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Led by musical director Scotty Barnhart, this new tribute showcases the many shared roots and emotions between jazz and blues. Guests include Bobby Rush, Shemekia Copeland, Buddy Guy, Bettye LaVette, & Keb’ Mo’. In preparation for these sessions, Barnhart took a pilgrimage to Mississippi, and drove through the areas where Charlie Patton, Robert Johnson, Son House, Muddy Waters and others birthed and played this music. The resulting album is a joyful mix of downhome, Delta Blues with the deep swing and sophistication that only The Count Basie Orchestra can provide. As Count Basie famously once said, “our blues will make your blues go away.”

“Just who is Shinyribs? It’s a sprawling nine, sometimes 10-piece cast, but ultimately it is the funky brainchild of Kevin Russell, who grew up in Beaumont, TX and Shreveport, LA, the cradle of the swamp pop and bayou R&B sounds that drip off his fingers like honey and hot sauce. Think Gulf Coast meets Muscle Shoals with strong pop-song structures.” (Bandcamp).

Fine Tuned is a mentorship and collaboration-based professional development project seeking to connect seasoned and emerging traditional musicians from Western North Carolina. A Fine Tuned concert series took place in Elkin, Franklin, and Mars Hill this past Spring, and now we have this compilation that includes Sav Sankaran, Josh Goforth, Donna Ray Norton, & DaShawn Hickman among others. WNCW is proud to be a sponsor of The Blue Ridge Music Trails, an initiative of the Blue Ridge National Heritage Area and the North Carolina Arts Council, which is behind this project.

Like predecessors Bonnie Raitt and Lucinda Williams, Shannon McNally has become a legend on her own terms, and in her own right. She is now releasing a career retrospective live album that chronicles her 20-year career, recorded at Nashville’s beloved watering hole Dee’s Country Lounge. The album was performed to sellout crowds over four Wednesday nights of a September 2022 residency.

Guitarist Eric Krasno (Lettuce, Soulive) and drummer Stanton Moore (Galactic, Garage-a-Trois) are GRAMMY award-winning artists who have shared the stage countless times over years. Their new album (Concord Jazz) showcases a collection of songs from some of their favorite female artists including Aretha Franklin, Amy Winehouse, Sharon Jones, Nina Simone and more.

This is the 5th full length album from this band, fronted by singer/songwriter Jake Ewald. At the beginning of the pandemic, Ewald moved from Philadelphia, his home of a decade, to a house in the Poconos. With less distractions and a calmer mind, he filled his time taking long walks and listening to the likes of Neil Young, Randy Newman and Tom Waits. These classic songwriters influenced the songwriting on this new album from the indie-rock band Slaughter Beach, Dog.

“I knew that I needed this record to be full of joy because if we’re standing at some kind of finish line of human civilization—and I’m not saying that we are, but some days it sure feels that way—then I want to go out dancing,” laughs songwriter and Durham, NC resident M.C. Taylor. “That’s what I wanted Jump for Joy to feel like: Dancing at the end times.” Produced by Taylor and engineered by longtime Hiss compatriot Scott Hirsch over two weeks in the late fall of 2022 at the fabled Sonic Ranch studio in Tornillo, TX, just a short walk from the Mexican border, Jump for Joy dances with joyful, spontaneous energy that feels like a fresh chapter in the Hiss Golden Messenger oeuvre. Taylor is accompanied throughout the album by his crack live band: guitarist Chris Boerner, bassist Alex Bingham, keyboardist Sam Fribush, and drummer Nick Falk, a collection of musicians that have helped make Hiss Golden Messenger’s live performances legendary affairs.

“I saw a literal manifestation of the sacred feminine, and had this profound sense that I was meant to embody it,” recalls celebrated singer-songwriter Lindsay Lou of a vision that helped inspire this new album. The loss of her grandmother, the end of her marriage, and the overwhelming turmoil of COVID lockdowns found the Nashville-based artist on a spiritual journey of self-knowledge and healing. Guests on here whom we recognize include Jerry Douglas, Phoebe Hunt, Kyle Tuttle, Melody Walker, & Joshua Rilko.

Cousin is Wilco’s expression of the pain of trying to be connected to other people when we fall short so often; the joy of catching understanding in someone else’s eye, however fleeting; and the immutable truth that all of us are related, whether we honor or dishonor or forget or remember. “I’m cousin to the world,” frontman Jeff Tweedy confesses. “I don’t feel like I’m a blood relation, but maybe I’m a cousin by marriage. It’s this feeling of being in it and out of it at the same time.” This marks the first time Wilco has handed the reins over to a producer outside their immediate circle of collaborators since Sky Blue Sky, as they’ve tapped Welsh musician Cate Le Bon.

“Just who is Shinyribs? It’s a sprawling nine, sometimes 10-piece cast, but ultimately it is the funky brainchild of Kevin Russell, who grew up in Beaumont, TX and Shreveport, LA, the cradle of the swamp pop and bayou R&B sounds that drip off his fingers like honey and hot sauce. Think Gulf Coast meets Muscle Shoals with strong pop-song structures.” (Bandcamp).