THROUGH THE LENS: Outstanding Roots Music Releases to Wrap Up 2022
When I first thought about my final column of the year highlighting new releases that should not be missed, I knew it had to be something special. I narrowed it down to a manageable five. Here are very quick takes on some marvelous recent roots records by Rory Block, Robyn
ALBUM REVIEW: Angela Easterling Bears ‘Witness’ to a Range of Emotions
The opening track of Witness starts sparely, with Angela Easterling’s aching, crystalline vocals ascending over Brandon Turner’s Rusty Young-like lap steel guitar licks. The song builds layer by layer, evoking the exquisite pain of looking back folded into the clear-eyed embrace of moving forward. Easterling’s arresting vocals
Emily Scott Robinson Reimagines Shakespeare’s Witches
On the morning Emily Scott Robinson’s coven was to convene in Nashville to record her new EP, Built on Bones — a cycle of songs inspired by the witches of Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Macbeth — she got a sign.
Alisa Amador, a collaborator on the project, was strolling through
ALBUM REVIEW: Old Sea Brigade Confronts Life Stages on ‘5am Paradise’
Ben Cramer is a man between stages. Given the timing of his third LP, that sounds about right.
Cramer’s creative nom de plume is Old Sea Brigade, an outlet he’s used for the last several years to craft an emotive and compelling mix of textured pop/folk compositions
ALBUM REVIEW: Gabe Lee Offers Nuanced Nostalgia on ‘The Hometown Kid’
If nothing else, country music is about nostalgia, the sad realization that you can never quite go home again, even if you never leave. On Gabe Lee’s The Hometown Kid, Lee illustrates that you can come from a big city and feel the same way about home as a
ALBUM REVIEW: The Great Divide Comes Back Together to Heal the Past
In a way, the story of The Great Divide over the last 15-plus years can be summed up in the seminal band’s name. After a stellar run of influential albums carrying the torch for Red Dirt music — that Okie-brand of muscular country — through the ’90s and into the aughts,