New Americana and Roots Music Releases for 2015

The Lone Bellow - Then Came The Morning

2014 was another bumper crop year for Americana and roots music. We shared our favorites and you weighed in with more. 2015 shows no signs of easing up as stalwarts like Steve Earle and James McMurtry and young guns like The Lone Bellow and American Aquarium are planning releases.

The list below is not a definitive 2015 Americana release list, it’s all early months. But it’s as close as I can get with the information available at year’s close. The list is in chronological order based on release date, which mostly occurs on an planned Tuesday target which for some reason (none good) persists.

See one missing? Leave it in the comments.

Look for new things coming in the New Year at Twang Nation. It’s going to be a great year.

Have a happy, and safe, New Years. See you on the other side.

January 13TH
Justin Townes Earle – ‘Absent Fathers’
Cody Jinks – ‘The Adobe sessions’
Cody Canada & the Departed “Hippie Love Punk”

January 20th
The Waterboys – ‘Modern Blues’
Ryan Bingham – ‘Fear and Saturday Night’
Haley Cole – ‘Illusions’
Caitlin Canty – ‘Reckless Skyline’

January 27th
The Lone Bellow – ‘Then Came The Morning’
Paul Kelly – ‘The Merry Soul Session’
Punch Brothers – ‘The Phosphorescent Blues’

February 3rd
Bob Dylan – ‘Shadows in the Night’
Murder by Death – ‘Big Dark Love’
Hiss Golden Messenger – ‘Southern Grammar EP’
Gurf Morlix – ‘Eatin’ At Me’

February 10th
Father John Misty – ‘I Love You, Honeybear’
Robert Earl Keen – ‘Happy Prisoner’
Gretchen Peters – ‘Blackbirds’
Rhiannon Giddens – ‘Tomorrow Is My Turn’
Blackberry Smoke – ‘Holding All the Roses’
Owl Country – ‘Owl Country’
6 String Drag – ‘Roots Rock ‘N’ Roll’

February 17th
Phosphorescent – ‘Live at the Music Hall’
Steve Earle & The Dukes- ‘Terraplane’
Whitehorse – ‘Leave No Bridge Unburned’
Rev. Peyton’s Big Damn Band – ‘So Delicious’
Wrinkle Neck Mules – ‘I Never Thought It Would Go This Far’
The Mavericks – ‘Mono’

February 24th
Elvis Perkins- ‘I Aubade’
James McMurtry – ‘Complicated Game’
Steve Gunn & Black Twig Pickers – ‘Seasonal Hire’
Nora Jane Struthers – ‘Wake’
The Lowest Pair – ‘The Sacred Heart Sessions’
Elana James – ‘Black Beauty’

March 3rd
Ryan Culwell – ‘Flatlands’
Brandi Carlile – ‘Firewatcher’s Daughter’
Gill Landry – ‘Gill Landry’
Andrew Combs – ‘All These Dreams’
Caroline Spence – ‘Somehow’
Dorthia Cottrell – ‘Dorthia Cottrell’

March 10th
Joe Pug’s – ‘Windfall’
Tom Paxton – ‘Redemption Road’
Porter – ‘This Red Mountain’

March 13th
The Coal Creek Boys – ‘Out West’

March 17th
Liz Longley – ‘Liz Longley’
Stone Jack Jones – ‘Love & Torture’

March 24
Humming House – ‘Revelries’
Gabrielle Papillon – ‘The Tempest of Old’
Doc Watson, Bill Monroe + – Classic American Ballads from Smithsonian Folkways

March 27th
Allison Moorer – ‘Down To Believing’

March 31st
William Elliott Whitmore – ‘Radium Death’
Sarah Gayle Meech – ‘Tennessee Love Song’
Simon Joyner – ‘Grass, Branch & Bone’

April 1st
The Devil’s Cut – ‘Antium’

April 7th
Delta Rae – ‘After It All’
Folk Family Revival – ‘Water Walker’
Carl Anderson – ‘Risk of Loss’
Pokey LaFarge – ‘Something in The Water’
Ray Wylie Hubbard – ‘The Ruffian’s Misfortune’

April 14th
Dwight Yoakam – ‘Second Hand Heart’
Lowland Hum – ‘Lowland Hum’
Shinyribs – “Okra Candy”

April 15th
Lucia Comnes – “Love, Hope & Tyranny”
The Damnwells – ‘The Damnwells’

April 21st
John Moreland – ‘High On Tulsa Heat’
Nicki Bluhm and The Gramblers – ‘ Loved Wild Lost’
Jimbo Mathus – ‘Blue Healer’
Ryan Adams – “Live at Carnegie Hall’

April 27TH
Lewis & Leigh – ‘Missing Year EP’

April 28th
Charlie Parr -‘Stumpjumper’
Odessa – ‘Odessa’

May 4th
Shelby Lynne – ‘I Can’t Imagine’

May 5th
Mandolin Orange – ‘Such Jubilee’
Hannah Miller – ‘Hannah Miller’

May 12th
Jimmy LaFave – ‘The Night Tribe’
Eilen Jewell – ‘Sundown over Ghost Town’
Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell – ‘The Traveling Kind’
Della Mae – ‘Della Mae’

May 19th
Darrell Scott – “10 – Songs of Ben Bullington”
Jamie Lin Wilson – ‘Holidays & Wedding Rings’

June 2nd
The Mike + Ruthy Band – “Bright As You Can”
Dawes – “All Your Favorite Bands”

June 9th
Sam Outlaw – “Angeleno”
The Deslondes – “The Deslondes”
Dale Watson – “Call Me Insane”
Courtney Patton – “So This Is Life”
Uncle Lucius – “The Light”
Chris Hennessee – “Greeting from Hennessee”
Sammy Kershaw – “I Won’t Back Down”

June 23rd
Beth Bombara – ‘Beth Bombara’
Larry Campbell and Teresa Williams – ‘Larry Campbell and Teresa Williams’
Richard Thompson – “Still”
Kacey Musgraves – “Pageant Material’

July 17th
Jason Isbell – ‘Something More Than Free’

July 31st
Daniel Romano – ‘If I’ve Only One Time Askin’ ‘

August 7th
Lindi Ortega – “Faded Gloryville”

August 11th
Angela Easterling – “Common Law Wife”

August 14
Rod Picott – “Fortune’
The Waifs – ‘Beautiful You’

August 21st
The White Buffalo – ‘Love and the Death of Damnation’

September 18th
Turnpike Troubadours – “Turnpike Troubadours”

September 25th
Patty Griffin – ‘Servant Of Love’

October 30th
The Yawpers – ‘American Man’
Steve Martin and Edie Brickell – “So Familiar”

Record Store Day 2013 – Americana and Roots Music Picks

rsd2013

It’s that time again twangers. Yes, Record Store Day 2013 is upon us. The day when us music fans can snatch up slabs of limited pressing vinyl from our favorite artists and help local independent records store to not become bygone relics. That would stink.

This year’s RSD2013 releases offer some great selections from the roots and Americana side of the fence. Willie Nelson demos? Yes please! Waylon Jennings and Old 97s collaboration? Oh yeah!

Check the hilarious video from RSD1013 Ambassador Jack White below, where he details the shady doings of the music industry, the Masons and the NBA draft (sort of) and on April 20th head to your local independent record store to pick up one of the limited edition goodies below.

Head to the official RSD2013 site to get a complete list of releases and participating stores.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etxYxIfDhXc

Chet Atkins
Black Jack EP
Format: 7″ Vinyl
Label: SUNDAZED
Release type: RSD Exclusive Release
More Info:
Previously unreleased recordings by this guitar master
Midnight, Boo Boo Stick Beat, Blackjack, Blue Moon of Kentucky

The Avett Brothers/ Randy Travis
Format: 7″ Vinyl
Label: Warner Music Nashville
More Info:
Limited edition split single. Randy Travis covers the Avett Brothers’ “February”, The Avett Brothers covers the Randy Travis song, “Three Wooden Crosses.

The Band
The Last Waltz
Format: 12″ Vinyl
Label: Rhino
More Info:
3 180 Gram LPs, Numbered RSD Edition. All original packaging with Embossing and two foils. All original inner sleeves plus 12-page booklet. Out of print for more than a decade.

Billy Bragg
No One Knows Nothing Anymore / Song of the Iceberg
Format: 7″ Vinyl
Label: Cooking Vinyl

Blitzen Trapper
Blitzen Trapper Deluxe Reissue
Format: 12″ Vinyl
Label: LidKerCow, LTD
More Info:
Blitzen Trapper’s debut album from 2003 will be available for the first time on vinyl in celebration of it’s 10th Anniversary. The record was remastered by Bruce Barielle and the lacquers were cut by Jeff Powell at Ardent Studios in Memphis, TN. A very limited edition run, the record is pressed on 180g vinyl with a free digital download of the entire record with five previously unheard bonus tracks from the original sessions.

Joe Bussard
Guitar Rag/Screwdriver Slide
DETAILS
Format: 78 rpm 10″
Label: Tompkins Square

Calexico
Spiritoso
Format: 12″ Vinyl
Label: Anti/Epitaph

Kasey Chambers and Shane Nicholson
Rattlin Bones
DETAILS
Format: 12″ Vinyl
Label: Sugar Hill

cookisbell

Elizabeth Cook / Jason Isbell
Tecumseh Valley b/w Pancho & Lefty
DETAILS
Format: 7″ Vinyl
Label: 31 Tigers
Release type: RSD Exclusive Release
More Info:
“Tecumseh Valley” b/w “Pancho & Lefty”
Studio versions of both artists covering Townes Van Zandt. They originally performed these songs on Late Night with David Letterman

cooley

Mike Cooley
Too Pretty To Work
Format: 7″ Vinyl
Label: Cooley Records
More Info:
Record Store Day 7″ featuring 2 live tracks recorded at shows in 2012.
1 – Self Destructive Zones (3:36)
2 – Get Downtown (3:12)

Bob Dylan
Wigwam
Format: 7″ Vinyl
Label: Columbia
More Info:
A – Wigwam (Unreleased Demo,) B – Thirsty Boots (Previously Unreleased) — Two previously unreleased Bob Dylan recordings from the Self Portrait sessions. Includes a demo version of “Wigwam” and the previously unreleased track “Thirsty Boots.” Taken from the forthcoming release, The Bootleg Series Vol. 10.

Justin Townes Earle
Yuma
Format: 10″ Vinyl
Label: Bloodshot Records
More Info:
Previously released debut EP from Justin Townes Earle, now on vinyl for the first time. 10″ vinyl. Colored vinyl (opaque gold). Limited to 1000 copies, for RSD.
The Ghost of Virginia, You Can’t Leave, Yuma, I Don’t Care, Let the Waters Rise, A Desolate Angels Blues

Alejandro Escovedo/Chris Scruggs
78 rpm 10
Format: 10″ Vinyl
Label: Plowboy Records
More Info:
78 rpm 10″ A/B single release of two covers of Eddy Arnold standards by Alejandro Escovedo (A side) and Chris Scruggs (B side) for upcoming “You Don’t Know Me: Rediscovering Eddy Arnold” album project due in May 2013
a side : “It’s a Sin” by Alejandro Escovedo – B side: “Just A Little Lovin’ (Will Go A Long Way” by Chris Scruggs

Giant Giant Sand
Return to Tucson
DETAILS
Format: 12″ Vinyl
Label: Fire / Cargo
More Info:
limited to 1000 copies. 12″LP featuring 8 remixes by John Parish and Ali chant from tracks that featured on 2012’s ‘Tucson’ LP.
SIDE A: Lost love (John Parish + Ali Chant Remix); Undiscovered Country (John Parish Remix); Wind Blown Waltz (John Parish + Ali Chant Alternative Mix); Thing Like That (Ali Chant Extended Version) SIDE B: Carinito (Ali Chant Alternative Mix); Not The End Of The World (Ali Chant Alternative Version); Hard Morning in a Soft Blur (Chris Schultz Extended Version(; Forever & A Day (John Parish + Ali Chant Alternative Mix)

Golden Gunn (Steve Gunn + Hiss Golden Messenger)
Golden Gunn
Format: 12″ Vinyl
Label: Three Lobed / Thrill Jockey
More Info:
Golden Gunn is a collaboration between Steve Gunn and Hiss Golden Messenger. LP comes with a download code. Only 870 made.

Jackie Greene
Love Is A Shining Catastrophe/Sweet Somewhere Bound 7
DETAILS
Format: 7″ Vinyl
Label: self-released
More Info:
7″ Vinyl Single in 4/c jacket with 2 “A” Sides and 5 song digital download.

Patty Griffin
Ohio
Format: 7″ Vinyl
Label: New West
More Info:
This is a single A-side 7” pressed on heavyweight vinyl. The vinyl is black, hand-numbered 1-500, and Patty will sign Side B on 25 of the records, which will be randomly distributed. This song is from her forthcoming album, American Kid, due out 5/14/13. This will come in an all white sleeve with a stamped logo and a stickered UPC.

IMAGINATIONAL ANTHEM VOL. 6 : ORIGINS OF AMERICAN PRIMITIVE GUITAR
Format: Gatefold Vinyl Ltd 1500
Label: Tompkins Square
If American Primitive Guitar begins with John Fahey and the Takoma School, then the actual origins of this sound is found within this collection of fourteen classic solo guitar performances. Recorded between 1923 to 1930, this set is the “Rosetta Stone” of style and repertoire tapped into deeply by Fahey, Basho & Rose, among many others. Sam McGee, Riley Puckett, Bayless Rose, Sylvester Weaver, Lemuel Turner, Frank Hutchison and Davey Miller are the rural artists included in this anthology. Each one of these showcases a particular technique and sensitivity sourced from the earlier 19th century parlor guitar tradition. Several of these sides are reissued for their first time including Sylvester Weaver’s “Guitar Blues” which is the first solo finger picked guitar solo ever recorded. Stunningly remastered and annotated by Christopher King.

Iron and Wine
Next to Paradise/Dirty Ocean
Format: 7″ Vinyl
Label: Warner Bros.
Release type: RSD Exclusive Release

Sarah Jarosz
Live At The Troubadour
Label: Sugar Hill

tift

Tift Merritt
Markings
DETAILS
Format: 12″ Vinyl
Label: Yep Roc
Release type: RSD Exclusive Release
More Info:
4-song 12″ featuring an unreleased track, a live track and two acoustic tracks from Traveling Alone. Covered with a tactile cross-stitched/embroidered record cover.

Mumford & Sons
Live at Bull Moose
DETAILS
Format: 10″ Vinyl
Label: Glassnote
More Info:
“””I Will Wait”” “”Ghosts That We Knew”” “”Where Are You Now”” “”Awake My Soul”” — 3 or 4 songs from their bull moose instore – 10″” version”

WillieNelsonCrazyVinyl.indd

Willie Nelson
Crazy: The Demo Sessions
Format: 12″ Vinyl
Label: Sugar Hill
More Info:
When Willie first got to Nashville he cut some demos for Ray Price and Hal Smith’s publishing company, Pamper Music. Though these cuts were used to pitch songs to artists (including ‘Crazy’ for Patsy Cline) and producers, many weren’t released. These 1960-1966 tracks are raw, real and really good, clearly the work of an artist/songwriter headed for stardom.

Willie Nelson
Someday My Prince Will Come
Label: Legacy

Waylon

Waylon Jennings / Old 97s
Format: 7″ Vinyl
Label: Omnivore Recordings
More Info:
2 x 7″
Two tracks from Old 97s sessions with Waylon Jennings, and two additional Old 97s demo tracks. Cover art by Jon Langford of the Mekons and Waco Brothers, and famed painter of country icons.
Iron Road The Other Shoe, Visiting Hours (1996 demo), Fireflies Take 2 (1996 demo)

Gram Parsons
Gram Parsons & The Fallen Angels-Live 1973 7
Format: 7″ Vinyl
Label: SIERRA
More Info:
Originally released in 1982 as a bonus 7″ EP to Sierra Records “Live 1973” LP release of Gram Parsons with Emmylou Harris with full color sleeve.
Side One: Medley- Bony Moronie, 40 Days, Almost Grown Side Two: Conversations, Doing It in the Bus, Broken EBS Box, Hot Burrito #1

Phosphorescent
Aw Come Aw Wry
Label: Misra Records
More Info:
Previously released title from Phosphorescent, and one of the best-selling, on Misra. This will be the first time that it is available on vinyl.

CHARLIE POOLE & THE HIGHLANDERS : THE COMPLETE PARAMOUNT & BRUNSWICK RECORDINGS, 1929
Vinyl w/ Poster Ltd 1500
From 1926 to 1930 one of the most popular rural string bands on record was Charlie Poole & The North Carolina Ramblers. Through their 78 RPM discs and their various performances, Charlie Poole was second only to Gid Tanner and His Skillet Lickers. Poole’s uniquely syncopated three finger banjo picking style coupled with his Piedmont vocal inflections eventually colored and defined much of what we consider “old-time” music. The classic configuration of banjo, fiddle and guitar with vocals was encouraged by the main label that promoted Poole but he also wanted to record instrumentals featuring twin-fiddle and piano. As renaming his group The Highlanders, Poole was able to actualize this musical vision. This collection contains all of the sides that Poole made with Roy Harvey, Lucy Terry, and twin-fiddlers Lonnie Austin & Odell Smith. Remastered in beautiful sound by Christopher King and with notes written by old-time musician and scholar Kinney Rorrer.

Punch Brothers
“Ahoy!” – 33 1/3 rpm Vinyl EP
Label: Nonesuch Records
For the first time, the EP has been pressed on 10″ vinyl for Record Store Day, and includes songs by Josh Ritter (“Another New World”), Gillian Welch and David Rawlings (“Down Along the Dixie Line”), Punch Brothers (“Squirrel of Possibility”), and Mclusky (“Icarus Smicarus”), along with one traditional tune, arranged by Punch Brothers (“Moonshiner”). Originall yrecorded during the Nashville sessions for their 2012 album Who’s Feeling Young Now?,

Richard Thompson
Salford Sunday
DETAILS
Format: 7″ Vinyl
Label: New West
More Info:This is a single A-side 7” pressed on heavyweight vinyl. This song is off of the release Electric (2/5/13). The vinyl is black, hand-numbered 1-500. Richard will sign Side B on 25 of the records, which will be distributed randomly

Frank Turner
Recovery
Format: 7″ Vinyl
Label: Interscope

Various Artists
Yep Roc Hearsay / They Call It Rock
Format: 12″ Vinyl
Label: Yep Roc
Release type: RSD Exclusive Release
More Info:
2 Song 12″ on clear vinyl, 24 Yep Roc Artist performing, DVD of recording session, hand made cover

Yonder Mountain String Band
Format: 12″ Vinyl
Label: Vanguard

News Round Up: Bruce Robison Video Diary, E.C. and Orna Ball Tribute

  • Check out the video tour diary from Bruce Robison as he Robert Earl Keen, Todd Snider proceed up and down the East Coast and back into Texas on their Barstool Tour.
  • Check out the excellent videos of Casey Driessen’s 5-string fiddle hunt video over at Bluegrass Blog.
  • Steel guitarist Robert D. Norred, one-time member of Hank Williams’ backing band for a short period in the late 1940s, died Sunday, Oct. 25.
  • Face A Frowning World (Available 12/8 – Tompkins Square) is a tribute to the old-timey and gospel music of  E.C. Ball and his wife Orna. The couple were lesser known contemporaries of the Carter Family and seldom ventured far from their home on the Virginia-North Carolina boarder (in Rugby, VA) where they owned a general store and service station. Featured performance by  Jon Langford,  The Handsome Family (offered as a download below),  Michael Hurley, Bonnie “Prince” Billy, the Health & Happiness Family Gospel Band of Louisville, Kentucky, and many others.

Jenny Jenkins by The Handsome Family

When I Get Home I’m Gonna Be Satisfied by Jon Langford

Steel guitarist Robert D. Norred, one-time member of Hank Williams’ backing band for a short period in the late 1940s, died Sunday, Oct. 25.

#c0c0b4

Album Review – Phosphorescent – To Willie (Dead Oceans)

Part of the appeal of the Texas Yoda is his ability to musically transform himself in ways that balance his musical curiosity with a foxes eye towards expanding his market. This allows him to be the steward of this own musical journey and makes him a beacon for artists that prefer to forge their own path.

Mathew Houck aka: Phosphorescent’s sound is similar to fellow alt.folk/slowcore solo-artists-using-revolving-bands-and-alias’-with-a-partiality-toward-heaps-of-facial-hair Will Oldham aka: Bonnie “Prince” Billy and Samual Beard aka: Iron and Wine, and actual bands like The Mountain Goats, Mark Kozelek’s Red House Painters and the man I consider the granddaddy of the genre Nick Drake. Sparse, somber and wistful these bedroom troubadour’s introspection borders on emotional honesty and precious self-indulgence.

With For Willie Houck leaves these other artists in the dust. The album is done, primarily, with a palpable love for Willie and his work. The album cover art obviously alludes to Willie’s own To Lefty from Willie but Houck displays self-aware humility by not including his name in the title.  The cuts dig deep into Willie’s back catalog to uncover gems rather than  well- known tunes. This is a smart move since it allows Houck some leverage for stylistic interpretation. But Houck is no deconstructionist and the soul of the songs remain intact. Too Sick To Pray features guitar reminiscent to will gut-string hillbilly jazz style and Walkin’ is a straight-up steel driven barroom weeper. Can I Sleep In Your Arms sounds shimmers like a rodeo-angel choir lament to lost love and The Last Thing I Needed (First Thing This Morning) beautifully exposes the melancholy heart beating within the song

The album’s sparse production is reminiscent of Willie’s own criminally underrated Spirit and Daniel Lanois produced Teatro. Willie has always been too innovative to fit in the Nashville country music straight-jacket and these works might have been what bought the attention of Houck  in the first place. I would like to hear Houck  do some originals in this style and perhaps he could tuen out to be the artistic bridge between Willie Nelson and the alt.folk/slowcore territory instead of just an adroit interpreter.

Amazon | MySpace | Dead Oceans Site

Phosphorescent- Reasons to Quit

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-XGhPrsODw[/youtube]