North Carolina native Emily Scott Robinson has traveled a quarter million miles and counting, paying her dues along the dusty highways of America’s wild country in the RV she calls home. Along the way, she’s captured the stories of the people she met and expertly crafted them into the songs featured on her gorgeous debut studio release, “Traveling Mercies.” Named one of Rolling Stone’s “10 New Country and Americana Artists to Watch in 2019,” Robinson received critical acclaim from Billboard, No Depression, and American Songwriter for the stories captured on her new album and performed on the main stage of the 2019 Telluride Bluegrass Festival as winner of the Telluride Troubadour Contest.

The diner where the waitress knows everyone by name. The World War Two veteran reflecting on the end of his life. The windswept trailer park where people prefer to keep their curtains closed. As she meditates on human frailty and the power of resilience, Robinson is at times vulnerable, at others, defiant and absolutely free. Rolling Stone called “Traveling Mercies” a collection of “country-folk songs about America in all its pain and glory with the literate, Southern gothic sensibility of Flannery O’Connor.” Robinson is on the rise with her new record— a tour de force from an elegant chronicler of her own existence and those of her fellow humans.

Dame Fortune is the deliciously eclectic sixth album from veteran producer and crate digger extraordinaire RJD2, out March 25th on RJ's Electrical Connections. It's a wondrous beast, recorded over the past year while living in Philadelphia, before returning to his hometown of Columbus, Ohio. Streaked with Philly's rep for deeply felt soul music while maintaining a playful sense of adventurousness, Dame Fortune features guest vocalists Son Little (aka Aaron Livingston) and frequent collaborator Phonte, while also presenting the bombastic hip-hop sound that marked RJD2's breakthrough album, Deadringer, and even an orchestral composition for the societal unrest experienced in this day and age (called "PF Day One."..the PF standing for "Post Ferguson").

"Living in Philly provided a context for a lot of soul music that I had liked," RJD2 says on the city's influence on Dame Fortune's sound. "I didn't have any cultural context for this music that I liked -- it was just music that I had stumbled across as a beat making nerd. Philly was a place where there were enough people who had the same musical vocabulary that I did, which made the music more than something I had just discovered on my own."

The debut single, "Peace of What," features Jordan Brown and draws inspiration from 1990s rap legends Main Source's 1991 single "Peace Is Not the Word to Play." "When I hear people talk of peace in America, the discrepancy between our words and our actions can get fatiguing," he says on the inspiration behind the song. "I was trying to reflect the experience of people I know, which often feels like 'We're not ACTUALLY trying to do anything about this problem in our country.'"

Thought-provoking and undeniably entertaining all at once, this latest exhibition of musical virtuosity is a crystal-clear reflection of RJD2's cinematic aspirations, reminding listeners that it's always rewarding to expect the unexpected.

Pop/Soul singer and American Idol runner-up Clark Beckham has announced a 23-city U.S. tour in conjunction with the upcoming release of his new album, Light Year. The tour launches Feb. 11th in Dallas and will extend into spring with tour stops including Austin, Chicago, Seattle, and New York.
The announcement comes two years after Beckham’s international tour and highly successful release of his EP Year One. For Light Year Beckham has crafted a full-length album of original songs, including collaborations like the recently released single “I Hurt Too Much,” a stunner reminiscent of the soul ballads of the ‘70s.
“I’m such a fan of other musicians and songwriters, I love taking an idea to a great writer and watching their wheels turn,” said Beckham. “Then we’re off, going to places we’d have never found on our own.” As much as he enjoys the collaborative process, writing solo will always be important to Beckham. Added the Nashville native, “There are some songs that happen when you’re alone.”
The Light Year title seemed a natural successor to Year One and a nod to seminal events that have propelled Clark’s career. When his soulful, bluesy voice caught the attention of iconic producer Quincy Jones, who would become a mentor to Beckham, even the iconic Jones took a moment to gush about Clark’s talents. “I think God leaves His hand on a select few just a bit longer than the rest,” Jones said, “and there’s no doubt (Clark) is one of them. He is an absolutely unforgettable talent.”
Said Beckham, “When I look back at my season on Idol, my time with Quincy, and my first international tour, I’ve experienced cosmic creative growth through it all. Light Year isn’t only about the past,” he explained, “it’s also about boldly charging ahead, declaring that what’s in front of me will be greater than what’s behind me.”
Beckham has made several television appearances, including ABC’s Live with Kelly and Michael and Hallmark Channel’s Home & Family. He has been nominated for a Teen Choice Award, performed with the Nashville Symphony, and opened for Capitol Records recording artists Jon Bellion and Allen Stone.
In 2016 a national survey by E-Score ranked Beckham as one of American Idol’s Top Ten Most Talented contestants since its debut in 2002.

What It Is

The chorus to the title track on the new Hayes Carll album, What It Is, is a manifesto.

What it was is gone forever / What it could be God only knows.
What it is is right here in front of me / and I’m not letting go.

He’s embracing the moment. Leaving the past where it belongs, accepting there’s no way to know what’s ahead, and challenging himself to be present in both love and life. It’s heady stuff. It also rocks.

With a career full of critical acclaim and popular success, Carll could’ve played it safe on this, his sixth record, but he didn’t. The result is a musically ambitious and lyrically deep statement of an artist in his creative prime.

Hayes Carll’s list of accomplishments is long. His third album, 2008’s Trouble In Mind, earned him an Americana Music Association Award for Song of the Year (for “She Left Me for Jesus”). The follow-up, KMAG YOYO was the most played album on the Americana Chart in 2011 and spawned covers by artists as varied as Hard Working Americans and Lee Ann Womack, whose version of “Chances Are” garnered Carll a Grammy nomination for Best Country Song. 2016’s Lovers and Leavers swept the Austin Music Awards, and was his fourth record in a row to reach #1 on the Americana Airplay chart. Kelly Willis and Kenny Chesney have chosen to record his songs and his television appearances include The Tonight Show, Austin City Limits, and Later w/Jools Holland. Carll is the rare artist who can rock a packed dancehall one night and hold a listening room at rapt attention the next.

“Repeating myself creatively would ultimately leave me empty. Covering new ground, exploring, and taking chances gives me juice and keeps me interested.”

He knew he wanted to find the next level. On What It Is, he clearly has.

It wasn’t necessarily easy to get there. Carll’s last release, 2016’s Lovers and Leavers was an artistic and commercial risk — a bold move which eschewed the tempo and humor of much of his previous work. The record revealed a more serious singer-songwriter dealing with more serious subjects — divorce, new love in the middle of life, parenting, the worth of work. What It Is finds him now on the other side, revived and happy, but resolute — no longer under the impression that any of it comes for free.

“I want to dig in so this life doesn’t just pass me by. The more engaged I am the more meaning it all has. I want that to be reflected in the work.”

And meaning there is. Carll sings “but I try because I want to,” on the album’s opening track, “None’Ya.” He’s not looking back lamenting love lost, rather, finding joy and purpose in the one he’s got and hanging on to the woman who sometimes leaves him delightedly scratching his head. “If I May Be So Bold,” finds him standing on similar ground — lyrically taking on the challenge of participating fully in life rather than discontentedly letting life happen.

Bold enough to not surrender bold enough to give a damn
Bold enough to keep on going or to stay right where I am
There’s a whole world out there waiting full of stories to be told
I’ll heed the call and tell’em all if I may be so bold

There’s no wishy washy here and he’s not on the sidelines. In fact, he’s neck-deep in life. On the rambunctious, fiddle-punctuated, “Times Like These,” he laments political division in America while delivering a rapid-fire plea to “do my labor, love my girl, and help my neighbor, while keeping all my joie de vivre.” Carll’s signature cleverness and aptitude for so-personal-you-might-miss-it political commentary is as strong as ever. The stark, “Fragile Men,” co-written with singer-songwriter Lolo, uses humor and dripping sarcasm to examine his gender’s resistance to change in less than three minutes of string-laden, almost Jacques Brel invoking drama. It’s new musical territory for Carll, and the result is powerful. His voice is strong and resonant on these songs, and it’s thrilling to hear him use it with a new authority. He is alternately commanding and tender, yet always soulful.

Carll returned to trusted producer Brad Jones (producer of 2008’s Trouble in Mind and 2011’s KMAG YOYO) and Alex the Great Studio in Nashville, Tennessee, to record What It Is, and recruited singer-songwriter, author, and fiancee Allison Moorer as co-producer. The production is adventurous while keeping the focus on the singer and his songs and providing a path for him to go where he wants to go. Where that is, is forward.

That’s evident in the songwriting. Carll continues to hone his singular voice, but is also a flexible co-writer. Matraca Berg, Charlie Mars, Adam Landry, and Moorer have co-writing credits here, but it was Moorer’s inspiration that provided the largest impact.

“On the songwriting front she’s just a pro. She helps me cut through the noise and she does it with wit and style.”

Carll’s own wit and style has never been more evident. Whether it’s with the put-you-in-picture detail of, “Beautiful Thing,” the not quite sheepish enough, dude-esque defense of dishonesty in, “Things You Don’t Wanna Know,” or the strong as a tree trunk declaration of love on, “I Will Stay,” he displays an increasing command of his poetic lexicon.

Writers most often wrestle with experience and expectations, either romanticizing the past or telling us how good it’s going to be when they get where they’re going. What It Is is a record that is rooted solidly in the present, revealing an artist in the emotional and intellectual here and now.