My memory does not serve me when trying to determine how many artists I saw at last year’s festival, but this year definitely felt like more. My roster for this year checked in at nearly 60 sets. Not all sets were witnessed from start to finish and many were short sets at industry parties. Nonetheless, with a lineup of this magnitude, there were a massive number of artists I made a point to see.
Belfast, MAINE – Songwriter Sara Trunzo releases ‘Taking My Power Back’ single and video today. The song’s lyrics were inspired by citizen testimony from the May 2021 LD 1708 hearings regarding whether Maine should pursue a consumer-owned utility. Question 3 on the November 7th ballot is an updated version of the proposed legislation.
Four miles north of Pryor, Oklahoma, along Hwy 69 on the fabled Rocklahoma festival grounds, is the premier Red Dirt, Country and Americana music and camping festival known as Born & Raised. In only its third year of production, the line-up continues to dazzle with top names in the genres. Each year, the dates have moved around a little in the month of September with this year’s festivities running September 13-16. The week provided beautiful weather – dry and mostly sunny the entire time. It was even a bit cooler than I remember from my past attendance which was most welcoming.
Abby Hamilton releases her debut album, #1 Zookeeper (of The San Diego Zoo), October 13 via Blue Gown Records. Across ten venerable tracks; Abby Hamilton jumpstarts your heart and breathes new life into your soul. She recounts personal experiences with a universal relatability, all over an enthralling blend of folk and indie rock. Abby Hamilton is pure unadulterated musical heroin.
Today we’re premiering music from Dallas-based artist, Jon Danforth. Danforth's latest single, "Repetitions," serves as not only the title track for his new album, but also a reflection on life's fleeting moments and a preview of the underlying theme of his upcoming second full-length album set for release on October 27th, 2023. Danforth's single is a touching glimpse into the human experience.
Lawd a-mighty – AmericanaFest is a giant buffet of good music. Every year, I duck under the sneeze guard and shovel great, heaping handfuls of it in my face.
Three of us from The Amp attended AmericanaFest 2023. Here are some of my favorite moments – we’ll post Melissa’s and Jolene’s soon.
3rd and Lindsley was a magical place to be Wednesday night. Just 90 minutes after Jessi Colter introduced Margo Price during the Americana Honors & Awards at the Ryman Auditorium, Price sat in on Colter’s triumphant set. (Up for three major awards, Price struck out: “I lost three times, but Bonnie Raitt told me I’m cool, so that’s all right.”)
Together they sang “Fine Wine,” a track from Colter’s new album, “Standing on the Edge of Forever,” which is coming out Oct. 27. “It’s about missing someone,” Colter said, noting husband Waylon Jennings “is 20 years gone.”
The only thing a Texan likes better than a good story is a good story that takes place in Texas. John Baumann is a fifth-generation Texan and has filled his new record titled Border Radio (out on October 6) with songs that tell stories filled with what he describes as “colors and vignettes from San Antonio and Hill Country down to the border.” For this, his sixth album, Baumann changes perspectives from his own to the people in his songs and has a writing credit on each of the nine tracks. “My pleasure as a songwriter is to be somebody else for three and a half minutes,” he continued. “I’m not the hunting and fishing guy in ‘South Texas Tradition’ and I’m not falling in love on the border. The record is a journey of someone’s experiences through a certain place in the world – south Texas. And discreetly it’s a love story. It’s all the highs and lows of love. And there’s real character in the border region, there’s some controversy to it, but I wanted to get away from the news about the border walls and instead focus on it as a beautiful, interesting, and mysterious part of the state.”
On September 20th, Jake Stringer posted a five-part missive on his socials, from which the above quote was taken. It was a 15 year retrospective of his life, chronicling some of the ups, downs, and triumphs and lean times as a working musician, culminating in the release of his first full-length album. On September 22nd, Jake dropped Just Happy To Be Here, ten original songs that range from honky-tonk jams to sing-along anthems to love (and not so much) songs.
Grammy-nominated singer, songwriter, musician, and now producer, Brent Cobb will release his anticipated new album, Southern Star, September 22 via Ol’ Buddy Records/Thirty Tigers. If floating down the Chattahoochee river surrounded by fireflies serving as miniature disco lights had a soundtrack, It would be called the Southern Star.
Produced by Brent Cobb (his first self-produced album) and recorded at Macon’s famed Capricorn Sound Studios, Southern Star is a love-letter to Cobb’s southern roots, filled with the sounds and stories of his home state of Georgia. Featuring local Georgia musicians, Cobb finds beauty in the small moments, as he explores seemingly simple themes with his signature southern electric sound and lyrical depth. Brent pulls no punches on this album as he launches his own assault to the penultimate and perhaps join cousin Dave with a Grammy of his own, putting the world on notice that he too can fly.
Surging singer, songwriter, and “troubadour” musician Colby Acuff added six more songs to his anticipated major label debut album, presenting us with Western White Pines (Deluxe), via Sony Music Nashville. Produced by Eddie Spear (Zach Bryan, Cody Jinks) and recorded at Nashville's Sound Emporium Studios, Western White Pines (Deluxe), finds a way to up the ante, and illuminate the tremendously endless magic Colby Acuff has up his sleeve.
Colby Acuff is poised for a breakout year as he recently made his Grand Ole Opry debut and will tour through 2024, including several stadium shows with Luke Combs, as well as dates this fall supporting Lainey Wilson, Charles Wesley Godwin, Paul Cauthen and Flatland Cavalry.
Apricots don’t sell like silicone, and California’s once eden-like Santa Clara Valley now stands as a shiny but barren testament to that fact. Margo Cilker, whose debut album, Pohorylle, quickly rose like cream to the top of the favored list for critics after it’s quiet release in 2021, is a 5th generation native to the Santa Clara region, which unfortunately means she and her family have watched from the front row as the once fruitful valley, known informally as the Valley of the Heart’s Delight, was sacrificed piece by piece on the altar of progress.
Cilker’s newly released sophomore album is a stirring and nostalgic tribute to the valley in its natural hay day, and therefore goes by the same title, Valley of the Heart’s Delight. Margo teamed up again with Sarah Cahoone, her producer for Pohorylle, and using the understated musicianship and lyric focused production that garnered so many critical accolades during their first collaboration, the duo have created a second offering just as solid and free as the first. The Valley of the Heart’s Delight culminates as something more than just bittersweet homage, and instinctively feels like a vivid and lyrically illustrative magic portal to a land long paved under in concrete; the Santa Clara Valley of old.
Geographical origin often plays an integral role in the influence of music and lyric development. The case of Van Plating’s new album, Orange Blossom Child, is no exception. Florida is a cultural melting pot of dialect, instruments, and storytelling that all lend influence to the music made by artists of the region. Storytelling among the indigenous Seminoles and early Spanish settlers laid the foundation of folk music traditions. Telling tales of life in the swampland and along coastlines, these stories evolved into songs set to music throughout the generations. The rich culture of Florida is a blend of African American, Caribbean, and Latin heritages.
"The Only Good in Me" opens with the warm tones of a pedal steel guitar, immediately setting the stage for a traditional country sound that's both comforting and familiar.
Nathan Mongol Wells, Dallas-based musician and frontman of Ottoman Turks, isn’t just dipping his toe into the new world of solo artistry, he’s cannonballing right into the deep end. He just released his debut album, From a Dark Corner, an album best described as “eclectic,” but not in the sense that the album seems jumbled, only that Wells is a lover of many different genres and infuses them all within this album.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock the past few years then you have heard that vinyl is a pretty big deal these days. 30 years ago, vinyl was well on its way out. Retailers were clearing out their inventory in favor of compact discs that were all the rage. Now there has been a resurgence in vinyl for both listening and collecting. Vinyl has been beating out cds and digital music in various different categories for the past few years now.
Vinyl has gotten so huge that major labels have been ramping up their production causing many delays at the plants for releases going out as far as a year (thanks Adele). These days it’s pretty rare to see an artist announce a new album and not have vinyl as a format being offered. Some labels are offering up subscription services. There are services that specialize in just that, such as Vinyl Me Please (VMP) and Magnolia Records. Oftentimes, they offer exclusive color vinyl only found through them.
The Mile of Music is a gem of a festival hidden in plain sight in Appleton, Wisconsin. It’s astonishingly good, especially considering the ticket price: free.
Now in its 10th year, the Mile of Music features 200 performers over four days at 40 venues along a mile of the main drag in Appleton, a city of 75,000 about 90 minutes north of Milwaukee. Artists play multiple times, resulting in some 700 sets.
We’ve got an interview with Tulsa’s own Bobby Dean Orcutt and The Fighting Side’s Brad Jackson, both longtime veterans of the music scene, who have come together through Low Road Management. The Fighting Side is based out of St. Louis, Missouri and has just released two new singles within the last month, which you can find here. Bobby Dean has lived many lives and the latest is running his own merchandise and management companies.
Temperatures at or above 100 degrees at the end of July are not unheard of in Fort Smith, but this year was not the best time for it to settle in. The annual Peacemaker Festival welcomes thousands of music fans to the banks of the Arkansas River at a beautiful park just below the Garrison Street Bridge. This was my 3rd time at the festival and I have always found it to be among the best of its size. The music lineup is always imaginative representing several genres and welcoming diverse fan bases. The VIP setup is ideal, offering an unobstructed area directly in front of the stage with a designated area for chairs, as well as upgraded restroom facilities, exclusive bar, and a chance to catch the artists at the backstage gate.
Cloaked within the casual confines of a brass-buttoned jean jacket, spectacles steaming against the sweat creeping from his forehead, William Matheny is the quaint town Poet Laureate - that Seer with the Deets surrounding the Friday Night follies that transpire beyond the flashing yellow traffic light across from the local gas station. He’s lost between the strums of his guitar, habitually pushing the glasses back onto his nose between chords. The stage is his arena - at least for a short time - an elegant veracity of sound and word colliding before the crowd. Make no mistake, this is creative energy in full bloom: Matheny, the Maestro, in complete control. It’s Hemingway and Petty thumb-wrestling on a dirty summer road.
