From Ben's new album Downbeat.
Jan 6, 2025
Ben Chapman & Meg McRee Perform "Tonight I'll Be Staying Here With You"
Jan 3, 2025
Best Songs of '24 Spotlight / Ben Chapman / "America's Sweetheart"
Nov 25, 2023
Mar 1, 2023
New Video / Ben Chapman / "Night Train to Nashville"
From Amber Sound, Vol. I.
Jan 18, 2023
Ben Chapman Performs New Song "Georgia Dreamin'"
Dec 15, 2022
Farce the Music's Top 25 Albums of 2022
Achingly real, passionately delivered, What Else Can She Do is short in length, but long on heart. From the broken relationship of “It Won’t Always Be This Way” to the familial sorrows of “Blood,” Kaitlin’s voice is a warm hand holding ours as we walk through a bleak landscape of addiction, bad jobs, and lost dreams. Despite that dour description, it’s somehow an uplifting journey.
The future is now as 49 Winchester delivers on all the buzz with this boozy, honky tonk banger. There are party tunes that don’t make you feel pandered to and tearjerkers that aren’t paint by number. I started to list the standouts, but realized that most of Fortune Favors the Bold's 10 songs fit the bill.
Mixing Red Dirt, pop punk, and other influences, Vandoliers have quickly become one of my favorite bands. Their ear-pleasing, danceable music sounds like nothing and everything you’ve heard before. A well oiled live act, they bring that vibrant sound to their records better than most, and this album’s no exception. More than most bands in the “scene,” Vandoliers sound like they ought to have big hits… somewhere, somehow.
Sprawling, weird, messy, endearing. From the title to the run time to the occasional vocal idiosyncrasies, Dragon can be a beast to get into for the musically unadventurous, but it’s well worth your time. Equal parts folk, country, and indie rock, the album is an epic listen that somehow leaves you wanting more. The melodies are the heart, and the lyrics are the soul - sometimes abstract, sometimes hilariously to the point.
This is an album you could put on at a party and not a soul would complain, despite nobody having any idea who’s singing. There’s the fun Brad Paisley-esque humor of “10 Feet of Regret,” the soulful barroom sadness of “Strangers,” the welcoming mid-tempo swagger of “Kentucky Deluxe,” and everything in between you could ask for. It’s a songwriter’s record, in the Nashville sense of that description, but it’s as big in message as it is in wordplay.
Sounding as mystical and eternal as the Appalachian mountains, Ian has another winner with River Fools. It’s timeless stuff, digging into your soul with Noe’s Dylan-with-vocal-lessons delivery and setting the hook with the lived-in stories. There’s an undeniable magnetism in this music that’s both hospitable and intimidating at once. Ian’s a force of nature.
Another songwriter’s record, Single Wide Dreamer isn’t afraid to get silly and grimy, like the seedier side of Kacey Musgraves’ trailer park. Drawing from influences like Prine and Roger Miller, and backed by some of Nashville’s finest, Raitiere sings with a conversational tone, a knowing wink, and a hinted at darkness. Hilarious and comfortably cynical, Single Wide Dreamer is a nimble look into the mind of one of Nashville’s best ‘unknown’ writers.
Those harmonies. That’s all you need really, but then there’s the expert musicianship and resonant songs to go along with those spine chilling vocals, and The Wilder Blue have a true gem of an album. The bouncy 70s vibe laden “Feelin’ the Miles” is the standout for me, but there’s not a clunker in the bunch. These guys deserve a shot in the upper pantheon of Americana, and one of these days they’ll get it.
Bursting with country soul, Feel Like Going Home will take you from church to the blues dive with a stop at the country store along the way. Feel Like Going Home sounds like the best parts of 70s AM radio (when they played all genres on the same stations) put together on one record. Miko sings wonderfully, the band kicks ass, and the songs are thrillingly moving. Memphis, the Delta, Nashville, New Orleans, Muscle Shoals - Feel Like Going Home finds its heart at the midpoint of these legendary music towns.
To these ears, the prettiest album released this year, Oh to Be That Free sounds blissful and even wistful, but there’s plenty of depth to be had here. “Chasing Days” documents Anne’s move toward settled independence after a chaotic childhood. “Mountains and Mesas” seeks solace in a darkening world. Michaela’s writing reveals complex emotion with simple words, often bringing to mind Robert Frost’s conversational tone that hides meaning in plain sight. It’s a beautiful album with so much more to offer in repeated listens.
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Honorable Mentions: Zach Bryan - American Heartbreak, The Sheepdogs - Outta Sight, Jason Scott & The High Heat - Castle Rock, Pusha T - It’s Almost Dry, Hailey Whitters - Raised, Drew Kennedy - Marathon, American Aquarium - Chicamacomico, Whiskey Myers - Tornillo, The Cactus Blossoms - One Day, Sunny Sweeney - Married Alone, Randy Rogers Band - Homecoming, Emily Nenni - On the Ranch, Charley Crockett - The Man From Waco, Kendell Marvel - Come on Sunshine, Red Clay Strays - Moment of Truth, Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway - Crooked Tree, John Calvin Abney - Tourist.
Sep 29, 2022
25 Favorite Albums of 2022: 3/4 Report
2. Big Thief - Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You
3. Aaron Raitiere - Single Wide Dreamer
4. 49 Winchester - Fortune Favors the Bold
5. Ben Chapman - Make the Night Better
6. Ian Noe - River Fools & Mountain Saints
7. The Vandoliers - s/t
8. The Wilder Blue - s/t
9. Kelsey Waldon - No Regular Dog
10. Joshua Hedley - Neon Blue
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11. Wade Bowen - Somewhere Between the Secret and the Truth
12. Amanda Shires - Take it Like a Man
13. Jason Scott and the High Heat - Castle Rock
14. Tami Neilson - Kingmaker
15. Arlo McKinley - This Mess We’re In
16. Band of Horses - Things Are Great
17. Michaela Anne - Oh to Be That Free
18. Pusha T - It’s Almost Dry
19. Hailey Whitters - Raised
20. Drew Kennedy - Marathon
21. American Aquarium - Chicamacomico
22. The Sheepdogs - Outta Sight
23. Whiskey Myers - Tornillo
24. Yelawolf / Shooter Jennings - Sometimes Y
25. Sarah Shook and the Disarmers - Nightroamer
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Lurking beyond: Zach Bryan - American Heartbreak, Bri Bagwell - Corazon y Cabeza, Tony Logue - Jericho, The Whitmore Sisters - Ghost Stories, Jamestown Revival - Young Man, Vince Staples - Ramona Park Broke My Heart, Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway - Crooked Tree, Brent Cobb - And Now Turn To
Jun 22, 2022
20 Favorite Songs of 2022 So Far
Favorite Songs of 2022: Mid-year Report
1. Kaitlin Butts - Blood
2. Jamestown Revival - Young Man
3. Drew Kennedy - Peace and Quiet
4. Big Thief - Certainty
5. Ray Wylie Hubbard ft. Lzzy Hale, John 5 - Naturally Wild
6. Aaron Raitiere - Everybody Else
7. Jason Scott & The High Heat - Suffering Eyes
8. Bonnie Raitt - Just Like That
9. Ian Noe - Road May Flood / It’s a Heartache
10. Pusha T - Rock N Roll
Next 10 (in no particular order)
Hailey Whitters - College Town
Band of Horses - In the Hard Times
Madeline Edwards - Port City
Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway ft. Billy Strings - Dooley’s Farm
49 Winchester - Russell County Line
The Wilder Blue - Feelin’ The Miles
Ben Chapman & Channing Wilson - Things People Say
Arlo McKinley - Stealing Dark from the Night Sky
American Aquarium - Just Close Enough
Tami Nelson ft. Willie Nelson - Beyond the Stars