Paul Burch - Meridian Rising

Jimmie Rodgers has been the subject of tribute albums before -- perhaps the most memorable is Merle Haggard's 1969 classic Same Train, a Different Time -- but Paul Burch's Meridian Rising is distinctly different: the singer/songwriter designed his 2016 album as "an imagined musical autobiography" of the country legend. By neither following the conventions of a traditional tribute album nor the contours of a biography, Burch is freed to be fanciful, dreaming up scenarios for Rodgers that may not strictly adhere to written history and allowing himself to tip a hat to Rodgers' jazz and blues contemporaries. Such elasticity lends Meridian Rising considerable life, letting Burch slide into hot dance music as easily as he cops to a blue yodel. He's playful but not at the expense of his subject: if anything, his blurring of fact, fiction, and styles allows Rodgers to not be seen as a museum piece, a figure that exists only in dusty history books. Burch's wry, witty compositions -- which find their match in his swinging band, its lineup shifting to accentuate the tones of the tunes -- bring the Singing Brakeman to a colorful, full-bodied life while also illustrating how he's peerless as an Americana craftsman: he's absorbed tradition so thoroughly, he knows it's a shame to exist solely in the past, so he makes albums as rich and delightful as this.

Hayes Carll - Lovers and Leavers

Songwriter Hayes Carll has always placed his craft first. His best work has been defined by its rich irony, a keen eye for quirky images, and quick, catchy melodies that were equally at home in a honky tonk, a car, or on a festival stage. Lovers and Leavers, his Joe Henry-produced fifth album is a departure. It's sparser, airier, more directly confessional. In the past, Carll's story-songs more often than not reflected a likable wandering rogue, a gypsy songman whose authority problem and self-deprecating attitude made quick friends of listeners. But a poet was always there too, just under the surface. These songs reflect wisdom gained from hard living, embracing gratitude, loss, and love. The only electric guitar on Lovers and Leavers is Eric Heywood's pedal steel; Henry placed Carll's acoustic guitar front and center framed by David Pilch's basses, Jay Bellerose's drums and percussion, and Tyler Chester's keyboards (no synths).
In "Sake of the Song," a swirling Wurlitzer, dreamy steel, and strummed six-string help Carll paint word portraits of those who share his vocation, and with a hummable melody he also reveals the traps that waylay them. "You Leave Alone" is a country waltz. The acoustic guitar is accompanied only by upright bass and fingersnaps. It would have been perfect for the pre-outlaw Waylon Jennings. The bittersweet "Good While It Lasted" is about leaving behind bad habits and ultimately a marriage. But it discloses a way of accepting any moment for what it brings rather than wasting its potential longing for what has been lost. Carll tackles the other side, too; the doubt and fear these realizations bring in "Love Don't Let Me Down" find him weighing busted dreams against future hopes. "The Love That We Need" features a gospel piano, hand percussion, and acoustic guitar. They frame a narrative about stasis in romantic relationships and commitments; it renders them impossible. In the refrain he posits the revelation "We got the life that we wanted/But not the love that we need." In spite of pain received and given, his delivery reveals an empathic tenderness that refuses to blame. "The Magic Kid," written about his son, is the set's watermark. Carll directly relates the wonder of a nine-year-old and the blinding truth imparted by a pure heart: "You shine your light for everyone to see/The only one I've known who's truly free...." Even in the set's lighter moments, such as the rag shuffle "Love Is So Easy," his poetry is searing in its simplicity, unobstructed and unaffected.
Carll presents these songs with open hands and heart; he made Lovers and Leavers to prove something to himself. With the canny assistance of Henry's sensitive production, the songwriter's vulnerability rises into open view and elevates his craft along with it. In Carll's world -- and hopefully ours -- love wins, no matter what.

The Mystix - Rhythm & Roots

(Only 3 new songs on this album but the old stuff is still great. Jasmine)

The Mystix are Boston, Phoenix roots supergroup, with 6 albums in their collection. They are known for attractive concert performances across the US and Europe, and also its career has a respectable status too.
„Live-Rhythm And Roots“is their actual product with 19 tracks in, recorded and taped from 4 different locations. Fronted by vocalist and guitarist Jo Lily, The Mystix deliver refine portions of roots rock, americana, country blues , done with strong energy and emotions. They performed on simply, but clear and convincible way. Songs are listenable, and band knows how to be educative to their listeners and audience, when start to perform each tact of offering show. The Mystix are simply brilliant, and its message combine tradition and modern details, around mentioned forms, in best possible way.

Doolin' - Doolin'

If you’re a fan of classic Celtic music, look no further than … France? That’s where you’ll find Doolin', the six-piece band staying true to the Irish spirit and sound, despite French accents and roots. Their self-titled debut already seems to have a rabid international following, so it will come as no surprise when they’re embraced stateside. The concept may sound like a gimmick, but it’s far from it.
The songs on Doolin' are more than just hearty pub fare. They’re thoughtful, emotional and traditional. Even if Celtic music isn’t your thing, you’ll be moved by the heartfelt vocal harmonies and throwback sound. And the group doesn’t limit themselves to what’s expected. They bring their own flare to everything from Steve Earle’s “Galway Girl” to Sinead O’Connor’s “Famine”, and Bob Dylan’s “Ballad of Hollis Brown”. Plus, Doolin' brings the Irish aesthetic to French songs, too. “Le Jupon Blanc” is a whimsical, low key starring vehicle for some seriously incredibly fiddle playing, and “Le Dernier Kouign Amann” is slow and sultry with a bit of subtle country twang.
A mix of self-taught and classically trained musicians, Doolin’s instrumental arrangements are the true standout here. The way each member of the band blends his sound with the rest with such ease is a feat. The accordion bounces gently off of whistles, bass, guitar, fiddle and drums, and the enchanting result is rich and layered.
The overall vibe on Doolin' is a chill one. Even when Guilhem Cavaillé’s fiddle playing gets fiery or Nicolas Besse’s guitar speeds up, it’s a pleasant experience to listen to this record. Wilfried Besse’s accordion adds an element of French romance and keeps the band’s sound fresh. The band has been playing together for more than a decade, and it shows in the obvious musical chemistry they have together.

William Tyler - Modern Country

Guitarist and composer William Tyler has been thinking about America for a long time in the aftermath of 2013's loose, rambling, and beautiful The Impossible Truth, which referenced the country's musical traditions and landscapes. Afterwards, he spent almost two years touring solo, driving back and forth across the country. In a short promo trailer for Modern Country he stated that, "The cultural geography of this vanishing America is what I sense as a slow fade on these long road trips….It still lives, even as the highways and the high rises push it to the fringes of the countryside and the static of the airwaves." This album is his "love letter to what we're losing in America. To what we've already lost." He wrote the music in Oxford, Mississippi, recorded it in Eau Claire, Wisconsin with co-producer and multi-instrumentalist Phil Cook, percussionist Glenn Kotche, and bassist Darin Gray, then finished it at home in Nashville. At the album's heart lies a pervasive sense of loneliness and a longing for a home that exists only in memory. "Highway Anxiety" recalls Bill Frisell's roots music recordings from the '90s, but the expansive sonic palette here, with reverbed electric guitars, droning synth, gospel piano, lap steel, Kotche's rolling snares, etc. are more panoramic and kinetic. "I'm Gonna Live Forever (If It Kills Me)" is built on a single acoustic country vamp that kaleidoscopically advances, plateaus, retreats, and begins again as each instrument engages and disengages. Blues and folk roots inform the album's two hinge tracks: "Kingdom of Jones" was inspired by the Mississippi county that seceded from the Confederacy during the Civil War, while the wistful "Albion Moonlight" is titled after Kenneth Patchen's novel about an individual so unwilling to heed any but his own counsel, it proves his undoing. "Gone Clear" is built from intimate, shifting melodies offered in rounds toward a series of striking interlocking rhythmic patterns that point directly at Steve Reich's Electric Counterpoint: Different Trains with Pat Metheny. Kotche's range of percussion instruments (bells, marimbas, low toms, etc.) provide the guideposts for the dynamic changes. Closer "The Great Unwind" commences as a melancholy, nostalgic, country waltz. Its circular theme is articulated by sweetly played melody from reverbed guitar accompanied by bass, drums, and piano. Guitar feedback and noise are stacked on top until it vanishes under their weight. A short silence is interrupted by singing birds who introduce a new harmonic line, one that recalls the iconic vamp from Prince's "When You Were Mine." It too eventually fades, leaving only bird song to close the album. Modern Country is vast in scope and ambition, but tightly written and expertly arranged. The sprawl of motion, texture, and color is reined in by immense, emotive lyricism and dynamic group interplay, making this musical "letter" to his vanishing nation well worth repeated listening.

Chris King - Animal

Chris King delivers a storytelling masterpiece with Animal. Looking at each song individually on this album, you have some pretty good songs. Put them all together and they all connect for one long, spectacular journey. It’s the journey of a man exploring love, discovery, overcoming mistakes, the unknown and ultimately what we’re all looking for in this crazy thing we call life. Most albums are just a collection of songs, not really all connecting with each other. Sure you’ll find a lot of albums with similar themes and tones throughout, but very rarely do you come across albums that connect from start to finish like Animal does. It should also be pointed out that production on this album is just as flawless as King’s songwriting. Producer John Ross Silva really nails the tone and sound on this album, as it properly reflects the changes in attitude of the main story told throughout. Everything on this album works together perfectly. Chris King shows us all what a true album sounds like. Animal is one of the best albums you’ll hear all year.

The Song

Annalisa Tornfelt - Search Zero

Can't find a review so I'll have it to write it myself. Here it goes: great album.

Erik Dylan – Pink Flamingos

Overall “Pink Flamingos” is a fantastic song that fits Dylan like a glove and makes me want to hear more from him. It’s pretty appropriate that Kip Moore is the one who discovered Dylan, considering both Dylan and Moore both fall somewhere between rock and country in their sound. The instrumentation is underrated on “Pink Flamingos,” as it’s kept simple with guitars and light drums, allowing the song to tell its story. For those who enjoy well-written murder ballads like myself, you’ll really enjoy this song. I’m definitely keeping an eye out for his new album Heart of a Flatland Boy expected this fall. Erik Dylan proves with “Pink Flamingos” he’s one to watch in 2016.

Chris Janson – Buy Me a Boat

(A in love, wild boy, religious, and a redneck. Real good music and sometimes real bad. Don't know what to make of this album. Jasmine)

Chris Janson's story is not atypical. For years, the Nashville native toiled away as a songwriter and performer, sometimes coming close to the spotlight only to find well-laid plans crumble at the last minute. He wrote songs strong enough to attract the attention of established stars -- Tim McGraw released "Truck Yeah" in 2012 -- but it wasn't until he released "Buy Me a Boat" -- a wry aspirational country-rocker with a theme not a million miles away from Brad Paisley's "River Bank" -- in 2015 when he struck gold, and deservedly so. "Buy Me a Boat" is sharp and funny, demonstrating Janson's skills as a writer and singer -- he knows how to deliver the punch lines -- and if its accompanying album isn't quite up to its standards, it's nevertheless the work of an accomplished writer who knows how to sculpt a song for a wide audience. If Buy Me a Boat can be faulted, it's because its diversity often plays like a demo tape, with Janson crafting songs for any possible contemporary country audience. He doesn't push the bro-country button too hard, but he has party anthems ("Power of Positive Drinkin'") and hooky rockers ("Right in the Middle") mixing next to sticky ballads and odes to Jesus. All the different sounds feel like Janson is covering his bases, hoping that one of these tunes will click, and this can sometimes show the limits of his performing range: whether he's singing a rocker or a ballad, he's better when the production is a bit beefier, as it contrasts with his appealingly thin voice. This means that Buy Me a Boat is a debut, one with where the highlights shine brighter due to its occasional muddle, but even if he's sorting out his own distinctive voice, it's clear Janson has the chops to get him where he wants to go.

Margo Price - Midwest Farmer’s Daughter

Midwest Farmer's Daughter isn't merely an autobiographical title for the retro country singer/songwriter Margo Price, it's a nice tip of the hat to one of her primary inspirations, Loretta Lynn. The connections between the two country singers don't end there. Toward the end of her career, the Coal Miner's Daughter wound up collaborating with Jack White for 2004's Van Lear Rose, and White's Third Man Records provides a launching pad for Price, releasing her self-financed solo debut as-is as Midwest Farmer's Daughter. Spare and lean like Loretta in her prime, Price nevertheless writes with the studied precision of a modern Americana songwriter; even when she gets explicitly autobiographical, as she does on the opening "Hands of Time," it doesn't play as confession ripped from the soul, it plays as poetry. Similarly, when she tightens the screws so her song turns into something sleek, it doesn't play as Music City precision, it feels savvy and personal, surprising with its light hint of funk and Price's clear, plaintive, and powerful vocal. This tension between the head and heart, between the country and the city, is what fuels Midwest Farmer's Daughter, placing it on a warm, hazy plane that feels simultaneously sophisticated and down-home. Part of this dichotomy is due to Price's singing: she sounds like the Illinois girl that she is, possessing a voice that's pretty, plain, and unadorned, carrying an innocence that cuts against the worldliness of her songs. Her band, though, provides her songs with a genuine honky tonk kick, but even when the album drifts toward the traditional -- as it does on "Hurtin' (On the Bottle)" or "Four Years of Chances" -- Price's sensibility is modern, turning these old-fashioned tales of heartbreak, love, loss, and perseverance into something fresh and affecting.

Liked on YouTube: Sierra Hull “Black River”

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Legendary Canadian singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen

Legendary Canadian singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen has died at the age of 82, according to a Facebook post on his official fan page. His music label Sony Music Canada has also confirmed the news.   “We have lost one of music’s most revered and prolific visionaries,” said the post on the Facebook page. The page … Continue reading

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Loretta Lynn - Full Circle

Full Circle is no accidental title for this, Loretta Lynn's first album after a 12-year break. Released as Lynn approaches her 83rd birthday, Full Circle not only deliberately returns the country legend to her Kentucky roots, it's constructed as a summation of her life. It opens with the first song she ever wrote -- a lovelorn waltz called "Whispering Sea" -- and runs through old folk tunes she sang as a child, revisits hits she had in her prime, and adds new tunes to her repertoire, all the while acknowledging that she's closer to the end of her life than the beginning. It's a weighty concept directed by co-producers John Carter Cash and Lynn's daughter Patsy Lynn Reynolds, two scions of country royalty keenly aware of the nuances of legacy and tradition. Cash and Reynolds began recording Lynn back in 2007, stockpiling hundreds of songs in the ensuing eight years. Full Circle is culled from those sessions, and while there certainly must be many equally compelling tunes lying in the vaults, the album benefits from its canny construction, touching upon so many aspects of Lynn's multi-faceted art without lingering on any single part. One of the record's attributes is its clean, simple sound. Spare but never skeletal, the record feels intimate but never haunted; it feels as if Lynn is playing songs for old friends in her living room, relying on beloved tunes and well-told stories. If there's possibly a slight contrivance in the reliance on songs about death -- good as they are, "Who's Gonna Miss Me?" and "Everybody Wants to Go to Heaven" put perhaps too fine a point upon her eventual passing -- these clear-eyed ruminations never feel ghoulish due to that straight-ahead sound. As produced by her daughter and family friend, Lynn is in good, trusting hands who wish to present her at her best and, more or less, that's precisely what Full Circle offers.

The Jimmys – “Live From Transylvania”

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Lauren Adams – Somewhere Else

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The Flyin’ A’s

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Wicklow Atwater

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Award-winning inspirational folk artist, Eddy Mann has released “The Consequence,”

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Flatland Cavalry - Humble Folks

Humble Folks is a solid debut album for Flatland Cavalry. Some moments on the album fall short as they rely on overused tropes for storytelling. However, there are several moments where the band shines showcase their promise. Flatland Cavalry describe their music and “Easy on the ears, heavy on the heart” and that description is right on the money. The easy listening of mid-tempo and slower songs are met with darker songwriting that does a great job capturing heartbreak and pain. You can’t do much better with a debut album than Flatland Cavalry does with Humble Folks. This is a good band to watch and keep on your radar as more albums are released.

Luke Bell - Luke Bell

Cody, Wyoming native, Luke Bell wrote, sang, and produced all of the songs on the self-titled album, Luke Bell, which was released the spring of 2012. Luke Bell falls under the “Americana” genre, consisting of versatile tracks that adopt country, honky-tonk, blues, rock, and bluegrass styles. From playful jams to dramatic blues, Luke Bell caters to diverse listeners who may also enjoy the likes of Willie Nelson, Elvis Presley, The Black Keys, and The Soggy Bottom Boys.
The King of Dollar Bills is a fun, upbeat bluegrass jam about something every adult can relate to: the joys of pay day. The King of Dollar Bills could have been right at home in the movie O Brother Where Art Thou? hinting toward The Soggy Bottom Boys at times. A personal favorite line: “When I’m feeling rich, I buy Marlboros and coffee/ I treat them like cigars and wine because no one can stop me.” Bell plays on the little things that get us through the day on this optimistic track. Dollar Bills evokes the image of Bell and his buddies jamming on a porch on a hot southern summer evening.
The Wolf Man is a stark contrast to Dollar Bills, sounding like the darker, heavier cousin of The Black Keys. The vocals are very similar to The Black Keys, but the instrumentals are slow burning and compelling. Think a dimly lit, smoky pool hall peppered with weathered locals.  Bell describes this track as his struggle with the contrast of his daytime and nighttime self, not unlike Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
Juarez is a heartbreaking narrative about a poor boy forced to sell drugs in Mexico, trying to make ends meet. Bell pulls you in with his easy going bluesy instrumentals and smooth vocals. The somber story makes you question Bell’s young age, because a song this heart wrenching could only come from a hardened old songwriter who has experienced some hardships. Juarez successfully makes the listener feel something, which, last time I checked, was the whole point of music.
Luke Bell is an excellent concoction of old time southern country, lighthearted bluegrass, and dramatic, soulful blues. The album has the ability to take the listener away to a warm summer night on a back porch, full of nostalgia and heartfelt lyrics. Bell knocked it out of the park on this debut album, and I am hopeful for what’s coming next from this talented Wyoming native.

Brandy Clark - Big Day in a Small Town

Brandy Clark's 2013 debut 12 Stories was very much a songwriter's record: clean, simple, and spare, its arrangements never distracting from the writing. Big Day in a Small Town, released three years later as Clark's first major-label album, is its opposite: a collection of 11 songs buffed and polished with the intention of bringing her music to the widest possible audience. The tight drum loops of "Girl Next Door," the album's first single, signals the biggest aesthetic shift from the front porch picking of 12 Stories, but Clark hasn't abandoned her flair for intimate character sketches or storytelling. "Homecoming Queen" and "Three Kids No Husband" could've easily fit on the debut, but Jay Joyce -- the producer who helmed Eric Church's muscular modern-day outlaw Mr. Misunderstood, and also the Brothers Osborne's Pawn Shop, an album much closer in sound to Big Day in a Small Town than Church's -- gives them subtly textured arrangements, then surrounds these miniatures with bolder sounds. "Broke" plays with modern R&B rhythms that counter its white trash jokes, "Soap Opera" plays its gospel overtones as pop, and the riotous dis of "Daughter" is the only time Clark serves a straight-down-the-middle country song. Big Day in a Small Town slides from sound to sound with ease because Clark's anchor remains her finely rendered intimacy, a skill put into sharp relief by the heartbreak of the album closers "Drinkin' Smokin' Cheatin'" and "Since You've Gone to Heaven." The brighter, funnier songs and the nicely etched smooth ballads "Love Can Go to Hell" and "You Can Come Over" serve as gateways to this Clark signature, and if Big Day in a Small Town occasionally feels like nothing more than a collection of great songs that don't quite gel into a larger picture, that's a minor complaint: songs rarely come much better than these. 

Robbie Fulks – Upland Stories

Robbie Fulks is a brilliant songwriter and a very funny man, but that sense of humor sometimes hindered his work as much as it helped. His biting wit tended to undercut the humanity of his more serious songs, a quality that kept some of his earlier albums from reaching as deep as they could and should. Fulks seemed to have overcome this flaw on 2013's Gone Away Backward. The album was a stark, bone-dry set of acoustic songs that recalled the sound of Depression-era country as it spun tales that were compassionate but unflinchingly honest. Gone Away Backward was one of Fulks' very best and most acclaimed albums, and he's clearly learned a great deal from it. 2016's Upland Stories feels like a companion piece of sorts, playing on a somewhat broader field musically but sounding nearly as spare and just as clearly focused. Fulks has gathered a handful of gifted accompanists for Upland Stories (including Wayne Horvitz, Fats Kaplin, and Todd Phillips), and their performances provide the ideal tone for these songs. The players support these songs gracefully without ever intruding on them, and Steve Albini's crystal-clear recording and mix favor them beautifully. The themes and arrangements of Upland Stories are often more modern than those of Gone Away Backward, but the uncluttered approach is similar, and the results are just as satisfying. The literacy of these songs is impressive, but they sound conversational, like stories meant to be read aloud. And Fulks' understated but emphatic vocal delivery helps the small town details of "Fare Thee Well, Carolina Girls" and the bittersweet life lessons of "Needed" hit their emotional targets dead on. ("Aunt Peg's Old Man" and "Katy Kay" also reveal Fulks hasn't lost his sense of humor, he's just applying it with a greater degree of care.) As spare and gently satisfying as a warm spring afternoon, Upland Stories is a reminder that the brilliance of Gone Away Backward was no fluke, and that in his mid-fifties, Robbie Fulks is only getting better, both as a songwriter and as a recording artist. Highly recommended.