This Week’s Hot Country Hits: Bailey Zimmerman, Raechel Whitchurch, Baeden Faint & More

Gosh dang, what a week it’s been for scorchin’ new country tunes! Not only were we blessed with spicy new releases from some of Australia’s finest up-and-comers, like Raechel Whitchurch (who just dropped her new album What A Time To Be Alive), Baeden Faint (who went all out with Overthinking) and Caitlyn Shadbolt (whose new cut Country Music Never Made More Sense is destined to be a hit), but the international heavyweights were out in full force: Bailey Zimmerman came in guns blazing with his wicked new banger Hell Or High Water, for example, while HARDY delivered another instant classic in PSYCHO, and Chris Stapleton got his fans going absolutely mental with the surprise Dua Lipa collab Think I’m In Love With You.

With all of that in mind, now seems like as good a time as any to remind you – or clue you in, if you didn’t know already – that we have our very own playlist dedicated to bringing you the best new music from all corners of the country music landscape, fittingly named Hot Country Hits Australia. We update it every Friday with more than a dozen of the brand new tracks we simply can’t get enough of, giving you the ultimate soundtrack to fuel your weekend.

You can listen to the Hot Country Hits Australia playlist on Spotify (here) and Apple Music (here) – and make sure to hit us up on Instagram or Facebook to let us know what songs you’ve been loving!

Here are just a few of our personal favourites from this week’s update to the playlist...

Bailey Zimmerman – Hell Or High Water

WHAT HE SAYS: “Whatever is going on in y’all’s life, I just hope this song gives you a sense of peace and hope because it does get better! God gives his hardest battles to his strongest soldiers. And to those of y'all that are on the greener side of the battle, I hope this song makes you realiSe it was only high water. I really hope y’all love this song as much as I do.”

Raechel Whitchurch – Drink Until You’re Alright

WHAT SHE SAYS: “When I wrote [my first album] Finally Clear, I was full of hope, wonder and optimism. It was the story of a girl who had decided to take a chance and chase her dreams. My new album is the second part of that story – it is what happens after you take that chance. It’s the highs and the lows, the overwhelming joy and the excruciating pain, it’s laughing until it hurts and crying until it feels a little better.

“Writing has always been something that I’ve used to process my own feelings and experiences. Sometimes I don’t even know what I feel until I bring it to life in a song. Something that I really tried to be conscious of with these songs was to not pretty them up too much. With my last album I think I wanted to make the songs really palatable to the listener, but this time I was more focussed on keeping them raw, a little bit rough, a little more like real life. I think it made me a better writer to leave some of the dirt on.”

Baeden Faint – Overthinking

WHAT HE SAYS: “In the early days the song had more of a tone of desperation, but a little while down the track, Brad [Ashton, guitarist] sat out the front of my grandparent’s house and strummed a few chords, which led to a rethinking in a slightly more positive light.”

Also featured in this week’s Hot Country Hits playlist:

• Lauren Watkins – Settling Things

• Adam Doleac – You Go I Go

• Caitlyn Shadbolt – Country Music Never Made More Sense (ft. Melanie Dyer, Sammy White & Sarah Buckley)

• Tucker Wetmore – What Would You Do?

• Chris Stapleton & Dua Lipa – Think I’m In Love With You (Live From The 59th ACM Awards)

• Owen Riegling – Moonshines

• HARDY – PSYCHO

• Travis Denning – Strawberry Wine And A Cheap Six Pack

Listen to the full playlist on Spotify below – or head here to save/follow on Spotify, and here to save/follow on Apple Music.