The Jones Street Boys - Overcome

I got a song off this album from another blog (S:I?) a few months ago and couldn’t stop playing it. That song, “Last Time,” showed the Jones Street Boys as a promising string band willing to incorporate accent instruments such as piano, harmonica, and traps drums. When they sent me their disc last month, I was not disappointed. But their record shows a greater stylistic range than I was expecting. They keep their record centered on the New York-style string-band sound, but they foreground harmonica, piano, organ, and other keyboard instruments on a few tracks. This album comfortably inhabits the uneasy middle ground between string-band revivalism, insurgent country, adult alternative acoustic, and hipster folk. The other stand-out track on the disc is a cover of the Band’s “Twilight.”

Listen:
The Jones Street Boys - Last Time
The Jones Street Boys - Twilight

Buy:
From Insound
From Amazon

Yarn - Yarn

A couple months ago while vacationing in New York City, I just happened to get an email promoting New York alt-country band Yarn's debut album the morning of their CD release show as the Lakeside Lounge, which I had been thinking about attending. I ended up not being able to make the show, even though it was a scant block and a half from where I was staying, but I was fortunate enough to have a CD waiting in my mailbox when I made it back to Kansas.

Led by local roots-rocker Blake Christiana, of Blake and the Family Dog, Yarn takes a primarily acoustic approach to the Brooklyn Americana sound, focused on songwriting and underlaid with sharp guitar and mandolin work and occasional steel, Dobro, and fiddle/violin.

Listen:
Yarn - Madeline

Buy:
From CD Baby

The Highway Sound - What Henry Ford Forgot

The Highway Sound is a project of Brooklyn-based singer/songwriter Jay Zasa. The focus of the album is Zasa's songwriting, which is foregrounded by his distinctive, slightly off pitch but endearing voice that is reminiscent of Michael Stipe of REM. Jay is backed up by an ensemble playing what he calls "big Brooklyn Americana." While they never reach the ethereality of Brooklyn neighbors Hem, preferring a lower-fi aesthetic, the family resemblance is apparent. Listen for the fiddle of Mat Kane (of the Doc Marshalls) and the piano of Andy Bienen (co-screenwriter of Boys Don't Cry).


Listen:
The Highway Sound - Railroad Bill's Return

Buy:
From CD Baby

Hem - Funnel Cloud

Hem is one of the few bands that is productively mining the intersection of country, folk, adult alternative, and indie-rock. They call their music "countrypolitan," and they do draw heavily on Nashville Sound-era country-pop, but I find that they reference a much wider range of pop musics.

I think that Hem might just be the epitome of the new "Americana" classification. They are a group that is too pop to fit comfortably as alt-country, yet too country to really make it onto pop radio. They also have much more lush and orchestrated arrangements than one normally finds in modern folk, although the singing style would certainly fit there.

I'm linking to some streams from their label Nettwerk. The first, "Not California," shows their diverse influence: it opens with Dylan-esque harmonica and ethereal steel guitar coupled with strong female vocals that build in intensity to something from when alternative was on the verge of becoming adult alternative in the mid-1990s.

Listen:
Hem - Not California
Hem - He Came to Meet Me

Buy:
From Amazon