On this 1986 debut, Steve Earle burst on the scene as a fully formed songwriting master, synthesizing effortlessly the finest parts of country-folk troubadours like Townes Van Zandt and the anthemic, working-class rock of Bruce Springsteen. "Someday," a country-rock masterpiece about a kid stuck pumping gas in a dead-end town, remains the perfect realization of this style, and with the exception of the slight and silly "Little Rock 'N' Roller," most everything else here (especially "Hillbilly Highway" and the heartbreaking ballad "My Old Friend the Blues") comes awfully close. The 2002 reissue, overseen by Earle and original producer Tony Brown, offers fresh remastering, new liner notes by Earle, and a bonus live version of Springsteen's "State Trooper."

Town Mountain - New Freedom Blues (2018) {Town Mountain Ent.}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 301 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 110 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (png) -> 45 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2018 Town Mountain Enterprises, LLC. | [none]
Bluegrass / Folk / Honky Tonk

The project was recorded at Echo Mountain Studios in Asheville, NC, produced by Foghorn Stringband’s Caleb Klauder. The guys feel like it captures their many diverse influences, including traditional bluegrass, roots pop, and hard edged honky tonk.

A mysterious, and quite possibly unauthorized, CD release of 23 hard-to-find tracks from Nelson's early career. It's actually debatable how "rare" some of these items are; there are seven songs from his 1962 LP Album Seven By Rick, which made the Top 30 and can probably still be found today without breaking a leg. For those who want some more Rick than the greatest-hits collections offer, this does have the three fairly unremarkable tracks he released on Verve in 1957 before hooking up with Imperial, all of which were hits ("Teenagers Romance," "I'm Walking," "You're My One and Only Love").

Red House Records is pleased to announce a new release by Ray Bonneville, a poet of the demimonde whose new album, Easy Gone, was released on April 15, 2014. The album finds the French Canadian-born, American-bred guitarist/ songwriter delivering a powerful, gritty batch of songs written from a lifetime of hard-won knowledge, including a stint in Vietnam and a struggle with drug addiction. In his life, he’s been a bush pilot and a cab driver among other jobs, living both in the States and French-speaking Canada. A true raconteur with a lifetime of stories to tell, the self-taught musician was just too busy living to get around to opening his storybook until his early 40s, some 20 years after he started performing.

Returning after a short leave of absence from the music industry, 16 Horsepower returns with a vengeance on Folklore. Channeling the desperation and depression of the Southern gothic movement better than most artists, they have reached a point where their music has evolved into a series of edgy Western soundscapes. This is fine, as they take traditional country instruments and utilize them to craft Bauhaus-esque doom anthems. "Single Girl" breaks the mold, sounding almost upbeat as singer David Eugene Edwards surrounds himself with layered vocals and a bouncy bass-driven tempo. And "La Robe a Parasol," the final track, is a lilting French waltz that finishes off the album with a last glimmer of hope. But for the most part, this is a bleak journey into the backwoods, an aural equivalent to Clint Eastwood's grizzled Oscar-winning Unforgiven. Like that film, this album has the same depressing resignation to a poor and unrewarding life and rarely attempts to glimpse the bright side of things. And much like that film, the whole of the album also leaves the listener relieved, acting as a cathartic view of rural depression.

Maxfield Parrish's sole album, It's a Cinch to Give Legs to Old Hard-Boiled Eggs, is a perfect example of the direction that many West Coast rockers were taking in the late '60s, incorporating country stylings into adventurous rock songs. In this respect, It's a Cinch… falls neatly between the Grateful Dead at their rootsiest and cosmic cowboys like the New Riders of the Purple Sage. The high, lonesome melodies and lead singing and three- to four-part harmonies connect the band's inspirations and mentors, such as Jerry Garcia (who taught some members guitar) and the Beatles, to early-1900s mountain music that was so influential to all of the Californian country-rockers. However, the songs on It's a Cinch… are not nearly as explicitly country as NRPS, often owing as much to the adventurous mid-period music of the Byrds, and even Middle Eastern drones. This latter effect was probably most prominent due to the presence of the several members of Kaleidoscope who played on and produced the record.