​With poignant and thought provoking lyrics, Alabama's Amy McCarley finds balance in a new perspective with MECO, her 3rd studio album due February 8, 2019. MECO, an acronym borrowed from the Space Shuttle program that stands for Main Engine Cut Off, occurs when on board propulsion systems disengage at an altitude where velocity is maintained by the power of an innate force at work in the universe with periodic adjustments from the vehicle. MECO, the album, traces McCarley’s experiences of leaving life as a NASA contractor to pursue a career in music.

McCarley explains the inspiration behind the album, “Similar to shuttle missions, the trajectory of my path has been defined by how well I have been able to develop personal strength as an artist to the point where the possibility of connecting with the enormous collaborative power of other worldly talent exists. It has taken everything I have plus the guiding unseen hands of time and chance together with support from some incredibly talented generous souls in order for this album to be made and on its way to listeners.”

The ten tracks of all original material feature songs of determination and revelation (“A Clue”), cathartic release (“Everything Changed,” “Happy,” “Farewell Paradise”), joyful triumph (“High Wire”), gratitude (”Days”), and finding meaning amidst uncertainty (“Never Can Tell”).

​Today, TDC is thrilled to premiere "Clarksdale Blues" a relatable song of perseverance after despair led by a spacious, blues-tinged melody, slide guitar, and McCarley's vocals which balance the somber with the hopeful.

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McCarley shares, “George Bradfute is a great slide guitar player. There is a lot of space on this track musically so that his part and the words really stand out to me. It feels like those wide open blue skies in the Mississippi Delta. The ones that make you happy to see them coming in and so sad to leave as you are going.” 

Further explaining the story behind the song she adds,
“I wrote this song with Pat Alger in Nashville on the Monday after spending a weekend playing Clarksdale’s Juke Joint Festival. For anyone who may not know, Clarksdale lays its claim as birthplace of the blues at a crossroads there where allegedly Robert Johnson traded his soul to the devil in exchange for the ability to play other-worldly blues guitar. This city in the heart of the Mississippi Delta brings together an eclectic group of blues and Americana music lovers from around the world for their annual Juke Joint Fest with a small town southern flair like no other.

Pat and I were talking about the challenge of leading a meaningful life with so many things competing for your attention in the physical and mental periphery along the musical path. There are just so many doubts, fears and circuses of various activity going on in the ever-changing physical environment that arise while you’re out there trying to remember to ‘just do your thing.’ It truly is an olympic obstacle course for body, mind and spirit. So easy to get lost. So easy to forget.” 

“‘Clarksdale Blues’ is a song for anyone who’s ever lost perspective and the strength to persevere as time and circumstance drug them along at their own impersonal rates of change. It’s for anybody who’s ever not really felt like making hay while the sun was shining. It’s for anyone who had to leave a place or a relationship before they were fully ready. It’s for anybody who’s ever made a mistake over and over and felt baffled by their failure to make a change for the better.” 

Enjoy, and share, the song above. For more information visit:

www.amymccarley.com, 
www.facebook.com/amymccarleymusic, 
www.twitter.com/amymccarley,  
​www.instagram.com/amymccarleymusic.

Hailed by Paste as ”bluegrass innovators,” Raleigh, NC-based quartet Chatham County Line will release their eighth studio album, Sharing The Covers, March 8 on Yep Roc Records. The video for the first single, Wilco's “I Got You (At the End of the Century),” premiered today at The Bluegrass Situation. The track is now available at all streaming services. 
 
Paying homage to Wilco on the first single, the band revitalizes the song with a bluegrass vibe complete with a splash of banjo and underscored by the twang that immediately marks the song with Chatham County Line's signature stamp.
 
“This Wilco tune,” says Dave Wilson, “is a prime example of how Sharing the Covers pulls covers directly from our set lists through the years. We had performed this tune back in 2005 at the release show celebrating our second album, Route 23, and hadn’t really revisited it since. When we were setting up in the studio to record some new material, the engineer asked us to test the levels on the microphones and somehow this song came out. We are still in awe of the great job Wilco does in creating moments in the studio...they are a great inspiration for any band attempting to weather the years.”

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — On Friday, January 25, 2019, The Blues Foundation will honor 11 individuals and organizations at its Keeping the Blues Alive Awards brunch, taking place at the Doubletree Hotel -Downtown Memphis at 10:30 a.m. Decided by a select panel of blues professionals, the annual KBA Awards recognize the writers, disc jockeys, photographers, record labels, blues societies, music clubs, festivals and others in the blues world that have played vital roles in advancing the art and commerce of blues.

The KBA Awards are just part of The Blues Foundation’s 35th Annual International Blues Challenge. Held in Memphis, along historic Beale Street, the IBC kicks off Tuesday, January 22, 2019with International Showcase performances and culminates with the finals at the Orpheum Theatre on Saturday, January 26, 2019 at 12 noon. More than 800 musicians from around the globe are anticipated to converge in Memphis to battle for glory — along with prizes and bookings — at the world’s largest and most renowned blues music competition. Showcases and jam sessions will occur daily along Beale Street with more music happening after the Challenge concludes each evening, going into the wee hours.

"Airwaves" premiered at Billboard

December, 2018 -- Nashville musician Andrew Leahey has announced the release of his sophomore LPAirwaves and shared the title track at Billboard, who praised the LP as "a heartfelt homage to Leahey's rock heroes such as Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty, R.E.M. and others". Airwaves is due March 1, 2019. 
 
Written in the wake of a brain operation that nearly cost him his life, Andrew Leahey's sophomore LP,Airwaves, is as carpe diem as they come, an urgent sonic love letter channeling the 1980s FM-radio anthems he cut his teeth on as a kid.
 
“We didn’t have cable TV growing up,” Leahey says, “but my big brother would go over to his friend’s house with a blank VHS cassette and tape a two-hour block of MTV, commercials and all. We’d watch those videos over and over for months. I loved Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. They looked like my G.I. Joes—Springsteen was positively ripped, and they were all wearing bandanas, playing in front of these huge American flags. They looked like action heroes.”

Recorded in Austin, TX with The Band of Heathens
Co-Produced by Reed Foehl with Gordy Quist and Ed Jurdi

On Tour with Todd Snider in March!

POWNAL, VT -- With the Feb. 1, 2019, release of Reed Foehl's fifth solo album, Lucky Enough, fans will get a dose of powerful medicine, a cathartic collection of 10 songs that Foehl recorded with help from a mighty musical force, The Band of Heathens, at their Finishing School studio in Austin, Texas. It’s an album that will undoubtedly solidify his standing as one of the most compelling and vital Americana artists around.

Other artists have long sung the praises of Foehl. As fellow songwriter Gregory Alan Isakov notes, “Reed has the ability to transport the soul, a true master. One of the great songwriters of our time."

Isakov co-wrote the debut track, “American Miles,” a road song that was inspired by traveling and the great american landscape. Glide Magazine premiered the song and writes, “...the vocals in the beginning immediately conjure images of staring out the window of a car as it cruises along a lonesome highway at sunrise. Foehl keeps the instrumentation sparse, letting a lightly picked acoustic and the quiet thumb of a drum create the groove while the occasional flourish of a piano and a tambourine. His vocals have a dreamy folk quality that reflects the quietly reflective lyrics.” Listen to “American Miles”→ http://bit.ly/AmericanMiles_GlidePremiere.

Joe D'Urso has announced John Prine as the headliner for the sixth annual Rockland-Bergen Music Festival taking place on the borders of Rockland and Bergen counties in Tappan, New York from June 20-23, 2019. Early bird tickets are on sale now at RBMFestival.com.
 
John Prine, who will hit the stage at German Masonic Park in Tappan, NY on June 23, has been awarded Americana Artist of the Year the past two years and is currently nominated for both the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
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Other acts confirmed for Sunday, June 23 include Donna The Buffalo, Joe Purdy, Williams Honor and Joe D'Urso's Acoustic Excursion. More artists to be announced shortly.

Americana Highways premiered a new song, "Shadrack": http://bit.ly/2Ev2ByK
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SEATTLE, Wash.—As most people will tell you, there’s an undeniable connection between versatility and variation. Suffice it to say that each depends on the other. In the case of Seattle-based Marley’s Ghost, that eclectic energy has resulted in a broad repertoire that has defied any ability to tag them to any one particular genre. Their dozen albums to date — like the output of The Band — survey a broad scope of Americana and acoustic music in general, refusing to confine them to any singular niche.

“It is, and always has been, about the music,” bassist, fiddler, guitarist, singer and chief songwriter Dan Wheetman insists. “That’s what’s kept this band going for so long. It’s always been about digging a little deeper, honing our skills and celebrating the entire playing process. That drives us forward.”

For their upcoming album, the aptly named Travelin’ Shoes, Marley’s Ghost veers towards a path that doesn’t detract from that overarched umbrella, but instead helps define it further. Due for release on February 8, 2019, the 12-song set offers an assured selection of traditional gospel tunes, each delivered with the rich, dynamic, vibrant instrumentation and tightly locked communal harmonies that have been integral elements in Marley’s Ghost’s m.o. for well over 30 years. 

Austin Lucas returns to his hometown of Bloomington, Indiana,—both creatively and physically—with his seventh studio album, Immortal Americans. Written after a tumultuous period that found him getting sober, supporting his partner through a battle with cancer, and breaking up with his longtime record label, Immortal Americans is a clear-eyed album for murkier times, rooted in stripped-down heartland rock songs that find the artist reflecting upon the changes in both his hometown and himself.

Earlier in November, Austin Lucas stopped by NYC's City Winery where he performed three of the album's songs for an intimate Cellar Session held in the Winery's barrel room. Rooted in impactful lyricism, "The Shadow and Marie", "Killing Time," and "A Shallow Inland Sea" reveal the singer-songwriter at his most honest and vulnerable, dealing with darkness, yet finding the light in a life worth living.

Austin provides insight into the tracks

"Killing Time":
​I wanted to write a country song that challenged gender stereotypes. I’m a cisgendered white male of Jewish ancestry who fully passes as a blue-eyed gentile boy. As a result, I have been in the room with people when they have said heinous and racist shit about my people and many others. When I spoke up, I was abused myself and when I said nothing, I felt guilt for keeping my mouth shut. As a result, I’ve fought for my whole life against racist, sexist, homophobic and anti-Semitic assholes and it’s not ever been easy. I was also short and a bit feminine compared to most of the men and boys I grew up around. I let myself get wrapped up in a lot of guilt from not being as much of a “man” as I thought I was supposed to be. This song is about escaping to drugs and alcohol because of the fear, anger, and guilt that came from those experiences.

"The Shadow and Marie":
I discovered a lump in the left breast of my former partner, Missy Marie on the night that we met. What occurred very quickly after was a drastic change in both of our lives. I may have saved her life, it certainly was extraordinarily lucky that I found it. Once we started dating the focus on getting her healed sort of saved my life though as well. I was really coming out of a very difficult time and finding the strength to be her rock and caregiver also gave me a lot of strength to get through what I was going through. I wrote this song for her, to remind her of how alive she is and about how beautiful she was to me, even though chemotherapy had sapped her of energy, taken her hair, and surgery had cut away her breasts. She was still so vital and lovely to me and I hoped to tell her so in the best way I knew how. She’s now one-year cancer free and I think this song still helps remind her of the struggle she went through and how much stronger it made us both.

"A Shallow Inland Sea":
This is a reflection on youthful love and idealism from the perspective of a grown person. It’s about how everything can fade away when you’re in the arms of a lover.

Watch, and share, the video above. For more information visit:
​
​Website/Facebook/Twitter/IG/Spotify

​​Ah the holidays.....trimming the tree, making cookies, opening presents, time with family and the (oft required) over-imbibing - which leads to the inevitable hangover. While you can treat those head and bellyaches with liquids and greasy foods, you also need to replenish the soul with some tunes while your're recuperating. what to listen to? No worries in that department because Nashville's resident singer-songwriter and guitar slinger Boo Ray has ya covered.

His pretty badass playlist, 'Songs to Cure Your Xmas Hangover', contains fourteen of his favorite holiday tracks that pair perfectly with your drink of choice - pre or post hangover.

Give the playlist, which features artists like Nikki Lane, John Prine, and Dwight Yoakam, a listen or two (or more) and read the accompanying notes from Boo who tells what draws him to the tunes.

"All Strung Out Like Christmas Lights" 
Because Elizabeth Cook is the coolest.

Dwight Yoakam "Santa Can't Stay" 
I love the line “he threw a present really hard and almost hit mama’s new boyfriend Ray”. This song’s full Yoakam’s signature rockabilly vocal licks too, which I love. That 80’s production will complement any Christmas sweater, from the gaudiest candy-cane/snowman aplique to the homeliest moth eaten Uncle Fester pea-green cardigan.  

Merle Haggard "If We Make It Through December"
Since I was a kid I’ve always liked how contemporary and musical Merle Haggard’s arrangements and songs are. There’s a singer songwriter quality to Hagg and an virtuoso ensemble sound akin to the way James Taylor, Leland Sklar and Jim Keltner made music sound. 

Erin Enderlin "Cowboy Christmas"
Cowboy songs have some specific criteria for me. The language, vernacular, and meter have to be just right. I heard a Tommy Lee Jones interview where said the language of Cormac McCarthy’s characters is perfect. Erin’s Line “Barb wire and fence posts like garland on trees” gets right to me.  

Nikki Lane "FaLaLaLaLove ya"
I totally dig the song. The Christmas bells, the production, the melody and Nikki’s vocal are real stylized like a Hollywood Christmas TV Show number with fake snow falling and lens flares in holiday colored lights.  

John Prine "Everything Is Cool"
John Prine’s meter is kind of like what Brandlford Marsalis said about Louis Armstrong’s minalmist trumpet playing, “There’s a whole lot of information in those couple of notes.” “I was walking down the road... man” is so plain t’s actually funny” almost like a Steven Wright bit. In contrast, the next verse “I saw a hundred thousand black birds just a flying through the sky- they seem to form a teardrop from a black-haired angel’s eye” is brooding poet/ bleeding heart romantic territory. I love that Prine covers those two nearly opposite poles of perspective with complete dexterity. 

JD McPherson "All The Gifts I Need"
Great sounding recording. I dig JD’s songs and style, the way his vocal melody rides on Jason Smay’s drum beat is a thing for sure. The songs got a smart lighthearted spirit to it. 

Johnny Cash Family Christmas "Opening Dialogue" 
The first thing that really got to me about Johnny Cash was that antique automotive/farm equipment machine sound that he made with his band, seeming to emulate the sound of V-8 motors, tractors, horses hooves, and the click clack of trains. It's powerful, clever, creative, real singer/songwriter sounding, intricate and simple at the same time. Then I got into his rockabilly look and wearing all black. But it's always really been about the sound of his voice and his story telling. Even as a kid I'd watch that gospel series he filmed in Jerusalem because I just liked the sound of his voice and listening to the way he'd spin a yarn.   

Corb Lund "Just Me And The Ponies"
Excellent cowboy Christmas song. Corb's cowboy correct to me like Wynn Varble, Willie Nelson & Chris Ledoux are. That stuff has to be handled just right; the meter, vocabulary, vernacular and stoic nature of the story teller.   

The Band "Christmas Must Be Tonight" 
Rick Danko's bass sound just slays me. It's the deadest, most flatulent sounding thing ever. I'm damned crazy about it. I dig Danko's vocal on the verse a bunch and I love how Levon's accent and tone jump out on "how a little baby boy"... Yeah man this is a perfect ramblin', good stiff eggnog of a song. Cheers!!!

Little Feet "Six Feet Of Snow"
It'd make sense to me if someone called Lowell George a musical humorist. His subtle, clever impish wit is my favorite. The honk, plink and twang of the guitars on this track are funny as hell to me. It's absurd and wonderful because of it, and Lowell leans into it too with lines like "It's raining in stilettos from here clear down to Mexico". Maybe if you could trace the DNA of a particular kind of humor Lowell George and Billy Gibbon might be kin. 

Lindi Ortega "Blue Christmas"
The 6th tuned lap steel/dobro can't help but suggest the Hawaiian pacific sound. And who doesn't want to waller in the extra bittersweetness on another holiday not spent on a deserted island with Lindi Ortega. Can you imagine what she'd look like wearing coconuts and palm leaves? For real though, Lindi Ortega's Christmas album "Tennessee Christmas" is a blast. 

The Mavericks "Baby Please Come Home"
I'm crazy about The Mavericks and think they're on fire right now musically. Raul sings with a belting cheers and the Christmas bells and sleigh bells through the whole song deliver a fully manic holiday experience. Their whole Christmas album is a must have. 

Dale Watson "Santa And My Semi"     
Yep, lets finish off this playlist with a swanky Texas sounding Dale Watson number. I dig when certain Texas singers have a particular kind of crooning voice and the way their accent sounds real Trucker. Merry Christmas and shiny side up to all the truckers out there working in tough weather this holiday season.  

Website/Facebook/Twitter/Spotify/Pre-Order Tennessee Alabama Fireworks

​Tennessee Alabama Fireworks was tracked live to tape over five days at Nashville’s Welcome to 1979 Studio, which has recently seen the likes of Rodney Crowell, Steve Earle, Jason Isbell and many more capturing their sounds within. “Making a record at Welcome To 1979 was a real powerful creative experience,” says Boo Ray. Producer Noah Shain, whose pedigree includes work with fellow outlaws Nikki Lane and Badflower, among many others, captures Boo Ray’s full-band storytelling style as vivid cinematic soundscapes that hit right at the heart and pull no punches.

In addition to his music, Boo Ray spends some of his free time doing custom leather work, making hand tooled guitar straps and belts for his guitar picker pals, truckers, bikers, cowboys and rock & rollers. His customers have included Johnny Knoxville, Juliette Lewis, Billy Gibbons, and other household names.