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Lonesome Highway Reviews Nick Gusman and the Coyotes’ New Album

What do you get if you mix a bluegrass fiddle player, a hardcore rock bass player, and a jazz-schooled drummer? It’s hardly the blueprint for an alt-country band, but it is the bricks and mortar that cement St. Louis, Missouri-based outfit Nick Gusman and the Coyotes. Their core sound is a throwback to the 90s when groups like The Bottle Rockets, Drive-By Truckers, and Blue Mountain shook up the mainstream market with their signature mix of country, indie, and punk. Nick Gusman and the Coyotes are Nick Gusman (Guitar, Vocals), Sean Kamery (fiddle), Justin Haltmar (bass), Tony Hall (keys), Garrett Rongey (guitar) and Jeremy Reidy (drums).

As was the case with the band’s previous albums, DEAR HARD TIMES (2018) and the self-titled release (2021), LIFTING HEAVY THINGS, was recorded live at Native Sound Recordings in St. Louis (‘We came in hot, turned up way loud, and recorded everything live,’ explains Nick Gusman) and the end results are pretty impressive and will most certainly appeal to lovers of the alt-country genre, which has been overshadowed by the all-embracing Americana classification in recent years.

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Billboard Lists Shawna Virago’s Album as One of 2024’s Best Pride Albums

It’s a dark, oft-demonstrated truth that society lashes out at its most vulnerable members when the world gets scary, and 2024 was a shameful year for Americans scapegoating and scaremongering against the trans community. But as a trans woman who has been creating and performing since the ’90s, Shawna Virago knows a thing or two about resilience. Blood in Her Dreams adds a ramshackle punk punch to the world of Lucinda Williams-esque Americana. And while the insightful, evocative lyrics are more personal than political, there’s an undercurrent of resistance and fortitude that makes Dreams a much-needed catharsis in reality. — J.L.

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Americana UK Reviews Nick Gusman and the Coyotes’ New Album

Repackaged 1990s alt-country time travel trips have rarely felt this rewarding.

It’s far easier said than done, but why does this album, the third by St. Louis outfit Nick Gusman and the Coyotes, and as fine a piece of 1990s alt-country revivalism as you could wish for, collate together so well and remain a real pleasure on the ear after multiple listenings?

For one thing, nearly all the reasons why americana fans so often hark back to the 1990s as the golden age of the genre are present on ‘Lifting Heavy Things’, and in abundance. First and foremost, the punchy, tightly disciplined sound that came to characterize the very best music (well, ok, americana) of that particular decade, pulling together the compact killer tunes of pop’s new wave with the lilting edge of traditional country, is very much present and correct. No matter which of the ten tracks on ‘Lifting Heavy Things’ you go for first, it’s like a time trip back to an age when deftly constructed, unpretentious lyrics and attractively straightforward melodies ruled the musical (well, ok, americana) roost.

So it’s evident from this album that Gusman and his five-piece backing band have an admirably clear-eyed appreciation of the strengths of 1990s alt-country. But what surely promotes ‘Lifting Heavy Things’ from the category of ‘memorably good’ to something even more superior is how effectively other musical influences and styles are weaved into the album as well.

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No Depression Reviews Nick Gusman and the Coyotes’ New Album

Nick Gusman & The Coyotes don’t do half measures, as evidenced by their barnstorming third album, Lifting Heavy Things, which has all the markings of a soon-to-be critical and commercial breakthrough. By the time the LP’s second track, “Sound of A Broken Heart” has finished, the band have already placed themselves firmly in the lineage of greats like Lucero, Springsteen, and Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit. 

Like those acts, the band here demonstrate a preternatural knack for packaging knotty emotions and uncomfortable truths into unpretentious couplets that cut to the heart of the matter (“And I’m looking for the pain again / Because it’s something I know”). “Broken Heart,” like many of the songs that follow, rushes to big, anthemic climaxes where fiddle, drums, and guitar crescendo into a cacophony. But such dramatic moments (and Lifting Heavy Things has no shortage of them) never feel unearned or forced – there’s a dynamism, sincerity and rawness to the band’s expression that proves reliably winning.

Like Springsteen and Isbell, Gusman & co are big believers in the character portrait – sketching various personalities who at their very best have a wider story to tell about America in 2024. Across these 10 tracks, we meet a charismatic sex worker in the “Tokyo Hotel,” the fast-living eponymous character of “Slow Down Katie,” an injured refugee seeking the “American Dream,” and a strung-out “Trucker” going down in an epic police chase. All these characters (and many more) act as stand-ins for different parts of the nation’s wounded psyche – disillusionment with once-accepted truths, a strained but resilient belief in the country’s stated promise, and reckless abandon committed under the false pretense of invincibility. It all adds up to an immensely powerful songwriting statement.

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The Big Takeover Reviews Noah Smith’s New EP

In the modern world, we have become all too accustomed to listening to music that has been produced to within an inch of its life, songs that have been pieced together from numerous takes and additional sonic add-ons. It might sound impressive, in that shiny sort of way that appeals to musical magpies, but does it sound honest and authentic enough for the more discerning musical aficionado? Probably not.

If you are after the real deal, look no further than this new six-tracker from Noah Smith. Cavaliers Into Cadillacs is the sound of a live band in the studio, capturing the same energy, edge, feel, and authenticity as they would if they were on stage entertaining the masses. It ain’t a live album, but it’s not far off.

Noah Smith seems to flit through any genres – country, rock, folk, Americana – never stopping long enough to get tied down in any one in particular, always taking the best of what each has to offer before moving on.

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Americana Highways Reviews Noah Smith’s New EP

This 6-song EP starts off with intense musicality & Noah has a splendid strong vocal that’s absorbing & well-recorded if not a little hot. But the drums are resounding & thud along with the guitar that purrs along like a diesel on the opening song “Don’t Break My Fall.”

There’s nothing new production or song-wise but that doesn’t always have to be the aim when the performance is genuinely saturated with enthusiasm & badass bass thumping that makes the listen a pleasure. Even the lighter moments in the showcase are blended well.

Cincinnati, Ohio singer-songwriter Noah Smith has a high-gear set of music that is neither wholly country-inflected nor rock n’ roll raw. It’s simply an enriched singer-songwriter set locked into a tight rhythmic flex tied together with finesse like the colors that adorn & hang from a well-muscled wrestler’s arms. All percolating on Cavaliers Into Cadillacs EP (Drops Nov 15/Independent).

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