featuring the very best of americana, alt.country and roots music
January 11, 2026
Scott Foley, purveyor of dust
Those Big Music floodgates have a habit of restricting the flow of new stuff for the first several weeks of the new year. To begin 2026, however, there's been an unexpectedly strong bunch of new announcements.
We've been enjoying Arbor Labor Union's new prog-folk Out to Pasture since it first snuck out on Bandcamp a few weeks ago. Jay Farrar and Shannon McNally released a very limited edition collection of duets last year that has finally been added to streaming services. We're also quite taken by Destination Heaven, the new collaborative project from Euphoria Again and Dogwood Tales. That said ...
IF YOU ONLY LiSTEN to ONE RECORD THiS WEEK
It's not unusual this time of year to entertain doubts and second-guesses about our year-end favorites. With our thorough awareness of pivotal new releases from week-to-week, what's more unexpected is coming across a record that might have earned a prominent ranking had we been aware of it.
From British Columbia, Theresa Anne Bromley released her debut full-length as Pony Gold in October. While High Road Reverie (Neon Moon, Oct 3) did receive a bit of attention in Canada, the record escaped notice further south. Produced by longtime artist, musician, and producer Leeroy Stagger, and supported by members of City and Colour, Deep Dark Woods, and other notables, the collection should at least have caught the ears of bloggers driven by new music discovery. But we whiffed on Pony Gold.
Bromley's story isn't entirely unique - absent father, addiction, trying to escape that small-ass town. As Pony Gold, however, she tells her story exceptionally well, leaving us with loose ends and more than a couple unresolved issues. There's nowhere but up from here, she sings, accompanied by Kendel Carson's fiddle on one of the album's chasing the dream tunes. Joined by her brother Matt on slide guitar, "Big In the City" resonates like a country radio ringer, Now it's someday and I'm looking back. Bromley's melodic gift carries "Impossible Dream" as well, a song that portrays the narrator balancing responsibilities and bad habits: Spent my last ten dollars to get me gone.
Reverie delivers no fewer than three (3) excellent songs, bolstered with Stagger's full-service production. Just as captivating are the cuts that dial back the live studio band, encouraging the singer's voice and story to the fore. "Wait For Me" coaxes the Patty Griffin-like soul from Bromley: Where the fuck has time gone. "Little Horse" and "From a Jail in Washington" succeed in translating her very personal stories onto a larger stage without sacrificing the intimacy. Coping with the added challenge of addiction, the songwriter never casts blame for her lot on anyone but herself. On the Lucinda-esque "Angel of Misery", Bromley confesses, I've been the wreckage and the cause.
Those more introspective moments tend to gather toward the record's close, but offer an alternative impression from the tracks with fuller production. "Love Song" features a crunchy guitar solo, with writing that evokes Waxahatchee's americana series, and "Montreal" splits the difference between honky-tonk country and bar band blues. Like Clover Country (to whom we did pay attention), or Sophie Gault, Theresa Anne Bromley should be supported as among the stronger up-and-coming artists in our kind of music.
ROUTES-cast January 11, 2026
^ Pony Gold, "Big In the City" High Road Reverie (Neon Moon, 25)
- Anna Tivel, "Memphis" Animal Poem B-sides EP (Fluff & Gravy, Mar 6)
- Cordovas, "Back to Life" Back to Life (Yep Roc, Jan 30)
- Jay Farrar & Shannon McNally, "Blood On the Tea Leaves" Don't Ya Take It Too Bad (Transmit Sound, 25) D
- Emily Scott Robinson, "Hymn For the Unholy" Appalachia (Oh Boy, Jan 30)
- John Craigie, "Dry Land" I Swam Here (Zabriskie Point, Feb 6)
- Sammy Brue, "Love At a Glance" The Journals (Bloodshot, Jan 23)
- Jared Hart, "Ready To Go (ft Ben Nichols)" single (Mt Crushmore, 26) D
- Joe Pernice, "Black and the Blue" Sunny I Was Wrong (New West, Apr 3) D
- Chicago Farmer, "Mattress" Homeaid (LoHi, Mar 6)
- Yarn, "Good Things" Saturday Night Sermon (333, Apr 24) D
- Pert Near Sandstone, "Pipe Dream" Side By Side (PNS, Feb 27)
- Clay Street Unit, "Drive" Sin & Squalor (LEO33, Feb 13)
- Brit Taylor, "Warning You Whiskey" Land Of the Forgotten (Cut A Shine, Mar 6) D
- Zach Bryan, "Plastic Cigarette" With Heaven On Top (Belting Bronco, 26) D
- Tyler Halverson, "Like the Rodeo (ft Wade Forster)" In Defense Of Drinking (Big Hit Herefords, Feb 13)
- Euphoria Again & Dogwood Tales, "At Least I'm Not Lonely Tonight" Destination Heaven (Born Losers, 26) D
- August Ponthier, "I'm Crying Are You" Everywhere Isn't Texas (Nowhereland, Feb 13) D
- Meels, "Vultures" Across the Raccoon Strait EP (Lost Highway, Jan 30) D
- Melissa Carper & Theo Lawrence, "Good Luck To Ya" Havin' a Talk (Warner, Feb 6)
- Bonnie Prince Billy, "They Keep Trying To Find You" We Are Together Again (No Quarter, Mar 6) D
- Iron & Wine, "In Your Ocean" Hen's Teeth (Sub Pop, Feb 27) D
- Buck Meek, "Gasoline" The Mirror (4AD, Feb 27) D
- Young Fresh Fellows, "Destination (ft Neko Case) " Loft (Yep Roc, Mar 27) D
- Daniel Romano, "Autopoiet" Preservers Of the Pearl (You've Changed, Mar 13) D
- Jay Buchanan, "True Black" Weapons Of Beauty (Sacred Tongue, Feb 6)
- Jesper Lindell, "Drift Away" 3614 Jackson Highway (Yep Roc, Mar 6)
- Olympians, "Honey Bea" In Search Of a Revival (Daptone, Feb 13) D
- Parlor Greens, "Eat Your Greens" Emeralds (Colemine, Mar 27) D
- Arbor Labor Union, "Out To Pasture" Out To Pasture (Sophomore Lounge, 26) D
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