Artist:We Met In June Hometown: Currently living in Sogndal, Norway Latest Album:Going Home (released September 19, 2025)
What was the first moment that you knew you wanted to be a musician?
I remember my dad and I driving through Minnesota when I was about eight years old. He had bought Fleetwood Mac’s collection CD so we’d have something to listen to and we played it over and over again. I became completely obsessed and that’s when I found a deep interest in music. I knew I wanted to do what Stevie Nicks and Christine McVie were doing. – Sara
I think I was around seven when I saw the music video for “The Final Countdown” by Europe and I thought the guitar solo by John Norum was the coolest thing ever. I remember thinking, “I want to do that someday!” I’ve also always looked up to my dad, who’s a great guitar player. He was the one who introduced me to acoustic music and bluegrass, which has been the greatest gift. – Gjest
Genre is dead (long live genre!), but how would you describe the genres and styles your music inhabits?
We’d say it’s a blend of singer-songwriter, folk, Americana, and pop. Some journalists in Norway have called our music “Nordicana,” which is basically a Nordic take on Americana. We’re inspired by a lot of ’70s music like Fleetwood Mac, Jackson Browne, Crosby, Stills & Nash, and we also love Kacey Musgraves and the whole Nashville country-pop scene.
On top of that, we listen to a lot of acoustic music like Alison Krauss & Union Station, Gillian Welch, Nickel Creek, Molly Tuttle, etc. Our acoustic guitar playing is very influenced by those bands and the sound on our new record is a dreamy mixture of acoustic guitars, sometimes mandolin and banjo, plus drums, bass, keyboards, and synths. – Gjest
Which elements of nature do you spend the most time with and how do they impact your work?
Living on the west coast of Norway surrounded by mountains and fjords has given us a strong bond with nature – it’s part of our everyday life. I start every morning with a walk to clear my head and get some fresh air. It always seems to lift my mood a bit. – Sara
And then there’s the weather – we get a lot of cold, rainy days here, which makes it easier and more natural to stay inside and play music, write, and practice. We’ve been to Nashville, for example, and it’s hard to understand how people get anything done in that heat! – Gjest
If you didn’t work in music, what would you do instead?
I’d probably be a veterinarian. It used to be my dream before We Met In June. In Norway it’s really difficult to get into veterinary school and I’ve actually applied every year since high school just to see if I’d get in. This summer, for the first time, I was accepted – and I have to admit, it hurt a little bit to turn down the spot. [Laughs] – Sara
I honestly have no idea. As a kid, I thought excavators were the coolest thing, but I probably wouldn’t be good at anything else. I’m just glad I get to do music. – Gjest
What’s one question you wish interviewers would stop asking you?
We appreciate all questions, but there’s one that always comes up: “What’s it like being a couple and working so closely together?”
We get why people are curious, but for us it feels completely natural to spend so much time together. And, honestly, if you’re going to work that closely with someone, why not do it with your favorite person in the world? Of course it’s not without challenges, like any partnership, but most of the time it’s an advantage. That said, we could definitely be better at taking breaks – it’s music 24/7! – Sara
You Gotta Hear This! We’ve got bluegrass, Americana, folk, and so much more for you in our weekly roundup of new music and premieres.
Kicking us off, Western North Carolina bluegrass greats Balsam Range dust off an old track, “Virginia Girl,” from member Caleb Smith’s archive solo album for their own rendition – with a special “vintage” banjo solo added in. From just down the mountains in upstate South Carolina, bluegrass and roots duo the Foreign Landers share their lovely new song, “Smell the Rose,” which reflects on the good, simple gifts we all receive while walking through life (if we’re open to receiving them!).
Elsewhere in our collection, another folk-Americana duo, Oliver the Crow, return with new music for the first time in a few years, offering a new video for “Burn It Down,” a song about finding redemption in starting over, starting fresh. And Rachel McIntyre Smith – who has been sharing a mini-series of cover song performance video collaborations on BGS over the past few weeks – unveils an impeccable cover of Kacey Musgraves’ “Slow Burn” with fellow artist Sammi Accola joining in.
Don’t miss Natalie Del Carmen singing “El Cortez,” an energetic country-folk song about spending time with her father and the rarity of still enjoying first-time experiences as an adult, when such firsts are much more common as a child. You’ll also hear singer-songwriter Jared Dustin Griffin fingerpicking and growling through “Shovel,” a new track that meditates on sacrifices and all you can gain from the labor of putting yourself aside.
Bringing us vibey indie roots rock, Liam Kazar contemplates “The Word The War” on his new single from his upcoming album, Pilot Light. You can watch the video for this musical exploration of loneliness and the journey (rather than the destination) below. And finally, from all the way across the globe, the High Street Drifters of Melbourne, Australia, introduce their down-under bluegrass to BGS with “Words for Leaving,” a song about distance, longing, and goodbyes – sweet and bittersweet.
It’s a stout collection this week and we’re excited for you to get to it. You know what we say every time– You Gotta Hear This!
Balsam Range, “Virginia Girl”
Artist:Balsam Range Hometown: Haywood County, North Carolina Song: “Virginia Girl” Release Date: September 5, 2025
In Their Words: “In 2013, I was putting together some tunes for a solo album. Patton Wages was my first call to help me with his killer banjo playing. I first met Patton at Everett’s Music Barn in Suwanee, Georgia, around 2005 and I immediately was a fan. We became friends and stayed in touch. He became Balsam Range’s first call if Marc Pruett ever needed to miss a gig and Patton always filled Marc’s great picking with greatness of his own.
“I wrote ‘Virginia Girl’ in March of 2013 and it was slated to be on my solo album along with “God Knows,” “The Touch,” a few more originals, and a few standards. Patton, Aaron Ramsey, Adam Steffey, and Nicky Sanders helped me create the album. I’ve sat on the tune and the album since 2013, frequently revisiting it when Balsam Range needed a tune to add to one of our albums, but ‘Virginia Girl’ has remained unused for 12 years… until now! Balsam Range recut the tune and I had an idea to see if we could fly Patton’s original banjo cut from 2013 to our new 2025 cut and it worked flawlessly, as if it were meant to be. Our engineer Clay Miller at Crossroads Studios in Asheville, North Carolina, worked his magic and did such an awesome job! Patton, I’m honored that you agreed to this and I’m honored to be your friend! We hope you enjoy ‘Virginia Girl.'” – Caleb Smith
Track Credits: Caleb Smith – Acoustic guitar, lead vocal Tim Surrett – Upright bass, harmony vocal Patton Wages – Banjo Marc Pruett – Banjo Don Rigsby – Fiddle, harmony vocal Alan Bibey – Mandolin
Natalie Del Carmen, “El Cortez”
Artist:Natalie Del Carmen Hometown: Los Angeles, California Song: “El Cortez” Album: Pastures Release Date: September 12, 2025 (song); January 30, 2026 (album) Label: Torrez Music Group
In Their Words: ‘”El Cortez’ was written for my dad, so I knew early on that I had to get it right. Last holiday, I gambled with him in Vegas for the first time at the El Cortez Hotel. It was such a fun time together. When you’re young, your first experiences go over your head because everything is a first. But then you become an adult and the pool of opportunity to have first experienced memories gets smaller. I have more respect for my parents now than I ever could have understood as a kid. It’s about getting familiar with all the ways you feel rich in life that really don’t involve money.” – Natalie Del Carmen
Track Credits: Natalie Del Carmen – Vocals, acoustic guitar, banjo Nick Antonelli – Bass Amelia Eisenhaeur – Fiddle Jordan Ezquerro – Organ Tanir Morrison – Drums, percussion Amelia Eisenhauer – Percussion
The Foreign Landers, “Smell the Rose”
Artist:The Foreign Landers Hometown: Travelers Rest, South Carolina Song: “Smell the Rose” Release Date: September 12, 2025
In Their Words: “‘Smell the Rose’ was written with our good friend Danielle Yother as a reflection on the good gifts we’re given in this life – things like music shared with friends, laughter around a campfire, sunsets, or driving down a beautiful highway with the windows down. Those moments are full of beauty, but they also slip away with time. In writing this song, we wanted to capture both the joy and the ache of that truth. For us, it points to something deeper: a reminder that while all good things here fade, they’re signposts that lead us to the one source of lasting love and beauty – God himself. Our hope is that this song encourages listeners to savor those fleeting gifts while also looking beyond them to the greater hope we have in him.” – The Foreign Landers
Artist:Jared Dustin Griffin Hometown: San Francisco, California Song: “Shovel” Album:The Perseverance of Sisyphus Release Date: September 26, 2025 Label: First City Artists
In Their Words: “‘Shovel’ was born in the heat of July 2020, my hands fumbling through unfamiliar fingerpicking patterns until the song unearthed itself. The melody came slow, like digging through hard earth, and the lyrics followed in a single, fevered afternoon. It’s a meditation on sacrifice – how we bury parts of ourselves for something greater and the toll that takes. In the shadow of calvary this song wields its own blade, turning over the soil of belief and what it costs.” – Jared Dustin Griffin
Track Credits: Jared Dustin Griffin – Guitar, harmonica Heather Little – Harmonies Fergal Scahill – Fiddle, mandolin Nathan Alef – Piano Matt Greco – Piano, organ Dave Campbell – Banjo Frank Swart – Bass Derrick Phillips – Drums
The High Street Drifters, “Words For Leaving”
Artist:The High Street Drifters Hometown: Melbourne, Australia Song: “Words for Leaving” Release Date: September 3, 2025
In Their Words: “‘Words for Leaving’ began its life at a lonely bus station in between where I was headed and who I was saying goodbye to. We wanted the track to carry that bittersweet feeling, balancing lyrical tenderness with the bluegrass pulse moving you down the road. Every instrument is a part of the dialogue, echoing the goodbyes we say to loved ones knowing that loving someone always carries the possibility of losing them. Being in Australia, so far from much of the rest of the world and with so much distance between places and people, gives this track a weight I think a lot of people will connect with. The push and pull between heartache and hope.” – Justin Vilchez, mandolin
Liam Kazar, “The Word The War”
Artist:Liam Kazar Hometown: Chicago-raised, Brooklyn-based Song: “The Word The War” Album:Pilot Light Release Date: November 7, 2025 Label: Congrats Records
In Their Words: “I can’t say I know exactly what the word is, what the war is. Utter loneliness at the mountain top, perhaps? Not that I’ve ever been there. Something close to knowing and loving the path, not the destination. Poor sleepless queen and her sleepless nights alone, but whatever, that’s her problem. Get me to the riff!” – Liam Kazar
Video Credits:Directed, produced, and edited by Austin Vesely. Kevin Veselka – Director of photography Featuring Emily Neale.
Artist:Rachel McIntyre Smith and Sammi Accola Hometown: Oliver Springs, Tennessee Song: “Slow Burn” Latest Album:Honeysuckle Friend (Deluxe) Release Date: September 10, 2025 (video); June 27, 2025 (deluxe EP)
In Their Words: “I have had the pleasure of sharing the stage with Sammi Accola at writers rounds over the years, but we had never hung out one-on-one until this recording. I truly felt like we became friends during this session. I think that’s evident in the video. We got lost in the groove of this Kacey Musgraves classic and had so much fun with it. This is the final video in the three-part series with BGS as part of You Gotta Hear This, but the Honeysuckle Friend Sessions continue on my YouTube channel!” – Rachel McIntyre Smith
“I love how naturally it came together – Rachel and I had a completely different song in mind, but the moment I saw the Kacey Musgraves vinyl on her living room wall and we started talking about the mutually loved album, the choice felt easy. ‘Slow Burn’ is just the best – gorgeous, full of harmonies, and somehow both light and grounding. In the middle of a hectic week, it was the perfect song to play. A reminder to slow down, appreciate the people in our life, and laugh at lines like, ‘Grandma cried when I pierced my nose,’ relishing our twenty-something years. I love collaborating with Rachel and celebrating the power and simplicity of a great lyric.” – Sammi Accola
Video Credits: Filmed and edited by Rachel McIntyre Smith.
Watch more Honeysuckle Friend Sessions on BGS here and here.
Oliver the Crow, “Burn It Down”
Artist:Oliver the Crow Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee Song: “Burn it Down” Album:A Feather in a Hurricane Release Date: September 5, 2025 (single); November 28, 2025 (album)
In Their Words: “‘Burn it Down’ is a song about starting over – a song about building something great and how that sometimes means taking down whatever’s in its place. To illustrate this point, this is my fourth rewrite of a song using this same chorus. Over many years of scratching out verses and starting over, my life itself became a bunch of fresh starts. Maybe this is what led to the final version you hear today – one of the more stripped-back and bare songs from an album of mostly larger, fuller production.” – Ben Plotnick
Track Credits: Ben Plotnick – Fiddle, songwriter Kaitlyn Raitz – Cello Anthony da Costa – All other sounds, producer
Video Credit: Kaitlyn Raitz
Photo Credit: the Foreign Landers by Nicole Davis; Rachel McIntyre Smith and Sammi Accola courtesy of the artists.
Dallas Ugly is not a country band. Except that they are?
More than a decade ago now, college classmates Eli Broxham, Owen Burton, and Libby Weitnauer began playing together as a new acoustic band, bluegrass and old-time chops combined with jazz and jammy virtuosity. Eventually, via COVID pandemic cloistering together, they crafted a collective identity as Dallas Ugly, a vibey and tight alt-country group built around original songs that made a splash with their 2022 debut, Watch Me Learn.
On that album you can hear bluegrass grit, the tenderness of folk and indie songwriting, influences of Southern rock and pop, and dashes of Texas twang – perhaps supplied by confirmation bias thanks to their moniker. On their latest album, See Me Now (released in April), the trio are abandoning any and all claims to Americana and country. But this collection – one of the best roots albums of the year – still listens like so many classic artists and albums at the intersection of indie, country, and the vast musical horizon.
When you ask the Nashville-based band how they’ve landed in this new, borderless, agnostic genre territory, they seem as surprised by their own chosen style markers and aesthetic vocabulary as their audiences. “It’s an accident,” says Weitnauer – with delight. “We don’t know why we sound this way. We’ve been able to loosen up more, build on the experience we’ve gotten just as musicians. … With this iteration, I feel like it shows a full development of our sound.”
In truth, however See Me Now and Dallas Ugly strike your ears, it’s quite a straightforward task to trace their journey through genres. (Though it’s not the most straightforward to discuss!) The trio simply follows each song down their own individual creative rabbit holes, trusting the music and each other to find or carve out sounds that encapsulate the feelings, textures, and stories that they craft together. They don’t lead the songs, the songs lead them. As a result, Dallas Ugly alchemically transform barn burning old-time fiddle, endless country twang, deep honky-tonkin’ pocket, earnest, sentimental songwriting, and pop-informed sweet tooths into smooth, artful, endlessly interesting indie rock.
Dallas Ugly’s brand of roots music – if you can call it that – is downright beautiful. We spoke to the group via phone between tours in May about making the album, claiming genre (or not), and the sometimes passive, sometimes overwrought process of shepherding these songs into the world.
I wanted to start with getting the genre conversation out of the way, as it were. Y’all have been very forward with communicating that this isn’t really a country album; that you don’t really see yourselves as a country band. You call it indie, indie-pop-rock. I hear you as decidedly Americana and country, personally. Obviously you have those indie-pop touches – plus, we know you have string band bones as well – but can you talk a little bit about your relationship to genre and how you intentionally stepped into this much more free, borderless sonic space with this project?
Libby Weitnauer: It’s funny, because as I’ve had more conversations with people since the album’s come out I’m like, we definitely marketed it wrong. [Laughs] The other way we could’ve gone – everyone is like, “Do you ever listen to Sunbelt?” “Do you ever listen to Wilco?” “What about like The Breeders?”
But you asked what were the intentional steps that we made – and I would say there have been no intentional steps towards any genre. Which is why we are having trouble pinning it down, because I think we decided to market it the indie route. Honestly, the Americana world seemingly wants to have nothing to do with our music. [Laughs] So we were like, “Okay, then, I guess it’s not Americana, I guess it’s not country.” Every time we bring it to those people they turn it away.
I would say our relationship with genre is very passive. When we’re making decisions and writing songs, genre isn’t a consideration. It’s always been that way. When we started playing together as the very goofy band that we were before this band, that was a sort of attempt at new acoustic music. It was the same thing, we just make decisions [based on] things that we like, or think we’re supposed to do sometimes, or sound good. Then it comes through this Dallas Ugly Eli-Libby-Owen filter, no matter what.
We’ve honestly tried so hard to fit into a genre. Where we’re like, “Okay! We’ve done it this time. You guys, we made a song that sounds like something else that exists.” Which is a funny thing to aspire to. Just trying to create stuff that we like and then it’s, “Oh, nope, nevermind. There it is. Just as weird as ever.”
Do you feel like the songs are what’s guiding you in that passive way? That you’re just trying to give the songs the treatment they each want or are asking for or deserve? Do you feel like it’s taste? Or is it just how it ends up is how it ends up? What do you think is the process for how it ends up being borderless and amorphous and not quite any one thing?
Owen Burton: Yeah, I think those are all in there. I think it isn’t as if we’re striving when we’re writing, it’s not like we’re intentionally pointing to a specific genre. There’s just things that we don’t realize are so genre-coded that are kind of inescapable about our musical voices. When we are asking how to start a song it’s, “Let’s do a fiddle kick.” It’s not, “Let’s do a country thing.” It’s just, “I feel like a fiddle kick would make sense.” And then, on the other end of that is people being like, “This is a country record now!”
It’s fair enough. But I think with this record, too, [as] I’ve learned with our first album – which we were like, this is a country record – I feel like we learned, in how it was received, how actually regimented the Americana style is. And how we weren’t within certain signifiers that are pretty regimented. Indie rock is way more broad, in terms of what it tolerates stylistically.
So the next one, this one, certainly can fit in that big tent. Now, the way it’s been perceived that way too, [I’ve realized] indie rock’s pretty regimented in ways that I didn’t understand, too. Mostly about singing. I think just none of us sing like indie boys. [Laughs]
LW: Or country voice. That’s the thing, I think what it comes down to is if different people were singing our songs, maybe it would be clearer. But I think, especially Owen and I, we have acquired taste, stinky cheese voices. [Laughs] It’s definitely not for everybody. Eli, obviously he doesn’t sing quite as much, but weirdly I would say Eli has the most familiar voice.
I happen to love stinky cheese.
LW: Exactly! Me too.
How does Justin Francis play into the genre paradigm here as your producer, as somebody who effortlessly walks between those sonic worlds? Can you talk a little bit about working with him and having him in the control room?
OB: He understood what we were going for. When we started, we intentionally controlled less variables going into the studio for this one. It’s not as if we had a strategy meeting about what kind of album this was gonna be before we started, making creative decisions on it. The songs were vaguely written before we went into the studio, but not arranged and not figured out like across the band ahead of time.
I feel like even just that process– I guess that’s a bit of a question, is that more of an Americana process or more of an indie rock process? I see that as more of a rock process; I feel like rock bands often go into the studio with songs not even written and they just write it in the studio. With [Justin] on board, he had all kinds of ideas when we were writing in the studio, little bits of studio vocab that we don’t have ourselves. [He] pushed and pulled in different genre directions, for sure.
LW: Part of the reason that we worked with him is we did these two singles with him, “Big Signs” and “Born Crying” just to try working with another producer and see what happens. I don’t even know that we were really [thinking] we could make an album with him, because honestly, he’s the real deal! We were like, “He’s famous, so he probably won’t make an album with us, but let’s just see what these things will sound like.” It was so effortless and he let us do our thing on those two. I feel like those [songs] are just as unhinged as anything else that we’ve made and he was right there with us with the ideas.
I would say, generally, working with him was really effortless. That’s the word I would use. The whole time, even the pre-production meetings.
Let’s talk about some of the music. My favorite is “Bad Feeling.” I know the lyric may say, “It’s a bad feeling, I don’t like it at all…” but I do like it. I like “Bad Feeling” a lot. I heard you guys play this song live a bunch before the album, too, but can you talk about the origin of it, its writing, how it came together in the studio?
LW: That’s the one song I think on the whole album that we had been performing [before recording]. Maybe “You Can Leave,” but it changed a lot. “Bad Feeling” we had been performing pretty much as it is, for the most part. I’m glad that you like it, because that was the song I was like… not disappointed in, but I had so much trouble breaking out of the live arrangement that we had. We had played it so much that I felt like the track suffered a little bit from how attached we were to the live arrangement.
But the making and the writing of that song, I feel like I wrote it [because] I’d been listening to a lot of Judee Sill. I guess I was inspired by that and was trying to capture how some of her songs, the chords move with the lyrics a lot. I didn’t end up really sounding like her at all, but some of the original harmonies we had for that song, played [off of] some of the harmonies in her music.
I feel like that song is like the epitome of my writing style, which is pretty autobiographical. Every time I try to write like feathery stuff, it sounds really goofy. And so with lyrics, I just try to find the most straightforward way I can say something. Usually that ends up being the most poetic, from my voice.
How do you know when you have a hook or you have the bit of the song that’s gonna be what everybody shouts along with? To me, it doesn’t feel like any of you are writing songs because you think they’re gonna be a hit. But at the same time, when I hear a really hooky song or a really catchy song – like basically this whole album – whether it’s “Bad Feeling” or “Sugar Crash” or “Circumstances” or “See Me Now,” I can picture a “light bulb moment” when you find that hook or line that ends up being the sing along.
LW: When I’m writing, I don’t really consciously think about hooks like this. That being said, a lot of my songs start with either a phrase or a melody. I’ll be on a walk or doing something in the kitchen just singing little thing. Like “Circumstances” – “I put a letter in the mail…” – that just happened in my brain when I was doing something. Then usually I’ll grab onto that and write the song around whatever little melody piece comes to me. I guess what ends up being the hook, a lot of the time, is what comes to me. And then I find myself singing it and I let it take off and do what it’s gonna do.
Eli Broxham: I feel like something that comes up, a question we end up asking ourselves that I’ve heard Libby ask a bunch of times is, “Is this super cheesy?” [All laugh] Which, we definitely ride the line of cheesiness, but at some point, you have to just be like, “I don’t know. I like it. And that’s good enough.” If it’s borderline to me, maybe it’ll be over the line for somebody else, but clearly, within bounds for another listener.
At some point, trust your instincts and be like, “It might be cheesy, but that’s okay.” And yeah, I think melodically is where I have my surest footing [writing hooks]. I still feel as a songwriter, if I hit the mark, it’s maybe by chance or something.
I also want to talk about “See Me Now,” because it’s the title track, because it’s a great song, but also because I feel like it epitomizes the journey y’all have been on, from Watch Me Learn to this album. Not just musically and creatively, but also genre, and also politically and socially. This song is “of the moment” in a really interesting way, because you can listen to it down and it’s a love song and it’s a song about seeing and being seen, but it’s also about perception and, “Is my existence valid?”
All of that is really deeply resonant, but if you zoom out and view the song in the context of the band, it changes its meaning. If you zoom out yet again and you view it in the context of y’all really coming together during COVID to do this project as Dallas Ugly, being friends for more than a decade, it changes the meaning of the song again. It’s a tesseract of a track where you guys are writing in four dimensions – it’s not too intellectual or conceptual, but it has endless depth. How!?
OB: I actually wrote that very quickly, because Elise Leavy was having like a songwriting circle. I hadn’t written a song terribly recently, so I was just gonna write something real quick for this. That was the song I wrote and at the time – this is years ago – I was very into that Kacey Musgraves album, Golden Hour, and the lead track, [“Slow Burn”]. That acoustic intro thing, I was messing around with that, because the chords are really simple, but the voicings are so interesting.
Those two things – “hurry up and write a song” and the somewhat new vocab I had just learned – came together. That first draft of it was soft, crummy – plus those lyrics, it’s hard to say what they’re about, because I wrote them very quick. Sometimes this spiel I give on stage is:
It’s three people meeting each other after some kind of apocalypse. In the universe of the apocalypse, because nobody has anything anymore, it’s very hard to [determine] what status anyone was before the apocalypse. It’s three different kinds of people with different former social status, wishing that people they interacted with could tell what status they used to have. People are very comfortable in their status, I feel like whether it’s high status or low status, people find comfort in both. Personal comfort in your own status and the comfort in feeling like you know how to treat people once you derive their status.
I feel like audiences never understand that spiel and it’s maybe too heady to be worth anything. [Laughs] Maybe that’s also why it feels like there’s so many different reads you could have of that song.
I think the most interesting thing about it – and maybe I’m projecting y’all – is the sentiment, “Can’t you see me now? I want you to see me.” Maybe that’s just the millennial condition. All of us having nostalgia for something that never existed, generationally, and being like, “I need you to see me. I need you to perceive me. But also I’d rather you perceive me from the golden era, from the before times. From when things were right.”
Also the “Can you hear me now?” reference of it all feels very millennial, very of the 2000s in a great way. Again, is this cheesy? No, of course not. Listen to it! But also, yes it is.
OB: Yeah, that’s where we live.
LW: That’s where we live! And I would say, before this, before the version that’s on the album, it had a very different flavor. I can’t even remember how it sounded exactly, but it was definitely more country – almost like country rock – and that was over the line. I’m glad we found [this style] and Justin helped us find that. Just pulling it back to the other side a little bit, because yeah, lyrically and melodically, it’s so solid and awesome. But we had to go to the drawing board a few times to get the setting right for it.
EB: That one is like the musical ideas are blocks that are put in place. I remember when we were doing this – after some of the drawing board stuff that Libby was talking about – but I was listening to that Mac Miller album, Circles – which I think is maybe the best Mac Miller album. I was listening to how the elements didn’t change, they just turned on and off to make the song, which I feel like is pretty common in pop and rap production. But often, especially in this band or in Americana and rock, things tend to sneak in and out and evolve.
But for that song in particular, the bass line just turns on, then turns off for a little part. It turns on and turns off. There’s different parts of different sections, but they are like binary, which I think is an interesting approach – and a first for us, in that sense. Somehow, that takes it out of the realm of cheesy country and accentuates the lyrics in a nice way. Even that final chorus, where it’s just a big pause and then the chorus turns on.
LW: That’s interesting that you say that, ’cause I feel like for my fiddling, that was the approach I took on this whole album. Honestly, until we got to the pre-production meetings I was like, “I don’t even think I’m gonna play fiddle on this album.”
I took more of [an approach like] I’m a sample of a thing, rather than being a fiddle in a band. Like even on “You Can Leave,” which is the more fiddle-y of the tracks, in the verses I’m not doing traditional fills. I’m doing this one rhythmic hook every time this comes around and that’s what I’m playing on this song.
It was the idea of turning things on and off rather than trying to be part of the whole song. And I let myself punctuate things and not feel like I need to play the whole time.
The Americana Music Association has announced the nominees for its 24th annual Americana Honors & Awards. This year’s nominations were revealed by Brandi Carlile, Kashus Culpepper, S.G. Goodman, Jim Lauderdale, Kacey Musgraves and Molly Tuttle in a social media announcement.
The winners will be announced during the Americana Honors & Awards on Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025, at the historic Ryman Auditorium in Nashville. The celebrated program is the hallmark event of AMERICANAFEST, which returns for its 25th year on Sept. 9-13, 2025.
A full list of categories and nominees for the Americana Music Association’s 24th annual Americana Honors & Awards is below the video player.
ALBUM OF THE YEAR:
Lonesome Drifter, Charley Crockett; Produced by Charley Crockett & Shooter Jennings
Foxes in the Snow, Jason Isbell; Produced by Jason Isbell & Gena Johnson
Manning Fireworks, MJ Lenderman; Produced by Alex Farrar & MJ Lenderman
South of Here, Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats; Produced by Brad Cook
Woodland, Gillian Welch & David Rawlings; Produced by David Rawlings
ARTIST OF THE YEAR:
Charley Crockett
Sierra Ferrell
Joy Oladokun
Billy Strings
Waxahatchee
DUO/GROUP OF THE YEAR:
Julien Baker & TORRES
Dawes
Larkin Poe
The Mavericks
Gillian Welch & David Rawlings
EMERGING ACT OF THE YEAR:
Noeline Hofmann
MJ Lenderman
Medium Build
Maggie Rose
Jesse Welles
INSTRUMENTALIST OF THE YEAR:
Fred Eltringham
Alex Hargreaves
Megan Jane
Kaitlyn Raitz
Seth Taylor
SONG OF THE YEAR:
“Johnny Moonshine,” Maggie Antone; Written by Maggie Antone, Natalie Hemby & Aaron Raitiere
“Ancient Light,” I’m With Her; Written by Sarah Jarosz, Aoife O’Donovan & Sara Watkins
“Wristwatch,” MJ Lenderman; Written by MJ Lenderman
“Sunshine Getaway,” JD McPherson; Written by Page Burkum, JD McPherson & Jack Torrey
“Heartless,” Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats; Written by Nathaniel Rateliff
Photo Credits: Charley Crockett courtesy of the artist; Gillian Welch & David Rawlings by Alysse Gafkjen; Waxahatchee by Molly Matalon
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.
Sabrina Carpenter
Stop everything!! Sabrina Carpenter’s deluxe edition of Short n’ Sweet released today, featuring Dolly Parton herself on a new version of “Please Please Please” – and, thank you!
Olivia Ellen Lloyd
An honest, down to earth country singer-songwriter from West Virginia, the self-sufficient Olivia Ellen Lloyd will release her lovely new honky-tonkin’ album, Do It Myself, in March.
Kacey Musgraves
“The Architect” as Best Country Song? Another one the GRAMMYs got right this year. Even if you never stopped listening, it’s the perfect time to return to this Good Country track.
Indie folk with string band bones from Montana (via Nashville), we’re excited for TopHouse’s new EP, Practice – and that they’ll play our stage at Bourbon & Beyond later this year.
Cristina Vane
Hundreds of thousands of fans adore the blues, bluegrass, Americana, and country combinations of Cristina Vane and her slide guitar. Her latest, Hear My Call, is out next week.
Sunny War
Our BGS Artist of the Month, Sunny War brings together fingerpicking, blues, punk – and so much more. Her newest, Armageddon in a Summer Dress, is timely, fierce, and excellent.
Dive into our Artist of the Month coverage on BGS.
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Photo Credits: Sabrina Carpenter, Short n’ Sweet; Olivia Ellen Lloyd by Aaron May; Kacey Musgraves by Kelly Christine Sutton; TopHouse courtesy of the artist; Cristina Vane courtesy of the artist; Sunny War by Joshua Black Wilkins.
Yesterday, the 67th Annual GRAMMY Awards show was held in Los Angeles, handing out dozens of awards across the primetime broadcast and premiere ceremony while highlighting the city’s ongoing response to last month’s extreme wildfires, which displaced hundreds of musicians, artists, industry professionals, and creatives. The marquee event was kicked off by Dawes – whose sibling frontmen, Taylor and Griffin Goldsmith, had homes, their studio, and countless instruments and equipment destroyed in the blazes. They performed a moving rendition of “I Love L.A.” with a host of special guests.
Throughout the show, audience members were encouraged to support MusiCares Fire Relief, a collaborative fundraiser launched by the Recording Academy and MusiCares in partnership with Direct Relief, the California Community Foundation, and the Pasadena Community Foundation to help expand wildfire relief efforts across the broader Los Angeles community. Despite the somber shadow cast by the disaster over LA and its creative community, the show was convivial, joyous, and restorative – and included more than a few show-stopping and jaw-dropping moments.
As usual, the crème de la crème of roots musicians could be found across both the pre-telecast and primetime awards, scooping up golden gramophones in seemingly endless varieties of categories. The evening’s big winners in the Country & American Roots Music categories included superstar Beyoncé, who finally picked up her first Album of the Year win, as well as becoming the first Black woman to ever win Best Country Album. She also won the trophy for Best Country Duo Performance with Miley Cyrus for “II Most Wanted,” bringing her GRAMMY Awards totals to 99 nominations and 35 wins – the most wins of any recipient in the history of the awards.
Sierra Ferrell, a West Virginia native and firebrand bluegrass and country starlet quickly on the rise these past handful of years, was indisputably the day’s other big winner, scoring in each of the four categories in which she was nominated. She quickly followed her very first GRAMMY win with three more, landing awards for Best Americana Album, Best American Roots Performance, Best Americana Performance, and Best American Roots Song – an honor she shares with her co-writer, musician, songwriter, and vocalist Melody Walker (Front Country, BERTHA: Grateful Drag).
The award for Best Bluegrass Album was yet again snatched by the world’s premier flatpicker, Billy Strings, for Live Vol. 1, logging his second win at the GRAMMYs after seven nominations over the last five years.
Pop phenom Chappell Roan won Best New Artist, Kacey Musgraves took home Best Country Song for “The Architect,” Chris Stapleton racked up his 11th GRAMMY win for Best Country Solo Performance, and Woodland, the latest album by Gillian Welch & David Rawlings, was recognized as Best Folk Album. Chick Corea won a posthumous award – Best Jazz Instrumental Album – for Remembrance, a duo project helmed by banjoist Béla Fleck that was released in honor of his hero, friend, and collaborator.
The GRAMMYs yet again demonstrate that the impact of bluegrass, folk, Americana, and country on the mainstream music industry cannot be overstated. Congratulations to all of the winners and nominees for the 67th GRAMMY Awards!
“16 CARRIAGES” – Beyoncé “I Am Not Okay” – Jelly Roll “The Architect” – Kacey Musgraves “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” – Shaboozey “It Takes A Woman” – Chris Stapleton
Best Country Duo/Group Performance
“Cowboys Cry Too” – Kelsea Ballerini with Noah Kahan “II MOST WANTED” – Beyoncé featuring Miley Cyrus “Break Mine” – Brothers Osborne “Bigger Houses” – Dan + Shay “I Had Some Help” – Post Malone featuring Morgan Wallen
Best Country Song
“The Architect” – Shane McAnally, Kacey Musgraves & Josh Osborne, songwriters (Kacey Musgraves) “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” – Sean Cook, Jerrel Jones, Joe Kent, Chibueze Collins Obinna, Nevin Sastry & Mark Williams, songwriters (Shaboozey) “I Am Not Okay” – Casey Brown, Jason DeFord, Ashley Gorley & Taylor Phillips, songwriters (Jelly Roll) “I Had Some Help” – Louis Bell, Ashley Gorley, Hoskins, Austin Post, Ernest Smith, Ryan Vojtesak, Morgan Wallen & Chandler Paul Walters, songwriters (Post Malone Featuring Morgan Wallen) “TEXAS HOLD ‘EM”– Brian Bates, Beyoncé, Elizabeth Lowell Boland, Megan Bülow, Nate Ferraro & Raphael Saadiq, songwriters (Beyoncé)
Best Country Album
COWBOY CARTER – Beyoncé F-1 Trillion – Post Malone Deeper Well – Kacey Musgraves Higher – Chris Stapleton Whirlwind – Lainey Wilson
Best American Roots Performance
“Blame It On Eve” – Shemekia Copeland “Nothing In Rambling” – The Fabulous Thunderbirds featuring Bonnie Raitt, Keb’ Mo’, Taj Mahal, & Mick Fleetwood “Lighthouse” – Sierra Ferrell “The Ballad Of Sally Anne” – Rhiannon Giddens
Best Americana Performance
“YA YA” – Beyoncé “Subtitles” – Madison Cunningham “Don’t Do Me Good” – Madi Diaz featuring Kacey Musgraves “American Dreaming” – Sierra Ferrell “Runaway Train” – Sarah Jarosz “Empty Trainload Of Sky” – Gillian Welch & David Rawlings
Best American Roots Song
“Ahead Of The Game” – Mark Knopfler, songwriter (Mark Knopfler) “All In Good Time” – Sam Beam, songwriter (Iron & Wine featuring Fiona Apple) “All My Friends” – Aoife O’Donovan, songwriter (Aoife O’Donovan) “American Dreaming” – Sierra Ferrell & Melody Walker, songwriters (Sierra Ferrell) “Blame It On Eve” – John Hahn & Will Kimbrough, songwriters (Shemekia Copeland)
Best Americana Album
The Other Side – T Bone Burnett $10 Cowboy – Charley Crockett Trail Of Flowers – Sierra Ferrell Polaroid Lovers – Sarah Jarosz No One Gets Out Alive – Maggie Rose Tigers Blood – Waxahatchee
Best Bluegrass Album
I Built A World – Bronwyn Keith-Hynes Songs Of Love And Life – The Del McCoury Band No Fear – Sister Sadie Live Vol. 1 – Billy Strings Earl Jam – Tony Trischka Dan Tyminski: Live From The Ryman – Dan Tyminski
Best Traditional Blues Album
Hill Country Love – Cedric Burnside Struck Down – The Fabulous Thunderbirds One Guitar Woman – Sue Foley Sam’s Place – Little Feat Swingin’ Live At The Church In Tulsa – The Taj Mahal Sextet
Best Contemporary Blues Album
Blues Deluxe Vol. 2 – Joe Bonamassa Blame It On Eve – Shemekia Copeland Friendlytown – Steve Cropper & The Midnight Hour Mileage – Ruthie Foster The Fury – Antonio Vergara
Best Folk Album
American Patchwork Quartet – American Patchwork Quartet Weird Faith – Madi Diaz Bright Future – Adrianne Lenker All My Friends – Aoife O’Donovan Woodland – Gillian Welch & David Rawlings
Best Regional Roots Music Album
25 Back To My Roots – Sean Ardoin And Kreole Rock And Soul Live At The 2024 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival – Big Chief Monk Boudreaux & The Golden Eagles featuring J’Wan Boudreaux Live At The 2024 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival – New Breed Brass Band featuring Trombone Shorty Kuini – Kalani Pe’a Stories From The Battlefield – The Rumble Featuring Chief Joseph Boudreaux Jr.
Best Roots Gospel Album
The Gospel Sessions, Vol 2 – Authentic Unlimited The Gospel According To Mark – Mark D. Conklin Rhapsody – The Harlem Gospel Travelers Church – Cory Henry Loving You – The Nelons
Best Jazz Performance
“Walk With Me, Lord (SOUND | SPIRIT)” – The Baylor Project “Phoenix Reimagined (Live)” – Lakecia Benjamin featuring Randy Brecker, Jeff “Tain” Watts & John Scofield “Juno” – Chick Corea & Béla Fleck “Twinkle Twinkle Little Me” – Samara Joy featuring Sullivan Fortner “Little Fears” – Dan Pugach Big Band featuring Nicole Zuraitis & Troy Roberts
Best Jazz Instrumental Album
Owl Song – Ambrose Akinmusire featuring Bill Frisell & Herlin Riley Beyond This Place – Kenny Barron featuring Kiyoshi Kitagawa, Johnathan Blake, Immanuel Wilkins & Steve Nelson Phoenix Reimagined (Live) – Lakecia Benjamin Remembrance – Chick Corea & Béla Fleck Solo Game – Sullivan Fortner
Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album
À Fleur De Peau – Cyrille Aimée Visions – Norah Jones Good Together – Lake Street Dive Impossible Dream – Aaron Lazar Christmas Wish – Gregory Porter
Best Contemporary Instrumental Album
Plot Armor – Taylor Eigsti Rhapsody In Blue – Béla Fleck Orchestras (Live) – Bill Frisell featuring Alexander Hanson, Brussels Philharmonic, Rudy Royston & Thomas Morgan Mark – Mark Guiliana Speak To Me – Julian Lage
Best Instrumental Composition
“At Last” – Shelton G. Berg, composer (Shelly Berg) “Communion” – Christopher Zuar, composer (Christopher Zuar Orchestra) “I Swear, I Really Wanted To Make A “Rap” Album But This Is Literally The Way The Wind Blew Me This Time” – André 3000, Surya Botofasina, Nate Mercereau & Carlos Niño, composers (André 3000) “Remembrance” – Chick Corea, composer (Chick Corea & Béla Fleck) “Strands” – Pascal Le Boeuf, composer (Akropolis Reed Quintet, Pascal Le Boeuf & Christian Euman)
Best Arrangement, Instrumental or A Cappella
“Baby Elephant Walk” – Encore, Michael League, arranger (Snarky Puppy) “Bridge Over Troubled Water” – Jacob Collier, Tori Kelly & John Legend, arrangers (Jacob Collier Featuring John Legend & Tori Kelly) “Rhapsody In Blue(Grass)” – Béla Fleck & Ferde Grofé, arrangers (Béla Fleck featuring Michael Cleveland, Sierra Hull, Justin Moses, Mark Schatz & Bryan Sutton) “Rose Without The Thorns” – Erin Bentlage, Alexander Lloyd Blake, Scott Hoying, A.J. Sealy & Amanda Taylor, arrangers (Scott Hoying featuring säje & Tonality) “Silent Night” – Erin Bentlage, Sara Gazarek, Johnaye Kendrick & Amanda Taylor, arrangers (säje)
Notable General Field Categories:
Record Of The Year
“Now And Then” – The Beatles “TEXAS HOLD ‘EM” – Beyoncé “Espresso” – Sabrina Carpenter “360” – Charli XCX “BIRDS OF A FEATHER” – Billie Eilish “Not Like Us” – Kendrick Lamar “Good Luck, Babe!” – Chappell Roan “Fortnight” – Taylor Swift featuring Post Malone
Album Of The Year
New Blue Sun – André 3000 COWBOY CARTER – Beyoncé Short n’ Sweet – Sabrina Carpenter BRAT – Charli XCX Djesse Vol. 4 – Jacob Collier HIT ME HARD AND SOFT – Billie Eilish Chappell Roan The Rise And Fall Of A Midwest Princess – Chappell Roan THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT – Taylor Swift
Song Of The Year
“A Bar Song (Tipsy)” – Sean Cook, Jerrel Jones, Joe Kent, Chibueze Collins Obinna, Nevin Sastry & Mark Williams, songwriters (Shaboozey) “BIRDS OF A FEATHER” – Billie Eilish O’Connell & FINNEAS, songwriters (Billie Eilish) “Die With A Smile” – Dernst Emile II, James Fauntleroy, Lady Gaga, Bruno Mars & Andrew Watt, songwriters (Lady Gaga & Bruno Mars) “Fortnight” – Jack Antonoff, Austin Post & Taylor Swift, songwriters (Taylor Swift Featuring Post Malone) “Good Luck, Babe!” – Kayleigh Rose Amstutz, Daniel Nigro & Justin Tranter, songwriters (Chappell Roan) “Not Like Us” – Kendrick Lamar, songwriter (Kendrick Lamar) “Please Please Please” – Amy Allen, Jack Antonoff & Sabrina Carpenter, songwriters (Sabrina Carpenter) “TEXAS HOLD ‘EM” – Brian Bates, Beyoncé, Elizabeth Lowell Boland, Megan Bülow, Nate Ferraro & Raphael Saadiq, songwriters (Beyoncé)
“I like to say my music is mixed, like me,” laughs Julie Williams, a queer, biracial Nashville-based songwriter who happens to be one of the strongest new voices to emerge in country music this decade. “I grew up loving ‘90s country, but before I moved to Nashville I didn’t necessarily think I could make that music. I didn’t think I had a place in the genre. I had so many other influences too – like the Indigo Girls, James Taylor, and other folk music – so I thought that would be more my world. But the song that changed everything for me was ‘Southern Curls.’ I was like, whoa, this is undeniably a country song, and it feels more like me than anything else I’ve ever written.”
Released back in 2021, “Southern Curls” was a breakout single for Williams and continues to inform her subsequent work in a lot of ways. Like many of the best country songs, the track flirts with an existing trope while flipping it entirely on its head, invoking the texture of her own Black hair as a foil to disrupt the traditional image of coiffed ringlets favored by white southern belles. Williams uses her hair as a gateway to discuss the still prevalent differences between how Black and white women are treated in this country, particularly in the South, and opens the conversation with a matter-of-fact account of her personal experience.
It’s a simple, riveting song, intimate and singular, but also broad enough to provide desperately needed representation for a whole diaspora of Black female artists who, like Williams, have had a hard time making space for themselves in the predominantly whitewashed genre of mainstream country. Almost immediately, the track earned the attention of fellow Black country artist and Apple Music host Rissi Palmer, who named Williams to her 2021 Color Me Country cohort, and also caught the ear of the Black Opry, who invited the young artist to join the collective on stage and on tour in 2022.
Following this up with a self-titled EP in 2023, an appearance on a PBS special about Black women in country, and a performance at Newport Folk Festival, Williams joined the CMT Next Women of Country Class of 2023. Now, she’s touring behind another new EP, Tennessee Moon, which includes a new version of the impactful song. Williams is excited about the prospect of expanding her sound – and her writing voice – even further.
“‘Southern Curls’ gave me the bravery to write songs that feel authentic to me,” Williams says. “From there, I’ve been really lucky to work with some incredible people, like my partner Jonathan Smalt, who produced my new EP, Tennessee Moon. This is a big release for me in that it feels like an arrival.”
Another part of that feeling? Williams and “Southern Curls” were featured prominently as part of a new documentary on Hulu, It’s All Country, which features legends like Luke Combs, Wynonna Judd, and Sheryl Crow, plus a never-before-seen performances from Williams herself.
While out on tour behind Tennessee Moon, which released in October, Williams called in to speak with Good Country from the road. She talked about her experience shifting from the world of public policy to the music industry, all things ’90s country, navigating the bounds of folk and other genres in her sound, and those deeply felt, close friendships that might have always been more than… just friends.
What was your relationship to country music like when you were growing up?
Julie Williams: My mom used to play a lot of ‘90s country in the car, artists like The Chicks, Shania Twain, Trisha Yearwood, and Sara Evans – but especially The Chicks. I’ve been thinking a lot about them recently, especially in the last few weeks [since the presidential election]. A huge part of my musical introduction was around the time when The Chicks were kicked off country radio. Their song, “Not Ready To Make Nice,” I remember my mom explaining the lyrics to me. That was really where my love for storytelling and lyrics came from.
I noticed the lyrics in your songs right away, they’re not filler or frivolous, they’re stories.
I always thought people would only want to listen to me if I was playing the songs they already knew and loved. Once I started writing, I realized my stories have value. Growing up in Florida, I’d sing covers of Jimmy Buffett and Tom Petty, whatever songs I thought would get me the tips from the snowbirds. I didn’t go to school for music, I went to Duke University and studied public policy. I wanted to work for a non-profit and become a lawyer. But we had a student record label I was a part of, Small Town Records, and that was the first time I got the chance to start writing my own songs. I started to see the power in my own story.
How did you make the jump from studying public policy back into music?
I wanted the work I did to make somebody’s life just a little bit better, but I didn’t realize I could do that with music too. Some of the things I cared a lot about, too – issues of race, queer issues, and women’s issues – how do you get people to care about them? Part of it is through telling stories that move people. I soon realized I didn’t have to sit behind a desk all day and be a policy analyst. Music can also get me in spaces and in front of people that I wouldn’t be around.
Is there an artist who has a career path that you’d like to follow in the industry?
I’ve always been such a fan of Kacey Musgraves and the way that she’s always stood up for what she believes in. She’s never backed down in that, and she’s always put herself in her songs. Part of it is about love and heartbreak, but it’s also about following your arrow, and being yourself. Even the ways in which she’s created a whole new sound in country and in folk with Golden Hour. I fell in love with that album when it came out. I’ve always looked up to the way she can capture the simplest feelings of being a human in her songs.
How do you feel about your music as country or as folk? There are so many other elements to it, and you have a very layered, textured sound.
I have so many influences that aren’t from country, but pairing all of those things creates that mixed sound that really feels like me. As an artist, I’m constantly thinking about “How am I going to market this?” or “What genre is this going to be in?” and that can sometimes feel limiting. I don’t think my music would fit into a traditional pop-country radio sound, but I don’t think it fully fits into other genres either. I’m just trying to make what feels good for me.
How does Tennessee Moon fit into your current discography? It feels like another level.
It’s definitely a big release for me. That’s a testament to being here in Nashville for a few years and trying things out. Every time I put out music or write a song, I hope there’s going to be better ones that keep coming. “Tennessee Moon” was a really special one for me. It started with a film photo that I took of an ex while we were kayaking at Percy Priest lake at sunset. That relationship didn’t work out, but I took the photo to a co-write with a friend of mine, Melody Walker. I said, “I want to write a song that feels like this picture,” and I knew everything else was going to be around that song.
“Just Friends” is another one of my favorite songs on Tennessee Moon, and it seems like so many people relate to the experience of the blurred line between best friends and something more. How did it feel to address that?
I wrote this one with Melody Walker as well and it’s also one of my favorites. I love women, and I realized that I can love anyone regardless of their gender identity. I came to that realization in my twenties, but now that I know who I am – and who I love – I was looking back at a specific friendship of mine. Retrospectively, I realized I had a crush on this person. I was in love with this person. But getting the chance to create a pretty sapphic music video felt like ripping the band-aid off as far as talking about my queer identity in my songs. I hadn’t done that before. I’m really excited to write and put out music freely now.
Punch Brothers’ new audio-based variety show, The Energy Curfew Music Hour, takes listeners to a fictitious, not-so-distant future where, as the show materials describe, “diminishing resources and extreme weather have ushered in a worldwide effort to ration electricity. America has instituted a weekly ‘energy curfew’ where the power grid goes down completely and we all live electricity-free for 24 hours. The Energy Curfew Music Hour hits the airwaves an hour before the lights go out while the nation tunes in and turns off together before the Dark Day.”
The Audible exclusive, eight-episode series was recorded in front of a live audience at the Minetta Lane Theatre in New York in early 2024 and features a cavalcade of all-star performances backed by Punch Brothers, who serve as co-hosts and house band.
BGS executive director Amy Reitnouer Jacobs spoke to Punch Brothers’ frontman Chris Thile about the show and what’s next for the band.
What a good way to start my week, chatting with you! I’d love to start by hearing how The Energy Curfew Music Hour started.
Chris Thile: [My wife, Claire Coffee] and I came up with the idea a long time ago… originally it was like a show within the show for Live From Here.
We always thought maybe two-thirds of the way in the show, we would all of a sudden flash-forward to a future that was like this. And we’d gather round one microphone, because I’ve always loved the sounds of those old variety shows and their campy-ness. And then of course, practically speaking, there’s not much of a platform for acoustic music out there. That was the thing I missed the most on Live From Here: I was obliged to at least try to concern that show with the width and breadth of the music being made in the world, regardless of aesthetic.
Norah Jones joins Punch Brothers on stage at Energy Curfew Music Hour at Audible’s Minetta Lane Theatre in New York City.
There’s something in what you mentioned about old-time radio shows with one microphone. When you think about when those were popular, it was the Dust Bowl, the Depression, a time that was really hard for most people. And the radio brought everyone together. So, in an age where we are so splintered as a society, I find [Energy Curfew Music Hour] very comforting. But there are elements of dark humor throughout too… am I reading too much into it?
Oh, no you’re right on it. There’s a certain aspect we always talked about, trying to strike the balance between shameless optimism and at the same time as I think it is really staring the monster [of reality] in the face. The extent to which we’ve imagined life has changed in a very short amount of time is huge. None of us have pseudonyms. We’re all [playing ourselves], so it can’t be that far in the future.
The extent to which we’ve imagined that life has changed is dramatic and potentially traumatic. And there’s some gallows humor throughout that. But despite taking place in this “dystopian future,” there’s nothing actually futuristic about the show. We wanted it to feel like a little bit of escapism, but a little bit real too.
Yeah, we know that change happens very fast in our world today. It’s not that hard to put yourself in those shoes when you’re listening.
That’s good to hear. Claire and the band and I keep talking about the increased emphasis on collaboration, compared with Live From Here, which was more just “Here are some acts that we love…” But those acts coexisting or working with me or the band … those were few and far between on that show, whereas on this show, it’s every episode. That’s also something of an analogy for the kind of thing we have to do just as human beings, not just as musicians, to effect the kind of change that we’re all hoping to see [in the world].
Gaby Moreno guests with Punch Brothers during the Energy Curfew Music Hour.
Can you talk a little more about working with Claire? I know you guys have worked together on Attention!, [a new narrative live show for mandolin and orchestra], which you’re taking more places now. What is your process like being married and collaborating?
I think I realized [during the pandemic] how shamelessly I had used Claire’s incredible taste as a sounding board for just about everything I’d done since we met. So I hired her to produce the solo record I made, Lay Songs. Then I hired her for Attention! and she helped me tell the story of how I met Carrie Fisher on a rooftop bar in San Diego in my mid-twenties, in what ended up being a really silly story, but also a very foundational experience for me in many ways.
When you’re telling a story like that – really when you’re working on any art – you get so inside of the thing, it’s very difficult to know how it’s coming across or if any of the stuff that’s so clear to you is landing with any other human. Claire is one of the very few people in my life who has absolutely no problem telling me when I’m full of shit, and it can be intense, but it invariably yields a better result.
So, when a couple people had asked me whether I wanted to do something like Live From Here again, I thought about it for a little while and remembered Claire’s and my idea for a show within a show. I asked Claire whether she would be interested in trying to make that a whole show and then fairly soon after that, the idea of Punch being the house band and co-hosts with me materialized and it was really off to the races.
It all felt very comfortable and natural. Claire is not a musician by trade; she’s an actor and writer and now director, and she’s always been the person that all her writer friends go to for their first round of notes. She has an extraordinary ability to strip away and identify what’s in between the writer and their audience – of what’s getting in the way. We’ve benefited a lot from that.
Sylvan Esso perform during a taping for Energy Curfew Music Hour episode 5 at Audible’s Minetta Lane Theatre in New York City.
You’ve got some incredible names in this first season as guests – Norah Jones, Lake Street Dive, Jon Batiste, Kacey Musgraves, and James Taylor, just to name a few. Who brought the most surprising acoustic performance to the show?
Sylvan Esso came in and were really excited to not do what they normally do. To be there with them using Punch Brothers, wielding us like a laptop and basically muting and unmuting us, but all in analog! I think that was a moment of proof-of-concept for me. When we did that, I found myself cackling with surprise and delight. I hadn’t suspected that it would crack the show open to a whole other level.
You’re premiering some new Punch Brothers songs on the series too. Is there something else cooking for the band? What’s ahead now that you’ve added Brittany Haas to the lineup?
The band feels very, very new. We’re in uncharted territory and it’s so interesting. Four-fifths of the band is the same. You change one component and it feels completely new in the writing room, in the rehearsal room, and on stage. At this stage in the band’s career, that’s really interesting. So yes, there are new Punch Brothers songs and they’re being written specifically for Energy Curfew now, but of course, with an eye towards whatever’s coming next.
Season One of The Energy Curfew Music Hour is out now via Audible and is available to stream for free for Amazon Prime members. Discover more about the show here.
Photo Credit: All photos by Avery Brunkus, courtesy of Audible.
I feel like I’ve been living a cottagecore life since always. All my interests outside of music line up: I sew my own clothes, read old Russian literature, and I love horse riding, long forest walks, and filling my house with wild flowers and candles – and dreaming of picnics out of baskets, dressed in long skirts with ribbons in my hair and champagne in tea cups. My upcoming album, There Is No Ship, is a love letter to my homeland, [the UK], where a cottagecore lifestyle is a bit easier to achieve than here in LA. But, here’s a playlist with some songs that make me feel closer to it. – Rose Betts
“Do It Again” – John Mark Nelson
John Mark Nelson and I met at a session and as soon as we got to talking about books I realized he was a total keeper and we’ve been friends since. His vibe is so cottagecore. The man’s car smells like a pine forest and he bakes his own bread. I feel like his voice is so cozy and this song just feels like a day inside with the rain against the windows and pleasant feelings of being in love.
“Snow In Montana” – Michigander
My sister considers it illegal to listen to Christmas songs outside of December, but this has to be an exception. I love this song. On whatever side of Christmas I listen to it, it either makes me wistful about the one to come, or pleasantly melancholic about the one just passed. “Snow In Montana” makes anywhere feel cozy, which is quite a feat if you live in LA. I listen to it in the car on the way home from Trader Joe’s with bags full of vegetables and cheese and flowers feeling all stocked up and ready to light candles and get flower-arranging. I own so many small vases so that I can crowd my house out with flowers and make it feel like a garden.
“Deeper Well” – Kacey Musgraves
Her voice is so smooth and rich, I love it. And, her songs have this warmth and natural quality to them that I just want to sink into. Makes me want to rent a cabin in the woods with friends and get a campfire and hot cider going and watch the sparks fly up into the night.
“Wells” – Joshua Hyslop
I’ve been reading Anne of Green Gables lately and those books are so full of nature and the simple life, they make me really want to run away to Prince Edward Island, pick apples, and make jam. This song has that natural feel, like a little stream you sat by for a while and had a beautiful time, but all the while knew you couldn’t stay forever. Anne as a character is wonderfully joyful, but also so tragic, so the meeting of those two qualities felt expressed in this song somehow.
“Inconsolable” – Kate Gavin
A friend who knows me well sent me this song and I listened on loop for days. I love the instrumentation, that lovely fiddle part! One of my favorite things about being a musician is that when my musician friends come round they just start playing whatever instrument is in the house. The other week my friend came round and our hangout consisted of cups of tea, me sewing a top, and him going through my pile of sheet music on the piano. This song has that feeling of shared music… maybe it’s the harmonies or those lovely melodies, either way it reminds me of impromptu musical moments that are just so lovely.
“Bishops Avenue” – Rose Betts
For about a year and a half, some friends and I had the run of a mansion on Bishops Avenue in North London. We put on plays, painted out in the orchard, had renaissance parties and banquets in the ballroom, and it was one of those golden times when everything is just a little more precious and glittery. I feel like it’s how I always want to live, banquets by candlelight and then some creative frivolity of some kind. Moving to LA, it’s hard to find orchards and dilapidated mansions to play in, but I found some playfellows who get into the spirit with me so I get close.
“Tier Abhaile Riu” – Celtic Woman
This song has such a strong feminine energy to it, reminds me of all my creative friends who enrich my life so much. My friend and I hosted an evening where we invited just women to come and share stories and we lit candles and drank Champagne out of teacups and it was total bliss. Something about women together in candlelight talking feels ancient and holy and special in a way nothing else is.
“Skye Boat Song” – Bear McCreary, Raya Yarbrough
I’m lucky to have a twin who lives in Scotland, so I get to visit a lot and even lived there for a while in lockdown. It’s such an amazing part of the world. There is a beach near her village where I’d go for walks as often as I could, where the seals sing and the sky stretches out like a great pearl above your head. So much of songwriting is about finding the silence in the noise, so that the song has space to blossom and so many songs came from those walks. This song I’ve known since before I could remember hearing it, but it became more well known to the world when they used it as the title track for Outlander. This is a beautiful version. It sounds like Scotland to me, full of low skies and colossal lochs and mystery.
“The Author” – Luz
Some songs are so lovely they make me want to stop listening and write a song instead. This is one of those. I’ve started trying to write a poem every morning, just something small to start my day creatively. Then I punch a hole in the paper and hang it off some fairy lights I have around my bed. I think we are all the authors of our own life, which isn’t what this song is saying, but it’s so darn romantic and in its existence turns the singer into the author that tells the girl how she feels. If that makes sense…
“Sigh No More” – Joss Whedon
I heard this song in Joss Whedon’s Much Ado About Nothing and it takes a Shakespeare poem and sets it to music. I always really liked it. I have a little book of Shakespeare’s sonnets that I’ve carried around for years and I’m always trying to learn a new sonnet. If I’m bored at some LA party, I’ll get it out and read a sonnet and it puts me in a better mood.
“The Stars Look Down” – Rose Betts
This is off my first EP and I sound so young, which is kind of embarrassing, but also sweet. It’s like hearing a past version of me. I was reading a lot of Russian literature when I wrote this song and it was the mansion period of my life (which I mentioned before for “Bishops Avenue”). I’d just discovered Tolstoy, was reading War and Peace, and this song is full of the stories and vignettes in that book, heroism and love and dreaming and nights of glory followed by disastrous heartbreak. Books have always been where I get the most inspired for my songs, the quality of the writing makes me work harder at my lyrics.
“Mexico” – The Staves
The Staves are a group of sisters who actually come from a town right by the one I grew up in. It’s a place called Watford and is a bit of grey hole of a place. It’s surprising that these three beautiful singers came out of it. I guess music and beauty can come from anywhere, which is how I feel about my life. There’s beauty in everything, and if there isn’t you can bring it. My little apartment in LA is pretty boxy and lightless, but once you add candles and art and music it’s suddenly a little bohemian enclave where I can rest and be creative. Me and family sing together and there’s nothing like families harmonising, which is why I chose this song. Reminds me of the supper table at my childhood home, where we sing before we eat and sometimes after too, and whatever argument or trouble that’s going on disappears for a moment.
This morning, Friday, November 8, the Recording Academy announced the nominees for the 67th GRAMMY Awards, to be held in Los Angeles on February 2 at the Crypto.com Arena. Roots musicians can be found at all levels and across all fields of the buzzworthy awards, which are voted on by the vast Recording Academy membership of music makers, artists, and creatives.
Notably, Beyoncé, her groundbreaking country fusion album COWBOY CARTER, and its tracks can be found throughout the general field and American Roots categories, including landing nominations for Best Country Album, Best Country Song, Best Americana Performance, Album of the Year, Record of the Year, and more. Banjoist and composer Béla Fleck collected more than a handful of nominations for his work with Chick Corea – released posthumously – and Rhapsody in Blue, as well.
The Best Bluegrass Album category this year includes releases from Bronwyn Keith-Hynes, the Del McCoury Band, Sister Sadie, Billy Strings, Tony Trischka, and Dan Tyminski, making for an incredibly stout and superlative lineup.
From Kacey Musgraves to Shemekia Copeland, Aoife O’Donovan to Lake Street Dive, below we’ve collected all of the nominees in the Country & American Roots Music fields, plus we feature select categories from across the many fields, genres, and communities that also include roots musicians and our BGS friends and neighbors. Check out the list and mark your calendars for the 67th GRAMMY Awards, Sunday, February 2, 2025.
Best Country Solo Performance
“16 CARRIAGES” – Beyoncé “I Am Not Okay” – Jelly Roll “The Architect” – Kacey Musgraves “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” – Shaboozey “It Takes A Woman” – Chris Stapleton
Best Country Duo/Group Performance
“Cowboys Cry Too” – Kelsea Ballerini with Noah Kahan “II MOST WANTED” – Beyoncé featuring Miley Cyrus “Break Mine” – Brothers Osborne “Bigger Houses” – Dan + Shay “I Had Some Help” – Post Malone featuring Morgan Wallen
Best Country Song
“The Architect” – Shane McAnally, Kacey Musgraves & Josh Osborne, songwriters (Kacey Musgraves) “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” – Sean Cook, Jerrel Jones, Joe Kent, Chibueze Collins Obinna, Nevin Sastry & Mark Williams, songwriters (Shaboozey) “I Am Not Okay” – Casey Brown, Jason DeFord, Ashley Gorley & Taylor Phillips, songwriters (Jelly Roll) “I Had Some Help” – Louis Bell, Ashley Gorley, Hoskins, Austin Post, Ernest Smith, Ryan Vojtesak, Morgan Wallen & Chandler Paul Walters, songwriters (Post Malone Featuring Morgan Wallen) “TEXAS HOLD ‘EM”– Brian Bates, Beyoncé, Elizabeth Lowell Boland, Megan Bülow, Nate Ferraro & Raphael Saadiq, songwriters (Beyoncé)
Best Country Album
COWBOY CARTER – Beyoncé F-1 Trillion – Post Malone Deeper Well – Kacey Musgraves Higher – Chris Stapleton Whirlwind – Lainey Wilson
Best American Roots Performance
“Blame It On Eve” – Shemekia Copeland “Nothing In Rambling” – The Fabulous Thunderbirds featuring Bonnie Raitt, Keb’ Mo’, Taj Mahal, & Mick Fleetwood “Lighthouse” – Sierra Ferrell “The Ballad Of Sally Anne” – Rhiannon Giddens
Best Americana Performance
“YA YA” – Beyoncé “Subtitles” – Madison Cunningham “Don’t Do Me Good” – Madi Diaz featuring Kacey Musgraves “American Dreaming” – Sierra Ferrell “Runaway Train” – Sarah Jarosz “Empty Trainload Of Sky” – Gillian Welch & David Rawlings
Best American Roots Song
“Ahead Of The Game” – Mark Knopfler, songwriter (Mark Knopfler) “All In Good Time” – Sam Beam, songwriter (Iron & Wine featuring Fiona Apple) “All My Friends” – Aoife O’Donovan, songwriter (Aoife O’Donovan) “American Dreaming” – Sierra Ferrell & Melody Walker, songwriters (Sierra Ferrell) “Blame It On Eve” – John Hahn & Will Kimbrough, songwriters (Shemekia Copeland)
Best Americana Album
The Other Side – T Bone Burnett $10 Cowboy – Charley Crockett Trail Of Flowers – Sierra Ferrell Polaroid Lovers – Sarah Jarosz No One Gets Out Alive – Maggie Rose Tigers Blood – Waxahatchee
Best Bluegrass Album
I Built A World – Bronwyn Keith-Hynes Songs Of Love And Life – The Del McCoury Band No Fear – Sister Sadie Live Vol. 1 – Billy Strings Earl Jam – Tony Trischka Dan Tyminski: Live From The Ryman – Dan Tyminski
Best Traditional Blues Album
Hill Country Love – Cedric Burnside Struck Down – The Fabulous Thunderbirds One Guitar Woman – Sue Foley Sam’s Place – Little Feat Swingin’ Live At The Church In Tulsa – The Taj Mahal Sextet
Best Contemporary Blues Album
Blues Deluxe Vol. 2 – Joe Bonamassa Blame It On Eve – Shemekia Copeland Friendlytown – Steve Cropper & The Midnight Hour Mileage – Ruthie Foster The Fury – Antonio Vergara
Best Folk Album
American Patchwork Quartet – American Patchwork Quartet Weird Faith – Madi Diaz Bright Future – Adrianne Lenker All My Friends – Aoife O’Donovan Woodland – Gillian Welch & David Rawlings
Best Regional Roots Music Album
25 Back To My Roots – Sean Ardoin And Kreole Rock And Soul Live At The 2024 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival – Big Chief Monk Boudreaux & The Golden Eagles featuring J’Wan Boudreaux Live At The 2024 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival – New Breed Brass Band featuring Trombone Shorty Kuini – Kalani Pe’a Stories From The Battlefield – The Rumble Featuring Chief Joseph Boudreaux Jr.
Best Roots Gospel Album
The Gospel Sessions, Vol 2 – Authentic Unlimited The Gospel According To Mark – Mark D. Conklin Rhapsody – The Harlem Gospel Travelers Church – Cory Henry Loving You – The Nelons
Best Jazz Performance
“Walk With Me, Lord (SOUND | SPIRIT)” – The Baylor Project “Phoenix Reimagined (Live)” – Lakecia Benjamin featuring Randy Brecker, Jeff “Tain” Watts & John Scofield “Juno” – Chick Corea & Béla Fleck “Twinkle Twinkle Little Me” – Samara Joy featuring Sullivan Fortner “Little Fears” – Dan Pugach Big Band featuring Nicole Zuraitis & Troy Roberts
Best Jazz Instrumental Album
Owl Song – Ambrose Akinmusire featuring Bill Frisell & Herlin Riley Beyond This Place – Kenny Barron featuring Kiyoshi Kitagawa, Johnathan Blake, Immanuel Wilkins & Steve Nelson Phoenix Reimagined (Live) – Lakecia Benjamin Remembrance – Chick Corea & Béla Fleck Solo Game – Sullivan Fortner
Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album
À Fleur De Peau – Cyrille Aimée Visions – Norah Jones Good Together – Lake Street Dive Impossible Dream – Aaron Lazar Christmas Wish – Gregory Porter
Best Contemporary Instrumental Album
Plot Armor – Taylor Eigsti Rhapsody In Blue – Béla Fleck Orchestras (Live) – Bill Frisell featuring Alexander Hanson, Brussels Philharmonic, Rudy Royston & Thomas Morgan Mark – Mark Guiliana Speak To Me – Julian Lage
Best Instrumental Composition
“At Last” – Shelton G. Berg, composer (Shelly Berg) “Communion” – Christopher Zuar, composer (Christopher Zuar Orchestra) “I Swear, I Really Wanted To Make A “Rap” Album But This Is Literally The Way The Wind Blew Me This Time” – André 3000, Surya Botofasina, Nate Mercereau & Carlos Niño, composers (André 3000) “Remembrance” – Chick Corea, composer (Chick Corea & Béla Fleck) “Strands” – Pascal Le Boeuf, composer (Akropolis Reed Quintet, Pascal Le Boeuf & Christian Euman)
Best Arrangement, Instrumental or A Cappella
“Baby Elephant Walk” – Encore, Michael League, arranger (Snarky Puppy) “Bridge Over Troubled Water” – Jacob Collier, Tori Kelly & John Legend, arrangers (Jacob Collier Featuring John Legend & Tori Kelly) “Rhapsody In Blue(Grass)” – Béla Fleck & Ferde Grofé, arrangers (Béla Fleck featuring Michael Cleveland, Sierra Hull, Justin Moses, Mark Schatz & Bryan Sutton) “Rose Without The Thorns” – Erin Bentlage, Alexander Lloyd Blake, Scott Hoying, A.J. Sealy & Amanda Taylor, arrangers (Scott Hoying featuring säje & Tonality) “Silent Night” – Erin Bentlage, Sara Gazarek, Johnaye Kendrick & Amanda Taylor, arrangers (säje)
General Field:
Record Of The Year
“Now And Then” – The Beatles “TEXAS HOLD ‘EM” – Beyoncé “Espresso” – Sabrina Carpenter “360” – Charli XCX “BIRDS OF A FEATHER” – Billie Eilish “Not Like Us” – Kendrick Lamar “Good Luck, Babe!” – Chappell Roan “Fortnight” – Taylor Swift featuring Post Malone
Album Of The Year
New Blue Sun – André 3000 COWBOY CARTER – Beyoncé Short n’ Sweet – Sabrina Carpenter BRAT – Charli XCX Djesse Vol. 4 – Jacob Collier HIT ME HARD AND SOFT – Billie Eilish Chappell Roan The Rise And Fall Of A Midwest Princess – Chappell Roan THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT – Taylor Swift
Song Of The Year
“A Bar Song (Tipsy)” – Sean Cook, Jerrel Jones, Joe Kent, Chibueze Collins Obinna, Nevin Sastry & Mark Williams, songwriters (Shaboozey) “BIRDS OF A FEATHER” – Billie Eilish O’Connell & FINNEAS, songwriters (Billie Eilish) “Die With A Smile” – Dernst Emile II, James Fauntleroy, Lady Gaga, Bruno Mars & Andrew Watt, songwriters (Lady Gaga & Bruno Mars) “Fortnight” – Jack Antonoff, Austin Post & Taylor Swift, songwriters (Taylor Swift Featuring Post Malone) “Good Luck, Babe!” – Kayleigh Rose Amstutz, Daniel Nigro & Justin Tranter, songwriters (Chappell Roan) “Not Like Us” – Kendrick Lamar, songwriter (Kendrick Lamar) “Please Please Please” – Amy Allen, Jack Antonoff & Sabrina Carpenter, songwriters (Sabrina Carpenter) “TEXAS HOLD ‘EM” – Brian Bates, Beyoncé, Elizabeth Lowell Boland, Megan Bülow, Nate Ferraro & Raphael Saadiq, songwriters (Beyoncé)
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