FiVE THiNGS WE WHiFFED ON

ROUTES & BRANCHES

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

July 9, 2023

Scott Foley, purveyor of ashes of american flags

We're typically not a great fan of holiday weeks at R&B HQ. Very few releases are scheduled, and blogs seem to shut down with few if any posts. On the more positive side, the Great Silence provides us the opportunity to make sure we're caught up with stuff that's hit the shelves over the past couple weeks. 

This weeklong hiccup in the time-space continuum also allows us to humbly admit that we may have wiffed on a couple things lately. For each weekly ROUTES-cast, we allow ourselves just thirty (30) spots for new songs, a fact that invariably means we'll have to leave some stuff on the cutting room floor. Sometimes we'll just find out about a worthy album in retrospect. Other times, we may be able to fit one or two tracks on our ROUTES-casts, but we aren't able to represent the release to the extent we'd like. And sometimes we'll just whiff. What follows is our insufficient mea culpa. 

FiVE THiNGS WE WHiFFED ON

Dallas Burrow, Blood Brothers  (Subliminal Hymnal, Jun 16) - Our list of whiffs is populated by a bunch of hybrid stuff, curious meetings of sub-genres and alt.this-and-that. It's what feeds our own monster. That said, our roots are in the more pure stuff, artists who ably toe the americana, alt.country and roots music lines. For reader-listeners who pine for those easier, earlier days, meet Dallas Burrow. Destined to land a tune on a Toyota pickup tv spot, the Texas writer simply checks the boxes from song to song, great-sounding Texas country that is delivered in an appealing, lightly-sanded vocal. Burrow is not looking to change the world, just to make a living and turn some ears: Looking for a Motel 6 / Next to a Waffle House. 

Rob I Miller, Companion Piece  (Vacant Stare, May 12) -  With his Bay Area day band Blues Lawyer fresh off their February full-length, Miller challenged himself to create daily music without the support of others. The results skew more power pop and psychedelic fuzz, as subtly divergent from Blues Lawyer as Rhett Miller from the Old 97s.  "In Circles" and "The One" jangle, "Wedge" crunches, and "Second Guess" strums along like a lost dBs cut. 

Kara Jackson, Why Does the Earth Give Us People to Love  (September, Apr 14) - Let's agree to call Jackson's debut full-length folk music, in the deep definition of the term: Songs drawn from the vernacular of the everyday. Let's also agree that absolutely nothing released this year hits like Kara Jackson's left-of-center collection that also sinks roots in jazz, blues, and R&B. The onetime US Nat'l Youth Poet Laureate is intimate and vulgar, elegant and lo-fi. With its sometimes meandering approach, Why Does the Earth will reward and even charm the patient listener - the very rare record that's earned its place at the intersection of Joni/Nina/Fiona (Apple). 

Adam Klein, Holidays In United States  (Cowboy Angel, Apr 7) - We've followed Klein since 2008's Western Tales & Trails, even had the privilege of interviewing him on R&B: the Radio Days. There's absolutely zero reason why we shouldn't have supported this excellent eighth full-length. With producers Bronson Tew and Will Robertson, Klein expands his country-folk towards wider, fuller horizons, both musically and thematically. Klein isn't the first to devote songs to the topics of complicity, gun violence, or anti-racism, but his songs are eminently well-executed, and lighter-handed than you might expect: Rust of ages / I have taken some blows / Here we find ourselves again in the throes / I believe, oh I believe / I believe in old gold. Sorta makes us wish for the stuff that was reportedly trimmed from the double-LP that was originally planned. 

Shana Cleveland, Manzanita  (Hardly Art, Mar 10) - The third solo project for La Luz's frontperson is inspired by motherhood, the springtime soundscape of a small California town, and facing breast cancer. The resulting songs live on the horizon between the organic and the celestial, between pastoral folk and desert psychedelia. Guitar and strings meet synthesizers, with the songwriter's voice cloaked in echo. Manzanita's lovely gothic folk is light years from La Luz's surf-guitar sound scapes. Or is it ...?

Let's make certain we don't miss anything going forward. We'll keep tabs thru regular visits to A Routes & Branches Guide To Feeding Your Monster, our comprehensive release calendar. Since last we convened, Teddy Thompson added his eighth studio project. My Love of Country pays tribute to classic country, from Harlan Howard and Randy Travis to Don Everly and Teddy's father Richard (Chalky Sounds, Aug 18). Old Crow Medicine Show have announced an August 25 shelf debut for their next studio effort. Jubilee (ATO) features contributions from Mavis Staples, Sierra Ferrell, and OCMS co-founder Willie Watson. Four years have passed since the last Buddy & Julie Miller record. In the Throes is the product of a huge collection of songs and fragments representing an especially productive period in Julie's songwriting career (New West, Sep 22). John R Miller's three records (2014's Service Engine, '18s Trouble You Follow, and Depreciated his 2021 breakthrough) have earned places on our year-end lists. Pending an October 6 release, Heat Comes Down is Miller's second project for Rounder. Finally, On Your Time marks Steel Woods' first album since the passing of their previous guitarist Rowdy Cope. Set your calendars for an October 6 release date, courtesy of the band's Woods label. 

ROUTES-cast JULY 9, 2023

- Jason Eady, "Mile Over 45" Mississippi  (Old Guitar, Aug 11)

- Lindsay Lou, "Nothing Else Matters (ft Jerry Douglas)" Queen of Time  (Kill Rock Stars, Sep 29)

- Miles Miller, "Don't Give Away Love" Solid Gold  (Easy Lovin, 23)

- Ashley McBryde, "Made For This" Devil I Know  (Warner, Sep 8)

- Joshua Ray Walker, "Linger" What Is It Even  (JWR, Aug 4)

- Erin Viancourt, "Cheap Paradise" Won't Die This Way  (Late August, Jul 21)

- Amanda Shires & Bobbie Nelson, "Waltz Across Texas" Loving You  (ATO, 23)

- Greensky Bluegrass, "Get Out" single  (Big Blue Zoo, 23)

- JD Pinkus & Tall Tall Trees, "Afterlifer" Ponder Machine  (Shimmy-Disc, 23)  D

- Willi Carlisle, "Angel (Western AF Version)" single  (Western AF, 23)  D

- Anna Tivel, "The Bell (acoustic)" Outsiders (Live in a Living Room)  (Mama Bird, Aug 18)  D

- Handsome Family, "Skunks" Hollow  (Milk & Scissors, Sep 8)

- Hayden Pedigo, "Looking At the Fish" Happiest Times I Ever Ignored  (Mexican Summer, 23)

- Tommy Prine, "Some Things" This Far South  (Nameless Knight, 23)

- First Aid Kit, "San Gabriel Valley" Palomino Deluxe (Child of Summer Edition)  (Columbia, 23)  D

- Lilly Hiatt, "L8 Night People" single  (Moonchkin, 23)  D

- Jery David DeCicca, "New Shadows" New Shadows  (Bwatue, Sep 29)  D

- William Matheny, "Down At the Hotel Canfield" That Grand Old Feeling  (Hickman Holler, Aug 4)

- Holly MacVe, "Beauty Queen" single  (MacVe, 23)  D

- Cut Worms, "I'll Never Make It" Cut Worms  (Jagjaguwar, Jul 21)

- Jenny Owen Youngs, "Avalanche" Avalanche  (Yep Roc, Sep 22)  D

- Empty Country, "Pearl" single  (Get Better, 23)  D

- Fust, "Violent Jubilee" Genevieve  (Dear Life, 23)

- Fletcher C Johnson, "Radio Dynamite" single  (Cocomo, 23)  D

- Bob Lefevre & the Already Gone, "Keep It Down" 2  (Lefevre, Aug 25)  D

- Florry, "Take My Heart" Holey Bible  (Dear Life, Aug 24)

- Possessed by Paul James, "Fell So Hard" Fighting For Our Own Survival  (Conrad Wert, 23)

- Robert Finley, "What Goes Around" Black Bayou  (Easy Eye, Oct 27)  D

- Sierra Ferrell, "Coat of Many Colors" single  (Rounder, 23)  D

- Bethany Cosentino, "For a Moment" Natural Disaster  (Concord, Jul 28)

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