Clover County is a collector of life lessons, love letters, bottle caps, ticket stubs, and ones that got away. With the newfound perspective of her twenties, the 24-year-old singer-songwriter packages these memories and mementos from adolescence into her radiant debut album, aptly named Finer Things.

Living in the space between folk, americana and alternative, Clover’s self-proclaimed genre of “bootgaze” is equal parts sonic descriptor and cheeky joke. “It started as a way to describe my music, but now I like to think of it as me reflecting on my thoughtful lyrics while staring down at the cute boots I’m wearing,” she laughs.

Inspired by the winking charm of influences like Sheryl Crow and The Chicks, Clover blends the twang of timeless country songwriting with tongue-in-cheek observations on modern love. The album’s lead single “Virginia Slim” captures that lightness of spirit. She faces the possibility of heartbreak, but accepts when things aren’t meant to be instead: “I’m a quick Virginia Slim, you’re rolled all the way from scratch / And lately you’ve been quitting, and I’m too cheap to buy a pack.”

The song unfolds like rolling green hills, backdropped by fiddle and bouncy guitar licks. Playful follow-up singles “Good Game” and “Whiskey Cherry” heckle men who were less than ideal to date – the kind of relationships that don’t deserve their own breakup song: “I leaned into a ‘bless your heart’ kind of energy, cause lord knows they’ll need it.”

Jack Van Cleaf was still an independent artist when “Rattlesnake” became a viral hit in 2023, earning praise from songwriters like Noah Kahan (who hand-picked Jack as the opening act on his sold-out Stick Season Tour) and Zach Bryan (who began covering the song online). For Jack, it felt like a pivotal moment in a career that had been building since his teenage years.

“This album is all about the vertigo of growing up,” says Jack, who makes his Dualtone Records debut with the sophomore release JVC. “It’s about redefining and re-understanding yourself.”

JVC does more than plant its flag halfway between the worlds of indie rock and Gen Z folk. It also asks big questions about home and identity. Years after penning his first song as a high school freshman in San Diego, he headed east to Nashville, where he studied songwriting at Belmont University and released his debut album, Fruit from the Trees, after graduation.

“I met many of my closest friends during my very first week at Belmont,” says Jack about his formative years in Music City. “All talented artists in their own right, they went on to help me make my first record everything that it is, and have remained my most trusted collaborators to this day.”

“Rattlesnake,” with its introspective lyrics and atmospheric acoustics, earned him a spot on Spotify’s 2024 Best New Artist list with tastemaker playlist “juniper,” but nothing—not even the praise of his heroes—could calm the existential freakout he experienced as a twenty-something thrust into adulthood.

“I was shell-shocked,” he remembers. “I’d spent my whole life being told what to do every single day, and I always dreamed about growing up to be my own boss. Then graduation came, and I got what I wanted... but I realized I had no idea how to function on a day-to-day basis.”