We’re deep into winter now, a little more than a week past a snowstorm that made going outside feel like cosplaying The Thing. While winter touring gets back underway, Nashville musicians have heaps of great records for you. The Scene’s music writers have nine new recommendations. Add ’em to your streaming queue, pick them up from your favorite record store, or buy directly from the artists on Bandcamp. The Bandcamp Friday promotion — in which the platform, which has had some recent struggles, waives its cut of sales for a 24-hour period — returns on Feb. 2.
The BlackSon, Take Some Time for Yourself (Black City)
On Christmas, standout spoken-word-inspired rapper The BlackSon gave us a present — in the form of 10 brief meditations on what we do with time and what its passage can do for us (and to us). Like Brian Brown’s Two Minute Drill or Tierra Whack’s Whack World, Take Some Time for Yourself takes advantage of creative constraints — most tracks run one minute or less. In this follow-up to his long-form multimedia project Do Something Important, The BlackSon keeps his mood and delivery fluid over an impressive variety of beats. He does a lot with very little on “Time for Self,” using every available element to illuminate the tricky balance between self-care and all the other demands of professional life. STEPHEN TRAGESER
Find Take Some Time for Yourself on your favorite streaming service, and follow The BlackSon on Instagram and check out his website for updates.
Izzy Heltai, Mostly Myself Again (self-released)
Similarly, recently arrived Nashvillian Izzy Heltai’s latest EP focuses on time. Its four gently grooving narrative rock songs trace the tensions between the urgency to not waste a second — per Heltai’s liner notes, he’s inspired by the statistics stacked against trans people like himself, saying, “There’s a not-so-distant parallel universe where I didn’t make it out of my teens alive” — and the need to pace yourself and actually live your life. I’m now in my late 30s, but “25” still hits home, as Heltai sings: “So why do I try so hard I think / I could use somebody / To tell me, ‘You’re doing fine’ / To tell me I’ll get there someday.” STEPHEN TRAGESER
Steve Poulton, Exit 204 (Feisty)
During pandemic lockdown, soulful psych rocker Steve Poulton stepped outside his group The Altered Statesman to record this infectious six-song EP. Produced by Poulton and Joe V. McMahan at McMahan’s Wow and Flutter studio, the record has a trippy, groovy, unrushed vibe that makes you want to get up and sway. The most interesting track is “The Fastest Man,” for which Poulton had Kevin Gordon write lyrics. The song is about Negro League baseball star Cool Papa Bell, who was so fast that even Olympic sprint champion Jesse Owens wouldn’t race him, as Poulton sings: “I was the fastest man / How fast you ask? / Faster than that.” DARYL SANDERS
Bryan Ruby, Diamonds Are Forever (Rubies in the Rough)
Bryan Ruby has a honey-bourbon voice that was destined for country music, but he took an unusual path. Before trying his hand at songwriting, he played in a variety of international pro baseball leagues; when he came out in 2021, he was the first active pro player to do so in the sport. Ruby continues his advocacy for LGBTQ players (and his support for bringing an MLB team to Nashville), but he started his next inning with the six-track Diamonds Are Forever. The collection is piled high with ’90s-style country songs that run fast right down the middle: nostalgia, tales of true love and all the baseball puns you can stomach. But even if sports aren’t your thing, Ruby’s duet with fellow pioneer queer country singer Ty Herndon on “The Standouts” showcases Ruby’s astute songwriting and his inviting voice that makes bold change and independence sound like plain common sense. RACHEL CHOLST
Find Diamonds are Forever on your favorite streaming service or via this handy link, and follow Ruby on Instagram for updates.
Howling Giant, Glass Future (Magnetic Eye)
Psych-metal power trio Howling Giant tells a series of thematically varied tales across Glass Future, making it a musical sci-fi anthology instead of a concept album. Such lyrical high points as “Juggernaut” point to the myth-building wizardry of Mastodon. Sonic soundscapes range from “Siren Song,” which shifts spacey stoner rock into hyperdrive, to the bong-passing-paced slow-burner “There’s Time Now.” Across those songs and others, enchanting vocal harmonies by all three members — bassist Sebastian Baltes, guitarist Tom Polzine and drummer Zach Wheeler — plus organ, piano and synth flourishes via regular collaborator Drew David Harakal II make for a truly eclectic set of songs that rarely fit any extreme metal subgenre box. ADDIE MOORE
Josie Toney, Extra (Like You Mean It)
A record that’s been jostled around in my queue for far too long is Josie Toney’s Extra, released in April. You’ll likely have seen the singer and multi-instrumentalist on the road with ace roots musician Sierra Ferrell, or maybe during one of her 2023 residency runs at Dee’s Country Cocktail Lounge. With assists from friends like Rachel Baiman, Miss Tess and Chris Scruggs, Toney takes the spotlight in fine form on this set informed by string-band, blues and Western swing music. The sound is old-school, but the themes are timeless: The originals and the classics here explore loneliness and isolation in a world that’s rushing by. STEPHEN TRAGESER
The Orbit Sound, Raw Stuff of the Cosmos (Silver Globe)
Too many young producers work like overenthusiastic decoupage artists, slapping parts together until their finished tracks are as impenetrably dense as a neutron star. The creations of Nashville’s The Orbit Sound feel so organic — grown and cultivated, rather than just assembled. In December, TOS released a cassette with some of the producer’s favorite tracks of the year. Each part of the organism is necessary for Raw Stuff of the Cosmos to survive. The laid-back disco beats of “Seems as Tho,” the sporadic single bass notes behind “Steady Hand,” and the ska-kissed blue-beat organ grooves in “Geodes” are all perfectly executed techniques that put this collection over the top. P.J. KINZER
Tayls, The Darkest Light (self-released)
Nashville mainstays Tayls, the pop-rock megaband led by frontman Taylor Cole, released The Darkest Light in October, bringing together five singles released by the band across 2022 and 2023 that were each accompanied by a delightfully chaotic music video. The record ebbs and flows like a backcountry stream, bubbling through the psychedelic, poppy “Universe Is Crumbly” — whose music video looks like Mad Max sponsored by Party City — and flowing lazily in and out of “Living Mistake,” a self-deprecating bop whose visual stars Cole as a unicorn. The Darkest Light plays to all of Tayls’ strengths with the arena-ready choruses of The Killers and the infectious humanity of Grouplove. These 20 minutes of pure emotion might just become your perfect winter soundtrack. HANNAH CRON
Find The Darkest Light on your favorite streaming service, and keep up with Tayls on Instagram for updates.
Tim Carroll, Different Day (self-released)
Longtime Nashville rock ’n’ roller Tim Carroll writes and plays in a New Wave-meets-blues idiom on his latest album. The tone of Different Day might evoke, say, J.J. Cale’s relaxed take on blues and rock, and Carroll sings in a casual voice that sometimes sounds a little caustic. There’s nothing fancy about the album, and Carroll’s vocals are set modestly in the mix. He has mastered an approach to rock that sounds like a slightly Nashville-ized version of punk-pop of the late ’70s. The modified blues shuffle of “Let Yourself Be” churns under a dialogue of abrasive guitar licks, and the song ends up sounding wobbly and oddly hopeful. Meanwhile, “Needle Hits the Groove” combines a flat Rolling Stones groove with dirty guitar work and a lyric about having a party, though you might wonder about the context. Different Day is a party record with depth — Carroll remains an underrated songwriter with a sardonic eye for human behavior. EDD HURT
