Reviewed the new Ella Langley album ‘Dandelion’ out today 💛 highwayqueens.com/2026/04/10/a...

She cut a fringe, got some eyelash glue to stick it down and the rest is chart history

Album Review: Ashley Monroe – Dear Nashville Ashley Monroe surprised everyone last week by dropping this new album ‘Dear Nashville’, less than a year after her last record Tennessee Lightning. With the title and the cowboy hat on the album co…

Reviewed the new Ashley Monroe album ‘Dear Nashville’ ❤️ highwayqueens.com/2026/04/05/a...

Album Review: Morgan Nagler – I’ve Got Nothing to Lose, and I’m Losing It Alongside her indie band Whispertown, Morgan Nagler has also written songs with artists like Gillian Welch, Phoebe Bridgers, Haim and Kim Deal. She’s been best friends with Jenny Lewis for years an…

Reviewed the great new album from Morgan Nagler of Whispertown ❤️ highwayqueens.com/2026/03/21/a...

Album Review: Brit Taylor  – Land of the Forgotten Brit Taylor was inspired by listening to the great women of country music for this new album, specifically Patty Loveless and Lee Ann Womack. What she also noticed was how both artists had enlisted…

Review of the new Brit Taylor album ‘Land of the Forgotten’ ❤️ highwayqueens.com/2026/03/08/a...

Listen to Women this IWD! Happy International Women’s Day!

❤️substack.com/@highwayqueens/note/p-19...

Happy international women’s day! Listen to women! ❤️ open.spotify.com/playlist/3Kc...

Oh sure but makes you miss the real thing

Yeah and having to hear the other guy singing before Michael was painful too

Album Review: Mitski – Nothing’s About to Happen to Me The last Mitski album I reviewed was 2018’s ‘Be the Cowboy’ which was a dark and intriguing look into the psyche of an emerging young artist. I saw her at a festival in 2019, playing low down on th…

Thoughts on the new Mitski album ❤️ highwayqueens.com/2026/02/28/a...

Live Review: Courtney Marie Andrews @ St Luke’s, Glasgow 23/02/26 Fresh from the recent release of her album Valentine, Courtney Marie Andrews made a welcome return to Scotland to spread the spirit of love on a cold February evening.

Live review of the superb show from Courtney Marie Andrews 💜 highwayqueens.com/2026/02/26/l...

Album Review: Ratboys  – Singin’ to an Empty Chair Julia Steiner, lead singer of Chicago based band Ratboys, envisioned this new album as a way to communicate with someone she had become estranged from. Imagining them as an ‘empty chair’ she began …

Review of the new Ratboys album! Bad name great songs 😂 highwayqueens.com/2026/02/19/a...

Wow that’s impressive 😂👏

Live Review: Florence and the Machine @ The Hydro, Glasgow 9/2/26 At the start of Season 6 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the main character has to dig herself out of her own grave after being violently brought back from the dead. Afterwards she walks through riot-…

My live review of Florence and the Machine…also me trying to include as many Buffy references in a review as I possibly can highwayqueens.com/2026/02/10/l...

E.P. Review: Meels – Across the Raccoon Strait On her YouTube channel Meels has included a playlist which details the ‘visual world’ of her new EP Across the Raccoon Strait. Included in this list are videos from TV shows Hee Haw, Gu…

Review of the new EP by Meels ❤️ highwayqueens.com/2026/02/08/e...

Ok but who is playing Brandi Carlile because you know she has to be in this movie 😂

As predicated all the Americana artists who put themselves into the ‘Traditional Country’ category have lost out. Make it make sense

I’m with Her winning two Grammys is amazing! Even though they should be in the Americana category

Congratulations to Mavis Staples for her Grammy for her version of Kevin Morby’s ‘Beautiful Strangers’ ❤️❤️

That makes sense - guess it evolved from there to be its own thing.

HQ #9: The End of Americana? It’s Grammy day today so I thought I’d address the ever looming elephant in the room: we have an Americana problem.

Discussing tonight’s Grammys and the problem with the word ‘Americana’ on the newsletter this week plus discussing the new Lucinda album ❤️ open.substack.com/pub/highwayq...

Album Review: Lucinda Williams – World’s Gone Wrong Lucinda Williams has previously released three albums with the word ‘world’ in the title. The first was her 1992 classic ‘Sweet Old World’ where the title song was a poignant tribute to a friend wh…

Review of the timely new Lucinda Williams album ‘World’s Gone Wrong’ ❤️ so excited to see her play Celtic Connections tomorrow night ❤️ highwayqueens.com/2026/01/31/a...

If anyone still uses Facebook and would like to help my page get to 500 likes I would really appreciate it! 🩷 www.facebook.com/share/17sPLL...

Album Review: Della Mae – Magic Accident Della Mae’s previous albums have been filled with such heart, humanity and fierce feminism that I’ve always thought they were one of the most underrated bands in the Americana / Bluegrass space.&nb…

Reviewed the new album ‘Magic Accident’ by Della Mae 🩷 it’s brightened up my January! 🩷 highwayqueens.com/2026/01/23/a...

Saw them sing this live - it was spine tingling!

dolly parton wearing an all-white outfit and playing a white guitar with silver sparkle accents. the background is pink, purple and magenta. the photo illustrates the book "dolly parton: the stories behind the songs" by annie zaleski

a vintage photo of dolly parton wearing a pale yellow shirt over a darker yellow shiny jumpsuit and singing into a microphone. the background is pink, purple and magenta. the photo illustrates the book "dolly parton: the stories behind the songs" by annie zaleski

As Dolly Parton turns 80 today, some news: I'm thrilled to announce the forthcoming publication of my new book, "Dolly Parton: The Stories Behind the Songs," from the same publisher who brought you my books on Taylor Swift and Beyoncé, out in the US on August 11, 2026. www.amazon.com/Dolly-Parton...

Fabulous! Looking forward to it 🩷

Dolly Parton Book Guide Since starting my Dolly Parton project a few years ago, I have been an avid reader of all things related to the Queen of Country herself. Many of these books are worth recommending so I thought I w…

Updated my Dolly book guide with a couple of new ones 💜 highwayqueens.com/2022/12/14/d...

My sister sat in my press seat and the guy next to her had binoculars 😂

Yes it was clearly chosen because the only venue Glasgow life have that’s big enough for the level of the artist and they wanted to sell the most tickets. I had a press ticket but knew I would be miles back so I bought one for the floor as well and I’m glad I did.