Houndmouth is an American alternative blues band from New Albany, Indiana formed in 2011, consisting of Matt Myers (guitar, vocals), Zak Appleby (bass, vocals), and Shane Cody (drums, vocals).Houndmouth formed in the summer of 2011. After playing locally in Louisville and Indiana, they performed at the SXSW music festival in March 2012 to promote their homemade self-titled EP. Geoff Travis, the head of Rough Trade was in the audience and offered a contract shortly after. In 2012, the band was named "Band Of The Week" by The Guardian. In 2013 Houndmouth's debut album, From the Hills Below the City, was released by Rough Trade. This led to performances on Letterman, Conan, World Cafe, and several major festivals (ACL, Americana Music Festival, Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza, and Newport Folk Festival). SPIN and Esquire.com named Houndmouth a "must-see" band at Lollapalooza, and Garden & Gun said, "You'd be hard pressed to find a more effortless, well-crafted mix of roots and rock this year than the debut album from this Louisville quartet."

The Record Company got started in 2011 and were selling out small venues in Los Angeles before they released their first album, 2016's GRAMMY-nominated Give It Back to You. Stiff produced the debut which yielded three Top 10 hits at Triple-A radio, including "Off the Ground," which reached No. 1 on Billboard's Adult Alternative Songs chart. Stiff also produced the trio's 2018 follow-up, All of This Life, which cracked the Billboard 200 albums chart and launched another Adult Alternative chart-topper with "Life to Fix." Yet when it came time to make their third record, the musicians knew they wanted to try something different.

"We came to the table for our third record with strong demos on songs that could have passed for our first two records, and asked, 'Can we beat it?'" says singer Chris Vos. "And for the first time, we allowed talented people to come into our small circle to push the music higher."

"In the past, we were really insular. Everything was just us," says Stiff, who also played guitar and keyboards and sang on the album. "We totally flipped the process on this record to allow for every idea and possibility, so it wasn't just the three of us, closed off in our bubble. It was like, 'Let's take some risks and see what we can really do.'"

It's a classic rock & roll story: the chance encounter that becomes collaboration, then a band; the gathering of players and like-minded spirits that tightens and grows in songwriting, rehearsals and club dates; a debut album that finally arrives after all of the labor and waiting; the follow-up that beats a new set of odds and jumps ahead in vision and drive, proving the first record was no one-shot deal.

For Mike Campbell, External Combustion – the second album by his first band as a leader, the Dirty Knobs – is proof that lightning can strike twice. Campbell experienced all of the above and more with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers – riding shotgun with his friend and captain as lead guitarist, co-producer and, at times, co-writer – when he met guitarist Jason Sinay at a session in Los Angeles in 2000. "I didn't like him at first because he had a green guitar and a mohawk," Campbell recalls with a laugh. "But when we started playing together, I realized he had good rhythm, good sound. And he worked really well with me."

Nikki Lane's stunning third album Highway Queen sees the young Nashville singer emerge as one of country and rock's most gifted songwriters. Co-produced by Lane and fellow singer-songwriter, Jonathan Tyler, this emotional tour-de-force was recorded at Matt Pence's Echo Lab studio in Denton, Texas as well as at Club Roar with Collin Dupuis in Nashville, Tennessee. Blending potent lyrics, unbridled blues guitars and vintage Sixties country-pop swagger, Lane's new music will resonate as easily with Lana Del Rey and Jenny Lewis fans as those of Neil Young and Tom Petty.

Highway Queen is poised to be Lane's mainstream breakthrough. "Am I excited to spend years of my life in a van, away from family and friends? No, but I'm excited to share my songs, so they'll reach people and help them get through whatever they're going through. To me, that's worth it."

Imbued with the grit of vintage country music and the grace of gospel, Leah Blevins’ debut album is a scrapbook of sorts, a collage of feelings and memories from a decade spent working in the big city of Nashville while missing the small town she left behind. "First Time Feeling" turns tribulations into what Blevins calls “bundles of triumphs,” which lend weight to her well-observed lyrics and gravity to her soulful vocals. The growling guitars—played by friends and co-producers Paul Cauthen and Beau Bedford—sound like wolves at the door, as Blevins introduces the themes that drive this record: the reality that we’re all afraid of something, that we’re all running from it even though we’ll never get away from it.

The rebirth of Backyard Tire Fire springs forth with an undeniable burst of musical energy. Fans will cheer the band’s return the way families celebrate a long-awaited reunion. The Midwestern guitar rock unit is back with “Black Dirt Blue Sky,” their first collection of new recordings in 10 years.

“It's a story of redemption and perseverance, of second chances,” lead vocalist and songwriter Edward David Anderson said. “The pandemic even tried to foil it, but we wouldn't have it. We hunkered down and put this beautiful recording together in home studios throughout Illinois and beyond.”

BTF were darlings of radio stations like Chicago’s WXRT-FM in the early 2000s. Grammy Award-winning producer Steve Berlin of Los Lobos produced their 2010 album, “Good To Be.” Johnny Hickman of Cracker compared them to Wilco. The music rings with crisp guitar tones, tight harmonies and pointed lyrics. Anderson and Tipping (The Mighty Blue Kings) create the core vibe with skillful guitar work. Anderson’s brother, Matt, plays bass with new guy Ganser (The Something Brothers) on drums. From the hard driving “House of Cards” to the country ballad “Truck Stop Shower,” the songs on “Black Dirt Blue Sky” make the new sound familiar and the familiar sound new.