Fust Tickets

S.G. Goodman returns from the Western Kentucky bottomland with her latest full-length album,
Planting by the Signs, Available June 20, 2025 on her very own Slough Water Records via
Thirty Tigers. Composed of songs inspired by love, loss, reconciliation, and the aforementioned
ancient practice. Eleven tracks highlighted by the critically-acclaimed and award-winning artist’s
singular voice and her penchant for juxtaposing vulnerable folk music with punchy rock ‘n roll,
replete with chiming guitars, ethereal atmospherics, and her DIY ethos. Goodman provides a
timely reminder that the only way forward is together, and that we must always take into account humanity’s dependence on and responsibility to the natural world.

But it wasn’t an easy path to writing Planting by the Signs or to the recording studio. 2023 saw
the passing of her beloved dog, Howard, as well as the tragic death of Harmon, a father figure
and mentor. Mike was mentioned in Goodman’s song, “Red Bird Morning” on Old Time Feeling,
her debut. Her band used to practice in the quonset hut behind his house. He would check on
her house while she toured. Often, Goodman would call him for advice from the road.

Harmon’s death led to Goodman reconciling with her longtime collaborator and guitarist,
Matthew Rowan, who had become estranged from her following a year of grueling live shows in
2021. Rowan and Goodman had met in their early 20s while at college in the Murray, KY, indie
rock scene, and eventually began playing music together. His idiosyncratic guitar work became
an essential part of her production. He wrote most of the guitar parts on her first two records,
and their creative relationship stretched for nearly 10 years. But life on the road isn’t for all, one
thing led to another, and Rowan decided to step away. After Harmon passed, Matt was one of
the first people Goodman called. From there they began to mend their relationship, and
eventually, once she started working on her new album, S.G. asked Rowan to be her co-
producer. The album would not exist in its current form without their reconciliation.

After a restful, somewhat celebratory winter in the beginning months of 2024, she began writing and demo-ing a new album, eventually Drew Vandenberg, who also co-produced and engineered Teeth Marks, to join he and Rowan as co-producers. Finally, after nearly three years of promoting her critically-acclaimed and award winning album, Teeth Marks, with a touring schedule that would make the most seasoned road-dog wince, Goodman decamped to the Nutt House in Sheffield, AL, in the fall of 2024. Alongside co- producer Drew Vandenberg, Rowan, and a cast of musical characters, Goodman tracked what is by no exaggeration her best record to date. With songs like “Fire Sign,” “Satellite,” “Snapping Turtle,” “Michael Told Me,” “Heaven” and “I’m In Love,” Planting by the Signs finds Goodman exploring this old story and other themes in the only way she knows; with a fresh musical and lyrical perspective, vivid, incisive detail, and a heaping dose of empathy and compassion.