featuring the very best of americana, alt.country and roots music
June 30, 2024
Scott Foley, purveyor of dust
Are we late to this parade? I guess it depends on where/how you divide the year. Blogs have been dropping their mid-year lists since late May. Either way, it's our turn to assess the year-to-date, to identify just thirty (30) records that have separated themselves from the proverbial pack.
In any given year just around half of these mid-year selections have tended to make it to our year-end favorites lists, with a couple hundred releases awaiting our ears between now and January. We present these in order of appearance at this point, rather than preference, since a lot can happen in the next six months, and we don't want to be held to anything. That said, we've also tagged our current ten favorites with one of these: %. We call it:
WHAT's SO GREAT ABOUT the FiRST HALF of 2024?!!
Brown Horse, Reservoir (Loose, Jan 19)
Old Heavy Hands, Small Fires (OHH, Jan 19)
Willie Carlisle, Critterland (Signature Sounds, Jan 26)
Sarah Jarosz, Polaroid Lovers (Rounder, Jan 26)
Frontier Ruckus, On the Northline (Sitcom Universe, Feb 16)
Tucker Riggleman & Cheap Dates, Restless Spirit (WarHen, Feb 17)
Hurray For the Riff Raff, Past Is Still Alive (Nonesuch, Feb 23) %
Hanging Stars, On a Golden Shore (Loose, Mar 8)
Sierra Ferrell, Trail Of Flowers (Rounder, Mar 22)
Cody Jinks, Change the Game (Late August, Mar 22)
Adrianne Lenker, Bright Future (4AD, Mar 22) %
Rosali, Bite Down (Merge, Mar 22) %
Waxahatchee, Tigers Blood (Anti, Mar 22) %
Scott Ballew, Rio Bravo (LaHonda, Mar 29)
Sarah Shook & the Disarmers, Revelations (Abeyance, Mar 29)
Kyle Kimbrell, Easy Truths (Cornelius Chapel, Apr 5)
John Moreland, Visitor (Old Omens, Apr 5) %
Old 97s, American Primitive (ATO, Apr 5)
Pernice Brothers, Who Will You Believe (New West, Apr 5) %
Katie Pruitt, Mantras (Rounder, Apr 5)
Lucy Rose, This Ain't the Way You Go Out (Communion, Apr 19)
Lawrence Rothman, Plow That Broke the Plains (KRO, Apr 26)
Adeem the Artist, Anniversary (Four Quarters, May 3) %
Blitzen Trapper, 100s Of 1000s Millions Of Billions (Yep Roc, May 17)
Ana Egge, Sharing In the Spirit (StorySound, May 17)
Joe Kaplow, Posh Poodle Krystal and Toe (Fluff & Gravy, May 17)
Anna Tivel, Living Thing (Fluff & Gravy, May 31) %
Bonny Light Horseman, Keep Me On Your Mind/See You Free (Jagjaguwar, Jun 7) %
Good Looks, Lived Here For a While (Keeled Scales, Jun 7)
Dead Tongues, Body Of Light (Psychic Hotline, Jun 14) %
Stuff we felt sorta bad leaving off the list, so we're putting it down here because you never know: David Nance, Leslie Stevens, Black Keys, Marcus King, Phosphorescent, Aaron West & the Roaring Twenties, Nicolette & the Nobodies, Loose Collars, Charley Crockett, Sarah Gayle Meech, Kelsey Waldon, Jenny Don't & the Spurs, Connie Smith, Daniel Romano, Emily Nenni, Jessica Pratt
... and we'd be remiss if we didn't also take a sec to add our awesome weight behind our favorite tracks for the month. This feature happens at R&B HQ on the final Episode of just about every month. June's offerings have proven to be a worthy bunch, relatively challenging to pare down. A couple June LP releases included a couple candidates for the list (our arbitrary rule dictates just one song per artist per list). Owing to time constraints, we weren't even able to include anything from this Episode's ROUTES-cast. God knows why, but we do rank these. We call them:
WHAT's SO GREAT ABOUT JUNE?!!
1. Anna Tivel, "Disposable Camera" Living Thing (Fluff & Gravy, May 31)
2. Bonny Light Horseman, "Old Dutch" Keep Me On Your Mind/See You Free (Jagjaguwar, Jun 7)
3. Dead Tongues, "Dirt For a Dying Sun" Body Of Light (Psychic Hotline, Jun 14)
4. Jeff Crosby, "Silver Lining" Another Petal Falls Off the Rose (Runnin' Free, Jul 26)
5. Futurebirds, "Solitaires" Easy Company (Dualtone, Aug 9)
6. Silverada, "Radio Wave" Silverada (Prairie Rose, Jun 28)
7. Laney Jones, "Say Yes" single (AHPO, Jun 5)
8. Denitia, "Back To You" Sunset Drive (County Road, Sep 6)
9. Massy Ferguson, "So Long Carry On" single (North and Left, Jun 21)
10. Sophie Gault, "Lately (ft Gabe Lee)" Baltic Street Hotel (Strong Place, Sep 20)
And then, let's start harvesting data for the second half of 2024.
ROUTES-cast June 30, 2024
- Felice Brothers, "Black Is My True Love's Hair" Valley Of Abandoned Songs (Million Stars, 24)
- X, "Big Black X" Smoke & Fiction (Fat Possum, Aug 2) D
- Wilco, "Annihilation" Hot Sun Cool Shroud EP (dBpm, 24) D
- Bright Eyes, "Bells and Whistles" Five Dice All Threes (Dead Oceans, Sep 20) D
- MJ Lenderman, "She's Leaving You" Manning Fireworks (Anti, Sep 6) D
- Silverada, "Eagle Rare" Silverada (Prairie Rose, 24)
- Kaitlin Butts, "Other Girls (Ain't Havin' Any Fun)" Roadrunner! (Soundly, 24)
- 49 Winchester, "Tulsa" Leavin' This Holler (New West, Aug 2)
- Melissa Carper, "Somewhere Between Texas and Tennessee" Borned In Ya (Mae Music, Jul 19)
- Johnny Cash, "Have You Ever Been To Little Rock" Songwriter (Mercury, 24)
- Tyler Childers, "Song While You're Away" Twisters: the Album (Universal, Jul 19) D
- Fruition, "Saturday Night" How To Make Mistakes (Fruition, Aug 23) D
- Jeff Crosby, "Another Petal Falls Off the Rose" Another Petal Falls Off the Rose (Runnin' Free, Jul 26)
- Skylar Gudasz, "Truck" Country (Perseids, Aug 9) D
- Joe Ely, "Driven To Drive" Driven To Drive (Rack 'Em, Aug 2)
- Caleb Caudle, "Knee Deep Blues" Sweet Critters (Caudle, Aug 30)
- American Aquarium, "Messy As a Magnolia" Fear Of Standing Still (Losing Side, Jul 26)
- Bob Sumner, "Motel Room" Some Place To Rest Easy (Fluff & Gravy, Sep 9) D
- Yarn, "Traveling Kind" Born Blessed Grateful & Alive (Symphonic Distribution, Jul 26)
- Liv Greene, "Deep Feeler" Deep Feeler (Free Dirt, Oct 18) D
- Kevin Gordon, "Simple Things" The In Between (Little Rain, Sep 13) D
- Kiely Connell, "Restless Bones" My Own Company (Calumet Queen, Jul 19)
- JD McPherson, "Sunshine Getaway" Nite Owls (New West, Sep 27) D
- Wayne Graham, "A Silent Prayer" Bastion (Hickman Holler, Sep 6) D
- Josiah & the Bonnevilles, "Good Luck Babe" single (Josiah, 24) D
- Aaron Frazer, "Perfect Strangers" Into the Blue (Dead Oceans, 24)
- Nathaniel Rateliff & Night Sweats, "Cars In the Desert" South Of Here (Stax, 24)
- Luke Winslow-King, "Peaches" Flash-A-Magic (Bloodshot, Sep 6)
- Leif Vollebekk, "Southern Star" Revelation (Secret City, Sep 27)
- Nathan Bowles Trio, "Our Air" Are Possible (Drag City, Jul 26)
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To enjoy our weekly Spotify ROUTES-cast, just open Spotify and search for "routesandbranches" to access this most recent playlist, as well as many others from past months. Or click here for a preview:
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