Cream of the Crop – Twang Nation Top Americana and Roots Music Picks of 2018

Truth be told I’ve been distracted by much unpleasantness in 2018. So much so as many of these outstanding selections moved past my attention when they were first released. Luckily I keep a list of yearly releases and was able to rewind and catch them before they slipped away as 2019 dawned.

Criteria – Calendar year 2018. No EPs, live, covers or re-release albums no matter how awesome. Don’t see your favorite represented? Leave it in the comments, and here’s to a new year of Twang.

  1. Jamie Lin Wilson – Jumping Over Rocks – On her sophomore outing, Wilson has created a lean melancholy masterpiece. The pull of the road and the fray on family ties, and the resulting loneliness and regret are just some of the universal themes running through these unvarnished jewels traveling on that dusky trill. It’s a testament to the skill of craft that created these songs that Guy Clark’s “Instant Coffee Blues” sits so easily within Wilson’s originals.


2. John Prine – ‘The Tree of Forgiveness’ – 13 years in the making Prine lends his wry eye to the everyday glory and mundane divinity that has become Prine’s calling card in his 71 years. His ruminations of birth, death and the the pageant of absurdity connecting the two could be chalked up to the interests of an older man (especially one that’s beat 2 cancer prognosis,) but Prine has always been an artist that’s interested in exploring our shared experiences in whimsical ways.

3. J.P. Harris – ‘Sometimes Dogs Bark at Nothing,’ – Harris belies his 30 year travels around the sun by penning songs that channels Mickey Newbury  (‘Lady in the Spotlight’) or Blaze Foley (the title cut) to create a calico quilt of country and roots best bits that hangs together and serves a fitting flag to stake out his own territory of sonic discovery.


4. Dillon Carmichael – ‘Hell on an Angel“ – The story goes that Dillon Carmichael has country music in his DNA and he was destined to mine for country gold. I’ve known a lot of decedents of music greats that didn’t have a lick of destiny in them. Hell on an Angel“ is a project that has me reevaluating that conclusion. Hillbilly Whisperer Dave Cobb has again found himself alongside an artist that can be described as the future of country music by reminding us all that its beauty lies in its past.

5. Colter Wall – “Songs of the Plain” – That voice. Those songs. “Songs of the Plain” mines much of the history that made country music relatable and beloved by folks the world over. A cowboy longing for home while on a long trail ride is not just a reflection on the cost of a particular profession as much as it is a dusty sketch of a common longing we can all share.


6. Lori McKenna – ‘The Tree” – McKenna’s collection of family-album folk songs shows haw a master of songcraft finds depth in the ordinary moments of everyday life. McKenna’s ability to write of the profound in relatable, and often commercially successful, ways make her one of the few that can traverse mainstream country and Americana territories with aplomb.


7. Mike and the Moonpies – ‘Steak Night at the Prairie Rose’ – Everyone has come across some asshole willing to sound the death knell for country music. Next time that happens drop this album on them like a 9lb. hammer. Barroom confessionals and boot-scootin‘ crowd pleasers reflects the spirit of those thousands of stages Mike and the Moonpies has had to own on any given night. It doesn’t get more real.

8. Ruston Kelly – ‘Dying Star’ – Kelly is another country music vet not content to keep working behind the stage grinding out hits for the likes of the Josh Abbott Band and Tim McGraw. Those skills allow Kelly to craft lean songs that carry just the right amount of studio sheen as not to choke the life from these back-alley confessionals of failing faith and dime-store salvation.

9. Charley Crockett – ‘Lonesome As a Shadow’ – Crockett’s working-class upbringing in rural border town Texas and years of busking on the streets of New Orleans and New York City is steeped bone deep in these cuts. To find a melange of Redneck-Cajun gumbo this satisfying outside of this release you’d have to dig deep into the 70’s Leon Russell / Willie Nelson collaborations.

10. Sarah Shook & the Disarmers – ‘Years’ – Hearing Sarah Shook for the first time transported me back to Dallas jn the early 90s when I first heard the Old 97s. The country music I had grown up with on my parent’s stereo was all hopped up on trucker speed and bucking bronco beats. Shook embodies the golden years of alt.country but brews up her own brand of fresh blood with razor sharp wit and a heavy dose of ‘I don’t give as fuck.’

News Roundup – Jim Lauderdale, Sunny Sweeney, Jamie Lin Wilson, Courtney Patton, Brennen Leigh, Loretta Lynn

Lynn’s original handwritten lyrics to “Coal Miner’s Daughter,”
Loretta Lynn’s original handwritten lyrics to “Coal Miner’s Daughter,”

– Sure it’s still Summer, but it’s not too soon to think about Christmas when you know that Sunny Sweeney, Jamie Lin Wilson, Courtney Patton and Brennen Leigh will be reuniting for their Hard Candy Christmas Tour for the 2017 season. Tickets for most of the shows are on sale now and the more will be on sale soon. Check out all the dates and tickets right here.

– Check out Mr. Americana Jim Lauderdale performing “You Came To Get Me” off his new album “London Southern” on the Conan O’Brien show.

– Rolling Stone premiered ”If I Could Make You My Own’,’ the new song off Dori Freeman’s sophomore album Teddy Thompson-produced “Letters Never Read’ which will be released October 20th.

– The Legendary Shack Shakers, the band Stephen King described as dynamite and guitar legend Jeff Beck called “a cross between the Yard Birds and the Sex Pistols,” release their new album, ‘After You’ve Gone,’ on Last Chance Records. AllMusic premieres the exclusive stream of ‘After You’ve Gone’ here.

– Loretta Lynn is being honored by the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum’s newest exhibit, “Loretta Lynn: Blue Kentucky Girl,” which opens to the public Friday and is scheduled to run through Aug. 5, 2018. The Hall of Fame hosted an invitation-only preview of the new exhibit on Tuesday (Aug. 22) that was accompanied by dinner and acoustic performances by Margo Price, Brandy Clark, (“Fist City” and “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” respectively) and featuring remarks by Kacey Musgraves, museum director Kyle Young and Lynn’s daughter Patsy Lynn. Unfortunately Loretta Lynn did not attend the exhibit Opening, but her family assures fans she’s making a strong recovery after Stroke

Cream of the Crop – Twang Nation Top Americana and Roots Music Picks of 2015

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Another year has passed and the amount of quality music being created continues seemingly unabated in spite of the economic conditions surrounding those creators. More great Americana and roots music is being cerated than possibly any time in history. And along with the awards and resulting sales for artists like Jason Isbell and Chris Stapleton the music is becoming more prominent in popular culture which assures its ongoing economic viability and influence in the future for more creative endeavors.

And as a fan it’s just plain badass.

But the picture is not all rosy. The golden goose rule applies in few areas more than it does in the music industry. Without the creators output the delivery channels offer nothing. No creator no business. The blame for the pitiful state of revenue sharing gets murky in the finger pointing. Pirating is the most obvious offender (stealing is stealing) But obtuse and outdated licensing laws and artists with little or no sense of their business worth plays into the overwhelming problems that plague the music industry. Some would like to blame technology for the current sorry state of the music economic environment, but the history of delivery – sheet music, radio, TV, movies or streaming, pays the fees they are legally bound to pay. It’s that legally mandated equitable distribution that needs to be seriously addressed if fans, and musicians, values the fruits of that labor.

And speaking of streaming, the digital access to music has blurred the concept of genres in the perception of an entire generation. Without the absolute geographic boundary of the record store bluegrass and thrash metal are served effortlessly from the same pipe allowing music in the mind of a young fans to be evaluated into good or bad. Will genres disappear altogether? I don’t think so. Human decision processes rely too much of distinctions and connections for it to melt into a mass of mono-genre . But these distinctions will matter less as a badge of personal culture separation and division. Music is becoming a format that brings us together in live events and online conversation.

But for every rules there are exceptions. I love the craft beer boom that is growing here in Texas and all over the nation. The creativity and ingenuity displayed by creates that love their craft is a treat to anyone with consideration to what they imbibe. But in that culture grows a geekdom that can verge on snobbery. A subgroup that use their love of quality as a self-appoineted status used as a license to condemn those that don’t align with their gospel. Music fandom falls into these same human patterns. I’ve done it myself. Nothing is more tedious then someone droning on ad nauseum about the inferiority of Budweiser or Florida Georgia Line. But I’ve never been a fan of barrel fish.

But when the industry, beer or music, systematically excludes selection (http://www.twangnation.com/2015/05/31/an-americana-response-to-saladgate/) based on some demographic studies to keep them rich and us without choices that needs to be addressed.

I resolve in the new year to try and refrain from wasting time on obviously contrived product, focus on the beauty and care taken on the rare, good stuff and the ways we can get more of the latter to our speakers.

No radio station, label, industry group or hell, blogger for that matter, has a monopoly on great music. It can come from anywhere at anytime. Let’s find it together.

Criteria – Calendar year 2015. No EPs, live, covers or re-release albums no matter how awesome.

Don’t see your favorite represented? Leave it in the comments, and here’s to a new year of twang!

14. Matthew McNeal – ‘Compadre’
McNeal creates music well beyond his 22-years on this planet. The rollicking road tale opener of loneliness and doubt “Alonely” sits comfortably with lonely introspective ballads like ‘A Losing Hand’ – ‘It’s a shame, my dear, the way the cards were dealt Not a diamond on the table to make it alright Two hearts laid down, Two spades to bury them I’ll be playing at a club out of town tonight’ – build into an impressive if rough around the edges offering of Texas roots rock and soul.

13. Aaron Lee Tasjan – ‘‘In The Blazes’
Country and folk can often feel weighted down by earnestness. It takes a deft hand of someone like Roger Miller or Bobby Bare Jr. to bring levity to the style without trading in attention and respect to the craft. Wry just short of snark lyrics in the“E.N.S.A.A.T.” (East Nashville Song about a Train) is a Heartbreakers-esque send up of the Ohio natives current residence and it’s movement toward bohemian homogenization. “Judee is a Punk,” a bittersweet ballad that namechecks Jesus and the Ramones and ‘Bitch Can Sing’ is a buzzed-out number that sound like what might have happened if the Stooges had cut a track in Muscle Shoals studios.

12. Sam Outlaw – ‘Angeleno’
Between the “Outlaw” surname (from his mom’s side), his past life as an ad-sales director to his SoCal zip code there’s much to warn you off Sam Outlaw’s Ry Cooder-produced second full-length ‘Angeleno.’ Like many on this list Outlaw well reflects a golden era of country and roots music without being weighed down by copping a nostalgic novelty routine. The opener “Who Do You Think You Are” is a smooth danzón-mambo number punctuated with mariachi-style horns that brings the tropical heat. ‘I’m Not Jealous’ is a smart honky-tonk send up of the ‘Walking the Floor Over You’ that turns the tables on the lady painting the town. Ignore all the surface and dive in and you too will be a believer.

11. Daniel Romano – ‘If I’ve Only One Time Askin’
Canada’s contribution to roots music is significant. From Hank Snow to all but one member of The Band it’s safe to say without or northern neighbor our favorite music wouldn’t be where it is today. Enter Daniel Romano , an ex-punker turned neo-traditionalist is taking classic forms and tropes na turning them on their ear. The string soaked opener ‘I’m Gonna Teach You” and the honky-tonk weeper “All The Way Under The Hill’ shows he can play it straight but the funk outro of ‘The One That GoT aWAY (Came Back Today)” and biting lyrics show there more there under the countrypoliton sheen.

10. Sarah Gayle Meech – ‘Tennessee Love Song’
If you think the outlaw spirit resides only in the YX chromosome Sarah Gayle Meech’s sophomore release,’Tennessee Love Song’ will set you straight. Meech takes us on a grand tour of country music’s genres and themes over the years. From the title cuts 70’s era Countrypolitan to the slinky, greasy groove of ‘No Mess,’ Tennessee Love Song,’is a amalgamation of styles forged into an extraordinary body of work.

9. Mike and the Moonpies – ‘Mockingbird’
So often we are sold a product with a ‘country music’ pasted on it’s exhilarating to hear a release that needs no outward claim. From the moseying pace of the barstool confessional of ‘One Is The Whiskey’ or the boot-scooting twin-fiddle driven shuffle of ‘Say It Simply’ there’s no denying Mike and the Moonpies’ third studio album bona fides. This is a shot of pure, great country music with no crossover dilution. God bless country music and god bless Texas.

8. Chris Stapleton – ‘Traveller’
Anointed the new savior of country music Stapleton is no overnight story. He cut his teeth on Music Row for over a decade penning hits for the likes of Kenny Chesney and Darius Rucker. He took a turn in the spotlight being the original power house lead singer, guitarist and songwriter of the The SteelDrivers. He was so good at that gig he inspired Adele to cover one of their songs. On his solo debut ‘Traveller’ Stapleton lends his soulful rasp to sparkling originals and breathing life into the George Jones and David Allan Coe chestnut”Tennessee Whiskey.” Stapleton wife, singer/songwriter Morgane Stapleton provides a welcoming warm countering harmony on many of the songs. Will ‘Traveller’ change the ways of Music Row? No and who cares?

7. Andrew Combs – ‘All These Dreams’
“Pop” music get’s a bad rap these days. But Andrew Combs sophomore release shows that the Texas-bred, Nashville-based singer/songwriter is an astute disciple of ’70s countrypolitan/folk rock in the vein of Glen Campbell, Mickey Newbury, Gordon Lightfoot, and Harry Nilsson that reminds us that pop can be inspired instead of just insipid. The album’s first single, “Foolin’” features a Jeff Lynne-style driving beat sliding up against Tejano-inspired break reminiscent of Doug Sahm era Texas Tornados.

6. Gretchen Peters – ‘Blackbirds’
Gretchen Peters knows a thing and more about song craft. A member of the esteemed Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame she enlisted a roster of contemporary American roots music luminaries like Jerry Douglas, Jason Isbell, Jimmy LaFave, Will Kimbrough, Kim Richey, Suzy Bogguss to help create her latest dark jewel. Pretty Things rides a “Only Women Bleed” melody and builds an atmospheric ode to to life’s ashes and rust. “Black Ribbons” is a moral tale on that BP disaster that isn’t cheapened by tin-ear moralizing.

5. Ryan Culwell – ‘Flatlands’
Though this is his third album I am a newcomer to Ryan Culwell. But I’m a believe now. His sound and hardscrabble tales bare the mark of country and rock found in much of the Texas troubadours like as early Steve Earle, Ryan Bingham and Rodney Crowell, whose voice he sometimes eerily suggests. The title ‘Flatlands’ refers to the Texas panhandle where he grew up and he and his family worked the oil fields. “Red River” is a chillingly sparse stroll through a muddled morality and quiet strength of the everyday.

4. Jamie Lin Wilson – “Holidays & Wedding Rings”
A familiar face on the Texas music scene, Jamie Lin Wilson’s wonderful full length debut, Holidays and Wedding Rings, is a collection of songs that pulse with authenticity. Her voice is comforting familiar and so uncompromisingly real. It’s the perfect vehicle to deliver these tales of hope, love, heartache and mortality. These are roadhouse confessionals and bar and small town testaments wrenched from the personal and identifiable roads we all travel. The pain and regret is palpable on “Just Some Things” Wilson’s duet with Wade Bowen follow both down an intersection of regret and quiet desperation. “It’s like running for the edge and thinking you’ll fly/Knowing damn well that it’s suicide.” Cheating is a staple of country music an the ballad “Roses by The Dozen” brings a contemporary sound and slant to this murder ballad featuring Texas singer/songwriter, Courtney Patton on harmonies and the sparse arrangement and placid vocals on “Whisper On My Skin” will deliver a chill to the skin and bring a tear to your eye.

3. John Moreland – “High on Tulsa Heat”
Texas born / Tulsa, Oklahoma-based singer-songwriter has only three records chalked in his discography but he’s already drawing comparisons to John Prine and Guy Clark. These are not names to evoke in a trifle, but this is more than hot air. Moreland digs deep beneath the surface and drags up the hope, pain and heartbreak that binds us in our shared humanity. In “Heart’s Too Heavy” his own humanity is on display “Well these angels in my eardrums / They can’t tell bad from good / I lived inside these melodies / Just to make sure I still could.” In a field where sincerity and songcraft are the stock-in-trade John Moreland has the goods to earn a place with the greats.

2. James McMurtry – “Complicated Game”
“Honey don’t you be yelling at me while I’m cleaning my gun. I’ll wash the blood off the tailgate when deer season’s done.” In the hands of a lesser songwriter hands this exchange between a shop owner looking down at his retirement and his wife might come off hackneyed. But Texas songwriter James McMurtry trained eye , honed over twelve records , the trailer park scenarios and lonesome road characters ring full and true. “Complicated Game” finds McMurtry uncharacteristically hopeful and romantic. It suits him, but these textures are kept short of cloying by his usual sardonic humor. One thing stands true, his stories crackle with his usual empathetic intelligence with a literary eye.

1. Jason Isbell – “Something More Than Free’
It’s satisfying to see someone with a dedication and passion for music evolve and gain confidence in their craft to become truly exceptional. “Something More Than Free,’ Isbell’s follow-up to 2013’s ‘Southeastern,’ has all the markings of that growth, maturity and focus. Songs like “If It Takes a Lifetime,” with it’s shuffling ragtime-tinged rearview (I thought the highway loved me but she beat me like a drum) whole also looking ahead with hopeful determination to a better future (I keep my spirits high / find happiness by and by) and the title cut, with it’s soulful ode to pride in purpose and the study on the folly of planning that is “24 Frames” are all perfect examples of Isbell’s instinct for storytelling. With one boot in coffee shop folk and the other in the roadside honky-tonk he was just the man to straddle the Americana music divide and bust to the top of the Billboard Country, Folk and Rock charts. Isbell has become an artisan of life sketches that feel genuine in their detail and reverence. That’s what makes these songs exceptional.

Listen Up! Jamie Lin Wilson – “Just Some Things” (featuring Wade Bowen)

Jamie Lin Wilson Photographer: Ari Morales

The old adage goes that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Apart from their startlingly beautiful harmony the case of Texas’ country/folk quartet The Trishas might be the exception to the rule.

Last year Kelley Mickwee released her lovely ode to Memphis with her solo ‘You Used To Live Here.’ Now he have another release from Jamie Lin Wilson’s ‘Holidays & Wedding Rings.’ This follow up to her 2010 ‘Dirty Blonde Hair’ is firmly planted in Texas’ Hill Country in tone and in the impressive roster of some of Texas’ best songwriters – Jason Eady, Adam Hood, Mike Messick, Dani Flowers, Owen Temple and Wade Bowen. The latter who is co-writer with Wilson, and lends his vocals to, “Just Some Things.”

“Just Some Things” rides a waltz tempo perfectly timed to a flashing motel vacancy sign. Pedal steel softly wails as Wilson honeyed-timbre casts just the right shade of melancholy. Bowen counters with his weary baritone to fitfully complete this song of second-thoughts and near-misses.

The intimacy evoked is even more stunning considering that Wilson and Bowen had just started their songwriting collaboration and friendship.

“Wade and I were just barely friends when I asked him to write with me. I was happily surprised that he said yes. I had this line in my head “just some things you can’t take back”, and the idea of someone contemplating going down the wrong road. The idea to make it a duet was an afterthought, but I’m so glad we did. I think it takes the song to another place, where both characters have the same struggle. You know, maybe they’re married to each other and in different hotel rooms! The ALMOST cheatin’ song.”

Pre-oder ‘Holidays & Wedding Rings,’ out May 19.

New Americana and Roots Music Releases for 2015

The Lone Bellow - Then Came The Morning

2014 was another bumper crop year for Americana and roots music. We shared our favorites and you weighed in with more. 2015 shows no signs of easing up as stalwarts like Steve Earle and James McMurtry and young guns like The Lone Bellow and American Aquarium are planning releases.

The list below is not a definitive 2015 Americana release list, it’s all early months. But it’s as close as I can get with the information available at year’s close. The list is in chronological order based on release date, which mostly occurs on an planned Tuesday target which for some reason (none good) persists.

See one missing? Leave it in the comments.

Look for new things coming in the New Year at Twang Nation. It’s going to be a great year.

Have a happy, and safe, New Years. See you on the other side.

January 13TH
Justin Townes Earle – ‘Absent Fathers’
Cody Jinks – ‘The Adobe sessions’
Cody Canada & the Departed “Hippie Love Punk”

January 20th
The Waterboys – ‘Modern Blues’
Ryan Bingham – ‘Fear and Saturday Night’
Haley Cole – ‘Illusions’
Caitlin Canty – ‘Reckless Skyline’

January 27th
The Lone Bellow – ‘Then Came The Morning’
Paul Kelly – ‘The Merry Soul Session’
Punch Brothers – ‘The Phosphorescent Blues’

February 3rd
Bob Dylan – ‘Shadows in the Night’
Murder by Death – ‘Big Dark Love’
Hiss Golden Messenger – ‘Southern Grammar EP’
Gurf Morlix – ‘Eatin’ At Me’

February 10th
Father John Misty – ‘I Love You, Honeybear’
Robert Earl Keen – ‘Happy Prisoner’
Gretchen Peters – ‘Blackbirds’
Rhiannon Giddens – ‘Tomorrow Is My Turn’
Blackberry Smoke – ‘Holding All the Roses’
Owl Country – ‘Owl Country’
6 String Drag – ‘Roots Rock ‘N’ Roll’

February 17th
Phosphorescent – ‘Live at the Music Hall’
Steve Earle & The Dukes- ‘Terraplane’
Whitehorse – ‘Leave No Bridge Unburned’
Rev. Peyton’s Big Damn Band – ‘So Delicious’
Wrinkle Neck Mules – ‘I Never Thought It Would Go This Far’
The Mavericks – ‘Mono’

February 24th
Elvis Perkins- ‘I Aubade’
James McMurtry – ‘Complicated Game’
Steve Gunn & Black Twig Pickers – ‘Seasonal Hire’
Nora Jane Struthers – ‘Wake’
The Lowest Pair – ‘The Sacred Heart Sessions’
Elana James – ‘Black Beauty’

March 3rd
Ryan Culwell – ‘Flatlands’
Brandi Carlile – ‘Firewatcher’s Daughter’
Gill Landry – ‘Gill Landry’
Andrew Combs – ‘All These Dreams’
Caroline Spence – ‘Somehow’
Dorthia Cottrell – ‘Dorthia Cottrell’

March 10th
Joe Pug’s – ‘Windfall’
Tom Paxton – ‘Redemption Road’
Porter – ‘This Red Mountain’

March 13th
The Coal Creek Boys – ‘Out West’

March 17th
Liz Longley – ‘Liz Longley’
Stone Jack Jones – ‘Love & Torture’

March 24
Humming House – ‘Revelries’
Gabrielle Papillon – ‘The Tempest of Old’
Doc Watson, Bill Monroe + – Classic American Ballads from Smithsonian Folkways

March 27th
Allison Moorer – ‘Down To Believing’

March 31st
William Elliott Whitmore – ‘Radium Death’
Sarah Gayle Meech – ‘Tennessee Love Song’
Simon Joyner – ‘Grass, Branch & Bone’

April 1st
The Devil’s Cut – ‘Antium’

April 7th
Delta Rae – ‘After It All’
Folk Family Revival – ‘Water Walker’
Carl Anderson – ‘Risk of Loss’
Pokey LaFarge – ‘Something in The Water’
Ray Wylie Hubbard – ‘The Ruffian’s Misfortune’

April 14th
Dwight Yoakam – ‘Second Hand Heart’
Lowland Hum – ‘Lowland Hum’
Shinyribs – “Okra Candy”

April 15th
Lucia Comnes – “Love, Hope & Tyranny”
The Damnwells – ‘The Damnwells’

April 21st
John Moreland – ‘High On Tulsa Heat’
Nicki Bluhm and The Gramblers – ‘ Loved Wild Lost’
Jimbo Mathus – ‘Blue Healer’
Ryan Adams – “Live at Carnegie Hall’

April 27TH
Lewis & Leigh – ‘Missing Year EP’

April 28th
Charlie Parr -‘Stumpjumper’
Odessa – ‘Odessa’

May 4th
Shelby Lynne – ‘I Can’t Imagine’

May 5th
Mandolin Orange – ‘Such Jubilee’
Hannah Miller – ‘Hannah Miller’

May 12th
Jimmy LaFave – ‘The Night Tribe’
Eilen Jewell – ‘Sundown over Ghost Town’
Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell – ‘The Traveling Kind’
Della Mae – ‘Della Mae’

May 19th
Darrell Scott – “10 – Songs of Ben Bullington”
Jamie Lin Wilson – ‘Holidays & Wedding Rings’

June 2nd
The Mike + Ruthy Band – “Bright As You Can”
Dawes – “All Your Favorite Bands”

June 9th
Sam Outlaw – “Angeleno”
The Deslondes – “The Deslondes”
Dale Watson – “Call Me Insane”
Courtney Patton – “So This Is Life”
Uncle Lucius – “The Light”
Chris Hennessee – “Greeting from Hennessee”
Sammy Kershaw – “I Won’t Back Down”

June 23rd
Beth Bombara – ‘Beth Bombara’
Larry Campbell and Teresa Williams – ‘Larry Campbell and Teresa Williams’
Richard Thompson – “Still”
Kacey Musgraves – “Pageant Material’

July 17th
Jason Isbell – ‘Something More Than Free’

July 31st
Daniel Romano – ‘If I’ve Only One Time Askin’ ‘

August 7th
Lindi Ortega – “Faded Gloryville”

August 11th
Angela Easterling – “Common Law Wife”

August 14
Rod Picott – “Fortune’
The Waifs – ‘Beautiful You’

August 21st
The White Buffalo – ‘Love and the Death of Damnation’

September 18th
Turnpike Troubadours – “Turnpike Troubadours”

September 25th
Patty Griffin – ‘Servant Of Love’

October 30th
The Yawpers – ‘American Man’
Steve Martin and Edie Brickell – “So Familiar”