5 Country and Americana Albums to Start With

Looking for a way into country and Americana? Start with five albums: Chris Stapleton’s Higher, Tyler Childers’ Rustin’ in the Rain, Sierra Ferrell’s Trail of Flowers, Zach Bryan’s The Great American Bar Scene and Colter Wall’s Little Songs. Each gives you an easy first track and a different route onward through songwriters, collaborators or a regional scene.

These are selected 2023 and 2024 releases, not a ranking of the genre or a list of this week’s new music. The useful part of a starter collection is its size: choose one song from each record, find the one that holds your attention, then give its full album a turn. Release dates, track lists and credits below come from the artists, their labels and authorized release metadata.

The five-song starting queue

• Chris Stapleton: “White Horse” from Higher.
• Tyler Childers: “In Your Love” from Rustin’ in the Rain.
• Sierra Ferrell: “American Dreaming” from Trail of Flowers.
• Zach Bryan: “28” from The Great American Bar Scene.
• Colter Wall: “Little Songs” from the album of the same name.

Our country songs for a long drive selection connects these recordings to their album pages and official listening destinations. Save the queue before setting off; the discovery work can wait until you are parked.

Chris Stapleton: Higher

Released November 10, 2023 · 14 tracks · Start with “White Horse.” Stapleton made Higher with fellow producers Dave Cobb and Morgane Stapleton at Nashville’s RCA Studio A. The first single, “White Horse,” was written by Stapleton and Dan Wilson. Those credits offer two useful paths: explore the album’s production team, or follow a songwriter beyond this recording.

After the single, return to “What Am I Gonna Do,” the first track in the official running order. Hearing where the familiar song sits in the sequence gives it another context. The Higher album guide collects the track list and release sources; our album credits guide explains how to investigate the names behind the record.

Tyler Childers: Rustin’ in the Rain

Released September 8, 2023 · 7 tracks · Start with “In Your Love.” This is the shortest track list in the collection, making it a manageable first full-album stop. Childers and his band, the Food Stamps, produced the record at Dragline Studios. The sequence places his material alongside versions of Kris Kristofferson’s “Help Me Make It Through the Night” and S.G. Goodman’s “Space and Time.”

That makes Rustin’ in the Rain especially useful for discovering writers as well as performers. After “In Your Love,” try one of those two covers and locate another authorized recording of the same composition. Compare the pacing, phrasing and instruments for yourself. A shared song makes the connection clear without requiring the two singers to sound alike.

Sierra Ferrell: Trail of Flowers

Released March 22, 2024 · 12 tracks · Start with “American Dreaming.” Ferrell’s official Bandcamp edition puts that song first, so this entrance also takes you directly into the album’s sequence. “Dollar Bill Bar” and “Fox Hunt” follow it. The record was made with producers Eddie Spear and Gary Paczosa, according to Rounder’s album notes.

Stay with the first three tracks before looking for another artist. A small run of songs gives you more to go on than one isolated recommendation. Then open Trail of Flowers for the remaining titles, or follow Ferrell’s work with co-writer Melody Walker on “American Dreaming.” A writing credit is a more precise next step than assuming every release filed under Americana will offer the same thing.

Zach Bryan: The Great American Bar Scene

Released July 4, 2024 · 19 tracks · Start with “28.” This is the longest track list here. Apple Music’s release listing documents the album and its July 2024 release, providing a stable place to check that you have the intended record open.

Use “28” as the first stop, then explore the full album page in smaller sittings if that suits you. You do not have to finish nineteen tracks before deciding which ones you want to revisit. Bryan’s Oklahoma connection offers a separate discovery route through place; it does not, by itself, assign this record to the Red Dirt scene.

Colter Wall: Little Songs

Released July 14, 2023 · 10 tracks · Start with “Little Songs.” Wall recorded the album with his touring band and co-producer Patrick Lyons at Yellowdog Studios in Texas. Sony’s release announcement identifies eight originals and two covers, drawing on songs by Ian Tyson and Hoyt Axton. The title track sits eighth in the published running order.

Follow it back to the opening “Prairie Evening/Sagebrush Waltz,” then use the Little Songs guide to keep the full sequence in view. Wall’s home in southern Saskatchewan and the record’s Texas studio are different kinds of connections. Our listener’s map of country explains how to use geography and genre labels without treating either as a complete description of an artist.

Turn one album into your next discovery

Keep a small note with three things: the track you returned to, the detail that caught your attention, and one documented connection to follow. That might be a co-writer, a musician, another version of a song or the next release in an artist’s catalog. Build the next queue from those choices. Five records become much more useful when they help you work out what you want to hear next.