Here’s some the best Americana and roots-type music releases for January 31st, 2025. 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.
Loudon Wainwright III
Loudon Live In London (The Last Music Company)
Folksinger Loudon Wainwright III has had a colorful and eventful life, professionally and personally. His more than half-century musical career has embraced dozens of studio albums, countless concert tours, and one unlikely hit single, “Dead Skunk (In the Middle of the Road).” To learn more about these achievements and relationships, you don’t need to read the memoir that Wainwright published in 2017; you just need to listen to his music. To a greater extent than most songwriters, Wainwright has mined his own life for his lyrics, writing variously funny and heartbreaking, often first-person songs about his parents, his kids, his romantic entanglements, and more. The 21-track album includes songs from records as old as 1971’s Album II and as new as 2022’s Lifetime Achievement, his latest studio recording. The program also embraces four covers and a bit of new original material. It’s a solo acoustic set, with Wainwright accompanying himself on guitar, ukulele, and harmonica. (edited from Americana Highways review)
Also new this week…
Bonnie “Prince” Billy – The Purple Bird (No Quarter Records) +
Lilly Hiatt – Forever (New West Records)
Heather Maloney – Exploding Star (Signature Sounds Recordings)
Dave Murphy – A Heart So Rare (independent)
Nefesh Mountain – Beacons (independent)
Vinnie Paolizzi – Spaghetti Western, Vol. 1 (Gold Rush Records)
David Quinn – Up To Snuff (independent)
Jim White and Trey Blake – Precious Bane (Fluff & Gravy Records)
Coming out soon … Christina Vane, Miss Tess, Paul Thorn, Sean McConnell, JD Clayton, Patterson Hood, Ron Pope, Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band, Sunny War, The Devil Makes Three, Jason Isbell, Kinky Friedman, Chip Taylor, The War and Treaty, Jason Boland & The Stragglers, Ashleigh Flynn & The Riveters, Pete Mancini, Charley Crockett, Mason Via and more!
