The 25 Best Americana Albums of 2025

25. Charlie Kaplan – A Hat Upon the Bed (Glamour Gowns)

A Hat Upon the Bed is, according to Charlie Kaplan, about “the line between the knowable and unknowable; truth and superstition; science and magic; natural and supernatural; life and death”. Kaplan may not have the answers, but he enjoys pondering them, and the unknowingness of death and the unshakable bonds of love result in some beautiful, open-ended music.

It’s no surprise that A Hat Upon the Bed is a double album. Charlie Kaplan has so much to unload that chronicles that “fatherless decade”. He’s always been a master of creating the perfect arrangement around his engaging, deeply felt compositions, but this time around, he’s at his absolute peak. A Hat Upon the Bed is a towering, emotionally honest work of art. – Chris Ingalls

24. West Texas Exiles – 8000 Days (Floating Mesa)

As the name suggests, West Texas Exiles are a ragtag group from assorted areas of the western region of the Lone Star State. The guys are rooted in Austin now, where 8000 Days was recorded (Studio 601) and where they have a residency at the country’s best dive bar (the Continental Club). The glory days of the “Live Music Capital of the World” may be over. Still, the Exiles do a fine job of recapturing their legendary cosmic cowboy shitkicker sound that made the Texas capital famous. Like the bluebonnet, the West Texas Exiles provide a new flowering on the already fertile soil. – Steve Horowitz

23. Ethel Cain – Willoughby Tucker, I’ll Always Love You (Daughters of Cain)

Make no mistake, Willoughby Tucker, I’ll Always Love You is a dark, heavy listen. It continues in the vein of Perverts from earlier this year, amping up the ambient and drone elements and making the slowcore aspects even more austere and uncompromising. It’s also some of the most gorgeous music released this year so far. Cain’s vocals are unparalleled, as silky and unblemished as white satin ribbon. The guitars are immaculate, burning through the murk like white phosphorus work lights, leaving you seeing spots and stars. It’s another ambitious entry in an increasingly flawless discography. Hopefully, we won’t have to wait too long for Preacher’s Daughter Part III! – J Simpson

22. BettySoo – If You Never Go Away (Independent)

If you have been keeping up with the news lately, you hope BettySoo is right when she sings, “Things are gonna get worse before they get better.” The singer doesn’t mean politically—or just politically—life, love, and anything that really matters seem to suck right now, but BettySoo is no pessimist. The self-proclaimed “Queen of the Bummer Jam” asserts things will rebound. The delicious baker’s dozen tracks on her latest album, If You Never Go Away, suggest that even if one’s life is falling apart, there are better days ahead.

If You Never Go Away should win her new fans. She’s a triple threat. She’s got a great voice, plays a mean acoustic guitar, and writes insightful lyrics. She also has a sly sense of humor and a sultry sensibility. Songs such as “What Do You Want From Me Now”, “Love, Fear, or Hunger”, and “Light It Up” burn with the yin/yang of attraction and repulsion. She has a match, and she knows how to use it! – Steve Horowitz

21. Anderson East – Worthy (Rounder)

About four years have passed since Anderson East’s last record. The smooth-voiced country singer has mellowed into a more soulful groove, complete with a horn section. The ten tracks on Worthy smolder and burn as he sings about his frailties and failures, and when the singing bursts into flames, the feelings seem earned. The passion in his voice is upfront. Like a phoenix rising above the ashes, he conquers his fears with the knowledge that simply surviving is a victory in itself.

Anderson East conveys the ordinary magic of love by plainly declaring its quotidian qualities. There are zillions of stars to wish upon, like there are many people one could fall in love with, but when one finds the special one, one might not feel worthy. That humbleness is part of the wonder of it all. – Steve Horowitz

20. Joshua Ray Walker – Tropicana (Thirty Tigers)

Joshua Ray Walker described this album as “Country music in a Hawaiian shirt” and named Jimmy Buffett and George Strait as influences. The result is another terrific Walker record that’s as intimate and personal as the more self-referential story songs he has written and delivered in the past. The Texan has always been able to inhabit his (frequently) absurdist tales as if they were confessional, even when it is clear they are not autobiographical.

Part of this is due to his remarkable tenor voice. He always seems to mean what he sings. The narrators of his tales offer an eye for detail that suggests they are observing what they cannot see, and combined with Walker’s wry sense of humor, they come off as real people in actual situations. – Steve Horowitz

19. James McMurtry – The Black Dog and the Wandering Boy (New West)

The brilliant singer-songwriter James McMurtry opens his latest ten-track opus, The Black Dog and the Wandering Boy, with a hard-rocking cover of somebody else’s song: Jon Dee Graham‘s “Laredo (Small Dark Something)”. It’s a classy move. The two Austin musicians are regulars at the city’s main dive, the Continental Club, and share aesthetic values.

McMurtry does a killer version of Graham’s tale of junkie misery, and that’s just the start! The following eight self-penned tracks show the Texan’s ability to address current issues and fanciful concerns with a sharp wit, a critical eye, and a heavy-hitting pulse. He moralizes without preaching by presenting the conflicting details of American life in the 21st century. – Steve Horowitz

18. Grey DeLisle & Friends – It’s All Her Fault: A Tribute to Cindy Walker (Hummin’bird)

Grey DeLisle, a longtime admirer of Cindy Walker, is best known for her voice acting work, but she’s also a Grammy-winning singer-songwriter. With her own deep roots in music, DeLisle recognizes the significance of Walker’s legacy as a pioneering country music auteur. So when she learned that Walker’s childhood home was deteriorating, she rallied a group of female country artists to record a tribute album. The proceeds will support the restoration efforts led by the Cindy Walker Foundation.

The results are outstanding, which is not surprising considering the talents of those contributing to the project and Walker’s songwriting prowess. Highlights include Amythyst Kiah’s solo acoustic rendition of “Goin’ Away Party”, a tearjerker sung with an intimate sneer; Mandy Barnett’s swinging “Dream Baby (How Long Must I Dream), and Gail Davies’ weepy “Warm Red Wine”. While the individual tracks all have merit, there is not a weak cut on the record; the results are serendipitously better than the sum of its parts. – Steve Horowitz

17. Amanda Shires – Nobody’s Girl (ATO)

Amanda Shires’ album, which finds her doing plenty of stock-taking about her own path forward (“You can’t hold your breath the rest of your life,” she acknowledges on the touching penultimate track), is no cheap airing of dirty laundry. These are honest songs, and anger is a legitimate emotion worth probing. Foxes on the Snow is evidence enough that Isbell wouldn’t call himself perfect.

However, while Nobody’s Girl will likely draw attention for its unsparing lyrics, its real artistic breakthrough for Shires comes in its compositional structure rather than its words. The first four numbers after “Invocation” stick at a mid-tempo pace that lulls even when Shires is at her most cutting lyrically, but then something remarkable happens with “Lose It for Awhile”. – Brice Ezell

16. Lilly Hiatt – Forever (New West)

Lilly Hiatt is in love; she loves life and wants you to know it. Listening to Forever, her first album in four years, one can’t help but get swept along in her romantic bliss and the music’s hypnotic pulse. Psychedelic textures wrap around distorted guitars as they swirl through fuzz-soaked vocals, underscoring an overall purple haze of sound.

Garage rock, power pop, and grungy alternative, Forever exhibits a perfect marriage of 1960s and 1990s musical aesthetics while keeping a keen ear on the now. Lyrically, Lilly Hiatt celebrates the joy of love, even if at times she’s frightened by her vulnerability. Forever celebrates the experiences couples have, the memories they create, and the struggles they overcome together. “Get lost with me,” Hiatt sings in “Somewhere”. It’s a pair in love, just trying to hide away, trying to live their life on their terms as the world falls apart around them. – Michael Elliott

15. Rodney Crowell – Airline Highway (New West)

Airline Highway reveals Rodney Crowell is still the master of diamonds and dirt, as he labeled his seminal 1988 album. He sees the world through grease-stained glasses that bring out the shine in the quotidian reality. His music has a gritty edge and a poetic sensibility. That’s clear from the very beginning, with opening lyrics on “Rainy Days in California” that announce, “Days fly by me like dragons, oil well fires, and car tire smoke” sung over a nasty electric guitar lick. He simultaneously lives in a magic world of flying lizards and industrial pollution whose qualities are emphasized by musical accompaniment.

Airline Highway provides evidence of Crowell’s literary craftsmanship as a songwriter. He doesn’t try to sing or play to impress as much as to serve the material. The songs are his master and mistress here. – Steve Horowitz

14. Julien Baker and Torres – Send a Prayer My Way (Matador)

Torres and Julien Baker have co-written a compact, yet rich collection of songs that testifies to their skill as country music practitioners. Their songs draw on many building blocks that have historically supported the various additions to country music’s structure. On the one hand, country music has excelled at delivering what Dolly Parton calls “sad ass songs”, tales of the mundane, but very real, woes of everyday folks. These are the commonalities of human life, like lost love, betrayal, working-class struggles, joy and sorrow, addiction, resilience, toxic religion, and the surprise of redemption. 

On the other hand, Baker and Mackenzie Scott are attuned to the wry humor of outlaw country legends like Willie Nelson, grasping the vein in country music’s lineage that recognizes hard-won joy as a kissing cousin to not taking oneself too seriously. – Rick Quinn

13. I’m With Her – Wild and Clear and Blue (Rounder)

Wild and Clear and Blue is the kind of album that initially knocks one out because of the obvious talents of its performers, but then sneaks up on the listener upon reflection through an appreciation of its deeper concerns. For example, as the title cut says, paradise is anywhere when one is a kid. John Prine may have been singing about coal mines and Muhlenberg County, Kentucky, but as the mother in the I’m With Her song implies, it is that special place we all had when we were young that has been superseded by development and time.

The album as a whole provides a comforting aural space. Being wild means not limiting oneself to social expectations; staying clear suggests staying mentally aware; and blue evokes the pleasure of seeing color and the sadness of mortality. Music can stimulate these thoughts and emotions; as the group’s name indicates, we can appreciate our situation together. – Steve Horowitz

12. AVTT/PTTN – AVTT/PTTN (Thirty Tigers / Ramseur / Ipecac)

On first listen, the self-titled record registers as pure Avett Brothers, as dusty, roots-centric acoustic fare that might as well come pre-packaged with a mason jar. You could be forgiven for assuming Patton basically holstered his whole deal and agreed to play the quiet cousin in the corner. Still, by the third or fourth spin, the paint peels off, and you realize these songs aren’t nearly as plainspoken as their flannel-and-fretwork surfaces imply. The record broods and might even irritate the fanbases on both ends, which, knowing Mike Patton, could be at least partially the point. Though for all the record’s shadows and splinters, it features some of the most heart-on-sleeve tunes either party has ever coughed up. – Matthew McEver

11. S.G. Goodman – Planting by the Signs (Planting by the Signs)

Hickman, Kentucky’s S.G. Goodman remembers the specifics of her small-town youth with exacting clarity. It is not only the place of her youth. Hickman is the center of her spiritual universe, where people pray to satellites, plant farm crops according to moon cycles, and see Satan daily. Goodman provides the details of daily life in that part of rural Kentucky, food, work, and such, as a badge of authenticity, even as she questions what is real and what is not. Each reference she offers conveys several possible latent truths.

Goodman’s songs are haunted and haunting. Her baritone voice squeaks and squawks, maintaining a conversational tone as she tells surrealistic tales of sadness and suffering, suffused with hope and glory. She sees death thumbing a ride by the Texaco station, God in the river, and the sun shining on the same dog’s ass every day. The singer-songwriter has seen the light and even known love. Her musical accompaniment is deceptively simple, often veering into unexpected tangents.

Goodman relies on a steady, pulsing percussion that resembles a beating heart to keep her protagonists’ stories moving forward. Her life goes on as others may die, even her little dog. She knows we are all headed to the same place eventually. In her allegorical retelling of Biblical truths, even a drunken Jesus wants a ride to heaven. Amen, brothers and sisters. She instructs us to have a little faith. – Steve Horowitz

10. Ashley Monroe – Tennessee Lightning (Mountainrose Sparrow)

Ashley Monroe’s latest album, Tennessee Lightning, is all over the place musically. The songs range from solo acoustic tunes to fun rocking country tunes with a hot band to a gospel prayer. The topics span from the confessional to the fantastic, from self-penned originals to covers of cuts made popular by other artists. Monroe appropriately describes the record as “a patchwork quilt of my life” because of the breadth and scope of its 17 tracks. After several years of musical silence brought on by a battle with cancer, Monroe now has plenty to say—well, sing—about. Monroe implies that lightning can strike twice, once as insight and again as a reminder of the spiritual world beyond oneself. – Steve Horowitz

9. Molly Tuttle – So Long Little Miss Sunshine (Nonesuch)

Molly Tuttle’s two albums with Golden Highway, her band of skilled bluegrass players, earned her Grammy nominations and recognition outside of the bluegrass world. Tuttle, restless, apparently decided that was enough, so she broke up the band and recorded the pop-country-oriented So Long Little Miss Sunshine using Nashville session players. Yet the sparkling results speak for themselves.

Tuttle’s songwriting really shines across these 12 tracks. There are bright love songs (featuring her romantic partner, Ketch Secor, on fiddle and backing vocals), upbeat rockers (“Old Me [New Wig]”), and one fierce topical takedown (“Everything Burns”). The single, “That’s Gonna Leave a Mark”, feels maybe a little too poppy at first, but damn if it doesn’t get lodged in your head. Tuttle also successfully revisits some of her songwriting staples. The murder ballad “Rosalee” has a real kick, as does the self-affirming closer, “Story of My So-Called Life”.

Through it all, Tuttle often emphasizes her bluegrass guitar style, tethering So Long Little Miss Sunshine firmly to her past while simultaneously looking forward to her future. – Chris Conaton

8. Hailey Whitters – Corn Queen (Pigasus / Big Loud / Songs & Daughters)

Hailey Whitters hails from a small town in the Midwest and embraces her roots. While others may eschew being called a “Corn Queen” as an insult, the Shueyville, Iowa, native takes pride in her rural origins. The 16 tracks on her overstuffed new record are full of coy references to her bucolic upbringing. She’s not afraid of being, well, corny. For example, she knows corn queen rhymes with porn queen and wears an embroidered pair of panties with the words spelled out on her rump. It’s funny, but it’s not, in the way sex and love make fools out of us all. She shows us her butt, and that makes us the butt of her joke for just looking. – Steve Horowitz

7. Jason Isbell – Foxes in the Snow (Southeastern)

Foxes in the Snow is the first time Jason Isbell has made an album alone. It’s a record with no backing band or instruments, just Isbell and an acoustic guitar. It’s also Isbell’s first record since his late 2023 divorce from his longtime partner, musician Amanda Shires. The couple had been public about their difficulties, in the press, online, and in the 2023 documentary about Isbell, Running With Our Eyes Closed. This, however, is the first chance Isbell has had to address the emotional fallout through song.

Given Isbell’s track record as a songwriter, it’s no surprise that a completely stripped-down record is one of his best. The end of his marriage hangs over these songs, but Isbell is too experienced as a songwriter to spend the entire record wallowing in sadness and anger. Despite the simple setup, he’s also not interested in making every track explicitly personal, evoking a wide array of moods and styles. – Chris Conaton

6. Jesse Welles – Middle (Independent)

If listeners thought Jesse Welles was one-dimensional, he proves to be well-versed in many of the hallmarks of Americana, ranging from front porch strumming to loose and freewheeling rock and roll. Like many of the masters before him (Pete Seeger, Dylan, Neil Young), he incorporates history, mythology, and religion with ease, proving he’s not just a songsmith for contemporary times.

On Middle, new and old fans alike will find plenty to appreciate in what feels like Welles’ first fully formed effort. Even if Welles builds on a history of protest music, he has a way of pointing out power imbalances, stupidity, and atrocities in a frank, darkly comical manner that feels refreshing. – Patrick Gill

5. Margo Price – Hard Headed Woman (Loma Vista)

Margo Price lets the listener know right away; she’s a hardheaded woman. She unpretentiously declares that in the opening acoustic “Prelude”. That doesn’t mean she’s cold-hearted. The opposite is true. She’s hardheaded in the sense that she’ll stubbornly stand up for the things she believes in. Her emotional warmth pervades her worldview and artistic sensibility. However, don’t mistake her compassion for weakness, or she will kick your butt down the street and back again. Price is one tough cookie.

You can feel Price’s self-righteous anger on songs that have the word “don’t” in their titles, such as “I Just Don’t Give a Damn”, “Don’t Wake Me Up”, and “Don’t Let the Bastards Get You Down”. “I Just Don’t Give a Damn” rollickingly aims at her detractors, backed by a blaring horn and searing guitar licks. “Don’t Wake Me Up” features folkie Jesse Welles in a Bob Dylan-style ballad, reminiscent of “Subterranean Homesick Blues”, that presents their shared attitude towards the bullshit masquerading as truth in this modern world. – Steve Horowitz

4. Patterson Hood – Exploding Trees and Airplane Screams (ATO)

For as prolific as Drive By Truckers are, it is surprising that it’s been more than ten years since we’ve received a Patterson Hood solo album. Oftentimes, solo albums are opportunities for band members to try material that wouldn’t quite fit on their group’s main releases. However, these albums are rarely as fully formed as Exploding Trees & Airplane Screams.

Hood, ever the accomplished storyteller, compiled nearly two decades’ worth of songs he had previously worked on. Thanks to producer Chris Funk, well known for his own ornate collages with The Decemberists, Exploding Trees & Airplane Screams sounds anything but “cobbled together.”  Lydia Loveless, Wednesday, and Waxahatchee contribute some wonderful support on an album that is destined to become a fixture on many “ultimate winter album” lists. – Sean McCarthy

3. The Devil Makes Three – Spirits (New West)

The Devil Makes Three’s Spirits is a spellbinding mix of foot-stomping rhythms, soul-stirring storytelling, and their triumphant return after a seven-year hiatus since the 2018 Chains Are Broken release. Spirits is a celebration and a reckoning. Each song unfolds like a parable, interconnecting striking imagery and hardscrabble truths to portray loss, addiction, and resilience. Musically, it reflects Americana’s lively spirit, blues’ melancholic essence, and folk’s grounding nature. Each genre contributes to Spirits’ testimony of the pain and perseverance that define the human experience.

Spirits‘ defining theme centralizes grief. The title track depicts a profound sadness underlined by an overwhelming weight of loss. The song’s repetition of “too many spirits” emphasizes an overpowering presence of memories and unresolved emotions. There is an apparent inability to find solace in the face of loss. – Elisabeth Woronzoff

2. Neko Case – Neon Grey Midnight Green (Anti-)

Neko Case’s latest album, Neon Grey Midnight Green, is her eighth full-length studio record since 1997. She still possesses the same bittersweet voice that boomerangs between a whisper, a barroom growl, and a Broadway belter. She wears her heart on her vocal cords. One feels her emotions more than absorbs them from the lyrics.

Two things make this different from her previous releases. This is her first self-produced release, and she made it in collaboration with the 20-piece PlainsSong Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Sara Parkinson and arranged by Tom Hagerman. The album was recorded live with the whole ensemble. This is classical pop at its best, full of swirls, quiet moments, hooks, and in-your-face intimacy.

Case wrote or co-wrote all the material, which she has described as being “for and about musicians”. That’s literally true in the case of “Match-Lit”, a tribute to her late friend, Dallas Good, singer and guitarist of the Sadies, who died at 48, and thematically accurate in songs such as “Winchester Mansion of Sound” and “An Ice Age”. Other material, such as “Little Gears” and “Baby, I’m Not (A Werewolf)”, is more playful moral tales. The mix of the serious and the mischievous, like the combination of symphonic and rock instrumentation, presents a nuanced album full of beauty and charm. – Steve Horowitz

1. Valerie June – Owls, Omens, and Oracles (Concord)

Valerie June’s Owls, Omens, and Oracles channels Black feminist theory through sound, spirit, and lyrics to create a vital musical experience. June offers a critical and artistic understanding of care and joy as essential forces for resistance. The album reveals a clear connection to writer and thinker bell hooks, specifically her works All About Love: New Visions (1999) and Sisters of the Yam: Black Women and Self Recovery (1994). A central link between June‘s music and hooks’ theory is their shared belief that love, care, and joy are more than feelings: they are radical acts. While June’s album is deeply introspective, her vision of love is also expansive. – Elisabeth Woronzoff