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Song of the Day #5,417: ‘Cast Iron Skillet’ – Jason Isbell and The 400 Unit

Add one more title to the list of upcoming June releases by my favorite artists. I just learned that Jason Isbell, accompanied by his band the 400 Unit, will release an album titled Weathervanes on June 9.

Isbell first grabbed my attention with 2017’s The Nashville Sound, after which I quickly gobbled up the rest of his catalog. He delivers a rich blend of folk, Americana, and southern rock filtered through his fierce intellect and eagerness for merciless self-reflection. I discovered him around the same time I first heard Brandi Carlile and I think of them as flip sides of the same brilliant coin.

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Song of the Day #5,416: ‘Down in the Willow Garden’ – Rufus Wainwright feat. Brandi Carlile

June 2 is a big day for releases by favorite artists of mine whom I haven’t heard from in awhile. In addition to the Ben Folds album I wrote about on Monday, Rufus Wainwright is dropping his latest studio album.

Wainwright has been more prolific than Folds, though three of his releases over the past decade were the sort of side projects I don’t get very excited about (an opera, a collection of Shakespearean sonnets set to music, and his second recreation of a Judy Garland live performance). I never got into the 2020 pop album Unfollow the Rules, though, which should have been right up my alley. I owe that one another listen.

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Song of the Day #5,415: ‘New York Comeback’ – Lucinda Williams

Lucinda Williams is back this June with her 15th studio album, Stories from a Rock n Roll Heart, her first since 2020’s Good Souls Better Angels.

Williams suffered a stroke in late 2020, something she kept out of the press for six months, but she regained her motor skills over time and was able to resume touring late the following year.

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Song of the Day #5,414: ‘Cool About It’ – Boygenius

The Record, the first full-length release by supergroup Boygenius, is one of the year’s most celebrated releases so far. Boygenius is a collaboration between indie rockers Phoebe Bridgers, Julien Baker and Lucy Dacus, a trio who have written and performed together since 2018 when not nurturing their own successful solo careers.

I’m quite familiar with Bridgers, who is a favorite of my daughters, but the other two artists are new to me. This lovely, powerful album suggests I should spend some time getting to know them as well.

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Song of the Day #5,413: ‘Exhausting Lover’ – Ben Folds

I’m taking a short break from theme weeks and using the next five days to feature songs from new or upcoming albums. Wait, I guess that makes this a theme week after all. Oh well.

First up is the second single from Ben Folds’ upcoming album What Matters Most, due out on June 2. On January 4, in a post about new releases expected this year, I wrote “How about a new Ben Folds album, if the universe is taking suggestions?” Apparently the universe was listening.

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