After recently signing a lifetime deal with his longtime label home MCA, Vince Gill returns with the first in a series of EPs, while Ella Langley offers up a new heartbreak song that’s also steeped in tribute to the Lone Star State. Others with new music out include Anne Wilson with her new album Stars, Jillian Jacqueline with an ode to the myriad of roles some women embody, and Ira Dean in collaboration with Gary Allan.
Check out all of these and more in Billboard‘s roundup of some of the best country, bluegrass and/or Americana songs of the week below.
Vince Gill, “I Gave You Everything I Had”
Honoring five decades in music, Vince Gill has released the first in a series of EPs that delve deep into his catalog of songs, including this title track for the first EP, a heartfelt ode to following creative inclinations. “I’ve still got songs I’m dyin’ to sing,” the Country Music Hall of Famer reflects in the song’s lyrics. Accompanied by tender, understated guitar, Gill contemplates the sacrifices and rewards that come with a life devoted to music. “This gypsy life ain’t been so bad,” he sings, offering a measured assessment marked by gratitude, with his signature blend of refined-yet-emotionally raw vocal delivery.
Ella Langley, “Choosin’ Texas”
Alabama native Langley offers a smooth throwback groove that brims with confidence, even as she sings about a lover who’s choosing a Texas lady over her. “He always loved ‘Amarillo By Morning’/ I should’ve taken that as a warning,” she sings, wrapping her husky vocal around this song of love and loss. The production, the rhythm, the message and Langley’s unmistakable voice meld mightily to make this an irresistible track and further cement Langley as one of the genre’s brightest newcomers. Langley wrote “Choosin’ Texas” with her frequent songwriting collaborator Joybeth Taylor, as well as Miranda Lambert and Luke Dick (Lambert also offers background vocals on the track).
Anne Wilson, “Hold Your Horses”
On her new album Stars, Wilson continues to deeply intertwine her country music roots with her faith-based message. The project sets spiritual-minded songs comfortably alongside songs of everyday life and life-altering decisions. “Hold Your Horses” is one of Wilson’s twangiest songs yet, a punchy track where she offers up advice to not rush into love and instead assess whether a lover is the right match. Wilson wrote the song with Jeff Pardo, Matthew West and Trannie Anderson, and it showcases the growth of her songwriting, while also cementing her place as a magnetic talent.
Ira Dean feat. Gary Allan, “I Got Roads”
Dean, Allan and Jeffrey Steele wrote this rugged, soulful track about following life’s hairpin turns, whether they lead into the unknown or to the familiar comforts of home, through lofty love or deep into heartbreak. Allan’s voice is as gritty as ever, and is an effective counterpoint to Dean’s more polished delivery. Dean and Allan both still have plenty of creative spark and it shines on their vulnerable new collaboration.
Jillian Jacqueline, “MotherDaughterSisterWife”
This shimmering, piano-laced ballad makes the most of Jacqueline’s ethereal voice, as she explores the various roles that some women fulfill — including that of a sister, wife or mother — and details the complexities and weighty assumptions that can come with those roles. Jacqueline sings of becoming a mother and quickly dropping “straight into the vein of the silent expectations that I should hold the world.” The song serves as the title track to her just-released project, which takes unfettered looks at the hopes, scars, joys, nuances, discoveries and failures that she has traversed in all those roles.
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