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.
Jenny Don’t and the Spurs — Broken Hearted Blue
If you yearn for the days when rockabilly was cool, Jenny Don’t & The Spurs have your number. Unfortunately for Jenny Don’t, she’s doing most of the yearning on this album of heartbreak songs. Even as the narrator falls apart at the seams, the band is tight as hell, delivering chug-a-lugging grooves that remind us that the bad times happen plenty, but once you speed through them you can come out the other side, to well, at least waiting for them to come back.
Jason Hawk Harris — Breakup Songs are Love Songs, Too Vol. 1
Seems a little unfair that Jason Hawk Harris’ B-Sides are this brilliant. Thin Places was a monumental album, and I do see how this collection doesn’t quite fit — these are songs about the end of a relationship — and the hard work of mainting them, rather than the grief that remains in the aftermath. Yet the songs have that same curious spaciousness and intimacy, anchored of course by Hawk Harris’ angelic voice. Harris has a twisted sense of humor that also brings these intensely vulnerable and complex songs to life.
Lonnie Harrington — Northern Tropicale and Other Romantic Illusions
I came to Lonnie’s music through Kandia Crazyhorse, and their performance at the Rainbow Rodeo Live show I hosted in March. Harrington is a long-time collaborator of Crazyhorse’s and the two have traveled the Native music circuit for some time. On his 2017 album Norther Tropicale and Other Romantic Illusions, Harrington brings his prowess to bear on sinewy instrumental tracks that wed calypso, jazz, funk, bossa nova, and everything in between into a mellow wave of groove. On the songs with lyrics, Harrington brings us back to the decades of lounge music and mai tais. Whether it was in the ’70s or not for you, Northern Tropicale takes us to a time when love was breezy and as simple as a rumba.
Wyatt Flores — Half Life
Oh to be 22 and obsessed with your own mortality. If you’re here, I suspect you had that bent at that age. I know I did. You have so much to do, and will you get to do it all? Are you spending your time well? Wyatt Flores’ EP Half Life dwells on these questions more than most people would probably be comfortable with. Flores’ voice has raspy warble that will call to mind Tyler Childers, but he’s also got a pop country sensibility that makes him quite accessible. (Your mileage may vary with this: “I Believe in God” goes hard but could easily be an Imagine Dragons song. Meanwhile, his cover of “How to Save a Life” fits pretty seamlessly with his original material. Oh to be 22.) I look forward to Flores getting a little more life under his feet — his songs will be amazing.
Track45 — Grew Up On
Speaking of pop country, it might be worth paying attention to if you’ve bowed out in the last few decades (and who would blame you?) The ’90s Revival in Nashville is leading to artists who care about lyrics and singing them. The sibling trio of Track45 create lovely harmonies and pop hooks designed to stay stuck in your head forever. The title track on this EP was my introduction to them, and it’s difficult to deny that chemistry. Dang — the song made me feel sentimental for a childhood that couldn’t have been more different than the one I actually had. Songs like “Last Man in Tennessee” play off on the standard pop country tropes, but it’s hard not to love its jaunty swagger.
You can check out tracks by these artists and more on the Adobe & Teardrops playlist — on Spotify.