Americana Music Releases for Aug. 23rd

Posted on August 22, 2024 by

Here’s some the best Americana and roots-type music releases for August 23rd, 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.

 

Colin James
Chasing the Sun  (Stony Plain Records)

It has taken way too long for veteran Canadian bluesman Colin James to receive recognition in America. This is a guy who, at just 24 years old, broke out of the blocks as one of Canada’s biggest blues stars. Thirty-six years and some 20 award-winning albums later he’s not just still going strong, but the terrific Chasing the Sun might be his finest offering yet. Perhaps it will provide much needed stateside visibility to one of contemporary blues/roots music’s most vibrant and consistently engaging players. Lucinda Williams, Rolling Stones bassist Daryl Jones, harmonica icon Charlie Musselwhite are aboard for these sessions. Longtime James producer and fellow countryman Colin Linden is a key component to the project’s success. He adds omnipresent second guitar besides helming the controls and coordinating the overall spacious musical feel from his Nashville home studio. It’s ominous and emotional, leaving the listener with a final bookend to a diverse testament for Colin James’ talents. All of which are captured in the stirring, blues-based Chasing the Sun.  (edited from Rock & Blues Muse review)

 

Gillian Welch & David Rawlings
Woodland  (Acony Records)

Traditional music is full of wild weather and woe. It’s discomfiting, but apt, that life should imitate art in the lives of Gillian Welch and David Rawlings – two singing guitarists feted for their upholding of old musical forms. Recipients of three Grammys and numerous other gongs over a 30-plus-years career, the Nashville-based couple’s most often record collaboratively, but under separate names. Their latest album is a duo record named after their studio, Woodland, where, in March 2020, a tornado tore most of the roof off just as Covid hit. Roughly 100 songs by the pair, seemingly destined for two albums, were whittled down to these 10 exquisite tracks. Woodland is, as ever, steeped in Americana. The pair’s customary stripped-back treatments alternate with more lush orchestrations. Rawlings’s trademark guitar makes lace sparingly, but elegantly.  (edited from The Guardian review)

 

Also new this week…

Colby Acuff – American Son   (Sony Music Entertainment)  +
Maggis Antone – Rhinestoned  (Love Big Records)
Paula Boggs Band – Live at Sweetwater Music Hall (Boggs Media)
Steve Cropper & the Midnight Hour – Friendlytown  (Provogue Records)
Guy Davis – The Legend Of Sugarbelly  (M.C. Records)
Ruthie Foster – Mileage (Sun Label Group)
Fruition – How To Make Mistakes  (independent)  +
Lydia Loveless – Something Else  (Bloodshot Records)
India Ramey – Baptized By The Blaze  (Mule Kick Records)
Wild Ponies – Dreamers (No Evil Records)

 

Coming out soon … Charlie Peacock, The Cactus Blossoms, Sunny Sweeney, The Boxmasters, Caleb Caudle, The Deslondes, Shemekia Copeland, Jerry Douglas, Hannah Juanita, Lisa Morales, JP Harris, Randall Bramblett, Amy Helm, Billy Strings, Donavon Frankenreiter, Nick Lowe and more!

Check out Americana Boogie Radio!

Bill Frater

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Americana Music Releases for Aug. 16th

Posted on August 15, 2024 by

Here’s some the best Americana and roots-type music releases for August 16th, 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.

 

Pony Bradshaw
Thus Spoke The Fool  (Black Mountain Music)

After moving around for the first half of his life, James “Pony” Bradshaw settled in Appalachia nearly 20 years ago, and he’s spent much of that time learning more about the region, and the people, near his Mineral Bluff home. That first-hand education and curiosity led to two albums for Bradshaw, 2021’s Calico Jim and 2023’s North Georgia Rounder. Now, he has a third collection of stories. Thus Spoke the Fool continues Pony Bradshaw’s habit of telling odd stories from different angles, backed by music that seems like it was plucked right out of that Blue Ridge air. Bradshaw makes the point that his songs aren’t strictly biographical, but rather stories of the small but vibrant world around him. While North Georgia Rounder bordered on Southern jammy-ness at points, the music on Thus Spoke the Fool is overall tighter, with its brief solos and excellent musicianship fitting into the concise construct of Bradshaw’s songs. (edited from Americana Highways review)

 

Also new this week…

Ray LaMontagne – Long Way Home  (Liula Records)
Shelby Lynne – Consequences of the Crown  (Monument Records) +
Muscadine Bloodline – The Coastal Plain  (Stancaster Records)
Jason Charles Miller – Knives in the Dark  (One Opportunity Records)
Ashley E. Norton – Call of The Wild  (independent)
The Po’ Ramblin’ Boys – Wanderers Like Me  (Smithsonian Folkways Recordings)  +
Ben Sollee – Long Haul   (sonaBLAST! Records)
Dan Tyminski – Live at the Ryman  (8 Track Entertainment)
Bella White – Five for Silver  (Rounder Records)  +
Jontavious Willis – West Georgia Blues  (Strolling Bones Records)

 

Coming out soon … Gillian Welch & David Rawlings, Wild Ponies, The Cactus Blossoms, Sunny Sweeney, Caleb Caudle, The Deslondes, Colin James, India Ramey, Shemekia Copeland, Charlie Peacock, Jerry Douglas, Hannah Juanita, The Boxmasters, Lisa Morales, JP Harris, Amy Helm, Billy Strings, Donavon Frankenreiter and more!

Check out Americana Boogie Radio!

Bill Frater

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Americana Music Releases for Aug. 9th

Posted on August 8, 2024 by

Here’s some the best Americana and roots-type music releases for August 9th, 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.

 

Justin Townes Earle
All In: Unreleased & Rarities (The New West Years)  (New West Records)

Justin Townes Earle was always a champion of the underdog and All In features in depth looks at the hopeful, and the hopeless. Fueled by empathy, baked in the blues, Justin was never without something poignant or humorous to say. Sadly, Justin passed away in 2020 at the age of 38. All In: Unreleased & Rarities is a fitting tribute to Justin’s legacy. The collection features many never heard before songs, demos, and cover tunes, spanning his time as a New West Records recording artist.

 

Amanda Anne Platt & the Honeycutters
The Ones That Stay  (Mule Kick Records)

This is the the 7th album by Amanda Anne Platt & The Honeycutters, hailing from Asheville, North Carolina, the band  drives 12 tunes through well travelled high-roads and by-roads of pure Americana that are dusted with red clay and burn like sun-drenched stone. The poetry of these roads, hypnotized by the broken white lines under speckled skies, is perfectly punctuated by pedal steel, strings and honeyed harmonies, and comes alive in each track. The Ones That Stay  is an album rich with well-crafted gems surrounded by an earnest, honest, generous voice that might not know why or what for – and a band that obviously knows how to serve the songs. Good stuff!   (edited from The Rocking Magpie review)

 

Also new this week…

Lacy J. Dalton – For The Black Sheep  (SongDog Records)
Billy Eli – Lace  (independent)
Futurebirds – Easy Company  (Dualtone Music Group)
Mike Graham – The Innocence We’ve Lost  (independent)
Johnny Irion – Sleeping Soldiers of Love  (Blackwing Music)
Karen Jonas – The Rise and Fall of American Kitsch  (independent)
Amos Lee – Transmissions (Hoagiemouth Records)  +
Rhonda Vincent – Destinations and Fun Places  (independent)

 

Coming out soon … The Cactus Blossoms, Caleb Caudle, The Po’ Ramblin’ Boys, Muscadine Bloodline, The Deslondes, Pony Bradshaw, Colin James, India Ramey, Wild Ponies, Shemekia Copeland, Shelby Lynne, Gillian Welch & David Rawlings, Jerry Douglas, Bella White, Hannah Juanita, The Boxmasters, Lisa Morales, JP Harris, Amy Helm, Billy Strings and more!

Check out Americana Boogie Radio!

Bill Frater

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Americana Music Releases for Aug. 2nd

Posted on August 1, 2024 by

Here’s some the best Americana and roots-type music releases for August 2nd, 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.

 

Norman Blake
Pilgrimage To Rising Fawn  (Avondale Records)

Pilgrimage to Rising Fawn, featuring legendary guitarist Norman Blake and an all-star lineup of musicians. The album, produced by John Carter Cash, captures a year-long journey of music, friendship, and collaboration recorded in the timeless home of Norman and Nancy Blake in Rising Fawn, Georgia. Norman Blake has graced countless notable recordings with his unique guitar style, character, and mastery, influencing musicians worldwide. Even as his career in studio work and road life slowed, Blake’s creativity and playing continued to flourish. Over the course of a year, John Carter Cash transported recording equipment from The Cash Cabin Studio to the Blakes’ ageless wooden home, capturing music in an environment steeped in history and natural beauty. The project saw contributions from an array of musical talents, including Nancy Blake, Carlene Carter, Ana Cristina Cash, John Carter Cash, John Cowan, Jerry Douglas, Jamie Hartford, Jamey Johnson, and more. Jamie Hartford’s involvement connects the project’s legacy with his father, John Hartford, who recorded and performed with Norman Blake for many years.

 

 

Joe Ely
Driven to Drive  (Rack ‘Em Records)

“I’m a rovin’ soul,” Joe Ely confesses on the haunted opening to “Drivin’ Man,” the number that opens and sets the thematic tone for his sparkling new album, Driven to Drive. Since bursting out of Texas in the ‘70s like a Lone Star Springsteen, his rocking dynamism colored by country accents, Ely has been fascinated by the road. The artist who once titled an album Lord of the Highway has spent a lot of time there, following his own muse in the grand tradition of stubbornly iconoclastic Texas tunesmiths. Driven to Drive collects 12 numbers — 10 originals — with all but one recorded at home over the course of several decades, and they revolve, more or less, around travel and motion. With Ely joined by just one or two accompanists, the tracks have the unadorned intimacy of demos but also the bracing immediacy of live performance. It sounds as if he’s still up to the task, and given how good Driven to Drive is, it makes you wonder what other treasures Ely has in his vaults.  (edited from No Depression review)

 

Also new this week…

The Honey Dewdrops – Here in the Mountains  (independent)
Maygen & The Birdwatcher – Leap Year  (Yellow House Music Collective)
Los Lonely Boys – Resurrection  (Shelter Records)
Orville Peck – Stampede: Vol. 1  (Warner Records)  +
Heart Of Pine – Southern Soul Revival   (independent)
Tiffany Williams & Dalton Mills – Wasted Luck EP (independent)
49 Winchester – Leavin’ This Holler  (New West Records)  +

 

Coming out soon … Johnny Irion, The Cactus Blossoms, Caleb Caudle, The Po’ Ramblin’ Boys, The Deslondes, Pony Bradshaw, Amanda Anne Platt & The Honeycutters, Shemekia Copeland, Colin James, Shelby Lynne, Gillian Welch & David Rawlings, Jerry Douglas, Bella White, The Boxmasters, Lisa Morales, JP Harris, Amy Helm, Billy Strings and more!

Check out Americana Boogie Radio!

Bill Frater

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Americana Music Releases for July 26th

Posted on July 25, 2024 by

Here’s some the best Americana and roots-type music releases for July 26th, 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.

 

American Aquarium
The Fear of Standing Still  (Losing Side Records)

For the last two decades, American Aquarium frontman BJ Barham has seemingly willed his band to survive. Armed with an incisive pen and a love for Whiskeytown and Drive-by Truckers on one hand and Springsteen and Petty on the other, he gradually steered the rotating cast of his outfit from dive bar revelry and heartbreak toward a more thoughtful, albeit scarred, maturity. In many ways, The Fear of Standing Still, the band’s 10th album of originals, feels like it stands on the mountain of the last 20 years and surveys the field. Pairing up once again with producer Shooter Jennings, who also worked with the band on 2020’s Lamentations, Barham and company turn in a concise set of songs that aim to make more use of their rock-and-roll impulses after the more folk-inflected 2022 effort Chicamacomico. While Barham is part of a host of Southern songwriters looking to broaden and complicate the scope and vision of the region, few are as exacting and forthright in that purpose. God bless him for it.  (edited from No Depression review)

 

Yarn
Born, Blessed, Grateful & Alive  (333 Entertainment)

Playing passionate but heartfelt bluegrass-influenced music with a gentle spirit but a rock & roll heart, Yarn are a band led by vocalist, guitarist, and songwriter Blake Christiana. His restless search for the chords and lyrics over the past 20 years has produced a plethora of memorable music, and since 2007 he’s led Yarn, a band that’s evolved from its earliest days as a bar band in New York City. For Christiana, it’s all about the song, and the collection of songs on Born, Blessed, Grateful & Alive reflect the range of the human experience. Says Christiana, “No one has any idea why we’re here, what we’re supposed to be doing here or what comes next, and there are very few things in this life to connect us to one another, other than the fact that we all don’t know these things. I like to think our music could be one of the places where we can connect.”  (edited from band’s bio)

 

Also new this week…

Charley Crockett – Visions of Dallas  (Son of Davy Records)  +
Jeff Crosby – Another Petal Falls Off The Rose  (Runnin’ Free Records)
Connor Daly – Colors Fade  (independent)  +
Bill Filipiak – Less is More  (independent)
The Hanseroth Twins – Vera  (Elektra Entertainment)  +
Byron Hill – That Old Mountain  (independent)
The Hillbilly Thomists – Marigold  (independent)
Lasers Lasers Birmingham – Mystery Highway (independent)  +
Gary Nicholson – Common Sense  (Qualified Records)  +
The Red Clay Strays – Made by These Moments  (RCA Records)  +
Erin Ash Sullivan – Signposts And Marks  (Willoughby Music)

 

Coming out soon … Joe Ely, Norman Blake, The Cactus Blossoms, Caleb Caudle, The Deslondes, 49 Winchester, Pony Bradshaw, Amanda Anne Platt & The Honeycutters, Shemekia Copeland, Shelby Lynne, Gillian Welch & David Rawlings, Jerry Douglas, Bella White, The Boxmasters, Lisa Morales, JP Harris, Amy Helm and more!

Check out Americana Boogie Radio!

Bill Frater

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Americana Music Releases for July 19th

Posted on July 18, 2024 by

Here’s some the best Americana and roots-type music releases for July 19th, 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.

 

Melissa Carper
Borned In Ya  (Mae Music)

She may have borrowed the album title, Borned in Ya, from an old interview with Ralph Stanley, but it couldn’t be better suited to anyone than Melissa Carper. Quite literally, she’s got the bona fides. Carper was raised on the classics — Hank Williams, Patsy Cline, Ray Charles — and grew up playing in her family’s country band. She’s earned the admiration of session masters like Chris Scruggs and Wonder Women of Country collaborator Brennen Leigh. Carper’s fifth full-length album, Borned in Ya features her signature cocktail of jazz, blues, and twang, a sound Carper can make feel brand new even as her singular warble harkens back to generations past. Carper sounds so natural in each sonic corner of Borned in Ya that trying to assign it a genre is a fool’s errand. Like the greats that she absorbed as a youngster and channels here, there’s a little of everything in the special sauce she’s making with her music, each component complementing the rest.  (edited from No Depression review)

 

AJ Lee & Blue Summit
City of Glass  (Signature Sounds)

At 26, the prodigy phase of AJ Lee’s music career has passed. It might take a little more time for the tendency to confuse her with a professional wrestler using the same name to fade away.  Rounding out Santa Cruz, California-based Blue Summit are fiddler Jan Purat and guitarist Sullivan Tuttle, one of the children of educator-musician Jack Tuttle and brother of breakout star Molly Tuttle. Lee also got her start with The Tuttles with AJ Lee. A keen sense of humor dots City of Glass, which was produced by Lech Wierzynski of “retro-soul” band The California Honeydrops. For this third album, we’re confident doing bluegrass, roots, and country, sticking with more stringed instruments, but also branching out. With Lech’s involvement, we’re leaning a little bit towards soul, R&B, and keeping it interesting, but still showcasing ourselves and what we like to play and what we like to do. (edited from The Bluegrass Situation review)

 

Also new this week…

Beware Wolves – Beware Wolves, Vol. 4  (Aqualamb Records)
Boy Golden – For Eden  (Six Shooter Records)  +
Kiely Connell – My Own Company  (Calumet Queen Records)  +
Dr. John – Frankie & Johnny  (Sundazed Music)
Elijah Ocean – Loser’s Holiday  (independent)  +
Chris Robeson – Euphoriphobia  (independent)

 

Coming out soon … Charley Crockett, Joe Ely, Norman Blake, The Cactus Blossoms, The Red Clay Strays, Caleb Caudle, American Aquarium, Yarn, The Deslondes, 49 Winchester, Pony Bradshaw, Amanda Anne Platt & The Honeycutters, Shemekia Copeland, Shelby Lynne, Gillian Welch & David Rawlings, Jerry Douglas, Bella White, The Boxmasters, JP Harris and more!

Check out Americana Boogie Radio!

Bill Frater

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Americana Music Releases for July 12th

Posted on July 11, 2024 by

Here’s some the best Americana and roots-type music releases for July 12th, 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.

 

Johnny Blue Skies
Passage Du Desir  (High Top Mountain Records)

A few years back, Sturgill Simpson let us all know that he’d be releasing five – and only five – albums under his own name. After those five records (plus two Cuttin’ Grass albums that were largely bluegrass takes on his catalog) and the erstwhile John Sturgill Simpson last year adopted the name Johnny Blue Skies. Passage Du Desir is an inspired, omnivorous work that is sometimes country, sometimes genre-less, often rock and roll, and more soundscape than singer/songwriter. Those hoping for a second coming of Sturgill’s debut album High Top Mountain, or even his magnum opus Metamodern Sounds in Country Music might be rendered somewhat disappointed. But Johnny Blue Skies owes country music nothing. Neither does Sturgill Simpson. Country is most certainly one of the aspects that Passage Du Desir is rendered in, and perhaps where it finds some of its best moments. The album is perhaps not the masterpiece some people will decree it as after a first listen—giddy that they’re even getting new music from Simpson after he said he was retired. It lacks a level of cohesion, and makes a few sonic mistakes along the way. (edited from Saving Country Music review)

 

Maya De Vitry
The Only Moment  (independent)

On her fourth full-length album, The Only Moment, Maya de Vitry exhibits a sense of self-awareness in her lyrics and in arrangements that complement her vocals. The songs, all written or co-written by de Vitry, strike a balance between a driving rock tempo and gentler rhythms, between staying put and moving on. Each of the tracks on the album showcases de Vitry’s vocal range. The harmonies and the musical accompaniment are added with a light hand. Backed by Anthony da Costa on electric guitar, Ethan Jodziewicz on bass, Dominic Billett on drums, and Wilder on organ, de Vitry delivers vocals sometimes almost wispy and other times hard-hitting.  (edited from No Depression review)

Billy Strings
Live Vol. 1  (Reprise Records)

His first live album, Billy Strings Live Vol. 1, was recorded last year and earlier this year at venues across the globe, including in Austin, Paris, New Orleans, and Atlanta, with two cuts from a February performance at the Ryman in Nashville. The album, technically 8 tracks but adding up to well over an hour of music, kicks off with “Dust in a Baggie,” which Strings has said is about a friend who he thought had done his time and licked his problem, only to slide back into using and prison. If not for the lyrics, you’d think you were listening to some vintage Flatt and Scruggs superpickin’ with spot-on high and lonesome harmonies. Strings fans, who dub themselves Billy Goats (as in “greatest of all time”), don’t expect the tunes he does live to sound like they do on his records, and he doesn’t disappoint. Strings’ solos go anywhere he feels in the moment, but always seem to land in the right place.  (edited from No Depression review)

 

Also new this week…

Sam Burchfield & The Scoundrels – Me and My Religion  (EatMusic Records)
Steve Earle – Alone Again (Live)   (Howe Sound Records/Missing Piece Records)
Jake Xerxes Fussell – When I’m Called  (Fat Possum Records)  +
Cassandra Lewis – Lost in a Dream  (Emerald City Records)
Rainy Eyes – Lonesome Highway  (Royal Potato Family)  +
Tray Wellington – Detour to the Moon (Mountain Home Music Company)
Donovan Woods – Things Were Never Good If They’re Not Good Now  (End Times Music)

 

Coming out soon … AJ Lee & Blue Summit, Yarn, Melissa Carper, Joe Ely, Johnny Blue Skies, Norman Blake, The Cactus Blossoms, The Red Clay Strays, Caleb Caudle, American Aquarium, The Deslondes, 49 Winchester, Pony Bradshaw, Amanda Anne Platt & The Honeycutters, Shemekia Copeland, Shelby Lynne, Jerry Douglas, Bella White and more!

Check out Americana Boogie Radio!

Bill Frater

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Americana Music Releases for July 5th

Posted on July 4, 2024 by

Here’s some the best Americana and roots-type music releases for July 5th, 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.

 

can’t find much, 4th of July…

Sarah Carroll – NQR&B  (independent)
Steel Saddle – Steel Saddle  (independent)

 

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, American Aquarium, The Deslondes, 49 Winchester, Pony Bradshaw and more!

Check out Americana Boogie Radio!

Bill Frater

Posted in Americana CD releases, Country Music, New music releases, Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Americana Music Releases for June 28th

Posted on June 27, 2024 by

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!

Check out Americana Boogie Radio!

Bill Frater

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Americana Music Releases for June 21st

Posted on June 21, 2024 by

Here’s some the best Americana and roots-type music releases for June 21st, 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.

 

Dave Alvin & Jimmie Dale Gilmore feat. The Guilty Ones
TexiCali  (Yep Roc Records)

The title of their new album, TexiCali, like their first collaboration, Downey to Lubbock again plays up their geographical roots, and like the combination of words in that title, their individual styles continue to mesh smoothly. But there are some differences. The first one contained only two originals, and the duo was backed mostly by West Coast roots session cats. TexiCali contains six top-notch originals, and the backing throughout is by Alvin’s excellent band, The Guilty Ones. Gilmore’s distinctive warble makes everything he sings seem connected to a long tradition, adding heft and vitality to the ringing country-rock of his own “Borderland,” and a revved-up take on the Stonewall Jackson country chestnut “Why I’m Walking.” That voice and style also blend well with Alvin’s nicotine-scarred baritone when they share vocals, as on Brownie McGhee’s “Betty and Dupree,” among others. That theme of survival gets a more light-hearted, if still pointed, treatment on the finale, “We’re Still Here,” the only Alvin-Gilmore cowrite on TexiCali. In a rollicking roadhouse romp, the Downey guy and the Lubbock guy celebrate their longevity in the face of all kinds of hurdles while stubbornly doing things their own way. “We just keep on rolling,” they sing. Indeed they do.  (edited from No Depression review)

Also new this week…

Eden Brent – Getaway Blues  (Yellow Dog Records)
Cody Dickinson – Homemade (Strong Place Music)
George Ducas – Long Way From Home  (Loud Ranch Records)  +
Harry Lee Follon – Uncle’s Lament  (Down by the Point Records)
Matt Hillyer – Bright Skyline  (State Fair Records)  +
Lake Street Dive – Good Together  (Fantasy Records)
Jim Lauderdale – My Favorite Place  (Sky Crunch Records)  +
Linda Thompson – Proxy Music (StorySound Records)
Various Artists – Petty Country: A Country Music Celebration Of Tom Petty (Petty Legacy/Big Machine Label)  +
Robert Vincent – Barriers  (independent)

 

Coming out soon … Yarn, Silverada, Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats, Kaitlin Butts, Jubal Lee Young, Dawn & Hawkes, Melissa Carper, Donovan Woods, Joe Ely, Rory Block, AJ Lee & Blue Summit, Jake Xerxes Fussell, Billy Strings, Norman Blake, The Cactus Blossoms, The Deslondes and more!

Check out Americana Boogie Radio!

Bill Frater

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