There’s a small-town vibe running through this list of the best country (and, as always, country-adjacent) releases on Bandcamp in November, showcasing artists from Galax, Virginia; Cumberland, British Columbia; and Oakdale, California. You’ll find some city folks in there, too. Enjoy!
Dori Freeman
Do You Recall
Compact Disc (CD), Vinyl LP
Since releasing her breakthrough debut album in 2016, Dori Freeman has steadily expanded her take on folk and country music. The Galax, Virginia native’s last full-length, 2021’s Ten Thousand Roses, was a gentle shift into Americana, and her new one continues in that vein while also incorporating the swing of jazz and soul; the swagger of garage rock; and the melodic approachability of pop music. Recorded in her home’s backyard studio with her husband, Hiss Golden Messenger drummer Nicholas Falk, the songs on Do You Recall echo Freeman’s traditional background while striding confidently into an exciting, electrified future.
Ryan Davis & the Roadhouse Band
Dancing on the Edge
2 x Vinyl LP
For the past several years, Sophomore Lounge has been one of those labels that puts out enough cool, interesting stuff that you have to check out everything they release at least once. The latest is from the label boss himself, Ryan Davis, heretofore best known—musically, at least—as a principal figure in the great beard-rock band State Champion. Dancing on the Edge finds Davis and his Roadhouse Band ambling across the borderlands between rambling rock ‘n’ roll, easygoing jams, DIY psych vibes, and a medium dose of honky-tonk that’s always waiting in the wings, ready to swoop in and twang things up a bit.
Jeffrey Martin
Thank God We Left the Garden
Vinyl LP, Compact Disc (CD), T-Shirt/Shirt
Jeffrey Martin’s first album in six years captures the Portland-based folk singer in his native habitat: one guy, one guitar, a couple of microphones, and ten tunes that illuminate the universality of a human experience. Recorded in a shack in his backyard, Thank God We Left the Garden sounds like Martin is sitting next to you and singing into your ear, even as he’s spinning tales of hardship, heartbreak, and hard-won hope that should resonate with anyone living a life in this particular world at this particular time. These were supposed to be demos, but Martin liked what he heard, and so they became the actual album. They may not be perfect, but they are just right.
Andrew Bryant
Prodigal
Vinyl LP
Andrew Bryant landed in this column nearly two years ago on the strength of his collection of covers of songs by folks like David Berman, John Prine and Jason Molina. On Prodigal, he’s focused on his own music: Dusky, deeply soulful Southern roots rock that revolves around Bryant’s upbringing in a religious cult and in rural Mississippi. Backed by a band of top-shelf Memphis-based musicians, Bryant excels at using the songwriting process to draw riveting and rewarding revelations from his very heavy personal circumstances.
Bonnie Montgomery
River
Vinyl LP, Compact Disc (CD), Cassette, T-Shirt/Shirt,
Most months, this column features a handful of people who are great singers even though they can’t really sing. Bonnie Montgomery is not one of those people. A trained opera singer, Montgomery can not only sing, she wrote the music for Billy Blythe, a folk opera about Bill Clinton’s childhood. She also wrote the ten songs on River, which showcase her skill as a storyteller and her inclusive view of Americana music as she bounces from traditional honky-tonk to theatrical torch songs to Western swing to soulful twang-pop and beyond.
Sean Burns
Lost Country
Vinyl LP, T-Shirt/Shirt
When he’s not playing bass in Canadian country great Corb Lund’s backing band, the Hurtin’ Albertans, Sean Burns is a mighty fine country singer in his own right, and his new album Lost County is, he says, his effort to “preserve and promote Canada’s country music legacy.” Here, Burns delivers reverent covers of songs by “lost” Canadian legends and regional stars—Mickey McGivern, Chef Adams, Denny Eddy, and Roy Payne, for example—who never quite made it big. The end result is a monument to stone-cold classic country and honky-tonk tunes that’s as heartfelt as it is faithful.
Elise LeBlanc
The Fiddle & The Fire
Compact Disc (CD), Vinyl LP, Other Apparel
Elise LeBlanc is based in Cumberland, British Columbia, a small town on Vancouver Island that’s a loooong way from Tennessee and Texas. Nonetheless, bluegrass, traditional country music, and Western swing found their way to her, and you can hear their heavy influence on LeBlanc’s lovely new album, The Fiddle & The Fire. The nine tracks here are not showy, but they are well-crafted and modestly arranged, giving the band a chance to shine but leaving plenty of room for LeBlanc’s engaging, earthy voice.
Willy Tea Taylor
The Great Western Hangover
Vinyl LP
Folks on the West Coast of America—and elsewhere, but especially there—know Willy Tea Taylor as a relentless road warrior, a plainspoken storyteller, and the Officially Unofficial Bard of California’s Central Valley. Based in Oakdale (just outside Modesto), Taylor is not just a folk singer in his native region but a folk hero, thanks to his homespun charm and the stunning clarity of his songs. On The Great Western Hangover, those songs are more electrified and rockin’ than ever without obscuring the exquisite details that dot his distinctly Western tales of boozin’, brawlin’, brokedown folks and the irresistible call of the open road.
Nora Jane Struthers
Back to Cast Iron
Compact Disc (CD), Vinyl LP
Nora Jane Struthers started out in bluegrass, both as the child of a banjo-playing father and also in string bands like Bearfoot and The Bootleggers. On Back to Cast Iron, however, she blossoms into a cinematic, emotionally driven Americana powerhouse. Banjo still plink-plunks through some of these songs, but for the most part, Struthers’s new work recalls that of Brandi Carlile, not just in tone—earnest, melodic twang-rock with big crescendos—but thematically as well: life, love, motherhood, and traveling the big wide world with home in your heart.
Pat Patterson
Most Requested Country Songs
Vinyl LP
Over the past two years, Sweden’s Sweet Mental Revenge Records unearthed long-forgotten (and excellent) records by American honky-tonkers Rodger Wilhoit and Richard Gibbs. Now, the label is back with a reissue of this cheekily titled country classic released in 1969 by Jimmy Dale “Pat” Patterson, a veteran of both the U.S. Army and the Grand Ole Opry. Most Requested Country Songs is pure, uncut vintage twang built from boom-chick rhythms, gleaming pedal steel guitar licks, and Patterson’s high lonesome tenor, soaked through with feelings even a half-century later.
