Randy Rogers Band chronicle a vacation breakup in We Never Made It to Mexico, Rhiannon Giddens reaches across generations and cultures in the gripping Ten Thousand Voices and Pink gets an assist from Chris Stapleton in Love Me Anyway in this weeks batch of must-hear songs.
Davisson Brothers Band, Unbreak You
The chorus may nod to Gnarls Barkleys Crazy, but Unbreak You takes the bulk of its cues from modern country radio, mixing the Davisson Brothers Bands West Virginia twang with rocked-up grit and thickly stacked harmonies. Already stars in Australia, where the previous single Po Boyz became a Number Two hit in 2018, the Davisson Brothers Band make a good case for adoration on their home turf, too.
Pink With Chris Stapleton, Love Me Anyway
Three years after teaming with Kenny Chesney on the Number One hit Setting the World on Fire, Pink reaches across the pop/country aisle once again with this Chris Stapleton duet. Co-written by Pink and the team behind Miranda Lamberts The House That Built Me, Love Me Anyway is a cinematic slow-burner, stripped free of percussion and, instead, focused on the vocal fireworks provided by the songs two singers.
Randy Rogers Band, We Never Made It to Mexico
Randy Rogers fills this south-of-the-border country waltz with a mix of Tejano twang, dancehall-friendly heartache and bilingual lyrics. Im in a bad way; como se dice heartache en Espanol? he sings, playing the part of a gringo whose lover has left him at the airport hotel, hours before they were scheduled to kickstart a Mexican vacation. Lo siento, Rogers.
Logan Brill, Roll
Brent Cobb helped write this greasy slab of funky-tonk, which finds Logan Brill in perpetual motion, searching for the kind of forever home thatll finally convince the singer to cool her jets. The follow-up single to this years Walk of Shame, Roll nods to bluesy forebears like Bonnie Raitt and Susan Tedeschi.
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Carl Anderson, She Took Everything
Backed by members of War on Drugs, Hiss Golden Messenger and Natalie Prass touring band, Carl Anderson funnels the desperation of his divorce into a lovely, lonely ballad. The highlight is his voice a rich, nuanced baritone that wrings every last drop from the tear-stained lyrics. If the Heartbreak Hotel were a real place, this would play over the lobbys loudspeakers.
Maddie & Tae One Heart to Another
The title track of Maddie & Taes newest EP finds the duo in power-ballad mode, singing words of warning to the girlfriend of a former flame. You cant fix him, youre gonna see it hes addicted to the leaving, they caution, both sympathizing with the womans head-over-wheels infatuation while also warning her of his inability to remain tied down. The track is lovely, too, full of gently rolling cymbal crashes, pedal steel and the pairs ever-present harmonies.
Calexico with Iron & Wine, Midnight Sun
Sam Beam links up with Calexico once again for this psychedelic swirl of cosmic indie-folk. Quietly burbling one minute and bombastic the next, Midnight Sun is the second single from this years Years to Burn, a collaborative album that finds the two acts teaming up for the first time their shared 2005 EP, In the Reins.
Rhiannon Giddens Ten Thousand Voices
Rhiannon Giddens widens her exploration of international roots music by linking up with Francesco Turrisi, an Italian multi-instrumentalist specializing in improvisational jazz and European medieval music. Together, they turn Ten Thousand Voices into a mixing pot of Middle Eastern drones and Appalachian textures, creating a mystical bridge between cultures, traditions and tones.
Stevie Redstone, Shots Fired
The latest release from Stevies Redstones new, retro-minded album fuses Motowns funky stomp with the Rolling Stones greasy, horn-laden rock. Recorded straight to tape during a live session in Los Angeles, Shots Fired is as explosive as its title suggests, with lush, Phil Spector-worthy production and an improvisatory outro that shines its light not upon studio gloss, but upon the top-tier musicianship that fills the songs core.
Erika Wennerstrom Be Here to Love Me
The Heartless Bastards leader will tour Europe this year alongside Patty Griffin, but she looks to a different roots-music icon with Be Here to Love Me, one of two newly released Townes Van Zandt covers. Here, she adds syncopated grooves, vocal harmonies and amplified slide guitar to Zandts original, building a reverent bridge between past and present.