Originally from Oklahoma, but now calling Denver home, Kelly Augustine is an Americana-folk singer-songwriter who was recently chosen as a 2018 Kerrville New Folk Finalist as well as a 2018 Al Johnson Performing Songwriter Contest Finalist (Wildflower Arts & Music Festival) for her original material.

Now the singer-songwriter is preparing to release her debut full-length, Light in the Lowlands, which was recorded in Oklahoma with Grammy-nominated producer Wes Sharon (John Fullbright, the Turnpike Troubadours). Of her decision to record in Oklahoma, Kelly says, “I haven’t lived there in years, but the music that has been inspiring me most over the last few years is all coming out of there. It was an honor and a dream come true to make this record there and be able to work with Wes Sharon and musicians like the legendary Byron Berline on fiddle and mandolin and Gabriel Pearson (Turnpike Troubadours) on drums and percussion.” 

Today, TDC is incredibly honored to premiere the first song from Kelly's upcoming project, "Hurt Too Big." Led by crystal clear, gentle finger-picking and Kelly's ethereal, sorrowful vocals the stunningly impactful "Hurt Too Big" relays the haunting story of a soldier's despair and lost innocence.

"A shiny black Mercedes driving full speed
Another swig of cheap alcoholic’s gin
This time the bullet is his conscience
This time he’s willing it to end
He knows what he did full well the day that cradle fell"

This September, Elise Davis returns with her sophomore album Cactus, the follow up to her 2016 critically-acclaimed debut The Token. This weekend, Davis kicks off a short tour with Dwight Yoakam that will make stops in Indiana, Missouri, and Oklahoma.

"On my new record Cactus there is a heavy theme of feeling like a lone wolf, independent, and sexually liberated," explains Davis. "'Don't Bring Me Flowers' ties into that theme being a song simply about the desire to be involved with someone but keep it light, casual, and sexy." (Watch the video HERE)
 
For Cactus, Davis tapped producer Jordan Lehning (Caitlin Rose, Andrew Combs, Birdcloud's Jasmin Kaset) to helm her most personal work to date. The two worked together for six months straight, holed up in Lehning's home studio, looking to albums like Tom Petty's Wildflowers and Aimee Mann's Mental Illness for inspiration. Davis' melodies remain at the forefront of every mix, her voice honest and unflinching, stripped free of the reverb that had swirled its way throughout The Token.  
 
"Cacti are independent plants that sustain themselves," explains Davis about the new album. "They can be beautiful with bright-colored flowers on them, but if you touch them, they will hurt you. I see a lot of parallels with the way I have felt most of my life. It felt like the perfect album title for these songs." 
 
Tour Dates:
5/7: Columbia, MO - Missouri Theatre #
5/11: Thackerville, OK - Winstar Casino #
6/1: Nashville, TN - Musician's Corner
 
# - with Dwight Yoakam

Listen to First Single, "Love in the Winter," here
2 May 2018 (Press Release) - In a premonition of what was to come, Ben Kyle, Romantica's songwriter and frontman, sang this prescription on Romantica’s 2017 Shadowlands release. He understood his body and mind were being undermined - but he didn’t know it was Lyme disease or that it would completely rearrange life as he knew it for the better part of 2 years. 

In a letter to fans he writes (read full letter here);
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Dear Friends,  

“What do we have, that we have not been given? / What do we have, that we can hold on to? / All of this life, is gift that we’re living / All of this love, was given to you”

When I wrote these words 3 years ago I had no idea I was about to lose so much. My home, my studio, my work place, the ability to be present to my family and friends, the ability to have thoughts (quite literally). The neurological and immune implications of a 2 year battle with what turned out to be (most significantly) Lyme disease, compiled to the point where I felt completely exiled from normal life. I couldn’t even touch my phone or my laptop (where all my work and music is) without my hands and arms getting painfully sore. I couldn’t instagram, facebook, or respond to emails from family and friends. My neuro-immune system was so sensitized I couldn’t walk into any building that didn’t have pristine air quality without my head going completely blank. My body ached from the inside out. I had no energy. My thoughts would stop and then jump around as though my brain were in short-circuit. I lost the ability to calculate numbers, to imagine, to create, and many times even the ability to think at all. I couldn’t be present in any situation or conversation. There was a permanent static in my brain, pressing in and dragging down on my biology and attention. Many times I felt like I was on the edge of insanity, and in the darkest hours I would lay in bed trying to remember how many children I had and what their names were. It was the deepest darkest valley I have ever walked.

May 2, 2018 -- Atlanta folk duo Heart Hunters have announced the release of their forthcoming LP American Eclipse and have shared the lead single at No Depression, who praised the track as sounding "delicate on the first listen, but packs a heavy punch." American Eclipse is due July 20th. 
 
Heart Hunters’ Drew de Man founded his first band, No River City, in 2001 and spent the next several years making records, touring the country and sharing bills with artists such as Iron & Wine, Calexico and Alejandro Escovedo. After a decade away from the spotlight, his new project Heart Hunters—a duo with his wife, singer/songwriter Brianna Blackbird—builds on the moody indie/alt-country sounds de Man explored with No River City, updating them for a new era with debut LP American Eclipse. The record’s alternately haunting and wistful folk songs find De Man and Blackbird engaging in potent social and spiritual commentary, clinging to silver linings while wrestling with an increasingly turbulent country. But while the subject matter is often heavy, the duo’s hook-laden melodicism offers all the balance the record needs.
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Produced by Peter Case (T-Bone Burnett, John Hiatt, Mike Campbell), American Eclipse puts Heart Hunters’ gorgeously wounded harmonies front-and-center. Sonically, the record ranges from sparse acoustic ruminations to lush, complex Americana anthems, some tracks—“The Good Fight” and “Cristo” come to mind—drawing not just from the country-music tradition, but also Celtic and Eastern influences, taking cues from songs like The Beatles’ “Within You Without You” and Led Zeppelin’s “Kashmir.”

(Press Release) The Johnny Cash Museum premiered an artifact today that has never previously been on public display despite being presented to Johnny Cash more than six decades ago.  The unveiling of this rare artifact - Johnny Cash’s very first gold record - was released today to commemorate Cash’s first #1 I Walk the Line on what is the anniversary of the song’s release on Sun Records on May 1, 1956. Johnny’s siblings Tommy Cash and Joanne Cash-Yates joined Sam Phillips’ son Jerry Phillips on site today as the award finally found a permanent home on exhibition at the museum, which is celebrating its fifth anniversary this year.

In a ceremony today hosted by WSM’s Bill Cody, Johnny Cash’s first ever gold record, originally presented to Johnny Cash by Sam Phillips in 1956, was reunited with the Cash family for the first time in over a decade.  The cherished award remained in Cash’s possession until his death in 2003, at which time it was auctioned off to several different private owners over the years.  Recently, museum founder Bill Miller learned that the record was in Germany in the hands of a private collector. Says Miller, “This is a piece we had to acquire—-at any price—-and return to its proper place, which is the Johnny Cash Museum. I held this award in my hands during my last visit with Johnny in early September in 2003. I feel good that it’s in my hands again, this time for all the world to see and enjoy.”

Nashville, TN - April 30, 2018 ... Nashville's southern roots rocker and guitar dynamo Ryan Kinder is gearing up for a summer he won't forget anytime soon. Kinder is hitting the road with some of music's most influential icons, many of whom are his biggest musical heroes.

In May, Kinder joins blues and rock legends John Fogerty and ZZ Top on the Blues & Bayous Tour. The 20-city trek launches May 26 in Holmdel, NJ and continues through June with stops in Pensacola, West Palm Beach, Atlanta, Chicago, Cincinnati and Oklahoma City, to name a few. Click HERE for more details.

After a very successful UK tour earlier this spring, Kinder was invited back to be part of the BarclayCard Presents British Summer Time Hyde Park 2018 concert on July 8, 2018 in London. The sold-out concert will feature music icons Eric Clapton, Santana, Steve Winwood, Gary Clark, Jr. and many more. Click HERE for more information.