Review- Jess Williamson: Time Ain’t Accidental (and one night in Milwaukee)

Review- Jess Williamson: Time Ain’t Accidental (and one night in Milwaukee)

John Schumacher

When the world shut down for the pandemic, Jess Williamson got to work – on herself and on her music. On the personal side, she recovered from the breakup of a long-term relationship, started a new one and re-oriented herself in the world. 

On the music side, she found herself unable to tour behind her May 2020 album, Sorceress. So she hunkered down and began writing. The first product was a top three best album of 2022 – I Walked With You a Ways, teaming with Waxahatchee’s Katie Crutchfield as the duo Plains.

Review- Colby Acuff: Western White Pines

Review- Colby Acuff: Western White Pines

Justin N. Kohrs

Emerging singer, songwriter, and “outlaw” musician Colby Acuff releases his anticipated major label debut album, Western White Pines, this Friday via Sony Music Nashville. Produced by Eddie Spear (Zach Bryan, Cody Jinks) and recorded at Nashville's Sound Emporium Studios, Western White Pines, once it completes its rounds around the world, shall promptly and swiftly propel Colby Acuff to the top of the most wanted list. This is the artist and the quintessential country album that we have all been desperately searching for. 

Review- Katie Callahan: EXTRAORDINARY

Review- Katie Callahan: EXTRAORDINARY

Justin N. Kohrs

Katie Callahan, a Baltimore-based indie-pop/Americana/folk singer-songwriter is an effervescent beam of light, who brilliantly shines through on her third record and second studio project, EXTRAORDINARY. Without a doubt she delivers a refreshingly scintillating album with incredible inspiring interwoven messages that she hopes, “that whoever needs it would find.”

Review- Kassi Valazza: Kassi Valazza Knows Nothing

Review- Kassi Valazza: Kassi Valazza Knows Nothing

Mandy Mitchell

The Cult of Kassi Valazza, founded in 2019 after her self-released debut album, Dear Dead Days, is sure to get a surge in membership following her newest release of Kassi Valazza Knows Nothing, a stellar cosmic soup concocted of hazy, honky tonk highway vibes and that neon-lit, lilting Valazza warble. 

…Knows Nothing finds it heart and soul in Valazza, and its feet in Portland-based band TK and the Holy Know Nothings, made up of Taylor Kingman (guitars, bass, vocals), Jay Cobb Anderson (harmonica, guitars, pedal steel, bass), Lewi Longmire (pedal steel, piano, bass, trumpet), Sydney Nash (organ, Farfisa, cornet, Wurlitzer), and Tyler Thompson (drums). The group’s swirling psychedelia combines with Valazza’s gutsy and graceful poetry for a singular sound that washes over the listener like a flash flood, heavy and without warning.

Review- Nicholas Jamerson: Peace Mountain

Review- Nicholas Jamerson: Peace Mountain

Lucas Wayne Nelson

Nicholas Jamerson has done it again. Over the last decade he has put together quite a catalog to tickle the ears and tug on the heartstrings of many with his songs of home, love, and loss. Peace Mountain is no different. Thirteen tracks make up this album from happy-go-lucky tunes like “Strangers” and “Holler Child” to the heart wrenching “Mr. Buzzard” and “This Ain’t Supposed Happen in Our Town,” Jamerson delivers what may be one of the most eclectic records of 2023. 

Review- Donnie Bowling: Work Yourself Out

Review- Donnie Bowling: Work Yourself Out

Mady Goins

The path is within us, traveling nurse and musician Donnie Bowling would come to realize. His latest release, Work Yourself Out, is an unapologetically honest look into the human mind, following the journey from self-doubt to self-actualization. Sparked from a years-old lyric rediscovered, the 10-track record reflects a collection of these moments from Bowling's own life that remind us we’re our own worst enemies. 

Bowling would affirm the feelings that are the hardest to express are the most important to share; it’s this that creates the stark honesty he carries in his lyrics. “It’s only then that we find the way to survive. A path to fix our problems is within us all,” Bowling told The Amp. 

Review- Abe Partridge: Love in the Dark

Review- Abe Partridge: Love in the Dark

Ryan Bush

When the Martians decide to make their presence known on U.S. soil, I want Abe Partridge to be our official interplanetary Ambassador, without damn question. 

You see, compared to the typical backwoods bumpkin that simply gets beamed-up and probed, Partridge would be the strongest example of the creative prowess contained within Humankind: A fine specimen demonstrating the purest of arts - writing, singing, playing and painting - the whole enchilada, rolled-up tight in a delicious tortilla of talent. Thankfully, we all get to enjoy Partridge’s latest collection of tunes with Love in the Dark, reminding us all that some folks are just plain gifted - period. 

Review- Hunter Flynn: Appalachian Soul

Review- Hunter Flynn: Appalachian Soul

Mady Goins

Life is too short not to spend it doing what you love. This is a lesson all too familiar to the Pulaski County native supplying the freshest contribution to the “Appalachian Renaissance.” Hunter Flynn tells The Amp it was last December when he dropped everything to pursue a life driven by his passion for creative expression. The release of “Appalachian Soul” showcases Flynn’s artistic capability while paying tribute to the experiences that led him here. 

Review- Parker Millsap: Wilderness Within You

Review- Parker Millsap: Wilderness Within You

Derek Scudder

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- Zach Aaron: This Lovely War

Review- Zach Aaron: This Lovely War

Justin N. Kohrs

Zach Aaron, a Cleveland, Texas-based singer/songwriter, along with his elegantly tarnished tenor voice, fingerpicked guitar melodies and raw honest sentiments in his lyrics make him seem of a different time than many of his contemporaries, yet timeless, all the same.

Zach Aaron provides an impressive record with sumptuous musicality and truly admirable storytelling. I am certainly his newest fan. His latest album, This Lovely War, contains eight delightfully thought provoking songs, dipped in nostalgia whisking many of us away to a long forgotten time that conjures up memories of watching Technicolor Westerns: Gunsmoke, Bonanza and Rawhide.

Review - Logan Halstead: Dark Black Coal

Review - Logan Halstead: Dark Black Coal

Derek Scudder

“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.” 

Premiere- Adam Klein: People Are Callin

Premiere- Adam Klein: People Are Callin

Melissa Payne

Today we’re premiering “People Are Callin’,” the new video from Adam Klein. Klein just released his album, Holidays in United States, on April 7th. An album full of commentary on the current state of the United States, the track, “People Are Callin’,” doesn’t stray from that theme. 

Written after the initial recording sessions for the album, Klein had this to say about writing the song, “I remember driving to work one morning and coming up with the melody for the verses, and then just chipping away at the rest of the song over a month or two. I heard a decidedly soul-like vibe, and knew I wanted to bring it to Bronson and Matt (Patton) at Dial Back Sound to record it. And I knew it needed to be on this album.” I see the song as a folk rock-rooted take on some of the classic protest songs of soul music. That may seem derivative, but for me every word is heartfelt and rings true. There’s a place for everything, in my opinion, and I think this song was timely and belongs right here on Holidays. 

Review - Mya Byrne: Rhinestone Tomboy

Review - Mya Byrne: Rhinestone Tomboy

John Schumacher

Rhinestone Tomboy, Mya Byrne’s delightfully titled new album, is pure shimmering starlight from start to finish, a head-nodding, foot-tapping, thigh-slapping feast of Americana. 

The buffet ranges from sunny ‘70s California pop rock to snarling Neil Young guitar noise, from Arlo Guthrie storytelling folk to revved-up Johnny Cash boom-chicka-boom country and “You’ve Got a Friend” style gentle kindness. 

The album comes out April 28, the first from the new Nashville sister label to Kill Rock Stars. 

Pairing the music with lyrics authentically, relentlessly human, Byrne has crafted an album you want to play while cruising down the road with the sunroof open and your arm hanging out the window. And credit to producer Aaron Lee Tasjan: The album sounds great. 

Review - Bryce Lewis : Saskatchewan Country Guitar

Review - Bryce Lewis : Saskatchewan Country Guitar

Justin N. Kohrs

La Honda Records’ newest artist is the wonderfully gifted and sensational guitarist Bryce Lewis who just released his debut instrumental album, Saskatchewan Country Guitar, to the world. It comes jam packed with a spectacular supporting cast of tremendously talented all star musicians: Steve Leidal, Big Paw, Pat Lyons, Colton Crawford, Grant Seimens, Redd Volkaert and Jeff Bradshaw.

Review - Joey Frendo: Bound for Heartache

Review - Joey Frendo: Bound for Heartache

Jolene Horihan

Joey Frendo may have commenced his debut full-length album, Bound for Heartache, with a nod to the adage, “you get what you get and you don’t throw no fits,” but no one will be throwing any fits over the project he has delivered. Frendo shows off his mindfulness of collective experiences we all face at one point or another and conveys them in heartfelt lyricism. His vocal delivery is slightly gritty, yet warm and sincere. The album paces through Americana, alt-country and classic honky tonk country music.

Review - Bella White: Among Other Things

Review - Bella White: Among Other Things

John Schumacher

Playing a show in Milwaukee in February, Bella White introduced a song by saying it was a sad one. Then, “Well, they’re all sad songs.” 

That they are. So why would a few hundred mostly 20-somethings come out on a cold night to hear a young woman from western Canada sing sad, old-timey Appalachian songs? 

Because they’re really good songs. Songs that give voice to the difficulties we all face in a way that’s both classic and yet undeniably of-the-moment. Listening to Bella White is like discovering Mother Maybelle Carter on TikTok. 

Releasing April 21, White’s second album, Among Other Things, extends the stellar start to her career. She’s stocked the new album with observations carefully wrought and deeply thought – about love and loss, doubt and fear, and wonder about what life has brought and what is yet to come. 

Caitlyn Smith: High & Low

Caitlyn Smith: High & Low

Justin N. Kohrs

Last year, Monument Records’ powerhouse vocalist Caitlyn Smith released High. It was the first half of a record that the critically acclaimed singer/songwriter self-produced. Now Smith is poised to release the complete project, adding six new songs to make her full record, High & Low. 

Caitlyn Smith is the proverbial woman behind the curtain with more songwriting credits then we have space to list. Here are a few of the artists she’s written songs for: Kenny Rogers & Dolly Parton, Garth Brooks, Jason Alden, Rascal Flatts, Chris Isaak, Meghan Trainer, Miley Cyrus, Lady Antebellum and Kip Moore.

Carter Sampson: Gold

Carter Sampson: Gold

Jolene Horihan

To quote Oklahoma folk artist, Woody Guthrie, “A song ain’t nothing but a conversation fixed up to where you can talk it over and over without getting tired of it.” Carter Sampson’s songs fit into this mold whether she is trying or not. I know this because I fall into a Carter Sampson rabbit-hole from time to time and I never tire of it. Her live streams during the pandemic shut-down fed my soul as well. The Oklahoma City native pulls elements of country, folk, rock, and blues together to create an Americana sound in every sense of the term. Much like her fellow Oklahoma folk artist, Woody Guthrie, Sampson has always tapped into real-life trials and triumphs. This latest album, Gold, is no different and even more so on a personal level.

Load More