Posts by John Moore

Nashville-by-way-of-Arkansas musician Drew Pulliam hinted at his potential with his 2023 EP. With Back of My Mind, his debut full-length, he makes good on that early promise, offering a record that feels both assured and expansive. At only 20 years old, he writes with a confidence and maturity that you wouldn’t expect from someone so […]

Across a dozen albums, Josh Ritter has established himself as a masterful songwriter, capable of transforming the raw stuff of human emotion into poetry that still feels deeply accessible. His talent has resonated not only with fans – music greats like Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, and Bob Weir have also performed and recorded his songs. […]

There’s a clever brilliance to the title and cover art of Brian Dunne’s latest record, Clams Casino. The scene is simple yet striking: Dunne sits alone at a table in an Italian restaurant, framed by walls of celebrity portraits, with a comically oversized bowl of spaghetti stacked high before him. He meets the camera with […]

While visiting a Pasadena, CA art museum a few years ago, Grant Lee-Phillips found himself drawn to an ornate Indian painting. Its fine details were captivating, but it was the title—In the Hour of Cowdust—that lingered with him. “A common theme throughout the poetry and the paintings of India is this concept of ‘the hour […]

Elizabeth Stokes, vocalist for New Zealand-based band The Beths, was struggling with writer’s block for the first time going into their latest LP, Straight Line Was A Lie. In response, with the help of her bandmates, she read – among other things – Stephen King’s On Writing, How Big Things Get Done; she started a morning ritual […]

It’s a testament to Marshall Crenshaw’s songwriting and performance that even his castaways make for a compelling record. Recorded across two decades starting in 1990, From The Hellhole is a 14-track collection of remixed and remastered songs culled from a series of EPs and several rare deep cuts, that were mostly recorded in Crenshaw’s home studio (dubbed […]

Listening to Fade Away Blue, Pete Droge’s emotionally stirring latest effort, it’s hard to believe this is the same songwriter who perfectly captured 1990s snark and cynicism with the witty earworm, “If You Don’t Love Me (I’ll Kill Myself)”. Fade Away Blue, his first solo release in almost 20 years, is an emotionally heavy album, […]

Four years have passed since T. Hardy Morris — former member of Dead Confederate and Diamond Rugs — released his last critically acclaimed solo album, The Digital Age of Rome. He didn’t rush into a follow-up, but instead took his time, carefully considering what he wanted to express. The result is Artificial Tears, a record […]

Like John Prine and Jerry Jeff Walker before him, Hayes Carll has made a career out of blending mellow, infectious acoustic folk with sharp, often humorous portraits of everyday people. But on We’re Only Human, his 10th studio album, one of the first things you’ll notice is that Carll has turned that same wit inward, […]

Texas native Travis Roberts may not be the first, but is one of the best of a new generation of Gen Z Americana artists that have been able to deftly blend together traditional roots rock with the emo and punk bands they listened to throughout middle and high school. “I dig a lot of roots […]

Over the past decade, the Texas-based, punk-influenced Americana band The Vandoliers have worn grooves into the highways on countless tours across the U.S. Their albums and raucous live sets blend traditional and outlaw country music with roots rock and Tejano horns, for a remarkably original sound. Over time, they have slowly, steadily been building up […]

Colin Hay has managed that rare pivot, segueing nearly seamlessly from 1980s New Wave One-Hit-Wonder status (though admittedly, Men At Work had several hits) to being a prolific solo artist, writing some of the best songs of his career decades later.  In 2003, he put out Man @ Work, a career retrospective of both his […]

There is an authenticity to Longtime Friend, the New West Records debut from siblings Aila and Elisha Wildman, that simply cannot be faked. Raised in the tiny Virginia town of Floyd (population of less than 500 based on the last census), Elisha learned guitar and mandolin as a kid, while Aila opted for the fiddle […]

It’s rare that an album title so accurately reflects the songs within it. But Life Behind Bars is one of those titles. The collection of songs here gives heartfelt dialogue to The Vandoliers’ frontwoman Jenni Rose’s journey through addiction and gender dysphoria, culminating in her decision earlier this year to publicly come out and live […]

Willie Nile has been releasing records since the 1980s and while he has always been a remarkably dependable flag bearer of great American rock music, right up there with Dylan, Springsteen and Petty (though admittedly a little more under the radar), his output lately – song for song – has been among his best. Maybe […]

There’s an unpretentious quality to Elijah Johnston’s subjects that makes his songs deeply accessible. On Stupid Soul, the Atlanta artist covers a wide swath of topics from the seemingly mundane – the feeling of excitement around football season (in the aptly titled “Football Season”) – to weightier subjects, like the guilt of teenage sexual exploration […]

Over the past two decades, Ontario-based Born Ruffians have been on a constant journey of musical evolution. From indie rock to New Wave to their current incarnation of synth pop, the band manages to show off snatches of just about every musical influence on Beauty’s Pride, their latest LP.   The opening track, “Mean Time” is […]

Listening to current Nashville resident Imogen Clark’s latest, Choking On Fuel, you’d swear she was a native who got her start playing dive bars around town before finally getting booked at The Bluebird Café or The Basement East. Surprisingly, Clark got her start as a teen playing bars in Sydney, Australia, not exactly the most […]

The Testors came out of the same gritty mid-to-late ‘70s punk scene that birthed The Ramones, Television, Blondie and Talking Heads. Despite playing in the typical New York haunts like CBGB’s and Max’s Kansas City, the trio never quite made the cultural and global musical impact that their peers made.  While they may not have had […]

Closing in on their 20-year anniversary, LA’s blues and hip-hop-infused indie pop/rock band Andy Frasco & The U.N. continue to mix sharp humor with often weighty issues on Growing Pains, their 10th studio album. Though the band has always been willing to wade into the occasional deep lyrical waters in the past (though admittedly with […]