Yee-haw, it's the country music takeover!

02:35 |

Friday 13 March 2026

Giddy-up, new country star Zach Top headlines C2C festival at the O2 Arena tonight, and he's also the latest guest on the Good Vibrations podcast! Tune in to hear the Grammy winner talk about growing up on a farm in Washington, meeting his heroes, and why he doesn't want to take himself too seriously.

You might have spotted Harry Styles's huge Co-op Live show in Manchester on Netflix, well, Hannah Ewens was actually there and she did a fantastic review for us. She was impressed by how the disco-pop of his new album, Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally, took on "new dimensions" as a live show. Reviewed this week we have albums by James Blake (Patrick Smith was a fan) and Art School Girlfriend (Helen Brown enjoyed this one).

This weekend you should check out culture editor Jessie Thompson's cover feature with pop singer and actor Self Esteem, speaking about her new role as rock star Maggie in a revival of David Hare's Teeth 'n' Smiles. Elsewhere, I chatted with Americana singer-songwriter Cat Clyde about her "chaotic" upbringing, her roving ways and, of course, her fantastic new album, Mud Blood Bone, which is out now.

Other new music I love this week: new Kacey Musgraves! The country queen is back with "Dry Spell", the first single from her upcoming album Middle of Nowhere, scheduled for release on 1 May. The subtle Spanish guitar licks give the track a bit of a spaghetti western vibe, and I just love her sense of humour in the lyrics: "Ain't nobody's tools up in my shed/ Ain't nobody's boots under my bed… Ain't no new notches on my belt/ And I'm tired of keeping my hands to myself/ 911 it's officially a cry for help/ Y'all I'm going through a dry spell, yup."

Then: I really like Manchester poet and producer Antony Szmierek's single "The Heron", a dizzying club track steered by a bright piano motif and Szmierek's commanding delivery. Chicago band Brigitte Calls Me Baby have a new album, Irreversible, which sounds like Robert Smith and Morrissey's lovechild (and they hate each other, so that is quite the feat). You can find all the other new music I love on our Apple Music playlist.

See you next week! x

Now Read This:

Written by Roisin O'Connor

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Art School Girlfriend, Lean in review – Generous, intelligent and occasionally evasive

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ON THE RECORD

I don't see anything really romantic in the fact that Gram died so young. It's just a tragedy.

Emmylou Harris to The Independent, February 2026

I developed a pretty severe OCD thing after watching Synecdoche, New York

Snail Mail to The Independent , March 2026

With Lily Allen, we blacked out and made an album

Songwriter Chloe Angelides to The Independent - December 2025

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Tracks of the week

Subscribe to the official Now Hear This playlist on Apple Music and stay up to date with all the best new releases

1. "Dry Spell" - Kacey Musgraves

2. "Get Go" - Arlo Parks

3. "Blow My Mind" - Robyn

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Q&A

Spotlight on... Tarragon

Hello! Tell me about yourself

Hi there. My name is Callum Pickard, and I'm a singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer from Coventry and I am releasing music under the name Tarragon.

Since my earliest memories listening to albums like 'Pet Sounds', 'Dark Side Of The Moon', and 'Breakfast In America' with my dad on the way to football matches, music and song-writing have always been the main voice and foundation of my communication and creativity.

Growing up with autism in a multifaceted city like Coventry, I often found it difficult to place myself in the world around me. I was raised in a very football-oriented household. I played football at a very high level growing up and was scouted by Coventry City, West Brom and Walsall. Expression didn't always come easily to me, though, but music became both a refuge and a doorway, a way of translating my true feelings that otherwise had nowhere to go. I was an ambitious and curious child, yet deeply shy and reserved, and it didn't take long to realise that the things I struggled to say out loud could often be said inside a song.

One of my fondest memories from when I was a child was setting up a row of unused plant pots in my family's back garden and striking them with branches like a makeshift drum kit. It was around that time that my parents sensed my excitement and sent me to my first drum lessons at school. Not long after, I began teaching myself guitar, slowly learning songs by artists like Nick Drake and Bob Dylan. Somewhere in those early experiments, between the rhythm of the drums and the quiet language of the guitar, the earliest bones of what would become Tarragon began to take shape.

Community and collaboration have always felt essential to me. Tarragon takes its name from that spirit: an open door, a shared table. It's a project that welcomes others into a room, a place where different voices, stories, and sounds can gather and grow together.

With this in mind, these days I tend to write, engineer, record, and produce everything myself at home in my studio, skills I purposefully learned over the years, so I can lay down any foundation or idea. While I initially create the body of work on my own, I also collaborate with an array of musicians and artists I look up to immensely, who bring their own light to the records.

I enjoy the process of crafting a song on record and then going out and playing it live. Over the years, I've been fortunate to support Andy Shauf a handful of times, Love Revisited, Steve Gunn (Kurt Vile's original guitar player), and Jesca Hoop, as well as playing festivals like Live At Leeds, Bearded Theory and Sonic Wave.

What are the inspirations and influences behind your music?

Inspiration and influence can come at any given moment for me. It might happen while I'm out delivering letters for Royal Mail, or when I'm travelling and notice a particular sight or sound that stays with me. I think inspiration is always around, quietly waiting, you just have to pay attention to it.

I rarely rush an idea when it first presents itself to me. I prefer to sit with and fully immerse myself in whatever has sparked it. Sometimes that can make the process difficult, because I want the final piece to be the very best it can be. I often take a long time to shape something after that initial spark, carefully carving the idea out until it becomes fresh and complete.

My influences stem from many sources. I've never had just one thing I consistently listen to, instead, I've always been drawn to voices that feel singular, voices that are both beautiful and strange in their own way, the kind that pull you in and carry you through a story and don't necessarily give it to you easily. Singers and songwriters like Barry Gibb, Justin Vernon, John Prine, Brian Wilson, Roger Hodgson, Anais Mitchell and, more recently, Cameron Winter and Saya Gray come to mind.

Over the years, while writing, recording, producing and mixing my second full-length album, 'Home At Cofa's', I've also found myself learning a great deal from producers like Shawn Everett, Jack Antonoff, and Andrew Scheps. I deeply admire the records they've been a part of. In some ways, I feel a quiet kinship with their approach to sonics and sound and the thoughtfulness behind the way they build a record. It's gorgeous to me, to say the least!

As I've mentioned, Tarragon isn't just me, it's about community too, and I've been very fortunate to collaborate with some of my heroes on 'Home At Cofa's'. From Supertramp's John Helliwell, Tame Impala's live drummer, Julien Barbagallo, The 1975's saxophonist, John Waugh, Bobby Hawk from Bleachers, and The War On Drugs' Dave Hartley and Robbie Bennett. These people have all inspired me over the years, and to be able to have them add their own magic to this project is something I really struggle to put into words. To some extent, it feels less like a collaboration and more like a moment of shared wonder.

What do you have lined up for 2026?

I'll be self-releasing Tarragon's second full-length album, 'Home At Cofa's', on May 1st, 2026, and I plan to play a series of live shows to support and promote the release. I'm currently in the process of figuring out how to perform the new album live. The record features a wide range of sounds, textures, and colours, along with a lot of orchestral instrumentation, so the songs may need to be performed in a slightly less layered form in a live setting.

With that in mind I'm working with my regular band members, Jon Pudge (Trumpet and Flugelhorn), Adam Moody (Alto and Tenor Saxophones), and Finlay Randle (Drums and Percussion) and I'm currently looking to recruit a few more band members to finalise the live setup.

Typically I don't think about how recorded songs will translate to the stage until after they have been recorded. I find that the production process can easily get me caught up in anticipating where something might lead, which could end up scuppering an initial idea.

I'm also considering putting together a few live video sessions to share in the near future. Alongside this, I'll be continuing to write new material, hoping to find a manager and a booking agent to help strategise and build this project with me.

And I've already started writing new material which will of course prompt me to reach out to even more collaborators. I have some candidates in mind, true to the principle that is Tarragon.