TRAiPSiNG THRU the AiSLES: add these to your basket
August 5, 2024
Scott Foley, purveyor of dust
First things first, it's exceedingly important to make sure readers are aware that Maria McKee and Lone Justice have just announced a new record. Due October 25, Viva Lone Justice features a lineup of McKee, Ryan Hedgecock, the late Don Heffington, and Marvin Etzioni on a mix of covers and originals. Covers include "Teenage Kicks" originally from the Undertones and Dolly Parton's "I Will Always Love You". Longtime readers are away of the centrality of McKee and her band to what we do here at R&B, despite her extended absence from recording. We've embedded their take on the trad "Jenny Jenkins" above.
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Is country disco a good thing? Who cares. Artists like Peck are great for our kind of music, ignoring boundaries, pushing expectations with this collection of collaborations. The first couple albums from the masked crooner might've taken themselves a touch more seriously, but self-seriousness has never been a quality we admire in an artist. What works best on Stampede is Peck's tunes with lesser known names like Bu Cuaron and Debbii Dawson, though collabs with Noah Cyrus and Nathaniel Rateliff bear listening too. A generational singer whose baritone can do drama as readily as parody, Peck leans heavily into camp on the sessions, though nearly everything holds well together. His take on Magnetic Fields' "Papa Was a Rodeo" with Molly Tuttle is terrific, and Peck's run through Margo Price's original, "You're An Asshole, I Can't Stand You (and I Want a Divorce)" makes for a perfect pairing. Following a deliberate retreat from a grueling tour schedule, Stamped provides a great reset and a fine distraction. Do we need his run through "Saturday Night's Alright" with Elton John? No. But again, who cares. Enjoy the sandbox.
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At some point every successful scrappy little band from the small nowhere town needs to change. For many bands, this entails betraying the soil that birthed them, incorporating new sounds that they feel are expected of them. For those bands, the allegiance is to success itself, as opposed to their roots. From lil' Castlewood, Virginia, Isaac Gibson and 49 Winchester have evolved and matured since their 2014 self-titled debut, but they seem to have made all the right choices, as evidenced in the focus of their fifth full-length, Leavin' This Holler. Partnering with Stewart Myers, producer and co-writer for 2022's breakthrough, Fortune Favors the Bold, the band's new set sounds huge, doubling down on rock trappings for many of Gibson's small town stories. The upbeat "Hillbilly Happy" celebrates Appalachian culture, even if They roll up the sidewalks early in the evening / And on Sunday they don't even sell beer. The song exits with an extended, stage-ready rave-up, with na-na-na's cast through the mix. "Tulsa" cites both Don Williams and Kenny Rogers for a country rocking road warrior story, thick with weed smoke and electric guitars. While Isaac Gibson trades in every common country rock cliche, 49 Winchester's songs are sturdy and likeable. A co-write with Kendall Marvel, "Favor" is an earnest and folky number with fiddle and slapping drums beneath a positive message: The only thing we're given is today / So drink it up and love your neighbor / Try and do someone a favor. "Make It Count" lands its heartland Springsteen punches with a memorable melody, while "Traveling Band" features Noah Patrick's pedal steel: We see a whole lot of gas station bathrooms / And a whole lot of hotel pools. The most ambitious moments of Leavin' This Holler incorporate strings from the Czech National Symphony Orchestra. "Fast Asleep" alternates between acoustic verses and a dramatic emotional sledgehammer of a chorus, while the collection closes with "Anchor", a stormy ballad that unleashes Gibson's powerful vocals. While much has changed since the band departed small town USA for festival stages, this fifth record shows that 49 Winchester continue to write from a perspective of their front porch in Castlewood.
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