‘Daughter of Country’ is, by the admission of husband-and-wife duo Shane and Megan Baskerville, a sad album. There is no attempt here to disguise the personal nature of these songs. Everyone one is a scar picked at or opened up, a cathartic reveal to the world through that age-old proven medium of country music.
“Fearing the Dawn” is a country-blues shuffle of a song on which Bill Filipiak sings of coming to terms with his father’s death—not an easy journey as he confesses, “It took five years for me to say goodbye to you” and then, perhaps just as hard to accept, “now the world is expecting me to fill your shoes.“ Speaking of the song, Filipiak emphasized these themes: “There’s something about that moment when you realize, ‘I’m the eldest in the family, I’m the patriarch now’ and facing that new dawn, that’s scary as hell.”
As a producer for the Grand Ole Opry, Bill has worked with, befriended and learned from an impressive list of artists including Ray Wylie Hubbard, Keb Mo, George Thorogood, Allison Russell, Lera Lynn and Sarah Jarosz. And for the last five years, taking inspiration from these luminaries, he’s embarked on a solo career of his own.
There is a whole album of songs equally as brilliant as this one from Two Cent Revival. The album’s called ‘Demons‘ and it’s out on September 3rd. READ MORE…
Starting in Minnesota, the quartet that make up Lake & Lyndale (that’s singer Channing Marie, guitarist Jonathan Krentz, bassist Eric Clifford, and drummer Tyler Kloewer) had made the move to Nashville a few years ago – back in the pre-pandemic days. READ MORE…
Here is the absorbing new single ‘Crow’ from New York-based Two Cent Revival. This atmospheric song hangs on a fabulous, melodic bass line from Tom Welsch and an excellent vocal performance that travels the dusty road between the almost-spoken storytelling of the desert-noir verses and the soaring, anthemic choruses. READ MORE…
Pawn Shop Queen is the debut album for Los Angeles-via-Wichita songwriter Katie Jo, and there is plenty to enjoy in this raw and rootsy offering. She boasts a voice that has more in common with Patsy Cline and Kitty Wells than with most contemporary artists, although her style would sit easily alongside the likes of Margo Price and Whitney Rose. The songs have a vintage country sound, featuring pedal steel, fiddle and twangy lead guitar. Indeed, this record sounds like a well-practiced band set up all together in a studio, playing songs much as they would at a live show. As a result, the feel is natural and unprocessed, and it is refreshing not to be overwhelmed by over-compressed production and autotuned vocals.
Katie Jo has already experienced some immense personal challenges in her young life, and these are detailed in some depth on the biography pages of her web site. When an artist faces challenging life circumstances, the temptation to pour a little too much of their own story into their music is not always a blessing for the listener. However, Katie Jo appears careful to channel her experiences into a more universal lyrical setting. For sure, there are lines which occasionally cut through, and the closing songs ‘Are You Coming Home Tonight?’ and ‘Little Bird’ certainly provide some of the more heartfelt moments on the record, with the latter delicately suggesting that “sticks and stones can build a better home in time…(and) even broken wings can move you a little further down the line.”