New York, NY (Top40 Charts) On March 3rd, Ryan Culwell released Flatlands, his first album in more than 8 years on Lightning Rod Records (Joe Pug, Amanda Shires, Billy Joe Shaver). The album was released to great praise and was embraced by CMT Edge, Country Weekly, Folk Alley, PopMatters, The Bluegrass Situation, and Rolling Stone, who called the album "the score to some long-lost Cormac McCarthy film, its tracklist split between roadhouse-worthy roots rockers, front porch county songs and haunting, blue collar ballads about life and loneliness in the Lone Star State."
In celebration of the new release, Culwell is hitting the road with songwriter Amy Speace for a run of dates. Visit www.ryanculwell.com/shows for more information.
Last Month, Culwell traveled to his home state of Texas for his first-ever official showcases at the SXSW Music Conference in Austin. Rolling Stone Country named Culwell one of their "21 County-Music Artists You Need To See" and said he "is following the through-line between Bruce Springsteen and Jason Isbell... Flatlands is like a bleaker Nebraska meets Southeastern, full of dusty laments about growing up in the Texas panhandle."
Ann Powers of NPR Music caught one of Culwell's sets at SXSW and said, "His songs themselves wring grace from plain and often dark details, expressing the realities of class and region in ways that many other writers barely touch. Here was a working man, a working musician, delivering his best. It was a star turn, no matter how many people witnessed it."
US Tour Dates:
4/20: Soulshine Pizza Factory - Nashville, TN #
4/22: Strange Brew - Austin, TX *
4/23: McGonigel's Mucky Duck - Houston, TX *
4/24: All Good Cafe - Dallas, TX *
4/25: The Bugle Boy - La Grange, TX *
4/26: The Blue Door - Oklahoma City, OK *
4/28: Uptown Arts Bar - Kansas City, MO *
4/30: The Hideout - Chicago, IL *
5/1: The Warehouse - Carmel, Indiana *
5/2: Natalie's - Worthington, OH *
5/3: The Music Box Supper Club - Cleveland, OH *
5/9: Tangled String Studio - Huntsville, AL #
6/3: Music City Roots - Nashville, TN #
