Slaid Cleaves - Still Fighting The War [2013] ALBUM

Ghost on the Car Radio is Cleaves' first release since 2013's Still Fighting the War, which was praised as "one of the year's best albums" by American Songwriter and "carefully crafted songs about the struggles of the heart in hard times" by the Wall Street Journal. The New York Daily News called his music "a treasure hidden in plain sight," while the Austin Chronicle declared, "there are few contemporaries that compare. He's become a master craftsman on the order of Guy Clark and John Prine."

Slaid Cleaves - Still Fighting The War [2013] ALBUM

After signing with Jimmy LaFave's Music Road Records, he issued Everything You Love Will Be Taken Away (2009, featuring liner notes from fan Stephen King), the two-disc Sorrow & Smoke: Live at the Horseshoe Lounge (2011), and Still Fighting the War (2013), produced by beloved Austin guitarist Scrappy Jud Newcomb. The title song was inspired in part by Craig F. Walker's Pulitzer-winning photo-essay depicting a Marine's harrowing return to civilian life. The album was praised as "one of the year's best albums" by American Songwriter and "carefully crafted, . . . songs about the struggles of the heart in hard times" by the Wall Street Journal. The New York Daily News called his music "a treasure hidden in plain sight," while the Austin Chronicle declared, "there are few contemporaries that compare. He's become a master craftsman on the order of Guy Clark and John Prine."

After a year and a half hiatus thanks to Covid, the More Barn Concert Series joyfully resumed with The Contenders! The Contenders is a two-man band whose music is an amalgam of classic country, folk, and rootsy rock and roll. The group was formed in 2013 by singer and songwriter Jay Nash. Nash was at home in Vermont shortly after wrapping up a tour when he began thinking about the many musicians he'd come to know, some of whom stuck to playing music despite a lack of larger commercial success. He was inspired to write songs about his musical heroes, famous and otherwise, and was eager to find a different vehicle for this material. He contacted his friend, Josh Day, a drummer whose resume includes work with Sara Bareilles, Adam Hood, Jennifer Nettles, The Kruger Brothers, John Oates, and Applewood Road. The two shared their ideas about Nash's tunes, and they decided to form a guitar and drums band called The Contenders. Nash and Day soon took their ideas into the studio, and released their debut EP, Meet the Contenders, in November 2014. All of the songs on the debut album were written by Josh and Jay, which highlight their rootsy approach and strong harmonies. In November 2017, The Contenders delivered their first full-length album, Laughing with the Reckless, released by the Nashville-based independent label Rock Ridge Music.

Ghost on the Car Radio is Cleaves' first release since 2013's Still Fighting the War, which was praised as "one of the year's best albums" by American Songwriter and "carefully crafted...songs about the struggles of the heart in hard times" by the Wall Street Journal. The New York Daily News called his music "a treasure hidden in plain sight," while the Austin Chronicle declared, "there are few contemporaries that compare. He's become a master craftsman on the order of Guy Clark and John Prine."

Although they are based in Nashville, Wild Ponies have always looked to Southwest Virginia - where bandmates Doug and Talisha Williams were both born and raised - for inspiration. There, in mountain towns like Galax, old-time American music continues to thrive, supported by a community of fiddlers, flat-pickers, and fans. Wild Ponies pays tribute to that powerful music and rugged landscape with 2017's Galax, a stripped-back album that nods to the band's history while still pushing forward.