- Work must have been released within 4 months of the post.
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Q: Why four months? How do I show my older work? A: We have this requirement to ensure space for active artists and limit spam.
Posted By Jolene Dixon,
Sunday, December 7, 2025
Updated: Monday, December 8, 2025
Hey yall!
Your melancholy Christmas song has arrived.
It's about letting go and trying to hang on to the beauty at the same time.
The unreal feeling of Christmas time in California, almost like they're faking their way through the holiday. And sometimes I've felt like I had to fake my way through the holidays.
Grief and heart ache don't take a Christmas vacation. And for most of us, they make themselves rather cozy, in fact, around the fire.
It's ok to be a little melancholy in the winter. Tis a season.
"Patch of Blue" is Wattle & Daub's fourth album and includes the help of several Chicago area musicians. The tracks are a mixture of a subtle commentary on these times and a sense of hope that might be offered. The album is available for streaming and downloading at all the usual places. Several of the twelve tracks are starting to get some much appreciated airplay. All songs are originals.
1. If I Were a Tree
2. Jimmy Carter Hammer Song
3. Back Too Soon
4. Washington, Illinois
5. Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda
6. Winds of 1933
7. What Do They See?
8. Don’t Pursue a Kangaroo (A Cautionary Tale)
9. To the Field
10. Patch of Blue
11. What Good Is a Prayer?
12. St. Adalbert
Posted By Elexa Dawson,
Monday, October 27, 2025
Updated: Tuesday, October 28, 2025
Not missing a beat since her last full-length release, Elexa Dawson unearths Stay Put. Reviving the ensemble who backed her on her 2019 debut, Music is Medicine, Stay Put delivers a hazy, classic sound with plenty of nostalgia and dirt under its nails.
“Stay Put is both a follow-up to Wanderlust and a sequel to Music is Medicine,” Dawson explains. “It takes me back to my roots as an acoustic player and collaborator and showcases the ensemble that made Music is Medicine a success, with the seasoned experience that came with all the electric experimentation that we did with Wanderlust. Peter Oviatt is one of the best producers working in our scene today, and his embellishments, whether it’s his signature banjo or exploration with polyphonic synths, are so tasty and original. Kelby on bass is like a security blanket, and Melissa’s vocals are always the perfect accompaniment to mine. I’m proud of this work and my team.”
From the opening reimagining of Pete Seeger’s “Where Have All The Flowers Gone” as an Indigenous chant, Elexa stimulates the memory of civil rights issues of the ‘60s and reflects their relevance to present-day conflict. The title track, “Stay Put” is a songwriter’s song, a confession of a restless poet who leaves the comfort of indulgent love to chase inspiration. “Man Mountain” and “Cove” were written about and by, respectively, a mentor and a man who knows the value of a place that holds you close. In “Roots Grow”, a story about the way trees can teach us to live edifies the listener with an assurance of resilience in the face of adversity. “Baling Hay” is a tribute to Elexa’s Grandpa, a humble, hardworking soul whose tractor-greasy grace lives on in memory and song. Finally, “The Riddle Song” documents Elexa’s inherited rendition of a traditional Appalachian tune sung to her from the morning she was born by her Nana, who dubbed her an alto that day, and continues to support her from the other side of the soil.
Stay Putproves a deeply rooted and timely work sprouting from the grounding element of earth. With this viscerally personal release, Dawson anchors her message in the soil of memory, tradition, and identity. Building on her two preceding albums, Elexa continues to amplify the ancestors, infusing her voice with the grit of Oklahoma red dirt and wind-washed Kansas prairie. These are homesick songs, not just in the geographic sense, but in the spiritual and emotional sense of belonging in a world where we’re more detached from our nourishing roots every day. Stay Put is a call to remember and celebrate those roots. Elexa pays tribute to the places that raised her, the familial ties that shaped her story, and the Indigenous traditions that inform her sense of purpose and place in the world. Stay Put will make itself comfortable in the heart of anyone who has ever felt the gravity of home, the ache for grounding, and the power of not forgetting where you come from.
Posted By Larry Lesser,
Wednesday, October 1, 2025
Updated: Wednesday, October 1, 2025
This past weekend, I released my 3rd album (https://larrylesser1.bandcamp.com/album/night-will-end), NIGHT WILL END, which has timely songs such as a particular October 7 experience of the family of Hersh Goldberg-Polin in "Held". This coming weekend, a music video made of my Crypto-Jewish song "Lights Lead Home" from my 2020 album SPARKS (which was a Finalist for Best Album at the 2021 New Mexico Music Awards) is being screened as an Official Selection of the Silver City Community Music Festival (see story at https://www.nmjewishjournal.com/carrasco-crypto-judaic-themed-music-video-an-official-selection-for-the-silver-city-film-festival-in-october/
Posted By Elexa Dawson,
Thursday, July 24, 2025
Updated: Friday, July 25, 2025
A heartfelt ballad that honors the quiet dignity of rural life and the memory of a loved one gone too soon, “Baling Hay” provides the lead single from Elexa Dawson's third studio album, Stay Put. “Baling Hay” is a tribute to Elexa’s Grandpa, a humble, hardworking soul whose tractor-greasy grace lives on in memory and song. With vivid pastoral imagery and an intimate vocal delivery, rooted in folk tradition and country soul, it’s a song that will be memorable for any music lover from rural North America.
Posted By Erica Glenn,
Tuesday, July 22, 2025
Updated: Wednesday, July 23, 2025
We are excited to share a bold, empowering new single from Essence and Gold Country—an independent Americana artist whose fresh voice approaches folk music with honesty and soul.
“Free” is an anthem of liberation and self-respect—a song for anyone who’s ever had to claw their way out of a relationship that dimmed their light. It’s raw and triumphant, feminine and fierce, blending the storytelling heart of classic Americana with the emotion and musicianship of original folk music.
Co-written by Essence Goldman with Merkley, Rachel Hoiem, and Roman Weingartner, “Free” pulses with a full band, is rich with personality of leading lady Essence Goldman and has some depth with the universal message: You don’t have to shrink to survive. You don’t have to sacrifice your joy to stay in someone else’s version of your life. Essence sings this truth loud, proud, and barefoot—to dance is to heal.
This is the first single from her upcoming album Father’s Daughter, produced by David Simon-Baker (Jackie Greene, ALO). Essence’s past work was featured on NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert, and she’s currently a producer on the upcoming feature film about her journey with Bernie and the Believers—in partnership with John Legend and Paramount.
Thanks for supporting women in Americana and independent music. Essence is available for interviews in person (Bay Area) and virtually. Upcoming tour dates include select venues in the SF Bay Area, Pacific Northwest (WA, OR), Nashville and more TBA.
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RIYL: Brandi Carlile, Margo Price, Sheryl Crow, Patty Griffin, Lucinda Williams