featuring the very best of americana, alt.country and roots music
August 2, 2024
Scott Foley, purveyor of dust
Friday is when we select just a handful of tracks that have stood out to us during the past week or so. This Episode, most will be pre-release singles or standalone cuts, stuff that impresses with its melodicism, lyricism, or ... just plain neatness.
Up until now we've been launching these song-focused lists just once a month. Beginning today, however, we're going to effort three to five songs per week, with videos! We call it:
WHAT's SO GREAT ABOUT THiS WEEK?!!
Why Bonnie, "Rhyme Or Reason" Wish On the Bone (Fire Talk, Aug 30)
The Brooklyn outfit's 2022 full length debut, 90 In November (Keeled Scales) featured a more chill, folkier vibe than what we've heard from the follow-up, but so far we've found ourselves more drawn to the new, noisier tracks. Singer-songwriter Blair Howerton has shared that the emotions behind her brother's passing fueled "Rhyme Or Reason": coming to terms with the impermanence of life and how that's scary but also really beautiful. Electric guitar opens to a shoegazy full band buzz, a tripping drum pattern and a beautifully mournful vocal: Like Halley's Comet / I've only heard of it / I've never seen its streak / But I have heard it comes fast / And you'll miss it if you blink. Howerton has our attention.
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Amythyst Kiah, "Play God and Destroy the World (ft SG Goodman)" Still + Bright (Rounder, Oct 25)
Cowritten with Sadler Vaden, this first single from Kiah's October album drops with a thunderclap and the Tennessee banjoist's confrontational declaration: Suburban smiles are just a fraud / Is it yourself you serve / You taunt us with crosses you hide behind / I see through them all. Produced with Butch Walker and featuring a fiery verse from SG Goodman, "Play God" traces back to a fifteen year-old girl's reaction to The Matrix, coming of age as a misfit in suburbia. With marching guitars and a dark electric undercurrent, it's a long way from Kiah's earlier work with Our Native Daughters.
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Jesse Welles, "The Poor" single (Welles, Jul 26)
It was just a month ago that Welles appeared on our radar with Hells Welles, a twenty-one song collection that gathered many of the pieces featured in videos of the folk artist playing amidst various expanses of greenery. His debut LP was a definite throwback. featuring nothing more than the man, his acoustic, and a scratchy delivery, addressing issues from fentanyl to fat, cancer to "Trump trailers". Welles has shared two more songs in the past week, including "The Poor": If you worked a little harder / Then you'd have a lot more / So the blame and the shame's on you / For being so damn poor. There's a real purity and directness to Welles' songs, and it will be fascinating to see what becomes of him in the coming months.
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MJ Lenderman, "Joker Lips" Manning Fireworks (Anti, Sept 6)
It's been a short strange trip since Lenderman and his band Wednesday leapt into popular awareness with last year's excellently noisy Rat Saw God. The guitarist has always kept a solo career, as evidenced most recently by '22's Boat Songs and last year's live collection, but September's Manning Fireworks has even been earning some attention from americana circles. The vibe here is slacker alt.country, with stony lyrics a'la Kurt Vile, the likes of Kahlua shooter / DUI scooter / With a rolling start on the hill. Now we eagerly await Karly Hartzman stepping from behind the Wednesday moniker.
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Haley Heynderickx, "Seed Of a Seed" single (Mama Bird, Jul 30)
It was back in 2018 that Portland songwriter Haley Heynderickx landed on our year-end favorites list with I Need To Start a Garden. Her first song (seemingly from a new collection) shoots for the heart rather than the stars, a seemingly simple piece built on her strummed acoustic and cello: Well, did my parents know better / No, but they tried, Heynderickx sings. "Seed Of a Seed" was written in an uncertain time, where I was deeply seeking stability and simplicity (... and still am!).
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