Fresh Picks: Billy’s blues, progressive soul, sober enjoyable, stratospheric cumbia, Red Lake growth bap and Emmylou in ’76

Arriving on a Tuesday — as we have been lucky sufficient to have Labor Day off — it is time for one more Fresh Picks, as a result of discovering new music should not really feel like labor. Read on for actual music picked out by actual folks.

For albums, we could not say goodbye to So Much For Goodbyes, so that you get extra Billy Strings. Next, British soul trio Jungle brings the Sunshine and Zach Carpenter of Medium Build is the King of Having Fun. Finally, Vancouver’s Empanadas Ilegales take cumbia to the stratosphere.

For songs, Meshell Ndegeocello retains the covers coming with assist from Lianne La Havas. Then Thomas X brings growth bap to Red Lake and Mary Bragg seems on the good — and dangerous — of what got here earlier than.

We took every week off from Picks From ’76 to have a good time Dolly Parton, and guess what? We nonetheless get just a little little bit of the late nation legend on Emmylou Harris’ 1976 gem, Luxury Liner! Can you establish which songs have Dolly’s vocals?

Check out this week’s options from Music Director Kari Hedlund, Asst. Music Director Malachy Koons and Director of Audience Engagement Julia Schrenkler.

Albums

Album of the Week: Billy Strings – So Much For Goodbyes

For his fifth album, Billy Strings went extra conventional than many anticipated. While Strings has made a reputation for himself in progressive jamgrass, So Much for Goodbyes grapples with grief over his mom’s surprising loss of life by means of songs that already sound like bluegrass traditionals, gospels, hoedowns and some that lean far more into Americana folk-rock territory.

Lyrically, his grief is on the core of the album, as is what dwelling means. For Strings, house is in Michigan and is a spot he clearly holds sacred and perhaps romanticizes, as all of us do. That sense of place kicks off the album within the conventional bluegrass tune “I’m One of Those” with phrases like “I’m looking for the place I used to live | I’ve been driving up and down this road | Trying to bring back old memories for one reason or another I let go.”
Other traditional bluegrass tunes on the album that already sound conventional are “Lay Me Down,” that includes Del McCoury and “Mill Town Flood.”

One of my favorites from the album, “Live to Tell” options Strings’ unimaginable guitar work, even when put to work in a easy method. He makes use of Michigan’s chilly winters as a metaphor for grief, “Snow keeps falling down on Michigan | The earth is still beneath its icy veil | If I could hold on till the break of day | I’d live to tell the tale.”

“Burn the Other End” veers into his signature jamgrass sound, as does “Lucid Daydream,” which I half-expected to finish up like “Spinning” (from Turmoil and Tinfoil). Instead, it is far more heartbreaking than unusual, imagining a dialog together with his late mother. His sorrow is palpable in songs like “Still I Crash,” a music that appears it was therapeutic for Strings to write down and report. It is uncooked, susceptible and deeply private. “Remember to Cry” is grief masked in upbeat bluegrass, and “I Wish I Wanted To” goes nation whereas channeling despair with a wink.

Billy Strings is a revolutionary pressure in bluegrass and jam music. While that is one among his extra easy data, it’s also one among his richest collections of songs in textures, depth and songwriting. -KH

Jungle – Sunshine

The British band Jungle launched “Sunshine” in August, a easy and scrumptious serving of progressive soul. I’ve been queueing the titular single up for that transition time at dwelling once you shed the day for dinner and mushy evenings. Part R&B, half dance combine, half “I gotta put this in a playlist for my crush,” it seems like a recent begin. As a music it additionally fits the album, which is a complete bundle of Jungle’s sound.

The band is thought for his or her visible method to movies and “Sunshine” hits that word. The digital camera perspective provides a dance in a tightly-choreographed, easy shoot.

I’m anticipating to listen to this music, and others from the album, on sound tracks for key moments on the following large television present.

As a bonus, the band will play an all-ages present on Wednesday, Sept. 9 on the Minneapolis Armory. -JS

Medium Build – King of Having Fun

The newest Medium Build album from Nick Carpenter finds the King of Having Fun sober, medicated and able to tackle what’s subsequent. Self-deprecation by means of confession-style songwriting is usually on the core of Medium Build. It’s nonetheless current in his sixth album however carried out with a brand new lens on life and thru a much bigger, bolder sound that is virtually…joyful? “Cone Off” is a right away “yes” with a funktified beat, and lyrics which are as humorous as they’re happy with the work he is put in. “You ain’t gotta call me up again, track me down | You ain’t gotta dress me up, drag me around | You ain’t gotta lie to your friends ’bout where he been no more (Come on) | And honey, I’m sorry for the sh*t that I drug you through | Yeah, I was thinking ’bout me and not you | And you ain’t gotta jerk on my chain no more.” -KH

Empanadas Ilegales – LABORATORIO TROPICAL

This amazingly-named band was one among my favourite discoveries at this summer time’s Winnipeg Folk Festival, and this new album captures all the pieces that had the competition crowds doing their greatest cumbia dance time and time once more. The Vancouver-based group has roots in Argentina and Colombia, and their cumbia sound is expansive and psychedelic with out ever sacrificing groove. Daniel Ruiz’s drums, Daniel Hernandez Pinto’s bass and Andrea Milagros’ maracas preserve the rhythm on the ground whereas Jaime Millan’s surf guitar and Jocelyn Waugh’s jazzy trumpet take this cumbia into the stratosphere. -MK

Singles

Meshell Ndegeocello – “Don’t Look Any Further (ft. Lianne La Havas)”

The newest single is from an upcoming covers album the place Ndegeocello will probably be joined by friends like Brandi Carlile, Moses Sumney, Emily King and Robert Glaspy. This is a jazzified and recent tackle a 1984 funk music initially carried out by Dennis Edwards. My ears at all times perk up after I hear Ndegeocello has new music popping out as a result of she’s sure to be doing one thing fascinating. Now pair her with Lianne La Havas, who we have not heard from in a minute? Yes, please and thanks. -KH

Thomas X – “Old School Niiji (ft. Animikii Fallsfeather & BWade)”

Red Lake rapper Thomas X brings the growth bap sounds and academic verses to this standout minimize from his newest album, Always Be Brave. Drawing closely from his Anishinaabe heritage with references to burning sage, braiding his son’s hair, giving tobacco and extra, the music’s traditional vibe is delivered to life by Animikii Fallsfeather’s G-funk refrain and a killer characteristic from Leech Lake rapper BWade. -MK

Mary Bragg – “Hi-Fi”

“Hi Fi” is a sneak into Bragg’s upcoming album Secrets to Strangers, out Oct. 16, 2026. Leaning into extra of a folk-rock sound, Bragg thinks about what it means to look again
on life within the “before times” with nostalgia: hours spent driving a motorbike, unplugged and impartial freedom quite than the fixed inundation with life as it’s right now. Simultaneously, she notes how wanting again in that romanticized means avoids acknowledging the ills that additionally went with these instances, and an understanding of the ways in which we are doing higher right now. -KH

Pick of ’76

Emmylou Harris – Luxury Liner

From the thundering freight prepare opener of her International Submarine Band cowl, it is clear you are in for a deal with on Emmylou Harris’ fourth album from 1976.

Luxury Liner stays her greatest promoting solo album, along with her model of “Pancho & Lefty” (seven years earlier than Willie and Merle took a stab at it) changing into one among her best-known songs.

The album featured a stacked solid of musicians like Dolly Parton, Micky Raphael, Ricky Skaggs and lots of extra alongside her legendary Hot Band, who by themselves are thought of one of many best country-rock outfits of all time. At a time when session musicians and touring bands have been very completely different, Harris introduced her road-tested Hot Band into the studio — and you’ll hear it.

“Luxury Liner” comes perilously near careening off the tracks. And Hot Band member Rodney Crowell’s “You’re Supposed To Be Feeling Good” is delivered to life in a means solely an artist like Harris — who had already married, had a child, divorced and spent years toiling as a folks musician earlier than she discovered success in nation music — might do.

The supply materials is superb all through. Chuck Berry’s “You Can Never Tell (C’est la Vie)” places the rock in country-rock. The roots of nation are paid homage too with The Louvin Brothers’ “When I Stop Dreaming.” Finally, A.P. Carter’s “Hello Stranger” Harris’ second Parsons tribute on the album, “She,” is just gorgeous.

Luxury Liner has all of it — the voice, the band, the songs and the singer’s deep connection to them. That’s why it is this week’s Pick From ’76. -MK