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When Cedric Burnside prepared to record Hill Country Love, the follow-up to his 2021 Grammy-winning album I Be Trying, he set up shop in a former legal office located in a row of structures in the seat of Tippah County, a town with 5,000 residents that’s known as the birthplace of the Hill Country Blues style. “That building was actually going to be my juke joint. Everything was made out of wood, which made the sound resonate like a big wooden box,” said Burnside. He called up producer Luther Dickinson (co-founder of the acclaimed North Mississippi Allstars and the son of legendary Memphis producer/musician Jim Dickinson), who brought recording equipment into the empty space. “We recorded in the middle of a bunch of rubbish – wood everywhere and garbage cans,” Burnside says. “We just laid everything out the way and recorded the album right there.” He’s currently on tour through the South with JJ Grey & Mofro.

Pokey’s one of those musicians whose work transcends any one or two genres. After crisscrossing the nation for the last half-decade looking for a home, Pokey LaFarge found himself in Mid-Coast Maine. Upon arriving, the Illinois-born singer/songwriter/actor (who also lived in Asheville for a time!) pursued a major life change, working 12-hour days on a local farm. Through that shift, he felt inspired to dive into his love of music from far-ranging eras and corners of the globe, including mambo, tropicália, rocksteady, and mid-century American rock-and-roll. “The songs that naturally come to me are upbeat and make you wanna dance or at least bop your head—they’re all very colorful,” says LaFarge. “I used to think of my music in dark blue, but now I see it in technicolor.”

Alejandro Escovedo has been a pillar in the monumental music scene of Austin, TX since the ‘80s. In 1998, No Depression Magazine named him Artist of the Decade! Many artists retire some of their older songs as they move forward with their lives… Escovedo has decided to instead reinterpret them, breathing new life into them with radically different arrangements and revolutionary effect. “I always feel that that a well-written song can withstand a lot of abuse,”, he says. “Turning a past song inside out leads to discovery of new ideas you might not have understood about the song. The songs never seem to be complete. They are always evolving.” Check out these new versions of “John Conquest”, “Castanuelas” (“Castanets”), “Swallows of San Juan”, “Wave” and others with us.

It’s his 20th album, he’s approaching his 80th birthday, and he’s still got some deeply rich, absolutely incredible songs and performances to share. In fact, he’ll perform live for us in Studio B on Wednesday May 1st! Joining him on this new album are producer David Goodrich with a variety of instruments, Zak Trojano on percussion, BettySoo on accordion and harmony vocals, and the mournful flood of New Orleans jazz legend Chris Cheek’s saxophone.

You know Anya’s music, right? The Asheville resident and SW Virginia native was formerly in Tellico, and Dehlia Low before that, and won the Merlefest Chris Austin Songwriting Contest and was a finalist in the Hazel Dickens songwriting competition in 2019 for her song “Ballad of Zona Abston,” and was runner-up in the International Acoustic Music Awards in 2022 for “Hills of Swannanoa.” Well the name of her latest album is about as far from Southern Appalachia as you can get: Oceania comes from an area of the Pacific Ocean that is the only geographical region in the world that encompasses more water than land. Anya has found it to be a metaphor for aspects of her own life lately: “The state of being lost, and the prospect of finding the shore, is so remote and improbable that is truly tests the heart and spirit.” Get to know these new songs of hers, on this album that includes John Doyle, Mick McAuley, Billy Cardine, River Guerguerian and others. Her upcoming area shows include Citizen Vinyl in Asheville on the 27th (with The Billy Sea & Mary Lucey), and the Albino Skunk Festival on May 11th.

Get to know this English indie-folk-rock musician, whose inspirations include Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, and Adele, and whose 5th album draws on inspiration from her young son (with another one due soon!) It’s striking how smoothly this album seemed to come together, as she describes: “Once the songs starting forming, I knew drums and bass would be integral, so I invited David (Dyson) and Ben (Daniel) down to Brighton and we jammed through all the songs in my living room. They took shape and I decided to take Paul Weller up on his offer to use his studio Black Barn, to record them. I honestly thought we were making demos to then go find a producer, but it soon became apparent, we were beginning the making of an album. We recorded live takes, no click, and simply committed to the best take, and that was the bones of the record, which you can hear in the demo versions available. With the help of producer Kwes, we added keys, strings, brass, flute, guitar and the record was ready for mixing and mastering.