Our Top Six Albums March 2025
Top Six Album Releases
March 2025
Our Top Six Albums March 2025
By Rob Dickens
Alison Krauss & Union Station
Arcadia
Down The Road Records
28 March 2025
Alison Krauss brought bluegrass into the mainstream with her angelic vocals and violin mastery. She linked up in the late 1980’s with a band of impeccable players under the banner of Union Station, their live performances were considered exemplary and their recordings much lauded. All members have had highly successful solo careers and, between them, amassed seventy Grammy Awards! It’s been fourteen years since their last record, Paper Airplane, and Arcadia does not disappoint.
The one change to the band this time around is Dan Tyminski being replaced with Russell Moore (of crack band IIIrd Tyme Out) and it works seamlessly. In fact, Moore is given quite a bit to do with his gritty vocals providing some delightful balance over the ten tracks.
Classy.
Via Thrillhill Music
Gary Louris
Dark Country
Sham/Thirty Tigers
14 February 2025
Gary Louris has been the leader and mainstay of the cult favourite alt. country band The Jayhawks for many years. Dark Country is Louris’s third solo record (following 2008’s Vagabonds and Jump For Joy (2021). The new release is largely just him and his guitar and piano plus, of course, that remarkable multi-layered voice. The album was inspired by, and dedicated to, his wife Stephanie and the romance fills the room.
Louris has assistance from a few friends, including pedal steel and guitar from occasional Jayhawk Stephen McCarthy (The Long Ryders) and a string arrangement by Eleanor Whitmore of The Mastersons.
A passionate and highly engaging project that augments the legend’s career.
Via Missing Piece Group
The Delines
Mr. Luck & Ms. Doom
El Cortez Records
1 November 2024
I can’t think of any band similar to The Delines. Guitarist, author, and songwriter Willy Vlautin’s incredibly vivid narratives, combined with Amy Boone‘s precise, world-weary vocals, provide a platform for the most exquisite country soul music going around.
Mr. Luck & Ms. Doom continues the band’s unique excellence, full of down-and-out characters and cinematic locations that tug at the heartstrings. The arrangements here are sublime, thanks to Vlautin and Boone, along with keyboardist and trumpet player Cory Gray, drummer Sean Oldham and bassist Freddy Trujillo.
Read more about the band and our take on their 2022 album The Sea Drift HERE.
Via Missing Piece Group
Flatland Cavalry
Flatland Forever
Interscope Records
8 November 2024
Some introductions may be required. Flatland Cavalry hail from Lubbock in northwest Texas (Buddy Holly is its most famous export). Formed in 2012 with friends Cleto Cordero (vocalist/songwriter) and drummer Jason Albers, the band has blossomed into a six-piece outfit with a grand trail of music.
Flatland Forever was released late last year and is a special deal for the band as it celebrates a ten-year career span. The album contains some hand-picked favourite tracks from their catalogue, along with some striking new material. It’s an imposing result, with twenty-five songs at over ninety minutes.
It’s a wonderful collection of country ballads and dynamic Americana.
Jon Muq
Flying Away
Easy Eye Sound
31 May 2024
Jon Muq‘s Flying Away completely escaped me on its release last May. His imminent Australian tour, and the fact that he will be playing at Port Fairy Folk Festival (which LTTL will be covering), have shaken me from my “Muq malaise”.
Muq is Uganda-born and now based in Texas. His background as a child in Africa and exposure to Western music and values gives him an uncommon perspective and provides a special experience for listeners. The sound on the album is a global one and Muq has the capacity for connecting with audiences in an optimistic and celebratory way.
Flying Away was produced by Dan Auerbach at his Nashville studio.
Via House of Webb/Love Police
Early James
Medium Raw
Easy Eye Sound
13 January 2025
Speaking of Port Fairy Folk Festival, Jim and I enjoyed the frenetic and jagged performance of Early James at the 2023 event. His heightened take on early blues and folk grabbed our attention, as it has with the aforementioned Dan Auberach who took over the production duties of this, James’s third release.
Auberach was keen to record Medium Raw in an old house, to reproduce the sound of the Arhoolie Records, and a 100-year old place in Nashville was chosen with just the right acoustics. A 1950’s console originally built by FAME Studios’ Rick Hall was brought in for the recording.
The album has an authentic sound and edgy feel with James in fine form. There is support from bassist Adrian Marmolejo, drummer Jeff Clemens and percussionist Sam Bacco, all of whom were in different rooms of the house which would have made for an interesting recording process. But it totally works.
Via Dave Laing Publicity
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Our Top Six Albums March 2025
Our Top Six Albums March 2025
Our Top Six Albums March 2025
