Adia Victoria (left); Patrick Damphier by Satellite June; Blank Range
As we kick off the last year of the 2010s, the landscape of the music industry continues to change. Even within the broader sociopolitical chaos, there are positive signs, like the updates to federal copyright law promised in the Music Modernization Act and public conversations about ending the sexism and discrimination that make the business less fair and less safe for women and members of the LGBT community. Those kinds of developments put the dazzlingly diverse music being made in Nashville in an even better light, and make running down our list of new local releases to watch for in 2019 even more exciting.
When I spoke with rapper Daisha McBride for our Year in Music issue, she mentioned plans for several releases throughout 2019. Those include a single in January followed by a full-length in February, produced by her fellow MTSU alumni and frequent collaborators, Big Bruno and SCi-FY, and featuring pop and R&B tracks as well as hip-hop. “I feel like this project will really give people a better understanding of me and what I do,” McBride says in a follow-up email. “I’m excited!” Virghost (MC and founder of the Villematic showcase series, whose collective Capitol Minds released the excellent full-length Independent Minds in 2018) has a new album on the way, too — watch for Good Intentions on Feb. 1.
Following his hiatus-breaking third solo album Boarding House Reach, former White Stripe and current Third Man Records honcho Jack White keeps going with another much-loved project. In December, The Raconteurs released their first new music since 2008, and if the singles “Sunday Driver” and “Now That You’re Gone” are anything to go by, the full album (due on a date TBA) will be prized by the rock fans in the house. Silences, the second LP (out Feb. 22) by blues-expanding ace Adia Victoria, isn’t a Third Man release, but she previewed it with a panel discussion on the history of black art and its roles in activism followed by a powerful concert and poetry reading at TMR’s Blue Room.
Continuing in a rock-adjacent vein, Blank Range’s second LP In Unison is coming Feb. 1, the same day Deer Tick is set to release a compilation of alternative versions of original songs (plus some covers) called Mayonnaise, and producer-engineer Patrick Damphier’s wide-ranging debut Say I’m Pretty (featuring contributions from many outstanding players he’s worked with) is out. The folks over at Infinity Cat Records are tight-lipped about the second album from top-shelf rock trio Daddy Issues, but they confirm it’s slated for 2019.
Meanwhile, Sweet Lizzy Project, who brought a blend that includes soul and alt-rock with them when they moved to Nashville from Cuba, will release an LP called Technicolor this spring via The Mavericks’ Mono Mundo Recordings. Justin and the Cosmics, one of Nashville’s finest and least-heralded rock groups, have an as-yet-unnamed album expected by the summer, and Bowling Green-bred rockers Cage the Elephant have announced that the follow-up to their 2015 LP Tell Me I’m Pretty is ready to go. No word on the title or release date yet, but we do know it was recorded with local producer-engineer Jeremy Ferguson at his Battle Tapes studio.
Following the Ferguson thread, his recent projects also include Lambchop’s This (is what I wanted to tell you), set for release on March 22. The record is built around collaborations between Lambchop frontman Kurt Wagner and Matt McCaughan (brother of Superchunk and Merge Records co-founder Mac McCaughan). The pre-release track “The December-ish You” struck me as what Babyface might sound like working with, say, Chicago experimentalists Bitchin Bajas.
Cassette-based label Banana Tapes has a full slate planned for the first quarter of the year, including a release in January from winds/percussion/beats master JayVe Montgomery, performing as Abstract Black, and a new record in February from dream-pop outfit Lawndry. The label also has big plans for the month they’ve dubbed Experimental March, during which they’ll release runs of 25 copies each of experimental works from as many artists as possible. Abstract Black and also-local Courtney Reese, as well as a New Orleans outfit called Sharks’ Teeth have all signed on, with more to come.
If you prefer stripped-down production, you’ve got plenty to look forward to as well. Cale Tyson expands on his melancholy 2018 single “What Doesn’t Kill You,” which earned lots of Elliott Smith comparisons, with a four-track EP titled Narcissist, due Feb. 1. Mary Bragg’s self-produced and self-recorded Violets as Camouflage will be out March 1. The release date has not been announced for former Civil Wars singer Joy Williams’ second solo LP, Front Porch, produced by The Milk Carton Kids’ Kenneth Pattengale.
Shifting over to the Nashville pop world, where the songwriting is also phenomenally strong, Daniella Mason continues her four-part “State of Mine” EP series with Physical State, Spiritual State and Mental State, in the wake of the excellent Emotional State, which she dropped in October. Music City native EZA has signed to a Sony imprint called Same Plate and has a full-length follow-up to her groove-heavy 2016 EP Dead Reckoning coming in 2019, likely in the summer. Super Duper, the producer whose work you heard on R.LUM.R’s hit “Frustrated,” is set to follow his 2018 EP VHS with another EP, yet to be titled, sometime this spring. We also hear through the grapevine that Biyo, whose handful of tunes helped put them on a Bonnaroo tent stage in 2018, is in the final stages of making a full-length.
And the list goes on. Dreamy, electronically enhanced pop outfit Creature Comfort has an eye on the end of summer for their second album Home Team, which they made with Athens, Ga., engineer Drew Vandenberg (known for his work with Of Montreal, among others). Smart Objects, the most recent project led by master pop songsmith Benjamin A. Harper, plan to follow a string of great singles with a full-length, slated for summer. Okey Dokey, Aaron Martin and Johny Fisher’s stellar pop-slash-rock group, is set to release its second album Tell All Your Friend with a show Jan. 25 at Mercy Lounge. Melodic and thoughtful champs Sun Seeker have promised their debut full-length in 2019, but no date has been fixed.
Michael Eades (whose YK Records is releasing the aforementioned Patrick Damphier album) highlights items on his calendar including Sinister Hand, the twisting and turning full-length from The Mute Group (out Jan. 31), and The Robe, the self-titled electronic project from longtime local MVP Rollum Haas (date TBA). Cold Lunch Recordings’ Caroline Bowman reports that the label has an EP from art-punks Z on deck for the spring and an EP from shoegazers Hari in the summer, as well as a 7-inch split featuring local psych-rockers Lasso Spells on one side and Seattle’s Forest Ray on the other, which you can look for in March.
There’s a constant barrage of info on forthcoming records by Nashvillians. (We’ll even include William Tyler, who placed third as Best Instrumentalist in our 2018 Best of Nashville readers’ poll, even though he moved to Los Angeles a couple of years back. His new record Goes West is out Jan. 25.) Keep an eye on nashvillescene.com for updates.
