We’ve been talking about the new Nashville (that sounds like the good old Nashville) for so long that it’s not really new anymore, but here are three fine Music City tunes with a throwback vibe for your July 4th weekend.
A couple weeks back, Monkey’s Eyebrow, Kentucky-born Nashvillian Kelsey Waldon released a classic country albumcalled The Goldmine (Amazon & Spotify). With simple and honest lyrics, the album’s eleven tracks hold a consistent money-focused theme from the perspective of a rural small town girl. Of note, my favorite on the record, “High in Heels,” (below) calls out evangelists who preach without serving the desperate communities of East Kentucky. Musically, The Goldmine is heavy in pedal steel and falls somewhere in the same neighborhood as Caitlin Rose’s The Stand In or Walden’s boyfriend Cale Tyson.
Emma Swift, the Australian radio broadcaster and singer songwriter who divides her time between Nashville and Sydney, was one of the first friends I made Down Under on my global tour last year. While Swift has been performing for a long while, she formally announced that she’ll release her debut and self-titled EP on August 1st. My friend Gareth at the brilliant Aussie Americana blog Timber & Steel debuted the EP’s gorgeous opening track, “Bittersweet.” Check it out here.
And finally, our friend Andrew Combs recorded a couple solo videos of great new songs with American Songwriter. “Rainy Day Song” and “Month of Bad Habits” each maintain Combs’ “country soul swag” that we’ll hopefully get on an album soon. Next week, Combs kicks off an extended tour running through September including a leg with Joe Fletcher and Ron Gallo that stops at the Newport Blue Café’s “All Newport’s Eve,” another leg in the Midwest with Amanda Shires and a solo UK tour.
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