Music is life… if you believe the hashtags. I certainly believe music is one of the finer points of life: The Pursuit of Happiness. Or in my case, the Pursuit of Americana.
The blog here at JCShepard.com is a bit of a sandbox, where I share my professional and creative interests, as well as family history and the occasional social or political rant. Music ties it all together, from the traditional Country & Western music of Bob Wills and Hank Williams to the neotraditional Country & Western music of Corb Lund, Charley Crockett and other rising stars.
Americana Artists
I’ve been a fan of the “Americana” genre since before there was an “Americana” genre. Americana is a broad roots-music genre blending elements of country, folk, blues, bluegrass, rock, gospel, and related styles into a single, roots-oriented sound. Lyrically, Americana tends to focus on storytelling: everyday life, working-class experience, small towns, rural landscapes, and personal or historical narratives. The overall aesthetic often evokes an older, place-based sense of American culture—what some describe as music that could soundtrack a modern Western novel.
I do like my Louis L’Amour stories, where the everyday becomes extraordinary under pressure and the anyplace becomes a character in the legend.
Charley Crockett is my legendary Americana artist of 2025. It has taken him 10 years of hard work to become an overnight success. Charley released two albums this year, solid work following solid releases last year. He’s giving Willie Nelson a run for the money, who is in my #5 spot this year.
I played Alison Krauss & Union Station’s new album a lot too, but I always keep her back catalog in the mix. Same for Corb Lund, who has been re-releasing some of his older collections. Leon Majcen is a new artist to me this year, with a solid Traditional Country and Folk sound; keep your eye on him.
Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson have such extensive back catalogs to inevitably land among my most-artists-played ranks. And Willie is still (God protect him!) releasing good new music—104 studio albums and counting. Johnny is my most scrobbled artist of all time (since 2005 anyway) and Willie ranks #3 behind Corb Lund. Lyle Lovett is #4 (we’re about due for some new Lyle soon) and Alison Krauss & Union Station is #5.
I know there’s a lot of folks who aren’t real happy with Spotify these days, but the one big benefit for me is Spotify links to Last.fm, where I have been tracking “scrobbles” for over 20 years—the record of all of the music I’ve played on my computer over the years. I also have Apple Music (remember iTunes?) on my Mac and phone, but the new Last.fm overlords don’t play nice with Apple. I do listen to more old stuff on Apple Music when I’m just tooling around, like their playlists for Top Country songs of the 1950s or 1960s—1968 may have been the apex of Country Music. That said, the charts still catch the overall trend of the soundtrack of my life.
Americana Albums
The Turnpike Troubadours come-back album The Price of Admission was my most-played album of 2025. The band started up 20 years ago in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, with a musical style covering the range of Red Dirt, honky-tonk Americana with a healthy dose of rock-n-roll spirit. Lead singer Evan Felker has had his personal challenges. Don’t we all. The range of this album drew me back for play after play. Rather than rely on one big track, all 11 tracks impress. If you buy one CD in 2026 for the collection, The Price of Admission should be it.
That doesn’t mean you should buy just one CD next year. There’s a ton of good new music coming out these days. Charley Crockett’s Lonesome Drifter took my #2 album of the year, primarily because it came out earlier in the year than Dollar a Day. Arcadia is a classic AKUS album as well.
Top Tracks
“Looks Like the End of the Road” is the first track on Arcadia. I’m hoping Alison Krauss & Union Station didn’t mean this to signal this is the end of the road for this wonderful collaboration, but none of us are getting younger. I missed their tour stop in Nebraska in 2025, but I just noticed they are coming back to Lincoln next June. It’s an outdoor show, though I doubt I would mine sitting in the rain to hear Alison Krauss sing the phone book.
“Lonesome Drifter” is the title track on Charley Crockett’s earlier release of 2025. It’s a catchy tune with a wistful Western theme. New artist Olivia Wolf wrote a haunting story in the title track to her soulful debut album “Silver Rounds”:
Can’t wash the crimson from your hands
No holy water won’t cleanse your sins
Silverada, the band formerly known as Mike and the Moonpies, released a short album titled Texas 42 this hear. While the title track is catchy, I really like the presentation on “Stay by My Side”. In the number 5 spot, “Comanche” takes on a long nostalgic ride down a country road in her Jeep Comanche, a late 1980s compact pickup variant of the Jeep Cherokee.
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Looking Ahead to 2026
Our illustrious webmaven, Sacha, and I also took on an expedition into the music world this year. She wanted better Red Dirt holiday music. So that’s what we did. Well, OK, that’s what SHE did. I just helped out–I’m a published lyricist now! Check out Washita Revival and A Washita Christmas on your favorite streaming service or buy tracks on Amazon digital music, Apple Music, or your favorite source. We’ve got a few videos up on Youtube. Working on more great music for 2026.
The new year is shaping up as a good time for great music. It seems like tough economic times and turbulent political eras tend to bring out the best in art and artists. In that case, I might prefer moderation in economics and politics, but I can appreciate interesting times in Americana.