Here’s some the best Americana and roots-type music releases for January 26th, 2024. Click the artist or album links to find out more. The artist’s names link to their websites and the CD title links go to either Amazon, iTunes, Bandcamp or the artist’s site for ordering or downloading. A + sign means although not a featured release, it’s a notable album that’s still worth checking out. Also, this page will be updated as I find out about other new releases so check back again.
Willi Carlisle
Critterland (Signature Sounds Recordings)
Willi Carlisle has been barn-storming the country the past few years with his righteous, roving accordion-folk tales about van life, borderlands, cattle ranching, and cheap cocaine. But the Kansas-raised singer-songwriter truly levels up on Critterland, produced by Darrell Scott. These richly rendered songs mix harrowing heartland reportage on sobriety, suicide, Ozark drug rings with openhearted tales of grief, fatherhood, and packing bowls in a Tennessee Bojangles. The result is a beautiful folk document of American reckoning and redemption. (edited from Rolling Stone review)
Jim Kweskin
Never Too Late (Storysound Records)
Jim Kweskin continues to create vital, heartfelt music some sixty years after releasing his first album. His latest effor is a very special project that has Kweskin performing duets with female singers with whom he has collaborated over his storied career. Among these vocalists are Samoa Wilson and Maria Muldaur, who was a member of Kweskin’s pioneering Jug Band, a group that played at many Newport Folk Festivals and made multiple appearances on national TV shows. In fact, Jim Kweskin & His Jug Band was proclaimed as one of the most influential bands of the early Sixties. Another one of Kweskin’s singing partners is his granddaughter Fiona Kweskin, who’s making her recording debut on this album. Kweskin’s backing band also is predominantly female, and features the acclaimed instrumentalists: fiddler Suzy Thompson, dobro & steel guitarist Cindy Cashdollar, and harmonica player Annie Raines. The 83-year-old musician has long been hailed for his vast repertoire of songs – from well-known tunes to highly obscure gems – that he has uncovered over the years. (from Label’s bio)
John Leventhal
Rumble Strip (RumbleStrip Records)
Throughout his 45-year career, John Leventhal has worn many hats, as a producer and songwriter, musician, composer, and more. In all this time, Leventhal has never explored being a solo artist “I’ve always had a catalog of ideas that have never found a home,” said Leventhal in a statement. “In the back of my mind, I thought that one of these days I should try to harvest some of those ideas and confront the personal gauntlet of making a solo record.” Giving a glimpse into his mostly instrumental Rumble Strip, Leventhal shared, “The idea of the record came from the fact that I had been producing and co-writing with artists for a long time and inevitably, at the end of every project, there was a bunch of material that never found a home.” (edited from American Songwriter review)
Also new this week…
Spencer Burton – North Wind (Dine Alone Records)
Chatham County Line – Hiyo (Yep Roc Records) +
Ismay – Desert Pavement (independent)
Sarah Jarosz – Polaroid Lovers (Rounder Records) +
Malcolm MacWatt – Dark Harvest (Singular Recordings)
Cary Morin – Innocent Allies (independent)
Danielle Nicole – The Love You Bleed (Forty Below Records)
Sister Sadie – No Fear (Mountain Home Music Company) +
William Elliott Whitmore – Silently, The Mind Breaks (Whitmore Records) +
Coming out soon … Matt the Electrician, Eric Brace and Thomm Jutz, Corb Lund, Hurray for the Riff Raff, Seth James, The High Hawks, Béla Fleck, Vanessa Peters, Joe Pug, The Dead South, The Steel Wheels, Waxahatchee, Anna Moss, Sierra Ferrell, Rees Shad, Kitchen Dwellers, Sarah Shook & The Disarmers, JJ Grey & Mofro, Aoife O’Donovan, The Coal Men, Charley Crockett, Pi Jacobs and more!
