No Depression includes new Old Heavy Hands album Small Fires with their new releases this week:
No Depression
No Depression reviews The Handsome Family’s new album, Hollow (out 9/8), noting, “As the planet protests its mistreatment with increasing intensity, Hollow is a witty yet sobering reminder that humanity is only part of the bigger picture.”
From Sonny and Cher to George and Tammy to Ike and Tina, husband-and-wife teams have made all sorts of remarkable music over the years. Add to this distinguished list Albuquerque’s Handsome Family, the handiwork of spouses Brett and Rennie Sparks, who’ve practiced their wonderfully bent take on Americana for three decades. The marvelous Hollow, the couple’s 11th studio album and first in seven years, reaffirms their mastery of what Brett describes as “Western gothic,” drawing on traditional forms and highlighting the intractable strangeness of the natural world — at least when it’s viewed from a “civilized” perspective. Depending on your mood, the songs can be darkly funny or profoundly unsettling, or, more likely, both at once.
See what No Depression has to say about the forthcoming effort from Matthew Check, The November Album (out 11/5)…
Matthew Check, the self-described “jewgrass” artist, has turned in an excellent run of albums in the past few years, both solo and as a part of Joanie and Matt. The album is an “old becomes new” experience for Check. Recorded in 2013 in the midst of a bad breakup and a worse addiction problem, Check shelved the songs until 2021 when, sober and happier, he revisited them while on pandemic pause and decided they deserved to be released.
No Depression Reviews Karen & the Sorrows’ New Album
My singular discovery at this year’s AmericanaFest was queer country trailblazers Karen & the Sorrows. When I got back home their new album waiting atop a big stack of mail. I took this as a sign. I was entranced by their set at the Crying Wolf, and while this may be their third album, I am making up for lost time and reliving that experience with this album full of catchy, danceable tunes with fabulous hooks.
No Depression features Karen & The Sorrows’ New Album “Guaranteed Broken Heart”
Karen Pittelman returns to her roots on Guaranteed Broken Heart: gothic summonings and Jewish country music. Pittelman, the frontwoman for Karen & the Sorrows, has been a leading light in the queer country movement. Her long-standing concert series, the Gay Ole Opry has created a network of queer country and roots artists across the world. Capitalizing on their presence at this year’s AmericanaFest, Pittelman used the opportunity to launch the Country Music Against White Supremacy initiative.
No Depression Features Quiet Hounds in Crowdfunding Radar
Atlanta’s Quiet Hounds have been around since 2011, but have somehow evaded my notice until I saw the dog-masked photo that adorns the Kickstarter campaign for their sixth album Everything Else Is Noise and clicked through out of curiosity. I’m glad I did. A quick YouTube dive into their catalog revealed a band that is hard to classify, but a lot of fun to listen to. From one song to the next, you might get harmonica-driven folk rock, spacey dream pop, or a fuzzed-out indie blaster. The band is selling Everything Else Is Noise as a more kinetic counterpoint to their melancholy 2017 release Characteristics of Living Things…