Country & Folk
In a career marked by risk-taking and rule-breaking, Simpson has previously challenged genre conventions with 2016’s soul-inflected A Sailor’s Guide to Earth, which won the Grammy award for Country Album of the Year and was nominated for Album of the Year, and 2019’s Sound & Fury, which was nominated for Rock Album of the Year.
The Willie Nelson Family finds Willie joined in his Pedernales Studios by a host of his family members and extended family of long-time band members, performing songs that they have performed for much of their lives. Sister Bobbie, sons Lukas and Micah, and daughters Amy and Paula all contribute plus band members Mickey Raphael, Kevin Smith and Billy and Paul English. Produced by Willie and Steve Chadie and shaped around a setlist of 12 favorite spirit-driven songs from the Nelson Family repertoire, the album draws on deep Americana (including A.P. Carter's "Keep It On The Sunnyside" and the traditional hymn "In The Garden") while celebrating classic songwriting from Hank Williams ("I Saw The Light") and Kris Kristofferson ("Why Me") to George Harrison ("All Things Must Pass") and Willie Nelson (who penned half of the album's compositions). Willie's son Lukas (who fronts his own band, Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real) sings lead vocals on two of the album's tracks--"All Things Must Pass" and "Keep It On The Sunnyside"--while sharing lead vocals with Willie on "I Saw the Light," "I Thought About You, Lord" and "Why Me." These songs represent the final recordings Willie made with his longtime drummer and pal Paul English who was Willie’s drummer for over 50 years before he passed away in February 2020.
“I’m starting to realize that being an outlier and a weirdo––it doesn’t have to be a bad thing,” says Sarah Shook. Shook pauses, then adds with a grin, “It can be whatever you want it to be.”
Shook is home in North Carolina, talking about Nightroamer, the hotly anticipated new album from their band, Sarah Shook & The Disarmers. Backed by white-knuckle playing from Eric Peterson on guitar, Aaron Oliva on upright bass, drummer Jack Foster, and Adam Kurtz on pedal steel, Shook has pulled from Hank Williams, Elliott Smith, the Sex Pistols, and Shook’s own inquisitive, open, outlying self to create pop-savvy, honky-tonk punk that’s both an escape and a reality check––a re-opened wound and a balm. Relationships and life-changing realizations are dissected with honesty and humor, three tight minutes at a time.
When Sarah Shook & The Disarmers released Sidelong four years ago, the irreverent quintet’s debut turned heads around the world. Then 2018’s follow-up Years hooked everyone from Rolling Stone to Vice. “This ain’t no country for hipsters or posers,” said No Depression. “It’s real, raw, mean-and-evil-bad-and-nasty bidness.” Then, the first two albums turned into a tease: The pandemic shut down the world, just as The Disarmers finished recording Nightroamer in Los Angeles. The band has had to sit on the album––until now.
Nightroamer is worth the wait. This is still a band whose recordings beg to be heard live, either in a punk-rock hole in the wall or honky-tonk roadhouse. Shook’s voice is crystalline––but boozy, too, with a cadence that sounds comfortable resting in the pocket before lagging, jumping, or cozying up to the offbeat. What initially may feel like a slip is actually a stroke––and listeners cannot get enough.
Produced by Pete Anderson, Nightroamer is the confident next step fans hoped The Disarmers could take. “I think this record is different than ones we’ve done in the past. It feels every bit as expansive as I wanted it to feel,” says Shook. “I didn’t want there to be a shocking, jarring difference, but I definitely wanted it to feel like things are opening up. It’s a bigger feeling experience.”
Asked what they hope listeners experience, Shook is clear. “Music is one of the ways we can connect to other people,” they say. “That’s my hope: That people feel seen and they feel connected to something that brings them a sense of peace.”
Equally upbeat and mellow, Hayes writes clever songs that mirror his brand and artistry of unconventional, unique country music. Following the high from scoring his first No. 1 with hit song “Fancy Like,” Hayes’ latest album is a continuation of that success; a medley of beatboxing, sing-rapping, and witty lyrics with refreshing and vulnerable honesty that solidifies his place as a top-notch, one-of-a-kind player in the country music scene. After a long journey of fighting tooth and nail to make it in Nashville, but always sticking to his true self, Hayes’ record tells reminiscent stories of trials and triumphs of following a dream and trying to be better every day, with refreshing, catchy tunes about love and life mixed in that you can’t resist singing along to.
Bear's Sonic Journals: Johnny Cash, At the Carousel Ballroom, April 24, 1968 [2LP]
Vinyl: $32.98 Buy
In a career marked by risk-taking and rule-breaking, Simpson has previously challenged genre conventions with 2016’s soul-inflected A Sailor’s Guide to Earth, which won the Grammy award for Country Album of the Year and was nominated for Album of the Year, and 2019’s Sound & Fury, which was nominated for Rock Album of the Year.
Big Loud/Republic Records' Morgan Wallen will release his highly anticipated sophomore album, DANGEROUS: THE DOUBLE ALBUM, on January 8th. The vast 30-track project was written largely by Wallen throughout the last three years, while he was becoming "the fastest rising young star in country" (Variety). Further establishing his signature sound, it includes a strong arsenal of writers and features "More Than My Hometown", a countrified version of 3X Platinum Diplo collab, "Heartless" and more.
In 2007, Plant and Alison Krauss released Raising Sand, one of the most acclaimed albums of the 21st Century. It was an unlikely, mesmerizing pairing of one of rock’s greatest frontmen with one of country music’s finest and most honored artists, produced by the legendary T Bone Burnett. Now, after fourteen years, the two icons return with Raise the Roof, a dozen songs from a range of traditions and styles that extend this remarkable collaboration in new and thrilling directions.
Introducing Jackson + Sellers and their debut album Breaking Point, on ANTI records. Jade Jackson and Aubrie Sellers, two rising stars who aligned during the pandemic to write one of the most compelling duo albums of the last decade.
Drawn together by instant chemistry, cosmic forces and their ability to write intuitive romantic breakup songs for each other, their album is a window into the dissolution of two different relationships and the formation of another: a perfect, platonic, creative union. United in their desire to write a record that reflected their expansive musical interest from 70s rock to raucous roots to indie pop, their LA written, Nashville recorded album is a masterclass in unexpected vocal harmonic convergence.
With Breaking Point, Jackson + Sellers will establish themselves as two individual artists who together, share a deep friendship, musical kinship and the ability to craft tight singular pop rock songs that will embed themselves in your ears for the rest of time.
Country/Bluegrass album, Run, Rose, Run that will be released along with a novel co-written with the famed author, James Patterson, sharing the title Run Rose Run. The 12 songs were inspired by the book storyline and feature Country and Bluegrass artists; Joe Nichols, Rhonda Vincent, The Issacs, and Dailey & Vincent. Dolly & James will be doing book and album promotions together - presenting a unique co-marketing opportunity.