With his newest single, “Farthest Thing,” Andy Branton filters those long miles and backroad ruminations into a slow-burning, emotionally raw track that digs in deep. From the dive bars of West Alabama to the uninterrupted drone of Kentucky roadways, Andy Branton’s life plays like a decades-old pocket paperback filled with smoke-filled rooms, late nights, and the kind of yarns you just can’t shake. The guitar work of Branton, who ground it out for years in country and rock & roll bands, sits not just below the lyrics but breathes alongside them.

There’s a weariness to it, but there’s also resilience. Each chord sounds lived-in, like an old truck that’s down on its luck but cranks over every morning. “Farthest Thing” is a bare-bones confession, drenched in the southern soil and real-life spirit. Branton’s voice is the voice of experience, not life with lost love or empty promises, but that kind of thoughtful soul-searching that can only be done alone on a dark stretch of road, somewhere between where you’ve been and where you’re going. What sets “Farthest Thing” apart from its counterparts isn’t only the craftsmanship. The delivery carries the burden of untold stories.

Stories gathered through years of playing in smoke-filled bars, from talking at 2 a.m. at gas stations to watching the world change through a bug-streaked windshield. Andy Branton doesn’t write songs as much as he catalogs moments. “Farthest Thing” is evidence of that. It’s a track that seizes your attention slowly like a friend telling you some truth after many months of silence. Andy Branton’s “Farthest Thing” With a storyteller’s heart beating in time with country blues and a rock and roll edge, Andy Branton is bringing some stirring vibes to the folk format, and “Farthest Thing” is one of those songs you return to when you need something real.

Texas sibling duo Brother and The Hayes strike a gorgeous balance between intimacy and reflective longing on their new single “Radio Waves.” With David Bingaman on guitar and Jennie Hayes Kurtz providing casually soulful vocals, this track buzzes with the sort of warmth that simultaneously feels intimate and classic, like finding a love letter that’s been stashed in a vinyl sleeve. A brother-sister act from Dallas, the siblings were marinated in a stew of musical idioms, from gospel-laced choirs to blues standards.

The diversity of that foundation shines through in “Radio Waves,” where David’s guitar work pays polite homage to the Texas blues legends he holds dear, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Lightnin’ Hopkins, while Jennie Hayes’ voice soars with the clarity and control of one who cut her teeth in choirs but didn’t shed the spirit of real feeling in the process. “Radio Waves” is a love song and a time capsule, evoking the magic of turning on a late-night station and hearing a song that hits you like a fist. There’s a sweet ache woven into the melody, an evocation of the unsaid connections and memories that music evokes unbidden. The production is minimal. Every note, every breath, feels intentional, feels organic, feels human. This is storytelling of the gentlest kind. The lyrics tend to stick to the simple and let the emotional texture do the heavy lifting.

For Brother and The Hayes, less is more, and in the emptiness is where listeners are encouraged to feel deeply, reflect, and remember. “Radio Waves” is simply too down to earth for that. It shoots for the heart, offering a song that is homey, that is, memory, the sound of something that has always been playing softly in the background of our lives. Brother and The Hayes are choosing to make their own with tunes that are steeped in family, feeling, and simply undeniable craft. “Radio Waves” shows they are transmitting something special.