NPR

First Listen: Brent Cobb, 'Providence Canyon'

Nobody is more fluent in country-funk than Brent Cobb.

Throwback soul and honky-tonk never seem to go entirely out of fashion. Both breakthrough acts and performers building small followings on the vinylphile fringes have embraced those aesthetics as vehicles for emotional grit and analog authenticity. That hasn't been as true of country-funk, a vintage style far more prone to periods of obscurity, but which is now enjoying a quiet resurgence.

Earlier this decade, the reissue label Light In the Attic assembled a pair of , which inspired and her band to dabble in swampier grooves on (see: and ). covered Don Williams' chugging, danceable classic , and riffed on the devilish, clowning churn of some of Jerry Reed's this year. Sam Morrow, an emerging figure in the west coast Americana scene, stocked his new album with , syncopation.

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