ROUTES & BRANCHES
featuring the very best of americana, alt.country and roots music
August 30, 2024
Scott Foley, purveyor of dust
WHAT's SO GREAT ABOUT THiS WEEK?!!
Eliza McLamb, "God Take Me Out Of LA" single (Royal Mountain, Aug 28)
The co-host of the popular Binchtopia podcast released a pop full-length in January, and is already back with a decidedly country-flavored follow-up single. On top of all this, McLamb writes a blog, on which she contributed some thoughtful words on Chappell Roan's comments about today's rabid fandom. While there's no promise she will stay in this roots-adjacent lane for long, "God Take Me" is an unexpectedly good song for someone who might just be momentarily dabbling in our kind of music.
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Noeline Hofmann, "August" Purple Gas EP (La Honda, Oct 4)
From Canada, this young songwriter benefited from a bump provided by Zach Bryan, who requested to join her for a duet on her "Purple Gas". Accompanying an announcement of her forthcoming EP, Hofmann shared another new single, featuring some impressively poetic lyrics: Haze hangs heavy like a heartache / Stinging my eyes / Prairie gold, hayfever, I'm grieving / August. You'll also want to check out Hofmann's solo acoustic video of the song from a couple months ago.
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Jennifer Castle, "Lucky #8" Camelot (Paradise Of Bachelors, Nov 8)
This Canadian singer-songwriter landed her "Blowing Kisses" from earlier this year on FX's The Bear, which isn't a bad way to introduce your new record. "Lucky #8" is a bit more upbeat, featuring some nice guitar from Cass McCombs, and lyrics that seem to incorporate physics, mathematics, and the movement of the human body: Just give the money to the dancers / While their hips go figure eight / And they entrance us with the answers / I hope it's not too late ...
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Wussy Duo, "I Hear You Calling" (Bill Fay cover)
Thanks to Dead Oceans and a series of tribute covers, 81 year-end British songwriter Bill Fay has experienced a resurgence more than fifty years since he stepped away from the biz. Performing as the Wussy Duo, Chuck Cleaver and Lisa Walker create a lovely, dreamy tribute of their own, recorded in their home studio, which Walker describes as a laptop on a rolling kitchen cart. The duo will embark on a brief tour in October, so one might be forgiven for hoping that more new, original Wussy music can't be far behind.
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Billy Strings, "Stratosphere Blues/I Believe In You" Highway Prayers (Reprise, Sep 27)
Gotta admit that we haven't fallen as hard for Billy Strings as the americana mainstream. We genuinely disliked the first single from his forthcoming CD, "Leadfoot" - songs about driving fast are only second to songs likening love to food in our pantheon of cliches we resent. "Stratosphere", however, couldn't be more different, with its atmospherics and acoustic picking, kicking over to sweet strings. This second single demonstrates some welcome restraint and a bit of introspection, what Strings himself sums up as some of the realest shit I've written ...
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