Bourbon & Beyond 2026 - Line 15 (Noah Rinker, The Stews, Couch, Hey, Nothing, Bryan Martin, Penelope Road, SG Goodman)

Noah Rinker

One Liner: Low key singer songwriter country
Wikipedia Genre: No Wikipedia, but this is Americana, country, singer-songwriter
Home: Shaver Lake, CA
Day: ... 

Thoughts:  Wow.  Never heard this name in my life, and yet he's got three songs with more than 23 million streams.  He's got the sound of the new wave of Zach Bryan acolytes - Wyatt Flores, Dylan Gossett, Sam Barber, etc.  It honestly sounds really good.  he claims that his musical influences are John Mayer, Tyler Childers, and Kings of Leon.  I'd say that his lyrics are really good.  Clever without being too clever, like some crappy country people can get.  He grew up right outside of Yosemite NP, which would be a really cool place to be raised.  He started playing guitar at age 11 and has honed his songwriting ever since.  3 EPs, no albums yet.  His top song has 38.3 million streams, which I think is impressive.

Come on.  A big old yellow lab and a campfire?  This dude knows what he is aiming for.  Really pretty song though.  I like this guy - I'm going to send this stuff to the wife to enjoy.

The Stews

One Liner: Fraternity bros ripping out some rock and roll
Wikipedia Genre: No Wikipedia, but this is rock and roll, southern rock, jam-adjacent
Home: Auburn, AL
Day: ... 

Thoughts:  I was really hoping that this band was going to be a group of stewardesses in their little 1970's stewardess outfits.  I got ripped off, its just some bros.  But they are some bros on the rise.  Literal bros - two of them met through their fraternity.  They got their start out of Auburn, playing small clubs in the southeast, but since 2022 they've played a bunch of big halls and Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza, and more.  My first read on them by listening to their most popular Spotify tunes is that they sound a little raw, like they really are just a bar band from a college town.  But their 2024 full-length album (Chicken Fight) is pretty good - has a Kings of Leon rock and roll sound (which is sort of funny after the last guy said KOL was an influence).  If you have heard Dexter and the Moonrocks or Backseat Lovers, this sort of has that vibe.  Some sources online are calling them a jam band, but I don't hear that at all.  They maybe have some solos and whatnot, but this is not a noodle fest.

Their top song is from an early 2021 EP called The Stews, and the song is named "Make It Out."  You'll hear that college band rawness here, except they have now released a new 2025 version called "Radio Edit" - I guess they are hopeful about the radio!  

But if you run through that 2024 album, you get a much more polished and rock-forward sound.  I like the new stuff better.  I'd go check this out.  

Couch

One Liner: Softly jazzy pop for people who live in lofts
Wikipedia Genre: soul pop, funk pop, jazz pop, retro pop (all the pops!)
Home: Boston
Day: ... 

Thoughts:  What a great band name.  I can't believe it wasn't already taken by some mid-90's stoners who just named the band after the thing they were sitting in.  We got a Car Seat Headrest before a Couch?  So wrong.  But, if you are in the mood for some soft rock and jazzy little tunes, I have the spot for you to settle in.  Kind of reminding me of one of the ACL bands last year who I was very excited about, and then when I saw the show I was terribly bored.  Lucius. Maybe kind of Lake Street Dive too?  Her voice is lovely, the groove is funky, it ought to all be there for the enjoying.  But I don't listen to Norah Jones much anymore for a reason...  Top track, by quite a bit, is a 2019 single (their third overall song) called "Easy to Love."  12.7 million streams.

A nice sentiment and a good little groove.  Feels like the kind of band it would be fun to "see" while you sit in the shade and drink beer with your friends and sort of semi-notice that music happens to be happening.  Although , the first song on their 2025 album kind of brings the heat - "On The Wire" can get me doing some white man overbite dance moves here at my desk.  They have some covers that are kind of entertaining - "Toxic" or "Vienna" being the two obvious selections.  I think I will probably let these guys do their thing without me.

Hey, Nothing

One Liner: Truly great emo-indie by two younguns who harmonize with feeling
Wikipedia Genre: No Wikipedia, but indie
Home: Atlanta
Day: ... 

Thoughts:  Luckily for me, I already wrote a post about these cats - they were at ACL last year.  You can read that more complete post here: All Play and No Work: hey, nothing  Go check that out and enjoy.

Bryan Martin

One Liner: Generic rockin' country with trucks and guns and drankin'
Wikipedia Genre: Country
Home: Logansport, Louisiana
Day: ... 

Thoughts:  Holy hell.  Absolutely never heard of this guy, and he has a song with 413.7 million streams?  What the hell?  Ahh, its because this is some new Nashville ass country.  "Hard to make a livin' why the gas so high?" and something about 9 to 5 and Friday night and drivin' down by the creek to the water and gettin' stoooooned.  Whoooweeee!  I got a pistol by my side!  The devil's my friend!  I bet this song was featured on Yellowstone.

"We Ride" with 413.7 million streams.  That is wild for him to be down here on the 15th line of this poster with that one and then three others with more than a hundred million.  Is it because his name is hella generic?  You'd think he would rate higher on the poster than friggin' Plain White T's.

His Wikipedia bio is a hell of a ride on its own.  As a teenager, he worked on an oil rig as he played football and rode bulls.  He broke his collar bone riding bulls and developed an addiction to painkillers.  He then enlisted in the Army, attempted suicide, and started making music.  WTF man.  Save some trauma for later, buddy.  

And I figured out the popularity - "We Ride" became a TikTok thing and then he got to open for Morgan Wallen.  That will do it.  The current song I am listening to is a plodding stomper about how he will kill you if you try to come near his doublewide.  I will let someone else go watch this guy list American things over the top of generic rockin' country.

Penelope Road

One Liner: Soft pop indie made for cuddlin'
Wikipedia Genre: No Wikipedia, but indie pop, synth pop, jazzy yacht groove
Home: Atlanta
Day: ... 

Thoughts:  Quite a juxtaposition to go from Mr. Tough-Guy-Bad-Ass-Singerman up there straight into some synth pop indie made for cuddling.  Also, my grandpa-ass system for figuring out music genre may have to join the present century, as this is yet another band with no Wikipedia entry.  Come on, fellow youths!  Gimme my Wiki entries!  Although they apparently have called their music "stanky funky junk," and Wikipedia would not have given me that beautiful word salad, so maybe we are in the right place after all.

The band name comes from the road in Atlanta where several of them lived.  It sounds like they all left Atlanta for college but then came back sophomore year to try to make the band thing work out.  A funny and odd anecdote in the one interview I read with them, the lead singer says that they don't love their EP.  Which is a really weird thing to say!  "The music we released sucks, please come hear our band."  He also said they all grew up on yacht rock, which makes a lot of sense.

Not sure I'm feeling it.  Now that I hear the yacht rock influence, I can dig where that is coming from, but it actually sounds a lot like those Couch people up above with kind of a jazzy rock goof sound.  Their top songs are from that first EP that they hate, so I will give you one from the newest release.  This is "Chance Encounter" with just over a million streams.

I feel like my girls have probably done some affected TikTok to this showing their tender side or something.  I don't love it.  In "Mercy" the lead singer's voice sounds like Ben Platt.  I actually popped over to Spotify to see if they had added him as a guest.  This will sound rude, but this feels like a band that will break up soon.

SG Goodman

One Liner: Americana leaning into lite rock and roll with great lyrics
Wikipedia Genre: Americana, folk, country, rock
Home: Hickman, KY
Day: ... 

Thoughts:  When I saw this on the poster, I figured it was S.L. Houser, who was at ACL last year and offers music lessons for Austinites.  Nope, another lady using initials to confuse and entertain.  (also, not L.P. Giobbi or M.J. Lenderman, who were both at ACL last year.  Initial Artists for all!).

She is pretty good!  She was raised in Hickman, Kentucky, which is a tiny town on the Mississippi River, in that little key-tip of Kentucky.  I have never been to Kentucky.  I am realizing, looking at the map, that it is just north of Tennessee (where I have been), and just south of Ohio, Indiana, and Missouri (where I have never been).  Maybe I need to rent a car and go see all of those exciting other states.

She was raised in the Southern Baptist church and says she went three times a week.  That seems like too much church, but I think I did the same with Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night.  Good times.  She has also been driving since she was seven, which is apparently legal in Kentucky.

The tunes are kind of a mix of Sierra Ferrell's quasi-country Americana and Lucinda Williams' soulful, rockin' Americana.  I have been enjoying it quite a bit.  She got started in 2017 with an album with something called The Savage Radley, and then 2020 was her solo debut.  Produced by Jim James of My Morning Jacket, I think it has a cool combined sound.  That one includes her most popular song, "Space and Time," with 10.1 million streams.

Tyler Childers covered this later, likely being the reason it launched into popularity.  Here and there, that little vibrato she does for a second in the second line can get to be too much in some of these songs, but overall, I think she is a really good songwriter with some good chill vibes.  Like "Snapping Turtle," where you believe she is about to join some kids in torturing a turtle before she turns the stick on those little shits and makes them cry - I can see it all in my mind's eye and I really like it.  I'd go watch her.