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.
Cristina Vane — Hear My Call
Cristina Vane strikes out on her own on Hear My Call. She also won’t let you forget that: this is a collection of songs about a young person finding her way through the world on her own terms. “Hard Rock Bend” is an especially intriguing variation on the theme, a blues rocker with a hint of punk purring just under the waterline. “You Ain’t Special” puts an overly confident lover back in their place — sweetly, and with country swagger. The album’s back half gets more intimate and feels more confident: here, we get a look at Vane’s interiority. “Getting High in Hotel Rooms” illustrates the double-edged sword of following your calling, while “Whims of Good Men” digs into the price of hitching your wheels to a feckless man. Hear My Call is a promising start for Vane — I can’t wait to hear where she goes next.
Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band — Honeysuckle
Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band excels at resurrecting ghosts. Honeysuckle is another powerful release in the trio’s catalogue, anchored by Peyton’s righteous, frenetic delivery. Too often musicians treat the blues with a sense of reverence or, worse, a novelty. Peyton taps into what made this music so electric and liberating in the first place, unafraid of the vulnerability needed to reveal deep pain, fury, or fiery want. Honeysuckle is red-blooded music for people who insist on experiencing all of life.
Patterson Hood — Exploding Trees & Airplane Screams
Patterson Hood begins Exploding Trees & Airplane Screams with a fantasia of tragedy. Given the current state of the FAA, it’s a little too timely. (My mom’s flight landed in Toronto about 30 minutes before that plane crash.) That somber but dreamy tone characterizes the entire album. Hood challenges himself to write on piano rather than guitar, creating an album that is expansive and contemplative. (Don’t worry — songs like “The Van Pelt Parties” bring the distorted guitars.) But then you get to songs like “At a Safe Distance” that evoke the moody jazz rock of the ’70s, and you can feel Hood digging deep. We all know he’s a relentless writer, but Exploding Trees shows him to be a relentless musician as well, unafraid to peel back the layers of a song until we arrive at a destination far beyond where anyone thought we could go.
Sunny War — Armageddon in a Summer Dress
Sunny War cut her teeth in the DIY punk scenes of LA, learning guitar while literally busking for her life. Up to this point, though, we hadn’t seen those influences in her unearthly folk music, gentle but intricate guitar lines paired with War’s peaceful detachment. Armageddon in a Summer Dress breaks the trend of War’s most recent output, capturing all of her past selves. The album was inspired by her time spent in her father’s 100-year-old house, in which War saw hallucinations and thought the house was haunted — until it turned out there was a gas leak in the house. But that didn’t stop War from pondering the nature of ghosts — those of our ancestors, and the versions of our selves we collect with time. Armageddon delves into these selves and draws upon all kinds of music to do so: War’s music has always been intimate but the use of a full band truly centers War’s voice — in all senses of the word.
Paul Thorn — Life is Just a Vapor
I was taken by Paul Thorn’s set on Mountain Stage last year and I eagerly awaited this album. Thorn is an engaging storyteller with a can-do attitude that’s hard to gainsay. Thorn’s inviting drawl unspools yarns of misfits who are just doing their best: retired pimps, Sunday school teachers with a calling for ventriloquism, and a certain singer-songwriter with a forbidden predilection for ice cream — Thorn’s good friend John Prine. Life is Just a Vapor is a triumph of love and contemplation, yes, but also for those who need to remember that joy is the only thing we can truly take with us from this life — because we leave it after we’re gone.
You can check out tracks by these artists and more on the Adobe & Teardrops playlist — on Spotify and Tidal.