Bailey Zimmerman. Photo: Chris Ashlee

Bailey Zimmerman will hit the road this summer on his “New To Country Tour,” kicking off in Indianapolis on June 6. Dylan Marlowe and Drew Baldridge will join as special guests on the dates.

The trek, which follows his sold-out, international headlining “Religiously. The Tour,” will visit 16 amphitheaters across the U.S. in Denver, Richmond, St. Louis, Reno and more through Sept. 13. Tickets for the “New To Country Tour” will go on sale Jan. 10 via baileyzimmermanmusic.com. Fans can sign up for the artist presale until Wednesday (Jan. 8) with presale access beginning Jan. 9.

Zimmerman’s star continued to rise throughout 2024 as he achieved his fourth No. 1 at country radio, earned his first CMA Award nomination and joined Luke Combs, Kane Brown, Lainey Wilson and more on the Grammy-nominated Twisters: The Movie soundtrack with his song “Hell or High Water.” Most recently, he teased his next musical chapter with the releases of “New To Country,” “Holding On” and his current single “Holy Smokes.”

“New To Country” Dates:
6/6/25 – Indianapolis, IN / Everwise Amphitheater at White River State Park *
6/7/25 – Sterling Heights, MI / Michigan Lottery Amphitheatre *
6/13/25 – St Louis, MO / St. Louis Music Park *
6/14/25 – Rogers, AR / Walmart AMP *
6/19/25 – St. Augustine, FL / St. Augustine Amphitheatre *
6/21/25 – Alpharetta, GA / Ameris Bank Amphitheatre *
7/27/25 – Corning, CA / Obsidian Spirits Amphitheater at Rolling Hills Casino *
7/29/25 – Denver, CO / Red Rocks Amphitheatre *
8/9/25 – Canandaigua, NY / CMAC *
8/14/25 – Gilford, NH / BankNH Pavilion *
8/22/25 – Bridgeport, CT / Hartford HealthCare Amphitheater *
8/23/25 – Richmond, VA / Allianz Amphitheater at Riverfront *
8/29/25 – Durant, OK / Choctaw Grand Theater
9/4/25 – Council Bluffs, IA / Harrah’s Stir Cove *
9/12/25 – Reno, NV / Grand Theatre at Grand Sierra Resorts **
9/13/25 – Laughlin, NV / Rio Vista Outdoor Amphitheater **

* with support from Dylan Marlowe & Drew Baldridge
** with support from Dylan Marlowe

Mary Chapin Carpenter, Julie Fowlis and Karine Polwart have teamed up for a new album, Looking For The Thread, due out Jan. 24 via Thirty Tigers.

Ahead of the release, the first single, “Hold Everything,” is out now. Penned by Polwart, the song gives a nod to the world, as it is, and to John Berger’s 2008 book, Hold Everything Dear: Dispatches on Survival and Resistance.

Carpenter, Fowlis and Polwart came together in 2023 to begin the collaborative new project, but share mutual respect stretching back decades. Polwart and Fowlis are dedicated fans of Carpenter, while Carpenter, in turn, has long admired the pair, sharing, “I remember telling my manager I wanted to do this and he may have challenged me about who was on my wish list. I’m certain I blurted out Julie Fowlis and Karine Polwart. Anything they do is brilliant and beautiful, and I wanted to fold myself right in there.”

The three convened in January 2023 to perform alongside Robert Vincent at Song Circle, an event in Glasgow. From there, they headed north to a writing retreat at Kinlochmoidart House. “It was like some Hollywood notion of the Scottish Highlands,” says Polwart. “Everything was conducive to creating. It was dark and we were hemmed in, sitting by the fire making stuff.”

The trio returned to Kinlochmoidart House in early 2024, with producer Josh Kaufman in tow, and the album was completed in a week with tracks recorded live, everyone playing together in the same room, responding to the music in real time. “The songs hadn’t been pre-produced to within an inch of their lives and the band hadn’t heard them in advance,” says Polwart. “The musicians were such attentive listeners, none of them overplaying, all of them bringing a beautiful textural quality. There was something really beautiful and fresh about it.”

Album highlights include “Satellite,” “Rebecca” and “Silver In The Blue,” written by Carpenter, Polwart and Fowlis, respectively. The opening track, “Gradh Geal Mo Chridhe,” was recorded for renowned Scottish accordion player, Fergie MacDonald, the “Ceilidh King,” who died in April 2024. It is one of two tracks sung in Scottish Gaelic, led by Fowlis. As non-Gaelic speakers, both Carpenter and Polwart learned their parts phonetically.

When recording was complete, all three artists, plus Kaufman and the musicians, turned the lights off in the studio, lay on the floor and listened to what they had made. “There were no words, no critique,” says Polwart. “It was just us all tripping out and going on a wee journey. It was really beautiful. When I hear the songs, that’s what I picture in my head.”

Looking For The Thread Track List:
1. “Gradh Geal Mo Chridhe”
2. “A Heart That Never Closes”
3. “Rebecca”
4. “Looking For The Thread”
5. “Hold Everything”
6. “Silver In The Blue”
7. “You Know Where You Are”
8. “Satellite”
9. “Buidheann Mo Chridhe Clann Ualrig”
10. “Send Love”

Tucker Wetmore. Photo: Jarrod Anthonee

Tucker Wetmore has scored his first No. 1 at country radio with Platinum single “Wind Up Missin’ You.”

Following his debut in February 2024 with back-to-back Billboard Hot 100 chart hits “Wine Into Whiskey” and “Wind Up Missin’ You,” the UMG Nashville/Back Blocks Music artist amassed 700 million total global streams. “Wind Up Missin’ You” hit the country airwaves in June and topped the charts in just 30 weeks.

“I cannot say thank you enough to country radio for making ‘Wind Up Missin’ You’ my first No. 1,” shares Wetmore. “The last year has changed my life, and it wouldn’t look the same without y’all!!! This is a dream come true and an incredible way to start 2025. I am beyond grateful to everyone who made this happen, and I’m excited to work even harder for you this year. God is so good!!”

Additionally, he was named as one of MusicRow‘s 2025 Next Big Thing Artists, and will perform during Luke Bryan’s 10th annual Crash My Playa concert vacation later this month. Wetmore has also added 17 dates to his sold-out “Waves On A Sunset Tour,” and plans to support Thomas Rhett’s “Better In Boots Tour” this summer.

The latest of Neil Young’s “lost” albums, Oceanside Countryside, is slated to be released on Feb. 14 as part of his Analog Original Series.

Recorded from May through December 1977, the album preceded the release of Young’s Comes A Time in 1978. The two albums contain the same country/folk sound, and three songs (“Goin’ Back,” “Human Highway”and “Field of Opportunity”) appear on both albums.

The vinyl release of Oceanside Countryside includes some tracks that are on the CD of the same name in Young’s Archives Vol. III. This track list is how Oceanside Countryside was originally planned to be released and finally will be made available in analog on vinyl for the first time ever. The songs are the original mixes done at the time of recording and were recorded on tape. On Countryside, Young is joined by a band of friends including Ben Keith (steel guitar), Rufus Thibodeaux (fiddle), Karl T. Himmel (drums) and Joe Osborne (bass). On “The Old Homestead” Tim Drummond plays bass and Levon Helm plays drums.

“This analog original album was recorded in 1977 and unreleased,” says Young. “These songs are the original mixes done at the time of the recordings in the order I planned for the album. I sang the vocals and played the instruments on Oceanside in Florida at Triad studios and Malibu at Indigo studio. I sang the vocals and recorded with my great band of friends, Ben Keith, Joe Osborn, Karl T. Himmel, and Rufus Thibodeaux at Crazy Mama’s in Nashville on Countryside. I hope you enjoy this treasure of an Analog Original recording, recorded by Tim Mulligan, as much as I do. Listening to it now, I think I should have put it out back then.”

Oceanside Countryside Track List:
Side One: Oceanside
1. “Sail Away”
2. “Lost In Space”
3. “Captain Kennedy”
4. “Goin’ Back”
5. “Human Highway”

Side Two: Countryside
1. “Field Of Opportunity”
2. “Dance Dance Dance”
3. “The Old Homestead”
4. “It Might Have Been”
5. “Pocahontas”