featuring the very best of americana, alt.country and roots music
August 23, 2024
Scott Foley, purveyor of dust
Just five songs. How hard could that be, right? And when does a new week start and the next one end? We've decided not to draw too many hard lines in selecting our five favorites tracks for the week. For this week's highlights, we've left very good songs on the cutting room floor from Erisy Watt, JP Harris, Soul Alylum (!) and more. Mostly because, in the end, these are just better. We call it:
WHAT's SO GREAT ABOUT THiS WEEK?!!
William Harries Graham, "Ohio State" Annie's House (Strolling Bones, Oct 25)
New West's Strolling Bones imprint has announced their first record from William Harries Graham, co-produced with Gordy Quist. Graham is the son of Texas music legend Jon Dee Graham, and has already released a couple projects, though this is his highest profile album to date. While Jon Dee has made plenty of noise, especially early in his career, William Harries sounds little like his father on "Ohio State". Electric guitars are barely contained, wailing alongside cascading drums and Graham's fragile, nearly mumbled delivery. In a good way.
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Liv Greene, "Katie" Deep Feeler (Free Dirt, Oct 18)
Promotional materials call Greene's second album feminine, queer, and defiant. The first three singles from Deep Feeler have landed this among our most eagerly anticipated Fall releases. Recorded at Gillian Welch & David Rawlings' Woodland Sound Studios, it's tempting to compare Greene to Welch, especially given the sparse acoustic arrangements. But Greene notes it's a very personal collection of songs, and the songwriter's keening voice is all her own.
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Why Bonnie, "Three Big Moons" Wish On the Bone (Fire Talk, Aug 30)
It's not the first time Blair Howerton and her New York band have landed on our list of week-end appreciation. With its strummed acoustic and fiddle, "Three Big Moons" is the most rootsy track of the three singles that have been released to date. Howerton reflects on the blessings and the curses of isolation, projecting herself onto an unnamed moon: Houston, we have a problem / So many that I just / I just can't solve them. It lands like a new Wednesday track - another eagerly anticipated record.
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Emily Frembgen, "Drink Tonight" No Hard Feelings (Don Giovanni, Sep 13)
Another album we're looking forward to hearing on this week of eager anticipation. The New York songwriter falls just this side of alt.country on her new single, featuring sorta sloppy guitars and Frembgen's edgy but sweet vocal. At least as strong as the poppier "Are You Listening", which we highlighted at R&B HQ a few weeks ago.
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Hard Quartet, "Rio's Song" Hard Quartet (Matador, Oct 4)
There's little that speaks to us like Stephen Malkmus' guitar, which comes across splendidly on this supergroup's second single. As we've mentioned, joining Malkmus are drummer Jim White, guitarist Matt Sweeney, and serial collaborator Emmett Kelley. The song's video pays tribute to Rolling Stones' own "Waiting On a Friend", an homage to street rock in the hot afternoon & clowning around with lifer friends in downtown New York City. The quartet make such a loose and yowling racket that it's hard not to just let go and vibe with it.
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