Produced by longtime collaborator and Detroit garage-rock luminary Bobby Harlow (The Go), this one includes some collaboration with Anders Osborne; The Kansas-bred Fish now lives in New Orleans, where Osborne has certainly made a great name for himself. She tracked Paper Doll in Austin and LA in the midst of a grueling touring schedule, recording with her touring band for the first time: Ron Johnson (bass), Jamie Douglass (drums), and Mickey Finn (keys). It was this environment that helped shape the album’s vivacious but nuanced sound, with its “road-worn chemistry and raw, electric charm” (Blues Rock Review). As for the album name, “It’s about rebelling against other people’s expectations of who you’re supposed to be, which feels pretty relevant for the times we’re living in right now.”

It’s the Soul Queen of New Orleans herself! And one of the city’s coolest bands ever, with this new collaboration on Galactic’s own Tchuop-Zilla Records. The band’s core instrumentalists – Ben Ellman (saxophones, harmonica), Robert Mercurio (bass), Stanton Moore (drums), Jeff Raines (guitar) and Rich Vogel (keyboards) – usually feature a variety of guest vocalists, but this time it’s all Irma, 83 years young and leading them on all 8 new tunes written specifically for her, plus a new take on Nancy Wilson’s “How Glad I Am.”

Sarah Jarosz, Aoife O’Donovan, and Sara Watkins are back with their first album since their breakout debut seven years ago. Produced by Josh Kaufman (of another trio, Bonny Light Horseman), the close-knit bond of these three musicians can be heard in their tight harmonies and exquisite acoustic performance. The new songs here address reaching into the past, navigating a chaotic present, and bravely moving forward into the unknown.

The Boulder-formed “Polyethnic-Cajun-Slamgrass” band celebrates their 35th anniversary with this new album recorded at Compass Sound Studio in Nashville, with guests including Del McCoury, Jason Carter, Sam Bush, and Jeff Coffin. As the album title attests, these guys know how to have a good time, and you can hear it on this great new collection of Salmon tunes!

How can a band last for some 56 years and keep its legacy so strong? By maintaining its identifiable groove and sound, and by doing so while evolving with different members over the years. Such is the case with Little Feat, formed by Lowell George, Bill Payne, Richie Hayward, and Roy Estrada back in 1969.

Check out this album that celebrates inclusivity, togetherness and the deep African imprint on American roots music. “The porch is a metaphor for a perfect world - with the kind of smiles like those between the two of them on the cover,” said MIX Magazine in a recent front-page profile. It’s their 2nd “TajMo” collaboration, the first being in 2017. Singers Wendy Moten and Ruby Amanfu are among the musicians joining them here; for the TajMo duo though, there was one collaboration that felt particularly moving: “We had our sons in there playing with us and all the other musicians and writers were hanging the whole time,” remembers Keb’ Mo’. “So it was a really fun place to be.”

He’s 92, and this is his 77th solo album… Celebrate another wonderful new one from The Red-Headed Stranger! Willie has been mighty prolific lately, with help from producer Buddy Cannon, a few family members, and a whole world of Willie fans. He’s released a few albums over the years that were entirely the works of other songwriters: Lefty Frisell, Kris Kristofferson, and Harlan Howard. He’s done so again now, with fellow Texan Rodney Crowell.

"This is a group of songs I've written over the last few years that loosely fell into the basket of love songs," says Sharp. "All of these tunes are tied to specific moments and places; for me, it almost reads like a photo album through the past decade or so. Most of these tunes fit nicely onto the banjo, so the bluegrass setting seemed like the obvious choice. Living in Western NC, I’m lucky to have some of the finest bluegrass musicians anywhere as neighbors. This group had never played together as a band, so we had a lot of fun putting these little songs together." The band here includes Lindsay Pruett, Tommy Maher, Casey Driessen, and Jerry Douglas, and it is indeed more in a bluegrass direction than his debut solo album, 2021’s Truer Picture. We look forward to sharing it with you!

In recent years Evan Felker has transcended his role as the Turnpike Troubadours lead vocalist, representing for his legion of fans something more like a saint than a singer. Since he found sobriety after time off from music in the early 2020s, Felker and his redemption arc have influenced and inspired a number of today’s biggest and brightest country up-and-comers, including Zach Bryan, who wrote a song, 2019’s “Felker,” about the enigmatic musician and references the band in fan favorite “East Side of Sorrow.”

Andrew Marlin & Emily Frantz started performing together in 2009 in coffee shops and restaurants of Chapel Hill and other NC towns under the name Mandolin Orange. They now have their 2nd album under the Watchhouse name, and an extensive tour of North America that comes back to us over Labor Day weekend for the Earl Scruggs Music Festival. They are certainly a grassroots success story that’s been driven by Marlin’s poignant songwriting, that has earned them a reputation for creating music that “redefines roots music for a younger generation” (Washington Post), with songs that touch on the unknowable mysteries, existential heartbreak, and communal joys of modern life.