ROUTES & BRANCHES
featuring the very best of americana, alt.country and roots music
November 2, 2025
Scott Foley, purveyor of dust
Now that we've achieved November, we can almost see to the end of 2025. This allows us to populate the R&B calendar with our award-dodging year-end lists.
Nov 30: Favorite Covers
Dec 7: State of Americana
Dec 14: Favorite Songs
Dec 21: Christmas Christmas
Dec 28: Favorite Albums
IF YOU ONLY LiSTEN to ONE RECORD THiS WEEK
Regular readers are accustomed to our tendency to highlight less mainstream selections from week to week. F'rinstance, one of our favorite albums for the year is Alan Sparhawk's collaboration with Trampled by Turtles. This Episode, we'll direct your attention to another even left-er field pairing that brings together Chat Pile with Hayden Pedigo. We'd planned for In the Earth Again to be our weekly pick (we're even gonna leave their picture up there), but that was prior to the surprise appearance of Snocaps.
Before Katie Crutchfield released her one-two volley of Waxahatchee's St Cloud and Tigers Blood, prior to MJ Lenderman's guitar-driven genre reset, there was PS Eliot. A product of twin sisters Katie and Allison Crutchfield, PS Eliot never really registered on the roots music radar like Waxahatchee and Lenderman. The sisters are back together with the surprise release of Snocaps (Anti), paired with Lenderman and producer/instrumentalist Brad Cook. Snocaps, the ensemble, are largely defined by the Crutchfields' close but edgy harmonies and sharp pop songwriting sensibilities, but are supported in their new supergroup by Lenderman's brashly melodic electric guitar. With songs that are brief and to the point, Snocaps strikes a balance between PS Eliot's bratty attitude and Waxahatchee's latter day indie-roots, which is not a great surprise given the fact that Cook and co contributed to those projects as well. These dozen songs will land softer on the ears of listeners of fringe and indie-adjacent roots music, those who recognized the importance of Waxahatchee's records to our kind of stuff. We quote all our friends / Like they're round table poets / The stars of old films.
ROUTES-cast November 2, 2025
- Snocaps, "Angel Wings" Snocaps (Anti, 25) D
^ Chat Pile & Hayden Pedigo, "Magic of the World" In the Earth Again (Computer Students, 25)
- Ratboys, "Anywhere" Singin' to an Empty Chair (New West, Feb 6)
- Weather Station, "Airport" single (Fat Possum, 25) D
- Micah P Hinson, "Hallow" Tomorrow Man (Ponderosa, 25)
- Red River Dialect, "Basic Country Mustard" single (Hinterground, 25) D
- Alexa Rose, "Promising What" Atmosphere (First City, 25)
- Aubrie Sellers, "Villain of the Week" single (Carnival, 25) D
- Matt Kivel, "Tidal Wave" Escape From LA (Scissor Tail, Dec 12) D
- Tim Heidecker, "Alone Until I'm Home" Passages: Artists in Solidarity (Western Vinyl, Dec 5)
- Futurebirds, "Well Meaning SOB" Deluxe Company (Dualtone, 25)
- Damien Jurado, "Celia Weston" Private Hospital (Maraqopa, 25) D
- Bartees Strange, "Ain't Nobody Making Me High" Shy Bairns Get Nowt EP (4AD, 25) D
- Julianna Riolino, "On a Bluebird's Wing" Echo in the Dust (MoonWhistle, 25)
- HowlOwlHowl, "My Cologne" single (HOH, 25) D
- Greensky Bluegrass, "Past My Prime (ft Nathaniel Rateliff)" XXV (Big Blue Zoo, 25)
- Infamous Stringdusters, "Light At the End of the Day" 20/20 (Americana Vibes, Feb 13) D
- Marty Stuart, "Over the Moon" Space Junk (Snakefarm, 25) D
- Devil Makes Three, "Fingers to the Bone" Spirits (Deluxe Edition) (New West, 25)
- Jesse Sykes & Sweet Hereafter, "Forever I've Been Being Born" Forever I've Been Being Born (Southern Lord, Nov 28)
- Orville Peck, "Drift Away" Appaloosa EP (Warner, Nov 14) D
- Jeremy Pinnell, "Pink Champagne" Decades (Sofaburn, 25)
- Colter Wall, "Longer You Hold On" Memories and Empties (La Honda, Nov 14)
- Sophie Gault, "Unhinged" Unhinged (Torrez, Jan 23)
- Joelton Mayfield, "Blame" Crowd Pleaser (Bloodshot, 25)
- Cameron Knowler, "Sunflower River Blues" single (Castle Dome, 25) D
- Alice Phoebe Lou, "Sparkle" Oblivion (Nettwerk, 25)
- Anna McClellan, "Always Changing" single (Father/Daughter, 25) D
- Nick Shoulders, "Western Meta Sin" Refugia Blues (Gar Hole, 25)
- Lankum, "Ghost Town" single (Rough Trade, 25) D
--------------------------
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:
No comments:
Post a Comment