Tag Archives: Wrinkle Neck Mules

New Americana and Roots Music Releases for 2015

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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”

The Best of 2009

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best-09

It’s been a bumper-crop year for Americana and roots music. There are many reasons for this sonic bonanza but I believe the main drive results from an aging generation used to genre defying music now looking for something a little more comfortable, but no less challenging, as they move from their 20s to their 30s. A generation that grew to see mash-ups as a newly formed musical expression are much more comfortable with genre bending acts like The Drive By Truckers and Deer Tick, and the success of recent T. Bone Burnett stewarded projects, the O’ Brother Where Art Thou soundtrack and Robert Plant and Allison Krauss’ Raising Sand brings older performers and songs to a new audience and shows that the music is not only interesting and exciting, and in a culture steeped in hipster irony something emotionally authentic, but it can make money as well.

Maybe part of the boom was the newly added Americana Grammy category (yeah, I don’t buy that either), or maybe this aging population are used to the internet and discovering music their way instead of having pre-fabricated crap shoved down our throats by the big labels whose only business plan over the last decade is to sue the fans and squeeze musicians tighter, and the commercial radio stations that enable them. As a grassroots cultural correction Americana, like punk rock in the 70’s, is a response to this environment of mediocrity. Only this time it’s with a banjo instead of a Fender Jaguar and a Mohawk (though some of these musicians do sport Mohawks) and wielding the power of social media that does much of the jobs the big labels used to do a generation ago. Whatever the reason for all the music, I’m just happy to be a recipient and humble purveyor of all the goods, and I hope some of you readers find some of this stuff interesting as well.

I’ve expanded my top 10 list to 20 this year to make room for this great embarrassment of riches. By doing this I’ve also done away with my addendum Honorable Mentions, which was always kind of like a cheat anyway.

I was honored to be included with 29 of the best music blogger compadres around in the top 20 Bird List, but I have to admit that the list I submitted for that list has changed about 10 more times ultimately resulting in the list you now see before you….enjoy, disagree, fume and fret ,leap for joy, whatever…just get me some of that spiked Nog while you’re up.

1. Charlie Robison – Beautiful Day (turning life’s lemons into Luckenbach lemon-aid)
2. Kris Kristofferson- Closer To The Bone (#2 this year, but career-wide nobody can touch Kristofferson for songwriting.)
3. Gretchen Peters with Tom Russell – One To The Heart, One To The Head (a brilliant Western cinematic duet)
4. Lindsay Fuller and the Cheap Dates –Self Titled (Flannery O’Connor with a telecaster)
5. Miranda Lambert – Revolution (The anti-Taylor works from inside Music City)
6. George Strait – Twang (The King of Country. Period)
7. Tom Russell – Blood and Candle Smoke (Beat poet hillbilly travels dusty roads and smoky coffee shops with members of Calexico)
8. Carolyn Mark and NQ Arbuckle – Let’s Just Stay Here (Quirky yet familiarly cozy Canadian country music)
9. Corb Lund – Losin` Lately Gambler(See Canadian reference above)
10. Grant Langston – Stand Up Man (Bakersfield is alive and well)
11. Wrinkle Neck Mules – Let The Lead Fly (alt.country is alive and well)
12. William Elliott Whitmore – Animals In The Dark (punk and folk ethos delivered with timeless soul)
13. Amanda Shires – West Cross Timbers (Winsome chanteuse travels dark and dusty regions of the heart)
14. Angela Easterling – Black Top Road (Roots/Rock sweetheart with a folk sense of cultural activism)
15. Willie Nelson & Asleep at the Wheel – Willie and the Wheel (perfect union channels the spirit of Bob Wills)
16. Todd Snider – Excitement Plan (Steve Earle should study this release, social commentary doesn’t have to suck)
17. Justin Townes Earle – Midnight At The Movies (the younger Earle continues to make his mark by reaching into country music’s past)
18. The Felice Brothers – Yonder is the Clock (The Basement Tapes run through a dark prism)
19. Guy Clark – Somedays The Song Writes You (A Texas treasure that can do no wrong)
20. Deer Tick – Born on Flag Day (Indy spirit that uses twang as a strong driver)
21. Those Darlins – Self-titled (Riot Grrrl spunk with a Carter Sisters trad reverence)

It’s been a bumper-crop year for Americana and roots music. There are many reasons for this sonic bonanza but I believe the main drive results from an aging
generation of people used genre defying music but now looking for something a little more comfortable, but no less challenging, as they move from their 20s to their
30s. Kids that grew to see mash-ups as a newly formed musical expression are much more comfortable with genre bending acts like The Drive By Truckers and Deer Tick.
The success of recent T. Bone Burnett stewarded projects, the O’ Brother Where Art Thou soundtrack and Robert Plant and Allison Krauss’ Raising Sand shows that the music is not only interesting and exciting but can make money as well.

Maybe it was the newly added Americana Grammy category (yeah, I don’t buy that neither), or maybe this aging population are used to the internet and discovering music their way instead of having pre-fabricated crap shoved down our throats by the big labels whose only business plan over the last decade is to sue the fans and squeeze musicians tighter, and the commercial radio stations that enable them. As a grassroots cultural correction Americana, like punk rock in the 70’s, is a response to this environment of medicocrity. Only this time it’s with a banjo instead of a Fender Jaguar and a Mohawk (though some of these musicians do sport Mohawks.) Whatever the reason for all the music, I’m just happy to be a recipient and humble purveyer of all the goods, and I hope some of you readers find some of this stuff interesting as well.

http://www.thebirdlist.org/

I’ve expanded my top 10 list to 20 this year to make room for this great embarrassment of riches. By doing this I’ve also done away with my addendum Honorable Mentions, which was always kind of like a cheat anyway.

I was honored to be included with 29 of my music blogger compadres in the top 20 Bird List, but I have to admit that the list I submitted for that list has changed about 10 more times ultimately resulting in the list you now see before you….enjoy, disagree, fume and fret ,leap for joy, whatever…just get me some of that spiked Nog while you’re up.

1. Charlie Robison – Beautiful Day (turning life’s lemons into Luckenbach lemon-aid)
2. Kris Kristofferson- Closer To The Bone (#2 this year, but career-wide tobody can touch Kristofferson for songwriting.)
3. Gretchen Peters with Tom Russell – One To The Heart, One To The Head (a brilliant Western cinematic duet)
4. Lindsay Fuller and the Cheap Dates -Self Titled (Flannery O’Connor with a telecaster)
5. Miranda Lambert – Revolution (The anti-Taylor works from inside Music City)
6. George Strait – Twang (The King of Country. Period)
7. Tom Russell – Blood and Candle Smoke (Beat poet hillbilly travels dusty roads and smoky coffee shops with members of Calexico)
8. Carolyn Mark and NQ Arbuckle – Let’s Just Stay Here (Quirky yet familiarly cozy Canadian country music)
9. Corb Lund – Losin` Lately Gambler(See Canadian reference above)
10. Grant Langston – Stand Up Man (Bakersfield is alive and well)
11. Let The Lead Fly – Wrinkle Neck Mules (alt.country is alive and well)
12. William Elliott Whitmore – Animals In The Dark (punk and folk ethos delivered with timeless soul)
13. Amanda Shires – West Cross Timbers (Winsome chanteuse travels dark and dusty regions of the heart)
14. Angela Easterling – Black Top Road
15. Rita Hosking – Come Sunrise
16. Todd Snider’s Excitement Plan
17. Justin Townes Earle – Midnight At The Movies
18. The Felice Brothers – Yonder is the Clock
19. Guy Clark – Somedays The Song Writes You
20. Deer Tick – Born on Flag Day
21. The Builders & The Butchers – Salvation is a Deep Dark Well

Music Review: Wrinkle Neck Mules – Let the Lead Fly [Lower 40 Records 2009]

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Lead_Fly_CD-208x208Richmond, Virginia’s Wrinkle Neck Mules’ fourth studio release Let the Lead Fly finds the band – Andy Stepanian on vocal, guitar, mandolin, Mason Brent on vocal, guitar, mandolin, pedal steel, Brian Gregory on vocal, bass, Stuart Gunter on drums and Chase Heard on vocal, guitar, banjo – strips down their earlier sound resulting in this fine rustic Americana bedrock veined with flashes of indy rock gold that fits well with other roots rockers like The Drive By Truckers,  Son Volt and American Gun.

The music of the hills and hollers is part of the backbone of rock and roll, but by dipping deeper into the well of influence Let the Lead Fly fits together the contemporary and the old timey like a snug harness. The title cut, with Andy Stepanian’s graveled Fogerty-like hollerin’ and top-notch fiddle, sounds as natural as an off-the-cuff front porch hullabaloo. Heard takes on the vocals for the mid-tempo Fortune Fades is a tunes that sounds like Jay Farrar stopped by The Band’s up state New York Big Pink hideout for a Summer night jam.

Stepanian and Heard use thier respective strengths to harmonize on rustic-jangle of Medicine Bow and Dopamine Dream has a nice Red Dirt regional twang with guitar and pedal steel (which is interlaced throughout this release nicely) playing off each other nicely. Interplay between the old-timey and the contemporary doesn’t stop there, The mountain lament The Waters All Run Dry dapples with clawhammer banjo and is met later in the song with a sweet run of electric guitar. Sepia colored memories are the source the smooth barroom shuffle of Catfish and Color TVs and Howard Johnson tells the tale the simple pleasures of a small town hangout. Let the Lead Fly is a great release  that,  strikes the right balance of old and new connected by excellent songwriting and performance chops. I can’t wait ’til the WNM reload.

Official Site | MySpace | Buy

four-half-rate

Wrinkle Neck Mules -  Let the Lead Fly.mp3
Wrinkle Neck Mules – The Waters All Run Dry.mp3