Since the four albums Matthew Logan Vasquez released as the frontman for Delta Spirit, he has recorded and released three solo albums, including this week’s Light’n Up, fresh off the heels of his supergroup project, Glorietta. The new album sends Vasquez’s rootsy style a little further back to accentuate his harder rocking side, but it’s never completely absent either. Many of the songs touch on a theme of money, or lack thereof, including singles “Trailer Park” and “Poor Kids.”
Led by Rhiannon Giddens, the collaborative group made up of women of color, Our Native Daughters, has updated the mythos and the sound of traditional folk songs, protest music, and bluegrass for its own modern times and style with their album, Songs of Our Native DaughtersS. In addition to Giddens, the former Carolina Chocolate Drops frontwoman who has become a force in the genre with the release of her last two solo albums, the group also includes Amythyst Kiah, a Tennessee-born blues singer-songwriter; Leyla McCalla, the former Carolina Chocolate Drops cellist and a solo artist with three albums, including last month’s The Capitalist Blues; and Allison Russell, a multi-instrumentalist for bands like Po’ Girls and Birds of Chicago.
Emily Scott Robinson made her official debut release with 2016’s Magnolia Queen. Now she’s returned with a full-length album of her tender, world-weary Americana on this week’s Traveling Mercies. The storytelling of the album’s 12 songs ranges from intimate to jaunty to affecting.
Other albums we’re listening to this week:
Australian singer-songwriter Julia Jacklin is a little bit haunting and a little bit rocking on her second LP, Crushing.
Texas’ alt-country band Vandoliers formed just four years ago, but have already released their third album with this week’s Forever.
The debut album, Walk Through Fire, from British singer Yola is a successful throwback to classic soul and R&B.
The third album full of stoner-Americana, Ever Since I Lost My Mind, from South Carolina band Susto is as good a time as the first two were.