Get to know two of our favorites, together on their 2nd collaboration. This follow-up to 2018’s “Downey to Lubbock” has the Texas Flatlander Gilmore and Southern Californian Alvin alternating songs, which include covers from the likes of Blind Willie McTell, Brownie McGhee, and fellow Flatlander Butch Hancock. There’s also an Alvin-penned tribute to Alan “The Blind Owl’ Wilson of Canned Heat fame. Released this month on Yep Roc Records, the two are on an extensive national tour that takes them to the Cat’s Cradle in Carrboro on August 31st.

This new album spawned out of demos that Johnny recorded in 1993 at LSI Studios in Nashville. John Carter Cash, who played guitar on the original sessions, and co-producer David “Fergie” Ferguson, stripped the songs back to just Johnny’s powerful, pristine vocals and brought in a handpicked group of musicians that played with Johnny, including guitarist Marty Stuart and the late bassist Dave Roe, along with drummer Pete Abbott and several others, to the Cash Cabin, where they recorded new parts for the songs and reinvigorated them. John Carter and Fergie also brought in a couple of special guests for some of the songs – Dan Auerbach on electric guitar on “Spotlight” and Vince Gill on vocals.

It’s the first album of new material in six years for Colin Meloy and his band of fellow Oregonians. To quote Stereogum, it “feels like a career summary of everything the Decemberists are and have been, juxtaposing stripped-down folk and buoyant pop songs against lengthy monoliths on a 68-minute double album that ends with a 20-minute retelling of the legend of Joan of Arc.”

It can be a workout trying to keep up with Americana’s most prolific songwriter! But for those who’ve lost count this is his 37th, and it’s filled with 11 wonderful new originals, performed by the band he’s been out on tour with lately. That tour recently included MerleFest (his “Favorite Place”?) and SkunkFest in our area. It will be officially released on June 21st on Sky Crunch Records.Listen on Apple Music

It’s the follow-up to his album Almost Proud, which we’re awfully proud to play for you! 13 great bluegrass tunes here, including tributes to icons Kenny Rogers, Roy Orbison, and Elvis Presley. Molly Tuttle also guests here on a song, too, and Del and his son Ronnie produced it. "I get a big feeling of accomplishment when I get a new record out," says the 85-year-old legend. "I never get tired of it."

The trio of Joe Bellanti, Corey Kertzie and Dave Ruch met in 1983 as members of a Buffalo, New York Grateful Dead cover band called Wild Knights. Then in 2020 they pivoted to this funky organ-based trio Organ Fairchild. Their latest album is an eclectic reworking of classics by Bob Marley, Leonard Cohen, the Beatles, and (of course) the Grateful Dead, among others.

With her honest, emotional lyrics, here equally honest, emotional vocal delivery, and her wonderful band of Matt Smith (pedal steel and electric guitars), Rick Cooper (bass/vocals), Evan Martin (drums/vocals), and Kevin Williams (keys/vocals), it’s no wonder Amanda Anne Platt has kept Asheville in the national music spotlight these past dozen or so years. Get to know this new one on Mule Kick Records, which will be officially released on August 9th.

Over the last few years of taking the bluegrass, jamband, and live music worlds by storm, Billy Strings has been awarded Best Bluegrass Album at the 63rd GRAMMY Awards, Artist of The Year at the 2023 and 2022 Americana Music Awards, Entertainer of the Year at the 2023, 2022, and 2021 International Bluegrass Music Awards, Best New Headliner at the 2022 Pollstar Awards and Breakthrough Artist of the Pandemic at the 2021 Pollstar Awards among several other accolades. Now comes his first live album release!

In the height of lockdown in 2020, banjo extraordinaire Tony Trischka received a mysterious package in his mailbox that would significantly change his next few years. Its contents: an USB drive full of rare recordings of Earl Scruggs jamming with John Hartford, mostly taken from private gatherings at Earl’s house during the 80s and 90s. Naturally, Trischka began pouring over the more than 200 songs, transcribing the all-new solos, tones, and tricks from the man he’d been studying for over half a century. Now we have this new album, filled with wonderful collaborations from other artists including Del McCoury, Billy Strings, Sierra Ferrell, Molly Tuttle, and the Gibson Brothers.

No doubt you’ve always noticed that Southern (Gainesville, Florida) drawl of one of America’s greatest rockers. But have you ever thought of his music as Country? See what you think after hearing some of these new covers, from the likes of Dierks Bentley, Dolly Parton, Margo Price, Marty Stuart, and Willie & Lukas Nelson.