LISTEN: Cinder Well, “Returning”

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Artist: Cinder Well
Hometown: Santa Barbara, California
Song: “Returning”
Album: Cadence
Release Date: April 21, 2023
Label: Free Dirt Records

In Their Words: “‘Returning’ is about going back to something you used to love — a place, or a relationship, or something you used to do that was part of your identity — and finding that the process is a lot less straightforward and a lot more painful than you expected. But it’s about accepting this spiraling nature of things, and finding the resilience and patience to see it through. Some of the lines came from the early days of the pandemic, when everyone’s war-time quote seemed to be ‘just two weeks and then it will all return back to normal.’ But after a while the reality deeply sunk in that things weren’t going back to normal, both on societal and personal levels.” — Cinder Well

Photo Credit: Georgia Zeavin

The Show On The Road – Anna Moss (Handmade Moments)

Posted on by Shelby Williamson

This week, we feature a conversation taped live in New Orleans with Arkansas-born multi-instrumentalist and roots-soul singer Anna Moss, who has criss-crossed the country in recent years with her sonic partner Joel Ludford in their band, Handmade Moments.

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Growing up as a bathroom-singing nerd playing saxophone in the school band, Anna admits that if she could wield any superpower it might be invisibility. Not necessarily the first thing you think of for an openly political, big-voiced folk festival favorite who has made a name for herself sitting in with some of the biggest names in the Americana scene. A recent collaboration with Rainbow Girls bore especially potent fruit — and if you read my Music That Moved Me in 2022 list, you’ll see at the very top was Anna’s thorny “Big Dick Energy.”

Rarely does a song make you laugh and then dance and then follow with a sucker punch about how unsafe many women feel just taking up space in the world. The video also illustrates the song’s deft twist: Women can gang together to mock and minimize the men who for so long have taken away their agency and power. And yet, the song also makes you want to forget it all and just groove to the sexiest flute solo in recent memory. If this is a foreshadowing of what’s to come with Anna’s solo work, call me quite intrigued.

Whether she’s playing crunchy bass clarinet or upright bass, electric or acoustic guitar, or singing with Joel in Handmade Moments or her other jazzy group, the Nightshades, Anna is never shy about speaking her mind in her music. Take a listen to Handmade Moments’ rapidly rhyming, gorgeously harmonized climate-change banger, “Hole In The Ocean,” which wouldn’t feel out of place in a slam-poetry jam. A song on their forthcoming record End Of The Wars (coming in May) directly confronts Trump’s cult-like status, again not pulling any punches. Want to see an early version of the song played with sax in a cave? Sure you do.

The dangers of the road are not lost on Anna and Joel of course. They were hit head-on during a freak accident on a run in Northern California years back and were lucky to make it out relatively unscathed. She’s trying to keep things a bit mellower these days. It was special talking to Anna in her adopted new home of New Orleans, and the soulful sounds that trickle into her living room on Frenchman Street can be heard throughout the songs she’s working on. Fittingly, a slow burn live track she released, “Slow Down, Kamikaze,” is a great reminder to stop trying to do too much and focus on what actually matters.

Basic Folk – Adeem the Artist

Posted on by Shelby Williamson

Adeem the Artist has gained a slew of new fans in the past year with their new album White Trash Revelry, but they are anything but an overnight success. Their journey to singer-songwriter acclaim began in middle school, when they moved from the Carolinas to New York State. Finding themself a southerner in the North, they found out that being from the American South meant something to people. It came with a certain set of assumptions and expectations that they have reckoned with over the course of their eight albums.

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2022’s White Trash Revelry is packed with poignant, witty, economical lyrics and characters so real you could reach out and shake their hands. Throughout the album you’ll notice a complicated relationship with religion, which of course we had to dig into on the podcast. In a past life Adeem was called strongly to the church, and served as a worship leader. You might be surprised at how highly transferable their pastoral skill set has been in their work as a singer-songwriter.

This episode contains many, many, many laughs, some guitar talk, some crowdfunding talk, some deep family and spiritual talk, and a million great insights from one of alt-country music’s rising stars.

Photo Credit: Shawn Poynter

LISTEN: Two Runner, “Wild Dream”

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Artist: Two Runner
Hometown: Nevada City, California
Song: “Wild Dream”
Album: Modern Cowboy
Release Date: March 24, 2023

In Their Words: “‘Wild Dream’ is an upbeat song about letting your hair down, and feeling wild and free while in love. When I started writing it, I was in the middle of the Mojave desert on an ADV motorcycle ride (off-road/on-road). I was at a time in my life where I was thinking about freedom while still holding on to the wild heart. I think it’s important no matter where we are in life to hold onto that adventure and wild flame we all have burning inside of us.” — Paige Anderson

Photo Credit: Kalyja Rain

LISTEN: The Wood Brothers, “Line Those Pockets”

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Artist: The Wood Brothers
Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee
Song: “Line Those Pockets”
Album: Heart Is the Hero
Release Date: April 14, 2023
Label: Honey Jar/Thirty Tigers

In Their Words: “‘Line Those Pockets’ has a unique collaborative aspect. It started out as a campy kind of folk ballad, but then we heard this cool drum and keyboard part that Jano had worked up. So we married the lyrics to Jano’s piano part. It was ambiguous enough that Chris and I had different interpretations of the harmony. So everyone’s separate visions came together in the finished song. It emerged as a sound and song we’ve never made before. A weird pseudo Latin-reggae groove with a poppy hook. Absolutely new territory for The Wood Brothers, which is always something we’re trying to accomplish as we write for each new album.” — Oliver Wood, The Wood Brothers

Photo Credit: Shervin Lainez

WATCH: Billy Gilman, “Roller Coaster”

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Artist: Billy Gilman
Hometown: Hope Valley, Rhode Island
Song: “Roller Coaster”
Release Date: March 15, 2023
Label: Pinecastle Records

In Their Words: “What is so refreshing to me about this bluegrass project is that I am finally to a point in my career where I am allowing myself to record the kind of music that I want to record. I grew up around bluegrass music and have so many fond memories of my grandparents listening to it. I really wish that they were here today to hear this album. I think they would be very proud, knowing what a big influence they had on me. … I am very happy that ‘Roller Coaster’ will be the first single. It is very fast and fun and catchy, and I think it will be a good introduction for me to the bluegrass audience. Hopefully this record will be well-received because I look forward to making many more in the years to come.” — Billy Gilman

Photo Courtesy of Pinecastle Records

LISTEN: Lynn Miles, “Gold in the Middle”

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Artist: Lynn Miles
Hometown: Ottawa, Canada
Song: “Gold in the Middle”
Album: TumbleWeedyWorld
Release Date: March 17, 2023
Label: True North

In Their Words: “I wrote it for a friend who was going through a rough time. It’s a song about the struggles we face in life. About finding strength and grace in the darkest of hours. About stripping away all artifice and finding the gold in the middle of a fellow human. About acceptance of what is. About moving forward in spite of the challenges.” — Lynn Miles

Best Playlists Ever · 10 Gold In The Middle

Photo Credit: Balfour Photo

LISTEN: Doug Levitt, “Cold Comfort”

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Artist: Doug Levitt
Hometown: Washington, D.C.
Song: “Cold Comfort”
Album: Edge of Everywhere
Release Date: May 12, 2023

In Their Words: “‘Cold Comfort’ is a song that speaks to the wide range of vices that one finds on the bus — people getting over one, through one — and while it says ‘another shot of cold comfort,’ there are many other reliances that have been central to people who travel by bus. Often it’s the vice most drawn upon in the wake of a breakup. There are people like the petty thief Tony Rhodes, who, facing a breakup, found himself back on heroin and near the verge of death. There’s Edward who, having smoked weed in the face of a breakup, ended up violating parole and going on the run. I had been through a hard breakup with a fiancée before I set out by bus. So in some ways it’s that energy. ‘I woke up on the wrong side of myself again. Sometimes it’s a matter of days. Sometimes it’s a matter of going our own separate ways.’ And so also on the bus are people relocating after a breakup, and who doesn’t know that feeling of another shot of cold comfort? It’s a cold comfort, not the comfort of connection. It’s not the comfort of others. It’s the way you always bring me around for bringing me down.” — Doug Levitt

Photo Credit: Patrick Fraser

BGS 5+5: The Panhandlers

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Artist: The Panhandlers (Josh Abbott, John Baumann, William Clark Green and Cleto Cordero)
Hometown: West Texas
Latest Album: Tough Country
Rejected Band Names: “I’m pretty sure we had a couple we were tossing around, but the second Cleto came up with The Panhandlers, we all knew that was the one! I can’t remember what the other options were.” – Josh Abbott

Which artist has influenced you the most … and how?

I have always been inspired by Willie Nelson. He can sing, write, is a monster of a picker, acts in movies, and last but not least, he seems like a genuine, humble, good-hearted person. – Cleto Cordero

What other art forms — literature, film, dance, painting, etc — inform your music?

As soon as I began reading fiction from some of the “classics,” such as Hemingway and Steinbeck, my writing voice began to flourish and become more colorful. As boring as grammar can be to learn, it is mighty helpful when you’re trying to write out your complete and full thoughts and ideas. – Cleto Cordero

What’s the toughest time you ever had writing a song?

For The Panhandlers, I’d argue it’s “Where Cotton Is King.” We first started that on the bus ride to Marfa for our first writing trip in August 2019. We didn’t finish it until fall 2021, which worked out great for this new album. – Josh Abbott

If you had to write a mission statement for your career, what would it be

To be respected as a good songwriter – William Clark Green

For The Panhandlers, it’s to be a legacy that inspires others decades from now to collaborate for a concept where the sum is even greater than its parts. – Josh Abbott

To create community through music. – Cleto Cordero

Since food and music go so well together, what is your dream pairing of a meal and a musician?

Chicken fried steak & Guy Clark – Josh Abbott

Photo Credit: Mackenzie Ryan Photography

LISTEN: Carolina Story, “Magic”

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Artist: Carolina Story
Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee
Song: “Magic”
Album: Colors of My Mind
Release Date: April 7, 2023
Label: Soundly Music

In Their Words: “‘Magic’ is about embracing the unknown and the mystery of existence. Having immense gratitude for the fact that we’re even here on this rock out in the cosmos. It’s a song about contentment, being at home in your own body, and at peace with your journey so far. We have a choice to see things through a positive or negative lens every day. It’s choosing to view the world with the wonderment and awe of the inner child, knowing that the tragedies, failures, and dark parts of ourselves can be used to help others feel less alone while we’re here in this blink-of-an-eye daydream together.” — Ben and Emily Roberts, Carolina Story

Photo Credit: Jeremy Cowart