Singer/songwriter Jim Lauderdale helped lay out the blueprint for the Americana movement of the ’90s and has since continued to earn high critical marks for an eclectic series of albums that have spanned hard country, slick pop, rootsy rock & roll, blues, folk, R&B, and bluegrass. Stylistically restless, Lauderdale’s roots were in hard country and bluegrass, but his first album to be released, 1991’s Planet of Love, was a savvy blend of rock, blues, and traditional country influences. It scored rave reviews, but with 1999’s I Feel Like Singing Today, a collaboration with Dr. Ralph Stanley, he revealed he was also a first-rate bluegrass vocalist. Over the next two decades, Lauderdale would move back and forth between electric and acoustic projects, always steeped in roots music (such as on the eclectic 2021 LP Hope, 2023’s bluegrass themed The Long and Lonesome Letting Go, and 2024’s moody and heartfelt My Favorite Place), while he also built an estimable reputation as a songwriter, as his compositions were recorded — often with considerable success — by a number of country stars, including George Strait, Patty Loveless, Vince Gill, Mark Chesnutt, Kathy Mattea, and George Jones.
