January 2018 • Americana Highways

REVIEW: R. Finn’s “Collecting Trip”

January 31, 2018February 14, 2018 Melissa Clarke1

R. Finn’s new release Collecting Trip (Heritage Recording Co) features a host of heavy hitting Americana musicians backing R. Finn’s elegant, sincere songwriting and flawless musical consciousness.

REVIEW: Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers’ “Native Heart”

January 31, 2018February 5, 2018 Melissa Clarke0

It’s a whirlwind celebration of music inspired by living in the kind of landscape that combines the yin and yang of weather, fauna and living life in all its contradictory elements.

Kyle Carey:

January 31, 2018February 5, 2018 Melissa Clarke0

Kyle Carey’s album The Art of Forgetting (World Music Network’s Riverboat Records) features a track with Rhiannon Giddens on vocal harmonies, and was produced by 4-time Grammy winner Dirk Powell. An English-speaking American, Kyle Carey spent her early childhood in Alaska immersed in the Eskimo language of Yup’ik. Later, in Nova Scotia, she learned […]

INTERVIEW: DL Marble talks poetry, Mexico, and his upcoming album

January 31, 2018January 31, 2018 Americana Highways0

Americana Highways recently talked to Americana musician DL Marble from Tempe, Arizona about the energy in the Americana community there, his upcoming album, and Mexico. Asked what landscapes inpire his songwriting, Marble had this to say about the uniqueness of living in Arizona. “Our ability to take in a wide assortment of landscapes is […]

REVIEW: Jimbo Mathus “Solo Blues Guitar: Jimbo Mathus Performs Lucinda Williams’ Car Wheels on a Gravel Road”

January 29, 2018January 31, 2018 Americana Highways8

Jimbo Mathus’ new release on the Solo Sounds label, Solo Blues Guitar: Jimbo Mathus Performs Lucinda Williams’ Car Wheels on a Gravel Road, is both exactly what its title says, and yet infinitely more. Lucinda Williams fans will groove on the solo blues guitar interpretation of one of her best albums, which is an unbelievable […]

REVIEW: Mary Gauthier’s “Rifles & Rosary Beads”

January 25, 2018January 31, 2018 Melissa Clarke5

Mary Gauthier’s Rifles & Rosary Beads (In the Black) is a breathtaking collection of heartbreaking, authentic songs co-written with American veterans and their families, through a project called Songwriting With Soldiers. Songwriting With Soldiers organizes songwriting workshop retreats during which the projects are initiated collaboratively, with the resulting albums available for a donation. Michele […]

Review: John Moreland’s “Big Bad Luv”

January 22, 2018January 31, 2018 Americana Highways1

John Moreland’s Big Bad Luv (4ad) is an alt-country, roots-rock Americana music lover’s dream. From start to finish it’ll possess you and run your emotions through the gamut of love, fear, pain and joy and back again, and draw them all out into the big wide-open country sky. Produced by Moreland himself in Little Rock, […]

REVIEW: The Legendary Shack Shakers “After You’ve Gone”

January 19, 2018February 17, 2018 Americana Highways3

The album gives you a lucky 13 takes and is a real whirlwind of delight from start to finish.

REVIEW: The Mavericks “Christmas Time is (Comin’ Round Again) Provides Escape Hatch

January 18, 2018November 2, 2018 Melissa Clarke1

The Mavericks have released a Christmas 2-song single, Christmas Time is (Comin’ Round Again) (Mono Mundo/Thirty Tigers/Red Music/All Eyes Media) which will take you back in time and open an escape hatch for you when you need it most this month. It was produced by Raul Malo and Niko Bolas, and has the added pleasure […]

REVIEW: Bloodshot’s “13 Days of Christmas” Is What You Hope For in Holiday Music

January 18, 2018October 30, 2018 Melissa Clarke1

Bloodshot has given us what we’ve all been waiting for this holiday season, and released Bloodshot’s 13 Days of Christmas (Bloodshot Records) this November 2017. A mixture of traditional interpretations and wry originals, this is exactly what any music lover needs to make it through the holidays, from the malls and the traffic and the […]