Artist: Rodney Crowell
Hometown: Nashville, TN
Song: “Lovin’ All Night”
Album: Acoustic Classics
Release Date: July 13, 2018
In His Words: “From time to time I am what you’d call lighthearted. The title of the song is, of course, hyperbole. However, I met my wife on the video shoot for the song back in ’92, and the sparks have been flying ever since.” – Rodney Crowell
Photo credit: Austin Lord
Artist: Reed Turchi
Hometown: Swannanoa, North Carolina
Song: “Just A Little More Faith”
Album: Just A Little More Faith
Release Date: July 20, 2018
In Their Words: “Just a Little More Faith” is a gospel song I first heard on the Mississippi Fred McDowell album Amazing Grace, sung with his wife Annie Mae. This record is all about harmony and voices rising together, and there was no better way to start it off than this tune inspired by the musician who first led me to learn slide guitar.” — Reed Turchi
Photo credit: Alysse Gafkjen
Artist: 10 String Symphony
Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee
Song: “The Ballad of Bruno”
Album: Generation Frustration
Release Date: July 13, 2018
Label: Tasty Note Records
In Their Words: “‘The Ballad of Bruno’ was inspired by a children’s cartoon history show that Rachel happened to catch accidentally while on tour. The program told the story of an ancient philosopher named Bruno who had some very advanced and controversial ideas for his time. He was one of the first to argue that the universe was infinite, and that the earth was not, in fact, the center of the universe. He was imprisoned for his blasphemous ideas and eventually burned at the stake in Rome. Several real biographical situations make their way into the song, including his seven-year imprisonment in the Tower of Nona. As an ancient hero of critical thinking and free speech, we thought Bruno deserved a song. The chorus, spoken in Bruno’s voice, proclaims ‘I gave to them infinity and yet they were so daft, they crushed me between their fingers for what they could not grasp.'” — Rachel Baiman/Christian Sedelmyer
Photo credit: Gina Binkley
Artist: David Davis & The Warrior River Boys
Hometown: Cullman, AL
Album: Didn’t He Ramble: Songs of Charlie Poole
Release Date: June 1, 2018
Label: Rounder Records
“Our goal with this recording was to take the key elements of Charlie Poole’s music and build from that, evolving the material into a more modern form of traditional music. Poole had reimagined popular songs of the day including Tin Pan Alley songs and blues songs into his own style and his treatments were widely accepted by the public. For us, when we started looking at the songs closely, they morphed just as easily into the way we play music. For a number of years we have called Charlie Poole our “Grandfather of Bluegrass Music” but really his music has influenced a much larger roots-based family.” – David Davis
Artist: Juliana Daugherty
Hometown: Charlottesville, VA
Song: “Easier”
Album: Light
Release Date: June 1, 2018
Label: Western Vinyl
In Their Words: “I don’t think anyone would describe me as a bleak person, but I do feel like my capacity for sadness — depression, sometimes, and sometimes just garden-variety melancholy — has always been somewhat overgrown. I find my various sadnesses to be infinitely interesting when I’m writing, and deeply boring and unhelpful at almost all other times. To write a song is to externalize a feeling, so that I don’t have to carry it around in my daily life. ‘Easier’ also has the benefit of catharsis: Singing the last section feels a little like howling at the moon.” — Juliana Daugherty
Photo credit: Tom Daly
Artist: Megan Keely
Hometown: San Francisco, CA
Song: “Love Will Find You”
Album: Bloom
Release Date: May 25, 2018
In Her Words: “‘Love Will Find You’ was the first song I wrote off the Bloom song cycle. It was a rainy day in August 2016 and I was on my way home from a magical seaside wedding on the Oregon coast. I was alone in the airport cafe, scribbling in my notebook, basking in the beautiful afterglow and digesting something that the bride’s parents had said to me on my way out. They had asked me for updates on my love life, and with no good news to share, I muttered, “I’ll find love some day.” They looked me in the eye and said, “No, Megan, love will find you.” The next day, the song spilled out of me in an unconscious effort to remind myself once and for all that the aloneness I felt was part of a long and crucial process that I needed in order to grow into the person I would become. Flying solo to a wedding was the very step I needed in order to rediscover and strengthen the needle of my own emotional and moral compass — the internal guide that would eventually lead me to the true, open-hearted, laughter-filled love I wanted.” – Megan Keely
Photo credit: Stephanie Dandan
Artist: Heather Styka
Hometown: Chicago, IL
Album: North
Release Date: May 18, 2018
In Their Words: “I was moving back to Chicago while touring a ton, and the 2016 election had created such a bizarre, divisive climate. I was lost. I wrote this album to ask, ‘What now?’ and also to answer that question, as an individual and a citizen. We had so much fun recording with the Sentimentals that the album evolved into this semi-political, tearjerker dance party.” — Heather Styka
Artist: The Travelin’ McCourys
Hometown: Nashville, TN
Song: “Lonesome, On’ry and Mean”
Album: The Travelin’ McCourys
Release Date: May 25, 2018
Label: McCoury Music
In Their Words: “Jason Carter, who sings here, is a huge Waylon fan — we all are, really. Several years ago when we started looking for material to cut, Jason brought this one and it worked. We’ve been playing it for four or five years now. Using our instruments, we kept the arrangement similar to Waylon’s version with maybe a few more solos.” — Rob McCoury
Photo credit: Shelly Swanger
