WHAT's SO GREAT ABOUT the FiRST HALF of 2022?!!

ROUTES & BRANCHES

featuring the very best of americana, alt.country and roots music

June 25, 2022

Scott Foley, purveyor of dust

No more talk about the new normal. Ain't no such thing. The world changes, the great world spins, and we're each left to find something stable to hold onto. Here at R&B HQ, we find that steadying influence in music discovery. We don't necessarily lean hard into the familiar, but trust in the sustainable comfort that is gained from the solid fact that there will always be new music. Our hope is that, in the whirlwind of your daily daze, you can find solace and even strength in the knowledge that you'll have a brand new Spotify ROUTES-cast every Sunday. Thirty songs to add to your heart. 

With more than a little patience and perseverance, we've arrived at the halfway point of 2022. From this vantage we can risk a glance back at the past twenty-six weeks of music discovery (doing math: 780 new songs), and decide what to hold onto. Pretty recently, we've shifted our focus from albums to singles, but for this look back we'll consider records again. Because it's what we do, we'll present these in order of appearance, and we'll call it: 

WHAT's SO GREAT ABOUT the FiRST HALF of 2022?!!

> Ryan Culwell, Run Like a Bull  (Culwell, Jan 28)

- Anais Mitchell, Anais Mitchell  (BMG, Jan 28)

- Kill County, All That Remains  (573668, Feb 1)

- Erin Rae, Lighten Up  (Good Memory, Feb 4)

> Big Thief, Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You  (4AD, Feb 11)

> Sarah Shook & the Disarmers, Nightroamer  (Abeyance, Feb 18)

- Hurray for the Riff Raff, Life on Earth  (Nonesuch, Feb 18)

> Sophie & the Broken Things, Delusions of Grandeur  (Petaluma, Feb 25)

- Carson McHone, Still Life  (Merge, Feb 25)

- Justin Peter Kinkel-Schuster, No Tongue Can Tell  (Constant Stranger, Mar 4)

- Hailey Whitters, Raised  (Pigasus, Mar 18)

- Ian Noe, River Fools & Mountain Saints  (Lock 13, Mar 25)

- Dead Tongues, Dust  (Psychic Hotline, Apr 1)

- Paul Cauthen, Country Coming Down  (Velvet Rose, Apr 1)

> Orville Peck, Bronco  (Columbia, Apr 8)

- David Quinn, Country Fresh  (Down Home, Apr 15)

- Joshua Hedley, Neon Blue  (New West, Apr 22)

> Caroline Spence, True North  (Rounder, Apr 29)

- MJ Lenderman, Boat Songs  (Dear Life, Apr 29)

> 49 Winchester, Fortune Favors the Bold  (New West, May 13)

- Thomas Dollbaum, Wellswood  (Big Legal Mess, May 20)

- Zach Bryan, American Heartbreak  (Belting Bronco, May 20)

- Laney Jones, Stories Up High  (Tone Tree, May 20)

- Left Arm Tan, Undefeated  (LAT, May 20)

- Wilco, Cruel Country  (dBPM, May 27)

> SG Goodman, Teeth Marks  (Verve, Jun 3)

> Angel Olsen, Big Time  (Jagjaguwar, Jun 3)

- Drive-by Truckers, Welcome 2 Club XIII  (ATO, Jun 3)

> American Aquarium, Chicamacomico  (Losing Side, Jun 10)

- David Newbould, Power Up!  (Blackbird, Jun 10)

spoiler: the ten LPs featuring a greater-than sign (>) just might be a little better than the others ...

So check back tomorrow for our weekly Spotify ROUTES-cast. And hold on tight ...