featuring the very best of americana, alt.country and roots music
August 31, 2025
Scott Foley, purveyor of dust
We think the byline of this site, the very best of americana, alt.country and roots music, is plenty. We've used it since The Radio Days, way back before the beginning of the blog. On the other hand, the byline also fails to encompass all we embrace here at R&B HQ. While we continue to feature the americana from which we spawned seventeen-ish years ago, genres are restricting by definition. The official party line has shifted here and there to accommodate changes in our kind of music, but mainstream americana atrophies over time. Current releases from artists who once landed on our year-end favorites list now might seem tired and lacking creativity. Or maybe we're just restless.
Anyhow, this week's full releases include a satisfying indie-roots release from Foot Ox, another draught of soul-infused folk from Floating Action, the return of the reliable Moviola, and welcome projects from frequent end-of-year favorites Margo Price and Anna Tivel. Nevertheless:
IF YOU ONLY LiSTEN to ONE RECORD THiS WEEK
We're pleased to announce that, five albums deep into her career, Caroline Spence hasn't fallen into that aforementioned americana rut. Heart Go Wild, like 2019's excellent Mint Condition, doesn't deliver by pushing boundaries and flouting tradition. The epitome of a Nashville songwriter, Spence simply pens great country-folk songs and honors them with tastefully polished arrangements. Like Patty Griffin or Lori McKenna, she can be whisper-soft and vulnerable. Caroline Spence also wields an almost peerless ear for pop melodicism on songs like "Soft Animal" and "Effortless". She doesn't flirt with the edges of our kind of music, but she is the sort of just-under-the-radar gift that kindles our flickering hope in americana.
ROUTES-cast August 31, 2025
^ Caroline Spence, "Where the Light Gets Through" Heart Go Wild (Spence, 25)
- Amanda Shires, "Piece of Mind" Nobody's Girl (ATO, Sep 26)
- Rodney Crowell, "Louisiana Sunshine Feeling Okay (ft Larkin Poe)" Airline Highway (New West, 25)
- Joan Shelley, "The Orchard" Real Warmth (No Quarter, Sep 19)
- Anna Tivel, "Paradise" Animal Poems (Fluff & Gravy, 25)
- Brothers Comatose, "Blue Mountain" Golden Grass (Swamp Jam, Sep 12)
- Kolton Moore & Clever Few, "Brave the Weather" A Place That I Call Home (Motion & Thought, Sep 26)
- Silverada, "Measure of a Man" Texas 42 (Prairie Rose, 25)
- Margo Price, "Love Me Like You Used To Do (ft Tyler Childers)" Hard Headed Woman (Loma Vista, 25)
- Van Plating, "Song of Everything (ft Heather Little)" single (Singular, 25) D
- Brent Cobb, "Power Man (ft Cody Cannon, Whiskey Myers)" single (Ol' Buddy, 25) D
- S Carey, "Watercress" Watercress EP (Jagjaguwar, Oct 3) D
- Dean Johnson, "Perfect Stranger" I Hope We Can Still Be Friends (Saddle Creek, 25)
- Tommy Prine, "Caught in the Wake" Love Circle EP (Nameless Knight, 25)
- Case Oats, "Wishing Stone" Last Missouri Exit (Merge, 25)
- Thomas Dollbaum, "Angus Valley" Drive All Night EP (Dear Life, Sep 26) D
- Scott Ballew, "One Trick Pony" Paradiso (Leisure Rodeo, Sep 12)
- Moviola, "Hillbilly Effigy" Earthbound (Dromedary, 25)
- Julianna Riolino, "Full Moon (ft Weird Nightmare)" Echo in the Dust (MoonWhistle, Oct 24)
- Foot Ox, "Go With" A Lighthouse With Silver Dog Eyes (Ernest Jenning, 25)
- Alabama Shakes, "Another Life" single (Island, 25) D
- Spoon, "Chateau Blues" single (Matador, 25) D
- Geese, "100 Horses" Getting Killed (Partisan, Sep 26)
- Geckos, "Lo Hice" Geckos (Geckos, Sep 26)
- Savannah Conley, "Love You Mean It" Love You Mean It EP (Conley, Oct 24) D
- Bright Eyes, "Dyslexic Palindrome (ft Hurray for the Riff Raff)" Kids Table EP (Dead Oceans, Sep 26) D
- Boo Boos, "Toughest Bitch I Know" Young Love (Play it Again Sam, Sep 19)
- Floating Action, "History's Saddest Loadout" A Hand Carved Garden Tool (Airloom, 25)
- Mavis Staples, "Beautiful Strangers" Sad and Beautiful World (Anti, Nov 7)
- Chat Pile & Hayden Pedigo, "Radioactive Dreams" In the Earth Again (Computer Students, Oct 31) D
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To enjoy any 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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