He could be wowing the Nashville scene, starring at the Grand Ol’ Opry, working up to headlining that city’s Bridgestone Arena. No Depression nailed this point just perfect when they reviewed his debut album Angeleno back in 2015: ‘With that voice, the hat and those looks, Sam Outlaw could be a straight-up mainline Big Country Star. Far from the premises of Nashville’s bro-country, he’s exposing a tender heart beating for country’s neo-traditionalists, smooth countrypolitan and L.A.’s legendary singer-songwriters. Now, Sam Outlaw might not be able to revitalize the California country sound all by himself, but he’s doing a tremendous job in reinvigorating its roots. In the early 1980s, Dwight Yoakam came west and made a career with his punk-infused honky tonk, even singing with Buck Owens on the “Streets of Bakersfield”: ‘ I came here looking for something/I couldn’t find anywhere else…’īut not too many followed, and the country gold rush turned towards Nashville where it has remained. Enter Gram Parsons, The Flying Burrito Brothers, Emmylou Harris and the Eagles, who turned Los Angeles into a hotbed of country-rock in the 1970s. The Bakersfield Sound, popularized by Buck Owens and Merle Haggard in the late 1960s, evolved directly at odds with the string-based Nashville Sound blossoming at the same time. Sam Outlaw might bear a name that conjures a gruff, bearded biker type à la Waylon & Willie.īut this here Outlaw is rather a sharp looking former salesman who makes classic California country and is just about to release his highly-anticipated sophomore album, Tenderheart. It feels like both an invitation and a mystery. The ideas, both philosophical and musical, really resonated with me, and still do every time I listen to it. This is one of my favorite records of the past decade! I find myself putting in on in all kinds of situations…and it’s one of the reasons why I wanted Jim to produce my record. I think I’ve seen Belle and Sebastian in concert more than any other band! I connected to it so strongly the first time I heard it, and perhaps another reason why the record changed my life is because of how much I connected to the live show the first time I saw them…and every time I’ve seen them since. I love the storytelling on this album and the way the darkest lyrics are paired with the sweetest melodies. I always think about this album when I’m getting ready to go on tour – the energy in the room shakes you from the speakers so many years after it was recorded. I still think it’s one of the most beautiful things ever recorded to tape. I can remember so vividly the first time I heard the intro to “Bring it on Home to Me” on this album, and being floored by it. One Night Stand – Live at Harlem Square Club, 1963 I admire both her power and her vulnerability as a writer – the way she can express both in a single line made me want to write songs at a time when I didn’t think anyone would ever hear them. This album and The Greatest are two that will always be in my heart. There was a year where I listened almost exclusively to Cat Power. It’s still one of my favorite albums, and had an influence on how I sing and how I feel about singing – that there’s always got to be some kind of truth to be found in the song. I was in high school when one of my best friends introduced me to Leonard Cohen’s music, and since then it has always felt tied to my teen years and the kinds of friendships you make in that formative time. We invited Basia Bulat to share with us five albums that changed her life. In their review of Good Advice, Pop Matters wrote, ‘Bulat positions herself gracefully as a singer with more than one dimension, one that knows that being serious, sad, and joyful can happen in the same body simultaneously.” In a similarly glowing take, The Guardian said she sings “with the sorrowful stoicism of a classic country crooner – rhinestone-encrusted melodrama and misery cascade around her, synthesised gospel colliding with the stately majesty of Grizzly Bear or Beach House.’
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