Rising Stars: Country

So you thought you were all caught up with Nashville’s newest hit-makers, huh? Well, saddle up, because we’ve got a whole new crop of country sensations all set to show you what’s really happening right now in Music City. Deep-voiced Darius Rucker may have spent the ’90s pumping out platinum rock albums and answering to Hootie, but “Come Back Song” shows he knows his way around a country confessional. And while you’re cruising the crossroads of rock/pop and country, make a pit stop for the GRAMMY®-laden “Need You Now,” where Lady Antebellum mixes classic country harmonies with flawless pop instincts.

Catch some more rising stars, like Sunny Sweeney and Thompson Square, in Next Steps

You’ve already dipped your toes into the rushing river of rising country stars, so why not wade in waist deep? Hell, you may as well go the whole hog, and plunge into the bluesy blasts of Randy Houser, who fires up his party-till-you-drop battle cry “Boots On.” Then it’s time to ask the most satisfying of romantic country questions — “Are You Gonna Kiss Me or Not” — with husband-and-wife duo Keifer and Shawna Thompson, better known as Thompson Square. Sunny Sweeney takes that lyrical country cornerstone, the love triangle, backs it with a banjo and soaks it in heartbreak, with 2010’s “From a Table Away,” and the JaneDear Girls kick up a barnyard dust-storm with “Wildflower.”

Get ready to go to extremes in Deep Cuts, right on the edge of the country/rock border.

If you’re ready to ride this thing all the way home, we’ve got another vital batch of hot country tracks by some of Nashville’s fastest-rising artists, all set to take you as deep as you dare. Heat-seeking husband-and-wife duo Joey + Rory add some bluegrass bounce and attitude to their hanky-panky hoedown “Cheater, Cheater,” while Katie Armiger dresses “Best Song Ever” — from her first charting album Confessions of a Nice Girl (2010) — in a glittering synth-rock overcoat, and Ash Bowers flexes his muscles and swaggers like a cowpoke on payday with a righteous kiss-off to small-town boredom, “Stuck.”

Where do all these hot, new Nashville stars come from? Well, country music’s an equal-opportunity employer — it doesn’t matter who you are as long as you can bang out a barn-burning boogie or belt a heart-hammering ballad like your very being depends on it. So the rising country kings and queens of today include American Idol’s Kellie Pickler, superstar rocker Darius Rucker, Jamey Johnson (who takes a long look back to bring his family tree’s Kodak moments to life on “In Color”), and Chris Young, who has the kind of sour-mash-and-smokehouse-BBQ voice that lets you know you’re into some deep country. For all their differences, they have one thing in common: they’re all lighting up the landscape of modern country music. Actually, make that two things — you can catch all these rising stars right here.