THROUGH THE LENS: Kris Delmhorst, Miss Tess, and Other Roots Music Releases on the Horizon

The new always brings a slew of new music releases, and roots music is certainly no exception. This week’s column is devoted to four upcoming albums, and one that was released last year, that I have been listening to for the past few weeks that I think warrant your attention.

The quick takes below serve more of teasers than they do reviews per se. Here goes.

Kris Delmhorst – Ghosts in the Garden  (March 7)

The New England-based Delmhorst has created yet another Americana masterpiece. Her previous nine albums have, it seems, only been fully appreciated by, as Phil Ochs would say, a small circle of friends. Here, Delmhorst puts away childish things, and ruminates on this new chapter of her of life as it unfolds in real time.

The song titles, such as “Summer’s Growing Old” and “Ghosts in the Garden,” are enough to tell you where she’s coming from. Perhaps “Age of Innocence” says it best of all: “Did it all because we could…/Once we were innocent and unashamed…/we didn’t even know we were living in the garden of Eden…./we had no idea of how soon we’d be leavin’.” Given the present political environment it could also easily be viewed as an observation on where find ourselves today.

No, it’s not a downer of an album, rather a reflection on a life, an examined life, one that takes the personal and makes it universal. It could also serve  as a cautionary tale, don’t sweat the small stuff, don’t get bogged down in trivial details, life is more, far more, than what’s immediately in front of you.

Miss Tess – Cher Rêve  (February 7)

Miss Tess is hard to pin down, it seems she’s a rambler and a gambler in her music. That’s a compliment as there have been so many facets (incarnations?) of her ever since I first heard “I Only Miss You When I’m Stoned” (2012), complete with a sensuous clarinet that presaged later work that embodied a sense of swing and admiration for the great American songbooks of all genres.

Not a dilettante by any means, here she brings that sensibility to southern Louisiana where, in Joel Savoy’s studio, she recorded nine songs, with definite Cajun overtones, live in just three days. The songs have an immediacy to them, yet one that feels unhurried in both their substance and delivery. 

Chatham Rabbits – Be Real With Me  (February 14) 

This North Carolina wife-husband duo, Sarah and Austin McCombie, was my big discovery at MerleFest last year. Yes, there had been Stacy Chandler’s 2022 piece in ND, but I still wasn’t prepared for this absolutely marvelous and beguiling album.

While artists are amping up their music, Chatham Rabbits are slowing it down, as if patiently examining the smaller things, the often overlooked moments in life. The sights, the movements, the sounds that evoke the whole of living, such as watching the peeling of an orange in the song “One Little Orange.” It’s merely the tip of an emotional mountain.

Various Artists – Julia Belle: The John Hartford Fiddle Tune Project Volume 2  (February 28) 

Volume 1 of this project proved so successful that it’s sequel five years later, still feels relevant. But with n twist, it’s an all-female ensemble this time. Not a gimmick, great players are great players, period. Here we have Alison Brown, Sierra Hull, Missy Raines, and vocalist Kathy Mattea, IBMA and/or Grammy winners all, in just one song, the inimitable “Steam Powered Aereo Plane.”

Add into the mix Rachel Baiman, Phoebe Hunt, Brittany Haas, Allison de Groot, Della Mae, The Price Sisters, and Uncle Earl for the other 17 tunes and you get a recipe that’s bound to satisfy every roots music listener. 

Jody Carroll – Mountain  (out now)

On this new album, Carroll’s 14th, he’s done something quite different. This time he traveled to Nashville’s fabled Cinderella Sound Studio where Guy Clark and John Hartford, among hundreds of others, recorded. Presided over by legendary sideman Wayne Moss (Bob Dylan’s Blonde on Blonde), and with a full band, Carroll stretches out and enriches his down home blues sound. The way he fuses his feel of the Delta blues and the music of Appalachia is an uncanny blend that is soulful and introspective, and where it’s called for, foot stompin’.  The cherry on top is how the album sounds, rounded and warm. Just what we need in the throes of winter.

Click on any photo below to view the gallery as a full-size slideshow.