Jason Hawk Harris hit rock bottom during the writing and recording of his debut full-length Love & the Dark. In the last few years, the Houston-born-and-raised, Los Angeles-based musician endured life-altering hardships—illness, death, familial strife, and addiction—yet
"This North Carolina honky-tonk punk strikes a defiant onstage posture with a voice that goes right for the throat, a feral switchblade snarl that sometimes eases and glides but never softens...coming across as Chrissie Hynde with a drawl." —Rolling Stone
" The blues singer-songwriter has been making music for over a decade now—typically banjo-driven songs that focus on the grandiose aspects of life (politics, redemption, death, What It All Means). But are presented with casual accessibility, sung by a titanic, gravelly voice that sounds like it’s from the year 1843." —Noisey
Laura Jane Grace & the Devouring Mothers are a band led by musician, author, and activist Laura Jane Grace, best known as the founder, lead singer, songwriter, and guitarist of the punk rock band Against Me!
Emboldened by a sold-out tour and a surge of interest in the States after the release of the documentary Revenge of the Mekons, the band retreated to the fringes of Joshua Tree National Pa
"Over the course of a nearly 15-year career, the band Murder by Death has taken a leading role in a growing effort to unite indie rock with country and folk." —Entertainment Weekly
"There are many good living songwriters. But then you hear a new Robbie Fulks record, and you can’t remember who they are." - Chicago Reader
"His barbarous exorcism of Depression-era blues--with a bedrock of frantic flatpicking, foot stomps into a floor mike, and gutteral growls through a distortion mike--has made Biram a rising star in Austin." —No Depression
"Vandoliers play with the smooth-harshness of an unfiltered cigarette, clearing the musical sinuses with the efficiency of room-temperature whiskey: they’re genre-bending, Tex-Mex punk that sounds like someone dropped NOFX in the middle of Corpus-Christi." —No Depression
"Imagine for a moment that the survivors of the Lynyrd Skynyrd plane crash in 1977 had decided to keep going and had replaced Ronnie Van Zant and Steve Gaines with The Clash’s Joe Strummer and Mick Jones." —Paste Magazine
“Left-leaning roots music that owes more to the rhythmic whiplash of Memphis' Sun Records than the poppy, polished twang of Nashville's Music Row.” - Rolling Stone
"Joel Paterson defines who the ideal session guy should be: selfless, musical, and born with impeccably good taste. His sympathetic hollowbody makes the jazz, country, rockabilly or swing he’s backing come alive." —TimeOut Chicago
"Langford’s voice remains gruff and gregarious, a tattered flag still happily flapping over a landscape littered with the bones of his contemporaries who didn’t make it." —Pitchfork
"A dose of hard-edged country rock, but [with] an airy, dreamy vibe that should appeal to fans of Mazzy Star or Cowboy Junkies.” —BrooklynVegan
"Ha Ha Tonka busts out of the gates like classic Replacements on an Ozark bender" - NPR
"Theirs is an expansive vision of rock’n’roll, one that cherrypicks from various folk traditions: punk, rockabilly, blues, whatever they might have on hand or find in the trash." —Pitchfork
"Songs taking shape from raw hill-country blues, scrappy bluegrass and Muscle Shoals R&B are delivered with raucous bar-band intensity; frenetic guitar outbursts knock into jangly banjo rolls and stomping traditional rhythms." —Washington Post
"At the risk of overpraise, Barrence Whitfield is a treasure, with unbelievable pipes, an unimpeachable discography (with great taste in cover tunes) and undeniable appeal." - PopMatters
"Luke, with a strong knack for slide guitar, sounds authentic without coming off too dated, and he does it well." —BrooklynVegan
"There's nothing quite like them — five musicians (Scott Ligon, Kelly Hogan, Nora O'Connor, Casey McDonough and Alex Hall) with gaudy pedigrees (NRBQ, Decemberists, Neko Case, Mavis Staples, Robbie Fulks) who sing five-part harmonies like siblings (or at least cousins)." —Chicago Tribune
"Possessed by the demon of rock'n'roll, haunted by the ghosts of old country music... to make matters better, the group's originals are so consistently inspired they come across as instant classics." - Billboard
"Bobby Bare Jr., the offspring and namesake of one of the greatest country crooners of all time, has forged an intriguing and consistently unpredictable career of his own." - Mother Jones
"Like the lovechild of Fiona Apple and Miranda Lambert, she writes brutal songs about love's wickedness - how it shreds the heart to pieces then sutures it back together in one act." —Vulture
"An artist who remains one of America’s generally unheralded dusky treasures." - American Songwriter
"Freakwater’s music is a first cousin to the visceral churn of that protean Louisvillian, Will Oldham. And it is as dark as the deepest mine Merle Travis ever sang about." —Oxford American
"JTE has made steady strides in establishing a distinctive voice. His snaky baritone has long been a magnetic draw, and his songwriting chops are now first rate." - The New Yorker
"One of the most shiver-inducing singers on the planet, who gets his nickname by virtue of the unstoppable power of his vocal chords, Hancock embodies the spirits of Hank Williams, Ernest Tubb and Bob Wills in his ferociously swinging honky-tonk—outlaw country to the max." - San Francisco Chronicle
"The finest country-punk-folk-bluegrass banjo player in the country." - Huffington Post
"One of the last living links to the heyday of dirty R&B, super-soul and first generation booty funk. And certainly one of the few left who still brings it like he means it, every time. He's as real as it gets." - Blurt
"Sure, it's red-blooded and raw, but it's also as beautiful as it is brassy. In other words, bad girls make good." —Playboy
"Brings "the rock" in force, and a twang with tongue-placed-firmly in-cheek, all the while writing catchy-as-hell tunes." - No Depression
"Flores can belt with the best of ‘em and wields her token blue guitar with deadly precision… she's is an all-around force." - Oxford American
Outlaw's always been the rough-around-the-edges, tuff guy uncle at the country music family picnic. Denim and leather, not Stetson and Nudie. Hair by Pennzoil, not Pomade.
"Cervenka may be strumming sweet, unassuming melodies on an acoustic guitar, but even in a polar-opposite genre, her flinty, honest voice shoots into your head with cold truth, bitterness, and a touch of playful sarcasm." - BUST
"There is a broad optimism to Firewater's hybrids where Klezmer, Balkan brass and cabaret bump up against ska, Indian music and jazz noir. It is a new world order where the rock 'n' roll revolution has a multicultural rank and file." - Wall Street Journal
"One of the sharpest songsmiths of the U.K. rock scene in the late Seventies, Graham Parker always owed more to Dylan and Van Morrison than to his punk counterparts." - Rolling Stone
"Although Devil in a Woodpile are probably entertaining no matter where they play, it sounds like they'd be most ideal on someone's big farmhouse front porch at dusk, after a binge of BBQ and booze." —Exclaim
"The Johnny Cash of Australian country would have to be Roger Knox." - AllMusic
"Spine-tingling, spectral folk-pop." - NPR
Out now: 'Too Late to Pray: Defiant Chicago Roots,' Bloodshot's 25th anniversary album, featuring 22 artists from the label's home city of Chicago!
