Tag: blues

The Subtle Danger of Guitarist Sunny War and ‘Armageddon in a Summer Dress’

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

In 2022, punk-blues innovator Sunny War moved into her late father’s house in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and began making repairs. There was no heat that first winter and the house needed a full electrical rewiring. By winter 2023, she had the money to heat the place, but as the temperature rose each night, Sunny felt a strange impulse to patrol the house in the dark, swinging her grandfather’s machete at the ghosts inhabiting the top floor.

At the start of our Zoom call interview in January, Sunny recounts the bizarre magical realism of the weeks she spent living with an undiscovered gas leak. I ask enough follow-up questions to be reassured that my friend is not still being fumigated in her own home before I allow myself to belly laugh. “I have to fix everything,” she sighs.

Sunny goes on to explain that by the time the city discovered and fixed the problem, the mood had already been set for her forthcoming album, Armageddon in a Summer Dress. I would describe the results as psychedelic and subtly dangerous.

My friend Sunny can be a little hard to read, a fact which she mentions at one point during our call. We first met at Americanafest in 2019. It was my second year traveling from New York to Tennessee for the annual roots music conference and festival. That summer I had made up my mind to bring Black artists together during the festival for our own unofficial day party. I booked Dee’s Country Cocktail Lounge, cross-referenced names on the festival poster with Google image searches, and sent out a few invitations. Sunny agreed to perform, as did Tré Burt and Milwaukee folk duo Nickel & Rose (featuring Carl Nichols, the artist soon to become Buffalo Nichols). One after another we played our songs then stepped out onto the Madison, Tennessee, porch, most of us meeting for the first time. It was the greatest number of Black people I had ever been around in a professional space since releasing my debut album in 2017.

It was clear to me even then that Sunny was a star. Carl, Tré, and I were on ascendant career arcs of our own, but Sunny was out ahead somehow. She was already well known in songwriter circles for her inimitable movements on the guitar and for her punk rock roots, but it was the intensity of her stage presence that stood out to me most on that first meeting. I watched her suck in the air and light around her as she sang, quietly commanding the audience’s attention. Songs like “Drugs Are Bad” and “Shell” became spells when sung in War’s almost-effortless, warmly breathy style. She appeared peaceful in her own creative world amidst the restless energy of the festival.

2019 was also the year that Sunny founded the downtown Los Angeles chapter of Food Not Bombs, a national network of community groups addressing hunger. In interviews about the movement she was candid about having experienced houselessness herself and how she noticed the disproportionate presence of veterans on the street. She organized weekly meetups in which volunteers made meals and shared them, potluck-style, with their unhoused neighbors on skid row. When COVID hit they switched to burritos and sack lunches. On “Deployed and Destroyed,” one of the outstanding tracks from Sunny’s 2021 album, Simple Syrup, she invites her listener to spend three minutes and 54 seconds in the shoes of a 26-year-old unhoused veteran experiencing PTSD. When I listen to her sing “I still love you/ We’re still friends” I feel like I am sitting beside her. This is what Aristotle and contemporary Marxists call “praxis.”

Sunny is fearless on stage. Six years into our friendship I remain awed by the way in which she commands attention without ever seeming contained by it. Her presence has a kinetic power that you can more easily get lost in than describe. We met up in Chicago on a winter night in early 2023 when Sunny was on tour and I was in between tours. Both of us were depressed, I think. Wide, wet snowflakes were beginning to fall outside while we caught up over drinks. We bribed the DJ into letting us jump the line for karaoke and then launched into a formally unconventional performance of Destiny’s Child’s “Jumpin’ Jumpin’.” The mostly-white crowd of beer-drinking twenty-somethings were amused at first and then bored. I gave up. Sunny stayed the course, winning the audience over with mischief in her eyes.

Later that year Sunny released Anarchist Gospel on New West Records to well-deserved, unanimous acclaim. The album featured Americana heavy hitters Allison Russell, Dave Rawlings, and Chris Pierce. She also toured with Mitski, broadening her fandom to include more indie listeners. I cheered my friend from afar, mostly on Instagram, as her star continued to rise.

When I ask about her memories of that album cycle, Sunny enthusiastically recalls the younger audiences who discovered her music. She expresses gratitude that a 14-year-old at a Mitski concert, someone who “actually is into music for the first time in their life, in the way that you are when you hate your parents and all you have is music” would become a fan. A lot of journalists described her as an “emerging” artist or a songwriter soon to be one of the most beloved in Americana. But for those of us on the fringes of the format, Sunny had been the best around for a minute and the momentum of her career spoke for itself.

Sunny’s latest album, Armageddon In A Summer Dress, comes out on February 21. I ask her to describe the new record in her own words. “Silly,” she responds. I ask if there is a genre descriptor for her music in general. She says, “No.”  I am going to follow the artist’s lead and not do her album the disservice of describing it too much. I will say that Armageddon In A Summer Dress is her seventh full-length effort and contains her most inspired vocal performances yet – and some of her finest lyrics.

There is a haze hovering in the top layers of some of these tunes. The winding guitar melodies often weave themselves into the vocal lines, but sometimes they go their own way. I ask her if audiences are reacting to the Black anarchist content of her songs differently than they did the last time she released a folk album with transparently leftist politics. “I don’t feel like people pay that much attention to my lyrics,” she responds. Her primary musical concern, she reflects, is playing the guitar. And in any case, the best way to metabolize these songs is by listening to them repeatedly.

Sunny, Carl, Tré, and I have remained loosely intertwined in the years since that first Americana kickback. We have toured together. We run into each other at festivals and in thrift shops. Tré and Sunny were roommates for a time and in the summertime can be seen riding bikes like cousins in Sunny’s recent music video for “Scornful Heart.” I interview my friends periodically.

We all continue to embody aspects of the blues tradition while resisting categorization. Sunny continues moving patiently through her own cycles of living, transforming, creating in darkness, and then telling the story. She leaps unexpectedly from now to the future and then doubles back to sample tradition, inviting you to keep up. Her lyrics are disarmingly empathetic. Like all great artists, Sunny moves in her own time, less concerned with debating the canon than she is with creating the future. She looks back on the nights she hunted ghosts with her grandfather’s machete joking, “That wasn’t me!”

There is great integrity in Sunny’s storytelling, which means that no matter how long it has been since we last spoke, she will catch me up quickly when we meet again. I ask her who the narrator of “No One Calls Me Baby” is, trying to signal that I am a feminist who recognizes women writers as authors beyond the world of autobiography. But she quickly tells me that the narrator is her and fills me in on the past few months of her life. She has been single for over a year, and has been learning to enjoy the alone time in a house she owns. We commiserate about being single, but we are both leaned back by this point, looking down on loneliness together. “No one calls me baby anymore/ I hold my own hand now…”

One of my favorite things about Sunny is that whether she’s playing a dive bar or a sold-out theater, everyone walks away dazzled. She is just as warm and entertaining sitting across from you in her home. She accompanies herself.

Find more Sunny War Artist of the Month coverage here.

Photo Credit: Joshua Black Wilkins

Celebrating Black History Month: Big Al Downing, Yola, Elizabeth Cotten, and More

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

To celebrate Black History Month – and the vital contributions of Black, Afro-, and African American artists and musicians to American roots music – BGS, Good Country, and our friends at Real Roots Radio in southwestern Ohio have partnered once again. This time, we’ll be bringing you weekly collections of a variety of Black roots musicians who have been featured on Real Roots Radio’s airwaves. You can listen to Real Roots Radio online 24/7 or via their FREE app for smartphones or tablets. If you’re based in Ohio, tune in via 100.3 (Xenia, Dayton, Springfield), 106.7 (Wilmington), or 105.5 (Eaton).

American roots music – in any of its many forms – wouldn’t exist today without the culture, stories, skills, and experiences of Black folks. Each week throughout February, we’ll spotlight this simple yet profound fact by diving into the catalogs and careers of some of the most important figures in our genres. To kick us off, RRR host Daniel Mullins shares songs and stories of Big Al Downing, Yola, Cleve Francis, Charley Crockett, Elizabeth Cotten, Dom Flemons, and Lead Belly.

We’ll return each Friday through the end of the month to bring you even more music celebrating Black History and the songs and sounds we all hold dear. Plus, you can find a full playlist with more than 100 songs below from dozens and dozens of seminal artists, performers, songwriters, and instrumentalists from every corner of folk, country, bluegrass, old-time, blues, and beyond.

Black history is American roots music history; the two are inseparable. As we celebrate Black History Month and its legacy, we hope you’ll join us in holding up and appreciating the artists who make country, bluegrass, blues, folk, and Americana the incredible and impactful genres that they are today.

Big Al Downing (1940 – 2005)

Big Al Downing was an engaging entertainer whose winding career included forays into many genres, including country music. An Oklahoma boy, Downing played piano on Wanda Jackson’s signature rockabilly hit, “Let’s Have A Party,” before pursuing a solo career, finding some mainstream success, dabbling in R&B, and even scoring a Number 1 disco hit, “I’ll Be Holding On.”

However, Downing made history in country as one of the earliest Black artists to find success in the genre. Beginning in the late ’70s, he would have a string of fifteen singles hit the Billboard country charts over the next decade, three of which reached the Top 20. He was nominated by the Academy of Country Music for their Top New Male Vocalist award in 1980. Big Al would be a frequent guest on the Grand Ole Opry, Hee Haw, Nashville Now, and more.

Downing’s soulful singing on hardcore country songs like “Bring It On Home” and “Touch Me (I’ll Be Your Fool Once More)” endeared him to fans, while his story song “Mr. Jones” has remained beloved by country enthusiasts. His career spanned five different decades of country, rockabilly, and more, remaining active in the country music world until shortly before his passing in 2005 after a brief battle with leukemia. Downing is a member of the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame and Rockabilly Music Hall of Fame, and his legacy is still remembered by longtime fans of country music.

Suggested Listening:
“Mister Jones”
“Touch Me (I’ll Be Your Fool Once More)”

Yola (b. 1983)

Yola is a soul, country, and roots powerhouse! Born in the United Kingdom, Yola’s voice is a force of nature – rich, soulful, and packed with emotion. She started as a songwriter and backing vocalist before stepping into the spotlight with her 2019 debut album, the GRAMMY-nominated Walk Through Fire! Featuring contributions from Vince Gill, Molly Tuttle, Charlie McCoy, Ronnie McCoury, and more, the project was produced by Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys, and quickly endeared her to roots music lovers everywhere. She even appeared as a guest vocalist with all-star group The Highwomen.

With her unique blend of country, rock, and soul, Yola shatters boundaries. In 2021, she dropped Stand for Myself, an album full of bold, genre-blending anthems that brought her more GRAMMY noms. She has even dabbled in acting as of late, appearing on Broadway in Hadestown and playing Sister Rosetta Tharpe in the hit blockbuster Elvis. Do yourself a favor and check out this bon a fide star in roots music.

Suggested Listening:
“Whatever You Want”
“Hold On” (featuring Sheryl Crow, Brandi Carlile, & Natalie Hemby)

Cleve Francis (b. 1945)

Do you remember Cleve Francis? He grew up listening to Hank Williams in Louisiana as a child before making his first guitar out of window screen wire and a King Edwards Cigar Box on his way to becoming an inspiring country artist. Cleve isn’t just a singer – but he’s a songwriter, a dreamer, and a doctor? That’s right, before he hit the stage, Cleve was saving lives.

Dr. Cleve Francis was a practicing cardiologist before he pursued his passion for country music full-time in the late ’80s. Cleve brought a fresh voice to the genre in the 1990s with his smooth voice and heartfelt lyrics that resonated with country fans, resulting in four singles on the Billboard country charts. Cleve’s style of country earned him appearances on major stages like the Grand Ole Opry, The Today Show, and more.

Though he eventually returned to medicine, Francis left an enduring legacy, inspiring many Black country artists who have followed in his wake. He was instrumental in the curation of the Country Music Hall of Fame & Museum’s “From Where I Stand: The Black Experience in Country Music” exhibit while also helping found the Black Country Music Association in the mid ’90s.

In 2021, he was recognized with a Black Opry Icon Award, and his album Walkin’ is on display at the National Museum of African American History & Culture in Washington D.C., where he could still been seen frequently performing at the legendary Birchmere music club until his retirement in 2021.

Suggested Listening:
“Love Light”
“You Do My Heart Good”

Charley Crockett (b. 1984)

One of the most authentic voices in modern American roots music, Charley Crockett has a story that sounds borderline mythical. A descendant of Davy Crockett who grew up in Texas, Crockett spent his early years busking on street corners from New Orleans to Dallas to New York, learning the art of storytelling from life itself. His travels took him to California, Paris, Spain, and Morocco before returning to Texas and releasing his debut album in 2015. Crockett’s recording output has been impressive, frequently releasing multiple albums a year and balancing his records with heartfelt originals and a deep catalog traditional songs from the likes of Tom T. Hall, Hank Williams, Willie Nelson, George Jones, Johnny Paycheck and more.

The common denominator is Charley – his voice carries a raw, timeless quality that cuts straight to the heart. Now performing at the Ryman Auditorium and on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Charley’s rise hasn’t gone unnoticed. He’s earned critical acclaim and has racked up accolades from the American Music Association and a GRAMMY nomination. With black, Cajun, Creole and Jewish heritage, Crockett’s unique take on country and American roots music is sure to speak to music lovers everywhere for years to come.

Suggested Listening:
“Jukebox Charley”
“$10 Cowboy”

Elizabeth Cotten (1893 – 1987)

An underappreciated hero of American folk and blues, Elizabeth Cotten was born in 1893 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Growing up in a musical family, by the time she was 7 Elizabeth taught herself to play guitar left-handed. She flipped the guitar upside down, creating her own unique picking style, now known as “Cotten picking,” which featured alternating bass notes played with her fingers while her thumb played the melody.

Elizabeth wrote her iconic song, “Freight Train,” when she was just 12 years old. This classic has been recorded by Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Tommy Emmanuel, Doc Watson, and dozens more artists across multiple genres. But her music remained largely unheard for decades as she spent much of her life working as a domestic housekeeper. It wasn’t until she reached her 60s, while working for the Seeger family – yes, that Seeger family – that her incredible talent received a proper platform. Working for a family that loved and appreciated music inspired Elizabeth to resume playing. With the Seegers’ encouragement, Elizabeth recorded her first album, Folksongs and Instrumentals with Guitar, in 1958, recorded at home by Mike Seeger, a member of the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame.

Cotten went on to perform at major festivals thanks to the folk revival, w0n a GRAMMY at age 90, and inspired countless musicians before passing away in Syracuse, New York at the age of 94. Elizabeth Cotten was posthumously inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2022.

Suggested Listening:
“Shake Sugaree” [Live]
“Oh Babe, It Ain’t No Lie”

Dom Flemons (b. 1982)

Let’s shine a spotlight on a modern-day troubadour, the Grammy-winning musician, historian, and storyteller Dom Flemons, The American Songster. An avid folk music fan, Flemons was a busker in his home state of Arizona before moving cross country to North Carolina to help found the Carolina Chocolate Drops, a band that revived the nearly forgotten legacy of Black string band music.

Flemons has been a successful solo artist for the last decade-plus. He is a master of multiple instruments – banjo, bones, guitar, harmonica – you name it! His music blends old-time, folk, blues, jazz, and country, tracing the deep roots of African American contributions to American music. From the Grand Ole Opry to Carnegie Hall, Flemons brings history to life with every note.

His 2018 album, Black Cowboys, uncovered the often overlooked stories of African American pioneers in the West, earning critical acclaim and a GRAMMY nomination. Today, whether performing solo or collaborating with legends like Taj Mahal, Sam Bush, and Rhiannon Giddens, Flemons keeps the rich traditions of American roots music alive. In addition to educating audiences about the origins of roots music, Flemons creates great original music as well, truly embodying his moniker.

As The Boston Globe said, “most folk artists go by ‘singer-songwriter’ or simply ‘musician.’ But ‘American Songster’ speaks to a greater truth about the work Flemons, a multi-instrumentalist, has accomplished.” We couldn’t agree more.

Suggested Listening:
“Steel Pony Blues”
“Nobody Wrote It Down”

Lead Belly (1888 – 1949)

He was a man of legend, his voice as powerful as the chains that once bound him. Born Huddie Ledbetter in 1888, the world knows him as Lead Belly. Imprisoned and pardoned multiple times, Lead Belly carried his music from the prison yards of Louisiana to the streets of New York City.

Legend has it that his musical gift led to his release. His background makes his prison, chain gang, and work songs even more haunting, including “Midnight Special.” His original song, “Goodnight Irene,” has been recorded more than two hundred times, including versions by Ernest Tubb & Red Foley, Moon Mullican, Frank Sinatra, Jerry Reed, and Johnny Cash. It is viewed as a verified country standard.

“Duncan and Brady,” “In the Pines,” “Cotton Fields” – his songs told stories of hardship, freedom, and the American experience. Lead Belly’s music shaped folk, blues, rock, and country inspiring legends like Creedence Clearwater Revival, Bob Dylan, Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, Pete Seeger, Johnny Cash, The Johnson Mountain Boys, and Nirvana.

Lead Belly died in 1949, but his music lives on. His voice still echoes in every blues riff and folk song today. Lead Belly was posthumously inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1988.

Suggested Listening:
“Black Girl (In The Pines)”
“Irene (Goodnight Irene)”

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Photo Credit: Big Al Downing via Team Entertainment Records; Elizabeth Cotten via Smithsonian Folkways Recordings; Yola by Valeria Rios.

Valerie June Announces New Album, Shares Infectious Video for “Joy, Joy!”

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

Exuberance is the exact right mood on a day when the transcendental Valerie June announces a new album, and exuberant is certainly the vibe of her new track, “Joy, Joy!” and its brand new accompanying music video. (Watch above.) The song was dropped this morning in tandem with an announcement of the Memphis native’s new album, Owls, Omens, and Oracles, produced by M. Ward and arriving April 11 via Concord Records.

“Joy, Joy!” begins with June planting an illuminated seed singing, “There’s a light that you can find/ If you stop to take the time…” a prescient reminder to stay grounded, connected, and searching for the light. With a Rosetta Tharpe-esque Epiphone SG in hand, the track broadens and blooms, showcasing vibrant colors, whimsical scenes, and a cosmic style that June has become known for.

The antidote for darkness – for all that may challenge us – resides within us, June shouts in the chorus. It’s clear she’s not only reminding her listeners of this fact, but herself, too. “Joy, Joy!” is a delicious three-minute bite that will stick to your ribs and, hopefully, grow a seed of joy in each of our hearts.

“Everyone has felt moments of darkness, depression, anxiety, stress, ailments, or pain,” June explains, via press release. “Some say it takes mud to have a lotus flower.”

“This song reflects on the hard times we might face: to fail, to fall, to lose, to be held down, to be silenced, to be shut out yet still hold onto a purely innocent and childlike joy. I come from a heritage of ancestors who lived this truth by inventing blues music,” she continues. “Generations after theyʼve gone, the inner joy they instilled in us radiates and lifts cultures throughout the world. From the world to home, what would a city council focused on inspiring inner joy for all of a town’s citizens look like? As the times are changing across the planet, what would it look like to collectively activate our superpowers of joy?”

It’s certainly the perfect message and song for this day and age, delivered as only an artist like Valerie June could deliver it. By another creator, it might seem saccharine or twee to face our daily reality with joy exclusively as a shield. But June demonstrates joy is just one of many important tools we all need to hold onto while we face these “hard times.” Except, this is a joy without blinders on – it’s eyes-wide-open to the truth that acknowledging and challenging hardship and inequity requires a joy that need not deny those hardships’ existence in order to have transformative power.

Owls, Omens, and Oracles is poised to continue June’s post-genre explorations of psychedelia, rock and roll, folk, Appalachian music, blues, string band, and so much more, as well as featuring special guests like the Blind Boys of Alabama and Norah Jones. No one is making music quite like Valerie June and, from this first listen especially, it seems the roots music envelope will continue to be pushed and pushed and pushed some more by June with this new release. And, June will be taking the project on the road with an extensive full band tour stretching from March through the summer. Tickets are on sale now.

Photo Credit: Marcela Avelar

Artist of the Month: Sunny War

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

Sunny War has done it again. Her brand new album, Armageddon in a Summer Dress (out February 21 via New West Records), is yet another anarcho-punk-roots masterpiece in her already deep-and-wide catalog of superlative recordings. The project builds on the sonic and rhetorical universe of her critically acclaimed and triumphantly received 2023 release, Anarchist Gospel, further expanding her charming, down-to-earth doctrine of mutual aid, community, and truly radical ideas – musically, and otherwise – exactly when we need them most.

That fact – the apropos timing of this collection of songs and their release – feels most striking because this music wasn’t written expressly to be a response to the current critical mass of fascism, oligarchy, and attacks on human rights in our country and around the world. Instead, the messages and morals in these songs are well-placed, not as slapdash reactions to the current political discourse or as activist-branded cash grabs in a terrifying societal moment, but by focusing on the real day-to-day implications of such imperialism as evidenced within War’s own life and her own inner circle.

On Armageddon’s opening track, “One Way Train,” she sings:

When there’s no one left to use
And no police or state
And the fascists and the classists
All evaporate
Won’t you meet me on the outskirts
Of my left brain
Close your eyes and take a ride
On a one way train

This album is exactly such a refuge on par with the singer’s “left brain” – and stemming directly from it! – in “One Way Train.” Armageddon is a respite from the noise of the news cycle and the sensationalism of consumerist media that needs not deny the realities we all witness and live through in order to be a resting place. This isn’t toxic positivity or “joy” and “hope” as cudgels to smack down criticism of inequalities, corruption, and ruling classes, thereby reinforcing the status quo. The songs of Armageddon in a Summer Dress do feel hopeful– but because they acknowledge and grapple with these issues, instead of willing them away under the rug or into hiding.

The deft and artful positioning of these incisive songs is directly tied to the ways anarchy, mutual aid, and solidarity have been woven into War’s life as an artist – and as a human, since even before she picked up the guitar. These are embodied, real concepts to Sunny, not just intellectual ideas and hypotheticals.

Punk and blues, folk and grunge ooze out of songs ripe for protest and resistance, but never packaged in a pink crocheted pussy cat hat or internet-ready bumper sticker quips. Sunny War knows the violence and tyranny we all face – she has faced it her entire life – and gives it the treatment it deserves, but without ever preaching or finger-wagging. The beliefs evident in Armageddon in a Summer Dress are never contingent on which team, “red or blue,” holds the power. Rather, the hope and tenacity in these songs feels derived from an intrinsic understanding that it’s always been “the many versus the few” and “the powerless versus the powerful” where the battle lines are drawn, instead.

“Walking Contradiction” – which features punk icon Steve Ignorant – is searing in its indictment of toothless neoliberalism having landed us in this exact political and social scenario:

…While the war pigs killed more kids today
Picket signs were made 6,000 miles away
And all the lefties and the liberals were marching so you know
Just because they pay their taxes doesn’t mean that they don’t know
All the pigs and the big wigs foaming at the mouth
Look down at us laughing like we’ll never figure out
All the war outside starts here at home
If they didn’t have our money they’d be fighting it alone
Doesn’t matter what your silly little signs have to say
‘Cause the genocide is funded by the taxes that you pay

Stopping and inhabiting this song, one of the project’s singles, and its message is illuminating. Especially when you realize it was written under the prior administration, but applies to the current one as well. And, perhaps, to every other presidential administration in U.S. history.

Armageddon in a Summer Dress still feels light and rewarding, though. It’s flowing and intuitive, and decidedly charming, even with these stark messages. Because, like most of Sunny War’s creative output, it actually drives to the heart of the issues we all turn over in our minds and on our screens each day, rather than tilting at superficial, sensational windmills that end up reinforcing our oligarchic status quo.

Of course, this album is not solely political and anarchic and intellectual. In fact, it’s not attempting to be cerebral and be-monocled at all. These are songs of love, of grief, of being an individual with a collective mindset in an individualist world with collective blindness.

There are songs of introspection, of perception, of self growth, of regression. Each feels fully realized in production, lush and deep. But there, in the gaps, in the bones of each track, are War’s signature fingerstyle licks, hooks, and turns of phrase on the guitar. She plays banjo throughout the project as well, and though the referenced genres evident on the project are endlessly rootsy, the blues and folk approach that charmed much of the bluegrass, folk, and Americana worlds previously serve a more subtle purpose here. War’s personality on her instruments is still prominent, and is ultimately successful playing more of a support role to the greater whole. Above all else, you can tell creating this album and these songs must have been so much fun to make.

Tré Burt, Valerie June, and John Doe – along with Ignorant – all guest on the record, which was produced by Andrija Tokic and recorded in Nashville, just up the highway from War’s current hometown of Chattanooga, Tennessee. Like Anarchist Gospel, seeing War’s community of collaborators grow and morph on the new project again speaks to the way this guitarist-songwriter-performer’s mission is an active, constructive one. It’s never merely a mantra hung on the wall to be admired from afar.

As we all face an ongoing apocalypse, as we each reckon with the indisputable fact that we are already living in dystopia – and have been – Armageddon in a Summer Dress is the perfect album to bring along with us. Dancing and flowing and twirling through the end of the world is certainly not a winning strategy, but dancing, marching, caring for one another, and lifting each other up despite Armageddon and imperialism might just do the trick.

She perhaps encapsulates this feeling best alongside wailing organ on “Bad Times:”

Had nothing so I had to borrow
What I owe’s gonna double tomorrow
Maybe now or in an hour or so
I’m gonna have to let everything go

So long room and board
And all the other things I can’t afford
You’re overrated anyway
I’ll be good soon as you
Bad times stay away
Bad times stay away
Bad times stay away
Bad times stay away…

This affirmation is not the end game, it is merely the beginning. If we take Sunny War’s ideals to heart, if we sing along at the top of our lungs, if we do mutual aid on a daily basis, if we take each moment, one individual second at a time– we, too, can navigate through Armageddon in a Summer Dress, emerging on the other side in a better, more just, more sunny world.

Sunny War is our Artist of the Month. Check out our exclusive interview with Sunny by her friend and peer Lizzie No here. Make sure to save our Essential Sunny War Playlist below while we gear up for the new album on February 21. Plus, follow BGS on social media as we dip back into our archives every day for all things Sunny during the entire month of February.

Photo Credit: Joshua Black Wilkins

MIXTAPE: Lucero’s Ben Nichols & Rick Steff Celebrate the Spaces In Between

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

(Editor’s Note: Ben Nichols and Rick Steff, two members of Lucero, recently released a special acoustic album, Lucero Unplugged, reimagining songs from across the band’s 25-year catalog. To celebrate its release on January 24, we asked the pair to curate a Mixtape for BGS.)

Rick and I each chose five songs for this playlist focusing on the spaces in between the notes. We feel these songs illustrate that sometimes it’s the notes that are chosen not to be played that add weight and impact. It’s the spaces in between the notes that bring life to the notes that are there. Rick’s picks naturally focus on piano players and my own choices lean more towards acoustic guitars. It’s easy to tell who suggested which songs. But I love the list we ended up with. Thanks for letting us participate in this and thanks for listening. – Ben Nichols

With all these choices it’s the notes not played, the spaces between, the breaths between the sounds. When making Lucero Unplugged these players and records informed a lot of the choices and approaches I took with regards to dynamics and voicings, and mainly just trying to be a solid accompanist for Ben and to the song. – Rick Steff

“Dayton Ohio 1903” – Randy Newman

Randy Newman is the king of piano voicing. Where he places his notes is always perfect. He’s also an amazing accompanist and I always think of him whenever I record piano. This often overlooked song shows all of that as well as being a portal to another time. – RS

“Florida” – Thomas Dollbaum

One of my favorite (mainly) acoustic records. A friend turned me on to Thomas’ album, Wellswood, and I liked it so much I asked Thomas to come to The Whitewater Tavern in my hometown of Little Rock and play my 50th birthday party with me. In the song “Florida” we hear a story that’s rough around the edges sung in a voice that’s vulnerable, but builds with the music and then pulls the rug out from under you, punching you in the gut. He’s so good he makes me jealous. – BN

 “Waterlow” – Mott the Hoople

Ian Hunter. No band was more influential to me than Mott the Hoople and their early records have amazing keyboard parts. “Waterlow” reminds me of Lucero songs compositionally. Beautiful song and lovely piano arpeggio that follows the vocal. – RS

“Goin’ Down South”  – R.L. Burnside

The haunting drone of this early R.L. Burnside recording captured my imagination the first time I heard it. In between the driving acoustic guitar licks and the churning vocals you can hear the Mississippi Hill Country nights. You can see the Mississippi River and feel its meandering presence as it makes its way south relentlessly, through the middle of the country. – BN

“I Keep a Close Watch” – John Cale

John Cale. Again, all about accompanying. This performance has always been a favorite of mine from the ex-Velvet Underground solo catalog. John’s piano work in the Velvets has also influenced and showed up on Lucero records for sure. – RS

“Good Woman” – Cat Power

The Lucero song “When You Decided to Leave,” featured on the new Lucero Unplugged album Rick and I just released, was written after I heard this Cat Power song. The lyrics about leaving something you love, being a “good” or “bad” woman or man, and the conflict and heartbreak bound up in that hit me hard. The instrumentation and performances accentuate that ache and desire. A desire for someone (maybe ourselves) to be a way they cannot be. – BN

“A Salty Dog” – Procol Harum

Gary Brooker was an amazing pianist and this song features something I’ve tried to achieve on various recordings throughout the years, the piano vignette. A small section removed from everything else that resets the song in a unique way. Like a structured solo, sort of. This is to me one of the most moving songs of the sixties and often still brings me a tear. Same band as “Whiter Shade of Pale,” by the way. – RS

“Bruised Ribs” – Joey Kneiser

I’d been a fan of Joey Kneiser’s band, Glossary, for years and when he released this acoustic solo album I fell in love with it. The straightforward presentation with delicate and thoughtful accompaniment lets the power of his simply perfect lyrics shine through. It doesn’t get much better than this. This album definitely influenced me to write some solo acoustic songs myself. – BN

“Ruby’s Arms” – Tom Waits

It’s difficult to choose one Tom Waits song to show his piano style, having spent decades with his music. His barroom piano voicings and dramatic tempo rises and falls – “Ruby’s Arms” showcases those beautifully and heartbreakingly. – RS

“Living on the Moon” – Adam Faucett

Adam is from Little Rock, Arkansas (like me), and this song is one of my favorites. Again, it goes back to the spaces in between the notes– the choices he made about the sounds we hear. We hear everything we need and nothing we don’t for the ultimate emotional impact. There is a preciseness to the recordings of all the songs on this list that I haven’t been able to capture much in my career. But I love it. And I’m still learning and hopefully there is a little of that on this new Lucero Unplugged album. – BN

Photo Credit: Courtesy of the artist.

You Gotta Hear This: New Music From Lonesome River Band, Lily Talmers, and More

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

Where did the first month of 2025 go!? Wherever it went, we’ve got an excellent batch of premieres for your final New Music Friday of January.

Below, check out brand new music and performance videos like Amanda Bjorn’s “Until We Become Earth,” a song about searching for yourself set to a gorgeously warm and retro video shot on film. Pitney Meyer (a duo of longtime country and bluegrass pals, John Meyer and Mo Pitney) bring a live performance of their new single, “Bear Creek Clay,” as well.

Bluegrass mainstays Lonesome River Band bring back a Jimmy Yeary song that Sammy Shelor turned into a classic, “I’m On To You,” with the full LRB on this new rendition. Plus, Dave Murphy calls on Mark Erelli for his new number, “Planet of Pain II,”  a sequel to the original “Planet of Pain” from his 1998 album, Under the Lights.

Elsewhere, don’t miss Joshua Finsel’s “Before the Snow,” about through hiking the Appalachian Trail and cresting Mount Katahdin in Maine before wintertime hits. And, Lily Talmers celebrates release day for her new album, It’s Cyclical, Missing You, by bringing us that project’s lush and deep folky title track.

It’s all right here on BGS – we’ve said it before, we’ll say it again: You Gotta Hear This!

Amanda Bjorn, “Until We Become Earth”

Artist: Amanda Bjorn
Hometown: Los Angeles, California and Spain
Song: “Until We Become Earth”
Album: That Kind of Woman
Release Date: January 24, 2025 (single)

In Their Words: “‘Until We Become Earth’ is the first single off my upcoming debut album, That Kind of Woman, which is set to release in April 2025. A blend of blues and folk with a bit of Americana, the new album reads like a diary touching on major changes in my life – balancing motherhood with artistry, finding and losing myself within relationships, postpartum mental health, and the transformation that happens from living abroad and returning home.

“The song was written in a School of Song workshop with one of my favorite songwriters, Adrianne Lenker, exactly one year ago. Without ruining it, the song is about that search for self-identity within a relationship, the vulnerability of building your own voice, and the risk it takes to keep expanding.

“With the help of my old friend, producer Aaron Stern, I recorded the album this past summer in Los Angeles at Verdugo Sound. With the help of some very talented musicians, we performed live together in the same room for most of the album, our aim was to capture the magic of improvisation and the authentic energy that arises from truly listening and connecting, free from a click track.” – Amanda Bjorn

Track Credits:
Phillip Krohnengold – Guitar, keys
Michael Villiers – Drums
Aaron Stern – Bass
Amanda Bjorn – Vocals
Adam Ayan – Mastering
Aaron Stern – Producer

Video Credits: Filmed by Giacomo Gex; color by Ruben Sogomonian; film processed by Kafard Films, Paris, France.
Starring Amanda Bjorn and Brando Wild.

Joshua Finsel, “Before the Snow”

Artist: Joshua Finsel
Hometown: Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania
Song: “Before the Snow”
Album: No Honey
Release Date: February 6, 2024

In Their Words: “‘Before The Snow’ is a song about an Appalachian Trail through-hiker whose river meditation is interrupted by a daydream. Mount Katahdin in Baxter State Park in Maine is the northern end of the trail, and a hiker must get there ‘before the snow’ in order to be allowed to finish the journey.

“The lyrics are autobiographical. I teamed up with the famed string trio Bizarre Star Strings (Brandi Carlile, Madison Cunningham, The Shins) for the lush, theatrical river-like passages. Award winning fiddle player Katelynn Casper and mandolinist Quentin Fisher of Serene Green added to the arrangements. Finally, David Bowie producer and bass player Mark Plati mixed the record and played fretless bass.” – Joshua Finsel

Lonesome River Band, “I’m On To You”

Artist: Lonesome River Band
Hometown: Floyd, Virginia
Song: “I’m On To You”
Release Date: January 31, 2025
Label: Mountain Home Music Company

In Their Words: “‘I’m On To You’ is a song written by my friend Jimmy Yeary, who has become one of the most in-demand writers in Nashville. I recorded this song back in 1997 and it was the first song Jimmy had featured on an album. The album is long out of print, but this song kept making its way into sound checks and the show every now and then. It has that ’80s country vibe that we felt would lend itself to the sound we are doing for this upcoming album. We hope you like this version!” – Sammy Shelor

Track Credits:
Sammy Shelor – Banjo, vocal
Jesse Smathers – Acoustic guitar, lead vocals
Mike Hartgrove – Fiddle
Adam Miller – Mandolin, vocals
Kameron Keller – Upright bass

Dave Murphy, “Planet of Pain II” (Featuring Mark Erelli)

Artist: Dave Murphy
Hometown: Madison, New Jersey
Song: “Planet of Pain II” featuring Mark Erelli
Album: A Heart So Rare
Release Date: January 31, 2025

In Their Words: “The song is a rumination on the fragility of life, disappointment, lessons learned, and carrying on. This theme is illustrated in my lyrics, ‘Ashes to ashes, dust to dust/ Sometimes it feels like it’s all just too much/ When something is lost (they say) something is gained/ Still finding my way on this planet of pain.’ The original ‘Planet of Pain‘ appeared on my first album, Under the Lights. It was just one voice, one acoustic, and a lap steel. Part II borrows some lyrics, but elevates the song to a different level with the support of Chris Tarrow’s mysterious pedal steel playing, Shawn Pelton’s percussion, and Mark Erelli’s haunting vocals.” – Dave Murphy

Track Credits:
Dave Murphy – Vocals, acoustic guitar
Shawn Pelton – Drums
Chris Tarrow – Electric guitar, pedal steel
Richard Hammond – Bass
Mark Erelli – Backing vocals

Pitney Meyer, “Bear Creek Clay”

Artist: Pitney Meyer
Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee
Song: “Bear Creek Clay”
Album: Cherokee Pioneer
Release Date: January 10, 2025 (single); April 18, 2025 (album)
Label: Curb Records

In Their Words: “‘Bear Creek Clay’ is a song brought to the group by Danielle Yother from North Carolina. It’s a snapshot of a pioneering Daniel Boone-type of character, blazing a trail to a home in the mountains. ‘Bear Creek Clay’ was the title we settled on, which in the moment I figured was something we would come back and edit later, but come to find out, there are creeks and rivers by that name all over Tennessee, Kentucky, and Missouri. Driving through Bon Aqua, Tennessee, I noticed on the map I was nearing a Bear Creek. This was just a few miles from the log cabin where we would be recording. When we cut the song to tape a few days later, I knew we had to drive down to the creek first. The water was brown and rushing fast, swollen from the rains the night before. We made it back to the cabin a bit soaked but ready to step in and sing this song that seemed to be coming to life in the landscape around us.” – John Meyer

Track Credits:
Mo Pitney – Guitar
John Meyer – Banjo
Nate Burie – Mandolin
Blake Pitney – Bass
Jenee Fleenor – Fiddle

Lily Talmers, “It’s Cyclical, Missing You”

Artist: Lily Talmers
Hometown: Birmingham, Michigan and Brooklyn, New York
Song: “It Is Cyclical, Missing You”
Album: It Is Cyclical, Missing You
Release Date: January 30, 2025

In Their Words: “This song is sort of meant to mirror the experience of running up and down a hill, continuously. It was born of witnessing two brothers arguing in a parking lot– the younger, around five years old, was sobbing trying to get his older brother’s attention. The older brother, around age seven, clearly had the awareness that ignoring someone only makes them more desperate for your attention, and wouldn’t look his brother in the eye. The whole record is sort of a big statement of what it means to be in both of these positions, cyclically. I am both the desperate, reaching brother, and the power-hungry, indignant brother who hasn’t learned the responsibility of loving other people.” – Lily Talmers

Track Credits:
Lily Talmers – Vocals, acoustic guitar, music, lyrics
Raffi Boden – Cello
Konstantinos Revelas – Bouzouki
Alec Spiegelman – Clarinet, bass clarinet, flute
David Ward – Drums, percussion

Photo Credit: Lonesome River Band by Sandlin Gaither; Lily Talmers by Bailey Lecat.

Larkin Poe Continue to Bloom

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

Megan and Rebecca Lovell are Larkin Poe, a band that nestles into a myriad of genres – and the sisters are good with that. Their newest full-length album effort, Bloom, out January 24, comes fresh off the heels of a GRAMMY win for Best Contemporary Blues Album with last year’s Blood Harmony. They also landed Duo of the Year at 2024’s Americana Honors & Awards, proving that by digging into their own stories, collaborating even when it isn’t easy, and filtering it all through what the music will feel like on stage, they carve a sound that knocks down doors into multiple genre territories.

Independent spirit permeates everything the sisters do, from the way they write and produce the music to how they map out the aesthetics of how they present the work. Bloom is no exception, finding the women delving deeply into personal and social themes in a way they say they have not before, the result of getting real with each other and learning how to collaborate through the writing process.

In “You Are the River,” we find them contemplating a common theme throughout the album, that sometimes the best and the worst are married inextricably and tie us to each other.

The sand in the oyster
The pressure on the coal
The sum of the parts is greater than the whole
A chain of reactions
A butterfly’s wing
My hand holding yours to form another link

For our Artist of the Month interview, BGS spoke with Megan and Rebecca via Zoom from their respective homes in Nashville. The Lovells discuss the challenges and joy of writing together, the evolution of their relationship with their fans, and the pressures of public life in the age of social media.

You all have been lauded in multiple genres, from blues to Americana. You are also identified as a rock and roll band and here we are talking on a bluegrass outlet. What do you think about genres in general, and do you consider them at all during creation of the music?

Rebecca Lovell: One of the greatest pieces of advice that we’ve ever received was from Mr. Elvis Costello. Many, many years ago, he advised us to defy the temptation to put ourselves into a genre box. He has lived up to that creed himself, having made bluegrass, gospel, country, punk, rock records, operatic records, and musical records.

For us, having been able to sample all the different facets of who we are as people and music lovers allows us to connect with the people who are consuming our music. I think increasingly, all of us consume music from a wide range of genres. I do think that that’s one gift of streaming platforms. The very barest of silver lining is that it opens up your mind to the fact that there is great music to be found in every genre, and I think genre-blending is the way of the future.

So we call what we do roots rock and roll, which is intentionally very vague because we get great joy out of letting the many flavors of our musical heritage be represented. That allowed us this past summer to play at a bluegrass festival and then play at a world music festival, play at a pop festival, a rock festival, a country festival, and it keeps it fresh. It keeps it exciting.

You’ve won awards in multiple genres, especially in the past few years. I was curious: are awards ever a motivator for you? Do you ever think about them when you’re creating?

Megan Lovell: Winning awards is a very new thing for us. We’ve always made music with a different focus, because we’ve always felt that the real reward is people being willing to stand in line or travel and buy a ticket and wait at the venue for us to come and play. So that’s always been our focus. Not to say that winning an award isn’t a cool experience, and definitely something we’re super appreciative of, but I don’t think it’s something we consider when we’re writing or recording.

We’re definitely thinking about our live show. We’re really writing intentionally, thinking about how it will feel when we’re touring. Because that’s what we do most of the year is tour.

Tell me about your writing process, both when it’s just you two as sisters, bandmates, and business owners and then also when you bring in other folks to collaborate.

RL: I think Bloom represents a really cool point in our evolution as creative collaborators. Since the ground up, Megan and I have been projecting together since we were little kids. It’s felt like [there was] a lot of foreshadowing in our childhood that we would work together, because we’ve always been so collaborative. But songwriting was one of the last holdouts of our working relationship that there was friction in. I’m sure it has to do with the fact that there is a piece of this sibling rivalry thing. But getting older, being more comfortable with and accepting your flaws, and being able to then have the self-confidence in a writing session to throw out ideas – that inherently, because they are ideas, they’re not fully fledged. They can be misunderstood or sound stupid.

I think we’d had some writing experiences in the past where we had not had the best of times. It just felt like a lot of false starts. We typically had written separately, but something clicked in the last 6 to 8 months leading up to the writing process for Bloom. We made the commitment to and had many conversations about writing the record together, and I really think you can hear the progress that we made as a team in manifesting that true creative collaboration. I think the songs are so much better.

There was a real commitment to being very intentional with everything that we said on this record. Being a songwriter and a performer, there is always this temptation to self-aggrandize, or build a character for yourself, or be the movie theatrical version of who you are and what your life feels like. I specifically have written from that space in the past and listening back, we wanted to do something different this time. That was our consensus. We went through every song, every lyric on this record with a fine-tooth comb, to ensure that real vulnerable authenticity was represented in the lyrics. That took a lot of courage and I am really proud of us for making that commitment, and being able to actually pull it off with this album.

ML: You know, what’s funny is, when we were thinking about bringing in a third collaborator, did we go outside? No, we actually end up working with Rebecca’s husband [Tyler Bryant] a lot. So we have that sibling dynamic and the husband-and-wife dynamic. We really like to complicate things.

RL: There is a certain shorthand that exists when someone knows you really well, when you know someone really well, and especially between Megan and myself – and also Tyler. We all have very closely mirrored musical upbringings and we have a lot of kindred spirit energy in the records that we’re all referencing for the production and the songwriting.

It does create this space, when handled correctly, for being really truthful, being really genuine, and allowing yourself to actually go to those spaces. I was the big crybaby on this record. I was weeping in these co-writes, like inconsolable. But that allows you to really channel some specific, detailed stuff from your own experience. The more specific you’re able to get with yourself, the more likely it is you’re going to be able to connect with other people. And that is our biggest motivator.

That’s so wonderful. Speaking of, what is your relationship with your fans like? And do you see it evolving as you change your process and become more open that way?

ML: We have a lot of musically deep music lovers and they’re really cool, knowledgeable people. I think because we’ve kind of always been a little bit left of center, we’ve attracted a cool audience; people who appreciate the do-it-yourself attitude and people who just really want to support a grassroots effort.

We’ve had people who have been following now for decades, which is strange to be able to say, but they’ve really stuck with it. Of course, those relationships do shift over time. And certainly through the pandemic. That was a huge shift in the way that we related to people, because we were using the internet to connect. We had these pretty spiritual conversations with people that I’m not sure would have happened if we hadn’t been online and talking all of the time. We came out of the pandemic with a lot more intimate fans.

Can you talk about the recording process? Where did you cut this record? How did you decide to bring in your husband as co-producer?

RL: I do think the pandemic played a big role in the shift of Megan and myself bringing Tyler Bryant in as a co-producer because, for the last 10 years, we’ve been self-producing our records. At Megan’s behest as the big sister, she was like, “It’s time. We need to self-produce our records.” That was very scary at first, but we got our feet wet and got our bearings.

Ultimately, we’re so grateful that we made that shift, because it allowed us to hold the reins in the studio and steer the music in the direction that we wanted to go. Through the pandemic, we built a state of the art recording studio in the basement of our home, and we wanted to make records. We didn’t want to hold up our creative process. We were still distancing in our bubble. But it was the group of us, and by necessity we started recording in that home studio; we’re kind of blown away at the sounds we could get. There was an effortless nature of being in a really safe home environment.

When Megan and I tour with our band, we’re a four-piece, so we set up as a four-piece in the studio and went for it. Hopefully, that will allow our records to age gracefully because they are very true and very stripped down to who we are as a band.

ML: But honestly, when we were going to studios, we were experiencing a lot of Keurig machines and we like really nice espresso machines. So we made the decision to stay home.

Let’s talk about the song “Pearls.” It seems to be built around the idea of maintaining a sense of self while you’re navigating the world that’s constantly reflecting you in such a public way. I wanted to know, as family and as bandmates and business partners, how do you navigate the ever-changing and tumultuous world of being in the public eye, especially in the age of social media?

RL: I think it’s one of the hardest things. It is so challenging to exist in a space where you need to have just enough ego to get on stage and perform. But you can’t identify too much with that ego, because then you’re creating a very limited, narrow lane for yourself. But don’t have too big of an ego, because then you’re going to be a bitch and nobody’s gonna like you. So it’s this weird straddling of all these different elements of our identities. And then we’re having to do that together.

With so much shared experience between us, Megan knows the true me. I think that you and I have cultivated a great deal of grace, allowing that true nature to evolve. Who we were when we were 5, is simultaneously the same as who we are now, and also very, very different. Allowing that leeway for ourselves is only something that we’ve started really engaging with in the last 5 years. Right, Megan?

ML: Yeah, we’ve had a lot of conversations over the last couple of years. We are coming to more of an understanding of where the tension was coming from, from who we are as people, and then who we expect ourselves to be on stage. Then also that sort of external pressure that everybody has that we also felt from a very young age from the people around us. There are people in the industry who expect us to be something and then fans who come and meet us. There are a lot of opinions flying around, but you really don’t have to take anything on board that you don’t want to.

Whether it’s that one negative comment on a post that you for some reason have to obsess about, even though there are 99% positive comments. You just can’t get that negative comment out of your head and I don’t even know if I trust that person’s opinion. It’s a good reminder to just steer your own ship.

You mentioned different kinds of festivals, different genres of festivals. When you think about your tour, what kind of stage do you feel the most at home on? Is it a festival? Is it a club or theater? Is it a genre of festival?

ML: 2025 is going to be a big year for touring. Last year we played a lot of festivals. This year we are playing a lot of headline shows and we’re going to start in the U.S. and go through the spring. Then we’re gonna do a big fall European tour. And it’s shaping up to be really, really amazing. We have a really substantial following over in Europe. We have done a lot of work over there. There’s some bucket list venues that we’re gonna play.

I love a headline show. You know, where the place is packed, and there’s that energy in the audience, and everybody knows the lyrics. There’s nothing that beats that vibe and you can find that anywhere. You can find it in a tiny rock club to an arena or a festival. The important thing is that people are engaged from the stage to the audience, and vice versa.

Same for you, Rebecca?

RL: Yeah, I agree. I love a headline date, I think, especially because Megan and I are album people. We like a body of work. I like to sit down and listen to an artist’s album from the beginning to the end to try and get a sense of where they were at when they were writing the record. Megan and I, when we make our records, we obsess about the content, about the story arc, about the sequencing of the record, about the packaging, about the font.

And I think we get that same kind of energy in a headline show because we’re thinking about the colors of lights and which of the songs we are going to include and how much of the old material. We really want to have that space with the music and the emotional content of the music, and you feel that energy, and you feel that resonance. If everything goes right and everyone has their hearts open, you gain access to this portal where I think a lot of transformative change can happen between humans. And that’s what we seek.

Photo courtesy of the artist.

Artist of the Month: Larkin Poe

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

Larkin Poe are unstoppable. The incendiary sister duo – made up of Megan and Rebecca Lovell – have enjoyed near constant growth and momentum building over the past decade and a half, since they emerged from their younger family band era in the early 2010s as an endlessly gritty and gutsy Americana-meets-blues-meets-Southern rock phenomenon. Now, their sights are set on their upcoming seventh studio album, Bloom (out January 24 via Tricki-Woo Records), with a year’s worth of accolades – including their first GRAMMY win and being named the Americana Music Association’s Duo/Group of the Year – firing like afterburners on their already rocketing career.

Their perseverant climb of the music industry’s ladders is the least remarkable aspect of Larkin Poe’s trajectory, though. The sisters Lovell outwardly channel a sort of outlaw-styled disaffection for the trappings and machinations of the industry or Music Row, inhabiting self-assured personas that fit seamlessly within the genres they call home. They know they’re stellar songwriters, they’re virtuosic pickers, and they’re fluent in the aggression, anger, and release of rock and roll. Across their entire catalog there are clear demonstrations – from the winking and sly to the outright and overt (see, for instance, “She’s a Self Made Man“) – where Larkin Poe show their listeners they aren’t just living in “a man’s world,” they’re owning it, re-centering it, and doing it better than the machismo naysayers rife in these roots styles. Styles where a corrective phrase like “Um, actually…” is still wielded as a cudgel or seen as valuable social currency.

Um, actually… these women know exactly what they’re doing. And they would have to, given they came up through bluegrass, folk, and string band circles as a bluegrass(-ish) family band, the Lovell Sisters, with their sister Jessica. Winning songwriting contests and appearing on Prairie Home Companion, the Lovell Sisters were quickly beloved in bluegrass, honing their chops while also getting their first tastes of being written off or sidelined as “merely” a female-centered novelty act. When the group decided to disband, Megan and Rebecca “reskinned” as Larkin Poe, immediately transforming so many of their “I knew them when” audience members into “I wish they still played bluegrass” skeptics. Not that the Lovells cared, ultimately. A hallmark of the duo since their rebirth has been agency, autonomy, and self-possession. (Something of a prerequisite for successful women in roots music, to be sure.)

Seven studio albums into their grooving, rollicking, no-holds-barred catalog, Larkin Poe are even less concerned with external forces or outside variables influencing and impacting their music. Bloom builds on the confidence and clarity of Blood Harmony‘s GRAMMY Award-winning vision. Produced and co-written by both Lovells and their longtime collaborator (and Rebecca’s spouse) Tyler Bryant, Bloom zooms in on the individual stems, leaves, and petals of the agency and self-determination that have run through all of their music. It is, yet again, a decidedly familial project, but despite all of the ground they’ve covered together and all of the miles they’ve traveled over their lifelong careers together, rebirth and reinvention continue to blossom on each of their projects. It speaks once more to the music itself being their guiding light – rather than commercial appeal, marketability, or continuing to do it simply because it’s what they’ve always done.

“Bloom is about finding oneself amidst the noise of the world,” says Rebecca via press release. “About wholeheartedly embracing the flaws and idiosyncrasies that make us real. In one way or another, pretty much all of the songs on this album are about finding yourself, knowing yourself, and separating the truth of who you are from societal expectations.”

Perhaps only a group of women could make a Southern rock album with this sort of message at its core. They may peacock and strut, on stage and in the studio, just like their male peers and contemporaries might, but they do so with a message and mission that’s decidedly antithetical to most creators in Americana, rock, and blues these days. Especially the “Um, actually…” set. By taking on these characters and personas, Larkin Poe aren’t hiding their truths from us, but putting their most authentic selves directly into the spotlight.

At the same time, when you’ve spent your entire adult lives making and performing music with your family, with siblings and in-laws and chosen family, too, it’s often a passive and subconscious process by which you slowly lose pieces of yourself, of your individuality, of your sacred selfhood. It’s no wonder, then, that Larkin Poe have crafted a stunning, engaging, and iconic catalog of music that orbits around this very dichotomy. To be a family band, to sing or pick or channel blood harmonies, is to give up yourself for the greater whole. Megan and Rebecca and their compatriots then use that same music to find and re-find that sense of self as it slips away. Each time, each album and each set of songs, it is a musical gift; and each time, including the latest effort, Bloom, Larkin Poe find and share themselves anew.

We are so very excited to name Larkin Poe our January 2025 Artist of the Month. Stay tuned for our exclusive interview with Megan and Rebecca Lovell coming later this month, dive into our Essential Larkin Poe Playlist below, and follow along on social media all month as we dive back into the BGS and Good Country archives for everything Larkin Poe and the Lovell sisters.

Photo Credit: Robby Klein

Basic Folk: A Wild 2024 Ride

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

It’s 2024 recap time on Basic Folk! Cindy & Lizzie dive into a most special year-end reflection, featuring highlights from our honest conversations with folk musicians. We revisit the top episode of the year, Anna Tivel & Jeffrey Martin’s insightful discussion on navigating artistic challenges and living a simple life. Cindy shares her favorite episode featuring her co-host Lizzie No talking about her career-defining album, Halfsies (our 250th episode!). In turn, Lizzie’s favorite honest convo came from Leyla McCalla onboard the Cayamo cruise. We sat in the ship lounge and dug in with Leyla about the “folk process” and her thoughts on cruising, as a Haitian-American, as we ported in Hispaniola aboard a luxury cruise line. (Spoiler: it is complex!)

LISTEN: APPLE • SPOTIFY • AMAZON • MP3

Basic Folk also checks in with friend Jontavious Willis about his biggest lesson of 2024 and what defining success as an independent artist looks like as he has just released his latest, West Georgia Blues. We also welcome Rose Cousins’ heartfelt words on embracing change as she prepares to release her next record, Conditions of Love – Vol. 1 (out March 14, 2025). As the episode ends, Lizzie leaves us with some words of wisdom:

“We are at a time of year where your body wants to be doing less. We’ve just survived a chaos clown show of violence in the election. Our culture is shifting rapidly. It’s okay if the things that used to work for you don’t work anymore. You’re allowed to start over. You’re allowed to try new things. You’re allowed to tell people in your life, ‘I’ve changed.’ You’re allowed to listen to new artists. You’re allowed to change how you dress. You can do it all. 2025 is a new year and you have freedom. And that’s my blessing to you.” – Lizzie No

Photo Credit: Lizzie No by Cole Nielsen; Rose Cousins by Lindsay Duncan; Leyla McCalla by Chris Scheurich; Jontavious Willis courtesy of the artist; Anna Tivel by Cody Onthank; Jeffrey Martin courtesy of the artist.

MIXTAPE: A Soundtrack of Life for Another Glory’s Nathan Trueb

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

Growing up in a musical family, I was exposed to a lot of different sounds from an early age – a lot of them, not by choice. I had a dad who preferred country radio and led gospel music at our church. My mom played classical and Civil War songs on the piano daily while I played with my toys. Next were two older siblings using seniority to lord over the dials at every chance – they also both played classical piano.

As I got older and carved away at my own musical sensibilities, these dictates became accidental influences to the soundtrack of my life and shaped who I have become as a songwriter and musician. This playlist includes some early influences along with music that has turned me on for one reason or another, which I’ll do my best to explain. Thank you to everyone who has helped shape the soundtrack of my life so far, especially my family and mentors. – Nathan Trueb, Another Glory

“Surfer Girl” – The Beach Boys

Some of my earliest memories growing up involve the Beach Boys. I remember the Endless Summer cassette tape and its painted album cover distinctly. We would listen to it on road trips and I remember my dad and his friends playing guitars and singing these songs. My older brother got really into the Beach Boys and I remember he loved this song. Even though he told me he didn’t know why, but it made him sad. It also became my 2-year-old daughter’s favorite song and band.

“Why Not Me” – The Judds

As much as I didn’t want to like country music, it started to become harder to make excuses as to why just as soon as I started to play the guitar and take music more seriously. If you were to ask anyone in my grade school what music they liked, the only acceptable answer was, “Everything BUT country.” The more discerning my ear became I couldn’t deny the masterful playing and even, dare I say, “shredding” of the players on these then-contemporary records. The other thing that country brought to the table were some perfectly crafted, three-minute-and-twenty-nine second pop masterpieces like this one. Although I couldn’t show it outwardly to my family, I was rocking out on the inside.

“Black Cadillac” – Lightnin’ Hopkins

We used to go over to my uncle’s house from time to time when my mom was at work. On one visit, around the time when I had just started playing guitar, I found out my uncle played a left-handed acoustic guitar that I really admired. I also had no idea that he had been learning some blues and showed me a few licks and we jammed together. He had a few records laid out and this one leaped into my hands. He put it on and I couldn’t believe my ears. The voice, the guitar, the storytelling and humor. I did that thing where I didn’t let go of the record until my uncle suggested I take it home. I still play that same copy to this day.

“Going to California” – Led Zeppelin

I owe the most to my brother as a musical influence – I guess just influence in general. He was always there with the next record I needed to hear. It was a pipeline from his friends to him, him to me, and then me to my friends. I’ll never forget the day that he played me Led Zeppelin and it completely blew my mind. Growing up in a conservative household, I had never heard anything like it and everything changed after that. I became obsessed with Led Zeppelin like people get obsessed with Harry Potter or WWII. “Going to California” came to me around the time of first loves and I really got it. “Sell the Farm” off of the Another Glory record is a direct hat-tip to this song. I love the way it made me feel and how it still transports me to long phone calls in my attic room in the summer time.

“Michelle” – The Beatles

My first memorable crush was named Michelle. She was my sister’s friend and would visit our house often. We grew up on a farm and that meant that my brand of flirting was often hurtling cow pies at my sister’s friends. Somehow that first love was unrequited.

I remember a trip to the Puget Sound where my brother loaned me his Beatles 1962-1966 disc (the red one with the whole apple/cut apple on the compact disc), popping it in the Discman, putting the headphones on, and listening to that song over and over. I loved it, but it made me sad. Now I knew how my brother felt when he listened to “Surfer Girl.” I sing this song to my daughter and it’s still amazes me that they wrote it. Like, how? I’m sure there’s a story about it somewhere, but I don’t think I really want to know. My wife and I have been together since high school and the first time I visited her bedroom she had every single Beatles album in a dedicated, spinning CD tower.

“Naptown Blues” – Herb Ellis

My mom was driving me to school one day my freshman year and I had the local jazz radio station on, 89.1 KMHD. I think playing the guitar a lot when I was homeschooled for a couple years took me on a trajectory from Led Zeppelin to Steely Dan to trying to understand jazz by listening to the radio. This song came on as she dropped me off. I said, “I don’t know what this is, but I want to play like that.” Bless her heart, she must have written it down as the DJ read that title after the song ended (in their soft, publicly-funded morning voice), because I unwrapped this CD for my next birthday and I remember listening to it while I went to sleep until I had every part memorized.

“Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright” – Bob Dylan

Speaking of girlfriends, my first real girlfriend in high school had an older brother who was a Dylan fanatic. I remember looking through his 72-disc Case Logic CD case. I opened up the first page, Dylan. Second page, Dylan. The entire thing was filled with Bob Dylan. He asked me if I was a fan and I remember saying, “not yet.” For some reason I had a feeling I might be someday.

Well, I don’t remember how, but when I moved out of my folks’ place this song hit me like a freight train. Dylan’s influence is so obvious in any modern music, especially when you are a guy fingerpicking a guitar, but we have to give credit where it’s due. I’d like my old girlfriend’s brother to know that I finally crossed the Rubicon.

“My Funny Valentine” – Bill Evans & Jim Hall 

I’ve had a few guitar teachers in my life and had the pleasure of taking some lessons in college from Jerry Hahn. He had his own books and I think was a big fan of Jim Hall. He turned me on to this record and this style of walking bass with chords. He also taught me to keep a list of “must-have” or “must-find” records in my wallet for the record store. I still have a list to this day in my notes. He said this one should be on there. Years after taking from him, I found an original copy somewhere in California. This is one of my all-time favorite records.

“Run That Body Down” – Paul Simon

I got pretty into this record at some point and into Paul Simon’s writing in general. I used to have two enormous PA speakers that we used for band practice in my basement. Late at night I would sit between them and listen to music very loud. This song was on and the guitar solo caught me by surprise. I looked up the song to find out who played the solo. It was my old teacher, Jerry Hahn!

I ran into him at a jazz club not too long after and asked him about it. He recalled it perfectly and said he turned down the offer to come to the studio because he was “too busy.” They kept calling, so he went and remembered being frustrated. Take after take, Paul wasn’t getting what he wanted. Finally Jerry took the solo in a totally different direction, against his good sense, with the wah pedal and all. After the take Paul exclaimed, “That’s it!”

“One Mo’Gin” – D’Angelo

After listening to all of the Motown one can get their hands on, you start to wish there was more. Or, that it continued to evolve into modernity with class and style instead of flaming out, morphing into disco dances by designer drugs. Like when your parents started “raising the roof.” At some point you just have to put it down, like Old Yeller. Then decades later someone comes along who has filled themselves to the brim with that old tonic and others that had filled up on the same, and it comes spilling out in biblical proportions in a perfect statement. Voodoo is that album. D’Angelo is that prophet. I have listened to this record so much in my life that it’s hard to state exactly what influence it has had on me. “Fool For You” was a song written a long time ago and it was a direct attempt to do something in that vein.

“I Don’t Know” – Nick Hakim

As you get older it gets harder to get the same high from music that you did when stuff first really freaked you out – or maybe that’s just me. So, when you find that something or someone, it might become an instant obsession. Nick Hakim had that effect on me. I loved everything he was doing; it was so different, sonically, than most of the bedroom pop stuff or neo-soul. It felt like a modern psychedelic Voodoo, but also just heartbreakingly beautiful. His ability to mix his jazz-school-kid sensibilities with gospel and indie-rock set a high bar and still does.

“The Only Thing” – Sufjan Stevens

It seems that everyone has a favorite Sufjan. His prolific list of albums seem limitless in their scope and bending of genres. The only Sufjan for me is Carrie & Lowell. I don’t think there is an album that equals it in creating a soundtrack for sadness, grief, regret, love, life, and death – at least not that I have found. His lyrical imagery seems to be divinely inspired and it’s hard to pick one part of the song, so I’ll quote the first words:

The only thing that keeps me from driving this car
Half-light, jack knife into the canyon at night
Signs and wonders: Perseus aligned with the skull
Slain Medusa, Pegasus alight from us all

“The Magician” – Andy Shauf

This song came on the radio while I was driving in Portland over a bridge with a view of the river and the city behind it. (I often remember an exact time I heard a song with perfect clarity. Maybe everyone does? “Mo Money Mo Problems” I was passing the Chevron on Molalla Ave., Oregon City, circa 2001.)

After the 8-bar intro to this intriguing new single on the local indie radio station, I nearly crashed my car. I instantly remember being like, “OKAY!” and banging my head when the beat dropped. It’s a perfect song to me and a perfect recording that is perfectly produced. You can’t say that about every song you love.

“If I’m Unworthy” – Blake Mills

Every guitarist sooner or later was exposed to Blake Mills. A friend of mine turned me onto his first album early, before all the hype, and I quickly became a fan. His songs and voice weren’t typical and were totally unique to him. I had watched a lot of videos of him playing and he quickly became the best living guitarist that I was aware of.

His long-awaited sophomore album was finally announced. When he came to town to support the record he was booked in a small room, seated. His name was so unknown I couldn’t find anybody to go with me. I also had inside knowledge that his then girlfriend, Fiona Apple, was likely to make an appearance. So I stood silently in line to the sold-out night and kept my mouth shut.

During his set, I popped out to the bar to get a drink and bellied up to the bar. I let the woman to my left go ahead of me. It was Fiona Apple. She laughed when I nearly spit out my drink. “If I’m Unworthy,” in the moment it was released, became the new “guitar song” for guitar nerds. Every single guitarist has to learn it, as a rite of passage; like Stevie Ray Vaughan or “Sweet Home Alabama.” The song is a snapshot of the Blake Mills that revolutionized guitar once again and then quickly retired, confounding dad-rockers with little tube amps and glass slides adorned to their fingers. Will the real Blake Mills please stand up?

“Body” – Julia Jacklin

MLK & N Fremont, near the Chevron. That’s where I first heard this song. Maybe I only have autobiographical, photographic memories of songs if they involve a gas station, specifically Chevron. We were riding in a friend’s Subaru, which we always drove around in. A peace-sign necklace swinging from her rearview mirror, rain hitting the windshield, the music always blasting. I had never heard the song before and I was all-in from the downbeat. Such a heavy song and so personal.

Julia’s lyrics make you feel like it was you yourself on that Sydney tarmac. And the haunting question, “Do you still have that photograph?/ Would you use it to hurt me?” Like the photograph, the song is naked and circles around a singular progression, building tension until finally quietly cracking open for some light at the end.

“I guess it’s just my life, and it’s just my body…” which, on the first listen, could sound sarcastic, but on the repeat she sounds relieved or at least vindicated. And of course it is probably both. The progression gives hope that this chapter of her life, or ours, is closed. In my experience, that is what a lot of good songs do: close a chapter for the artist and the listener.

“Are You Looking Up” – Mk.Gee

Not a secret any more. Still mysterious, but not just the guitar-guy in the Dijon video. Still shy, but now he’s in the spotlight. The leap from his 2018 album to Two Star & the Dream Police might as well have been a tightrope walk over the Grand Canyon. I loved the old stuff, but when I saw the live video of “Are You Looking Up” with Mk.gee hanging out of a tour bus or train car – whatever it was – I nearly fell out of my chair. I had a hard time explaining why to some who just heard Doogie Howser synths.

His way of playing might not sound outwardly complex or groundbreaking, but in my opinion, it is. Everything about the homespun, demo-quality recordings reminds of me of how a Wu-Tang record sounds completely superior to anything else on MTV at the time, not due to its polish, but rather its grit. Mike’s voice has the perfect dichotomy of rasp and softness. He has a unique ability to sing almost indecipherable lyrics over such memorable melodies that the words could be an afterthought, not unlike Bon Iver.

I had the pleasure of meeting Mike when he came through Portland. He is shy and a lot of lyricists seem to guard their lyrics due to insecurity, but the lyrics are so good, too. I see Mk.gee as the new guitar gunslinger with his outlaw jacket as his cape. He’s single-handedly doing for guitar what The Mandalorian did for Star Wars.

Photo Credit: Ryder Medeles