Monday, May 30, 2022

WHAT's SO GREAT ABOUT MAY?!!

ROUTES & BRANCHES
featuring the very best of americana, alt.country and roots music
May 30, 2022
Scott Foley, purveyor of dust

This weekend I was readying my half-year favorites list, given the fact that we were facing the onset of June. This exercise was delayed when an associate mentioned that we would not meet our halfway point until the end of June. In light of that revelation, we'll turn our collective attention to our ten favorite songs for the month just passed. 

Not an easy exercise, given the fact that May has unloaded such a wealth of records to consider. Heck, we're not even done picking thru the wreckage left by May 20th's record-setting release storm. Nevertheless, we foolishly persist: 


WHAT's SO GREAT ABOUT MAY?!!

1. Laney Jones, "Can't Stop the Rain" Stories Up High  (Tone Tree, May 20)
2. Wilco, "Tired of Taking it Out on You" Cruel Country  (dBpm, May 27)
3. 49 Winchester, "Second Chance" Fortune Favors the Bold  (New West, May 13)
4. Gillian Welch & David Rawlings, "I Just Came Home to Count the Memories" Something Borrowed Something New: Tribute to John Anderson  (Easy Eye, Aug 5)
5. Drive-by Truckers, "Every Single Storied Flameout" Welcome 2 Club XIII  (ATO, Jun 3)
6. Amanda Shires, "Hawk For the Dove" Take it Like a Man  (ATO, Jul 29)
7. Caleb Caudle, "Little Reminders" single  (Soundly, 22)
8. Willi Carlisle, "Life on the Fence" Peculiar, Missouri  (Free Dirt, Jul 15)
9. Wynonna & Waxahatchee, "Other Side" single  (Anti, May 24)
10. Joan Shelley, "Amberlit Morning (feat. Bill Callahan)" The Spur  (No Quarter, Jun 24)

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Even as we assess the damage left in the wake of May, we continue to add stuff to A Routes & Branches Guide To Feeding Your Monster, our lovingly tended release calendar. The last few days included the second solo album by former Uncle Lucius frontman Kevin Galloway. Secondhand Starlight will arrive June 22 on Nine Mile Records. Begun as a lark in 2008, the collaboration between M Ward and Zooey Deschanel has lasted longer than expected. Expect the next She & Him project on July 22, with Melt Away: A Tribute to Brian Wilson (Fantasy). Also in 2008, Joe Pug released a revelatory Nation of Heat EP. Pug revisits those earliest songs on Nation of Heat Revisited, re-recording them in light of all he has learned in the ensuing years (Nation Head, July 22). Possibly distracted by her work with Jason Isbell's 400 Unit and the Highwomen, it's been four years since Amanda Shires' last non-holiday solo LP. That will change with the release of Take It Like a Man (ATO, July 29). Finally, we're thrilled to announce the next collection by one of our favorite songwriters. Andrew Combs has planned an August 19 release for Sundays (Tone Tree). 

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