Latest news with #FoxesintheSnow
Calgary Herald
06-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Calgary Herald
Calgary Stampede, July 6: Politics and pancakes Tough choices for rodeo athletes
Prime Minister Mark Carney, Premier Danielle Smith and federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre made public appearances in Calgary Saturday as part of Stampede-related festivities. Article content Meanwhile, officials at CF Chinook Centre say their pancake breakfast as broken Guinness world record for number of pancakes served over a given length of time. Article content Article content Article content Article content The only ticketed show at the Big Four Roadhouse is led by Americana singer-songwriter Jason Isbell, an artist who enjoys cult-like devotion from his growing legion of fans. Released earlier this year, the acclaimed Foxes in the Snow was the songwriter's first acoustic solo album. However, he will backed by his 400 Unit, suggesting those songs will be suitably revved for the stage. Make sure you arrive early enough to see Alberta up-and-comer Noeline Hofmann, whose star has been on the rise since country superstar Zach Bryan recorded the very Albertan ballad Purple Gas with Hofmann for his 2024 album The Great American Bar Scene after hearing it on YouTube. Article content Article content Monday, July 7
New York Times
07-03-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Jason Isbell's Bare-Bones Breakup Tune, and 7 More New Songs
Every Friday, pop critics for The New York Times weigh in on the week's most notable new tracks. Listen to the Playlist on Spotify here (or find our profile: nytimes) and at Apple Music here, and sign up for The Amplifier, a twice-weekly guide to new and old songs. Jason Isbell's new album, 'Foxes in the Snow,' is decisively unadorned: just Isbell singing over his acoustic guitar. It arrives following his divorce from Amanda Shires, who has her own songwriting career and was a member of his band. Over bare-bones fingerpicking in 'Eileen,' Isbell sings about separation, regrets, self-deception and how 'It ended like it always ends / Somebody crying on the phone.' He contends, 'Eileen, you should've seen this coming sooner,' but adds, almost fondly, 'You thought the truth was just a rumor, but that's your way.' It's not about blame — it's about getting through. The virtuoso string-band supergroup I'm With Her — Sarah Jarosz, Aiofe O'Donovan and Sara Watkins — has reconvened with the intimately ambitious 'Ancient Light.' The verses are in a gently disorienting 7/4; the instruments mix acoustic and electric, juxtaposing fiddle tune and math-rock; the lyrics lean into the metaphysical. As the song begins, Jarosz sings, 'Better get out of the way / Gonna figure out what I wanna say / I been a long time comin',' and it only gets more cosmic from there. Will Toledo's band Car Seat Headrest has announced its first album since 2020, 'The Scholars,' and it's a full-scale rock opera. The first single, 'Gethsemane,' is an 11-minute suite that ponders faith, morality, creativity, free will and love as the music unfurls with stretches of kraut-rock keyboard minimalism and roaring power chords that echo the Who's 'Tommy.' Toledo sings, 'A series of simple patterns slowly build themselves into another song / I don't know how it happened,' but the structure is ironclad. Sarah Tudzin — the songwriter and producer behind Illuminati Hotties — cranks up distorted guitars and harnesses quiet-LOUD grunge dynamics in '777,' a song that nearly explodes with joyful anticipation. 'I wanna figure you out,' she declares, but she's already sure that she's won any gamble: 'You're my spade / lucky 777.' All the noise doesn't hide the pop song within. 'I want your head on a stake / I want your head on a platter,' sing the Ophelias, an indie-rock band from Cincinnati, turning 'I' into a peal of vocal harmony. 'Salome' adapts an incident from the Bible into a seething, churning, implacable crescendo of guitars, drums and voices, calmly announcing, 'The knife sways heavy in my hand.' Yaeji, a New York City musician with Korean roots, and her co-producer E. Wata transmute a hand-clapping game into a mutating electronic beat in 'Pondeggi.' She chant-sings cryptically about the truth versus disinformation: 'Watch where you're going, head distraction / Keep, keep scrolling till you're rolling in passive.' There's a warning under the nonchalant surface. 'You make me erotic like 1990s salsa,' the Argentine songwriter Nathy Peluso exults in 'Erotika,' and she revives the style to prove her point. Piano, percussion and a swaggering horn session help her seduce a partner — and herself. The electronic composer Lyra Pramuk sets things swirling in 'Vega,' an assemblage of electronic and vocal loops that gets more menacing as it goes. A pulse gathers into a fitful beat; wordless sounds float in stereo; glitches and bleeps slice through. And eventually, Pramuk intones, 'Tell me your name' and 'Tell me your story.' Is this an acquaintanceship or an interrogation?
Yahoo
04-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Music Review: An unplugged Jason Isbell electrifies on new album, 'Foxes in the Snow'
Jason Isbell unplugged can still electrify. An excellent bandleader, guitarist and singer, Isbell is first and foremost a songwriter, and that skill takes center stage on his new album, 'Foxes in the Snow,' which will be released Friday. It's Isbell's first solo acoustic album, and his first album since 2013 without his band, the 400 Unit. Accompanied by only his 1940 Martin acoustic guitar, Isbell sorts through romantic relationships. He sounds like someone trying to find his bearings. There's blood on the tracks. That's not surprising given that the album is Isbell's first since his breakup with singer-songwriter Amanda Shires after more than a decade of marriage. Some of the material sounds powerfully autobiographical, and that's especially true on the chorus of 'Gravelweed." 'I was gravelweed and I needed you to raise me / You couldn't reach me once I felt like I was raised,' he sings. "And now that I live to see my melodies betray me / I'm sorry the love songs all mean different things today.' Yes, the 2013 fan favorite 'Cover Me Up," written for Shires, does sound different now. Isbell sings about dangerous memories, dreams forgotten, the value of persistence, and the tug of his Alabama roots. 'Ride to Robert's' pays tribute to one of downtown Nashville's best honky-tonks, while 'Open and Close' skewers a bar band for mangling Steely Dan. (That's something he knows a little something about; Isbell spent a formidable stretch in a Steely Dan cover band.) Rich, lean language and imaginative turns of phrase are Isbell's specialty. 'I hope they're grading on a curve,' he sings. "Forever is a dead man's joke.' And later, 'You thought the truth was just a rumor.' All three come from just one song, 'Eileen.' Isbell is a terrific acoustic guitarist, and his playing here is subtle and superb. A Doc Watson-style riff provides the foundation for the title cut, while nifty filigrees augment the waltz 'Open and Close' and the opener 'Bury Me,' which sounds like a cowboy song from the '50s. That's the 1950s, or 1850s. In a brave experiment, Isbell is touring solo, testing whether or not these sturdy but sober songs are enough to hold the attention of several thousand spectators. At the moment, he's not in the mood to stomp and holler. ___ For more AP reviews of recent music releases, visit: Steven Wine, The Associated Press
Associated Press
04-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Associated Press
Music Review: An unplugged Jason Isbell electrifies on new album, ‘Foxes in the Snow'
Jason Isbell unplugged can still electrify. An excellent bandleader, guitarist and singer, Isbell is first and foremost a songwriter, and that skill takes center stage on his new album, 'Foxes in the Snow,' which will be released Friday. It's Isbell's first solo acoustic album, and his first album since 2013 without his band, the 400 Unit. Accompanied by only his 1940 Martin acoustic guitar, Isbell sorts through romantic relationships. He sounds like someone trying to find his bearings. There's blood on the tracks. That's not surprising given that the album is Isbell's first since his breakup with singer-songwriter Amanda Shires after more than a decade of marriage. Some of the material sounds powerfully autobiographical, and that's especially true on the chorus of 'Gravelweed.' 'I was gravelweed and I needed you to raise me / You couldn't reach me once I felt like I was raised,' he sings. 'And now that I live to see my melodies betray me / I'm sorry the love songs all mean different things today.' Yes, the 2013 fan favorite 'Cover Me Up,' written for Shires, does sound different now. Isbell sings about dangerous memories, dreams forgotten, the value of persistence, and the tug of his Alabama roots. 'Ride to Robert's' pays tribute to one of downtown Nashville's best honky-tonks, while 'Open and Close' skewers a bar band for mangling Steely Dan. (That's something he knows a little something about; Isbell spent a formidable stretch in a Steely Dan cover band.) Rich, lean language and imaginative turns of phrase are Isbell's specialty. 'I hope they're grading on a curve,' he sings. 'Forever is a dead man's joke.' And later, 'You thought the truth was just a rumor.' All three come from just one song, 'Eileen.' Isbell is a terrific acoustic guitarist, and his playing here is subtle and superb. A Doc Watson-style riff provides the foundation for the title cut, while nifty filigrees augment the waltz 'Open and Close' and the opener 'Bury Me,' which sounds like a cowboy song from the '50s. That's the 1950s, or 1850s. In a brave experiment, Isbell is touring solo, testing whether or not these sturdy but sober songs are enough to hold the attention of several thousand spectators. At the moment, he's not in the mood to stomp and holler.
