Fresh from triumphant appearances in London at the C2C festival last month, powerhouse vocalist and songwriter, Caitlyn Smith, releases ‘High’ (Out April 8th), the first half of her ‘High & Low’ album. Smith has famously written tracks like ‘Wasting All These Tears’ for Cassadee Pope, ‘You Can’t Make Old Friends’ for Dolly & Kenny Rogers and ‘Tacoma’ for Garth Brooks, as well as having songs cut by artists such as Rascal Flatts, John Legend, Meghan Trainor and Miley Cyrus. Albums ‘Starfire’ (2018) and ‘Supernova’ (2020) impressed but it is on ‘High’ that she seems ..read more

Molly Tuttle brings a fresh, modern perspective to bluegrass music on her third album, Crooked Tree. The San Francisco native is known for her virtuosic playing; in 2017, she was the first woman ever named Guitar Player of the Year by the International Bluegrass Music Association. She received the honor again the following year, and the Americana Music Association also named her its Instrumentalist of the Year. Her technique is distinctive and striking, and she’s not afraid to incorporate influences from outside the bluegrass canon. As I listened to this record, I was struck by a distinct imp ..read more

Morganway – Country to Country 2022  To say that British Americana/Folk band Morganway have a lot of energy is a bit like comparing the Atlantic Ocean to a puddle.   The East Anglian-based six-piece literally jump on stage, to packed audiences, as evidenced at this year’s Country to Country and from the general enthusiasm of fans who’ve seen their lives shows.   Their touring schedule is the right kind of packed out, too, from March through to October, including appearances at FolkFest, AmericanaFest, Cornbury, Millport and The Long Road festival. Morganway was ..read more

Singer-songwriter Ian Noe writes with a distinct sense of place. The Beattyville, Kentucky native captures the lives and struggles of the people in his community on his sophomore record, River Fools & Mountain Saints. That hasn’t changed from strong debut, 2019’s Between the Country, but the scope of the record is greater. The album follows the characters out in the world, lyrically and sonically. “Tom Barrett,” which follows a soldier overseas, has some of the hard edge of Warren Zevon’s “Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner,” while being very much its own thing. “POW Blues ..read more

After two barnstorming albums (‘Hero’ in 2017 and ‘Girl’ in 2019), one supergroup project with ‘The Highwomen’ and a breakout Pop collaboration on ‘The Middle’ with Zedd and Grey, Maren Morris is back with new album, ‘Humble Quest’. One of Country music’s most thoughtful artists, the events of the last two years, the pandemic & the Black Lives Matter protest combined with Morris giving birth to her first child have weighed heavy on both her shoulders and her musical style. As the title would suggest, ‘Humble Quest’ is a more serious album. Thoughtful and reflective, it largely deals with ..read more

The Cowboy Junkies were at the forefront of alternative country-rock, even before that type of music officially came into existence at the beginning of the 1990s.  Their mix of rootsy Americana and dreamy, droning alt-rock was always informed by a wide variety of sources, and they look to those many sources on their new album, Songs of the Recollection. These are songs the band has been performing in their sets, in many cases, for decades, songs they have incorporated from friends and influences. They, are like all things with the Junkies, diverse, covering “both sides of Neil Young ..read more

HANK WILLIAMS JR. SETS RICH WHITE HONKY BLUES FOR JUNE 17 “It was always there. We just had to set the right trap…” – Dan Auerbach Pre-Order the Album on Easy Eye Sound HERE Larger than life, capable of summoning “all his rowdy friends” with a couple crashing downbeats and a blaring guitar riff, Hank Williams, Jr. has been one of country music’s truest outlaws for over half a century. But more than the swaggering singles, roughneck fantasy videos or relentless sense of blue-collar boogie, at his core, the 72-year-old legend is a bluesman ..read more

Greylan James is very much a writer and artist on the up. Having been signed to his first publishing deal by Nashville Songwriter Hall of Fame inductee Bob DiPiero at the age of 18, James appeared on Season Four of NBC’s The Voice. He was also featured in Guitar Center Magazine’s Brotherhood of the Guitar Top 100, which ranks the top guitarists in the world under the age of 21. Hits for other artists include “Happy Does” by Kenny Chesney, “If That Ain’t God” by Chris Young, and “Real Friends” by Chris Janson featuring Blake Shelton and now James is set to release music of his own. Recent rele ..read more

Growing up on her family’s seventh-generation grain and cattle ranch in California,singer/songwriter, Callie Twisselman, has country living infused in every fibre of her being. Her mother was her first influence in the world of music, performing in a local touring country band. “My mom shined on-stage. It was a happy escape for her. She always told me that if this is what I wanted to do, that I had to enjoy myself and not try to be something I’m not.” By the age of 15, she learned to play guitar and began writing her own songs. In the years following, Twisselman was playing local songwriters ..read more

Maren Morris joins Zane Lowe in-studio on Apple Music 1 for a candid conversation about her new album ‘Humble Quest’ coming out this Friday. She tells Apple Music why it was such a freeing project to make and discusses how becoming a mother influenced her songwriting. She also discusses featuring her son Hayes on the track “Hummingbird, being floored by the success of “The Bones” and not wanting to make a super poppy record this time around, the pitfalls of social media, her history of using her voice in a positive way, paving the way for other women in the genre, working with acclaimed produ ..read more