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.
Wyatt Flores — Welcome to the Plains
Just in case there was any doubt, Wyatt Flores is indeed the real deal, one of those rare artists who can straddle commercial success and artistic integrity. Welcome to the Plains continues on Flores’ explorations of obligation, morality, and mortality. Seems like a lot of weight for a young guy to carry, a struggle Flores hints at on “Oh Susannah.” There’s plenty of heartbreak and yearning on here, but I find Flores at his most compelling when reckoning with his newfound stardom. Flores is an able songwriter and fantastic performer, but there’s plenty of people who can write a good breakup song. There’s a special vulnerability present when Flores gets hyper-specific about his own experience, and that alone is worth the listen.
Smoker Dad — Hotdog Highway
I dunno guys, since Americana has become gentrified it just seems like everything has to be so serious. It’s almost like guitars are and gritty voices are the only conduits of pain and they Must Be Highly Considered. But what if that pain channels itself into boredom? And what if that boredom leads into getting stoned? Smoker Dad shows us how it’s done on Hot Dog Highway. This is an expert collection of stoner country music that doesn’t take itself seriously — just the emotions the songs convey. The seven-piece band is as tight as you’d wish them to be, delivering complex compositions with practiced ease. If you love the surly garage rock rumblings of Tucker Riggleman, Smoker Dad is here to smooth the edges down — but not too much.
Afor Gashum — Temperature
Some things transcend language, and that’s the case for Afor Gashum’s Temperature. The Tel Aviv-based band have created an atmospheric journey on this album, an intriguing contrast between the tense control of new age ennui and drifting free jazz exploration. These contrasts capture the strange twilight feeling of COVID lockdowns: the seemingly endless drift of time with the claustrophobia of waiting for something — anything — to change. Afor Gashum navigate the emotions — and the music — with equanimity. That sense of determination is something we’ll all need in the coming years.
Long French Name — Country Songs For Sad Communists
Long French Name (aka Christopher Riendeau) spins a clever introduction on Country Songs for Sad Communists that guides us through the winding Champlain Valley — and through Riendeau’s own psyche. Country Songs indeeds embraces a worndown trad country aesthetic, but Riendeau pokes fun at the artificial authenticity that it’s always claimed: “Yearning” could easily be a loving parody in the vein of Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers — down to the cheeky rasp of his voice. But, as promised, there are also stirring anthems here such as “Picket Line” and “Sammy, the Downtown Drunk.” Long French Name gets it — country music is malleable, a totem passed between leftists and conservatives to define the “real” America but, in the meantime, people are ground down by capitalism all the same.
The Dogweeds — Honeymoon
Take a delectable turn around the dancefloor on The Dogweeds’ Honey Moon. If you’re looking for a time portal to smoky road houses, Western swing, and kittenheels, let The Dogweeds carry you there. This compact EP features timeless songs of love, loss and revenge, and cord-taught guitar solos that are as technical as they are melodic. The California-based band embodies all the best traits of dance music: lyrics to make you think, but music to make you move, and a sense that, good or bad, life is still a party.
You can check out tracks by these artists and more on the Adobe & Teardrops playlist — on Spotify.