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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Live albums are a tricky business. They’re made mainly for hardcore fans, they rarely contain new music, and they attempt the impossible – reproducing the concert experience on the listener’s turntable or smartphone. Can’t be done. With that being said…a live album CAN serve as an approximation of an amazing musical evening. Live From the […]
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After less than 24 years on this planet, Colter Wall and his voice carry the gravitas of an elderly Johnny Cash if he’d been buried in the soil of Wall’s Saskatchewan home. On his second full-length album, Songs of the Plains (Young Mary’s Records), Wall uses original compositions and traditional tunes to tell lesser-known tales […]
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Our collective favorite genre, Americana, has been around long enough to borrow from many musical sources – R&B, bluegrass, indie, etc. But the nebulous field of “80s music” has not had much of a presence here. Austin-based trio Nobody’s Girl looks to change that, bringing pop sensibilities to their new EP, Waterline. All three members […]
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Some folks, once they reach adulthood, leave home and never look back. Others rarely leave home, dying mere miles (or even feet) away from where they were born. But it seems that wisdom and maturity is best gained by those who move and travel about but never forget whence they game. We’re All The Same, […]
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Some music slides into everyday life and acts as wallpaper while not leaving much of an impression. Other music fits a time, or a mood, or a situation. Perhaps I was influenced by my surroundings while listening to it (a subtly stormy afternoon), but Courtney Hartman and Taylor Ashton’s Been On Your Side (Free Dirt […]
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