Some big country albums came out in 2023, including new projects from Luke Combs, Kelsea Ballerini, Dierks Bentley, HARDY, Chris Stapleton, Tim McGraw, Cody Johnson, and many more.
At the CMA Awards and the ACM Awards, Lainey Wilson’s Bell Bottom Country, which came out in the fall of 2022, was named Album of the Year. After winning Album of the Year, Entertainer of the Year, Female Vocalist of the Year, and more at the November show, she told us, “I will say that we are at a very pivotal time now in country music. I am very proud to be a part of this generation of country music. You got Jelly Roll, you’ve got Morgan, you’ve got HARDY, you’ve got Luke Combs.”
She continued, “You’ve got folks like Ashley McBryde and Kelsea, and they all look different, they all sound different. They all have different stories. They all come from different places, and I think It’s really important for that to be a thing. There’s a lot of different kinds of people in the world to hear all the different sides of the stories.”
That same album for Wilson was nominated for Best Country Album at the upcoming GRAMMY Awards.
Kelsea Ballerini said of her GRAMMY Nominated album, Rolling Up The Welcome Mat, “Making this record was simply my way of making sense of a really emotionally complicated place in my life. I went to one of my best friends and collaborators, Alysa Vanderheym, and she quietly and diligently helped me write my truth. I really don’t have the words for the pride I feel for this music and the way that it’s connected with people.”
She added, “It’s like nothing I’ve ever experienced. I’m deeply grateful to the Recording Academy for this honor. I am truly beaming.”
We know that a lot of country artists sit down with their camps in January of the new year to plan their projects, including albums, meaning more will be coming out in 2024. However, we thought we would get a jump start and look at what albums are already on the books to be released in early 2024.
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