Caitlin Rose
Nashville’s Caitlin
Rose first appeared on the radar of music critics late last year with the
release of her widely praised debut full-length Own Side Now. Rarely does an
artist display this level of uninhibited honestly and vulnerability in her
writing; the fact that this wisdom is found at the start of Rose’s career
promises that she’s not going away any time soon. Drawing inspiration from
female greats like Linda Ronstadt, Patsy Cline and Stevie Nicks, Own
Side Now is an exquisite collection, showcasing a maturity that few possess at
such a young age. Time magazine named it one of the Top 10 Albums of 2011.
Although steeped in the
country tradition, Rose’s music is not constrained by that heritage. Her
confessional style and wry observations place her very much in the 21st
Century, but it is her heart-wrenching honesty, lyrical prowess and dexterous
lyrical delivery that sets her apart from her peers
The Parson Red Heads
A band whose music harkens
to the most prolific and inventive elements in the canon of West Coast
psych-folk, the Parson Red Heads celebrated the release of Yearling, their second
album, in 2011 and toured supporting that release with Blitzen Trapper, Viva
Voce, Alela Diane and Fruit Bats. Yearling delivered on
the great promise that has been steadily building during their eight years as a
band. Some of the album was recorded over a series of many months first in a
familiar setting, Red Rockets Glare Studio in their former home of Los Angeles,
with close friend and sometimes member Raymond Richards producing. But most of
the songs on the record were done later on unfamiliar terrain, at Mitch
Easter’s Fidelitorium in North Carolina with alternative pop legends Chris
Stamey and Mitch Easter producing and engineering, respectively.
Robert Ellis
“The best of these
folks who write songs make you think about time, and I find myself thinking
about time a lot when I listen to Robert Ellis. When he and his Boys are
plugged in, the final hours of a night race along in a sweaty, whiskey-soaked
blur. And when he sits on a stool -- with just his guitar, voice and songs --
time slows down, as he spins tales of love and life and the way they twist
together and are torn apart as we march along to some destination chosen by the
great rearranger.
We talk about his folk
and his country as though they’re hot and cold handles on a faucet.
The temperatures are
perhaps different but it all has a fluid consistency. There are quieter
songs about making a
home and louder songs about breaking a home, but they’re all
about being here now .
. . even if they sound old as time while still being well built for
the future. All of it
could easily be classified as country, of a sort with the great writers
and players Robert
studies and admires, from George Jones to Paul Simon. Why deal
with something as cold
as genres. It’s American music through and through.
-- Andrew Dansby
Amanda Shires
Brought up in Lubbock
and Mineral Wells, Texas, 5-string fiddler/singer/songwriter Amanda Shires
played with the Texas Playboys as a teenager and was a founding member of the
Thrift Store Cowboys. In 2005, while still a regular member of that group,
Shires released her solo debut, Being Brave, a mostly
instrumental showcase for her traditional fiddle chops. But the fertile Texas
music scene was overripe with side-person work for the talented young player
and backup singer, so she relocated to Nashville—“to get uncomfortable and make
myself grow some guts,” as she put it once—and proceeded to write and record
the first two albums to really put her on the roots-music map: 2008’s Sew
Your Heart with Wires, a collection of duets co-written and recorded with
singer-songwriter Rod Picott; and what Shires calls her “true” solo debut,
2009’s West Cross Timbers, which No Depression dubbed one of
the year’s best 50 releases.
Because she was on the
road so often—averaging 120-160 dates per year in the States and in Europe—it
took Shires 16 months to record her follow-up, 2012’s Carrying Lightning. But that album
has garnered tremendous critical acclaim and attention from the likes of NPR
(Tiny Desk Concert, All Songs Considered) and such publications as The
Wall Street Journal and Texas Monthly. In the
meantime, she appeared in the movie Country Strong, has resumed
her extensive touring schedule, and frequently accompanies Justin Townes Earle
and Jason Isbell, among others.
JEFF The Brotherhood
Jake and Jamin Orrall,
aka JEFF the Brotherhood, are seen by many to be latter-day pioneers of the
Nashville rock scene, but they see themselves as brothers who can't remember
not playing music together for fun. Their family-owned, vinyl-centered record
label, Infinity Cat Recordings, has been a pillar of support for Nashville
bands since 2002 (with 60 releases to date) and was named "Nashville's
Best Record Label 2010" by the Nashville Scene. But their
first love has always been the Brotherhood known as JEFF.
Known for their
relentless touring and their "we'll play anywhere" mentality, they
have built a reputation for stripping rock music down to its basics, and
delivering mind-bending live shows with Jamin's three drums and three cymbals
and Jake's three-string guitar and ferocious vocals. JEFF the Brotherhood's
work ethic practically defines D.I.Y., from their simple but compelling videos
to their self-produced and critically acclaimed albums, EPs and singles.
Hayes Carll
Hayes Carll is an odd mix. Wildly literate, utterly
slackerly, impossibly romantic, absolutely a slave to the music, he is completely
committed to the truth and unafraid to skewer pomposity, hypocrisy and
small-minded thinking. In a world of shallow and shallower, where it’s all
groove and gloss, that might seem a hopeless proposition. His “Another Like
You” was American Songwriter’s #1 Song of 2011 and his most recent full-length,
KMAG YOYO, was the Americana Music
Association’s #1 Album and made Best of Lists for Rolling Stone, SPIN and a New
York Times Critics Choice.
But more importantly than the critical acclaim is the way
Carll connects with music lovers across genre lines. Playing rock clubs and
honkytonks, Bonnaroo and Stones Fest, he and his band the Gulf Coast Orchestra
merge a truculent singer/songwriter take that combines lean freewheeling
squalor with brazen Gen Y reality and a healthy dose of love amongst unhealthy
people. Like so many writers before him, there’s no agony in the
ecstasy--just the wonder of capturing the perfect character in the song. When
you’re six beers down on a 12-pack night, you know Hayes Carll understands. And
at a time like that--whether in your own backyard or some jam-packed
bar--that’s the best kind of friend to have.
Erin Enderlin
Erin Enderlin has had
songs recorded by Alan Jackson, Randy Travis, Terri Clark, Lee Ann Womack, Adam
Brand, and Luke Bryan. These include Jackson’s top 5 hit “Monday Morning
Church,” which won an NSAI award as one of the 10 “Songs I Wish I’d Written”
honored in 2005, as well as Lee Ann Womack’s single “Last Call,” which won the
same award in 2009.
Hailing from Conway,
Arkansas, Enderlin moved to Nashville in 2000 to attend Middle Tennessee State
University. Having her grandparents (H.D. and Wanda Clinton) to thank for an
early introduction to country music, Erin’s influences include Reba McEntire,
George Jones, Conway Twitty, Tim McGraw, Tammy Wynette, Johnny Cash, Emmylou
Harris and Dolly Parton. She just recently completed her first solo album,
which was co-produced by Jamey Johnson.
The Unsinkable Boxer
The Unsinkable Boxer
are a Glasgow, Scotland-based band focused around the musical leanings of
vocalist/ tunesmith Colin Taylor. His latest incarnation has been described as
'
“intelligent pop for
music lovers” and “melody laden music not to surf on top of , but to dive
into.” His previous work has been hailed in the UK by such luminaries as BBC
Radio 2's Johnny Walker and Bob Harris. The eponymously titled 2010 debut
combines a classic British sound with flourishes of Americana. At times epic ,
at times sparse, it delivers the sweetest punch to the heart. A new album is in
the can and is currently being mixed in Seattle with plans for a release before
the end of 2012.
Colin Gilmore
Colin Gilmore is one of
the latest in a long string of talent to come out of Lubbock, Texas. He grew up
surrounded by the sounds of Buddy Holly, Roy Orbison, Joe Ely and his father,
Jimmie Dale Gilmore. Moving to Austin at age 14 put him right in the thick of
the burgeoning punk rock scene. "That was where the creativity and passion
were," he recalls. Colin has toured the world with two albums under his
belt. The latest, Goodnight Lane, received 4 stars in Mojo and Uncut, and developed
a solid fan base. He is currently recording his third album.
Chatham County Line
Chatham County Line is
an all acoustic, suit-wearing, single-mic performing outfit formed at the turn
of the century from the Y2K ashes of a couple of terrible bands in Raleigh, NC.
They put out their first album in 2002 and with it's original compositions and
hard lean towards the traditional bluegrass sound the folks down at Ye Old
Bluegrass Magazine began to dust off their "Best Band Ever"
Award. Unfortunately for them,
following the release of their third record Speed of the Whippoorwill, everyone
realized that these boys weren't so easily pigeonholed and they'd spend the
next two records just furthering that confusion. 2012 finds CCL relentlessly
touring behind Sight & Sound, their July released double-live album
and DVD combo super-set. Look for another brilliant studio release from these
pigeons in 2013, and as always, remember live is the way to experience life.
Lori McKenna
Lori McKenna didn’t
begin performing her songs in public until age 27, after she and her husband
already had three children. Eventually, she became a staple of the Boston folk
music scene, where she became friendly with Mary Gauthier. “We were the two old
ladies in a sea of young faces,” she jokes. When Gauthier picked up and left
for Nashville, she brought McKenna’s music to the attention of her publisher,
who got it into the hands of Faith Hill, who fell hard for McKenna’s songs.
Hill recorded three of them for her album Fireflies. McKenna’s way
of articulating the love, pain and pathos of domestic life had a huge impact on
Hill, and Hill’s very public championing of her music led other artists to McKenna’s
songs. Tim McGraw, Carrie Underwood, Alison Krauss, Keith Urban and LeAnn Rimes
are among the many that have recorded her songs in recent years.
The increased acclaim
for her songcraft led to a record deal with Warner Brothers, who released her
2007 album Unglamorous. Working with Tim McGraw (who co-produced the
album), an appearance on Oprah and an opening slot on McGraw and Faith Hill’s
Soul2Soul tour made public McKenna’s talents. Her most recent release, 2011’s Lorraine, makes it clear
that McKenna continues to be a master at
chronicling the small, difficult moments between romantic partners as they
navigate their relationships
Griffin House
Although Springfield, Ohio
native Griffin House didn’t begin playing guitar and writing songs until he was
18, the power of his music struck an emotional connection with audiences
immediately. The athletically gifted House shocked his family by turning down a
golf scholarship to focus on a new path making music. “Sports were really a big
part of me and how I grew up,” he says. “So deciding not to take that
scholarship was a turning point for me in choosing a new path for myself, a new
life making music.” There were some issues to deal with first, however -- he
couldn’t play the guitar he’d bought from and friend, nor had he ever written a
song.
His intelligent and
heart-felt lyrics and melodies in such songs as “The Guy Who Says Goodbye to
You Is Out of His Mind” and “Better Than Love” have garnered commercial and
critical acclaim alike. From being featured on the CBS Sunday Morning Show, to
touring with the likes of John Mellencamp and the Cranberries, House continues
to gain national recognition and currently is headlining his own tour across
the U.S.
A singer-songwriter acclaimed by a galaxy of artists from Bob Dylan
to Elton John, Chris Martin to Michael Bublé, and Steve Earle to Lucinda
Williams for his insight into the human heart and a melodic purity (to
paraphrase admirer Elvis Costello) unheard since the heyday of Paul McCartney,
you’ll find Ron Sexsmith straight after the Sex Pistols in any self-respecting
encyclopedia of modern music.
Over 11 albums, Sexsmith has amassed a sizable and consistently
enthralling body of work that few songwriting recording artists can match for consistently
sky-high quality. As legendary record producer to artists from Dylan to U2,
Daniel Lanois, says in Love Shines,
the documentary about the making of Sexsmith’s most recent album, Long
Player Late Bloomer, “Not a lot of
people have Ron’s gift: the ability to see a tiny snapshot of a feeling, then
expand upon it and deliver a beautiful song. The songs are like Polaroids.” Among
the many artists who have covered those songs are: Rod Stewart, Michael Bublé,
k.d. lang, Feist, The Brodsky Quartet, Curtis Stigers and….Nick Lowe.
