Here’s some the best Americana and roots-type music releases for August 19th, 2022. Click the artist or album links to find out more. The artist’s names link to their websites and the CD title links go to either Amazon, iTunes, Bandcamp or the artist’s site for ordering or downloading. A + sign means although not a featured release, it’s a notable album that’s still worth checking out. Also, this page will be updated as I find out about other new releases so check back again.
Shemekia Copeland
Done Come Too Far (Alligator Records)
Done Come Too Far is a work focused on the experiences of Copeland as she navigates modern-day America as a black woman and as a mother. Her profound social conscience is translated into courageous lyrics that dwell on race relations, violence, and social struggles. And as a vehicle for these timely observations, comes intense music. The songs on rank among some of the best Copeland has ever recorded, and are elevated by the album’s masterful production courtesy of Will Kimbrough. Done Come Too Far is a modern blues album at its best, and a work of a woman of her time, deeply aware of her surroundings. The release expands the blues’ boundaries while remaining faithful to its roots, and adds another triumphant chapter to an already stellar career. (edited from Blues Rock Review review)
Ever More Nest
Out Here Now (self-released)
“Do you believe that a song has the power to right any wrongs?” asks Kelcy Wilburn midway through Out Here Now, her excellent second outing under the Ever More Nest banner. The Louisiana native doesn’t pretend to know the answer to this or any of life’s knottier questions, but that doesn’t deter her from fearlessly pursuing emotional truths. At times despairing, at others ebullient, this stirring album looks at the ways a soul slips, falls, and gets back up, always stumbling toward the light. Producer/drummer Neilson Hubbard fashioning an engaging stringband backdrop that allows aces Will Kimbrough and Fats Kaplin to embellish Wilburn’s elegant melodies with cool touches. The album unfolds in tantalizing vignettes, creating a powerful self-portrait, she rejoices in new beginnings on the luminous title track, and closes Out Here Now on a note of hope, gently asking a potential sweetheart, “All I want is to be in love — won’t you let me?” It’s an exhilarating conclusion to a lovely album. (edited from No Depression review)
Also new this week…
Caleb Bailey – Camille (self-released)
Katy Guillen & The Drive – Another One Gained (self-released)
Early James – Strange Time To Be Alive (Easy Eye Sound) +
The Alex Leach Band – All The Way (Mountain Home Music Company)
Bill Scorzari – The Crosswinds Of Kansas (self-released) +
Loudon Wainwright III – Lifetime Achievement (StorySound Records) +
Watkins Family Hour – Vol. II (Family Hour Records)
Tiffany Williams – All Those Days of Drinking Dust (Blue Redbird Music)
Coming out in the next few weeks… Will Hoge, Tommy McLain, Jim Lauderdale, Dan Navarro, Jake La Botz, Charley Crockett, Sunny Sweeney, Bella White and more …
