Apocalypse references are popular here at the turn of the decade, and veteran singer-songwriter David Dondero kicks off 2020 with a stark, end-times image. “Take a selfie with a mushroom cloud / as the backdrop while I smile so proud,” […]
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“Keep it simple,” Jeb Loy Nichols instructs on the 22-second “Intro” that leads off his new album, June is Short, July is Long. The album, credited to Jeb Loy Nichols and The Westwood All-Stars, sticks to that commitment across its […]
Sound & Fury, Sturgill Simpson’s fourth and latest release, is not his most melodic album. That’s High Top Mountain. Nor is Sound & Fury the hard-to-classify Kentucky native’s most consistent record. That’s Metamodern Sounds in Country Music. But Sound & […]
Compounded by generations of unwavering respect to the music and self-imposed rigidity, bluegrass continues to be highly wary of change. The genre often is stagnant to the point of self-parody. Tradition is rich and reverent, but it’s also stifling to […]
After a five-year album break, the indie rock heroes of The Hold Steady return with a pummeling confidence and reach back to glory days right at the top of their seventh LP with “Denver Haircut,” a focused story song about […]
As this strange decade veers to a close, it will be remembered for the extent to which we’ve been bound by omnipresent digital chains and the bad habits they enable. Scrolling, scanning, linking, liking. We’re so often some place other […]
When does earnest musicianship and exuberant joy billow over into straining grandiosity and sonic overreach? How many layers are too many layers? And when should a performer perhaps cool it with the strings? When an artist sincerely aims for a […]
The multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter Andrew Bird creates little worlds over the arcs of his albums. His records are miniature places of possibility. On his latest, My Finest Work Yet on Loma Vista Recordings, Bird conjures up images of old movies, […]
From the top, the discerning listener knows that Julian Lage’s Love Hurts is not a pedestrian jazz guitar album. For starters, Lage — accompanied on this deep 43-minute effort by drummer Dave King and bassist Jorge Roeder — layers droney […]
A classic still-life image –a painting of a bowl of fruit – hangs on the wall above Toronto singer-songwriter Doug Paisley on the cover of Starter Home, his new record. He’s sitting in what appears to be a typical living […]
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