WUSB

09/02/2025

Coltt Winter Lepley really likes starting conversations with his music. He talks about his father's blue collar work, a friend's descent into drug use, and plenty of heartbreak. Lucky for him, WUSB loves hosting conversations about music.

On my radio program, I’m always looking for songs that can lead to a good conversation. Rarely have I met an artist who seems to value that aspect of their own songwriting quite like Coltt Winter L…

08/26/2025

Brittany Davis delivers one of the most profound, surreal, and devastating album's you'll ever hear. Her meditations on sightlessness are beautiful and wide-ranging. Her song on slavery is among the hardest listens of my radio career. This is a true 5 star album.

Brittany Davis explores the concepts of sightlessness, beauty, race, and history on her new album Black Thunder from a curious, bold, and blunt perspective: the singer, who was born without eyes, r…

08/04/2025

Kate Vargas ruminates on identity through vintage jazz/folk magic on her new album. Her performance of a would-be film icon is truly worthy of the big screen.

It’s not a coincidence that Kate Vargas uses the word ‘vintage’ in the first sentence of her glittering new album Golden Hour In The House Of Lugosi. There’s a punch and pizzaz to her sound that sc…

07/21/2025

Feeling like the modern world is getting weirder? Lael Neale is feeling this disconnect too. Hear us discuss the short sightedness and discuss our escapes.

Most people would have to agree that American society is going through a major upheaval at the moment. That started Lael Neale asking questions and she hasn’t stopped at recent history. “It’s just …

07/14/2025

Jack Barksdale wrote a song from the perspective of an entitled, sneering Jesus. That, along with several tracks about death and the end of the world, make this one of the most interesting albums of the year. Have I mentioned he's only 17?

At only 17, Jack Barksdale is the youngest guest I’ve yet to have on my show. That does not seem to have stopped him from having an existential crisis. “There’s a pie in the sky idea that someday w…

07/06/2025

Somewhere between relentless optimism and well-earned grit, the mood from Larry McCray is a good deal less blue than his guitar playing. He knows quite a bit about accountability, progress, and comebacks.

https://countrypocketwusb.com/2025/07/06/on-larry-mccrays-heartbreak-city-a-good-man-sings-the-blues/

06/24/2025

We all have that old friend we've lost touch with. Stephen Kellogg explores the loss and nostalgia in a matter-of-fact way that makes certain details hit that much harder.

Old friends are, for the most part, a bittersweet memory. We keep very few of them for our entire lives and the connections we share with them later on are insignificant compared to what once was. …

06/14/2025

Caitlin Cannon is willing to be honest about love in a way few songwriters are. Spending some time with her defense mechanisms can be tragic or cathartic, depending on how high your own walls are.

Addicts often have an unhealthy relationship with a particular substance and can’t quite get the high they need. “Love Addict,” therefore, is the perfect title for a Caitlin Cannon album that conta…

06/02/2025

Leslie Jordan never got to know her grandfather while he was alive. Still, she was able to collaborate with him through a box of his old writings. The result is a powerful story about a complicated and lonely man.

Leslie Jordan never knew her grandfather. Her mother barely knew her father, for that matter. He left her and his wife and wandered the West, fancying himself as a beatnik writer. When he died, Les…

05/27/2025

You & I Are Earth from Anna B Savage sounds, well, earthy. But her shock and joy at finding true love is simply heavenly.

When love is right, it feels right. Anna B. Savage had no problem being single and didn’t imagine a future like this. But it was love, and it felt right. “This warmth, this is how it should be,” si…

04/24/2025

Pug Johnson is a uniquely hilarious songwriter when he plays the character of "El Ca**on," or the bastard. But his sincere love songs to his wife feel all the more significant thanks to the contrast.

Pug Johnson may not be “El Ca**on,” which roughly translated to bastard, but he certainly knows how to write a song as one. “It seemed like a fun, mischievous type of a guy who would have a lot of …

04/19/2025

Sean McConnell had to unlearn to relearn. Thanks to his spiritual reading and maturing, he imagines a return to innocence and delivers on the concept with the most beautiful, peaceful end to an album you'll ever hear.

Sean McConnell is deconstructing and rebuilding on “Skin,” his latest thoughtful, spiritually influenced work. He is unlearning to learn, maturing by finding a child within, and becoming a better m…