> Hinterland: New Americana – feature updates every Thursday
listen to the article
K-Syran – Tennessee
A Country Turn Rooted In Nashville Collaboration
“Tennessee” places K-Syran in the company of Nashville musicians whose work runs through several generations of country. Steve Hinson contributes to the single; his recording credits include Dolly Parton, Alan Jackson and George Jones. For the Norwegian singer-songwriter, actress and activist, that collaboration gives a country turn a specific musical lineage, beyond the change in genre alone.
The song introduces a wider country project guided by producer Kirby Bivans, with Russ Pahl among the album’s contributors. K-Syran’s earlier collaborations have included Blue, Sugababes and StoneBridge, placing this record within a career accustomed to different creative partnerships. Here, those connections lead towards Nashville. “Tennessee” marks the point where an artist associated with dance music begins working within another tradition, allowing a different community of players to shape the next chapter.
Johnny Ranck – Johnny Ranck EP
Fiddle, Pedal Steel and the Pull of Wyoming
Johnny Ranck spent summers and weekends working alongside his father on a cattle ranch in Wyoming’s Bridger Valley. Those years run through the five songs on his self-titled debut EP, where the plainspoken phrasing of Bakersfield country meets the intimacy of folk. “Can You Feel The Buffalo” gives that background its clearest expression, framing the Western landscape as something felt as much as seen.
Ranck and Daniel Young co-produced Johnny Ranck EP in North Salt Lake, with Dennis Harrington on fiddle and Muskrat Jones on pedal steel. The fiddle and steel give songs about home and heartbreak a shared vocabulary. “When Will I Stop Cryin’ (Over You)” makes room for the kind of longing you can’t point to on a map, even on a record so steeped in ranch country.
Photo credits: Nadia Axakowsky, Amanda Ranck, Johnny Ranck and Daniel Young
If you would like to submit your music for playlist or feature consideration, please submit here via our partnership with MusoSoup.
