Despite the state of the world, we're starting off with some good news today! A grocery store in New Castle, Delaware has begun staging mini showcases for local artists in the style of NPR Tiny Desk Concerts. Watch the Reel made by CBS Philadelphia below and read more here.
In more heartwarming internet culture, Texas country artist Vincent Neil Emerson recently launched a hysterical, half-hearted cooking series on his Instagram page he's calling "Chop That Shit Up." Check out a recent episode on Texas chili below and stay tuned for Emerson's new album titled Blue Stars, due out April 17 via LaHonda Records.
No Depression's nonprofit publisher, the FreshGrass Foundation, announced that Big Thief will play a special event at MASS MoCA in the Berkshires on Saturday, August 8. Tickets are on sale now and the band is donating $1 from every ticket sold to help protect people experiencing homelessness though the organization PLUS1. And while waiting for August to roll around, check out Big Thief member Buck Meek's new solo album, which came out last month (ND review.)
This week saw to surprise releases: Allison Russell released an EP titled Rainbows, which features a single of the same name. Additionally the EP includes two covers of songs by Sarah McLachlan, who will be accompanying Russell on tour this summer. As she wrote about the song in a press release:
There is improbable magic all around us, and limitless magic in our own hearts and minds and imaginations. “Rainbows” is a song about reconnecting with our own essential magic —a magic maybe we thought we’d lost —so that we can pour it back into the World. It felt right to pair “Rainbows” with these two covers of Sarah McLachlan’s magical work. Sarah is a trailblazer for all women in music — her Lilith Fair taught an entire generation of girls & women that we were never in competition, always stronger in community.
Additionally, father-daughter duo Dan and Peggy Reeder released their debut live album, simply titled Dan and Peggy Reeder Live via John Prine's Oh Boy Records. The 17-track album was culled from shows during their sold-out tours between 2024-25. As Dan said in a press release:
I didn't think we’d ever manage to put out a record together. ...People have been asking about one since we started playing together, and these recordings actually sounded like us. Which is to say, they’re not perfect, but they are real.
In terms of upcoming new music, sometimes-pop and somtimes-country singer Kacey Musgraves dropped a new single titled "Dry Spell" this week. Her new album, Middle of Nowhere, is due out May 1 via the recently relaunched Lost Highway Records (which originally signed her before getting absorbed into the major label web).
Teddy Thompson announced his first LP in six years, titled Never Be The Same, due out May 15 via RPF Records/Royal Potato Family.
Providence-based alternative and folk-rock band Deer Tick have announced the release of their ninth studio album, Coin-O-Matic, on June 5 via ATO.
No Depression published a story by Shannon Nico Shreibak titled "A Place in the Country Cosmos: The queer reinvention of cosmic country and astrology" back in Fall 2021 "Ghosts" issue of the journal, which featured Chicago country artist Andrew Sa. Finally, his debut, full-length album, American Rough, is set to come out June 26 via Bloodshot Records. The new single is a tribute of sorts to the late Patrick Haggerty of Lavender Country.
And looking as far out as November, a new tribute to The Pogues' late frontman Shane MacGowan titled 20th Century Paddy - The Songs of Shane MacGowan, is due out November 13 via Rubyworks. The first single features a stripped down cover by Bruce Springsteen.
RIP to iconic singer-songwriter Country Joe McDonald, who passed away on March 7 due to Parkinson's disease. His band Country Joe & The Fish blended folk music and psychedelia throughout the 1960s and '70s, most famously performing the sardonic protest song "I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-to-Die Rag" at Woodstock in 1969. Even though the band broke up in 1971, McDonald spent the rest of his career as a solo folk musician, Woody Guthrie interpreter, and activist.
Jorma Kaukonen — solo artist and member of Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna — shared the following message about his contemporary, collaborator, and friend, McDonald:
You can neither run nor hide from death, or life. In the last month or two I have lost many friends from ‘my time,’ and I doubt it is going to get any better. It is just a moment of passing for my generation. In any case, I met Joe McDonald back in the mid 1960’s in San Francisco in a time when, as artists, the flexing of our young wings was beginning to stir a wind that was causing people to notice. My upbringing was certainly different than Joe’s. His parents were left wing activists and mine were civil servants with a social conscience. Somehow we both wound up in a milieu when, as children of the 60’s, we both found homes.
I always felt that Joe had a larger than life personality. He was a talented writer, player and singer but there was more to him than that. His art captured a different zeitgeist. He was an artist with a populist agenda that somehow seemed a little more tangible than the so-called psychedelic bands of the 60’s. He was closer to Joe Glazer than Donavon. His heart songs often reflect the plight of the people.
I remember when he came to our Fur Peace Ranch in Meigs County, Ohio a couple of times, the last being in 2012 which in itself seems a lifetime ago. We were walking together down the stone pathway from the Fur Peace Station Theater to the kitchen and dining area. We were just talking together about life paths as older men sometimes do and I remember he stopped and turned to. ’Jorma, we were in our 50’s before we finally grew up.’ I thought about that for a second or two and then had to allow that it was certainly true.
Joe, may you roll on like the Columbia River you and Woody sang about. Roll on indeed…
RIP as well to Texas country musician Augie Meyers and to the Australian music festival Bluesfest Byron Bay. More on both below.
Finally, sending well wishes to Colter Wall, who shared that he is stepping away from touring for the time being to protect his own mental health.
WHAT WE'RE LISTENING TO
Huw Marc Bennett - Heol Las (Welsh language folk music released earlier this month)
Low Cut Connie - "Little Freakers" (from their forthcoming album, Livin in the USA, due out July 3)
Brown Horse - All The Right Weaknesses
Spanish Love Songs - Brave Faces Everyone
NEW RELEASES - 3/13/26
Johnny Blue Skies - Mutiny After Midnight
Cat Clyde - Mud Blood Bone
Jorge Drexler - Taracá
Vince Gill - Lonely's What I Do [EP]
Morgan Nagler - I've Got Nothing to Lose and I'm Losing it
Sweet Petunia - Foggy Mountain Mental Breakdown
Tinariwen - Hoggar
Tony Trischka - Earl Jam 2
Jason P. Woodbury - Jason P. Woodbury & The Night Bird Singing Quartet
COMING SOON - 3/20/26
Leah Blevins - All Dressed Up
Ben Brandt - Solid Ground
Joshua Burnside - It’s Not Going to Be Okay
Robert Lester Folson - If You Wanna Laugh, You Gotta Cry Sometimes: Archives Vol. 3, 1972-1975
The Montvales - Path of Totality
Son Little - CITYFOLK
Jack Studer - Falling Forward
The Alexis P Suter Band featuring Garth Hudson - Just Stay Live
Tedeschi Trucks Band - Future Soul
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