This year promises to be an exceptional one, for new music. Here’s ten, highly anticipated albums we can’t wait to hear.
Alice Merton is fairly new to the music scene, but she’s already enjoying epic success. After moving to Berlin from Canada in 2016, Merton released her first single, “No Roots”, written with producer Nicolas Rebscher on Paper Plane Records, the label she founded with her manager, Paul Grauwinkel. “No Roots” hit number one on U.S. Billboard’s Alternative Songs chart and hit the Top Ten in nine other countries, was streamed over 300 million times and the video has over 160 million views. In addition to seven Platinum Awards for her debut single in Germany, France, Italy, Poland, Switzerland, Austria and Turkey, Merton has also won the Echo Award, EBBA Award, as well as two awards for pop culture.
Merton’s new album, Mint, was released on January 19th on the NYC independent label, Mom + Pop Music, and includes her vagabond anthem, “No Roots”, plus ten other brand new tunes. Merton said in a recent tweet, “every song on the album is a story and every story is true.” Merton is touring Europe through March, and then brings her live shows to the U.S. in April. You can buy Mint here: https://alicemerton.merchtable.com/?no_redirect=true
Reed Foehl
wrote most of the songs on his upcoming ablum, Lucky Enough, while he was in Vermont, caring for his ailing mother. In a recent interview with Westword Magazine, Foehl says, “The title of my new album, Lucky Enough, draws from the idea that nobody gets out of here without heartbreak, pain or sorrow, and if you’re lucky enough, you might get true love or success or whatever it is you want.”
This is Foehl’s fifth solo release and was recorded with the help of The Band Of Heathens, a band he’s toured with in the past. The album was produced by Heathen members, Ed Jurdi and Gordy Quist at their Finishing School studio in Austin, Texas. Foehl told Westword, that it was great collaborating with the The Band Of Heathens and he looks forward to doing some shows with them to promote the new record this year. The first single, “Stealing Starlight”, is out now. You can pre-order Lucky Enough here: https://reedfoehl.bandcamp.com/album/lucky-enough
TAYLOR SCOTT BAND, ALL WE HAVE
The highly anticipated new album, All We Have, by Denver-based, Taylor Scott Band, is set for release on March 1, 2019 and we can’t wait! Produced by grammy award winner, Steve Berlin of Los Lobos and featuring a guest appearance by Henry Garza of Los Lonely Boys, the record includes eleven originals written by Scott, as well as a cover of Sleater-Kinney’s, “Good Things”.
Joining Scott on guitar and vocals, are band members Jon Wirtz on keyboards, harmony and vocals, Chris Harris on bass, and Lem Williams on drums. This year the band has tour dates set throughout the midwest, with a stint of live shows in Canada this June. If you pre-order before February 28, 2019, you receive free shipping on CDs and vinyl! Pre-order All We Have here: https://www.taylorscottmusic.com/merch/
HEAD FOR THE HILLS, SAY YOUR MIND
Head For The Hills
, from Fort Collins, Colorado, have been bringing their music to audiences from the Telluride Bluegrass Festval to South By Southwest and a multitude of stages in between. They’ve been featured on NPR Ideastream and eTown, co-released beers with Odell Brewing Company and Sanitas Brewing and they were awarded Best Bluegrass in Colorado four times via Westword Magazine.
The new album, Say Your Mind, is set for release later this year, but the tour starts now, with stops in Oregon, Washington, Utah and Idaho. Watch the teaser for this new EP release here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndutAjAle1o&feature=youtu.be
THE SHOOK TWINS, SOME GOOD LIVES
The Shook Twins, originally from Sandpoint, Idaho and currently based in Portland, Oregon have been making music since 2004. Identical twin sisters Katelyn Shook (guitar, mandolin, banjo, ukulele, glockenspieland telephone microphone) and Laurie Shook (banjo, guitar, upright bass, djembe, ocarina flute, tambourine and giant golden egg) are currently working on their newest album, Some Good Lives set for release February 15, 2019.
The Shook Twins’ Some Good Lives Album Release Tour kicks off this month with stops in Washington, Colorado and California. Listen to the brand new single “Figure It Out” and preorder the full album here: http://smarturl.it/STFigureItOut
VIDEO for figure it out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sf2wz6ql284
In a career that spans fifteen years, ten albums and the release of more than one hundred original songs, Griffin House, who currently makes his home in Nashville, Tennessee, with his wife and two daughters, shows no signs of stopping.
House continues his extensive tour, across the United States in 2019, and is currently working on his new album Natural Man, set for release later this year. House recently released the title track off his new album, “Natural Man” – telling the world how sexy monogamy can be and serving it up in a heaping portion of bad-ass rock and roll. You can check out the new single here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IbOw7P8DaE.
THE CONSTELLATIONS, KING OF THE GUTTER
The Atlanta-based band, The Constellations, consisting of Elijah Jones on vocals, Wes Hoffman on bass and Dan Dixon on guitar, vocals and keys, have just released their first album in nearly six years, King Of The Gutter. The first single, “Dreams of Oneonta” off the new album, was released last fall. The album was originally recorded in 2014, but was never completed, due to Jones’ issues with addiction. Jones is quoted as saying, “I was basically writing about my downfall, the prelude to a complete mental breakdown. I was basically documenting it. I didn’t realize it at the time, but that’s what I was writing about.”
The Constellations have had their songs featured on several television shows, like USA’s Royal Pains and Suits, The CW’s The Vampire Diaries, Fox’s House and NBC’s Chuck and their song. “Perfect Day” was featured in the film, Horrible Bosses, starring Jennifer Aniston.
The band has been rehearsing tirelessly and planning their upcoming tour. You can buy the new album, King Of The Gutter here: https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/king-of-the-gutter/1437660633
BOO RAY – TENNESSEE ALABAMA FIREWORKS
Tennesse Alabama Fireworks, the new album by Nashville-based, Boo Ray, drops 2-15-19. We’ve been enjoying the first single release, “A Tune You Can Whistle”, released last fall and we are looking forward to hearing the album, in its entirity.
Ray tells the story behind the title of the album, to Overdrive Magazine, “During the time that I wrote a good portion of the forthcoming record, including “A Tune You Can Whistle,” I was making trips down to Athens at a more-than-weekly frequency. I’d go down there for a night, haul back and go down there for another night, running myself ragged on I-24, passing the big Tennessee Alabama Fireworks sign near the state line as many as 80 times in a single year.” That record was “born on the road,” Ray says.
You can catch Ray perform live around the Nashville area and you can pre-order Tennessee Alabama Fireworks here: https://shop.booraymusic.com
PETER MULVEY – THERE IS ANOTHER WORLD
Veteran singer and songwriter, Peter Mulvey, just released the new single, “Fool’s Errand”, off his upcoming album There Is Another World, scheduled for release on February 15, 2019. The new album is Mulvey’s 18th studio album and second to be released on Ani DiFranco’s, Righteous Babe Records.
During Mulvey’s more than three decades of extraordinary songwriting, he has made an indelible impact on the world. In 2015, “Take Down Your Flag”, his song about the victims of the shooting at the AME Emanuel Church in Charleston, South Carolina, reached 200,000 people, when many songwriters, including Ani DiFranco, Anais Mitchell, Keb’ Mo, Paula Cole and Jeff Daniels, re-wrote the middle verse and posted their own videos of the song. This movement led to an online benefit concert, and a deepening friendship between Mulvey and DiFranco. DiFranco produced Mulvey’s 17th album, Are You Listening, his first album released on Righteous Babe Records.
You can listen to the new single and support Mulvey’s new album, by visiting his Kickstarter page here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1989726136/there-is-another-world
ZACH PIETRINI, DENVER SESSIONS (B-SIDES)
Nominated two years in a row for Best Band In Milwaukee, by 88Nine Radio, Zach Pietrini is going strong, with his new album Denver Sessions (B-Sides), released on January 9th.
In a recent Facebook post, Pietrini says, “I’m very proud of this release, but it was a difficult one to finish. Sometimes when you sit with something as long as we sat with Denver Sessions, you have so much time to second guess yourself. I know I did. But it has been amazing and humbling to hear the reviews, to see who grabbed an early copy, and have the support we have gotten to release this.”
Catch Pietrini and his band on the road this year, promoting the new album. You can purchase it here: https://zachpietrini.com/album/925420/denver-sessions-b-sides
