Here’s some the best Americana and roots-type music releases for June 14th, 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.
Hermanos Gutiérrez
Sonido Cósmico (Easy Eye Sound)
The title of Ecuadorian-Swiss band Hermanos Gutiérrez’s new album translates to “cosmic sound.” It’s a bit literal for the type of moody, cross-cultural, instrumental music that the band makes, but the name also seems to capture something deeper, more spiritual between brothers Alejandro and Estevan. Although Sonido Cósmico is the brothers’ sixth album together, it’s just their second album with Black Keys band member and label owner Dan Auerbach and Easy Eye Sound, rendering them still fairly new to US audiences. Although instrumental records can be difficult for many lyrics-centric listeners to tap into, Sonido Cósmico is a remarkably visual album. Both the English and Spanish language song titles seem to serve as portals for the imagination. Together, these multicultural sounds and themes of spiritual and psychic connection showcase how Hermanos Gutiérrez’s contemporary, instrumental music exemplifies the widening umbrella of roots music. (edited from No Depression review)
Oliver Wood
Fat Cat Silhouette (Honey Jar Records)
The shared manifestation of roots in folk, rock, blues, country, and gospel notwithstanding,Oliver Wood’s two solo albums stand distinctly apart from his work with his Brothers Chris and Jano. And the distinctions of Fat Cat Silhouette fully reaffirm those of its predecessor Always Smilin’: while there’s little doubt about how carefully crafted this and the previous album sound, the music still radiates a sense of one sustained moment of impromptu inspiration. That the man generally refuses to take himself too seriously only renders more emotionally genuine the forthright expression of feeling from this latest endeavor from this restlessly creative Wood Brother. (edited from Glide Magazine review)
Also new this week…
Annie Bacon & her Oshen – Storm (independent)
The Decemberists – As It Ever Was, So It Will Be Again (YABB Records)
Jenny Don’t and the Spurs – Broken Hearted Blue (Fluff and Gravy Records) +
Ryan David Green – Off and Running (independent)
Madeline Hawthorne – Tales From Late Nights & Long Drives (independent)
Michael Lawson – Tennessee River Shakedown (independent)
Lonesome River Band – The Winning Hand (Mountain Home Music Company)
Jake Neuman & The Jaybirds – Little Bitty Town (Peacedale Records) +
Grace Pettis – Down to the Letter (MPress Records)
David Serby – Low Hanging Stars (Blackbird Record Label)
The Smith & Western Jury – Hotel Texas (independent)
Sugaray Rayford – Human Decency (Forty Below Records)
Surrender Hill – River of Tears (Blue Betty Records)
The Whiskey Charmers – Streetlights (independent)
Coming out soon … Dave Alvin & Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Yarn, Silverada, Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats, Kaitlin Butts, Jubal Lee Young, Dawn & Hawkes, Jim Lauderdale, Melissa Carper, Donovan Woods, Joe Ely, Rory Block, AJ Lee & Blue Summit, Jake Xerxes Fussell, Billy Strings, The Cactus Blossoms and more!
