Here’s some the best Americana and roots-type music releases for October 27th, 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.
Jesse Colter
Edge of Forever (Appalachia Record Co.)
Jessi Colter has always stood on the edge. She and her late husband Waylon Jennings, along with Willie Nelson and Tompall Glaser, carried country music in new directions in 1976 with the album Wanted! The Outlaws, the first country album to hit platinum status. Colter brought her own outlaw stylings to her haunting chart hit “I’m Not Lisa” in 1975. In 2017, she returned to her Pentecostal roots with her edgy and ethereal versions of The Psalms, produced by Lenny Kaye. On Edge of Forever, produced by Margo Price and mixed by Colter’s son, Shooter Jennings, Colter blurs the edges, delivering soaring gospel-inflected songs, tender ballads, and raucous honky-tonkers. (edited from No Depression review)
The Third Mind
The Third Mind 2 (Yep Roc Records)
The 2020 appearance of the ad hoc group the Third Mind seemed like a synergistic one-off. Guitarist Dave Alvin gathered musically compatible friends and put them in the studio, running tapes as they jammed, reportedly unrehearsed, on some ’60s psychedelic blues/rock/jazz/folk semi-classics. The same lineup—Alvin, guitarist David Immergluck, drummer Michael Jerome, Victor Krummenacher on bass and keyboards, and singer/acoustic guitarist Jesse Sykes — reunite, now with the experience of the previous release. The results are just as potent and arguably even better. The six tunes traverse a diverse musical palette. From Fred Neil’s “A Little Bit of Rain,” to the Electric Flag’s “Groovin’ Is Easy” and Phil Spector’s unusual childlike “Sally Go Round the Roses,” Alvin and company cast a collective spell over songs rearranged to feature their improvised instrumental prowess. (edited from American Songwriter review)
Also new this week…
Black Pumas – Chronicles Of A Diamond (ATO Records)
Robert Finley – Black Bayou (Easy Eye Sound) +
Flatland Cavalry – Wandering Star (Interscope Records)
Dylan Gossett – No Better Time (independent)
Anton O’Donnell – Tomber Sur PRW (Need To Know Music)
Old Californio – Metaterranea (independent)
Leon Rosselson – Chronicling the Times (Free Dirt Records)
Nora Jane Struthers – Back to Cast Iron (Blue Pig Music)
Willy Tea Taylor & The Fellership – The Great Western Hangover (independent) +
Tejon Street Corner Thieves – Juxtaposition (Liars Club Records)
Various Artists – A Tribute To The Judds (Broken Bow Records)
Skarlett Woods – Letters To The West (independent)
Coming out soon… Jaime Wyatt, Chris Stapleton, Sylvia Tyson, Jon Dee Graham, Vincent Neil Emerson, Kerri Powers, Kristen Grainger & True North, Amos Lee, Ben Gage, Jeffrey Martin, Terry Klein, The Resonant Rogues and more!
