Category: Americana

Five Cool Ones: Five Artists We Have Our Ears On in 2020

Billy Strings

Starting with Alison Krause and playing it forward on to Molly Tuttle and Amanda Shires, Bluegrass artists have been looked upon with somewhat of a skeptical ear. Much like bagpipes, a little banjo can go a long way. And then there’s Billy Strings. With a moniker like that this dude had better deliver the goods, and based on his latest record released in 2019, Home, he delivers the goods and then some. Showing he is no one-trick banjo-picking pony, the mix of Bluegrass, Country, and Cow-Punk is easily accessible to all ears that love good music.

Odd Morris

There is not a lot to go on here after all this band has only released two songs so far, “Lilac Leaves” and “What Might Be,” but so far, really good. A really absorbing band to watch, their cracking live shows have already caught lightning in a bottle across their home town of Dublin, Ireland. Very much of the Irish Post-Punk tradition there is the unavoidable essence of U2 prevailing here for sure, but these guys look to be about to blaze their own Rock and Roll trail.

Anna St. Louis

Having already been around a bit, her 2016 record First Songs is set for a vinyl reissue in early 2020, Anna St. Louis seems on the verge of bringing her 70’s Laurel Canyon vibe to the unwashed masses. Firmly based in Folk and Country Music with songs that have a certain haunting quality about them, look for her to be popping up on the soundtracks of binge-worthy television shows in the very near future.

Arnetta Johnson

We already have our ears poised to be including her debut album If You hear a Trumpet, It’s Me on our list of best instrumental records of the year for 2020 and it hasn’t even been released yet. Talent exudes from every pore of this 25-year-old trumpeter. A graduate of the Berklee College of Music, she has already released to the world three highly provocative singles in “Meet Me There,” “Who Are You,” and “I’m Just Sayin.”

The Glorious Sons

Any band that releases a song called “The Ongoing Speculation into the Death of Rock and Roll” simply is required to be on any self-respecting list of artists to watch in 2020. They have opened for The Rolling Stones, middled for the Struts, and very much deserve to be the more deserving Greta Van Fleet of 2020.

 

 

Live Video of the Day: Trigger Hippy – Rise Up Singing (Live at WFUV)

The first incarnation of Steve Gorman’s post-Black Crowes band included Joan Osborne on vocals instead of Amber Woodhouse who is on their latest L.P., Full Circle & Then Some. Both albums are great and worth your ear-time.

Video of the Day: Trigger Hippy – The Door

If you listen really closely to Trigger Hippy’s excellent new release Full Circle & Then Some you can catch a scent of The Black Crowes, which makes perfect sense as the Crowes stick man Steve Gorman is one of the co-founders of Trigger Hippy. Here, the ’70s Laurel Canyon vibing band led by Amber Woodhouse on vocals sound like they could have been sitting on Joni Mitchell’s couch.

 

Song of the Day: The Textones – No Love In You

The Textones, a group consisting of music lifers, has been around since the late ’70s. Led by Carla Olson, the group was influenced by Classic Rock and Country Rock of the ’60s as well as Tom Petty, The Rolling Stones, giving them that perfect mixture of Heartland Rock and West coast Laurel Canyon. Formed in Austin by Olson and Karen Valentine who went on to join the Go Go’s, this is one of those groups that were very much critically acclaimed and criminally ignored. The debut album after Valentine left the band and the addition of a saxophone player, 1984’s Midnight Mission, is a Roots Rock, Stonesy lost masterpiece.

Best Albums of 2019: The Reconstructed – Great North Wind

 

Whoever said that the only good music comes out of Austin, the left coast, or New York, has obviously never heard of The Reconstructed, the best thing to come out of Southern Maine since the lobster. Their latest record, Great North Wind, is a melodic stunner of an album with delicious hooks, sweet vocals, and enough of a Power Pop sensibility to make Alex Chilton jealous.

The opener, “Cross Talk” is what the stork would have delivered if the parents were the Bands Crazy Horse and The Bodeans, and the title track shares some DNA with Jason Isbell and the 400 unit. “Wrapped” sounds like it could have been a R.E.M. B-side, “50 Minute Records” features next-level songwriting, and “Talking With Your Ghost” rhythmically carries a bit of a John Mellencamp torch. In “Something Came Over Me” your mind’s ear will be able to detect a bit of pre-Phil Genesis on a song that vitally demonstrates the intricate songcraft and Prince level musicianship delivered on this album.

In short, while bits, pieces, and resemblances of other great bands might be salted here and there on this record, don’t be mistaken, this album and this band is a wholly unique unicorn that should be reaching more ears.

Live Video of the Day: Dawes – A Little Bit of Everything (Live From Here with Chris Thile)

The last song on their 2011 release Nothing is Wrong “A Little Bit of Everything” tells the story about a desperate man who is about to jump off the Golden Gate Bridge. As he hoists his first leg over the rail his journey is interrupted. Spoiler alert, it ends well on this gripping version of a song that should savored with multiple listens.