Here’s some the best Americana and roots-type music releases for August 29th, 2025. 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.
Rodney Crowell
Airline Highway (New West Records)
The new record reveals Crowell is still the master of diamonds and dirt, as he labeled his seminal 1988 disc. He sees the world through grease-stained glasses that bring out the shine in the quotidian reality. His music has a gritty edge and a poetic sensibility. The album was recorded in Maurice, Louisiana, and several of the tracks concern Crowell’s nostalgic connections to the southeast Texas and southwest Louisiana region where they grew up. As he sings in “Taking Flight”, “We got our education from a backwoods country station / Proof that there’s a world out there came wrapped up in a song.” There’s an edge to the sentimentality based on the poverty, alcoholism, and dangers of the region, but “lower-class” pride is expressed as well. Airline Highway provides evidence of Crowell’s literate craftsmanship as a songwriter. He doesn’t try to sing or play to impress as much as to serve the material. The songs are his master and mistress here. (edited from Pop Matters review)
Margo Price
Hard Headed Woman (Loma Vista Recordings)
On her last few releases, Margo Price traveled west (Los Angeles, the desert) to find herself, primarily playing in the realm of 70s-tinged pop rock. Now, on her fifth studio album, she successfully returns to her roots, recording her first album in her hometown of Nashville, as Price’s outlaw-accented country sound rings heartfelt and true throughout Hard Headed Woman. Price realized she just needed a break from everything outside of the bubble of family life and her art. She started spending more time at home, writing songs alone and with her husband, Jeremey Ivey. She started popping up in the dive bars and tiny venues around Nashville where she got her start, sometimes just to play a country cover or two or dance with the crowd. “I’m a songwriter,” Price says. “I’m not somebody who goes out and needs five people to craft a song, and then tack my name on it. That’s never been my style. I have something to say.” (edited from her bio)
Also new this week…
Bonnie & the Mere Mortals – Take Me To The Moon (First City Artists)
Marshall Crenshaw – From The Hellhole (Yep Roc Records)
Chandler Dozier – Bakersfield East (independent)
Max Gomez – Memory Mountain (Marveltone Records)
The Hens – Hen Sounds (independent)
Tift Merritt – Time And Patience (One Riot Records)
Caroline Spence – Heart Go Wild (Tone Tree Music)
Anna Tival – Animal Poem (Fluff & Gravy Records)
Coming out soon … Josh Ritter, Forrest VanTuyl, Dallas Burrow, Becky Buller, KP Hawthorn, Jeff Tweedy, Nicholas Jamerson, Otis Gibbs, Dylan Earl, The Onlies, Robbie Fulks, The Third Mind, Ramona and the Holy Smokes, Maygen & The Birdwatcher, Alison Brown & Steve Martin, Clover County, Amanda Shires, Ruston Kelly, The Brothers Comatose, Brennen Leigh, Rhett Miller, Bernie Leadon and more!
