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Hard to believe the Red Headed Stranger is turning 90 next month, yet here he is releasing yet another fine album – his 15th or so in the past 10 years! What’s his secret?!? Well, he might list a few things he credits… but one must certainly be his deep love for great songs and great songwriters. His latest collection is a tribute to another favorite of his, the late Harlan Howard.

This one from Eric D. Johnson comes out on April 14th via Merge Records. “Over the years there's been a lot of geography in my music, a lot of landscapes,” Johnson says. “Sometimes the places are real, sometimes they're emotional. I've always liked the idea of songs and albums that exist in a continuum with one another. I'm not talking about some kind of deep series of concept albums, mind you. More like the idea that my songs are all pretty much tributaries of the same river. Which makes a lot of metaphorical sense because my path has been long and winding and often slow and muddy. But always moving towards the sea. I guess you could say this album is the one where I took all that emotional geography and kind of mapped it out.” Johnson has also been involved with Bonny Light Horseman this past year, the trio with Anais Mitchell and Josh Kaufman.

He’s the blues legend known for his wonderful forays into Caribbean, African, and jazz traditions, beginning with his “World Music” album released 51 years ago. Fresh off of his collaboration last year with Ry Cooder, with whom he began his career in the mid-60s, he returns this year with another focus on jazz: specifically the big band swing era of the glory days of Harlem’s Savoy Ballroom, where music from the likes of Duke Ellington, Louis Jordan, George Gershwin, and Louis Armstrong was introduced. This one will be available to the public on April 28th.

New Orleans pianist and Hammond B-3 player Joe Krown is a true fixture in the Crescent City: He’s played JazzFest there every year since 2001, and the French Quarter Festival every year since 1998. This new album is not a tribute to him, but a tribute to all of his inspirations: Dr. John, Allen Toussaint, Walter Wolman Washington, and more. “Krown swings hard on the blue while seamlessly blending the church and the street.” –Blues Review

Rosanne Cash, Lionel Louecke, Steve Earle, Yasmin Williams, & others represent the wonderful variety of talented musicians paying tribute to Doc on this 15-song collection of what Doc himself referred to as “Traditional Plus” music. Available for purchase on April 28th.

It’s the 4th album from this wonderful singer/songwriter, this time tackling topics like sexism in the music industry and the looming dread of climate grief…. But also with a twinkle of self-deprecating humor, and joy for the natural world’s beauty. This album will be released on April 21st, and she’s got a few shows in our area a few weeks later. Looks like she’ll join us in Studio B on May 11th, too!

We’re excited to introduce to you this new all-star roots project featuring Andrew Marlin of Watchhouse, Noam Pikelny and Chris Eldridge of Punch Brothers, bassist Greg Garrison (Leftover Salmon) and fiddler Alex Hargreaves (Billy Strings), available March 31 on Free Dirt Records! Though Pikelny, Eldridge, Garrison all knew each other from their early work with Punch Brothers, impromptu backstage jams with Marlin at festivals across the country were the key that unlocked the project. A lifelong song collector, Marlin selected and sang lead on most of the songs here, which include traditional roots artists like Hazel Dickens & Alice Gerard, John Hartford and Norman Blake, as well as more contemporary songwriters like Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, and Martha Scanlin, Marlin reveals to us the (not so) simple secret of making that high lonesome Bluegrass sound among these: “You take sad songs and make them sound a little happier, and you’ve got yourself a Stanley Brothers album all of a sudden.”

It’s impressive how much raw energy, punch, and emotion this duo of acoustic guitarists pack into their all-instrumental albums. Their latest here is the follow-up to their 2019 GRAMMY Award-winning Mettavolution album, which was self-produced by Rodrigo y Gabriela at their studio in Ixtapa, Mexico.

Welcome to this trio’s eighth studio album, recorded analog to 16-track tape. Oliver Wood, Chris Wood, and Jano Rix have written all of these tunes (along with a co-write with Maya DeVitry), and some sax and trombone are added to some of these tunes.

For those not familiar with Fruit Bats, it’s mostly the songwriting, singing, and musicianship of Eric D. Johnson, who has also been busy lately with the trio Bonny Light Horseman. This is the 10th Fruit Bats full length album, and the first in which Johnson has produced it (along with Jeremy Harris.) Rounding out Fruit Bats on this one is Josh Adams on drums, percussion, pump organ, and synth; David Dawda on bass, Frank LoCrasto on pianos and synths, and Josh Mease on guitars, synths, and bass.