Tag: Bluegrass

New album release: Western Chill – Robert Earl Keen

Robert Earl Keen’s laid back opus Western Chill is accompanied by a play-along songbook, full album performance video, and a 92 page graphic novel. Courtesy photo, used with permission.

Americana legend and model Texan Robert Earl Keen retired from touring in September of last year but his new release Western Chill finds the songwriter alive and well and, seemingly, very relaxed. While Keen is still making public appearances—he was just officially honored on the floor of the Texas House of Representatives and popped into Dallas’ newly reopened Longhorn Ballroom to play a tune with Old Crow Medicine Show—Western Chill makes it very apparent that retirement suits him. For most artists, dropping an album of fourteen new songs would be enough, but, proven time and time again, Keen is not most artists. (IVPR, 2023)

Currently, the only way to hear Western Chill is to purchase the entire box set. Thankfully, the box set has it all, including a 92-page graphic novel inspired by the album, a play-along/sing-along songbook for all fourteen songs, and a DVD of the Robert Earl Keen Band performing the entire new album at Keen’s Snake Barn studio space. The only thing “chill” about the release is the songs themselves. For the foreseeable future there will be no download or streaming links, so fans are encouraged to dive into the entirety of Western Chill the way it was intended: kick back, crack a cold one, sing along, and enjoy the vibe.

Pre-sales are over, but fans can now purchase Keen’s Western Chill package for immediate delivery and do not forget to stay up to date—rumor has it, REK has already finished another record.

Western Chill track list:
Western Chill
Blue Light (feat. Bill Whitbeck)
Waves (feat. Brian Beken)
Hello Stranger (feat. Kym Warner)
The City (feat. Brian Beken)
Let’s Valet
Balmorhea
Marfa
Bone and Flowers (feat. Bill Whitbeck)
Sweet Summer Rain
Mister Mockingbird (feat. Bill Whitbeck)
Mr. Blues on the Run
Walking On
Rippling Waters

The Western Chill vibe is packed with enough surprises to keep even the most seasoned fan guessing what is coming next. The opening title track—an instant Keen classic in the easy-loping vein of “The Front Porch Song,” “Gringo Honeymoon,” and “Feelin’ Good Again”—sets the mood for the whole album, followed by back-to-back original stunners sung and written by fiddle/guitar player Brian Beken and bassist Bill Whitbeck. If variety is the spice of life, Western Chill is the Silk Road to chill with more contributions are heard from Beken and Whitbeck, as well as compositions by the rest of the band. This has all been documented on the accompanying video because true to the “featuring” tag on the album cover, this really is a REK Band affair.

New album release: Home Is Where The Heart Is – Davisson Brothers Band

Home Is Where The Heart Is will be released April 28, 2023. Courtesy photo, used with permission.

The Davisson Brothers Band is a genre-blurring mountain rock band formed in Clarksburg, West Virginia, by Chris and Donnie Davisson. Along with nephew Gerrod Bee and lifelong family friend Aaron Regester, the band has created a uniquely authentic Appalachian country sound which has helped them grow into one of the most successful independent acts in the world. Since their founding in 2006, the band has recorded three albums, been celebrated as a Highway Find on Sirius XM, charted on country radio with “Foot Stompin’,” and scored a hit song in Australia with “Po’ Boyz”—while also earning a dedicated following in the Jam Band/Bluegrass scene and standing shoulder to shoulder with mainstream country stars at festivals like CMC Rocks (Australia) and the Carolina Country Fest (USA). Their new album, Home Is Where the Heart Is, will be out April 28, 2023. (IVPR, 2023)

When it came down to telling the story of their home and exactly what it means to them, the Davisson Brothers Band took pride in not only correcting any misunderstandings but painting a true and downright fun picture of everything from their humble mountain roots to their present rock and roll reality. Their upcoming album Home Is Where The Heart Is does just that, pulling twelve tracks straight from the Davisson Brothers’ world and wrapping them in their most authentic sound to date. Created like a declaration of musical independence—a national anthem for the Appalachian way of life—Home Is Where The Heart Is is the masterpiece the band has worked toward their whole career, and after working hard to earn the respect of their peers, it was not done alone.

Produced by wildly popular songwriter and recording artist Brent Cobb and Nashville’s legendary recording studio character David “Ferg” Ferguson, Home Is Where The Heart Is finds Davisson Brothers Band—brothers Chris and Donnie Davisson on lead guitar and lead vocals, respectively, their nephew Gerrod Bee on bass and life-long family friend Aaron Regester on drums—joined in the studio by bluegrass and jam-band royalty to help round out their “mountain rock” sound.

Taste of Country premiered the music video for “Mountain High,” the Davisson Brothers’ first single from Home Is Where The Heart Is. The video finds the Davissons, band, and extended family and friends at home in the mountains of West Virginia singing along with the songs fiddle-ridden refrain: “We get down on a mountain high / It’s where we’re from, it’s where we’ll die.”

Fans can watch the “Mountain High” video, stream or purchase “Mountain High” here, and pre-order or pre-save Home Is Where The Heart Is ahead of its April 28 release on Rollin’ The Dice Records.

Home Is Where The Heart Is track list:
Home
Mountain High
Appalachian Breeze
Eastern Kentucky
Wild and Wonderful
Cross My Heart
John Deere Tractor
Long Hard Road
She Ain’t Coming Back
Life On Fire
I’m Good With It
Morningstar

Catch Davisson Brothers Band on tour:
April 15 – Boonsboro, MD – Dirty Boots Country Fest 2023
May 6 – Saint Marys, WV – St. Marys High School
June 16 – Kannapolis, NC – Swanee Theater
June 17 – Saint Albans, WV – YakFest 2023
August 1 – Petersburg, WV – Tri-County Fair
August 4- Ravenswood, WV – Ohio River Festival
August 10 – Mannington, WV – Mannington District Fair Association
August 11 – Davis, WV – Canaan Valley Resort & Conference Center
September 2 – Webster Springs, WV – Bergoo Bash 2023

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New album release: Lost Voices – Tim Stafford and Thomm Jutz

Tim Stafford and Thomm Jutz pay tribute to those who ‘Still Had So Much To Say’ on their new album Lost Voices now out via Mountain Fever Records. Courtesy photo, used with permission.

When long-time friends, mutual admirers, and heavily respected bluegrass musicians Tim Stafford and Thomm Jutz started accumulating a catalog of co-written songs during Covid lockdown and beyond, it only made sense to get these inspired, well-crafted stories recorded for the rest of the world to hear and enjoy. Retreating to Jutz’ log cabin studio outside of Nashville with a crew of like-minded greats including Shaun Richardson on mandolin, Ron Block on banjo, Tammy Rogers on fiddle, and Mark Fain on bass, Stafford and Jutz cut fourteen of their songs to create an album of tunes that the beloved, late music writer and historian Peter Cooper called “Songs that bring American history—mountain culture, steam trains, vaudeville, race, baseball, strife, and grace—to technicolor life.” The album is called Lost Voices, and it is out now on Mountain Fever Records. (Tim Stafford/Thomm Jutz, 2023)

From Callie Lou, a song based on a scene from Harriette Arnow’s The Doll Maker that features Dale Ann Bradey on vocals; to the story of Negro League heroes, The Elizabethton Blue Grays, brought to life by the dedicated research of Jacey Augustus and the Cedar Grove Foundation; to the amazing story of the now-recognized Navajo heroes of the battle of Iwo Jima in Code Talkers; to The Queen and Crescent which is full of the alluring jargon from the golden era of America’s railroads; Lost Voices is all in tribute to what the longtime Blue Highway guitarist (Stafford) and the long-respected Nashville songwriter and session man (Jutz) call “the lost voices that still had so much to say.”

After calling both Stafford and Jutz “master guitarists and writers,” the aforementioned Cooper described Lost Voices: “These are new kinds of bluegrass songs, informed by mutual heroes Tony Rice, Norman Blake, John Hartford, and Gordon Lightfoot, yet not beholden to any prior influence, other than the influence of the American experience.”

Fans can stream or purchase Lost Voices.

Lost Voices track list:
Take That Shot
Enough To Keep You Going For A While
The Blue Grays
The Ballad Of Kinnie Wagner
Callie Lou
The Wild Atlantic Way
No Witness In The Laurel But The Leaves
Vaudeville Blues
Code Talker
The Standing People
The Queen And Crescent
High Mountain Rising
Revolutionary Love
Lost Voices

Mountain Fever Records is proud to announce the signing of Tim Stafford and Thomm Jutz; two of the most prominent and prolific songwriters in bluegrass music, for the release of their forthcoming duo project, Lost Voices. Their love for history, vintage guitars, and well-crafted songs brought the two together five years ago. “I’m such an admirer of Tim’s writing, singing, and playing. Making a duo record with Tim was a logical step and a dream come true for me,” notes Jutz. Stafford says, “Thomm is such a great, unique writer, player, and singer – we connected and found so many ideas that spoke to us both. Recording was a breeze!”

Boston based bluegrass band Mile Twelve returns with new album

Mile Twelve’s new album Close Enough to Hear will be out February 3, 2023. Courtesy photo, used with permission.

Mile Twelve, Boston’s modern string band, is back in motion. From the first manic downbeat of their virtuosic new record, Close Enough to Hear, you will discover a band that is ready to explode from a restless pandemic-induced hiatus. You will hear the same warmth and innovation that earned the band IBMA’s 2019 Album of the Year nomination and 2020 New Artist of the Year Award, which has gained them an international reputation as one of the most dynamic bands in contemporary acoustic music. Heard as a whole, Close Enough to Hear displays the vast creative potential of the bluegrass quintet—banjo (BB Bowness), mandolin (Korey Brodsky), fiddle (Ella Jordan), acoustic guitar (Evan Murphy), and upright bass (Nate Sabat)—in the hands of world-class musicians. (Mile Twelve, 2023)

Fans of Mile Twelve will notice the presence of two new members on Close Enough to Hear: fiddler and vocalist Ella Jordan and mandolinist Korey Brodsky. Take note of the new dimension they add to the band and their ability to lock in with founding members Evan Murphy, Catherine Bowness, and Nate Sabat. These are not session players; this album captures the formation of a new coherent unit.

Both of the bands’ previous full-length albums, as well as their guest star-packed EP, were recorded in Nashville but the new challenges of traveling and dodging positive Covid tests kept the band closer to home. They chose Sam Kassirer’s legendary Great North Sounds in the woods of Parsonsfield, Maine, a studio that has played host to a murderer’s row of Americana acts and has become a fixture of the New England recording scene. Leading up to the making of their new album, Mile Twelve—a flourishing act whose output has helped push the envelope of New England’s progressive bluegrass and string-band scene—learned a whole new level of perseverance, patience, and performance.

Fans can watch the music video for “Close Enough to Hear” and pre-order or pre-save Close Enough to Hear ahead of its February 3 release.

This is a band looking forward—simultaneously shoring up their bluegrass foundations (in the transfixing acapella opening of “If Only,” for example) while also pushing their musical boundaries and driving into new territory. You will detect flavors of jazz (“Red Grapes on the Vine”), acoustic pop (“Take Me As I Am”), and trance music (“Light of Angels”). Heard as a whole, Close Enough to Hear displays the vast potential of acoustic string band music in the hands of capable players.

Close Enough to Hear track list:
Romulus
Johnny Oklahoma
Close Enough To Hear
Red Grapes on the Vine
Light of Angels
Hopping Around Telluride
Waiting
Anywhere Town
Take Me As I Am
If Only

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New album release: Darkest Hour – The Gibson Brothers

The Gibson Brothers announce upcoming album Darkest Hour, due out January 27, 2023. Courtesy photo, used with permission.

The Gibson Brothers are the real deal. They can pick. They can sing. And they can write a damn good country song. Country Music Hall of Famer Tom T. Hall was always an early supporter, encouraging their writing, and predicting success. They have won about every bluegrass award you can name and released albums on almost every premier Americana label you can think of including Sugar Hill and Rounder. Their songs have been recorded by bluegrass legends no less than Del McCoury. It is a resume almost anybody in country music would be proud to have. Despite all of this, The Gibson Brothers are not yet household names. Their latest album, Darkest Hour, produced by dobro master Jerry Douglas, might just change that. It is due out January 27, 2023. (The Gibson Brothers, 2022)

Kicking off with a flurry of traditional bluegrass excellence, The Gibson Brothers’ new single Dust is more than a just statement of musicianship. It is the whole package; world-class picking, clear and refined vocals, and rock-solid songwriting. An ode to leaning into down-and-out—“Left in the dust” by ex-lover— Dust puts a clever, positive spin on being left behind. “Me and dust, we do fine.” Dust is the first track The Gibson Brothers have shared from their upcoming album Darkest Hour. Produced by dobro king Jerry Douglas, Darkest Hour represents the purest form of Leigh, Eric, and the band’s stage show, with a room full of exceptional musicians.

Darkest Hour spans from trad-grass to country-soul and back again, utilizing classically bluegrass instruments as well as electric guitars and drums to craft a sound fit for the songs it surrounds. While The Gibson Brothers have achieved a level of success doing things their way, and that is not going to change, those who know—their peers that voted them to two Entertainers of the Year Awards, and their famed crop of producers—know just how talented these guys are and just how much they deserve for Darkest Hour to take The Gibson Brothers to a whole new level.

Fans can purchase or stream Dust today at and pre-order or pre-save Darkest Hour ahead of its January release.

Darkest Hour track list:
1. What A Difference A Day Makes
2. Heart’s Desire
3. So Long Mama
4. I Feel The Same Way As You
5. Shut Up and Dance
6. I Go Driving
7. My Darkest Hour
8. Who’s Gonna Want A Heart Like Mine
9. One Minute Of You (Song For Annie Gray)
10. Your Eyes Say His Name
11. Dust
12. This Good Day

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New album release: Adeem The Artist’s White Trash Revelry

Highly- anticipated White Trash Revelry will be out December 2 via Adeem The Artists’ own Four Quarters Records. Courtesy photo, used with permission.

Growing up, Eastern Tennessee-based songwriter Adeem the Artist quickly realized that with the right delivery, dark jokes could offer a socially acceptable way to open up about the tough stuff. “My parents are both from a lot of generational trauma, and I was born right at the heart of it,” Adeem says. “Humor is just how we survived.” Of course, since before 2021’s Cast-Iron Pansexual—the album that earned Adeem the Artist praise from Rolling Stone and American Songwriter, Adeem the Artist has continued to build a dedicated following by blending Appalachian musical influences and poetic flair with their healthy dose of comedic instinct, and recently, they announced an upcoming album on their own Four Quarters Records label, White Trash Revelry. (Adeem the Artist, 2022)

Out on December 2, White Trash Revelry delivers a fresh batch of Adeem’s beloved comedic sensibilities, tempered with vulnerable moments and highly specific personal details. Tender strings and clear vocals give way to nuanced storytelling about small-town rites of passage and mixed messages about love, violence, and honor. Songs like “Heritage of Arrogance” tackle larger societal issues, struggling to reconcile open-minded intentions with the deeply flawed and historical narratives too often peddled by white Southerners. But the album’s namesake revelry is around every corner, too.

Adeem the Artist shared “Middle of a Heart” from White Trash Revelry. “I wrote this song for my friend Bob in many ways,” they say. “Bob was a retired Knoxville Police Officer who I’d make bacon and eggs for every morning and we’d watch the news and watch the birds and he’d tell me stories about Carlene and the boys. I miss him, still.” At times sweet and sad, “Middle of a Heart” is a shining example of Adeem’s skillful storytelling, with a plot turn leaving listeners awestruck. “It hits like a bullet in the middle of a heart.”

Fans can watch Adeem’s previously-released “Going To Hell” video now and pre-order or pre-save White Trash Revelry ahead of its December 2 release. Check out upcoming Adeem the Artist tour dates below.

White Trash Revelry track list: 

  1. Carolina
  2. For Judas
  3. Heritage of Arrogance
  4. Painkillers & Magic
  5. Run This Town
  6. Baptized In Well Spirits
  7. Middle Of A Heart
  8. Going To Hell
  9. Rednecks & Unread Hicks
  10. Books & Records
  11. My America

Adeem’s twang-studded gospel represents a worldview too often excluded from modern country music, one that converts shame into celebration. It turns out, folks like the sound of embracing the parts of ourselves we are told to bury—so much so that when Adeem turned to fans to support the follow-up album to Cast-Iron Pansexual, thousands obliged. Dubbing it a “redneck fundraiser,” the seventh-generation Carolinian raised the money to release White Trash Revelry by asking for one dollar at a time through social media. “With four quarters and a Venmo,” they joked, “baby, you can make this dream come true.” Adeem emerged from the fundraiser $15,000 later with a name for their new record label—Four Quarters Records—and the resolve to write an unapologetic next chapter.

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Upcoming album release: 1992 by Justin Hiltner

Banjoist, songwriter, and activist Justin Hiltner announces solo album 1992, available December 9, 2022. Courtesy photo, used with permission.

Justin Hiltner is a queer, disabled banjo player, songwriter, and music writer known from the Peabody Award-winning podcast Dolly Parton’s America and currently playing banjo with the Broadway national tour of the 2019 Tony Award-winning revival of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! Past releases include Watch it Burn (2018) and Room at the Table (2022) with Jon Weisberger, Silver Dagger (2021), “Hold Each Other Up” (2020) with Cathy Fink & Marcy Marxer, and “Live and Let Live” (2019) with Bluegrass Pride, Laurie Lewis, Melody Walker, and more. The critically acclaimed instrumentalist and songwriter has announced his debut solo album, 1992 available December 9, 2022. The project’s lead single and title track is a heartbreaking and singular exploration of survivor’s guilt, disability, and embodiment and is available now via streaming platforms, download, and Bandcamp. (Justin Hiltner, 2022)

Premiering on The Bluegrass Situation, Hiltner described the single: “At the time I began writing [‘1992’], I was reading [Randy Shilts’] And the Band Played On and spending a good amount of time studying the movement for queer rights in the ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s. It dawned on me that I was not born after the HIV/AIDS epidemic, I was born into it. And almost certainly there were gay men and queer folks dying of HIV in the very same hospital where I was born.” Accompanied simply by stark, low-tuned banjo, the story within “1992” is entrancing and solemn, a truly original message – especially within the genres and regions Hiltner has called home.

1992 was recorded in September 2020 with Grammy Award winning producers and bluegrass, folk, and children’s music stalwarts Cathy Fink & Marcy Marxer engineering and co-producing at their studio in Lansing, North Carolina – the hometown of bluegrass and old-time forebear Ola Belle Reed. The collection’s twelve original songs, each recorded live and the majority tracked in single takes, were captured atop the idyllic and gorgeous Blue Ridge Mountains with a panoramic view of Pond Mountain, White Top, and New Pinnacle from Ashe County, NC, a setting that complicates and unspools narratives around where queer folks belong while upending stereotypes of “ownership,” “authenticity,” and placemaking in bluegrass, Appalachia, and the South.

Other songs on the album deal with class issues and social justice, love, loss, and longing, and Hiltner’s journey through cancer – his treatment, recovery, disability, and the traumas of surviving cancer only to land in the COVID-19 pandemic. The banjo playing throughout is technically impressive and challenging, but serves each song tastefully and, often, subtly, reminding of solo pickers and performers like John Hartford and Darrell Scott. “Pieces,” a song about the slow drip of losing oneself in love, was co-written with Rounder recording artist Caroline Spence, a longtime friend of Hiltner’s. “Benson Street,” which was written with flat picker and songwriter Molly Tuttle, is full of pining and the imagery of southern summers.

Hiltner’s highly anticipated solo debut feels strikingly mature and sharp, with a point of view rare even in the fast growing queer country movement, a reminder of why NPR Music called him “A leader in the burgeoning movement to welcome and highlight queer voices in bluegrass.”

1992 will be available wherever you download, stream, or purchase music on December 9, 2022. Pre-order open now.

1992 Track List:
Dark Side
U R the HWY 1 (APT 2)
Everglades
Benson Street
1992
Hannah
Oligarchs
10 Years (Gotta Get Out)
Pieces
I Wanted More
I Cry Every Day Now
Another Way

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Barrett Davis releases acclaimed debut album The Ballad of Aesop Fin

The Ballad of Aesop Fin is longtime Carolina songwriter Barrett Davis’ solo debut album. Courtesy photo, used with permission.

“I just came to this serious point in my life where I realized that if I want to make music and perform, then it’s now or never—I’ve got to make something of it,” remembers 29-year-old musician Barrett Davis of the time leading up to his debut album The Ballad of Aesop Fin. Luckily, for us listeners, Davis’ dedication to his dream paid off in spades. Released last week, The Ballad of Aesop Fin delivers a vibrant tapestry of songs, ranging from modern Americana to classic country, indie-folk to the “high, lonesome sound” of bluegrass—the last of which comes with a little help from Woody Platt, longtime lead singer for Davis’ hometown, Grammy-winning bluegrass outfit, Steep Canyon Rangers. The record itself is a kitchen sink of tones—as heard on “Quiver,” “Lazarus,” and “Carolina Still”—one which ideally showcases the wide-range and unknown depths of Davis, his musical pursuits, and exploits. (Barrett Davis, 2022)

Fans can hear The Ballad of Aesop Fin in its entirety and check out some intimate, in-studio videos of “Carolina Still,” “Lazarus,” and “Quiver feat. Woody Platt.” 

The Ballad of Aesop Fin In The News: Fretboard Journal premiered Aesop Fin’s first single, “Quiver,” writing, “We love this track from Davis and we especially love seeing Woody Platt, formerly of Steep Canyon Rangers, helping out on backing vocals.” JamBase premiered the album’s penultimate track, “Lazarus,” a song about “friendship and renewal.” The Bluegrass Situation premiered the video for “Carolina Still,” an ode to Davis’ ancestry, his family’s deep roots in North Carolina, and his great-grandfather Gus.

John Apice reviewed the album for Americana Highways, commenting, “North Carolina’s Barrett Davis has style, ear-caressing sincerity in his music & an arresting voice in many of these well-crafted songs.” 

The Ballad of Aesop Fin track list:

  1. Highway 64
  2. Carolina Still
  3. Quiver
  4. Oh Sleeper
  5. Bama Shores
  6. Your Worth
  7. Lazarus
  8. Aesop Fin

“Aesop Fin is a mythical character, raised in the woods. His dad is a moonshine runner, his mother nowhere to be found,” Davis says. “Aesop finds a lover and ends up getting killed in a gambling incident, then she ends up tumbling into a waterfall—it’s symbolic of the vicious cycle of tragedies in these mountains of Appalachia.” 

Growing up in Lake Toxaway, North Carolina, a rural outpost community in the mountainous ridges of Transylvania County, Davis was surrounded by music from an early age—exposed to the blues licks of his guitar-playing father, the swirling classical sounds of his mother’s piano playing or the inner echoes of his sister, now a professional opera singer. Davis himself went on hiatus for several years, getting married and raising a young family, all while starting his own construction business to put food on the table for his wife and two kids.

Award winning fiddler Jason Carter’s new album Lowdown Hoedown

Jason Carter gathers all-star lineup and good times tunes for new album Lowdown Hoedown. Courtesy photo, used with permission.

For thirty years, Jason Carter has been the fiddle player for the Del McCoury Band—the most awarded group in bluegrass history. He has won three Grammy awards, including 2018’s “Best Bluegrass Album” with the Travelin’ McCourys, of which he is a founding member. He has taken home five IBMAs for “Fiddle Player of the Year,” a staggering number that is not quite so crazy once you realize just how many bluegrass greats have turned to Carter for collaboration. (Jason Carter, 2022)

Jason Carter has spent years collaborating with a laundry list of all-time great musicians across a multitude of genres—not to mention his three decades as a member of the Del McCoury Band and being a founding member of the Travelin’ McCourys—but, never before have all of his friends, from all those years, joined Carter on his own solo album. That is, until now.

On November 4, 2022, Carter will release Lowdown Hoedown, a thirteen-song collection featuring Carter’s own rich vocals and red-hot fiddling backed up by a stunning lineup of musicians whom he calls friends. Imagine that Carter is throwing the pickin’ party of the century and we are all invited to join in. The guests? Well, there is Dierks Bentley, Aiofe O’Donovan, Vince Gill, Billy Strings, Sarah Jarosz, Jon Fishman, Marty Stuart, and that is just for starters. The multitude of guests speaks not only to Carter’s long-known stellar musicianship but also to his personality, lighting up the backstage hangs of music festivals nationwide. 

Carter shared the opening track from Lowdown Hoedown, “King of the Hill,” a Bruce Hornsby tune that features Sam Bush on mandolin, Jerry Douglas on dobro, Russ Carson on banjo, Dennis Crouch on Bass, and Cody Kilby, Carter’s longtime Travelin’ McCourys bandmate, on guitar. “The story is about a guy who is unhappy with his job and relates to it like a prison. I think it made a great bluegrass song,” says Carter, who was introduced to the song by Kilby. “This was the first song we recorded for the record and the band knocked it out of the park.” 

Fans can hear “King of the Hill” right here and pre-order or pre-save Lowdown Hoedown ahead of its release at this link. 

Lowdown Hoedown track list:
King of the Hill
The Six O’clock Train and a Girl with Green Eyes
The Likes of Me
Paper Angel
Dust Bowl Dream
Hoedown for My Lowdown Rowdy Ways
Good Things Happen
Midnight Flyer
Queen of the Nashville Night
Kissimmee Kid
You Led Me to the Wrong
Highway 52
Bird Song

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Ghost of Paul Revere announces final album

Ghost of Paul Revere signs to Americana Vibes for final album, Goodbye, and catalog deal. Photo: Nicole Wolf, used with permission.

Ghost of Paul Revere, a band with over a decade of accolades and friendship, offer their final collection of songs in the form of a record aptly titled Goodbye, which is available everywhere for streaming. Releasing via Americana Vibes, and featuring the band’s—Griffin Sherry [guitar, vocals], Max Davis [banjo, vocals], Sean McCarthy [bass, vocals], and Chuck Gagne [drums, vocals]—signature blend of folk, bluegrass, rock, country, and Americana rooted in ponderous lyricism and raucous energy, Goodbye is both an offering of gratitude to fans and a celebration. (Ghost of Paul Revere, 2022)

For this release and their back catalog, the band has signed with Americana Vibes, of which the label co-founder Ivory Daniel, says “Everything that we strive for here at Americana Vibes is embodied within the music, art, and humanity behind this album, Goodbye. We’re excited to welcome the Ghosts to our family, and even more so to release this body of work while amplifying the importance of the Ghosts catalog across the globe.”

The collection of songs on Goodbye feels a bit like a victory lap, one in which the band is enjoying the natural end to all good things and inviting fans to attend a rowdy, joyful curtain closing of sorts. The album’s origins are much like the band’s, beginning by decamping to a family cabin to reunite and write in late 2020. 48-hours of writing in ‘20 fueled the creativity to continue writing into ‘21. By the time they hit the studio with co-producer and engineer Dan Cardinal, they had decided the overall direction and opted to primarily record live.

“The record ebbs and flows between soft songs that are more akin to what we used to do and more rocking songs with pretty good grit to them,” says Sherry. The band’s final offering, Goodbye, plays homage to the more-than-a-decade of music-making with friends. “How does one write an obituary of a ghost?” the band asked on social media when announcing their departure from the scene. The answer, of course, is hidden in the 12 songs of Goodbye.

Goodbye track listing:
At Least I Know It’s True
In My Yard
Gratefully Here
In Deep
JTE
Letters From the War of Love and Loss
Me and My Shadow
Rider
Vivid Dream
Older Lately
Knuckle
Goodbye