Where is Roots Music Going in 2024? Mexican Country, Autotuned Folk, Weird Bluegrass, Afrobeats on Fortnite, AI Taking Over, Indigenous Resurgence, and More!
Welcome to the KITHFOLK / Hearth Music Newsletter! This is my second newsletter and I’m still getting the hang of Substack, so bear with me! Even though we’re now in March, I wanted to do a quick recap of 2023 and a look at my predictions for where traditional and roots music will be going in 2024! The goal of this newsletter is, in part, to keep folks up to date on what I’m up to after leaving music publicity (mostly a lot of music writing!), but also it’s a place to think and muse on what roots and traditional music means in a modern world.
KITHFOLK / Hearth Music 2023 Recap
Since I don’t believe that good music goes out of fashion any time soon, let’s take a quick look back at 2023!
I wrote about the Best Trad Albums of 2023 for Folk Alley! Chief Adjuah’s ground-breaking album of Mardi Gras Indian (or Creole Carnival as maybe a better term) music took the top spot hands down. He invented an entire new instrument in part to rework and reform the New Orleans traditions he grew up with. Live in Seattle, that instrument, the Adjuah bow (based on African and Afrofuturist precepts) was a revelation. Other big recommendations from this list include Haitian/UK songwriter Germa Adan, Irish songcrafter Lisa O’Neill, and everything from a Hawaiian stringband to a Québécois / Acadian fusion album.
https://folkalley.com/folk-alley-favorites-best-trad-of-2023/
I also covered the Best Indie Roots Albums of 2023 for MAGNET Magazine! I do this round up every year, focusing on albums that bring indie and indie rock ideas to folk, but still keep some roots to them. Chief Adjuah topped the list here too, but I had to shout out Cat Clyde (who I got to interview onstage with my kid at Pickathon in 2023), Margo Cilker, Sunny War, and more!
https://magnetmagazine.com/2023/12/11/best-of-2023-indie-roots/
For the full list of all the Best Trad of 2023, I put together a Spotify Playlist of all my favorite 60+ tracks! Enjoy!
Predictions for 2024 in Trad Music
It’s going to be a momentous year in the US, so amidst the chaos and insanity of this coming election year, I’m hoping that we’ll see some big, game changing moments in traditional music this year! Here’s my best bets for 2024:
-Regional Mexican will change Country Music:
We’ve already seen Regional Mexican Music (a strange genre name, but it incorporates everything from ranchera, to corridos, banda, corridos tumbados, norteño, tejano, mariachi, and beyond) explode globally. Peso Pluma is undoubtedly one of the big breakout artists of 2023, with his track with Eslabon Armado clocking in at a cool half a billion views on YouTube. This is part of a larger embrace of Latin music by the mainstream music industry in the US (Snoop Dogg’s been recording with Regional Mexican artists for a few years, Bad Bunny took over Hollywood, J. Balvin has a Fortnite skin, etc etc), but it’s interesting that of all genres, country music has been so cold to Mexican artists. So much Regional Mexican music feels country to the core: cowboy hats and boots, songs about lost love and home, family values, deep odes to rural life and culture. If the music industry was REALLY all about the money, country would have figured this out long ago, certainly long before Los Tigres del Norte updated Johnny Cash’s legacy by playing Folsom Prison in 2019. I’m hoping that 2024 will be the year that country music figures it out and embraces Regional Mexican music. But I’m not sure I’d bet on their love of money overcoming their love of racism… Happily though we’ve already seen the first big step: Mexican singer Carín Léon just dropped a great track with Kane Brown and played the Opry in February. So we’re on the way!
-AI AI O NO!
Yep folks, AI is coming! And it’s not just recording a new Beatles song (which was, jeez, actually pretty good). AI is going to change everything about how we interact with music. It’s going to resurrect dead voices, it’ll enable fans to customize new music in the voices of their favorite artists but with the fans’ own ideas, it’ll help artists write new songs, and it’ll take over most of music journalism too. It’ll take over most of your Spotify playlists too in the coming years, since Spotify was already looking for a way to create algorithm based music without paying creators. I’m not an AI doomsayer, though I do think it’ll be a very rocky road getting towards any kind of equity between living artists and AI. As a music publicist, we just tracked our first AI review for a client, and it was realllll weird. Inaccurate and troubling. I think accuracy and authenticity will go out the window in the coming chaos, but the flip side is that everything can be tailored to the teeniest, tiniest interests. Eventually we’ll all be building our own worlds to our own strange and very exact specifications.
-Resurgence of Indigenous Artists, Finally!
After years in the American music industry where Native and Indigenous artists never were afforded much traction, especially Indigenous artists in traditional fields, that’s beginning to change (I hope!)! The historic precedent of the show Reservation Dogs, which brought an all-Indigenous perspective to TV and had a killer soundtrack of Native and non-Native roots musicians, as well as Scorcese’s new film Killers of the Flower Moon is hopefully pointing the way. I’ve also been heartened by KEXP bringing on an Indigenous radio show, Sounds of Survivance, hosted by Kevin Sur, who runs the Timber! Festival, and Tory J. Kevin’s playlists are incredible and feature a ton of rising Indigenous artists from around the globe. The rise of Indigenous artists in Americana like Vincent Neil Emerson, Kalyn Fay, Leo Rondeau, and more is also a good step.
-2024 the Year of Black Banjo, thanks Beyoncé!
YES, thanks Beyoncé (and for sure Rhiannon Giddens) for bringing Black Banjo music and Black Country BACK with a huge wave of support (and controversy from people whose opinions on country music suck)! It’s exciting that Beyoncé’s kicking off the new year by going country, but also a little disturbing that this seems so new to everyone. Didn’t we JUST have a big Black Country movement that changed how country music saw Black artists? The Yee-haw Agenda that swept headlines in 2019, fueled by the great Lil Nas X’s Old Town Road? Have we already forgotten about that? It points to a really troubling trend that I remember author and journalist Andrea Williams talking about a few years back (can’t find that Twitter feed sorry) and artist/podcaster Rissi Palmer also kind of brought up yesterday (Twitter thread here). As long as the industry keeps packaging Black Country artists as “brand-new”, it A) ignores the long history of Black artists from the very earliest days of country, and B) ignores that Black country has been a national thing a number of times before. Every time we forget these precedents or pretend they didn’t happen, we’re once more saying that Black artists don’t belong in country music.
-Is This the Year that Bluegrass FINALLY Wakes Up?
Look, I love bluegrass and I’ve worked professionally at the center of it for years (I ran PR for Norman Blake, MerleFest, Earl Scruggs Music Festival, Peter Rowan, Leftover Salmon, Mighty Poplar, and many more). But jeez this has become a boring genre. I’m seeing artists absolutely tearing down the walls of reality in other genres. For example, there’s a wave of Haitian women in the US and Canada right now (Leyla McCalla, Cécile McLoran Salvant, Nathalie Joachim) who are redefining musical traditions in the most beautiful ways. African-born artists are rebuilding Americana from scratch (Mon Rovia, Jon Muq, Peter One). And in bluegrass, all I hear is the same country-lite songwriting wrapped around instrumental virtuosity. Fine songwriting and wonderful playing, but where are the artists trying to tear down walls? Where are the artists in bluegrass desperately trying to make a statement, to say something? I’ve gotten plenty of flack in the past for saying bluegrass is complacent and I keep listening to new bluegrass coming out and hoping to be surprised, but so far this ain’t it. However, there have been TWO big developments this year that are heartening. Blues Americana artist Justin Golden out of Richmond, VA, just released a great album, Golden Country: Volume 1, with a VA bluegrass band that dives into the early roots of bluegrass and country before the industry segregated Black artists out of these genres. And then psych soul hero Swamp Dogg JUST dropped the first single of his upcoming bluegrass album. It’s based around a salacious blues concept, but I’ve heard the rest of the album and it is really moving and powerfully complex, bringing a ton of new ideas into bluegrass.
-TikTok Will Dominate, Afrobeat to the Moon
OK, so I’m not an expert in TikTok at all, nor am I an expert on Afrobeat, but both are huge right now. How do I know? I play Fortnite all the time with my two little nephews who are under 10 years old. It’s a blast and a fun way for me to bond with them. And those little dudes always have their Amazon device on in the background playing music. For a while it was Eminem, now it’s (shudder) Macklemore. Before that there was some insane song based on the children’s song “1, 2, Buckle My Shoe” that made my earballs bleed! But then recently my nephew starts singing “Calm Down” by Nigerian Afrobeats star Rema. It was wild to hear him singing in Nigerian Pidgin and he got it first from TikTok! If a little kid with no ties to the world music industry can learn the words to a Nigerian Afrobeats song through TikTok and fall in love with the song so much he’s playing it over and over in his room while gaming? That’s kind of wonderful I think.
PS: Yes I know the House voted to ban TikTok, but I think the ban is unlikely. But if it happens, that’ll be a huge shift in global culture.
-Will We Ever Get Autotune in Trad Music?
I bet I’ll get some flack for this too, but I LOVE Autotune! Absolutely love it. I first got really excited about autotune in traditional music while working with Chief Boima’s record label around Sierra Leonean music. Most of the music coming out of Sierra Leone, and a lot of West Africa, was heavily autotuned as an artistic choice and I just thought it sounded amazing. One of my favorite tracks of the past few years that I’ve listened to over and over is Stick in the Wheel and Jon1st’s heavily autotuned British folk song “The Ballad of Black Annis”. The shimmering of the voice under electronics just transports me. Autotune is everywhere in music but not in folk! Why not? It’s the ghost of Pete Seeger backstage at Newport with his battle axe, ready to lop the head off any folk singer that dares to modify the human voice. Can we relax a bit in folk music and just make some weird-ass music? Shouldn’t folk music today reflect a world so weird that we all feel insane half the time? That’s my wish for 2024 but I’m not sure I’m going to get it.
My Music Writing:
I’ve been a busy bee in the last part of 2023 and early 2024, but most of my writing has been for print magazines, interestingly! I’ve been reviewing music for Songlines Magazine at a steady pace, including albums from Germa Adan, Fränder, Kultur Shock, and more. I’ve got big news coming soon with Songlines Magazine (a BIG project starting up), so stay tuned for that! Subscribe to Songlines Magazine here:
https://www.songlines.co.uk/subscribe
Just reviewed Sam Lee’s new album for Folk Alley. Really marvelous work from Sam adapting old traveller ballads in a modern context while keeping the original environmentalist vision of these songs.
https://folkalley.com/album-review-sam-lee-songdreaming/
I wrote my longest and most complex article yet for No Depression on artists and music industry folks who’ve moved to real estate work. I was especially interested in how these artists used their creativity in the real estate world. Got some great interviews with folks too. Jason Galaz of Muddy Roots talked about bringing his DIY roots to real estate, Bradford Lee Folk talked about work ethic, Emilee Warner brought up her philosophy of abundance, Justin Golden talked about creating generational wealth, and Jonny Fritz talked about his wacko marketing schemes! Subscribe to No Depression here:
https://store.nodepression.com/collections/subscribe
Just wrapped my first article for Bandcamp! It’s been a dream of mine for ages to write for them; they have some of the best writing ever. I won’t say yet what it’s about, but it’s a pretty underground scene.
Hearth Family Happenings:
I’ve been blessed to get to work with my most favorite artists and awesomest friends. I thought it would be fun to have a little roundup for Hearth Family, meaning artists and fests who’ve been part of the Hearth Music world in the past!
-Pickathon Announces 2024 Lineup!
Before my sabbatical this year, I’d been the Communications person for Pickathon since 2018. Or 2019? God, I can’t even remember anymore, anything pre-COVID is just a blur. Pickathon’s always been my favorite festival, so it’s been a huge part of my life to get to work with them. New lineup just dropped and it’s pretty great! Love to see real deal folks like Appalachian banjo player and tattooist John Haywood, brilliant old-time tune composer Sami Braman, Ghanaian highlife artist Gyedu-Blay Ambolley, genius-level songwriter Jeffrey Martin, and roots rounders Two Runner, plus a ton more! If you’ve never been to Pickathon, it’s a fever dream. Truly a festival built for music festival nerds like myself.
-Cinder Well Tiny Desk
I’ve been a fan of Amelia Baker’s music back when she was playing with anarchist folk heroes Blackbird Raum and started up an underground folk punk band of her own The Gembrokers (with Cheech from Nick Shoulders’ band!). Her recent work as Cinder Well has been revelatory, blending old Irish moss-covered songs with California beach sunshine in the most unusual way. Amazing to see her get an NPR Tiny Desk with this! Congrats to Free Dirt Records!
-Jake Blount at KEXP
Outside of the Tiny Desk, KEXP has some of the most cutting-edge taste in artists, bringing them into their beautiful downtown Seattle studio for video sessions. It was awesome to see ace old-time musician and serious afrofuturist Jake Blount pull into the room to tape songs from his recent albums with Free Dirt and Smithsonian Folkways. Songs this powerful deserve the best audio/visual treatment!
-Yann Falquet Solo Album
Yann’s a good buddy and one of the best Québécois traditional singers and guitarists, well known for his longtime work with the great band Genticorum. He’s just wrapped up his first solo album and it’s a gorgeous sound environment exploration of old Québécois and Acadian songs from Canada. Get lost in his voice and guitar, you won’t regret it!
-Rachel Brooke’s New Single
I worked with Rachel Brooke ages ago and have remained a fan ever since of her outlaw country sound. She’s also a deft hand at writing epic, modern, feminist murder ballads, so how can you not like her? She just dropped a great new single and video for “The Only One”, and it’s just the dose of old-school country I needed!
That’s it folks, thanks for reading to the end! Here’s a special treat for you!
What is KITHFOLK?
KITHFOLK is a digital magazine I started way back in 2014! I used to publish it on Creatavist, a proto-Substack site that has long since shuttered. The goal of KITHFOLK is to shine a light on traditional and roots music from around the world!
What is Hearth Music?
Hearth Music is my digital promotions agency, basically a music publicity and presentation company. I use it as an umbrella for a lot of my work outside music writing.