Our 10 favorite Nashville albums of 2023 (so far), from Jelly Roll to Paramore

Of many Nashville artists achieving success in 2023, here are 10, in alphabetical order, whose style and substance have excelled in equal, significant measure.

The Tennessean's list of Nashville's best albums in 2023 represents the intersection of numerous factors impacting a music industry now deep and long into consolidation, democratization, technology, and unlikely pop moments.

There are artists whose music pales in comparison with the stars that America's cultural and sociopolitical moment have allowed them to become. For others, the constant output of their stellar material supersedes being confined by traditional album formats.

Bully — 'Lucky for You'

Nashville singer-songwriter Alicia Bognanno — known by her stage name, Bully — returned this summer with "Lucky for You," a fuzzy alt-rock triumph released on taste-making label Sub Pop. With unvarnished self-reflections ("Hard To Love") and howling proclamations (album standout "All I Do"), Bully released the perfect rock album for spontaneous late-night singalongs and window-down summer road trips.

Brandy Clark — 'Brandy Clark'

With her May-released self-titled album, Washington state-born Nashville veteran Brandy Clark hopefully ends up a Music City artist who is an EGOT-winning (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony awards) creator by the end of the decade.

Aside from her breakout Broadway moment alongside Shane McAnally as a composer and songwriter for "Shucked," she released an album swathed in honest, vulnerable empathy via songs like "She Smoked in the House," an earnest, engrossing remembrance of her grandmother.

Inspired also by legends like "Heads Carolina, Tails California" and "I Hope You Dance" writer Mark D. Sanders, producer Brandi Carlile, plus featured performers like Lucius, Nashville-based string duo Sista Strings and Derek Trucks, Clark tells The Tennessean that she made music from her heart that matters not just to her "but to the world."

Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit — 'Weathervanes'

Jason Isbell just doesn't miss.

Like cracking the spine on a new book in a beloved series, "Weathervanes," the eighth solo effort from this world-class songwriter and ace guitarist, captures a storytelling magic akin to starting a new adventure with familiar friends. And, like close-knit friends, these songs don't tip-toe around hard-to-swallow truths or long-buried vulnerabilities. Settle in, and enjoy the ride.

Jelly Roll — 'Whitsitt Chapel'

The debut major label country album from rapper-turned-crooner Jason "Jelly Roll" DeFord — titled "Whitsitt Chapel," after the Bell Road church he attended as a boy — takes listeners on a so-called "Backroad Baptism" through songs of faith, addiction, and heart-on-his-sleeve love.

Anchored in religious imagery, he sings about self-worth (on the anthemic "Nail Me"), like-minded followers (on rock-tinged "The Lost"), overdue reunions (on steel guitar-soaked "Hungover in a Church Pew") and heart-breaking habits (on big-voiced ballad "She").

Paramore — 'This Is Why'

Paramore was once valedictorian of a pop-punk scene that went to summer school on sweltering blacktop parking lots as part of the now-defunct Warped Tour.

Now — years removed from emo-rock anthem "Misery Business," arena-sized singalong "Still Into You" and new wave-inspired "Hard Times" — the band has begun a new class in rock stardom with "This Is Why," a post-punk album chronicling real-life anxieties and emotional complexities with the depth of a group nearing two decades of music-making.

Peter One — 'Come Back to Me'

A former African pop-star-turned nurse lives anonymously in Nashville for nearly three decades, then releases a critically acclaimed album that revives his career — including opening for Jason Isbell at the Ryman Auditorium, debuting on the Grand Ole Opry, plus playing Willie Nelson's Luck Reunion, Big Ears and Newport Folk festivals.

Ivory Coast-native Peter One's album doesn't sound like his four-decade-old, boutique-adored collaborative debut country-folk album (with Jess Sah Bi) "Our Garden Needs Its Flowers."

Rather, his new album's tracks include the funky "Staring Into the Blues," which bears the influence of One's Creedence Clearwater Revival-loving past. Americana Music Award-winner Allison Russell appears on "Birds Go Die Out of Sight (Don't Go Home)," which tells the "complex, sad and true" story of an immigrant's yearning desire to return home.

The release fully highlights his desire to evolve his compositional skills past the music he recorded 40 years ago.

Marty Stuart — 'Altitude'

Did Marty Stuart make the coolest country album of 2023? It sure seems like it. The Country Music Hall of Fame songwriter and longtime torchbearer returned this year with "Altitude," a so-called "cosmic country" effort inspired by the Byrds, a cornerstone of the California country-rock movement of the late 1960s.

With instrumental surf rock cuts (like "Lost Byrd Space Train"), big-riffed country storytelling ("Country Star") and kaleidoscopic harmonies ("Sitting Alone"), Stuart and his elastic band the Fabulous Superlatives captures a take on this bygone musical crossroads that may not be just the coolest release out of Nashville this year, but the best country album, period.

Tanya Tucker — 'Sweet Western Sound'

Get her off the back of a black stallion horse long enough to talk and Tanya Tucker's value as a country traditionalist old enough to know how to present authentic performances and engaging flair is readily apparent. However, for her second time working on a project with Brandi Carlile and Shooter Jennings, their value as creatives working around and through Tucker's limitations and legacy develop a pristine portrait into the forthcoming Country Music Hall of Famer's timeless legacy.

"When the Rodeo Is Over Where Do the Cowboys Go" was penned three decades ago by Tucker's boyfriend, Craig Dillingham, and accidentally rediscovered by Carlile. "Ready as I'll Ever Be" is a time-worn torch song that tugs at the heartstrings while firming one's resolve. But it's Billy Joe Shaver's voice memo-recited lyrics to "Tanya" that may be the album's most engaging and smile-inducing moment.

"The glow from the light all around her shows off her beauty so well / She looks like the heavenly angel, but Tanya is meaner than hell."

Various Artists — 'Stoned Cold Country'

"I'm past 'my give a damn being busted.' The time for me to play the kind of music that makes you stand up and say, 'whether you like it or not, I'm going to be exactly who I am,' that you play when the sun goes down, the drinks come out and you start listening to Eric Church and the Rolling Stones, has arrived," stated Lainey Wilson to The Tennessean in a March interview prior to headlining at downtown Nashville's Brooklyn Bowl.

The resurgent influence of a particularly funky, soulful variant of rock 'n' roll in country music (alongside fiddles and steel guitars) is one of the year's most defining characteristics to date.

To that end, alongside artists including Brooks and Dunn, Elle King, Ashley McBryde, Brothers Osborne, the War and Treaty, Wilson and others, veteran Nashville creative Robert Deaton executive produced an exciting 14-track cover-song homage to the Stones' country legacy.

"Lainey's voice with the overtones of a steel guitar — once she says 'caint' in the hook of 'You Can't Always Get What You Want,' it feels unmistakably country," Deaton said to The Tennessean.

Morgan Wallen — 'One Thing at a Time'

Three factors — being tormented by him, being curious about his surge in stardom, or being a passionate supporter — have driven Sneedville-native Morgan Wallen's seemingly ubiquitous success that spurred three different "One Thing at a Time" album singles (of a still-astonishing 36 in whole) to reign supreme on country radio for nearly half of the first six months of 2023.

That being said, Wallen's voice, paired with stellar playing and production tailored to his strengths — being a rural balladeer as comfortable in classic country as he is in contemporary R&B or alt-rock from two decades ago — has spelled incredible acclaim.

Florida Georgia Line and Nickelback — two bands that Big Loud Records co-founder and "One Thing at a Time" lead producer Joey Moi worked with in the past — were referred to in their heydays as "the most hated bands in the world" for making "bad, loathsome" music.

They also achieved 26 No. 1 singles in two decades.

History can repeat itself.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Nashville's 10 best albums of 2023 so far: Jelly Roll, Paramore