Americana Boogie: New Releases This Week from The Howlin’ Brothers, Kris Delmhorst, Radney Foster, Sturgill Simpson and More

KRIS DELMHORST
Blood Test (Signature Sounds)

Kris Delmhorst’s new release describes a moment of reckoning and centering in the songwriter’s life, and in society as a whole. In her new collection, she acknowledges the weary work of an intentioned life–and the new American dream of presence and perspective in a frenetic time. Co-produced by Delmhorst and fellow songwriter Anders Parker, Blood Test was recorded in Brooklyn along with drummer Konrad Meissner and multi-instrumentalist Mark Spencer. “I was focused on paring things down to their elements—less flesh, more bone,” Delmhorst says. “So it’s just the four of us on with very few overdubs, playing the songs and letting the imperfections be part of the story. There’s a freshness and spirit of discovery in the tracks that I think shines through and gives them a lot of life.”

THE HOWLIN’ BROTHERS
Trouble (Readymade)

The majority of the 13 original songs that comprise Trouble were influenced by the people they met and struggles they encountered on the road over the past year. Trouble was produced and engineered by indie rocker Brendan Benson of The Raconteurs. Benson describes Trouble as “effortless artistry … woebegone, lovelorn and wrought with pain, but not without installments of lightheartedness and beauty, downtrodden and then uplifted.” He adds, “The Howlin Brothers are somehow able to conjure images of a bygone era and make it believable. Trouble is all over the map and I don’t just mean figuratively. The listener gets a glimpse into the troubadour lifestyle, traveling (among other places) to Louisiana for a Cajun romp on the bayou and across the Arizona desert to California on a search for a misses. It s a journey very much worth the while.”

STURGILL SIMPSON
Metamodern Sounds in Country Music (High Top Mountain)

Metamodern Sounds in Country Music is the follow-up to Simpson’s fine debut, High Top Mountain. The album title, an allusion to Ray Charles groundbreaking 1962 record, Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music, hints at the psychedelic sounds found within. Compared to Waylon Jennings and Merle Haggard, Simpson explores a more progressive side of outlaw country in his wholly unique second album. “It’s just not a headspace I occupy much these days. Nighttime reading about theology, cosmology and breakthroughs in modern physics and their relationship to a few personal experiences I’ve had. led to most of the songs on the album.” For clarification, he adds, “There have been many socially-conscious concept albums. I wanted to make a ‘social-consciousness’ concept album disguised as a country record.”

Also new this week…

HANNAH ALDRIDGE – Razor Wire (Trodden Black)
CARRIE ELKIN & DANNY SCHMIDT – For Keeps (Signature Sounds) RADNEY FOSTER – Everything I Should Have Said (Devil’s River)
COLLIN HERRING – Some Knives  (self released)
DOLLY PARTON – Blue Smoke (Sony)
KENNY WAYNE SHEPHERD – Goin’ Home (Concord)
CANDI STATON – Life Happens (Megaforce)

Above are all of the Americana and roots-type music releases for the week of May 13th, 2014 from Americana Boogie. Click the artist or album links to find out more. The artist’s names link to their websites and the CD title links go either ” target=”_blank”>Amazon or CD Baby for easy ordering.

Coming out soon… CHATHAM COUNTY LINE, LIBBY KOCH, ZOE MUTH, AMY LAVERE, JOHN FULLBRIGHT, KELLY ROBISON & BRUCE ROBISON, NEIL YOUNG … more new releases.
Here’s a link to this week’s Americana Music Association Americana Airplay Chart

Bill Frater
Freight Train Boogie