Rachel Brooke – The Loneliness in Me

Currently getting lotsa spins on WDVX is the title track from Rachel Brooke’s latest album The Loneliness in Me. Here’s what Saving Country Music has to say about it –
“Apparently not enough hearts have been broken, not enough tears cried, not enough minds sent swooning, and not enough sorrow sown. If you want something done right, you often have to do it yourself, and the Queen of Underground Country is back to show all you whipper snappers how instilling pain and heartbreak in a country song is done.

If you’re one of those souls who gets to feeling happy through sad songs, you’ve just stumbled onto the mother lode. Rachel Brooke shows no mercy to the meek and weary, with a voice filled with so much natural pain, it tightens the screws down on your emotional receptors like a vice, and with a sound so unique, it deserves its own subgenre.

Rachel Brooke’s been defining the dark side of country before we knew there was one. Mixing her influences of classic country, old-school 50’s rock, and adding a pinch of punk panache to the approach, she serves up a witches brew of songs full of reverberating regret and despair on her new album The Loneliness In Me.

But don’t worry, she’s doesn’t go full goth like she’s done with some of her songs and side projects from the past, where it’s sometimes more about the artistic expression than the infectious appeal. In fact this record might be Rachel’s most accessible to date and a great entry point into her catalog, while also remaining very classic, very country, and very well-written and performed. The Loneliness In Me might also be her best overall yet.” Read more here

Sierra Ferrell – “Jeremiah”

Also getting some serious airtime on WDVX is “Jeremiah,” one song of the two-song single, released by Sierra Ferrell in October of this year. Here’s what her label, Rounder Records has to say about the release –

October 23, 2020 – Today, West Virginia-bred, Nashville-based singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Sierra Ferrell releases a two-song single that marks her debut recording for Rounder. “Jeremiah” and “Why’d Ya Do It” will appear on Ferrell’s full-length album, slated for release in spring of 2021.

Produced by 10-time GRAMMY award-winning producer and engineer Gary Paczosa and Stu Hibberd, the single features a stellar lineup of musicians, including country royalty like Chris Scruggs and Ferrell’s longtime collaborator Nathan Leath. Sprung from her self-described “country heart but a jazz mind,” “Why’d Ya Do It” is a beguiling and bittersweet lament partly inspired by Ferrell’s fascination with calypso and tango music. And with its galloping rhythm and classic bluegrass storytelling-as well as a guest appearance from GRAMMY Award-winner Sarah Jarosz on background vocals-“Jeremiah” sweetly delivers what Ferrell dubs “a broken song, with a gleam of hope at the end.”

Writing in No Depression last year, Amos Perrine said, “Singular is too inadequate a word to describe Ferrell. Her mixture of tempo, melody, and imagery – each often changed multiple times within a single song – would be enough to make even the most traveled purveyor of singer-songwriters sit up and take notice.”……

Now at work on her full-length debut for Rounder, Ferrell delights in defying all convention in everything she creates. “I want my music to be like my mind is-all over the place,” she says. “I listen to everything from bluegrass to techno to goth metal, and it all inspires me in different ways that I try to incorporate into my songs and make people really feel something.”

“Wish the Wars Were All Over” is one of the tunes getting airplay on WDVX. From the March 2020 release, Tribulation from Appalachian Road Show. Here’s a little bit about the album

From shorefire.com – Roots supergroup Appalachian Road Show’s Tribulation, an album that “perfectly speaks to our dark and unsettling times” (Folk Alley). Unified by a mission to preserve and share the rich cultural and musical heritage of America’s Appalachian mountain region, Appalachian Road Show narrates stories of human migration, family separation, unrequited love, war protest, faith and the strength of humans to overcome adversity.

“When we started this record, we had no idea the state of affairs this world would be in at the time of its release,” says fiddler Jim VanCleve. ” Tribulation is a journey through the trials and triumphs of Appalachian life but also a narrative that we believe everyone can identify with today and always.”

Tribulation demonstrates Appalachian Road Show’s ability to make roots music new again with “cascading guitar… sprightly fiddles, meandering mandolins, nimble guitars and rolling banjos” (Folk Alley). The five-piece group seamlessly blends influences across genres brought to Appalachia from Scotland, Ireland, England, Africa and beyond.

“Beside You” by The Dustbowl Revival is a new single you’re hearing us play on WDVX. Here’s what gratefulweb.com has to say about the song –

Cut-to-heart folk rock sextet, Dustbowl Revival, are pleased to announce the release of a new single, “Beside You” available now across all streaming platforms.

“Beside You” was recorded initially in part of the Is it You, Is it Me sessions but as it presented a deep sentimental value, the band elected to release it as a stand-alone single, allowing it to stand on its own for listeners to feel its full emotion.

Its lyrics symbiotically weave together a passion for the music of the late Bill Withers with the sentiment of a true Dustbowl “feelings song.”

“The energy in this song is really who Dustbowl Revival is,” shared Z. Lupetin, the band’s vocalist and guitar player. “This song came from a place of wanting to pay homage to Bill Withers, one of my all-time favorite musicians. It was written before he passed and honors the fact that his music is the ‘friend’ that will never leave you and is always beside you.”

There’s a line in the song where the character that’s sung about is trying to convince a partner/friend to come home, coming from a place of seeing friends lose their partners to outside crises.

“As we grow older, and see friends continue going through growth pains, the music that you love is your forever companion,” said Lupetin.

“Beside You” is the first song released since “Queen Quarantine” and offers a true slow burn at a 5-minute runtime. The bands’ friends and significant others lent their vocals to a choir as the song wraps up, bringing deeper meaning to the intention behind the song.

“Beside You” by The Dustbowl Revival is a new single you’re hearing us play on WDVX. Here’s what gratefulweb.com has to say about the song –