Austin’s Wood and Wire have taken great use of the quarantine and provided some much needed relief with their September release ​No Matter Where It Goes from Here.

Trevor Smith rings the banjo beautifully on the opening track “John” as the harmonies of Tony Kamel and Billy Bright resonate in your chest. It’s a passionate take on “seekers, searchers and drifters” where “livin’ ain’t easy when you don’t have money, but money means nothing when you ain’t livin’ free.” The harmonies really drive the song home with the same passion of a Zac Brown or Chris Stapelton ballad.

“Can’t Keep Up” is a dance around in the morning song, which really brings the group back to an outdoor festival feeling of carefree summers and iced tea on the front porch.

“Pigs” is a serious driving track that brings some grit and also reintroduces the theme of money. The first verse concludes “pigs don’t fly, we’re all gonna die and you can’t take your money to the grave.” Kamel sings about a televangelist looking for donations and critiques “it’s a funny world we’re livin’ in full of lies…”

Peter Rowan guests on the track “Rodie’s Circles” and the band truly shows their speed and accuracy in their craft. It has the pace and organic sound of a David Grisman instrumental.

Money continues to be a faint theme that holds the album together with “Spirit of ‘94.” The soft singing on “Home and the Banjo” revives the summer feeling of a John Denver song on the radio. There’s a skipping vibe on “Peddlewheels” that puts a smile on your face.

Wood and Wire have done an excellent job with an enthusiastic release that takes use of the different forms of popular bluegrass structures that can bring many different emotions into the mind of the listener.

-Andrew Blanton

Few people have made a name for themselves in the Austin blues scene faster than Vin Mott. The week he arrived, Mott sat in at the Little Elmore Reed Blues Band’s weekly residency in the heart of the East Side, fiercely blowing into his harp with a determination that couldn’t be ignored. Mott quickly brought his harmonica driven intensity to Rainey Street with a weekend residency at Clive Bar that exposed a younger audience to a century of traditional sounds.

The train may have stalled with venue closures amid the Coronavirus pandemic, but Mott isn’t one to twiddle his thumbs. ​Country Blues in Quarantine i​ s Mott’s most transparent release, showing off his intensity for the music and his versatility on instrumentation. Mott performed vocals, harmonica, guitar and drums on the album along with Steven Kirsty on bass.

Mott started taking drum lessons at the age of seven, and took advantage of every music program available throughout grade school in New Jersey. His talent granted him acceptance into the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston, and after graduation in 2011, Mott returned to New Jersey and put together a traditional harmonica-driven blues band. After gaining notoriety and releasing his debut album​ Quit the Woman for the Blues, ​Mott was advised by songwriter and guitarist Bob Lanza to take a look at the Texas blues scene.

“I would tour alone actually in my Jeep,” Mott said, “and travel the country and play the blues. I strung together gigs basically to and from Texas, and I did that twice in two years.”

Mott was immediately drawn to the thriving atmosphere that put the Austin blues scene on the map, and loaded up every inch of his Jeep with music equipment and clothing.

“It just came down to making a decision,” Mott said. “I could either sit back home and continue doing the same stuff I’m doing for the rest of my life, or I could take a shot while I’m young, and while I dont have too much commitment. I don’t have a wife, or a kid, or a house to take care of. It’s now or never really.”

In his first two months in Austin, Mott found a weekly spot on drums at the Big Easy with Matthew Brodnax and the Blues Sherpas, a happy hour gig with pianist Henry Herbert at Skull Mechanix Brewery and led a full band with traditional and original material. Two of the venues Mott performed at have since closed, with another up for sale due to mandated Coronavirus shut downs.

“I started to build a little bit of something until everything shut down here. I got like every email from every one of my gigs all in one day that everything was cancelled,” Mott said with a laugh. “I got here just in time.”

As working musicians watched Coronavirus mandates effectively end live performing in major metropolitan areas, Mott purchased a $50 acoustic guitar on Facebook Marketplace, borrowed an audio interface from local guitarist Chris Ruest, plugged in his Shure SM 58 microphone and

started laying down tracks for ​Country Blues in Quarantine​ in his Oak Hill apartment. Mott later sent the tracks to Kirsty in New York for upright bass.

“I had a little well of songs that I had been writing since my last record,” Mott said. “I had always wanted to start learning to record myself, I had just a very bare bones knowledge of how to do it. It was something that was always in the back of my mind.”

Mott focused on open tuning and traditional slide on the guitar to back up his harmonica. The style fits perfectly on the quick country blues opening track “Buck 110 Blues,” and provides a sweeping low down grit on “The Werewolf.”

“My influences are in that traditional Delta blues vein, on this record especially, and I just felt like that was what I wanted to try and do, even with my limited skills,” Mott said. “I almost think it’s cooler to suck a little bit, you know? It’s almost like the punk rock attitude in a blues setting.”

Mott’s humble attitude may give a nod to the artists that caught his attention in the blues genre, but the guitar playing and DIY attitude put forth on ​Country Blues in Quarantine c​an’t be understated.

“It forced me to look at my life, and how I make money, and being a musician,” Mott said. “It’s never too late to learn a new skill, and now’s the best time to learn a new skill, so I’m just trying to take advantage of what is positive about it, you know? It’s a blessing in disguise in that way.”

Mott’s future in the Austin blues scene remains as uncertain as the venues that featured nightly acts earlier this year. A recent Facebook post indicated a possible return to New Jersey to be with family through the pandemic, but Mott feels a connection to the audiences he’s performed for.”

“That’s the whole reason why I fell in love with Austin,” Mott said. “No matter what you’re doing, or what you’re playing, there’s more appreciation for the artists and the music.”

Country Blues in Quarantine ​combines powerful vocals with intense instrumentation and an obsession with the traditional Americana recordings that have spread around the world.

“This is the deepest dive into my mind as you’re going to get,” Mott said. “It’s purely me. It’s purely my sound and the way I feel it and hear it.”

 -Andrew Blanton

Austin’s Cosmic Cowboy is saddling up for another long haul; as Jonathan Terrell gears up to release his third record, ​Westward​, he’s dropped one last morsel for us to devour while waiting in the wings. “Never Makes a Sound” is the latest single from ​Westward​ and it’s a rip-roaring good time about losing yourself in the search to discover more.

Terrell described the new record as “the stories of all of us” while he’s the vessel, funneling all this celestial energy directly to our ears. Among the many muses guiding him on this journey are Nick Cave, Tom Petty and Bob Seger, each distinctly part of the sonic landscape of ​Westward and “Never Makes a Sound”, if not without the help of a little Bruce Springsteen.

“Never Makes a Sound” capitalizes on the strength of Terrell’s anthemic storytelling talents and weaves in diligent notes taken from hours spent listening to the masters, even working with some. Gregg Rolie (Santana, Journey), Shakey Graves and the Band of Heathens contributed as bandmembers during recording, and “Never Makes a Sound” has the defiant attitude of a confidently-composed classic, something that’s been unearthed as a previously unreleased Born To Run​ B-side.

Terrell’s aim to be the vessel delivering “the stories of all of us” pushes him to craft premium singalong material in the stadium rock tradition. He channels inspiration from his most recent European tour where he discovered a bigger global fantasy of exploring “The West” than what exists in American folklore. In “Never Makes a Sound”, the theme is explored with tales of searching for freedom “where the desert meets the sea” and dancing with the ghosts of elders through the blinding rain.

“Never Makes a Sound” is a whopper that fits right into Terrell’s catalog while standing out as some of his most extroverted work yet. It hurts a little to imagine what this song might look like played at Red Rocks or another storied outdoor venue; Terrell is far from immune to the state of the world and is releasing his record with a livestream listening party instead of a concert. In the closing refrain, though, he paints an appropriately passionate picture of his own Wild West: “Dry lightning keeps on flashing, but it never makes a sound.”

As an American people, we’re reckoning with what the likes of a modern-day revolution will look like. There’s no telling if, when or where – but the Heartless Bastards would like to take this moment to remind you that you control it in your mind. Back with their first release in over five years since breaking through to the Billboard 200 with ​Arrow​, the band has an answer for the moment with their new single “Revolution”.

Clocking at over six minutes, “Revolution” paints a broad stroke of melodic brilliance as it ponders what brought us all to the brink. Name-checking Big Brother is part of bandleader Erika Wennerstrom’s Bowery-via-Americana method of marrying the merits of class-checking punk rock to class-obliterating folk. She catalogs being watched and solicited by the other while fuming about the disparity between the haves and have-nots – it works out like Melissa Etheridge covering a Patti Smith deep cut.

In choosing to return with a call for revolution, the Heartless Bastards don’t abandon any of the cred they’ve built over the last two decades. Instead, they retrain their focus and aim a little higher. Sonically, the tune starts out as typical fodder for musical call-to-arms: languid, easy and slightly psychedelic in the same vein of later Lennon compositions. Then, all hell begins to break loose.

As the lyrics get angrier, the music builds to match. Tension vents like steam as the song gets louder and louder. Lyrics transform to stream-of-conscious blurts, like a folkloric take on the Ramones’ “Ignorance Is Bliss”. The lyrical cadence suits the subject matter and the song extremely well, as rambling about commercialized life, happiness pills and gilded political lies is less a dissociating experience than it is a heartening wake-up call in this context.

After laying down the state of the world as she sees it, Wennerstrom frames her thesis in six words: “The revolution is in your mind.” That is to say, we all control it as much as we control our thoughts and actions. We are the generators of our own compassion and empathy, and we pass our energy along to the next generation after we go. You can hear the longing in the extra millisecond Wennerstrom pauses when she sings, “Do you…remember?” It’s a desire in her for this song to start something new, to gin up some trouble, and to replace fear with hope. And it’s the idea that we’re more than capable of doing so.

– Mike Floeck

If you think mezcal and some brick weed make for a pretty fine summer evening, then Russel Taine Jr. might have a new anthem for you to add into your rotation. The band is back with another song for quarantine summer, this time with the rocking, radio-ready cut “Blue Jean Baby”.

Russel Taine Jr. features Aaron Winston (lyrics/guitar/vocals), Justin Winslow (bass), Brittany Long (keys) and Cory Fica (drums). As the band members continued to record through stay-at-home orders, the longing for summers past crept up in mind. “July 4th fireworks – and a dance and a drink down at the White Horse…a love song for a Texas summer without COVID.” It can be migraine-inducing to reach far enough backward for memories of a carefree August, but the sparkling guitar of “Blue Jean Baby” instantly conjures images of sun-soaked sands and glistening waters.

Right from the jump, Winston’s vocals are situated apart from the instrumental, mixed to give them just enough separation to stand out, especially in the verses. His voice sits somewhere to the left of Jack Johnson – just a little more verve, but still free and easy enough to coast this song through. It’s a smile-inducing melody that’s easy enough to pick up and hold onto, with a smashing singalong chorus.

With many country music acts forced to reckon with the pandemic and protests and alter their release plans, or scrap them altogether (except you, Kenny Chesney), Summer 2020 radio has been drier than usual. We have plenty of indie and alternative-tinged tunes to take away the pain, but when the setting just calls for good times, not too many have been willing to answer this year. Thankfully, Russel Taine Jr. decided to keep recording and releasing at their own pace. This might not be the summer they wanted, but who says they can’t pretend?

– Mike Floeck 

“Hello, I’m Johnny Cash” is as startling to read here as it is to hear on the opening of Bill Callahan’s ​Gold Record​. Sparse guitar riffs and faint trumpet notes guide the listener through the Tejano lullaby “Pigeons.” Calahan’s description of the romantic saga is as elusive as his voice:

“Deep in the heart of Texas, life and love go sleepily on,” Callahan writes on his Bandcamp page. “From the wheel of his long white limousine, a man witnesses scenes from many lives. Musically commencing with Cash and rambling to Cohen suggests that whether the wedding rice explodes in your belly or you end up married to the whole wide world, there’s a place for you on this Earth.”

For the past seven weeks, Drag City has released a different single from the album, offering a preview and pre-order for the September release. Callahan offers ​Gold Record ​in multiple formats including cassette, compact disc, vinyl and digital. The current releases are as dense as a novel, allowing the listener to pick up on different insights of the characters with each listen.

It’s hard to know how many personal anecdotes Callahan includes with his work, as fictional characters take the place of himself. “Let’s Move to the Country” describes a blossoming relationship, the character leaving traveling behind to settle down and start a family. This may provide a link from Callahan’s characters into his personal life, as he married Hanly Banks in 2014 and became a father, and took a significant break in recording.

The seven released tracks are held together with a cohesive sound, forcing the listener to observe the lyrics. In an interview with Texas Monthly earlier this year, Callahan cited Willie Nelson as an influence for visual storytelling. Though Callahan was describing a line from his previous release ​Shepherd in a Sheepskin Vest​, the material on ​Gold Record f​ eels connected to the writing style of Nelson’s ​Red Headed Stranger.

Follow the release of Callahan’s ​Gold Record​ here: https://billcallahan.bandcamp.com/album/gold-record

-Andrew Blanton