Best of What’s New

Another Friday calls for another installment of Best of What’s New. This week, I’m mostly featuring new music by long established artists like Robert Plant, Alanis Morissette and The Jayhawks. There’s also Americana singer-songwriter Ryan Gustafson, who isn’t a newcomer either, though not exactly a household name yet. Rounding out this post are LadyCouch, an exciting, still relatively young soul-oriented band from Nashville. Let’s get to it.

Robert Plant/Charlie Patton Highway (Turn it Up, Pt. 1)

Charlie Patton Highway (Turn it Up, Pt. 1) is a previously unreleased tune from Robert Plant’s upcoming career-spanning solo anthology Digging Deep: Subterranea, which is scheduled for October 2nd. Credited to drummer Marco Giovino, producer Buddy Miller and Plant, the song came out on July 31. It will also be included on Band of Joy Volume 2, Plant’s 12th solo album and the first since Carry Fire from October 2017, which is “soon to be released,” according to his merchandise website. “I spent time in the hill country of north Mississippi around Como, dropping back to Clarksdale, the incredible center of black music talent over the years,” Plant told Rolling Stone about the track. “I weaved my car through the Delta back roads, listening to the remarkable protestations of Mississippi AM radio. I was looking at my world and my times from this unfamiliar place and found myself exposed to a nightmare world of half-truths.” Looks like Robert Plant fans have lots of music they can look forward to.

Alanis Morissette/Her

Canadian singer-songwriter, record producer and actress Alanis Morissette is best known for 1995 album Jagged Little Pill, which included various hits like Ironic and Hand in My Pocket. Since then, she has released six additional albums, including her most recent one Such Pretty Forks in the Road, her ninth and first in eight years, which appeared on July 31. Like all other tracks on the album, Her was co-written by Morissette and Michael Farrell. “I’ve had so many mentors who were women, who have really represented the maternal,” Morissette explained to Apple Music. “Especially postpartum, there’s this whole thought of like, ‘Who’s going to mother the mother?’…For me, this song is really about reaching out for mom, the reaching out for the maternal, for the empathic, the skin-on-skin tenderness.”

The Jayhawks/This Forgotten Town

The Jayhawks are an American alternative country and country rock band that was initially founded in Minneapolis in 1985. The original line-up included Mark Olson (acoustic guitar, vocals), Gary Louris (electric guitar, vocals), Marc Perlman (bass) and Norm Rogers (drums). Their eponymous debut album appeared the following year. The Jayhawks released six additional records before they went on hiatus in 2004. Five years later, they reunited and have since come out with four additional albums. In addition to original co-founders Louris and Perlman, the band’s other current members are Tim O’Reagan (drums, vocals), Karen Grotberg (keyboards, backing vocals) and John Jackson (acoustic guitar, violin, mandolin). This Forgotten Town, co-written by Louris, Perlman and O’Reagan, is from their new album XOXO released on July 10. I dig the warm sound, and there’s some great harmony singing as well.

The Dead Tongues/Déjá Vu

Déjá Vu is a track from Transmigration Blues, the new album released on June 26 by The Dead Tongues, a project of singer-songwriter, musician and producer Ryan Gustafson, according to his Facebook page. “I gave this album everything I had, over and over again,” Gustafson notes in a June 26 post. “Songwriting is a mirror, a safe space, a place to explore my limits of thought and emotion, a way to communicate when other avenues seem unaccessible or hidden to me, its where I learn to fail, fall apart and persist, its where I go inward ultimately to recycle it outward again, it’s where I’m alive and where i consider silence…To live is to change and this is the time to truly be present and alive.” Given all of Gustafson’s efforts to make the record, I find it remarkable there’s no further information about him on his Facebook page. And this isn’t his first time at the rodeo. Searching Discogs revealed Transmigration Blues is Gustafson’s fourth album appearing under The Dead Tongues alias. The oldest listed entry is the self-released Desert from 2013. I can hear a Neil Young vibe in Déjá Vu but can’t deny the fact I could be biased, given this also happens to be the title of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young’s iconic studio album from March 1970.

LadyCouch/Heartache

LadyCouch are a Nashville-based band around Keshia Bailey and Allen Thompson. According to their website, the band was born out of Keshia Bailey and Allen Thompson’s love for one another and their love for honest, soulful music.  Although their friendship stretches back years, it wasn’t until the winter of 2017 they decided to share a stage…The pair seem to come from two different worlds, musically, with Keshia hailing from the straight-ahead throwback Soul group Magnolia Sons, and Allen from the psychedelic folk of the Allen Thompson Band. But their similar Appalachian upbringings and their genuine appreciation for Soul, Rock, Funk, Country and Folk allow them to build bridges across genres to create a sound all its own. In addition to Bailey and Thompson, the band’s other core members include guitarists Grayson Downs, Clint Maine and Mike Ford Jr., as well as Jimmy Matt Rowland (keyboards), Ray Dunham (drums) and Gordon Persha (bass). Heartache appears to be their second single that came out on July 17. Boy, do I love their warm and soulful sound!

Sources: Wikipedia; Robert Plant official store website; Rolling Stone; Apple Music; Discogs; YouTube