Hello, and welcome to the first edition of our reader threads! Starting next month, we will be moving these posts to subscriber-only, so we can talk about contentious stuff, make wild hot takes and do whatever else feels fun and good in a safe, non-violent sort of way (our inspiration here is Culture Study and Anne Helen Peterson’s awesome Friday Threads, which is actually a lovely place for reader dialogue and not a cesspool somehow). If you want to make sure you don’t miss these posts in the future, become a paying subscriber! We will get into the dirt later, but we’re going to start out with something fun to get the wheels greased.
Today we ask: what is THE country song of the summer? This summer, last summer, summer of 1985, all summers forever and ever more, the summer you broke up with your partner and did nothing but listen to Keith Whitley for three months straight? Here are ours:
Marissa: For almost all of summer 2017, my country song of the summer was Tyler Childers’ “Whitehouse Road” and I’m happy to unpack that here or with a therapist. This was back when music publications still did premieres (RIP), and I wrote about the song for Rolling Stone Country. And then I didn’t stop listening to it: driving around trying to get my daughter to sleep, on headphones outside in the garden, on the long highway stretches to various family vacations or just en route to buy school supplies. It came to mean something else entirely for me than how it was written - the disassociation of my two selves, the mother and the writer, the parent and the professional, the once-feral child and the person now responsible for the growth of two of my own. Music can run so far away from where it started, where the lyrics or intention started, and grow in our heads: the best music can, at least. As soon as school gets out - which, for us, is tomorrow - I’m back thinking about summer 2000 and 5 a.m. nights while living in the camp drop-off line. Both are good, and both are me, and it’s a damn good feeling to run both roads.
Natalie: I don’t know what Clare Dunn is up to these days — based on her John Rich RTs, I’d probably rather not find out. But I do know her Honestly EP had a ton of my most listened-to tracks over that horrible (and occasionally great — I met my now-fiancé, after all) summer of 2020: “Salt and Lime” is a perfect post-Sheryl sunny day anthem, which tracks because it was co-written and produced by Jeff Trott — the co-author of basically all Sheryl’s iconic summery singles. It’s breezy and bright, a ride to the beach distilled into three minutes. (If you need more evidence of the anti-woman bias at country radio that Marissa wrote about this week, this EP feels like it to me — hit after hit that went absolutely nowhere.)
Here’s to running on your own Whitehouse Roads this summer, or whichever fork you take.
Marissa here - kind of panicking that I also didn't include Brent Cobb's "Providence Canyon." I mean, we drove two+ hours out of the way on the way home from vacation once to visit it, we listen to the song so much in the summer. Perfect album IMO too
Gosh, this is a good one, but also I have a terrible memory for this kind of thing, so it's tough! I remember Billy Currington's version of "Good Directions" was on heavy rotation for me the year it came out. I also agree with @Emily Brown (I guess you can't @-mention people in here...) about "Chattahoochee" and Julie Bayerl about both "Leave the Pieces" and "Famous in a Small Town."
This is so hard! Most recently it'd be "Till There's Nothing Left" by Cam. Love blasting that while driving to pick up kids from daycare with the windows down in 2020 when it felt like the end of the world.
Way back it would have been "Leave the Pieces" by The Wreckers or "Suds in the Bucket" by Sara Evans or "Famous in a Small Town" by Miranda or "Maybe it was Memphis" by Pam Tillis
Oh wow. I’m first (or near there) so I’m gonna kick it off with that undeniably catchy consent anthem “Chattahoochee.” It’s a Bildungsroman, it’s Allen Jackson waterskiing in jeans, it’s a lot about living and a little bout love.
Also - Can’t Do Much by Waxahatchee, which was on repeat summer 2020 when I was dating my soon to be husband.
Then I had a baby and it’s been cocomelon constantly! Looking forward to seeing some other recommendations to queue up for this summer. (Over my two year olds protests)
None of this new, but they're from a playlist I listen to all the time when I'm at the lake. I continue to be in love with "Keystone Lillie" by Saugeye. A really great mid-tempo song about a man's love for his just departed dog. Man, in a perfect world, this would have gotten a ton of airplay. I'd also add "That Train" by Mac Leaphart, "Birmingham" by Shovels & Rope and "People Get Old" by Lori McKenna
For us the summer of 2018 was all Childers -- Live on Red Barn Radio hit streaming platforms that May, and it left me and my wife floored. I'm an East Coast Jew, she's a Southern girl from Nashville, and together we listened to a lot of modern soulful country like Stapleton and Sturgill, and this live record from Childers just killed us, some of the songs nearly brought me to tears. I played the vinyl over and over and over again. Discovering that album is what made us go back and discover Purgatory. Of course we also love Brent Cobb, Zach Bryan, Margo Price, Kacey Musgraves, Charles Wesley Godwin, Colter Wall, Morgan Wade, all in the same vein I'd argue (the talent and emotion, the uniqueness of their voices). But we're seeing Tyler in August in Boston and I get excited about it every damn day!
I feel strongly that an honorable mention must be given to BJ Barhnam/American Aquarium's 2-Disc Opus of fun 80s/90s Country Covers "Slappers, Bangers & Certified Twangers"
So many good songs here I'm going to have to listen to. Trying to think of what my answer to the question would be but I agree with Natalie's stance on the Clare Dunn EP. It is the bomb.
Marissa here - kind of panicking that I also didn't include Brent Cobb's "Providence Canyon." I mean, we drove two+ hours out of the way on the way home from vacation once to visit it, we listen to the song so much in the summer. Perfect album IMO too
All I Want to Do by Sugarland or Trisha Yearwood's XXX's and OOO's just remind me of good times.
Just thought of No Shade of Green by Flatland Cavalry and that's a summer bop for me because I'm the biggest sucker for a fiddle.
Gosh, this is a good one, but also I have a terrible memory for this kind of thing, so it's tough! I remember Billy Currington's version of "Good Directions" was on heavy rotation for me the year it came out. I also agree with @Emily Brown (I guess you can't @-mention people in here...) about "Chattahoochee" and Julie Bayerl about both "Leave the Pieces" and "Famous in a Small Town."
This is so hard! Most recently it'd be "Till There's Nothing Left" by Cam. Love blasting that while driving to pick up kids from daycare with the windows down in 2020 when it felt like the end of the world.
Way back it would have been "Leave the Pieces" by The Wreckers or "Suds in the Bucket" by Sara Evans or "Famous in a Small Town" by Miranda or "Maybe it was Memphis" by Pam Tillis
"Carole with an E" by Brennen Leigh is SO good. It's a windows-down-banger. Also go check out the music video -- its near perfect.
This seems like cheating but "Mean Old Sun" by Turnpike Troubadours is built for driving in the canyons to the beach.
"Tequila & Forgiveness" by Katie Jo and Elijah Ocean is a banger. Not sure it will be a summer anthem but I like it & tend to play it a lot.
Big Sky by Alexa Rose was the song I started every walk through town last summer!
I also have fond summer memories of all of the album Saint Cloud by Waxahatchee from 2020, which I see was already mentioned here :)
Mike and the Moonpies’ cover of “The Way.” 😎….don’t think too hard about the lyrics 😬
Oh wow. I’m first (or near there) so I’m gonna kick it off with that undeniably catchy consent anthem “Chattahoochee.” It’s a Bildungsroman, it’s Allen Jackson waterskiing in jeans, it’s a lot about living and a little bout love.
Also - Can’t Do Much by Waxahatchee, which was on repeat summer 2020 when I was dating my soon to be husband.
Also that summer I listened to Rascal by RMR on repeat. It felt so revolutionary, especially after hearing so many folk covers of hip hop. https://open.spotify.com/track/4xYTwN5Iu6iBlv6yHyVw9f?si=S-TJMsTTQOe9w9p8p45GIw
Then I had a baby and it’s been cocomelon constantly! Looking forward to seeing some other recommendations to queue up for this summer. (Over my two year olds protests)
None of this new, but they're from a playlist I listen to all the time when I'm at the lake. I continue to be in love with "Keystone Lillie" by Saugeye. A really great mid-tempo song about a man's love for his just departed dog. Man, in a perfect world, this would have gotten a ton of airplay. I'd also add "That Train" by Mac Leaphart, "Birmingham" by Shovels & Rope and "People Get Old" by Lori McKenna
I keep Spotify lists by month like a weirdo.
2017 Cumberland Gap - Isbell and honestly, i was “Feathered Indians” not Whitehouse Road. Also Airplane by David Rawlings (long distance rel)
2018 The World’s On Fire - American Aquarium and Maren Morris’s cover of Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters, Parking Lot Pirouette- Amanda Shires
2019 You Look Good in Neon -Mike and the Moonpies
2020 Bluebird - Miranda, Gaslighter -The Chicks, Be Afraid - Isbell, Thoughts and Prayers DBT
2021 The Marfa Tapes by Miranda, jon Randall and Jack Ingram, Outside Child - Alison Russell
Things a man ought to know- Lainey. Reckless (Album) Morgan Wade
2022 the road- Madeline Edwards, When it don’t come easy - cover by Emily Scott Robinson
I’ve been playing Tyler Childers’ Purgatory album on our record player all week, so definitely relating to Whitehouse Road.
My songs last summer were the Jubilee version of ‘Way of the Triune God’ and ‘One Night Standards’ by Ashley McBryde.
Hard time choosing but three that are regulars on the porch:
1. Devil in a Sleepin Bag - Willie
2. No Kinda Dancer - REK
3. Just Like Honey - Charley Crockett
All three are great warm weather, heels up music. “Just Like Honey” though is a windows down, volume up in the car kind of summer song .
Hailey Whitters “College Town” absolutely dominated my summer 2022
For us the summer of 2018 was all Childers -- Live on Red Barn Radio hit streaming platforms that May, and it left me and my wife floored. I'm an East Coast Jew, she's a Southern girl from Nashville, and together we listened to a lot of modern soulful country like Stapleton and Sturgill, and this live record from Childers just killed us, some of the songs nearly brought me to tears. I played the vinyl over and over and over again. Discovering that album is what made us go back and discover Purgatory. Of course we also love Brent Cobb, Zach Bryan, Margo Price, Kacey Musgraves, Charles Wesley Godwin, Colter Wall, Morgan Wade, all in the same vein I'd argue (the talent and emotion, the uniqueness of their voices). But we're seeing Tyler in August in Boston and I get excited about it every damn day!
Summer air was heavy and sweet, you and I on a crowded street...Deana Carter “we danced anyway”
I feel strongly that an honorable mention must be given to BJ Barhnam/American Aquarium's 2-Disc Opus of fun 80s/90s Country Covers "Slappers, Bangers & Certified Twangers"
So many good songs here I'm going to have to listen to. Trying to think of what my answer to the question would be but I agree with Natalie's stance on the Clare Dunn EP. It is the bomb.
I guess I’ll be spending all day making a summer playlist now…thanks for all the suggestions!
Going way back, but 'Touch the Morning' by the great Don Gibson seems to capture the carefree side of this time of year.