featuring the very best of americana, alt.country and roots music
December 26, 2021
Scott Foley, purveyor of dust
I love the reset the New Year offers. As a serial forward-looker, there's something cathartic about letting go of one year's music and fully committing to what's on the horizon. And as much as I embrace the challenge of curating our holiday Episode, I don't hate putting that stuff behind me either.
So we look forward, ever forward. When '21 clicks over to '22, we deliberately flip A Routes & Branches Guide To Feeding Your Monster so that what greets you on that page is what's to come (we'll still leave the stuff from '21 in case you're still working your way through it all). And the only request I have for the Baby New Year is this: Please 2022, please don't fuck this up. The world is what it is. But through politics and pandemics, while our planet burns and our neighbors become increasingly at odds with reason, please continue to surprise us with the musically unexpected. Challenge us with new sounds and present us with paths into the unknown.
Love, joy, laughter. We don't experience these things by following the familiar. An element of surprise is inherent in each of these. Sometimes the world will gift us by plopping the unexpected right in our path. But more often than not we encounter novelty by leaving that paved path, by stepping outside our comfort zones and by taking the long way home. For 2022 we resolve to do just that. If we're doing this right, our year-end favorites at this time next year will be brimming with the unpredictable.
- American Aquarium, "Small Town Saturday Night" Slappers Bangers & Certified Twangers Vol 2 (Losing Side, 21) D
- Old Crow Medicine Show, "Paint This Town" Paint This Town (ATO, Apr 22) D
- Blue Rodeo, "Opening Act" Many a Mile (Warner, 21) D
- Sarah Shook & the Disarmers, "No Mistakes" Nightroamer (Abeyance, Feb 18)
- Fleet Foxes, "Silver Dagger (Solstice Version)" A Very Lonely Solstice (Anti, 21) D
- Shovels & Rope, "Human Race" Manticore (Dualtone, Feb 18)
- Band of Horses, "In Need Of Repair" Things Are Great (BMG, Jan 21)
- Hurray for the Riff Raff, "Jupiter's Dance" Life on Earth (Nonesuch, Feb 18)
- North Mississippi Allstars, "See the Moon" Set Sail (New West, Jan 28)
- Cordovas, "Song For You" single (ATO, 21) D
- Khruangbin & Leon Bridges, "B-Side" Texas Moon EP (Dead Oceans, Feb 18) D
- Big Thief, "Spud Infinity" Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You (4AD, Feb 11)
- Kevin Morby, "I Hear You Calling" Still Some Light Pt 1 (Dead Oceans, Jan 14)
- Jeff Tweedy, "Guess Again (Live)" Love Is the King / Live Is the King (dBpm, 21)
- Leyla McCalla, "Fort Dimanche" single (Anti, 21) D
- Wild Rivers, "Neon Stars" Sidelines (Nettwerk, Feb 4) D
- Cactus Blossoms, "Hey Baby" One Day (Walkie Talkie, Feb 11) D
- Jake Xerxes Fussell, "Breast of Glass" Good and Green Again (Paradise of Bachelors, Jan 21)
^ Sarah Borges, "Wasting My Time" Together Alone (Blue Corn, Feb 18) D
- Band of Heathens, "Tumbling Dice (feat. Nikki Bluhm)" Remote Transmissions Vol 1 (BoH, Feb 25)
- Duquette Johnston, "To My Daughters" Social Animals (Single Lock, Feb 25)
- Laura Veirs, "Between the Bars" single (Kill Rock Stars, 21) D
- Simone Felice, "Year Around the Sun" All the Bright Coins (Chrysalis, Jan 28)
- Anais Mitchell, "Brooklyn Bridge" Anais Mitchell (BMG, Jan 28)
- Tom Freund, "Disney's America" Year I Spent In Space (Surf Road, 22) D
- Jamestown Revival, "Working On Love" Young Man (Jamestown, Jan 14)
- Cat Power, "Unhate" Covers (Domino, Jan 14)
- Amanda Anne Platt & Honeycutters, "Perfect World" Devil and the Deep Blue Sea (Organic, 22)
- Delines, "Past the Shadows" Sea Drift (Jealous Butcher, Feb 11)
- Brent Cobb, "Just a Closer Walk With Thee" Now Let's Turn to Page ... (Ol Buddy, Jan 28)
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