Top Five Albums of 2024 That Give Cowgirls the Blues

My top five records of 2024 come from the roots of Americana, under wide open skies and endless highways leading to empty rooms and lonesome nights. Five ladies with a little bit of the blues—a little bit spooky, dusty folk with a little hangover, reminiscent of cigarettes and late morning coffee in cafes—bring home this type of country. In one of her essays, Virginia Woolf once wrote: “No need to hurry, no need to sparkle, no need to be anybody but oneself.” These five artists are true originals; they delivered the best in alt-country and folk and their music will continue to linger well into 2025.

Waxahatchee
Tigers Blood
Anti-
Street: 03.22
Waxahatchee = Emmylou Harris + Shelby Lynn + Audrey Williams

Tigers Blood is Catie Crutchfield‘s sixth album under the Waxahatchee moniker, named after Waxahatchee Creek in Alabama where she grew up. Crutchfield unleashes that Alabama drawl that has a touch of a scratch when she sings, writing lyrics that any modern country artist would trade in their membership to the Grand Ole Opry for. “You drive like you’re wanted in four states,” Crutchfield sings on the track “3 Sisters.” “In a busted truck in Opelika / Your bad reputation carries / And I’m just like ya.” Crutchfield’s country is more rebel-without-a-cause than the “I like beer,” “I want a divorce,” “raise the flag”-type songs that play on country radio. With songs like “Evil Spawn,” “Burns Out At Midnight” and “Crowbar,” Crutchfield’s Tigers Blood kills.

Jessica Pratt
Here In The Pitch
Mexican Summer
Street: 05.03
Jessica Pratt = Marianne Faithful + Patsy Cline

On her new album Here In The Pitch, Jessica Pratt is a balance of Marianne Faithful covering The Rolling Stones’ As Tears Go By in 1964 and the heartbreak rip of Patsy Cline. Pratt also adds some blue-eyed soul with her soft easy folk. Pratt straight up murders every song on this record. “I’ve been clear before, what’s the longing there?” Pratt sings on the track “Better Hate.” “What a sad case, I’m nobodies fool / And you’ve won it all, but your smile’ll be gone / In the end when you’re yesterday’s news.” In her subtle approach, Pratt can be menacing, even though she sounds like the echoes that drift up to the rafters in an old church.

Hurray For The Riff Raff
The Past Is Still Alive
Nonsuch
Street: 02.23
Hurray For The Riff Raff = Ramblin’ Jack Elliot + K.D. Lang

The author Tom Robbins once wrote: “Be your own master! / Be your own Jesus! / Be your own flying saucer! / Rescue yourself / Be your own Valentine! / Free the heart.” This is the best way to describe Hurray For The Riff Raff’s new album, The Past Is Still Alive. Hurray For The Riff Raff is the project of Alynda Sigarra from the Bronx in New York City. Sigarra writes Americana songs like she’s Jack Kerouac drifting through small towns and big cities. You can almost smell the character she presents: exhaust, dust, cigarettes and yesterday’s clothes. Sigarra lives in this record; her characters have everywhere and nowhere to go. Somehow Sigarra is able to lasso them all together. Hurray For The Riff Raff is America. With The Past Is Still Alive, Sigarra gives this country a new bright North Star.

Merce Lemon
Watch Me Drive Them Dogs Wild
Darling Recordings
Street: 09.27
Merce Lemon = Bonnie “Prince” Billy + Sharon Van Etten 

Merce Lemon didn’t just take a leap forward on her haunting new album Watch Me Drive Them Dogs Wild, Lemon jumped the canyon. It’s a touch of Angel Olsen, a touch of Aimee Mann and a truck load of Bonnie “Prince” Billy with that Sharon Van Etten cool. Lemon’s morose and quirky approach comes to the surface on the title track, as well as with “Foolish And Fast” and “Blueberry Heaven.” But it’s “Backyard Lover” where Lemon shines: “Now I am swimming in a river / Showing off the butterfly / Enraptured by light.” Lemon sings with a hypnotizing grace, “But I don’t get out much / And nothing’s held me so soft / As this water tonight.” Beautiful.

Chelsea Wolfe
She Reaches Out To She Reaches Out to She
Loma Vista
Street: 02.09
Chelsea Wolfe = Stevie Nicks + Myrkur + Darkthrone

On her new record She Reaches Out To She Reaches Out To She, Chelsea Wolfe delivers dark, gothic, black metal-vibe folk that rips the bark off trees and lingers around to haunt the forest like angry ghosts. Wolfe is the great white witch who reminds me of the headlining act in a David Lynch-like lodge on the edge of the woods in the middle of the night. “I’ve been thinking about you, heavy on my mind,” Wolfe croons on “Everything Turns Blue”.  “I’ve been losing days here, do you know what that’s like? / I’ve been thinking about you, you fucked me up in my dreams / What do I do to heal you out of me?” If a good scare isn’t traditional, I don’t know what is.

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