Ashton Shepherd sounds like a caricature of country music—a twang as wide as rivers are deep, no heart left unwrenched, no string untugged. The results are uncannily gleeful and exuberant. Then at the end, "Whiskey Won the Battle"—as clichéd as the rest—is a gut kick of total conviction. Country song of the year, except maybe for Willie Nelson's "The Bob Song." —Frank Kogan