WHAT'S SO GREAT ABOUT the FiRST HALF of 2023?!!

ROUTES & BRANCHES

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

June 21, 2023

Scott Foley, purveyor of arbitrariness

On this, the first official day of Summer, we're roughly halfway through 2023. Which might make you think oh ... that wasn't so bad, or alternately you mean there's more?!!  While nothing has so obviously risen above the fray to present itself as a sure-thing candidate for our year-end favorite, we're at least grateful that the year has been way more generous than our past couple pandemic-addled years, with enough new stuff that we're needing to decide what to feature and what to ignore on our weekly ROUTES-casts. 

In all honesty, the record that has most captured my attention this year is Youth Lagoon's Heaven Is a Junkyard. While folk and roots music are present on Trevor Powers' haunting, alien project, only a couple of the songs really fit snugly within our ROUTES-casts (believe it or not, I do make these judgement calls). But what moves us moves us, and our passions are strongest when not confined within genre's rigid, constricting walls. It's the sort of album that makes me hope Powers has plans to expand into printed work. Heaven is a junkyard / And it's my home ... How could we not want more?!

WHAT's SO GREAT ABOUT the FiRST HALF of 2023?!!

Margo Price - Strays  (Loma Vista, Jan 13) %

Pony Bradshaw - North Georgia Rounder  (Black Mountain Music, Jan 27)

HC McEntire - Every Acre  (Merge, Jan 27)

Sunny War - Anarchist Gospel  (New West, Feb 3) %

Brit Taylor - Kentucky Blue  (Cut a Shine, Feb 3) %

Lucero - Should've Learned By Now  (Liberty & Lament, Feb 24) %

Drayton Farley - Twenty on High  (Hargrove, Mar 3) %

Doug Paisley - Say What You Like  (Outside, Mar 17)

War & Treaty - Lover's Game  (Mercury, Mar 10)

Ruston Kelly - The Weakness  (Rounder, Apr 7)

Matthew Logan Vasquez - As All Get Out  (Nine Mile, Apr 7)

Hackles - What a Beautiful Thing I Have Made  (Jealous Butcher, Apr 7)

Caleb Elliott - Weed Wine & Time  (Single Lock, Apr 14)

Fruit Bats - River Running To Your Heart  (Merge, Apr 14)

Bella White - Among Other Things  (Rounder, Apr 21) %

Esther Rose - Safe to Run  (New West, Apr 21)

Country Westerns - Forgive the City  (Fat Possum, Apr 28)

Logan Halstead - Dark Black Coal  (Halstead, May 5)

David Wax Museum - You Must Change Your Life  (Nine Mile, May 5)

Parker Millsap - Wilderness Within You  (Okrahoma, May 12)

Charlotte Cornfield - Could Have Done Anything  (Double Double Whammy, May 12) %

Califone - Villagers  (Jealous Butcher, May 19)

Whitney Rose - Rosie  (MCG, May 19)

Kassi Valazza - Kassi Valazza Knows Nothing  (Fluff & Gravy, May 26) %

RF Shannon - Red Swan In Palmetto  (Keeled Scales, May 26)

Robert Lloyd & Janet Beveridge-Bean, Black Cat Dark Horse  (Tiny Global, Jun 2)

Jess Williamson - Time Ain't Accidental  (Mexican Summer, Jun 9) %

Jason Isbell & 400 Unit - Weathervanes  (Southeastern, Jun 9) %

Ags Connolly, Siempre  (At the Helm, Jun 16)

Fust, Genevieve  (Dear Life, Jun 16)

... above, the selections marked with a "%" might be just a bit better than the others. 

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At the 1/2-way mark of 2023, we're looking forward to another six months of great stuff to keep our restless ears occupied. Of course, you can find a complete account by clicking on A Routes & Branches Guide To Feeding Your Monster. Were you to patiently ask me for the ten (10) releases I'm most eagerly anticipating, I might give you the following (in order of appearance): 

Gabe Lee, Drink the River  (Torrez, Jul 14)

Lori McKenna, 1988  (CN, Jul 21)

Joshua Ray Walker, What Is It Even  (JRW, Aug 4)

DeYarmond Edison, Epoch  (Jagjaguwar, Aug 18)

Turnpike Troubadours, Cat in the Rain  (Bossier City, Aug 25)

Low Cut Connie, Art Dealers  (Contender, Sep 8)

Allison Russell, The Returner  (Fantasy, Sep 8)

Will Johnson, No Ordinary Crown  (Keeled Scales, Sep 15)

Lydia Loveless, Nothing's Gonna Stand In My Way Again  (Bloodshot, Sep 22)

Israel Nash, Ozarker  (Desert Folklore, Oct 20)