Bourbon & Beyond 2026 - Line 17 (Ben Chapman, Clover County, Nathan Bess, Palmyra, Kevin Kraemer, Ryman)

Ben Chapman

One Liner: His bio calls this Country-Fried Funky-Tonk
Wikipedia Genre: no Wikipedia, but this is southern rock and country and Americana
Home: Lafayette, GA (but now Nashville)
Day: Friday

Thoughts: Pretty darned good.  Like if Stapleton had a regular guy's voice.  But a pretty good mix of country and rock that has been keeping me entertained this morning.  He sniffs around the edge of jammy stuff here and there too.  I dig it.  Top track is "Georgia Dreamin'" with 488k streams.

Clover County

One Liner: Country that veers into a folky pop at times, but sounds great in either
Wikipedia Genre: No Wikipedia, but country, Americana, folky pop
Home: Athens, GA (via Orlando and many other spots)
Day: Sunday

Thoughts:  The first song kind of came at me like a Dayglow vibe, and then she kicks in the singing and it is alluring.  I've been through the whole catalog (not a huge feat, relatively limited) and that holds throughout.  Walks a fine line between country and folky pop, that sort of brings to mind people like Sierra Ferrell at times.

No Wikipedia, so I have to piece together a background from elsewhere.  Her website bio says she was raised in Central Florida.  According to Wikipedia, that is usually defined as Tampa to Orlando.  Sounds like a deliciously trashy section of the world.  She began songwriting at the age of 13, teaching herself to play on her dad's "collection of 1980's songbooks."  The idea of a songbook today is hilarious.  I had (maybe still have) one of Robert Earl Keen songs from when I thought I would play guitar.  Until I tried playing the dang F chord.  That one broke me.

A.G. Schiano is her real name.  The name Clover County is an homage to the places she has lived.  Orlando to Denver to Atlanta to Birmingham to Athens (to attend UGA).  Thats a fun string of towns to me.  But they don't seem especially prone to clovers?  Ah, no, this is metaphorical: "“Clover County'' represents a state of mind, no matter where you’re planted you have the choice to grow."  Are clovers especially hearty?  Feels like weeds would be the heartiest and able to grow no matter what.  I guess Weed County brings to mind a different vibe.

A couple of singles and then one 2024 EP called Porch Lights.  To track is "Ultraviolet" from the EP, with 1.2 million streams.

That bright and sunny start is cool, and her voice comes in with a lilt of country but joins in on the bopping of the beat.  By the chorus, she just sounds like she's singing a pop song.  I like it.  "Under These Conditions" is also on the new EP, and is her second-most streamed with 577k.

A little more stripped down, but the steel on the chorus and that piano joining in makes the song for me.  That is a really nice song.  I am going to share it with the wife right now.

I'd go watch this for sure.  

Nathan Bess

One Liner: Another Zach Bryan-ish bro
Wikipedia Genre: no Wikipedia, but this is southern rock and country and Americana
Home: Charleston, WV
Day: Friday

Thoughts: A full-time firefighter!  That is pretty cool.  Dude is very much reminding me of the Zach Bryan/Tyler Childers tree of spare, lo-fi country music.  Two 2024 EPs are all that is available on Spotify, so he is pretty new to releasing tunes.  It sounds good.  Top track is "Somethin' About the Smell" with 7.1 million streams.

That is a real ass mustache right there.  Damn!  I never really considered whether cocaine would have a smell.  I assume it does, so that drug dogs can ferret it out, but it seems like people just snort it away without checking out the scent.  Sad!

Palmyra

One Liner: Like alt-country Dr. Dog
Wikipedia Genre: no Wikipedia, but this is alt-country, bluegrass, indie folk
Home: VA
Day: Friday

Thoughts: My initial comparison was the Avett Brothers.  Kind of has that sort of countrified, banjo-ized thing.  But it also reminds me of Lukas Nelson.  And some of the tunes made me think of Dr. Dog.  They're a little all over the place.  A couple EPs and one album, 2025's Restless.  Top streamer was an early tune called "Happy Pills."  584k streams.

I was not expecting the lead singer to look like that.  That is one where I feel like I hear Dr. Dog.  I let this stuff play for a good bit today, and I liked it.  Better than I expected.

Kevin Kraemer

One Liner: Catchy pop dance music
Wikipedia Genre: no Wikipedia, but this is indie pop
Home: Asbury Park, NJ
Day: Friday

Thoughts: I'm way more bothered by the spelling of his last name than I should be.  Also, this is butt-ass pop music and I need to hurry up and write so I can move on.  I mean, that is too harsh.  It is pretty catchy pop that seems like it would be fun to dance to.  But it also feels like he is just another model-esque pop singer without anything under the surface.  One track definitely bigger than the others - "Attention" has 15.4 million streams (and no other cracks 2 million ).

I do not want for him to point at me anymore.  I’m sure that he is a lovely young man and that my daughters love these songs because of TikTok, but I do not want to see it.

Ryman

One Liner: Falsetto-fied indie pop kind of like a white Khalid
Wikipedia Genre: no Wikipedia, but he called it barn pop.  Sure.
Home: Nashville
Day: Sunday

Thoughts: Feels bold to name yourself after one of the iconic music venues in the US.  He sort of reminds me of the Dayglow guy, or that Role Model fella who was at ACL last year.  It isn't terrible, but it really isn't my thing.  Top track is "Lose" from a 2025 single.  825k streams.

Very pretty tune.  And I think this is definitely one of the better tunes in here - the low key, mild vibe here is much more enjoyable than when he is trying to make pop dance stuff.  Would not go see this one.

Bourbon & Beyond 2026 - Line 7 (Angus & Julia Stone, Cameron Whitcomb, Adam Ant, Amos Lee, Fitz & the Tantrums)

Man, I gotta hurry the hell up.  ACL is being announced next week, and that is going to be all consuming once it lands.  I think I only have three other lines left to do, so let's get into it.  I spent way too long enjoying the Flaming Lips... 

Angus & Julia Stone

One Liner: Siblings doing good harmonies with some poppy folk
Wikipedia Genre: Folk rock, indie pop, Americana
Home: Sydney
Day: Friday

Thoughts: Love a good sibling band.  I hope they actually like each other.  The idea of my kids liking each other enough to tour the world and make good music would make me overjoyed.  The sad piece of information here is that they have an older sister, Catherine, who is not a part of the band.  Poor Catherine, back home in some Sydney suburb named Wallabyton doing book-keeping for a local barrister.

I've actually heard of Angus before, because his side project Dope Lemon came through ACL in 2023.  I really liked what he was laying down in there.

But these two homies have released six albums as a duo, and won a handful of APRA and ARIA awards for their efforts.  I like it.  Kind of poppy, kind of folky, and their voices work well together with the two different tones.  She kind of sounds like Lisa Loeb at times, he sounds like Mac DeMarco or Kurt Vile at times.  It is honestly pretty pleasant to listen to all of this as I work.  Top song is "Big Jet Plane" with a whopping 532 million streams.

It sounds like Post Malone covered that one, making it even more popular.  Their 2014 album was actually produced by Rick Rubin, which is kind of dope.  Pretty good stuff!  I'd go watch it!

Cameron Whitcomb

One Liner: Supposedly country but actually crappy pop from an ex-American Idol contestant
Wikipedia Genre: country, alternative country, folk rock, folk pop
Home: British Columbia
Day: Saturday

Thoughts: About 6 songs in, and not liking it.  Like if Ed Sheeran was Imagine Dragons, if that makes sense.  He competed on American Idol in 2022, and now has one album.  I don't really understand calling this County.  Doesn't sound like country to me...

Very Canadian origin story - left home at 17 and moved to something called Kamloops, where he began working on the Trans Mountain Pipeline.  A friend introduced him to Johnny Cash, he found Tyler Childers' music, and he started to post videos of himself singing.  I want to move on and stop listening to this.  "Medusa" is his top track with 159.6 million streams.

It is fine.  I am sure people who go watch it will find him to be a great performer.  I will not.

Adam Ant

One Liner: One Hit Wonder of butt
Wikipedia Genre: new wave, post-punk, alternative rock, dance-rock
Home: London
Day: Saturday

Thoughts: When I saw Adam Ant's name on the poster, I could immediately see his little Eddie Munster ass in my mind.  But I had zero recollection of his music.  But he's the "Goody Two Shoes" guy.  I kind of think that song is butt, if I am being honest.  Feels like the kind of song I probably loved when I was an annoying ass six year old boogie-ing around to it, but its pretty annoying listening to it right now.

Stuart Leslie Goddard is quite a name.  His Wikipedia claims he has 10 UK top ten hits.  I don't recognize anything after the first one.  At first, he had a band called Adam and the Ants, but some producer stole his band and created Bow Wow Wow.  He ended up becoming Adam Ant and finding some new bandmates.  His Wikipedia is sooooo long.  I ain't reading all of that for you, sorry.  He kind of looks like Captain Jack Sparrow in a lot of these pictures though.  He has also been an actor, appearing in stuff like the 1980 version of the Equalizer or Tales from the Crypt.  I really am not enjoying his music.

Amos Lee

One Liner: If Norah Jones was a dude
Wikipedia Genre: folk, soul, jazz, Americana, roots rock, country
Home: Philly
Day: Sunday

Thoughts: Man, I know one song from this guy because it is a banger.  "Windows are Rolled Down" is a good ass song.  But that tune is dwarfed on Spotify by the cheesy ass "Sweet Pea."  181.4 million.

Pretty sure that song was in a commercial or something.  Ah yes, AT&T.  His real name is Ryan Anthony Massaro.  Weird that he had a normal ass name and just created some other normal ass name for his stage name.  He's a Gamecock, and was a second grade teacher after college before getting his singing career on the road. Holy smokes - I swear I wrote the One Liner up above before reading it, but his Wikipedia says he has "been both lauded and dismissed as the 'male Norah Jones.'"  This music is honestly really nice.  The show might be a chill way to spend part of the afternoon (or it might be terribly boring, unclear).

Fitz & the Tantrums

One Liner: Fun ass pop rock
Wikipedia Genre: indie pop, neo soul
Home: L.A.
Day: Sunday

Thoughts:  They came through ACL in 2014, and I have also seen them at Stubb's a few years ago.  Just a purely fun band full of good energy.  For a while, they had gotten to be pretty annoying because they were on every radio station at all times.  Because of this fact, I had grown tired of them and started to change the station/tune them out.  But if you go listen to the excellent Moneygrabber (42 million streams):

, you’ll get a really great groovy rock thing with Hall or Oates mimicry singing over the top.  Which one was Hall and which one was Oates?  How did those two dudes just get in to the Hall of Fame?  They totally remind me of Six Flags as a kid.  I digress - F&tT is really fun music.  "The Walker," "Out of My League," "Spark," "Don’t Gotta Work it Out," these are all well-made retro pop jams.  I’m going to practice my Molly Ringwald dance and break it out fo sho during "Out of My League" (a truly astounding BILLION streams):

I think Fitz has the same hairdo as the AFI guy.  Maybe they are the same guy?  That would be awesome - and that story was broken right here first.  Dibs on breaking that huge story.

Years ago, also at Stubbs, I saw that someone had scrawled "Fitz + the Tantrums! (with a star for the bottom of the exclamation point) 7/13/13 Stubbs <heart symbol> EK" inside of my port-o-potty.  What an odd bit of graffiti to make sure to add to the port-o-potty.  I'm imagining some drunk UT undergrad sitting down to pee, pouring her heart out to the teal wall of the port-o-john, then passing out for a couple of minutes before waking up and rolling back out to party.

Their self-named 2017 album was another big hit.  Funny story, that one tenth or so of my readership already knows, is that a friend of mine has two twin boys, who are like 12.  And those twin boys freaking LOVED themselves some Fitz and the Tantrums when they were little.  They wanted to be Fitz for Halloween. They watched live Fitz shows in their free time.  They know the name of the drummer for the band.  I'm very jealous of this maneuver, as my kids wrinkle up their nose to any music that isn't the absolute most overplayed pop music at any given time.  Taylor Swift or the godawful Chainsmokers!  They're in. Zeppelin or Chilis, and they're yelling at me to change the station.  I've done something terribly wrong in the raising of my children.

Anyway, beyond my parenting shortcomings, this band is super fun.  I saw them play ACL a few years back, and it is just a straight up massive dance party when this group starts blasting you with their good times.  This 2017 album keeps the same vibe, lots of imminently danceable tracks and fun stuff ("HandClap" or "Complicated"), that really never slows down for any serious or slow jam tunes.  Obviously, the big hit is "HandClap" with 457.5 million streams.

Quite a set of dancers in that video.  Good song, very catchy and the kind of thing I think I could easily get behind jumping around to like a crazy person if seeing this band live.  The album really sticks that same fun and danceable flavor - I also like "Fadeback."  This thing is good.

I honestly did not know that they had more music - 2019's All the Feels, 2021's Head Up High, 2022's Let Yourself Free, 2024's Summer of Us, and 2025's Man on the Moon (so many more albums!) keep the same vibe going, although not much in the way of stream count for those.

Two maybe fun facts - the lead singer's last name is Fitzpatrick, and the other singer's last name is Scaggs.  While poorly spelled, it still gives me a little charge of pleasure.  Anyway, I hope I can see this one.

Bourbon & Beyond 2026 - Line 4 (Jessie Murph, Of Monsters and Men, The Flaming Lips, The War on Drugs)

Jessie Murph

One Liner: Generic pop singer voice girl
Wikipedia Genre: pop, country, trap, blues (that is a cursed group of genres)
Home: Huntsville, AL
Day: Saturday

Thoughts: She was at ACL in 2021, and I was not a fan when I listened.  Here was my first paragraph of my review: "Pretty rare for me to do this, but I just had an instant visceral reaction of hate for this one.  The second that her voice started to work on the Pop Starlet Voice(tm) lesson that she is going for, my stomach turned and I knew this was not going to be my jam.  Luckily for me, only three songs to slog through with her nasally smearing her words together before I could move on.  You should too."

That is really not very nice, Jack.  I tried some more this morning and sadly, my initial read remains the final read.  She got famous through TikTok, and then started doing songs with many other famous people like Jelly Roll and Koe Wetzel and Diplo and Teddy Swims and Gucci Mane.  But it is annoying to me that she is at this level on the poster.

She became a star while still a teenager.  She grew up in a small conservative town.  She likes TikTok.  In July 2021, she said this: "I've never even been to a concert before let alone actually performed at one, so my first ever concert experience is going to be my own which is wild!"  Man, really makes it sounds exciting to see her perform!  She apparently felt alienated in her small town and so she moved to Nashville and then ended up in L.A.

In case you feel the need, her initial single was "Upgrade," with 55.3 million streams.

While I do grin when she sings that they are going to have some ugly ass babies, it's the vocal tone that she uses here that makes me insane.  It just sounds so contrived and fake.  My daughter used to sound like this sometimes when she sang, because she was trying to copy other generic pop stars of the moment.  Ugh.  Her biggest streamer is more of a trap R&B thing and makes me want to run away.  "Blue Strips" is I guess about the anti-counterfeit plastic inside of $100 bills.  

Nope.

Of Monsters and Men

One Liner: Iceland's answer to Mumford & Sons
Wikipedia Genre: indie folk, chamber pop, folk pop, folk rock, indie rock
Home: Reykjavik, Iceland
Day: Friday

Thoughts:   I just want to add their names here because of how guttural-growl-rich they are: lead singer and guitarist Nanna Bryndís Hilmarsdóttir, singer and guitarist Ragnar "Raggi" Þórhallsson, lead guitarist Brynjar Leifsson, drummer Arnar Rósenkranz Hilmarsson, and bassist Kristján Páll Kristjánsson.  When I was really into Tom Clancy books I remember working out what my Russian name would be and being very entertained with myself.

The lead singer was previously performing solo as Songbird but asked some friends to help her perform at the 2010 Músíktilraunir, an annual Battle of the Bands in Iceland.  Raggi came up with the name, as an allusion to fairy tales and telling stories. They won, and off they went.  Wikipedia attributes their popularity to the fact that Mumford and Sons had just blown up with their new take on the stomp/clap folky rock movement.

2011's My Head is an Animal was their debut, and it was huge.  6 of their top ten songs on Spotify are still from that disc, 15 years later.  Songs from it were featured in movies, iPhone commercials, TV shows, etc. and they played a ton of festivals.  But the major hit was "Little Talks.  1.3 BILLION streams.

Great song.  Totally overplayed on most formats of radio.  Thought it was the Lumineers for a while. I also thought this band was the same thing as The Head and the Heart for a while. I ain't too smart, but there was a wave of this kind of sound after Mumford that confused me until I straightened them all out.  Although, one member of the band quit not long after this came out, saying she was tired of playing this song five times a day.  That is sort of funny.

That first album also boasts several other tunes with hundreds of millions of plays, including one of my favorites, called "Dirty Paws," at 56 million.

Starts off with that spare beat and picking, and later erupts into a powerful singalong that lyrically reminds me of Rush's "Trees."  When the birds join up with the beast for the big battle, you know who is going to win.  And its not the maples who want more sunlight.

Also of note, and maybe just to me, they appeared in two episodes of Game of Thrones as medieval ass musicians.  HODOR!

Their second album (2015's Beneath the Skin), had a big single called "Crystals," that got heavy radio play.  It is good, but has a line in the chorus that makes me think of the drink Crystal Light every single time.

OMOM are HUGE fans of peach lemonade Crystal Light.  "Wooooahhoo, covet your Crystal Liiiiight!"  Be careful, or Ragnar will steal your Snapple too.  This song, like the rest of the album, is good, broad, powerful, arena-ready indie made to pump up a crowd.  Almost every single song includes at least one "woooahhhhoo" kind of line that the crowd will be able to join in with the band on.  Speaking of which, I am liking "Black Water" and "Wolves Without Teeth" very much. And "Organs" is a slow burning, wistful orchestral about pulling yourself apart for lost love that leaves the arena-ready rocker mold in a good way.

They apparently released two albums since, 2019's Fever Dream and 2025's All is Love and Pain in the Mouse Parade (so they hate Disney?) but none of those seem to have made much of an impression by streaming numbers.  I just tried them, and they have fleeting moments of Arcade Fire, Mumford & Sons, and Bon Iver.  Not terrible by any means, but not especially memorable in my mind.  I'd probably be talked into checking this out so long as it doesn't interfere with something better.

The Flaming Lips

One Liner: Truly weird shit from OKC, but they have some great stuff tucked in there
Wikipedia Genre: Neo-psychedelia, psychedelic rock, alternative rock, experimental rock, noise pop, psychedelic pop
Home: Oklahoma City, OK
Day: Friday

Thoughts:  Off the bat, if you don't agree with me that "Do You Realize??" is a freaking amazing and perfect song, then we have beef.  Just a lovely set of lyrics tinged with truth and sadness.  "And instead of saying all of your goodbyes / Let them know you realize that life goes fast / It's hard to make the good things last / You realize the sun doesn't go down / It's just an illusion caused by the world spinning round."  Willie Nelson did a cover of that tune a few years back and it made me pay closer attention to the words and love it even more.

I had the chance to see them live one time - a free SXSW show at Auditorium Shores.  It was terribly disappointing, because they took the stage and announced that they had just released a brand new album and planned to play that from start to finish.  So, I got none of the songs I wanted to hear, just a new weird album that no one knew.  The energy in the crowd went to zero immediately.

The band's name has several origin stories: "One possibility is that it was inspired by the 1953 feature film Geraldine, in which comedian Stan Freberg sings several songs, including one named "Flaming Lips". Another possible source is from the 1964 Shirley MacLaine film What a Way to Go! in which Gene Kelly's character stars in a film titled Flaming Lips. However, according to an article in the September 16, 1993, issue of Rolling Stone, Mark and Wayne came up with the name as a reference to a rumor about a high school classmate who contracted genital herpes after receiving cunnilingus from a partner with active cold sores."  Gross!

Their first album is interesting. From 1986.  Almost like a Replacements sound - indie rock and a smidge of punk power.  It is kind of weird, but nothing like where they go later.  Well, it delves a smidge into trippy stuff, but mostly just straight indie rock.  At the same time, I like it.  But very few streams for those tunes.

Then the second disc, 1990's In a Priest Driven Ambulance, sounds more like what you expect - he's doing that high-straining voice and there is weird shit happening in the background of these songs.  1992's Hit to Death in the Future Head has a great album name.  Definitely more electrified, more psych-forward.  Still pretty fun.  Kinda sounds like Dinosaur Jr sometimes too.  And then the final song is 30 minutes of a very bad noise loop that will make you insane.

1993's Transmissions From the Satellite Heart is where they got some notoriety, mainly in the form of "She Don't Use Jelly."  57.5 million streams.  

Maaaaaaaagazines. That song was apparently used in Beverly Hills 90210, Charmed, and Beavis and Butthead, getting it some notice, so that the band ended up touring with the Chili Peppers. 1995's Clouds Taste Metallic isn't great for me.  And 1997's Zaireeka is where they really let the freak flag fly - the album came in four discs, and was intended to be heard by playing all four disc simultaneously on four different CD players.  So, trying to just listen to it on Spotify is a very unfulfilling experience.

And then their top two albums popped out - 1999's The Soft Bulletin and 2002's Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots.  The latter is the one that I love the most out of all of these albums - has a Beck's Odelay sense of whimsy combined with some genuinely pretty songs and weird shit.  Includes "Do You Realize??" and "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, Pt. 1" and "Flight Test," all of which are great.  I think they will be fun live.  But both of these albums caught mainstream success.

Right about here, Steven Drozd went into rehab for heroin.  Which seems like a good idea since he had almost lost an arm due to an abscess created by his needle action.  2003's Ego Tripping at the Gates of Hell feels like a b-sides collection from Yoshimi.  But 2006's At War With the Mystics is cool, in that they seem to go back to the pre-synth-heavy weird stuff and be organically weird.  

But then stuff starts to get reaaaaal weird.  Embryonic, Heady Fwends, The Terror, 7 Skies H3, and this next one I fully reviewed a few years back, it gets way harder to just enjoy for me.

"The Flaming Lips - Oczy Mlody.  These dudes are so weird.  I liked the weirdness on Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, but I haven't been able to get behind their stuff ever since. The closest this album comes to that same trippy, feel-unsure-to-be-happy rock is "The Castle."  That isn't the most popular track, because Miley Cyrus sings on one called "We a Family," so hipster nerds have been listening to that instead.  But I play you the one I like.

That video is annoying.  And no matter how much she cried cartoons and prayed, her brain could not be rebuilt.  No way.  No way.  No way.  I'll let this one go back to the weird depths of the band's brains."

Some of their songs on Spotify are annoying - like, they list someone else's album as being theirs.  So, you are trying to check out the catalog, and find yourself listening to something called Sparrow Sleeps that is lullaby renditions of their songs, or something called Nell that is an album by someone named Nell with the Lips as the backing band.  GTFO.  Just give me the tunes bro.

2020's American Head is actually pretty nice.

I think I will just hope that they play the old school hits and leave the weird recent stuff out of it.  We'll see.  But I am surprised by how much I like the very old parts of the catalog.

The War on Drugs

One Liner: Top notch indie rock band with a heavy touch of melancholy and classic rock flourishes
Wikipedia Genre: Indie rock, heartland rock, neo-psychadelia, Americana
Home: Philly
Day: Friday

Thoughts:  They last came to ACL in 2022.  I like this band.  I've been listening to them for a while, and have always enjoyed.  I wonder if I saw them at the 2012 ACL and that is where I first heard their stuff?  I can't recall by now.  

The band started when frontman Adam Granduciel met Kurt Vile in Philly.  Both of them had recently moved to town, and they hooked up and started writing and playing together.  They started playing as War on Drugs in 2005, with the name coming from a friend "over a couple bottles of red wine and a few typewriters when we were living in Oakland."  Granduciel claims it was either that or The Rigatoni Danzas.  

Barrel of Batteries was their 2008 EP debut.  It is very DIY-sounding, raw and unpolished.  Claims to have six songs, but three of those are tiny little ditties that don't amount to squat.  Not an auspicious debut, I would not have kept up with them if that was my first exposure to the band.  Later that year, they released Wagonwheel Blues, which incorporated the three songs from the EP into an album.  Also not great.  After that album, Kurt Vile bailed on them to do his solo stuff (in fact most of the members bailed here).

2010 brought us Future Weather and then 2011 brought along Slave Ambient.  From their cover art, they look related.  Future Weather has a song or two where you can start to hear their angle to become Springsteen-esque, but then by the fourth song it goes back into more of that DIY type sound.  The final too songs are kind of weird stuff that I don't much like.  This isn't the stuff that made me like them later on down the road.  Funny thing is that their Wikipedia doesn't even list Future Weather as existing.  It just says that they put out Slave Ambient in this time.  Slave Ambient is better, but still doesn't get to the level where they will get in a few more years.  The top track on there is called "Baby Missiles," and it was actually on both Future Weather and Slave Ambient.  11.5 million streams.

I don't know if Springsteen ever did anything quite so peppy.  Kind of sounds like Dire Straits' "Walk of Life."  Pretty good.  But I'm telling you, the good stuff is yet to come.  

2014's Lost in the Dream popped up in multiple year-end top album lists that year, and I said: "After one listen, it is really good - sounds like a Ryan Adams album with some Springsteen sax and Cure synth. Wow, no, seriously, after listening again, I'm 90% sure this is a Ryan Adams album. A really good one, but still."  A few days later, I said: "I agree it was good, although after about 10 listens now, I think this may be more David Gray than Ryan Adams.  Either way, it is a really nice album."  Isn't it fun to just rehash what you previously didn't read that I said on this blog?  Super fun.  I should just quote myself all the time.  Anyway, totally sticking by my David Gray comparison.  This is good music that sad, old KGSR is going to play to death to the few people out there who haven't yet figured out that KUTX is the actual sound of Austin.  "Under the Pressure" and "Red Eyes" are both really excellent songs.  Since that time, "Red Eyes" has become his top streamer overall, with 191.4 million streams.

You hear those Cure/Killers synths?  Really a good tune - the driving backbone makes it unstoppable.

A Deeper Understanding is the next album, in 2017.  By now, I start to realize that he not only reminds me of David Gray and Springsteen, but now I also get Bob Dylan vibes - with tunes that sound very much influenced by classic rock.  When I reviewed this album a few years ago, I actually said that I had "reviewed him a few years back when he came to ACL," BUT I CAN'T FIND THAT REVIEW!  WTF man.  This album is generally pretty relaxed, but still rock edged, and I can't shake the thought of Dylan anymore. This is "Holding On," with 53.8 million streams.

Kicks in like a Springsteen song, with the bells ringing and the music ready to be used on a road trip mixtape immediately.  My God I'm such a softie too, that damn video got me right up to the edge of tearing up over the superintendent from Coming to America losing his wife but having a good day reintroducing himself to his town.  Criminy.  But the tunes are good, a lot of them have that same driving feeling, and I repeatedly think that the organ/ synth is just about to start playing the lick from "Walk of Life."  Good album, I like it all.

Next is 2021's I Don't Live Here Anymore.  As I listened to one of the songs on here - "I Don't Wanna Wait" - a great comp dawned on me.  For some people, this will sound like the kiss of death, but as a lover of Bryan Adams from back in the day, I think saying that this sounds like classic Bryan Adams is actually a fine compliment.  That dude could write a great turn of phrase, play the guitar, and craft up a pop rock nugget or three that still sound great today.  And then the rest of the songs sound like Dylan got a backing band who only want to do songs that would be good to drive to.  Which also might sound like an insult, but I don't mean it as one.  I love driving songs.  "Harmonia's Dream" makes me think of Springsteen and the Killers and some never-created 80's band who were never featured on a soundtrack for E.T.  Lots of synth riffage.  I'd really like to see this band live - between this album and that last one I find them to be a great version of rock.  The top track is the title song, and it features nice background vocals from Lucius.  "I Don't Live Here Anymore" has 42.6 million streams.

Between that guitar solo at the start and the synths, you get that immediate 80's feel.  And seeing the singer, it makes me realize that I sometimes mix up this band with Strand of Oaks, and yet they are definitely different bands.  A lot of these songs are sad, or at least feature sadness as part of the lyrics.  That one up above, and even more so, "Victim," makes me sad.  Maybe my mind is trained to remember that 80's sound and think of the things I'm missing from that era, or maybe these songs just really do have some melancholy.  Not sure which, but I'm enjoying the sound.

There is a 2024 live album called Live Drugs Again, so I have been enjoying that one to check out what they will sound like in person!

I'd absolutely go see them play if I have the space.  Which reminds me that they still have not released a schedule yet.  Buttholes!  Stop drinking bourbon and release the schedules!

Bourbon & Beyond 2026 - Line 9 (The Devil Makes Three, Better Than Ezra, Durand Jones & the Indications, Jet, Plain White T's)

The Devil Makes Three

One Liner: Wild mixture of rag-time, bluegrass, and Americana that works
Wikipedia Genre: bluegrass, Americana, folk, folk blues, old-time, country
Home: Santa Cruz, CA
Day: Friday

Thoughts:  That is an excellent band name.  The only recollection I have of that phrase is from the Sirens' song in O Brother Where Art Thou, but I'm sure that was an old spiritual that has been around for decades.

The guitarist (Bernhard) and banjo player (McBean) were childhood friends in Brattleboro, Vermont, making music together at a young age.  They moved to California independently, as did the original bassist from the band (who also went to their VT high school).  After some time in punk rock bands, the original two hooked up with the third and formed this band.  After a few albums, McBean moved to Austin and Bernhard and the bass player moved back to Vermont.  Despite the distance, the band continued to tour and write music.  In 2019, the bassist was replaced and the band kept plugging along.

The tunes are hard to categorize - I guess that makes sense with the genre list recounted up above - but it feels dark, mysterious, groovy in a sneaky way.  And then after I think that way, they break one out that sounds like the Squirrel Nut Zippers or something.  And then one that sounds like BR549.  So, who knows what you are going to get around these parts (except for guitar, stand up bass, banjo, and a dude singing).

They have been making music for a while - 10 albums (2002's eponymous, 2004's Longjohns, Boots and a Belt, 2006's A Little Bit Faster and a Little Bit Worse, 2009's Do Wrong Right, 2011's live album Stomp and Smash, 2015's I'm a Stranger Here, 2016's Redemption and Ruin, 2018's Chains are Broken, 2019's Live at Red Rocks, and 2025's Spirits.  Somewhat surprisingly to me, five of their top songs on Spotify are still from that first album.  I could see that being the case if the first album was a big hit, but not where it never seemed to be a big deal.  Top track, by a lot, is from that album - "Old Number Seven" has 107.6 million streams.

Kinda hokey, not entirely sure why it would have been such a big hit.  Fun enough, but I definitely think they have better stuff in the catalog since then.  Was probably in a freaking episode of Yellowstone...  The newest disc is a much more polished sound - still a down-home hoe-down style, but a cleaner and more structured set of song structures.  Hearing things like Old Crow Medicine Show, Robert Earl Keen, and BR-549 in here.  I tried the Live at Red Rocks album, and it sounds good - it is sort of weird, you'd barely notice it was live.  And then I just let these older albums play for a day while I got some work done, and I like this more and more.  They feel like they might really be a fun live act.

Better Than Ezra

One Liner: Alt rock masters who somehow just never made it out of the 90's
Wikipedia Genre: alternative rock, post-grunge
Home: New Orleans
Day: Sunday

Thoughts:  Man, I looooved some Better than Ezra back in the Deluxe/ Friction, Baby timeframe.  Not long after I started college, an exceedingly attractive camp friend invited me down to Dallas to see Better Than Ezra play at The Stone Pony.  Three anecdotes tied to that story: (1) and no one reading this will be surprised at all, nothing happened between me and this attractive camp friend, much to my chagrin at the time; (2) the show was freaking awesome - in part because the Stone Pony is tiny and these guys blew the doors off; and (3) soon thereafter that show, in the bathroom of the Stone Pony in the midst of a night where my friend Tate and I went down to SMU to party with a sorority girl friend of his, some meathead dipshit called me a "four-eyed faggot" for reasons I can no longer recall, and Tate bowed up to the guy and said something to the effect of "if you wanna come after my friend you gotta go through me," and like a John Hughes movie villain, the guy was like "er, sorry bro, cool." RIP Big Dawg.

Anyway, back then, I thought these guys would be the next greatest rock and roll band of all time.  Deluxe is great from start to finish - I just heard it all again and forgot how much I loved it.  "Good" is the obvious hit.  "This Time Of Year" is a beaut - I can't believe it only has 1.4 million streams.  I'm going to pass it along to my daughter to make a TikTok thing for graduation 2026.

Solid.  Still a good singalong.  The 1998 album is funny - I think I must have just downloaded a few of the tracks from Napster or something, because many of them ring no bells at all, but then others remind me of other singles that I associate with my first job out of college and the pirated mixes I made back then.  "Particle" kind of sounds like Muse.  Same thing with the 2001 album - I recognize "A Lifetime" and "Extra Ordinary" but not the rest of the disc.

I tried the most recent disc (they have continued releasing many albums over the years), 2024's Super Magick, and it is not great.  His voice sounds saggy/warbly (kind of reminds me of Brandon Flowers from the Killers) and some of the good bass line work that held up the old stuff is missing.  Sounds very generic.  I hope they stick to the old songs!

Durand Jones & the Indications

One Liner: Retro Soul goodness with a great live sound
Wikipedia Genre: Retro soul, contemporary R&B
Home: Indiana
Day: Saturday

Thoughts:  These dudes rolled through for the 2018 and 2021 ACL Festivals.  I didn't get to see them (or at least I don't have any recollection of it, which feels like the same thing).

But, if you are into that retro soul movement that has been cropping up for the past few years, this group is right up your alley.  A powerful vocal of a guy feeling himself so hard that he can't be contained, over organ and guitar and hand claps and solid rhythm.  Its good.  Not as smokin' good as, like Nathaniel Rateliff or St. Paul & the Broken Bones, but still a fine sound.  Four albums - self titled from 2016, American Love Call in 2019, 2021's Private Space, and 2025's Flowers.  The original album was kind of cool, because it shows you both a studio side and a live side, with eight studio songs followed by 10 live tracks - the band sounds freaking good on stage.

Top track from that original album, with just over 22 million streams is called "Smile."

Yeah, you know, that works.  Funky and soulful and good lyrics about the weird social interactions we have every day.  Maybe even more appropriate now than back in 2016!  "As me how I'm doin', smile and say just fine."  Good tune.  THE PANDEMIC ANTHEM!

This short article notes that the lead singer apparently got popped for sharing some prescription pills, which lead him into this life as a lead singer of a group of dudes from Indiana University School of Music.  That sucks.  But cool that they are taking a low key route to making some good tunes, their studio setup sounds awesomely DIY.

The most streamed tune is "Is It Any Wonder," with 49.4 million streams and a different singer going for that falsetto-soul thing like dudes used to do.  

His voice is flipping pure as hell.  The live songs sound really good too.  Let's also check out the big single from the 2021 album, something called "Witchoo."  56.3 million streams so far.

Okay, I dig that funky ass intro for sure.  We still have the drummer doing the singing!  Why are they taking my man Durand out of the mix?  Ah, there he is - he's throwing down some quasi rap there after the first little bit.  That bass line is dope, and I really like the background chatting stuff like some classic Marvin Gaye jam used to have.

I'd give this stuff a shot to see what happens in person.  

Jet

One Liner: Aussies mixing strutting pure rock and roll with Beatles action
Wikipedia Genre: bluegrass
Home: Canberra, Australia
Day: Friday

Thoughts:  I am so annoyed.  I wrote a long as post all about these dudes, and it just disappeared.  MFer.

So, the shorter version is that this is two brothers - Chris and Cameron Cester - who formed a band, dominated the world with a great mix of swaggering guitar rock and Bealtes-esque balladry, and then quit.  Three studio albums – Get Born (2003), Shine On (2006), and Shaka Rock (2009) – and then they disbanded in 2012.  They are obviously back together to get that sweet ass reunion cash, but the first two albums are legitimately fun rock and roll.

The big three songs were all off of the first album - "Cold Hard Bitch," "Look What You've Done," and the mega-hit used in iPod commercials, movies, TV shows, video games, and everywhere else, "Are You Gonna Be My Girl."  848.4 million streams.

Absolutely classic rock banger.  I feel like this band is just bigger than everyone else on this line.  Is that just me?  Feels like Durand Jones and Plain White T's can't hold this band's jock.  Weird.  And I have been listening to the second album a few times today and yesterday, and it is excellent.  If you are a Beatles lover, then this should be your favorite album of 2006.  I really like it.  Shaka Rock sounds like more of the same, this dude yelping and jamming over pure rock and roll.  But yeah, I would go see this.  I love rock and roll.

Plain White T's

One Liner: Hey There Delilah!  You Don't Know Me But I Think About You All The TIME.
Wikipedia Genre: pop rock, pop-punk, soft rock, alternative rock, power pop, emo
Home: Lombard, Illinois
Day: Thursday

Thoughts:  We'll get to more of this, but "The Giving Tree" makes me want to cringe my way out of the universe.  Yuck.  I also just hit a song that is credited to "Plain White T's, Disney" and now I realize what this is - pop punk for Disney kids.  Like, if Blink 182 wasn't doing mom sex and fart jokes but was trying to sound the same while staying squeaky clean.  I hate it.

Their big hit was massive - "Hey There Delilah" has 1.3 BILLION streams as of now, which is freaking nuts.

Nuts because it is a perfectly lovely little love song, but it ain't special.  That was from their second album, 2005's All That We Needed, and no other song on there breaks 4 million streams.  Crazy.

They came up playing Chicago basements until that song went nuclear.  The track was at #1 for two weeks, and was written about a track star named Delilah DiCrescenzo, who the singer had met in 2002.  How fucking weird is that for her?  Some dude you met (but had no real relationship with) writes a song about "what you do to me" and whatnot and it goes platinum.  Creeper!

I've tried more of this but I really don't like it.  No thank you.

Bourbon & Beyond 2026 - Line 16 (Magoo, Atlus, Sawyer Hill, Rattlesnake Milk, Jason Scott & the High Heat, Levi Turner)

Magoo

One Liner: Bluegrass and Jam Band combined for the powers of good
Wikipedia Genre: No Wikipedia, but this is bluegrass and jam
Home: Colorado
Day: Thursday

Thoughts:  I mean, just read the band name "Magoo" and what do you think is coming your way?  Droopy-eyed druggie jam band meanderings for the rest of time, right?  It absolutely sounds like I am about to dive into a Phish-level pond of noodles.

Before I get to that though, I just feel like you should be reminded of who Mr. Magoo was.  Do you remember that cartoon?  It was really freaking weird - he was this super-rich, old dude with terrible eyesight.  So, people around him thought that he was a psychopath who did insane things like hanging out with a bear because he thought it was a friend in a fur coat.  I did not recall that they made a movie featuring Leslie Neilsen as Mr. Magoo.  I am going to guess that it is better that I do not recall that.  Also, Magoo was the name of the rapper who worked with Timbaland before he blew up.  He dead tho.

Wikipedia claims that Magoo is an English indie rock band formed in Norfolk, England in 1992 that was active from 1992 to 2014.  But I do not think this is the same band as the people I am listening to right now on Spotify.  Magoo is apparently now the name of a progressive bluegrass quartet from Colorado.  The Reddit I just read about their tour this summer is very complimentary, with comments such as "This band SHREDSSSS!! 10/10 recommend, these guys bout to blow up!" or "Thanks for the post. I looked them up and will now be seeing them at the Paper Tiger in San Antonio."  I heard that place is super sucky and owned by an asshole.

But this band seems pretty damn fun!  I know bluegrass isn't the thing for some folks, but bluegrass mixed with jam band stuff just makes a ton of sense.  Like, even in normal bluegrass, you would expect a player to go insane on the mandolin for a while in the middle of a song, or the banjo to have a little time to jam loose, so nothing seems out of place here.  Just one album so far, following up behind a handful of EPs and singles.  2026's What a Life has what you'd expect - good singing harmonies, killer instrumentation, and a mix of speedy, wild tunes and mellow meanderings.  But it definitely feels like both bluegrass and jam band.

The top tune is "West Dakota Rose," which has been on a few of the EPs over the years but was not added to the album.  439k streams.

I don't know what they call that little banjo fleck that keeps the time, but this is just a perfect example.  These dudes are good at their instruments too!  They also have some fun covers, and I expect maybe we will get a few of those at this show because one of them is the Foo Fighters ("Everlong").  Hell, check it out.  It is fun.

Damn, that just makes me smile - that guitar solo about midway through is a beaut.  About the time that we had kids, there was a series of albums that came out of bluegrass covers of certain popular artists - like all Metallica songs, or all Beatles songs, or whatever.  Those were pretty great.  Anyway, I'd definitely go check this out.  Likely by myself as the rest of my group will be very tired of my bluejamgrass ass by then.

Atlus

One Liner: That terrible type of R&B country people sing/rap
Wikipedia Genre: No Wikipedia - R&B/rap but like if Luke Combs did it or something
Home: Denver
Day: Saturday

Thoughts: This guy's top song's title immediately made me laugh out loud.  The song sucks, like sort of R&B but the sort of R&B that country people do with heavy drum machine and staccato lyrics.  But the title - "You're a Fucking Bitch Hope You Know That Shit" - was good for a legitimate LOL from me.  I really hope the next song is better, because otherwise this will be a quick listen to run away from this music before it breaks me.  Wikipedia thinks Atlus is a Japanese video game company.  it is apparently known for the Megami Tensei series.  Of course.  Duh.  Sadly, the second song from this guy sucks butt too.

Born Sean Haywood, he spent his time as a commercial truck driver working on writing music.  That is kind of a cool background.  The bio I am reading claims that he developed a distinctive yet catchy sound, but I would retort and say that this is not distinctive at all and it super sucks.  He sounds like a poor man's Post Malone.  He wanted his stage name to sound like the mythological Titan who held up the heavens.  he apparently got a break by getting to perform with Jelly Roll at Red Rocks.  I have to stop listening to this or I will be very sad all day.  Here is that top hit with the funny name - 154 million streams.

I hope I never hear that again.

Sawyer Hill

One Liner: Deep-voiced rocker from Arkansas who feels right for Austin
Wikipedia Genre: No Wikipedia, this is alternative rock, indie rock, guitar rock
Home: Fayetteville, AR
Day: Friday

Thoughts: This fella was at ACL in 2024, but I did not catch the show.  I am absolutely bastardizing my review from then.  Sue me.  

You hear that name, and I immediately thought okay this is going to be a country guy.  Then you pull up the Spotify and the dude looks like Sebastian Bach from Skid Row.  Then you click the first track and it is like that dude from the Crash Test Dummies was allowed to sing something other than the humming song.  I have no clue how to parse all of these inputs.

His tiny bio provides that he grew up playing bars in the Fayetteville, Arkansas scene, and ended up playing "countless" shows in the south with his band.  But COVID nuked that band.  He also says this dumb phrase: "It's sounds you're familiar with, but with a delivery and composition you haven't heard before."  C'mon man.  But then he came back with a new thing, and has managed to nail some TikTok and Instagram viral action to get popularity.  He now says that he'll get randomly noticed around Fayetteville as that singer with the deep voice.

"Look at the Time" is that big track that has blown up - it has a great line about "when you say that I'm the only one, did you mean that I'm the closest one around?" and also calls back to the guitar stylings of Eric Johnson at one point.  I enjoy it.  He claims that it just flowed out of him in 15 minutes, which is also cool.  26.9 million streams.

Mmmmmmmhhhhhmmmmmmmmhhhhhhhhmmmmmmmmmm.  Nah, just kidding.  This is a good one.  One album - 2025's Heartbreak Hysteria (although only 7 songs), with a handful of singles out there before. "Firestarters" and some of these other tunes reminds me of those Austin bands of old - not just a flash of Eric Johnson here and there, but more like the Arc Angels and Charlie Sexton type of guitar-forward, loosely-collected rock and roll.  Not quite into the Gary Clark Jr. guitar heroics thing either, but it just feels like this dude would be at home here in Austin slinging these songs.  I like it.

Rattlesnake Milk

One Liner: Laid back rockabilly grooves
Wikipedia Genre: No Wikipedia, but Americana and rockabilly?
Home: South Texas
Day: Saturday

Thoughts: Another ACL alumni, but they were in Austin in 2023.  I did not catch the show.

No Wikipedia, so I'm depending on offbeat little articles about them.  One claims that they come from the "great desolate southern plains of Texas."  I really want to know where that is supposed to be.  The same article later says they were formed in Lubbock in 2013 (which I hope they are not considering to be south Texas) by singer Lou Lewis who was farming cotton at the time.  He apparently recorded eight demos in his childhood bedroom by himself, and then a few friends heard the tapes and decided to jump on board.  Also, says they later moved together to Austin.  (please let this person writing this article think that Austin is the "great desolate southern plains of Texas.")  Amazingly, that article never mentions any other town, so the writer at www.holler.country believes that either Lubbock or Austin is the "great desolate southern plains of Texas."  Big fan of your prose, buddy.

Other fun tidbits from that article - lead singer's first CD ever was My Way by Usher, all of the members are either full or half Mexican, and they shout out Nirvana, Slipknot, and Eminem.  The music itself is nothing like those things, it is more of an Americana, rockabilly, surf rock, shambling pastiche of chilled country sounds.  I like it.

Three albums - 2014's Snake Rattle and Roll, 2020's Rattlesnake Milk, and 2022's Chicken Fried Snake.  Almost all of their top tracks are from the new album, with four from the second album hanging around in the list.  Top track is "Midnight Train" from the most recent disc - 13.4 million streams.

Straight surf guitar stylings.  On ".38 Special," the groove just sucks me in before the song has even really gotten off the ground.  Makes me want to bob my head and chill out as soon as the first notes roll on out.  It is spare stuff, and a little weird in these modern times, but I would enjoy a set from these guys at some intimate little Cactus Club type joint.  If they're playing the right set time, I'd check it out.

Jason Scott & the High Heat

One Liner: Smoothed Americana with a hint of rock seeping in here and there
Wikipedia Genre: No Wikipedia, but Americana, Folk, Roots Rock
Home: Oklahoma City
Day: Saturday

Thoughts: I really like that band name.  The High Heat is a solid backing band name.  The music reminds me of that guy who used to be married to Kacey Musgraves - Ruston Kelly.  The bio I just read names it pretty well - too loud for folk music and too textured for Red Dirt.  Not sure if I would say textured, I'd probably go with polished.

Jason Scott apparently trained to be a preacher and then went through a crisis of faith, leading him to the evil ways of music.  One of his early songs was chosen in 2017 for an NPR World Cafe's Heavy Rotation playlist, which brought him a little solo fame.  For a while, he was mainly producing other people's stuff, but then he assembled the High Heat, and they released their debut in 2022.  They have since played several medium-sized festivals and opened for an eclectic group like Band of Heathens, the Gin Blossoms, and Kaitlin Butts.

Their top track comes from the second album, 2025's American Grin, this one is "High Country" with 5.5 million streams.

Also sort of reminds me of that Good Looks band who I liked so much from a recent ACL poster.  I have to say, I wish they didn't have the whistle in there, but otherwise I like it.  "Intermission" is kind of slinky and cool.  "Me & the Bottle (Hungover You)" is a little too clever, but "Yardwork" made me smile.  Overall, pretty enjoyable tunes.  I'd watch him play.

Levi Turner

One Liner: Zach Bryan co-sign doing similar things
Wikipedia Genre: No Wikipedia, but folk, Americana, singer/songwriter, country
Home: Flovilla, GA
Day: Saturday

Thoughts: I like the cut of your jib, Levi.  Annoyingly, he's only got like 15 songs, and so as I was just enjoying my jam session with him, I realized that Spotify had started playing other things after his songs had been exhausted, so I was actually enjoying Flatland, Bryan, and Pony Bradshaw instead (who is pretty great!).

He has the distinction of being the first guy signed by Zach Bryan to his label, back in 2023.  So, that is a powerful co-sign these days.  He's from a town with 650 residents, which I find fascinating.  Why do you live there?  What do the people in Flovilla do for a living?  So odd.  But just prior to signing to the label, he had a few thousand views on YouTube and a limited social media following.  But, of course, that changed drastically after the co-sign from Bryan.  Has a similar vibe to Bryan - basic song structure, good lyrics - and got to open for him for a run of shows after the signing.

One album (although short at only 7 songs) and then a handful of singles.  The top track is "Allergy Season" with 3.1 million streams (so maybe not such a huge breakout after the signing).

Man, allergy season freaking sucks.  Not that song, I mean the actual thing.  I feel like it keeps getting longer too - maybe I'm just a more allergic person now, but it is brutal.  "Coyotes (Out in California)" is a lovely and ragged little country tune.  "Cold Feet" made me grin, just because the wife can't stand me putting my cold feet on her in the bed.  Also, the more I stream these, the more I think that he adds more to the music than ZB does - there is more of a rock angle going on here with full instrumentation, whereas ZB can frequently feel entirely stripped down.  Pretty fun tunes.

Bourbon & Beyond 2026 - Line 13 (The Creekers, Henrik, The Infamous Stringdusters, Amigo the Devil, Howie Day, Tonic, Cracker)

The Creekers

One Liner: Feels like legit backwoods bluegrass music
Wikipedia Genre: no Wikipedia, but this is classic bluegrass
Home: Leslie County, KY
Day: Friday

Thoughts:  Did you ever hear the band that Chris Stapleton was in before he became the all-consuming soulful guitar God that he has become?  The Steel Drivers.  This reminds me of that - straight bluegrass, a little raw and unpolished, a little simplistic in lyrics and structure of the songs (even while the individual instruments can go hard).

A six piece band with all of the usual instruments.  The banjo player is the old hand who has been playing for decades, everyone else looks 22.  Two appear to be brothers - Jagger and Ashton Bowling.  Ashton plays something called the Cajon.  I am not familiar with this thing - oh wait, sure, it's that wooden box thing that people sit on and hit with their hands at Young Life camps all around the world.  Didn't know its name.  The other interesting item from their bio is that the lead singer went to the Kentucky School of Bluegrass.  That is wild.  I want that on my resume.

One album, 2024's Pour Me in the Creek, then a 2025 EP called River Rat.  I hope their next album is named something with a Lake, and then they move up to the Sea, before finally getting to the Ocean.  I saw a clip of them playing at Two Step Inn over the weekend and they seemed just about like I would expect, a little raw but they looked like they were having fun.  Top song is called "Tennessee," with 17.7 million streams.

That sounds really good.  Great harmonies.  The old banjo player is cracking me up though with his backwards/sideways ball cap and Chucks, while he's the oldest dude in the band by 30 years.  I doubt I'd go see it, but I don't hate it.

Henrik

One Liner: 
Wikipedia Genre: No Wikipedia, but I guess this is a folk pop thing?
Home: Salem County, NJ
Day: Friday

Thoughts:  He claims musical influences of Mt. Joy, Noah Kahan and Relient K.  I don't know that last one, but the Mt. Joy comparison is good, as like them, I sort of like this and then I sort of dislike it a moment later.  It is a little too poppy for me, and a little too stomp/clap leaning, and sometimes kind of Post Malone-ey (which is bad).  As with most young artists like him, he first gained notoriety on TikTok, with millions of views on his videos before he released any real music.  Some of this is also Christian music, which is even worse.  But he has definitely been prolific - tons of singles since 2021, an album with something called GRAHAM in 2024, and two albums in 2025.  Those albums don't have many streams, but one of his early singles must have struck a nerve on TikTok.  "Half of forever" has 181.5 million streams.

I'm glad they added the lyrics for when he sings "hmm mm"  I really needed to make sure I knew the lyrics to that part.  I think I had been singing it as "hm mmm" instead, which is terribly embarrassing.  "I'd give up half of forever just to be with you" is a weird lyric.  Half of forever is still forever.  So, he's not actually willing to give up anything to get your love, lady.  He is full of shit, honey.  I would not choose to see this one.

The Infamous Stringdusters

One Liner: Complex bluegrass players who love a good cover
Wikipedia Genre: progressive bluegrass, folk, country, jam band
Home: Nashville
Day: Friday

Thoughts:  I love the band name.  I have heard of these dudes over the years, but never actually listened to any of their music.  Well, now that I have witnessed, I see the light.  It is bluegrassy, but it feels like they are just a jam band who happen to have a dobro, banjo, and fiddle involved.  Feels complex, like each member is playing things just a touch more complicated than a normal bluegrass riff.

A handful of these guys studied together at Berklee College of Music in Boston, and then they moved together to Nashville.  They found a bassist from Durango, Colorado, and had to replace their founding guitarist when he left to join the Punch Brothers.  But it has all worked out, with a handful of International Bluegrass Association awards, a few Grammy nominations and one win (2018, Best Bluegrass Album).  Shockingly, they have released sixteen studio albums.  That is so much music! And their 2025 album is 30 songs/ two hours and six minutes.  Some Drake level shit right there.  Relax and make three albums, yo!  

But the funny thing is that their top tracks on Spotify are covers of other people's already famous songs - "Just Like Heaven" or "Walking on the Moon" or "Get Lucky" or Pink Floyd's "Fearless."  Those actually sound really good - "Just Like Heaven" is a great song in its own right so having it be bluegrass-jam-ified is fun.  "Gravity" from their 2017 album Laws of Gravity is their top streamer that is their own original creation.  Just over 4 million streams.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7iTCru7Umw

I mean, watching them sing and play is cool, and seeing those two kids be in love is surprisingly touching as well. Like a full-on movie in 4 minutes. Great harmonies and that banjo solo is a scorcher.

The 2025 album Songs from the Mountain is likewise outrageously long, but it is pretty fun - a lot of interesting covers tucked within the originals - John Mayer, Grateful Dead, The HIghwaymen, U2.  Probably others that I just don't recognize.  Like little Easter eggs sprinkled into the disc.

My problem now is that I pulled up a show from something called Ramble Fest last night and let it play on YouTube while I made dinner.  And this is the sort of jam that my wife will absolutely detest - overly long noodle fests and ever-more-shrill solos.  So more than likely, this is a no unless I run across something changing my mind (even if I do love the covers).

Amigo the Devil

One Liner: Very theatrical-feeling banjo folk for murdering to
Wikipedia Genre: folk
Home: Apparently in Austin now
Day: Friday

Thoughts:  I was digging on the band name, imagining some sort of Spanish take on the Grateful Dead, but instead this feels like something the most dramatic drama kid in high school created and sang to himself before taking the stage.  I was in a play in college where they would play Talking Heads' "Psycho Killer" before we went on stage, and one of the other actors would get psyched up for his time on stage by writhing around to that song in an uncomfortably manic-sensual way that still haunts me even now.  I feel like that guy might sing these songs.

Danny Kiranos is influenced by American folk, country, rock, and heavy metal, with themes of murder, death, and other dark subject matters which has led to his music being called "Dark Folk" or "Murderfolk".  Yeah.  I can hear that.  He was born in Miami, the son of a Greek father and a Spanish mother, and so his influences sprang out of the traditional music of both of those cultures.  I can hear that as well.  He is also very good with a banjo.  Which is funny, because the banjo is generally a happy time instrument, and yet here we are singing about death and murder.

He moved to California to attend the Los Angeles Film School to make horror films, dropped out to attend culinary school, and then worked in the brewing industry.  For reasons that are not clear at all, the last anecdote on Wikipedia about the guy is this: "In 2019, Mayor Steve Adler of the city of Austin, Texas announced November 16 as "Amigo the Devil Day" in the city and awarded a signed seal to Kiranos."  He apparently lives here now.  Huh.

"Hell and You" is the top tune.  31.9 million streams - quite a bit more than anything else in his catalog.

I was going to make a definitive claim that this grotto was not near Austin, but who knows.  Hear that theatric action there?  Like, this guy dances to "Psycho Killer" before he goes on stage and makes everyone else uncomfortable.  His eyes are really something.

I don't think this one is for me.  After listening through some of the albums all day, none of it is terrible or anything, it just has a theater kid vibe that I find offputting.

Howie Day

One Liner: Boring one hit wonder from 2003
Wikipedia Genre: pop rock, indie rock
Home: Bangor, Maine
Day: Friday

Thoughts:  Dammit.  Who was I thinking this would be?  I had it in my head that this was an 80's one hit wonder guy, not a 2003 one hit wonder guy.  Howard Jones!  Man, I really thought I was about to jam some NO ONE IS TO BLAME at the top of my lungs.  AND YOU WANT HER, AND SHE WANTS YOU, WE WANT EVERYOOOOOOOOOOOOOONE.

Sadly, this is an entirely milquetoast one hit wonder from 20 years later.  I recognize the hit song, but probably from like Gray's Anatomy or something.  This is "Collide" with 246.8 million streams.

I have let this guy play for about a day and a half, and now I just need to write about him so I can move on.  This is very boring music.  He's been doing it for a long time - he even had a song on the I Am Sam soundtrack back in 2001.  I love that soundtrack.  But the reviews of this guy's music are perfect - "not bad but indistinct" or "tepid and directionless."

I'll also note that he has been arrested three times - twice back in 2004 (locking a female fan in his tour bus bathroom) and 2005 (yelling at a flight crew), which he explained away as youthful indiscretion and drinking - and then again in 2018 for assault against his girlfriend.  Up yours, Howie.  I already didn't care for the music, but now you're just a dick too.

Tonic

One Liner: Another 90's one hit wonder with a few other semi-minor hits
Wikipedia Genre: alternative rock, post-grunge
Home: L.A.
Day: Friday

Thoughts:  Now we are talking.  I had this disc when it came out, although I think I have since conflated these songs with Matchbox 20.  I think those were different bands, but now that I am listening to 1996's Lemon Parade even more, I think it sounds just like even more things, such as fellow poster-dweller Vertical Horizon, or Fuel, or Collective Soul, or even Live.

The band formed in L.A., made up of two childhood friends who randomly crossed paths at a pool hall in L.A. in 1993.  They found a bass player and drummer, and originally wanted to be called Radio Flyer.  That name was apparently lame, I mean, taken, so they went with Tonic.  They were apparently relentless with gigging, doing more than 300 shows in less than two years, and signed with a label.  Lemon Parade did well, reaching platinum status, based on two singles.  "If You Could Only See" is still the top track in the catalog, but also it was Rock radio's most played song on 1997.  That is a wild stat.  237.3 million streams, so it is still going strong.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sfg6-4mBs6Y

Sure, that is a fine jangly little piece of alt rock.  I like it more once the rock and roll kicks in versus the opening bit.  I like the fuzzed out guitar.  I really do not like the lead singer's sideburns though.  The second album, 1999's Sugar, has a few songs I recognize, so they must have either been radio hits or songs I pirated vie Napster and listened to at work right after college.  "You Wanted More" sounds like the latter to me.  I like that song.  The band actually got Grammy nominations for their next album - one for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal for "Take Me As I Am", and one for Best Rock Album.  I just tried that song, and it is butt.  Lost to Coldplay's "In My Place," and was also nominated with Creed's "My Sacrifice," Three Doors' Down's "When I'm Gone," and Chad Kroeger (of Nickelback) with Josey Scott's "Hero."  Pretty awful year for rock music, apparently.

If I am being honest, the nostalgia meter on this band is pretty low.  I saw them included on the poster and was like "oh, sweet, yeah they had some hits!"  And they obviously did, but I don't feel like they were my hits, and I don't feel like their newer music is ticking any boxes for me.  Will likely let this one slide by.

Cracker

One Liner: YESSSSSS
Wikipedia Genre: rock, country, grunge, punk
Home: Richmond, VA
Day: Friday

Thoughts:  But here, on the other hand, I freaking loved Cracker.  I wore out their first three albums, and especially Kerosene Hat.  I think my sister put a song from their first album on a mixtape that she gave me, which first got them on my radar.  But then when Kerosene Hat came out, they were everywhere.

But I think their combo of sounds is excellent - sort of southern rock, sort of country, sort of jangly indie rock, and with the lead singer's sneering and interesting lyrics stretching out to sew it all together.  "What the world needs now, is another folk singer, like I need a hole in my head."  "Called my mom from a payphone / I said, "I'm down to my last" / She said, "I sent you to college / Now go call your dad" / And the waitress that he married / Well, she hung up the phone / You know she never did like me / But I can stand on my own."  "I hate my generation.  Yeah."

And re-listening to those first three albums right now is making me really happy.  A lot of silliness in these songs, while the guitar rock is chugging along, and I really enjoy reminiscing about it all.  Kerosene Hat definitely had a long term slot in my CD changer in 1993/1994, and so I know these songs by heart.  Very fun.

But do I know anything about the band?  No, I do not.  Let's rectify that.  Lead singer David Lowery was also the lead singer for Camper Van Beethoven (which maybe I knew long ago, but definitely did not recall now).  When that band fell apart in 1990, he began playing around with a childhood friend guitarist, Johnny Hickman, on some new tunes and moved from California to Virginia.  They snagged some other players, got a label (I'm sure off the fame from CVB), and released Cracker in 1992.  "Teen Angst (What the World Needs Now)" spent time at #1 on the Modern Rock Tracks chart and the album did well.  11.8 million streams now.

That video is deliciously Buzz Bin/ 120 Minutes-coded.  I like the dogs attacking something in there.  A year later, they released Kerosene Hat to even more critical love.  "Low," "Get Off This," and "Eurotrash Girl" all charted, with "Low" being the big hit for sure.  94.5 million streams.

They also did a great cover of the Dead's "Loser" that I think sounds very dope.  The whole album is great - has some wacky harder rock, some great ballads, and some groovy grunge.  After that, The Golden Age came out in 1996, with less fanfare (but a single in "I Hate My Generation"), and then they kept releasing albums with less and less notice.  They still got some love, in that they had songs on the Empire Records and Clueless soundtracks during this time.  Even more strange, looking at their Spotify, many of the songs on their other albums are greyed out and unplayable.  Like, 2002's Forever has one song you can play.  Weird.  I wonder if it has something to do with Lowery suing Spotify for their music licensing practices?  Spotify is like "oh year, well no one can hear your new songs then!"

Good times - I'd love to see them play!