PREMIERES

Austin, Texas today is more synonymous with condos, trendy eateries and tech bros than with the bustling live music scene that put it on the map in the first place. Yet, if you can look past the skyline you will still find cultural sparks flying at clubs along the city’s Red River Street. Formed just over […]

Suzanne Santo is best known as one half of the Americana duo HoneyHoney, who have spent the last decade touring and recording while steadily building a loyal following. Now Santo is taking things in a different direction with her debut solo album Ruby Red, which is out August 11th on Soozanto Records. Making the move towards a […]

Portland-based band Melville have gained a solid following and reputation in a relatively short amount of time. This is due to their ability to create music that is rocking and even heavy at times, yet strikingly melodic. If you listen long enough you’ll quickly realize that the band writes every song as if it were […]

Dark times call for dark songs. At least that’s how East Nashville based singer/songwriter Derek Hoke sees it. On his new album, the portentously titled Bring the Flood (10/13 via Little Hollywood), Hoke dives into a sound far more ominous, threatening, and anxiously introspective than the music on his previous three full-length releases would suggest. “So much pain and sorrow/more than I’ve ever seen,” sings Hoke on […]

Eli Cook is surely not the first blues singer to evoke legends past and present in his respected genre, but he’s probably one of the few to be guided by a genuine pull of authentic American music. Coming from Albemarle County in Virginia at the Foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, Cook grew up listening […]

The best country music artists always seem to carry a touch of lonesome in their voice. Whether it’s Hank Williams, Waylon Jennings, or Merle Haggard, there’s always a an indivualistic sound that is both haunting and beautiful all at once, like a faraway train as it passes through the night. Kentucky singer-songwriter Jeremy Pinnell has this […]

Dave Schools doesn’t play in side projects, he plays in bands, and each of those bands gets the same level of devotion as his main band – Widespread Panic. He makes this very clear in our conversation about the band that takes up much of his time these days: Hard Working Americans. The bassist is […]

Jason Wilber’s new record, Reaction Time, plays like a solitary tour bus rolling steadfastly through the countryside under mysterious skies. It’s the sound of long, hushed hours spent scribbling in notebooks, dreaming up gorgeously mournful melodies and cascading harmonies set against jangling guitars, the searching songs underpinned by a persistent longing. Which all makes perfect sense. Jason Wilber has spent the better part of the last 20 years gazing […]

Benyaro is the indie roots project of Ben Musser. The seclusive Jackson Hole, WY musician has worked with such artists as Gary Clarke Jr., Brett Dennen and Shovels & Rope, but on September 8th he will strike out with his third original full-length album, One Step Ahead of Your Past. The LP was co-produced with […]

The members of Mosquitos – singer Juju Stulbach, singer and multi-instrumentalist Chris Root, keyboardist-programmer Jon Marshall Smith  – are as close to Brooklyn as they are to Brazil and you can hear it in their music. Since 2003 the group has been crafting a completely original sound that fuses indie pop and bossa nova along […]

Indie pop tends to be one of those coverall terms that can be blanketed over a wide swath of musical acts. In the case of Nashville trio The Lonely Biscuits, it is the most accurate term. Since forming in 2011 at Belmont University the Lonely Biscuits have seamlessly merged infectious pop music with bouncy rock […]

Liquid Monk has become a name in the Detroit music scene synonymous with instrumental virtuosity, genre bending creativity, and energetic live performances. Integrating an array of live instrumentation alongside electronics, the group has redefined how organic and electronic elements can blend to bring the excitement of a live band along with the texture and dance […]

The music of The Break Lights isn’t exactly what you might expect from a New Jersey band. They don’t sing about fast cars and the plight of the workingman. Instead, they focus on lighter and more upbeat fare like girls and the “Everything Store”. Singer-songwriters Michael Saiewitz and Jake Roggenkamp have a unique was of […]

When renowned Dobro and lap steel player Jerry Douglas started approaching his new studio album he wanted to do something different. Instead of drawing from the worlds of bluegrass and Americana, he found himself looking towards acts like the Weather Report and Chick Corea for inspiration. Douglas wanted to merge his jazz inclinations with the bluegrass, […]

Renowned Seattle roots duo Ben Hunter and Joe Seamons have gained recognition and fans through their unique celebration of blues and folk music. Together they explore the history of music and regions and channel it into their own style, which is steeped in pre-blues a cappella field hollers, fiddle and banjo breakdowns, and early jazz. […]

Despite its grim title, the new EP from The March Divide is actually not as heavy as it sounds and it is definitely not announcing the end of the band. Don’t Let Me Die In Arizona, which comes out on August 4th, references a trip to the state by the band’s sole permanent member Jared Putnam […]

Shelly Waters recently made the move from Charleston, SC to Portland, ME, and though it may be a huge cultural change going from the South to New England, she has managed to hold on to musical roots that trace back to her home state of Louisiana. Waters possesses a sound that feels like the epitome […]

Erik Flores and Amelia Rose Logan’s songs as Fairbanks & the Lonesome Light are like modern dime westerns—gritty exegeses that float elegantly on pedal steel as driven, electric, rocking country. Sometimes the detached hero and the despicable outlaw in their songs are one and the same. Looking back, principal songwriter Flores realized many of the songs on their new LP, Nothing To Escape (out 8/25), are about his old drinking habits. “I […]

When she isn’t spinning classic tunes on the legendary New Orleans radio station WWOZ or working in her local community, Cole Williams is stirring up her own magic with her band. Together they create what Williams called African Rock, a heady amalgamation of soul, funk, rock, reggae and blues. Since 2007 the Cole Williams Band […]

Sometimes it’s good to embrace the past, especially when it comes to musical styles. Kansas City, MO-based indie-folk/Americana artist Fred Wickham does exactly that with his down home style of music that draws on Dixieland jazz, bluegrass, country and old timey Appalachian sounds. There is something comforting to Wickham’s approach to music, which perhaps comes from […]