As autumn rolls majestically by, Nashville artists keep releasing heaps of great records. The Scene’s music writers have eight new recommendations for you — add ’em to your streaming queue or pick them up from your favorite local record store. Or snatch them up during Bandcamp Friday, the promotion in which the platform waives its cut of sales for a 24-hour period. Bandcamp Friday returns today, Nov. 4, and several of our picks are available to buy directly from the artists there, too.
TSU Aristocrat of Bands, The Urban Hymnal (self-released)
For decades, Tennessee State University football and basketball games have been enriched by the vigorous musical performances and presentations of its brilliant Aristocrat of Bands, one of the nation's premier marching bands. With a proud history that ranges from being the first HBCU band to appear on national television in the 1950s to marching in the Rose Parade this year, the Aristocrat of Bands is unsurpassed in terms of precision, flamboyance and musical sophistication. Their newest project is the 10-track album The Urban Hymnal, released at the end of September. It superbly combines elegant arrangements with exuberant vocals, offering the best in both polished band voicings and earnest, spirit-filled vocal performances as well as rousing evangelistic messages — a modern gospel and R&B feel blended with classic marching-band energy. Producer Sir the Baptist called on the expertise of folks like Dallas Austin (who executive-produced the music for 2002’s Drumline) to blend that classic marching-band energy with a modern gospel and R&B feel in the studio. Among other key contributors are band director Reginald McDonald and assistant band director Larry Jenkins, as well as gospel greats like Kierra Sheard. RON WYNN
Find The Urban Hymnal on your favorite streaming platform.
Rashad tha Poet, S-Wrap and The Varsity, The Other Side Too (self-released)
Last year, top-notch MCs and spoken-word artists Rashad tha Poet and S-Wrap dropped The Other Side, a spoken-word concept record in which the duo focuses on believing in yourself and maintaining long-term goals. The music part of the collection is no afterthought; the project was conceived partly to join in a concerted effort to flood The Recording Academy with great spoken-word releases to consider for Grammy nominations. For the follow-up, the pair teamed up with production crew The Varsity and brewed up The Other Side Too, a collection of six new pieces (released with their companion instrumental tracks) that continues the story. Among the standouts is the groovy “New Day,” which leans into celebrating the good times as a way to recharge yourself. STEPHEN TRAGESER
Find The Other Side Too on your favorite streaming platform.
Hailey Whitters, Raised (Pigasus/Big Loud/Songs and Daughters)
Like a straight-shooting successor to Loretta Lynn, Iowa-born country singer and songwriter Hailey Whitters stepped up big with the March release of Raised. A near-perfect mix of small-town nostalgia and take-no-shit attitude — plus magnetic vocals — the LP is smartly written and thoughtful but still fun, presenting the Midwestern life as colorful and vibrant, if not always idyllic. With its hand-clapped hook and down-home-diva theme, “Everything She Ain’t” feels like something Lizzo might sing in another universe, and has begun pushing into country radio’s upper echelons. CHRIS PARTON
Find Raised at your favorite record store or on your favorite streaming platform.
Ashley McBryde, Lindeville (Warner Music Nashville)
Ashley McBryde’s Lindeville skirts the backwaters of local color, but this is an album that combines the approaches of novelty-country auteurs The Statler Brothers and The Who’s 1967 The Who Sell Out. Like The Who’s foray into psychedelic pop, Lindeville — named for songwriter and singer Dennis Linde, who released Todd Rundgren-esque solo albums in the ’70s and wrote country hits like The Chicks’ 1999 “Goodbye Earl” — features mock commercials. As McBryde and collaborators that include Brandy Clark and producer John Osborne envision it, the South is a region where Jesus still loves the losers who populate the bars and cut-rate grocery stores that constitute the local culture. The commercials work in a post-Green Acres mode — I particularly like “Ronnie’s Pawn Shop.” The Statlers, not to mention Keith Moon, would be proud. EDD HURT
Find Lindeville at your favorite record store or on your favorite streaming platform.
Nikki Lane, Denim & Diamonds (New West)
Over the years, Americana favorite and fashion paragon Nikki Lane has earned a rep for her impeccable taste — especially when it comes to vintage, retro swagger. But in releasing her fourth album Denim & Diamonds back in September, Lane moved closer to the modern era of indie rock, with runway-ready results. Featuring a well-appointed mix of gritty and pretty, the aptly-titled set was produced and mixed by Joshua Homme (Queens of the Stone Age) and places her delicate vocal warble against a throatier sound full of low-end muscle, making her feel even more put-together than ever. CHRIS PARTON
Daniel Tashian, Night After Night (Big Yellow Dog Music)
There’s a beautiful simplicity to songsmith and producer Daniel Tashian’s new album Night After Night that harkens back to a time when records with a similar simplicity were hits on the pop, country and R&B charts. What gave those early rock records their crossover appeal was uncomplicated yet well-crafted songs with memorable lyrical hooks, and that’s the strength of Night After Night. The magic in the album’s material is not surprising. From an early age, one of Tashian’s songwriting heroes was family friend and country hitmaker Paul Kennerley, so it was like a dream come true when he collaborated with Kennerley on the nine songs included here. The songs all adhere to Kennerley’s unspoken rules of songwriting: no minor chords, hard rhymes only and more than three acoustic guitars on every song — ideally six. Tashian, who produced the record and plays almost all the instruments on it, creates a comforting and unrushed mood with relaxed arrangements built on bass, drums and multiple guitar parts that give the record a timeless quality. DARYL SANDERS
Find Night After Night at your favorite record store or on your favorite streaming platform.
Palm Ghosts, Post Preservation (Ice Queen)
The music on Palm Ghosts’ Post Preservation has a distinctive sound that cherry picks ideas from the band’s heroes while making something different from those creative building blocks. The pulsating beats and cold guitar tones establish a sound familiar to listeners of college radio in bygone eras. The group cites influences like Echo and the Bunnymen and New Order, but the sweetly noir synth pop often gives way to melodies more akin to R.E.M., early Radiohead and Pedro the Lion. They do all of that with a very simple production, stripped of excess, like dance music for introverts. After spending a lot of time on the road during the past few months, they’ll be back on home turf Nov. 30 for a gig at The 5 Spot. P.J. KINZER
Buff Cousin, Big Magic (Stay Magical/Formed by Glaciers)
Many longtime Nashville music followers will know Tyler Walker as the songwriter, producer and promoter who’s part of such high-energy posi-vibing projects as Sessy (fka Meth Dad) and the bike-centric Tour de Fun music fest. In August, he released something you might not have expected: Big Magic, a gorgeous ambient record. There are plenty of cues it’s still the same party-starting Walker you’ve come to know and love — first off, the project has the delightful name Buff Cousin. More importantly, the slowly evolving composition (divided into eight parts with titles like “Your Dog Is Your Mirror”) leaves you with the feeling that the wonders of the universe still mean something, in spite of very real tragedies and horrors. It’s big magic, containing multitudes. STEPHEN TRAGESER
Find Big Magic on your favorite streaming platform.
