With a busy past few years, Texas-based John Baumann has steadily established himself as a promising songwriter within his home state and beyond its borders. Set for release on June 5, Baumann’s third album, Country Shade, offers a tried-and-true reverence for his influences, with his distinct viewpoint—largely focusing on comings and goings: of rural landscapes, friends, loved ones, relationships. Time.

Recorded at Modern Electric in Fort Worth, Texas, the 12 songs on Country Shade follow two primary narratives: the changing state of rural America, and changes in relationships. While both arcs find their writer taking a deeper look, the album is not all heavy by any means. “Next Ride Around the Sun,” the album’s first single, features a mellotron, for example.

“The song was born from an appreciation for the here and now,” Baumann told Billboard of the song, out today. “I remember talking with my father-in-law one night and him saying, ‘enjoy every second.’ He seemed so earnest and genuine when he was saying it to me. And it stuck. It’s truly apropos to the time we’re living in, but it’s an ethos that we should heed all the time.”

A steady-picked acoustic guitar accompanies the introduction to the album: “The Country Doesn’t Sound the Same,” a true-to-life account of changing scenery and soundtrack. “Fool’s Crusade” is extravagant in its examples of love—slaying a dragon, taming a beast, tearing down walls—but, that is what unconditional love is, after all. “Daylight’s Burning” and “If You Really Love Someone” focus on the other side of things, the end of romantic relationships, from some that seem all-consuming and others that can take quite a while to finally tie up their loose ends.

“Sunday Morning Going Up” is a play on Kris Kristofferson’s “Sunday Morning Coming Down,” with an emphasis on celebrating hard work, enjoying the here and now, and appreciating what you have. “Homesick for the Heartland” recalls a sunny summer day with the windows down, full of innocence and nostalgia.

“Flight Anxiety” offers a dizzying account of -- well, exactly what it sounds like. “Here Today, Gone Tomorrow” is a call for apologies when they’re necessary, echoing the album-wide importance of appreciating loved ones when you can and never leaving problems unresolved or a kind word left unsaid.

“Grandfather’s Grandson” bookends the album, cementing John’s place in the world as someone who values hard work, building a future and loving the places and people in the world that really matter.

Country Shade marks the continuation of an eventful few years—in 2017, Baumann released his acclaimed sophomore album, Proving Grounds, and Kenny Chesney recorded “Gulf Moon” for 2018’s Songs for the Saints. Baumann is a member of The Panhandlers, with fellow Texans Josh Abbott, William Clark Green and Cleto Cordero, and recently signed on with The Next Waltz, the Texas-based brainchild of legendary songwriter Bruce Robison, for management.

Tessy Lou Williams’ self-titled solo debut, out today, is deeply rooted in traditional country music influences, with the kind of songs you hope to be playing on a dancehall stage when you walk in or emanating from the jukebox when the band isn’t there.

Written primarily in Nashville, and recorded at Station West, Williams and producer Luke Wooten collaborated with an ace band to create the collection that AudioFemme says is "bound to satisfy any traditional country fan’s appetite.” The band included Bryan Sutton (acoustic guitar, electric guitar, banjo, mandolin), Mike Johnson (pedal steel, dobro, pedalbro), Aubrey Haney (fiddle), Ashley Campbell (banjo), and background vocals from Carl Jackson, Jerry Salley, Jon Randall, Wes Hightower and Brennen Leigh, just to name a few.

“Why Do I Still Want You,” which American Songwriter says is “rife with classic country elements,” wrestles with a goodbye—looking to biblical advice that can seem a little foggy in context.

“Mountain Time in Memphis” marks Williams’ first Nashville co-write, with Jerry Salley. The song “is an old-time heartbreaker about a woman torn between a new life in Tennessee and the love she left behind in Montana,” according to Wide Open Country.

“Busy Counting Bridges,” another co-write with Salley, is “an old fashioned country shuffle that's about as cheerful and danceable as heartache can get,” The Bluegrass Situation notes.

“Pathway of Teardrops,” featuring Jon Randall on background vocals, offers Williams’ adaptation of the Webb Pierce classic.

Williams’ love of traditional country music spans decades—her whole life. She grew up in Montana, the daughter of two musicians who relocated to the small town of Willow Creek (population: 210) from Nashville. Their three kids traveled with them often, experiencing life on the road surrounded by talented musicians and top-notch songwriting.

After overcoming a paralyzing case of stage fright, Williams formed Tessy Lou and the Shotgun Stars with Bryan Paugh (fiddle) and her dad, Kenny Williams (bass). The trio built a following around their home state, eventually moved to Austin, Texas, and were discovered by Warehouse Records at Poodie’s Roadhouse -- a fitting place for the stars to align for someone whose love of honky-tonks runs deep. The trio released two albums together.

With a lifetime of experience, almost a decade under her belt in the Austin music scene and a new project as a solo artist, one thing is unmistakably clear: lovers of country music should keep their eyes on Tessy Lou Williams. It’s in her blood, after all.

Selena Rosanbalm stepped away from music for a few years, taking time to process and grieve a traumatic loss. Now, her perspective has broadened and changed, and her songs are more open and honest than ever. The first single from her self-titled solo album is “Patriot,” out Friday and premiering with the Austin Chronicle today. Selena Rosanbalm will be released on October 9.

“Patriot” is about the death of the American Dream; sonically, it offers feel-good hit of the summer vibes while shining a light on the absurdity of politics today. “‘Patriot’ plays out as a different kind of song for Selena Rosanbalm...the singer now ventures much more personal, political – powerful,” the Austin Chronicle said, noting how Rosanbalm’s “searing, ironic bite cuts with co-writer’s Cat Clemons lead guitar.”

Within the ten tracks on her upcoming self-titled album, Rosanbalm deals with grief — the death of a loved one, the end of a relationship, shifts in relationships between adult children and their parents. She introduces listeners to more of who she is, showcasing heartbreaking candor and a different edginess than her previous work. Throughout, she’s not afraid to approach difficult subject matter.

“The name change from Rosie and the Ramblers to Selena Rosanbalm was really the impetus for the new record,” Rosanbalm says. “I had a bunch of songs ready to go, but when I needed a few more, I specifically wrote in some new styles and studied the music I wanted my ‘new sound’ to sound like.”

“How Would You Paint Me” discusses the way women are perceived by society and by men, about the way they are portrayed throughout history. “Divide” and “We’ll Catch Up” examine the relationship between parents and adult children, and how they can change.

“Can You Really Be Gone” was sparked by a photograph. “It’s funny how grief affects the mind — it shows you faces that you know are gone, confuses memories with the present, allows you to expect the impossible,” Rosanbalm says. “I think it’s a universal thing that when someone close to you dies, you hold onto any part of them that you can, a shirt, a photo, their ashes, to keep them close.”

“Inventory Your Life” is a reflection on grief and the paradox of how the end of one person’s life can mark the beginning of a new and positive chapter for someone still living.

“Making this record was really cathartic for me,” Rosanbalm says. “It had been too long since I’d had a significant musical project to focus on, and it was so fun to be back in the studio again. I loved being able to branch out — exploring some new sounds was so freeing, and such a great reminder that the point of all this isn’t to be someone’s expectation, the point is to be me, in whatever iteration.”

The honky-tonk group Rosanbalm fronted, Rosie and the Ramblers, founded in 2011 and based in Austin, toured the western US, recorded two EPs, and released Whatever You Need to acclaim in 2014. Rosanbalm has helped keep the tradition of Western Swing alive, singing and recording four albums with Hot Texas Swing Band over the last nine years, and is a member of Fancy, a cover band featuring women’s country music from the ’80s and ’90s.

Peter Mulvey has been a songwriter, road-dog, raconteur and almost-poet since before he can remember. He started playing at Milwaukee’s Cafe Carpe when he was a kid, and 30 years later returned to record Peter Mulvey with SistaStrings: Live at the Cafe Carpe, set to be released on October 9 on Righteous Babe Records. Featuring 18 songs recorded over two nights in January 2020, Mulvey collaborated with SistaStrings, comprised of sisters Monique and Chauntee Ross on cello and violin, respectively, and drummer Nathan Kilen, on the project.

At its core, this album is about a band that found each other, and also a home. As Mulvey says, "It’s about a couple of magic nights SistaStrings and I spent, crammed into the tiny back room of a listening room called the Cafe Carpe, jammed full of people, joyfully playing the songs we’d learned over our few years of becoming an ensemble, all happily unaware that the world was already changing, that because of the pandemic already underway the entire world of listening rooms and intimate live audiences was about to disappear for who-knows how long."

The songs on the record are a mix of a few of Mulvey’s older songs, a few of his newer co-writes, some unreleased tunes, and Woody Guthrie, Iron and Wine, Daniel Johnston, and Gary Louris and Mark Olson covers.

Peter and fellow Milwaukeeans SistaStrings met a few years ago and clicked instantly, later adding drummer Nathan Kilen. The sound immediately made sense: Chauntee and Monique play with tremendous intuition, technical ability, and (impossible to teach) spaciousness. Kilen’s tiny drum kit (which he developed to travel with Mulvey on his bicycle tours) rounds the quartet out perfectly.

Raised working-class Catholic on the Northwest side of Milwaukee, Mulvey studied abroad for a semester in Ireland and immediately began cutting classes to busk on Grafton Street in Dublin and hitchhike through the country. Back stateside, he spent a couple of years gigging in the Midwest before moving to Boston, where he returned to busking on the subway and playing coffeehouses.

Eighteen records, one illustrated book, thousands of live performances, a TEDx talk, a decades-long association with the National Youth Science Camp, opening for luminaries such as Ani DiFranco, Emmylou Harris, and Chuck Prophet, appearances on NPR, an annual autumn tour by bicycle, emceeing festivals, hosting his own boutique festival (the Lamplighter Sessions, in Boston and Wisconsin), Mulvey never stops. He has built his life’s work on collaboration and on an instinct for the eclectic and the vital. He folds everything he encounters into his work: poetry, social justice, scientific literacy, and a deeply abiding humanism are all on plain display in his art.

SistaStrings combines a classical background with R&B and a touch of gospel influence that culminates in a vibey, lush sound. Between them, they have soloed with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and the Madison Symphony Orchestra, and played some of the most storied venues in the country, including Carnegie Hall. They have played with Malik Yusef and opened for Black Violin, Bone Thugs ‘N Harmony, Lupe Fiasco, BJ The Chicago Kid, and The Roots. Outside of playing music venues, SistaStrings conducts school assemblies to encourage young people to pursue the arts.

Peter Mulvey with SistaStrings: Live at the Cafe Carpe Tracklisting:

1. Don't You Ever Change
2. You Are the Only One
3. Are You Listening
4. Ingrid Bergman
5. Kids in the Square
6. Bicycle
7. I Had This Friend and He Was Dying
8. Who's Gonna Love You Now
9. What Else Was It
10. Fool's Errand
11. The Details
12. Trempealeau
13. Red Rose Motel
14. The Trapeze Singer
15. It Can Get You By
16. Everything Is Ending
17. Sebastian
18. Devil Town

Selena Rosanbalm has taken a break from making music for the past few years while processing a traumatic loss; she’s returned with a new perspective, and her songs are more open and honest than ever. Sonically, she’s also introduced an edginess that wasn’t as present in previous work. It’s all on full display on her new self-titled album, her first solo record, out today.

Within the ten tracks on Selena Rosanbalm, she deals with grief -- the death of a loved one, the end of a relationship, shifts in relationships between adult children and their parents. Rosanbalm introduces listeners to more of who she is, showcasing heartbreaking candor while remaining unafraid to approach difficult subject matter.

The album is Rosanbalm’s first record under her own name after performing for several years under the moniker Rosie & the Ramblers. The album has received early praise from The Bluegrass Situation, Wide Open Country and Americana Highways, among others, including hometown attention from Good Day Austin and KUTX which noted Rosanbalm “taps into renewed energy and newer inspiration...vibrant vocals reveal not only the heartbreak, but something strangely hopeful on the horizon."

“How Would You Paint Me” discusses the way women are perceived by society and by men, about the way they are portrayed throughout history. “Divide” and “We’ll Catch Up” examine the relationship between parents and adult children, and how they can change.

“Can You Really Be Gone” was sparked by a photograph. “It’s funny how grief affects the mind — it shows you faces that you know are gone, confuses memories with the present, allows you to expect the impossible,” she says. “I think it’s a universal thing that when someone close to you dies, you hold onto any part of them that you can, a shirt, a photo, their ashes, to keep them close.”

“Inventory Your Life” is a reflection on grief and the paradox of how the end of one person’s life can mark the beginning of a new and positive chapter for someone still living.

“Making this record was really cathartic for me. It had been too long since I’d had a significant musical project to focus on, and it was so fun to be back in the studio again. I loved being able to branch out - exploring some new sounds was so freeing, and such a great reminder that the point of all this isn’t to be someone’s expectation, the point is to be me, in whatever iteration.”

Rosie and the Ramblers, formerly fronted by Rosanbalm and founded in 2011, toured the western US, recorded two EPs, and released Whatever You Need to acclaim in 2014. Rosanbalm has helped keep the tradition of Western Swing alive, singing and recording four albums with Hot Texas Swing Band over the last nine years, and is a member of Fancy, a cover band featuring women’s country music from the ‘80s and ‘90s.

Selena Rosanbalm Track Listing:

1. Gut Punch
2. Divide
3. The Old House
4. Not In Albuquerque Anymore
5. Forever and Evermore
6. How Would You Paint Me
7. Inventory Your Life
8. We'll Catch Up
9. Patriot
10. Can You Really Be Gone

The central line running through Josh Kelley’s upcoming album, My Baby & The Band, set for Nov. 13 release, is his family. It’s fitting that the video for his gospel-soaked next single, “Hold Me My Lord,” was made with them in mind. The song was co-produced by Grammy, Emmy and Dove award-winner Shannon Sanders and includes the addition of the 30-member All Voices choir.

"I think in the instance of this song, my heart was calling for hope. I was trying to muddle through the dark nights of my soul and how I’ve managed to find my way again and again. When we started putting the video together for this song, we realized that this world has been suffering through a dark night of the soul. Despair, hurt, anger, violence, pain, suffering, disease and death have been the headlines every day for the last eight months,” Kelley said.

“I realized this song that came through me speaks to more than my own suffering. It speaks to humanity’s,” Kelley continued. “The video felt like an opportunity to unite us in our pain and in our hope. It felt like a way for me to make one small difference in this tumultuous time so I can look at my children, years from now, and tell them I did something. I didn’t just bury my head in the sand, or hide from the pain, or run from the fear. I did what I could do, and I did it for them."

Growing up in Augusta, Georgia, Kelley absorbed R&B, soul, and vintage country while also developing an affinity for classic rock. His musical family would often sit around their piano creating songs. When his older brother accidentally left his guitar at home when he headed back to college, the rest was history. These varied influences sometimes sneak into Kelley’s music, in a phrase or a chord progression, but other times they’re fully on display.

“Hold Me My Lord” is one song in the journey presented on My Baby & The Band, Kelley’s first album of original material in five years. The album traces his and his family’s story, a scenic walk through the evolution of a relationship, family, and growth. Kelley solidifies himself as a talented vocalist and lyricist while tapping into the details of watching his kids develop their own personalities and continuing to find new reasons to love his wife after 15 years together. He’s missing it all when he’s away from them.

“My Baby & The Band,” all about sitting back with the one you love and listening to timeless music, was released last month. It follows the release of “Love Her Boy,” a clever, smooth and soulful number employing wordplay, and “Busy Making Memories,” a deeply personal excerpt, written on New Year's Day while watching his kids play. Kelley and his wife, Katherine Heigl, collaborated on the video, featuring treasured memories and adventures on their ranch.

Kelley released his solo debut, Changing Faces, while attending the University of Mississippi, and subsequently signed a record deal with Hollywood Records. His mainstream debut, For the Ride Home, found a Top Five single with “Amazing,” and his second album Almost Honest, included the Top Ten single “Only You.” Kelley later released four independent albums, between 2006 and 2008; Georgia Clay was released in 2011 with MCA Nashville, and 2015’s New Lane Road with Sugar Hill Records. In 2017 he independently released an album of covers, titled Under the Covers, Vol. 1, and a holiday album, Christmas Traditions.

Kelley has appeared on “TODAY," “Good Morning America,” "The Ellen Degeneres Show,” “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,” “Live with Regis & Kelly” and “Last Call with Carson Daly,” and his songs have been featured on such shows as “Smallville,” “Scrubs,” “Brothers and Sisters” and MTV’s “The Hills.” Kelley also wrote and performed the theme song for the TV sitcom “Mike and Molly,” scored the feature film Home Sweet Hell, and created the theme song for TV’s Golf Channel.

In the six albums she’s released, Sarah Sample has created a reputation for weaving a trail of stories through folk, Americana, and country music. “Old Barn Owl” continues the tradition, written on a songwriting retreat in the Chihuahuan Desert in West Texas, an ode to nature written out past the confines of judgment. The song is out today, with AudioFemme noting how the soothing, hopeful track "lets the wisdom of nature guide" it.

“I wrote ‘Old Barn Owl’ with my sister, Cate Graves, under a star-filled sky in West Texas,” Sample says. “We were attending a songwriting retreat where we learned a new method: cutting up old books into bits and pieces and then creating new lyrical phrases from them. My sister and I sat under a fall moon and wrote the chorus. As we started singing the lines, something cathartic was happening. It was quiet. It was healing. We reflected on what can happen in nature, with no one to judge you and the acceptance that you are worthy just as you are. You never know what kind of song you’re going to write, but sometimes when you’re in a mystic place you get these kinds of odes to nature.”

The song follows the release of “Nothingman” in October, both stand-alone follow-ups to 2018's Redwing, noted for Sample’s cut-to-the-bone storytelling, framed with empathy and compassion, and told with the best singing of her career. Produced by Sample’s longtime producer Scott Wiley (Elliott Smith, Bonnie Raitt), Redwing came to life over a few weeks of sessions at June Audio, as well.

Sample has played several prominent festivals—Merlefest, Cayamo, Folks Fest, Sisters, Telluride, and Kerrville, among them—and has warmed up stages for artists like Darrell Scott, Steve Martin & The Steep Canyon Rangers, Marketa Irglova, and Over The Rhine.

She’s also a founding member of the folk-gospel collective The Lower Lights, who take on gospel classics from old hymnals and Hank Williams, Dolly Parton, and even Stevie Wonder. She lives in the welcoming, wild wide open of Wyoming with her husband and two daughters, where she is also a nurse.

Singer-songwriter Stephen Kellogg has succeeded in making a name for himself by writing what he knows: emotive lyrics that relate to his everyday life as a husband, father, and full-time musician, often infused with a level of hope, optimism and silver linings. Kellogg is releasing a surprise EP today, I’ve Had Enough, featuring a newly-written title track, which The Bluegrass Situation premiered earlier this week. The EP also includes two additional songs that Kellogg played during his sold-out virtual tour earlier this year, a pivot planned after a scheduled tour was canceled in the spring.

“When you’ve been on the road for two decades straight, it’s not super easy to adjust to a complete stop, but 2020 made that the only option,” Kellogg says. “I found both pain and joy in the halting of momentum. These three songs speak to the emotions I’ve experienced this year, and I hope it speaks to others and can be of some comfort the way it has for me.”

“I’ve Had Enough” was written out of frustration, while “Love Me As I Am,” released earlier in the year, made a natural B-side. “Ghost,” an unreleased track from a 2009 session at Sun Studio, ties the collection together—it’s a reckoning with Kellogg’s wife’s miscarriage.

Kellogg has released ten studio albums of his own and a book of essays, "Objects in the Mirror: Thoughts on a Perfect Life from an Imperfect Person," released over the summer. He has performed more than 2,000 shows around the world over the last decade, raised thousands of dollars for causes close to his heart, been named Armed Forces Entertainer of the Year, and penned singles for artists like platinum-selling rock band O.A.R and American Idol winner Nick Fradiani. Kellogg’s most recent writing work with legendary guitarist Robert Randolph led to a Grammy nomination for Best Contemporary Blues Record.

While Kellogg may have remained underneath the radar for some in the mainstream, he has successfully built a meaningful career alongside many of the best in the business. He’s sung duets with Sara Bareilles, Josh Ritter, Rosanne Cash, and Pat Monahan of Train and participated in the 2018 “Garden Of Dreams’ concert at the Beacon Theater. His music has found its way onto the Billboard charts and has been featured in numerous films and TV shows.

“Somewhere in trying to figure out how to craft a good song, I figured out how not to just write a pile of sad songs,” Nashville-based singer-songwriter Nate Fredrick says about his new album, Different Shade of Blue, set for February 26 release. “It’s not that my situation is different or even better, but I’ve found a different way to perceive my personal circumstances.”

The first single, “Paducah,” a love letter of sorts to the process of finding yourself through miles spent on the highway, is out today.

That same level of introspection is clear throughout Different Shade of Blue, 11 tracks recorded at Nashville’s Farmland Studios with producer David Dorn. The album sounds as familiar as what you might hear on a friend’s back porch, with lyrics bound to get stuck in your head, as Fredrick works through his relationship to both himself and his home—where he’s from as well as Nashville, where he moved in 2015.

A native Missourian, Fredrick learned to play guitar after his dad brought one home—that he never learned to play—when he was 12. He didn’t start writing songs until a decade later. His bluesy Americana style is the result of influences such as Guy Clark, Creedence Clearwater Revival and Van Morrison, to name a few.

“A friend and I were running from the police one night, and I accidentally fell off a cliff,” Fredrick says. “During the two-year recovery process, I started actually making music instead of just playing music. The first show I ever had, I played with my jaw wired shut.”

After moving to Nashville, Fredrick wrote more than 100 songs over the two years. “The album eventually came to encapsulate something bigger than me,” he says. “I was lucky enough to be surrounded by people who were willing to grow together. It’s a culmination of the best I could give with a bunch of people who are now my best friends.”

“Be the One” offers a Randy Newman-esque look at mutually beneficial relationships that—well, aren’t exactly relationships.

The album’s title track, “Different Shade of Blue,” reminisces on how the grass isn’t quite always greener on the other side. “All Over You Again” offers a bit of wordplay: sometimes you want to be over someone but keep finding yourself all over them again.

“The Dreamer,” an ode of sorts to his songwriting heroes, Kris Kristofferson and the aforementioned Guy Clark, centering around a young man and the unattainable object of his affection. “Love Someone” offers the idea that every relationship offers something—sometimes a difficult lesson. “A lot of times learning to love someone else is more beneficial than receiving the love that you want at that moment,” Fredrick says.

“Caroline” is about that girl with a special aura about her, at once approachable and intimidating. “Forget Ever Loving Me” was inspired by unrequited love, or at least a joke about love.

Written in March 2020, “To the Night” contemplates the difficulty of seeing the bright side sometimes, especially when there’s an unknown element. “Long Overdue” reflects on how good things come to those who wait.

The affecting “Patches” bookends the album with a look at the lifecycle of people, things, circumstances, and everything between, told through three separate vignettes: an old pair of jeans, a hand-me-down car and a long relationship coming to an end.

Different Shade of Blue may be Fredrick’s introduction, but if these 11 songs and the energy they hold are any indication—there’s plenty more to come.

Born in rural Indiana shortly after his family moved “west” from southern Virginia to start a livestock feed store, Simon Flory’s music is suffused with the elements of his childhood – days spent in the fields, church songs, gravel roads. His new album, Haul These Blues Away (Feb. 26) features compositions that are as much short-story sketches as they are songs, each populated – like the locales that inspire them – with those among us who have few choices. The first single, “Peter Mack Built A Semi Truck,” is out today. 

On Haul These Blues Away, Flory’s sound evokes voices not much heard on radio airwaves, a stew of early country, gospel, and the best of classic Nashville. Even his guitar playing captures the rhythmic tumble of clawhammer banjo and Appalachian fiddle, and his vocal phrasing carries inflections from the Carter Family to Eddie Cochran to Hank Williams.

“Learning How To Talk” considers the sometimes-awkward feeling of swimming in a sea of extroverts, while “The More You Talk (The Less I Hear)” is the only completely autobiographical and also-true track on the album, telling the story of a love gone bad, of a lover scorned for unknown reasons and ultimate isolation in the city.

“Big Bad Lover” is, simply put, about gaslighting. “If My Mule Had Wings” was literally written while riding a mule, inspired by a fantasy of a beast of burden sprouting wings and singing while toiling away in the furrows of life. It’s a song of defiance and inclusivity, inviting the listener to be themselves and be free.

“Atoka,” the home of both Reba McEntire and legendary bull rider Lane Frost, is the setting for the song of the same name, a place featuring a prison, coal mine, Civil War museum and one dinosaur bone, on the edge of the Choctaw Nation in Oklahoma. It’s reminiscent of many of the places Flory’s seen while traveling around playing music.

“Have Your Adventure” is Flory’s favorite saying of his Granny’s: an uplifting tale of defiance against those who give you debt, lies, heartache and pain.

The album closer is Flory’s version of “Spanish Fandango,” a traditional song he learned while living in Chicago. It’s played in the pre-Scruggs three-finger banjo style, the dreamy sounds of dissonant chords and slower-than-loping pace illustrating the album’s themes: overcoming hardship and heartbreak-to a place of contentment and love.

After earning a degree in creative writing and theatre from DePauw University, Flory moved to Chicago and founded the country band Merle The Mule while working as a multi-instrumentalist in an old-time duo with teacher Ed Tverdek, and as an employee at the Old Town School of Folk Music.

His first solo record, self-released Unholy Town, led him to Austin, Tex., where he continued to work as a solo performer. He eventually found success as one-half of the Kindie group, “The Que Pastas,” and as a multi-instrumentalist for-hire, before co-founding the Austin-based country-bluegrass group High Plains Jamboree with Beth Chrisman, Brennen Leigh and Noel McKay. They were official showcase artists at Folk Alliance International, IBMA, and Americanafest where Rolling Stone Country featured them as one of the best things they saw in 2016.

His most recent releases, 2019’s Radioville and 2020’s Songs From Paper Thin Lines garnered local acclaim, as did his poetry film, "Paper Thin Lines," which was officially selected in the Thinline Music and Film Festival and the PressPlay Film Festival.

“If there is an overall arc that links these songs, it’s that I am trying to connect in a way that I never have before,” singer-songwriter Mac Leaphart says of Music City Joke, out today. The 10-song collection vacillates between high-energy tales that would be at home on any dancehall stage to wry examinations of the human condition — though Leaphart’s detailed writing style equally weaves throughout the more rollicking tracks on the album just the same.

“I’m a journeyman musician who spent a decade on the Southeastern bar band scene before settling in Nashville,” Leaphart explains. “I moved here with the idea of writing some of those big hits you hear on country radio; it wasn't too long before I realized there's a lot more that goes into writing a smash hit than just great songwriting, and I wasn't chuckling at Nashville anymore. The joke was on me. I peeled the ‘kick me’ sign off my back and got down to focusing on my own songwriting like never before–writing late at night and performing at writers’ rounds to see what stuck and what didn’t. And here it is: the song, the album...and the punchline.”

Music City Joke offers Leaphart’s strongest batch of songs to date: wry, rugged, and recharged, he’s singing songs that conjure up memories of front porches, honky tonks, heartbreaks, and dive bars. Produced by Brad Jones (Hayes Carll), Music City Joke is a rallying cry from an artist who has spent more than a decade paying his dues and whittling his craft, joined by a team of longtime Nashville staples, including Fats Kaplin, Will Kimbrough, and Matt Menefee, as the soundtrack to his lyric-driven, story-based songwriting.

The album kicks off with a reimagined version of “El Paso Kid,” which originally appeared on Leaphart’s 2015 release, Low in the Saddle, Long in the Tooth. “Blame on the Bottle,” inspired by a preacher on the left end of the radio dial, examines both self-will and self-righteousness just the same.

The rollicking “Honey, Shake” is the purest example of Leaphart’s Southern rock-inspired upbringing, to which The Boot advised listeners to ”put on your dancin' shoes…"Honey, Shake” will have you ready to groove."

“Ballad of Bob Yamaha or A Simple Plea in C Major” is a nod to Shel Silverstein and a shining example of Leaphart’s dedication to smartly written songs from the perspective of a weathered guitar that just wants to be played by someone who really knows their way up and down the frets. Inspired by Leaphart’s move from the South Carolina Lowcountry to Nashville, the album’s title track, “Music City Joke,” is a reckoning of expectations and reality.

“That Train” continues to showcase Leaphart’s signature style – mixing twang, tempo, and tightly-constructed lyrics into the same package, with American Songwriter noting its “clever bundling of nostalgic allusions and raw honky-tonk harmonies."

“Window from the Sky” offers a stripped-down take on how much good a change in perspective can do. “Every Day” is a look into the dynamics of a relationship, while “Division Street” laments a tiny, shared apartment, close living spaces, and the eye-opening experience of living inside “the party house.”

Before earning his stripes as a road warrior, Leaphart launched his career in South Carolina, where he balanced a nighttime gig as a bartender with a steadily-increasing stream of shows. Leaphart’s first album, Line, Rope, Etc., was released in 2009 and a few years later, in 2012, he took his signature sound with him to Nashville. There, he has launched a popular recurring songwriter's night called Southpaw Social Club and strengthened his own writing chops, penning songs for other artists' albums as well as his own. Low in the Saddle, Long in the Tooth arrived in 2015, followed by Lightning Bob – featuring collaborations with Sadler Vaden – in 2018.

Leaphart — now a husband and father — received a reviving kickstart later that year when he was named a winner of the prestigious Grassy Hill Kerrville New Folk Competition.

Simon Flory’s music is suffused with the elements of his childhood – days spent in the fields, church songs, gravel roads. His new album, Haul These Blues Away, out today, features compositions that are as much short-story sketches as they are songs, each populated – like the locales that inspire them – with those among us who have few choices.

On Haul These Blues Away, Flory’s sound evokes voices not much heard on radio airwaves, a stew of early country, gospel, and the best of classic Nashville. Even his guitar playing captures the rhythmic tumble of clawhammer banjo and Appalachian fiddle, and his vocal phrasing carries inflections from the Carter Family to Eddie Cochran to Hank Williams.

The album kicks off with "Peter Mack Built a Semi Truck," which Wide Open Country notes, finds Flory ruminating on the weight of the world while coping with struggles and the power of the human spirit.

“Learning How To Talk” considers the sometimes-awkward feeling of swimming in a sea of extroverts, while “Big Bad Lover” is, simply put, about gaslighting. “If My Mule Had Wings” was literally written while riding a mule, inspired by a fantasy of a beast of burden sprouting wings and singing while toiling away in the furrows of life. It’s a song of defiance and inclusivity, inviting the listener to be themselves and be free.

“Atoka,” the home of both Reba McEntire and legendary bull rider Lane Frost, is the setting for the song of the same name, a place featuring a prison, coal mine, civil war museum and one dinosaur bone, on the edge of the Choctaw Nation in Oklahoma. It’s reminiscent of many of the places Flory’s seen while traveling around playing music.

“Have Your Adventure,” which premiered with The Bluegrass Situation this week, is Flory’s favorite saying of his Granny’s: an uplifting tale of defiance against those who give you debt, lies, heartache and pain.

The album closer is Flory’s version of “Spanish Fandango,” a traditional song he learned while living in Chicago. It’s played in the “pre-Scruggs” three-finger banjo style, the dreamy sounds of dissonant chords and slower-than-loping pace illustrating the album’s themes: overcoming hardship and heartbreak-to a place of contentment and love.

After earning a degree in creative writing and theatre from DePauw University, Flory moved to Chicago and founded the country band Merle The Mule while working as a multi-instrumentalist in an old-time duo with teacher Ed Tverdek, and as an employee at the Old Town School of Folk Music.

Flory’s first solo record, self-released Unholy Town, led him to Austin, TX, where he continued to work as a solo performer. He eventually found success as one-half of the Kindie group, The Que Pastas, and as a multi-instrumentalist for-hire, before co-founding the Austin-based country-bluegrass group High Plains Jamboree with Beth Chrisman, Brennen Leigh and Noel McKay. They were official showcase artists at Folk Alliance International, IBMA, and Americanafest where Rolling Stone Country featured them as one of the best things they saw in 2016.

His most recent releases, 2019’s Radioville and 2020’s Songs From Paper Thin Lines garnered local acclaim, as did his poetry film, Paper Thin Lines, which was officially selected in the Thinline Music and Film Festival and the PressPlay Film Festival.

In 2018, singer-songwriter-guitarist Abigail Dowd found a new set of intentions while on the banks of the St. Vrain Creek outside of Boulder, Colorado: be fearless, listen to her inner voice at all costs, and learn to go with the flow. That last piece of the puzzle gained significance as she and her husband navigated their home flooding six times in the next 13 months and Dowd spent time living with friends and family, making sense of what was happening around her through the songs that would become Beautiful Day, out today.

Recorded over five days in late February 2020 at the Fidelitorium in Kernersville, North Carolina, Beautiful Day was produced by Jason Richmond, also a Grammy-nominated engineer and mixer known for his work with The Avett Brothers and Dom Flemons, among others. The 12 songs on Beautiful Day continuously echo the same intentions Dowd set before the first flood that changed everything: fearlessness, hope, letting go, freedom, faith and gratitude. Dowd and Richmond brought in a stable of musicians — Joe MacPhail on keyboards, Austin McCall on percussion, Alex McKinney on dobro and pedal steel guitar and Scott Sawyer on electric guitar. Dowd’s husband, Jason Duff, was there, as always, on bass.

Dowd and her husband were married in Rome just a few months before the first flood in September 2018. The day of their planned celebration with family and friends, the forecast changed and Hurricane Florence engulfed their yard. Weeks later, Hurricane Michael hit even harder, forcing the newly-married couple to move in with his parents. With the water came songs. “One Moment At A Time,” a gentle, lilting tune that embraces taking life one day at a time, appeared like a download while Abigail was sitting at a stoplight on her way to a meditation class. “Dowd’s eager vocals are accompanied by toe-tapping instrumentals that create a package of sonic warmth,” American Songwriter notes. “It’s a friendly reminder that life’s blessings are happening in the here and now.”

Later, giving in to the urge to pick up her guitar, “Judgement Day” poured out in a stream of consciousness. Sitting on the floor of a borrowed bedroom, she dissected society’s expectations of women and how institutionalized their place is, right down to changing their names after marriage and leaving behind a legacy of their mothers and grandmothers. She hadn’t realized she had so much to say about how deeply rooted the denial of the sacred feminine is.

Nine months later in Colorado, Dowd stepped into the same creek, and with her guitar and iPhone, sat on a boulder and hit record to capture any ideas that might come. As if the water itself was a co-writer, “River,” and its instrumental introduction “St. Vrain,” came out nearly complete. “St. Vrain” takes inspiration from Bedrich Smettna’s symphonic poem “The Moldau,” about Prague’s Vltava River, and “River,” partly inspired by a line from a hymn she sang as a child, reimagines a modern baptismal hymn while acknowledging the cleansing power of water. What Dowd did not know while she was writing was that 1600 miles to the east, a storm was rolling in that would put her faith to the test. All the work they had done to repair the house — a new kitchen, HVAC repair, fresh paint, mold remediation — was undone in a flash.

While her husband stayed in their unheated house to repair it once again, Dowd was dealing with the impact on her health, consulting a series of doctors: the water damage had affected her lungs, and she worried she would have to quit singing. For five months, Dowd bounced from friend’s house to friend’s house. She didn’t know where she would be or what would happen from one day to the next. It became the most uncertain time of her life — and the most abundant.

As days turned into months of unforeseen challenges and blessings, the songs kept coming. Though different in their subject matter, both “Apple Trees” and “After the Fall” are vividly imaginative in their illustrations. The former reflects on a past relationship through scenes of a farm in Maine, where Dowd previously lived, while the latter conjures imagery from her early childhood memories of a Pentecostal preacher — both not so long ago but also seemingly different lifetimes altogether.

“Rise Above,” haunting in its presentation, was written about navigating darkness to find light and clarity. “Run” takes its influence from a passage about the loss of native language in the Wade Davis book “Wayfinders.”

Written before she realized the world might need its messaging the most, the album’s title track, “Beautiful Day,” conveys a sense of loneliness while simultaneously offering hope. The Bluegrass Situation says Dowd “gives us a reminder to enjoy the moment, and have faith that a brighter day is always coming.”

“Grandmother Moon,” the album’s closing track, was written after a Sacred Fire Foundation event, an organization that strives to keep Indigenous wisdom alive and expand awareness about why the Indigenous worldview is crucial for current and future generations. Dowd felt led to the event by several serendipitous signs. The song is a benediction that bookends the album; from the opening track’s hopefulness of overcoming loneliness to this final song of gratitude, “Mother Earth walks by my side, I never feel alone.”

Americana Highways says “Dowd’s soulful country voice shines best in tracks like ‘Diamond,'” which Wide Open Country also notes is a powerful healing mantra. It was the first song written for the album and may summarize what Dowd has learned from this experience the most completely: “The second album was a releasing of stories, and I love the way this song came along, days before the first flood of our house,” she says. “It was as if it was there to remind me that home is much more than a house, and I’m already there: everything we’re looking for is inside of us.”

Roots/Americana singer-songwriter Naomi Westwater’s Feelings EP begins with a sparse, powerful statement: “My body is not my home.” That tension weaves throughout six songs, both in subject matter and arrangements, as Westwater and her band play with the listeners’ level of discomfort, consistently asking them to further identify their thoughts on racial injustices in America, the importance of climate change, relationships with their own bodies and where they land on the spiritual spectrum. “Americana” is out now, a reckoning with what it means to be multiracial in America, asking, “What am I to you?”

Westwater’s Feelings EP started as a single day of recording; as a graduate fellow at Berklee College of Music, she had a few hours in the studio available. Wanting to record something with a little more substance, she and the band decided to work on a song about climate change, a song about chronic pain and a song about racism and being multiracial in America. Then, realizing there was time for one more, they added a cover of the Billie Holiday jazz standard “Strange Fruit.” And suddenly, things shifted.

The six songs on Feelings reflect on the complex identities that make up who Westwater is: a Black, multiracial, queer woman who lives in New England — the Greater Boston area, specifically — who is dyslexic, who has endometriosis, who is spiritual and also a witch.

“This project felt like a storybook, like a complete collection of things that I’ve been meaning to say to the world, things I need to scream out into the void, and things that I need people to hear,” she says. “These songs were all written at different times: ‘Strange Fruit’ in the 1930s, ‘Americana’ in 2012, and the others in the last few years, but the stories are so relevant to now.”

The first-ever Black Opry Revue is coming to Rockwood Music Hall, showcasing the powerful lyrics and authentic harmonies central to the Black Opry community. The traditional songwriter’s round will feature the songs, stories, and camaraderie cultivated in the Black Opry community: a home for Black artists and Black fans of country, blues, folk, and Americana music. The inaugural iteration of the Black Opry Revue features Tylar Bryant, Lizzie No, Roberta Lea, Joy Clark, and Jett Holden, and will take place on October 5, 2021, at Rockwood Music Hall’s Stage 2 at 7 p.m ET.

The Black Opry Revue is hosted by Holly G., creator of the Black Opry music blog. Holly G. and the Black Opry community have quickly become a vital part of the roots music scene, advocating for Black artists and fans in country, folk, and blues. Black Opry also showcases one of the most valuable aspects of country music: its versatility and diversity in sound.

At the 2021 AmericanaFest in Nashville, Black Opry gathered Black artists and allies for five days of music and community. The invite-only Black Opry day parties and after-hours song circles saw appearances from country music heavy-hitters, including Rissi Palmer, Brittney Spencer, Frankie Staton, Joshua Ray Walker, Reyna Roberts, Miko Marks, and Chris Pierce, and up-and-comers such as Emily Scott Robinson, Tony Evans, Sarah Shook, Lizzie No, and Joy Clark. Black Opry also presented an official AmericanaFest panel moderated by award-winning journalist Marcus Dowling and featuring artists Miko Marks, Lilli Lewis, Queen Esther, Lizzie No, and Jett Holden. The Black Opry’s event series was a first-of-its-kind gathering that signaled the emergence of Black artists as a rising, unified coalition in country and Americana.

The potential and importance of the Black Opry community cannot be overstated. Since 2020, the music industry—and the Americana genre in particular—has faced an equity crisis. The movement provides an opportunity to platform music that more accurately reflects the changing demographics of our country, helps to create a level playing field for musicians of color and speaks out against long-standing prejudice in the music industry.

Black Opry is founded, in part, around the idea of exploring how country, blues, folk, and Americana music often overlap and weave together; the first-ever Black Opry Revue offers an observance of the myriad ways Black artists are poised to step into the spotlight.

Black Opry Revue, Rockwood Music Hall, Stage 2, 7 p.m. ET, October 5, 2021.

Tickets to Black Opry Revue

Raine Hamilton’s Brave Land, out today, is a concept album: inspired by the mountainous landscape they encountered while touring, it’s music made for reaching between different worlds, centering around courage, connection and wisdom, and showcasing resonant chamber-folk with prism-clear, bright vocals and strings along the way.

“It’s about the beauty of being alive and the courage that can take,” Hamilton says of the album’s title track, a theme that also weaves throughout the album as a whole.

“At first, I was confused when mountain dwellers would give directions like, ‘Go up the mountain and turn left.’ Up? We don’t have directions like that on the prairie. It is not a thing. But up really intrigued me,” Hamilton says of the album. “If the prairie was teaching me to be still, the mountains were teaching me to move. Mountains are a landscape that connects two different worlds. They are land, reaching up into the realm of the sky. Wow. That is brave, I thought. This brave land connecting the earth-bound into spirit.”

Based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Hamilton grew up writing songs as part of a musical family. Their music stretches the boundaries of contemporary folk, combining the traditions of singer-songwriter, lyric-centered songs, and fiddling, with classically influenced string parts that borrow from a renaissance counterpoint.

For both Brave Land and Hamilton’s 2018 release, Night Sky, they worked with longtime collaborators Quintin Bart on double bass, and Natanielle Felicitas on cello. The three musicians have been co-composing arrangements and recording the newest album since fall 2019, interrupted in March 2020 by the pandemic and completed over the summer.

Hamilton has toured as a professional singer-songwriter and chamber folk artist since 2014, releasing two previous albums, Past Your Past in 2015, and Night Sky in 2018. They are the recipient of the 2018 Canadian Folk Music Award for Emerging Artist of the Year, and have toured Canada extensively, driving, flying, and floating their way coast to coast. They have performed with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra and Manitoba Chamber Orchestra, and festivals including Vancouver Folk Festival, Vancouver Island Music Fest, Atlin Festival, Home County, Filberg Fest, Lilac Fest, Harvest Moon, and Trout Forest, among others.

A believer that music is for everyone, and that we all have something to share, they offer workshops in songwriting and fiddle-tune writing, and offer concerts with American Sign Language (ASL) interpretation, to help make live music and the community that comes with it more accessible to the Deaf community.

Nico Padden is a one-woman folk-rock riot. It’s a statement fully supported by her new album, Pirate Queen (Jan. 28), which celebrates the strength of the fierce, brave women in her life – including herself. “The Last Time,” out today, is a no-nonsense breakup song, a battle cry of sorts that clearly expresses Padden’s approach to men and relationships. It's the second single from the album, which offers a mix of Americana, vintage pop/rock and folk.

The song follows the release of the title track, an homage to the nickname Padden's fans gave her. Glide Magazine notes how the “piano-driven ballad draws inspiration from 90s piano pop and rock, with orchestration layered in to build on the drama of the song,” and mentions that Padden “displays her vocal range as she belts out the chorus with soulful affirmation.”

Pirate Queen is about taking back the crown that is rightfully yours, even if by slightly unorthodox means. To write the album, Padden drew both from personal experience as well as reading extensively about real pirate queens from history, particularly Grace O’Malley, Mary Read, and Anne Bonny. She also spent some time sailing on New York’s Great South Bay. The ocean and references to sailing are prevalent, and provide a connecting thread to all of the material.

The songs on Pirate Queen, particularly “The Death of the Princess,” reflect Padden's experiences drawing strength and wisdom from the women who came before her. Specifically, the song is inspired by Padden’s maternal grandmother, who she lived with for the last five years of her life before she passed away at age 98. Padden found strength in the midst of grief when she thought of their shared similarities.

“Burning Rome to the Ground,” written after Padden spoke out publicly about sexual harassment, examines the ways women and marginalized groups have to be assertive and stick up for their own autonomy and humanity; the song is ultimately about the strength of people who have faced oppression working together and dismantling systems that are outdated and no longer work. “Pay the Piper” is a product of feelings of frustration regarding past mistakes.

Padden penned “Four Hands on the Helm” as a love song for her husband; it’s about finding ways to steer the collective ship equally, as egalitarian partners dedicated to working through traumas and difficult moments and ultimately making their lives better together. “Mother & Father,” as the title suggests, is a dedication to Padden’s parents and all of the sacrifices they made along the way. Padden describes them as a combination that makes the perfect recipe for a singer-songwriter: one part poet who wants to be alone and write sad songs, one part stage-lover who wants people to listen to them sing incessantly. It’s her love song to them for making her who she is.

Padden wrote “27 Heartbeats” after hearing the story Kaitlin Roig-DeBellis, the Sandy Hook Elementary School teacher who saved the lives of her 15 students by hiding them in a tiny bathroom stall and keeping them quiet in the midst of unthinkable tragedy.

“Bar on 63rd” captures the feeling of hanging diligently onto hope despite a lot of discouragement and struggle; on a walk home in December after a less-than-perfect gig, Padden found herself catching lightning in a bottle and rushed home, writing the entire song in less than an hour.

“Pirate Queen is ultimately an uplifting celebration of my strength as a woman who steps outside of the lines, much like the pirate queens of history I was inspired by,” Padden says. “I hope the album is a comfort, salve, and battle cry to woman-identified people who also wish to claim their rightful crown, as well.”

Haroula Rose sings like she’s telling a secret, a style the Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter can perhaps owe to the many years she spent shyly composing and playing her haunting melodies alone in her native Chicago. With Catch the Light (June 17), her third album and first to co-produce, Rose has deepened and complicated her dreamy, tender repertoire. “Time’s Fool,” the album’s first single, is out now, featuring Molly Parden on harmonies and callbacks, Omar Velasco on the second guitar, and the inimitable Greg Leisz on pedal steel.

The nine songs on Catch the Light are songs full of loving and longing, evocative confessions that document the shadow of sorrow that roots beneath every joy. The title song, written in an inspired twenty-minute rush, is a study in “how we’re all enraptured by darkness and light,” and how contrasts give our lives meaning. The title is also a cinematographic reference to Rose’s work as a filmmaker. Since her last album, she’s released her debut feature as a writer and director, the highly acclaimed “Once Upon a River,” which was celebrated as one of 2020’s most anticipated films by TIME and Filmmaker magazines, winning 19 awards at 40 festivals worldwide. The “Once Upon a River” soundtrack was a collaboration between Rose and acclaimed artists such as Rodney Crowell, Will Oldham, JD Souther, and Peter Bradley Adams, with a score by Zac Rae.

“Catch the Light has to do with various pieces of my life coming together in a very personal, naked way,” Rose says. “I wanted to make a record that was sparse — just guitars, pianos and vocals, basically. I consider this album as a reflection of going inward, and sharing parts of my life in that way. The metaphor for the title, Catch the Light, has both to do with cinema — as well as seeing the light inside of us that illuminates in darkness.”

The seven originals and two covers on Catch the Light feature a wide cast of musicians who helped create the sweeping, spacious arrangements with minimal elements. These collaborations, especially in the era of social distance, were especially critical to the album’s intimate appeal. Ben Davis and Will Graefe contributed vocals and guitar on two songs they co-wrote with Rose —“Happenstance,” and “The Nature of Things.” Joachim Cooder plays percussion and cajón on "Luchín"; Greg Liesz plays pedal steel and Omar Valasco plays guitar on two songs each. Molly Parden’s harmonized and sang callbacks on “Time’s Fool.”

Rose’s fans will likely recognize the imprint of June Tabor, Joni Mitchell, Judee Sill, and Bonnie “Prince” Billy, but the lesser-known but hugely influential Víctor Jara, the Chilean artist and activist who was assassinated in 1973, was an important guide in this highly internal, novelistic album. Rose covered Jara’s song "Luchín," about a child living in a cruel world who finds solace in his inner life, after finding its themes to resonate with the political and social upheavals of 2020. The other cover on the album, Chris Stapleton’s country-rock hit “You Should Probably Leave” is sung as a piano ballad showcasing what Rose does best — finding new layers of poignancy in familiar places.

“I found that because we went inward so much these last two years, that the introspection really shone a light on things we have yet to fully process and discover about ourselves collectively as well as individually,” Rose says. “And I think it’s been valuable, if painful, for me to see so much heartbreak and so many things falling apart whilst others came together or got stronger.”

The Bombadils, comprised of husband and wife Luke Fraser and Sarah Frank, are known for creating music with poetic lyrics, fresh metaphors, scene-setting details, and clever turns of phrase. “Bicycle,” out today, is no exception: on the bright track, The Bombadils sing of adventure, perseverance, and what it is that keeps us going despite life’s challenges.

Accompanied by Ellen Gibling on harp and Ethan Jodziewicz (Milk Carton Kids, Sierra Hull) on bass, the duo’s second single from their upcoming album, Dear Friend (autumn 2022), was inspired by Frank’s cross-country move to pursue music at 19. 
 
“Luke and I connected throughout our 20s over a fiery desire to make a difference in the world, to love in a big way, and to be part of something big and beautiful,” she told Folk Radio UK. “We sped along fast, eager and driven.”
 
“The video shows our four-year-old daughter Felicity and her two closest friends,” she continues. “While we will guide them as best as we can, at the end of the day we will have to hold our breath and watch them learn some things the hard way just as our parents have watched us (and probably still do)!”

“[The upbeat tune] perfectly encapsulates the euphoria of self-discovery and the pursuit of our dreams…the song resonates with genuine heartfelt warmth and charm that is impossible to resist.” - Folk Radio UK

Stylistically, The Bombadils’ music offers dynamic arrangements and adventurous instrumental passages; Frank’s soprano and dazzling fiddle playing combine with Fraser’s soulful singing and prowess as an accompanist and dynamic soloist on guitar and mandolin.
 
Dear Friend is the duo’s fourth album overall, and their first to feature all original songs. The first single, “Losing Track of Time,” celebrates connection and cherishing the sweet moments in life where the stars align. The album is their first full-length release after moving to Atlantic Canada and adjusting to new parenthood, a new city, and a global pandemic. The 11-song album was recorded with engineer Graeme Campbell between lockdowns and daycare pick-ups. It is a series of love letters of a certain kind—to family and friends, to strangers and neighbors, to cities and landscapes, to each other.

“The Bombadils feature picturesque songwriting and instrumentation. ‘Losing Track of Time’ is a dreamy song exemplifying these strengths.” - PopMatters

The Bombadils formed in 2009 as McGill University music students after meeting at a party, later deciding on a band name inspired by the character Tom Bombadil from J. R. R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings epic. Theirs is a story of two virtuosic instrumentalists – influenced by classical, jazz, bluegrass, and Celtic music, and inspired by various singer-songwriter traditions – who found each other and fell in love. They made a name for themselves in the pub scene, performing from an expansive repertoire of time-honored folk, fiddle tunes, and old-time standards.
 
The duo has released three albums; Canadian arts journalist Bob Mersereau describes their music as "folk tunes done with musical adventure and sophistication"

Far West Texas is a magical place, transformative for anyone who's ever witnessed it; Marathon Songwriters Festival brings performances by master songwriters to a breathtaking setting that captivates and inspires. The festival has just announced the lineup for this year's event, taking place August 12-13, 2022, in Marathon, TX. Limited tickets are available now. 
 
Hosted by The Gage Hotel in Marathon, TX, the two-day event features performances by Drew Kennedy, Josh Grider, Jamie Lin Wilson, Bobby Hamrick, Rob Baird, Brennen Leigh and Logan Wall. Attendees are treated to intimate performances at the hotel, the Gage Gardens, and Marathon's newest attraction, The Brick Vault Brewery and Barbecue. 
 
Each songwriter will perform a solo set at a location in and around the grounds of the Gage Hotel and the Brick Vault Brewery. Think of it as a unique opportunity for the songwriter and the audience members alike to get to know each other, all surrounded by the beauty of the landscape. On Saturday, attendees can relax by the pool with DJ Josh Grider spinning some of his favorite deep cuts and well-loved vinyl gems, followed by an outing for West Texas cloud appreciating for those interested  – an activity so relaxing and awe-inspiring that it is also chronicled in song by none other than The Topo Chico Cowboys, a duo comprised of Kennedy and Grider themselves. 
 
To close out the last night of the Marathon Songwriters Festival, each of the performing songwriters will join together on one stage to bring the festival to its rightful conclusion — one big, fun, joyous shindig. 
 
The Marathon Songwriters Festival is the brainchild of singer-songwriter Drew Kennedy and combines his love of both great songs and the great wide open. Kennedy's fondness for this particular region is even further cemented in his upcoming ninth “studio” album, Marathon, set for release on June 17; the 11-song collection is a vivid and immersive ode to this corner of the world that the singer-songwriter has fallen in love with over the years. The album was recorded in a small adobe house in the same tiny Far West Texas town after which the album, and this festival, are named. 
 
“I have loved this little town from the very first moment I laid eyes on it,” says Kennedy, “and it's really become an important place for me creatively and spiritually over the years. We started this festival with the simple idea of sharing songs and stories against Marathon's ruggedly beautiful backdrop, and with the help of our presenting host The Gage Hotel, I feel like we've truly built something special. A huge portion of our attendees have been coming to the festival since year one – and to me, that's a sign that we've got something good on our hands.” 

Rachel Sumner & Traveling Light make music steeped in tradition, with modern, lyric-forward songs and snaking chord progressions; their version of Joanna Newsom’s “Colleen” is no exception. Noted for its commentary on identity and feminism, the mystical folk ballad has earned a fandom of its own, with examinations of its fascinating lyrics throughout the far corners of the internet.
 
“This story of a woman who feels like (and may actually be) a fish out of water beautifully illustrates the way our society has forced women into restrictive roles and works to homogenize anyone who might try and stray from the script,” Sumner says. “Brilliantly, the name bestowed on this woman by the folks who find her washed up on shore is Colleen, which comes from the Gaelic word 'cailín' which simply means 'girl.' It’s an incredible, magical story of self-discovery.”
 
“You can tell each lyrical, musical, and structural choice made is done with painstaking attention,” she continues. “Joanna Newsom’s songs are airtight; I really admire that and strive to be just as intentional with my own.”
 
The nine tracks on Rachel Sumner & Traveling Light (Aug. 5) find the band reimagining songs of others – “Colleen” and a “lost” Johnny Cash entry among them, along with Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings’ “Strangers Again” – while also presenting originals nearly a decade in the making. Throughout, the songs are as sweet and biting as the nectar and venom in Sumner’s voice, while simultaneously highlighting the acrobatic range of her brilliant bandmates Kat Wallace (fiddle/harmonies), Ira Klein (acoustic guitar), Alex Formento (pedal steel) and Mike Siegel (upright bass).
 
“There’s a thread through the songs in this Traveling Light album of people feeling other or finding they’ve transformed into strangers, whether it’s to someone they were once close to, or to themselves,” Sumner says.
 
The album begins with “Hunting Doves,” which took Sumner nearly seven years to write. The track originally lived as two separate melodies for two separate songs, but eventually morphed into what it would become after nearly two handfuls of versions; the imagery and melody is based loosely on English ballads and the structure of the song was provided by some of the final words of “Finnegan’s Wake.”
 
“Easton,” originally written for Sumner’s bluegrass band, Twisted Pine, marked a turning point for Traveling Light, signaling the magical moment when the group realized how like-minded they were when it came to interpreting songs together. “If You Love Me” offers their take on a “forgotten” Johnny Cash poem, written in 1983 yet resonant today: “The fluctuating worth of this very terminal earth/And the satellite that glows at night above me/Won’t bear upon my mind, but concerning humankind/I won’t care if you’re there and if you love me.”  
 
“Come Along, Rowan” is a banjo tune originally coined to coax a friend’s baby to join the family – his mother did, indeed, go into labor after listening to the voice memo. “The Arms of Your Mother” was a product of a songwriting workshop in which the provided prompt was the word cradle.
 
“I had this image of my mom holding my toddler self at bedtime while reading ‘Love You Forever’ by Robert Munsch, and I began to cry,” Sumner says. “It has become a very sweet, emotional moment in my live shows and the stories I hear from the people who come up to talk to me afterward have been so vulnerable and heartwarming.”
 
Sumner is, in fact, no stranger to the stage. She spent her early career on the bluegrass circuit, singing and writing with the genre-bending Boston group Twisted Pine. Since setting out on her own, Sumner's songs have been critically acclaimed, winning the Lennon Award in the folk category of the 2021 John Lennon Songwriting Contest for her song "Radium Girls (Curie Eleison);" earning her a spot in the Kerrville New Folk Competition, and being chosen two consecutive years by WBUR/NPR as one of the top Massachusetts entries in the Tiny Desk Competition.
 
Originally a classical flutist from the dusty Mojave desert, Sumner relocated from California to Boston a decade ago intending to study Composition and Film Scoring at Berklee College of Music. While at school, she found herself in the orbit of roots musicians like Molly Tuttle, Bronwyn Keith-Hynes, and John Mailander who introduced her to a trove of traditional music, started her off with a few chords on the guitar, and encouraged her to write her own songs. In the short time since, Sumner has become one of the most vital voices in Boston's thriving roots music scene.

Rachel Sumner & Traveling Light Track Listing:

    Hunting Doves
    Unrecorded Night
    Easton
    If You Love Me
    Strangers Again
    Colleen
    Come Along, Rowan
    Homegrown Sorrow
    The Arms of Your Mother

The music of Oleh Zaychenko, who performs under the moniker Bring Prudence, alternately shimmers with the subtle textures of chamber pop and seamlessly breaks into folk-rock, recalling the soundtrack of the folk revival of the 1960s with a sound he calls “folk resuscitation.” His next single, “Summon the Ghost,” is out today, a tribute to the power of memory that features a Balinese gendèr — often used for significant ceremonies — as well as a slightly out-of-tune Brooklyn public library piano.
 
Within the 11 songs on his sophomore album, Dreamboat (April 7), Bring Prudence expands upon the foundation of his stripped-down debut, 2016's Red Horses, diving into a range of sonic influences from Gillian Welch to the Amelie soundtrack. The album is full of magical thinking, disintegrating relationships, childhood loneliness, and sacrifice, with a cast of Ukrainian folklore characters—and, occasionally, a small sprinkling of business jargon for kicks.
 
Previously released singles include “Midnight,” one of Rolling Stone's recent Songs You Need to Know This Week, with a sound inspired by the rockabilly momentum of Old 97's and Jason Molina-esque slide guitar on an examination of a stunted, one-way relationship. “Bonfire" is a wannabe eulogy for the pile of jackets that forms on a bed during every decent party and, ultimately, is about the hormonal rollercoaster of falling in love for the first time. Just when everything is at its bleakest and you're ready to “open that sliding door and sink,” you're swept back to safety by your lover and the possibility of a new life with them.
 
On Dreamboat, Zaychenko reunited with his former Pursued By a Bear bandmate Julia Brown (Barrel Flash) on backing vocals. Initially tapped as a mixing engineer, multi-instrumentalist Damon Waitkus (Jack O' The Clock, Ventifacts) ended up contributing pianet, mandolin, vocals, atmosphere, and slide guitar along with co-producing the album.
 
“I recorded the vast majority of the album by myself on one mediocre USB microphone in my apartment,” Zaychenko says. “The wonderfully out-of-tune piano and drums were recorded at the Brooklyn Public Library in Bushwick, where the windows didn't shut all the way, so all the street noise bled into the tracks. The rest of the contributions were done remotely, which opened up the possibility of involving my friends in the recording process, and I'm really happy I did.”
 
The cover art, a twist on the cosmological exterior panels of Bosch's “Garden of Earthly Delights,” is a composite of those themes and characters. Created by visual artist Jess Hock, the cover incorporates hand-drawn, digital, and photographed elements into a dreamlike display.
 
Beginning with a few seconds of glistening ambient tones before slipping into a gentle stream of pianet, bass, and brush drums, album opener “Chinchilla” has him conceding, “my sisters they love me, they win at Monopoly.” “Summon the Ghost” is a tribute to the power of memories, featuring a Balinese gendèr, often used for significant ceremonies, as well as the aforementioned Brooklyn public library piano.
 
“Potions” provides an interesting backstory: “At one point in my life, I found myself buying a headphone splitter, convinced that it would save my disintegrating relationship,” Zaychenko says. “It didn't, but it did make recording Dreamboat in my bedroom a lot easier. The song itself is about the inability of magical thinking to restore your previous life — I knew I had to release this song sooner rather than later because it wouldn't make any sense for Bluetooth headphones.”
 
“Joan of Arc,” Zaychenko says, is “perhaps the purest song on the album,” written about the eventual inevitability of ending up with the right person. The track features a domra, a lute-like Ukrainian instrument. “Storm Queen” follows, with a Bonnie and Clyde meets Bruce Springsteen meets Storm King adventure, replete with East Coast landmarks and an ode to the Boss himself.
 
Dreamboat ends with “Watermelon,” a tribute to Zaychenko's grandmothers. “I also talk about moving and starting over — something my family did a lot when I was a kid,” he says. “It leaves an imprint on you, but can also be a fresh start, which is why I thought it would make for a perfect closer.“
 
“Music is a form of time travel,” Zaychenko says of the album as a whole, “and Dreamboat is soaked in memories — some real, some absurd — but what I love about this album is they're not just my memories this time.”
 
After moving to the Chicago suburbs from Ukraine in 2003, Zaychenko started writing poems and recording songs on his cell phone to cope with isolation. By 16, he saved up enough money from his Dunkin' Donuts job to buy Jasmine — his only acoustic guitar to date. He chose the name Bring Prudence because he wanted to be right next to Bring Crosby and Bright Eyes on his clickwheel iPod. It wasn't until many years later that he realized Bing didn't actually have an “r” in his name.
 
All proceeds from Dreamboat will go to the Ukrainian NGO Come Back Alive until the war is over.
 
Dreamboat Track Listing:

    Chinchilla
    Midnight
    Summon The Ghost
    Candle in a Jar
    Potions
    Bonfire
    Iron Wolf
    City of Twins
    Joan of Arc
    Storm Queen
    Watermelon

Durham, North Carolina-based cellist, vocalist, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Jacob Morris spent years establishing himself in Athens, Georgia's music biome, supporting some of its finest musicians and songwriters, including Ham 1, Vic Chesnutt, Liz Durrett, Madeline Adams, and Patterson Hood of the Drive-By Truckers. The second single from his upcoming Slow Funeral EP, “Stoney,” is out today—inspired by an eerie email he received from his grandmother. Slow Funeral will be released on June 23, on New West imprint Strolling Bones Records.
 
“'Stoney' sprung from an email that my grandmother sent me right before she passed away at the age of 95,” Morris told The Big Takeover. “She described feeling like she was sinking into her bed and was going to drift away. I have no idea why I was the only recipient or why she didn't say anything else.”
 
“The dark dream is that there is no meaning to our existence,” he continues. “But there's a resolve at the end where the being or soul returns like sediment to some sort of continuum."

“Stoney” follows the release of “Lister,” an anti-war musing that questions who owns history. The EP, as a collection, is an amalgam of psych-folk-rock that leans into existential questioning, but in the form of sometimes spacey, sometimes surreal, pastorally-tinged thoughts. Morris is often compared musically to such artists as Nick Drake, John Cale and Elliott Smith. On Slow Funeral, he is ably backed up by Elephant Six veteran John Fernandes, as well as Thomas Valadez, Cullen Toole and Al Daglis (who co-produced the album with Morris).

Patterson Hood says, "The record draws you in with its midnight vibes and hypnotic pull. In addition to his excellent musicianship, Jacob has an angelic voice and writes fantastic songs... [Slow Funeral is] beautiful and thoughtful, pulling you into its trancelike universe and wrapping around you like a warm blanket on a snowy morning."

“She's the moon in the sky / She's the turning of the tide / She's the salt in the water, the horizon line.” David Borné's “Color of the Rain” is an ode to the driving force behind it all—inspired by the idea that rain itself is colored by whatever surrounds it.
 
GENESIS, out September 22, produced by Jarrad K (Ruston Kelly, Lucie Silvas, Elohim) and engineered by Grammy winner Gena Johnson (John Prine, Jason Isbell, Chris Stapleton), is about healing. It's about finding the courage to work though what may be holding you back. It's about starting over.  Out September 22, the album finds the singer-songwriter journeying down a path: death, rebirth, and beginning again.
 
“Healing and growth is not a straight line, so the album plays a lot off the notion that joy and suffering, light and dark, learning and unlearning all take each other."
 
The album also features an impressive group of supporting musicians including a duet with Bre Kennedy, another with Hadley Kennary, Chris Powell (Brandi Carlile, The Highwomen, Sturgill Simpson) on drums, Lydia Luce on strings, Liana Alpino on harp, and background vocals from John Davidson and Jacob Bryant (The Brummies).
 
Recently released “Stardust" considers the thought that there's no such thing as a coincidence; the song follows the release of both “Disembodied Voices," an exercise in letting go of fear, and “I Like The Idea,” an inclusive, upbeat jaunt celebrating life's goodness: that love is all around us and that “hope is a chameleon that can blend in with the ceiling, but it's never truly lost." It's a song Borné calls his “gravestone song” because it so closely recounts what's important to him.

Borné is affectionately known by his friends as somewhat of a guru—albeit an approachable one—so of course, of course, there was a profound moment and an otherworldy-infused symbol that led to the making of his new album: two weeks before he was set to record his dream project, the investor Borné had lined up disappeared.

“It's a privileged problem, you know, in the grand scheme of things, to not be able to make this record,” he says. "It's not the worst thing in the world compared to what so many people go through. But I just kept looking for a sign that I was doing the right thing. Then I was walking in the woods by my house, and a butterfly literally flew into my forehead.”

“I put together a GoFundMe and just said, 'y'all, I need your help: if you've ever watched me play, it's all led to this moment, this record.' So, I put it up, and then within 24 hours, it was at $25,000,” he says.
 
“There's a mystery in the middle of the hole in your chest, a riddle you're dying to solve. Pay attention, listen, the thing you're missing has been with you all along,” he says in “Clarity,” a line that summarizes the soul-searching on GENESIS well. If there's a lesson to be learned in the lines of GENESIS, it may just be that leaning into these unknowable forces can yield an experience beyond what you might ever have expected.

GENESIS Track Listing:

    B4
    Leave The Light On
    Hermano
    Color of the Rain
    Clarity (feat. Bre Kennedy)
    Disembodied Voices
    I Like The Idea
    Heaven, Eventually
    Deja Vu
    I Became
    Silence in the Sound (feat. Hadley Kennary)
    Stardust
    Singing Machine, Microphone

In case it's a lesson you're not familiar with, the Radium Girls of the 1920s changed history: after radium dial companies knowingly exposed the young factory workers to radium poisoning, the women's cases led to landmark labor laws and standards, and can even be said to have led to the creation of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). Featured this week in a Library of Congress exhibit focusing on Labor Day and released today, Rachel Sumner's “Radium Girls (Curie Eleison)" tells the story of these brave women, often absent from most history books. It's a story the larger public is clearly ready to hear: the song has amassed nearly 100,000 views on TikTok this week.
 
“To this day it boils my blood to think about what happened to these women, but the day I first read about them I was absolutely livid,” Sumner says. “It had been nearly a hunded years since radium dial companies started cropping up. I took my urge to shout their story from rooftops and focused it into crafting a ballad to honor and share their plight. In a time where major US companies and warehouses continue to exploit workers and risk their health for profit, the story of the Radium Girls is one we cannot afford to forget.”
 
Sumner wrote the song, which won a Lennon Award in the John Lennon Songwriting Contest in 2021, after hearing Joanna Newsom's “Time (As A Symptom),” Sumner encountered a word she'd never heard before, one that stood out among a list of words written in a stream-of-consciousness style: undarked. A quick search pointed toward a luminous paint containing radium that was called Undark. Originally used on watch faces, it was intended to help WWI soldiers tell time in the dark without having to strike a match that could give away their position in the trenches.
 
After the war, an appetite for glow-in-the-dark watches spilled over into the civilian market and radium dial companies met the demand by hiring young women for their nimble hands, instructing them to take their paintbrushes and “lip, dip, paint.” This technique kept the brush tips pointed so workers would not waste the Undark paint.
 
The companies knew how dangerous radium was and made a killing—literally and figuratively—in this lucrative business; they then worked to discredit and silence women who spoke out by blaming their mysterious illnesses and deaths on sexually transmitted infections. It took years of legal battles for the truths of these women to be acknowledged and for the life-threatening dangers they faced to be addressed. Their case shaped United States labor laws and led to the creation of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).

Sumner's life has been defined by dichotomies; born and raised in the deserts outside Los Angeles, she has lived nearly as long now on the east coast. After moving to Boston to attend Berklee College of Music, she found a musical community and planted roots. She began her training as a classical flutist and enrolled at Berklee to study Composition and Film Scoring; once there, though, she found a community of bluegrass musicians and, with their encouragement, picked up the guitar for the first time.
 
Sumner co-founded the band Twisted Pine and, with them, explored the traditions of bluegrass while pushing against those traditions' constraints. Her love of roots music inspired her to pursue songwriting, then her love of songwriting inspired her to push beyond roots music. Her innate melodic sensibility infused itself into ever more harmonically striking songs, while her lyrical abilities grew by leaps and bounds to create sensitive stories, poetically impressionistic verses, and perfectly catchy choruses. Her songs are complex yet direct, complicated yet always a straight line from her heart to her listeners'.
 
Last year, Sumner released her solo debut, Rachel Sumner & Traveling Light, featuring Kat Wallace on fiddle and Mike Siegel on bass; the band won the annual showcase competition at this year's Thomas Point Beach Bluegrass Festival and was selected as an official showcase band at the 2023 IBMA Bluegrass Ramble.
 
Sumner will continue to push the boundaries of roots music with a new album in 2024, establishing herself as one of the brightest lyricists and melodists working today. She'll add these new songs to her live repertoire with Traveling Light, seamlessly transitioning from lush studio soundscapes to fiery string band on stages across the country.