Here’s some the best Americana and roots-type music releases for June 28th, 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.
Kaitlin Butts
Roadrunner! (New West Records)
Though she’s a new name to many, Butts is establishing herself as one of the most dynamic artists to grow out of the Oklahoma Red Dirt scene, unafraid to test boundaries for which the regional (and male-dominated) sub-genre is known. Her 2022 sophomore album found her fiercely fighting for a reclamation of power for her characters and herself, wading through domestic violence, addiction, and family trauma. Roadrunner! meets Butts at the intersection of everything she’s ever loved: musicals, country, and her home state. And it lets her lean into the theatricality and drama she’s always sprinkled into her persona and live show, where the costumes are fringed to the heavens and her huge voice fills the room even on the gloomiest songs. “I don’t ever want to be the kind of artist where people can nail me down,” Butts says, “Red Dirt is where I learned the basics of storytelling. But I want to be unpredictable.” (edited from Rolling Stone interview)
Silverada
Silverada (Prairie Rose Records)
Previously known as Mike and the Moonpies, the Austin-based band surprised the independent country world when they announced the new name change in January. “We spent the first part of our career figuring out who we are and what we’re good at,” says lead singer Mike Harmeier. “Now we want to evolve not only the sound of the band, but the dynamic of the live show, too. We’re all lifers here. We’re in this for the long haul. Silverada is us setting the stage for the next leg of the journey.” Harmeier wrote the album in his backyard studio while reading a bunch of books for inspiration, including astronomy texts and sci-fi novels. “We’d been on tour for so long, playing the same set for almost two years, and I wanted to write something that was a departure,” Harmeier says. The album also does expand further away from the band’s original Austin honky tonk sound more than any album before, and it might strive for perfection but fall just short of attaining it from a couple of sleepier songs. (edited from Saving Country Music review)
Also new this week…
Rory Block – Positively 4th Street (Stony Plain Records) +
Johnny Cash – Songwriter (UMG Recordings)
Dawn & Hawkes – Light Outside (independent)
The Del McCoury Band – Songs of Love and Life (McCoury Music) +
Marques Morel – Tales and Tellings (Edgewater Music Group)
Josh Morningstar – Josh Morningstar (Late August Records) –
Madeleine Peyroux – Let’s Walk (Just One Recording, Inc.)
Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats – South of Here (Stax Records)
Alan Walker – A Little Too Late (Aunt Mimi’s Records)
Alice Wallace – Here I Am (Mulekick Records) +
Wilco – Hot Sun Cool Shroud EP (dBpm Records)
Jubal Lee Young – Wild Birds Warble (self-released) +
Coming out soon … Jake Xerxes Fussell, Yarn, Melissa Carper, Donovan Woods, Joe Ely, AJ Lee & Blue Summit, Steve Earle, Johnny Blue Skies, Billy Strings, Norman Blake, Maya De Vitry, The Cactus Blossoms, Caleb Caudle, The Deslondes, Pony Bradshaw and more!
