Amanda Fields Archives - The Bluegrass Situation

Cottagecore Country

Posted on April 18, 2024June 28, 2024 by Justin Hiltner

(Editor’s Note: Sign up here to receive Good Country issues when they launch, direct to your email inbox via Substack.)

You can’t have country music without the country. (Us city slickers belong in the genre as artists and fans, of course, but we’ll get to that later.) There is a fundamental relationship between the natural world and folk music, and the artists featured on our cottagecore playlist demonstrate that. Humans have been mapping their emotions onto nature for as long as we’ve been around: so much of our inner life defies explanation, as does our outer world. And while we may find endless ways to make new environments for ourselves, there are few things as moving as a beautiful sunset or gorgeous vista.

While we can’t create those ourselves, we try to make beautiful – and cozy – spaces for ourselves. In creating our homes the way we like, we try to control the world around us – even though we know we can’t. The songs here look to animals and plants as metaphors for the people and emotions we don’t understand, the ones that got away and are beyond our comprehension – the things we can’t control, but we accept as natural as a bird’s migration.

But even as these songs can be melancholy, they inhabit a place of comfort and tradition – cottagecore. The term reached peak popularity in 2020 to describe a movement that celebrates home, attention to detail, nostalgia, cutesiness. (Back in my day, we called it “twee.”) The aesthetic is largely driven by white women who found comfort in going “back to the land” – but a specific type of return, one that celebrates rural life while sugar-coating the backbreaking labor that is actually involved in homesteading.

Like anything that relies on nostalgia, it’s a double-edged sword. Cottagcore has been claimed by some on the alt-right as the desirable expression for women: tending to the hearth, spending time on making beautiful pies, making everyone else around them feel as snug as a bug in a rug. On the other hand, cottagecore became popular in some queer subcultures precisely as a means of subverting that sort of wisdom. Still, cottagecore assumes that this idyllic lifestyle conforms to Eurocentric views of agrarianism, architecture, and holding oneself separate from nature – and some seek to use cottagecore to question that colonizer logic.

At Good Country, we don’t want to take the easy way out. This playlist is designed to embrace the desire for comfort and retreat, one that is all-too-understandable in a chaotic world. But we would never settle for anything simply reactionary, instead wanting to intentionally offer new ways our society must change for our survival. These are songs about awe, acceptance, change – and regeneration, an aspect of the natural world we would do well to embrace.

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Photo Credit: Kacey Musgraves by Kelly Christine Sutton

Ed’s Picks: Country From All Corners

Posted on February 9, 2024March 19, 2024 by Justin Hiltner

(Editor’s note: Each issue of Good Country, our co-founder Ed Helms will share a handful of good country artists, albums, and songs direct from his own earphones in Ed’s Picks.

Sign up here to receive Good Country issues when they launch, direct to your email inbox via Substack.)

Moving & Returning

Posted on February 9, 2024March 19, 2024 by Justin Hiltner

(Editor’s Note: Sign up here to receive Good Country issues when they launch, direct to your email inbox via Substack.)

I bet in the next few years, an expert taxonomist will come by and tell us exactly what country music is – and that this definition will create endless arguments. In the last few months, this argument about what exactly country music is has been growing louder. Jason Isbell has been fucking around with Nashville for decades, playing the field between rock, country, southern rock, country rock, and classic country. (He has recently said that he considers himself a rock singer). Adeem the Artist, the infamous cast iron pansexual, says that they are a folk singer. Willi Carlisle, a folk up-and-comer, has released Critterland, a certainly country album. On the other hand, Maren Morris released two singles last fall which were about burning Nashville to the ground, yet they’re perhaps the most country songs of her career – in terms of how she tells stories, how the bridges work, her vocal tones, and even some of the instrumentation. It seems lately, country is both everything and nothing.

Amanda Fields’ 2023 project deepens this ongoing problem. The album, What, When and Without, is a complex artifact of her own wrestling with genre, history, and biography. It slides into that complex sorting of genre and feeling that is key to Nashville right now. Fields calls this a country album – lushly produced, thick with strings, and dense with vocals, reminding one of an updated countrypolitan record – but sorting out what that means comes with a history of playing and listening.

Fields has a reputation on the bluegrass circuit, often an insular genre with an insistence on a certain kind of purity. She recognized how those questions of purity often don’t pay the bills, and her first major recordings were on a series of bluegrass cover records, called Pickin’ On – recorded by prominent bluegrass studio musicians, there are dozens of them, the artists covered include the expected (Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash), the unusual (Blink 182), to the fully flummoxing (Modest Mouse). Though Fields did not play on all of these records, she talks about them as an integral understanding of herself as part of a musical team: “When I look back on my experience within the ‘genres’ I’ve taken part in, I think about the groups of people I worked with… When I worked on Pickin’ On, I got that gig because of who I was hanging out with and playing music with at the time. I sang ‘gospel’ when I was growing up, because that was the community within my proximity.”

Proximity is a complex question for Fields. She has close ties to the bluegrass community, and there is something intriguing about the idea that genre is a social category – one about who one is near, or what the audience and the performer agrees to participate in. Yet there is a kind of roving that occurs here too; for Fields, roving is both a history of moving around geographically and, as she says here, moving from music that she considers bluegrass or gospel or country.

Fields moved around a lot as a child. Though she was born in Appalachia and currently lives in suburban Nashville (right next to Loretta Lynn’s old house), the line between these two legendary destinations was not direct.

Asking Fields about these roots – expecting a standard line in response – she honestly describes the complexity of her raising: “I’m originally from the mountains and it was my anchor growing up, but my dad moved us around a lot. He was one of those people who felt there was more to life than what was available to us living in that area, so he took job opportunities that carried us away from the mountains. I didn’t like that, because I was always longing to be ‘home’ with the rest of our family. I lived for summers and holidays when I got to be in Virginia and East Tennessee. Playing and listening to country and bluegrass music was my way to experience home when I couldn’t be there physically.”

This moving and returning is a common note for country musicians. Listening to her talk about the juxtaposition of moving, returning, being forced to leave, and finally finding home in an idea more than a place, I am reminded of Tanya Tucker or Merle Haggard. Tucker’s early childhood had a father who moved her from Arizona to Las Vegas to finally Nashville, chasing an acting and singing career. She broke out as a singer who fused a desire for rock and for country. It is similar to Haggard’s talk of moving – to California with his family as a consequence of economic disenfranchisement – and spending the rest of his career chasing economic stability. That idea was perhaps best written about in his tragic ballad “Kern River,” with its opening line, “I grew up in an oil town, but my gusher never came in.” (A Fields original from well before What, When and Without, “Brandywine,” strikes a similar note.)

This connection to Tucker, Haggard, and other classic country singers suggests that Fields landed not necessarily in a place, but as she says, in a music which has tight connections to place. What, When and Without, a classic country album, is infused with this kind of nostalgic listening.

Asked about her relationship to figures like Loretta Lynn or Haggard, she answers carefully: “Most of the music that really stirs my soul is older. I listen to all my friends’ new music and I’m always hunting something fresh to connect with, but on a day-to-day basis, I’m usually listening to the same stuff I’ve always loved. I’m talking Tammy Wynette, Loretta Lynn, Conway Twitty just about everyday. Classic country is what excites me (especially when I discover something I haven’t heard) and those familiar sounds and voices help me regulate my body’s nervous system.”

The album, rooted in those sounds, contains a deep knowledge of genre. Its ability to move between old school country, bluegrass chops, and deep, modern desire is one of its strengths. Figuring out how to sound both modern and historical is something Fields achieves with some skill. If her commitment to genre has a loose, rootless quality – or at least one which floats and lands depending on aesthetic or social need – then how she considers time has a similar quality.

Maybe her early commitment to bluegrass, a genre who remembers more than it forgets, and faces backwards as much as it faces forwards, and which was complicated by how hungry those covers were, suggests one way of bridging eras. But, her recent work, crafting contemporary studio craft with the careful polish of Studio A aesthetics is another. Asking her about memory and nostalgia, she again answers carefully: “One thing that was very intentional with the album was the pace. I think that going slowly is nostalgic in a way, because society and industry move so fast nowadays. I usually walk slowly and I talk slowly compared to most of my peers. My body responds to tempo and dynamics and I wanted to invite the album’s listeners to slow down with me.”

The slowness of the album can be heard in how she starts many of the tracks. There is often an instrumental intro where one waits a significant time for the vocals to be introduced and on occasion there are gaps, where her vocals recede and the band takes over – though the band itself is also quiet. There is a quality, listening to the work, of a kind of courtly two-step, the band asking Fields to dance, and vice versa.

The very first song, “What A Fool,” begins with brushed drums, and has a quite lovely open-ended moment where the pedal steel becomes central. On “I Love You Today,” the old-fashioned cheating song, heartbreak is introduced via an elegant, western swing sound, not outside of Lovett at his best. The last song, “Without You,” plays drums as solid and regular as a heartbeat. It’s another heartbreak song.

The pedal steel is crafted by Russ Pahl, who has been playing for decades. He has been nominated by the Academy of Country Music for his work on the steel guitar three times and for specialty instrument once, between 2004 and 2021. Before that, aside from being an in-demand studio musician, he was part of legendary Great Plains, another band who was excellent at moving between genres, across time, and throughout modes.

Talking to Fields about Pahl, she noted how good he was at not only playing, but matching vibes in the studio: “He came across very quiet and contemplative in the studio and I think he ‘got’ the vibe right away. After a song or two, he said, ‘…this ain’t Zip A dee Doo Dah.’ And it wasn’t. It was an album created in the midst of global pandemic [and] a time of great suffering for society and for myself personally.”

What, When and Without sounds like Fields has had some rough times, even outside of the lockdowns (regardless of how dense the record sounds, there is a yearning in the vocals that have a certain lockdown edge); but there is also an irony in this loneliness. Megan McCormick, who co-wrote on and produced the record and plays in Fields’ band, shows great intimacy throughout the project – there is a reason for this, McCormick and Fields are personal as well as professional partners. They sound good together, and the track where McCormick sings backing vocals, “Moving Mountains,” is the highest energy, most open of the entire record. It’s a great love song – but it’s a love song which calls to Mother Maybelle Carter as an avatar of country music, as a figure outside of space and time, which can tell the narrator how to love after years of heartbreak.

When asked about McCormick, Fields is still a little coy, but her commitment to their lives and sounds is made clear: “She really has a special gift and believing in her as a producer, as well as trusting her intuitions and abilities, has allowed me to grow as an artist. She’s my toughest critic, because that’s what I’ve asked of her. She’s also my constant cheerleader. We thrive when we get to travel together and both enjoy that feeling of being untethered that you get when you’re on the road.”

One can hear some of the untethered quality in Fields’ work, the road as untethering as much as time or genre, but the closeness that she has with McCormick is another kind of tethering, be it a consensual one.

Throughout the album, there is a quality of choosing which traditions are valuable, which are worth keeping, and which ones might have outlived their usefulness. When she talks about her childhood as a Pentecostal, she says: “I am very spiritual, still, and that energy I saw in church growing up is no different than the energy I feel when I’m composing music or playing music with other people with whom I am ‘tuned in.’”

She is definitely tuned with McCormick, their close contribution seen in how they work together – the harmonies without necessarily the negative consequences of some of that church life. She continues: “Those are universal aspects of the human experience that transcend dogma, class, and denomination and that’s what I carry on and value from my experience in church.”

One can see the universal quality in Fields’ work, and it contains interesting juxtapositions. A rootlessness across genre or time, which lands on something contemporary sounding; or a heartbreak record which rests on multiple commitments to one person; or even a religious tradition which widens and deepens.

Maybe we don’t need that taxonomy. An audience knows what a country record is.

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Photo Credit: John Brown

NEWS: BGS Announces New Brand, Good Country

Posted on December 29, 2023December 29, 2023 by Justin Hiltner

BGS is proud to announce the launch of a new brand in 2024: GOOD COUNTRY. By this point, you may have seen or heard mentions of Good Country on our site, at our events, and on our socials feeds as we prepare this exciting new expansion for our readers and fans.

Launching in mid-January 2024, Good Country is a curated, bespoke email newsletter that will highlight all good country from across the roots music landscape. Every other week, GC will deliver high-end country music reporting, long reads, playlists, videos, and exclusive content from your favorite country artists direct to your email inbox. As you scroll, you’ll dive into the deep and broad world of Good Country, from gritty and raw Americana to glitzy and glamorous radio hits, from bluegrass supergroups to southern rock ensembles and swampy string bands. Sign up for Good Country now.

“Good Country is a brand new horizon for BGS,” says managing editor Justin Hiltner. “But, at the same time, it’s nothing more than a reinforcement of our values as a media company and roots music community. Country – like its family members bluegrass, folk, and Americana – is more than just music, it’s a lifestyle, an identity, a way of being. There’s so much good country being made out there right now and we know our audience agrees. Whatever ‘good country’ means, you’ll know it when you hear it. And you’ll hear plenty of it in this newsletter!”

Each issue of Good Country will center features, think pieces, and interviews penned by the best writers and thinkers in country music highlighting not just the biggest names in the genre, but new and upstart artists as well. Exclusive newsletter content will live alongside deep dive playlists, sonic explorations, and thoughtful examinations of what country is, who makes it, and to whom it can belong – everyone.

BGS co-founder, actor, activist, and musician Ed Helms, will be featured in each issue as well with “Ed’s Picks,” artists and bands selected by Helms himself, direct from his own listening.

“From the very beginning, BGS was forged on a foundation of celebrating the full spectrum of roots music fans and artists,” explains BGS co-founder Amy Reitnouer Jacobs. “This community has never been one thing, nor has it been static. It’s a diverse, expansive, and ever-changing art form. The same can and should be said for country music. And that’s why now is the perfect time to create a more representative media landscape. It’s time for Good Country.”

Good Country’s first issues will feature music, art, and content featuring Zach Bryan, Sierra Ferrell, Amanda Fields, Veronique Medrano, Shania Twain, Chris Stapleton, Vincent Neil Emerson, Brittney Spencer, and so many more. No matter your entry point to this music, with our new brand and newsletter you will find endless Good Country to enjoy. Interact with content in your email inbox, on our website, and on our social media – wherever you are, Good Country will meet you there.

Good Country isn’t about deciding what is or isn’t good country music. Good Country is a place. It’s a way of looking at the world, a way of enjoying music. If you think it’s good and you think it’s country, then you’ve found Good Country.

Sign up now to be one of the first readers to receive Good Country direct to your email inbox. And, begin your exploration of Good Country with our BGS Class of 2023: Good Country year-end list.

Photo Credit: Zach Bryan by Trevor Pavlik; Vincent Neil Emerson by Thomas Crabtree; Sierra Ferrell by Bobbi Rich.

BGS Class of 2023: Good Country

Posted on December 20, 2023February 8, 2024 by Justin Hiltner

What is Good Country? A great question, to be sure. It’s a new brand coming from BGS in 2024 that will feature all good country. A bi-weekly email newsletter that’s curated and one-of-a-kind, Good Country will feature long reads, playlists, videos, interviews, and more all highlighting the best of country music from across the roots music landscape.

But what is good country? A much more nebulous question! As one wise social media commenter put it, “You’ll believe it when you hear it.” We posed the “What is good country?” question to our BGS contributors and the year-end list they’ve put together is striking in its depth, breadth, inclusion – and it’s full of good country, certainly. From Tanner Adell’s boundary-pushing, pop-inflected country trap to Dean Johnson’s retro, genuine sounds; from Jelly Roll to Kara Jackson, “Fast Car” to “Lavender Country,” good country has been all around us all year.

Whatever good country is to you, we hope you’ll find plenty of it below, within our list of country favorites from across 2023. And, we hope these albums, songs, and performances whet your appetite for plenty more Good Country, coming from BGS in early 2024. Sign up now to be one of the first to enjoy our upcoming newsletter, direct to your email inbox.

Tanner Adell, Buckle Bunny
Before we forget, “Old Town Road” was not only a novelty, but a masterpiece of a country song, and a reminder that the South has always been a vulgar mix – the more vulgar, the more forward-thinking, and the more complexly, political. In a rejoinder to stupid, butch truck songs – and a specific “fuck you” to people like Aldean – Adell’s Buckle Bunny is filled with all kinds of specific geographic detail (see the chorus to “Bake It,” which goes: “Brown sugar caramel/ Ding ding Patti LaBelle/ Sweet potato pussy pie/…”) in service of sexual and political liberation.

On the highlight of the album, “FU 150,” she owns the truck, the means of production, and any man who trifles with either her or her truck. This has been a year of ambivalent women pushing against dumb men (See Pillbox Patti, Elle King, Tigirlily Gold, Kelsea Ballerini, Hannah Dasher, etc.), but this might be the best time I had listening to music this year, and considering how much we had to endure, can’t we have a little bit of fun? – Steacy Easton

“Fast Car” – Luke Combs, via Tracy Chapman
It’s painfully obvious how long overdue it is for Tracy Chapman to be recognized, in this way, as a pivotal American songwriter – plus, the absurdity of her being the first Black person ever to win CMA’s Song of the Year. Still, it’s worth celebrating just how great it is to hear “Fast Car” on the radio again, and for a whole new legion of fans to discover it. – Amy Reitnouer Jacobs

Sierra Ferrell, “Fox Hunt” and “The Garden”
We would be remiss if we failed to include the astoundingly radiant Sierra Ferrell from our inaugural year-end round-up for Good Country. From her baffling multi-instrumentalism to her gilded attire to the floral ornamentation of her microphone, Ferrell has captivated the hearts of troves of roots music fans across the globe. Most recently, she graced us with her single, “Fox Hunt,” and “The Garden,” an original song recorded for the soundtrack of The Hunger Games: The Ballad Of Songbirds & Snakes.

Each release is enchanting in its own right; “Fox Hunt” corrals listeners to the dance floor with its sturdy backbeat and fiery fiddles, while “The Garden” delivers a gorgeous, melancholic waltz full of gentle mourning and fertile metaphor. Ferrell’s capacity to encapsulate such a wide range of emotions through the many textures and tonalities of her talent casts her as a superlative country artist of this day and age. We anticipate, with great impatience, the release of her next album, due to arrive sometime in early 2024. – Oriana Mack

Amanda Fields, What, When and Without
Whether singing with a hard-driving bluegrass band (like 2019’s “Brandywine”), or atop a pedal steel and gut-strung upright bass, Amanda Fields’ voice cuts right through the mix to deliver thoughtful and resonating lyrics. This is the case on What, When and Without, Fields’ first full-length album, and her first project in the country music realm. Produced by Megan McCormick, the album is a master class in taste, musical restraint, and great singing and songwriting. Fields’ Appalachian-inflected vocal, rested on this sonic foundation, says good country about as clearly as it can. You’re going to want to put on headphones for this one! – Thomas Cassell

Paisley Fields at The Knitting Factory, October 15
What is obvious is that Paisley Fields is an important songwriter and a frontperson of immense talent. What only became clear to me at the Knitting Factory’s new Baker Falls, New York City location on October 15th is that Paisley is also an angel. It might have been the reflection of stage lights on sequin, or the fiery righteousness of blues-rocker “Burn This Statehouse Down” (a Mya Byrne co-write), but I left the show convinced of their divine purpose as a prophet of cosmic country. During the encore, I joined the band on stage for an impromptu tribute to our dear departed auntie Patrick Haggerty and forgot all the words to “Lavender Country,” but the whole room sang, “Y’all come out, come out” until I remembered. – Lizzie No

Kara Jackson, Why Does the Earth Give Us People to Love?
You might find Kara Jackson’s manner frank and plain-spoken. That’s a trap. Yes, the young Chicago-raised singer, songwriter, and poet (she was the US Youth Poet Laureate for 2019-20) puts much on the surface, but it’s slippery, shifting ground. It’s right there in the title of her first full album, Why Does the Earth Give Us People to Love?, a question with no answer. She contemplates such things as if on a walk in the park – wandering, meandering. The genre-defiant music, crafted with collaborators Kaina Castillo, Sen Orimoto, and Nnamdi Ogbonnaya, meanders with her, ducking down shadowy side paths, hiding behind trees, dancing in light shimmering through leaves – a short banjo coda here, a swelling choir there. And still questions with no answers, this love and life stuff. In the title song and spiritual center, she laments a friend’s death: “Why does the earth give us people to love, then give them a sickness that kills?” It’s a trap, but it’s going to be fascinating to watch this exceptional artist try to sort it out. – Steve Hochman

Jelly Roll, CMA’s New Artist of the Year
My favorite country artist of the year was Jason DeFord, better known as Jelly Roll. He enjoyed a monster year both commercially and industry wide, winning 2023 CMA New Artist of the Year honors and topping all male country vocalists overall with five nominations. He also earned three CMT Music Awards, with his powerhouse anthem “Son Of A Sinner” – in my view a more explosive and dynamic tune than “Need A Favor.” His performance of the latter with Wynonna Judd and “Love Can Build A Bridge” with K. Michelle during the CMA Awards broadcast were among the program’s highlights, as well as being emblematic of his performing charisma and adaptability. But the documentary, Jelly Roll: Save Me (available on Hulu), documented his troubled teen past and redemption from incarceration and addiction, as well as the many current philanthropic activities that’s seen him use his stardom to aid and inspire others. It represents Jelly Roll’s larger societal impact beyond the music world. He’s also combined a love for classic country, as well as folk and even hip-hop, into a distinctive, identifiable and magnetic sound that made his 44+ city Backroad Baptism Tour one of the year’s best. – Ron Wynn

Dean Johnson, Nothing for Me, Please
Some of us release music relentlessly from a young age and have to get comfortable with the public watching us learn and grow on the job. Others, such as Seattle’s Dean Johnson, wait until they are fifty to release a debut album and then absolutely knock it out of the park from song one. When a friend sent me “Shouldn’t Say Mine,” I assumed it was from a ‘60s era country artist that everyone else knew about but that I had somehow missed. Wouldn’t you know, it’s from Dean Johnson’s Nothing for Me, Please, released this very year on Mama Bird Records. Mama Bird releases some of the best West Coast roots music, including other favorites of mine, like Anna Tivel and Courtney Marie Andrews, and this new release by Johnson will be making waves for years to come. – Rachel Baiman

Brennen Leigh, Ain’t Through Honky Tonkin’ Yet
You know what? Thank goodness Brennen Leigh ain’t through honky tonkin’ yet, someone needs to keep the neon lights burning and the juke box bumpin’ – and we’re glad that someone is Leigh. An album for the lonesome boot scooters, for the belt buckles longing for another to rub up against, Leigh’s prowess as a country alchemist is on fully display, combining sounds from the Midwestern plains, east and central Texas, and Nashville’s lower Broadway refracted through East Nashville and Madison. It’s old country, “real” country, alt country, outlaw country, and more, but most importantly it’s honest, true – and it’s danceable. What’s more traditional than country music that’ll draw tears and flat-footing? The cherry on top of all of it is the picking – you can hear the influence of Leigh’s bluegrass upbringing in every track, like Skaggs in his radio hits heyday or Vince Gill’s bluegrass tinged albums. – Justin Hiltner

Ruby Leigh on The Voice
16-year-old Foley, Missouri native Ruby Leigh moved both Reba McEntire and Gwen Stefani to tears on her first live show appearance on The Voice, when she performed a version of McEntire’s own “You Lie,” from the Voice coach’s 1990 album Rumor Has It. Leigh’s vocals are strong and beautiful, and slightly more developed since her September audition for the show. Then, she performed Patsy Montana’s Country & Western classic, “I Want Be a Cowboy’s Sweetheart,” and got all four judges to turn their chairs – The Voice’s equivalent of a unanimous vote.

The crowds seem to love Leigh as much as the celebrity coaches do. In that clip, with Leigh decked out in red and black Western wear, audience members held up red hair signs to indicate that Leigh should pick McEntire as her coach, which she astutely did. Since her television debut, Leigh has racked up thousands of followers and hundreds of supportive comments on Facebook and other social media platforms — all while performing a super classic repertoire and sound. She even yodels! It’s hard not to love Leigh’s moxy, and it’s just as exciting to see people getting thrilled about country music again. Here’s hoping Leigh continues a winning streak on The Voice, and helps folks see what made this genre so good in the first place. – Lonnie Lee Hood

Mipso, Book of Fools
Mipso has never been entirely bluegrass so much as bluegrass-adjacent, and the North Carolina quartet’s sixth album finds them farther from conventional roots music than ever. But it’s in service to an artistic identity all their own, with lush pop tones and minor-key vibes predominating. As always, Mipso’s most recognizable sonic signature is the dual lead-vocal approach between Libby Rodenbough’s atmospheric dreaminess and Joseph Terrell’s plainspoken drawl. When they come together to harmonize on “Carolina Rolling By,” it’s truly heavenly. The true leap forward on Book of Fools, however, is Terrell’s guitar, which is every bit up to the standards of the singing. It’s jittery and angular on “Radio Hell,” moody on “I Wait For Your Call,” and jagged enough on “Broken Heart/Open Heart” to live up to a title like that. – David Menconi

Lizzie No, “The Heartbreak Store”
Lizzie No’s “The Heartbreak Store” isn’t just a catchy country tune, it’s a lifeline for the heartbroken. Inspired by a transformative tour with queer country trailblazer Patrick Haggerty, the video embodies a message of belonging and acceptance through line dancing. Country music often overlooks queer voices, however Lizzie’s anthem becomes a resonant declaration, echoing the ethos of unity and visibility. With every note, it stitches a musical tapestry of compassion, offering solace and celebration for those who’ve felt the pain of heartbreak, yet hope of community. In under three minutes, it becomes a powerful testament to resilience and love. – Cindy Howes

Jobi Riccio, Whiplash
We’re at last reaching a point where queer creators in roots music are being enabled to offer their identities not as the sole complication or subversion of country norms in their music, but as just one of many inputs that wrinkle and challenge ideas of what country is and to whom it can belong. Singer-songwriter Jobi Riccio has had a breakneck year, with seemingly endless momentum piling up behind her stellar debut, Whiplash. Where the first press releases and official narratives around the album centered a “rainbow cowgirl” story, as critical mass continued to grow behind this set of songs, one could sense Riccio intentionally carving out space for their agency among that momentum. Carefully and deliberately, Riccio has re-centered focus away from reductive “rainbow cowgirl” constructions and toward what matters most: The music.

The music is certainly what deserves the focus, with queerness infused throughout, as if just one of Riccio’s own claims to the “outlaw” movement or as a purposeful snare for normative country expectations. Because these songs are straight-ahead good country – there’s a touch of kd lang’s approach, or the Chicks’, or Indigo Girls’ – Riccio’s identity is still indelible, it shines on every single track. It needs no artificial spotlight, or to be considered monolithic. As they discuss class, image, consumption, heartbreak, restlessness, and so much more, queerness is just one of the many entrancing, complicated threads begging to be pulled as you canter along with Whiplash. – Justin Hiltner

Jordyn Shellhart, Primrose
Those who enjoy the confessional aspects of country music – but crave an unexpected sound and some humanistic insight – should check out Jordyn Shellhart. An emerging singer-songwriter who released Primrose, her album debut in 2023, she stands boldly apart for a singular voice and crystalline roots-pop style, with equally-exceptional lyrics. Whether breezily defying a cultural convention, delivering a mic-drop romantic kiss-off, rhetorically destroying the clueless cruelty of a teenage boy or dissecting her own mental wellness (or lack thereof), her songs are filled with nuance and sharp, straight-to-the-bone hooks, twisting and contorting along the often irregular path of real life. With the power to make a crowd of jaded journos cry, but very little exposure, she’s almost criminally under-appreciated – although we could fix that. – Chris Parton

Photo Credit: Lizzie No by Cole Nielsen; Brennen Leigh by Brooke Cooper; Kara Jackson by Lawrence Agyei.

BGS, Queerfest Announce AmericanaFest Event at Soho House Nashville

Posted on September 6, 2023 by Justin Hiltner

BGS is proud to announce a special AmericanaFest event in partnership with Queerfest, the Good Ol’ Queer Country Jamboree, to be held at Soho House Nashville on Saturday, September 23, from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. during the 23rd annual Americana Music Festival & Conference. Featuring curated performances by a world-class selection of queer country artists, the Soho House event will only be open to members of the private club and hotel as well as AmericanaFest conference passholders. Space is limited; RSVP here. It’s a rare opportunity for non-member attendees of AmericanaFest to access the gorgeous, exclusive facilities of Soho House Nashville in the burgeoning Wedgewood Houston neighborhood.

In celebration of BGS’ expansion and creation of a new vertical, Good Country (coming in early 2024), our team has collaborated with QueerFest – winners of the Nashville Scene‘s Best New Music Festival recognition in 2022 – and Soho House Nashville. Together, we’ll bring you this exclusive gathering celebrating the very best LGBTQ+ talent in the Americana and country spheres, and the campaign launch of Good Country, an all-new country music-centered Substack and editorial channel coming from BGS in 2024.

During the three-hour showcase hear music from Black Opry member and big-voiced singer-songwriter Jett Holden. Plus, the writer and performer of viral leftist country track “Blueneck,” Chris Housman. BGS and Queerfest alumni, vibey bluegrass and Americana duo Amanda Fields & Megan McCormick will perform their Virginia- and Alaska-inspired music, and critically-acclaimed non-binary storyteller and song spinner, Adeem the Artist, will round out the slate of performers. Special guests and surprise appearances are in store, too – it’s AmericanaFest, after all!

The Good Ol’ Queer Country Jamboree is just one of many AmericanaFest events, official and grassroots, that will highlight the ongoing community crafting and momentum building of LGBTQ+ folks in Americana, country, folk and beyond. Do not miss this superlative AmericanaFest event, brought to you by Queerfest, Soho House Nashville, and BGS.

The Good Ol’ Queer Country Jamboree
featuring Adeem the Artist, Amanda Fields & Megan McCormick, Jett Holden, Chris Housman, and more.
Saturday, September 23, 3 p.m. – 6 p.m.
Soho House Nashville
RSVP Here.

Artist photos courtesy of the artists.

One to Watch: Sarah Kate Morgan’s Appalachian Echoes

Posted on September 1, 2023September 5, 2023 by Justin Hiltner

Sarah Kate Morgan is a talent to behold. Hailing from Sharps Chapel, Tennessee, and currently nested in Hindman, Kentucky, Morgan is deeply rooted in Appalachian soil. She stands as a revered singer-songwriter and preeminent authority on the mountain dulcimer, alchemizing all the beauty, richness and sorrows of those blue, grassy hills into music.

With her resonant voice and grounded lyrics, Morgan’s music breathes new life into the histories of Appalachian music. She has performed and/or recorded with other lauded contemporaries, including Tyler Childers, Alice Gerrard and Erynn Marshall & Carl Jones. Additionally, she has a full life beyond performing; Morgan presently serves as the Hindman Settlement School’s Traditional Arts Education Director, where she preserves and teaches Appalachian folk traditions for local youth and community members.

Her latest album, Old Tunes & Sad Songs, perfectly encapsulates what Morgan does best — weaving together a tapestry of traditional roots music with her own original, breathtaking spins. Every listener will emerge edified by Sarah Kate Morgan’s masterful blending of hope, history, and heart.

The bio on your website mentions that your grandfather built your first dulcimer; I would love to hear more about that. Do you come from a lineage of musicians or music makers?

SKM: My great grandfather was named Jolly Morgan — I love that name. The Morgans were from North Carolina, Transylvania County, and the Sylva area. Jolly played the banjo and owned a general store. My grandfather on my dad’s side built a dulcimer when he retired after working most of his life at the ALCOA steel plant in Maryville, Tennessee. When he retired, he picked up oil painting and played the harmonica a little bit. Another one of the things he dabbled in was woodworking, and he built a dulcimer. It ended up not being the best instrument ever. He actually put it together backwards, so like, the headstock was on the opposite end of the instrument.

So you learned how to play on a backwards dulcimer?

Kinda sorta, it really didn’t affect that much — it just had to be tuned at the opposite end of the instrument.

That’s pretty unique! A lot of your work is about honoring the lineage and all the history of Appalachia. What does that feel like? To be connecting with the people of the mountains or even your own ancestry?

I don’t know. I think I struggle with impostor syndrome a lot. When people ask me, “Oh my gosh, how does it feel to be part of Appalachia?” I’m like, “I don’t know. I’ve just been making music.” There have been so many people who’ve come before me and will come after me that we all are just one little branch of the tree that tells the story of living in this region. And if I can write a couple songs that add to that story in my lifetime, I would consider that an honor.

Do you ever feel like it’s a spiritual undertaking?

I grew up playing music and singing in church — that was sort of my first musical experience, which I think is a pretty common thing if you grew up in the South and you grew up musical… you always got to sing in church. And so, music and my faith and my religion growing up were always very deeply tied together. Now, that kind of shows up in my songwriting, like the form of hymns and old-time gospel music is branded into my musicality. I write songs that often end up feeling like hymns, just the structure of them, even if the content is different. One of my songs on my most recent album, “Heaven In My Mind” speaks to that. I think it feels like a sort of traditional gospel [song], but has a different sort of message.

I would love to hear more about your songwriting. What’s your creative process like?

Lord if I know! I think the songs just sort of end up. I don’t start with a verse. It’s always all or nothing. I just sit down, and it all kind of dumps out into a finished song. I find that the times I’ve been most inspired to write are often when I’m most busy and most surrounded by people. I wish I could be a pensive, loner musician that floats off into the wilderness and then comes back and writes all these songs. But because a lot of my songs are written about people, I think being around people is what inspires me the most.

One of my favorite songwriters, Matthew Sidney Parsons — he’s from Eastern Kentucky in Carter County. Something that he said years ago that I really took to heart was that as a songwriter, one of the best things you can do is have a career that’s not music related at all, especially if you want to write this kind of music, folk music. It’s people music, music about experiences, the regular folks, you know — just working and existing in the world and living your life can often be the most inspiring thing because then you come home and write about the people that you are with every day.

Yeah, it’s in community. It’s not in a vacuum. So you work in a school, right?

Yeah, well, I work at Hindman Settlement School, which is a nonprofit in Knott County, Kentucky, and I’m the Folk Arts Education Director. But essentially I’m just a traveling music teacher. In Knott County, as with a lot of rural school districts, there’s barely any budget for music or art. So one thing that the Settlement School does is to try and fill that gap. I do an after school music education program teaching acoustic instruments — banjo, guitar, mandolin, those things. And then I go into mostly kindergarten through third-grade classrooms and give short general music education sessions. I often try to incorporate Appalachian music and traditional music from around the world as much as possible. For so many of them, this is their first time seeing live music, period.

That’s so special. They must love seeing you play and learning! What’s it like teaching the dulcimer?

I love the instrument because it’s probably one of the most accessible instruments to play. It’s got three strings, and it’s diatonically fretted, which means it’s not chromatic. It has whole musical steps from the major scale with a few accidentals, so like the white keys of a piano without black keys. And what that allows for people with relatively little musical experience to sit down with the instrument and just run their finger up and down the fretboard. From there, they can pick out tunes that are already in their head and in their heart. And it’s easy for people to sound good on the instrument. I love that. It’s a great first instrument for kids; it was my first instrument when I was seven. And it’s a great first instrument for older folks who have never played music in their life.

It’s incredibly empowering to be able to sit down with an instrument and be like, “Oh, I can really do that.” When I teach, I can get people playing a simple tune within five minutes. I personally love instant gratification like that. It’s the least gatekeep-y instrument in traditional music, which I’m a big fan of. On the flip side of that, because it’s so simple, people don’t give the dulcimer the same amount of intensive musical study as others, but this instrument is just as complex as guitar or fiddle or banjo, in terms of tunings, chord shapes, modes, and keys. You can take the dulcimer as far as you want. While it’s accessible and easy, I love that you can still do surprising innovative things with it.

And you do! Speaking of which, do you have anything exciting coming up?

The first weekend of September my friend Tatiana Hargraves and I are going to do a string of duo shows in East Tennessee and Eastern Kentucky. We’re excited about that. I love playing with Tatiana. This weekend I’ll be performing at a festival called Holler Girl. I’m not performing on my own, but I’ll actually be sitting in with a local Eastern Kentucky punk band called Slut Pill. I’ll be playing dulcimer, but I have a pickup that allows me to plug into a pedal board and play with some cool effects. It’ll be my first time performing with them, so I’m looking forward to seeing how dulcimer can fit in with a punk band!

Do you have any other collaborators you want to shout out? You’re One to Watch, but who are you watching? Are there any artists you’re appreciating especially right now?

Gosh, so many! My dear friends Linda Jean Stokely and Montana Hobbs make up the duo the Local Honeys. They’re really, really great. They’re dear friends. They were the first two women to graduate from Morehead State University with degrees in traditional music, and I was in the next generation behind them. And oh my gosh, I just love their writing — they tell incredibly complex and beautiful stories with just a few simple words. They’re really making great strides in traditional music, and I love listening to them.

Also, friend Ben Fugate is a local Perry County songwriter, and he has his band Ben Fugate and the Burning Trash Band. Ben is a great local songwriter, and he writes in a more traditional country style. I’m also really enjoying listening to the artist Amanda Fields. She’s a Nashville-based country music songwriter and she just put out this beautiful album, What, When, & Without. Her whole album is moody and effervescent — kind of far away. It’s this kind of slow and introspective country music. Yeah, and it’s just really pretty. And Momma Molasses out of Bristol, Tennessee, is an amazing classic country and Western swing style singer and writer.

I also do a radio show on Sundays! You can tune in all over the world. It’s from 4-6 p.m. [ET] and the show is called She’s Gone Country on station WMMT 88.7. It’s a show featuring all female country music, from past and present. Country music is loosely defined, so I feature a lot of small artists and big artists and a lot of local Eastern Kentucky writers.

Photo Credit: Jared Hamilton

Tyler Childers Announces New Album With “In Your Love” Music Video

Posted on July 28, 2023August 30, 2023 by Justin Hiltner

Traditional country phenom and Kentuckian Tyler Childers has announced his upcoming album, Rustin’ In The Rain (available September 8, 2023), with a brand new single and music video, “In Your Love.” Written and creative directed by New York Times bestselling author Silas House, the video tells a gay love story between two working class, Appalachian men – played by queer A-list actors and celebrities Colton Haynes and James Scully. The visuals for “In Your Love” tell one of country music’s most prominent and visible LGBTQ+ narratives to date, entering an industry landscape that has become more and more (openly) queer over the past decade.

“In Your Love” reminds of songs and albums released not just by left-leaning, more mainstream artists like Childers and Parker Millsap, but also by queer artists themselves, telling working-class stories and histories just like that constructed and depicted by House and director Bryan Schlam. In 2015, gay banjo player, singer-songwriter, and fellow Kentucky-resident Sam Gleaves released a landmark album, Ain’t We Brothers, which dripped with the exact same lived experiences and soot-tinged patina that inform Childers’ new video. In the past couple of years, releases by LGBTQ+ identified music makers like Amanda Fields, Willi Carlisle, Adeem the Artist, Amythyst Kiah, Jaimee Harris, and more trod similar ground. It’s notable still that an artist – however outlaw- or fringe-identified – as mainstream as Tyler Childers and with as broad a fanbase as his would choose to not only highlight queer, working-class storytelling, but to do so in a way that normalizes and re-centers these ways of being in Kentucky, the South, and Appalachia.

Rustin’ In The Rain will be released via RCA Records on Childers’ own imprint, Hickman Holler Records, on September 8. Via press release, Childers describes the inspiration that birthed Rustin’: “This is a collection of songs I playfully pieced together as if I was pitching a group of songs to Elvis. Some covers, one co-write, and some I even wrote in my best (terrible) Elvis impersonation, as I worked around the farm and kicked around the house. I hope you enjoy listening to this album as much as I enjoyed creating it. Thank you. Thank you very much.”

Clearly, the legacy of “The King” is merely one way drama, mystique, nuance, entertainment, and Southern-ness coalesce within this new project from one of the most exciting voices and perspectives in country.

Photo Credit: Sam Waxman

WATCH: Amanda Fields & Megan McCormick, “Wild As A Flower”

Posted on July 14, 2023August 30, 2023 by Justin Hiltner

Artist: Amanda Fields and Megan McCormick
Hometown: Madison, Tennessee
Song: “Wild As A Flower”

In Their Words: “We started writing ‘Wild As A Flower’ almost two years ago, not knowing how the story that the song reflected would progress. After we lost one of our beloved animals in January, we were finally able to finish the song. It’s been refreshing to allow ourselves to explore new territories in our songwriting together, especially the spiritual elements that come up often in our conversations — we get pretty deep into the existential a lot of times and it’s opened up our writing a lot.” – Amanda Fields & Megan McCormick

Photo Credit: Lindsey Patkos
Video Credit: Rebecca Branson Jones

BGS Class of 2023 Favorites So Far

Posted on July 11, 2023 by Justin Hiltner

Somehow, it’s July and more than half the year has already blown by! In many ways it feels like 2023 is still brand new, despite the calendar saying otherwise and the overabundance of amazing music that has soundtracked the past (nearly) seven months. With many more albums and songs yet to come, we wanted to reflect on the music that has stuck with us and become new favorites of ours since January. It’s a stout list – if we do say so ourselves.

We want to hear from you, too! What albums, songs, and artists have been the underscoring of your 2023? Who’s missing from our list?

(Editor’s Note: Scroll to find our complete BGS Class of 2023 playlist, which is updated every week.)

Rachel Baiman, Common Nation of Sorrow

Fiddler, songwriter, and activist Rachel Baiman has been a part of the BGS family for quite a while now, but recently she joined the ranks of our contributors, as well. (See her writings here.) Her new album, Common Nation of Sorrow, has been a standout for the entire team since it arrived in late March. Though she’s always helmed her creative and musical projects, in many capacities, this record marks the first time she’s been the sole producer on one of her own releases. Her fingerprints are indelible and striking; challenging and convicting. It’s introspective, but expansive.

boygenius, the record

An album so nearly perfect we just have to include it, even though some may believe its connections to roots music are tenuous at best. (We disagree, of course– and wrote an entire list of folk bands for boygenius fans to prove our point.) Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers, and Lucy Dacus somehow, against the odds, rise above the simple sum of their parts while reminding of former folk supergroups like Trio (that is, Dolly, Linda, and Emmylou) and Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young.

Caitlin Canty, Quiet Flame

With its acoustic aesthetic and simple, string band underpinnings, Caitlin Canty’s Quiet Flame is a surprise superlative among bluegrass records released in 2023. Her past albums aligning more with folk, Americana, and singer-songwriter traditions, Quiet Flame was produced by Chris Eldridge and though the production values were quite intentional, the bluegrass result was more a happy byproduct than a deliberate destination. Filmmaker and playwright Noah Altshuler spoke to Canty about the project for a recent feature.

Brandy Clark, Brandy Clark

The BGS team has been fans of country singer-songwriter Brandy Clark for quite some time, so it’s more than a little bit enjoyable to watch as more and more listeners and fans discover Clark. And they have so many pathways to find her, whether through her hit, Tony Award-winning Broadway musical, Shucked, her collaboration with Brandi Carlile – who produced the new, self-titled album – or her many charting hit songs. There’s a point of view on Brandy Clark that we never knew we missed before, a maturity that she never lacked, but she has certainly distilled. It shines in its many spotlights. (Watch for a feature on Clark coming soon to BGS.)

Michael Cleveland, Lovin’ of the Game

Michael Cleveland has won IBMA’s Fiddle Player of the Year award more times than any other fiddler in the organization’s history. His obvious adoration for the instrument – and the life it has led him to – is front and center on his latest album, Lovin’ of the Game. Though he’s collaborated with virtuosos like Chris Thile, Béla Fleck, Billy Strings, and many more over the past handful of years, his perspective remains markedly down-to-earth. As is on display in our Artist of the Month interview from March.

Cat Clyde, Down Rounder

In mid-February, we premiered the music video for the lead single off Canadian alt-folk singer-songwriter Cat Clyde’s album, Down Rounder, and this collection has stuck with us since. For those of us with an affinity for a good red-dirt or red-rock hike, and for western, nomadic, cowboi (that is, all-gendered cowboys) aesthetics – since long before the recent rise of yeehaw culture – this album will provide such perfect daydream scoring. It’s ideal music for journeys internal as well as external.

Iris DeMent, Workin’ On A World

An album of hope – but zero toxic positivity. Iris DeMent knows how it feels to be burnt out, bedraggled, exasperated, defeated. But hope is a radical act and, in those dark moments where hope seems so ethereal and distant, existence is a radical act. The songs of Workin’ On A World never feel preachy or condescending, even while they remind of weeknight church – all-denominational, of course – and raising voices together in the face of oppression and fascism. DeMent isn’t just workin’ on a world, she’s imagining one, too. It’s our job to bring it to fruition, even if we never see it.

Amanda Fields, What, When and Without

Amanda Fields’ voice is impossibly tender, but do not let your guard down or it will bite you just the same. Especially when delivering a bittersweet, southwest Virginia-tinged lyric equally at home played by a bluegrass band or, like on What, When and Without, backed by a vibey, homespun, alt-country sound bed. For a voice and perspective as traditional as her’s, Fields still finds endless new ground to break and lines to color outside of. Her collaboration with guitarist and producer Megan McCormick (who has new solo music coming this year, as well) finds Fields’ musical output climbing to even higher levels of realization, innovation, and professionalism.

Ashby Frank, Leaving Is Believing

Mandolinist, singer, and songwriter Ashby Frank is in the running for IBMA’s Best New Artist award this year, and while reaching the second ballot in this category is certainly a well-deserved recognition, it’s a bit… inaccurate! Frank is not exactly a “newcomer,” as he has been a near permanent fixture in bluegrass, country, and Nashville for the greater part of two decades, performing with outfits like the Likely Culprits, the infamous Darrell Brothers, Special Consensus, Mountain Heart, John Cowan, and so many more. He’s even subbed regularly with the Earls of Leicester – and he’s a hit bluegrass songwriter, too, with charting cuts by Junior Sisk, Dale Ann Bradley, and more. His emerging solo career is where he’s truly hitting his stride, though, and in real time, with this outstanding “debut” on Mountain Home Music.

Brittany Haas & Natalie Haas, HAAS

Genre is dead, we know, but if it hadn’t already been dead, chambergrass, classical-meets-fiddle, string band music such as this would have killed it. It’s a glorious musical territory and is no better inhabited by anyone in this particular scene than sisters Natalie and Brittany Haas, who return to collaborating with one another in an “official” format on HAAS. Sometimes it’s easy to lose sight of just how toxically masculine improvisational, jammy, virtuosic bluegrass and chambergrass have become. An album like HAAS quickly grounds this aesthetic – so far outside the realm of similar more performative, self-indulgent projects – and reminds just how much newgrass and chambergrass are still out there to be discovered and made.

Jaimee Harris, Boomerang Town

A glut of queer country records are being released at this particular moment in time and Jaimee Harris’ Boomerang Town stands out in a niche that’s becoming more and more crowded. No one welcomes this quick change in country music more than ourselves – and Jaimee, too, we’re sure – but with more voices to be heard, one like Harris’ certainly cuts through. Boomerang Town isn’t exactly autobiographical, but it drips with Harris’ lived experiences and plays as if you’re sitting quietly with her, alone in her room, as she picks each intro on her favorite guitar and every track grows into a fully-realized number. It’s a not-so-idyllic snapshot of a hometown, like country does so well, and, like queer folks the world over know so intimately, the exact hometown really doesn’t matter.

Brennen Leigh, Ain’t Through Honky Tonkin’ Yet

We hope Brennen Leigh, a multi-hyphenate picker, performer, and songwriter, is never through honky tonkin’. With her latest Signature Sounds recording Leigh has raised the bar for honky tonk sounds – a bar that should never be re-lowered. Equally at home as a “sideman,” a bluegrass picker, a songwriter (with cuts by Lee Ann Womack and others), and as an in-town Nashville picker, Leigh typifies the country everyman archetype – or, perhaps, the country “renaissance man” archetype. Or both! – while doing it better than nearly everyone else in the game, currently. With Nashville’s best on the album’s roster – as band members or featured artists – Ain’t Through Honky Tonkin’ Yet is a gem.

Darren Nicholson, Wanderer

Mandolinist Darren Nicholson recently left Balsam Range, the North Carolina bluegrass group for which he’s known, after criss-crossing the country – and the globe – with the IBMA Award-winning and Grammy-nominated band for decades. He announced his departure from Balsam Range in 2022 and his first release as a solo artist, Wanderer, is a huge success. Nicholson stakes out and lays claim to his own brand of bluegrass – which is rooted equally in the high country of Western North Carolina (Nicholson hails from Haywood County) and in an effervescent joy. Besides his old-time influenced, traditional mandolin picking, his smile and laugh might be his most recognizable traits. The humor he relishes in life comes forward in his playing, too. Wanderer is a harbinger of many fine solo projects to come from Darren Nicholson.

Nickel Creek, Celebrants

Nickel Creek returned and millennial roots-music fans everywhere rejoiced, joining in the Celebrants celebration. After a nearly ten-year wait since 2014’s A Dotted Line, Celebrants seemed to once again impossibly capture the Nickel Creek lightning in a bottle. A Dotted Line felt mature and confident, self-assured but not cocky. On Celebrants, the throughline could be described as gentleness and gratitude; perhaps from Thile and Sara Watkins both becoming parents in the interim. Nevertheless, Celebrants would have been one of the most notable albums released this year – and for good reason – even without these subtle growth points and nuances.

Mighty Poplar, Mighty Poplar

If ever a bluegrass, old-time, and/or string band supergroup convenes with a pun for a name and we do not react with unabashed glee, please check the collective team BGS pulse. Mighty Poplar checks all of the boxes and then some. Yes, with its particular convention of pickers this album could be seen as a “return” to bluegrass, but that’s perhaps the most boring angle on this fascinating record. It’s not merely a return to the format that musically birthed each of these instrumentalists (Chris Eldridge, Greg Garrison, Alex Hargreaves, Andrew Marlin, and Noam Pikelny), it’s a demonstration in bluegrass not just as an aesthetic and tradition, but bluegrass as expression.

Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway, City of Gold

Though we still have a couple of weeks until City of Gold drops, Molly Tuttle is our current Artist of the Month and we would be remiss to not include the most buzzed about bluegrass album of the year on this list. Singles “El Dorado” (above), “Next Rodeo,” and “San Joaquin” are out now, tempting and teasing another record influenced so heavily by Tuttle’s growing up in the bluegrass scene of California and the West Coast. Her band, Golden Highway (Bronwyn Keith-Hynes, Dominick Leslie, Shelby Means, and Kyle Tuttle) are featured heavily on City of Gold, for which Jerry Douglas returns to producing. Turns out it’s been Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway at the end of the rainbow this whole time!

Kassi Valazza, Kassi Valazza Knows Nothing

Kassi Valazza Knows Nothing, but she does know the power and magic of live recording. Her brand new album, tracked with backing band, fellow Portland, OR-based artists TK & the Holy Know-Nothings, was all tracked live, including vocals. As a result, the entire record buzzes with energy, whether toe-tapping or subdued. Sometimes, it’s a calm, warm, and honeyed patina that feels solemn and poetic, but ultimately, the entire collection is danceable. It’s tear-in-your-beer country and boot-scootin’ country – but that doesn’t make it simplistic. Which might be surprising, from someone who famously knows nothing.

Sunny War, Anarchist Gospel

Sunny War’s latest album, Anarchist Gospel, finds her sound having grown and expanded, while still held together by the most fantastic of glues: Her confounding and entrancing right hand. Yes, War combines DIY music, punk, and grunge with roots music and fingerstyle blues, but that’s decidedly not the point – certainly not the centerpiece – of her art-making. (Despite what the guitar bros might tell you.) The truth is, at times, so much more complicated. At others, it’s really quite simple and literal. As she told us in an interview from earlier this year, she just plays the songs, the licks, the hooks, the lyrics as they’re meant to be played. And anarchy isn’t just a concept.

Bella White, Among Other Things

Bella White’s breakout debut, Just Like Leaving, had already been released when she signed to Rounder Records, who then picked up and distributed the album. It received widespread acclaim as her Alberta- and Virginia-influenced bluegrass sound and Gillian Welch-like lyrics resonated with listeners and critics alike. Her brand new album, Among Other Things, then, feels like both a debut and a sophomore outing, devoid of any sort of “sophomore slump,” but capitalizing on the excitement she continues to generate in the bluegrass realm and well beyond it, too. We featured the new project with an interview in May.

Julie Williams, Julie Williams EP

We first became acquainted with Julie Williams’ music through Black Opry, the artist collective and revue who were our June Artist of the Month. In the Black Opry Revue’s simple, writers’ round format, her songs shone, gorgeous even in their very simple trappings. On her new EP, each of her songs are given the full treatment they deserve. Though they never feel lacking when delivered intimately and stripped down, unencumbered, Williams’ songs in this context soar, especially because they each give us an individualized window into her creative process, her songwriting imagination, and the production landscape she’ll continue to conquer into the future.

Jess Williamson, Time Ain’t Accidental

In May we premiered “Chasing Spirits,” a delightfully hooky number from Jess Williamson’s latest album, Time Ain’t Accidental, which we are glad to return to here. (Williamson, you may know, is one half of duo Plains with Waxahatchee’s Katie Crutchfield.) Time Ain’t Accidental finds its home base where Williamson was raised, in Texas, and while it processes and puts under the microscope a past, failed relationship, this album is about movement, regeneration, and forward momentum. That she accomplishes this with imagery that’s pastoral, stark, and bristling is not an accident, either.