Jewly Hight

S.G. Goodman composed parts of her new album, <em>Teeth Marks</em>, to evoke the feeling of traumatic experiences building up in the body.

S.G. Goodman leaves 'Teeth Marks' in Southern stereotypes

Jewly Hight

A songwriter with a rural Kentucky zip code and a philosophy degree, Goodman has thoughts to spare on small-town life, bottled trauma and the ways that both are misunderstood.

From NPR Music

The New Respects, 'Don't Worry'

Jewly Hight

On "Don't Worry," the members of the Nashville family band are earnestly playful architects of groove-powered pop uplift.

Naomi Judd (right) and Wynonna Judd perform during the 2008 Stagecoach Country Music Festival in Indio, Calif.

From NPR Music

Naomi Judd embodied the role of country music's 'mother' — and helped to expand it

Jewly Hight

Alongside her daughter Wynonna, Naomi Judd, who died on April 30, willed one of the most riveting acts in country music into being through persistence and sacrifice.

Since the start of her career, Bonnie Raitt's performance of roadhouse rockers, pop ballads, funky sophistication and plenty else has evidenced a deep understanding of mutuality and its absence. Her new album, <em>Just Like That...</em>, is out April 22.

From NPR Music

On 'Just Like That...,' Bonnie Raitt is a model of continuity

Jewly Hight

Raitt says she has long admired artists who continued to stretch well into their careers. On her latest album, she does the same, acknowledging the passage of time without surrendering to nostalgia.

On their new albums, Morris and Tuttle are both sharpening their artistic identities while reinventing what staying invested in their genres of origin can look and sound like.

From NPR Music

Maren Morris and Molly Tuttle tell their origin stories anew

Jewly Hight

Both artists could have used their new albums to make good on their pop crossover potential. Instead, they managed to reaffirm their ties to their genres of origin without sacrificing creative growth.

From NPR Music

Erin Rae's songs of empathic, exacting quiet

Jewly Hight

For a new album, Lighten Up, the singer-songwriter brought her broadly empathetic piece of mind to to Topanga, Calif. to gain a light wash of psychedelia.

The members of Brassville. From left, back row, standing: Jonathon Neal, MarVelous Brown, Derrick Greene, Adrian Pollard, Nate McDowell; seated on bench: Marcus Chandler and Rashad Sylvester; center, seated on ground: Larry Jenkins, Jr.

From NPR Music

Brassville aims to reclaim the deep scope of Nashville music history, stage by stage

Jewly Hight

A contemporary brass band that grew out of one of Nashville's historically Black universities is helping to expand the lost musical identity of the country capital.

Mickey Guyton, Adia Victoria and Chapel Hart's Devynn Hart have made the industry a more welcoming place for others who look like them.

From NPR Music

How Black women reclaimed country and Americana music in 2021

Andrea Williams

Black women leveraged the power of streaming platforms and social media to bridge the chasms previously carved by labels, publishers and radio.

"Some of the work is deliberately remaining outside of the structure," says musician and advocate Lilli Lewis of the efforts of Black musicians to make it in country and roots music industries. "We want to center different values and it's really difficult to do that from inside." Lewis just released a new album called <em>Americana.</em>

From NPR Music

New roots: Black musicians and advocates are forging coalitions outside the system

Jewly Hight

The mostly white country and folk music industries remain frustratingly difficult for Black musicians to enter. During one of Nashville's biggest events, one group envisioned a new pathway in.

From NPR Music

The Journey Took Madi Diaz To Creating Her New Album, 'History Of A Feeling'

Jewly Hight

Madi Diaz had much to process leading up to her new album, History of a Feeling: moving home to Nashville from L.A., reestablishing herself as a solo artist and splitting from her partner.