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It might sound contradictory, but the latest one from Iris DeMent is both jubilant and tragic, hopeful and dire. As Pitchfork magazine says, “Workin’ on a World is like a parade on a stormy day, a celebration beneath increasingly ominous skies”. What a wondrous thing it is to have one of the Midwest’s – one of the nation’s – greatest songwriters back with a whole album of new original material: her first in over a decade. Those familiar with her might also know her husband is singer/songwriter Greg Brown, who has some songwriting contributions here. Brown’s daughter, Pieta Brown, co-produced the album with Richard Bennett and Jim Rooney.

Mount Holly’s own bard is back with a wonderful new one, to be released April 7th on Ramseur Records. It features a dozen songs written by David, plus a surprise Prince cover! While David himself is an accomplished painter (and attorney!), the album’s cover comes courtesy of his son and longtime drummer Robert Childers. “I trust his judgment,” Childers says of Robert. “I wasted time goin’ to college and bein’ a lawyer for 35 years, and he just went straight from high school into rock n’ roll. He has a very developed sense of how music oughta work– though he’s got kind of a nasty attitude from time to time,” David laughs. “That’s ’cause he cares about it and he’s willin’ to fight for it!”

"Traditional Turkish folk songs recorded on vintage gear, a return to the psychedelic sound of the 1970s.” This description from the music mag MOJO sums up this band and their latest release pretty well. Merve Daşdemir and Erdinç Ecevit trade lead vocals, and they’re backed by Thijs Elzinga on guitar, Jasper Verhulst on bass, and Daniel Smienk and Chris Bruining on drums and other percussion. They have roots in Amsterdam as well, and their last album had more of an Anatolian ‘80s sound. Groove to this new one! Serefe!

Southern California R&B singer and rocker Nick Waterhouse returns with yet another winner, his 6th. It was recorded by Marc Neill in his studio in tiny Valdosta, Georgia, with a small crew not much different than the way Chess and Sun Studios sessions were made. “Many of the stories in the record come from that feeling of plasticity,” says Waterhouse. “What is memory? What is time? What is love between two human beings like in this imaginary city? It’s Cubist. A listener sees the angles of my life – and inexorably, my career – reflected in this work from all sides at once. I started thinking again about my university days, about modernist writers like Virginia Woolf, Christopher Isherwood, Hart Crane, or Ford Maddox Ford; about memory and how it betrays you; what you can see and what you can’t.”

Drawing influence from late ‘60s/early ‘70s funk and soul, Hot Mustard puts a new twist on a classic recipe in this 2nd album of theirs. Hot Mustard is the beat-oriented instrumental recording duo of Jack Powell (guitar) and Nick Carusos (bass). It’s a hot recording out of Johns Island/Charleston, SC. Spiking the punch is Big Brass Beats, the all brass horn section out of Brooklyn, NY, featuring Jordan McLean (trumpet/flugelhorn) of Antibalas and Dave "Smoota" Smith (trombone).

Scott is one of the two co-founders of Philadelphia indie-rock psychedelic-pop band Dr. Dog, and you can hear their same great DIY ethic on this solo debut from the singer/guitarist/drummer. Fans of Asheville’s Floating Action might especially connect with this, too. And in fact, Scott now lives in Asheville! After building his own home studio, then recording others like Big Thief and Michael Nau, Scott threw everything into this collection of 13 songs. “Such an incredible spectrum of emotion passed through me while making this album. There was this lightness and un-self seriousness. I feel like music and life cruises at that spot: everybody was so wholeheartedly invested and open.”

On Common Nation of Sorrow, Baiman explores American capitalism and the devastation it manifests, while finding hope in these stories as a mechanism for activism. Baiman produced and recorded the album in her hometown of Nashville, with such songs as one from beloved Cumberland River former resident John Hartford, but she also brought in one of Portland, Oregon’s most noted names in that city’s music scene, Tucker Martine, to mix it. We enjoyed interviewing her in Studio B just last Wednesday, and hope you caught it (check out the video on our Facebook page.) She performs in Charlotte on Friday the 7th.

We bookend our New Tunes at 2 series this week with two releases out of Seattle that capture the mood of today’s world, in heartfelt ways. This first one happens to also have some of the tightest, catchiest, FUNNEST songs of the year so far!

This is not to be confused with his 2014 release of the same name, and there’s not a whole lot of info out yet on this, other than JD has expressed some extreme praise over the original versions of these tunes from Art Neville, Big Al Downing, Iggy Pop, and The Pixies.

Margo Timmins et al are back with a collection of covers that have inspired them over the years. Artists ranging from David Bowie and the Stones to Gram Parsons and Gordon Lightfoot; Neil Young and Bob Dylan to Vic Chesnutt and The Cure.