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Nominees for the International Bluegrass Music Association’s 2023 “New Artist of the Year” award, this band is proof of the sum being greater than its individual parts. It’s individual parts are each great though: guitarist James Kee, mandolinist Harry Clark, dobro player Gaven Largent, banjo player Cory Walker, fiddler Maddie Denton, and bassist Jeff Picker.

Charlotte native Joe Firstman and his band are back with another great collection of country rock in the spirit of the Allman Brothers Band and Grateful Dead, but definitely a modern, original affair. The first song, “Fallen Angels of Rock ‘n’ Roll”, asks a question that hangs in our heads daily at WNCW: “How many times did music save your soul?” The lyrical insights continue on songs like “What Is Wrong?”, “Sunshine”, “Love Is All It Takes”, and “Somos Iguales”.

His father co-founded the Allman Brothers Band, and young Duane spent the better part of ten years playing alongside him in Dickey Betts & Great Southern. He was also a touring member of Dawes, before co-founding the Allman Betts Band. Now comes his first solo effort, recorded on analog tape during a series of live-in-the-studio sessions at Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks’ Swamp Raga Studio in 2022. Trucks, Nicki Bluhm, and Marcus King join Duane and his band for ten songs that bridge the classic FM radio songs of the ABB glory days with some of today’s modern sounds.

You may know Tucker Martine, the celebrated Portland, Oregon producer for Neko Case, The Decemberists, My Morning Jacket, and M. Ward among others. Well, his dad Layng happens to be a member of the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame! What started as a Christmas gift from Tucker to his father a few years ago is now this new release of 12 songs written and sung by Layng, with support from k.d. lang, Bill Frisell, Peter Buck and others. If this modern recording has a warm, nostalgic ‘60s/’70s sound, that’s because these songs were written back then.

Blending wit and jest with more serious topics—depression and hardships surrounding Wall’s rural community are common threads throughout Little Songs. The album's title track lays the overarching theme out, clear as day: “You got to fill the big empty with little songs.” The CBC describes Wall as “an expert hand at making everyday, rural life accessible to a wider audience, whether the plains feel like home or you've barely stepped outside the city.”

Samantha is one of the most dynamic, compelling blues-based singers and guitar slingers on the scene these days; one of the songs from her Studio B session four years ago remains the most viewed video on our YouTube page. Jesse Dayton has an impressive career as both a solo artist and a collaborator with the likes of Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, and X. They blend blues, rock, and more on this collaboration. “…The dynamic guitar duo entrusted their artistry to producer Jon Spencer, and the result is full of wicked stories, tongue-in-cheek escapades, greasy grooves and hellacious guitar.” (Vintage Guitar)

This Sheridan, Wyoming band is back with another fine album of folk and country that could simply be described as “western music”; it certainly captures the rich, expansive landscape of the rural west. Produced by Will Kimbrough, mixed by Trina Shoemaker, and recorded in Tennessee (though written in Wyoming, California, and Baja, Mexico), this album will be released August 25th, and we have them booked for Studio B on October 9th!

Is it the weekend yet? Maybe not, but this new EP will help us get one step closer to that weekend frame of mind. We were introduced to him in 2021 with his Church of Better Daze album, featuring the single “KD and Lunch Meat”. His new single “Mountain Road” is “a twangy, psych-y roadhouse song that could have been written by Beck and the crew from Letterkenny” (CBC).

Lukas digs deeper into his country roots on this one, with a dozen strong, often hilarious songs. “I started to realize that all of my favorite songs that I’ve written are written for what I love to do live,” he says. “And what I love to do live is play country soul funk. Something with a nice backbeat, something you can move to, and something that makes you want to sing along and shout out at the top of your lungs.”

We discovered Rissi Palmer at her wonderful sets at last year’s Earl Scruggs Music Festival – and we’re happy to report she’ll be returning there over Labor Day weekend. This new EP includes an anthem of survival in which she collaborates with another great newcomer, Miko Marks, and a powerful song that was inspired by the Mexican proverb 'they tried to bury us, they didn't know we were seeds'.