Posts by Gary Schwind

The Lied To’s is a duo comprising Doug Kwartler and Susan Levine. The two met at a folk festival in 2009 and, after reconnecting in 2013, began playing shows together. On their previous albums, Kwartler and Levine sang, as many musicians do, about the difficulties in relationships. This is particularly true of The Lesser of […]

Birds of Play is a band from Colorado whose sound is a combination of bluegrass, folk, and jazz. Formerly a trio, the band added violinist Anneke Dean in 2020. She unquestionably leaves her stamp on the band’s new album Murmurations, Vol. 2. The new album is the companion to Murmurations, Vol. 1, which was released […]

The Dip is a seven-piece band from Seattle that has built quite an impressive following (nearly a million monthly Spotify listeners as of this writing) with its lively, soulful sound. On its first two albums, the band showed some similarities to Orgone and Eli “Paperboy” Reed and The True Loves. The new album Sticking With […]

Sugaray Rayford is an artist who has been nominated for a Grammy and won multiple Blues Music Awards, including the B. B. King Entertainer of the Year in 2020. He has long operated with one foot firmly planted both in soul and the blues. Some of his previous albums have been very blues-heavy with sounds […]

Yonder Mountain String Band has gone through some lineup changes in its history. The newest member of the band is multi-instrumentalist Nick Piccininni, who joined in 2020. No matter who is in the band, you know what to expect from this band. You’ll hear a lot of uptempo bluegrass songs with some picking that is […]

The HawtThorns is an Americana rock duo comprised of husband and wife Johnny and KP Hawthorn. The fact that they make music together seems like it was meant to be. Both had released solo material before they met and had plenty of experience behind them. On their first date, they played songs together, and in […]

Sophie and The Broken Things is an alt-country band from Nashville that is relatively new. Its only release is an eponymous EP released in 2020. Still, that was enough to establish the band as one that creates warm and memorable alt-country songs. Sophie Gault chose the name of the band as a tribute to Julie Miller’s […]

Massy Ferguson is a band that is somewhat hard to classify beyond the generic term rock band. That’s not a bad thing. In its history, the band has written the same sort of melodic sing-along songs that Tom Petty built his career on. And yeah, this may not be the first band that you add […]

Artikal Sound System is a reggae band from Florida that was founded in 2012 by Chris Montague (guitar) and Fabian Acuña (bass). The two developed as musicians playing behind Caribbean singers. Enter Christopher Cope (keyboards) and Adam Kampf (drums) and Logan Rex (vocals). With this revised lineup, the band turned toward a different sound and […]

Eric Gales is a blues-rock artist who released his first album at age 16. At the time, he and Joe Bonamassa were both hailed as the next torchbearers of the blues. Both have been successful although Gales’ career took a detour because of substance abuse issues, which ultimately landed him in Shelby County Correction Center […]

Brent Cobb is a prolific songwriter best known for albums like Keep ‘Em on They Toes and the Grammy-nominated Shine on Rainy Day. You wouldn’t be wrong to call him a country singer, but he incorporates a fair amount of rock and roll into his sound as well. Like a lot of singers raised in […]

Lost Dog Street Band Marry Raw Lyrics and Vocals with Dark Folk Sounds on their new album ‘Glory’

LP discusses her experience in writing songs for major labels, her new album Churches, and her upcoming tour.

It’s hard to predict the path a musician will take on the path to becoming a musician. NathanEvans Fox is no newcomer to music. He grew up in North Carolina to the sounds of country, bluegrass, folk, and gospel. He started playing violin at age four, and has also added guitar, piano, and other instruments […]

Ska has experienced waves of popularity over the years. Right now, it seems to be experiencing a return to popularity in some circles. Big D and the Kids Table is one of the bands that has made ska music for nearly a quarter century. You read that correctly. The band released its first album Shot […]

Spencer LaJoye is a singer-songwriter from Boston. They grew up in a family of musicians and began playing violin at age 5. They pursued classical music when they wrote their first EP while pursuing a degree in theology at a Christian college. Their new EP Remember the Oxygen was written throughout the process of coming […]

Admittedly, Rock Concert is not the catchiest title for a book. However, it is a worthwhile examination of a phenomenon that has been around for more than half a century. The book focuses not only on how the rock concert has developed over time, but also on the part that rock concerts have played in […]

Maja Francis is a Swedish singer-songwriter who is known as Emo Dolly Parton, which is a little misleading. She does sing emotional songs in a voice with a striking similarity to Dolly Parton, but her sound is nothing like the bands that come to mind when you think of emo. Her first EP Come Companion […]

Handsome Jack is a band that has been known throughout its career as a groovy rock band that delves into both Americana and guitar-heavy classic rock sounds. If you pore through the band’s catalog, you will encounter some songs reminiscent of The James Gang while other songs may bring John Hiatt to mind. Get Humble (Alive […]

Destroy Boys is a punk-rock trio originally from Sacramento, now making their home in San Francisco. The band came together quite simply when Violet Mayugba (guitar, vocals) and Alexia Roditis decided whimsically that they should start a band. That proved to be a good decision. Since their beginnings, the band has moved from playing garages […]