Dale Short

It's a good thing the performers on the Roots and Boots tour don't try carrying along their award-winning records on the walls of the bus. There might not be room for the artists.

What sets this band apart from others in their genre? The memorable name, for one thing. And picture the music of a BHTM single (a selection one space-traveling fan specifically requested from Houston) zooming through the atmosphere for the purpose of waking up the astronauts in the Space Station. And sometimes they're a jam band, sometimes they're not.

The North Carolina band Town Mountain doesn't have to think twice when asked about their influences: they're "the Bluegrass triumvirate": Lester Flatt, Earl Scruggs, and Bill Monroe.

The Two Tracks, from just down the road in Sheridan, are at first glance six tracks shy of the classic eight-track format. But they put so much music in those two tracks you'll never miss the difference.

Relatively speaking, the Low Water String Band are the new kids on the block--and they hail from Wyoming as well. The quartet was created in Lander in 1912.

If you want to cover all four bases of Americana and country music subject matter, it's hard to do better than Tallgrass's debut album "God, Sin, Whiskey, and Women."

It seems like everywhere you go, you hear people saying good things about the Cicada Rhythm's newest album "Everywhere You Go." It's been stirring up good press for the Athens-based indie folk duo. American Songwriter was streaming it live even before its release.

"There's no reinvention of the wheel here," says the band Head for the Hills of their newest album "Potions and Poisons." Instead, says one reviewer, the work builds "a little world of sound from the detritus of Bluegrass, jazz, hip hop, folk, and soul."

Despite the somber-sounding title of Black Lillies, the group can lay down a mean beat.

You can't find a band name much more authentic than Laney Lou and the Bird Dogs, and your expectations aren't disappointed the minute they launch into the classic toe-tapper "Granny Does Your Dog Bite?"