JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the 90th anniversary of the birth of Kenny Rogers.
Category: Country
New Video: Alex Amor Shares Heartbroken Yet Buoyant and Anthemic “Inside”
Rising Scottish singer/songwriter and musician Alex Amor has three EPs under her belt, 2021’s debut, Love Language, 2022’s The Art of Letting Go and 2023’s Super Sonic, all of which have received praise from The Line of Best Fit, DIY Magazine, Clash Magazine, Dork Magazine, Wonderland, Notion, 1883 Magazine, The Skinny, Ones to Watch, The Sunday Mail, and The Scotsman — and she has received airplay from BBC Radio 1‘s Jack Saunders and Sian Eleri.
Building upon a growing profile across the region, Amor has made a run of the UK festival circuit, playing sets at TRNSMT, The Great Escape, Liverpool Sound City, Live at Leeds and Dot to Dot. She has also toured across the region, playing on bills with the likes of Good Neighbours, Liang Lawrence, Gretta Ray, Swim Deep, VLURE and a list of others.
Amor’s highly anticipated full-length debut Heavenly Bodies is slated for an August 21, 2026 through New York-based label VERO Music. Written and recorded between London and Glasgow with Peter Brien, Baz Kaye and Karma Kid, the album’s material is heavily informed by meditation, rune reading and the work of Swedish mystic Hilma of Klint. Weaving together celestial imagery, spirituality and the vast emotional terrain of human connection, the album’s material reflects Amor’s fascination with cosmic symbolism and the belief that personal experiences mirror the rhythms of the universe. Sonically, the album is a decided evolution from the raw indie charge of the rising Scottish artist’s earlier work as the album features diaristic, intimate and confessional songwriting is paired with shimmering guitars, ethereal synths and slow-burning arrangements.
The album will feature the previously released “Avalanche” and the album’s final pre-release single “Inside,” which comes on the heels of festival appearances at this year’s Liverpool Sound City, The Great Escape Festival, Footsteps Festival and opening slots with Liang Lawrence and Prima Queen. “Inside” is a twangy New Wave-tinged bop that showcases Amor’s unerring knack for pairing catchy hooks and shout-along worthy choruses with introspective, lived-in lyrics. While buoyant and rousingly anthemic, the song is anchored in a complicated mix of loss of innocence and faith, weary, heartbroken exhaustion and of devastating loss that lingers and reverberates throughout your life.
Originally written as a sprawling poem, “Inside” arrived in the studio with producer Baz Kaye determined to preserve every word Amor had written. With a run time of 5:30, the song features what may arguably be some of Amor’s most earnest and devastatingly honest writing with an defiantly upbeat arrangement, informed by the optimism Kaye and co-writer Peter Brien carried back from that summer’s Glastonbury Festival.
“It’s about coming to terms with compounded grief, generational trauma and taking a stark look at one of the coping mechanisms that defined much of my twenties: dissociation,” Amor explains. “Pulling away from connection altogether to avoid the pain of needing someone, missing someone, or losing someone. Part of love is accepting loss, making space for grief, and finding the courage to feel it all. It’s a song about connection, the choice to be vulnerable, and learning that the only way through grief is to let yourself feel it.”
The accompanying video follows a simple conceit: Amor and her band performing in the corner of a studio space — or an elevator. It nods at early MTV-era videos with a modern, frenetic sensibility.
New Audio: Twin Temple Returns with Soulful and Yearning “Haunt Me”
Formed back in 2017, Twin Temple — married couple Alexandra and Zachary James — are an acclaimed Los Angeles-based duo, who specialize in a new sub-genre and style that they’ve dubbed “Satanic Doo Wop,” which blends their practice of Satanism with a sound that’s influenced by The Platters, Roy Orbison, Buddy Holly and the like.
The Los Angeles-based duo have developed for being one of the contemporary scene’s most talked about crossover acts, earning widespread coverage from media outlets like Rolling Stone, NME, Billboard, American Songwriter, Stereogum, Consequence, Revolver, Kerrang!, Metal Hammer, Loudwire, San Francisco Chronicle, Los Angeles Times and a long list of others, and for being one of the most provocative acts out there right now. Their uncompromising artistic vision routinely sparks much larger and more serious conversations about artistic freedom, religious freedom, freedom of expression, censorship, the role of controversy in art, and on a broader sense, the wider role of art within the cultural landscape.
Some of y’all, have heard of the duo after Charley Crockett abruptly dropped the band from his shows earlier this month — specifically because of their usage of Satanic imagery. This led to Jack White publicly inviting the band to open for his Los Angeles area show in September. Serendipitously, the duo’s highly-anticipated third album Doomed Lovers will come right on the heels of their latest, and arguably biggest controversy to date.
Slated for an October 9, 2026 release through their own Pentagrammation Records, the Shooter Jennings-produced Doomed Lovers was recorded at Hollywood-based Sunset Sound‘s iconic Studio 3 and marks the acclaimed duo’s boldest chapter to date.
Born from one of the darkest periods of their personal lives, Doomed Lovers is reportedly their most intimate and emotionally revealing work to date. Expanding upon the cinematic scope of the sound that has won them acclaim while remaining rooted in the timeless sound and traditions of early rock ‘n’ roll, the album is their most ambitious and fully realized artistic statement so far. The album continues the band’s commitment to analog recording while expanding upon their sound with lush orchestral arrangements performed by a 37-member orchestra. Yes, 37!
“We poured everything into this new record that we made with Shooter,” says the acclaimed and controversial duo. “We wanted to push ourselves creatively and expand the production further than we have before, drawing inspiration from the lush orchestral productions of Roy Orbison, The Ronettes, and The Shangri-Las, and added in some Countrypolitan flair. We brought in some incredible musicians like Matt Chamberlain and Jay Bellerose, and a 37-piece orchestra. We wanted to make something as beautiful as we possibly could – of course with our dark spin on things.”
The truth is, this album was made during one of the darkest periods of our lives. We had been struggling with grief, health issues, addiction, and depression. But day by day, going into Sunset Sound, making music with incredible people who believed in us, and being surrounded by that creativity slowly brought us back to life. We started smiling and laughing again. I was becoming alive again. It connected us to why we fell in love with music in the first place and became our most personal album yet.”
The album will include the previously released, breathtaking gorgeous, album title track “Doomed Lovers,” and the album’s latest single “Haunt Me.” “Haunt Me” is a decidedly twangy, Wall of Sound-meets-Sun Records-like tune with a subtle node to gospel that should remind the listener that country’s iconic period is heavily indebted to gospel, the blues and a early rock ‘n’ roll. That’s right, think of some of those early Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard and Chuck Berry albums — but rooted in a confusing, paradoxical mix of dread, jealousy, fear and longing that feels lived-in and deeply experienced.
“‘Haunt Me’ is a gothic love song about fear, obsession, dread and jealousy with nods to classic American gospel, 1960s rock n roll and the blues,” the duo explain. “It romanticizes the terrifying nightmares your lover brings, and the paradox of never wanting them to stop haunting you.”
New Audio: Twin Temple Shares Swooning and Lush “Doomed Lovers”
Formed back in 2017, Twin Temple — married couple Alexandra and Zachary James — are an acclaimed Los Angeles-based duo, who specialize in a new sub-genre and style that they’ve dubbed “Satanic Doo Wop,” which blends their practice of Satanism with a sound that’s influenced by The Platters, Roy Orbison, Buddy Holly and the like.
The Los Angeles-based duo have developed for being one of the contemporary scene’s most talked about crossover acts, earning widespread coverage from media outlets like Rolling Stone, NME, Billboard, American Songwriter, Stereogum, Consequence, Revolver, Kerrang!, Metal Hammer, Loudwire, San Francisco Chronicle, Los Angeles Times and a long list of others, and for being one of the most provocative acts out there right now. Their uncompromising artistic vision routinely sparks much larger and more serious conversations about artistic freedom, religious freedom, freedom of expression, censorship, the role of controversy in art, and on a broader sense, the wider role art plays within the cultural landscape.
Some of y’all, will know of the duo after Charley Crockett abruptly dropped the band from his shows this past week — specifically for their usage of Satanic imagery. This lead to Jack White publicly inviting the band to open for him in Hollywood in September. Serendipitously, the duo’s third album, Doomed Lovers is coming red hot off the heels of their latest controversy.
Slated for an October 9, 2026 release through their own Pentagrammation Records, the Shooter Jennings-produced Doomed Lovers was recorded at Hollywood-based Sunset Sound‘s iconic Studio 3 and marks the acclaimed duo’s boldest chapter to date. The album continues the band’s commitment to analog recording while expanding upon their sound with lush orchestral arrangements performed by a 37-member orchestra. Yes, 37!
Born from one of the darkest periods of their personal lives, Doomed Lovers is reportedly their most intimate and emotionally revealing work to date. Expanding upon the cinematic scope of the sound that has won them acclaim while remaining rooted in the timeless sound and traditions of early rock ‘n’ roll, the album is their most ambitious and fully realized artistic statement so far.
“We poured everything into this new record that we made with Shooter,” says the acclaimed and controversial duo. “We wanted to push ourselves creatively and expand the production further than we have before, drawing inspiration from the lush orchestral productions of Roy Orbison, The Ronettes, and The Shangri-Las, and added in some Countrypolitan flair. We brought in some incredible musicians like Matt Chamberlain and Jay Bellerose, and a 37-piece orchestra. We wanted to make something as beautiful as we possibly could – of course with our dark spin on things.”
The truth is, this album was made during one of the darkest periods of our lives. We had been struggling with grief, health issues, addiction, and depression. But day by day, going into Sunset Sound, making music with incredible people who believed in us, and being surrounded by that creativity slowly brought us back to life. We started smiling and laughing again. I was becoming alive again. It connected us to why we fell in love with music in the first place and became our most personal album yet.”
Doomed Lovers‘ latest single, album title track “Doomed Lovers” features a lush, breathtakingly gorgeous, sculpted wall of sound-like production and arrangement beneath Alexandra James’ remarkably Patsy Cline-like croon singing confessional lyrics desiring an a consuming, all or nothing love along the lines of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven” and other Romantic-era literature.
The first time I heard the song, the first three or four thoughts that entered my mind were “holy shit, that’s fucking gorgeous!,” followed by “this sounds like it could have been a B-side to Patsy Cline’s “I Fall to Pieces” and “Back in Baby’s Arms” or Roy Orbison’s “Only The Lonely” and “Crying,” followed by “I’d pay to hear Alexandra James read entries in the phone book.”
“This is the philosophical centerpiece of the album – a theatrical and confessional take on all or nothing love, the dark side of devotion and centuries old mythic literary Romantic themes,” the acclaimed duo explain. “It longs for a love so enduring and eternal that it ultimately consumes, obliterates, and drives one to madness and death. At its core, it asks the question – ‘What happens when your lover dies?’”
But what makes the song unique is that it rejects the conventional and culturally accepted answer… ‘I know I should tell you to find someone new,’ in favor of raw, unfiltered and selfish desire, things that would be shameful to speak in mundane reality.”
Throwback: Happy 97th Birthday, June Carter Cash!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the 97th anniversary of the birth of June Carter Cash.
Throwback: Happy 90th Birthday, Kris Kristofferson!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the 90th anniversary of Kris Kristofferson’s birth.
Throwback: Happy 89th Birthday, Waylon Jennings!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the 89th anniversary of the birth of Waylon Jennings.
New Video: Alex Amor Shares Shimmering “Avalanche”
Over the past handful of years, rising Scottish singer/songwriter and musician Alex Amor haas released three EP’s 2021’s debut, Love Language, 2022’s The Art of Letting Go and 2023’s Super Sonic, all of which have received praise from The Line of Best Fit, DIY Magazine, Clash Magazine, Dork Magazine, Wonderland, Notion, 1883 Magazine, The Skinny, Ones to Watch, The Sunday Mail, and The Scotsman — and she has received airplay from BBC Radio 1‘s Jack Saunders and Sian Eleri.
The rising Scottish artist has made a run of the UK festival circuit playing sets at TRNSMT, The Great Escape, Liverpool Sound City, Live at Leeds and Dot to Dot. She has also toured extensively across the UK, playing bills with Good Neighbours, Liang Lawrence, Gretta Ray, Swim Deep, VLURE and a list of others.
Amor’s highly anticipated full-length debut Heavenly Bodies is slated for an August 21, 2026 through New York-based label VERO Music. Written and recorded between London and Glasgow with Peter Brien, Baz Kaye and Karma Kid, the album’s material is heavily informed by meditation, rune reading and the work of Swedish mystic Hilma of Klint. Weaving together celestial imagery, spirituality and the vast emotional terrain of human connection, the album’s material reflects Amor’s fascination with cosmic symbolism and the belief that personal experiences mirror the rhythms of the universe. Sonically, the album is a decided evolution from the raw indie charge of the rising Scottish artist’s earlier work as the album features diaristic, intimate and confessional songwriting is paired with shimmering guitars, ethereal synths and slow-burning arrangements.
“Avalanche” Heavenly Bodies‘ latest single is a breathtakingly gorgeous tune features Amor’s plaintive vocal singing intimate, lived-in lyrics detailing a relationship on the brink with an unusual clarity — through the perspective of someone who recognizes the relationship is ending, while the other partner is oblivious. Her vocal is paired with a shimmering, remarkably hook-driven, Laurel Canyon-like arrangement.
Amor wrote and produced the original “Avalanche” demo in her childhood bedroom in Glasgow before bringing it to her trio of collaborators in London — Brien, Kaye and Karma Kid — to complete the song.
“Avalanche is about the unsettling moment in a relationship where something has shifted, but only one of you is willing to see it,” Amor explains. ” While you’re starting to recognise it for what it is, the other person is still holding on, almost wilfully ignoring the cracks. The idea of an avalanche felt like the perfect metaphor. It’s not necessarily about destruction, it’s about release. It’s what happens when pressure has been building for too long and can’t be contained anymore. It’s sudden, overwhelming, and sometimes painful, but it clears everything out. And in that aftermath, there’s a kind of clarity – you can finally see things as they really are.”
Directed by Henry Croston, the accompanying video for “Avalanche” features Amor in a series of mod and 70s country-inspired monochromatic outfits singing and strumming her gorgeous sky blue Fender in some rooms with some decidedly 1970s era decor. A dancing alien in a suit listening to music on a Walkman is frequently off on the side, adding a surreal and playful sense of humor to a song but while also emphasizing the song’s central romantic couple.
Throwback: Happy 45th Birthday, Brandi Carlile!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Brandi Carlile’s 45th birthday.
New Audio: Alex Amen Returns with Homesick and Weary “California Blues”
Alex Amen is a rising, 26 year-old Texas-born, Los Angeles-based indie folk/country singer/songwriter. When he was four, he took up piano and studied with the same Houston-based jazz pianist through the end of high school. The rising, young country folk artist started playing guitar in his mid-teens after discovering Nirvana, Neil Young and the like. When he was 18, Amen relocated from Texas to California to study filmmaking — with the intention of making documentaries about rock climbing, one of his lifelong passions.
After one semester, he dropped out to focus on music full-time and moved to the Dittman Family Commune, an Anaheim-based commune with historic ties to the countercultural movements of the mid 1960s, where he started his first band, a psychedelic folk rock outfit named American Slang in 2017.“The commune was a crazy place to live—there were hippies and punks and skaters, all in this beautiful house that used to be on six acres of strawberry fields but now it’s surrounded by strip malls,” the Texan-born singer/songwriter says. ““The house was owned by a professor who’d bought it in the mid-’60s and still lived there with his family, so it had this fascinating history with the anti-war movement and renowned civil-rights/psychedelic activists from that time. We’d have these big communal meals every day and debate art and God and food and politics. It was a pretty amazing place to live for a while.”
The band broke up shortly after its formation. And Amen relocated yet again from Southern California to an island in Washington State’s Puget Sound. Over the course of the next three years, Amen spent n relative isolation, taking up interests in mycology, mountaineering, poetry and wooden boat building. But as the years began to pass, he felt an increasing need to return to California to pursue music.
In January 2023, Amen self-produced his debut EP, last year’s The Zorthian Tapes in a self-built studio at Altadena, CA’s historic Zorthian Ranch. He now resides in Los Angeles, releasing music among the city’s growing folk/Americana/country scene and playing shows across North America and elsewhere.
The past 18 months or so have been very busy: Last year he toured with Folk Bitch Trio, a tour that included a stop at Baby’s All Right. He has also made the rounds of the international festival circuit, playing Pitchfork Festival London and Pitchfork Festival Paris, Newport Folk Festival, Iceland Airwaves, Austin City Limits and Outside Lands. And he participated in the Americana Music Association‘s annual Grammy Eve concert at the Troubadour to honor the legendary Neil Young.
The rising young singer/songwriter recently signed to ATO Records, who will be releasing his highly-anticipated debut Sun of Amen on June 12, 2026. The album will include “Cabin by the Sea,” which features some gorgeous and expressive pedal steel from Tommy de Bourbon and strutting bass from Grammy-nominated Billy Mohler, and the album’s second and latest single “California Blues.”
Subtly channeling a mix of John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads” and the Laurel Canyon sound, “California Blues” features a homesick vagabond and wandering troubadour narrator, who illuminates an uneasy contrast between the quintessential California dream and its lived reality of heartbreaking isolation and desperation. “‘California Blues’ is a song I wrote years before I ever lived in California that somehow expressed the things I felt living there years later,” says Amen. “More than any other song made during my time in California it touched on the balance between excitement and isolation one can face when they chase their dreams out West.”
Amen is currently on tour. And along with the new single, he announces a summer run of tour dates that includes a July 29, 2026 stop at Elsewhere Rooftop. Check out the rest of the tour dates below.
Throwback: Happy 84th Birthday, Tammy Wynette!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the 84th anniversary of Tammy Wynette’s birth.
Throwback: Happy 93rd Birthday, Willie Nelson!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Willie Nelson’s 93rd birthday.