As far as I can tell, every musician has a bunch of sad songs in their catalog. If songwriting is cathartic, that makes complete sense because it’s the difficult things in life that need to be worked out, not the happy moments. Austinite BettySoo professes to be the queen of sad songs, going so far […]
Mayer’s Picks – the Best of 2025 (So Far), the Albums
No Hard Feeling by Balto Released quietly in late December 2024, Balto’s surprise album opened 2025 on an incredibly powerful note—impassioned, defiant, and beautifully crafted. From the slow-burning heartbreak of “Big City” to the searing catharsis of “Black Snake, Mojave Blues,” the band channels their frustrations and fading faith in music into a collection that’s […]
Brayden Baird and the Once In A Lifetime Band – Lord, why do you do these things to me
If you’re over a certain age one of the memes that sticks with you is Monty Python’s “and now for something completely different.” That’s the thought that crossed my mind when I heard Brooklyn resident Brayden Baird’s new album, Lord, why do you do these things to me. Some of the materials label it as […]
Kai Crowe-Getty – The Wreckage
At some point in everyone’s life you learn to measure your hopes and desires against the reality of your situation. You have to still keep them separate in order to function daily, but each can inform the other. I think that heightened sense of self-awareness is the common thread in the songs from Virginian Kai […]
Monday Morning Video – Introducing Kirby Baby
Americana musician Kirby Brown has reinvented his musical self as Kirby Baby. He comes out swinging with “Hell When You Come Around”, a great indie rocker about a relationship as irresistible as it is destructive: i know it’s going to be scars after loving youi know I’m going to fall hard like I always doit’s […]
Tawny Ellis – Edge of the World
I generally tend toward a less-is-more aesthetic to the music I listen to. I’ll take a live studio take on a song before a 64-track production any day. I like to see songs performed on stage without autotune or a dozen recorded background tracks. But every now and then I get a hankering for some […]
Mayer’s Playlist for Spring 2025, Part 2
True Believer, Jason Isbell (from the Southeastern Records release Foxes in the Snow) Foxes in the Snow finds Jason Isbell in a raw, reflective space, drawing from the emotional wreckage of heartbreak and the cautious hope of starting over. These songs live in the aftermath—where pain lingers, memories echo, and new love emerges slowly, shaped […]
Mayer’s Playlist for Spring 2025, Part 1
The Van Pelt Parties, Patterson Hood (from the ATO Records release Exploding Trees and Airplane Screams) Patterson Hood has long been a master of Southern storytelling, and on his latest album, he delivers a collection of tales—some real, some imagined—that reflect the complexities of life in the Deep South, particularly his native Alabama. These aren’t […]
Monday Morning Video – Radney Foster
With Father’s Day coming up this Sunday, it feels like the perfect time to share this song. One of the standout moments from last year’s AmericanaFest was seeing Radney Foster perform it during a songwriter round hosted by Sunny Sweeney. As the event was winding down, Sweeney asked Jack Ingram to close it out. Ingram […]
Jon Muq – A Singer in Motion
Recently I had the opportunity to see Jon Muq in action at NYC’s iconic Joe’s Pub as well as talk to him about his leap from Uganda to living in Austin and the musical journey he is on. Jon’s relative lack of knowledge of Western genres and songs should be a limitation but actually it […]