Jonathan Bernstein
View all posts by Jonathan Bernstein June 19, 2026
A.J. Haynes, Lizzie No, Kaia Kater Joshua Asante*; Katie Dadarria*; Janice Reid* “It’s the season of rebellion,” Lizzie No sings towards the end of Outlaws’ Almanac, this new, tour-de-force collaborative roots-music concept album. No is a Nashville-based singer-songwriter who’s released a series of acclaimed records that span folk, pop and Americana (Rolling Stone named her to its “Future 25” list in 2024). She’s part of a group of young, like-minded country, folk and blues songwriters whose music you won’t easily find on streaming algorithms or corporate festival lineups: Kaia Kater, Nathan Evans Fox, Kimaya Diggs, Nick Shoulders, Olivia Ellen Lloyd, A.J. Haynes, and Tray Wellington, among them.
Pegged to the country’s upcoming 250th anniversary (and released on Juneteenth), Outlaws’ Almanac, helmed and executive produced by No, is a righteous and declarative gathering of contemporary and repurposed folk-roots freedom songs. Call it a People’s Songbook of the United States: These songs portray a modern America ripped apart by lack of access to healthcare and ruled by “white boys with money,” as roots veterans Kasey Anderson and Eric Ambel put it in their searing take on Anderson’s “The Dangerous Ones.” Mostly, it’s a record that gives voice to the stories of working Americans who are struggling and searching for something to pin their hopes on, whether that’s freedom from oppression or just one more paycheck.
