Here’s some the best Americana and roots-type music releases for March 24th, 2023. 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.
Eric Bibb
Ridin’ (Stony Plain Records)
Ridin’ is a continuation of the vision that informs Bibb’s artistry as a modern-day Blues troubadour. Grounded in the folk and blues tradition with contemporary sensibilities, Bibb’s music continues to reflect his thoughts on current world events and his own lived experiences, whilst remaining entertaining, uplifting, inspirational and relevant. Bibb is known and revered globally for having carved his own musical destiny with honesty and power. Eric’s father, the late Leon Bibb, was an activist, actor, and folk singer who marched at Selma with Dr. Martin Luther King. Eric’s youth was spent immersed in the Greenwich Village folk scene. Names like Dylan, Baez, and Seeger were visitors to his home. He was deeply influenced by Odetta, Richie Havens, and Taj Mahal – who guests on Ridin’ – and he has synthesized all of that into his very own style. (from promotional material)
Dom Flemons
Wildfire (Smithsonian Folkways Recordings)
With his new album, Traveling Wildfire, Dom Flemons builds on his solo oeuvre and previous forays with The Carolina Chocolate Drops, per usual displaying songwriting savvy, instrumental prowess, and a knack for contemporizing often obscure yet important works. On several tracks, Flemons performs distinct reinterpretations, accentuating his depth as a folk archivist. With “We Are Almost Down to the Shore,” he rearranges the 1936 spiritual by Jimmie Strothers. While the original epitomizes a rural blues style featuring Strothers’ gravelly voice, Flemons’ version is more choral, his delivery like velvet. With “Guess I’m Doing Fine,” Flemons remakes Dylan’s sardonic tribute to Woody Guthrie, his voice optimistic, his instrumentation rollicky, including Sam Bush’s adrenalized fiddle. Throughout Traveling Wildfire, whether offering originals or notable redos, Flemons exhibits his encyclopedic knowledge of music history. All the while, he demonstrates his versatility and penchant for dynamic collaboration. In this way, he continues to honor the past while underscoring its relevance to the present — and keeping an unflinching eye on the future. (edited from No Depression review)
Nickel Creek
Celebrants (Repair Records)
Nickel Creek, the Bluegrass innovators who revolutionized the genre back when they were pesky kids, have now returned with their most ambitious album. Comprised of Chris Thile on mandolin, Sara Watkins on fiddle and her brother Sean Watkins on guitar, the band have laid down 18 tracks so fresh and interconnected that it feels like they’re making their own Sgt Pepper or Pet Sounds. Produced by Eric Valentine, it’s their first record together in almost a decade; written in a creative retreat in Santa Barbara where you can feel the excitement of this huge endeavor. Everything the trio explore here interlinks into the other, like a complete symphony or song cycle where every bridge and break could take you in a different direction. This is an album to return to again and again. Of course, you can dip into your favourite parts and admire the astonishing musicianship, but it works best as a whole sequence; illuminating the characters and their relationships while evoking the trio’s obvious joy at being back together again. (edited from Holler. review)
Also new this week…
Darling West – Cosmos (Jansen Records)
Steve Dawson – Eyes Closed, Dreaming (Black Hen Music) +
Andrew Gabbard – Cedar City Sweetheart (Karma Chief Records) +
Melissa Ruth – Bones (self-released)
Mike Stinson & Johnny Irion – Working My Way Down (Blackwing Music)
Ellie Turner – When The Trouble’s All Done (Muhly Grass Records) +
Ally Venable – Real Gone (Ruf Records)
White Owl Red – Running Blind (Bourgeois Dawg Records)
Coming out soon… Peter Case, Mighty Poplar, Waco Brothers, Rachel Baiman, Lance Roark, Lauren Morrow, Adam Klein, Joey Frendo, Taj Mahal, Carter Sampson, Cimarron 615, Marty Stuart, Natalie Merchant, The Wood Brothers, The Milk Carton Kids, Robbie Fulks, Robert Ellis, Caitlin Canty, The Infamous Stringdusters, Jake Ybarra, Bella White, Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit and more!
