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If you’re a fan of Southern gothic writers like William Faulkner or Eudora Welty, the lyrics of Alabama native James Mullis, a.k.a. Early James, might resonate with you. He incorporates these influences into his original forsaken blues and contemplative folk songs, brooding murder ballads and lovestruck piano tunes. Dan Auerbach of Easy Eye Sound was recruited a 2nd time for this new one. He’s got Sierra Ferrell joining him on one of these songs.

It’s been three years since we lost the good doctor, but thanks to his eldest daughter Karla Pratt, Willie & Lukas Nelson, Aaron Neville, and others, we have this final album he recorded. Mac Rebennack was the global ambassador of New Orleans funk and jazz and R&B, visionary bluesman, rock and roll innovator, self-anointed and massively revered high priest of psychedelic voodoo…And he was also a big fan of country & western music, as this project shows.

What started as a demo session with producer Bruce Robison at Robison’s studio outside Austin called The Bunker, turned into this 15-song album with his band, The Blue Drifters. It’s in part a tribute to the late Texas songwriter James Hand. Crockett is refining his singular “Gulf & Western” sound with each release, and this is his seventh one in four years!

This trio of Anais Mitchell, Eric D. Johnson (of Fruit Bats), and Josh Kaufman, have released their 2nd collaboration. While their first included a number of guests, this one is more a distillation of these three, with drummer JT Bates and bassist/saxophonist Mike Lewis the only other performers. As their website describes, “This is a network of mutualism, created for sharing, learning, risking, singing, and playing as one, not as mere sums of fractions.” With this caliber of songs, harmonizing, and arrangements, no other assistants are needed, to be honest.

This Boston band, led by Ken Casey, has been pulling no punches with its fiery Irish punk rock since 1996. Casey has always felt a kinship with the words of Woody Guthrie, and thanks to Woody’s daughter Nora Guthrie, they were able to mine the seemingly infinite Woody Guthrie archives to find more poems that can finally be set to music. Nora helped find lyrics that, in her words, “seemed to be needed to be said – or screamed – today.” Guests here include Woody himself, his grandson Cole Quest, Nikki Lane, and Dom Flemons.

Patuxent Music record label is known around WNCW for their great taste in both traditional and progressive stringband mountain music, and among their latest gems is this one from Shane. After a couple albums with the band Serene Green, he’s got a debut solo album, though he’s joined by Chris Luquette, Ellery Marshall, Brett Kretzer, Alex Hargreaves, and Jack Devereux among others. His love for the first generation of bluegrass pioneers is evident here, but these are almost all new, original tunes (plus an Elvis Costello cover!)

The phenomenal fiddler for the Del McCoury Band and the Travelin’ McCourys has his first solo album in 25 years! It’s a wide open pool of songwriters he draws from, including Bruce Hornsby (“King of the Hill”), Garcia/Hunter (“Bird Song”), and Vassar Clements (“Kissimmee Kid”, the one instrumental here.) Instrumentalists joining him include Marty Stuart, David Grier, Danny Barnes, and Jerry Douglas. His guest vocalists here are Dierks Bently, Billy Strings, Vince Gill, Tim O’Brien, Aoife O’Donovan, Sarah Jarosz, Joe Mullins… oh and his boss Del.

Blues fans! We present the first-time live recording from veteran bluesman and road warrior Damon Fowler, recorded at the Palladium Theater in St Petersburg, FL. A masterful singer, guitar player, and songwriter, Fowler combines first-rate musicianship and lots of full-blown jamming, with his venerable working band: Chuck Riley (bass) and Justin Headley (drums) along with special guests Jason Ricci (harmonica), Dan Signor (keyboards) and Eddie Wright (guitar). 'Live At The Palladium' marks Fowler's 9th solo release.

Tyler has a 3-part project out of 8 songs, produced by himself and The Food Stamps. The Hallelujah version captures Tyler and the core band playing live in a single room over the course of two days, while the Jubilee version builds on it with the addition of strings, horns, background vocals and an array of worldly instruments such as dulcimer, mbira and sitar. The final version, Joyful Noise, consists of remixes created with DJ Charlie Brown Superstar (Brett Fuller) and includes samples from eclectic sources such as “The Andy Griffith Show,” theologist Thomas Merton, and comedian Jerry Clower.