ROUTES & BRANCHES
featuring the very best of americana, alt.country and roots music
June 7, 2014
Scott  Foley

My wife doesn't frequent my blog, but today she was trying to help a friend of a friend and paid a visit.  Her comments were cursory but constructive, focusing on typos and such, "I should read it more often".  Truth be told, I didn't fall for her because of her discerning taste in music.  We lived on the same dorm floor as undergrads.  While my room was stacked with boxes of LPs and crates of cassettes (yes, cassettes), she needed little more than homemade tapes of the Carpenters, John Denver and Cat Stevens to make her own musical statement.  Anyhow, one question she posed after browsing my blog was, "So, after your little essays, is that list of songs a playlist for your show each week?"  Bingo!  "Maybe you should explain that to your reader(s)." 

In the event you share my wife's infrequent enjoyment of my blog, perhaps I should introduce myself anew.  I'm Scott Foley, and I host a weekly radio program on KRFC in Fort Collins, Colorado called Routes & Branches, featuring the very best of americana, alt.country and roots music.  The show has its genesis maybe a dozen years ago at KRVM in Eugene, Oregon, the oldest FM station west of the Mississippi.  While I often pretended to be on the radio as a child, it wasn't until much later than I set out on my path to broadcast glory as the Summer substitute host for a friend's folk music program.  I am presently KRFC's Music Director, as well as serving as a 3/4 time librarian.  I have spent the vast majority of my vocational life in the book industry.  My musical appreciation vastly overflows what can loosely be termed "americana", so I also air the occasional "Mix" show at KRFC.  Most lately, I'm carrying every other Thursday morning from 8-10am (mt).  For the sake of this blog, I write brief blurbs about albums.  What follows these little essays is a weekly playlist for my Routes & Branches radio broadcast (which you can stream online at krfcfm.org).  I truly hope this is a revelation to only my wife ...

This week we give some airtime to a plainspoken but endearing debut from Tennessee's Joseph LeMay.  Andrew Bird records an entire record of Handsome Family covers (because he can).  And I realize that in the process of losing her Lost High Rollers, Zoe Muth has found her voice and largely realized the promise of her earlier work. 

Now here's that playlist I told you about ...

*  Sturgill Simpson, "Turtles All the Way Down"  Metamodern Sounds in Country Music  (High Top Mt, 14)
*  Larry & His Flask, "West Virginia Chocolate Drop"  All That We Know  (Self, 11)
*  Christopher Denny, "Our Kind of Love"  If the Roses Don't Kill Us  (Partisan, 14)
*  Nikki Lane, "Sleep With a Stranger"  All or Nothin'  (New West, 14)
*  Joe Purdy, "That Diamond Ring"  Eagle Rock Fire  (Mud Town Crier, 14)
*  Wooden Wand, "Don't This Look Like the Dark"  Farewell Transmission  (Rock the Cause, 14)
^  Zoe Muth, "Waltz of the Wayward Wind"  World of Strangers  (Signature Sounds, 14)
*  Old 97s, "Wheels Off"  Most Messed Up  (ATO, 14)
*  Old Crow Medicine Show, "Dearly Departed Friend"  Remedy  (ATO, 14)
*  Phosphorescent, "Joe Tex, These Taming Blues"  Aw Come Aw Wry  (Misra, 05)
*  NQ Arbuckle, "Red Wine"  Future Happens Anyway  (Six Shooter, 14)
*  Felice Brothers, "No Trouble"  Favorite Waitress  (Dualtone, 14)
*  Andrew Bird, "Tin Foiled"  Things Are Really Great Here, Sort Of ...  (E1, 14)  D
*  Centro-Matic, "Relative Unto the Aces"  Take Pride In Your Long Odds  (Navigational Transmissions, 14)
*  Anders Parker, "Don't Let the Darkness In"  There's a Bluebird In My Heart  (Recorded & Freed, 14)  D
*  Farrar Johnson Parker James, "I Was a Goner"  New Multitudes  (Rounder, 11)
*  Lee Bains III & Glory Fires, "Dereconstructed"  Dereconstructed  (Sub Pop, 14)
*  Lonesome Shack, "Big Ditch"  More Primitive  (Alive Naturalsound, 14)
*  Dead Fingers, "Big Black Dog"  Big Black Dog  (Dead Fingers, 14) D
*  Delines, "Colfax Avenue"  Colfax  (El Cortez, 14)
*  Amy LaVere, "Rabbit"  Runaway's Diary  (Archer, 14)
*  Joseph LeMay, "Possumhaw" Seventeen Acres  (Self, 14)  D
*  Alejandro Escovedo, "Rhapsody"  Man Under the Influence  (Bloodshot, 01)
*  Edward David Anderson, "Son of a Plumber"  Lies & Wishes  (Royal Potato Family, 14)
*  Shovels & Rope, "Devil Is All Around"  Swimmin' Time  (Dualtone, 14)  D
*  Josh Nolan, "Lulbegrud Revival (Golden Age)"  Fair City Lights  (Self, 14)
*  Hellbound Glory, "Small Township"  LV  (Low Down Home, 14)
*  Carolina Story, "I'm Gonna Love You Forever"  Chapter Two  (True Bearing, 14)  D

 ... and hey:  should you ever want to have your music considered for play on KRFC, feel free to send a CD or two to Scott Foley c/o KRFC, 619 S. College #4, Fort Collins, CO  80524.  Thanks to my wife, and to everyone else who has expressed an appreciation for what I've been doing over the years.