Listen to my favorite tracks off each album on my Spotify or Tidal playlists! Updated weekly with all the best new country, Americana, and whatever else I feel like — this is music like your life depends on it.
bedbug — pack your bag the sun is growing
bedbug has evolved from Dyla Gamez Citron’s (they/them) solo bedroom project to a full indie rock band. pack your bag the sun is growing is a time portal to 2004, with gossamer guitar parts and vocals that sit farther back in the mix a reminder of times that felt…well, not simpler, but perhaps less doomed. Or maybe it’s just that bedbug packs (see what I did there?) this album with a sense of unbridled optimism and a limitless belief in their own capacities that feels youthful. Either way, pack your bags is beautiful and uplifting, the perfect rays of sunshine for these tentative first weeks of spring.
Adrian Sutherland — Precious Diamonds
We wrote about Adrian Sutherland earlier this week, and his latest album Precious Diamonds continues in the vein of loving, optimistic, and joyfully human songwriting. That doesn’t mean Precious Diamonds is happy-go-lucky. Sutherland, who is Cree, sings in both English and Omushkegowuk about the ravages of settler colonialism on all of our cultures. Amid protest songs against climate change, the historical traumas inflicted upon the Cree, and just plain romantic heartbreak, are songs of spirit and resilience. By the time we get to the title track, celebrating the potential we all contain, it is well-earned: we are all precious diamonds, and we deserve to treat ourselves and each other as such. But it’s only because Sutherland has been uncompromising in his honesty and sincere in his love for others that this message can hit home.
Kara Jackson — Why Does This Earth Give Us People to Love?
You will leave Kara Jackson’s Why Does This Earth Give Us People to Love? a changed person. The Chicago singer-songwriter digs deep and requires us to follow her on this almost-unearthly album. This Earth explores the depths of grief and heartbreak that is always the double-edged sword of love. Songs like “dickhead blues” and “therapy” disdain romantic love, but these are not mundane disappointments in Jackson’s eyes. With lyrics that carefully tease apart our assumptions, combined with ghostly vocal arrangements, Jackson doesn’t let us take any interaction or emotion for granted. Certainly, the album’s title track reminds us of life’s fragility. The epic tale of “rat” is truly a triumph, a cautionary tale against chasing our dreams too blindly, while the low notes Jackson hits on “brain” will rattle your soul.
The Shovel Dance Collective — Betwixt and Between 7
Speaking of soul-rattling folk, The Shovel Dance Collective achieve some truly haunting sounds on Betwixt and Between 7. This odd little EP represents the first collaborations of this nine-piece band that seeks to explore — and build upon — the history of folk music in the British Isles. You can practically feel the fog and high lonesome winds upon you — and perhaps some long-forgotten spirits — brush your skin as this EP unfurls.
Martha Groves Perry — Callout
There’s a certain spiritual mischievousness that draws you in to Martha Groves Perry’s Call Out. This charming album uses roots music to uplift everyday victories and trials. Perry’s music is sinewy, relying on powerful hooks and her welcoming voice to drive her message home. Perry tasks us with calling out and genuinely connecting to each other. The rewards are too high — as are the consequences of not doing so — to pass up.
You can check out tracks by these artists and more on the Adobe & Teardrops playlist — on Spotify or Tidal.