The Nude Party Look Who’s Back My wife says I listen to depressing music. She’s not wrong. Next time she reminds me of that, I’ll put on The Nude Party’s Look Who’s Back — nine songs that dare you not to smile. In a moment when much of the Americana scene leans inward — often […]
Jay Buchanan Weapons of Beauty Jay Buchanan has built his reputation on force. As the lead vocalist of Rival Sons, he’s long been associated with volume, swagger, and forward motion. Weapons of Beauty, his solo debut, moves in the opposite direction — and the result is a record that feels powerful in entirely different ways. […]
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Emily Scott Robinson Appalachia On Appalachia, Emily Scott Robinson’s clear voice rings out with grace, passion, and power. Both as a singer and as a songwriter, she has rarely sounded more grounded, making this album feel less like an artist getting better over time and more like someone working at a new, higher level. That […]
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Lucinda Williams World’s Gone Wrong Lucinda Williams is pissed off. And now she’s given us World’s Gone Wrong, the protest album I have been waiting for, a set of songs that speak plainly and forcefully to the dark moment we are living through without hedging or nostalgia. Political songs are notoriously hard to pull off. […]
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Various artists Keep Me in Your Heart: the Songs of Warren Zevon There’s a profound irony in Warren Zevon’s work: a songwriter fixated on mortality who left behind songs that continue to outlive him. More than twenty years after his death, Keep Me in Your Heart, a new multi-artist tribute album, suggests why that may […]
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David Huckfelt I Was Born, But… Americana music—and folk music more broadly—is as much about inheritance as it is about originality. What gets handed down, what endures, and what still feels worth singing matter. On I Was Born, But…, David Huckfelt leans fully into that idea, offering fifteen songs he didn’t write but somehow owns. […]
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Jonathan Bernstein What Do You Do When You’re Lonesome Fathers and sons. It’s always fathers and sons. But in What Do You Do When You’re Lonesome, his carefully researched and sensitively written biography of Justin Townes Earle, author Jonathan Bernstein is careful not to make Justin’s lineage the whole story. Bernstein acknowledges inheritance without letting […]
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Todd Snider photos by David Nowels Last week’s news that Todd Snider had died hit me hard. Much harder than I would have guessed. From what I’ve read online—and I’ve read a lot online—that seems to be true for many people. Snider was a real one of one, a singular talent whose songwriting, stories, and […]
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The Avett Brothers and Mike Patton AVT/PTTN In nearly four decades of genre-defying work, Mike Patton has built a career on unlikely partnerships. The Faith No More frontman has collaborated with avant-garde jazz saxophonist John Zorn, classical violinist Eyvind Kang, turntablists The X-Ecutioners, and art-world luminaries like Laurie Anderson and Björk. He’s worked alongside members […]
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Todd Snider High Lonesome and Then Some Reno is where Johnny Cash shot a man just to watch him die. It’s where the Grateful Dead lit out from, and where R.E.M. staked their claims to being stars. It’s more funky than flashy, more quirky than conventional. It is very much a Todd Snider kind of […]
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