Here’s some the best Americana and roots-type music releases for September 22nd, 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.
Brent Cobb
Southern Star (Ol’ Buddy Records)
Brent Cobb’s new album Southern Star is about absolutely nothing at all, and about everything all at once. It is both a simple work that doesn’t say much, and perhaps the most prophetic and deeply philosophical album that will be released all year. It’s message is both seriously profound, and yet so understated that you might miss it if you’re not paying attention. Brent Cobb has already been a major part of instilling the independent country music insurgency with a healthy shot of smooth, funky, and soulful attitude delivered with a Southern drawl. It’s a version of country that includes a lot of organ, and rounds the edges off of everything until it goes down easy like a good sipping whiskey or the whipped butter on a biscuit. Brent Cobb is perfectly content being semi-famous, picking up opportunities when they present themselves like opening for big names such as Luke Combs and Chris Stapleton, and not allowing the important things in life to pass him by. What’s really great about Southern Star is it’s an extension of Brent Cobb’s own laid back personality, and a perfect album to decompress to. (edited from Saving Country Music review)
Buddy & Julie Miller
In The Throes (New West Records)
After forty years of marriage, Buddy and Julie Miller have learned to welcome a song however it arrives, questioning only where the song is taking them rather than where it originated. There’s no process, no assembly-line procedure, just an openness to those bursts of inspiration and those hours of refinement, which means their fourth album together, In the Throes, sounds lively and diverse, eccentric and slightly askew: a deeply soulful collision of mournful gospel, dusty country, cosmic blues, lusty rockabilly, ecstatic r&b, and anything else that crosses their minds.
Various Artists
More Than A Whisper: Celebrating The Music Of Nanci Griffith (Rounder Records)
This is an all-star tribute to the legacy of the GRAMMY award-winning singer, guitarist, and songwriter. Featured artists include Brandy Clark, Shawn Colvin, Iris Dement, Steve Earle, Mary Gauthier, Emmylou Harris, Sarah Jarosz, Lyle Lovett and Kathy Mattea, Ida Mae, John Prine and Kelsey Waldon, Todd Snider, Billy Strings and Molly Tuttle, Aaron Lee Tasjan, and The War And Treaty covering some of Griffith’s most notable releases.
Also new this week…
Charles Wesley Godwin – Family Ties (Big Loud Records) +
Adam Hood – Adam Hood’s Different Groove (Southern Songs) +
Lydia Lovelace – Nothing’s Gonna Stand in My Way Again (self-release)
Keegan McInroe – Agnes (self-released)
Shannon McNally – Live at Dee’s (self-released)
Jenny Owen Youngs – Avalanche (Yep Roc Records)
Coming out soon… Charley Crockett, Owen Temple, Jeff Plankenhorn, Ray Bonneville, Mick Flannery, The Steel Woods, Ida Mae, John R. Miller, Billy Don Burns, Tré Burt, Robert Rex Waller Jr., Eli Paperboy Reed, Jessi Colter, Jonah Tolchin, Chris Stapleton, Kerri Powers, Kristen Grainger & True North and more!
