featuring the very best of americana, alt.country and roots music
February 26, 2023
Scott Foley, purveyor of dust
WHAT's SO GREAT ABOUT FEBRUARY?!!
The last Episode of the month on R&B is dedicated to the ten songs that rose above the rest - ten songs that we can happily stand behind as the epitome of our kind of music. Does this mean we've actually gotten around to listening to every record on our February release calendar? No, of course it doesn't. But these are still some really good songs.
1. Brit Taylor, "For a Night" Kentucky Blue (Cut A Shine, Feb 3)
An outlier on an otherwise decidedly country collection, "For a Night" is a disco-sweetened track with sweeping strings, just this side of cheese. Reminiscent of Kacey Musgraves' recent work, Taylor's cut is smooth without sacrificing the humanity of the record's roots element. It's made all the more charming when juxtaposed alongside tracks that favor 'grass or country.
2. Matthew Logan Vasquez, "Over It" As All Get Out (Nine Mile, Apr 7)
As the frontman for Delta Spirit, Vasquez has favored this strain of nitro-fueled rocker once or twice per record. This debut single from his forthcoming solo album is a banging, attitudinal rager, like the most pop moments of the early early 0ld 97s with MLV playing his best Rhett Miller.
3. Pearla, "Strong" Oh Glistening Onion the Nighttime Is Coming (Spacebomb, Feb 10)
Brooklyn's Nicole Rodriguez performs as Pearla on a record that injects familiar country gestures into dewy-eyed psychedelic indie folk. She mumble-sings on "Strong" like the long-lost Be Good Tanya, succumbing to a spell of attraction: I saw a dove in a flower shop / It was humming a sweet song / While I was busy staring / Someone stole my credit card.
4. Durand Jones, "Lord Have Mercy" Wait Til I Get Over (Dead Oceans, May 5)
There's been a reliably retro-soul element to Durand Jones' work with his trio, the Indications. This initial volley from his debut solo LP incorporates all that R&B, gospel and soul into a raw and fiery Southern gothic storm. Electric guitars burst from the strong percussive current, with Jones' timeless croon more angelic than ever.
5. Esther Rose, "Chet Baker" Safe To Run (New West, Apr 21)
Rose's first record for the New West label features Alynda Segarra of Hurray for the Riff Raff on the title track, so maybe it's not especially surprising that the collection's introductory single sounds a bit like Segarra's early tracks. Always more than the sum of its parts, the songwriter's music boasts an appeal that overflows its musical confines of folk, pop and country. Rock bottom shouldn't feel this good.
6. Parker Millsap, "What You've Shown Me" Wilderness Within You (Okrahoma, May 12)
The Oklahoma singer-songwriter's best tends to sound like it might be overheard from outside a church door. Even when Millsap takes his lead from less biblical mythology, such as on 2021's Be Here Instead, there's a touch of the otherworldly. With its organ and ecstatic delivery, "What You've Shown Me" locates the infinite in the everyday, like a contemporary heir of Van Morrison: I'll be rumbling in the repetition / And the ritual redundance.
7. Tallest Man On Earth, "Every Little Heart" Henry St (Anti, Apr 14)
Kristian Matsson has declared that his forthcoming record will be the first truly collaborative effort of his career, in the sense that he has invited instrumentalists into the studio to perhaps influence the direction of his indie-folk songs. With its busy rhythms and percussive guitar, "Every Little Heart" is still unmistakably a TMOE project, but the added dimension will prove intriguing for an artist whose best work has always come directly from the heart.
8. Jason Isbell & 400 Unit, "Death Wish" Weathervanes (Southeastern, Jun 9)
Of course, the announcement of a new Isbell project is a game changer, so make room for Weathervanes. The first single is a downbeat track, a moody cut without a traditional structure, which makes it all the more intriguing. Subsequent listens seem to tease out the underlying direction, as well as a subtle groove in the drum and guitar interplay.
9. Erin Enderlin, "Weddings, Funerals & Empty Hotel Bars" single (Black Crow, Feb 17)
Single after single, there are very few country songwriters as consistently worthy as Erin Enderlin. This gem she cowrote with Terri Clark for Clark's 2018 full-length. While we stray like a blind dog who's wandered from its owner, now and then it's just nice to return to the kind of country-folk stuff like this that gave us our start on R&B.
10. Bella White, "Break My Heart" Among Other Things (Rounder, Apr 21)
We've been watching for a full-album announcement for this up-and-coming Canadian country artist since the early singles dropped. With an authentic voice that splits the difference between trad and Lydia Loveless, and a past devoted to bluegrass pursuits, White fits snugly alongside Jamie Wyatt and Sierra Ferrell, while adding a degree of alt. like we like.
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- Durand Jones, "Lord Have Mercy" Wait Til I Get Over (Dead Oceans, May 5) D
- Nude Party, "Cherry Red Boots" Rides On (New West, Mar 10)
- David Wax Museum, "Luanne" You Must Change Your Life (Nine Mile, May 5) D
- Band of Heathens, "Don't Let the Darkness" Simple Things (BoH, Mar 17)
- Fruit Bats, "It All Comes Back" River Running To Your Heart (Merge, Apr 14)
- Caleb Elliott, "Weed Wine & Time" Weed Wine & Time (Single Lock, Apr 14)
- Wednesday, "Bath County" Rat Saw God (Dead Oceans, Apr 7)
- Shannon Lay, "Angeles" Covers Vol 1 (Sub Pop, Apr 14) D
- Milk Carton Kids, "All the Time In the World To Kill" I Only See the Moon (Far Cry, May 19) D
- Karen Jonas, "Paris Breeze" The Restless (Yellow Brick, Mar 3)
- Bria, "By the Time I Get To Phoenix" Cuntry Covers Vol 2 EP (Sub Pop, 23)
- Ruston Kelly, "Mending Song" The Weakness (Rounder, Apr 7)
- Jeffrey Silverstein, "Cowboy Grass" Western Sky Music (Arrowhawk, May 12) D
- Miles Miller, "Solid Gold" Solid Gold (Easy Lovin, Jul 7) D
- Eric Silverman, "Ride On" Stay In It (Curation, Mar 31)
- Iris Dement, "Nothin' For the Dead" Workin' On a World (FlariElla, 23)
- Shootouts, "Anywhere But Here (ft Buddy Miller)" Stampede (Shootouts, 23)
- Tender Things, "Carousel" That Texas Touch (Tender Things, 23) D
- Ashley McBryde, "Light On in the Kitchen" single (Warner, 23) D
- Rusty Truck, "Bless My Soul" Rusty Truck (Rusty Truck, 23)
- Lauren Morrow, "People Talk" People Talk (Big Kitty, Mar 31)
- Luke Laird Lori McKenna & Barry Dean, "Diamond Rings and Old Bartsools" Songwriter Tapes Vol 1 (CN, Mar 3) D
- Parker Millsap, "Running On Time" Wilderness Within You (Okrahoma, May 12)
- Jason Isbell, "Death Wish" Weathervanes (Southeastern, Jun 9) D
- Channing Wilson, "Crazy Over You" Dead Man (Ol' Dog, 23)
- Dougie Poole, "Nickels and Dimes" Rainbow Wheel of Death (Wharf Cat, 23)
- SG Goodman, "Take It Away" single (Verve, 23) D
^ Lucero, "Nothing's Alright" Should've Learned By Now (Liberty & Lament, 23)
- Bella White, "Break My Heart" Among Other Things (Rounder, Apr 21) D
- David Childers & the Serpents, "I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man" Melancholy Angel (Ramseur, Apr 7)
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