If you’ve listened to enough country music – GOOD country – you’ve realized that not everyone is bound for glory. More often, it’s a long, twisty back road filled with side gigs and personal stumbles that gets an artist to a place where he’s making a living at music (and, hopefully, gaining enough material for […]
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If a songwriter is truly passionate about his or her subject matter, chances are the songs will be both singular and relatable. Over the summer, Colter Wall released a collection of original Canadfian cowboy songs that no one knew they needed, but the project succeeded because of Wall’s full-hearted attention to his craft. Brennen Leigh’s […]
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Country music fans are notoriously unforgiving of artists who step outside of the narrow, pre-approved box they’ve been placed in. In the past year, even left-of-center acts like Sturgill Simpson and Margo Price have taken more than their share of heat simply for making the music they’ve wanted to make. They did it anyway. Likewise, […]
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Good vs. evil is perhaps the original theme of country music. After all, so much of the music (and the musicians) started off in America’s churches. Fewer artists, though, have actually lived that fight. India Ramey served as a district attorney who focused her work on domestic abuse cases before turning to music full-time. She […]
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Music so often serves as an escape. For the listener, it can help block out the worst parts of our world, at least for a little while. For an artist, it can be a path to a bigger, more open-minded world. In both cases, though, reality eventually requires a reckoning. Josiah Johnson, co-founder of The […]
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Perhaps befitting this most chaotic of years, albums about break-ups and sobriety seem to be all over Americana – the combination of missing something while also holding out some degree of hope for a tenuous future seems appropriate right about now. Courtney Marie Andrews’ Old Flowers and Neil Young’s Homegrown represent the former, while American […]
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“Accessible” is an adjective that, when applied to music, has a couple of connotations – either 1) a tuneful, good, easy listen or 2) thoughtless and ultimately fleeting. Then there are the records that require more active, patient listening. Veteran songwriter Jerry Joseph’s latest release, The Beautiful Madness, is one of those albums – it […]
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As much as country and Americana seem to revei (or wallow) in sad songs, and as much as we, the listeners, seem to enjoy them, there are welcomed moments of joy in our genre. Nearly 30 years in, Old 97’s continue their own brand of upbeat cowpunk on Twelfth, their latest album. The record is […]
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Good songwriters know good songwriters. John Prine, upon hearing Arlo McKinley’s “Bag of Pills” for the first time, remarked, “That’s a good song” (Mr. Prine was not one to waste words). McKinley signed with Prine’s Oh Boy label this past March, and his solo debut is the first release following Mr. Prine’s passing. Even as […]
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EPs and covers have turned out to be a fantastic way for artists to stay viable during the open dumpster fire that is 2020. Aubrie Sellers, who just released a full-length album, Far from Home, in February (six months ago on the calendar, six years ago in our hearts), has brought her distinct brand of […]
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