Steve Moakler's album is mostly very solid, but hot damn if "Hearts Don't Break That Way" isn't outstanding.
Just dropping by to say that I haven't stopped listening to Natalie Hemby's Puxico. I know I've already talked about it plenty of times in this thread but it's a beautiful thing when you unexpectedly connect with a random-ish record. Thanks again, @Craig Manning
If the music year ended right now, I'd still feel like I'd done my job by getting people to listen to Natalie Hemby and Steve Moakler. Also, if you like either of them, these demos are worth listening to. For those enjoying Moakler's record, his previous album, Wide Open, is terrific too. This song especially:
Shovels & Rope are putting on a festival in South Carolina with a really awesome lineup. I also get really excited anytime there's a festival with all three guys from Middle Brother in the same place. S&R, Dawes, Deer Tick, The Avett Brothers, Matthew Logan Vasquez, The Shins, Nathaniel Rateliff, Lucius, Margo Price, John Moreland, Julien Baker plus a special event with Lucinda Williams and Langhorne Slim. There's only a couple artists on the list that I don't know, but based on the rest of the lineup, I'll have to check them out and see if I like them.
That's probably like one of those things like artists can get other artists. Like when an actor directs a movie and gets a crazy good cast.
Highly recommend everybody check out the new album Big Blue by Gold Star. His style reminds me of early heartbreaker or gold era Ryan Adams.
It's on my list to check out tomorrow! I just got back from vacation, so I haven't caught up on last week's releases yet. But I liked his last one a fair amount so I'm looking forward to it.
If you haven't already, you should check out the new Lindsay Ell EP. Soulful pop country, from a terrific guitar player. Apparently her producer had her record the entirety of John Mayer's Continuum to prepare for making her own record. There's a cover of "Stop This Train" on the EP.
There's a whole shit ton of Hemby demos on that Creative Nation Soundcloud page. I've been meaning to go rip them all and listen to them as a compilation. I feel like you'd like his last one more than this one. It's definitely interesting. Her producer was basically like "Pick your favorite album and go record it yourself to find out how the songs and arrangements work." Makes me want to go try my hand at interpreting Born to Run one of these days. Maybe that's my next recording project, once I finish this album I'm working on.
I've loved the pre-release singles I've heard from this record. Lovely three-part harmonies all over the place. Haven't listened to the stream yet, but plan on doing that sometime today.
That Wild Reeds album is the album of the month for Dualtone's Vinyl Den subscription and I'm pumped for it.
Really happy with how Tønder Festival has developed these past few years. It's a pretty large folk festival in southern Denmark that has been booking a lot more country music in recent years than they used to, meaning that their line-up boasts the likes of John Moreland, Lucinda Williams, Sarah Jarosz, Loudon Wainwright III, Foy Vance, Sam Outlaw, Shovels & Rope, Parker Millsap, Anderson East, etc. this year. They do this really neat thing where they often have artists play two days in a row so they play different stages and at different times. Makes it easier to deal with clashes as well, hah.
@Craig Manning and I had a chat about Kacey Musgraves for my podcast. We also got a little off topic and talked about the country scene/country radio in general. Give it a listen here: Kacey Musgraves