Band of Crescent City Buskers Reimagine Classics by The Carter Family, Delmore Brothers, Rouse Brothers on Foot-Tappin’ Debut Album
Jalopy Records Shares First Single Today
Following their rapturous set at the Brooklyn Folk Fest last fall, The Clover Valley Boys, New Orleans–based street buskers-turned-touring Appalachian-style folk and classic country trio, will release their eponymous debut album, a delightful mix of vocal tracks and instrumentals, on August 21 via Jalopy Records. The Crescent City trio, which features Coleman Akin (guitar/steel guitar/fiddle/vocals), George Aschmann (fiddle/vocals), and Mo Kinney (guitar/banjo), have filled The Clover Valley Boys with a well-curated mix of archival gems polished during their street-level shows.
Listen to The Clover Valley Boys’ foot-tapper of a first single, “Bum Bum Blues,” out May 27. HEAR/SHARE.
Hearing “Bum Bum Blues” for the first time, which moonlights as the album-opener, you might assume that it was recorded in the back of a Woolworth’s or primitive radio station in the ’20s or ’30s. The Boys pull off some sonic sleight of hand; it’s a present-day interpretation of a ’39 side excavated from the Rouse Brothers, who are best known for their hit song “Orange Blossom Special.” The Boys’ ability to make an authentically traditional style and sound their own—and not just ape an archival recording—is what makes this album such a special listen.
Follow-up single, “Sparkling Blue Eyes” (out 6/24), which dates from ’37, is a spirited take on the original, made famous by country legends such as Webb Pierce, George Jones, Wanda Jackson, Waylon Jennings, and Doc Watson. On the other hand, Jimmie Rodgers classic, “Treasures Untold” (out 7/22), brings moping to a high artform, punctuated with all the mountain-man yodeling money can buy.
The Boys’ rural Southern upbringings are a big part of their mythos, with Akin hailing from Johnson City, Tennessee, a major 19th-century railroad hub just north of the Smoky Mountains; Aschmann, from Fort Valley, Virginia, which lies between the Blue Ridge Mountains and Shenandoah Valley; and Kinney, from Atlanta, Georgia. The three-piece, who quite hilariously got their name from Dollar General’s in-house Clover Valley brand—maybe a nod to a folk musicians’ ability to live below their means—has perfected their prodigious musicianship and can’t-miss harmonies on the streets of their adopted home of the Crescent City.
Other highlights from the debut include the playful, fiddle-heavy Appalachian hoedown, “Going to Georgia,” in which the Boys’ sing from the unique perspective of a jilted female ex-lover; their take on the Delmore Brothers’ “In the Blue Hills of Virginia,” on which Akin and Aschmann’s voices match like blood-brothers; and their take on the Carter Family breakup ballad, “Pretty Raindrops,” with a pitch-perfect low-high harmony. You can almost picture yourself clip-clopping along atop your steed on laid-back album-closer “I’m a Roamin’ Cowboy,” which was a favorite of Jesse Rogers, cousin to Jimmie (their side of the family subtracted the “D” from their last name).
A musician since he was a youngster, Akin first got serious about the trade when he met fellow musician Matt Kinman, who was filming an episode for his popular TikTok channel Backroads of America. Kinman invited Akin to travel with him and meet some musicians and artisans in the Southeast and Appalachia. “We actually ended up hopping a freight train, got pulled off outside of Memphis, and spent Christmas in jail there,” says Akin, with a chuckle.
Akin had met Kinney at a fiddlers’ festival, Harlan’s Jamboree, just outside of Knoxville, and the two began performing and touring as a duo. Adding Aschmann into the mix, the trio flew to Europe, playing shows in France, Germany, Italy, and Switzerland, among other far-off places. And that’s when The Clover Valley Boys emerged.
Kinney’s family is made up entirely of musicians, with his mother an Irish fiddler. He has been touring with the Twisted Teen (Sub Pop).
A fall, 2026 Clover Valley Boys tour is in the works. Members of the band have appeared at the famed Blackpot Festival & Cookoff in Lafayette, Louisiana. The Boys have appeared all over the country and the world, with trips to the Brooklyn Folk Festival, various clubs and lounges around New Orleans—and, of course, Crescent City curbsides aplenty.
The Clover Valley Boys full tracklist and credits
1. “Bum Bum Blues” (Music and lyrics by The Rouse Brothers, Ervin T. Rouse, The Clover Valley Boys)
2. “Going to Georgia” (Traditional; arranged by The Clover Valley Boys, Wade Mainer, Zeke Morris)
3. “Honeysuckle Blues” (Traditional; arranged by The Clover Valley Boys, Slim Johnson and the Singing Cowboys)
4. “In the Blue Hills of Virginia” (Music by Louis Klein, lyrics by Louis Klein and Bob Miller; arranged by The Clover Valley Boys and The Delmore Brothers)
5. “Treasure Untold” (Music and lyrics by Jimmie Rodgers and E.T. Cozzens; arranged by The Clover Valley Boys, Jimmie Rodgers)
6. “Window Pane Blues” (Music and lyrics by Tommie Bradley; arranged by The Clover Valley Boys, Tommie Bradley)
7. “Memphis Stomp” (Music and lyrics by Bill Cox; arranged by The Clover Valley Boys, Wade Mainer)
8. “Sparkling Blue Eyes” (Music and lyrics by Bill Cox; arranged by The Clover Valley Boys, Wade Mainer)
9. “New Lost Train Blues” (Traditional; arranged by The Clover Valley Boys)
10. “Pretty Raindrops” (Music and lyrics by Jeanette Carter Jett; arranged by The Clover Valley Boys, A.P. Carter)
11. “Dragging the Bow” (Traditional; arranged by The Clover Valley Boys, Harry Choates)
12. “Blue Ridge Mountains” (Music and lyrics by The Blue Boys; arranged by The Clover Valley Boys, Al Hopkins and his Buckle Busters)
13. “I’m a Roamin’ Cowboy” (Music by Carson Robison and lyrics by Edwin Hubbell Chapin; arranged by The Clover Valley Boys)
