Muscadine Bloodline

Muscadine Bloodline has released a new album Longleaf Lo-fi, via Stancaster Music/Thirty Tigers.

Members Charlie Muncaster and Gary Stanton surprise-announced the album earlier this month without any details, giving fans the option to purchase a limited-edition vinyl of the new album before it hit streaming. Within 24 hours, all 3,000 copies were completely sold out.

“Longleaf Lo-fi is the most laid-back and real record we’ve ever made. It feels like sitting by a fire on a cool Mississippi night,” explains Muscadine Bloodline. “Every song comes from somewhere on Highway 59 between Meridian and Poplarville, shaped by the towns, the memories, and people along the way. We’re from Alabama, but we spent a lot of our adult years and made some of our best memories in Mississippi, and both of our wives are from there too. So these songs didn’t feel like stories we made up. They felt like memories we already had.

“We left town for a while and recorded the whole album in a cabin on a quail farm in Poplarville. No rush, no fancy studio. Just us, some guitars and time to let the music happen. It’s simple, acoustic led, and we kept it that way on purpose. Longleaf Lo-fi isn’t about being polished. It’s about being present.”

In honor of Veterans Day last week, they released a video for “Peter From Picayune,” a heartfelt portrait of bravery and sacrifice. “Peter From Picayune” follows the release of “My Meridian” which was released last month and also appears on the new album.

Longleaf Lo-fi Track List:
1) “Goose Chase”
2) “Silence”
3) “My Meridian”
4) “Maybe I’ll Say It” (feat. Tenille Townes)
5) “Arsonist”
6) “Right Place, Right Time”
7) “Grace”
8) “Peter From Picayune”
9) “Clairvoyant”
10) “59”
11) “You Will Be Loved”

Dasha. Photo: Adam Budd

Dasha has joined the Spotify Billions Club two years to the day since the release of “Austin (Boots Stop Workin’).”

“I still can’t wrap my head around this. ‘Austin’ changed my life, and now just two years after I put it out on my own – it’s officially hit a billion streams on Spotify. Knowing that the only solo female country artist to do that before me is Taylor Swift, someone who’s inspired me from day one, feels completely surreal,” she shares. “All I’ve ever wanted is to make music that helps people feel like the strongest, most badass version of themselves. ‘Austin’ was written in pure rage, but it somehow turned into this beautiful source of community and empowerment. I’m the luckiest girl in the world. I have the best team, the best family and friends, and now a billion streams on my first breakout song… that’s the juiciest cherry on top.”

Over the past two years she has played stages including Stagecoach, Austin City Limits, CMA Fest and the CMT Awards. She sold out her first headlining world tour and performed on the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve. The track became one of the most-streamed country songs of the 2024 and won the Female Song of 2024 at the People’s Choice Country Awards.

Pictured (L-R): Anna Thiel (Creative Manager, Eclipse Music Publishing), Courtney Crist (Vice President, Eclipse Music Publishing), Penny Gattis (Partner, Eclipse Music Group), Hayden Blount, Kurt Locher (Partner, Eclipse Music Group), Zach Lund (Partner, Wild Child Music), Katie Vinten (Partner, Wild Child Music).

Hayden Blount has signed a publishing deal with Eclipse Music Group. Blount is managed by Wild Child Music.

The Savannah, Tennessee native garnered over five million streams and earned placements on various editorial playlists for his 2024 single “Heaven On Earth.”

“Hayden embodies everything we love about honest, roots-driven country music,” says Penny Gattis. “He’s unapologetically authentic—his songs are lived-in, his voice is unmistakable, and his perspective is entirely his own. We’re thrilled to welcome him to the Eclipse family and help him continue building something truly special.”

“Not every song has to be extremely profound, but I am a big fan of substance, which is something I’ve really tried to focus on in my writing,” says Blount. “Substance allows listeners to care about songs rather than just consuming them, and Eclipse understands that, which is why I couldn’t ask for a better partner as I continue my career.”

Pictured (L-R, back row): Mark Hall, Candi Staton, Cindy Richardson-Walker, Linda Hall, Rodney Hall, Museum Board Chair Jody Williams, Dan Penn, Spooner Oldham, Jason Isbell, Norbert Putnam, Museum CEO Kyle Young, Kelvin Holly and Marlin Greene; (L-R, front row): Mickey Buckins, Clayton Ivey, Vice President of Museum Services Michael Gray, Bob Wray and John Paul White. Photo: Jason Kempin/Getty Images for the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum

The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum celebrated the opening of its new “Muscle Shoals: Low Rhythm Rising” exhibit at a special event last night (Nov. 13).

The over 5,000-square-foot exhibit surveys the emergence of Muscle Shoals as a recording epicenter in the 1960s and 1970s and spotlights its enduring cultural impact through today. The evening included performances by Jason Isbell, who performed “Kodachrome,” “Wild Horses” and “You Better Move On,” as well as Bettye LaVette, who performed “Choices” backed by Spooner Oldham, while Dan Penn and Oldham treated the crowd to “I’m Your Puppet.”

In the small corner of Alabama by the Tennessee River, local musicians, songwriters and producers created a swampy, Southern sound merging R&B, country, pop and more, and the new exhibit tells the story of this distinctive music and how Black and white creators found a way to work together at a time when segregation prevailed. Studios built a homemade system for cutting music dusted with grit and soul, including FAME Studio, helmed by producer Rick Hall; Muscle Shoals Sound Studio, home of the acclaimed Swampers house band; and more.

An illustrated and in-depth exhibit catalog is now available to purchase which supplements the gallery presentation, with a foreword by Jason Isbell and main essays by exhibit co-curator RJ Smith. It features photos and artifacts from the exhibit, as well as supporting essays by Ericka Blount, Rob Bowman, Warren Denney, Stephen Deusner, Michael Gonzales, Marlin Greene, Patterson Hood and Francesca Royster. The catalog will also be distributed widely in bookstores and online outlets through a partnership with the University of Illinois Press.

A Muscle Shoals: Opening Concert Celebration will be held tonight (Nov. 14) at the CMA Theater featuring artists and musicians involved in or inspired by Muscle Shoals’ musical legacy, including Jimmy Hall, Tiera Kennedy, Bettye LaVette, Wendy Moten, Spooner Oldham, Dan Penn, Maggie Rose, Shenandoah, Candi Staton and John Paul White.

On Nov. 15 a Songwriter Session with Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham will take place at the Ford Theater. Singer-songwriter Penn and keyboardist-songwriter Oldham first met in Muscle Shoals in the late 1950s and have been writing and playing songs together ever since.

A Panel Discussion: Making Music in Muscle Shoals with Marlin Greene, Linda Hall, Clayton Ivey and Candi Staton is set for Nov. 15, at the Ford Theater, where Greene, Hall, Ivey and Staton will discuss living and making music in Muscle Shoals.

On Nov. 16 a Musician Spotlight with Mac McAnally will be held at the Ford Theater. McAnally came to Muscle Shoals when he was a teenager in the 1970s, made his first recording as a studio musician at Wishbone Recording Studio in Muscle Shoals, and has also played on sessions at FAME and Muscle Shoals Sound studios.