I’m not a big fan of humor in my music. If a song doesn’t make me sadder than I was four minutes ago, it’s probably not going to immediately click with me. Because of this, I’ve nearly missed out on some great stuff. When Jason Isbell released a new album in 2013, the first song […]
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Americana singer-songwriter and proud Texan Jamie Lin Wilson had a banner 2018, which included the release of a fantastic new album, Jumping Over Rocks, which appeared in the Top 10 of 2018 Americana Highway’s Best Album Readers’ Vote. She also had a chance to tour with her good friends in American Aquarium. And, best of […]
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Musical confession – I’ve become a lyric guy. It’s typically what I drill down when giving an album a first listen, occasionally at the expense of taking in the full range of music found on the work. However, while taking in April Lapell’s latest, Getaway, I felt myself drawn into the instrumentation far more than […]
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“The Road” has always played an outsized role in country music. Whether moving toward or (more frequently) running away from something, singers and songwriters have used anything from dusty trails to four-lane highways to explore their own lives, their futures and pasts, their failings and, occasionally, even their successes. Terry Klein’s second album, tex, is […]
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Growing up, we had an unofficial December tradition in my family – before the presents came, some cleaning up was in order. Out with the old to make room for the new. Inevitably, though, I’d run across something – an action figure, a stuffed animal, or, in my teen years, a book or a shirt, […]
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Andy Gulden is a Senior Writer at Americana Highways and has written multiple and various reviews this year, always adding a more than a touch of humor and warmth. This is his 2018 year-end roundup list: (Click on the artist names for more info; playlist is at the bottom.) The “I’m Gonna Be Needing This […]
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One of the best things about December is the chance to circle back and catch some of the art and entertainment (music, movies, television, etc) that we may have missed earlier in the year. With Americana music at a peak, there’s so much good stuff to check out that it’s easy to miss something. So […]
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Rock ‘n’ roll has always had fans choosing sides on particular debates, the most famous of which being, “Are you a Beatles or Rolling Stones guy?” (You can find this writer firmly in the Stones camp). You can absolutely enjoy both, but you strongly prefer one over the other. A similar chasm formed around 1990 […]
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Austin singer-songwriter Carson McHone was playing Texas honky-tonks long before she could drink in them, and her 2015 debut, Goodluck Man, was populated with tunes inspired by those boozy nights. Her new release, Carousel (Nine Mile Records), contains both new songs and reconfigured older ones, fleshed out as the singer has grown with her material […]
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For her debut album, War Surplus, Becky Warren crafted a fantastic collection of biting, haunted songs inspired by the true-life stories of veterans and the people who fight to love them. How to follow that up? The Nashville singer-songwriter (and part-time Jeopardy contestant) has doubled down on last year’s effort with Undesirable, songs detailing conversations […]
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