Apr 22

Apr 22 Train to Birmingham

Felt great to get out on the road for some live music and music family reunions. Saw lots of friends on social media doing the same, as well as artists excited about getting back in front of “real flesh and bone,” as Cody Canada put it so well.

Things began to re-emerge in March as we marked the one year anniversary of the closing of America, and I took full advantage of the opportunity for a couple road trips to America’s Heartland. First, two shows with Jason Boland & the Stragglers in Inman, Kansas, and Fort Smith, Arkansas, then three shows with Cody Canada & the Departed at the legendary Knucklehead’s in Kansas City, then back to Inman and Ft. Smith

Apr 14

Apr 14 John Goolsby: Shine On Premiere

Jolene Horihan

Since his 2016 debut album, The Midwest, John Goolsby has taken the last few years putting together songs for his next full-length release. Today, we are happy to premiere the first single, “Shine On,” from that upcoming release. Written in July of 2020, during the bleakest of recent times, not the least of which were a world-wide pandemic, political division and race riots. But, John and his co-writer and producer, Dave Pahanish, saw past all of that and delivered a relatable message of optimism.

Hailing from the heart of the blue-collar Midwestern town of St. Joseph, Missouri, John Goolsby knows first-hand the struggles that folks can face: factory closures, the shuttering of main street store-fronts, stock market slumps and extreme weather events blighting the farming industry. Goolsby put those lessons into action last year during the entertainment industry shut-down and thrived with very little to make ends meet. He talked about how freeing it felt and how happy he was to fully appreciate the things that truly mattered – none of which are material. That is the Midwestern spirit which is still deeply rooted in this Nashville resident. For Goolsby and his team, the positive and upbeat love song, “Shine On,” felt like the best way to start fresh in 2021 while introducing the sophomore album.

Mar 23

Mar 23 Rob Leines: Blood, Sweat and Beers

Jolene Horihan

Rob Leines is no stranger to the blue-collar way of life. Before becoming a full-time touring musician who spends over 200-nights a year on stage, he was a welder in the oil and gas industries along the Pacific Coast, eventually traveling the world repairing components of turbine engines at power plants. So, the roll-up-your-sleeves and get-your-hands-dirty work ethic and long days are something Rob knows all too well. His in-your-face lyrics are the product of perseverance and dedication to the pride of a hard-earned paycheck. His Blood, Sweat and Beers follow-up to Bad Seed is still that hard-driving blend of country and rock and roll his fans are used to, with a little swampier, greasier goodness, tighter playing and stronger vocal delivery.

Mar 19

Mar 19 Melissa Carper: Daddy's Country Gold

Mandy Mitchell

If there ever was an album born to be sentimentally spun on warm, black vinyl, Melissa Carper’s Daddy’s Country Gold is it. Ethereal vocals draped leisurely over a stand up bass line puts listeners in the mood to tenderly twirl around the kitchen with their beau as in days of old. From the first track of Makin’ Memories to the last haunted notes of The Stars Are Aligned, nostalgic notes comprised of classic country, western swing and jazz seem to waft in from the early 20th century, carried in on the shoulders of Melissa Carper, a protege of sorts of the great Jimmie Rogers and Patsy Cline. The album’s conception stems from a mixture of Carper’s own upbringing in her family’s band and years spent busking through the nation’s music hubs, forming notable musical collaborations like The Carper Family, Sad Daddy, and Buffalo Gals along the way. Carper, dubbed Daddy by bandmates in years past for always knowing how to take care of ‘bidness,’ has in this collection a true testament to what magic can happen when an artist not only has a clear inner vision, but also the wherewithal to carry it forth to fruition.

Mar 18

Mar 18 Morgan Wade: Reckless

Stephanie Blackburn

Morgan Wade is dynamic and an artist that is rightfully on everyone’s list now, but Virginians who love music have known about the powerhouse talent coming out of our southwest corner for quite some time. It has been exciting for us to watch as she lit up stage after stage at her own shows, whether full band, or solo, and opening for the likes of Tyler Childers, Ashley McBryde and The Steel Woods. Last year, she was set to tour with artists like American Aquarium, Ian Noe and Amanda Shires, as well as figure prominently in festivals all over the country, but as things changed, she did what she had to do and shifted to on-line streaming from her home.There, she was able to sing, play her guitars and talk about her music, along with telling friendly anecdotes about many aspects of her life. In addition to rehearsing and recording, she also dedicated that time to supporting and preserving the trails she loves to run on as an ultra-runner, helping with the funding of a dog park in the town where she calls home, and sharing her experiences with sobriety and mental health. This twenty-six year old has a lot to say, and is not afraid to say it, especially if it will help someone else move forward. She has used her platform afforded to her as an artist to do just that, and I admire her greatly for it.

Mar 15

Mar 15 Senora May: All of My Love

Phillip Ring

When you open a photo album at your mom’s house it’s like a portal that takes you to a place that is half dream and half memory. All of My Love operates the same way. Sometimes it’s poetic, sometimes it’s musically inspiring, sometimes it’s both, but it’s always warm and comforting. An album that wraps its arms around you and draws you in, and in the middle of what may be one of the darker times in the history of our lifetimes, it reminds you, in the end, it’s just about love. Who you love, how you love, why you love, that’s what defines us. Senora May’s writing is the kind of writing that has an airy breathiness about it that by default feels intimate. It’s a portal that transports you to a place, because every story happens somewhere. You remember what the room looks like and smells like when you recall memories that change your life. Sometimes a place is like a two way mirror, something you see yourself reflected in, but you know it’s watching you; places are alive, and no one captures that better than Senora May.

Mar 12

Mar 12 Crownover: Another Day in Our 20s

Phillip Ring

Crownover is the alter ego of one of the most diversified properties in music. Some people may know him as the magnificent and wonderful Kyle, and as you may have heard at a concert or two, people like to beg and scream to “let Kyle sing.” You may know him as “Keekers,” one half of the #1 podcast on the planet The Keekers and Ferg #1 Podcast Show, where he shares the airwaves with Seth Ferguson. You may have heard him sing at a festival, or caught a Crownover show. You may know him from his Twitter and Instagram fame, making parodies and social commentary that gets picked up by multiple media outlets. Kyle is a busy man, and on top of all of this he’s releasing a new EP, Another Day in Our 20s .

Mar 11

Mar 11 Daniel Young: The World Ain't Gonna Wait

Derek Scudder

Search “Daniel Young” online and most of the results are NOT about the singer-songwriter, guitarist, drummer, sound engineer, and producer from Salt Lake City. You will find a handful of videos (including one from Merlefest shot on a cellphone), a couple of short local newspaper items, and his website but nothing that will prepare you for the excellent record he’s about to release.

The World Ain’t Gonna Wait is Young’s third full length album. It’s the follow up to Television Static released in March 2020 just as the music industry came to a screeching halt. The album was recorded, mixed, mastered and produced by Daniel Young at the Orchard Studio in his North Salt Lake, Utah home. Young also wrote all of the songs on the record except the opening track.

The instrumental “Muskrat Mud Shuffle” gives the record a joyous start. The track was written by Virginia’s Bobby “Muskrat” Reames and features his magnificent pedal steel skills. “Distance of Somewhere” features more pedal steel from Muskrat and a relaxed vocal from Young. Near the end of the tune, an electric guitar speaks up that gives a hint that a more intense sound is on the way. Muskrat’s pedal steel is featured for the last time on the record on “Take It or Leave It” as more of the band joins in and Young’s vocals gain strength. All of this to get to the record’s centerpiece.

Guest artists are not always featured in a way that showcases their skills. Sometimes, if it weren’t for liner notes, you wouldn’t even realize they played on a particular song. That is not the case for “The World Ain’t Gonna Wait.” Sizzling slide guitar solos from Sadler Vaden (of Jason Isbell’s 400 Unit band) and a tasty organ solo from Trevor Nealon (from the Band of Heathens) are both prominently featured. Young’s vocal is confident and the band finally comes together as the album hits its stride with this spectacular song.

After that romp, the pace of the record slows down with the acoustic “Hit the Moon” featuring more significant contributions from guest artists. The mandolin of Jay Lapp and the fiddle of Eric Brubaker (both of Virginia’s celebrated Steel Wheels band) give the track its melody and help carry Young’s effective harmonized vocals.

“Hold You Tighter” begins with a solo acoustic guitar then adds Young’s vocals and each other instrument comes in as the song continues to build while maintaining a laid-back attitude. Daniel Young’s most confident vocals may be on “If I Wait” - a quiet song featuring only an acoustic guitar, pedal steel, and understated drums. The combination of the piano of Ben Child and Young’s vocal that opens “Every Leaf That Falls” immediately calls Leon Russell to mind. More pedal steel and muted drums add depth to this quiet masterpiece.

Beloved Utah musician, Pat Campbell, played his final session for this album and his drums open the jaunty “Bring It On Down.” Young sings: “Have we been framed like a photograph / Have we been set up without even asked / Face to face, what are you gonna do / You gonna answer to us or give us your bullshit attitude?” Eric Brubaker returns to add his fiddle to the track which gives the record a strong finish. Like exit music for a show, “Yonder Yucca” is an instrumental featuring an acoustic guitar and more pedal steel which allows the album to metaphorically ride off into the sunset.

The World Ain’t Gonna Wait is best listened to on vinyl; not because of any superior audio quality but that format will force you to hear the tracks in the order in which they were programmed. There is a definite flow to the album that will be missed if listened to in shuffle mode or just randomly streamed tracks. Hopefully, Daniel Young can get out of Utah in 2021 and hit the road to allow more to enjoy his new music. I expect the internet will notice as well.

Mar 4

Mar 4 Simon Flory: Haul These Blues Away

Melissa Payne

Do you remember the feeling of hot, summer days; the way the heat of the day gave way to a purple twilight, while you listened to cicadas in the trees and chased the occasional firefly as it twinkled in the quickly fading light? It’s a feeling I look back on with nostalgia, where things seemed simple, yet somehow comforting. This is what Simon Flory’s newest album, Haul These Blues Away, feels like. Like a memory that strikes a chord in you and so you replay it again and again, only in the form of a collection of songs that feel more like a collection of short stories. In a way this is true, as Simon pulls from his own memories for all his music, “it’s suffused with the elements of his childhood – days spent in the fields, church sings, gravel roads, and genuine mule drawn molasses.” Aside from elements from his childhood, Haul These Blues Away also draws on inspiration from events and themes that have been prevalent in the last four years, “the duress of a divided country: the racial strife, authoritarianism, anti-democratic governance, the collapse of the agriculture sector, and loss of many folks' 'way of life.' "

Mar 2

Mar 2 Nic Allen & The Troubled Minds: Half Dead

Phillip Ring

We all have our tendencies and taste. We have buzzwords that we use to describe music that we love, and we have buzzwords that describe music we hate. It’s just enough “this” or it’s too much “that,” One of the words we often assign to music we hate is, “pop.” We all like to believe that we live in a bubble where we are the ones with taste and as things gain traction we revolt against them. It’s hard to remember that much of the music that stays attached to us showed up on the radio as a kid, was popular, catchy, full of hooks and thick with accessibility. So when I say that Half Dead shows a strong intelligent pop sensibility, it’s not an insult. I mean it’s something that burrows, gets stuck in the part of your head where things you can’t shake out live. It’s an album that’s alive with intentional songwriting, storytelling, and exceptional musicianship.

I’ve been a fan of Nic Allen’s work for a while, and so I thought I came into Half Dead knowing what to expect, I was mistaken. Nic’s first release On The Hilltop was well crafted, and had a similar vibe to it, and it wasn’t terribly long ago. I expected an extension of that record with new songs, and I was here for it. When I put the record on, I was pleasantly surprised to find a record that was more sonically in place with songwriting and structure that felt far more mature. The record was beautifully produced, felt polished and clean, without sounding sterile.

Feb 26

Feb 26 Ross Cooper: Chasing Old Highs

Amy Watts

West Texas native Ross Cooper has already made a name for himself in the country music scene with his first two albums and with several of his songs cut by well established artists, including fellow West Texans William Clark Green and Wade Bowen. With Chasing Old Highs, to be released February 26, 2021, he takes it to a higher level. Don’t worry, if you are already a fan, the same charm and solid vocals you loved on Give It Time and I Rode the Wild Horses are enhanced with even more soul and music that will stay with you.

With several of the tracks, Cooper nails the perfect combination of unique and catchy, without being kitschy. Notably, is the upbeat “Hello Sunshine” that feels just like the positivity we need after a tumultuous year. He sings about pushing away the negativity. “Goodbye darkness / I’ll save you for a rainy day / So long sadness / I never liked you anyway.” I dare you not to smile when you listen to it.

In “Chasing Old Highs,” the tagline “I’m just chasing old highs and hitting new lows” could easily go trite but, instead, is a memorable line in a great country song about rodeo life and trying to let it go. “And I ain’t drawn a high lonesome lately / And every day is a day passed my prime / Do I love this to a point I’d let it kill me / And if I do, then maybe she was right.” Cooper’s experience as a former professional bareback bronc rider lends authenticity to this realm of his song writing.

“Freewheelin’ Feeling” is a windows down, blaring the music song, but if you listen a bit closer “I got this worn out journal / Words on a line / And if you want to hear them / I’d sure be obliged / Cuz maybe I ain’t nothing more than a few rhymes” expresses a vulnerability you might miss if you get caught in the melody.

“Cowboy Picture Show,” a co-write with William Clark Green, Daniel Markham and Charlie Stout, paints a picture of a small town night of days passed. It feels like a parent or grandparent telling a story and fits seamlessly in the album.

Among the more somber songs, the homesick “Flatland” gives homage to his west Texas roots, talking about it always being home, despite making the trek to Nashville. Remembering a past love, “Eleven Miles” leaves you wanting more of the story. I find Cooper’s vocal control impressive and equally strong on the happy-go-lucky and rip your heart out songs.

The line “I wake up late with nowhere / And no one to care what becomes of me” in a “Long Way from A Long Way Home” is indicative of the sad song about rodeo life. His songwriting provokes vivid imagery and is no more evident than in this one.

“South of the Angels” was released last fall as a single and the haunting and beautiful track is one I simply cannot listen to enough. “Ooh, they say nobody makes it here / Ooh, this is the American frontier / It feels like home in a hell / But we’re still down here / South of the Angels.”

I wanted to call this a solid traditional country album, because it is, with its themes of road and rodeo life and love and heartbreak, it makes my 80’s and 90’s country loving heart happy; but, I think it’s more accurate to say if you love rich vocals, memorable melodies and authentic lyrics, and a great mix of toe tappers and tear jerkers, you’ll love this album. And, if you are new to him you’ll be wondering “what took me so long to get here?”

Feb 25

Feb 25 Lydia Luce: Dark River

Jolene Horihan

Teeming with rich and alluring vocals, layers of lush melodies, and evocative lyrics, the sophomore album, Dark River, from Lydia Luce is ripe with reasons to fall in love with this body of work. Her compositions beautifully convey the sentiments she was channeling as she poured her conquered emotional trauma into the project. Even though she only has two albums to call her own, it’s immediately evident that Luce has long been a master of her craft. A string virtuoso at the age of six, Lydia was classically trained by her mother, a professional conductor for the Ars Flores Symphony Orchestra, who started Lydia and her brother in music at a very young age. Lydia went on to obtain her Master’s at UCLA in the viola, studied ethnomusicology, performance and songwriting at Berklee, and traveled and studied Ghanaian music and instruments like her favorite, the gyil, which is a wooden xylophone with gourds underneath. She then worked at world music label Smithsonian Folkways Records. Luce said of her involvement with Smithsonian Folkways, “When I worked there, I wanted to be an ethnomusicologist, I think that as an artist, looking back on seemingly random things, I see them as all aligning. I love learning about different things and music and going deep. That experience made me have a deeper appreciation of music and where it comes from, its origins and thinking about that in a way and trying to always promote diversity in my personal music, and in Lockeland Strings, I try to focus on making those shows diverse, culturally and musically.” All of these experiences shaped the music she would ultimately come to make.

Feb 19

Feb 19 Matt Heckler: Blood, Water, Coal

Stephanie Blackburn

When Matt Heckler belts out his vocals, sometimes it is fused with the almost frenetic playing of stringed instruments, and sometimes he goes back to a simpler time as he expresses himself through the Irish Sean-nós style. He developed his own sound as he is inspired by his musical influences like Flogging Molly and The Pogues, standard bluegrass, various gypsy-influenced European folk musical styles, and from the traditional storytelling steeped in the great Appalachian land he has called home for a while now.

When listening to him share his art, it is incredible to know that he is self-taught. Watching him live is an exceptional experience, as he switches seamlessly between banjo, guitar and fiddle, selecting which one best accompanies the story he has written. He does the same on his second album, Blood, Water, Coal.

Feb 14

Feb 14 Jade Brodie: Making History

Jolene Horihan

What better way to pass the time staring down the railroad tracks from the conductor’s seat than to write songs about it? Singer-songwriter Jade Brodie comes from the Northern Nevada town of Winnemucca. The town is named in the first line of the country classic “I’ve Been Everywhere” – recorded and made popular by Hank Snow in 1962. The rural area is home to one of the largest potato farming regions, services the gold mining industry, and holds a station on the First Transcontinental Railroad where Brodie spends most of her time.

Being one of the few female train conductors in the railroad industry, Brodie has found herself in a rare situation that is of somewhat historical importance. As some might not realize, a train conductor position is typically held by men. So, Jade took this opportunity to showcase her circumstances in her latest release, “Making History.”

Feb 12

Feb 12 Jon Foreman: Departures

Jolene Horihan

Jon Foreman, frontman for the GRAMMY Award-winning alternative rock band Switchfoot, returns to the solo platform with his latest LP Departures. Dealing with the weight and insecurity that 2020 dealt to nearly everyone, Foreman put his creativity to work writing with the purpose to make sense of this tumultuous time. Each song on Departures was constructed and recorded in 2020. The album was recorded at Melody League Studios in San Diego, CA, produced by Foreman with additional production from Keith Tutt II and Aaron Redfield and is released today, February 12th, by the first label to ever sign Foreman, RE:THINK.

Feb 5

Feb 5 Addision Lea Thompson : Unquiet Mind

Derek Scudder

It’s been just over a year since Addison Lea Thompson released his album, Western Sky, which gave a little more focus on some of his slower and more serious songs than his earlier records. For the past few months Thompson has been on social media teasing a new album and now he has released the first song but with a warning, “This single is very different from what I typically put out, heads up.”

Feb 4

Feb 4 Aaron Lee Tasjan: Tasjan! Tasjan! Tasjan!

Derek Scudder

A friend on social media recently shared an Aaron Lee Tasjan video from a few years ago. I cautioned her that his new record was going to be VERY different. Her response was “I'm excited! He's always changin’ it up!” ALT has done just that with his new release Tasjan! Tasjan! Tasjan! on New West Records. Never one to accept categorization, for his fourth solo album Tasjan has put together a collection of shimmering power pop that will most likely confuse those with only limited familiarity of his more Americana-flavored work but should delight fans who have followed his career more closely.

His record label was concerned that his music was going in too many different directions, so Tasjan began writing new songs and recording them in secret. Even though he says the label didn’t see him as a producer, Tasjan was intent on producing the record himself and says he feels grateful to his label for “motivating him to prove them and himself wrong.” He recorded the tracks at Make Sound Good studio in Nashville and shares production credits with Gregory Lattimer who also co-produced Tasjan’s 2018 release Karma For Cheap.

Feb 3

Feb 3 Drayton Farley: A Hard Up Life

Melissa Payne

At first listen of Drayton Farley’s new album, A Hard Up Life, it’s hard not to draw comparisons between his voice and Tyler Childers. However, don’t stop there and dismiss him as nothing more than a mimic, as you’d be missing out on one of the best albums so far of 2021. An Alabama native, Farley has experienced his share of sadness, which, as we all know, is great fodder for songwriting: A well-paying job with the railroad that left him depressed and alone in cities far from his new bride, a childhood spent growing up in a dying town. With experiences like these, you can’t help but listen to the honesty and heartache in his words. A Hard Up Life, is just that -- an album dedicated to the working man and his daily struggles. Fourteen songs cover a range of tough subjects like addiction, a life you can’t escape from, dead-end jobs and poverty, but it’s not all sad songs. There are songs like “Atmosphere” and “Dear, Haven,” that even out the rest of the record with their sweet undertones.

Imagine a dark and somber version of Merle Haggard’s, “Working Man Blues," and you’ll have the song, “Blue Collar.” The wavering voice of Farley from the first line sets the mood for the song.

Jan 29

Jan 29 Lucero: When You Found Me

Phillip Ring

Lucero is a mainstay in what is now known as Americana. They represent the difficulty in assigning genre, and at the helm of the ship with sharp lyricism, and an honest voice is the songwriting juggernaut known as Ben Nichols. There are bands that are instantly appealing, have an easy to digest sound, and when you show your friends they instantly get it. Let me just say, Lucero may not be that band.

Ben Nichols' songwriting has influenced more lyricists and songwriters than I have time to write or you have time to read. There’s a fearlessness in the musicality of Lucero that accompanies strong songwriting that I know inspires me and has certainly inspired others.

This album is packed with the same genre bending that led to the creation of the term “Americana'' with punk rock, post rock, and cinematic musical gestures that don’t neatly fit into any predefined box. This forces you to set aside some preconceived notions, and invites you to just take the music as it should be taken, on merit. Which means you just have to judge by the most important measuring stick, is it good, or not? Let me be the first to tell you, it is.

Jan 21

Jan 21 Dustin Schaefer: Self Titled

David Overstreet

For his second album, Dustin Schaefer has continued down the same road as his first - Disconnected. The main difference between his first album and this new, self-titled album, Dustin Schaefer, is that the new album has a harder-edge. His is a hard rock, guitar-driven, style. In some cases, reminiscent of what you commonly heard on the radio back in the ’70s & ’80s.

Schaefer draws influences from classic and modern rock guitar virtuosos such as Eric Johnson, and even pop music, which translates to a classic guitar-driven twist on modern arrangements. His guitar playing rivals even the most seasoned players and this album showcases that talent. The proficiency and the tone is like a Joe Walsh riff blending with John Mayer’s smooth solo style. Every note, every verse, every second of music is thought out and very real. Any person can learn guitar, but Schaefer sets himself apart by being able to not only lyrically tell a story, but by being able to make you feel the emotions behind every note.