Finest New Music from the Blue Ridge and Past
Cowl: T. Hardy Morris’s new album, “Synthetic Tears,” was produced by Carl Broemel of My Morning Jacket. Photograph by Daniel Dent
Each month our editors curate a playlist of recent music, primarily specializing in unbiased artists from the South. In September, we’re highlighting new tunes from Jeff Tweedy and T. Hardy Morris, plus a collaboration between longtime Appalachian guitar pickers Larry Keel and Jon Stickley.
Jeff Tweedy
“Sufficient”
Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy hardly ever takes a break. If he’s not on tour together with his predominant band, he may be discovered engaged on his solo output, and he’ll give attention to the latter this fall. On September 26, Tweedy releases a brand new triple album, “Twilight Override,” a 30-track beast the singer-songwriter says began to kind a free narrative as he was recording. The undertaking nearer, “Sufficient,” is a jangly, inward-looking anthem about feeling content material that incorporates a properly positioned Dylan reference. – J.F.
Larry Keel & Jon Stickley
“Pioneers”
For followers of acoustic guitar, this inevitable pairing of guitar maestros Larry Keel and Jon Stickley—the 2 have been sharing competition payments, campfire jam classes, and a friendship based on mutual admiration for over twenty years—is on par with collaborations between Jerry Garcia and Tony Rice or, extra lately, Billy Strings and Bryan Sutton. Keel and Stickley are prodigious pickers and, on “Pioneers,” from their 5 tune EP that drops this month, it’s arduous to inform the place one participant’s notes finish and the opposite’s begins. It is a masterclass on flatpicking guitar. – D.S.
T. Hardy Morris
“Juvenile Years”
T. Hardy Morris is a fixture within the storied music scene of Athens, Ga. His previous band Useless Accomplice opened for R.E.M. and Morris has collaborated with members of Los Lobos and Deer Tick. His newest solo LP, “Synthetic Tears,” was produced by Carl Broemel of My Morning Jacket, and on the file’s lead single, Morris reminisces about his youthful self—each regretting errors and eager for occasions of carefree expression—through a hazy indie-country tune. – J.F.
Kyle Hollingsworth
“Colorado”
For almost three many years, Kyle Hollingsworth has tended the keyboards for the style bending jamband String Cheese Incident. Within the meantime, Hollingsworth has additionally managed to carve out a powerful solo profession, with 5 solo lengthy gamers to his identify. “Colorado,” from his newest launch, finds inspiration in Hollingsworth’s ardour for the outside playgrounds supplied by his residence state; the Rocky Mountain State’s majestic peaks are definitely finished proud by the hovering guitars and Hollingsworth’s keys on this homage to residence. – D.S.
Circles Across the Solar
“Charleston Choogle”
In 2015 guitar ace Neal Casal was tasked with creating instrumental setbreak music for the Grateful Useless’s fiftieth anniversary celebration, so he put collectively an impromptu band known as Circles Across the Solar. Casal sadly handed away in 2019, however his Circles bandmates have remained collectively and lately minimize extra intermission music for a Useless anniversary occasion—the large sixtieth anniversary celebration in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park that passed off final month. This observe from the ensuing album, “Interludes for the Useless: Quantity 2” begins with a rustic shuffle earlier than discovering a zone of spaced-out bliss. – J.F.
Trisha Gene Brady
“First Second Likelihood”
Good love squandered is fertile floor for a rustic music, and Trisha Gene Brady has the plow firmly within the floor on “First Second Likelihood,” the title observe from her new file. With reverb-drenched guitars and organ supporting Brady’s alto vocals, the time-tested notions of praying for forgiveness and a brief reminiscence from a spurned lover and the hope of a love rekindled performs out fantastically on this basic nation gem. – D.S.
Massive Thief
“All Day All Night time”
Indie giants Massive Thief drop a brand new album, “Double Infinity,” on September 5. This early single is heavy on groove and percussion, an atmospheric, uninhibited love music that options band chief Adrianne Lenker sounding intoxicated by romance. – J.F
Josh Ritter
“Fact is a Dimension (Each Immutable and Blinding)”
Singer-songwriter Josh Ritter’s songcraft is matched solely by the uncanny capacity he possesses to transfix his listeners when it’s simply him and his guitar behind the microphone. “Fact is a Dimension (Each Immutable and Blinding)” is spellbinding, a digital stream of consciousness story, devoid of any conventional verse/refrain/verse construction, that pours out of Ritter as he juxtaposes the infinite and finite nature of reality and being. A love music at its core, Ritter offers us all the possibility to ponder our place within the expansive universe. – D.S.
