(Press Release) Teen songstress Bailey James, an emerging face on the country scene who has already acquired over 100,000 followers across her social media platforms, is finding success on her multi-city radio tour after a bustling 2017 featuring appearances and performances at the CMA Music Festival and Charlie Daniels Celebrity Golf Classic.  Visiting stations across Louisiana, Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, Wisconsin, and New York, Bailey has been winning over country listeners and program and music directors with the co-penned female anthem Run Girl, a track written by Bailey, Julie Downs and country hit maker Steve O’Brien.  

“I am really proud of this song,” James said. “It’s a reminder to everyone that any goal or dream can be achieved as long as you are willing to put in the hard work to make it happen.”

The White Buffalo has announced the upcoming release of his new album Darkest Darks, Lightest Lights. The sixth full-length record for the artist, the album will be released on October 6th via Unison Music Group/Thirty Tigers. 
 
Today The White Buffalo has shared a new track from the album, "The Observatory". The artist describes the song as being "...about the search for the universal truth. Looking within to see the connections and commonalities between all people." Stream the song HERE.

On September 8, the Austin-based songwriter David Ramirez will release We're Not Going Anywhere, the follow up to his 2015 breakthrough record Fables and second in partnership with Thirty Tigers. Today, Ramirez shared the song and official video for "Twins," the second track to be released from the forthcoming album.  Watch the video HERE.

We're Not Going Anywhere is now available for pre-order via iTunes and Amazon, and includes an instant download of "Watching From A Distance." 

​David Ramirez will tour this summer and fall in support of We're Not Going Anywhere. 

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 ​John Dennis tells his own story of hope, healing, and rebirth with this summer's Second Wind, the singer-songwriter's sophomore album. The project, set to release July 28th, finds Dennis sharpening his mix of folk, southern soul, and stripped-down country in twelve warm and relatable tracks that are punctuated by swells of pedal steel and swirls of B3 organ. At the center of the sound is Dennis himself: a storyteller who's coming to terms with the tragedy that sent him spiraling into a period of depression and addiction.
 
The Daily Country is proud to premiere one of the tracks from Second Wind entitled "Santa Fe."  Gentle guitar and harmonica introduce you to the delicate, acoustic track where Dennis tells the stirring and detailed story of finding what he needed when he met the gal from Carolina in "Santa Fe." Dennis had this to say of the song,

"Of all the songs on the record, Santa Fe is by far the oldest. I came across it when I was looking through old work tapes on my phone in search of something to fit in with the vision I had. Although it was a rough demo that I'd largely forgotten about, I was immediately teleported back to the place and time when it was written -- a college student in the throes of active alcoholism and heart deep in yet another unhealthy and co-dependent long distance relationship. However, she happened to share my affinity for dreaming up geographical cures to emotional problems and at the time, she had gotten it in her head that if we just packed up and moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico, all of our problems would be solved and our scars healed. 

Needless to say, we did not follow that through and within a few months, the relationship disintegrated. I still haven't been to Santa Fe (though I hear it's lovely). With that in mind, as far as the song goes, it serves as a perfect metaphor for that idealized, antidotal place we invent on the horizon--like our own little wayward American Shangri-La. Production wise, we chose to preserve the song's raw, stripped folk elements and sort of cop the style of Springsteen's "Nebraska" record--one of [producer] Bryan Clark and I's personal favorites. In retrospect, this approach was fitting considering Bruce Springsteen's style of perfecting those tunes of two young lovers constantly born to run towards something better. That was largely the situation I was in when Santa Fe was written, so it seemed a good addition to a record all about the healing I inevitable had to undertake from ideologies such as that."

Second Wind will release July 28 on Rainfeather Records. Listen to "Santa Fe" below.

​So, why did you choose to cover Tom Waits and “2:19” in particular?
I was on a tour with Allison Krauss and Willie Nelson and I picked up the Brawlers, Bawlers, & Bastards box set which had “2:19” on it and I just went crazy for that song. I love what the song says, and how tangled up and crazy it is – it sounds like me!

I met Tom Waits when he opened for the Country Gentlemen at the Cellar Door in Washington D.C. in 1973 - prehistoric times to most (laughing). We were standing outside and Tom was teaching me how to smoke because he was a professional (laughing). I’ll never forget that. He’s an amazing person and an incredible writer. I just love him.

You truly made the song your own. How did you decide which direction to take it? Did you know going in how you wanted to record it or did you try different things out?
I knew which direction I wanted to take it before we recorded it. I tried to make it my own, and we changed it up a little bit, putting some solos in there in different keys and having the horns which gives the song new life. I like to say it’s a little more Ry Cooder than Tom Waits. I didn’t feel like I needed to top Tom’s version, and some people might not even know it’s a Tom Waits song, you never know, – but I pay him either way (laughing).

You’re out in front as a singer with this project. Are you finding that a comfortable fit?
Definitely. To me, playing the dobro sort of takes up the same part of the brain as singing. There are no frets on the dobro to stop a note, so you have to be in tune, use vibrato, and be emotional with the note. You know, I’ve been behind so many singers for so many years and singing is something I have always done, but not in this way, standing in front of a band. I’m becoming more comfortable with it all the time, but you’re never going to see me come out and do a complete vocal set. My sets are more musical with vocal interruptions (laughing). 

It’s new to be singing songs and staring at the people in the crowd who are probably going, ‘I didn’t know he sang;’ I look at them and wonder if they wish I would stop (laughing), but most of the time they tell me that they didn’t expect to hear me sing, and I guess that’s good. I’ll take that.  I’m not known as a singer, but at the tender age of 61, I’ve decided to go for it become one and I’d say it turned out pretty good.

Even though you’ve played on, and made, numerous records, this is this the first album where you are using The Jerry Douglas Band name.
This is the first record I have done where I’m not calling it a solo record, it’s The Jerry Douglas Band because I would never have come up with these ideas myself. It was such a collaborative process working on this record. There’s a great camaraderie; everyone is on common ground, with the same interests, and very professional. I’m a dobro player, but I think like a band guy and I am loving having this band where everyone compliments everyone else. Mike Seal is blowing faces off every night; Christian [fiddle] I saw play at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass and filed his name away for this project; Vance teaches at UT and is thankfully able to come out and play with us; Daniel is from Knoxville, and James well, his Dad wrote the charts for Al Green and Anne Peebles, so this is in his blood. In fact, he wrote the melody for the horns on “What If” for which I gave him a songwriting credit. He’s able to take what I do and do something with it, and that’s just amazing.

Speaking of “What If,” why did you choose that song as the album’s title?
This record was like a dare for me to make [with a band] and it’s a dare I won in my estimation. I wrote it, but the guys brought it to life and I just love it. It’s beautiful and cinematic and I wouldn’t mind I hearing it being played as the credits roll in a movie.

Beautiful! With the various projects you are involved in musically, is there anything yet you want to do?
At some point, we will probably add to the live show, bringing in special guests so that the nights are more than just having us on stage. I’m not bored with that at all, but we want to build and evolve. That’s what we want to do and that’s what the audience wants a band to do - they like to hear you stretch a bit and that’s what this band is built for.

I’m keeping busy with this band, then I’m headed back in the studio with Alison [Krauss] for a few days, then it's onto Red Rocks with Lyle Lovett and dates with the Earls of Leicester who are still ballin' the jack as well. Things are rolling along just right and that’s very nice.
​
Catch The Jerry Douglas Band at Music City Roots on July 20th
For more information visit HERE

Listen to the title track here

July 19, 2017 (Press Release) - The Legendary Shack Shakers, the band Stephen King described as dynamite and guitar legend Jeff Beck called "a cross between the Yard Birds and the Sex Pistols," are back with a new album, After You’ve Gone, with an international release scheduled for August 25, 2017 on Last Chance Records.
 
With After You’ve Gone, the band channels their swampy rock-n-roll inside of a lo-fi car garage hidden somewhere deep in the underbelly of Atlanta Georgia, and far, far away from the glitz of Music City. Long legendary for their sideshowesque live performances, this record puts the focus on the bandleader’s lyrical prowess. (Don’t worry, the live show is still just as dynamic and entertaining!)
 
Southern Renaissance man JD Wilkes's strange "local legends" are again explored lyrically, of course. From kudzu vines that will eat you alive to “War Whoop (Chief Paduke's Revenge)” that imagines the Native American namesake of Wilkes’s hometown returning from the great Happy Hunting-ground to wreak havoc on the current generation of palefaces who inhabit and trash his land. This supernatural ditty was even illustrated by Wilkes in the 8-foot-wide mural he recently completed for the historic Coca-Cola Plant in Paducah KY.