ROUTES & BRANCHES
featuring the very best of americana, alt.country and roots music
October 25, 2024
Scott Foley, purveyor of dust
Here's where we select just five (5) of the week's songs to carry in our pocket for the coming weekend. We were also impressed with Jobi Riccio's new standalone single, and Anna McClellan's "Omaha", both songs which will appear on Sunday's Spotify ROUTES-cast. We've taken to embedding videos for each of our favorite cuts, though this week only two of the selections actually offer anything to look at aside from Good Looks' mailbox or a shirtless Cameron Winter. We call it
WHAT's SO GREAT ABOUT THiS WEEK?!!
Good Looks, "Damage Control" single (Keeled Scales, Oct 23)
June marked the release of Good Looks' sophomore project, the rambling and shambolic Lived Here For a While (Keeled Scales). The Austin quartet have returned with a pair of new songs, each trading in the electric jangle with which they've begun to earn their reputation. Vocalist Tyler Jordan admits, I was listening to a lot of Big Star when I started writing ... it's not the most gracious breakup song, but it's a photo of a feeling and a moment in time. Fresh off a handful of shows with Futurebirds, Good Looks will begin their 2025 on the road in the UK.
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Rosali, "Hey Heron" single (Merge, Oct 22)
Recorded with David Nance's band, Rosali Middleman's Bite Down was an early highlight for the year. "Hey Heron" arrives as a follow-up single, a tune which had its official debut on the Cardinals At the Window benefit compilation for North Carolina hurricane relief. A formidable indie folk guitarist, Rosali's instrument echoes fiercely from all corners of "Hey Heron", as strong a song as we've yet heard from Rosali.
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Bonnie Prince Billy, "Our Home (ft Tim O'Brien)" The Purple Bird (No Quarter, Jan 31)
There are few more prolific artists that Will Oldham, the tireless force behind Bonnie Prince Billy. As we mentioned yesterday, January's Purple Bird marks one of the few times he's worked with a producer, David Ferguson, whom he met while working with Johnny Cash on his cover of "I See a Darkness". His new project also finds Oldham pairing with Tim O'Brien who cowrote the rustic "Our Home", which seems to indicate BPB's return to more folk/country ground: Harvest the honey and string up the beans / That's how we make it our home / Do it by hand and screw the machines / That's how we make it our home.
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Gold Star, "Fentanyl" How To Shoot the Moon (Gold Star, Nov 15)
Marlon Rabenreither releases music under the Gold Star name for obvious reasons, though this fact does not make it any easier to search for details on the LA artist's new "Fentanyl" single. The songwriter is candid on the inspiration behind the first song from his November full-length: I have personally overdosed on fentanyl, and know just how terrifying that can be, but I also know many more who weren't as lucky as I was. Rabenreither's intimate vocal is enveloped by Sean O'Brien lap steel on the track that is a touch more expansive than Gold Star's previous work
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Cameron Winter, "Vines" single (Partisan, Oct 22)
As the frontman for Geese, Cameron Winter is a terrifically compelling and idiosyncratic vocalist. That said, his two-sided single comes as a real surprise, tender and literate and delivered with a pathos as yet unheard from the singer. Like Rufus Wainwright, there's a theatricality to his performance, with its piano and modest string accompaniment. The accompanying single, "Take It With You" is equally affecting (we'll likely add it to next week's Spotify ROUTES-cast). While we enjoyed last year's 3D Country record from Geese, "Vines" is altogether something else (and it's evident Winter spent his allowance on the recordings, as opposed to new shirts or glamorous publicity shots).
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