New Music Monthly: July 2018 Releases

The industry typically slows down during the dog days of summer, but July this year has a bounty of great music by some solid rock, blues, and Americana artists. For you blooze fans, check out new tunes by Rory Block, Boz Scaggs, and the Apocalypse Blues Revue. For the rockers among you, there are reissues of classic LPs by folks like Guadalcanal Diary, Soul Asylum, and the almighty Lords of the New Church as well as new jams from folks like Ty Segall, Willie Nile, and Peter Holsapple.

I didn't forget my Americana friends, either, the genre represented this month by the legendary Kinky Friedman's first album of new music in 40 years as well as platters by the Jayhawks and Elvin Bishop (which, to be fair, treads the fine line between Americana and blues). And for those folks that prefer their music on vinyl, how about reissues of albums by Rolling Stone bassist Bill Wyman, Americana star Jason Isbell, British space music pioneers Hawkwind, Swans, and U2?! No matter your taste in music, there's something this month for everybody!

If we wrote about it here on the site, there will be a link to it in the album title; if you want an album, hit the 'Buy!' link to get it from Amazon.com...it's just that damn easy! Your purchase puts money in the Reverend's pocket that he'll use to buy more music to write about in a never-ending loop of rock 'n' roll ecstasy!

JULY 6
The Animals - Animalisms   BUY!
Rory Block - A Woman's Soul   BUY!
Fate's Warning - Live Over Europe   BUY!
Kinky Friedman - Circus of Life [first new album in 40 years]   BUY!
Hawkwind - Live Hits [vinyl]   BUY!
The Nude Party - The Nude Party   BUY!
Wishbone Ash - Here to Hear (import)   BUY!

JULY 13
Cowboy Junkies - All That Reckoning   BUY!
Elvin Bishop's Big Fun Trio - Something Smells Funky 'Round Here   BUY!
Guadalcanal Diary - At Your Birthday Party   BUY!
Jason Isbell - Sirens of the Ditch [vinyl reissue]   BUY!
The Jayhawks - Back Roads and Abandoned Motels   BUY!
Bill Wyman - Monkey Grip [vinyl reissue]   BUY!
Bill Wyman - Stone Alone [vinyl reissue]   BUY! 

JULY 20
Apocalypse Blues Revue - The Shape of Blues To Come   BUY!
Lords of the New Church - Lords of the New Church: Special Edition   BUY!
Ty Segall & White Fence - Joy   BUY!
Soul Asylum - Made To Be Broken   BUY!
Soul Asylum - Say What You Will...Everything Can Happen   BUY!
Swans - Soundtracks For the Blind [vinyl reissue]   BUY!

JULY 27
Galen Ayers - Monument [daughter of Kevin Ayers]  BUY!
Drivin N Cryin' - Too Late To Turn Back Now [reissue]   BUY!
Peter Holsapple - Game Day   BUY!
Willie Nile - Children of Paradise   BUY!
Michael Romeo - War of the Worlds, Pt. 1   BUY!
Boz Scaggs - Out of the Blues   BUY!
Dee Snider - For the Love of Metal   BUY!
U2 - Achtung Baby [vinyl reissue]   BUY!
U2 - The Best of 1980-1990 [vinyl reissue]   BUY!
U2 - Zooropa [vinyl reissue]   BUY!

Album of the Month: In a month with promising new albums from both Peter Holsapple of the dB's and Willie Nile, I'm going to have to go with Nile's Children of Paradise. Although Holsapple is an extremely talented songwriter and musician, he hasn't released a solo album in 21 years, and his last recording altogether was six years ago, with the wonderful dB's 2012 reunion album Falling Off the Sky. We're not sure what we're going to get, we just figure that it's going to be good. With Nile, though, who has been cranking out new music every couple of years, the singer/songwriter may be at the top of his game; his songwriting pen is sharp and his lyrics insightful and concise, the music rockin' like nobody's business. If you could only afford one album this month, I'd go with the Willie Nile. But if you can squeeze two CD purchases into July, grab the Peter Holsapple disc, too...you'll be glad that you did!