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Hannah Aldridge grew up on the muddy banks of Muscle Shoals—her birthright is music and Alabama (she’s the daughter of Hall of Fame writer Walt Aldridge). A reckoning between her coming-of-age in the South and a lifetime of trying to create an identity outside of it, her songs strike a delicate balance between rebellion and self-discovery. With a voice that is equal parts gritty and melodic, Hannah took to the road, entertaining crowds in ten countries and three continents with her acclaimed debut album Razor Wire, superb follow-up Gold Rush and Live in Black and White (recorded in London, UK).
Aldridge expanded her artistic vision with 2023’s ambitious, cinematic Dream of America, which was released on Swedish alternative indie label, Icons Creating Evil Art. It peers through the lens of fading Hollywood starlets, charming psychopaths and weary vagabonds – navigating society’s underbelly through dark, romantic vignettes.
Walk around throwing punches everywhere and you’ll earn yourself an almighty ass whooping. Keep your hands in your pockets all day, though, and you’ll start to feel like you’ve already whooped your own. It’s a paradox that Ryan Culwell finds himself wrestling with frequently on his extraordinary new album, Run Like A Bull. Recorded with longtime collaborator Neilson Hubbard (Mary Gauthier, Kim Richey), the collection is raw and magnetic, cutting close to the bone as it searches for a middle ground between release and restraint, recklessness and responsibility. Culwell faces down his own worst instincts here, grappling with weighty, existential notions the way Flannery O’Connor might, conjuring up images of alternating beauty and brutality set against a distinctly American backdrop.
Born and raised in the Texas panhandle, Culwell earned widespread acclaim with his first two albums, 2015’s Flatlands and 2018’s The Last American. The music earned Culwell dates with Patty Griffin, Billy Joe Shaver, Hayes Carll, Patrick Sweany, and Ashley Monroe among others, alongside a full calendar of his own headline shows around the country and millions of streams across platforms.
Melanie MacLaren’s deliberate, soul-stirring voice, wistful guitar playing, and keen ability to write about life as if life were writing itself is everything you could want from a modern folk musician. Her lyrics have been described as “haunting yet humorous” and possessing a “sentimental cynicism” that “oozes with Gen-Z relatability.” This duality shines through in all aspects of her music— she’s a classic finger-style guitar who grew up playing classical but uses ambient beds and distorted traditional instruments to punctuate her compositions.
Melanie released her latest EP, Bloodlust, in 2024, which is part of a larger album project due out in the summer of 2025. Produced by Max Helgemo (who produced her exuberant 2023 cover of Loudon Wainwright III’s “The Swimming Song”) this project draws deeply from 90’s alt-country influences, with notes of Lucinda Williams, The Silver Jews, Gillian Welch, and John Prine, and brings out Melanie’s inborn classic Americana sensibilities while staying true to her instinct for flipping conventions of genre and subject matter on their head.
About the author: Mild-mannered corporate executive by day, excitable Twangville denizen by night.