Jess Kallen steps out today with "A Garden Bed of Thistle Weeds," the 26-year-old guitar wiz's first single from a debut album expected in Spring of 2023.

Alternative acoustic rock band, Phil Firetog Trio & Co., has released their merry and bright new single, “Long Island Christmas Eve.” Blending comforting acoustics, a cheerful beat, and personal, storytelling lyricism, the track has listeners reminiscing on their own family’s holiday traditions. “Long Island Christmas Eve” is available now on all streaming platforms.

Rosy Nolan is at the forefront of the current California Country scene of female singer-songwriters bringing a fresh spin on traditional country music.

Nolan delivers melancholy ballads, hymns and folk melodies with a mesmerizing rawness that sweeps up audiences. Her heartfelt vocals follow the touchstones of Alison Krauss, Emmylou Harris, and Dolly Parton.

Tunisian oud master and vocalist Dhafer Youssef has announced his forthcoming studio album, Street of Minarets, out January 27th via Back Beat Edition. The album is available now for pre-save HERE. The new single, and the album’s closer, “Ondes of Chakras” features a meditative build of sound created by a flurry of woodwind flourishes, groovy strings, and a percussive backdrop.

Vancouver-based band Tom Lavin & the Legendary Powder Blues, formed in 1978, are finally history, in the most literal sense. The National Canadian Museum of History has just completed an acquisition of Powder Blues artifacts that will become a part of the CMH permanent collection.

Robert Connely Farr is a songwriter from Bolton, Mississippi - hometown of musical legends Charley Patton & the Mississippi Sheiks. Farr is a friend & protege of Jimmy Duck Holmes, one of the original Bentonia bluesmen who learned directly from Henry Stuckey (who also taught Skip James).

When the Blues Foundation began in 1980, it held the mission of preserving and promoting blues around the world, and this year’s Keeping the Blues Alive Award honorees demonstrate just how successful the organization has been over the past four decades. The eight individuals and organizations receiving KBAs in 2023 don’t just hail from the blues traditional territory of the American South but from such far-reaching blues outposts as Denmark, Poland, and Colombia.
 

Two of the UK’s most enduring and best-loved bands, The Charlatans UK and Ride have announced plans for a North American co-headline tour, set to begin January 30, 2023 at New York City’s Webster Hall and then continue through a February 18 finale at The Wiltern in Los Angeles, CA. Tickets for all announced dates go on sale Friday, December 2 at 10 am (local).

New York-based musician and traveling storyteller Matt Butler recently unveiled Reckless Son—a one man show of words and music inspired by his experiences performing in prisons across the country, which he debuted at New York’s Rockwood Music Hall a few weeks ago and will continue to perform.

Butler will release an EP of music from the show, Reckless Son, on January 27. The first track, “Time To Be A Man,” is out now.

Drivin N Cryin frontman Kevn Kinney has announced his first solo record in more than a decade, and his first vinyl since 1990’s MacDougal Blues, set for a Dec. 9 release. Featuring R.E.M.