even Better Now

By |

In 2023, country-pop standout Kelsea Ballerini surprise-released a six-song EP entitled Rolling Up the Welcome Mat centered around her very public divorce from Morgan Evans (ironic, since the EP was released on Valentine’s Day). This release was accompanied by a twenty-minute short film that depicted her experience song by song. On Aug. 1, 2023 she revealed to fans that she would be releasing an extended version of the EP, and on Aug. 11 Rolling Up the Welcome Mat (For Good) hit all platforms. I don’t ordinarily consider myself a country music fan, but I was absolutely blown away by the nuance, lyricism and just plain talent Ballerini exhibited in the original EP and short film as well as the extended version.

Arts & Culture

Feelings and Americana in Zach Bryan’s Zach Bryan

By |

I’m a recent convert to country music. At one point, I might have given the usual line that I listen to “anything but country” — now, if you see me driving around campus with my windows down, you’ll probably hear me blasting my hours-long “country era” playlist. This week, the country album of choice has been Zach Bryan’s new self-titled album, a raw 54 minutes of poetry, folk and Americana. 

On August 25, Bryan released his fourth full-length album since his debut DeAnn (2019). In the last four years, Bryan has amassed over 16 million monthly listeners on Spotify and sold out shows nationwide. Yet, despite his quickly-earned success, Zach Bryan does not pose as anything other than Zach Bryan.

Arts & Culture

JONES | Everything Except Country

By |

I remember this being a very fashionable response to “What kind of music do you like?” back in junior high California. Country wasn’t a cool thing to like: too safe and too corny, too all-American for an age when kids are excited by anything that claims to challenge authority, like the aggressive punk and rap to which my friends and I gravitated. “Everything except country,” besides being a non-answer, really only addresses the genre of music that is currently played on “country” radio. These songs are far in sound, style, and substance from the music that formed in the American South as an amalgam of blues and folk. There is really nothing on country radio today that is simply country.