Conventional wisdom says the two frontmen of a band shouldn't live on opposite sides of the United States, but that's never seemed to deter Avi Vinocur and Patrick Dyer Wolf. Goodnight, Texas is a tough-to-define storytelling folk rock band whose strength lies in unexpected sweet spots. Drawing their name from Pat and Avi's onetime geographic midpoint (the real town of Goodnight in the State of Texas, a tiny hamlet east of Amarillo directly betwixt San Francisco, CA and Chapel Hill, NC), the five- piece band also exists at the center of its songwriters contrasting styles — via a 1913 Gibson A mandolin and a 2015 Danelectro Baritone Guitar, at the crossroads of folk and blues and rock 'n' roll, in a place where dry wit and dark truths meet hope and utmost sincerity. The band's new single, "RUNAWAYS," trades the thought-provoking, earthy blend of folk-rock for which they're known, for a beast of a hard-rock song. Indelible riffs, thundering rhythms and a positively scorching lead guitar, from none other than metal giant and Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett, prove that this band is not afraid to push their own musical boundaries. "This is the hardest we've ever rocked on a recording," Patrick explains of the new single. "That's thanks in no small part to an actual and absolute vintage Kirk Hammett wah solo on his legendary Greeny guitar, about which I am self-pinching daily. The main riff of the song had been lurking in my drafts like a caged animal since our last album, and at some point in the past year we decided it was time to set it free."

Jerron Paxton and Dennis Lichtman are world-renowned multi-instrumentalists and vocalists whose musical friendship has grown organically in New York City for more than a decade. Their formal partnership began with a video shoot, Just Cross the River From Queens, at the Louis Armstrong House Museum in 2017. Paxton and Lichtman recently released their first full-length duo recording, Jerron Paxton & Dennis Lichtman. Smithsonian Folkways recording artist Paxton presents Black folk music from nearly all the idioms that entails: stride piano jazz from New Orleans to New York; deep blues on guitar and harmonica; rural music from the beginnings of Black arrival in America played on fiddle and banjo; ragtime; and other turn-of-the-century-music that gives the full breadth of pre-WWII Black music without lecturing, but rather inviting you to enjoy that music as it was given to him. Paxton transports his audiences not to a time, but to a state of mind that allows them to enjoy and internalize Black folk music, as has been the American experience for centuries. Lichtman is a world-traveling bandleader who is best known for running the famed trad-jazz jam sessions at Mona’s Bar in New York City since 2007, which was described in the Wall Street Journal as “ground zero for an emerging late-night scene of young traditional jazz and swing players.” He is a masterful multi-instrumentalist (clarinet, mandolin, violin, and more) who has toured and recorded with David Byrne, The Lovestruck Balladeers, Pokey LaFarge, Ghost Train Orchestra, Jim Kweskin, and his own projects: The Brain Cloud, Mona’s Hot Four, and his newest all-original album Secret Workshop. Paxton and Lichtman’s mutual love of the history, stories, and significance behind the music they play is apparent as they romp through an energetic and engaging set of acoustic blues, ragtime, Tin Pan Alley pop songs, 1920s jazz, twin fiddle hoe-downs, and original songs and compositions.