The Great Divide (from the album Providence available as a self-release)  (by Bryant Liggett)
A major influence from the Red Dirt music scene, The Great Divide remain a fully-balanced Americana band. Some twang peeks from behind the curtain but they are not a pure Country band. There’s Southern Rock riffage without entering the jam world and even a bit of jangle that dances around LA’s Paisley Underground. Their first record in a heap of years, Providence is The Great Divide proving years in between release have not dulled those Red Dirt chops.
Time away is acknowledged as The Great Divide open the record confirming ‘Yeah, here we go again, one more time around’. It’s a line in tune with the narrative of the album opener in “Wrong is Overrated”. Additionally, it is a great way for the band to remind us that they’re back to reclaim their glory. There is wonderful pedal steel work on the slowed down “I Can Breathe Again” and an equally wondrous nod to the 1980’s on “Set It All Down”. The pedal steel guitar is worked into the Reggae-tinged, not-so red-dirt, “Slippin’ Away”. The Great Divide unplug, stripping down the sound for the front-porch ballad “Into The Blue”.
They hold back the heaviest for the closer. “Infinite Line” a mid-tempo Southern Rock cut with that aforementioned riffage from below the Mason-Dixon line rock. Decades lie between Providence and The Great Divide’s last release yet the band sounds as fresh and new as next week. Go back a quarter century and they would have been ripe for the H.O.R.D.E. festival, and today they’d be ripe for any festival.
Providence is text-book Roots Rock, and this batch of songs will stick in your head while subtly influencing you to peek further into the Roots Rock fringes. (by Bryant Liggett)
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Chris Murphy (from the EP Two Rivers Crossing on Friendly Folk Music) (by Lee Zimmerman)
 
Chris Murphy could be identified as a proverbial jack of all trades, but given his professional resume, one that encompasses a variety of instruments and any number of different genres, such a categorization doesn't do him justice. With his new EP, Two Rivers Crossing, Chris Murphy makes a decided detour into abject Americana employing nothing more than vocals, violin, and loops. Yet despite the bare-boned arrangements, the music is rich, riveting and quietly compelling. 
 
That's evident from the outset, given the solid stomp of "Early Grave" and the assertive strains of "Into the Past", the track that follows. Chris Murphy effectively easily adapts to the role of a kind of genteel journeyman. In essence, that comes as little surprise. In a career that spans 25 years, 16 solo albums, and any number of eclectic collaborations — The Dandy Warhols, Nels Cline, Mike Watt, D.J. Bonebrake, John Doe, Herb Pedersen, Tim O’Brien, Bruce Molsky, Joachim Cooder, L. Shankar, Peter Thomas, Doug Pettibone, and members of The Waterboys included — Murphy has demonstrated an ability to easily adapt whenever the situation demands.

That affinity for eclecticism was spawned early on while growing up in New York City, surrounded by a diversity of sound that included everything from Bluegrass, Folk, and World Music to the emerging sounds of Bob Dylan, Lou Reed, Ry Cooder, Richard Thompson, and Jackson Browne. Later, his interests expanded to include Turkish, Indian, and other Eastern motifs. Violin eventually became his instrument of choice at age 22, and he’s now a teacher in addition to an artist who records, performs and scores music for film.

Which brings us back to the new EP, a follow-up to his 2021 album Sovereign. While it’s a small sample of Murphy’s overall musical arsenal, it does find a focus in its sturdy sound and traditional trappings. Certain songs — “Complete Surprise in particular — sound like an old-world jig, while others, like “Long Ago”, boast a pluck and strum that comes across like a more nuanced narrative. The instrumental “Shantallow” provides the album with a concise closing.

All in all, Two Rivers Crossing makes for an ideal sampler of sorts, one that suggests Chris Murphy’s musical flow continues uninterrupted. (By Lee Zimmerman)
 
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Larkin Poe (from the album Blood Harmony available on TrickiWoo Records)
 
Dynamic Blues duo, Larkin Poe continues to impress on their sixth album Blood Harmony. The band, consisting of sisters Megan and Rebecca Lovell, is part of the women’s Blues renaissance that includes Janiva Magness, Shemekia Copeland, Ruthie Foster, and Susan Tedeschi. Adding a swampy, Southern flair to their Blues, Larkin Poe electrifies with their sweet vocal harmonies and heavy Blues guitar riffs.
The title track, “Blood Harmony”, combines Megan’s earthy dobro with Rebecca’s fiery electric guitar. Singing ‘God gave momma a singing voice. Momma passed it down to me’, Rebecca celebrates the bond of blood relatives.  Continuing, she declares ‘more than flesh, more than bone, when I sing, I don’t sing alone’. Affirming that connection that transcends shared experiences, Rebecca and Megan make contact on a subliminal, cellular level. The interplay of the sisters’ guitars is as effortless as blood pumping out and back from the same heart. The family ties extend all the way back to the sisters’ great, great, great, great grandfather, Edgar Allan, from whom the name Larkin Poe is taken.
“Deep Stays Down” is a suspenseful Delta Blues tale of a guilty conscience. With Megan’s haunting dobro setting the tone, Rebecca sings ‘there’s a bullet in the gun. The gun went missing. Suspicion blew up like a shotgun shell’. Full of intrigue and innuendo, the song plays like the theme to a cable tv crime drama. “Georgia Off My Mind” adds a playful, Southern Rock rhythm as the sisters say goodbye to their old home and welcome their new abode in Nashville. “Kick the Blues and Summertime Sunset” go full tilt Rock with a healthy dose of slide guitar. “Bad Spell” and Strike Gold” pay tribute to Chicago Blues in fuzzed out tones. “Southern Comfort” is a slow burning tribute to the landscape and culture of the South. “Bolt Cutters & The Family Name” returns to familial themes in anthemic fashion. Against a backdrop of pounding drums and wailing electric guitar, Rebecca sings, ‘you can take me out of the fight, but you can’t take the fight out of me’. Declaring that her fighting spirit is as much a part of her genetic makeup as the color of her eyes and hair, Rebecca again celebrates her family who came before her. And although often compared to that other sibling Blues band, The Allman Brothers, Larkin Poe are more influenced by Gary Moore and Sammy Hagar than Lighting Hopkins and Muddy Waters.
But, embracing their Blues roots, the girls bring down the pace on the heartbreaking, “Might As Well Be Me.” A classic song of trust and betrayal, Rebecca starts off singing ‘I been there for you baby all along. Giving love to you daily, making you strong’. But as trust gives way to tears, Rebecca shows both vulnerability and strength as she faces the choice between the pain of betrayal or the pain of loneliness. Weighing her options, she ultimately moans ‘if you want to hurt somebody, it might as well be me’ – and from somewhere up above Bessie Smith is smiling. (by Brian Rock)
 
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The Lone Bellow (from Love Songs for Losers available on Dualtone Records) (by Lee Zimmerman)
 
Granted, a title like Love Songs for Losers doesn’t promise a very upbeat perspective, but rather a point of view that gives pessimism the most prominence. And truth be told, many of the songs The Lone Below share on this, their fifth full-length album, convey an unyielding sense of distance and despair. Yet, there’s more than a hint of promise and perseverance to be found as well, particularly when it comes to such songs as “Honey”, “Gold”, and “I’m In Love” when each take both a celebratory stance and opt for an upward glance. “Homesick” and “Caught Me Thinkin’” follow suit, offering optimism even when hope and happenstance sometimes collide.
 
Oddly enough, the drive and desire to escape the limitations of one’s small-town origins often bring to mind Bruce Springsteen, circa his blue-collar embodiment of “Born to Run”. Happily, then, the desperation involved is tempered more by fulfillment than frustration, and the band’s riveting arrangements take the music to a higher plateau.

Nevertheless, that’s not to dismiss the desperation and desire that’s imbued in the album overall. “Dreaming”, “Move”, “Great Divide”, “Cost of Living”, and “Wherever Your Heart Is” are preoccupied with love and longing, and the hope that reconnection and reconciliation might still be possibilities, even despite a deepening divide. In that regard, there’s a certain feeling of futility, despite the fact that the intention remains primed by perseverance. So too, the music itself is soothing and sublime, a credit to the fact that for the first time the band took on the production duties themselves, eschewing the need to employ any outsiders to oversee their efforts. To their credit then, the material comes across as both captivating and compelling, a work so beautifully enthralling, it could easily be considered their finest effort to date. Their Folkish allure and Americana instincts remain intact, but the added depth and dimension reflects their undiminished excellence and a clear continued credence. And that makes Love Songs for Losers a winning combination by every measure imaginable.
(By Lee Zimmerman)
 
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Joe Strummer (from the album Joe Strummer 002: The Mescalero Years available on Casbah Productions/Dark Horse Records/BMG)
Joe Strummer would have celebrated a 70th birthday on August 16, 2022. Joe’s spit and snarl said that Punk Rock was more than a fashion statement; the songs from the band he co-founded, The Clash, political headlines for a global community of disenfranchised Rock’n’Rollers. The Clash broadened the scope of Punk through a series of releases, adding a Roots, Rock, Reggae beat to the music of their 1977 self-titled debut. The Clash embraced every aspect of Rock’n’Roll over their 6 studio albums, five of which are classic releases for the music world of the period while their final release, Cut the Crap (1985), limped into the world in an attempt to keep the ship sailing. Between 1977 and 1982, The Clash produced five studio albums that changed possibilities for Rock music. For Joe Strummer, resting on his past accomplishments was out of the question, never even a remote consideration. Celebrity was never a good fit for Joe, though the benefits of fame allowing him creative control can be heard on Joe Strummer 002: The Mescalero Years. For Joe, his motivation and catalyst were clear, he felt that ‘all that’s happening for me now is just a chancer’s bluff. I learned that fame is an illusion and everything about it is just a joke. I’m far more dangerous now, because I don’t care at all’.
 
Joe Strummer 002: The Mescalero Years is the first comprehensive collection focusing on the post-Clash years for Joe Strummer. Four discs, three discs dedicated to studio time with The Mescaleros, disc number four collecting 15 never-heard studio takes that were shelved, such as the bands cover of “Secret Agent Man” and “Oceans of Rain” with Steve Jones (Sex Pistols) on guitar. For fans, a stripped-down recording of just Joe and acoustic guitars for a stunning demo of “The Road to Rock’n’Roll”, the take showcasing his connection to the music while a slightly caffeinated hyper-groove pumps up the “Get Down Moses” outtake. While not as widely known or even heard, Joe Strummer and The Mescaleros continued the bite of Joe Strummer for a catalog of songs recorded between 1999 and 2002. Favorite tracks (“Tony Adams”, Coma Girl”, “Mondo Bondo”, “Johnny Appleseed”) from the period are included as well as a quietly reverent cover of Bob Marley’s “Redemption Song” are found within the finely curated compilation of Joe Strummer’s time as a Mescalero.
 
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Emily Nenni (from On the Ranch available on New West Records) (By Lee Zimmerman)

With the big beat opening volley of “Can Chaser” newcomer Emily Nenni makes it clear that she possesses the overt authority needed in order to make music that credibly conveys a traditional template. In that regard, she exudes the personality and purpose that qualifies her as a new Nashville contender. Her voice brims with confidence and clarity, giving the impression that she’s not only well versed in today’s contemporary country, but well suited to take her place in its upper hierarchy. On songs such as “Useless”, “The Rooster and the Hen”, “Get on With It”, and “Does You Mother Know”, she conveys a sass and spunk that brings to mind such lofty ladies as Dolly, June, and Loretta in the full measure of their drive and determination. Her delivery is a knowing approach that not only suggests she’s learned her lessons well, but that she’s also in perfect possession of them as well.
 
‘Got to get on with it, get on with it’ she insists on the song of the same name. ‘Change is moving slow…Get up off your good intentions, get on with it’.
 
That’s good advice and Nenni is obviously intent on giving it careful consideration. She excels no matter what the format, be it the gentle sway that provides songs such as “Levin’” and “In the Morning” with their lilt and shimmer, or the knowing stance taken on ”Matches” and with the On the Ranch title track. The arrangements provide her with the perfect backdrop as well, what with dobro and pedal steel creating a seductive setting throughout.
 
It’s rare to find an artist that emerges fully formed, but Emily Nenni appears to have accomplished just that. On the Ranch shares a pervasive presence, while making it clear that she’s well situated and exactly where she ought to be.
(by Lee Zimmerman
 
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June Star (from the EP Arrival available on WhistlePig Records)  (by Bryant Liggett)
Stripped down and weary, file the latest from June Star into the pseudo-Folk world. Yet there’s also a Southern Gothic element, where a sad, dark vibe is pushed out of every stripped-down cut. The EP Arrival is quiet and sparse, the songs of Andrew Grimm gut wrenching and tough, steady, solid, and slow.
“Do You Think Anyone Hears” has sparse instrumentation, coming on quiet and going out quiet. Plucked mandolin and strummed guitar introduce the country tinged “Here We Are” as Grimm boasts ‘there’s nothing I don’t know’ and ‘there’s nothing I can’t break’. It’s like he’s throwing out a challenge to anyone that wants to take him on as a friend or lover. Dave Hadley’s ambient pedal steel guitar floats throughout “It Is Done” while a subtle banjo turns into a laid back twangy groover, and the steel continues to hover in the sad ballad “You Weren’t Long”. “You” closes this all-to-short EP, Grimm’s voice weary and worn but full of seriousness and conviction.
This is a record that aches, the kind of record you’ll put on if you’re sad, the kind of record that will make you sad if you put it on. The beauty is in its simplicity; it’s a gutsy EP that pulls out a lot of emotion without instrument or vocal over-production. (by Bryant Liggett)
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Memphis Kee (from the album Wimberley available as an independent release) (by Lee Zimmerman)

Memphis Kee are a decidedly down-home outfit, bereft of pretension and focused on sharing songs that draw inspiration from the insights and experiences culled from the Texas Hill Country town where their new album, Wimberley, was recorded. Led by its hard-bitten namesake, the band — Kee (lead vocals, rhythm guitar), Spencer Carlson (lead guitar, vocals), Paul Pinon (drums), Joey Sisk (bass) and Jake Waylon (mandolin, keys, guitar, vocals) — are aided and abetted by special guests Mike Harmeier of Mike and the Moonpies and Cody Braun from Reckless Kelly. 
 
That said, it’s an uncompromising approach that typifies Wimberly overall, whether it’s through gruff, gritty alt-country rockers like “Little Rock’s A Fine Town”,, “Annabelle”, “Indestructible”, “Shelby County Line” and “Flammable Bridges” or the more sensitive strains of “McKinley’s Song”, a heartfelt ballad addressed to Kee’s daughter, the bruised and battered “Flowers” or “Come Pick Me Up,” a Ryan Adams composition that serves as the album’s sole cover.

Memphis Kee are a decidedly rugged bunch, borne from frayed circumstance at times but readily resilient in both their attitude and approach. There’s heartache and disappointment etched equally in each of these songs while the music they make suggests that they remain unfettered in their desire to still persevere. In the album’s final offering, “Angels of Monterrey”, Memphis Kee manage to state the situation, framing the narrative as a desperate attempt to escape the unsparing anguish of daily disappointment:
 
‘I want to live
These angels of Monterrey
Come down to me on clouds of blow
To help me find my way
The American dream its not for me
I'm made for a life of sin
Let's go down to the barrio
and do it all again…

Patience and perseverance don’t necessarily go hand in hand, but Memphis Kee make it clear they’ll do whatever it takes to survive and eventually succeed. It’s that consistent resolve, spawned from both desire and disdain, that finds Wimberley reflecting that continued drive and defiance.
(By Lee Zimmerman)
 
 
 
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Trampled by Turtles (from Alpenglow available on BanjoDad Records/Thirty Tigers) (by Lee Zimmerman)
 
If one were to reference their name alone, Trampled by Turtles would remain something of an enigma. Fortunately, instead, they can hang their hats on a well-deserved reputation as provocateurs of today’s bolder Bluegrass initiatives. Like The Punch Brothers, Yonder Mountain Stringband, The Infamous Stringbusters, the Sam Bush Band, Town Mountain, and Steep Canyon Rangers, TBT have redefined the notion of what mountain music is all about, while making their own indelible imprint in the process.
 
That said, Alpenglow finds the band in a more reflective state of mind, an attitude that takes its cue from the far stretches of America’s western environs, where the sun casts a reddish glow on the mountains at dawn and at dusk, and bathes their surroundings in a seemingly dream-like hue. The music that’s resulted reflects that otherworldly imagery, as expressed in a series of low-lit musings, all immersed in sentiment and circumspect.

Nine albums on, Alpenglow represents the band’s first new effort since 2018’s equally expressive opus, Life Is Good on the Open Road. Optimism and pessimism play equal roles in these proceedings, often at opposite ends of the cerebral spectrum. Jeff Tweedy’s role as producer may have something to do with that dichotomy, but more likely than not it’s simply a matter of synching mood and melody. The subdued sensibilities of “It’s So Hard to Hold On” as well as the desire and determination shared in “Starting Over”, the absolute darkness and despair of “Central Hillside Blues”, the forlorn farewell indicated by “The Party’s Over”, and the downcast disposition that pervades “All the Good Times Are Gone” makes it clear that hope has become hard to come by.
 
On the other hand, certain songs indicate that there may be some hope lingering on the horizon after all. “We’re Alright,” “On the Highway”, “A Lifetime to Find”, “Nothing but Blue Skies” are Trampled by Turtles suggestions that even in the darkest days, the clouds eventually lift and allow the light to come shining through. In that regard, Alpenglow provides a comforting caress, especially given the fact that it’s really needed now. (By Lee Zimmerman)
 
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Dustbowl Revival (from the EP Set Me Free on AntiFragile Music) (by Lee Zimmerman)

Their name may conjure up images of windswept prairies and depression-era itinerants, but in reality, the band — consisting of core members Zach Lupetin (vocals/guitar) and Josh Heffernan (drums/percussion), and new recruits Lashon Halley (voclas), Ulf Bjorlin (trombone), Stephen Musselman (guitar/pedal steel), Yosmel Montejo (bass) and Leider Chapotin (trumpet) — comes across as nothing less than absolutely exuberant. What it lacks in quantity — it boasts only four tracks in total — Set Me Free more than makes up for in quality, with a selection of songs that hews to a varied template and more than a few unexpected twists and turns along the way.
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Things kick off with a gleeful chuckle and proceed from there into the giddy opening title-track, “Set Me Free”, a full-on Funk-like frenzy that ricochets from start to finish on the strength of its riveting refrain. “Be (For July)”, the track that follows, calms things down to a great extent, providing a thoughtful interlude and ample opportunity for a reflective respite. With “Lying to Myself” the band purvey a somewhat eerie ambiance as they navigate way with a deliberate determination, momentarily breaking the spell for the sake of the slight bounce that comes through in the chorus. The song’s both melodic and mysterious, yet quietly compelling all at the same time.
 
Closer “Best Day” changes the pace yet again, courtesy of its hint of pure Pop, ending the EP with a flurry of brass, harmonies and an optimistic, upbeat attitude. Then again, given that the title of the set itself is Set Me Free, it’s somewhat uncertain if the feelings are genuine, or merely a cover for some understated emotion.

Ultimately, one has to admire Dustbowl Revival’s willingness to vary their template and offer some intrigue along the way. Hopefully this is a precursor to a full-length endeavor that will find their creative impulses continuing to soar and their skills simply to shine. (By Lee Zimmerman)
 
 
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