CD Reviews

Lynn Miles
TumbleWeedyWorld

The multi-decorated Canadian singer-songwriter Lynn Miles brings us her 16th album, "Tumbleweedy World," 10 originals that cover considerable thematic ground, but are essentially grounded in relatable observations on relationships. Backed by a fully simpatico acoustic band that adds just ...

Matt Hillyer
Glorieta

Chances are pretty good that you've heard Matt Hillyer sing before. The former frontman for the Texas band Eleven Hundred Springs, which ended its 23-year run in 2021, is now taking the solo route. These 11 songs are all written or co-written by Hillyer, some with the familiar honky-tonk ...

Dierks Bentley
Gravel & Gold

Dierks Bentley opens his first self-produced album with a song about personally stability, "Same Ol' Me." Although its lyric explains how while life circumstances may change, Bentley basically remains the same person. The same thing, though, can also be said about the country star's music. ...

The Shootouts
Stampede

You might think The Shootouts are a rowdy country and western band obsessed with honky tonk based on the titles and artwork of their albums – 2021's "Bullseye" and now "Stampede." That notion is not entirely wrong, but they embrace all forms of Americana and country ...

Ashby Frank
Leaving Is Believing

Singer/songwriter/mandolinist Ashby Frank last visited us with an album 24 years ago. He's been busy writing songs for other artists and working as an in-demand bluegrass session player, subbing in for groups such as Lonesome River Band and The Earls of Leicester. He currently plays mandolin with ...

Rob Ickes & Trey Hensley
Living in a Song

Dobro master Rob Ickes and six-string picker Trey Hensley have found the kind of special chemistry we associate with names like Flatt & Scruggs, The Monroe Brothers, The Everly Brothers and other iconic pairings. The two show continued growth in songwriting, and Ickes has proved to be the ideal tenor ...

The Burnt Pines
Don't Look Down

"Don't Look Down" is the follow-up to The Burnt Pines' self-titled 2021 debut. The trio first came together in a Lisbon, Portugal recording studio in the summer of 2018, with two of them having met prior to that at Boston's esteemed Berklee College of Music. ...

Larry Campbell and Teresa Williams
Live at Levon's!

As bandleader of Levon Helm's band for nearly a decade, Larry Campbell and his vocalist wife, Teresa Williams are as intimately familiar with Levon's "Barn" as any two artists that have ever played the renowned sound palace. To have a live recording from the venue was inevitable. ...

Tim Stafford & Thomm Jutz
Lost Voices

Take that shot. The phrase around which this album's lead track is built may well serve as the capstone for the recording partnership of guitarists and vocalists Thomm Jutz and Tim Stafford. Take that shot — it just may land. And it does, 14 times across "Lost Voices. ...

HARDY
the mockingbird & The CROW

Although much has been made of the two HARDY personality traits revealed via "the mockingbird & THE CROW" album – part country, part hard rock – the more one listens to this extensive, 17-track album, the less musical style actually seems to matter. This is because we get to know ...

Elle King
Come Get Your Wife

This Elle King album has been described as her full-blown country record, and while she's already had country radio success with "Drunk (And I Don't Wanna Go Home)," which features Miranda Lambert, and "Worth a Shot," featuring Dierks Bentley from it, you need only hear ...

JD Clayton
Long Way from Home

JD Clayton is a singer-songwriter from Arkansas making his full-length debut. His fall 2022 EP, "Side A," was his platform for a series of acclaimed performances at the Americana Fest. All five songs appear here. He also had a 2018 EP, "Smoke Out the Fire," produced by Thomas Dulin ...

Pony Bradshaw
North Georgia Rounder

Pony Bradshaw's 2021 "Calico Jim" was a masterpiece that set a high bar for this follow-up "North Georgia Rounder." Rife with similar southern Appalachian imagery from the place he calls home, the album is not as overtly political as its predecessor, a bit more personal, but ...

Becky Buller
The Perfect Gift

Fiddler Beck Buller has sure stocked her album with plenty of A-list talent, an all-star group that includes Vince Gill, Dan Tyminski and Ricky Skaggs. While much of this album is bluegrass or bluegrass-accented, there's also a lot of sonic variety, too. It's sure to please country music ...

Billy Strings and Terry Barber
Me/And/Dad

Billy Strings and Terry Barber "Me/And/Dad" Rounder By Donald Teplyske Billy Strings' bluegrass has engulfed the Americana music community over the past several years. He has won a Grammy, as well as multiple International Bluegrass Music Association Awards including Entertainer of ...

Various Artists
Live Forever: A Tribute To Billy Joe Shaver

This 12-song tribute to songwriter Billy Joe Shaver features country music outlaws, both old (Willie Nelson) and new (Ryan Bingham, Nikki Lane, Margo Price) with a few wildcards (Edie Brickell, Nathaniel Rateliff) also thrown into the mix. Shaver is best known among country folk, but is loved by any ...

Rachel Wammack
Dear Christmas

It's impossible to cover every musical side of the holiday season on a full-length album, let alone do it so with a short EP. However, with her brief, four-song project, Rachel Wammack covers much ground on such a limited project. She sings wonderfully well throughout, even if much of the ...

Chosen Road
Appalachian Christmas

Chosen Road, a four-piece bluegrass act, combines Appalachian instrumentation with an evangelical fervor. However, with "Appalachian Christmas," these musicians have created a holiday album packed with bluegrass versions of traditional and relatively new holiday songs. ...

Lainey Wilson
Bell Bottom Country

Lainey Wilson was named Billboard's Top New Country Artist of 2021, ACM 2022 New Female Artist of the Year, CMT's 2022 "Breakout Artist of the Year" and scored six CMA Awards nominations, some impressive achievements for a relatively new face on the country music scene. ...

Joe Ely
Flatland Lullaby

The songwriter's prime directive is to translate personal observations and emotions into creative expressions that are more broadly universal. So what happens when a songwriter follows the inverse formula, and channels some of the most categorically omnipresent human feelings into songs that are ...