Here’s some the best Americana and roots-type music releases for November 10th, 2023. 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.
Vincent Neil Emerson
The Golden Crystal Kingdom (La Honda Records)
On his latest release, produced by Shooter Jennings, Emerson has never sounded better. The artist takes you through a whirlwind of lonesome man ballads brimming with imaginative storytelling while crafting twangy arrangements bursting with personality. The Golden Crystal Kingdom is an appropriate name for an album with lyrics longing for some sense of paradise. Throughout the album, Emerson pens heartfelt novels that focus more on the aftermath of love rather than the rush of emotions felt while deep in it. He brings storytelling to a whole new level, allowing the minimal arrangements to soundtrack his poetic tales. Vincent Neil Emerson has a sound that emulates the Outlaw era and his lyrics paint such vivid pictures it is almost like you’re standing right next to the main character, taking in all the sights and sounds of one of the best country albums to be released this year. (edited from Glide Magazine review)
Chris Stapleton
Higher (Mercury Nashville Records)
With his fifth studio LP, Higher, Chris Stapleton, assisted by co-producers Dave Cobb and Morgane Stapleton, forges another set of meticulously crafted, adeptly instrumented, and accessible songs. While the Kentucky-born artist continues to mine and rebrand various templates, his voice is undeniably and invariably country, whether he’s invoking Saturday night or Sunday morning. Stapleton is at once adventurous and a proponent of the tried and true balancing a fertile confluence of country, blues, and soul. With Higher, he navigates an array of intriguing sonics. As with previous outings, though, it’s his voice — equal parts straight bourbon, aloe balm, Marlboro smoke, and Tupelo honey — that stands out and carries the day. You might call it irresistible, signature, even as it conjures the ghosts of country music’s great progenitors. (edited from No Depression review)
Also new this week…
Jimmy Buffett – Equal Strain On All Parts (Sun Records)
Daniel Donato – Reflector (Retrace Music)
Jon Dee Graham – Only Dead For A Little While (Strolling Bones Records) +
Kristen Grainger & True North – Fear of Falling Stars (independent) +
Terry Klein – Leave The Light On (independent) +
Kerri Powers – Love Is Why (Wildflower Children)
The Resonant Rogues – The Resonant Rogues (independent)
Todd Snider – Crank It, We’re Doomed (Aimless Records)
Afton Wolfe – The Harvest (Grandiflora Records)
Coming out soon… Amos Lee, The Wilder Blue, John Craigie, Sarah Jarosz, Willi Carlisle, John Leventhal and more!
