2024 Singer/Songwriters To Know

As the times get ever trickier, we need storytellers more than ever. Whether looking inward or outward, they tell us where things have been, survey where things are at, and prognosticate on where things might be headed. They help put names and faces on the feelings we all carry around, from the darkest dreads to the most sky-searching dreams. And most importantly, if they’re singer/songwriters, they put it all to a tune that we can’t get out of our heads. When it comes to the troubadours of ‘24, nobody needs to tell you about the mainstream names that have monopolized the media, so here are the less ubiquitous singer/songwriters whose albums have helped to make this a better year to have a pair of ears.

Chris Smither – All About the Bones

Having released his debut album in 1970 and achieved octogenarian status in 2024, Chris Smither has earned plenty of wisdom miles over the course of his career, and they pay off plenty of dividends here. The New Orleans-raised troubadour has been continually refining his blues/folk blend and his trenchant, spiritually sage lyrics on record and on the road for decades. And for all the energy and authority on display here, to say that the process has peaked on All About the Bones would be to drastically underestimate Smither’s staying power and continued artistic momentum.

 

Rembert & The Basic Goodness – Yesterday Head

Overthrowing the tyranny of convention and rampaging over genre borders, Rembert Block and her band almost seem to construct their musical playbook from scratch on Yesterday Head. You might be tempted to label it alt-rock, but how many alternative bands are rocking an accordion/sax/bass/drums lineup?

Texas native/New York resident Block’s sardonic but emotionally penetrating lyrics suggest the sort of reflectiveness found among folk-rock balladeers, but The Basic Goodness kicks up a ruckus more evocative of a carnival relocated to an off-off-Broadway theater. Funny, trenchant, and utterly original, Yesterday Head is resistant to pigeonholing but easy on the ears.

 

Trust Fund – Has It Been a While?

Imagine for a moment that Nick Drake was still alive, and that the now 75-year-old U.K. folk legend had entered into a collaboration with disciple Stuart Murdoch of Belle and Sebastian. Since 2012, British songsmith Ellis Jones has been recording as Trust Fund with a shifting crew of co-conspirators, and on his latest release he doubles down on his inherent (though never slavishly derivative) Drake-iness by stripping things down mostly to gently picked acoustic guitar and butterscotch vocal tones, with the artful addition of strings here and there. Contemplative and poised but never twee or dour, it’s art-folk balladry at its best.

 

Emily Duff – The Obvious Invisible

On The Obvious Invisible, New Yorker Emily Duff is folky enough to include a quick fingerpicked acoustic guitar instrumental; bluesy enough to work up a raw, righteous stomp with her band; and country enough to convincingly unfurl a courtly waltz. Lyrically, she’s divinity-conscious enough to talk about “the spirits of the universe,” but earthy enough to deliver unfailingly streetwise sentiments. And she’s open-eared enough to drop a dash of sitar and a blast of brass into the mix on the same song, but she’s got enough rock ‘n’ roll deep down in her soul that you can sense it all the way through the multi-layered Americana that frames her songs.

 

Julie Beth Napolin – Only the Void Stands Between Us

Julie Beth Napolin’s debut album is more of the stars than of the earth. Cosmic drone, psych folk, art rock, electro-acoustic minimalism, and the spacey side of krautrock all come into play on tracks that take their time to fully unfold but make it well worth the wait. At times, Only the Void Stands Between Us is evocative of founding Dream Syndicate bassist Kendra Smith’s work in Opal and with her Guild of Temporal Adventurers. But when Napolin leans into the sonic spellcasting on cuts like the nine-and-a-half-minute epic “Heaven and Earth,” she’s on a path all her own.

Ward White – Here Come the Dowsers

Ward White has always used his meticulously crafted art pop as a vehicle for sly character studies that reveal as much about their subjects through what they omit as what they include. During his years as a New Yorker, those stories were informed by the city’s idiosyncrasies. The albums he’s made since becoming a Southern California resident have, unsurprisingly, adopted a different sort of slant. But his embrace of old Hollywood as lyric fodder on Here Come the Dowsers feels like Brian Wilson writing about surfing or John Fogerty singing about the swamp—not part of a lived experience perhaps, but completely natural and inevitable nevertheless.

John Terlazzo – Breaking the Old Code

John Terlazzo tends to keep a pretty low profile, being more concerned with pursuing the muse than publicizing the process. His under-the-radar releases are marvels of poetic power and have often earned comparisons to Leonard Cohen, but they’re generally the sort of things one has to seek out versus stumbling upon. So, this two-CD live recording of a solo acoustic performance from 2023 offers a unique opportunity to play catch-up, featuring up-close takes on tunes from across Terlazzo’s career. As his scene-setting intros to the songs make clear, he’s also quite the raconteur, so if you’re among the lucky few already familiar with the material, you’ll get some of the back stories in the bargain.

Sport Murphy – Daylight in the Swamps

You can apply a lot of what’s written above about John Terlazzo to Daylight in the Swamps, the first-ever anthology of Sport Murphy’s work. Murphy, once the singer for The Skels, released three must-have solo albums through the Kill Rock Stars label between 1999 and 2003, and this collection brings together tunes from those records. The first thing that hits you is the voice—loaded with gravitas but equally expert at conveying both aching sensitivity and arch humor. Then it’s the songs, lyrically rich and carried along by music that matches the potent narratives by trotting out a consistent parade of welcome surprises, while remaining entirely accessible no matter how heartwarmingly quirky things may get. Along the way, reference points including everyone from The Beach Boys to Charles Ives underline the winning syncretism of Murphy’s art.

 

Andrew Calhoun – Different Now

Andrew Calhoun’s been one of the Chicago folk scene’s most wildly original auteurs since the ‘80s. At times, his work has seemed to answer the question, “What would it sound like if Ezra Pound were reanimated and began writing lyrics for U.K. trad folk phenomenon Martin Carthy?” Well, sort of, anyway. Even that can’t quite capture Calhoun’s sui generis artistry. But you can get a pretty good idea what he’s all about from Different Now, which finds the veteran songsmith offering new versions of some of his most impactful tunes from across the decades, with some previously unheard material sweetening the pot.

 

Richard, Cam & Bert – Somewhere in the Stars

You get three great singer/songwriters for the price of one with this archival release from the late ‘60s/early ‘70s folk-rock trio made up of Richard Tucker, Cam Bruce, and Bert Lee. They never broke through to the mainstream but in their day, they were cult heroes of the Greenwich Village folk scene. Their singing and writing styles didn’t have a ton of stylistic overlap, but that was their secret weapon—when their voices came together it was like they created a fourth person who didn’t exist before. And between the three of them, their songs encompassed everything from trippy, psychedelic visions to earthy, blues-based plaints. The recordings captured on Somewhere in the Stars have been waiting to be heard for decades, but they boast a timeless appeal.

-Jim Allen

Photo: Emily Duff (credit: Charles Chessler)