Listen to my favorite tracks off each album on my Spotify playlist! Updated weekly with all the best new country, Americana, and whatever else I feel like — this is music like your life depends on it.
Abigail Lapell — Anniversary
Abigail Lapell has captured my heart with her hypnotic, haunting rhythms. Lapell typically plumbs the darker depths of the human experience, but Anniversary is a sea change — thematically, at least. Anniversary is still guided by the tide-like melodies of Lapell’s careful constructions, with Lapell intoning pronouncements of love, commitment, and joy. It would be trite to say that Anniversary is sweet, or full of love — it’s something much deeper than that: it’s the intention to make partnership a deep part of one’s patterns, as natural and fiercely protected as a heartbeat.
Lynne Hanson — Just a Poet
Just a Poet is Lynne Hanson’s tenth album. Out today, Hanson is just effortlessly cool on it. These are songs of disappointment and moving on. Hanson gives a self-assured performance — not just one of someone who’s recorded many albums, but also one who’s had their heart broken many times. Whether she’s casting herself as the spurned lover or the triumphant survivor, Hanson purrs her way through her heart-on-her-sleeve lyrics. Not quite anthemic, but fortifying all the same, Hanson provides a raft of songs meant for people who know themselves and are determined to hold their heads high.
Sarah Gayle Meech — Easin’ On
Nashville is realizing that it is actually okay to use guitars in country music — encouraged even — and Sarah Gayle Meech is the perfect example of the kind of star country radio is finally turning its sights on. Meech has a retro country sensibility that is freewheeling and fun — like rockabilly without the cringe. Maybe the word I’m looking for is retro, but in a lively way. There’s an intriguing rasp to Meech’s voice that gives her songs a modern sensibility, and you can tell there’s a hint of a punk rock past in there. Most of the songs in Easin’ On have an easy brashness designed for the honky-tonk, but I wanted to highlight one of Meech’s ballads, “Stars,” here — Meech has got a voice and we should all be smart enough to pay attention to it.
Tough Old Bird — Garden Dream
Buffalo’s Tough Old Bird are back to form on Garden Dream. The Corrigan brothers have been steadily plugging away at their naturalistic folk music for years now. The hook-y melodies and prophetic lyrics call to mind Vigilantes of Love: Tough Old Bird embed some cosmic truths into familiar folk melodies. Garden Dream finds them exploring with more expansive sounds. While they never stray too far from the traditional bonds of folk music, there’s a spaciousness here that hints at something far beyond the horizon, testing the weather for a future that may or may not be welcomed. But that’s at the edges of the listener’s awareness, as Tough Old Bird invoke pastoral scenes to explore human relationships: a world that is mysterious, perhaps foreboding but, in the end, it’s home.
Mac Cornish — Never Made Much of a Lover
As we discussed in our interview, Mac Cornish is digging deep here on her sophomore album. Never Made Much of a Lover mirrors the intense personal exploration of Cornish’s self-titled debut album. However, we see here Cornish leaning more deeply into her country roots. The retro stylings create an intriguing backdrop to Cornish’s confessional rock’n’roll approach, leading up to something modern and stylish — but still respectful of the past. Given Cornish’s recent sobriety, this is a choice that embodies her outlook as much as it does aesthetics: using music and lyrics to approach a past one regrets with acceptance — and an eye to building a better future.
You can check out tracks by these artists and more on the Adobe & Teardrops playlist — on Spotify.