This week we chat with country musician David Quinn and listen to his newest album Letting Go. We chat pandemic, new, old, and future music, and moving from the city to the woods.
Client Press
The Alternate Root Magazine weighs in on Martin Ruby’s debut LP, Heaven Get Behind Me, calling it “sparkling, circling Americana with twanging guitar hovering like a vulture”
Harmonica and cloud chamber bowls lend delicate, flashing adornment. The wonder, with this album, is that everything feels intensely ‘real’. There is no artifice here, only art, and North’s art is immediately connecting and approachable, harking back to the ages-old tradition of Folk music: music for ‘folk’, music for us all. ‘They say it’ a good day to die’ sings North and there is no melodrama here, merely humanity. (by Chris Wheatley)
Producer/ sound designer Matteo Scapin features Stuffy Shmitt’s new single “Mommy and Daddy” on his Viral Sound blog
Americana artist Stuffy Shmitt is an old NYC rock & roller, singer/songwriter and guitarist who has performed and recorded with everyone from The Band’s Levon Helm to David Johansen of the New York Dolls. About eight years ago, Stuffy went off the rails, consumed by bipolar disorder. Finally, he got himself properly medicated, moved to Nashville and was able to sort out everything he’d created during his bouts of depression & mania. The resulting album, Stuff Happens—featuring guest spots by Aaron Lee Tasjan & Brian Wright—is his finest yet.
Forthcoming single “Mommy and Daddy”—the centerpiece of the record—is a raw, heart-crushing, gorgeously written and produced rumination on returning home to find your once-vibrant parents closing in on the end of their lives. An aching slow-burn that erupts into a memorable chorus, the song deals in stark vignettes that etch themselves into your mind…
Lonesome Highway features an exclusive interview with Michelle Billingsley
Raised in small town Michigan, a musical career was not Michelle Billingsley’s intended life journey. As a young aspiring actor, she headed to Los Angeles with stars in her eyes and dreams of leading roles and Oscars. Things did not go to plan and she departed L.A. with broken dreams, and quite distressed. She changed artistic direction and rebuilt her confidence, committing her life experiences to song on her excellent debut album, NOT THE MARRYING KIND. Her tales of dysfunctional relationships, depression, toxic parent issues and heartache are superbly written, often shocking, and occasionally hilarious. Michelle explained the background and history of the album when we caught up with her recently.
David Burchfield’s new live acoustic performance video of “Aint’ Gonna Be Easy” just premiered at Americana Highways
Americana Highways brings you this video premiere of David Burchfield’s song “Ain’t Gonna Be Easy,” from his recent release State to State, produced by Joshua James.
This live version of “Ain’t Gonna Be Easy” features David Burchfield on lead vocals & rhythm guitar, and Sam Armstrong-Zickefoose on lead guitar & backing vocals.
The video was produced by Daniel Herman of Mineral Sound. Live from an easy listening room, this song creates instant chills — the good kind. David Burchfield has that songwriting style that’ll make you sing along already from the first verse. “Oh I know, it ain’t gonna be easy.”
York Calling features Stuffy Shmitt’s “Mommy and Daddy,” calling it “lyrical poetry.”
What captured me most about Mommy & Daddy is its lyrical poetry. The verses are a disorienting swirl of imagery—fast cars, drinks, baseball—it feels like a patchwork of America over the past decades. There’s a timeless feel to it, like it’s an artifact from a time gone by, but at the same time being contemporaneously relevant. It’s quite a feat.