Country music's 20 most exciting stars of 2018

This Nashville-by-way-of-Birmingham bar band supreme emphasizes the rock side of the country-rock equation – with boogie-woogie piano, gospel-style backing vocals, barbed-wire guitar, and prominent banjo, Banditos’ 2017 album "Visionland" recalls the Band, the Rolling Stones, and the Black Crowes as much as Buck Owens and the Mavericks. 

Brandy Clark is one of Nashville’s most accomplished songwriters – she’s penned hits for Miranda Lambert, the Band Perry, Kacey Musgraves, Reba McEntire, Darius Rucker and more. She’s also a gifted performer on her own; her two solo albums, "12 Stories" (2013) and "Big Day in a Small Town" (2016), are modest classics of contemporary country, reframing traditional subjects from a distinctly feminist perspective.

Nashville up-and-comer Michael Cameron Anderson, who records as Anderson East (and runs in the same social and professional circles as Miranda Lambert and Chris Stapleton), nails the sweat-soaked vibe of ’60s and ’70s Southern soul – think Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, and Sam and Dave – on his new album, "Encore."

Isbell’s stark, confessional 2013 album "Southeastern" helped him emerge from the shadow of his former band, the Drive-By Truckers. 2017’s equally elegant "The Nashville Sound," with his frequent backing band the 400 Unit, confirmed him as one of country music’s finest songwriters.

East Nashville iconoclast Joe Garner matches the wry, offbeat humor of Tom T. Hall and Roger Miller with lush countrypolitan arrangements and hippie absurdism on his 2017 album "Light Country."

Even after four increasingly accomplished albums since 2005, Miranda Lambert’s 2016 double album "The Weight of These Wings" was a revelation – a fearless, flawless, ambitious modern country record about love, loss and hope.

Nikki Lane, a mainstay of hipster East Nashville for a decade, breathes new life into traditional country on the 2017 hit album "Highway Queen," mixing rock ’n’ roll, soul, and barroom blues with old-school Nashville sounds and creating a country equivalent of Amy Winehouse’s Back to Black."

Lille Mae Rishce was born into Nashville’s music factory, playing in a family band as a child and eventually landing a spot in Jack White’s band. White produced Rische’s 2017 stunning bluegrass- and folk-infused breakthrough, "Forever and Then Some," and released it on his Third Man label.

Little Bandit frontman Alex Caress recreates the lush countrypolitan sound of the 1950s and ’60s with a modern touch. The broken-heart ballads, sordid crime tales, and drinking songs on Little Bandit’s debut, "Breakfast Alone," are drenched in string arrangements or powered by honky-tonk guitar, but the subjects are presented from a postmodern Millennial perspective.

The divisive Nudie-suited Texas band Midland has inspired countless arguments about authenticity in country music, but there’s no denying the strength of the trio’s smooth, George Strait-inspired radio hits “Drinkin’ Problem” and “Make a Little.”

Maren Morris delivered a knockout debut album in 2016, the same year she won CMA New Artist of the Year. "Hero" offers something for everybody – contemporary pop production (“80s Mercedes”), big rock guitars (“Rich”), and classic Nashville songwriting (“My Church”), all of it served up with brassy attitude.

Musgraves challenged Nashville’s conservative cultural politics in 2013 with the pro-diversity anthem “Follow Your Arrow,” to considerable success – her major-label debut, "Same Trailer Different Park, "won the 2014 Grammy for Best Country Album. She’s set to return in 2018 with "Golden Hour," her first album since 2015’s "Pageant Material."

After more than a decade of the Nashville grind, bluesy belter Margo Price became a country contender with her 2016 debut album, "Midwest Farmer’s Daughter." Her 2017 follow-up, "All American Made," established her as one of Nashville’s strongest – and most soulful – female voices. 

Part Nancy Sinatra, part June Carter Cash, the sophisticated boot-scootin’ countrypolitan on Whitney Rose’s "Rule 62" recalls ’60s AM radio as much as it evokes Texas roadhouses.

Nashville’s contrarian outlaw scored a major success with the 2016 Grammy-winning psychedelic-country song suite "A Sailor’s Guide to Earth." Channeling Waylon Jennings, Merle Haggard, Glen Campbell, and Stax Records, Simpson has been championed by country traditionalists – and he’s become an unlikely superstar.

Virginia native Caroline Spence’s 2017 album "Spades and Roses" is marked by craft – finely observed lyrics, unobtrusive but unforgettable melodies, and Spence’s expressive vocals. Her power as a singer and songwriter emerges gradually, but once it does, her nearly unlimited potential is apparent.

Stapleton’s two 2017 albums, "From A Room: Volume 1" and "Volume 2," show the Kentucky-born songwriter’s range, from folk and honky-tonk to Southern rock, with gospel, blues, and R&B influences in the background. Part of Stapleton’s strength is that it all feels coherent; part is the expressive power of his voice, embodying the down-and-out characters who populate his songs.

With a sound that owes more to the Old 97’s and the Drive-By Truckers than to country stalwarts like Johnny Cash or Merle Haggard, this hard-working Oklahoma sextet has still landed two albums in the top five of the country charts. They’re poised for the kind of word-of-mouth success that has propelled the careers of the Avett Brothers and Old Crow Medicine Show.

The Canadian country-folk singer-songwriter’s spare and hard-bitten self-titled debut album was a critical favorite in 2017, but it was a song from his 2015 EP "Imaginary Appalachia" that introduced Colter Wall to a big audience – “Sleeping on the Blacktop” appeared in the film "Three Billboards Outside Ebbings, Missouri."

Indiana native Alex Williams gets all the old-school details right on his 2017 debut album – with mournful pedal steel, honky-tonk swagger, stubborn barroom bravado, and Williams’ bottomless baritone voice, "Better Than Myself" is first-class new traditional country, equal to Chris Stapleton and Jamey Johnson.