Sometimes, a mystical, life-changing connection can be closer than you think. In 2017, Grammy Award-winning guitarist/producer Adrian Quesada had recorded some instrumentals in his Austin studio, and he started looking around for a vocalist—he knew a lot of singers, but he wanted something different.

Meantime, Eric Burton had recently made his way to Texas. Born in the San Fernando Valley, he grew up in church and then got heavily involved in musical theater. He started busking at the Santa Monica pier, where he brought in a few hundred dollars a day and developed his performance skills. Burton traveled through the Western states before deciding to settle down in Austin—setting up his busking spot on a downtown street corner, at 6th Street and Congress, for maximum exposure.

A mutual friend mentioned Burton to Quesada, saying that he was the best singer he had ever heard. The two musicians connected, but Burton took a while to respond (“My friends were like ‘Dude, you’re an idiot, you need to hit that guy back!’ “) Finally, he called Quesada, and started singing to one of the tracks over the phone. “I loved his energy, his vibe, and I knew it would be incredible on record,” he says. “From the moment I heard him on the phone, I was all about it.”

The results of that inauspicious beginning can now be heard on the self-titled debut album from Black Pumas, the group that Quesada and Burton assembled, which has become one of the year’s most anticipated projects.

I've always heard things a little different, and in musical terms "incorrect" in my head since the day I picked up a guitar. Although I am always trying to learn and sharpen my tools, I have also been looking for a team that wasn't there to "correct" me but help deliver what I hear in my head. I found that team. For the very first time, I can slap my names on songs ready for the world to hear and feel, "Yup, this is me, this is what I hear in my head and if you like these songs then you like a genuine part of me and well we should get a beer."

Kendell Marvel wrote and recorded his new album, Solid Gold Sounds, in a matter of days, but it took a lifetime in country music to get there. Marvel and The Black Keys’ Auerbach co-wrote nine of the album’s 10 songs, drawing on the country sounds of the ‘70s as well as Marvel’s own experiences. Their songwriting collaborators include country legend John Anderson on the album’s first track, “Hard Time With the Truth.” A native of Southern Illinois, Marvel moved to Nashville at 28, shifting his goal of being an artist to raising his family while working as a songwriter. Marvel’s writing credits include Gary Allan’s “Right Where I Need to Be” and Chris Stapleton’s Grammy-winning single, “Either Way.” Brothers Osborne, Jamey Johnson, Jake Owen, Blake Shelton, George Strait, and Lee Ann Womack have also cut his songs.

Few artists have a voice you can spot from note one. Leah is one of them. Born in Sandy Hook, KY, Blevins discovered her passion for expressing words, stories and life experiences through song at an early age. She has refined her passion for song writing in her sophomore EP, Walk Home (2018). Heavily influenced by church hymns and country and rock legends Emmylou Harris, Loretta Lynn, Dolly Parton, Stevie Nicks, and Janis Joplin, Leah’s distinct country, bluesy songwriting and voice differentiates her from the ordinary singer/songwriter in Nashville. Her debut EP Runnin', produced by Ken Coomer, and released in 2015, introduced Leah to the world and captivated listeners with her rich voice and touching lyrics. In Walk Home, Leah is stepping into new territories, redefining country music in her terms.

A native of East Texas, Paul Cauthen was raised in Tyler, Texas, learning how to sing and play at the hands of his grandfather, a songwriter from Lubbock who associated with that town's local legends Buddy Holly & the Crickets. As he grew, he was steeped in classic country and rock & roll, but he found his way toward trouble as his adolescence gave way to young adulthood. After a brief stint in jail for marijuana possession and getting kicked out of college, Cauthen turned to songwriting to stabilize himself.

While residing in San Marcos, Texas in 2010, Cauthen ran into David Beck, a singer/songwriter who shared a similar taste and sensibility. They quickly formed a duo called Beck & Cauthen, switching their name to Sons of Fathers after alternative rocker Beck sent a cease-and-desist letter. Relocating to Austin, Sons of Fathers recorded a debut album with producer Lloyd Maines, which appeared in 2011. Sons of Fathers earned good reviews and climbed into Billboard's Americana Top Ten with both their debut and Burning Days, the sophomore set that appeared in 2013. The success started to chafe at Cauthen and he quit the group following a performance where the duo opened for Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros.

Following the split, Cauthen roamed Texas, eventually settling in the Dallas area as he slowly started a solo career, gravitating toward gutsy, soulful country as he wrote and recorded the material featured on My Gospel. Appearing in late 2016 on Lightning Rod Records, the Beau Bedford-produced My Gospel peaked at 50 on Billboard's Country Albums chart and he worked the album throughout 2017, building up a fan base. Cauthen recorded Have Mercy -- a seven-song collection of originals that was somewhere between an album and EP -- with Bedford at Modern Electric Studios in Dallas, supported by the collective of DFW musicians calling themselves the Texas Gentlemen. Have Mercy appeared in June of 2018. Around this time, Cauthen endured a difficult breakup with his girlfriend and moved out of his home to live out of Dallas hotel. Written during this tumultuous, alcohol-fueled period, his next album was titled Room 41 after his temporary home.

For all the moonlighting he's done in other genres over the years, Carl Nichols always comes back to the blues. At various points in his career Nichols has played gospel (despite being an atheist), West African music (despite being born and raised in Milwaukee) and, as one half of the acclaimed folk duo Nickel & Rose, Americana (despite having some deep reservations about that genre's long history of appropriating black music without always welcoming black musicians). None of those gigs, however, extinguished his desire to play the kind of traditional, acoustic blues he grew up admiring.

Maybe on some level he's pathologically drawn to spaces where he's an outsider. As a twentysomething black musician, Nichols is all too aware that the modern blues scene doesn't look much like him, but he never outgrew his childhood love of the music. "It seemed cool to me when I was young," he says. "You'd just hear people like Lightnin’ Hopkins or R.L. Burnside, and they just seemed cool. That's why anybody gets into music, because it speaks to them."

And it continues to speak to him, so much so that he’s tabled Nickel & Rose just as the duo was establishing itself as a major folk festival draw to pursue his dream of returning the blues to its songwriter roots. "I think a lot of what's been lost in the blues since the early '60s is the black experience, so I try to sing about that," Nichols says. "I can't escape racial realities, but I'm also aware that my audience is different than me, so the way they receive my message is different. I have this nostalgia for an era where blues musicians sang about their experiences to their own people, but that audience isn't there now."

It’s a challenge, he admits, but there's power in crossing racial and generational divides. And on a personal level, he sees Buffalo Nichols as a form of justice for the music he's always loved. "I want to redeem the blues after all the experiences I went through when I was younger," he explains. "When I first started getting into the blues, my mom would take me to blues shows, and inevitably there'd be some old white guy there who would try to take me under his wing and explain 'the rules' of the blues to me. It chased me away."

I always related to the blues," Nichols concludes. "I grew up in abject poverty. I experienced racism. And when I would sit down with a blues record, I could hear that in the songs. Now I want to be that person that I never got to see on stage."

We’re a four-piece band from Midwest Ohio. We're all college dropouts and we’re not fond of rules. We like to play by our own. We play for others who see and do things differently. The ones who also like to play by their own rules. Although there may be few of us...long live Rock 'N" Roll!

Sunny Sweeney is the party and the morning after. She’s the quip that makes you laugh and the truth that makes you cry, the devil that’s egging you on and the angel whispering that you aren’t alone. But those compelling contradictions aren’t what’s most interesting about Sweeney: it’s the depth and brazen authenticity she brings to all her roles that grabs you and won’t let go.

“I’ve grown up doing the bar scenes, and you have to have drinking and partying songs there-–you have to,” Sweeney says. “Now, my songs are still about the same things, but I feel like they’re more mature versions.”

Sweeney’s salty wisdom and Texas-hewn soprano have never sounded stronger than they do on Trophy, her anticipated new album. Sunny Sweeney's wit and honesty has always defined her stone-cold country have blossomed into confessional, complex songwriting for grown-ups, still whiskey-drenched and honk-tonk-ready. Drugs, death, the ex-wife, drinking, devotion, and longing for a child: it’s all here, raw and real.

Charles Wesley Godwin’s sound is shaped by the time weathered hills and hollers of his home. Charles is a singer-songwriter born and raised in West Virginia. Nowadays, if you'd want to find him, you’d look in any dive bar, café, or live music venue in Appalachia. Charles performs as a solo artist all across Appalachia and beyond. He’s grateful to have shared the stage with artists such as Shooter Jennings, Luke Combs, Waymore’s Outlaws, Aaron Watson, Colter Wall, Tyler Childers, Nicholas Jamerson and many more. Charles plans to release his debut solo album, Seneca, on February 15th 2019. Whether he’s performing solo for a room full of patrons who’ve quieted to a barely audible murmur or a music hall full concert goers breaking in their boots to the rhythm of a Union Sound Treaty tune, Charles Wesley Godwin turns heads and opens ears everywhere he plays. His stories strike a chord in all of us, and his voice gets the point across with a genuine authority. You’ll certainly be hearing Charles Wesley Godwin for years to come.

Hi. I'm Daniel Donato. I'm from a small town right outside of Nashville, Tennessee. A lot of cows. I play guitar. I also write and sing. I started music because I was the worst skateboarder at Heritage Middle School. I had Guitar Hero at my house, and would beat my friends at it everyday after school. One day, I tried my hand at the real thing and then had an epiphany of cosmic proportions. I learned from YouTube and practiced 12 hours a day. Everyday. At 14, I started busking for tips on the street. I made $500 one day and lost my mind. I gave away a lot of business cards playing for fans in parking lots after concerts for Garth Brooks, Phish, and John Mayer. Then I joined the most prestigious Nashville cover band at a venue that was the HOME for Classic Country & Western Music. I did 500+ shows at 5 hours a night, 5 days a week at this bar. I missed out on prom. I've toured with famous artists and bands playing guitar for them. Now, I'm working on my own sound and vision (#COSMICCOUNTRY) and hope to see you in person ASAP. I also have a podcast (The Lost Highway) with guests of mine being Country Stars, Jam Band Wizards, Entrepreneurs, Doctors, and other brilliant minds.