Festivals and tours abound this summer, but musicians across Music City haven’t slowed down on giving us excellent records, and the Scene’s music writers have 12 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 the artists on Bandcamp — whose employees successfully formed a union in May — as well. The Bandcamp Friday promotion, in which the platform waives its cut of sales for a 24-hour period, is taking a break but will be back Aug. 4.
JustVibez and Negro Justice, Art of the Craft (Trïbe Over Everything)
Nashville hip-hop collective Six One Trïbe is having a massive year, with performances at SXSW, Bonnaroo and beyond as well as a wide variety of new releases. Don’t sleep on the follow-up to Negro Justice’s 2022 standout Chosen Family. Over lush, soul-kissed beats by JustVibez, Justice takes stock of where his membership in the collective and his own well-received work have taken him. The result lands right in a sweet spot: It rewards a close listen, but it’s also nice to have on while you take care of business (especially if that’s chilling under a fan on a hot day). STEPHEN TRAGESER
Moony, Podunk (self-released)
With exhilarating classic-punk energy, Podunk tears through six songs in 15 minutes and change; after your first listen, you feel like this record has your back in a fight. Seth Findley’s Moony project crafts soundscapes that encompass so many different styles that a listener could trip out on trying to dissect and qualify what all they’re hearing and be thoroughly left behind. There’s nothing mercenary about what Findley is doing. He’s not chasing trends or cushioning impacts, but instead deploying a sound that is Now, without tossing out signifiers or emotional on-ramps. JASON SHAWHAN
Find Podunk on your favorite streaming service with this handy link, and follow Moony on Instagram for updates.
Karina Daza, Viajera (self-released)
Indie artist Karina Daza’s pursuit of music brought her from her native New York to Spain and eventually to Nashville. So her EP title Viajera fits both her biography and her seven-track release’s Latin alternative style. The singer flexes her powerful vocals across soundscapes that mix folk and jazz with Latin American styles. Viajera carries through it a spirit of adventure from the opening title track with its rumbling percussion and crunchy guitar; the mood soars on “No Pasa Na,” featuring Gaby Moreno. ALEJANDRO RAMIREZ
Find Viajera on your favorite streaming service via this handy link, and follow Daza on Instagram for updates.
Lucinda Williams, Stories From a Rock ’n’ Roll Heart (Highway 20/Thirty Tigers)
The modified blues-rock Lucinda Williams favored on 2020’s Good Souls Better Angels put across the Americana singer-songwriter’s political musings with a minimum of fuss. After suffering a stroke in 2020 that left her unable to play guitar, Williams cut her new LP, out June 30, in a classic-rock mode that touches on, say, the style of Lou Reed in the ’80s and ’90s. For the most part, the songs are fairly simple ready-mades, but Williams applies her patented sweet-and-sour vocals to tunes that cast a retrospective light on the life of a Southern-bred outlaw musician who sounds a lot like Lucinda Williams. In “New York Comeback,” the album also contains a built-in critique of critics: “The writers have to hit their deadline / But maybe something will unfold.” Let’s hope that’s true. EDD HURT
Find Stories From a Rock ’n' Roll Heart on Williams' website or at your favorite record store.
Robin Eaton, Memories of a Misspent Youth (Club Roar)
On Memories of a Misspent Youth, Robin Eaton steps out of his usual role as producer and songwriter and delivers what may well be Nashville’s surprise rock record of 2023. The album has an undeniable lyrical and musical hipness and sophistication that reflect a lifetime of record-making experience. Eaton shines as the primary writer, vocalist and guitarist on songs that recall past loves and past highs and lows with a deft mix of humor, sadness and 20-20 hindsight. But as he admits on the jazzy “Inner Child,” he has “no regrets for too many drugs and too much sex.” Musically, Eaton employs a number of rock styles to capture the record’s various moods, from ringing folk-rock to harder-edged and more progressive arrangements. DARYL SANDERS
Find Memories of a Misspent Youth on your favorite streaming service, and keep up with Eaton via Instagram.
Corook, serious person (part 1) (Atlantic)
After going viral with her Olivia Barton collab “If I Were a Fish,” corook has probably been stuck in your head whether you know it or not. The sweet acoustic track that celebrates self-love and dismisses internet trolls is a perfect sampler for corook’s serious person (part 1) EP. Each song is more earnest than the last, covering subjects from body image to the complexities of aging and exploring identity. If you missed their set at Nashville Pride Fest, catch their debut solo tour when it stops at Third Man Records’ Blue Room Sept. 23. HANNAH CRON
Find serious person (part 1) on your favorite streaming service, and keep up with corook on Instagram for updates.
Shadow 15, Days of Innocence 1983-85 (Take the City/Beat Generation)
In 2008, when local label Spat! Records released the 21-track Far Away CD collection of post-punkers Shadow 15, very few documents of the Reagan-era Nashville underground band could be found in record stores. Now Barcelona punk labels Take the City and Beat Generation have co-released Days of Innocence 1983-85, a stellar 12-inch with 10 of the standout tunes on the Spat! comp (though strangely, not the actual song “Days of Innocence”). While Shadow 15 are often compared to The Wipers or Hüsker Dü, there is a similarity to the bleak skate rock of Agent Orange and moody Scotsmen Josef K. P.J. KINZER
Mike Maimone, Mookie’s Big Gay Mixtape (Mile Too Far)
If searching for a shortcut portmanteau to encompass Nashville treasure and impeccable thirst trapper Mike Maimone, you could do worse than “Dr. John Grant,” melding the latter’s erudite social X-rays and queer queries with the former’s boisterous barroom piano promenades. But even amid the joyful mood roulette of Mookie’s Big Gay Mixtape, you get a feel for the emotional undertow that lurks just beyond some of the pleasant party vibes (“Unfollow” may be the catchiest dance-floor rendezvous about untangling social media with an ex) and the evening of scales (a gloriously menacing take on “Before He Cheats”). After the unexpected death of Maimone’s husband just before Mookie’s release, the ballads’ impact is harder, the party jams and interludes feel like safety valves, and a wrenching take on Tina Turner’s “Simply the Best” hits like Closing Time-era Tom Waits. JASON SHAWHAN
Robyn Hitchcock, Life After Infinity (Tiny Ghost)
Robyn Hitchcock follows 2022’s brilliant Shufflemania! with an inspired collection of original instrumentals mostly recorded in co-producer Charlie Francis’ attic in Cardiff, Wales. Hitchcock takes center stage on a variety of stringed instruments with Francis providing accompaniment on bass and percussion. Hitchcock is an acclaimed lyricist, but he’s an accomplished guitarist and melodist too, as he reminds us with his outstanding work on Life’s 11 tracks, ranging from the traditional pop of “Mr. Ringerson’s Picnic” and rootsy rock of “Tubby Among the Nightingales” to more sonically experimental and atmospheric fare like “Veronica’s Chapel” and “Plesiosaurs in the Desert.” DARYL SANDERS
Rodney Crowell, The Chicago Sessions (New West)
Back in 1978, Rodney Crowell was touted as the new Gram Parsons, and Crowell’s great tune from that era, “I Ain’t Living Long Like This,” has become a much-covered outlaw-country classic. Crowell tried his hand at pop country in the ’80s, and he’s written hit songs for the likes of Lee Ann Womack and Wynonna Judd. The Chicago Sessions pairs the great Nashville songwriter and singer with Wilco leader Jeff Tweedy, who produced the album in a pleasingly recessive folk-rock mode. It’s an unclassifiable record by a true master — you’ll hear hints of blues throughout, but “You’re Supposed to Be Feeling Good” and “Everything at Once” are as ace as songwriting gets. EDD HURT
Venus & the Flytraps, Venus in Love (Tone Tree)
Venus & the Flytraps have been exceptionally busy in 2023, including dates opening for Samia, two appearances at Bonnaroo and a blowout release party for their second EP Venus in Love. Singer-guitarist Brenna Kassis and singer Cece Tomé’s work practically begs to be made into the soundtrack of the next great coming-of-age movie. Songs like “Scaredy Pants” and “Red Hot” cover the full scale of the angst experienced by most every teen and 20-something with blistering grunge-schooled fury. HANNAH CRON
Find Venus in Love on your favorite streaming service, and follow Venus & the Flytraps on Instagram for updates.
Domestic Bliss, Domestic Bliss (self-released)
Domestic Bliss, the self-titled debut from longtime musicians and recently married couple Lilly Hiatt and Coley Hinson is so much fun that I missed my exit on the way home and I didn’t care. It’s a joyful and thoughtful blend; the pair’s folk, soul and psych influences share equal territory. There are love songs like the sweet “Bail” and “Mercury,” as well as “Plan B,” about things not working out like you’d hoped. In closer “When All of Your Heroes Are Dead,” the duo looks at the struggle to find your place in the world, which goes on long after you’ve found your partner for life.
