Zephaniah Ohora and The 18 Wheelers - This Highway (2017)

It's a dark little bar, named after Guy Clark's bass player, that's tucked into a lost corner of Brooklyn's Williamsburg neighborhood. The band's crammed up on the stage, nearly spilling into the audience, and young couples are two-stepping around the edges. With a nightly lineup of the best young honky-tonk bands in the US coming through, Skinny Dennis has become the center of New York's burgeoning roots country scene, and Zephaniah OHora his hair slicked back, all decked out in black is leading this new community. OHora's encyclopedic knowledge and burning love for old country music glows triumphantly throughout his new album 'This Highway', which frames his original songs right in the crossroads of a golden era in the music: the meeting of the Bakersfield and Nashville Sounds of the 1960s. This blend of New-York-City-meets-Merle-Haggard songwriting means that OHora s songs feel deeply personal even while presented through the smooth sound of a bygone era.