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.
American Aquarium — The Fear of Standing Still
American Aquarium are back to form on their stunning The Fear of Standing Still. I’ve sat out the band’s last couple releases — they just didn’t connect with me, and I’m sure all the lineup changes didn’t help. Also, I’m just not quite at the life stage to connect with the things BJ focused on there. By contrast, Fear, finds Barham focusing on plainspoken rock songs that touch the heart — exactly what he does best. Barham digs reminisces about the people and places dear to him — “Purple Cherokees” is a standout. As he sings on “Southern Roots,” “You can’t change the way you sound/You can only change the words that you choose.” The song has a political bent but it’s the ethos of this album: rather than covering new ground, Barham goes back to his roots and demonstrates his continuing growth as a songwriter with refined lyrics that pack a mighty punch.
Regan Ashton — Infinite Pest
If you need an antidote to that cautious optimism, Regan Ashton is here with Infinite Pest. The SLC-based artist makes a fine art of folk punk, relishing in tempo changes, rowdy gang vocals, and tales of the gutter that must make Ashton’s loved ones blanch. Ashton’s scathing disdain for the way things are and how far they are from where they could be should spark a fire in the hearts of Two Cow Garage fans. Infinite Pest is a spirited album that celebrates the camaraderie found in being down and out and feeling sorry for yourself. And perhaps, Ashton considers, those are the beginnings of collective action.
Kiely Connell — My Own Company
There’s no denying Kiely Connell’s intoxicating voice and My Own Company foregrounds her astounding performances. The album is a worthy follow-up to the hypnotic Calumet Queen. Here, Connell weaves tales of the compromises and disappointments that come with a musician’s life. Connell’s music has a muscular modernity to it that feels like it’s got one foot in Olivia Rodrigo and the other in honky-tonk bars — Americana for the TikTok world. That’s by no means a slight; it shows that Connell is an innovator and is very much one to keep an eye on, helping to usher in the next generation of roots rebels.
Eddy Lee Ryder — Bad Decisions
Sometimes you can judge a book by its cover, and the rollicking album art on Bad Decisions, the latest EP from Eddy Lee Ryder, lets you know what you’re in for. Ryder has a mischievous streak a mile wide with a devotion to creating a retro aura. Throughout the EP, my ear caught traces of Zeppelin and Heart amidst vintage-style folk and yearnings of a simpler time. Or, perhaps, its that our desires have always been simple: freedom, a little self-destruction, a love that stays.
Von Bieker — Dumb Hope
Von Bieker shares a sweet, ironic defiance on his album Dumb Hope. If you’re a fan of Adeem the Artist, you’ll enjoy Von Bieker’s wry humor and commitment to the better angels of our nature. That shouldn’t be confused with a sense of blind optimism, though. On the title track, Von Bieker elegantly captures the irony of living in these times: we want to do better by each other, but we are trapped by a system whose mechanisms have never been laid more bare, and it seems impossible to throw a wrench into it. But that doesn’t mean we can’t try our damndest, start with the little things, and ripple out from there.
You can check out tracks by these artists and more on the Adobe & Teardrops playlist — on Spotify.