Listen to my favorite tracks off each album on my Spotify and Tidal playlists! Updated weekly with all the best new country, Americana, and whatever else I feel like — this is music like your life depends on it.
frog — 1000 Variations of the Same Song
Sometimes you kind of just…end up writing similar songs. We know this — a lot of our artists lean on certain chord progressions, phrases, or imagery. But what happens when you accept it and make a whole album out of it? frog happily defies convention with their newest album 1000 Variations of the Same Song. To their credit, nothing sounds same-y here; each track on the album has the same lonely disaffection, sure, but the duo never gets tired of finding new ways to chip away at the ennui of modern life. Variations is fine and thought-provoking, which is the true hallmark of a frog album.
Mary Bue — The Wildness of Living & Dying
Mary Bue infuses her music with an overwhelming sense of presence. As we discussed a few months ago, Bue took a trauma-informed approach to The Wildness of Living & Dying. Most pertinently, the ways that we are all part of the same fabric even as we exist in our individual, incomprehensible parallel universes. “Right Now” does the best at capturing the impossible simultaneity of these truths, but the rest of the album is stately and inviting, meditative and soothing.
Lily Talmers — It Is Cyclical, Missing You
Lily Talmers creates a wholly unique soundscape on It Is Cyclical, Missing You. It’s an intentionally organic album, channeling Laurel Canyon, global beats, and bedroom pop. “Daylight Goes Before Me” is a haunting examination of grief and absence with spare, lilting instrumentation and the arresting phrase: “I was one of the lucky few to be loved by you.” The tabla drumline on the title track is hypnotic, adding a fresh sound to what feels like a timeless folk song. Similarly, the horn arrangements on “The Big Idea” give our ears something fresh to chew on in a genre that fetishizes the past. It is Cyclical helps us understand the comings and goings in our lives, but also helps remind us that growth and new beginnings is a part of death.
Ian Fisher — Go Gentle
Ian Fisher brings a soothing perspective to a difficult time on Go Gentle. As Fisher bids farewell to his mother, he invites us along for a peaceful journey of acceptance and grace. It’s not quite appropriate to call the album power pop, but there is a catchiness to it that serves to make the songs go down smooth, for sure. But there’s also a subtext to that irresistible quality: there’s no avoiding the difficulties of illness and death, so we might as well face them head on as we would any other aspect of our lives.
Wolf Van Elfmand — Don’t Call It Country
I’ve been a fan of Wolf Van Eflmand’s offbeat humor for some time now, and it’s on full display in Don’t Call It Country. The title track mocks the endless subgenres that comprise country….or roots…or Americana…or whatever you want to call it, as long as you distance yourself from the Nashville machine. For all that, Van Eflmand taps classic country material on songs like “No Reason Why,” the perfect tear in your beer song for hard times. But there’s also the West Coast approach with “Dear Karma” and “The Unrelenting Saga of Heart Vs Head.” The album embraces a traditional sound that wryly embraces Van Elfmand’s modern viewpoints. There’s lots to bring a smile to your face as well as some somber acknowledgment — which is why we come to country again and again.
You can check out tracks by these artists and more on the Adobe & Teardrops playlist — on Spotify and Tidal.