The last time Jason Boland tried to celebrate a career milestone the pandemic shut down the 20th Anniversary tour, scheduled to celebrate the release of his debut Pearl Snaps record. He took advantage of that downtime to write and record his sci-fi concept album The Light Saw Me, then released a live album recorded at the venerable Cain’s Ballroom in Tulsa. Now, it’s time for another landmark date in the history of the Stragglers and it arrives on March 14th via Thirty Tigers. The Last Kings of Babylon celebrates a quarter-century of Red Dirt excellence by one of the cornerstones of the genre. Jason describes the record as “a mirror, a retrospective, a reflection of everywhere we’ve been and everything we’ve learned over the last 25 years on the road.”
Review- Will Stewart: Moon Winx
Back in the 1960s before home football games, coach Bear Bryant wanted to get his University of Alabama team away from any distractions on campus. He would load the team onto buses and take them to the Moon Winx Lodge. It was a 36-room motel in the eastern part of Tuscaloosa which happened to be one of the most modern motels in the region and located on the old main road into town. The team would enjoy a steak dinner at the on-site Lamplighter restaurant before turning in for the night. Saturdays would feature a bit of a parade as the team traveled back across town to the campus stadium with the locals lining the street to cheer on their beloved Tide.
Review- Tony Logue: Dark Horse
“Southern Rock n Roll” is the ready answer from Tony Logue when asked what kind of music he plays. He lays it out plainly in the lyrics to “Grindstone” from his new album Dark Horse released on February 21st; “Wood on steel and blood on bone/A black .45 and a stale microphone/The swampland boogies and the Heartland rocks/While the boys in the band are tickin’ like a clock/Southern Rock and Roll.” His band is named The 184 after the local Plumbers & Steamfitters Union in Paducah, Kentucky. It’s a nod both to the hard-working attitude of the group and to the years Logue spent on the job as a card-carrying member of that organization. It’s that same grind-it-out mentality still driving Tony every day. Dark Horse will be his third full length release since Jericho debuted in 2022 then followed with The Crumbs the next year each featuring a set of originals told from a blue-collar perspective.
Review- Cristina Vane : Hear My Call
“A rock kid who is obsessed with old music” is one way Cristina Vane describes her distinctive sound built around her command of several instruments and confidence as a singer. The release of Hear My Call on February 21st marks her third full-length release since 2021 and reinforces Cristina’s place as a singer/songwriter with serious chops who is also a badass guitarist. Vane has a backstory that begins in Italy before a childhood in England and France and includes a half-American/half-Guatemalan heritage. Her musical roots may be classic rock, 90s Indie, and heavier rock but that is tempered by her passion for country and bluegrass, old time fiddle and banjo music, and pre-war blues tunes. “When it came to the album, I wanted it to be a reflection of who I am, not just of the old music that I’ve come to love,” she explains, “After being exposed to all of this music that was foreign to me, I am slowly figuring out how to find my own voice within it. It is the sound of growing up.”
Review- Willow Avalon: Southern Belle Raisin' Hell
She doesn’t sound like anybody else most people have heard of. That might be a problem for some, but Willow Avalon sounds a little like quite a few fantastic singer/songwriters across several genres. On Southern Belle Raisin’ Hell she uses her childhood in Georgia as the root for a selection of songs featuring her distinctive vocals in a variety of settings, but all coming from the center of a girl in the South. “I’ve got my mama’s mouth and my daddy’s drawl” might be more than just a clever line from the title track; Willow’s father is Jim White who happens to be another singer that doesn’t sound like anybody else most people have heard of. I asked him how much his genetics may be involved in Willow’s talent and Jim made it clear “she gets at least as much of her musical talent from her mom's side of the family as from anything from my end of the equation--her grandmom and two great aunts were incredible singers.” They were talented enough for Jim to have featured them singing “Knoxville Girl” in his film Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus. Now based out of New York, Willow plays, writes and produces her music alongside a small group of collaborators.
Review- Justin Bloss: Claymore
Justin Bloss has been playing the dive bars and tiny clubs around Tulsa for nearly twenty years with only a handful of releases that might give the rest of the world a hint at the genius that the locals have known for quite some time.
Review- Taylor Hunnicutt: With All Due Respect
You know what follows is probably going to be something you don’t want to hear from somebody that has no business saying it. Saying “With all due respect…” seems to give some folks the green light to point out something grossly inappropriate or downright rude. Taylor Hunnicutt says she has taken the feeling of hearing that phrase and used it to fuel her passion, “the tone of this whole EP lies with the idea of just being done with this shit.”
Review -Muscadine Bloodline: The Coastal Plain
Muscadine Bloodline will release their fourth full-length record August 16 on Stancaster Records via Thirty Tigers, but The Coastal Plain will represent the Mobile, Alabama-based group’s second release with a clearer sense of identity. “In a lot of ways our last record felt like it was our first record, in terms of knowing exactly what direction we needed to take our music,” said Gary Stanton, one half of the duo along with Charlie Muncaster, referring to 2023’s critically praised Teenage Dixie, “With this new album we wanted to narrow the lens even further and create a refined and more adventurous version of that.”
Review- The Red Clay Strays: Made by These Moments
Two years ago, the Red Clay Strays had just released their crowdfunded debut album after playing together for about six years. They were mostly playing at the same venues as they had been, but now appearing in bigger print on more festival posters and still getting from show to show in “Breezy,” their old white minibus. They embarked on their first nationwide headlining tour with a custom bus and began to sell out venues along the way. Then “Wondering Why,” a single from Moment of Truth, went viral spending a week at #1 on Spotify’s Viral 50 USA Playlist and six consecutive weeks at #1 on the Americana Singles chart. It also cracked the all-genre Billboard Hot 100, top 10 on the Hot Rock Songs chart, and Top 20 on both the AAA and Hot Country Songs charts. Things will never be the same. Fast forward to July 26, 2024, and the band is set to release their second studio album titled Made by These Moments on RCA Records, produced by the legendary Dave Cobb and recorded at his studio in Savannah, Georgia.
Review - Silverada: Self-Titled
It was a bold move back in January when Mike and the Moonpies made the sudden announcement that they were changing their name. The announcement came during this year’s Mile 0 Festival where just a few years before they had emerged triumphant as one of the hottest live country bands on the road, gaining thousands of new fans. In retrospect, it was just the latest in a series of bold moves for this group that has been surprising fans and critics since they made the decision to break out of the Texas touring cycle and try their hand at the rest of America.
Review - Rob Leines: Headcase
“Rock n’ Roll with a cowboy hat” is one way Rob Leines describes his music. That hat is worn by the type of cowboy that puts in the long hours to do the things that sometimes only he can appreciate. So much time on the road away from family and friends chasing his dream that sometimes only he alone can see. Before going all-in on a music career, Leines was a welder traveling from one construction site to another but gave that up in 2021 to hit the road in support of his second release Blood, Sweat, and Beers. I was made aware of the guitar-driven power trio late in 2022 when they opened for Silverada (formerly Mike & the Moonpies at that time) at Floore’s Country Store in Helotes, Texas and completely dominated the legendary dancehall stage. Fast forward to 2024 and the new Rob Leines release Headcase, produced by Mike Harmeier (the “Mike” of the Moonpies) and renowned Roots Music producer Adam Odor (who has worked with Harmeier for many years), will drop on June 14.
Review - Lance Roark: Live From Tulsa
On the north end of Main Street in downtown Tulsa, where the Crosstown Expressway crosses Easton Street, you’ll find one of the world’s top performance venues. Cain’s Ballroom was built in 1924, and originally served as an automobile garage before becoming a dance academy which morphed into a ballroom for public dances. Bob Wills called Cain’s home from 1935 to 1942 and helped popularize the room nationwide with his radio broadcasts. Ownership in the ‘70s booked many rising acts which led to Tulsa witnessing some incredible rock shows that a city of its size would not normally catch. When Leon Russell moved back to Tulsa and opened his Church Studio, that brought more music power to the city and the visiting rock stars often made their way to Cain’s. All of this is to say that, as a venue of its size in a city its size, Cain’s punches way above its weight in importance as a place for an artist to record a show for release.
Review- Taylor Hunnicutt: Alabama Sound
It was the end of January before I finally caught up with Taylor Hunnicutt to talk about the release of her first full-length album. She had been dealing with quite a hectic month to say the least. Just before Christmas, she and her husband learned that they would have to move out of the house in which they were living and had hoped to buy. They scrambled to relocate in time to get packed after the holidays for a week in Key West at Mile 0 Fest. Returning from her debut at the huge festival (which she described as “magical”) there was only time for a quick turnaround before heading up to Virginia for a sold-out headlining show which was to be her only scheduled appearance in February. Then began the wait for the appearance of her long-awaited record Alabama Sound on March 22 via 10 Ton Records before she begins a string of dates including support slots and festival stages stretching through October.
Review- Blackberry Smoke: Be Right Here
It’s hard to remember that Blackberry Smoke, now in its 23rd year, is still an independent band. To say they’ve toured relentlessly would be an understatement as they have continued to play practically any place that would have them. They will be out in 2024 for over 70 already-announced dates in the US and Europe, both headlining and supporting. Along with Cody Jinks and Whiskey Myers, Blackberry Smoke will be out supporting their latest release Be Right Here.
Review- Tanner Usrey: Crossing Lines
2023 has been a good year for Tanner Usrey. In addition to the hundreds of shows in clubs and on festival stages, he has racked up millions of all-important streams and unleashed a series of singles which are part of his debut full-length album, Crossing Lines, releasing November 17 on Atlantic Records. Since 2019, he’s been hard at work on his music career with the release of his Medicine Man EP. Two singles, each generating over 18 million Spotify streams, led to the SOL Sessions EP as part of being named “Emerging Artist” by the Peacemaker Music Festival in 2021. With over 180 shows in 2022, word continued to spread about the emerging star from Prosper, Texas.
Review- John Baumann: Border Radio
The only thing a Texan likes better than a good story is a good story that takes place in Texas. John Baumann is a fifth-generation Texan and has filled his new record titled Border Radio (out on October 6) with songs that tell stories filled with what he describes as “colors and vignettes from San Antonio and Hill Country down to the border.” For this, his sixth album, Baumann changes perspectives from his own to the people in his songs and has a writing credit on each of the nine tracks. “My pleasure as a songwriter is to be somebody else for three and a half minutes,” he continued. “I’m not the hunting and fishing guy in ‘South Texas Tradition’ and I’m not falling in love on the border. The record is a journey of someone’s experiences through a certain place in the world – south Texas. And discreetly it’s a love story. It’s all the highs and lows of love. And there’s real character in the border region, there’s some controversy to it, but I wanted to get away from the news about the border walls and instead focus on it as a beautiful, interesting, and mysterious part of the state.”
Festival Review- Peacemaker: A Hot Time in Arkansas
Temperatures at or above 100 degrees at the end of July are not unheard of in Fort Smith, but this year was not the best time for it to settle in. The annual Peacemaker Festival welcomes thousands of music fans to the banks of the Arkansas River at a beautiful park just below the Garrison Street Bridge. This was my 3rd time at the festival and I have always found it to be among the best of its size. The music lineup is always imaginative representing several genres and welcoming diverse fan bases. The VIP setup is ideal, offering an unobstructed area directly in front of the stage with a designated area for chairs, as well as upgraded restroom facilities, exclusive bar, and a chance to catch the artists at the backstage gate.
Review- Parker Millsap: Wilderness Within You
Hard to believe it’s been nearly ten years since Parker Millsap burst onto the Americana music scene with “Truck Stop Gospel” from his eponymous album released in 2014. The song jumped out with an energy and exuberance that immediately gained many new fans for the young singer-songwriter from Purcell, Oklahoma. Millsap has since moved his base of operations to Nashville and is set to release his sixth studio album, Wilderness Within You, May 12 on his Okrahoma label via Thirty Tigers. The ten tracks on the new release find Millsap exploring some new musical landscapes but still retaining enough of his signature sound, featuring minimal accompaniment to his wonderful finger-picked guitar with emotion-filled vocals, to satisfy long-time fans.
Review - Logan Halstead: Dark Black Coal
“I’m more famous on the internet than I am in real life.” That’s how Logan Halstead greeted the crowd at the FoxFire Music Festival in Ashland, Kentucky last fall and he wasn’t wrong. The young man had only a few videos out and a limited touring schedule under his belt at the time but with the upcoming release of his debut album Black Dark Coal, set to drop May 5 and distributed by Thirty Tigers, that should change.
His story really begins in 2020 when the world was in pandemic lockdown and Logan released a cellphone video of a tune he had written a few years before, at the age of 15. With a haunting chorus you would associate with someone much older, that song was “Black Dark Coal.”
Lauren Morrow : People Talk
You remember Lauren Morrow’s name from The Whiskey Gentry and once you’ve heard her wonderful voice you’ll remember that forever. She spent more than a decade as frontwoman for the band from Atlanta but when that ended, Lauren began her solo career. Just a few years later and now she has achieved some nationwide success without ever putting out a full-length album of songs. That will change with the release of People Talk on March 31st on her own Big Kitty label. Morrow says, “In my head, I was thinking, ‘Geez, she’s in her 30s and releasing a debut record? Shouldn’t she hang it up already? Her time is running out.’ But in reality, I had to silence that negative voice and let myself show through these songs, and it’s taken all of this time and these experiences to really shape who I am as a human. I feel like I’m just now figuring that out, and now I finally have something to say.”