The BGS Radio Hour – Episode 198

Welcome to the BGS Radio Hour! Since 2017, the show has been a weekly recap of all the great music, new and old, featured on BGS. This week, we’ve got new releases from Lindsay Lou and Blue Water Highway while we continue to celebrate our artist of the month – Black Pumas! Remember to check back every Monday for a new episode of the BGS Radio Hour.

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Blue Water Highway – “Grateful”

This quartet – who come from a working class, small town Texas background – bring us a mixtape, featuring their big inspirations, from Bruce Springsteen to Phoebe Bridgers. Blue Water Highway graces our show this week with this tongue-in-cheek take on thankfulness from their upcoming album Paper Airplanes.

David Huckfelt – “Hidden Made Known”

Iowa-based singer and songwriter David Huckfelt brings a single to the show this week, from his soon to be released Room Enough, Time Enough. “‘Hidden Made Known’ is about having faith in the basic intelligence of the universe, and what to do next when you lose it,” Huckfelt tells BGS. “From Wounded Knee to Sault Ste. Marie, tenderness is on the run.”

Black Pumas – “Fast Car”

Our current Artist of the Month, Black Pumas, recently caught up with BGS to talk about their biggest influences, from a gospel music upbringing to original MTV. Black Pumas (Deluxe Edition) is up for Album of the Year at the GRAMMYs!

Miko Marks – “Hard Times”

Miko Marks is reclaiming the music that Stephen Foster appropriated his way to success with. In anticipation of her upcoming album Our Country, what better place to start than this famous song?

Sway Wild – “Edge of My Seat” (with Anna Tivel)

Sway Wild brings us this appropriately titled anxiety-inspired song from their upcoming self-titled album. Based in the San Juan Islands of the Pacific Northwest, the group is not alone in needing to share their mental struggles as we journey through 2021.

Anya Hinkle feat. Graham Sharp – “What’s It Gonna Take?”

From the mountains of Western North Carolina, Anya Hinkle and Graham Sharp (Steep Canyon Rangers) bring us this new single, written on May 26, 2020 – the first day without George Floyd. “Only by listening to Black voices are we going to know what it is gonna take,” Hinkle told BGS. “We are still so divided and will remain ignorant until we can absorb what it’s like to be Black in America.”

Lindsay Lou – “Alright Sweet”

No stranger to BGS and the roots scene, Lindsay Lou offers The Suite Sweets, four songs combined into two for an A and B-side single. Inspired by Immersion Composition Society (ISC) writing lodges, writing for hours as uninhibitedly as possible, the Nashville-based artist combined these song segments into something that was greater than just the sum of their parts.

Chris DuPont – “Sandpaper Hymn”

Chris DuPont brings us a song from Floodplains, out now via Sharehouse Audio. Writing during a time of loss, DuPont recognized an opportunity to grow, for the great “sanding” of loss to smooth out the rough edges, and to not let bitterness overshadow the narrative.

Sideline – “Just a Guy in a Bar”

IBMA award winning band Sideline tells this story through both song and visual representation. The video tells the story of the song in perfect synchronicity, pulling the viewer even deeper into the story.

Rhiannon Giddens & Francesco Turrisi – “Last Night I Dreamed of Loving You”

From our 2020 Whiskey Sour Happy Hour segment, we’re bringing back this haunting performance from roots artist Rhiannon Giddens accompanied by Francesco Turrisi. Giddens, who has been outspoken throughout her career about the African-American origins of country music, is another featured artist in our Black Voices segment, uplifting the disenfranchised voices in roots music that helped create the genre.

Beth Lee – “Birthday Song”

Texas-based Beth Lee wrote this song before her birthday, and sent it to Vicente Rodriguez for his birthday (who would go on to be her producer for the record). Recorded by Lee, Rodriguez, and James Deprato – who coincidentally had a birthday during the week of recording – this song was the first sign to Lee that her Waiting On You Tonight was going to be a good record.

Mark Erelli feat. Maya de Vitry – “Handmade”

Though not originally written as a duet, nothing suited Erelli’s song better than vocal accompaniment from Maya de Vitry. Without holding anything back, they emphasize the song’s message – that we all have the opportunity to make something new.


Photos: (L to R) Black Pumas from the Late Show with Stephen Colbert; Rhiannon Giddens & Francesco Turrisi by Ebru Yildiz; Lindsay Lou by Scott Simontacchi

MIXTAPE: Blue Water Highway’s Space Ship in a Barn

We are a four-piece Americana/indie rock and roll band from Austin, Texas, combining our love of singing and harmony (Catherine and Zack were both opera majors in college) with thoughtful songwriting, musicianship, and arranging (Greg and Kyle are multi-instrumentalists, also with college degrees in music). Being from Texas, we are rooted in its southern/western traditions, but love to musically and lyrically explore the contrasts in culture between rural and urban life, and the way that technology has affected both. This was one of the concepts — what we kept calling “building a space ship in a barn” — that was at the heart of our upcoming album, Paper Airplanes, produced by Cason Cooley, and it is the theme of our mixtape.

These “space ship in a barn” songs are a huge inspiration to us, often using acoustic instruments and natural vocals/harmonies mixed with analog synthesizers and electric guitars. Essentially mixing the organic sounds of the country with those of the urbanized, modern world. They also show a contrast between material things, and emotions that can sometimes best be expressed by otherworldly-type sounds. — Blue Water Highway

Bruce Springsteen – “I’m on Fire”

We find ourselves constantly referencing the Boss and his Born in the U.S.A. album, and this track specifically, as a great example of how classic rock and roll and rockabilly crossed with an analog CS-80 synth somehow works so well.

Sandra McCracken – “Reciprocate”

There is something about this track, and whole album really, that uses the roots vs. digital mix to maximum effect. The foundation is the fragility of the vocal and the acoustic guitar, but the “space” sounds peek through, like little slivers of light coming down through the dark clouds. Produced by Cason Cooley, this is one of the initial influences for our album.

The National – “Quiet Light”

The National’s 2019 release, I Am Easy to Find, has some of the best vibe in piano tones and “Quiet Light” is no exception. The soundscapes and drumming on this tune were just so innovative yet familiar.

Matthew Perryman Jones – “Waking the Dead”

The atmosphere kicks in right from the start and supports this upbeat rocker, which happens to be the only non-ballad on this record, is also produced by Cason Cooley, and admittedly is one of the few non-ballads that MPJ writes. The whole record is a rootsy trip through outer space.

Hozier – “Almost (Sweet Music)”

This song combines three things we love: good songwriting, good groove, and jazz. Hozier weaves titles from famous jazz songs throughout the lyrics of this song, and if you didn’t know the jazz songs he mentions you’d have no idea. Hozier is a great example of an artist who uses rootsy sounds with very modern, pop-oriented production techniques.

Phoebe Bridgers – “Motion Sickness”

Is it a country song or not? At least that is the argument we’ve been having in our band since the song came out. The soundscape is obviously a great example of vibey, modern, groovy, indie-rock production, and the lyrics have a very 21st century suburban-kid perspective. But still, there is something in the mood and the lyrics that doesn’t seem too far from Hank Williams… or Dolly Parton… anyone?

Elbow –”lippy kids”

Our producer introduced us to this band and this track, which is not only a perfect example of our theme sonically, but also lyrically. The refrain of “build a rocket boys” exactly conveys the sense of childhood wonder we wanted to evoke on our album.

Taylor Swift – “peace”

We’re big Taylor Swift fans in this band, always have been. Then she released folklore and evermore in 2020, which somehow fit perfectly with sounds of our album, even though we had already recorded it. Catherine never turned these albums off… ever. Taylor Swift is not given nearly enough credit as a songwriter and this is one of those perfectly produced tracks that makes her shine.

Blue Water Highway – “Grateful”

Definitely leaning more on the “barn,” or rootsy, side of things, this is our tongue-in-cheek take on thankfulness, and we still manage to put enough stardust sounds in the mix that it fits with the rest of the album.

Big Red Machine – “Hymnostic”

This song sounds like sunlight shining through the windows of an old white wooden church. Aaron Dessner (The National) and Justin Vernon (Bon Iver) combine to create the ultimate “spaceship in a barn” vibe. Big Red Machine, The National, and Bon Iver have all accompanied us many many times on late-night drives from state to state.

John Moreland – “When My Fever Breaks”

When an amazing songwriter gets a hold of a drum machine, this is the result. Great songs, and vibey drum production, complete with other synths make this album one to keep revisiting.

Brandon Flowers – “Between Me And You”

Brandon Flowers is one of the core artists we reference. Combining a indie synth rock aesthetic with heartland songwriting, he represents one of the many examples of bringing roots rock into a modern era.

Counting Crows – “Amy Hit The Atmosphere”

If this came out in 2021, it would probably be called Americana, but we love how these guys were a mainstream rock band with just the right balance between raw and polished. That’s never truer than on this song from This Desert Life, with the way the band uses atmospheric sounds to support the lyrics.

Maggie Rogers – “Overnight”

This song is a perfect example of how ambient electronic sounds that you can’t really put your finger on really round out and enhance a song that has organic vocals and drums.

Dawes – “Don’t Send Me Away”

One of the under appreciated elements of ’70s Americana will always be the impeccable groove of the rhythm section. Dawes carries this same torch, along with subtle but innovative guitar work, and brilliant songwriting, to become one of our bands favorite bands.

The War on Drugs – “Pain”

Adam Granduciel’s guitar work and songwriting harkens back to the way the ’80s musicians blended the rootsy style before them with modern instrumentation. The War on Drugs unashamed use of drum machine sounds and reverb rich guitar tone creates a cool and nostalgic sonic landscape.

Blue Water Highway – “All Will Be Well”

This is a song about the true meaning of hope, and it uses the synth/acoustic dichotomy as a way to contrast the spiritual with the material, how those realities both rub up against each other and work together. At times it feels like a rickety old space ship, and is one of our favorite examples of this sound in our original music.

Blue Water Highway – “Sign Language”

This is our original song about finding communication, calm, and understanding in the midst of chaos and confusion. The soundscape has many “space ship” elements that evoke communication, i.e. synthesizer and drum machine, which are contrasted with the organic sounds of the harmony vocals, guitar, and drum set.


Photo credit: Cal & Aly