ROUTES-cast October 19, 2025

ROUTES & BRANCHES

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

October 19, 2025

Scott Foley, purveyor of dust

Not a large amount of new full-length releases this Episode. Joshua Ray Walker tries some new sounds on Stuff,  Todd Snider channels Todd Snider for High Lonesome and Then Some. For our money, however:

IF YOU ONLY LiSTEN to ONE RECORD THiS WEEK

... we'd recommend Strange Trip Ahead (Birthday Cake), the third LP from Canadian singer-songwriter Mariel Buckley. Her first couple records were populated with a dark strain of countrypolitan, fully realized songs that could boldly push against expectations. Produced by Jarrad K (Ruston Kelly, Tommy Prine, Morgan Wade), Buckley's new sessions continue to build on that confidence and individuality, firmly rooted in folk and country roots while reaching into a more contemporary expression. Arrangements aside, much of Buckley's edge is a product of her lyrical choices, personal stories that are both poetic and raw: Loving myself / Feels like more trouble than it's worth. Ryan Funk's guitars and Luke Breiteneder's drums lend songs an electric spark, and the singer's low, drowsy delivery injects even the more upbeat songs with an air of knowing cynicism. But like Ruston Kelly, Mariel Buckley embraces this overcast spirit and makes it all exceptionally listenable, refreshingly engaging. 

ROUTES-cast October 19, 2025

^ Mariel Buckley, "Anvil" Strange Trip Ahead  (Birthday Cake, 25)

- Joshua Ray Walker, "Perfume" Stuff  (East Dallas, 25)

- Flatland Cavalry, "Gone" single  (Lost Highway, 25)  D

- Drayton Farley, "Turn Around" single  (One Riot, 25)  D

- Nick Shoulders, "Tatum Spring" Refugia Blues  (Gar Hole, Oct 31)

- Luke Bell, "Don't Mind if I Do" King is Back  (All Blue, Nov 7)

- Colter Wall, "Back to Me" Memories and Empties  (La Honda, Nov 14)

- Emily Scott Robinson, "Appalachia" Appalachia  (Oh Boy, Jan 30)  D

- Clay Street Unit, "Choctaw County (ft Lindsay Lou)" single  (Leo33, 25)  D

- Margo Price, "Maggie's Farm" single  (Loma Vista, 25)  D

- Jade Jackson, "Dream Big Darling" single  (Jackson Star, 25)  D

- Ladybird, "99" Clementine  (Dangit, 25)

- Langhorne Slim, "Rock N Roll" Dreamin' Kind  (Dualtone, Jan 16)

- Montvales, "Loud and Clear" single  (Free Dirt, 25)  D

- Lowest Pair, "Give it All Away" Always As Young As We'll Ever Be  (Delicata, Jan 23)  D

- Jeremy Pinnell, "Barabbas" Decades  (Sofaburn, Oct 31)

- Angela Autumn, "Millionaire Money" single  (Gar Hole, 25)  D

- Haley Heynderickx & Max Garcia Conover, "Fluorescent Light" What of Our Nature  (Fat Possum, Nov 21)  D

- Chris Lyons, "Long Gone" Painter's Street  (Nudie, Oct 24)

- Rural Alberta Advantage, "Falling Apart" single  (Saddle Creek, 25)  D

- Bones of JR Jones, "Dry Land" Radio Waves (Deluxe) (Bones, 25)  D

- Samantha Crain, "Cherry Plum (ft Wilderado)" single  (Crain, 25)  D

- I'm With Her w/Iron & Wine, "Flightless Bird American Mouth" Songs From the Stage: Glenside EP  (Rounder, 25)  D

- Ramsey Thornton, "Riverside" single  (Gar Hole, 25)  D

- Gold Star, "Happy" single  (Like Ltd, 25)  D

- Steve Gunn, "Morning on K Road" Daylight Daylight  (No Quarter, Nov 7)

- This is Lorelei, "Name the Band" Holo Boy  (Double Double Whammy, Dec 12)  D

- Langkamer, "Crows" No  (Breakfast, Jan 22)  D

- Chrissie Hynde, "County Line (ft Alan Sparhawk)" Duets Special  (Parlophone, 25)  D

- Maisy Owen, "My Youth is All For You" single  (Tompkins Square, 25)  D

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