Ronnie and The Redwoods is a West Texas Americana/Rock band that has brought deep and emotional lyrics together with music rooted in the blues, folk, and country of the high plains. Honest and earthy, with influences from The White Stripes, Tyler Childers, John Prine, and the Red Dirt scene that surrounds them, they’ve formed their own interpretation of what happens when you combine Folk, Country, Rock n Roll and Grunge.
Emily Nenni has a confession: she didn’t always plan on being a performing artist. “I thought I was just going to be a songwriter,” she admits. Clearly, life had something else in store. The singer and guitarist has emerged as one of the freshest and most electrifying voices in Nashville, with a sound rooted in classic honky-tonk and spiked with serious country, soul and rock ‘n’ roll fire, and sweet-and-sassy lyrics that chronicle hard living, hot nights, heartbreak and other universal truths about the human condition. Over the past several years she’s enraptured audiences across Music City with sizzling sets in smoky bars and clubs, honing her command of the stage, perfecting her skills as a band leader and sharpening an already astute world view, all of which are on full display on her newest studio album, Drive & Cry.
The record is a marked departure from her previous full-length, 2022’s celebrated On the Ranch. Whereas that effort saw Nenni uproot herself to lend a hand – and write – while assisting at a ranch in southern Colorado, Drive & Cry drops the listener smack in the middle of her boisterous and bustling Nashville world. The album kicks off with “Get to Know Ya,” a honky-tonk rave-up that celebrates the end of the work day and the beginning of a music-filled, come-what-may night. Nenni busts out her biggest hoops, jumps into the jeans she can “really only stand up in,” and heads to the local bar. “Play ‘til the sun’ll come / when the daylight’s done,” she sings as the instrumental accompaniment races in step behind her.
From there, Nenni leads into “Greatest Hits,” a pedal-steel-inflected Dolly Parton-style number in which she tips her hat to underground honky-tonk venue Santa’s Pub, a dive bar squeezed inside a double-wide trailer that has become her home-away-from-home in Nashville. “When I first came to town, I was 21 and singing at clubs with folks who were twice my age,” Nenni recalls of moving to Music City from her native California. “Then a buddy of mine said, ‘There’s a place where people are making this music that are actually your age, and where you’d really fit in.’ And that was Santa’s Pub. It’s where I learned that music doesn’t have to be perfect – everybody is just having fun and there’s no judgment. You can show up however you’re feeling that night, have a good time and be surrounded by friends.”
The Last Revel is a four-piece folk group from Minneapolis, Minnesota. Utilizing their multi-instrumental abilities, members Lee Henke, Ryan Acker, Vincenzio Donatelle and Lauren Anderson bring a full spectrum of modern Americana to life with lush arrangements of four-part vocal harmonies, acoustic guitar, upright bass, fiddle, and 5-string banjo to consistently support impassioned performances of their honest and heartfelt songwriting. Drawing influence from their salt of the earth Midwest ethos the band’s songs so naturally blend the genres of Folk, Old Time String-Band and Indie Rock to create a sound that echoes the current heartbeat of America.
Their latest release, Dovetail, highlights each member’s strength as songwriters and collaborators, and further solidifies their musical foundation after a hiatus beginning in 2019. Self-produced and released under the bands own label, Sheep Sheep Records, Dovetail is the band’s fifth studio album.
All Bad, the latest album from Nick Shoulders, ultimately encapsulates everything that makes Shoulders’ inimitable form of country music so vital: a heady balance of dazzling musicianship and punk defiance, coupled with gritty eccentricity and a generational connection to the roots of the genre. With a singing style inherited from his family’s vocal lineage, Nick’s songs achieve the rare feat of imparting difficult truths while inciting a certain joyful abandon, balancing a sound forged by years of hard travel with a heartfelt reverence for the origins of country music. In the spirit of Hazel Dickens and Jimmy Driftwood, the incisive yet wildly jubilant All Badvocally objects to the reckless destruction of the natural landscape and development run rampant, while still offering plenty of joy and dance-ready rhythms. Spanning a variety of early country styles, the album’s infectious harmonies shine alongside everything from jangling cajun waltzes to surf-rock infused bluesy ballads–all tied together by a voice seemingly out of place in this century, yet ever ready to speak up about its problems.
A musical trio that hails from The Flathead Valley in Northwestern Montana. The Goo takes a unique and proggy take on the psychedelic genres, creating a fantastical journey through realms of Doom Metal, Funk, Psyche Rock, Punk, and even Bluegrass and Disco.
From Fuzzed out guitar riffs to atmospheric synthy breaks, and shready bass. The Gray Goo Consumes You.
Igor started Red Elvises in 1995, following a dream he had that Elvis Presley came to him and told him to start playing rock’n’roll. Not one to say no to the King, Igor and his Russian friends started playing on Santa Monica’s 3rd Street Promenade. Their street musician days did not last long, however, as they drew such huge crowds that the City of Santa Monica brought them to court and ordered them off the streets. Since then Red Elvises have been constantly touring, with occasional breaks from the road to record an album or take part in film and television projects. This constant work for the last 15 years has led to them gaining a world-wide following, with successful tours all over North America, Europe and Russia (Red Elvises bootlegs have been found in Siberia).