Blues guitar is an instant mood-setter in any song, and for anyone who ever needed some proof supporting this fact, Matthew John’s “Let’s Begin Again” is a superb example of what fine-tuned, forlorn fretwork can do for an otherwise simple pop ballad. John slows down the swing of his strings for “Shine for Me,” but reminds us of the value in a slender arrangement of electric melancholy in his song…
More than three decades in the making, Heal, the debut record from A Picture Made, though ridiculously long overdue, manages to have been worth the wait. The Midwest kids (though long past being kids) came together in the 1980s and managed to open for some of the best college rock bands at the time, from The Call and The Connells to The Replacements. It’s not clear if it was a…
There’s not much grey area to Ellis Paul’s music: You either like the modern day folkie’s music or you don’t. And if you do happen to fall into former category, chances are you love it. Like John Prine and Gary Clark before him, minus the country/Americana influences, Paul is first and foremost a lyricist, telling a story with each and every song he puts out. The Storyteller’s Suitcase, Paul’s 20th…
The title track to Lukas Nelson’s fifth album pretty much sums up the focus of the record; people are generally good, so let’s focus on being kind to each other. And yes, it’s the type of sentiment that gets one branded a snowflake in 2019, but damn it’s good advice. And it sounds even better coming out in Nelson’s lazy, comforting drawl, backed by one of the best bands going…
Ela has earned a promising following since relocating from San Francisco to the state capital of Texas and musical hub Austin. She calls upon an assortment of influences in her music, but the lineage for her latest single “Light It Up” is pretty clear cut. This well crafted dance/edm track has a near orchestrated flair – it doesn’t show its cards all at once but, instead, rises from the group…
URL: https://www.josepheidmusic.com/ Singer/songwriter Joseph Eid returns this summer with a buoyant pop jam in the form of his new music video and single “Listening to Madonna,” a track that sees him embracing the lighter side of melodicism with a vitality that is all too rare these days. Eid attacks the verses aggressively, but the harmonies that he churns out beside his glistening guitar are anything but assaultive in tone. “Listening…
It seems pretty appt that one-time BR5-49 member Chuck Mead would head to the iconic Sam Phillips Recording Studios in Memphis to make his latest as few in the Americana world have come across as easily an instant classic as Mead. Even though the band first came out in the ‘90s they had an instant timelessness to their music that you’d have been forgiven for assuming they’d cropped up in…
Sometimes it takes the subtleness of a folk song to really hammer home a point. On the lead off track (“This is Life”) to their self-titled new album, the Kansas City duo Barnaby Bright deftly cover the struggles war vets face after coming home. The track leads off with sound clips from George W. Bush and Trump saber rattling, a sound collage that wouldn’t sound unusual as the intro to…
“The disciples were aboard a boat / Jesus slept alone…” croons LaTresa whilst her band the Signal dispatches a gorgeous bluegrass groove that is rich with a rare breed of American vitality in “Sea of Galilee.” This cornerstone track of their new album The Blood and the River is light and airy in its rhythmic construction, but its words deliver a walloping weightiness that will affect anyone with an ear…
Holy Beach’s opening salvo “Ships Off The Coast” signals their first full length album All That Matters Is This Matter isn’t playing around. There’s some vivid imagery in the lyrics and vocalist/songwriter John Lally gets everything he can out of the writing thanks to his lung power and dramatic phrasing alike. Though the song and album as a whole are definitely metal, but listeners will note there is little lead…
Emerging from the shadows like a thief in the night, the somber string reverberations of “Edge City” invite us into a nearly ten minute-long closing epic that brings audiences full circle to where we first began in Oliver Ray’s Out Passed Nowhere, the debut album from the acclaimed singer/songwriter due out this June everywhere that independent music is sold and streamed. In our first look at his solo work, Ray…
Wretched Cabaret is a smart inclusion for the opening spot of Legion of Saints’ new EP, Killing The Silence. The assertive backing instrumentation and charismatic lead vocals invite fans in, while the thoughtful arrangement will interested even the most jaded music aficionado. Can’t Make You Fall in Love with Me is a high-energy track that adds a bit of heavy guitar edge to a mid-oughts Billie Joe Armstrong style of…
Distant flickering lights give way to black and white images of a small, intimate club and the band that has taken its stage tonight. The bass marches forward with a hesitant hustle, the guitar follows suit in a harmonious groove. The rhythm that the drums are conjuring up frames a passionate vocal from the one and only Francine Honey, who enters the spotlight and immediately commands the attention of everyone…
TWITTER: https://twitter.com/richardlynchbnd?lang=en Gently, with a pendulous groove underpinning its immaculate melody, a guitar paints us a picture of a black and white world with kaleidoscopic colors in “Back in 1953,” one of the more patient ballads to behold in Richard Lynch’s Think I’ll Carry It On. It isn’t the lone example of the strings telling us a story of their own in this most recent release from the critically-acclaimed country…
Christopher Hill & The Stardust Crush are a band out of Seattle, Washington, with a unique take on the current state of United States politics. Rather than taking the traditional dystopian approach – this four-piece rock band combines folk, disjointed rhythms and harmonies to create a sometimes wistful, but trippy collection of songs in their seven-track album, MAABA (Making America All Better Again). ᐧ FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/thestardustcrush/ Out of the gate…
On Fervent Devise, Plants are able to call back to the rock of the 1960s and 1970s. Infectious guitar lines, charismatic vocals, and shuffling drums laid down by Alex unite to make something tremendously cohesive. With just a hint of 1990s alternative included in the mix, Plants are able to make an effort wholly unique while reverent of influences preceding the act. With the swagger of 1970s-Steven Tyler or Emotional…
Does the world really need another psychobilly supergroup? Turns out, that yeah, we kind of do. The Bats, a trio made up of members from Nekromantix, The Brains, Rezurez and Stellar Corpses, churn through 20 (20!) songs on their debut, Bat Music For Bat People and the music manages to be catchy enough that hardly a moment drags here. Yes, they dig up the old genre tropes (“Graveyard Girl,” “Cemetery Man,”), but with a…
A debut single can be the hardest track that an artist will ever record, but Dane Maxwell makes it look all too easy in his rookie release, the anti-bullying ballad “Where I’m Seen.” Maxwell steps up to the microphone with an unrehearsed confidence that could become a signature element in his sound if he learns to harness all of its multilayered potential. His words dance against the silky string section…
Over the course of the past four decades, Wreckless Eric has evolved from being that quirky Stiff Records signing – who managed to brilliantly bridge the distance between labelmates The Damned and Elvis Costello, with his punk rock ethos slathered in strong poppy hooks – to being a reliably poignant songwriter turning in one album after the next filled with smartly written-stories steeped in nostalgia and keen observations. Transience is…
Like a gentle breeze rustling the branches of an old willow tree, “The Long Way Home” has a way of dispelling all of the tension that would normally sully a perfect summer afternoon, and as I recently discovered, it isn’t the only song capable of such mysticism in W.C. Beck’s third album, First Flight, a deceptively titled record that sees its composer executing one flawless ascent into the sonic heavens…