Drivin’ n Cryin’ play Greenville, Charlotte and Asheville in June, including The Foundry on the 5th, opening for Cracker. Aaron Lee Tasjan has a new album coming out July 17th (Get Over It, Underdog), and it might be his most inspiring one to date, thanks in part to the sage wisdom of his mentor, the late Todd Snider. ISMAY is the work of Avery Hellman, who is, among other things, a rancher, podcaster, poet, and now cofounder of a new record label (Fossil Records, with Margo Cilker.) This single of theirs is on a new album coming out June 12th, plus we get to welcome ISMAY to Studio B on May 20th!

"Since forming Yarn in 2007, Christiana has steered the band from a scrappy New York City bar residency to sharing stages with Dwight Yoakam, Marty Stuart, Alison Krauss, and Leftover Salmon. Drummer Robert Bonhomme and bassist Rick Bugel have remained Yarn’s core alongside Blake Christiana as the group has evolved through more than 10 albums and 17 years on the road. It’s appropriate that most of the video was filmed in a barroom as the music blends bluesy, boozy rock and roll swagger with outlaw country and Memphis soul." – Glide Magazine. The band is in the midst of a major nationwide tour, which includes 185 King Street in Brevard on May 9th.

Though mostly new to us, Side by Side is Pert Near Sandstone’s 9th studio album. This Minnesota stringband has been around for 20 years, and has a long standing process of combining four songwriters into one cohesive project. Through their original music they’ve stayed true to their roots while pushing the bounds of what Americana, old time and bluegrass music can be.

Great songwriting here on this new Americana album that is a “dual-version” release: one with his band, and one solo. (Let us know which you like better as you get to know it!) With the arrival of their first child into the world, Tod and his partner and Lost Dog Street Band bandmate Ashley Mae announced the indefinite hiatus of Lost Dog and the arrival of a brand new touring outfit for 2026: Benjamin Tod & The Inline Six. Beginning in April, Tod and his new honky-tonk band will headline shows coast to coast until they wrap it up with shows in Asheville and Knoxville in October.

The centennial anniversary of B.B. King and Lucille is certainly worth celebrating big time! The King was born in September of 1925, and when Joe Bonamassa realized there hadn’t been a tribute big enough to match his impact on the blues world, he helped assemble this 32-track collection of over 50 artists, including Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, Eric Clapton, Keb’ Mo’, Marc Broussard, Shemekia Copeland, Marcus King, and of course the great Buddy Guy.

It’s a live album from Sara Watkins, Sarah Jarosz, and Aoife O’Donovan capturing highlights from their 2025 tour for their Grammy-winning Wild and Clear and Blue album, from shows in Atlanta, Toronto, Charleston, and a few other cities.

These three acoustic blues masters first met at the 1996 Chicago Blues Festival, and collaborated on their True Blues project in 2013. They’re back with this collection that includes reworkings of Elizabeth Cotton, Charley Patton, and Fred McDowell, plus a number of new originals from the three.

Soul singer Marc Broussard has embarked on a blues-based album this time, and his first one of all original material. Broussard’s tour includes shows in Charlotte on April 26th, and Knoxville April 29th.

The ever-prolific Charley Crockett has released this 20-song finale to his trilogy of albums, following Lonesome Drifter and Dollar A Day, each of which were released last year (and ranked #5 and #10, respectively, in WNCW Listeners’ Top 100 of 2025.) “The Sagebrush Trilogy has always been about a man trying to find his name in this world. Lonesome Drifter was the wanderer—boots full of highway dust, chasing a song and a dollar. Dollar A Day was the rustler. A man learning what hunger will make you do. Now the Age of the Ram tells the story of the outlaw. The kind that don’t set out to be a legend, but winds up one anyway.”

The Australian singer/songwriter/rocker sometimes exhibits a few traits of being a “creature of habit” – who among us doesn’t? Hers might include issues that show up in some of her songwriting: self-paralysis, indecision, and other aspects of depression. But a look at her 20-year career shows a wonderful evolution of musical influences, brilliant songwriting, and growing self-love, no better represented than in this new album. Oh, and among the changes she’s made in her life, she’s moved from her Melbourne, Australia home to Los Angeles.