Every week, The Boot highlights recent favorites from country, Americana, folk and everything in between. In every list, you'll find picks from our contributing team that we think you'll love. Keep reading to check out the latest installment of The Boot's Weekly Picks.

  • Courtney Jaye

    The Awakening: "The Kingdom is Inside of Me/Hymns and Hallucinations"

    Courtney Jaye returns with her first solo album since 2013, and these tracks serve as part one of her story. The record is a spiritual journey, accompanied by a short film that she will share in installments leading up to the full length that she will independently release on May 20. It's a beautiful, spiritual journey that Jaye has spent years working to perfect.

    In a statement, Jaye said, "It’s mainly about my life journey, and going through hell—in childhood, adulthood, in the music business and in personal relationships—reconnecting with God in a deeper way later in life and through that, doing the work to heal, and eventually finding my power and my actual voice." -- Blake Ells

  • 49 Winchester

    "Russell County Line"

    Appalachian soul spinners 49 Winchester get sentimental about home on “Russell County Line,” the latest single from their New West Records debut Fortune Favors the Bold, out May 13. On the tune, lead singer Isaac Gibson swoons over his native Virginia county and the woman he loves who is there to welcome him back from the road. This longing for home and the people he holds dear there reaches a crescendo on the chorus as Gibson belts out, “And if you wonder where my heart is when I’m out on the road / It’s right at home, I left it honey just for you to hold / And if you wonder how I’m doing, know that I am doing fine / But I wish I was in Virginia on the Russell County line.” -- Matt Wickstrom

  • Andrew Bird

    "Atomized"

    The latest tune from indie folk stalwart Andrew Bird finds him channeling inspiration from influential author Joan Didion and her 1968 collection of essays Slouching Towards Bethlehem. Propelled by Bird's trademark whistle and plucky violin, the song's layered soundscape ebbs and flows while serving up an irresistable, infectious rhythm. -- Lorie Liebig

  • Kamara Thomas

    "Tularosa"

    Kamara Thomas is readying the release of her new album, Tularosa: An American Dreamtime. The project has been a long time coming, beginning its life as a multi-disciplinary song cycle, showing different characters' perspectives -- and collisions with -- the American dream.

    In the title track, an Apache boy recalls his life story, rife with treachery on all sides. The song is a spaghetti Western epic for the ages. Thomas, a co-founder of Country Soul Songbook, has long used country music as a means of critiquing American society and pointing us to where we should go. Tularosa: An American Dreamtime, which will be released in May, looks to be an important step in Thomas' mission. -- Rachel Cholst

  • Izaak Opatz

    "Chinook Wind"

    Former National Park worker turned singer-songwriter Izaak Opatz embraces his quirky side on “Chinook Wind” from his album Extra Medium, out April 29. On the song, Opatz compares his attempts to get back with an estranged lover to the false-summer warm wind of the Rocky Mountains. With reverb-laden guitar and boisterous horns, the song instantly throws the listener into the mystifying mind of Opatz and his awkward, perplexing situation as he sings about the girl who fought out his resistance until he let her back in. -- Matt Wickstrom

  • Lee Bains III + The Glory Fires

    "God's A-Workin Man"

    Lee Bains III + The Glory Fires are back with their first new music in five years. 2017's "Youth Detention" was loud, aggressive, angry Southern punk rock. Bains spent much of the pandemic connecting with his spiritual side, hosting regular Facebook Sunday gospel streams, and the lighter tone here is reflective of that. That doesn't mean there isn't just as much and more for the Birmingham native to say. "We've worked harder and dug deeper on this record than any other, and, after a long time coming, are beyond grateful to be able to share it," Bains said in a recent statement. -- Blake Ells

  • Leon Timbo

    "Galaxy"

    Leon Timbo was raised in the church, and that shows on "Galaxy." The album is an earnest love song with some smooth R&B stylings, though Timbo's transcendent voice is the main draw, lifting his hopes for his love as if in prayer. -- Rachel Cholst

  • Justin Golden

    "Can't Get Right"

    Richmond, Virginia’s Justin Golden takes a ride on the country blues train on “Can’t Get Right” from his forthcoming debut album Hard Times and a Woman, out April 15. The song captures a low point in Golden’s life in 2019 when he was laid off from his job while still mourning a recent heartbreak.

    In the rockin’ ballad, Golden goes from losing his mind working down in the mines to laughing to himself because he “ran out of luck about 20 miles back” before finally admitting that he “can’t get right” and pleading “honey, I hope you know I’m trying.” -- Matt Wickstrom

  • Rhyan Sinclair

    "All Alone In Outer Space"

    21-year-old Kentuckian Rhyan Sinclair sings of feeling out of place on “All Alone In Outer Space,” the de facto title track of her second full-length album Letters to Aliens, out March 4. On the psychedelic country jam, Sinclair recalls her childhood when she would “send letters to aliens on balloons into the unknown.”

    The otherworldly tale is further lifted into another dimension with the theremin of Fats Kaplin, a long-time collaborator of Jack White and John Prine, among others, who appears throughout Sinclair’s new album. -- Matt Wickstrom

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