What an extraordinary band are the Punch Brothers, a bunch of conspicuously talented musicians whose six albums never fail to delight and stimulate as they push the boundaries of acoustic music to what you think would be beyond breaking point. It’s been said that they’ve taken “bluegrass to its next evolutionary stage, drawing equal inspiration from the brain and the heart”.
Virtuosos all, The Unsung Adventures of Punch Brothers marks the debut of fiddler Brittany Haas with the band which, in addition to Chris Thiele, includes Chris Eldridge on guitar, Paul Kowert on bass, and Noam Pikelny on banjo. A sought-after session and touring musician whose credits include US TV host Steve Martin’s bluegrass band, Haas managed to pursue her youthful…
Category: americana
You have to hand it to Chris “CR” Gennone when it comes to naming his bands; consistency is at the fore. He loves the moniker CR so much so that he’s recorded five albums as CR and the Degenerates, then with a few lineup changes, it was CR and the Nones in 2019, and now we have the third album from CR & the White Lights.
Having listened to their previous release, The Ghosts Are Coming Home, which is a truly magnificent album, the quality of writing and musicianship hasn’t slipped one iota on this new one. This is a really solid collection bringing to mind the best qualities of Neil Young and Wilco, that spotlights Gennone’s wonderfully soulful and effective vocals and some superb driving hooks, demonstrating his musicianship…
Abnormal Conditions’ is the fifth album by upstate New York roots rockers Frank Migliorelli and the Dirt Nappers, and it is an absolute corker.
It blends rock, soul, folk and even sixties pop in a wonderfully ‘live’ feeling record. With two members of Springsteen’s backing band in Soozie Tyrell and Lisa Lowell helping out, the pedigree of the band is unquestionable.
In his mid-sixties, Migliorelli has had a long and varied artistic career. He has been a computer and video game developer, written children’s music and worked in educational media and been a creative director at a design firm. He has also found time to produce blues and soul music before returning to writing and performing, which he has been doing for the past ten years.
At the age of 72, “Evil” Graham Lee, the legendary pedal steel pioneer and veteran of the iconic Australian band The Triffids, delivers his first ever album under his own name titled I Think I’m Alone Now. In addition to his work with The Triffids, Graham’s place in ambient history was cemented in 1990 when his evocative pedal steel became the soulful centerpiece of The KLF’s masterpiece, Chill Out (specifically on the highlight “Baltimore to Fair Play”).
…He’s recorded with Robert Forster and Cut Copy. But for nearly a decade, he has used his Bandcamp page as a repository of ongoing experiments, from ascendant longform instrumentals and aleatoric collages to exquisite and tender tributes to late songwriters like John Prine and…
Consider the phrase “in the zone.” Usually, it refers to a state of concentration that enhances productivity. From a musical standpoint, it suggests the locked-in flow that musicians can achieve when riding a juicy groove or digging into a wicked series of riffs. To “zone out,” on the other hand, evokes a blissful state of ethereal detachment in which such things as rhythm and momentum are left behind or transcended.
Colorado trio Prairiewolf operates in both these realms, creating limpid yet propulsive instrumental music that faces the stars while remaining focused on doings on the ground.
For their first two albums, Stefan Beck (guitar), Jeremy Erwin (keys/synths), and Tyler Wilcox (bass) created retro-futuristic lounge music…
Multi-platinum country artist and STAIND frontman Aaron Lewis releases his latest solo album, Give My Country Back, available via Big Machine Label Group. With his sixth solo country album, Lewis once again delivers the unapologetic honesty and hard-earned perspective that have defined his career. Across ten tracks, Give My Country Back explores themes of accountability, resilience, faith, patriotism and personal growth – pairing gritty throwback country textures with Lewis’ unmistakable vocal intensity.
“That’s life’s struggle right there,” Lewis says. “You are the master of your own destiny, and everything happens because of your actions — whether you want to admit it or not. Self-ownership is a huge thing to learn how to do in this life…
West Virginia’s John R. Miller gratifies a whole host of musical erogenous zones on his new album The Great Unknowing, including honky tonk country, Appalachian folk, feral folk rock, and a few things you’re not sure exactly what to call that get caught up in the hopper as he puts a heaping helping of 16 tracks on your plate to savor. Mr. Miller doesn’t bite off more than he can chew though. He delivers the goods on what’s ultimately a songwriter album graced by strong musical accompaniment.
Even before John R. Miller started sprouting flecks of gray in his hair and beard, he came across as a crotchety old soul in that endearing sort of way. You can tell he’s hard on clutches and brake pads. Sometimes he forgets to shower or eat. He seesaws between benders and sobriety.
The hard-living country singer/songwriter Gary Stewart rightfully earned his title “King of the Honky Tonks.” He began as a songwriter of drinking, honky tonk, and heartbreak songs. During the 1970s he hit as a recording artist with charting singles including “She’s Acting Single (I’m Drinking Doubles),” “Drinkin’ Thing,” “Quits,” and “Whiskey Trip,” and a string of charting albums from 1975’s Out of Hand to 1980’s Cactus and a Rose. They earned the respect of critics, DJs, and the record-buying public. Stewart sounded like a young George Jones and pounded the piano like Jerry Lee Lewis. After the hits stopped, his lifestyle got the better of him, despite three excellent comeback albums for Hightone in the ’90s.
In November 2003, his wife of 47 years died…
Newly remastered and now with a previously unreleased bonus track, “Hammer and Nails”.
Laura Cantrell knows and loves good music too well to be a purist, and while her first two albums, Not the Tremblin’ Kind and When the Roses Bloom Again, were firmly grounded in her great fondness for country music, she expands her boundaries a bit on her third set (and first for Matador), Humming by the Flowered Vine. While the feel of Humming by the Flowered Vine isn’t radically different than her previous work, the sound and arrangements offer some new wrinkles, with producer J.D. Foster and a superb cast of musicians edging Cantrell into an inventive pop direction. The pensive love song “14th Street,” a strong but sorrowful reading of “And Still,”…
Five decades into a career that has seen Ed Snodderly as a songwriter, performer, actor, and owner of the legendary Down Home club in East Tennessee, comes perhaps his most personal release to date. ES Pearl Presents Baggage Flies Free not only continues the family name; his grandma was Pearlie Bell, his mom Willie Pearl, but offers a glimpse into his life in East Tennessee. Surrounded by a stellar cast that includes Tim O’Brien, Amythyst Kiah, Verlon Thompson and Brother Boy Eugene Wolf, the mainly acoustic songs still have a contemporary feel thanks to some pin-sharp production.
The opener, ‘Coming Down This Road’, picks up pace as it travels, leading into the melodic ‘Willow Green’, which sees Snodderly admiring…
The colorful combination of names on this collaboration is indicative of the vibrant music they create together. Americana singer/songwriter Grey DeLisle, who has been releasing rootsy country/folk/rocking albums for over 20 years, heard young soul singer Greene and was so impressed, she suggested they combine their talents. The effervescent, soulful and instantly loveable Grey & Greene, is the result.
The two initially dueted on 2025’s frisky Christmas single “I Don’t Want Nothing,” then decided to expand that to a (short) album-length project touching on retro-tinged upbeat soul, classic pop, rockabilly and even some gospel. Their secret weapon is producer/multi-instrumentalist James Intveld; a veteran of roots-oriented…
When Twisted Teens broke through with their second album, Blame the Clown, only five months ago, the New Orleans duo’s southern-fried mix of garage rock, early punk, rockabilly, and country screamed both “First thought is absolutely best thought” and “Wait until I show you what else I can do.” But if their last album presented the band at their most gleeful and cocky, ready to call the world as they saw it, then Florida Water Blues takes place the morning after: a touch more vulnerable now that the liquid courage has subsided and the hangover is setting in. Blame the Clown may be where the makeup was first put on, but Florida Water Blues is where the tears start to show.
That’s not to say that Twisted Teens have suddenly upended their approach.
Trever M. Keith, frontman for the Southern California pop-punk band Face to Face, has released an homage to country music, We Drank from a Poisoned Well. This isn’t as unlikely as it sounds.
Keith grew up in the high desert, Southern California town of Victorville, where Face to Face was formed. Country music was the go-to music in the area and an inescapable part of Keith’s childhood, shaping him in ways he didn’t fully realize at the time. To some extent, this may be true for other members of Face to Face. Put together, guitarist Dennis Hill and bassist Scott Shiflett have a handful of co-writing credits on this record, and Hill arranged the backing vocals, performed by Mykele and Jagger Hill.
The Story of Michael and Tanya is the fifth album by the award-winning the War and Treaty, and their debut on Atlantic Outpost. Wounded Iraq war veteran Michael Trotter, Jr. and gospel/R&B singer Tanya Blount met at a music festival in 2010. They married in 2014, moved from Albion, Michigan to Nashville and released debut album The Healing Tide in 2018. Their music covers vast stylistic and lyric territory; it embraces Black gospel, soul, country, blues, Americana, R&B, and adult contemporary pop with searing emotional honesty, spiritual sophistication, and hooks.
The Story of Michael and Tanya offers fingerpopping truth about their marriage, relationship, personal triumphs, contradictions, and trials in ten songs.
Matt Jones and The Bobs formed way back in 2011 while they were studying at Radford University, all sharing a love of americana, roots, and classic rock. Their debut album Brother’s Hymn was released in 2014 to much local acclaim. It highlighted all the issues about growing up in small-town Southwest Virginia from the view of young men of a certain age. However, despite paying their dues, as with many college bands, they broke up in 2015 to concentrate on other pursuits.
However, unlike many bands, they kept in contact with each other and eventually got back together in 2024, stepping back into the world of music older and wiser, perhaps, each with ten years more experience to draw on. The result is a splendid, mature album for today’s musical…
…featuring newly unearthed bonus tracks and unheard demos.
The overused shorthand, “retro,” can mean that a group short on their own ideas has repackaged the past. Although Israel Nash Gripka’s country-rock/Americana infused music raises immediate comparisons to a host of classic folk-rock acts, Israel Nash’s Rain Plans is hardly a slavish (or lazy) re-creation of history. Instead, he’s applied a master craftsman’s aesthetic to expanding what might have started as simple singer-songwriter tunes. The resulting album features richly layered instrumentation that draws on acoustic and electric sounds, soft-diffusion reverb to cosset the mix and, above all, a worshipful appreciation for warm analog tone. Casual listeners may…