All Kinds of Country

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.

William Beckmann

Born and raised in a border town in Texas, singer-songwriter William Beckmann perfectly illustrates how Mexican folk, Tejano music, and country have always been closely intertwined. Latin folk is Americana; mariachi and Norteño are country. With Good Country like his, that connectedness feels intuitive – and obvious. Beckmann’s new album arrives June 20.


Rhiannon Giddens & Justin Robinson

Rhiannon Giddens & Justin Robinson, founding members of revered string band the Carolina Chocolate Drops, reunite on a new old-time album, What Did The Blackbird Say to the Crow, which celebrates North Carolina repertoire, fiddle, banjo, and front porch pickin’. I’m excited to join them both – and many other special guests like Steve Martin, Amythyst Kiah, Leyla McCalla, and more – at the Hollywood Bowl on June 18 for a special one-night-only edition of their Old-Time Revue.


The SteelDrivers

“Uneasy listening” or “bluegrass soul,” whatever you call their style of music, the SteelDrivers are a bluegrass institution. Their new album, Outrun, is their first with Sun Records, an excellent label match for a group that combines bluegrass, blues, country, and soul with music that’s equally at home in Nashville, Memphis, Muscle Shoals, and beyond. Love this band of ringers!


Jack Van Cleaf

There’s a new sort of Americana/country/Gen Z folk brewing between social media and music cities like Nashville, Chicago, and LA – and Jack Van Cleaf is at the center of its rise. Is it alt-country? Is it contemplative bedroom folk? Is it indie rock? Is it singer-songwriter Americana? It’s all of the above. Check out his latest LP, JVC, to discover your own terms for his striking style.


Watchhouse

My old pals Andrew and Emily were a pick last year when they guested on “Pink Skies” on Zach Bryan’s smash hit album, The Great American Bar Scene. Now they’re back with a full-length album of their own, Rituals, out today! We’ve been covering and collaborating with Watchhouse for over a decade, so stay tuned for more celebrations of the new record coming soon to BGS and Good Country.


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Photo Credits: William Beckmann by Connor Robertson; Rhiannon Giddens & Justin Robinson by Karen Cox; The SteelDrivers by Glenn Rose; Jack Van Cleaf by Joseph Wasilewski; Watchhouse by Jillian Clark.

Tim O’Brien & Jan Fabricius Pick ‘Paper Flowers’ As Their First Album Together

Tim O’Brien & Jan Fabricius‘ new album, Paper Flowers, represents something of a double collaboration. While O’Brien has achieved many accomplishments in his long career, Paper Flowers stands as his first official album collaboration with his wife, Jan, although she has written and performed with him over the past decade.

Secondly, Paper Flowers is the result of the couple’s ongoing collaboration with the legendary singer-songwriter Tom Paxton. Twelve of the album’s 15 songs are the product of these regular Zoom sessions. Paxton had known the couple for years from traveling in similar musical circles, but their virtual songwriting dates arose after mutual friends Cathy Fink and Jon Weisberger asked O’Brien and Fabricius if they would consider co-writing a song with Paxton for the Bluegrass Sings Paxton project that they were then just getting off the ground.

The first song the three of them wrote together, “You Took Me In,” wound up on that 2024 release. “We wrote the song really quickly and we’re really happy about it,” O’Brien shared on a phone call between concerts with Fabricius in New Mexico. “It did jump start the process.”

O’Brien has found this collaborative process particularly productive. “Writing songs on your own, for me, sometimes I labor over them for months,” he elaborates. “But with a co-write, it seems like your time is precious. The idea that you’re together in the same space…and you want to get to the crux really as quickly as possible. And in general, it’s a liberating process. It’s like fishing. You’re pulling these things out of the water and you see, ‘Oh, there’s a good one. Here’s a good, good size one.’”

You can easily sense the musical liberation on Paper Flowers. The album stands as perhaps O’Brien’s most musically diverse work across his celebrated career. While still securely rooted in an acoustic foundation, the record contains a variety of music styles, including the boogie-woogie jaunt “Blacktop Rag Top,” the gospel-tinged “Back To Eden,” and the New Wave-y rocker “Down to Burn.” Fabricius discovered that these songwriting sessions can lead to some interesting results.

“It amazes me how we’ll have an idea and then by the time the whole song’s molded and done, it may be totally different, take you down a different path than you thought you were going,” she says. One example of this twisty path of songwriting came when the couple shared with Paxton the story of an armadillo that they were battling in the yard of their Nashville home – including the animal’s miraculous escape from a raccoon trap. Paxton, who was at a laundromat at the time, immediately saw it as a song premise. The highly comical “Lonesome Armadillo” relates the misadventures of an armadillo that’s stranded in a laundromat. It’s trying to bum a quarter to get back to Amarillo after failed attempts to become a Nashville music star, including getting kicked out of the Ernest Tubb Record Shop and not getting to meet award-winning bassist (and longtime O’Brien collaborator) Mike Bub.

Fabricius also credits Paxton for coming up with a key lyrical detail – a peanut butter sandwich – in “Covenant,” a heartbreaking song about parents losing a child in a school shooting that was inspired by the 2023 Covenant School tragedy in Nashville. She recalls, “When he said, ‘Well, let’s say this kid has got a peanut butter sandwich in the backpack,’ at first I thought: ‘Huh?’ And then I thought, ‘Oh boy, that really does bring the reality to it.’ We’re just putting ourselves into the parents’ shoes a little bit, you know, and what can you say? It’s hard to put the words to it, so less was more.” O’Brien adds that these “visual references and physical details are sometimes better than trying to moralize or anything.” He also drew a parallel to the subtleties involved in cooking: “If you make cornbread, you don’t want to stir it up too much. It doesn’t work as well if you stir it up too much.”

Detailed lyric writing is something Paxton very much believes in. “It’s not just a tree; it’s an oak tree,” Paxton believes. “It’s not just a street, it’s Cornwall Street. You get them closer to life when you notice the particulars of life and the sandwich in the kid’s backpack is a given and it’s up to you to see it.”

The importance of details also was central in the creation of the track, “Yellow Hat.” Paxton came to one session stating that he wanted to write a song about a hat. Not just any hat, but a yellow hat. This sense of specificity certainly lent an air of realism to the tune, which deals with a couple aging gracefully. The lyrics come off as being so relatable and authentic that people think it is about O’Brien and Fabricius. O’Brien says that he has alerted audiences that it is not them in the song by announcing: “This is about an old couple, not us; (they’re) moving out of their house, not our house.”

“He hasn’t bought me a yellow hat!” Fabricius chimes in.

Paxton, in fact, often arrives to the Zoom with a premise or a phrase that he is eager to work on. Fabricius recalls him saying: “’This idea has been driving me nuts all week. It’s about a guy who really loves his wife but all he does is complain about her.’ And we were off and running.” After coming up with lyrics for this premise, O’Brien and Fabricius realized the next day that the song was very husband-sided, so they wrote a verse from the wife’s perspective. “And (Tom) was really happy with it,” Fabricius reveals. And well, he should be. The tune, “This Gal Of Mine” sits nicely with Tennessee Ernie Ford/Kay Starr’s “You’re My Sugar” and John Prine/Iris Dement’s “In Spite Of Ourselves” as a classic battling couples country tune.

There are times too when ideas come out of nowhere – or close to nowhere. At one of their virtual meetups, O’Brien was sitting around riffing on the guitar and, as he recalls, “Tom says, ‘Boy, the more you play that, the more it sounds like you’re playing ‘fat pile of puppies.’” And thus, the song “Fat Pile of Puppies” was born. While the tune may initially sound like a light romp simply about adorable little dogs, “Fat Pile of Puppies” (at one time considered for the album’s title) holds a deceptive depth to it. The crucial lyric “Falling in love is what I fear” could easily be describing the emotions for another human as much as for a dog.

“It’s kind of a love song in a way,” Fabricius confides. The writing of this song also came as O’Brien and she were still mourning the loss of their 17-year-old dog; however, they have since acquired a new pup named Nellie Kane (yes, after the O’Brien-penned Hot Rize track).

Real-life inspirations serve as the source for several other songs on this album. “Father of the Bride,” for example, was written for Fabricius’ son when his daughter was getting married. The humorous “Atchison” was inspired by a trip the couple took to Kansas, where Fabricius is from. She has a cousin who actually lives in Atchison, and during the visit, O’Brien exclaimed: “I have never been to Atchison.” The phrase stuck in their heads, giving rise to the album’s catchy lead-off track, which not only references the great train tune “On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe,” but also affords O’Brien the opportunity to break out a Jimmie Rodgers-like yodel.

It’s not surprising, however, that the couple wound up choosing “Paper Flowers” as their title track, because it serves as something like their courting song. The tune came about after they came across O’Brien’s old notebooks (the “little $2 notebooks you could put in your shirt pocket,” as he described them) in which he had written his early love notes to her. Fabricius saved the postcards and paper flowers that he had sent her. One of the notes contained the sentence: “one for you and one for me and one for the miles in between,” which got transformed into one of the song’s key lines.

“We still have the paper flowers on the mantle,” Fabricius shares. “And they made for good cover art.”

The tracks that the couple wrote without Paxton, “I Look Good in Blue” and “Down to Burn,” are both true stories, although not drawn from their own lives. “I Look Good in Blue” is a gin-soaked portrait of a honky-tonk piano player whose family told O’Brien and Fabricius about this woman whose wish was to “save that (Bombay) Sapphire bottle and pour my ashes in.” Another song drenched in alcohol, “Down to Burn” was written after the couple encountered a quintet of drunk women on a “girlfriends’ getaway.” The tune, which exudes an ’80s New Wave party vibe, provided O’Brien the chance to dust off his electric guitars. “The great part is seeing Tim in our music room putting electric guitar on (the song). He had more fun with that,” Fabricius shares. O’Brien admits, “I sweated over it more than I had fun. I did enjoy that. I have several electric guitars, and I don’t know how to operate them, and it made me try to learn more. I kind of got a couple of them working pretty good.”

O’Brien has won two GRAMMYs and made a lot of music in his over 50 years as a professional musician. Toward the end of our conversation, he shared some of his thoughts about the role of music and musicians in society. “The music is, in a broader sense, like the human song. It’s like creative force, like a tree growing or grass growing. It’s going to happen and we’re the vehicles – the musicians – the people who play music and we just organize it in some way to let it be there…

“The human race could not function without music,” he continues. “It’s used for various things. It’s used for ceremony. It’s used for dancing. It’s used for entertainment. It’s used for communication… I mean Bob Dylan, he wrote ‘Blowing in the Wind.’ He was writing what he saw, what was already going on. It wasn’t like he invented that. He’s the channel.” O’Brien then paused before adding, “It’s a nice thing to be in the channel and kind of push it along.”


Photo Credit: Scott Simontacchi

Watchhouse Found New Rituals Amid the Push and Pull of Change

Chances are you’ve cultivated a few personal routines to help you navigate the world: one for daily life, one for weekly, monthly, and so on. There’s also likely a handful of individual habits that affect how you choose to go about your routine. The former, at times, can influence the latter, fitting within each other like a pair of nesting dolls, adjacent and similar in their roles.

Then there are rituals. Though these three recurring sets of actions – routines, habits, and rituals – would seem like easily overlapping bedfellows, rituals carry an intrinsic quality the other two lack: mindfulness. Rituals bear a sense of intention like the other two, but it’s often coupled with an element of symbolism or custom. It’s not just a matter of doing something and saying it’s done; there are other connotations or expectations that may influence why doing it matters.

Holding this notion in mind, it’s Rituals that Andrew Marlin and Emily Frantz of North Carolina duo Watchhouse have decided to name their new album. Through its 11 tracks, the married musicians posit an abundance of questions and actions, their contemplations placed in settings that are as clear as a simple back porch and as abstract as a space “through the looking glass,” “beyond this to and fro.” Settings that exist outside of not only any kind of routine, but separate from time and space all together.

Though Watchhouse’s new writings don’t seem to present rituals in their conventional form, the title still feels wholly appropriate. Marlin and Frantz’s reflections, wistful pining, and open-ended ruminations don’t lead to a sense of clear, expected structure that rituals would traditionally provide, but each song is lined with an abundance of intention, mindfulness, and hope for various outcomes. Sometimes these are overtly stated – Oh, I’m dreaming of a life with you in the sun/ And I hope our time together has only just begun… – and sometimes they are dressed in metaphors: Go fire your cannonball, go and fire away/ When the ashes fall we’ll start a brand new day.

There are defined ideas that Watchhouse put forth on the album: identity and awareness, the distinction between patterns and truths, how to develop a positive relationship with change, and what it means to evolve. All the same, while our internal responses to these songs may change over time, the very act of revisiting, replaying, and reconsidering their meanings, and how we are affected by them, can be a form of ritual in its own way.

Amid an extensive tour that will take them all over the U.S. and into Canada through summer and fall, Watchhouse spoke with BGS about their collaborative dynamic, how their individual artistic instincts influence the direction of a song, and the prevalence of duality in the album – as well as in their lives.

It’s been about four years since your last album and eight years since both your lives changed from bandmates to family. Given that Rituals focuses on patterns and the perception of change on our lives, how has the ever-growing longevity of your union in marriage — and all the ways marriage transforms a relationship on its own — changed the way you perceive and interact with the music making process?

Andrew Marlin: When you hit the road and join forces with other people to play music, it’s kind of like stepping outside of the norm and stepping outside of the daily life to go up there and almost take on a role or take on a character in order to get inside the music. You kind of just forget everything that the day often requires of you, because all of a sudden those requirements aren’t there. It’s just the stage and the music and the people that are there rooting for you to go deep, you know?

I think finding that zone with Emily has had its challenges in the past, because we’re so closely tied to each other. We raise kids together and we live together, and so doing all this traveling together and playing music together too, it makes it harder – or made it harder for me at the beginning, I think – to leave the daily routine and expectations behind on stage and just shed all of that and take on that character. It’s one thing to look at your bandmates’ eyes and get a little nod or whatever’s happening during the music. It’s kind of like this understanding of, “I’m not here right now. This is just me playing music.”

Getting to that zone with Emily, now that we’re 16 years into it, has taken a while to get to that point to where it’s an acceptance of all of it, instead of just leaving things behind to get on stage. It’s like we’re carrying all of it with us at all points in time. People that come to see us get a real and honest version of ourselves, trying to go deep in the music but also being completely aware of each other too.

Emily Frantz: I was just thinking about how much things changed in 2020 and 2021, living our mundane day-to-day lives in our house, and the transition back into being on the road again and touring. We’ve obviously been doing that for a few years now since COVID, but that experience made us relearn what the relationship is between our daily life at home and touring and [figuring out] how can they coexist in a healthy way.

Ironically, the album’s opening track, “Shape,” avoids the traditional shape or structure of a song (all verses, no chorus) while the actual narrative of the song embraces ideas that lean into a sense of purgatory and a nebulous state of being — the very opposite of what would help establish a sense of shape, boundaries, identity, direction, patterns, or truths. What were the mental and emotional motivations that inspired you to take the song in this direction?

AM: It’s like establishing the shape or the pattern in order to separate yourself from it. That’s what a lot of those verses are doing, kind of outlining the things that often make me feel like I’m in a box and I’m trying to get outside of that box. The only way to do it – because there’s no real form to it – is to imagine the parameters, imagine the spaces that it ends up kind of confining you in, in order to step outside of those [boxes]. I think that was the intention with “Shape.”

EF: And the way that “Shape” came into its final form, at least final the way it appears on the record, was a lot of the things that you said about it: It didn’t ever really conform and it got rearranged and had things added and taken away from it so many times, a lot more so than other songs. But it always did feel like the backbone of this record in a lot of ways, which is why it felt really right as the opening track of this record.

AM: If there was a shape to define that song, I’d say it’s a spiral.

 

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How have you fit rituals into your lives and have they helped you maintain a sense of stable continuity as a family and as musicians?

AM: I feel like since having kids, the day has taken so much more form. Because I think that, and Emily [is] really brilliant about this, giving structure to the day is super helpful for them. So that they don’t have to wonder what’s happening, so that they can really pay attention to what is happening. I’ve watched both of our kids blossom in that environment. Emily’s really good about helping to create that and make sure we stick to it. Carrying that on the road has been really helpful, too and something that I didn’t realize I was going to benefit very much from. Because I definitely, when left to my own devices, am like a sheet left out to dry – just flapping in the wind. To have a little bit of structure to the day, and have to enter into these mental zones with the kiddos, has added a lot of mental structure to my existence. I think that’s the biggest thing for me.

And within that, it’s about realizing what the day actually requires of me, instead of what I imagined today to be expecting of me. Finding those real anchors and a little more gravity to the things I’m working on have helped me shed old expectations of myself and what I think I’m supposed to be doing. I think that’s what led us to be okay with changing the band name and changing up some of the sounds and approaching this thing we’ve been doing for a long time in a whole new way.

EF: I think the thing that we are [focusing on] 16 years in is finding where the balance is between freedom and artistic expression, and also just daily life and figuring out how to have those two things like coexist and make each other better and not be in a constant sort of push and pull.

The first verse in “Beyond Meaning” is intriguing. The statement of your “gentle” disposition is nice, but its seemingly conditional nature gives pause — particularly when considering that life is noisy and out of our control more often than not. What is it that you’re trying to say about your own identity and awareness of how you cope with the noise and bustle of everyday living?

AM: I feel like what I was getting at is to view it as though it’s external noise. But it’s actually internal noise. That’s often the thing that keeps me from my peace and keeps me from being gentle. It’s my own defenses and my own self-consciousness that end up creating all of this noise. It paints the external noise in a negative light. When I can control that and remember to keep my own defenses at bay and be open and actually present, the idea that maybe this external noise is not a malicious one keeps me gentle and then often what comes from that is a gentle interaction. So it’s more about controlling the internal noise in order to actually experience the external factors.

Out of the 11 songs on the album, Emily is the primary vocalist only for “Firelight.” Why was Emily the right fit to sing the story of this one song? And more broadly, what went into your shared thought process on when, and for how long, you two would sing together? Is it a purely harmony and arrangement-based decision, or do the emotions of a song influence how each vocal arrangement is structured?

EF: A lot of times it can be pretty cut and dry. If we’re deciding who should sing lead on a song, it might just have to do with the range or the key, where we think it sounds good. Sometimes that plays into it maybe even more than the lyrics or the subject matter. With Andrew doing the songwriting, he’s always been more of the primary lead vocalist. Oftentimes, by the time we’re arranging a tune and finding out how we want to present it, it’s very cemented in his voice. But then a lot of times, there will be tunes that we’re struggling with and we’re not quite finding it. By switching out who’s singing, it reframes the whole song and allows us to not just change the lead vocalist, but to find a whole different zone for the song in terms of what we hear and how it gets arranged and recorded. That was the case with “Firelight.” We had so many different versions of that song over the years leading up to recording – different time signatures, different instrumentation – and that was one of the last ones that came together for this album. Most of it got done after the initial tracking session because we were searching on it for a long time and I think I like it more and more the longer I sit with it, the more I hear it.

AM: Often people do want to know why Emily’s not singing more tunes or why the roles are what they are. But I think it’s really important to shine a little light on what Emily does behind the scenes when she’s not singing. The way she plays rhythm and plays violin or whatever instrument she’s on, it ends up being this anchor for everyone in the band. The way that offers complete structure to what we’re doing and allows everything else to sway around that a little bit, I feel like even when she’s not singing, her musical voice is such a strong presence in the music. I’ve heard her say this before, like when she’s playing violin, she’d rather not sing lead because it’s almost like having to sing with two voices. That became part of the structure of what we’ve been doing all along, not just with the lead vocal. The feel of the song and the rhythm and the chord structure and the flow of it all often is hinged on what Emily ends up doing. I think that’s just as important as her taking a lead vocal.

EF: I’ve really, over the years of us playing music together, come around to enjoying singing lead when we find the song that feels good in my range. But for the most part, I’d rather be singing harmony to Andrew and that definitely brings me just as much, if not more, fulfillment than singing lead on a song.

Endless Highway (Pt. 1)” and “Sway / Endless Highway (Pt. 2)” leave a much heavier state of reflection than that of “Patterns,” the song you chose as the album’s finale. Were the lighter tone of the music and the lyrics a driving factor for why these last three songs are in this order? Did you want to avoid an ending that leaves the listener with a more uncertain emotional state?

AM: I’ll start off by saying Ryan Gustafson, who produced this record with us, actually ended up coming up with this track order. Having not listened to it that way and then taking Ryan’s perspective on it, it was like being able to listen to these songs in their entirety for the first time. All of a sudden, I was getting feelings from these recordings that I hadn’t gotten yet.

“Endless Highway (Pt. 1)” is a heavier song and talks about a really traumatic event that Emily and I went through and that long drone at the end of it kind of dances around the dread of that. Then into “Sway,” it’s more of a coming out of that [feeling]. How do we peek our heads out of the hole once we’ve gone down and slowly crawl back out? To finally get into “Endless Highway (Pt. 2),” where it feels like a real revelation and a real triumphant part of the record? So, you get to the top of the mountain on this song. But I do believe that while those revelations come, we get to the top of those mountains, everything’s clear, and there’s so much lightness and clarity around us, we still have to wake up the next morning, make coffee, make breakfast, get kids to school, go and run errands and carry that little mountain of revelation with us everywhere we go.

I think that the heaviness and the profoundness of that idea ends up giving way to these smaller, mundane parts of our life. That’s what “Patterns” feels like to me. It’s an admission that if we can hold on to those little revelations and the clarity they offered us, hopefully it’ll keep us light by offering us that little reminder of hope.

EF: Going back to what Andrew was just saying about having these big events or these heavy, emotional things happen, and then having to go on with our lives, and the push and pull of that – there’s frustration and beauty in it. I love the order of those [last few] tracks, because I feel both the “Endless Highways” and “Sway” are songs that were written in the middle of this album being written and there’s a lot of anguish from a lot of different sources in those songs. And then “Patterns” was the last song that was written for the album before we recorded it, so it feels like it has a certain clarity to it. Going down in the trench and making your way back up, even though it’s still really just posing a lot of the same questions [as the beginning of the album], but from a more settled state of mind.

What truths about yourselves and how you view the world have you discovered and accepted since finishing Rituals? How many of the questions you’ve posed through these songs do you feel you’ve managed to settle on answers for?

AM: I don’t think I would often look closely enough at how I was making a person feel, as much as I would look at the way the person was. I think that’s becoming more of my truth these days, just to trust that showing up open-minded with awareness and consciousness, focused on experiencing rather than projecting, is probably the closest to any truths that have come out of writing these songs and getting to the end of this record. The takeaway is that it’s not like we found answers, necessarily.

EF: It’s all just a pursuit, always.

AM: You know, it’s not always about finding answers. It’s about finding out–

AM/EF: It’s figuring out what the question is.


Photo Credit: Jillian Clark

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You Gotta Hear This: New Music From Jaelee Roberts, Moira Smiley and More

Ready for some new songs of the summer? Don’t miss these new tracks from exceptional bluegrass talents Jaelee Roberts and The Kody Norris Show, New England-based songwriters Moira Smiley and Naomi Westwater, rising country duo the Kentucky Gentlemen, and fellow Kentuckian Jeremy Short with special guest Tommy Prine. It’s all below in our latest edition of You Gotta Hear This!

Jaelee Roberts, “Love Gone Missing”

Artist: Jaelee Roberts
Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee
Song: “Love Gone Missing”
Release Date: June 6, 2025

In Their Words: “I co-wrote ‘Love Gone Missing’ with my friend Theo MacMillan (we wrote ‘Something You Didn’t Count On’ and ‘November’ on my debut album). We were swapping around ideas during a writing session and ‘Love Gone Missing’ is the result of that and I really love it! The entire song is written from the perspective of the girl but that isn’t revealed until the last verse which gives the story a different twist. This song has hopeful lyrics about losing the person you love but knowing there’s a chance to get them back. ‘Love Gone Missing’ came together so beautifully in the studio with Cody Kilby on guitar, Andy Leftwich on mandolin, mandola, and fiddle, Ron Block on banjo, and Byron House on bass (and producing), along with Grayson Lane singing harmony. I really hope that y’all enjoy this song and the story it tells!” — Jaelee Roberts

Track Credits:
Jaelee Roberts – Vocals
Cody Kilby – Guitar
Andy Leftwich – Mandolin, mandola, and fiddle
Ron Block – Banjo
Byron House – Bass
Grayson Lane – Harmony vocal


Moira Smiley, “We Are Timeless”

Artist: Moira Smiley
Hometown: Bristol, Vermont
Song: “We Are Timeless” (featuring Shruti Ramani)
Release Date: June 6, 2025
Label: Whim Records

In Their Words: “By February, it was clear to me, living as I am in rural America, that a Pride anthem was going to be an important part of what I would sing this year, 2025. It was life-affirming to film the video with Fiona Small and finish the track in our tiny town with dancers & friends showing up in their fiercest finery and joy against the worry and cold. My friend Shruti and her fiancée Kia wrote the second verse after I shared with them my own story in verse one. We shared our personal journeys knowing that so many humans have harrowing journeys discovering our sexuality and the rules of gender as we become our most grounded and expressive selves. Queerness has shown us ALL – across the eons – that it is sacred to investigate how we express our love most fully and authentically.” — Moira Smiley

“During our first live filming session with Kai and Moira, I was reminded of Brandi Carlile’s stunning music video for ‘The Joke,’ where very real, sensitive humans lip-sync the words of the song so that we understand that this is their song too. GRATEFUL to the movers, musicians, and creators who showed up with open hearts, curious minds, and fierce authentic presence.” — Fiona Small, filmmaker

“Writing these words with Moira felt like opening a channel to something bigger than both of us — a collective memory, a song that reaches back and stretches forward.” — Shruti Ramani

Track Credits:
Written & Arranged by Moira Smiley.
Sung by Moira Smiley & Shruti Ramani.
Lyrics by Moira, Shruti and Kiarah O’Kane.
Kai Fukuda, piano; Seamus Egan & Moira Smiley, percussion & bass. Kristina Stykos & Moira Smiley, edit/mix/master

Video Credits:
Vermont Dancers (in order of appearance): Moira Smiley, Kai Fukuda, Leonore Tjia, Jacqueleen Bordjadze, Laurel Jenkins, Sonnie May Jenkins-Kent, Sophia Calvi, Leila Hon, Marek Zajac, Jenesis Artis, Fiona Small.
Co-directed by Moira Smiley & Fiona Small


Naomi Westwater, “The Empress”

Artist: Naomi Westwater
Hometown: Mashpee, Massachusetts
Song: “The Empress”
Album: Cycle & Change
Release Date: May 9, 2025

In Their Words: “As a New Englander, I’ve found that around the end of the summer, people get anxious about the days getting shorter and the cold coming in. This song is an acceptance that all seasons are sacred and so we shouldn’t fear them. It’s also a declaration of my own sacredness. Written in a field of goldenrod and inspired by The Empress tarot card, this song welcomes in the acceptance, the trust, and abundance the previous song lacked.” – Naomi Westwater

Track Credits:
Ben Burns – Drums
Cooper Evello – Percussion
Don Mitchell – Producer
Talia Rose – Seagull M4
Chris Sartori – Electric bass, upright bass
Naomi Westwater – Songwriter, producer, vocals
Dan Cardinal at Dimension Sound in Boston, MA – Mastering engineer
Andrew Oedel at Ghost Hit Recording, West Springfield, MA – Recording engineer
Philip Weinrobe at Sugar Mountain, Brooklyn, NY – Mixing engineer
Video Credits: Shot by Naomi Westwater with help from Dan Blahnik. Video edited by HipStory.


The Kody Norris Show, “Wild Mountain Rose”

Artist: The Kody Norris Show
Hometown: Mountain City, Tennessee
Song: “Wild Mountain Rose”
Album: Highfalutin Hillbilly
Release Date: June 6, 2025
Label: Rebel Records

In Their Words: “‘Wild Mountain Rose’ came to me from a great friend and fellow songwriter, Conrad Fisher. In my opinion, this song embodies the true simple essence of bluegrass music! We’ve held on to this song for a couple years now, waiting for the right time and right album. I think it fits well on Highfalutin Hillbilly and feel that this song will be around for a long time to come!” — Kody Norris

Track Credits:
Kody Norris – Guitar & Lead Vocals
Mary Rachel Nalley-Norris – Fiddle, Mandolin & Harmony Vocals
Josiah Tyree – Banjo & Harmony Vocals
Charlie Lowman – Bass
Jason Barie – Twin Fiddles


The Kentucky Gentlemen, “To Kill Me”

Artist: The Kentucky Gentlemen
Hometown: Versailles, Kentucky
Song: “To Kill Me”
Album: Rhinestone Revolution
Release Date: June 6 , 2025
Label: River House Artists

In Their Words: “This song ‘To Kill Me’ is for the fighters, the ones who’ve been dragged through hell and still come out swinging with a smile. This is about freedom from fear, from limits, from anything that tries to bury you before your time. It’s proof that we’re still standing.” – The Kentucky Gentlemen


Jeremy Short, “Let It Shine” feat. Tommy Prine

Artist: Jeremy Short
Hometown: Eastern Kentucky
Song: “Let It Shine” feat. Tommy Prine

In Their Words: “A lot of people will come and go in your life, no matter how hard you try to hold onto them. And sometimes focusing on holding on so tightly gets in the way of appreciating moments while they’re happening.

“On the road we meet a lot of really cool people, a lot of really cool, super talented artists, club owners, you name it. But then in a matter of hours you pack up, load out and head on to the next city. You always hope you’ll make it back there sooner than later, that those people will also remember those interactions, that the connections will last and they will want to come back and hang again or play another show together, that’s one of the best parts of getting out there and seeing the world. But because of the briefness of your time together, it’s also easy to get lost in thoughts of ‘Does this really matter?’, ‘Will they even remember me?’, ‘Am I just spinning my wheels?’, so when I wrote this song, I think I was really just trying to find that balance.

“Tommy is a top notch songwriter, man. I still really want to get in there and write one from scratch with him instead of him coming in as a feature on mine. Being the son of one of the greatest songwriters in the world, I’m sure it didn’t hurt – but man, he’s carving his own path, his own way, with his own style and it’s great music. I’ve been spinning his songs since way before I met him, and I’m super grateful to have had the opportunity to work with him and get to know him a little bit.” — Jeremy Short

Track credits:
Jeremy Short – Vocals, Guitar
Tommy Prine – Vocals
Katie Barker – Vocals, Bass
Ron Rite – Vocals, Guitar
Shane Diesel – Vocals, Drums
Johnathan Smith – Keys

Written by Jeremy Short
Recorded at The Pine Box (Nashville, TN)
Produced, Recorded & Mixed by Justin Francis
Mastered by Raelynn Janicke @ Infrasonic Sound Recording INC


Photo Credit: Jaelee Roberts by Eric Ahlgrim; Moira Smiley by Fiona Small

The SteelDrivers Celebrate 20 Years, Usher in New Chapter With ‘Outrun’

With four lead vocalists, seven studio albums, one GRAMMY Award to their name, and countless fans won over, The SteelDrivers have been one of this century’s most consistent and trailblazing bluegrass bands. That longevity can be credited to three things – the strength of their catalog of all-original songs, their collective precision picking, and the family atmosphere the band has cultivated together since forming in 2005.

Despite not joining forces until then, banjoist Richard Bailey says he’s known bandmates Tammy Rogers (fiddle) and Brent Truitt (mandolin from 2012 to present) since they were teenagers. His first run in with Mike Fleming (bass) and Mike Henderson (mandolin 2007 to 2011) came not long after during a college ski trip, with the group remaining close ever since. In the early 2000s Bailey relocated to Nashville from Memphis and reconnected with Henderson, regularly joining him at the Station Inn during Sunday night bluegrass jams and setting the foundation for what would eventually become The SteelDrivers. Then one day Henderson rang him up and was glowing about a young kid he’d just started writing with named Chris Stapleton who was wanting to play a little bluegrass.

“We eventually got together at his house and nobody knew Chris except for Henderson,” Bailey tells BGS. “We rehearsed a few bluegrass standards and then Chris began singing and Tammy, Mike, and I all looked at each other and went, ‘damn!’ I remember asking if the song he sang was an old Stanley Brothers tune and he said that it was actually one that he wrote.”

By that point, Henderson and Stapleton had already been penning songs together for a few years, with one of their most notable co-writes to that point being “Higher Than The Wall” from Patty Loveless on 2003’s On Your Way Home – a full seven years before The SteelDrivers eventually cut it on 2010’s Reckless. With their songwriting prowess already well established, the band opted to lean all the way in, keeping to the pattern of only recording songs crafted by them. Early on that mostly consisted of songs from Stapleton and Henderson, but has extended to all of the band in the years that followed, with Rogers writing the entirety of 2020’s Bad For You and the band’s newest member, Matt Dame, contributing songs for the first time ever on the group’s latest effort, Outrun.

“Starting with our very first record we determined that we were only going to play original music and we’ve never wavered from that,” explains Rogers. “It’s always been when you come to see The SteelDrivers that you’re not going to hear an updated version of ‘Little Cabin Home On The Hill’ or a modern country song done bluegrass style. There’s nothing wrong with any of that, but the whole point of the band originally was two songwriters coming together – Chris Stapleton and Mike Henderson – and everything else grew around that.”

That persistence of sticking with original material doesn’t only extend to The SteelDrivers recorded catalog, though. As Rogers points out, you’ll also be hard-pressed to hear any covers during the band’s live show. Per Bailey, the only such instance came during their televised Grand Ole Opry debut in 2008 when Charlie Daniels joined them on stage for a sing along to Flatt & Scruggs’ “I’m Gonna Sleep With One Eye Open.”

However, the band has regularly employed and worked with writers outside the group to craft songs centered around what Fleming describes as “uneasy listening music where bad things happen to good people.” This includes the likes of the venerable Verlon Thompson (“Booze And Cigarettes”), George Strait, Martina McBride, and Pam Tillis collaborator Leslie Satcher (“Outrun,” “Bad For You”); and German-born Thomm Jutz (“I Choose You,” “Cut You Down”), with whom Rogers has written over 140 songs (and counting).

“We’re fortunate to have always had wonderful songwriters in the band no matter who the membership was,” clarifies Fleming. “As it’s morphed through different CDs and personnel the strength of the songwriting has never wavered. Our goal has always been to serve the song, no matter who is singing it.”

Regardless of who’s been writing – or singing the songs for that matter – the band’s impeccable storytelling and bluesy grit has never faltered, even when lineup changes shook the band to its core. The first of those came in 2010 when Stapleton left to begin pursuing his solo career – a move that has resulted in him becoming not just one of the most well known country singers, but one of the most renowned vocalists of any genre globally. Henderson followed a year later, with Gary Nichols and Truitt stepping in to fill each of their shoes, respectively.

“I would’ve loved it had Stapleton never left the band – I mean who doesn’t want to be in a band with Chris Stapleton?” Rogers continues, “But when he left we had to make the decision of do we keep going or do we stop, because it wasn’t going to continue the same way that it had before. It wasn’t even a choice to me, though – I wanted to keep playing. To me that was better than no SteelDrivers at all.”

With two of their founding members gone, the band set out to prove they could still create bluegrass bangers and it didn’t take long for their efforts to pay off. Five years into their new look lineup The SteelDrivers won their first GRAMMY Award, taking home the honor for Best Bluegrass Album with The Muscle Shoals Recordings at the Academy’s 58th annual gathering in 2015. According to Rogers, the GRAMMY completely changed the band’s trajectory and continues to have a positive impact over a decade later.

“There’s been a lot of discussion in recent years about the validity of the GRAMMYs, but for us the recognition from the Academy has been a game changer,” states Rogers. “There’s a huge difference between being GRAMMY-nominated and a GRAMMY winner. For us, we were suddenly validated and were able to play bigger shows and venues that wouldn’t have considered or booked us prior to winning.”

In addition to validating their decision to keep pushing on, the band’s success post-Stapleton has also proven that they excel at finding new vocalists with their own distinct styles and vibrant storytelling to fill the void. First it was the funky, bluesy, and soulful sensibilities of Nichols. After him came the rock ‘n’ roll energy and piercing holler of Kelvin Damrell – who Rogers described as “the highest pitched singer of anyone we’ve had in the band.” He’s the only Kentuckian other than Stapleton to ever be in the band and sang lead for over three years – including on 2020’s Bad For You – prior to stepping aside in the summer of 2021.

It was then that the band recruited Matt Dame, solidifying the lineup they still have today. While each of the four singers have their own sounds, Rogers says there’s also plenty of characteristics that tie each of their eras together. “We figured out early on that it’s not about finding someone who sounds like Chris, but finding someone with a soulful, gravely, raspy and bluesy quality and letting them put their own spin on things,” says Rogers. “Aside from looking for those attributes we’ve never asked anyone to sing a certain way. Even though they sound similar, within two seconds of listening to a song I can tell whether it’s Kelvin, Chris, Gary, or Matt singing. They’re all distinct in my mind.”

Arguably even more impressive than the band’s success and consistency in sound through its different chapters has been their knack for continuing to make cutting edge bluegrass music with singers not steeped in bluegrass history with voices that generally “don’t fit” the traditional blueprint. From Stapleton on, the band has gravitated toward gritty blues and southern rock more than anything else. They’re comfortable at the confluence of electric and acoustic sounds, with one foot firmly planted in the past and the other stirring up dust and turning heads as it propels string band music into a completely new dimension.

“Chris Stapleton was not a bluegrass singer,” insists Fleming. “He was more of a blues singer, but the arrangements were always with bluegrass instruments. As a result, our propensity was to go toward playing bluegrass, but we never shied away from a song we thought we might not be able to play. For instance, ‘Midnight Train To Memphis’ from our first album was a bluesy rock ‘n’ roll number that Richard Bailey messed around on with on banjo one day. We have these bluegrass instruments, but we’re not confined to exclusively playing that way as long as we’re serving the song.”

Much like they’ve always served the song, The SteelDrivers’ fans have served them well in return, sticking by their side and continuing to buy tickets and albums through the years as the group has weathered changes in their lineup and sound. It’s led to an unprecedented run of success that Rogers jokingly compared to another bluegrass great.

“It’s almost the Ralph Stanley model,” she jokes. “After Carter [Stanley] passed away he had Larry Sparks, Roy Lee Centers, and Keith Whitley join him. It was a great line of singers that followed, all of whom embodied that Carter Stanley sound. We’ve also had several incredible vocalists with their own styles come through the band that we’ve been able to have success with by honing in on a singular sound together.”

The latest person the band brought in to hone in on that sound, Matt Dame, is a longtime Nashville songwriter and session player who joined in 2021 after a referral by friend and esteemed writer Gary Baker (John Michael Montgomery, Alabama, Lonestar). A couple rehearsals followed and by the end of July he was out on the road playing his first shows with the group. Having worked behind the scenes in the music industry for nearly as long as The SteelDrivers had been around, the move to performing in front of large crowds night in and night out was a big adjustment for Dame, but one he quickly found himself falling in love with.

“You do anything for 15 or 20 years and it becomes your comfort zone,” admits Dame. “I really enjoyed the session world, but it’s a lot different. Now I get a realtime reaction to what I do – there’s no stopping to go live again because you were flat. What I’ve loved most from our shows is the crowd singing the songs back to us, which can really carry you along.”

“There’s never a spot where you lose the audience or feel the need to kick into ‘Wagon Wheel’ to get everyone singing again, because the body of original work is so strong. It stands tall on its own,” he continues. “That speaks more to the power of the song than of any one vocalist, which says a lot because the band has had some incredible singers through the years. I’m just hanging on and trying to put my own spin on things.

“We’re all different, but one way we’re all the same is we all can deliver the songs in our own way that’s very believable. It sounds like somebody’s really living what they’re singing, not just going through the motions.” Even having been on the outside looking in for so long, Dame says that it’s hard to ignore the formidable nature of The SteelDrivers’ songwriting catalog, one that he’s thrilled to finally be a part of on Outrun – the band’s first project on the famed Sun Records (and also the label’s first bluegrass album). The record is his second with the band following 2023’s gospel project, Tougher Than Nails, that saw him only singing and playing guitar. Now, on his second go-round, he integrates himself even further, helping to write the songs “On My Way,” “Emma Lee,” and “Rosanna.”

“It was a really cool feather in my hat to be able to write some songs for this album and getting to do it on Sun Records is like the icing on the cake,” he exclaims. “I’m a huge Elvis fan and growing up in Arkansas listened to Johnny Cash all the time, so my eyes lit up when I heard we’d be their first bluegrass album ever.”

In addition to featuring the co-writes from Dame, Outrun also sees the band paying tribute to Henderson, who died unexpectedly from a pulmonary embolism in September 2023 – mere weeks after the release of Tougher Than Nails – with cuts of his songs “Prisoner’s Tears” and “Painted And Poison.” Although he hadn’t played with The SteelDrivers since 2011, his loss shook the band, which Rogers calls him the architect of, along with the entire bluegrass and country worlds.

“We knew we wanted to honor him in some way, which is what kickstarted talks for this new record and led to our shortest cycle between records yet,” confides Rogers. “In addition to recording two of his songs on it we’re also planning to have a slideshow commemorating him and 20 years of the band on some of our tour dates later this year.”

It’s tough enough to survive as a band for two decades when everything is going right, so it speaks volumes for The SteelDrivers making it as long as they have with all the obstacles that have gotten in their way. At the same time, the group’s unrivaled level of talent – both on their respective instruments and with their insatiable songwriting – have more than cemented their place in the bluegrass and American roots music zeitgeist for generations to come. For Dame, it’s a legacy that’s equally intimidating and exciting to be a part of.

“Professionally I’ve grown, because I’m doing something that’s new to me, but also because I’m doing it surrounded by a band where everybody does their parts with excellence,” he reflects. “If you don’t carry your weight it’s really going to be noticeable, which has pushed me to be better with everything that I bring to the group.”


Photo Credit: Glenn Rose

You Gotta Hear This: New Music From Jade Jackson, Wyatt Ellis, and More

Bidding farewell to May already? It seems impossible, but somehow we’ve quickly reached our final collection of premieres and new music for the month. You Gotta Hear This!

We’ve got bluegrass to get you moving this week, with North Carolina’s Balsam Range kicking us off with a dark and gritty story song of a shipwreck and the sea, “The Pacific,” their latest single dropping today. Then, prodigious young mandolinist Wyatt Ellis takes us from ocean to land with a classic, “Choo Choo Coming.” We’re sharing the brand new video for Ellis’ hit track.

There’s plenty more bluegrass to be enjoyed, too. Caroline Owens has just dropped a new music video for her March-released single, “You’ve Still Got It,” a song about the tight hold love can have on one’s heart and soul that highlights Owens’ bright, sparkling vocals. Plus, Kansas-based group MoonShroom take us into raucous, lovable jamgrass territory with “Somewhere On A Mountain” set to a fun and trippy lyric video. Exile – whether externally or self-imposed – sure can be enjoyable with the right soundtrack and a gorgeous view.

Don’t miss Maygen & the Birdwatcher included below, as well. Their brand new single, “Feel Good,” was released yesterday and will remind you of well executed country-string band-grass from artists like the Chicks, Darrell Scott, or Hailey Whitters. You’ll be feelin’ good, for sure.

For an alt-folk, indie-Americana counterpoint, singer-songwriter Jade Jackson shares “Pretending” in recognition of the conclusion of Mental Health Awareness Month. Brooding, vibey, and ravishing, Jackson’s beautiful voice cuts through the dark and stirring bed of sounds and synths before being joined by a broad, pocketed country-tinged back beat.

We hope you enjoy this week’s assemblage of excellent new music. You Gotta Hear This:

Balsam Range, “The Pacific”

Artist: Balsam Range
Hometown: Haywood County, North Carolina
Song: “The Pacific”
Release Date: May 30, 2025

In Their Words: “This song has everything I like. A great story, great melody and chord progressions, and a great delivery by Caleb and Don. Just a great song. It’s kind of a bluegrass version of ‘The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.’ This was a song that just seemed to musically fit everybody in the band all at once. Caleb especially has a real gift for a delivery on a song like this. The depth of story was really appealing, too – you could almost make a movie out of it.” – Tim Surrett

Track Credits:
Caleb Smith – Acoustic guitar, lead vocal
Tim Surrett – Bass, harmony vocal
Marc Pruett – Banjo
Don Rigsby – Fiddle, harmony vocal
Alan Bibey – Mandolin


Wyatt Ellis, “Choo Choo Coming”

Artist: Wyatt Ellis
Hometown: Maryville, Tennessee
Song: “Choo Choo Coming”
Release Date: May 16, 2025
Label: Knee High Records

In Their Words: “‘Choo Choo Coming’ was one of the first songs my band and I started playing together and it’s always had a certain kind of electricity to it – it just moves. We’ve played it live so many times, including during our first Grand Ole Opry band performance, and it never fails to light up the stage. It’s one of those songs Keith Whitley and Ralph Stanley used to tear into and I’ve always loved how raw and driving their versions was. That sound – gritty, tight, and right in the pocket – is what we’ve worked hard to capture as a band. When we sing together, I like to think we land somewhere between a freight train and a church choir barreling through the mountains. This single really shows who we are: young, rooted in tradition, but not afraid to push the tempo and let it roar. I’m proud of how far we’ve come and excited for folks to finally hear my band’s first recording. It’s the sound of where we started – and where we’re headed.” – Wyatt Ellis

Video Credits: Directed, filmed, and edited by Joseph Cash.
Styled by Bonny Mary Green.
Shot at the Tennessee Valley Railway, Hiwassee, Tennessee.


Jade Jackson, “Pretending”

Artist: Jade Jackson
Hometown: Santa Margarita, California
Song: “Pretending”
Release Date: May 30, 2025
Label: Jackson Star Records (Independent)

In Their Words: “‘Pretending’ was written during a season when I was going through the motions, but felt completely lost inside. It was meant for a record that never came out and, for a long time, I thought it might never be heard. I’m sharing it now, for Mental Health Awareness Month, in hopes it reaches someone who needs to feel less alone in what they’re carrying. Releasing it now feels like closing a chapter, so I can fully step into the new music I’ve been creating.” – Jade Jackson


Maygen & the Birdwatcher, “Feel Good”

Artist: Maygen & The Birdwatcher
Hometown: Minneapolis, Minnesota
Song: “Feel Good”
Release Date: May 29, 2025
Label: Yellow House Music Collective/Missing Piece Records

In Their Words: “Although we’re just now coming out with the studio recording of the song, ‘Feel Good’ is one that we’ve played live for a while now. It’s definitely one of my very favorite parts of our set, because it gets me right into the moment on the stage where it always ‘feels good’ to be.” – Maygen Lacey, vocals, acoustic guitar

“I’m really satisfied with how both Jesse’s mandolin and my banjo part line up/dance around Maygen’s vocal delivery throughout the song, especially on the line ‘mama’s cookin’ in the kitchen.’ Also props to Noah for the tasteful major 2 chord in the chorus. Chef’s kiss.” – Nik Pellinen, banjo

“I’d agree with what Nik said on ‘Feel Good.’ It’s really impressive how each instrument has a unique part yet still all feel like they’re pulling in the same direction! Also love that we got to include a little of our drummer Peter’s infectious laugh in the intro.” – Noah Neumann, acoustic guitar, background vocals

“To me, the song ‘Feel Good’ represents a lot in a Maygen & The Birdwatcher set, because it truly highlights the optimistic and empowering nature of the band in one single moment. It was an honor to be a part of capturing that feeling for the studio recording with such a stellar cast and crew.” – Joe Barron, bass

“I love the bluegrass feel in the chorus. I grew up listening to and playing bluegrass, so this makes the music along with the lyrics feel like home for me.” – Jesse Moravec, mandolin


MoonShroom, “Somewhere On A Mountain”

Artist: MoonShroom
Hometown: Kansas City, Kansas
Song: “Somewhere On a Mountain”
Album: Take a Trip
Release Date: May 30, 2025 (single); June 27, 2025 (album)

In Their Words: “No matter what walk of life you are in, everybody is on a journey of their own. The path to success is not always linear and, for most people, the road to where you want to be is riddled with hurdles, adversity, and setbacks. Sometimes you pour your heart and your soul into something, only to watch it crumble in an instant.

“I wrote ‘Somewhere On A Mountain’ amidst a past musical project of mine falling apart during the COVID pandemic. We had hit the road hard for five years building, only for it to end abruptly due to several factors out of our control. I felt like I had been climbing for years trying to reach an unknown peak, only to have the whole mountain give out from under me. Although it was unfortunate that the project had to come to an end, I realized that it was just a stepping stone leading to where I was headed. I learned a lot touring with my past band, but it was a lesson that sometimes your expectations are subverted and you have to rebuild.

“Ultimately, the universe had a weird way of shaking up my life in order to make way for the new. Now, I couldn’t be happier with the music we are creating with MoonShroom, and the progress we are making. I’m still somewhere on a mountain, just in it for the view.” – Jake Keegan

Track Credits:
Jake Keegan – Vocals, Dobro, songwriting
Lily B Moonflower – Harmony vocals, acoustic guitar
Colby Allen Walter – Harmony vocals, mandolin
Zach Bozeman – Upright bass
Staś Heaney – Fiddle
Nate Deel – Drums


Caroline Owens, “You’ve Still Got It”

Artist: Caroline Owens
Hometown: Denton, North Carolina
Song: “You’ve Still Got It”
Release Date: March 7, 2025
Label: Billy Blue Records

In Their Words: “‘You’ve Still Got It!’ This song, this video, this moment – what a true labor of love.

“I’m completely overjoyed and filled with gratitude for the support this song has received from the bluegrass community, and I’m so incredibly thankful for the help from our team at Billy Blue Records.

“From sunrise to sunset, every single detail of this video just fell right into place, and we can’t wait to share it with the world.” – Caroline Owens


Photo Credit: Jade Jackson by Lauren Farrah; Wyatt Ellis by Joseph Cash.

BGS 5+5: Adam Chaffins

Artist: Adam Chaffins
Hometown: Louisa, Kentucky
Latest Album: Trailer Trash EP (released May 16, 2025)
Personal Nicknames: “Chaffins”

Genre is dead (long live genre!), but how would you describe the genres and styles your music inhabits?

I’ve considered myself a multi-genre artist from the beginning. While I feel confident identifying as a country artist, that label doesn’t capture the full range of my influences. Growing up, I listened to country alongside Top 40 hits and classic rock – those styles shaped my ear just as much. In high school, I discovered bluegrass and jazz, and during college I really dove deep into those genres and honed my craft within them.

All of those influences have filtered into my writing today and I think that’s especially clear on this new EP. Music, like culture, is becoming increasingly interconnected and multi-dimensional. It’s exciting to see more country artists exploring new spaces and I want to make music that is part of that evolution.

Which artist has influenced you the most – and how?

Speaking of multi-genre artists, Willie Nelson is a great place to start. He’s part of the foundation of country songwriting – hell, songwriting in general. His music draws from so many different influences and we wouldn’t have the classic Willie Nelson records without that breadth.

It’s tough to single out just one artist as my biggest influence, but more often than not, when I’m writing a line or delivering a phrase, I catch myself asking, “What would Willie do?” His sound has never felt forced or put on – it’s authentic because he’s lived every word of it. Beyond the music, his lessons in patience and positivity have been a huge influence on me and have played a big part in keeping me grounded and continuing to make music.

Which elements of nature do you spend the most time with and how do those impact your work?

I love the outdoors – it’s essential for my creativity. Whether I’m kayaking on the lake, hiking with my dog, or cycling down country backroads, being outside helps me reset. When I’m feeling bogged down by the ‘business’ side of music, stuck on a lyric, or just need a break from a piece I’m learning, nature gives me the space to clear my mind. It’s like a creative reset button – being in the elements helps me return with energy and perspective.

What was the first moment that you knew you wanted to be a musician?

Some of my earliest memories are of wanting to be a musician – or at least be around musicians. I had toy guitars and drum sets and would just bang away, trying to get the sounds in my head out long before I had any idea what I was doing.

One moment that really stands out happened before I could even read or write. A local DJ I was obsessed with was doing a promo at a car lot and my mom took me to meet him. I thought he was the gatekeeper to all of music. I remember scribbling on sticky notes – what I explained were the instruments and band members I wanted for my future group. He smiled, folded the notes, and tucked them into his shirt pocket with a wink, just before going back on the air.

Looking back, that moment felt like an early manifestation. Even then, I knew music was where I wanted to be – I just didn’t have the words for it yet.

If you didn’t work in music, what would you do instead?

I love to cook. When the world shut down during COVID and there were no shows to play, I got a big offset smoker trailer and started smoking whole chickens outside a locally owned grocery store. Honestly, I probably earned fans faster with barbecue than I ever have with music…

That said – it’s tough work. Tending fires inside a steel pit during a Tennessee summer isn’t for the faint of heart. But then again, neither is rolling around the country in a van playing songs for strangers. I guess one just happened to be the dream I had first. I still cook and smoke meat whenever I can and, if I weren’t making music, I could absolutely see myself doing that full-time.


Photo Credit: Natia Cinco

This Faux Paws Playlist Includes ‘No Bad Ideas’

Growing up with access to all of recorded music, it’s hard to imagine not enjoying a wide range of styles. When we all met around fifteen years ago, it was fun to see where our backgrounds overlapped and where they didn’t. Eventually, after lots of road testing, we ended up with some kind of sound to our band that is pretty unique. Our new album, No Bad Ideas, is an expression of that. It’s all over the place, but somehow not.

For this Mixtape, we set out to include music that’s influenced us as a band, inspired our playing and songwriting, or otherwise shaped us as people. Some of these are tunes that have been with us a long time, some of them we just listened to in the van while we’ve been on tour. It’s all over the place, but there’s a through line as well. No Bad Ideas in a playlist! – The Faux Paws

“TSA” – Danny Barnes

Just banjo, drums, and voice. It’s weird, sparse, beautiful, and one of those songs I’ve been coming back to for years. – Andrew VanNorstrand

“Rockingham” – The Faux Paws

This song is all about the excitement and uncertainty of moving to a new place and finding community, even if you aren’t necessarily ready for it. – AV

“Backstep Cindy” – The Freight Hoppers

July 1998. I am ten years old. I wander into the dance tent at the Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival and my tiny little mind is blown into a thousand pieces as I experience the absolutely insane energy of The Freight Hoppers. I’ve been chasing that feeling ever since. This. Tune. F-ing. Rocks. – AV

“Odds of Getting Even” – Maya de Vitry

I can’t get enough of this album. Maya sounds great. Her band sounds great. The material is great. This song has a subtle message of patience and perspective that really speaks to me. Play it again. – AV

“He’s Gone” – Caleb Klauder & Reeb Willms

Caleb and Reeb played for my wedding! They are true cornerstones of the amazing Pacific Northwest Americana scene and are launching a new festival this week, Orcasfest. Caleb wrote this song about his childhood dentist, who was also his best friend’s dad/second dad. – Chris Miller

“Jesus Was a Cross Maker” – Judee Sill

I am always telling people about this singular artist and I feel like her music is still pretty underground in my circles! She had a wild childhood and was caught up in the Laurel Canyon California music scene, experimenting with psychedelics and reflecting on her Christianity. The result is music that doesn’t sound like anything else I’ve ever heard. – CM

“For Me It’s You” – Jobi Riccio

I heard Jobi play this song in a hotel room in Kansas City during Folk Alliance and it broke me. Like, truly deeply broke me the way only a great song can. Everyone has a dream they know probably won’t come true. I needed this song. Maybe you do, too. – AV

“15 Below” – The Faux Paws

Every time we play this, Noah makes my jaw drop – and we captured some of that on the record. This tune came to life when we were quarantined in Newport, Rhode Island, January 2022. We went to try and find a bird on the beach and it was insanely cold. – CM

“Artificial Intelligence” – Jim Lauderdale

Most of the time we spend in the van is actually listening to terrifying podcasts about the seemingly inevitable AI future. I grew up seeing Jim Lauderdale play and I appreciate how he can remain frozen in a time of “real country” while still plundering the depths of current philosophical issues. – CM

“the 1” – Taylor Swift

Noah really, really, really likes Taylor Swift. And he picked this song. And that’s all. Hope you like it. Noah really likes it. A lot. Contact Noah directly for more details on how much he likes Taylor Swift. – AV

“Straight Back” – Taylor Ashton

I love the way this song slips and slides. Smooth groove, clever lyrics, ooo-eee-ooo-eeyoo hook in the chorus.  It’s impossible to pin down. And why would you want to pin it down anyway? Just let it do its thing. Don’t worry about it. – AV

“You Are Also Them” – Jenny Ritter

I came across Jenny Ritter randomly around fifteen years ago and have been obsessed with her music ever since. We actually recorded our Backburner EP with the same engineer (Adam Iredale) on tiny Mayne Island, British Columbia. This track coincidentally has Zoe Guigueno on bass! – CM

“Unknowing” – Busman’s Holiday

I don’t have a long history with this song, but we were recently on tour in Nashville and Zoe played it for us. I just can’t shake it. You ever get the sense that a song is perceiving you just as much or more so than you are able to perceive it? I hope this song likes me. – AV

“I Didn’t Realize” – Buddy Spicher & Vassar Clements

The first music I learned to play was a mix of classic country, western swing, and contest-style fiddling from Ontario. I fell in love with twin fiddle harmonies and a tight rhythm section. Listening to these two fiddle legends riffing off of each other is such a joy. – AV

“I Just Wanna Listen to the Band Play” – Freddy & Francine

These guys (Bianca and Lee) are some of my idols, both in the way they make music and live with intention. As it seems we can’t beat the robots in the great war coming, I think the only hope for music and art is if we decide to be a little more intentional about … everything. This song is from 2020, but more relevant than ever! – CM


Photo Credit: Dylan Ladds

You Gotta Hear This: New Music From Brothers Comatose, Caitlin Canty, and More

Your weekly dose of brand new roots music is here – You Gotta Hear This!

Our West Coast friends, The Brothers Comatose, kick us off this week with their new single, “Golden Grass.” The title track for their upcoming album, it’s a loping bluegrass number that pays tribute to the special regional string band styles and genre-bending of their home state, California. From the opposite side of the country, Caitlin Canty brings us “Hotter Than Hell,” a nostalgic song about nighttime summer drives, first loves, and first jobs that features fellow Vermonter Matt Lorenz on backing vocals.

We have a couple great new music videos, too, this week. Singer-songwriter Kai Crowe-Getty shares a live performance video of “Dancing on a Razor’s Edge,” a heartfelt original song about grief, loss, that takes inspiration from – as Joni Mitchell would put it – “you don’t know what you got ’til it’s gone.” Meanwhile, Hillary Reynolds also comes to us from an Americana space with her new track, “Can’t Turn Off My Mind,” a song about insomnia with an accompanying video that demonstrates how, to Reynolds, sleeplessness can become a familiar friend.

Keep scrolling though, because Nashville-based honky-tonker and picker-singer-songwriter Mose Wilson gives an unexpected flair to traditional country with his song, “Since I Lost You.” Wilson’s friend and sometimes bandmate, award-winning bassist Vickie Vaughn, returns to You Gotta Hear This once again with her latest Mountain Home Music Co. single, a fiery, soulful, and plaintive rendition of Vince Gill’s classic, “Liza Jane.” And, from just up the road across town in Nashville, string duo and old-time aficionados Golden Shoals turn their skills to “dad rock” for their pro-worker, anti-work-week summer anthem, “Five Day Weekend.” Of course, it’s just perfect for entering a long holiday weekend.

Country, bluegrass, folk, Americana, and blends of all of the above are all right here on BGS. You Gotta Hear This!

The Brothers Comatose, “Golden Grass”

Artist: The Brothers Comatose
Hometown: San Francisco, California
Song: “Golden Grass”
Album: Golden Grass
Release Date: May 21, 2025 (single); September 12, 2025 (album)
Label: Swamp Jam Records.

In Their Words: “We wrote ‘Golden Grass’ about the current wave of string bands coming out of California that are creating a new take on an old style of music. They start with their foundations in traditional bluegrass and incorporate folk, rock, and jam elements to form that Western ‘golden grass’ sound. Lots of great string bands have come out of California, like AJ Lee & Blue Summit, Molly Tuttle, and even going back to Old & In the Way who were trailblazers for this type of sound. It’s about taking the heart and soul of bluegrass and infusing it with everything we love about music today.” – Ben Morrison


Caitlin Canty, “Hotter Than Hell”

Artist: Caitlin Canty
Hometown: Danby, Vermont
Song: “Hotter Than Hell”
Album: Night Owl Envies the Mourning Dove
Release Date: May 22, 2025 (single); October 2, 2025 (album)
Label: Distributed by Tone Tree

In Their Words: “This is the first track I’m sharing from my forthcoming record, Night Owl Envies the Mourning Dove, out October 2. This song grew from the ground in Vermont, where I was born and raised and have recently returned to raise my little kids. On those hot humid nights before we had air conditioning, my folks would pack us all in the truck and we’d drive along mountain roads with the windows down to cool off. ‘Hotter Than Hell’ is a nostalgic summer throwback to first love, first jobs – those ephemeral firsts seared into memory.

“And making this record was my first time partnering with Sam Kassirer, who produced and played keys. I was nearly 8 months pregnant when we cut the record live at his Great North Sound Society in Maine. I just love to hear fellow Vermonter, Matt Lorenz (The Suitcase Junket) singing his blazing backing vocals on this song.” – Caitlin Canty

Track Credits:
Caitlin Canty – Vocals, acoustic guitar, songwriting
Jeremy Moses Curtis – Bass
Rich Hinman – Electric guitar
Sam Kassirer – Piano, organ
Matt Lorenz – Backing vocals
Ray Rizzo – Drums, percussion


Kai Crowe-Getty, “Dancing on a Razor’s Edge”

Artist: Kai Crowe-Getty
Hometown: Nelson County, Virginia
Song: “Dancing on a Razor’s Edge”
Album: The Wreckage
Release Date: May 23, 2025 (single); June 27, 2025 (album)

In Their Words: “In my life, I’m not one who does a lot of looking backwards or dwelling in the past with much intention. This song, like several on the record, does exactly that. The Joni Mitchell refrain of ‘don’t know what you got ’til it’s gone’ was a lost inspiration here. My mother died when I was young and this collection of memories, some with her, some without, is trying to make sense of the present in one of my more personal writes. Like many things we avoid, tuck away, wait to face another day, it tends to come out in unexpected floods and fissures as we navigate the grief of it, standing on different shores.” – Kai Crowe-Getty

Video Credits: Filmed by Zach Phillips. Edited by Kai Crowe-Getty.


Golden Shoals, “Five Day Weekend”

Artist: Golden Shoals
Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee; Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Song: “Five Day Weekend”
Album: The Dream and The Hunger
Release Date: May 23, 2025

In Their Words: “We live in a world where we’re pushed to our limits of productivity while being sold tons of garbage that we don’t need. At the same time, we could be harnessing AI to do the work that allows humans more leisure time, but Big Tech seems intent on replacing meaningful human work instead. The song just kind of manifested with a dad rock vibe. It details my dream for a world that I think is possible – where we all spend a significant, but not overwhelming, amount of time doing the hard work that a society needs to thrive and the rest of the time taking care of ourselves making the world a great place to live in.” – Mark Kilianski

Track Credits:
Mark Kilianski – Electric guitar, vocals, songwriting
Amy Alvey – Fiddle, vocals
Chris Sartori – Electric bass
Alex Bice – Drum kit, cowbell


Hillary Reynolds, “Can’t Turn Off My Mind”

Artist: Hillary Reynolds
Hometown: Appleton, Wisconsin (for the summer) and Los Angeles, California (for the winter)
Song: “Can’t Turn Off My Mind”
Album: Changing Seasons
Release Date: May 22, 2025 (single); August 8, 2025 (album)

In Their Words: “‘Can’t Turn Off My Mind’ ended up being the first song I wrote for my album. It came in stages. I wrote the first half by myself and when I felt like it needed fresh energy, I turned to my dear friend and fellow artist, Madison Malone, for a little nudge. Simply put, ‘Can’t Turn Off My Mind’ is a song about insomnia. I love how the narrative has evolved over time. Since finishing this song, Madison and I have become mothers and insomnia has taken on a new meaning, becoming a familiar friend – whether it was breast feeding and watching Schitt’s Creek in the wee hours of the morning or having an endless to-do list running through my brain at 3 a.m., I love that this song is the first single, setting the tone of my forthcoming morning album, Changing Seasons.” – Hillary Reynolds

Track Credits:
Hillary Reynolds – Vocals, piano, songwriting
Madison Malone – Background vocals
Benjamin Kopf – Acoustic guitar, bass, singing bowl
Tom Shewmake – Octave mandolin
Matt Musty – Percussion
Jim Frink – Drums

Video Credit: Directed and filmed by New Normal Studios.


Vickie Vaughn, “Liza Jane”

Artist: Vickie Vaughn
Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee
Song: “Liza Jane”
Release Date: May 23, 2025
Label: Mountain Home Music Company

In Their Words: “I’ve loved Vince Gill’s ‘Liza Jane’ since I heard it on local country radio when I was little. His version is so iconic and playful and the groove is intoxicating. I wanted to take to the song and add some serious drama, giving it a little bit of a darker vibe and instead of just singing about Liza Jane, I wanted to be pleading and angry and desperate about her.” – Vickie Vaughn

Track Credits:
Vickie Vaughn – Upright bass, lead vocal
Cody Kilby – Guitar
Casey Campbell – Mandolin
Wes Corbett – Banjo
Dave Racine – Drums
Deanie Richardson – Fiddle
Lillie Mae Rische – Harmony vocal
Frank Rische – Harmony vocal


Mose Wilson, “Since I Lost You”

Artist: Mose Wilson
Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee
Song: “Since I Lost You”
Album: That’s Love
Release Date: May 28, 2025 (single); July 17, 2025 (album)

In Their Words: “‘Since I Lost You’ is unlike anything I’ve released before. It’s a bridge between worlds – a song that could invite listeners from outside the traditional country audience to experience something new and unexpected. It’s a story of love lost told with a groove that’s both timeless and entirely my own.” – Mose Wilson

Track Credits:
Henry Long – Keyboards
Norbert McGettigan – Bass
John Papageourgiou – Drums
Will Johnson – Electric guitar
Stephen “Tebbs” Kearney – Dobro
Mose Wilson – Vocals, acoustic guitar


Photo Credit: Brothers Comatose by Jessie McCall; Caitlin Canty by Laura Partain.

BGS 5+5: Thompson the Fox

Artist: Thompson the Fox
Hometown:
Tokyo, Japan
Latest Album: The Fox In Tiger’s Clothing, vol.1: FOX

Which artist has influenced you the most – and how?

Takero Sekijima. I first encountered his music about 15 years ago, back when I was playing marimba and aiming to become a classical performer. At the time, I was unsure whether to continue pursuing that path. Until then, I had mostly performed solo, but his music taught me how powerful it can be to create music with others. After discovering his work, I came to believe that simple, warm music has the ability to speak directly to the heart. – Rie Koyama, xylophone

Earl Scruggs. When I started playing banjo at age 11, I was blown away by Foggy Mountain Jamboree by Flatt & Scruggs. I couldn’t read English at the time, but I began studying banjo on my own using Earl’s instruction book that my parents bought for me. He’s the most creative figure in the history of the banjo and he has always been the player I respect the most. – Takumi Kodera, banjo

Dennis Crouch. His bass lines are precise and never excessive, and the tone he creates with gut strings is truly unique. – Akihide Teshima, bass

Paul Motian. As a drummer, his playing opened my eyes to the idea that rhythm can have a three-dimensional structure – almost like cubism in sound. He also composed many brilliant pieces and constantly explored new musical possibilities through innovative work in trios and combos. – Tomohito Yoshijima, drums

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

There was a time when a tune I came up with seemed to call for many different characters or voices and I felt that Thompson the Fox alone didn’t have enough sound to fully express it. That was a real challenge. On our new album, we layered toy piano and percussion to expand the sound. For live shows, we do our best to recreate that lively atmosphere by ourselves. – RK

My goal in composing and arranging is to make the most of each member’s abilities through the ensemble. Writing for a band like ours – with its unusual and unprecedented instrumentation – is always challenging, but deeply rewarding. Since there’s no model to follow, I try to understand each instrument’s unique qualities as well as each member’s playing style. – TK

For me, every tune needs a story – like a short piece of fiction. The hardest part is crafting a story that’s compelling on its own, then figuring out how to express it through music in a way that evokes that narrative. Communicating that idea clearly to the other members is also part of the challenge. – TY

Genre is dead (long live genre!), but how would you describe the genres and styles your music inhabits?

I’ve always approached music freely, without confining myself to specific genres. It’s all about expressing myself authentically. – AT

Rie comes from a background of classical and contemporary music, Tomohito from jazz, and Akihide and I from bluegrass. We’re a band made up of four people with completely different musical backgrounds. We’ve been searching for the common ground between us and expanding on that as we create music. As a result, I believe we naturally developed a unique sound that’s difficult to categorize into any specific genre. – TK

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

Grilled samma (Pacific saury) with Bones Jugs. – RK

On a cold winter day, sipping hot sake and enjoying oden at a cozy izakaya while listening to Amos Milburn. – TK

Yakitori with modern jazz. – AT

Spicy food so hot it makes you sweat, paired with Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew. – TY

What would a perfect day as an artist and creator look like to you?

A day with no urgent deadlines. I’d practice the xylophone, take a nap, go for a run, drink some beer, eat fish, read a sci-fi book in the bath, and go to bed. – RK

A day when I can play the banjo not to prepare for anything, but purely out of interest and curiosity. – TK

A day when I can play without mistakes and enjoy a drink afterward. – AT

A day when I can spend as long as I want trying to beat an insanely difficult video game. – TY


Photo Credit: Koichi Wakui