Our Favourite New Music from the Blue Ridge and Past
Each month our editors curate a playlist of recent music, primarily specializing in impartial artists from the South. In September we’re highlighting new tunes from Dawes, G. Love, and a brand new indie rock venture from Sarah Shook.
Dawes “Ghost within the Machine”
The members of folk-rock mainstays Dawes increase their sonic palette with this rumbling blues jammer from the brand new album “Misadventures of Doomscroller.” Clocking in at simply over six minutes, “Ghost within the Machine” options hard-charging guitar riffs and an prolonged percussion break, paying homage to the early 70s psychedelic explorations of the Allman Brothers Band. It matches the power of a Dawes reside present, which all the time options dynamic rock improvisation. – J.F.
Sunny Sweeny “Straightforward As Good day”
Should you lament the place nation music has wandered these final a few years, but you continue to search a masterful nation music, merely flip to Sunny Sweeny. “Straightforward As Good day” is a rowdy rocker that chronicles the doubt and ache that manifest after a relationship ends and the stark distinction between the benefit with which love begins and the hardship of its finality. Sweeny definitely spun the ache of her personal current divorce into this one, proving but once more that lovely artwork is usually the results of darkish occasions. – D.S.
Joe Pug “Hymn #35 (Revisited)”
Joe Pug’s 2007 EP “Nation of Warmth” was a landmark launch within the trendy Americana motion. This summer time Pug launched a reimagined model of the stark acoustic document that includes reworked full-band electrical preparations that features assist from members of My Morning Jacket and Jason Isbell’s 400 Unit. “Hymn #35 (Revisited)” reboots the intimate acoustic authentic music with bombastic drums and colourful keyboards, brightening the literary confessions of Pug’s lyrics. – J.F.
G. Love “Mississippi”
G. Love takes a visit right down to the Delta on this guest-heavy monitor that mixes his patented mixture of fluid 90s hip-hop and conventional blues, with assist from Speech of Arrested Improvement, R.L. Boyce, and Alvin Youngblood Hart. “Mississippi” is a dance-ready banger that updates a hypnotic juke joint groove with free-flowing rhymes and heavy guitar work. It comes from Love’s new album, “Philadelphia Mississippi,” which bridges the sounds of the South with these from the singer-songwriter’s residence metropolis in Pennsylvania. – J.F.
Martha Spencer “Enchantress”
Martha Spencer’s musical roots are seemingly as previous because the Appalachian Mountains themselves. Spencer, who hails from the mountains of southwest Virginia, grew up performing previous time music with the Whitetop Mountain String Band, a household collective that dates again some 80 years. “Enchantress,” impressed by Spencer’s love of all issues spooky and macabre, options her playful vocals set over a droning banjo and spirited fiddle runs. The distinction between Spencer’s alluring voice and the delicately ominous banjo is charming. – D.S.
Mightmare “Saturn Turns”
North Carolina’s Sarah Shook is finest recognized for enjoying gritty country-punk songs with their band the Disarmers, however throughout pandemic isolation they leaned into a brand new indie-rock solo venture, Mightmare. The primary single from the upcoming album, “Merciless Liars” is a slice of murky and mysterious 90s alt-rock constructed round a pulsing beat and buzzy synth work. “Velocity into the curve ‘cuz I’m in search of any previous highway I ain’t been down earlier than,” Shook sings, with a cold edge, emphasizing their sound’s refreshing unpredictability. – J.F.
Rebeckah Todd “Realign”
By any measure, Rebeckah Todd’s cup of woe had stuffed to overflowing. The lack of her dad and mom, a divorce, a well being disaster, and the pandemic noticed Todd take a three-year break from her music. “Realign,” the title monitor from her new album, alerts her return, each to music and to the particular person she is meant to be. Todd emerges like a phoenix on this anthem, triumphantly rising from the ashes of a life burned to the bottom, and formed, however not outlined, by her struggles. – D.S.
David Beck “Miner’s Tune”
With a lyric like, “If I ain’t bought the diamond, give me the coal,” it’s straightforward to determine songwriter David Beck’s tackle perseverance. Imbued with a blue collar, hardscrabble perspective, “Miner’s Tune” deftly combines Beck’s sonic imaginative and prescient, one the place Texas troubadours and indie rock coalesce. Think about a jam session with Man Clark, Robert Earl Eager, Thom Yorke, and Jim James riffing on one another’s songs. Beck personifies the spirit of the tenacious protagonist in “Miner’s Tune” together with his willingness to boldly crash sonic worlds collectively. – D.S.
Cowl Picture: Sarah Shook lately shaped the brand new band Mightmare. Picture by Jillian Clark
