Contemporary Country

Classic country is a part of American history, but if you want to know what’s new in Nashville here and now, you’ve come to the right place. Today’s cutting-edge country artists love to celebrate their down-home roots, like Easton Corbin, who antes up with the most homespun images possible and then doubles down, promising that he’s “A Little More Country Than That.” Billy Currington adds some gut-punchin’ rock ’n’ roll riffs to his country-pride parade on “That’s How Country Boys Roll.” And Blake Shelton teams up with Trace Adkins, flying the backwoods-boy flag high and hardy on “Hillbilly Bone.”

In Next Steps, turn on the waterworks for some sorrow-soaked sounds.

Country music’s always had more tearjerkers-per-mile than almost any other style, and today’s crop of Nashville stars is no exception. Even tough guy Toby Keith lets his tender side show, as top-flight jazz players Dave Koz and Marcus Miller help him set the sorrowful mood on “Cryin’ for Me.” Blake Shelton nurses a heavy-duty case of homesickness while he’s far away from his loved one, on the aching ballad “Home.” But the most heart-rending moment of all is when Miranda Lambert walks right in the front door of “The House That Built Me,” and her childhood home brings back a flash flood of memories.

In Deep Cuts, cutting-edge country covers everything from spurned lovers to memory miners.

As country music keeps on growing in a million different directions at once, it serves up so many sounds and styles it’s tough to keep track. One minute you’ve got Carrie Underwood sinking her teeth deep into the raw, rocking revenge song “Before He Cheats.” The next, Jamey Johnson is digging beneath the sepia-toned surface of nostalgia to get to the flesh and blood behind the memories in his booming power ballad “In Color.” And the three young Perry siblings who make up hot new act the Band Perry pump up a powerful, percolating mix of pop, country, and bluegrass on “Hip to My Heart.”

Today’s country guys and gals hold a sense of Nashville tradition close to their hearts, but they’re not afraid to bust out into new terrain, either, mixing classic-country sounds with everything from hard-rock riffs to pure pop and slow-rolling soul. In the process, they define what country music means today, whether it’s the teen dreams of Taylor Swift’s “Love Story,” the Def Leppard-in-cowboy-boots rock ’n’ twang of the Lost Trailers’ “Holler Back,” or the R&B-soaked sound of James Otto’s “Just Got Started Lovin’ You.” We’ve gathered all the artists who are shaking things up in Music City these days and corralled them into the ultimate roundup of cutting-edge country right here.