Your Custom Text Here
Alison Krauss and Union Station: Arcadia
New album: Classy, seasoned, crisply performed country, folk and bluegrass by the acclaimed Champaign, Illinois singer-songwriter and fiddle player, joined again by her perennial band, their first together since 2011’s Paper Airplane, and her first since the 2021’s album Raise The Roof with Robert Plant
Read more
Bonnie "Prince" Billy: The Purple Bird
New album: A mischievously droll, but also tender, gently moving new release by Kentucky’s seasoned singer-songwriter Will Oldham, this time very much in Nashville-flavoured country mode, with numbers about community, relationships and the state of the nation, joined by producer and old friend David “ Ferg” Ferguson
Read more
The second part of our favourite albums of 2024
Favourite albums of 2024: Welcome to The Song Bar’s favourite albums of 2024 Part 2. Part 1 can be found here. There’s no such thing as ‘best of’ and everything is subjective, but please dig into this rich seam of originality and quality, and even suggest more of your own
Read more
Silkroad Ensemble with Rhiannon Giddens: American Railroad
New album: The latest in the Nashville singer’s projects with an international collective of musicians interprets traditional creates new folk songs, themed the tough history of the US rail frontier that was mostly built by Irish, African American, Chinese and Japanese immigrants
Read more
Gillian Welch and David Rawlings: Woodland
New album: Exquisite, folk and country about turbulence and resilience by the singer-songwriter couple, with an album named after their Nashville studio wrecked by a tornado in March 2020, and their first release together for 13 years
Read more
Kaïa Kater: Strange Medicine
New album: A beautiful fourth album by the acclaimed Montreal-born banjo player and singer-songwriter of Grenadian heritage, mixing folk, Americana and bluegrass with a palette of sounds – percussion, orchestral strings and brass in songs mixing history, politics and the personal
Read more
Beyoncé: Cowboy Carter
New album: A big, bold rhinestone-studded musical statement from the US megastar, delving deep into country & western territory and cross-pollinating with pop, soul, rock and R&B, with added Beatles, and guests including Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson and Miley Cyrus on this whopping 27-track LP
Read more
Favourite LPs of 2023, Part 2.
Welcome once again to the annual tradition of Song Bar’s favourite album releases of 2023. This is Part 2, and Part 1 was yesterday. There’s no such thing as a chart rundown or ‘best of’ here, and these come in no particular order …
Read more
Margo Cilker: Valley of Heart's Desire
New album: A warmly comforting, toe-tapping, reflective, engaging Americana follow-up to 2021’s acclaimed debut Pohorylle album by the California-raised singer-songwriter, packed with stories and vivid images
Read more
Allison Russell: The Returner
New album: Following 2021’s Outside Child, a second excellent solo album by the Nashville-based Montreal-raised singer-songwriter and activist from the band Po’ Girl, Birds of Chicago and Our Native Daughters, with charming but emotively poignant Americana, folk, soul, gospel and pop
Read more
Rhiannon Giddens: You're The One
New album: The Greensboro-raised singer-songwriter and brilliant banjo player of Carolina Chocolate Drops and Our Native Daughters returns with her first solo album for six years, for the first time mostly originals, continuing her focus on black culture reclamation of catchy, soulful country and Americana
Read more
Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway: City of Gold
New album: Following last year’s breakthrough album Crooked Tree, brilliantly uplifting bluegrass and country by the Nashville singer-songwriter renowned for her finger-picking, again co-written by Ketch Secor from Old Crow Medicine Show and co-produced by dobro veteran Jerry Douglas
Read more
Jake Blount
New album: After his acclaimed 2020 solo debut Spider Tales, the American bluegrass fiddler, banjo player, Afrofuturist and historian returns with a starkly beautiful, atmospheric album drawing on old spiritual numbers and set in a climate-changed, apocalyptic world
Read more