Posts by Jason Gonulsen

The best moments hide, then erupt at Farm Aid. They do in nature, too. But these moments need time and love in order to grow. And like everything else, they need money, too. “We need money,” Neil Young said at the morning press conference on September 20, 2025, at Minneapolis’ Huntington Bank Stadium with Farm […]

Not too many touring musicians can call Red Rocks Amphitheatre home, but Gregory Alan Isakov can lay claim to just that. The Boulder, Colorado-based songwriter has been playing shows at the famed venue around Labor Day weekend for some time now, and this year’s run featured two consecutive sold-out nights. So, yeah, it’s a second home for […]

“How much difference does it make,” Eddie Vedder sang during the show-opening “Indifference,” a song usually reserved for a closing slot in a Pearl Jam set, but not tonight. A few moments later Vedder admitted he “made a mistake in the set list” before launching into “Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town.” […]

“I have my own life, and I am stronger than you know.”  Those are lyrics from “Leather and Lace,” a song from Stevie Nicks’ solo debut in 1981, which she performed near the end of her show at Enterprise Center in St. Louis on May 7th. There was no Don Henley to sing with Nicks, but […]

“That’s why I don’t ever want to do guitar interviews or anything, because I just don’t know what I’m doing…I don’t have some sort of a plan, I think it just happens.” That’s what guitarist Taylor York told Apple Music’s Zane Lowe earlier this year while discussing Paramore’s latest album, This is Why. And after seeing him […]

The name of Taylor Swift’s post-pandemic comeback tour is self-explanatory. How each of us got here is another story. We all have our own tale to tell (that we know all too well). Mine was filled with profound loss, much too personal to describe here, but also relevant in the fact that it led me […]

It’s summer, so you might guess that Sunshine Collective should have something good for your ears. And yeah, it’s true, their first album, Wanna Play?, is all you need for a sunny day.

When Sam Quinn was 19, he met Jill Andrews at a summer camp. Quinn played the guitar, and Andrews sang Gram Parsons with him; little did they know, it was the beginning of the everybodyfields, the band Quinn and Andrews built up from glorious dreams of hot summer days

I am assured that peace will come to me,” Josh Ritter sings on “Lark,” a song that channels his inner Paul Simon on his newest album, So Runs the World Away. Before Ritter penned these tunes, the songwriter from Idaho suffered a case of writer’s block, but you can’t tell that he was struggling on his fifth full-length; because on these 13 tracks, Ritter sounds better than ever.

These days, Cary Brothers has his own independent label and a wonderful new album, Under Control. As you might have guessed, it’s a personal batch of songs dealing with loss and breaking free. It’s Cary Brothers as himself, the real artist—the one who set out to “very intentionally make a record that you could put on and listen to beginning to end.”

“What I’d give for that hat to be medicine.” To me, that is the quintessential Jay Farrar lyric. It’s poetic. It’s direct. It’s something that could mean anything.

I bought my first Bob Dylan album in San Antonio, Texas, in November of 1993. I had taken a train there from Springfield, Illinois with my dad and my brother—a ride that lasted 26 hours each way. We traveled to watch NAIA soccer, you know, the usual things a family does over Thanksgiving.  Needless to say, we weren’t the usual family.

Tori Amos has made a career out of being unordinary, and most of her albums are better because of this fact. Here on Midwinter Graces, she’s still giving a max effort, it’s just that not much stands out. The holiday-themed album has a nice overall feel and flow, but it’s probably best served for background music at a party, something that can’t be said of any of Amos’ prior work. If you’re an Amos completist, by all means, get your copy—just don’t expect the magic you’re used to.

25 Singer-Songwriter Albums That Shaped the Decade chosen exclusively by Stranger's Almanac editor – Jason Gonulsen

Well, we did it again.  Despite a loud constituency of music fans out there who abhor these end of the year lists for their arrogance, their subjectivity, their self-indulgent ways, we came up with a short list of our favorites from the year.  And we have to make one thing clear: these best-of-the-year lists should be more accurately called “the-best-of-what-we-know” lists.

Although she’s a California girl these days, don’t be fooled—Lissie still writes and sings about matters close to Midwestern life. And boy can she sing—her voice has an eerie quality of a transient churchgoer who needs no practice to call the angels down from the sky; her pipes are soothing and quite heavenly. The songs on her EP, Why You Runnin,’ offer a bit of folk, an ounce of soul, and healthy dose of realism that you just can’t deny, no matter what mood you’re in—a stunning and charming debut.

This is not a singer-songwriter getting wasted in front of a mirror. He’s looking at all of us, questioning what is real, frankly asking what we want. In many ways, Dear Lover is Matthew Ryan’s Blood on the Tracks with a familiar idiot wind trying desperately to sweep our dreams away. Only this time, we can still win if we open our hearts and mouths.

“Give it up, or lose it completely,” sings Annie Stela on “Clean It Up,” my favorite track off Hard City, one of two EPs that Stela is releasing this year.  For most of Stela’s career as a musician, she’s chosen to give up plenty of things, but not what she was born to do: write songs. It’s this Annie Stela that makes me smile—the independent champion who refuses to quit.

If you’ve ever lived with anyone of the opposite sex and have had a fight, you know the feelings can be overwhelming; now just imagine if he or she was writing a song about you called “Wasted Time” or “Lonely Anywhere.” That was Jill Andrews of the everybodyfields.  But this is now Jill Andrews, the solo artist.  

When Christina Courtin was recording her self-titled Nonesuch debut, one would think that she would be working her violin’s strings to death. Instead, Courtin, an already accomplished Juilliard-trained violinist, didn’t see that as a decision that needed to be made. While other artists would be rushed to portray a sense of individualism on their debut, Courtin saw otherwise.