Mexican rock and pop-punk trio Los Supuestos releases debut single “No Me Digas Adios.” Courtesy photo, used with permission.
Mexican rock and pop-punk trio Los Supuestos present their debut single, “No Me Digas Adiós.” Now available on all digital platforms, the fast-paced and energetic song reflects upon the difficulty of ending a relationship and is accompanied by a colorful animated video by the illustrator Manuel Fermont featuring aliens, milkshakes, skateboards, and a re-kindled romance. Tight guitar lines and drum rhythms sustain the drive from start to end. (Vesper Public Relations, 2021)
Los Supuestos was born during the COVID-19 pandemic and includes members of the Mexican punk band SEIS PISTOS. With no venues to perform live, Kenio, Yorsh, and el Shinobi found refuge by rehearsing and recording, giving birth to Los Supuestos. The new band is driven by two universal powers: rock ‘n’ roll and love. These two pillars serve as both emotional and artistic sustenance for the members as they continue developing their sound.
Music, animation & virtual reality are equally important for Los Supuestos. The band’s goal is to immerse listeners and viewers in a cartoon-like world with a wild and fun soundtrack.
Miles Gannett’s Meridian album is due out on April 16 but the first single is out now. Photo: google
Miles Gannett, a Louisiana native, who now calls Maryland home, hears the seamless character of all music, blending and balancing strains of bluegrass with psychedelic folk textures, classic country phrasing with the propulsive notes of acid rock, and earthy blues with spectral ambience. His inventive lyrics combine the curious meditations of Jason Isbell with the story-song style of Townes Van Zandt and John Prine and the swinging rhythms of Willie Nelson. Gannett put together a group called Fractal Cat in early 2011, recording three albums of original music with them and building a reputation on Baltimore’s airwaves and live music scene. After meeting up with recording engineer/producer Frank Marchand to record Fractal Cat’s third album, Gannett started working on his “first countryish album,” which reflects his deep love of progressive bluegrass and classic country. That album, Meridian, will be released on April 16, 2021. (IVPR, 2021)
Produced by Gannett and Frank Marchand, Meridian is one part country and western, one part bluegrass, and one part roots-rock; seasoned, simmered, and garnished with a dose of psilocybin mushrooms. A pinch of overdriven guitar and a dash of Latin percussion in the occasional tune round out a unique, cosmic foundation from which Gannett tells his stories. “Meridian”—the first track on Gannett’s debut solo album of the same name—paints a waltzing, pedal-steel steeped picture of beauty in disrepair; of a city that was once grand and of the kindness of its current-day residents. On Friday, Glide Magazine premiered “Meridian,” saying, “Gannett’s warm vocals carry listeners on shimmering waves of pedal steel through various musical landscapes.” Hear “Meridian” now right here and pre-order or pre-save the entire Meridian album ahead of its April 16 release date at this link.
Gannett’s music honors the contours of traditional music even as he continues to innovate freely and ingeniously within those contours. “I’m always adding elements that might be considered irreverent or blasphemous. I always try to build on old music, but I am not making museum music.”
Meridian Track listing: Meridian The Lucky Ones Thunder River, Tumbling Down Persuasion Let’s Have Each Other for a While Short Haired Willie Give and Take Spores on Grass Screw Loose Dark Time Long Burning Bridge Maria Sabina
Travis Tritt’s new album Set In Stone will be out Friday May 7, 2021. Courtesy photo, used with permission.
Multi-Platinum selling and award-winning artist, Travis Tritt, will release a new album, Set In Stone, on May 7 and a new single, “Smoke In A Bar,” on March 5. Tritt revisits his traditional country roots on “Smoke In A Bar,” pining for humbler times when the world was not so fast-moving and simple things were not overlooked or taken for granted. Released through Big Noise Label Group and produced by Dave Cobb, the new album features 11 new songs, 8 of which were co-written by Tritt. Set In Stone marks Tritt’s first original full-length studio album in over a decade. (AristoPR, 2021)
On Set in Stone, the Grammy winner delivers the quintessential Travis Tritt album with a touch of Americana and Roots. He pays homage to all sides of his musical personality along with the trademarks of his originality. Opening with the rowdy “Stand Your Ground” and mixing powerful love songs like “Leave This World” with searing country rockers like the first single “Ghost Town Nation,” the new album is described by Tritt as “getting back to a no-frills classic outlaw-country sound.” Available for pre-save/pre-add here.
The track list for Set In Stone: 1.“Stand Your Ground” 2.“Set In Stone” 3.“Ghost Town Nation” 4.“Smoke In A Bar” 5.“Leave This World” 6.“They Don’t Make Em’ Like That No More 7.“Better Off Dead” 8.“Southern Man” 9.“Open Line” 10.“Ain’t Who I Was” 11.“Way Down In Georgia”
Travis Tritt’s albums, seven of which are certified platinum or higher, have led him to amass more than 30 million in career album sales, two GRAMMY® Awards, four CMA Awards, including the CMA Horizon Award (now known as the New Artist Award); a Billboard Music Award for Top New Artist, an invitation to become a member of the world-famous Grand Ole Opry and a devoted fan base that has filled venues coast-to-coast. He is also dubbed one of “The Class of ‘89,” which includes Country music superstars Garth Brooks, Clint Black, and Alan Jackson, all of whom dominated the charts in the ‘90s. Travis Tritt continues to sell-out shows and stays authentic and relevant to country music fans across the globe. His distinctively soulful voice and exceptional guitar prowess continue to be front and center.
Among his eleven studio albums and numerous charted singles are five number ones and 20 Top 10 hits, including “Help Me Hold On,” “Anymore,” “Can I Trust You with My Heart,” “Foolish Pride,” “Best of Intentions,” “I’m Gonna Be Somebody,” “Modern Day Bonnie and Clyde,” “Here’s A Quarter,” “It’s A Great Day To Be Alive,” and more.
Throughout his extraordinary career, his talents have crossed over into film and tv, where he appeared in Rio Diablo (1993), The Cowboy Way (1994), Tales from the Crypt (1995), Sgt. Bilko (1996), Fire Down Below (1997), Outlaw Justice (1999), Touched By An Angel (1999), Blues Brothers (2000), Yes, Dear (2004), Brother’s Keeper (2013), Forever My Girl (2018), and more.
Marc Scibilia’s Seed of Joy album’s deluxe reissue is set for April 9. Rivals is the first single from that album. Photo: google
Born and raised in Buffalo, NY, chart-topping singer/songwriter Marc Scibilia has been on a steady rise ever since the 2012 release of his breakout single, “How Bad We Need Each Other.” In the last several years alone, he has racked up more than 125 million streams across platforms, garnered praise from the likes of pop star Demi Lovato and Matchbox Twenty’s Rob Thomas, and toured with James Bay, Zac Brown Band, Butch Walker, and Nick Jonas, among others. (IV-PR, 2021)
Since its release last year, Marc Scibilia’s album Seed of Joy has been streamed more than 130 million times across digital platforms, garnered 700,000+ monthly listeners on Spotify, and physical copies of the album sold out on the day they were announced. His fans—new and old—cannot get enough of his ability to observe profound moments in his personal life and craft them into universal anthems and ballads for others to love or grieve with. With Seed of Joy, Scibilia’s calling card is the purity found in simultaneously caring for his father during a hard-fought bout with brain cancer and watching life bloom in his young family. It is his simple reassurances of love that are equally felt when whispered to one or sung out to millions. On Friday April 9, Scibilia will share an expanded, deluxe edition of Seed of Joy with his fans, and its first single, “Rivals” is available right now at this link.
A love song custom-made to reverberate from the rafters (just as soon as live music is back), “Rivals” exemplifies Scibilia’s mastery of the whispered verse turned soaring chorus; equally at home in sold out venues and on road trips with the windows down. “I wrote ‘Rivals’ at a hotel Munich, Germany, while on tour with Robin Schulz,” Marc says. “We were playing these massive arena shows. It was a career highlight but it reminded me of the things that are most important to me. I always had my friends, family…the things that have no rivals.” His stomping, brassy ode to those friends and family is a perfect fit for the same arenas from where it came. He recently performed the song live via SPIN’s Instagram—watch the performance here.
Tony Joe White’s Smoke from the Chimney is set for May 7 release. Photo: google
Across five decades as a performer and storyteller, Tony Joe White—a.k.a. “The Swamp Fox”—left an indelible mark on American music. His catalog offers indisputable classics such as “Polk Salad Annie” and “Rainy Night in Georgia” and his songs have been recorded by Ray Charles, Kenny Chesney, Waylon Jennings, Tim McGraw, Willie Nelson, Elvis Presley, Dusty Springfield, and Tina Turner. On Friday, May 7, Smoke from the Chimney, a nine-song album of never-before-heard Tony Joe White tunes, will be released on Easy Eye Sound. Produced by Dan Auerbach and rounded out by Nashville’s most seasoned studio musicians, Smoke from the Chimney started out as several unadorned voice and guitar demos from White’s home studio before being transformed into full band arrangements harkening back to the albums he recorded in the late 60s and early 70s in Nashville and Muscle Shoals—just as he was emerging as an internationally recognized songwriter and recording artist. (IV-PR, 2021)
On Friday, NPR/World Cafe gave fans their first listen of “Boot Money,” a gritty, thumping ode to keeping a little bit of extra scratch hidden away. “Boot Money” comes accompanied by an animated video from director Robert Schober which colorfully places White and Auerbach in the recording studio to kick off the tune before following along while White lives out the song’s storyline. Fans can see the video for “Boot Money” at this link and pre-order or pre-save Smoke from the Chimney here.
After his father’s death in 2018, Jody White, White’s son and manager, started transferring his father’s multitrack home recordings to digital files. Looking back on the moment he unearthed the demo of “Smoke from the Chimney,” he recalls a mix of happiness, gratification, and shock. As he continued to find other songs that did not make an album, he moved the material into a separate folder. Within a year, those select recordings would evolve into Smoke from the Chimney. Jody says that even in those basic tracks, that definitive Tony Joe White groove instantly stood out. “He always finds a tempo and a pocket that is exactly right. And it’s a little bit different than anybody else would choose themselves,” he says. Jody believes that his father would love the way Smoke from the Chimney turned out.
Smoke from the Chimney Track list: Smoke from the Chimney Boot Money Del Rio, You’re Making Me Cry Listen to Your Song Over You Scary Stories Bubba Jones Someone Is Crying Billy
“Smoke From The Chimney” is more than a faithful tribute to one of the great Americana musicians and national treasures, performed by an ensemble who capture the DNA of Tony Joe White’s songs with beauty, warmth, and reverence.” – NPR’s Bruce Warren
The Wayon Sessions by Shannon McNally will be out Friday May 28, 2021. Photo: amazon
Born and raised on Long Island, Shannon McNally has, at various points, called New Orleans, Nashville, and Holly Springs, Mississippi, home, but it was in Los Angeles that she first came to national attention in the early 2000s with her Capitol Records debut, Jukebox Sparrows. She followed it up in 2005 with Geronimo, a critically acclaimed sophomore effort that prompted The New York Times to call her “irresistible” and the Washington Post to hail her as “a fine lyricist who often calls to mind Lucinda Williams.” With her new album, The Waylon Sessions, the prolific and wide-ranging Shannon McNally sets out to revisit the songs and spirit of Waylon Jennings, a legend with whom she has always had an ongoing fascination. The album will be released on Compass Records on May 28, 2021. (IVPR, 2021)
American Songwriter provided the very first glimpse into The Waylon Sessions with the premiere of “I Ain’t Living Long Like This” featuring Rodney Crowell, which first appeared on What Goes Around Comes Around in 1979. Hear McNally’s take on “I Ain’t Living Long Like This” here and pre-order or pre-save ‘The Waylon Sessions’ at this link ahead of its May 28 release via Compass Records in partnership with Blue Rose.
McNally knew that assembling the right band would be essential to capturing Jennings’ mix of laid-back charm and swaggering bravado, so she called AMA-winning guitarist Kenny Vaughan (Marty Stuart, Lucinda Williams) to help her assemble a team that included drummer Derek Mixon (Chris Stapleton), pedal steel legend and longtime Jennings bandmate Fred Newell, Texas keyboard mainstay Bukka Allen (Robert Earl Keen, Jerry Jeff Walker), and bassist Chris Scruggs (Marty Stuart, Charlie Louvin). Working live and raw, they tracked sixteen songs in just five days, relying on instinct and intuition to guide their decisions at every turn. As brilliant as the band’s performances are, it is McNally who breathes new life into the music here, tackling the tunes with an honesty and a maturity that transcends genre and gender. She does not swap pronouns or couch her delivery with a wink; she simply plays it straight, singing her truth as a divorced single mother in her 40s in all its beauty, pain, and power. The result is a rare covers record that furthers our understanding of the originals; an album of classics that challenges our perceptions and assumptions about just what made them classics in the first place.
The Waylon Sessions Track listing: I’ve Always Been Crazy You Asked Me To – feat. Buddy Miller Out Among The Stars – feat. Jessi Colter You Show Me Yours And I’ll Show You Mine – feat. Lukas Nelson Black Rose – feat. Buddy Miller This Time I Ain’t Living Long Like This – feat. Rodney Crowell I’m A Ramblin’ Man Mammas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys Help Me Make It Through The Night We Had It All
“My goal wasn’t to force anything onto the music that wasn’t there already. There’s a feminine perspective hidden somewhere inside each of these songs. My job was to find a way to tap into that and draw it out.” – Shannon McNally
Without Getting Killed or Caught will premiere at 2021 SXSW Film Festival. Photo: google
Without Getting Killed or Caught is a remarkable documentary film about the mythical, complicated relationship between legendary songwriters Guy Clark, Susanna Clark, and Townes Van Zandt, and the art it inspired; a film with enough charm to create new fans of Clark and his music and enough depth to appease long-time followers. Without Getting Killed or Caught—which will make its virtual World Premiere at the 2021 SXSW Film Festival March 16-20—was produced and directed by longtime Americana music producer and executive Tamara Saviano and filmmaker Paul Whitfield. The film was originally scheduled to debut at SXSW in 2020 before the pandemic shuttered the festival, and for those not already attending SXSW 2021, stay tuned for additional information on public screenings with Kessler Presents, YETI, SiriusXM Outlaw Country, and more. (IVPR, 2021)
Without Getting Killed or Caught is the true story of Guy Clark, the dean of Texas songwriters, who struggles to write poetic, yet indelible songs while balancing a complicated marriage with wife Susanna, and a deep friendship with singer-songwriter Townes Van Zandt, on whom Susanna forged a passionate dependence. Clark, who died in 2016, wrote and recorded unforgettable songs (“L.A. Freeway,” “Desperados Waiting for a Train”) for more than forty years. His lyrics and melodies paint portraits of the people, places, and experiences that shaped him, and no one inspired Guy more than his wife, painter, and songwriter Susanna Talley Clark, and their best friend, fellow songwriter Townes Van Zandt.
Narrated by Academy-Award winner Sissy Spacek, Without Getting Killed or Caught follows Guy, Susanna, and Townes on their journey from obscurity to reverence: Guy, the Pancho to Van Zandt’s Lefty, struggling to establish himself as the Dylan Thomas of American music, while Susanna writes hit songs and paints album covers for top artists and Townes spirals in self-destruction after writing some of Americana music’s most enduring and influential ballads. Based on the diaries of Susanna Clark—the film tells the saga from Susanna’s point of view—and Saviano’s 2016 book “Without Getting Killed or Caught: The Life and Music of Guy Clark,” which No Depression called “an intimate, affectionate, sometimes sad, often hilarious, and vibrant chronicle of one of our most memorable artists.”
The film uses Clark’s songs, family photographs and archives, vintage film footage, and radio talk shows on which Clark appeared solo and in tandem with Van Zandt. The real emotional impact, though, comes from Susanna’s pained remembrances, taken from her private journals and secret audio diaries, as well as taped conversations that Susanna made of the trio and of the “salon” that regularly gathered around them—all serving as witnesses to this seemingly fated intersection of love, art, and tragedy.
Normal Isn’t Normal is Rod Abernethy’s new album. Photo: google
Rod Abernethy is the 2019 Winner of American Songwriter’s Bob Dylan Song Contest for his riveting performance of “Oxford Town.” His last album The Man I’m Supposed To Be—produced by the legendary Don Dixon (REM, Marti Jones, The Smithereens, Marshall Crenshaw)—reached the top 10 in 2018 on the Folk DJ Chart. As a composer, he has scored and produced music for over 80 video games including the Electronic Art’s blockbuster hit “Dead Space” which won a BAFTA Award in 2009 for Best Original Score, and Tolkien’s “The Hobbit” for Vivendi Universal which won Video Game Soundtrack Of The Year in 2003. Now, Abernethy is proud to add his new full-length album Normal Isn’t Normal Anymore to his vast catalog of works and is available for purchase here. (IVPR, 2021)
Normal Isn’t Normal Anymore is a mixture of guitar virtuosity and world-class songwriting, most of which happened on Abernethy’s last year of touring. The album has received praise from fans and critics alike, including The Wall Street Journal, who complimented his “impressive guitar-picking.” According to American Songwriter, the lead single Another Year, is “a message as poignant as it is heartwarming…this idea of unity, so valuable and necessary in these times of polarization and strife, is so beautifully done.”
Abernethy’s knack for songcraft spans from finding excitement in the mundane day-to-day to making sense of the heavier bits of life; the latter being apparent in “My Father Was A Quiet Man” and the former in the rollicking “Birds In The Chimney.” The album also features two of Abernethy’s lively, intricate guitar instrumentals like “Over The Fence,” a rollicking six-string instrumental adventure about the family coonhound who jumps the fence and roams the downtown area for hours. With star performances from some of Nashville’s finest including Will Kimbrough on guitar, it should be noted that Normal Isn’t Normal Anymore is just as much about musicianship as it is songwriting, and neither take the back seat to the other.
Normal Isn’t Normal Anymore Track Listing: 1. Just Around The Corner 2. It’s Always Something 3. Whiskey & Pie 4. My Father Was A Quiet Man 5. Birds In The Chimney 6. When Tobacco Was King 7. Normal Isn’t Normal Anymore 8. Changing 9. Just Get In The Car 10. Another Year 11. Over The Fence 12. Oxford Town
The Shootout’s sophomore album Bullseye will be released on April 30. Photo: google
The Shootouts are known for their energetic blend of honky-tonk, Americana, and traditional country. After releasing their acclaimed 2019 debut Quick Draw, the band charted Top 50 on Americana radio and in 2020, were nominated for an Ameripolitan Music Award for “Best Honky-Tonk Group.” They have shared the stage with luminaries Marty Stuart, Jim Lauderdale, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Radney Foster, Sheryl Crow, and many more. Produced by Grammy-nominee and BR549 founder Chuck Mead, their new album Bullseye ranges from catchy pedal steel-filled numbers (“Everything I Know”) to two-step worthy tunes (“Here Come The Blues”) to never recorded fan live favorites (“Rattlesnake Whiskey” and “Saturday Night Town”). (IVPR, 2021)
On Friday April 30, The Shootouts will release their sophomore album Bullseye via Soundly Music, but Wide Open Country just premiered a video for the album’s first track, “Rattlesnake Whiskey,” a live staple and fan favorite from the band’s catalog that is finally being immortalized on record. Fans can watch the video for “Rattlesnake Whiskey” at this link, pre-order or pre-save Bullseye here, and get a glimpse of the album’s eleven other songs via The Shootouts’ album preview video.
Equal parts vintage Nashville, Texas swing, and Bakersfield bravado, the new album draws heavily from the music on which the band’s members were brought up, packaging all of country music’s classic subgenres in their modern, signature sound. Produced by former BR459 lead singer Chuck Mead, Bullseye has The Shootouts mining their roots and expanding the territory they explored with their debut album, Quick Draw. The songs invoke a wide array of country music’s most important contributors, lassoing the band’s classic influences and bringing them straight into the present. The Shootouts’ mission with Bullseye was simply to create an album that puts a smile on listeners’ faces—music that helps them escape from the difficult times they have recently faced.
“For everyone’s sake, this needed to be a fun record. We’re living through a time where people are suddenly out of work, have lost loved ones, and have been experiencing unimaginable stress on a daily basis. Even if it’s just for 30 minutes, we want them to take a break, crank it up, and enjoy themselves.” – Ryan Humbert, The Shootouts’ lead vocalist, guitarist
Bullseye Track Listing: 1. I Don’t Think About You Anymore 2. Rattlesnake Whiskey 3. Another Mother 4. Hurt Heartbroke 5. Bullseye 6. Here Come The Blues 7. Everything I Know 8. Waiting on You 9. Missing The Mark 10. I Still Care 11. Forgot to Forget 12. Saturday Night Town
John Smith’s The Fray will be out Friday, March 26, 2021. Courtesy photo, used with permission.
British folksinger John Smith was born in Essex and raised on the Devon seaside. Known for his intimate songwriting, his honey-on-gravel voice, and pioneering guitar playing, he has spent the last fifteen years touring internationally and has amassed over 40 million streams on Spotify. As a session musician, he has played guitar with artists as diverse as Joan Baez, David Gray, Joe Henry, Lianne La Havas, and Tom Jones. (IVPR, 2021)
The first song released from his new album is “Eye to Eye.” It embodies a thread of hopefulness in a blanket of bad news; a thread that runs throughout his new full-length album, The Fray. Out March 26, The Fray finds Smith writing his sixth album, grounded from his usually busy touring schedule, and reeling from a cascade of even worse news in his personal life; wading through it all with a defiant positivity. Last month, Fretboard Journal premiered “Eye to Eye,” describing it as, “A gorgeous new album…beautiful, introspective and loaded with great guitar tones.” A pulsing plea for understanding which was co-written with Americana mainstay Sarah Siskind and features Grammy-nominated multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Sarah Jarosz, “Eye to Eye” is a shining example of Smith’s ability to deliver a tough conversation wrapped in uplifting verse and melody. Fans can listen to “Eye to Eye” right now at this link and pre-order or pre-save The Fray ahead of its March 26.
Throughout The Fray, Smith touches on not just his own emotional turmoil experienced over the past year, but also his observance of the pain of those around him. But it is Smith’s stubborn optimism that shines through and differentiates his experiences and songs from his influences and contemporaries. His traits of holding onto hope, forgiving transgressions, and reckoning with his place in a world which does not always reciprocate are not only necessary for Smith to deal, but they are also contagious to anyone who finds themselves in similar situations, adrift in the wind. For those who echo that sentiment, from experience, Smith shares his message on The Fray; “If we don’t hold on, we’re lost.”
“It’s been a hell of a year, but I feel I’ve created my most honest work as a result—and as a necessity. A lot of these songs are about accepting that life is hard, but just holding on and trying to enjoy it anyway.”- John Smith
The Fray Track listing: 1. Friends 2. Hold On 3. Sanctuary 4. Deserving 5. The Best Of Me (feat. Bill Frisell) 6. Star-Crossed Lovers (feat Lisa Hannigan) 7. To The Shore 8. Eye To Eye (feat Sarah Jarosz) 9. Just As You Are 10. The Fray (feat. The Milk Carton Kids) 11. She’s Doing Fine 12. One Day At A Time
SA Examiner 