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.
Anna Tivel — Living Thing
I do not recommend listening to headphones at an overly loud volume…but circumstances required I do so upon listening to Living Thing, the sixth album from fearlessly pioneering Anna Tivel. And in those opening moments of “Silver Flame,” I was simply overwhelmed by beauty. So, go ahead and blow out those eardrums. Tivel is an expert at writing stark songs about desperate characters, delivered in hushed tones like “Kindness of a Liar.” However, Living Thing is a departure from Tivel’s previous work in its warmth and experimentation with electronic sounds. These are not usually elements that go hand-in-hand, in my view, but Tivel’s dabbling with pop melodies and synth deliver something that is classically, uniquely, her — an uncompromising approach to art. This one is on my album of the year list.
Jon Muq — Flying Away
Jon Muq has an undoubtedly distinctive voice, one that feels timeless but also fresh. That must be the quality producer Dan Aurerbach heard, because Flying Away combines rock’n’roll, R&B, and powerpop melodies in a way that makes these songs retro and cutting edge at the same time. Muq hails from Uganda and brings some afropop to the mix as well, giving the music a hypnotic airiness. Muq’s collection of love songs and farewells are perfect for the beach, or any celebration of togetherness.
Angélica Garcia — Gemelo
Angélica Garcia is a helluva songwriter. Her new album Gemelo is entirely in Spanish — an exploration of her family roots, European colonization, and divorcing herself from all of it. Gemelo is a force of nature, a turbulent tide of pop music that is brimming with self-confidence and the power that can only come from understanding yourself fully — we should all be so lucky. Some of these songs are quietly exploratory, like “Juanita” or “Mirame” but I’m always most in awe of Garcia when she’s standing in her full power, as she is on “El Que.” Self-knowledge and self-love (the real kind, not the paint-your-nails kind) transcend all languages, and Gemelo is the album to send you into your weekend with bravery and bravado.
The Lostines — Meet the Lostines
New Orleans band The Lostines come to us from an alternate dimension where Roy Orbison and Buddy Holly never faded away. These are songs of yearning and heartbreak that hearken as much to sockhops as they do to the bayou, truckstops, and Billie Eilish. Songwriters Casey Jane Reece-Kaigler and Camille Wind Weatherford are old friends, and that crackling chemistry is at the heart of Meet the Lostines’ laconic yearning. The album’s first half leans more into pop of yesteryear, while the latter hits on driving country sounds. The core of this music, however, is a sense of being out of step, out of time, and reveling in it.
Starvation Army: Band Music No. 1 – Songs of the IWW and the Salvation Army
When I heard about this project, I couldn’t resist. Historical protest music? By the Wobblies??? Kim Ruehl elegantly outlined this history in her biography of musician and organizer Zilphia Horton, A Singing Army. Protest songs became a staple of the Civil Rights movement, and their distinct connections to their use at labor actions throughout the South and elsewhere, as the Brass Band of Columbus reanimates here. These songs were compiled and sent to union chapters throughout the country to give strength to their members as they faced down violent police officers. But, well, this is an album of marching band music so ymmv with sitting and listening to it. I think you’re better off adding it to your workout playlist — or maybe your next protest.
You can check out tracks by these artists and more on the Adobe & Teardrops playlist — on Spotify.