Before and After

Tour Date Drop

Americana Fan Boyfriend

More Monday Memes: Red Clay Strays, Americana, Jerry Reed

AI Illustrated Americana Songs

 If you can't figure some of these out, the song list is at the end.

I'm sure you can easily figure this one out, but the AI was so ridiculous, I had to include 2 results.

Hey, I asked for chili!

Chris Knight - Down the River

Jason Isbell - Cover Me Up

Turnpike Troubadours - Gin, Smoke, and Lies

Steve Earle - Copperhead Road

Sturgill Simpson - You Can Have the Crown

John Cougar Mellencamp - Jack and Diane

Civil War Movie Country Memes

New Americana Band Vows to Stay Apolitical Until They’re Popular

Up-and-coming Americana group The Red Lions are making waves with more than just their music. The four-piece out of Homewood, AL are impressing with their streaming numbers for their self released debut record and selling out rooms across the south, but their approach to songwriting is also turning some heads. 

“They say ‘everything is political,’ but we’re the exception,” said Lions bandleader Joe Sparkman. “We avoid taking positions so hard that we went back and edited out a line about drinking a Bud Light even though the song is set in 1989.” 

The four-piece has deftly stayed clear of being labeled by writing songs only about work, drinking and love, while steering away from any sort of signifiers or coded terms that might out them as Democrats or Republicans. “We love and respect all our fans and welcome them into our big tent, at least until we’re popular. Then 50% of them can kiss our asses!” laughed drummer Laura Lofton. 

The Red Lions’ music also avoids classification. Blending country, rock, pop, folk, soul, hard rock, southern rock, indie rock, outlaw country, and R&B in perfectly equal parts in every song, the band literally can barely be described. Despite being impossible to market, they’ve managed to get a couple of songs to over 100k streams on Spotify, including “Coal Mining and Liquor” and “Laid Off at the Paper Mill.” 

While the band has gained a great deal of traction on streaming platforms, they’re having a hard time finding a touring partner. “We had one potential supporting tour for a major band, but they were gonna make us sign a social intersectionality pact or some shit. And another big singer wanted us to get tiny MAGA tattoos to come aboard. So we’re mostly opening for ourselves so far.” said Sparkman.

When asked about the band’s plans after passing their threshold of “success,” bassist Reed Wilkes chimed in. “Shortly after crossing 100,000 monthly listeners, we will go into the studio and write an album in which we write ham-fisted lyrics railing against whatever the current Presidential administration is, while leaning into EDM and other styles our original fans don’t care for, so they’ll have to say ‘their first album is actually good’ when somebody mentions us for the rest of their lives.” 

At press time, The Red Lions were being ambivalent about their lunch plans.

Where's Your Seat?

More Free Ways to Help Your Favorite Indie Musicians!

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Top 10 Ways to Become an Americana Singer

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10. Have a moderately popular rock, hardcore, or punk band in your 20s then turn 30

09. Move to East Nashville; stop bathing

08. Stand in front of mirror and say “I ain’t no part of nothin’”

07. Quit heroin

06. Be the offspring of a country music or folk legend

05. Be born named Colt, Colter, Cody, or Zach

04. Drink the water in Kentucky, apparently

03. Be either a hater of all political views or an outspoken lefty, there is no in-between

02. Be a Townes Van Zandt fan who majored in poetry and knows how to play a few chords; get fired from your job at one of the following: train depot / co-op / ranch / hardware store / horse farm.

01. Get face and/or neck and/or knuckle tattoos

Innovative Americana Singer Writes Song About Rural Melancholia

Up and coming Americana singer/songwriter Louis Reynolds is ready to level up in a big way. The Austin newcomer will drop his debut single “Dust on the Silo” next Friday and is anticipating a massive response. The reason for this optimism? “Dust on the Silo” breaks new ground in the sometimes stodgy and predictable genre with its sorrowful tale of rural melancholia, a subject he says is untouched by the rest of Americana and roots rocks’ stalwarts. 

“Sturgill Samson [sic] isn’t going to know what hit him,” laughed the tall, handsome former badminton star. “The ‘elites’ of Americana music are all writing about turtles and Jesus and horses, but they don’t really get what the common man is going through. The turnip farmers and train drivers of America need their stories heard and I’m here to tell them!”

The song, a 3 minute and 23 second, mid-tempo, Lumineers-esque anthem, digs into the financial and emotional hardships of an Arkansas turnip farmer enduring a severe drought. While sketchy on detail accuracy and mediocre with the guitar work, Reynolds manages to squeeze a great deal of grit and passion from his slightly above average voice, making “Dust on the Silo” a definite single to be heard by people with ears. 

“Authenticity is so important in this style of music,” smiled Reynolds, sipping a whiskey sour on the balcony of his East Austin apartment. “I want my fans to know that I feel what they’re going through; I’ve read all about the coal miners on Oxyclean pills and truck drivers crying in a Love’s parking lot. This shit is real!”

At press time, Reynolds was getting his beard trimmed at a hip barber shop for the single photo shoot, while sipping a pour over coffee.

Tuesday Morning Memes: Merle Haggard, Shooter Jennings, Walker Hayes

 

Fiddle & Steel Band Not Sure What Genre They Are

A new band out of Alabama, Ohatchee, is facing a difficult question as they navigate the terrain of the touring band life. When booking shows, which they still do without management, they are often met with the question: What genre are you? The band has no idea. 

“We play the good kind of music,” laughed twangy lead singer/guitarist Hap Lorring. “Anyway that’s what an annoying positive fan of the band always comments online and I think it’s dopey as hell, but then again, I don’t know what genre we are.”

The quintet features a steel guitarist, fiddle player, drummer, bassist, and lead guitarist/vocalist and play what might be described as “a mixture of ballads and dance tunes of a sort of music originating in the rural southern US,” but that’s more than a mouthful to tell club owners and event planners. 

Some fans of Ohatchee have called the group “Americana,” but the guys aren’t even sure what that is. “Isn’t that just an adjective to describe those roadside attractions like ‘World’s Longest CVS Receipt’ or ‘Largest Ball of Chewed Up Gum in Nebraska?’” 

“We’re not folk either,” said Lorring. “I listened to some popular folk songs on Spotify, and we don’t clap and sing ‘ohhhh’ that often. I’m really at a loss here.”

“My grandfather said ‘Boy, ya’ll are just good ol’ country music’,” said lead songwriter and bassist Chad Logan. “But he’s senile. I listened to country radio and we don’t even have a rapper in the band so we must not be country.” Logan went on to say that Ohatchee doesn’t employ a DJ and doesn’t write songs about picking up a girl in a bar and driving out to the country with her to make love in a sixty-thousand dollar pickup truck. They also lack programmed beats, six pack abs, and mediocrity, so nope, not country.

Whatever the hell they are, Ohatchee rolls on to play the Kudzu and Possum Festival in Winona, MS this weekend. 

The Road Less Traveled

Bearded Poser Can’t Decide Whether to Move to Nashville or Austin

Bearded poser Louis Reynolds has a decision to make. The burgeoning Americana and/or folk and/or pop-country songwriter is weighing the positives and negatives of cities to move to and genres to shoehorn himself into. 

While skilled at writing in none of his options, Reynolds possesses a slightly above average voice and, most importantly, a spectacular beard. The 6’2” former college badminton star, after finding no path to pursuing the sport professionally, picked up an acoustic guitar and learned Snow Patrol’s “Chasing Cars” and was smitten. 

Bankrolled by his parents’ eight figure net worth, Reynolds began formulating his plan to become an artist a star in whatever style of music would have him. 

“I’ll only have to adapt my look to fit in, err, I mean look the part of either a country singer or an Americana singer. You know, either go sleek and stylish with the beard, or look like I just came down out of the mountains with half an elk on my back.” laughed Reynolds. “Pretty much the same for my fashion choices.” 

When asked if he was studying the different styles of music to see where his writing style most organically fit, Reynolds answered “Let’s see. Would I rather rub elbows with Jordan Davis and Sam Hunt, or Cody Jinks and Tyler Childers? Makes you think, y’know.”

“Oh yeah, writing,” he continued. “Either write about trucks used for fun or trucks used for work; no big deal. And the women are either wearing shorts and have their feet on the dash or are sad and working in a Tulsa cafe. It’s pretty simple stuff.” 

At press time, Louis Reynolds was trying on stupid hats and checking horribly overpriced apartment listings in trendy parts of Austin and Nashville.

Country Songs Backward

Man Unable to Grow Beard Kicked Out of Americana Band

Matt Sandifer, former bassist of Americana band Farmer Union, says he was recently given the pink slip for a peculiar reason.

“My beard is patchy.” said a despondent Sandifer. “I can’t help my damn genetics.”

Sandifer told us that no complaints were ever made about his ability to keep the bottom steady in the band’s songs about unions, farms, William Gay novels, Donald Trump, and kudzu. His appearance and hygiene, besides the follicular challenge, were never an issue either.

“I took my monthly shower like the rest of them,” he explained. “And my clothes all came from the Salvation Army store in whatever town we’d played, along with t-shirts from bands who opened for us.” He also told us there were no issues with his politics.

“I’m a card carrying member of Antifa and attended all the same meetings they did.” he said. “And I took a photo of my voting ballot so that they could see I voted blue or green all the way down.”

He went on to say that though Farmer Union never gave him a formal reason for the release, he’s certain it’s because the “other three dudes look like they just walked out of the woods with an axe and a blue ox.” “I’ve tried everything, oils, lotions, massages, testosterone therapy… nothing worked.” said Matt. “The best I could do was a sad goatee, a busted mustache and weird patches of hair on my cheeks - I looked like a peeping Tom.”

“I thought Americana was supposed to be about substance, and not image …or marching to the beat of what other roots bands do,” said a disgusted Sandifer. “F*** those guys.”

At press time, Farmer Union was smoking weed by a dumpster in Belleville.

More More Monday Memes: The Chicks, Americana, Florida-Georgia Line

Americana Band Actually Doing Better Financially During the Pandemic

Tupelo, Mississippi Americana band Natchez Trace is riding out the Covid-19 pandemic in a shared rental house and doing just fine, thank you. In fact, they say things are actually more profitable for them during these uncertain times.

“I was worried, I’ll be honest.” said bassist Lee Sturgeon. “No tour dates, no merch sales, and even our Spotify streaming royalties are down from $1.54 to $1.34 for some reason.” Despite the lack of income, the band, who has opened for the likes of Aaron Lee Tasjan and Nikki Lane, is living high on the hog during this challenging era. 

“We’ve actually gone 22 straight days without our van breaking down,” said lead singer Vance Upton. “The previous record was 4 hours… so we’re saving a lot of money on vehicle maintenance.” “Also, we haven’t had any gear stolen since last Monday. Usually we’re replacing amps and guitars on a pretty much daily basis.” 

Low overhead isn’t the only thing keeping Natchez Trace afloat. “When those stimulus checks hit the bank accounts, we threw a party,” laughed Sturgeon. “$1200 dollars a piece? Man, that’s like six months driving from town to town, playing for 23 people, and sleeping in a rest stop parking lot.” “We’re rich bitch!” yelled Upton in the background. 

So what is Natchez Trace doing during this downtime? “Video games, beer, Netflix, repeat.” said drummer Matthew Chandler. “We might do a live stream or something one of these days but we’re usually too hung over.” 

At press time, Natchez Trace was drunkly considering continuing to not tour after the pandemic is over.