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.
YOLA — My Way
Yola is back with a vengeance on her long-awaited EP My May. The album is none of that gentle — or even stirring — Americana soul that Yola emerged onto the scene with. Instead, My Way feels like a response to one very unfortunate, anonymous person. Yola inhabits a blistering core of righteous fury somewhere in the center of R&B, pop, Motown and disco, with overwhelmingly catchy hooks and, of course, a voice that can only arrest our attention.
Larkin Poe — Bloom
When you think about the fact that both the Beatles and the Rolling Stones won Grammys in 2025, you might think that rock is dead. But that is not the case, and Larkin Poe prove it with their southern rock-infused barn burner Bloom. I fired up the Album of the Year 2025 Google doc just to write this one down. Obviously the two have serious guitar chops, but there is an effortlessness to these songs that is just breathtaking — as if they sprung from their heads fully-formed. But above all else, Bloom will make you want to run through a wall — and, even better, it’s without any of the sleazy machismo of those older guys.
Carsie Blanton — The Red Album (Vol. 1)
Carsie Blanton painted a tender picture of what’s to come in After the Revolution, one of my favorite albums this year, but The Red Album has none of that bullshit. There’s a refreshing bite here, as Blanton and her compatriots revel in vicious satire and acid humor. The vintage stylings make the fight feel timeless: that no matter what we think of our neighbors, all but 1% of the people listening to the album would be stronger together than by allowing ourselves to be divided by classism, racism, homophobia, and so on. Unfortunately, that timelessness means that certain pointed barbs at the Democrats rings even more true now.
Glad You’re Here — On Air Vol. 1
Grant Glad’s presented us with a compilation of live tunes from his interview podcast Glad You’re Here. The Minnesota-based artist interviews peers from all over the country, accompanied with live performances. Vol. 1 features fellow singer-songwriters from across the Land of a Ten Thousand Lakes. As with any comp, you’ll be drawn to some songs more than others, but the shining thread that unifies this collection is a commitment to unvarnished storytelling, an attempt to exorcise our demons with wood and steel.
Weirs and Magic Tuber Stringband — The Crozet Tunnel
Talk about ambient — The Crozet Tunnel is a remarkable testament to tradition and reverence for history. The Magic Tuber Stringband and Weirs, two North Carolina trad outfits, set up shop in the abandoned Crozet railway tunnel, which cuts through Afton Mountain in Rockfish Gap near Waynesboro, VA, and recorded a series of shape singing songs. Amidst the echoing drips and cavernous chorus, these songs take on a new dimension. They are of the mountains, and literally of the mountain. (Side B of the cassette captures the same songs as recorded in a planetarium.) It’s just something you have to behold for yourself.
This won’t be on the Spotify and Tidal playlist, simple because it was recorded in one take and doesn’t appear to be available there.
You can check out tracks by these artists and more on the Adobe & Teardrops playlist — on Spotify and Tidal.