I was planning to write a little bit about this, but the folks over at Americana Highways did the work for me (and did a much better job than I would've).

https://americanahighways.org/2023/08/31/review-zach-bryan-self-titled-album/

New queer country for your ears!

Jaime Wyatt Samantha Rise lazypines Phil Hermann Steve Grand

https://rainbowrodeomag.com/rainbow-ruckus-8-8-jaime-wyatt-samantha-rise-steve-grand-and-more/

#QueerCountry #Americana #AltCountry #CountryMusic #FolkMusic #IndieFolk #LGBTQMusic #QueerMusic

When I heard ‘Neon Blue’ by Joshua Hedley’ when it was first released, I enjoyed the song. It reminded me of early 90s Garth Brooks. Without early 90s Garth, I don’t think I would have ever listened to the Alt Country & Americana stuff.

I didn’t look much into the album and kind of forgot about the song until recently.

The early 90s sound on the entire record is intentional. Joshua decided to make a ‘concept’ album that pondered the idea of what a new country album might sound like if country music didn’t wander into a full on pop sound in the mid to late 90s.

It intentionally sounds like Garth, Brooks & Dunn, and Alan Jackson and it reminds of sucking down $1 Coors Lights at the line dancing club with my buddies from work. I wasn’t even into country (I was into mostly metal in those days), but cheap drinks and cute country girls* are hard to resist when you’re 21. I know lots of songs from that era without listening to a minute of country radio and I do enjoy most of them. 3/fin

• Years later, I met a cute country girl at a different club. Next week, it will be our 16th anniversary.

I’ve been listening to the ‘Brushland’ playlist curated by Tyler Childers on Amazon Music (I believe the playlist is on all the major music platforms). I’ve discovered so many artists that I haven’t heard before. Wyatt Flores is one of them. Totally dig his sound.

This song came up on a playlist curated by Tyler Childers. I’m glad it did. It reminded me that Colter Wall is awesome. He definitely has an authentic country & western sound that tends to be more rare these days.

Tyler Childers does it again! Great song and extraordinarily powerful video. #americana #altcountry #lgbtq

I saw Molly open up for Orville Peck last fall. She was fantastic!

Just released today.

For all you #americana and #altcountry fans, you can follow the Americana #Lemmy group on #mastodon that I started way back when the #reddit migration started.

Just follow @americana

Like anything in the #fediverse, you’ll probably only see posts made after you follow the group.

Joshua Ray Walker does a totally fun cover of Lizzo's "Cuz I Luv You". Check it out at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=quMB3P1isd0

From @americana:

https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/5f215f50-36c8-4e05-964b-e5a7efeba147.jpeg

Hey y’all! I’m John Ward Hocter, a Reddit refugee and independent songwriter trying to spread the word about my music. I used to post my music in various subreddits, but now I’m in tune with the Fediverse.

If you’re interested in checking out some traditional country, Americana, and bluegrass style music, here’s what I got going on right now.

Hey y’all! I’m John Ward Hocter, a Reddit refugee and independent songwriter trying to spread the word about my music. I used to post my music in various subreddits, but now I’m in tune with the Fediverse.

If you’re interested in checking out some traditional country, Americana, and bluegrass style music, here’s what I got going on right now.

1. Look me up on Spotify (https://sptfy.com/OsrY), Apple, Amazon or wherever you listen. I released a song called “Damn Near Died Today” that was named a Finalist in the 2023 Great American Song Contest. Let me know what you think.

2. If you like what you hear, I have a new single coming out August 4 called “Ain’t Heaven Yet” you can pre-save here: https://ditto.fm/aint-heaven-yet.

3. If you’re still onboard the JWH train at this point, you can toss me a vote in the Opening Act contest here: https://theopenact.com/2023/john-ward-hocter. You can vote free each day, or you can make a donation to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and get one vote per dollar donated. Honestly I don’t have much of a chance to win but it is a worthy cause and I’d appreciate your vote.

Thanks for reading/listening/voting!

JWH

If you haven’t listened to Adeem the Artist and dig the #country #altcountry #americana sound, please give them a listen. Adeem identifies as #NonBinary and very much speaks truth to power on racism, LGBTQ+, and other issues that plague our country.

Unfortunately, they only posted this parody on twitter, so ignore the link if you’re trying to stay away from there. #Music

https://twitter.com/AdeemTheArtist/status/1682067189451587584?s=20

!

So the other I was scrolling Instagram and clicked on post that showed Joe Rogan backstage at a Zach Bryan show. Being a dumdum, I looked at the comments because I wanted to get some context.

Within the first few comments, a dude called Zach a dollar store imitation of Tyler Childers. Someone responded to him that Childers was good until he went ‘woke.’ I quickly showed myself out of the comments after that.

Aside from the idea of comparing the two artists being extremely ridiculous, accusing an altcountry/Americana artist of going ‘woke’ is pretty silly. A good portion of the artists are pretty progressive.

If you haven't caught this show on PBS and like Americana type music, do yourself a favor and give it a watch. I've discovered a few new artists that I wouldn't have otherwise and was reminded that Allison Russell is a freaking boss.

Some of my favorites so far -

Charly Lowry. I wish there was more of her music available because what I've heard is awesome. Check out the live version of "Go Wild" at Youtube.

Rissi Palmer - Her latest song, with Miko Marks, called "Still Here" over at YT.

Adia Victoria - She's simply amazing. Video for "Magnolia Blues" at YT.

Allison Russell - "Persephone" is one of my favorite tunes right now.

One of the coolest things about reddit was the more genre specific music subs that they offered. I was originally going to start an alt-country community, but I think that the umbrella for Americana type music is much larger and incorporates alt-country and much more. Hopefully we can share some cool music here.