California's Own Ismay Paints the Landscape of Americana-Folk Music with Rich, Earthy Hues. California's golden vistas carry the reverberations of a heartfelt tone, which the mountains softly reflect. Avery Hellman, better known by their stage name Ismay, is an engaging folk/Americana musician whose music beautifully reflects the spirit of her native California. As early as 2020, publications like American Songwriter and No Depression were raving about the...

Sam Lewis’s "Juan Garcia" isn’t a song that arrives with a fanfare; it feels more like a figure glimpsed in the twilight, carrying an invisible weight, and you instinctively lean in. Lewis, an artist who often paints with warmer, feel-good Americana hues, here offers something starker, a ballad stripped to its bones, letting his soul-stirring vocals do the heavy lifting – and heavens, do...