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.
Jenna Paulette — Horseback
On her sophomore album Horseback, Jenna Paulette shows us a more thoughtful side of her songwriting. While not as transgressive as The Girl I Was, Paulette is still blazing a trail, proving that there’s plenty of space for trad country-slinging women on Music Row if only the execs would make space. “3 Kings” and “Outside” prove Paulette’s rock bona fides — these are big songs meant for big audiences to sing along to. But Horseback seems most comfortable in those softer moments. “The Prophet (Grandaddy’s Song)” is a touching tribute to people who are aging beyond our reach. “Darlin'” is a love song for people who have been hurt in the past, which Paulette delivers with disarming sincerity and vulnerability. “Prairie Rose” is singular, and a song I’ll be thinking about for some time: at first blush, it seems like a celebration of traditional femininity replete with lilting mandolins, only to take on a sly and sassy twist. Paulette is unquestionably a talented storyteller — and I look forward to that story coming into sharper view.
Moira Smiley — The Rhizome Project
This album is nothing less than stunning. There’s no shortage of re-imaginings of traditional folk songs, but with The Rhizome Project, composer Moira Smiley takes songs roots music fans are quite familiar with and transforms them into immersive soundscapes. These are the songs that inspired Smiley to live a life in music, and her interpretations breathe new life into music that can often feel quaint. Smiley’s compositions are ghostly, giving them an ancient feel, but the spare arrangements also make them into something sharp and contemporary, breaking through time and space to help us feel keenly the grief of a mother of a murderer in “My Son David” and the joy of the Yuletide in “Soul Cake.” These people may be long gone, but we can still have empathy for their very real needs, desires, and fears.
Tunnel Street — You Can Stay If You Like
I’ll never miss a chance to promote the music scene in Washington Heights. We’ve got musicians up here, in fact (working ones, even.) We’ve also got queer people. Brooklyn can’t have all the fun. (PS, I’m hosting a queer country night at Penny Jo’s on 163rd and Broadway on September 29th, if you want more proof of that.) I was delighted to see that some of my new acquaintances in the neighborhood have a band, it’s folk-ish, and they met through the queer friendly minyan at Fort Tryon Jewish Community Center. Tunnel Street are a gifted ensemble, and their album You Can Stay If You Like is a charming array of indie rock-inspired folk. While the lyrics are not explicitly Jewish, the themes are there, and you can hear it in the rhythm of “Glitter,” a song about gender dysphoria. You Can Stay is rife with nostalgia, regret, questioning, and fighting — the world, the future, ourselves, and dreaming of the better world we strive to create.
Joel Schwelling — What Is
Joel Schwelling and his plainspoken roots rock is a perennial favorite here and his new EP What Is comes at the perfect time. Schwelling’s earthy lyrics are all about the human spirit — courage and strength, yes, but What Is is more concerned with letting go than building up. This EP sketches the stories of people who appreciate what’s in front of them while abandoning the things that no longer serve them — if they did in the first place. If you need a little encouragement, maybe even a little saving, this one’s for you.
Rachel McIntyre Smith — Honeysuckle Friend
Rachel McIntyre Smith has possessed a wisdom beyond her years for some time now. On Honeysuckle Friend, Smith navigates young adulthood and the secret to the whole damn thing — avoiding comparing yourself to others. (Still learning that one myself.) Smith is gifted with a multi-layered voice that is entrancing and comforting. She’s not shy about her continuing journey, but there’s a confidence here that is magnetic.
You can check out tracks by these artists and more on the Adobe & Teardrops playlist — on Spotify.