New Music Monday - Americana Crossover Style

Today's #NewMusicMonday features a pair of a pair of Americana artists traveling down new sonic roadways, broadening their reach and the impact of their music. First up we have guitar virtuoso Molly Tuttle with a cover of The National's "Fake Empire". The video features Tuttle playing against a project backdrop of psychedelic imagery and protest videos. In this way, she turns up the heat on the post-ironic torpor of the original and transforms the song into a subtly searing critique of apathy. Tuttle, the first woman awarded Guitar Player of the Year by the International Bluegrass Music Association, won back-to-back awards in 2017 and 2018. "Fake Empire" is the lead single from …but I’d rather be with you, an album of covers she recorded in quarantine. The album is out via Compass Records on August 28.

Next up we have indie folk artist Becca Mancari. Besides her intricate solo work, Mancari is known for her role in folk trio Bermuda Triangle with Alabama Shakes' Brittany Howard. She's back with a new record The Greatest Part, produced by Paramore's Zac Farro. Leaving behind the folkier sound of her earlier releases, Mancari pursues a jangly, synth-heavy sound. The funky, sepia-tinged "Hunter" slowly unfurls to tell a harrowing tale of trauma and defiance, the lyrics inspired by Mancari's experience with a church-affiliated stalker. The song recalls fuzzier, feedback-drenched Wye Oak.