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Nathan is the frontman and songwriter for the Dallas, TX outlaw country/garage rock band Ottoman Turks, which also includes Joshua Ray Walker. Walker joins this as backup vocalist and co-producer. Punk, honky-tonk, Southern rock… Get ready for all of it on this one.

Vivian Leva & Riley Calcagno have been making sweet old-time fiddle/banjo/guitar music together, both under that name, and in the quartet The Onlies, out in Portland, Oregon the past few years. They’ve now moved to Durham, NC, and have more of an indie/folk/pop sound on this wonderfully recorded album of songs covering a wide array of subject matter. They play Asheville on September 22nd, and Charlotte on the 23rd.

“I was trying to let my age and experience guide me through making a record I wished I’d made when I was younger,” McKenna explains. “I really wanted it to sound like if I made a rock record in the ’90s, and then I remembered that I made my first album in 1998. There’s something so 30 years ago in my head about this record. In a way, I wish I could start again and know what I know now.” Small towns and what happens in them has been one of the hot topics among songwriters this summer… Lori’s perspectives from her small hometown (in Massachusetts, where she raises her 5 kids) are reflected here among these ten songs. She’s spent this summer promoting the album with her “Town In Your Heart” tour, named after one of the songs.

Doug Sahm: an oft-underrecognized Tex-Mex music pioneer, who was a member of the Sir Douglas Quintet and the Texas Tornados. Son Volt’s Jay Farrar immersed himself in Sahm’s music during the COVID-19 pandemic, and found him to be “kind of a musical shapeshifter.” “From Tex-Mex to country to blues to San Antonio rhythm and blues to ‘60s pop to Cajun fiddle music. He’s always mostly following the inspiration – and then, occasionally, follows the money enough to find inspiration. He’s kind of a role model in that respect.” Check out this great tribute to him with Son Volt’s renderings of a dozen songs of his you may or may not know!

As Noah Berlatsky writes in No Depression, the band that got its start in Boone, NC has been playing traditional music with a reverent irreverence, and/or an irreverent reverence, for some 25 years now, and have become “virtually a tradition in itself. Their latest album, Jubilee, is a celebration of their own past and ongoing relevance, and of old-timey music as a hoedown that never ends but might pick up a fair number of new steps along the way.” They’ve picked up a few new members over the years, too, replacing some who’ve moved on. One of them, cofounder Willie Watson who left over a decade ago, has reunited with them on one song here, “Miles Away”. They’ve also picked up guests Sierra Ferrell and Mavis Staples, for one song each.

After a three year hiatus, Oklahoma’s Turnpike Troubadours return with this, their sixth studio album. Produced by three-time Grammy winner Shooter Jennings, the 10-song album is a tale of reliability, rebirth, and redemption. The first single “Mean Old Sun” has already hit #1 on Americana and Texas Radio Charts. Let’s see if this album ranks in our end of year Top 100!

13 tracks on this, their 8th studio album. As for the theme, Jason remarks: “There is something about boundaries on this record. As you mature, you still attempt to keep the ability to love somebody fully and completely while you’re growing into an adult and learning how to love yourself.” "Jason Isbell hits a brutally beautiful songwriting peak with Weathervanes. One of the best singer-songwriters in the game delivers catharsis for grim times… it’s Isbell’s strongest album to date." (Rolling Stone)

We have another new musician to introduce you to: Nat Myers, who has teamed up with Dan Auerbach (Black Keys) and Pat McLaughlin (John Prine, Nathaniel Rateliff, Nanci Griffith, Taj Mahal) for this blues-based collection. You’ll hear his fondness for Blind Lemon Jefferson, Charley Patton, and other legends here, as the Korean-American from Kansas, Tennessee and Kentucky confronts the dark aspects of Asian hate that accompanied the global pandemic, with eyes set on seeking tranquility, stability, and peace.

Doug Sahm: an oft-underrecognized Tex-Mex music pioneer, who was a member of the Sir Douglas Quintet and the Texas Tornados. Son Volt’s Jay Farrar immersed himself in Sahm’s music during the COVID-19 pandemic, and found him to be “kind of a musical shapeshifter.” “From Tex-Mex to country to blues to San Antonio rhythm and blues to ‘60s pop to Cajun fiddle music. He’s always mostly following the inspiration – and then, occasionally, follows the money enough to find inspiration. He’s kind of a role model in that respect.” Check out this great tribute to him with Son Volt’s renderings of a dozen songs of his you may or may not know!

It was her first live performance in 20 years, and a surprise appearance at that. The legendary Newport Folk Festival in Rhode Island was the perfect place for this monumental experience, and we have Brandi Carlile to thank for coaxing one of our favorite singer/songwriters out of retirement following her brain aneurysm in 2015. We also have writer, actor, playwright and major Mitchell fan Cameron Crowe to thank for some wonderful liner notes.