Musicians across Music City continue the proliferation of excellent records, and the Scene’s music writers have eight new recommendations for you. Add ’em to your streaming queue or pick them up from your favorite record store. Many of our picks are also available to buy directly from artists on Bandcamp, and Bandcamp Friday — the recurring promotion in which the platform waives its cut of sales for a 24-hour period — is back Aug. 4.
Single art: The BlackSon, 'Fly'
The BlackSon, “Free Lunch Theory,” “Rush,” “Baggies,” “Fly,” “Cry” (Black City)
These five singles could be their own great record, starting with the slinky-grooved “Free Lunch Theory” and wrapping with the introspective “Cry.” Together they highlight formative moments in longtime outstanding Nashville MC The BlackSon’s life, and they serve as a prologue to his Juneteenth multimedia art installation “Do Something Important” and a forthcoming mixtape of the same name. He’s always had bars for days, but here’s a reminder that his vision is even bigger. Check out his YouTube channel to see the visuals accompanying the tracks and watch for a recap video from the installation. STEPHEN TRAGESER
Find these singles on your favorite streaming service, and follow The BlackSon on Instagram for updates.
Dru the Drifter, The Sneaker (self-released)
The Sneaker keeps prolific punker Dru the Drifter (she/they/them/he) on pace to release an album per month in 2023. Impressively, quantity doesn’t outstrip quality across 14 brand-new tracks, spanning a compact 23 minutes. Standouts “Karma (Is So Funny)” and “What the Fuck Are You on About” meet the moment by being as kooky as egg punk and as abrasive as chain punk. There are also ties to the not-too-distant past, with the album’s grimiest moments evoking the garage-punk machinations of Jay Reatard, Mac Blackout and GG King. Stick around until the end for “Echo” and “Miami Airport,” which follow much different home-recording project leads than the previous tracks. ADDIE MOORE
Find The Sneaker on your favorite streaming service and follow Dru the Drifter on Instagram for updates.
Olivia Jean, Raving Ghost (Third Man)
On Raving Ghost, singer, songwriter and guitarist Olivia Jean delivers her most focused and mature album yet. With able backing from keyboardists Roger Joseph Manning Jr. (Jellyfish) and Bo Koster (My Morning Jacket), drummers Patrick Keeler (The Raconteurs) and Carla Azar (Autolux, Jack White, T Bone Burnett), bassist Erica Salazar and rhythm guitarist Alex Windsor, the Detroit native hits a sweet spot with an updated garage-rock vision informed by classic hard rock, surf rock, goth and punk. Like Olivia Jean’s previous solo albums, Raving Ghost is full of memorable hooks, both lyrical and musical. But on this, her third full-length recording for co-producer and husband Jack White’s Third Man label, the onetime frontwoman of The Black Belles has forged a sound that is more clearly her own — and highly addictive. DARYL SANDERS
J. Childers, Threshhold (Lite Being)
When I came to Nashville in 2018, Jonathon Childers and his three Blank Range cohorts were among the most talked-about bands in town — and for good reason, delivering down-home American rock ’n’ roll originals with big hooks and huge heart. The band dissolved — amicably, if far too soon for fans — before the pandemic. Since shows started back up after lockdown, the rural Illinois native has hinted at an ambient solo turn, which he’s now delivered. The far-out work on late-’70s and early-’80s records by classic-rock luminaries — Neil Young, Steve Miller, Van Morrison — looms large over Threshold’s half-dozen hypnotic, synth-driven movements. Peaking with the long-form highlight “Inner Everything,” it’s a blissful listen throughout, and resounding proof of life after buzz-band status. CHARLIE ZAILLIAN
Lord Goldie, Trap Conscious 2 (Live) (Rare Breed)
Following strong singles in 2022, Music City rap ace Lord Goldie has been clearing out her archives this year. She’s brought two older projects — Built 2 Last and her DJ Money Green collab ADHD (Another Dollar Hustlin’ Daily), both released under her earlier moniker Karizma — to streaming services. Also seeing the light of day is Trap Conscious 2 (Live), a fantastically rich and funky reimagining of cuts from 2018’s Trap Conscious EP and other singles released prior to tracking this record live in the studio in 2019. It’s highlight after highlight, but a piano-driven take on the heartbreaking “Kathleen” and a heavy-metal spin on “Flipmode” stand especially tall. STEPHEN TRAGESER
Find Trap Conscious 2 (Live) on your favorite streaming service and follow Lord Goldie on Instagram for updates.
Willie Jones & the Royal Jokers, Let’s Groove (Pravda)
Willie Jones, a masterful Detroit R&B singer, should have been a star decades ago. But it wasn’t until the intercession of a friend, fellow great vocalist Bettye LaVette, who got him on Dedicated — Steve Cropper’s 2011 tribute to The “5” Royales — that things began turning around for Jones. The session hooked him up with Music City production maestro Jon Tiven, and at 86, Jones has cut the definitive recorded statement he always wanted to make. Tiven not only helmed the session, but plays guitar, sax and organ on it, adding the tremendous guitar licks underneath Jones’ dynamic lead on “The Road From Rags to Riches.” LaVette comes onboard for a wonderful duet with Jones on “Without Redemption,” while Frank Black and Chuck Mead also take turns working with Jones on “Janie, Turn It Over” and “What Took Ya.” Given the stranglehold that soulless corporate bean counters have on urban contemporary radio, a whole lot of folks who love heartfelt, urgent artistic performance may miss this. But any fan anxious to know great, real soul singing still exists should be thrilled to hear Let’s Groove. RON WYNN
Matthew Killough, Oh, Siloam (Produtron Rex)
Guitarist and singer Matthew Killough has a deft way with the advanced harmonies of post-Bert Jansch music, and he sings in a voice that’s stone country. Killough grew up in Georgia and lived in Colorado before he moved to Nashville in 2018. He bears down on the modal melodies he favors throughout Oh, Siloam, which registers as post-country by virtue of Killough’s gift for narrative on tunes like “Jimmy Holden’s Wife.” He controls the tone of his guitar playing perfectly on “Calcimine Blue” and the instrumental “Song for Meg.” Oh, Siloam peaks with the title track, which includes this couplet: “If you’re reading this I’m gone / No need to wail and cry.” File Oh, Siloam with recent work by fellow Tennessee guitarist Joseph Allred and Richard Thompson’s first solo album, 1972’s doom-laden Henry the Human Fly. EDD HURT
G.U.N., G.U.N. (Sorry State)
The elusive G.U.N. recorded their newly released self-titled 12-inch for North Carolina’s Sorry State Records almost four years ago. Boasting ex-members of bygone rapid-fire destruction units like Chainshot, Life Trap and Neon Deaths — as well as current members of Snooper — G.U.N. keeps the gas pedal on the floor. Their LP is like a pan-American map of first-wave U.S. hardcore, evoking the reckless noise of early D.C. and Boston rippers, the pool-skating guitar twang of Adolescents and the nihilistic vocal detonation of Poison Idea’s Jerry A. Not only is every song a stunner, the superb audio quality and top-level packaging make the physical copy worth shelling out the bucks. P.J. KINZER
