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 […]
Josh Ritter – I Believe in You, My Honeydew On his eleventh album, I Believe in You, My Honeydew, Josh Ritter isn’t reinventing himself—he doesn’t need to. What he’s doing here is harder: reminding us why belief itself still matters, and why he remains one of the most essential voices in American songwriting. Where his […]
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Emma Swift – The Resurrection Game Emma Swift’s The Resurrection Game follows in the tradition of her heroes, singer-songwriters like Sandy Denny and Marianne Faithfull, artists who transformed personal struggle into compelling music. As Swift’s first album of original material, it represents an important and promising step in her artistic development. Swift herself describes this […]
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Rodney Crowell Airline Highway Before there was Alternative Country, before Outlaw Country, before Americana, there was Rodney Crowell. The veteran songwriter released his debut album, the now-ironically titled Ain’t Living Long Like This, in 1978 — a decade before Steve Earle’s Copperhead Road, two decades before Lucinda Williams’s Car Wheels on a Gravel Road, and a good thirteen […]
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James McMurtry – The Black Dog and the Wandering Boy James McMurtry has never been one to pull punches, and on The Black Dog and the Wandering Boy, he makes it plain: aging isn’t for the faint of heart. While 2021’s The Horses and the Hounds struck a bittersweet tone about growing older, his latest […]
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David Ramirez All the Not So Gentle Reminders David Ramirez has long occupied a distinctive corner of the Americana world—somewhere between the confessional poetry of Jason Isbell and the cinematic sprawl of Nathaniel Rateliff. On All the Not So Gentle Reminders, his sixth studio album, Ramirez steps further into that lineage, delivering a rich, emotionally […]
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Patterson Hood – Exploding Trees & Airplane Screams Southern Ghosts and Fading Echoes: Patterson Hood’s Exploding Trees & Airplane Screams In case it’s not obvious from the title, Patterson Hood’s new solo album, Exploding Trees & Airplane Screams, is an unusual record. It’s also a remarkable one – moving, powerful, sad, uplifting, and more. Best […]
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Paul Thorn Celebrates the Joys and Realities of Aging on Life is Just a Vapor Paul Thorn’s Life is Just a Vapor, his 14th studio album, is a testament to the art of writing and performing music for grown-ups by someone who understands what it means to grow older. “I’m 60 years old, and the […]
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The War and Treaty Plus One – A Jubilant Celebration of Love and Hope Mark Pelavin* It’s fitting that Plus One, the exuberant new album from husband-and-wife duo The War and Treaty, is being released on Valentine’s Day. Michael and Tanya Trotter’s music has always been a radiant celebration of love—between each other, their audience, […]
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Clancy Jones – Rise With the Sun Out May 10, is a new EP by Oklahoma/Texas soulful badass, Clancy Jones, Rise With the Sun. These three new tunes are songs that dig deep down to his working man roots. The lyrics speak of struggles and regret, hard times and hard land, and fighting battles you’re […]
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