Sometimes the best way for an artist to move forward is to take time to be still. There’s nothing that feeds a creative soul like taking time to soak up life and marinate in the moments that matter. Sara Evans embraced that philosophy, and now six years after her last studio album, she is back with “Stronger,” a landmark record filled with the kind of gutsy explorations on life and love that have made Evans one of the most compelling female vocalists of her generation.

Let's get the obvious out of the way: SHeDAISY is a trio of sisters from Magna, Utah. Their sound is an amalgamation of country with flavors of pop, rock and every other influence imaginable. But first and foremost it's country.

“There's more women stars in Nashville all the time. They're proving they can do the job the same as a man.” Loretta Lynn Indeed, it’s the “Year of the Woman” in Country music these days and fans are getting three new female stars from the Heavens above. While their band Stealing Angels might need an introduction, their individual names and heritages are all too familiar.

There is a cool moment, preserved for posterity in TV syndication, when Joshua Scott Jones and Meghan Linsey, the duo known as Steel Magnolia, make the connection that changes their lives. It’s cattle call audition day for season two of CMT’s Can You Duet? Josh and Meghan are secretly ambivalent about the whole thing, skeptical that the judges (especially that big-time record executive on the left) aren't going to get their very unique sound.

To hear Jennifer Nettles tell it, it’s a brand new day in Sugarland. Despite winning multiple Grammy, CMA and ACM awards, and selling more than 8 million records, the country-music duo of Nettles and Kristian Bush is embracing a creative rebirth, a musical awakening that permeates their adventurous fourth album, The Incredible Machine.

Sunny Sweeney is from Longview, Texas, and initially wanted to be an improvisational comedian before she pursued a music career. She moved to New York City after high school but ended up working a variety of jobs, then moved to Austin, Texas.

Inheriting a cross-pollinated love of country and rock & roll from their parents, The Band Perry - siblings Kimberly, Reid, and Neil Perry - say that they bleed the bright red blood of American music.

They met in Nashville, five musicians from four states with backgrounds from across the spectrum and a hunger to make music that matters. Their growing suspicion that they had something special was confirmed over and over as they took to the road. Fans in one club after another reacted as they always do in the presence of the real thing, and the Dirt Drifters began attracting a rabid and loyal following.

Family. Love. Harmony. They’re three simple words that can mean anything to pretty much everybody. But for The Harters, they embody a way of life that means just about everything. First and foremost, Michael, Leslie and Scott are siblings. And as brothers and sister, they share a familial love rooted in a lifetime of music.

Naomi Judd was born Diana Ellen Judd on Jan. 11, 1946, in Ashland, Ky. Finding herself pregnant, she quickly got married but not to the father of her first child, daughter Christina Ciminella. Christina, born May 30, 1964, became known as Wynonna Judd when the mother-daughter duo stormed the country charts in the 1980s.