Singer-songwriter John Smith, like so many, had a brutal 2020. Even putting aside a pandemic — which destroyed his in-person concert livelihood practically overnight — he and his wife suffered a miscarriage and his mother learned she had cancer. Unsurprisingly, […]
EDITOR’S NOTE: As album releases slow down in December, we like to catch our breath and write about albums that came out earlier in the year that we didn’t get a chance to review but we think are worthy of […]
Siblings Donny and Marie Osmond may have grappled with their country-to-rock-and-roll balance, but the Brothers Osborne demonstrate greater comfort with their family’s ratio on Skeletons, the duo’s third album of heavy, glam-laced country. The brothers, singer T.J. and guitarist John, […]
Nashville-based singer/songwriter/guitarist/mandolinist Brennen Leigh reminds us that roots music is about stories, not ZIP codes, on Prairie Love Letter, her reflection on growing up along the border between Minnesota and North Dakota. Folk-oriented music like this can sound light and […]
Sometimes it’s a struggle to describe an album, but fingerstyle blues singer/guitarist Cary Morin’s Dockside Saints makes the TV Guide-style capsule easy: “Acoustic blues frolics while under the influence of zydeco.” But to understand what that short explanation means in […]
Instruments come with assumptions. If you see a tuba, you expect a march or New Orleans jazz. An accordion prepares you for zydeco or polka. And if you see a 48-piece drum kit with a variety of gongs hanging behind […]
“Eclectic” is one of those album adjectives that can be challenging to process, especially for those of us on the more neurotic end of the spectrum. Does it mean the album’s songs all sound different? But how different? Is it […]
Like a beautiful black-and-white photograph, or cookie, for that matter, singer/bassist Amy LaVere’s Painting Blue, has some wonderful contrasts. Her voice is quiet, with a shy quality, like she’s unaware anyone is listening to her. Yet her vocals are the […]
As a culture, we’re not really equipped to address what happens to bands when their artists grow up. Most bands break up or remain in a state of suspended development. Kevn Kinney, the singer/creative force behind Drivin N Cryin, has […]
The geography of a band is often used as a shorthand to describe their sound. Nashville invokes country. Memphis conjures soul. Austin can mean blues. But upstate New York is often just code for “not New York City,” which is […]
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