Instead of focusing on Luke Bell’s death and the circumstances surrounding it, YouTube video channel/production company Western AF is focusing on his life with a new 50-minute extended feature.
They’re Americana anti-stars, working in obscure dialects that sit between the margins of more popular styles, taking up the influences and sounds that have been orphaned by the rest of music and making them feel loved.
Aren’t you lucky that you’re connected in with Saving Country Music, which is the website numerous other websites use to stay informed about all the albums coming out each week. It’s darn near a full time job.
With a gas can with a hole cut in the top for a tip jar, Pat Reedy has traveled around and kept it up close and personal with his fans, and with life in forgotten America. That’s reflected in “Make It Back Home.”
One of the very first festivals that saw the value and rising swell in independent country and roots was Pickathon just outside of Portland, Oregon. This was the place where the very careers of landmark artists such as Sturgill Simpson, The Avett Brothers, Lake Street Dive, and many more were launched.
If artists such as Luke Bell and Pat Reedy suit your fancy, Nick Shoulders will slide right into your wheelhouse. But where these artists perhaps own a deeper arsenal of original songs at the moment, Nick Shoulders distinguishes himself by possessing an incredible, world-class high voice and yodel the likes of which we’ve rarely heard.
Music, and country music specifically plays a big role in the series, not just in the soundtrack, but in many of the jokes told, and in the titles of each episode. Many other musical Easter eggs are placed throughout the series for music fans, such as posters on the wall, and albums in the local bar’s juke box.
There’s just something about the 5-piece collective of New Orleans country and roots songwriters traveling under the combined name The Deslondes that fills the heart with a renewed spirit when they take the stage and perform. It’s the feeling that you’ve been invited into someone’s living room to watch and intimate and heartfelt gathering.
Those true, hardcore fans of music always want to keep digging until they find that original nugget of a musical movement or influence, or in the case of Pat Reedy, the revitalization of a style of country and roots that has been forgotten by neglect throughout the generations.
There are bigger festivals. This is for sure. And there are bigger performers and headliners. But few festivals can boast the ability to not just support worthy music from a wide swath of the American audio palette, but truly launch major careers for artists that go on to have an international impact—artists that music needs.
The Deslondes is not a songwriters project per se. This is not a superpicking troupe or a project that’s all about exuding a bunch of punk energy through unplugged instruments. On paper, this band doesn’t work at all. It’s too busy, there’s no discernible frontman, and there’s nothing fashionable or cutting edge about their approach or style. But The Deslones have something that every band wants but few have…
Saving Country Music was out and about Austin, TX and its outskirts over the past week or so as part of the annual South By Southwest (SXSW) gathering, pounding the pavement and looking for the next country music artist worthy of your ears that you may never otherwise hear about. In the coming months I look forward to taking some of these discoveries and sharing them with you.