WHAT's SO GREAT ABOUT JANUARY?!!

ROUTES & BRANCHES

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

January 29, 2023

Scott Foley, purveyor of duzt

WHAT's SO GREAT ABOUT JANUARY?!!

Was January the longest month or what! Especially with the January 27 dump, we've already got some good stuff under our belt for 2023. At the end of each month we'll assess our favorite tracks for the past couple weeks, then we'll present them thusly:

1. Wednesday, "Chosen to Deserve" Rat Saw God  (Dead Oceans, Apr 7) ^

Is Wednesday the future of alt.country (no)? Did MJ Lenderman (of Wednesday) offer one of the more satisfying surprises of 2022 with his Boat Songs (yep)? The Asheville act is too stylistically rangy to be called one thing or other, but country influences surface regularly. See, f'rinstance last year's EP, Mowing the Leaves Instead of Piling 'Em Up, which featured covers of everyone from Drive-by Truckers to Vic Chesnutt and Roger Miller. Or the first single from April's Rat Saw God full-length, an eight-minute screamer that wasn't featured on our ROUTES-cast. But watch this space between now and release day. 

2. Margo Price, "Landfill" Strays  (Loma Vista, Jan 13)

It was back-and-forth between this and "Lydia", the other closing track for Price's remarkable new collection. And we're still not sure which earns the honor of holding a place on our favorites. With its stabs of electric guitar and mournful pedal steel, "Landfill" evokes genuine emotion with every listen. 

3. Bad Ends, "Mile Marker 29" Power and the Glory  (New West, Jan 20)

Song after song, the debut from this sorta-supergroup exceeds expectations. Supported by former REM drummer Bill Berry, Bad Ends fits snugly within the legendary Athens, Georgia tradition of jangling power-pop with a rural orientation, and not just because the first video from the record featured cameos from members of Pylons, Glands, Squalls and more. 

4. Pearla, "About Hunger, About Love" Oh Glistening Onion the Nighttime is Coming  (Spacebomb, Feb 10)

With a Lana del Rey lilt, Nicole Rodriguez conveys mystery and melancholy as Pearla. When asked about inspirations behind her debut, the songwriter tellingly tagged Judee Sill, Joanna Newsom and Neil Young. Sometimes teetering on the brink of preciousness, the singles have instead proven charmingly enigmatic, appealingly tuneful. 

5. Country Westerns, "It's a Livin'" Forgive the City  (Fat Possum, Apr 28)

The band's 2020 debut came from nowhere to land on our year-end favorites. Custom-made for our ROUTES-casts, the members have served with bands like Silver Jews, King Tuff, and the Weight. What's more, their second full-length features the production of Matt Sweeney. 

As a trio, they apply a veteran punk spirit to Big Star garage pop, peppered with old school alt.country. 

6. Johanna Samuels, "Could You (ft Josh Kaufman, Eric Johnson)" Scam Likely EP  (Samuels, 22)

This EP actually eked out during the no-blogger's land of December. Played with Josh Kaufman and Eric D Johnson of Bonny Light Horseman, the curiously lo-fi "Could You" lands with battered drums, sax and fuzz guitar. Like the rest of the EP, it's simply too good to overlook. 

7. Fran, "Leaving" Leaving  (Fire Talk, Jan 20)

From Chicago, Maria Jacobson leads the band called Fran. The title cut from their sophomore release is a languidly beautiful country ballad, like a lost track from Trinity Session. Breathy woodwinds ahoy. Maybe it's time to shoehorn the words and indie folk into our byline. 

8. Caroline Rose, "Miami" Art of Forgetting  (New West, Mar 24)

Honestly, I've only gradually come to appreciate the off-center quirk of Austin's Rose. With its cinematic production and dramatic percussive arrangement, the second single from their forthcoming record gives me promise. Maybe this will serve as a stop-gap for that long-awaited Lydia Loveless album. 

9. Channing Wilson, "Sunday Morning Blues" single  (Ol' Dog, Jan 1)

With a voice that falls between Stapleton and Willie, the third single from a yet-to-be-announced Dave Cobb-produced collection is co-written with Chris Canterbury (we've spent our allotment of hyphens on that sentence). The forthcoming record will make a splash for the songwriter who has labored behind the scenes awaiting his moment.  

10. Nude Party, "Ride On" Rides On  (New West, Mar 10)

Few bands so reliably produce the kind of retro country-soul in which Nude Party trade. The first single from Rides On bears a post-punk edge, answering the question of what Lou Reed might sound like fronting an alt.country outfit. 

Let's touch base again with A Routes & Branches Guide To Feeding Your Monster, our painstakingly updated record release calendar. We'll highlight only five promising albums, but trust us that the thing is fairly bursting. The Nude Party collective has checked all our boxes on their first few LPs. We expect nothing different when Rides On drops on March 10 (New West). Band of Heathens kept us busy last year with singles and outtakes. They'll share the full length Simple Things on March 17. Lauren Morrow piqued our interest during her time fronting Whiskey Gentry. She'll release her first full-length on March 31 with People Talk (Big Kitty). Eric D Johnson and Fruit Bats seem to get better with every release. A River Running To Your Heart should prove no different when it hits on April 14 (Merge). Finally, believe the buzz that's manifesting around singer-songwriter Kassi Valazza. She joins the Fluff & Gravy roster with the release of Kassi Valazza Knows Nothing on May 26. 

ROUTES-cast January 29, 2023

- Bad Ends, "Honestly" Power and the Glory  (Yep Roc, 23)

- Florry, "Big Fall" Sweet Guitar Solos EP  (Dear Life, 23)

- Razor Braids, "Nashville Again" single  (Razor Braids, 23)  D

- King Tuff, "Rock River" Smalltown Stardust  (Sub Pop, 23)  D

- Eric Silverman, "Lost Connection" Stay In It  (Curation, Spring 23)  D

- Half Gringa, "Sevenwater" Ancestral Home EP  (Half Gringa, 23)

- Caleb Elliott, "Isolation (ft AJ Haynes)" Weed Wine & Time  (Single Lock, Apr 14)  D

- Pearla, "Unglow the " Oh Glistening Onion the Nighttime Is Coming  (Spacebomb, Feb 10)

- Arcs, "Man Will Do Wrong" Electrophonic Chronic  (Easy Eye, 23)

- Ruen Brothers, "The Fear" Ten Paces  (Yep Roc, Jun 2)  D

- boygenius, "Emily I'm Sorry" the record  (Interscope, May 31)

- Kevin Morby, "One Paper Kid (ft Waxahatchee)" Music From Montana Story  (Dead Oceans, 23)  D

- Aoife O'Donovan, "I Love You But I'm Lost" Apathy Sessions  (Yep Roc, 23)

- Zach Bryan, "Dawns (ft Maggie Rogers)" single  (Belting Bronco, 23)  D

- Mike Frazier, "Tulsa" single  (Geneva, 23)  D

- JD Clayton, "Cotton Candy Clouds" Long Way From Home  (Mulberry, 23)

- Lauren Morrow, "Only Nice When I'm High" People Talk  (Big Kitty, Mar 31)  D

- Band of Heathens, "Heartless Year" Simple Things  (BoH, Mar 17)

- Pony Bradshaw, "Go Down Appalachia" North Georgia Rounder  (Bradshaw, 23)

- Peter Case, "Downtown Nowhere's Blues" Doctor Moan  (Sunset Blvd, Mar 31)  D

- Matt Andersen, "Only An Island" Big Bottle of Joy  (Sonic, Mar 10)  D

- Kassi Valazza, "Watching Planes Go By" Kassi Valazza Knows Nothing  (Fluff & Gravy, May 26)  D

- Nickel Creek, "Strangers" Celebrants  (Repair, Mar 24)  D

- Angela Perley, "Plug Me In" Turn Me Loose  (Perley, 23)

- Meg Baird, "Unnamed Drives" Furling  (Drag City, 23)

- Complete Mountain Almanac, "November" Complete Mountain Almanac  (Bella Union, 23)

- HC McEntire, "Turpentine (ft Amy Ray)" Every Acre  (Merge, 23)

- Joe Henry, "Mission" All the Eye Can See  (Worksong, 23)

- Jack Schneider, "Farewell Carolina" Best Be On My Way  (Jeffers, 22)

- Margo Price, "Lydia" Strays  (Loma Vista, 23)

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