What’s in a name? Estrangers may sound like a hostile band, but they’re really just a bunch of melody-loving popsters from North Carolina, championing a sound that connects the dots between ‘50s rock & roll, ‘60s psych, ‘80s New Wave, and ‘90s indie rock. (Sorry, 1970s — you’re still cool.) Analog synths and washed-out guitars [...]

Spaghetti western guitar riffs. Train beat percussion. Deep, rumbling vocals. Songs about death and tequila. No, it isn’t the soundtrack to an unreleased Quentin Tarantino movie; it’s Year Of The Dragon, the newest release from Brent Amaker and the Rodeo. Clocking in at 13 tracks, Year Of The Dragon walks a fine line between straight-faced country and tongue-in-cheek [...]

Ra Dead Stars resurrect the best parts of the ‘90s with High Gain, a five song EP that mixes the noisy punch of Dinosaur Jr., Sonic Youth and Pavement with guitars that buzz and fuzz. There’s a bit of Teenage Fanclub’s pop music in the mix, too, proof that these Brooklynites care as much about [...]

We’re excited to premiere House & Garden, a stirring collection of originals and covers from sultry-voiced singer-songwriter Nell Robinson and award-winning acoustic guitarist Jim Nunally. In our review, critic Rick Moore writes, “The beauty, sorrow and complexity of life are explored in a simple and straightforward way by two people singing harmony with one guitar, [...]

We’re excited to bring you Rumspringa, the debut album from promising young folk artist and champion flat-picker Dillon Hodges. “Rumspringa is an album made up of fictional stories and characters,” Hodges tells American Songwriter. “However, I have learned it is nearly impossible for me to write a song without leaving a reflection of myself between [...]

For his tenth album, Jay Nash threw away the rulebook. Letters From The Lost still offers up plenty of lush indie-folk and acoustic Americana, but it stretches Nash’s boundaries, too, tossing everything from rootsy soul to indie rock into the mix. Swirls of synthesizer and guitar feedback push “Wander” toward Radiohead territory, while acoustic tunes [...]

Over the past decade, Owen Beverly has written pop/rock songs for Howie Day, toured the U.S. with John Mayer, released a solo country album, and co-founded Shrimp Records with Shovels & Rope. Now the frontman of French Camp, he shows the full breadth of his songwriting — which encompasses everything from spaced-out Americana to dark [...]

We’re excited to bring you the advance stream of David Ramirez’s The Rooster, a killer new EP from the popular Austin, Texas-based singer-songwriter. It’s the followup to last year’s Apologies, which debuted at #2 on iTunes Singer-Songwriter charts. The highlight? The tightly-harmonized “Forgiven,” which offers a road warrior’s take on the audience-performer relationship. Check out [...]

Bobby Charles helped shape rock & roll’s evolution during the ‘50s and ‘60s, writing a string of hits for artists like Fats Domino, Bill Haley & the Comets, and Clarence “Frogman” Henry. Raised in southern Louisiana, he also pioneered the “swamp pop” genre, which blended the native sounds of his home turf — Cajun music, [...]

Jonny Fritz Dad Country (ATO) Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars Stream the album The artist formerly known as Jonny Corndawg reverts to his birth name and gets an unexpected boost from recent fan Jackson Browne for his third release. The 12 tracks breeze by in under 35 minutes and proves that brevity works to [...]

Matt Mays bounced between Mexico, America and Canada while writing Coyote, an album that takes its influences from every corner of the North American continent. Small-town folk, big-city indie rock, West Coast pop and heartland country-rock all make appearances, and Mays treats each genre accordingly, crooning his way through softer songs like “Chase the Light” [...]

Dawes Stories Don’t End (Hub Records) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars Stream the album Dawes’ Taylor Goldsmith is one of those songwriters who are almost preternaturally self-aware about the pitfalls in life and the self-delusions and innate flaws that lead one there, yet his characters keep falling into those traps. That’s a good thing [...]