There are many reasons a country fan should look forward to an album such as Country Never Dies.
Organized by the ever-polarizing Gavin Adcock and released through Warner Records Nashville, the 11-track compilation gathers a group of young country artists to cover songs by legends who are no longer with us.
The timing is good, too. The album lands right in between several major releases — Megan Moroney’s Cloud 9, Johnny Blue Skies’s surprise leak of Mutiny After Midnight, and Luke Combs’s upcoming The Way I Am — giving it a clear lane in the current country conversation.
But what really makes the album interesting is the roster.
Like a good sports team, this album comprises a group of artists who all have something to prove. These are not legacy artists or established superstars. In fact, Jake “Just Turned 30” Worthington is the elder statesman of the solo artists in the group, and he’s still (in the best possible way) a long way from what could be the peak of his commercial powers. Everyone here still feels like they have mountains to climb. That kind of hunger is usually a good recipe for a project like this.
The tracklist splits roughly 50/50 between classic hits and deeper cuts, an impressive design. This could easily have been an album of cover-to-cover number-one hits designed to capitalize on clicks and nostalgia. Instead, the artists sprinkle in a few songs that may test even the biggest country fans’ memories. Songs like “You Win Again,” “Big City Blues,” and even “Kentucky Bluebird” will probably be discoveries for younger fans (and even some older ones).
That choice alone tells you something about the album’s spirit and integrity.
There’s a reason it’s called Country Never Dies: the implied purpose is to keep the tradition alive, introduce great songs to new listeners, and remind older fans why they mattered in the first place.
Viewed through that lens, the album’s stated goal is achieved earnestly.
Listeners who open this anthology hoping to find revelatory reimaginings of the classics they love will ultimately be disappointed.
Don’t be surprised when Waylon Jennings, George Jones, and Conway Twitty don’t come through the speakers when you listen to this record. What you will hear is a group of young artists doing their best to keep these songs alive, respectfully and honestly. You might even hear the best recording of “He Stopped Loving Her Today” by someone not named George Jones.
Even when a track falls flat, it doesn’t undermine the fact that the collective is worth rooting for.
The whole thing feels like a community of country fans who are also artists, singing songs they love.
And isn’t that shared reverence for a common art form what country music is all about?
Only Daddy That’ll Walk the Line — Gavin Adcock
Written by Jimmy Bryant (of Jimmy Bryant & Speedy West – check out “Boogie Man” if you haven’t) and famously recorded by Waylon Jennings in 1968, “Only Daddy That’ll Walk the Line” opens the album with a strong statement of purpose.
The original was a breakout hit for Waylon in his clean-cut phase, reaching #2 on the country charts, but was thwarted from reaching the mountaintop by none other than “Harper Valley PTA.” What a time to be alive, huh?
One would expect Gavin Adcock, one of the most polarizing artists in modern country music, to be maligned for even going near this song. But to the surprise of us all, the response to this song has been (albeit anecdotally) more positive than negative.
There’s something about his music that succeeds despite the sometimes antagonistic public persona he puts forward. Gavin Adcock is not the most technically gifted singer, but he doesn’t hide behind vocal effects and has an exceptional aptitude for shaping phrases.
That authenticity serves him well in the bookends to this album.
The recording doesn’t come close to the Waylon original, but it really doesn’t need to. When the cards are stacked against you, you can’t go all in.
The best Gavin could do here as a lead-off hitter is get on base, which is exactly what he does and what this album requires from its artists.
Slow Hand — Hudson Westbrook
Originally recorded by the Pointer Sisters (who knew?) in 1981 before Conway Twitty turned it into a country classic a year later, “Slow Hand” depends almost entirely on the performer selling the song’s confident swagger.
Unfortunately, Hudson Westbrook does not fit the bill.
Hudson Westbrook sings it well enough, but the performance never fully convinces. Conway’s version worked because he projected a kind of been-around-the-block confidence that made the lyrics believable. When that dirty old dinosaur looks you in the eye and sings about knowing how to love someone right, you can’t help but, for some reason, believe him.
Westbrook sounds too young for the role. His polished vocals, beaming smile, and blonde hair work well in the context of his own songs but undermine the song’s central premise.
“Slow Hand” needs a little grit and a little wear on the tires.
Technically solid, but diabolically miscast.
He Stopped Loving Her Today — Jake Worthington
It takes guts to sign up for a cover of what some consider the greatest country song of all time.
But if anyone on this album had the vocal ability to approach a George Jones classic, it’s Jake Worthington.
Worthington has one of the most distinctive and lived-in voices in modern country. Its molasses-level thickness and sweetness come through in a way that recalls the great traditionalists. His vocal style carries clear echoes of Jones, particularly in his controlled melisma and his ability to navigate both the low and high ends of his range.
No one will ever match the hurt that George Jones carried in his voice, and in many ways that’s a good thing. Jones endured what no one should have to. Instead of aspiring to mimic that pain, Jake Worthington wades through the song with restraint and sincerity. His spoken-word section lands beautifully, and small vocal flourishes throughout the performance give it a personal feel rather than projecting imitation.
It’s the best vocal performance on the album and one that will likely become a live highlight.
This is the best recording of “He Stopped Loving Her Today” by anyone not named George Jones, and although it’s not a crowded field, it’s well earned.
Southern Nights — Ashley Cooke
“Southern Nights” is a song about an enveloping atmosphere of nostalgic Americana. It should transport the listener to a place of warm air, crickets in the distance, and the quiet magic of a summer evening.
That feeling doesn’t quite come through here.
Ashley Cooke is a talented artist, but the track feels unnecessarily processed. The sterility of this rendition works against the song’s earthy spirit. You should feel the grass under your feet when you hear this song.
Instead, it feels more like linoleum.
Slide Off Your Satin Sheets — Braxton Keith
Braxton Keith continues his impressive run with a strong take on Johnny Paycheck’s “Slide Off Your Satin Sheets.”
This guy isn’t just heating up. He is on fire. He’s getting balls back every time he shoots.
Like Johnny Paycheck, Keith has a gift for hitting every note in a melody while sounding like he’s just talking to you. Even though his voice has a modern sheen, there’s an undercurrent of grittiness that gives it character.
The general public would be well served with more Paycheck covers from Mr. Keith. “Georgia in a Jug,” anyone?
Legend has it he absolutely crushes this song live, and the recorded version captures that energy well.
Wayfaring Stranger — Lanie Gardner
The album’s biggest surprise comes from young Lanie Gardner’s interpretation of the nearly forgotten folk standard “Wayfaring Stranger.”
The song has murky roots, attributed to both German and Black American roots. The longing hymn has been recorded by an interesting collection of artists ranging from Burl Ives to Johnny Cash and Emmylou Harris. Gardner’s version captures elements of both Cash and Harris.
Her voice carries the grit and grace of Emmylou while drawing strength from the lower register, reminiscent of the Man in Black. The arrangement parallels this Beauty-and-the-Beast pairing, with a delicate banjo and a grungy guitar solo.
The cinematic result is both a soaring hymn and a soundtrack to a gunfighter Western.
It’s one of the album’s most original moments and a great advertisement for anyone new to the Lanie Gardner experience.
You Win Again — Vincent Mason
Hank Williams’s “You Win Again” (also recorded by Jerry Lee Lewis in 1958) may not be the most interesting song choice, but Vincent Mason handles it properly.
Rather than trying to reinvent the track, Mason focuses on sustaining the spirit of the original. His Hank-style vocal flourishes land naturally without sounding exaggerated.
The weak spot in this recording is a bit of vocal texturing in the production that occasionally overtakes and distracts from the purity of his voice.
Still, the performance fits the album’s mission: honoring a classic in a way that will almost certainly extend its lifetime.
Kentucky Bluebird — The Creekers
Surprisingly, Keith Whitley’s “Kentucky Bluebird” translates beautifully into a bluegrass arrangement, and The Creekers lean into that opportunity.
The banjo and fiddle add rhythmic complexity, while layered harmonies give the track a richer emotional texture. It’s a simple song elevated by acoustic instrumentation.
One of the album’s more quietly effective reinterpretations.
Simple Man — Austin Snell
The Ronnie Van Zant era of Lynyrd Skynyrd was always about the liberation of the common man by pushing back against the forces that try to tell ordinary people how to live.
Austin Snell’s vocal performance is technically strong, but the heavy filtering and stylistic affectations make the song feel as though it is in direct opposition to the freedom and raw power of those Skynyrd records from the early 70s. Ronnie Van Zant never worried about a flawless vocal track.
Unfortunately, this version feels more like a very high-level karaoke rendition than a lived-in interpretation.
Big City Blues — Shelby Stone
Written by Keith Gattis and recorded by Charlie Robison, two men who tragically left this world too soon in 2023, “Big City Blues” is probably the deepest cut from this compilation.
Shelby Stone deserves a lot of credit for taking it on. She succeeds in delivering a sprawling epic that captures the lyrics’ anger, but the interpretation is slightly misguided.
This largely forgotten 2004 track is a reflective song about emotions beyond anger. We feel both the pull of home and the frustration of city life.
That said, Shelby Stone’s version leans too heavily into aggression and anger from the outset, which feels like a lopsided interpretation of the song’s emotional arc. The original builds toward that intensity but doesn’t start there.
On the album Country Never Dies, this track comes across as more interested in mourning than in celebration.
Mama Tried — Gavin Adcock
It works. Gavin Adcock signed up for two covers of great difficulty and, surprisingly, stuck the landing.
The ne’er-do-well finding-his-way-to-success persona that Adcock has adopted is not unlike the one that made convict-turned-crooner Merle Haggard appealing to country audiences. The vocals ride comfortably aboard the instrumental locomotive in this rendition, with Darius Rucker-style shimmers well placed along the way.
Again, the recording doesn’t reach the heights of the original, but it doesn’t feel like a cynical nostalgia play either.
It feels like a fan singing a song he loves.
Final Thoughts
Not every song delivers the aqua vitae promised by the ambitiously named compilation. But all signs point to the album’s intentions being sincere, and this project succeeds because that sincerity outweighs the occasional misguided artistic choice.
If this collection is to be judged by its stated purpose, then only a handful of listeners need to discover the originals for Country Never Dies to have achieved its goal.
