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Gabe Lee may not be able to move mountains or live forever, but that doesn’t mean he feels helpless. On his album Drink The River, he argues for an empathetic values system and urges listeners to act locally.

“Grasp what you can control and take care of the things within your own community and life that are within reach,” Lee said. “If you have things that you’d like to change about the world, that’s great, but occasionally we have to respect nature, government, and things that are going to sweep us off our feet from time to time.”

“Merigold,” the stormiest song on the album, reminds us of those forces. Lee based it on a touring acquaintance’s death and the way her young husband reacted to it. There are desperate prayers and death wishes that make his pain palpable. Lee sees this as just one more reason we should treat each other with kindness.

“There are a lot of folks out there just like you who are dealing with life and the things that life brings along,” Lee explained. “I don’t know if there’s anything you can do but remember that you can never know what a person has been through and to give folks the opportunity for your empathy.”

Lee often explains his songwriting as if it’s more of a science than an art, though that’s not to say the results are anything but pure-hearted and gorgeous. “Even Jesus Got The Blues” tells the story of a woman who doesn’t exactly have her life together walking into a church. The song focuses on her joy and redemption in the back pews, but it’s aimed squarely at the regular church goers up front.

“It’s more a message for the folks who choose to lay judgement when they have no basis,” Lee said. “We watch the news, we read the paper, we think ‘my goodness isn’t that terrible, thank God it’s not me.’ I don’t think it’s worth congratulating yourself that you’re better off that somebody. I think there’s a certain switch that might need to turn for folks to consider the world as more of a community.” 

Lee has in the past performed as more of an alternative country act, though “Drink The River” is dominated by a grassy folk sound that seems to fit perfectly with his voice and these lyrics. It’s by far his best album to date and the new sound has a lot to do with it.

“We just wanted to keep it, I don’t want to say simple, but very roots based,” Lee said. “I think cutting the fat and getting to the point of what the lyrics meant; the process was making the stories the point of listening to this record.” 

The lyrics all build to a meaningful message.

“Not to try to solve any world problems with a simple record, whatever you’re going through you’re not alone, Lee said. “Whatever anger you may harbor in your own situation, remember that other folks survived this and that means that you can too.” 

Above is the full episode as aired on WUSB’s Country Pocket, including both my interview with Gabe Lee and the songs we discussed, starting with Drink The River, which recognizes limits to what we can do for the ones we love. The interview begins with the second video in the playlist. You can hear the show live every Monday at 11am on WUSB 90.1 FM or check the blog to watch it as a YouTube playlist. Visit http://www.WUSB.fm and https://www.gabeleetn.com for more.

Croy And The Boys’ latest album would be powerful if it were simply a bleak examination of the way the deck is stacked against working people, history is whitewashed, and gentrification is proceeding along. But “What Good’s The Medicine?” finds even more strength in its hope for humanity. It would be easy to examine the systems we’ve created and assume the worst about the people involved. Instead, Croy ends the album by questioning the concept of original sin. His almost naive faith in human kind is remarkable and heartwarming.

Folk music is, at its purest, a genre that empowers and empathizes with the working man and woman. Croy is armed with evidence and anecdotes. The title of the album is a reference to soaring prescription costs and our never-ending dependence on them. Croy, a construction worker during the day, doesn’t sound thrilled with his life on early tracks like “What I Had to Do” and “The Tunnel Has No End.” His failed try at college left him with debt and he works hard to support his family, though the obligations to others and society weigh on him. The reality is a bit more complicated. 

“I do think about things a lot and I try to process the world around me and sometimes it comes out negative,” Croy said. “I don’t think it’s all doom and gloom but I think people have to work really hard to make it if you’re working class.”

Though college didn’t work out, Croy doesn’t regret some of the critical thinking skills he learned there. And though having a kid forced him to give up on making music a full-time career, he is getting to spend the time with them he decided to pursue instead.

“I think that there are pathways, I think the unions can help deliver you some measure of stability,” Croy said before noting that the possibility of injury still makes life in the trades fragile.

One form of social criticism Croy wholeheartedly endorses is on display in “Video Spectrum In Bowling Green.” He details some of the incredible cultural discoveries he made in a small business and how his options dwindles as it was replaced by a Blockbuster and then a Redbox. Sure it ignores the advent of streaming, but this isn’t quite about a video store. It’s about gentrification in Austin

“I’ve been here for 15 years and there’s been lots of change and most people would interpret it as way too much growth,” Croy explained. “The loss of [the video store] was more that just a movie store closing. It was one of these touchstones of classic old Austin goes away. I think Austin was a place that for a long time was full of creative people where you could come as an artist and be inspired. With the rising cost of living here, a lot of this has gone away.”

Croy’s personal politics are very much left of center on the album, though he absolutely doesn’t identify as a Democrat. 

“I feel like I live a little outside of the American political spectrum, Croy said. “The Democrats aren’t providing anything other than things not getting worse. Joe Biden said as he was running that nothing will fundamentally change and we’ve seen that to be true.” 

Croy was particularly upset at the steps Biden took to avert a railroad strike by declaring it would be illegal for the union to do so.

“He stood on the side of capital against labor and working people see that.” 

But it’s the hope that makes all the sadness documented on the album tolerable. “Better Man” and “I Get By” show flashes of it. The idea of self improvement and coping in the face of injustice isn’t exactly liberating, but it’s necessary and well spoken. “Throw ‘Em Out,” by contrast, is a brief trip into a progressive society we can only dream about. Or, perhaps, one day achieve.

“I think it’s really helpful to spend time thinking about what a better world would look like instead of just looking at problems,” Croy explained of the song, maintaining that humans are capable of building something better. “I think that human beings are a communal species. We’re not the fastest, we’re not the strongest, we don’t have big claws or sharp teeth but we’ve been able to survive through community.”

Even if Croy returns us to reality in the form of “I Know About No Money” before concluding his album, his earnest case for a utopia resonates. 

“Through history, the things that we do together have defined our humanity, Croy said. “I think we live in a system now that pits us against each other in a lot of ways, but I think that’s unnatural.”

Above is the full episode as aired on WUSB’s Country Pocket, including both my interview with Croy and the songs we discussed, starting with “What I Had To Do,” which starts the album with a little bit of autobiography. The interview begins with the second video in the playlist. You can hear the show live every Monday at 11am on WUSB 90.1 FM or check the blog to watch it as a YouTube playlist. Visit http://www.WUSB.fm and http://croyandtheboys.com for more.

The Lucky Valentines are the rare band to have an official motto: Making sad things beautiful. By that definition, Losses is an extraordinarily successful effort from Shaun and Jamie Carrier. 

“Swallowed” accomplishes the task quietly and stunningly. It tells the story of Shaun’s father walking out on his family with details that engage the five senses and pull on the heartstrings. It’s a loss that shaped Shaun tremendously, from childhood pain to his desire to be a better father to his own children. The low guitar plucking and simple fiddle lines build from a place of absolute pain to a lasting message of hope. Few songs are quite as perfect as this one.

“Swallowed is about my first memory as a boy, which is the night my dad left,” Shaun said, fighting back tears. “There’s this pain that comes from the initial loss and then the ultimate loss,” he added, referring to his father’s eventual death. “Then there’s this other ingredient which is this fire that we carry and foster, which is the love and hope. I get to be a father to my children. I get to love them. That love gets to survive.”

Much of the album charts a similar, beautiful course. The loss and pain are well documented but there’s almost always a sliver of hope that somehow makes the pain both easier to handle and more acute with the knowledge that someone had to not only feel it, but also heal from it. 

“Ashes to Ashes” is a different kind of farewell, a letter to deceased ancestors who build a beautiful home. It starts out by telling them that their property is in disrepair and their children have all moved far away. But it also celebrates the positive legacy they left for neighbors and family even if all reminders of it will eventually fade.

“It’s telling that person, ‘you’re so wonderful and I appreciated you and I saw how hard you worked,’” Jamie said. “The love is what sticks around even when the rest of it is blowing away in the wind.”

As for her own legacy, Jamie is concerned that people won’t express what they feel about her until after she’s gone. 

“I know that it will disappear eventually but I’d rather see the fruits during my life,” she said.

Shaun is a member of the Chippewa tribe and Native spirituality informs Breaklands, a gorgeous imagining of dying and returning to the Earth. Native generational trauma and a drug addiction informs “Sober,” which rather bluntly describes a spiraling out and the imminent death that will follow if the character doesn’t change. Their hope for forgiveness and peace in the afterlife leaves little hope for their future on this mortal plane.

“Junkmail” is a particularly powerful song that returns to Shaun’s father. This time, he’s passed and Shaun is left to sift through his father’s belongings to find a will or some other trace of his last wishes. A particularly powerful portion of the song imagines Shaun wearing his father’s clothes, taking some of his  possessions, and sleeping in his pickup. It’s a heartbreaking way to imagine getting to know the man who walked out on his family at the start of the album.

When it came to planning his funeral and processing his loss, Shaun referenced a Native writer’s work.

“She talks about this tradition of not using a person’s name once they’ve passed on because while they’re on their way to wherever we go, it can call them back,” he said. “For me, the way I take that is that if there’s anything I can do for the people that I lose, it’s to let them go as best I can. That looks like working through the things that are hanging me up about them and to engage in forgiveness.” 

 Much like he does in his best lyrics, Shaun engages directly with the sadness and winds up finding a beautiful solution. This band’s motto seems good for more than just music.

Above is the full episode as aired on WUSB’s Country Pocket, including both my interview with Shaun and Jamie and the songs we discussed, starting with Ashes to Ashes, which is a strange and beautiful way of updating the dead on what’s happened since they left. The interview begins with the second video in the playlist. You can hear the show live every Monday at 11am on WUSB 90.1 FM or check the blog to watch it as a YouTube playlist. Visit http://www.WUSB.fm and https://www.luckyvalentines.com for more.

On Hedy Lamarr, Hannah Rose Platt sings about a performance worthy of a bouquet of flowers. Her character is trapped in an abusive relationship and is calling on the ghosts of classic Hollywood. Much like Lamarr, she needs to put on a performance. Unlike with Lamarr, this performance is more about survival than critical acclaim. With sweeping strings and reprises, the song represents a glamorous centerpiece to Deathbed Confessions that exists in heartbreaking contrast to the dire circumstances the song is about.  

“I just had this image of this woman who is sort of getting through each day by identifying with someone she sees as strong,” said Platt, noting that she drew from some of her own darker experiences for the source material. “She’s trying to reframe her life, trying to be seen.” 

Songwriting like that is certain to get Platt seen. Deathbed Confessions draws from London folk music history, visits to New York, and plenty of horror imagery. The result is a uniformly strong, layered album that often reflects harsh realities. On The Mermaid and the Sailor, Platt turns a trope Samuel Pepys documented in the 1500s into a song about a decidedly newer problem.

“I’ve always been fascinated by the darker side of mermaids,” Platt said. “I wanted to do the classic tale of the mermaid luring the sailor into the water but I thought about what would be the modern day equivalent of that. I thought about the call of addiction and how that call almost impossible to resist.”

Again drawing from her own painful experience, Platt decided to have the sailor not only climb into the water but join the mermaid in luring others astray.

“I’ve lost someone to that call and it felt more truthful to me to end it that way,” she said.

Mermaids are hardly the only monster to feature on the album. There are murderers, abandoned dolls, and even an act of cannibalism.

“Since I was a kid I would climb of the furniture to get to the top of the shelves with the Stephen King books I wasn’t supposed to read,” Platt confessed. “I think with horror it allows us to look at things that are uncomfortable but through this distorted, sensationalized lens. There’s lots of emotions, not just being scared. There’s loss, there’s sadness there’s dark humor, there’s also comfort in the mystery of it all.” 

The album’s first track, There’s a Dead Man on the G Train, has plenty of that. It’s a standout murder ballad in which halfway through the narrator reveals herself to be involved in the plot. 

“It comes from my love of any sort of tv show or novel where there’s a big twist,” Platt explained. 

And while not all of Platt’s songs have a surprise reveal, they all at least tell quite the tale.

Above is the full episode as aired on WUSB’s Country Pocket, including both my interview with Hannah Rose Platt and the songs we discussed, starting with Hedy Lamarr, which turns glamor into sadness. The interview begins afterward. You can hear the show live every Monday at 11am on WUSB 90.1 FM or check the blog to watch it as a YouTube playlist. Visit http://www.WUSB.fm and https://www.hannahroseplatt.com for more.

Parker Ferrell genuinely loves his family. On the first two tracks of his debut album “Love Runs Through,” Parker introduces us to his kids, describes the joy of living up to the title of father, details the magical transformation of house into home, and describes the love his family shares as the same powerful force religions are built around. It’s an absolutely beautiful experience to share in his wholesome joy.

“Christians, we say that God is love,” Ferrel explained. “But I think it’s even deeper than that. Love is that creative force, it’s kind of like the sun in our solar system. There’s so many different religions and beliefs and world views, and I have to be careful what I say here, but in some ways, some of those things can be constructs. And if all of that were to fall away, I believe that love would endure. Ultimately, love is what we are trying to get at with a god.”

It’s not surprising that someone who experiences love as deeply as Ferrell does looks in amazement at his children. On “To Deserve You,” he shares experiences with his children and the enjoyment he feels living up to the tasks of fatherhood.

“You’re all in,” said Ferrell. “And that’s one of the things that’s so cool about it because it brings your life into focus. Even sometimes when I sing those songs live it gets me a little emotional.”

Elsewhere on the album Ferrell shares a tribute to Nobel Peace Prize Winner Malala Yousafzai and a love song to his wife. But it’s a song celebrating courage through the story of the Wright Brothers that’s most affecting. When he paints the picture of a life and death desire to take live and death chances for a dream, you can tell he’s talking about more than two historical figures.

“I’m probably not going to get killed playing guitar, but for me it’s inevitable,” Ferrell said. “I don’t know what else I would do if I was not making music. At this point in my career there’s no going back.”

Above is the full episode as aired on WUSB’s Country Pocket, including both my interview with Parker Ferrell and the songs we discussed, starting with To Deserve You, which mentions each of his kids. The interview begins afterward. You can hear the show live every Monday at 11am on WUSB 90.1 FM or check the blog to watch it as a YouTube playlist. Visit http://www.WUSB.fm and https://www.parkerferrellmusic.com for more.

Eric Bibb, an American folk/blues singer who has lived most of his adult life in Sweden, has a stronger connection to the history of his homeland than most permanent residents. On Bibb’s new album, Ridin’, the singer graces the cover mounted on a horse wearing boots and a hat. But Bibb is at his strongest as a historian rather than as a cowboy. Even the title track had more to do with the Freedom Riders than horses. On “Tulsa Town,” Bibb shares the story of a recently rediscussed massacre of a black community from the perspective of a survivor. 

“It’s poetic license to a degree,” Bibb explained. “What I enjoy doing as a songwriter is giving a voice to people who didn’t have a voice in their time and place for obvious reasons. I mean it in that sense. But I also mean it in the sense of being an African American, I feel like to a degree, psychically or psychologically, many people have inherited that memory.” 

While being disheartened by some recent developments in America, Bibb feels somewhat insulated from the worst of it in Sweden, a home he found while his father, also a musician, was touring Europe and the Soviet Union. 

“I was happy to be free of the burden of being tense all the time around the whole issue of the Civil Rights movement in the states,” he said. 

That same distance has helped him avoid the politics of Trump and DeSantis, at least to a point.

“The rest of the world has had a habit of imitating not only the good things but a lot of the negative aspects of American culture,” Bibb said. “The whole issue of racism has been very in our face here in Sweden as well because in recent years there has been a lot of immigration and the complexion of Sweden has changed radically.”

As a result, Sweden has swung to the right in recent years. Bibb said he sees a way forward, but it would require people of all races to see civil rights as benefiting themselves as well as minority groups.

“We’re all in this together,” he said. “We’ve all been traumatized by the brutal history of racism in America.” 

To that point, Bibb highlighted a couple of White Americans who were attempting to move the needle in some way. In our interview, Bibb expressed gratitude that Tom Hanks drew attention the the Tulsa massacre and to the fact that the history of the episode was hidden from him in school. He also used a song to tell the fascinating story of John Howard Griffin, a White man who underwent medical treatments to darken his skin in the 1959 in order to expose racist acts in the book “Black Like Me.” With sustained action like that, Bibb sees hope. He even shouts out the more vocal younger generations in one of his songs.

“I’m very aware that what we need to change is a perception of each other that’s been ingrained for hundreds of years,” Bibb said. “Those kinds of deep-rooted preconceptions are not changed overnight or because some lawmaker manages to push through a new law. Change happens because people care and they keep at it.” 

Other treats on the album include a live rendition of Sinner Man, the emotional reading of names lost to brutality on Joybells, and the playful “Blues Funky Like Dat” featuring the great Taj Mahal.

Above is the full episode as aired on WUSB’s Country Pocket, including both my interview with Eric Bibb and the songs we discussed, starting with Tulsa Town, which is one of many songs exploring historical events on the album. The interview begins afterward. You can hear the show live every Monday at 11am on WUSB 90.1 FM or check the blog to watch it as a YouTube playlist. Visit http://www.WUSB.fm and https://www.ericbibb.com for more.

Benjamin Dakota Rogers lives in a barn apartment on his family’s farm in small town Canada. It’s right nearby his brother’s blacksmith studio. His style of music and the era many of his lyrics take place in sound like they’d be right at home in a barn near a blacksmith. That’s part of why I was shocked to learn that Rogers chose most of the tracks for his album based on how well they did on TikTok. 

“A lot of the songs on the record, as weird as this sounds, I whittled down on TikTok,” said Rogers. “I did this experiment last year where I posted every day on TikTok and it’s been really great for my career and really informative on writing songs. If that one went viral, people want to hear that one or people are connecting with that.”

That’s how he opted to include a cover of “Blackjack County Chain” on his album, a song that was once banned from the radio out of fear that it would encourage violence against police. It’s a well-chosen cover because it fits the theme and era the album strives for and shows just how closely Rogers’ originals resemble folk music of old.

By and large, TikTok got it right. Rogers’ voice sounds like a slightly unhinged Amos Lee and the stories populating his album are often violent, dark, and dramatic. It’s a real throwback to a time when mainstream folk music sounded a lot more like this.

“I think the first folk songs were written in more violent times, so people were writing what they knew,” Rogers said. “I think now people who write those things are influenced by those stories. I think violent stories are easily contained within a three minute song.”

“Charlie Boy” is one of the strongest examples. Charlie murders a groom on his wedding day after being lied to by his bride and despite those around him trying to calm his temper. It’s tragic to see what a little manipulation does to what seems like a relatively simple man. It’s also another example of how Rogers places only men in the crosshairs of his characters.

“The conflict in the stories, especially for the era that I’m writing in, works better with two guys fighting,” Rogers explained, noting that many of his stories take place between 1850 and 1920.

For all the old-time energy Paint Horse gives off, and for all that TikTok contributed to the selection of the music, it’s one song that breaks both those rules that comes out sounding the strongest. “Arlo” tells the story of a widowed truck driver doing his best to stay afloat after his farm went under. The ‘cancerous’ growth of suburban development is something Rogers can relate to.

“I spend a lot of night outside and I was noticing that you could see the glow from lights from subdivisions coming up over the trees on our property,” Rogers said of his farm.

Though TikTok crowds didn’t go wild for the sad tale, Rogers included it because of the way he felt playing it.

“It’s the only song that didn’t have TikTok success, but I think that people who aren’t on TikTok might connect with it,” Rogers said, explaining that songs like Arlo are easier to play live because he feels them in his gut.

I’d have to agree with his gut. Arlo may not fit perfectly with the rest of the album, but a top notch sad song that hopelessly rages against the way things have become is timeless in a way few other songs can be.

Above is the full episode as aired on WUSB’s Country Pocket, including both my interview with Benjamin Dakota Rogers and the songs we discussed, starting with Charlie Boy, which leads to an inevitable tragic ending. The interview begins afterward. You can hear the show live every Monday at 11am on WUSB 90.1 FM or check the blog to watch it as a YouTube playlist. Visit http://www.WUSB.fm and https://www.benjamindakotarogers.com for more.

Andrew Duhon has traveled the world as a folk singer and he’s learned a lot in doing so. He’s learned to trust less in money, that he’s more of a human being/citizen of the world than a person tied to a particular country, and the importance of learning to slow down and enjoy the moment. These aren’t things he’s been taught per se, just some things he’s picked up from experience. Drawing wisdom from experience has always been who Andrew is.

As a child in Catholic school, Duhon learned about the beauty and validity of religious plurality by coloring in a picture of Jesus. No, really. Each child created an image of Christ with different colors and patterns. They all went up on the wall and they were all considered valid. “None of them would be right or wrong, we would just learn from what we interpreted,” Duhon said. “Perhaps that is the most important lesson Catholic school ever taught me. Unintended, likely. Certainly unintended.”

He has since rejected the dogma of religion and decided to focus on what makes people similar. Our differences are important, sure, but it’s more important to focus on unity, Duhon argues. Stories like this give me tremendous hope for the future. No matter what nationalism and intolerance is hurled at children, some of them are going to notice a small detail and learn the right thing anyway. It’s especially beautiful if they’re unlocking truths most adults can’t grasp just by looking at the pages of a coloring book.

Andrew Duhon’s album is called Emerald Blue. The rest of the album features standouts like “Slow Down,” which Duhon quite literally slows down for the final chorus. In taking his own advice, he creates a memorable track and a minute’s worth of a sweet slow jam. “Emerald Blue” and “Down From the Mountain” follow in the great tradition of American roots music in that they use the beauty of the natural world to portray an emotion.

“Down From the Mountain” especially works as reentry to the world following the pandemic lockdown. Duhon, a resident of New Orleans, told me he’s looking to get a cabin in the mountains of the Northeast or Pacific Northwest to escape to during the summer and just sit back and fish. It seems that even for a musician who travels the world, there’s a desire to climb back up the mountain from time to time and ‘slow down.’

Above is the full episode as aired on WUSB’s Country Pocket, including both my interview with Andrew Duhon and the songs we discussed, starting with the first half of our interview. You can hear the show live every Monday at 11am on WUSB 90.1 FM or check the blog to watch it as a YouTube playlist. Visit http://www.WUSB.fm and http://www.andrewduhon.com for more.