This band is my new favorite find. Goodnight, Texas is a bi-coastal outfit led by Avi Vinocur (San Francisco) and Patrick Dyer Wolf (North Carolina) named after a ghost town equidistant between them.

Their excellent debut album, A Long Life of Living, is about as Americana as it gets. Vintage, sepia-tinged artwork. References to Maggie’s farm. Multiple tales of manual labor. Odes to California AND Carolina. A song called “Jessie Got Trapped In a Coal Mine.” Transcontinental migrations, cancelled weddings and dusty porches.

Laid back and lovely but never boring, this is folk music with a steely blues edge. Promises of hand-clapping and foot-stomping to make me really excited to see these guys live.

Their west coast CD release party is Oct 26th at Cafe du Nord in San Francisco.

You can stream their entire album and fall in love now at Relix and then pick up the album next Tuesday 10/02. You can download a free single over at their website, too.

If there is such a thing as an alt.country/Americana/whatever buzz band, this year it was Shovels & Rope. Heading to Pickathon this year, I was mostly excited to reunite with my Portland folks and drink during the afternoon for a few days. But Shovels & Rope was high on my short list of bands not to miss, largely because I kept hearing great things about them, from people who’d heard great things about them, and everyone had heard great things about them without having heard them.

Luckily they lived live up to the hype. Shovels & Rope are a two-piece South Carolina band generating great country-driven folks rock steeped in a heavy Southern drawl. They are one of those bands that sound greater than the sum of their parts. Both Cary Ann Hearst and Michael Trent had solo careers before coming together to record as a twosome. Their new album, O’ Be Joyful was released this summer, preceded by 2009′s self-titled release.

Check em out. Tap your foot. Start with the free NoiseTrade sampler. Check out their website, find ‘em on FB, and follow S&R on Twitter.

Shovels & Rope: Birmingham

Hurray for the Riff Raff is the New Orleans  group led by Puerto Rican, Bronx-raised Alynda lee Sygara, whose narrative reads like a folk song. After running away from home at age 17, she hopped freight trains and played crossing the country with The Deadman Street Orchestra.  After two self-released albums, the UK label Loose Music released Hurray for the Riff Raff in 2011, pulling from those two earlier albums.

In May of this year, the stellar Look Out Mama was released, and it’s been on heavy rotation in my world for several weeks now. Whereas the other HRTRR album I have, Young Blood Blues, was a bit of a puzzler and kind of hit-or-miss for me, the new album is impeccable from start to finish.

Driven by Sygara’s powerhouse vocals, it’s an album steeped in traditional american folks and blues, with a bit of a rockabilly edge, steeped in the Louisiana swamp. It will be the perfect soundtrack for your porch-sitting on these hot, sticky-humid summer 2012 nights.

Check out HFTRR on their website, Facebook and Twitter for the album behind this killer photo (of Sygara’s father).

HFTRR: Little Black Star

HFTRR – Born to Win (Part One)

My top ten eleven from 2011.  Listed alphabetically by first name.  Top three noted with an *asterisk.

Austin Lucas:  A New Home in the Old World

Austin Lucas: Thunder Rail

*Chris Bathgate:  Salt Year

Chris Bathgate: Levee

Dark Mean: Dark Mean

Dark Mean – Lullaby

The Decemberists: The King is Dead

The Decemberists: Down By The Water

Dolorean: Unfazed

Dolorean: How Is It

*Elliott Brood: Days Into Years

Elliott Brood: If I Get Old

Frank Turner: England Keep My Bones

Frank Turner: One Foot Before The Other

*The Horrible Crowes: Elsie

The Horrible Crowes: Behold The Hurricane

Okkervil River: I Am Very Far

Okkervil River: Rider

Will Phalen: Holy Ghost / Gold Coast

Will Phalen: Candycane Mountain In My Mind

Wye Oak: Civilian

Wye Oak: Civilian

The usual internal debating and spreadsheeting has been underway here for several weeks as List Season moves forward. Instead of giving you several dozens of albums this year, I give you this mix of the runners-up and soon, a Top Ten.

You can grab the zip file here. I also made a Spotify mix, because I hear the kids are into that streaming shit.

Each of these albums is worth your time. I’ve presented a favorite track off each album. I’ve linked below to earlier posts on artists I’ve covered. Otherwise, as Jeff Tweedy would say, you can use the internet, I hope.

Track List

1)  “Lost in the Trees” by Richmond Fontaine from The High Country

2)  “Killing Time is Murder” by Whitehorse from Whitehorse

3)  “Haunted Heart” by little hurricane from Homewrecker

4)  “Road to Ruin Woman” by Brett DeTar from Bird in the Tangle

5)  “When We Were Wicked” by Glossary from Long Live All of Us

6)  “Hopeless” by Riviera from Watching Western Skies (EP)

7)  “Tamer Animals” by Other Lives from Tamer Animals

8)  “Resurrection” by Megafaun from Megafaun

9)  “Happy Banjo” by Dark Mean from Dark Mean

10) “Steve Earle” by Lydia Loveless from Indestructible Machine

11) “Outside” by Roadside Graves from We Can Take Care of Ourselves

12) “Hiway/Fevers” by A.A. Bondy from Believers

13) “Blood and Guts” by Middle Brother from Middle Brother

14) “Runner Ups” by Kurt Vile from Smoke Ring For My Halo

15) “Alone in this Together” by Star Anna and the Laughing Dogs from Alone in This Together

You can get full song details here. As always, drunken rambling comments are strongly encouraged.

Courtesy Tier is a two-piece, New-York based guitar and drums duo that caught my ear during an inbox sweep recently, and I haven’t been able to stop listening since. They’ve been providing a dreamy rock soundtrack to a lot of fall walks and drives around Northern California these last two months.

Omer and Layton are one of those two-somes who make sounds that sound too full to have been created by just two people.  It’s easy- but somehow inadequate – to describe their sound as blues rock. It’s hooky, addictive and ranges from gritty and foot-stomping to haunting and restrained with some great harmonies and the occasional killer broken-heart lyric.

Turn up the volume. Call me a fan. Just don’t ask what the band name means.

Right now, you can grab their EP, Holy Hot Fire, and LP, The Resolution, for free on their website.

Courtesy Tier: Calling Out

Courtesy Tier: Alright Mama

Below is the video for “Home,” the first in a series by Zoe Hiigli to be released in the coming months.

Here’s a sneak preview of some things to look for in early 2012.

Sharon VanEtten: “Serpents”

Sharon VanEtten: Serpents

Tramp will be released on Jagjaguwar on February 7th.

Heartless Bastards: “Parted Ways”

You can trade your email for a download of the mp3 at their website.

Arrows will be released on Partisan Records February 14th.

Damien Jurado: “Nothing Is The News”

Preview the new track over at HearYa.com.

Maraqopa will be released on Secretly Canadian February 21st.

Justin Townes Earle: “Nothing is Going to Change the Way You Feel About Me Now”

The not-yet-named album will be released on Bloodshot Records in March or April.