Posts by Shawn Donohue

A Friday night just weeks before Mardi Gras saw the New Orleans bouncing brass boys cruise up north on their nationwide tour to promote their newest release Unlock Your Mind.

The wild fluctuations of Storm Large come at the reader fast and heavy while she describes her life and growing up in not the most normal of circumstances.  She is a sentence or sometimes a mere word or syllable away from proclaiming something The! Best! Thing! Ever! before wanting to destroy whatever it was.  Grand statements don’t always end up as amazing events, but Storm has an obvious flair for the dramatic that is on display instantly

The Brooklyn band Lowry’s newest release is a long running mid-tempo opus which is the end of a trilogy the band started back with 2005’s Awful Joy.  Playing at over an hour the disc can lull and blend into the background with its soothing guitar lines and piano melodies floating over vocals that never want to disturb the tranquil mood, no matter what the subject matter addresses. 

If you thought Craig Finn could get wordy with his Hold Steady band mates behind him wait until you get him alone on Clear Heart Full Eyes and his cinematic tendencies aren’t under any restraints.

The trio of Dan McCurry, Nick Jenkins and Ash Hopkins comprise the Charleston, South Carolina group Run Dan Run and their newest album Normal is a slice of danceable white indie rock.  Songs run long with hazy/lazy intros each containing a light airy vibe even when the lyrics border on vengeful.   

Grumpy-Old-Pissed-Off-Man might have been a more apt title for Nils Lofgren’s newest solo album, Old School.  He bluntly comes out and says as much via the title tracks first verse: 

Opening with an instrumental workout that builds to the lyrical proclamations of “Stand” you witness immediately that MTO Plays Sly is not your ordinary cover album.

Thanksgiving is certainly one of the most family friendly holidays and Robert Randolph & The Family Band made the days surrounding it an extended family throw down.  The group decided to host a residency from Tuesday until Saturday, taking Thursday off for the obvious turkey obligations.  On Friday night the venue was approximately half to three quarters full for  the band's third show at this fantastic location.

With 2010’s epic Brothers, Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney were propelled to superstar status and with good reason as the band found inspiration in broken marriages and Muscle Shoals Studio.  The expanded musical instrumentation and focus on crafting heartfelt songs paid huge dividends for the band, producing a new album a year later is unexpected and when first announced smelled of leftover tracks. 

Trombone Shorty and Orleans Avenue have gone from opening shows at Terminal 5 to headlining and selling them out in seven months, a great accomplishment, but what was even more impressive was the rabid response the crowd gave him over and over again.  There were tons of cheers, full on dance parties and a whole lot of toasting to the New Orleans group as they rocked the Big Apple.