Americana Music Month may be drawing to a close, but the music it celebrates is timeless. For proof of that, look no further than Yep Roc’s recent Essentials of Americana sampler, which sets music long-running legends, like Dave Allen & Jimmy Dale Gilmore, alongside current giants of the genre, like Dawn Landes and Amy Helm.
And while the music on the sampler all falls under the loose banner of “Americana,” even a cursory listen to the compilation reveals its broad range: Alejandro Escovedo’s “Something Blue” is a slow-smoldering number that splits the difference between rustic country and aching soul; Landes’s “Traveling” is big and radiant, its narrative lyrics centered around a sparkling chorus; and “Miss Betsy,” by Grant Lee Phillips, sounds wonderfully weathered, Phillips’s oaky voice blending beautifully with the broad, bright acoustic strum.
The 10 songs on the name-your-price sampler put a new spin on the idea of “roots music,” offering an inter-generational snapshot of Americana at its finest.