Release Day Picks: June 16th New Album Highlights
By Team JamBase Jun 16, 2017 • 6:10 am PDT
Each week Release Day Picks profiles new LPs and EPs Team JamBase will be checking out on release day Friday. This week we highlight new albums by Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, Fleet Foxes, Steve Earle and The Dukes, Midnight North, Portugal. The Man and Andy Hall & Roosevelt Collier. Read on for more insight into the records we have all queued up to spin.
Jason Isbell And The 400 Unit – The Nashville Sound
The Scoop: With his last two studio albums Jason Isbell established himself as one of the premier singer-songwriters going. Both Southeastern and Something More Than Free found Isbell writing autobiographical tales of exorcising his demons, while finding love that sat alongside character studies of life in the South. With his latest, The Nashville Sound, (a tongue-in-cheek nod to the slick shift in the sound of country music in the 1950s) Isbell is moving his narrative forward. The 10 tracks find Isbell and his formidable backing band The 400 Unit, which for this release included his wife Amanda Shires, tackling songs about the current state of America’s social and political climate. Check out the video for “White Man’s World”:
Label: Southeastern Records/Thirty Tigers
Producer: Dave Cobb
Number Of Tracks: 10
Running Time: 40:17
Guest Musicians: N/A
Tracklist:
- Last Of My Kind
- Cumberland Gap
- Tupelo
- White Man’s World
- If We Were Vampires
- Anxiety
- Molotov
- Chaos and Clothes
- Hope The High Road
- Something To Love
Fleet Foxes – Crack-Up
The Scoop: It’s been six years since we’ve gotten a new studio album from the Fleet Foxes. In that span of time their former drummer J. Tillman reinvented himself as the psychedelic troubadour Father John Misty, while lead singer Robin Pecknold took a break from the music business altogether moving to New York City to attend Columbia University. The folk-rock band has ended their extended hiatus with the release of their third studio album Crack-Up. The eleven-track effort picks up were the band last left us with an album of sprawling psychedelic-folk filled with heady, sweeping pastoral song suites and their now trademark gorgeous harmonies. The record is a welcomed return sounding both familiar and welcoming, yet also features plenty of weirdness and unexpected turns. Check out the music video for “If You Need To, Keep Time On Me::
Label: Nonesuch Records
Producer: Robin Pecknold, Skyler Skjelset
Number Of Tracks: 11
Running Time: 55:00
Guest Musicians: Hannah Epperson, Matthew Barrick, Christopher Icasiano, Neal Morgan, Brian McPherson, Russell Durham, Jeremy Kittel, Nicholas Cords, Dave Eggar, The Westerlies (Andy Clausen, Willem De Koch, Zubin Hensler, Riley Mulherkar)
Tracklist:
- I Am All That I Need / Arroyo Seco / Thumbprint Scar
- Cassius –
- – Naiads, Cassadies
- Kept Woman
- Third Of May / Odaigahara
- If You Need To, Keep Time On Me
- Mearcstapa
- On Another Ocean (January / June)
- Fool’s Errand
- I Should See Memphis
- Crack-Up
Steve Earle And The Dukes – So You Wannabe an Outlaw
The Scoop: Steve Earle left the comforts of his home in New York City to record his latest LP, So You Wannabe an Outlaw, marking the first album the Texas-raised singer-songwriter has recorded in Austin. Backed by The Dukes featuring guitarist Chris Masterson, bassist Kelly Looney, fiddle player Eleanor Whitmore, pedal steel guitarist Ricky Ray Jackson and drummer Brad Pemberton, Earle was inspired by Waylon Jennings’ 1973 album Honky Tonk Heroes and dedicated the new record to the late country legend. Among the 16 new songs is “Goodbye Michelangelo,” a tribute to Earle’s mentor, the late Guy Clark, and the album showcases guest spots from outlaw country icons Willie Nelson and Johnny Bush, as well as vocalist Miranda Lambert. Listen to “Lookin’ For A Woman,” written at the request of Buddy Miller (but not used) for the television show Nashville, below:
Label: Warner Bros. Records
Number Of Tracks: 16
Running Time: 48:59
Guest Musicians: Willie Nelson, Johnny Bush, Miranda Lambert
Tracklist:
- So You Wannabe An Outlaw
- Lookin’ For A Woman
- The Firebreak Line
- News From Colorado
- If Mama Coulda Seen Me
- Fixin’ To Die
- This Is How It Ends
- The Girl On The Mountain
- You Broke My Heart
- Walkin’ In LA
- Sunset Highway
- Goodbye Michelangelo
- Ain’t No God In Mexico
- Sister’s Coming Home / Down At The Corner Beer Joint
- Local Memory
- Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way
Midnight North – Under The Lights
The Scoop: Americana act Midnight North spent their first few years as a band focusing on gigs in the Bay Area, but more recently have taken the show on the road for more extensive tours. The group’s time touring informed the songs on their third studio album, Under The Lights. Grahame Lesh (vocals, guitar), Elliott Peck (vocals, guitar), Alex Jordan (vocals, organ) and Connor O’Sullivan (bass) recorded the 11-track effort at the Greene Room in Acampo, California and at Allegiant Records in San Anselmo, California. Lesh and O’Sullivan served as co-producers for a collection of earnest tunes with such lyrical road themes as the yearning for home and the need to keep moving. Listen to the album’s lead single, “The Highway Song”:
Label: Self-Released
Producer: Connor O’Sullivan, Grahame Lesh
Number Of Tracks: 11
Guest Musicians: N/A
Tracklist:
- Under The Lights
- Playing A Poor Hand Well
- Everyday
- Greene Country
- Roamin’
- Headline From Kentucky
- Back To California
- One Night Stand
- Echoes
- The Highway Song
- Little Black Dog
Portugal. The Man – Woodstock
The Scoop: Four years after the release of Evil Friends, Portugal. The Man has finally issued a follow-up to the acclaimed LP. P.TM had been hard at work for three years with Mike D behind the boards on an album that was nearly completed, when the band changed course. They went in a completely different direction in an aim to inspire listeners to do something about the world we live in today. Woodstock features 10 very different tracks from a various array of producers with one catchier than the next. Guests include Son Little, Fat Lip, Zoe Manville, Mary Elizabeth Winstead and the late Richie Havens via a sample of “Freedom.” Watch the video for the album’s second single, “Feel It Still”:
Label: Atlantic Records
Producer: John Hill, Mike D, Ajay Bhattacharyya, Brian Burton, Nick Koenig, Asa Taccone, Casey Bates
Number Of Tracks: 10
Running Time: 38:35
Guest Musicians: Richie Havens, Son Little, Fat Lip, Zoe Manville, Mary Elizabeth Winstead
Tracklist:
- Number One
- Easy Tiger
- Live In The Moment
- Feel It Still
- Rich Friends
- Keep On
- So Young
- Mr. Lonely
- Tidal Wave
- Noise Pollution
Andy Hall & Roosevelt Collier – Let The Steel Play
The Scoop: Two of the jam scenes most beloved slide guitarists, Andy Hall of The Infamous Stringdusters and Roosevelt Collier of The Lee Boys, have collaborated on the 10-track studio album Let The Steel Play. Hall and Collier first met in 2012 aboard Jam Cruise and bonded over their passion for slide guitar. The pair add their own spin to such traditional songs as “This Little Light Of Mine,” “Power In The Blood” and “Reuben’s Train” as well as an inventive cover of the Grateful Dead’s “Crazy Fingers” and more. Andy and Roosevelt come from two completely different backgrounds, but their playing comes together in a fresh and enjoyable way. Greensky Bluegrass Dobroist Anders Beck gets in on the action by contributing to the LP’s frenetic final track, “Colfax Boogie.” Check out a trailer for Let The Steel Play:
Label: Self-Released
Producer: Andy Hall
Number Of Tracks: 10
Running Time: 39:41
Guest Musicians: Anders Beck
Tracklist:
- This Little Light Of Mine
- Maiden’s Prayer
- Singing Steel
- Crazy Fingers
- Rosebud
- Reuben’s Train
- Remington
- The Darkest Hour
- Power In the Blood
- Colfax Boogie (feat. Anders Beck)
Compiled by Jeffrey Greenblatt, Andy Kahn and Scott Bernstein.
