It’s a supersized week when it comes to new country songs with an embarrassment of riches from superstars Luke Combs and Lainey Wilson, newer artists like Colton Bowlin and long-absent fan favorites such as Jo Dee Messina.
Contemporary Christian artist Brandon Lake continues to be the duet partner of choice for country artists who want to share their faith and his duet with Bailey Zimmerman is another heartfelt entry in his crossover canon.
We already wrote about Carly Pearce and Riley Green’s sultry new duet, as well as Kacey Musgraves’ wry new track, so we’re leaving them off here, but they are songs well worth seeking out.
Check out Billboard’s roundup of some of the best country, bluegrass and/or Americana songs of the week below.
Luke Combs, “I Ain’t No Cowboy”
With two songs– “Days Like These” and “Sleepless In A Hotel Room”– from his new album still nestled in the top 10 of the Country Airplay chart, superstar Combs gives one more tease from The Way I Am before it drops on Friday (March 20). It’s a broken-hearted ballad co-written by Combs, Jake Mears and real cowboy Cody Johnson. Lots of horse and cowboy imagery sets the scene for a doomed romance that just may have succeeded if Combs “could’ve been more like John Wayne” and “roped her heart back in.” Instead, he’s watching as “she saddled up and she kicked up a cloud of dust,” leaving him with nothing but regrets.
Lainey Wilson, “I Can’t Sit Still”
The reigning CMA entertainer of the year returns with a rollicking stomp of a song where the frenetic music perfectly matches the driving lyrics. “I’m an outside dog on an inside leash” she declares as the frustration of anyone trying to hold her down grows. “I ain’t caught my breath since I took my first/ so I guess I’ll rest when I’m in the dirt,” she sings. The escalating “running and gunning” bridge adds to the heart-racing pace. Wilson wrote the song with longtime collaborators, Trannie Anderson and Dallas Wilson, as well as Aslan Freeman.
The lyrics seem especially appropriate given that Wilson’s first major movie, Reminders of Him, opened Friday and the documentary Lainey Wilson: Keepin’ Country Cool premieres at SXSW this week (and debuts on Netflix April 22). While the song may be autobiographical, anyone who has felt the internal pressure to keep pushing will relate.
Bailey Zimmerman and Brandon Lake, “Just Believe”
Hot off collaborations with Jelly Roll (“Hard Fought Hallelujah”) and Cody Johnson (“When A Cowboy Prays”), top contemporary Christian artist Lake joins Zimmerman for this inspirational mid-tempo track about never giving up. The two trade verses with Lake’s soulful, powerful vocals leading the way here, as Zimmerman convincingly promises: “There’s a good thing coming.” An uplifting ode to never giving up and letting your faith guide you through troubled times, “Just Believe” is destined to become a motivational rallying cry. It’s a stand-alone track not on Zimmerman’s current album, Different Night Same Rodeo.
Tucker Wetmore, “Sunburn”
Just as the weather is turning warmer and spring break starts, Wetmore delivers the heat with this laid-back tune about a love that’s not meant to last but sears hot while it does. “You hit me like a heat wave/ we stayed up all night all day/ waves crashin’ outside like a thunder/ your body on mine like a sunburn,” he sings with casual charm. This one, written by Ryan Hurd, Jaxson Free and Daniel Ross, is going to be the soundtrack for beach flings all summer long. As tongue-twisting “Brunette” still climbs the Country Airplay chart, Wetmore is aiming for radio domination with this fun one-two punch.
Jo Dee Messina, “Some Bridges”
It’s been a decade since ‘90s hitmaker Jo Dee Messina has put out an album (though plenty folks discovered her through Cole Swindell’s massive 2022 hit, “She Had Me At Heads Carolina,” which interpolated Messina’s 1996 smash, “Heads Carolina, Tails California”), but now she’s back and as potent as ever. She’s grown wise during her absence, sharing in this smoldering, ‘90s-redolent track that some bridges are worth burning, despite the adage. Messina, who co-wrote the song with Kat Higgins and James T. Slater, sounds like she never left, and is full-throated as ever. After a few one-off songs over recent years, “Some Bridges” is the opening salvo of Bridges, which will arrive this summer.
Colton Bowlin, “Time For Sale”
There’s a lived-in feeling to Bowlin’s songs with truths unspooling gently through the lyrics backed by his genial guitar picking. “I’m no better than any other man/ I was born a sinner and I’ll die that way, I guess/ But I tried on my own to do some things right/ To me, I’ve done too much bad to get by,” the Kentucky native confesses matter of factly in the latest track from his new album, Grandpa’s Mill, which came out Friday (March 13). Bowlin worked with David Ferguson, who’s produced such artists as Tyler Childers and Sturgill Simpson, and he shares a stripped-down, no-fuss point of view with those Americana stars.
Stephen Wilson Jr., “Gary”
After Wilson debuted “Gary” on November’s 2025 CMA Awards, the tribute to a blue-collar worker who leads a life of quiet desperation, developed a cult-like following. It peaked at No. 38 on the Country Airplay chart, but became a fan favorite and a cornerstone of his live show. It seems only fitting that actor Gary Sinese, beloved as Lt. Dan from Forrest Gump, would star in the video that dropped Sunday (March 15). The video turns him in a bit of a Robin Hood with a storyline not in the song, but ends on the same sad conclusion hinted at in the lyrics… parakeet and all.
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