2022 Country Music Wrap-Up (Top Songs)

TRANSCRIPT

This is our 2022 Country year end wrap up. What a long, strange trip it's been!

People need to stop dying, seriously. We lost a few of the very best this year, gosh.. But it wasn’t all tears y’all. There were some noteworthy surprises, and inklings of hope to soften the losses this year. We’ll get to our top song picks for 2022 shortly.

Let's dive into the country music industry picks from Billboard, and Music row for 2022.

But first did you know Bailey Zimmerman earned two platinum singles in 2022? It was his first time too! One was for Fall In love, and Rock and a Hard Place. No surprise here as his album made it to our top albums of 2022. That podcast is live now.

And a Q1 top song pick Wild As Her from Corey Kent was also certified gold last year. A first for the Oklahoma native. So let's start from the top with the top country song for the year 2022 as reported by billboard.

Top song, artist, and album for 2022 goes to Morgan Wallen, Wasted On You is the single, and Dangerous is the double album.

Morgan is also the top 4 artist on the all genre independent album chart w/ his 2018 release If I know Me..Let’s go ahead and hear billboard’s country song of the year Wasted On You..

Moving forward with our highlights for 2022, Regionally, The Broken Spokes took Swing Band of The Year at the Texas Country Music Awards.

Donice Morace won Emerging Artist of The Year. He was one of the top 10 new traditional country artists we spotlighted back in February 2020.

We were also very happy to see new traditionalists Robert Ray show strong radio airplay In Texas Country Radio. Check out our podcast w/ Robert on Pandora.

Speaking of great music, The Grand Ole Opry is going strong since 1925 and is still the longest running radio show in the United States. They added five incredibly talented humans to the Opry family in 2022: Lauren Alaina, Charlie Mccoy, Don Schlitz who co-wrote one of my favorite Keith Whitley songs. You know which one?

Yes, When You Say Nothing At All. He also wrote Randy Travis hit On The Other Hand. Yes, and Forever, and Ever Amen..

Ashley Mcbryde was also a new 2022 opry member. She had a banner year in 2022. She won the CMA and ACM Musical Event of the Year category for “Never Wanted To Be That Girl" w/ Carly Pierce. I’m so happy she recuperated from that near fatal horse accident. Oh my goodness.. She pretty much had to learn to walk again..unbelievable.

Still on the Opry, did you know that Jesse McReynolds of Jim & Jesse is now the oldest living Opry member? He will be 94 in July.

Jim & Jesse

All the new Opry inductees are amazing, but we were especially happy to see Jamey Johnson land a spot. He's recorded quite a few classics which we wholeheartedly feel is of critical importance. With Gen Alpha, and Gen z who may not have the benefit of growing up with old school country.

Yes, it is important that the artists that are still touring and or charting dust a few of those classic country gems off so the new listeners can hear it. One such song is this one..

Like the Grand Ole Opry, The Country Music Hall of Fame was very busy this year too! Though all are deserving, Ray Charles, Keith Whitley, and The Judds were among our favorites recently inducted.

Though Ray, and The Judds are part of the 2021 class of inductees, the ceremony did not take place until May 2022. Talk about soul crushingly sad though, as Naomi passed just days before the medallion ceremony. My goodness.

Check out the Bill Anderson and Chris Stapelton exhibit at the country music hall of fame. Go to countrymusichalloffame.org for more info. They also have a few online exhibits that may be of interest.

And speaking of Chris Stapelton, he added several more grammys to his collection including top song honors for Cold. Good song.