Dawn & Hawkes play a release show for their new album “The Other Side” on Friday, July 6, at Cactus Cafe. Contributed/Hello Darlin Photography
OUT THIS WEEK
Dawn & Hawkes, “The Other Side.” Since their 2015 full-length debut “Yours and Mine,” Austin duo Miranda Dawn and Chris Hawkes have had quite a few adventures, including a year spent on the road in a converted van and a trip to Australia as part of the Austin-based House of Songs project. That’s quite a turn from their first steps as a duo, which included an appearance on NBC’s “The Voice” after their 2012 debut EP. “The Other Side” offers 10 new tracks of sweet folk-rock based on acoustic instruments and rich vocal harmonies. If instantly appealing tunes such as “Highway” and “Horizon Line” feel rooted in the singer-songwriter heyday of the early 1970s, they also fit well into the modern-day indie-folk revival. The bluesy “Early in the Morning” is an intriguing foray into bluesy territory, name-checking fellow local troubadours Hayes Carll and Ray Wylie Hubbard as its tale unfolds of a songwriter who lost his way. Release show July 6 at Cactus Cafe. Here’s a homemade video for “Promised Land,” the album’s final track:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfRE7FFfy8M&w=492&h=307]
Justin Stewart, “Renaissance.” The supporting cast on Stewart’s third release in five years is enough of an Austin A-list to warrant notice: Bukka Allen, Geoff Queen, John Michael Schoepf, Chris Searles, Billy Cassis, Ben Saffer. Produced by Stephen Belans (Stewart’s first two were produced by Shinyribs’ Kevin Russell and the late George Reiff, who co-produced one song here), “Renaissance” bristles with pop smarts and kinetic energy, especially on the uplifting “Saint Paul.” He slows things down on the album’s lone cover, a gently swinging version of the zen-like Don Williams country chart-topper “I Believe in You.” The closing “Redfish” is a fascinating spoken-word rumination anchored by a gentle piano melody amid a swirling atmospheric soundscape. Release shows July 6 and July 19 at Townsend; also playing July 8 at Tavern on Main in Buda. Here’s the opening track, “Texas Fatmucket”:
Kinky Friedman, “Circus of Life” (Echo Hill). Latest from the Chicago-born longtime Texan perhaps better known as a humorist, novelist and onetime candidate for Texas governor.
COMING SOON
- JULY 13: Jimmy LaFave, “Peace Town” (Music Road).
- JULY 13: Eliza Gilkyson, “Secularia” (Red House), release show July 27 at Stateside at the Paramount.
- JULY 13: Nichole Wagner, “And the Sky Caught Fire,” release show July 14 at Townsend.
- JULY 20: Ume, “Other Nature,” in-store July 17 at Waterloo Records.
- JULY 20: Belle Sounds, “The Sea Within,” release show July 21 at One-2-One Bar.
- JULY 27: Israel Nash, “Lifted,” release show July 27 at Scoot Inn.
- AUG. 3: Kevin Galloway, “The Change” (Nine Mile), release show Aug. 3 at Continental Club.
- AUG. 17: Joe Ely, “The Lubbock Tapes: Full Circle” (Rack ’Em).
- AUG. 17: Jeremy Nail, “Live Oak.”
- AUG. 23: Mike Schoenfeld, “Little Feet” EP, release show Aug. 23 at Kitty Cohen.
- AUG. 24: White Denim, “Performance” (City Slang).
- AUGUST: Saents, self-titled EP.
- SEPT. 7: Ghostland Observatory, “See You Later Simulator,” playing Bat Fest Aug. 18.
- SEPT. 14: Gina Chavez, “Lightbeam” EP, release show Sept. 15 at Antone’s.
- SEPT. 21: Western Youth, self-titled.
- SEPT. 21: Jonathon Zemek, “Hillcrest.”
- SEPT. 28: Jerry David DeCicca, “Burning Daylight” (Super Secret).
- SEPTEMBER: Band of Heathens, “A Message From the People Revisited.”