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Wanted! – Notable Americana and Roots Music Releases for 2020

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2019 turned out to be another excellent year for Americana and roots music. Releases from John Paul White, Buddy and Julie Miller, Chuck Mead, Tanya Tucker, and many others were cause for celebration for the music we love. Roots radio continues to gain listeners and mainstream country radio continues to, occasionally, remember its roots and reflect the shift in tastes of a growing fan base.

But radio is just part of the story. We listened to this timeless music through the format du jour, streaming services. Spotify has several internally curated playlists for Americana and roots music ( The Pulse of Americana, Roots Rising,
Fresh Folk ) as well as my own semi-weekly playlist ‘Twang Nation Friday New Tunes Hayride Then there’s the vinyl boom which roots music artists and fans played a significant part.

2020 starts off right with releases from Gill Landry, Terry Allen, Maria McKee, Della Mae and Pinegrove with releases from John Moreland, The Lone Bellow, The Cadillac Three, and Aubrie Sellers releasing in February. Then there are yet-to-be-announced release dates for James McMurtry and others. Bookmark and check back to this list as we will update those dates and add other releases as we learn more.

Also if you know of a release not on the list feel free to add it below.

Thanks for keeping up with Twang Nation and happy 2020!

January
Jan. 10: Paul Kelly – Songs From the South 1985-2019
Jan. 10: Aerialists – “Dear Sienna”
Jan. 13: Maria McKee – ‘La Vita Nuova’
Jan. 13: Left Arm Tan – self-titled
Jan. 15: David Dondero – ‘The Filter Bubble Blues’
Jan. 17: Eleven Hundred Springs – ‘Here ‘Tis’
Jan. 17: Marcus King – ‘El Dorado’
Jan. 17: Marshall Crenshaw – ‘Miracle of Science’
Jan. 17: Pinegrove – ‘Marigold’
Jan. 17: The Innocence Mission – ‘see you tomorrow’
Jan. 17: Della Mae – ‘Headlight’
Jan. 17: Torgeir Waldemar – ‘Love’
Jan. 17: Fruition – ‘Broken at the Break of Day’
Jan. 17: Bill Fay – “Countless Branches”
Jan. 17: Dwight Yoakam – Blame The Vain (Vinyl Reissue)
Jan. 17: Buck Owens – ‘The Capitol Singles & Albums 1957-62’
Jan. 17: Buck Owens & Susan Raye / Very Best Of (Vinyl)
Jan.22: Vance Gilbert – ‘Good Good Man’
Jan.22: Gill Landry – ‘Love Rides A Dark Horse’
Jan 24: Terry Allen and the Panhandle Mystery Band – ‘Just Like Moby Dick’
Jan 24: Bonny Light Horseman – self-titled debut
Jan 24: Kailey Nicole – self-titled EP
Jan 24: Mrs. Henry Presents: ‘Live at the Casbah’
Jan 24: The Wood Brothers – ‘Kingdom in My Mind’
Jan 24: Bart Bugwig – ;Another Burn on the Astroturf’
Jan 24: The Haden Triplets – ‘The Family Songbook’
Jan 24: The Lil Smokies – ‘Tornillo’
Jan 24: Joy Mills Band – ‘Echolocator’
Jan 24: Kailey Nicole – self-titled
Jan 24: Steve Scott – ‘No Love For The Common Man’
Jan 24: Caitlin Sherman – ‘Death To The Damsel’
Jan 31: Dustbowl Revival – ‘Is It You, Is It Me’
Jan 31: Brian Johannesen – “Holster Your Silver”
Jan 31: Possessed By Paul James – ‘As We Go Wandering’
Jan 31: Tre Burt – ‘Caught It from the Rye’
Jan 31: Drive-by Truckers – ‘The Unraveling’
Jan 31: Cave Flowers – self-titled
Jan 31: Blackie & the Rodeo Kings – ‘King of This Town’
Jan 31: Sophie & The Broken Things – self-titled
Jan 31: Glenn Jones – ‘Ready For The Good Times’
Jan 31: Eric Brace & Last Train Home – ‘Daytime Highs and Overnight Lows’
Jan 31: RB Morris – ‘Going Back To The Sky’
Jan 31: Tomar & the FCs – ‘Rise Above’

February
Feb. 1: Glenn Jones Are You Ready For The Good Times
Feb. 7: Hank Williams – ‘Pictures From Life’s Other Side’
Feb. 7: John Moreland – “LP5”
Feb. 7: The Lone Bellow – “Half Moon Light”
Feb. 7: The Cadillac Three – “Country Fuzz”
Feb. 7: Aubrie Sellers – “Far From Home”
Feb. 7: Dom Flemons – ‘Prospect Hill: The American Songster Omnibus’
Feb. 7: Miss Tess – ‘The Moon Is an Ashtray’
Feb. 7: Darling West – ‘We’ll Never Know Unless We Try’
Feb. 7: Elkhorn – ‘The Storm Sessions’
Feb. 7: The Steeldrivers – “Bad For You’
Feb. 7: Frazey Ford – ‘U kin B the Sun’
Feb. 7: Corinne Sharlet – ‘Deceiver’ EP
Feb. 7: Chicago Farmer – ‘Flyover Country’
Feb. 7: David Allen – ‘Regrets and Retribution’
Feb. 7: Flyin’ A’s – ‘No Holds Barred’
Feb. 7: Supersuckers – ‘Play That Rock n’ Roll’
Feb. 7: William Prince – ‘Reliever’
Feb. 7: Frank & Allie Lee – ‘Treat A Stranger Right’
Feb. 7: Lynne Hanson – ‘Just Words’
Feb: 14: Phil Madeira – “Open Heart”
Feb. 14: Tami Neilson – CHICKABOOM!
Feb. 14: Robert Vincent – ‘In This Town You’re Owned’
Feb. 14: Jeremiah Johnson – ‘Heavens to Betsy’
Feb. 14: Little Misty – ‘Old Ghosts’
Feb. 14: The Third Mind – self-titled debut
Feb. 21: Nora Jane Struthers – “Bright Lights, Long Drives, First Words”
Feb. 21: Arik Dov – ‘The Man’ ep
Feb 28: The Secret Sisters – “Saturn Return”
Feb 28: Sierra Hull – ’25 Trips’
Feb 28: Pam Tillis – new album
Feb 28: Waco Brothers – ‘RESIST!’
Feb 28: Chelsea Lovitt – ‘You Had Your Cake, So Lie in It’
Feb 28: Avi Kaplan – ‘ I’ll Get By’

March
March 6: The Panhandlers – Josh Abbott, John Baumann, Cleto Cordero and William Clark Green – self-titled
March 6: The Mastersons- ‘No Time for Love Songs’
March 6: Brandy Clark – ‘Your Life is a Record’
March 6: Jim Lauderdale – ‘When Carolina Comes Home Again’
March 6: Will Sexton – ‘Don’t Walk the Darkness’
March 6: Green Leaf Rustlers – ‘Within Marin’
March 6: Aoife O’Donovan – ‘The Bull Frogs Croon (and Other Songs)’ EP
March 13: Dave Simonett (from Tramped By Turtles) – “Red Tail”
March 13: Sam Doores (of The Deslondes and formerly Hurray for the Riff Raff) – self-titled
March 13: Anna Lynch – ‘Apples in Fall’ EP
March 13: Outlaw Billy Don Burns -‘The Country Blues’
March 15: Sons of the Pioneers – ‘The Lost Masters’
March 20: Delta Rae – ‘The Light’
March 20: Carla Olson – ‘Have Harmony Will Travel 2’
March 27: Lilly Hiatt – ‘Walking Proof’
March 27: Marie Miller – ‘Little Dreams’
March 27: Kim Richey – ‘A Long Way Back: the Songs of Glimmer’
March 27: Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real – ‘Naked Garden’

April
April 3: Caleb Caudle – ‘Better Hurry Up’
April 3: The Nine Seas – ‘Dream of Me’
April 3: Ruthie Collins – ‘Cold Comfort’
April 3: Lisa Lambe – ‘Juniper’
April 3: Matthew McNeal – ‘Good Grief’
April 3: Christy Lynn Band – ‘Sweetheart of the Radio’
April 10: John Anderson – ‘Years’
April 10: Eliza Gilkyson – ‘2020’
April 10: Watkins Family Hour – ‘ brother sister’
April 17: Shelby Lynne – self-titled
April 17: The Reverend Shawn Amos – ‘Blue Sky’
April 17: Girl Skin – ‘Shade is on the other side’
April 17: The White Buffalo – ‘On The Widow’s Walk’
April 17: Joe Ely – ‘Love in the Midst of Mayhem’
April 20: Nicholas Jamerson – ‘The Wild Frontier’
April 24: Teddy Thompson – ‘Heartbreaker’
April 24: Sailing Stones – ‘Polymnia’
April 24: Lucinda Williams – “Good Souls Better Angels”
April 24: Whitney Rose – ‘We Still Go to Rodeos’
April 24: Corb Lund – ‘Agricultural Tragic’
April 24: Willie Nelson – ‘First Rose Of Spring’
April 24: The Lowest Pair – ‘The Perfect Plan’
April 24: Pam Tillis – ‘Looking for a Feeling’
April 24: Kyle LaLone – ‘Somewhere In Between’
April 26: Randy Rogers Band – ‘Hellbent’
April ?: Van Darien – ‘Levee’

May
May 1: Elijah Ocean – ‘Blue Jeans & Barstools’
May 1: Cayley Thomas – ‘How Else Can I Tell You?’
May 1: American Aquarium – ‘Lamentations’
May 8: Andrew Hibbard – self-titled
May 8: Liv Greene – ‘Every Bright Penny’
May 8: Randy Rogers and Wade Bowen – Hold My Beer Vol. 2
May 15: Chatham County Line – ‘Strange Fascination’
May 15: Chuck Prophet – ‘The Land That Time Forgot’
May 15: Jason Isbell – ‘Reunions’
May 15: Lesley Barth – “Big Time Baby”
May 22: Reckless Kelly – ‘American Girls’ & ‘American Jackpot’
May 22: Steve Earle & The Dukes – ‘Ghosts of West Virginia’
May 22: Jarrod Dickenson -“Ready The Horses”
May 29: Jake Blount – ‘Spider Tales’
May 29: Jaime Wyatt – ‘Neon Cross’

June
June 5: Sarah Jarosz – ‘World On The Ground’
June 5: Turkeyfoot – “Promise of Tomorrow”
June 12: Sammy Brue – ‘Crash Test Kid’
June 12: Pert Near Sandstone – “Rising Tide”
June 19: Grayson Capps – “South Front Street”
June 19: Neil Young – “Homegrown”
June 19: Bob Dylan – Rough and Rowdy Ways
June 19: Blackberry Smoke – Live From Capricorn Sound Studios
June 19: Darlin’ Brando – Also, Too…
June 19: Don Bryant – You Make Me Feel
June 19: Kristen Grainger & True North – ‘Ghost Tattoo’
June 26: Corb Lund – ‘Agricultural Tragic’
June 26: Country Westerns – ‘Country Westerns’
June 26: Scroggins & Rose – ‘Curios’
June 26: Emily Duff – ‘Born On The Ground’
June 26: Will Hoge – ‘Tiny Little Movies’
June 26: Arielle Silver – ‘A Thousand Tiny Torches’

July
July 10: The Jayhawks – “XOXO”
July 10: Joshua Ray Walker – “Glad You Made It”
July 10: Margo Price – ‘That’s How Rumors Get Started’
July 10: Ray Wylie Hubbard – “Co-Starring”
July 10: The Jayhawks – ‘XOXO’
July 17: The Texas Gentlemen – “Floor It!!!”
July 24: Ted Russell Kamp – ‘Down in the Den’
July 24: Lori McKenna – “The Balladeer’
July 31: Charley Crockett – “Welcome To Hard Times”

August
August 2: The Avett Brothers – ‘The Third Gleam’
August 7: Steven Bruce – ‘Same Time, Same Place, Same Station’
August 14: Kathleen Edwards – ‘Total Freedom’
August 21: The Old 97’s -“Twelfth”
August 21: Mandy Barnett – ‘A Nashville Songbook’
August 21: Cidny Bullens – ‘Walkin’ Through This World’
August 21: Robert Gordon – ‘Rockabilly For Life’
August 28: Karen Jonas – ‘The Southwest Sky and Other Dreams’
August 28: Zephaniah OHora – Listening to the Music
August 28: Colter Wall – Western Swing & Waltzes and Other Punchy Songs
August 28: Justin Wells – The United State
August 28: Moe Bandy – A Love Like That
August 28: The Reeves Brothers – The Last Honky Tonk
August 28: Heidi Newfield – The Barfly Sessions
August 28: The Allman Betts Band – Bless Your Heart
August 28: The Northern Belle – We Wither, We Bloom

September
September 4: Carolina Story – “Dandelion”
September 4: India Ramey – ‘Shallow Graves’
September 11: Elizabeth Cook – “Aftermath”
September 18: Fred Eaglesmith & Tif Ginn – ‘Alive’
September 18: Otis Gibbs – ‘Hoosier National’
September 18: Brennen Leigh – ‘Prairie Love Letter’

October

Novenmber
November 6: Madison Cunningham – ‘Wednesday’
November 6: Jackslacks – ‘When Pigs Fly’
November 6: Johnnie & Jack with The Tennessee Mountain Boys – ‘Collection 1945-62’
November 6: Larry Keel – ‘American Dream’
November 13: Chris Stapleton – ‘Starting Over’

TBA
Carla Olson
Will Sexton
Cidny Bullens
Marshall Chapman
The Claudettes
James McMurtry
Amelia White – produced by Kim Richey

Cream of the Crop – Twang Nation Top Americana and Roots Music Picks of 2017

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Cream of the Crop – Twang Nation Top Americana and Roots Music Picks of 2017

Over that last 11 years of running this blog, roots and Americana has embedded itself as a fully realized and respected genre of cultural influence around the world. Bands and festivals from the UK, Australia, Japan and the Middle East are strapping on guitars, name dropping Townes Van Zandt and finding their inner hillbilly.

Though like most Best Of album lists around I’ve focused primarily on the cradle of Americana, the U.S., although the global influence cannot be underestimated. Traveling American artists find themselves with a ready and widening foreign market (oftentimes bigger than that at home) and visiting artists to The States face an open, if passionate and discerning, fanbase.

This global influence cannot be overemphasized, and I will address global Americana and roots bands in an upcoming post. Suffice to say, as might Ron Burgundy, globaly Americana is kind of a big deal.

The stylistic range and creative hunger embodies in these 10 following selections prove why the global appeal is occuring. Focus on songcraft and musicianship over studio trickery and hype alone is the lifeblood. Authenticity is a slippery concept bandied around to describe forms of music from hip-hop to punk where fakery and exploitation os trends is called out loud and mercilessly. And rightly so.

As our world slips further into digital version of the Greek myth of Narcissus, with the smartphone display as a glassy reflecting pool we longingly gaze into, we suffer a kind of cultural sickness. A sickness that ironically great song, itself a kind of Narcissism, can remind us of a shared yet isolated identity that happens when we hear it.

This crafting of shared narratives can slip from description of our journey tp prescriptive of our route. The current division within the U.S. (also largely fueled by technology) builds walls from our precious ideas separating us from understanding and, quite possibly, a change in perspective.

Whether you’re Billy Bragg or Ted Nugent, there’s a professional risk in wearing your ideology on your guitar strap. I applaud the professional stakes in the effort , but “This Land is Your Land” and “Blowin’ in the Wind’ are treasures precisely because they are the rare example of allegory over sermon that can move people.

The current charged political climate might compel artists to stretch their populist wings and create more topical songs. But many, even those that tenuously reflect my contradictory views, are little more than soapbox serenade slumming under the window of simple-minded politics, that constricts the mind instead of opening it.

2017 was another year of lost legends – Gregg Allman, Chuck Berry, Butch Trucks, Greg Trooper, guitarist Bob Wooton, Jimmy LaFave, Glen Campbell, Don Williams, Mel Tillis, Richard Dobson and others remind us how daunting their talent was and how
fleeting life is. Let’s hope for a calmer 2018.

Criteria – Calendar year 2017. No EPs, live, covers or re-release albums no matter how awesome.

Don’t see your favorite represented? Leave it in the comments, and here’s to a new year of Twang.

Zephaniah OHora – ‘This Highway’ – buy
If Zephaniah OHora didn’t exist he would have to be created. The mustache, slicked do, Man-in-Black wardrobe and a name right out of the Old Testament makes OHora gives the impression of a man right out of Country music central casting. But his full-length debut leaves no doubt that he’s a disciple of the classic era of Nashville Sound and Bakersfield honky-tonk and he’s here to testify to its righteousness. Songs like “I Do Believe I’ve Had Enough,” “I Can’t Let Go (Even Though I Set You Free)” and “She’s Leaving In The Morning,” evoke dark and smokey bars where tears poor like the tap beer. Is he putting us on? Perhaps, but I’m a believer.

Colter Wall – self-titled – buy
This sparse full-length debut from the man from Swift Current, Saskatchewan belies his 22 years on this planet. Produced by the hillbilly whisperer Dave Cobb songs like “Thirteen Silver Dollars” and ‘Motorcycle’ offer up a busted lip smile to world-weary vocals. Transistor radio static and train whistles intersperse with deft finger-picking across 11 dusty gems that pushes and pulls at the boundaries of Country and folk casting the mind back to a mythological romance of cowboy laments and hobo serenades.

Angaleena Presley – ‘Wrangled’ – buy
For her second solo venture the extraordinary Ms. Presley invited Pistol Annies co-conspirators Miranda Lambert, Ashley Monroe as well as Chris Stapleton, Queen of Rockabilly Wanda Jackson, Vanessa Olivarez as well as legendary Texas singer/songwriter Guy Clark on what would prove to be his final completed song ( “Cheer Up Little Darling.”) The result is a deft collection of sonic vignettes tracking the unique female narrative of broken dreams, busted hearts, babies having babies and kicking against the small-town hairsprayed Harpies bent on tearing her down. Presley has provided a perfect example of female fortitude, not by penning platitudes of empowerment, but by creating a compelling album that pushes Country music forward while paying respects to the past and celebrates the mess that is life.

Sunny Sweeney – ‘Trophy’ – buy
Texas singer/songwriter Sunny Sweeney has sometimes danced closely to becoming another country music blonde hell-bent to get a foothold in the mainstream country radio badlands. Good thing she didn’t break big or her fourth studio album ‘Trophy’ might not have been made. (Though I’m sure at this point she’d prefer being on the road in a tour bus headed to one of her many shows she plays each year) Barroom laments that save a stool for misery like ‘Pass the Pain’ or as songs starkly confessional Lori McKenna co-write “Bottle By My Bed” have no place on the good-timing party seeping from contemporary Country speakers. Not to suggest all is dour here, the barn-burner ‘Better Bad Idea’ and the slinkily, smoldering title cut has the same depth but with wry smile and plenty of fuel to get those boots tapping. The chops Sweeney picked up in Nashville is in display but done in compelling and a way that feels as real as it does entertaining.

Nicole Atkins – ‘Goodnight Rhonda Lee’ – buy
New Jersey’s Nicole Atkins’ fourth album, Goodnight Rhonda Lee is a fantastic study in facing adversity and embedding it in adult roots pop in the vein of Patsy Cline era Nashville Sound and Dusty Springfield’s ‘….in Memphis’ era. The songs are deeper, more sophisticated yet more playful than her earlier work. The brilliant opening track, “A Little Crazy,” is a torchy little gem co-written with fellow neo-trad afficiend Chris Isaak pulls your heart out through the speakers as Atkins’ voice soars along with a string section and pedal steel. The title track is a reverb drenched down old Mexico way that evokes Marty Robbins best-known El Paso. ‘Goodnight Rhonda Lee’ at its heart might be retro but to stop there would be unfair to this daunting effort.

Whiskey Shivers – ‘Some Part of Something’ – buy
Texas junkyard bluegrass outfit Whiskey Shivers kicked my ass when I saw them live. ‘Some Part of Something’ comes damn near to that ass-kicking moment. The opener ‘Cluck Ol’ Hen’ is a slinking slice of Southern gothic greatness that could easily come from the book of Brooklyn’s O Death. The bluegrass heat gets turnt up high on ‘Like A Stone’ and ‘Long Gone’ careening down a one-lane road with a rock slide of melody on one side and an open ledge of potential peril on the other. Fans of Split Lip Rayfield and The Meat Purveyors rejoice

Tyler Childers – ‘Purgatory’ – buy
Yes, yes you’ve heard that Tyler Childers’ ‘Purgatory’ was co-produced by Sturgill Simpson, but that’s the least interesting this about this starting debut. Like the best of the mongrel form known as Americana it’s hard to draw a hard line where 70’s Country music Gold , folk and Bluegrass reside. And that’s just in the album opener ‘I Swear (To God)’ that contains enough drug references that would make Hank III look for the local 12-step program.’Whitehouse Road’ is another tale of hard times and hard living with a Waylon-esque confidence and what I noticed was a distinct sound of a Jew’s harp. Childers’ ‘Purgatory’ take on the darkness of drug addiction, poverty, and murder is are lived-in tales of biting sincerity and musical aplomb that casts an eye to the legacy of roots music as it blazes its own trail.

Ray Wylie Hubbard – “Tell the Devil I’m Getting There as Fast as I Can.” – buy
On his 16th studio album Hubbard stays firmly in the groove he’s made since 2006’s ‘Snake Farm.’ Like fellow traveler Lucinda Williams (who makes an appearance on the title song) Hubbard has found a late-career sonic refuge in the blues. “Tell the Devil…’ is more tales of women, reptiles, voodoo, grease and tube amps – the stuff of life on the road he knows well. The Big Guy is is busy in the opener ‘God Looked Around’ that’s a tremolo tale that owes as much to the book of Lightnin’ Hopkins as it does the Book of Genesis. In my opinion Hubbard is Texas own Poet Laureate and the words that build “Tell the Devil…’ prove it’s so.

Lillie Mae – ‘Forever and Then Some’ – buy
Lillie Mae might have been Jack White’s go-to fiddle and mandolin player but on her debut she’s firmly placed herself as a formidable talent. The glorious roots-rock opener ‘Over the Hill and Through the Woods’ is like a lost cu from mid-70’s Neil Young and ‘Honky Tonks and Taverns’ is a stright-up two-stepper with Mae vocal pitching change remiecent of a yodel. LAike White, who produced ‘Forever and Then Some’ Lillie Mae carries an appreciation for past forms while not being slavishly dogmatic in her work.

Malcolm Holcombe – ‘Pretty Little Troubles’ – buy
Malcolm Holcombe 12th release of new music has him working with long-time co-conspirator in roots music Darrell Scott as producer and the results is nothing short of breathtaking. Holcombe’s backroad gravel vocals is the perfect vehicle for these sparse reflections on the world. On the album opener ‘Crippled Point O’ View’ b’s lyrics are indirect sketches of a troubled world and the imperfections of a human vehicle observing it
‘my tongue is quick to tangle speed, and douse the lights within, and burn my self respect to death, and warm my hands again. ‘Pretty Little Troubles’ is an organic gritty glory of listening pleasure of roots music and great songwriting from a master.