Country & Folk
Little Big Town is set to release their brand-new studio album, Mr. Sun, on September 16, 2022. This is their 10th studio album and first new music in over 2 years. It features their latest single, “Hell Yeah.” Little Big Town first entered the music scene more than 20 years ago. The band’s breakthrough albums, Tornado and Pain Killer, produced multiple #1 singles, including “Pontoon,” “Tornado,” and “Day Drinking,” as well as 2015’s history-making, best-selling country single of the year, “Girl Crush.” Their 2017 release, The Breaker, debuted at #1 on the Billboard Country Albums chart and #4 on the Billboard 200 to critical acclaim. “Wine, Beer, Whiskey,” was the latest from their self-produced 9th studio album, Nightfall, which also reached the top of the Billboard Country Albums chart and has garnered over 316 million global streams.
Charley Crockett will release his latest album The Man From Waco on September 9th via Son of Davy/Thirty Tigers. Crockett wrote or co-wrote all 14 songs on the album, and in many ways The Man From Waco is the purest distillation of his artistry to date. What started as a demo session with producer Bruce Robison at Robison’s studio The Bunker outside Austin, TX turned into the first album Crockett has ever made with his band The Blue Drifters backing him from start to finish. Mostly first takes with only a handful of overdubs, The Man From Waco finds Crockett refining his singular “Gulf & Western” sound which continues to captivate an ever-growing legion of fans.
“I just wanted an honest partnership: do it at your place, live to tape, everybody in the room,” Crockett says of the recording experience, and Robison was happy to accommodate. “The magic is in the performances on that tape. That’s what Bruce wanted to do, that’s what I wanted to do. When we were done, I said ‘these are masters, not demos.’”
There’s a loose narrative thread that ties the album together, but at the center of The Man From Waco is Crockett, who continues to trust his instincts and carve out his own singular space. Eschewing the ever-growing siren song of major labels and GRAMMY-winning producers, Crockett is forging ahead as a mostly DIY artist, calling his own shots and giving himself the space to strive for greatness on his own terms.
“Everybody was telling me: ‘go right, go right, go right,’” says Crockett. “I went left. I had to hold on to what has gotten me this far.”
The Man From Waco will be in a record store near you on September 9th on CD, Vinyl, and an indie record store exclusive edition featuring alternate album artwork.
Featuring highlights from the 2018 box set, The Girl From Chickasaw County – The Complete Capitol Masters, plus unreleased bonus material including an alternate take of “Sunday Best,” a demo of “Hurry, Tuesday Child,” an alternate version of “Mississippi Delta,” and many more. The 2 LP set has a 12” x 12” insert with liner notes and a selection of images used in the box set.
BRELAND will release his highly-anticipated debut album Cross Country on September 9th. Named for the boundary-pushing, genre-bending style that defines all his output, Cross Country firmly establishes BRELAND as a vital new force shaping the future of country music.
Expanding on the songwriting chops and star-making appeal first revealed on his breakthrough certified Platinum hit single “My Truck” — as well as its remix with Sam Hunt — Cross Country takes its title from an autobiographical, acoustic-guitar-fueled track showcasing BRELAND’s intricately detailed storytelling and warm yet commanding voice. Along with the title track “Cross Country (feat. Mickey Guyton),” BRELAND’s debut album also offers up previously released singles like “Throw It Back (feat. Keith Urban)” and “Praise The Lord (feat. Thomas Rhett).”
Darius Rucker will be releasing his #1's on CD for the first time. It includes 10- #1 Hits that span over 10 years. It begins with "Don't Think I Don't Think About It" which was his first #1 and all of the way up to 2020 with his #1- "Beers and Sunshine". Darius has released 5 solo country albums on Capitol Records Nashville that have included 10 #1 Country Songs.
Throughout his six-decade long career, Dr. John embodied a near-mythic multitude of musical identities: Global Ambassador of New Orleans funk and jazz and R&B, visionary bluesman, rock and roll innovator, and a massively revered high priest of psychedelic voodoo.
Things Happen That Way, his final studio album, adds another dimension to his musicality: a lifelong affinity for country & western. It's a glorious farewell from one of the most essential figures in music history.
Steve Earle has been creating intimate and personal music for well over four decades now. His songwriting has wound itself along a path from Texas to Tennessee and his education came in the form of learning from the best. 2009’s Grammy-nominated record, TOWNES, was a tribute to his dear friend and mentor, Townes Van Zandt. Ten years later Earle released, GUY. An album concentrated on paying homage to the late Guy Clark and the indelible friendship that they had formed in stories told through song. 2022 welcomes the release of JERRY JEFF. A 10-song collection of songs written by the gypsy songman, Jerry Jeff Walker. Featuring hits like, “Mr. Bojangles” and “Gettin’ By”, Earle & The Dukes honor the late Texan by amplifying the concept and sound of each song with a full-band recording.
Lyle Lovett returns with his first new album in over 10 years,“12th of June”, due out on Verve Records May 13th, 2022. The album is a fantastic and eclectic collection of new original songs and beloved interpretations that will please existing fans as well as invite new ones. Immaculately recorded, it highlights the dynamics of Lyle and his Large Band– and their singular ability to shift from one genre to the next with uncanny grace and ability. From beautiful acoustic ballads to swinging big band numbers, this record will remind listeners why Lyle is national musical treasure.
Sony Music Nashville - Growin' Up - Luke Combs - Produced by Combs, Chip Matthews and Jonathan Singleton, Growin' Up is Combs' third studio album following 2019's 3x Platinum What You See is What You Get and his 4x Platinum debut, This One's For You. The new album consists of twelve songs, including Combs' first single "Doin' This," which has topped the charts at country radio.
Face The River is the new album from singer-songwriter Gavin DeGraw. The album is an emotional journey that reflects recent personal losses that Gavin has suffered. Face The River was produced by Dave Cobb (Chris Stapleton, Brandi Carlile, Sturgill Simpson) in Nashville, and this collection of songs is easily the most personal work Gavin has ever created.
Carrie Underwood - Denim & Rhinestones
Carrie Underwood will be releasing a brand new studio country album on June 10th called Denim & Rhinestones. The album includes 12 tracks including her latest hit single- "Ghost Story". Carrie is a true multi-format, multi-media superstar, spanning achievements in music, television, film, and as a New York Times bestselling author and successful entrepreneur. She has sold more than 66 million records worldwide, recorded 28 #1 singles (14 of which she co-wrote), and has seven albums that are certified Platinum or Multi-Platinum by the RIAA, all while continuing to sell out arena tours across North America and the UK.
Neon Blue [Indie Exclusive Limited Edition Coke Bottle Clear LP]
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Joshua Hedley is “a singing professor of country & western,” he declares on his raucous and witty new album, Neon Blue. It might sound like a punchline, but it’s not. An ace fiddle player, a sharp guitarist, and a singer with a granite twang, he’s devoted his entire life to the study of this genre. Ask him about it and he’ll explain: “When all my friends went off to college, I went to Nashville. I was 19 years old playing honkytonks and getting an education.” His 2018 debut, Mr. Jukebox, showcased his deep knowledge of country’s history, in particular the beery ballads of the 1950s and ‘60s. His mentors were George Jones, Ray Price, and Glen Campbell, but his most remarkable accomplishment was putting his own spin on their style.
Neon Blue, on the other hand, examines a very different, often forsaken era: the early 1990s. “The last bastion of country music,” says the professor, “was the early 1990s, roughly 1989 and 1996. You could turn on the radio and immediately know you’re hearing a country song. You could still hear steel guitar and fiddle. But there was a hard fork around 1996 or ’97, when country veered off into pop territory. Neon Blue asks, What if that fork had never happened? What if country kept on sounding like country?”
That era may have been dismissed by traditionalists at the time as slick or overproduced, but Hedley finds something exciting in that old hat-act sound, and Neon Blue plays up the excitement of bigger-than-life choruses, the relatable emotions of those sad-eyed ballads, and the inventiveness of the lively production. “The sound is modern,” he says, “but it’s still discernibly country.”
Acclaimed singer, songwriter and musician Molly Tuttle will release her anticipated Nonesuch Records debut, Crooked Tree, April 1 (on CD and digital. LP will be May 13) with her new bluegrass collective Golden Highway.
Recorded live at Nashville’s Oceanway Studios, Crooked Tree was produced by Tuttle and Jerry Douglas and features collaborations with Sierra Hull, Old Crow Medicine Show, Margo Price, Billy Strings, Dan Tyminski and Gillian Welch. The album explores Tuttle’s love of bluegrass, which she discovered through her father, a music teacher and multi-instrumentalist, and her grandfather, a banjo player. Across these thirteen tracks, all of which were written/co-written by Tuttle, she honors the bluegrass tradition while also pushing the genre in new directions.
“I always knew I wanted to make a bluegrass record someday,” Tuttle says. “Once I started writing, everything flowed so easily: sometimes I’ve felt an internal pressure to come up with a sound no one’s heard before, but this time my intention was just to make an album that reflected the music that’s been passed down through generations in my family. I found a way to do that while writing songs that feel true to who I am, and it really helped me to grow as a songwriter.”
In celebration of the new music, Tuttle and Golden Highway—Bronwyn Keith-Hynes (fiddle), Dominick Leslie (mandolin), Shelby Means (bass) and Kyle Tuttle (banjo)—will embark on an extensive headline tour beginning tonight with shows at Seattle’s Tractor Tavern (two nights), Portland’s Mississippi Studios (two nights), Los Angeles’ Roxy, Salt Lake City’s State Room, Boulder’s Fox Theatre, Asheville’s The Grey Eagle and Nashville’s Station Inn, among several others. Full details can be found at mollytuttlemusic.com/tour.
In addition to Tuttle (vocals, guitars), Douglas (dobro), Keith-Hynes (fiddle) and Leslie (mandolin), Crooked Tree also features musicians Darol Anger (fiddle), Ron Block (banjo), Mike Bub (upright bass), Jason Carter (fiddle), Viktor Krauss (upright bass), Todd Phillips (upright bass) and Christian Sedelmyer (fiddle) with additional harmony vocals from Tina Adair, Lindsay Lou and Melody Walker.
Priscilla Block draws listeners in with her unfiltered, relatable songwriting and catchy melodies. "I love writing about real-life experiences and the ups and downs that I've gone through," Priscilla says. "I don't sugarcoat anything, and I think that's the beauty of songwriting and being an artist. It's a little sass, a little trash and a little sad," she describes with a knowing wink as her catalog rolls easily from heartbreak to laughter. Features the Country radio hit, "Just About Over You."
Vinyl LP pressing. 2020 release. Returning to the studio as Watkins Family Hour, Sean and Sara Watkins consider 'brother sister' a duo-centric record - yet one that feels bigger than just two people. With Sean primarily on guitar and Sara on fiddle, and with both of them sharing vocals, the siblings enlisted producer Mike Viola (Jenny Lewis, Mandy Moore, J.S. Ondara) and mixer-engineer Clay Blair to harness the energy and honesty of their live sound.
Jim Lauderdale comes back to his roots with When Carolina Comes Home Again, a bluegrass album of songs old and new. Chocked full of rich stories, tremendous foot stompin' tunes, and extraordinary musicianship, the album will delight bluegrass enthusiasts and beyond. With urgency and precision, the song 'When Carolina Comes Home Again' tells the tale of a man awaiting his lover, Carolina, to return home. In the cheeky 'Cackalacky' Lauderdale sings of his love of biscuits. Brimming with real life, there's a little something for everybody here.
Warner Music Nashville's Gabby Barrett is setting the trend. Recently spotlighted as one ofCMT's Next Women of Country (Class of 2020), a 2020MusicRowNext Big Thing artist, aSiriusXM+PandoraAll-Genre and Country Artist to Watch, Radio Disney's Next Big Thing, andAmazon Music's Weekly One best performing Country female of 2019, she continues to rise through the ranks as "country music's next female superstar" (Country Now). Garnering critical acclaim, Barrett's current single "I Hope" was named one ofRolling Stone Country's "10 Best Country and Americana Songs To Hear Now" and claimed the #1 spot onSiriusXM's The Highway Hot 30 Countdown and onRadio Disney's Country Top 50 chart. "A voice you must hear, " (The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review) Barrett has opened forDierks Bentley, Kane Brown, Luke Bryan, Toby Keith, Chris Lane, Dustin Lynch, Jake Owen, Bebe Rexha, Cole Swindell, Sugarland, andCarrie Underwood, and will take the stage at mile marker festivals like Stagecoach, Tortuga Music Festival, and Country Jam in 2020. With over 130 MILLION on-demand streams to her credit, Barrett previewed her upcomingRoss Copperman-produced album releasing new song "The Good Ones." The Pennsylvania native began singing in her local gospel choir at nine years old, and performed 136 shows in 2017 alone before rising to national prominence as a Top 3 finalist on ABC'sAmerican Idol.
Doc Watson and Gaither Carlton is a new album of old-time music produced from archival recordings by two legendary musicians. These largely unheard tapes were recorded at Doc Watson's two earliest concerts, presented in New York City's Greenwich Village in 1962. Those shows were among the rare appearances Doc's father-in-law, fiddler Gaither Carlton, made outside of North Carolina. The instrumental pieces, including Gaither's signature tune "Double File," include intricate musical interactions developed through years of family music-making. On the songs and ballads, Doc's instantly recognizable baritone voice is accompanied by his own guitar and Gaither's fiddle, or by the traditional combination of fiddle and banjo. Shortly after these recordings were made, Doc Watson embarked on a career as one of America's premier acoustic guitarists, earning the National Medal of Arts and eight Grammy Awards.
Double 180gm vinyl LP pressing. 2020 release from the acclaimed country music singer/songwriter. The album has 14 new tracks and is Chris's first studio album of new material since 2017. Features the single "Starting Over". Chris has received five Grammy Awards, seven ACM Awards, ten CMA Awards, and five Billboard Music Awards to date and with his first three album he has sold over eight million albums to date, including his debut album Traveller which has sold over four million copies.
Danny Kroha’s Detroit Blues could be considered part two of his solo debut LP - Angels Watching Over Me. In his own words, “it was me in a room playing acoustic instruments and doing my own arrangements of some old songs”.
Not so fast man!, when you hear this record and dig a little deeper into the facts, you’ll have a heightened awareness of the sonic beauty found in the simplicity. On many of these traditional songs, Danny dropped, added or rearranged verses from various sources, mixing up music from one song and words from another and unintentionally created his own amalgamation of early blues and ‘60s folk.
Keep your ears peeled for familiar and wild homemade sounds. There’s a DIY one string washtub bass made out of some kinda bug spray can. There’s a lot of jug bass, blowing the bass notes over the jug opening, frequently heard in early rural American music but also with the 13th Floor Elevators who ran their jug thru an amplifier. The one string guitar, aka The Diddley Bow, on “Come Out Of The Wilderness” is extremely rare, aside from Danny, one of the last times we heard one was on One String Sam's “I Need A Hundred Dollars”. You have your traditional assortment of spoons, jawbones and other percussion instruments, but during one session, Danny and the album supervisor tried out several pairs of Danny's work boots to find the best tone for the foot stomps. We’ll report back soon on what brand was chosen.
Instead of following all the rules rooted the early blues and ‘60s folk, Danny Kroha mixed up all the rural and urban traditions and kicked out a new surreal sound that could really only happen in Detroit - “I listen to both genres, for sure. I just wasn’t TRYING to make a record that sounds like that. It just came out that way”.
Good Woman was written and recorded in a time of tremendous turmoil and change forthe band, between theending of relationships,thedeath oftheir beloved mother, andthebirth of Emily’s first child. The album is a testament tothe Stavely-Taylors’ strength and that of other women; to sisters, mothers, and daughters; to love, loss, and change; and to trying to be a good woman.The band explains: “We have been working on this for a long time and are thrilled to share the title track. When we think about making this album we think about moments and snapshots of all the different contexts we were in as it was made. Living in each other’s pockets and then living with oceans between us. Of voice notes and field recordings and ideas in emails sent across continents. We think of homesickness and family. Of being an outsider. Of endless notebooks and scraps of paper. Of studios in the winter and recordings under the summer sun. Of rainy London days and long American nights with coffees and beers, dogs, and cats. We think of love. Big, big love. Our Mum. Our Dad. Our friends. And of loss. Death and birth. Womanhood, motherhood. Sisterhood.“And coming home.”
The Milk Carton Kids are releasing the live album Live From Lincoln Theatre, for the first time on vinyl. Comprised of singers and acoustic guitar players Joey Ryan and Kenneth Pattengale, The Milk Carton Kids both filmed and recorded their set at this Columbus, Ohio theatre in October 2013 during their tour in support of the Grammy-nominated album The Ash & Clay. Released as a film in 2014, the newly remastered audio will be available on vinyl.
“Live From Lincoln Theatre is the truest representation of what Joey and I have been up to for the last decade,” Pattengale explains. “The set list is like a greatest hits album of Milk Carton Kids songs. I’ve never played guitar in the studio quite the way that it comes together on stage. Our voices also communicate something extra for the occasion. And, of course, Joey doesn’t ramble about our master recordings, but there’s no stopping him once the lights are dim and the mics are hot.”
Founded in 2011, The Milk Carton Kids swiftly emerged as a major force in the American folk tradition, blending ethereal harmonies and intricate musicianship with a uniquely powerful brand of contemporary songcraft.
The first Country act to achieve RIAA’s DIAMOND certification, GRAMMY-nominated duo Florida Georgia Line have been making history since 2012. They’ve tallied 17 career #1 singles, 13.1+ billion streams, sold more than 33.9 million tracks and 4.7 million albums worldwide, logged 1.5 billion video views, and played to over 4 million fans spanning massive headline tours. Honored by ACM, AMA, Billboard, CMA, and CMT Awards, Florida Georgia Line releases their anticipated studio album Life Rolls On.
Honoring the enduring inspiration of Frank Sinatra, That’s Life is Willie Nelson’s second album of classics made famous by The Chairman Of The Board. Willie’s first ode to Frank, 2018's My Way, earned Willie the Grammy for Best Traditional Pop Solo Album, and That's Life finds Nelson (who has penned a few standards himself) inhabiting 11 more of the most treasured songs in the Great American Songbook including the title track, "Luck Be A Lady,” "Nice Work If You Can Get It," "I've Got You Under My Skin," "You Make Me Feel So Young," and "I Won't Dance" (a duet featuring Diana Krall). Produced by Buddy Cannon and Matt Rollings, That's Life was recorded at Capitol Studios in Hollywood--where Frank Sinatra, created a string of album masterpieces--with additional recording at Pedernales Studios in Austin, Texas. Willie delivers 11 new studio performances, coming alive in a musical landscape animated by lush string and vibrant horn arrangements on an album mixed by recording industry legend Al Schmitt (who's recorded and mixed more than 150 gold and platinum albums and won more Grammy Awards than any other engineer or mixer). The album cover features a brand new painting of Willie and his iconic guitar, Trigger, standing in the glow of a twilight streetlamp, evoking classic Sinatra album covers of yore.
Just a few weeks after the surprise release of the Cuttin' Grass (Vol. 1): Butcher Shoppe Sessions album—which Uproxx called “the most sublime and delightful music he’s yet made on record”—Sturgill Simpson returns with the next installment of his bluegrass series, Cuttin' Grass (Vol. 2): The Cowboy Arms Sessions. The genre-defying singer/songwriter reconvened an A-Team of acoustic players (now dubbed "The Hillbilly Avengers") for another round of reinterpretations of his catalogue, this time largely focusing on 2016's A Sailor's Guide to Earth, which won the Grammy for Country Album of the Year and was nominated for Album of the Year. This volume also includes "Jesus Boogie," originally performed by Simpson's first band, Sunday Valley, and two previously unreleased songs, "Tennessee" and "Hobo Cartoon," the latter of which was co-written with the incomparable Merle Haggard—who once said that Simpson was "about the only thing I've heard that was worth listening to in a long time."
Cuttin' Grass Vol. 1 (Butcher Shoppe Sessions) is now available on Vinyl & CD.