The Wheelhouse Rousters - River Folk (2019)

Western Kentucky has been making music about its waterways for well over a century and Paducah's Wheelhouse Rousters have been proud stewards of the tradition, but now they've started adding their own tunes to its annals.

The group's first record, 2014's "Steamboatin'," consisted entirely of arrangements of historic roustabout songs collected in the early 20th century by the Paducahan musicologist Mary Wheeler. Their second, "Times of Uncertainty," combines more Wheeler-preserved tunes with other folk standards and some original compositions.

Now, though, with the release of their newest album, "River Folk," they hope to make some strides and really explore themselves as a band.

Full of river lore, humor and love, the album doesn't stretch too far in style from the band's earlier work -- falling somewhere in the middle of Americana, folk, bluegrass and country blues.

The quartet of west Kentucky boys, Nathan Blake Lynn, father-son duo Eddie and Josh Coffey, and Jake Siener, hopes that their first album of all-original material is well received.

"I think that we did our service with bringing light to Mary Wheeler with our renditions of her songs on both our first and second albums, and I just thought that this was the logical move for our third," Josh Coffey said. "Right now, we're just wanting to write our own stuff and explore that direction."

This record, Lynn explained, is much more of a window into the band's lives than in the past.

"We've been playing together now for six or seven years in this group. It kind of takes a while to find that groove," he said. "This one seems to be reflecting where we've come from. I think it highlights our story a lot more than the last two albums."

Josh added: "We're really making an effort not to take ourselves too seriously -- to just have fun and make some music. There's moments of seriousness, like on 'Forever Only Lasts Awhile,' that have a more somber tone and make you think about life, but then there's also 'Dry Ground, Wet Beer,' which is just about getting together with buddies and having a good time."

Lynn was also quick to compliment the contributions of Eddie Coffey, who has writing credits on seven of the record's 12 songs.

"Eddie writes a lot of music and this is a good outlet for him. He's a great songwriter and this album really speaks to it," he said. "I think the opening track, 'Listen For The Whistle,' really sets the tone for what we do."

Besides penning all of the songs themselves, the other big change was the full-time addition of Siener on bass.

"The addition of Jake as a bass player has led to a fuller sound, and it's moved me to playing banjo a little more," Lynn said. "We're still finding our sound and this is a step into a new area with that."