Jason Eady, Lori McKenna, Son Volt, Margo Cilker, More Detail New Albums

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It was a wild week in country music with lots of breaking news, big new releases, and a major awards show (ACMs). But lets not overlook that a bunch of very cool and important artists all announced new albums this week in a cavalcade of titles that shouldn’t be allowed to slide under your radar.

As always, if you want to keep up with all of the releases in country/roots each week, bookmark Saving Country Music’s Release Radar posts.

Son Volt – Day of the Doug – June 16th

Son Volt’s paying tribute to Doug Sahm? Well hell yeah, we’re here for it. Son Volt founder Jay Farrar’s plan is not to just run through the hits though, but to pick out some of the overlooked gems from the Doug Sahm catalog. Farrar actually knew the Texas legend as a friend and mentor. The two sang together on the Uncle Tupelo album Anodyne (1993).

“It’s like reconnecting with a hero,” Farrar says. “And getting back to the same kind of perspective I had when I was starting out as a younger musician. I think it’s just important to step back from what you normally do. Take stock. Take inspiration. And see where it leads from there.”

The song “Sometimes You’ve Got To Stop Chasing Rainbows” precedes the new album that can be pre-saved/pre-ordered now.

TRACK LIST:
1. Doug Intro
2. Sometimes You’ve Got To Stop Chasing Rainbows
3. What About Tomorrow
4. Beautiful Texas Sunshine
5. Float Away
6. Yesterday Got In The Way
7. Keep Your Soul
8. Dynamite Woman
9. Huggin’ Thin Air
10. Juan Mendoza
11. Poison Love
12. Seguin
13. It’s Gonna Be Easy
14. Doug Outro

Randy Rogers & Wade Bowen – Hold My Beer Vol. 3 – July 7th

Texas country’s favorite super duo is back. With their album is 2015 and 2020, they proved this is much more than a throwaway side project. It is a repository for the silly songs, and the truly country songs for these two headliners of the Texas country subgenre. Hold My Beer never disappoints, either live or in the studio.

“I absolutely love making these records with Wade and am so proud of these songs — we wrote every single one. Listen responsibly. Cheers!” says Randy Rogers.

“If you don’t have fun listening to these songs, I feel sorry for ya. No reason we should have this much fun ‘working!’ I hope you love these songs as much as we love making them. Grab some friends and drink a few for us! Cheers!” Wade Bowen adds.

No songs have been released from the new volume yet, but it is available for pre-save.

TRACK LIST:
1. “Shooting Hand” (Randy Rogers, Wade Bowen, Drew Kennedy)
2. “We Ain’t The Only Ones” (Randy Rogers, Wade Bowen, Rhett Akins)
3. “Things That Never Change” (Randy Rogers, Wade Bowen, Brad Clawson)
4. “It’s A Beautiful Day” (Randy Rogers, Wade Bowen, Aaron Raitiere)
5. “I Moved Into A Bar” (Randy Rogers, Wade Bowen, Taylor Phillips)
6. “Dumb Kids” (Randy Rogers, Wade Bowen, Allen Shamblin)

Lori McKenna- 1988 – July 21st

Whenever a Lori McKenna song comes into your orbit, you stop down, and listen. She’s modern country music’s songwriting patron saint, with credits with the top mainstream acts, to the most heartfelt Americana songwriters. Lori McKenna songs make their own musical subgenre with the life wisdom they impart.

For her next album, she worked with Dave Cobb at his studio in Savannah, Georgia, and named it after the year she married her husband Gene. The album also features her family, including her son Chris on the track “Happy Children.” The album is about McKenna’s 35 years of family life.

“I was trying to let my age and experience guide me through making a record I wished I’d made when I was younger,” McKenna says. “I really wanted it to sound like if I made a rock record in the ‘90s, and then I remembered that I made my first album in 1998. There’s something so 30 years ago in my head about this record. In a way, I wish I could start again and know what I know now.”

The debut track is “Killing Me” featuring Hillary Lindsey.

TRACK LIST:

1. “The Old Woman in Me” (Lori McKenna)
2. “Happy Children” (Lori McKenna, Chris McKenna)
3. “Killing Me (feat. Hillary Lindsey)” (Lori McKenna, Hillary Lindsey, Luke Laird)
4. “Days Are Honey” (Lori McKenna, Barry Dean, Luke Laird)
5. “1988” (Lori McKenna, Brian McKenna)
6. “Growing Up” (Lori McKenna)
7. “Wonder Drug” (Lori McKenna)
8. “The Town in Your Heart” (Lori McKenna, Jessie Jo Dillon, Dustin Christensen)
9. “Letting People Down” (Lori McKenna)
10. “The Tunnel” (Lori McKenna, Ben West, Stephen Wilson Jr)

Jason Eady – Mississippi – August 11th

Jason Eady might be synonymous with top notch songwriting from Texas for many, but he was actually born in Mississippi. For his latest release, Eady is tracing his roots back to the Magnolia State, and once again working with Gordy Quist of the Band of Heathens as a producer.

“‘Mississippi’ is an album I’ve been wanting to make for a long time,” says Eady. “I’ve always been a lyrics first kind of writer, but this time around it’s all about the sound. Growing up in Mississippi, I was raised around that groove centered music and it’s always been a very big part of what I do. I’ve usually had at least one song on each album that touched on this sound, but this time I went all in. This was a fun album to write because I completely shifted gears and let the music decide what the words were going to be. The words had to fit the music, which is the opposite of my usual process.”

The song “Way Down In Mississippi” is out now, and Mississippi is now available for pre-order.

TRACK LIST:
1.Way Down in Mississippi
2. Burn It Down
3. New Tradition
4. Wayside 
5. Once Upon a Time in New Orleans 
6. Mile Over 45
7. Whistle 
8. Mean Time 
9. Getting Even 
10. Misty 

Rhiannon Giddens – You’re The One – August 18th

Freshly-minted Pulitzer Prize winner Rhiannon Giddens has announced her first solo album in six years, and her first album of all original songs in her career. Produced by Jack Splash, don’t expect this to be a run through old primitive country and Gospel tunes. All indications is this is Rhiannon’s effort to expand her horizons and appeal to an audience perhaps she hasn’t reached in the past.

“I hope that people just hear American music,” Giddens says. “Blues, jazz, Cajun, country, gospel, and rock—it’s all there. I like to be where it meets organically. They’re fun songs, and I wanted them to have as much of a chance as they could to reach people who might dig them but don’t know anything about what I do. If they’re introduced to me through this record, they might go listen to other music I’ve made and make some new discoveries.”

You’re The One is now available for pre-order via Nonesuch Records.

TRACK LIST:
1. Too Little, Too Late, Too Bad
2. You’re the One
3. Yet to Be [ft. Jason Isbell]
4. Wrong Kind of Right
5. Another Wasted Life
6. You Louisiana Man
7. If You Don’t Know How Sweet It Is
8. Hen in the Foxhouse
9. Who Are You Dreaming Of
10. You Put the Sugar in My Bowl
11. Way Over Yonder
12. Good Ol’ Cider

Margo Cilker – Valley of Heart’s Delight – September 15th

Oregon’s favorite and fastest-rising songwriter is back with a new album on Fluff and Gravy Records, produced by drummer and songwriter Sera Cahoone just like Cilker’s fan favorite debut, Pohorylle from 2021. Also performing on the album is of course Margo’s sister Sarah singing harmonies, and the Pacific Northwest’s version of Hank Williams, Caleb Klauder.

“I wrote these songs surrounded by the wild landscapes of the Northwest, but I was leaning toward the place I’d come from,” says Cilker. “I felt cut off from my family and the valley that held them. I spent hours thinking about my sense of belonging. I’d traveled through many places and then, when the travel stopped, I ruminated on where I had ended up. Where were you when the music stopped? I was in Enterprise, OR. And there in Enterprise, my mind drifted back to the Valley of Heart’s Delight.”

“Lowland Trail” is available now, and the album can be pre-ordered on Bandcamp.

TRACK LIST:

1. Lowland Trail
2. Keep It On A Burner
3. I Remember Carolina
4. Beggar For Your Love
5. Mother Told Her Mother Told Me
6. With The Middle
7. Santa Rosa
8. Crazy Or Died
9. Steelhead Trout (Ben Walden Cover)
10. Sound & Fury
11. All Tied Together

John Baumann – Border Radio – October 6th

A member of the supergroup The Panhandlers, and one of the purest songwriters left in Texas, John Baumann is preparing for the release of his latest album, Border Radio. The nine song album will feature Baumann’s late 2022 single “South Texas Tradition,” along with his new one, “Gold El Camino” (listen below).

“I hope the listener can transport themselves out of their lives and go somewhere else in a cinematic way,” says John Baumann. “I hope listening to this album is like going to the movies. This album is about experiencing something else, somewhere else.”

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