Pearce, Stell, Lawrence, Evans release new music

Friday, June 7, 2024 – Carly Pearce leads the new release schedule with "hummingbird" on Big Machine. Blending traditional country sounds with personal storytelling, Pearce deals with loss and growth on her fourth studio disc. The 14-track album marks Pearce's debut as a co-producer alongside frequent collaborators Shane McAnally and Josh Osborne. The disc is the follow-up to her critically acclaimed third studio album, "29: Written in Stone." Featured on the album is the GRAMMY-nominated, GOLD-certified, lead single "we don't fight anymore" featuring Chris Stapleton.

Matt Stell releases "Born Lonely" today via RECORDS Nashville. Despite having a number of hits ("Prayed For You" and "Everybody But On"), this is the Missouri native's first CD. The disc includes the single "Breakin' in Boots" in what is being billed as a personal album. Stell had a hand in writing all 10 songs.

Tracy Lawrence dropped "Out Here In It," his first body of work in three years. The six-track collection features cuts from Rodney Clawson, Devin Dawson, Jacob Durrett, Wyatt McCubbin, Lee Thomas Miller and Ernest Keith Smith (aka ERNEST).

"Unbroke" is the 11th studio album by Sara Evans. The album is a partnership between Melody Place and Evans' own imprint Born to Fly Records. The disc deals with Evans' up-and-down relationship with her husband, Jay Barker, along with her problematic relationship with her father. This is Evans' first album of original material in seven years, following "Words" (2017), and her first collection of songs since the cover album "Copy That" (2020). Evans co-wrote 10 of the 11 songs and co-produced with Jeff Trott. The lead single was "Pride."

Karley Scott Collins delves into heartbreak on her new EP, "Write One." Co-produced with Nathan Chapman, they also played nearly every instrument with Collins learning bass. She also has co-writing credits on every song on the personal collection. Keith Urban contributed a guitar lick on the pointed title track, which Collins jests was written for an ex-flame who always wondered if he would inspire a song. Collins sings with Lady A's Charles Kelley on the duet "How Do You Do That." The EP contains six songs.

Rascal Flatts' lead singer Gary LeVox dropped "LeVox Live (Recorded Live On The Song), via Big Machine Records. The five-song disc contains the Rascal Flatts hits "What Hurt the Most," "Life is a Highway" and "God Blessed The Broken Road."

19 Recordings/BBR Music Group/BMG Nashville artist HunterGirl releases her debut EP, "Tennessee Girl." The six-song EP, combining pop and country, was produced by hit songwriter/producer Lindsay Rimes (Nate Smith's "Whiskey on You") with each song either written or co-written by HunterGirl. The Winchester, Tenn. native was the runner-up on the 20th season of American Idol in 2022.

In the height of lockdown in 2020, banjo man Tony Trischka received a package in his mailbox that would significantly change his next few years. Its contents: one USB drive full of rare recordings of Earl Scruggs jamming with John Hartford, mostly taken from private gatherings at Earl's house during the '80s and '90s. Trischka began pouring over the more than 200 songs, transcribing the all-new solos, tones and tricks from the man he'd been studying for over half a century. He featured a number of these pieces as part of an overview of Earl's career, premiering the concept at Joe's Pub in New York City. When Down The Road's Ken Irwin, a founder of Rounder Records, heard a recording of the show, he and Trischka agreed there should be an album of this material. Today, Trischka released the project, "Earl Jam: A Tribute To Earl Scruggs." Vince Gill, Billy Strings, Molly Tuttle, Stuart Duncan, Del McCoury, Darol Anger, Brittany Haas, Dominick Leslie and Bronwyn Keith-Hyne all play on the disc.

For the last year-plus, the only way for fans to hear Robert Earl Keen's laid-back opus, "Western Chill," was vinyl. Keen now has made the 14-song release available digitally.