April Podcast Picks

Maria Francis and Jeff Overbo lead Silver Lake 66, who have followed up their strong debut with a stellar new album “Ragged Heart.”

Summer Festival Fever is starting to settle in here at That Much Further West Podcast, but Spring has delivered plenty of excellent new albums and live performances on the podcast calendar.

With an eye toward July’s Wildwood MusicFest & Campout, we kick off our April Podcast Picks with a tune from the excellent new album “Ragged Heart” by Silver Lake 66. They’ll be at Wildwood this year, but beforehand, they’ll be celebrating the release of the new record with a performance May 4 at The Secret Society in Portland — a can’t-miss show for our crew.

And speaking of can’t-miss shows, our team caught up with a number of bands as they performed in Portland last week, including Ruby Boots, Jenny Don’t & The Spurs and M. Lockwood Porter, whose new album “Communion In The Ashes” is received widespread critical acclaim since its release a few weeks back. We share tunes from all three outfits here, along with new stuff from The Cactus Blossoms (Doug Fir, May 1), The Long Ryders, Shoves & Rope, Terri Lynn Davis, W.C. Beck, Kassi Valazza, Molly Tuttle and Drivin’ N’ Cryin’.

You’ll also hear tunes from Vandoliers and Cory Branan, who share a bill at White Eagle Saloon in Portland on April 30, and a killer new track from An American Forrest, whose new record is due soon and was recorded right here in Portland by local treasure Mike Coykendall.

So dig into our April Podcast Picks and give it a spin, and be sure check our Live Music Portland calendar for opportunities to support live music in our community.

Here’s the playlist:

Faded Tattoo, Silver Lake 66
Please Don’t Call Me Crazy, The Cactus Blossoms
Wrap Me In A Fever, Ruby Boots
Ruby, Strand of Oaks
California State Line, The Long Ryders
Waiting For A Sign, M. Lockwood Porter
My Only Desire, Jenny Don’t & The Spurs
Greetings From Mardi Gras, The Harmed Brothers
Ain’t Been Tamed Yet, An American Forrest
Rainbows And Ridges, Blaze Foley
Car Wheels On A Gravel Road, Lucinda Williams
Blue Eyed Wanderer, Matt Woods & The Natural Disasters
Times Past, Terri Lynn Davis
Bottom Dollar Boy, Vandoliers
Blacksburg, Cory Branan
Chino, Kassi Valazza
Highway 46, Tom Russell
You Don’t Look So Good (Cocaine), Caroline Spence
The Wire, Shovels & Rope
The Long Way Home, W.C. Beck
Take The Journey, Molly Tuttle
Step By Step, Drivin N Cryin

Review of Forever by Vandoliers

Forever by Vandoliers (2019, Bloodshot Records)

By Mike Lee
That Much Further West Podcast

The bandstand prophets of the Texas saloon must preach to their flock with conviction. They must reach a common ground and the message must be genuine. Their converts must know their musical guides have travelled the same roads and the mud drying on their boots has the same mix of bravado and despair. We don’t step up to the pine to drown our sorrows but to confide in our brothers and sisters with a round of shots and boots stomping on the dance floor in front of our roadhouse preachers.

The Ft. Worth-based Vandoliers certainly seem up to the task with their latest effort, “Forever,” on Bloodshot Records. They guide us through the ups and downs of modern American life of not only the Texan but every hard-working, blue-collar soul in this country.  We don’t take jet-away vacations but long road trips with our crew, enjoying all the local flavor of the places our wheels roll through.  We hate our jobs but find pride in our hard work and reward ourselves plenty with the sinful pleasures of our wild world.

January Podcasts Picks

Thars the Stars: Portland’s Stars of Cascadia are back with a new record, Fairfield.

We’re keeping it live and local to start off 2019, and kicking things off with a killer cut from that fun and rollicking band of Portland alt-country grinders, Stars of Cascadia. Their new CD Fairfield just hit the streets this week, and “The Great Divide” is a near perfect tune to sum up the mid-Trump swamp we find ourselves wading through daily. Singer Scott Jeffries gets nostalgic on this new disc, ruminating on the Viet Nam era and the last time . . . say, 1968 . . . when the U.S. felt this very divided.

The Delines may be considered a local band in our neck of the woods, but they’re killing it right now in the U.K. and Ireland on their first tour in a couple of years. We caught both of their warm-up shows in Portland before they headed across the Atlantic to promote their brand new album, The Imperial, which is pulling rave reviews around the globe. We share the title cut here.

And while you’re cranking this latest playlist, be sure to stick around for a song from the Portland trio Five Letter Word. We first saw these talented ladies at last year’s Wildwood MusicFest & Campout, and they blew us away with their amazing harmonies and stellar musicianship. Their debut record, Siren, dropped earlier in January, but we expect to be hearing a whole lot of great things from them throughout 2019 and beyond.

We also share new music from Son Volt, Joshua Ray Walker, Ryan Bingham, Vandoliers, Bob Sumner and a song by Ryan Adams with a title that pretty much sums up our feeling about the winter weather in the Pacific Northwest. Not that we’re complaining. Sending out good wishes to our friends in the Midwest (we’re looking at you, Bloodshot Records crew) who are suffering through a record-shattering Arctic blast that arrived in the Great Lakes region overnight.

Since you folks are pretty much stuck inside for a bit, crank up our January Podcast Picks!

Here’s the playlist:

The Great Divide, Stars of Cascadia
The Imperial, The Delines
Burn It, Joshua Ray Walker
Jingle And Go, Ryan Bingham
Mountain Girl, Shane Smith
5 Acres Of Turnips, Pistol Annies
Saturday Satan Sunday Saint, Charley Crockett
Me And Hayes, Mike and the Moonpies
Jesus And Elvis, Hayes Carll
Troublemaker, Vandoliers
The Way She Looked At You, Sarah Shook and the Disarmers
Bourbon And Blood, The Comacheros
Southern Accents, The Steel Woods
Go Home, Garrett T. Capps
Riverbed, Bob Sumner
Easier To Go, Five Letter Word
Living Free, Jack Waters and the Unemployed
F*ck The Rain, Ryan Adams