You’d think everyone else would turn tail and flee the field.

With a new Bob Dylan album in the Americana music mix, everyone else should pack it in, right? Well, Dylan may have the Disc of the Day, but the current collections by Buddy & Julie Miller, Eric Brace & Peter Cooper and Jesse Winchester are all so winning that you’ll want to hear them in your speakers repeatedly, too.

I am in total agreement with the AMA that The Belleville Outfit is a contender for Emerging Artist of the Year. The group wins this column’s DisCovery Award.

THE BELLEVILLE OUTFIT/Time To Stand
Writer: none listed; Producer: Bil Vorndick & The Belleville Outfit; Publisher: none listed; Belleville Outfit (track) (www.bellevilleoutfit.com)
-This band dazzled me when it played before the BMI banquet last fall. Now The Belleville Outfit’s blend of pop, folk, string band and jazz elements has been captured on disc. This title tune to the record is a sprightly bopper sprinkled with fiddle, piano and electric guitar notes that make you smile. These kids are the BOMB.

JESSE WINCHESTER/O What A Thrill
Writer: Jesse Winchester; Producer: Bil Vorndick & Jesse Winchester; Publisher: Bug, ASCAP; Appleseed (track) (www.jessewinchester.com)
-What took so long? Love Filling Station is Jesse’s first studio album in 10 years. Whatever the reasons for his absence, the fact is that he remains a major, major talent. From the opening notes of this first track, he captivated me anew. The tune was originally popularized by The Mavericks back in 1994. In addition to nine originals, the collection includes lovely covers of Ben E. King’s “Stand By Me,” Freddie Hart’s “Loose Talk” (as a duet with Claire Lynch) and the gospel tune “Far Side Bank of Jordan.” Throughout the CD, Jesse is backed by a stellar Nashville crew including Jerry Douglas, Russ Barenberg and Andy Leftwich. If you are unfamiliar with this man’s sound, prepare to fall in love.

STEVE EARLE & JUSTIN TOWNES EARLE/Mr. Mudd And Mr. Gold
Writer: none listed; Producer: Steve Earle; Publisher: none listed; New West (track) (www.steveearle.com)
-Steve’s tribute album to his friend and mentor Townes Van Zandt is titled simply Townes. How perfect is it that his son, partly named after the late singer-songwriter, joins him to duet on this title? Tom Morello (“Lungs”) and Steve’s wife Alison Moorer (“To Live Is to Fly”) also put in appearances on this sterling, homemade folk-music collection.

JACK WESLEY ROUTH/Another Season
Writer: Jack Wesley Routh/Randy Sharp; Producer: Randy Sharp & Jack Wesley Routh; Publisher: Ten-Cal/With Any Luck; Ninnessean (track) (www.jackwesleyrouth.com)
-This laconic ballad is the title tune and lead-off track to this singer-songwriter’s new CD. Some of you might recognize Routh’s “Shores of White Sands” (as recorded by Karen Brooks) or “The Connection” (Emmylou Harris). His own dusty, stark, spare versions of those songs are here, as are a pair of things he co-wrote with his former father-in-law, Johnny Cash-“Field of Diamonds” and the previously unrecorded “When the Trains Come Back.”

BOB DYLAN/Beyond Here Lies Nothin’
Writer: Bob Dylan/Robert Hunter; Producer: Jack Frost; Publisher: none listed; Columbia (track) (www.bobdylan.com)
-Yes, the songs on Dylan’s new Together Through Life are terrific. But what’s equally important is the extraordinary ensemble sound he conjures up on the disc. A dash of trumpet here, a dose of Tex-Mex accordion there and a rumbling rhythm section underscore his black-humor, lowered-down vocals. It’s a heady, addictive mash-up of sonic styles that this master artist pulls off brilliantly. Start with this track, then dive in deeper. For my money, this is by far the best of his late-career collections to date.

BUDDY & JULIE MILLER/Chalk
Writer: Julie Miller; Producer: Buddy Miller; Publisher: My Blind Driver/29 Cove, BMI; New West (track) (www.buddyandjulie.com)
-Americana’s favorite couple make mighty melody together on Written in Chalk. This track features Buddy’s hillbilly-soulful lead vocal and a heavenly harmony by guest Patty Griffin. The whole package has resulted in five nominations for the Millers for September’s Americana Music Awards-album, song (“Chalk”), duo or group, instrumentalist, and artist of the year.

ERIC BRACE & PETER COOPER/I Know A Bird
Writer: Eric Brace; Producer: Peter Cooper & Eric Brace; Publisher: Dry Digging Tunes, BMI; Red Beet (track) (www.redbeetrecords.com)
–You Don’t Have to Like Them Both is the debut collaboration by these two singer-songwriters. It’s a folk-country outing that kicks off with this tuneful, wistful ditty. Eric’s hearty baritone leads the way with Peter offering soft tenor harmony. Lloyd Green’s legendary steel-guitar prowess is used effectively throughout, and among the guest gunslingers are Richard Bennett, Tim O’Brien, Daniel Tashian, Kenny Vaughan and Tim Carroll. In addition to singing their own tunes, Peter and Eric draw from the works of David Olney, Kevin Gordon, Paul Kennerley, Jim Lauderdale, Kris Kristofferson and Todd Snider. Miss this one at your peril: These two sound great together.

It’s a holiday weekend and we’ve got a lot of ground to cover, so let’s just get on with it.

Memorial Day is the traditional kick-off of summer. It will come as no surprise to any of you that Kenny Chesney’s Disc of the Day is the season’s first soundtrack tune.

We had a lot of newcomers in this week’s stack of platters. Two of them finished in a dead heat for the DisCovery Award. They are Johnny Bulford and Tim Dugger, strong singers both.

Johnny Bulford

CHRISTOPHER MICHAEL JOHNSON/The Day We Changed The Rules
Writer: Ritchie Brown/Jarrod Lee Nieman/Paul Overstreet; Producer: Brien Fisher; Publisher: Borchetta Shafer/Rainy Graham/Unichappell/Warner-Tamerlane/Marathon Key 11, BMI; Lofton Creek (615-726-0099)
-He is somewhat sharp in the pitch department. The ballad’s track is super pristine.

BULLS GAP/It Doesn’t Get Any Countrier Than This
Writer: Jerry Vandiver/Randy Archer; Producer: Steve Pope & Bulls Gap; Publisher: Peermusic III/Malaco/Universal Polygram International, BMI/ASCAP; Hoot (www.bullsgapmusic.com)

Tim Dugger

-Rowdy, raucous and more than a little racy. “She cranks my tractor…likes to roll in the hay…out behind the barn…” you get the idea.

JOHNNY LEE & CHARLIE DANIELS/We’re American Not American’t
Writer: David Chamberlain/Trey Matthews; Producer: David Chamberlain & Trey Matthews; Publisher: Questar/Sony-ATV/Batter’s Box, SESAC; David Chamberlain (615-364-8395)
-It’s a beefy anthem about our economic woes. Despite the cheesy “U.S.A.!” chants and the instrumental quotes from the national anthem, it’s actually better than you might expect.

TIM DUGGER/Gettin’ There
Writer: Billy Aerts/Tim Dugger; Producer: Kelly Schoenfeld & Dave Fowler; Publisher: none listed; TD (track) (www.timdugger.com)
-The title tune to this kid’s CD is groove-soaked delight that will make you want to put the top down, put pedal to the metal and drive, drive, drive. The backing band is made of A-list players and sounds it. The song has “hit” written all over it. Way beyond promising. Go get ’em, son.

KENNY CHESNEY/Out Last Night
Writer: Kenny Chesney/Brett James; Producer: Buddy Cannon & Kenny Chesney; Publisher: none listed; BNA (track)
-Already steaming its way into the top-10, this party-boy bopper is the only previously unreleased track on Kenny’s Greatest Hits II collection. THE sound of summer, 2009.

AARON PRITCHETT/Hell Bent For Buffalo
Writer: Aaron Pritchett/Deric Ruttan/Sean Patrick McGraw; Producer: The Franchise; Publisher: OPM/Sony-ATV Cross Keys/Seananigan, SOCAN/ASCAP; OPM/Universal (track) (www.aaronpritchett.com)
-This ol’ boy is a big deal in Canada and was nominated for a Juno Award for “Thankful,” the title of his current CD. Its new single is a wide-open-spaces rocker with a solid guitar riff, a beat that doesn’t quit and a yearning lyric that he totally nails vocally. Check him out.

CRAIG BICKHARDT/Brother To The Wind
Writer: Craig Bickhardt/F.C. Collins; Producer: John Mock & Craig Bickhardt; Publisher: none listed; Stone Barn (track) (www.craigbickhardt.com)
-Formerly a country hit maker in Schuyler-Knobloch-Bickhardt, Craig has moved from Music City to the Philadelphia, PA area. But he returned to Nashville to record this acoustic, folkie gem of a disc. Its title tune features harmony vocals by the great Darrell Scott and sterling mandolin work by Andy Leftwich. Other guests on other tracks include Tim O’Brien, Beth Neilsen Chapman, Janis Ian, Rusty Young, Lloyd Maines and Maura O’Connell. A simply splendid listening experience.

JOHNNY BULFORD/Livin’ It Up
Writer: none listed; Producer: none listed; Publisher: none listed, BMI; JB (track) (www.johnnybulford.com)
-This 2009 Colgate Country Showdown winner sings with a ringing Southern accent. The tune is a fiddle-laced bopper with an ultra-hooky chorus about good weekend times. He definitely has the goods.

BILL COOLEY/The Return Journey
Writer: Bill Cooley; Producer: Mick Conley & Bill Cooley; Publisher: Nancy Lee/Carol Vincent, ASCAP; NLM (track) (www.billcooleymusic.com)
-In what is surely one of the longest and musically richest partnerships in Nashville, Bill Cooley has been playing guitar in Kathy Mattea’s band for 20 years. His acoustic instrumentals on his new, third collection are consistently dazzling. This title tune is full of melodic twists and turns and boasts superb bass work by Dave Roe. The guitarist composed all the songs, with exception of the set-closing Elton John gem “Madman Across the Water,” to which Mattea lends her voice.

TEMPLETON THOMPSON/Girls & Horses
Writer: none listed; Producer: Sam Gay; Publisher: Connected at the Hit, ASCAP; Reve (track) (www,templetonthompson.com)
-Templeton’s songs have been recorded by Reba McEntire, Jo Dee Messina and Little Texas, and she has sung demos for many of her fellow tunesmiths. The title tune to her current CD reveals the songwriter’s other passion, horses. The catches and breaks in her soprano are as ear-catching as the lilting melody. Her other current project is a multi-artist CD called On Horses’ Wings, which is a benefit for the Little Bit Therapeutic Riding Center in the Pacific Northwest.