Clockwise from top left, Billy Strings, AJ Lee, Sturgill Simpson, Tray Wellington, Melissa Carper, and American Aquarium are among the artists featured on our Best of July playlist.
Live records can be hit-or-miss. Luckily for roots music fans, July 2024 brought us not one, but two outstanding releases capturing live music on tape. Bluegrass phenom Billy Strings kicks off the month’s playlist with his light-speed flat-picking guitar work from Live Vol. 1 (implying that there are more live albums to come). And scene legend Steve Earle offers folkier, acoustic takes of his country classics on Alone Again (Live).
July also saw country and bluegrass musicians of all stripes offering their takes on these traditional genres. AJ Lee, bandleader of Spotlight band AJ Lee and Blue Summit, wrote an essay about what it means to be Asian American in roots music; Melissa Carper is very open about being queer in country music; and Tray Wellington, whose 2022 debut LP was called Black Banjo, explores bluegrass with cinematic and jazz influences on his newest album, Detour to the Moon.
Read more about these artists and more in the Reviews section and listen in to No Depression‘s Best of the Month playlist below.
