New West
Miller has been making great albums for 10 years and traditionally has gone the hardcore-country route. Here he takes a stripped-down, almost ambient approach and creates a delightfully dark fusion of blues, gospel and folk.
Dualtone
A couple of things work in this disc’s favor.
First, it’s been four years since the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s last full-length studio album, “Bang Bang Bang,” and that had but one in-house track; so it’s been 10 years since an album of mostly original material (1994’s “Acoustic”).
Stag
Dayton started out as a rockabilly artist, switched/expanded to alt country and then more or less started his own genre: “turbo country,” as the Austin American Statesman labeled it. Now, with his latest, he’s exploring the grey area between blue-eyed soul and country.
Surfdog
That’s Dan Hicks and the Hot Licks, not to be confused with Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks. They are two different groups — the latter having finished its four-album career in 1973, and the former releasing its debut in 2000.
Eleven Thirty
Enough can’t be said about this Austin, Texas-based group. If every band wrote, played and sang as well as the Gourds, music fans would be in heaven.
