Highly Recommend! (best of the week)
Steel Saddle - Steel Saddle (Steel Saddle)
Led by the deep grit vocals of Austin Boylan (of Montreal garage/neo-psych band, Pottery) Steel Saddle’s debut eponymous album is a rollicking homage to the country-rock Muscle Shoals sound. Part Flying Burrito Brothers and part Bob Seger, with some Creedence Clearwater Revival and Rolling Stones’ Sticky Fingers sprinkled on top, Steel Saddle avoids the “derivative” tag with airtight, inventive instrumental talent and lively performance.
You can hear the influences in every note, but this is not just a band copy-pasting their dads 8-Tracks. You can tell Steel Saddle really cares about their sound, and about paying homage to their forefathers while delivering an authentic experience.
Boylan’s vocals, and Cassidy Johnson’s backing harmonies, are easily a highlight of each track, as is the outstanding pedal steel guitar of Ben Vallee. The bass, drums, and keys are all doing their best Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section (though the recordings aren’t quite as warm—a product of the Digital Age) and Mark LeClerc’s horn charts sound like they were plucked right from Allen Toussaint’s brain.
The ballads are beautiful and effecting, and the upbeat tracks sound like the door of a beer-soaked pool hall swinging open. Americana hasn’t been done by Canadians this effectively since Robbie and Levon and the boys!
Highlights: Can’t Be Satisfied, Donny the Satanist, Travelin’ Light
ACTS OF FAITH - SAULT (Forever Living Originals)
Whether you choose to call them mysterious or enigmatic, it is impossible to know too much about British R&B/neo-soul collective SAULT. It’s difficult to even pin down who is in the band, or “collective” as they are often referred, but the mainstays go by monikers reminiscent of earlier neo-soul and alternative hip-hop groups (like Digable Planets’ Butterfly, Ladybug Mecca, and Doodlebug).
Their social media presence consists of plain text on solid-colored backgrounds. Between their debut in 2019 through November of 2023, they gave no interviews and played no live shows. On December 14th, 2023 SAULT played a rare live show at Drumsheds in London’s Upper Edmonton nieghborhood. It was an immersive experience where guests entered into a dingy apartment and walked through the refrigerator that led to a tunnel into the venue. The collective performed for about 2 hours, part of which was the yet-unreleased ACTS OF FAITH.
ACTS OF FAITH, which at this time can only be heard by downloading a .wav file from a WeTransfer link (if it’s gone by the time you read this, reach out and I’ll send it to you), is an unbroken 32 minute track with 9 movements that brings together R&B, jazz, neo-soul, and orchestral music. The shared lead vocals from Cleo Sol, Kid Sister, and Chronixx blend beautifully into the instrumental tapestry woven by producer Inflo and the orchestral backing that is not credited at this time. Each movement blends seamlessly into the next, the rhythms are as eclectic as the styles, and the clarity of the recording is astounding.
Highlights: Nice try, you have to experience this as one total piece :)
Worth a Listen! (good to very good)
Until There’s No Hope - Big Cloud (Big Cloud)
Their Sp*tify description is “Little Rock Gazey Dream Rockin’ Sad Boys”, and that’s just what this debut EP is. Until There’s No Hope is a strong post-rock/shoegaze/dreamy-droney number with big guitar sounds and big vocals, à la Slowdive’s Souvlaki and some of Billy Corgan’s Wall of Sound-type tracks (Mayonaise, Here is No Why). Big drums reminiscent of the Explosions in the Sky/This Will Destroy You collective!
As is the custom with the genre, many of these tracks feel like they have several different movements. Many of them hit a real stride part-way through, leaving the listener wanting more by track’s end. I hope this is just a starting point for Big Cloud!
Highlights: My Mind Wanders, Grass
Stinker of the Week (the hopefully-rare, but unfortunately-necessary pan review)
The Great American Bar Scene - Zach Bryan (Belting Bronco/Warner)
A concept album can be a thrill for both the artist and their audience. When the concept outshines the songs, it can be a special kind of letdown.
The roll-out for Zach Bryan’s The Great American Bar Scene set the tone in a totally appropriate way for an album with a July 4th release date. In a June 20th Instagram post, Bryan announced that “select cuts” from the album would be played in “23 bars across the country that embody the spirit of American culture”. The next slide included a list. From Iron Horse Saloon in Oologah, Oklahoma to Saratoga Lanes (a bowling alley that still allows cigarettes inside) in St. Louis, Missouri, the selected bars represented a sort of divey blue collar cash-only vibe.
Direct references to real life bars, and the inclusion of background din noise like pool balls clacking are pretty much as far as the Great American Bar vibe goes—and the background din gets quickly abandoned after a few tracks. If the goal was to create an album that tells a story, or stories at all, about “Real Americans” and the watering holes at which they gather, this album is not quite that. If the goal was a collection of a few too many tracks with a loose thematic rubber band around them, that’s closer.
Here's what goes well in The Great American Bar Scene: There are some truly inspired moments of instrumentation (no doubt a credit to live musicians playing together in a room—a process that Bryan has said to be proud of and particular about). There’s great pedal steel guitar on Like Ida. There’s an outstanding choral arrangement on Towers. There’s a remarkably upbeat outro jam at the end of Oak Island. There’s a heavenly gang vocal on the chorus of Bass Boat. The features (Noeline Hofmann, John Moreland, John Mayer, Bruce Springsteen!) are put to great use. Bryan himself has some special and strong vocal moments, rare as they are, that are spectacular when they hit.
Beyond that The Great American Bar Scene leaves the listener searching for either more or different. For an album whose inspiration point was smoky poolhalls with shitty rail whiskey and foam leaking from upholstered leather stools, the album falls short from a sonic standpoint. The lion’s share of the 19 tracks just meander around in this mid-tempo acoustic swing beat and drum shuffle with the occasional Stomp-Clap-Hey chorus. Sure, Merle Haggard wrote his fair share of ballads from behind those swinging doors, but it takes 5 tracks into this album to get to an interesting melody of any kind. Judging by the videos from Bryan’s live shows (and the testimony of his own collaborator, John Mayer) it would be reasonable to expect more than 1 or 2 upbeat rocking sing-alongs. But it’s mostly down-beat twiddling to sip gin alone to.
Lyrically, the album also falls short. From a thematic standpoint, there are enough passing references to hometown bars to check the right boxes, but there isn’t much depth beyond that. Between tunes about aging, turning your back on your old ways, meeting a girl, and saving your brother from getting in a fight, all the country music themes are here, but there’s nothing new. Bryan writes from a real and authentic place, and his influences are evident (my man is living in Bruce Springsteen’s walls), but it’s nothing Tim McGraw didn’t cover 20 years ago. Maybe the recycled vintage small town themes are an homage!
The Great American Bar Scene just never gets enough momentum to be exciting. Between the middling instrumentals and the complete lack of finesse in the lyrics, it’s a real missed opportunity. It’s overstuffed with mid-tempo ramblers and doesn’t shine enough of a light on its best moments. I try to imagine sitting at Rose’s Lounge in Chicago or The Chartreuse Saloon in Kansas City and playing more than 2 or 3 of these tracks on the TouchTunes. I just don’t think it would be enough to get anyone’s blood pumping.
Bryan has given a real shot in the arm to mainstream country over the last few years. He has massive crossover appeal, is effective at continuing to grow a loyal fanbase, and is not shy about speaking his mind and standing up for what he believes. Whether he executes fully or not, he is owed some recognition for taking creative risks and being ambitious with his vision.
But for a country/rock album that billed itself as the soundtrack to the American dive bar, I would have expected more .38 Special and less Lumineers.
Highlights: American Nights, the outro jam in Oak Island
Hot Singles in Your Area!
Here are some great singles that dropped in the last week.
Lithonia - Childish Gambino (lead single from Gambino’s forthcoming 6th studio album, Bando Stone & the New World, for which he is also releasing a film. This will allegedly be Donald Glover’s final album as Childish Gambino. This single is a guitar-heavy almost pop-punk song? I’m a little tired lately of Glover pretending he didn’t used to be a completely corny nerd, but alas. More optimistic about this project than his others recently.)
Ever Seen - beabadoobee (third single from the forthcoming This is How Tomorrow Moves, produced by Rick Rubin)
Tough - Lana Del Rey and Quavo (LDR has promised her forthcoming album, Lasso, will be a country album. This is not really that, but it’s a cool single!)
JOYRIDE - Kesha (I’m not sure Kesha’s sound has aged all too well, but I am extremely glad she doesn’t have to work with the disgusting Dr. Luke anymore!)
Le Risque - King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard (KGLW giving us the Canned Heat Allman Brothers swamp rock goods for their forthcoming album!)
Music Moment of the Week
This announcement from the Canadian Broadcast Corporation (CBC) about an upcoming Lilith Fair documentary!
Anyone like me who was raised by a young single mother in the 90’s knows the importance of Lilith Fair: an all-women music festival started by Sarah McLachlan. The Fair was founded as a protest against “music industry standards” set by men that heavily discouraged women from being on festival bills together, or even from being played back-to-back on the radio.
Among others, Lilith Fair was host to Sheryl Crow, Jewel, Tracy Chapman, Fiona Apple, the Indigo Girls, Erykah Badu, Bonnie Raitt, and Liz Phair. The fest “launched the careers of Missy Elliott, The Chicks, Nelly Furtado, and Christina Aguilera, raised millions of dollars for women’s charities, and catapulted feminist and queer representation into mainstream pop culture.”
This documentary, directed by the visionary Ally Pankiw (I Used to Be Funny, Black Mirror, Schitt’s Creek), is set to premiere during CBC’s 2026-2026 season, and is being shopped internationally!
Steel Saddle rips. I’m relishing in this moment where the Americana revival isn’t at total over-saturation yet.
80s were truly bleak for women pop stars. I was having a convo with someone the other day and they said they think of Madonna and Lauper as the two quintessential pop queens of the 80s. My gut reaction was that it had to be wrong that the list goes 1. Madonna 2. Gaping chasm 3. Cyndi Lauper…but it’s not actually far off? I mean, this person was def overlooking Whitney and Janet, but after that it’s like, Kate Bush? Stevie Nicks? Do they even count as pop stars?
Crazy to think about, compared to the post-Britney proliferation of pop queens in the 90s and 2000s that continues today.