Album Reviews

Written on the road while supporting acts like Noah Kahan and Dave Matthews, Briscoe’s new album Heat of July unfolds as a musical travelogue—an exploration of the landscapes and stories encountered across the US and the characters that live there. And while the title was inspired by the temperatures of West Texas, the Austin-based Americana/folk […]

Trapper Schoepp’s seventh LP Osborne borrows its name from a unit at the Betty Ford clinic – a place where the Wisconsin musician ended up after a decade of dependence on prescription pain meds. Just one month after being released from the legendary treatment facility, a clean and revived Schoepp was in the basement of […]

A fleeting glance at the 3CD package aside, the 50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition of the Grateful Dead’s Blues for Allah is quite different from many of its milestone predecessors. But then the creation of the group’s eighth album was really unlike most other such efforts in the iconic band’s discography. Informality notwithstanding, reissue producer David […]

Christy Coleman and Neal Casal : No One Above You – A Love Story in Photographs The young Neal Casal pictured on the front cover of No One Above You (The Early Years 1991-1998)​ and throughout its companion piece book is not the hirsute countenance of his days with The Chris Robinson Brotherhood or Circles […]

There is a reason Emma Swift calls The Resurrection Game, her first full-length collection of all original material, a “bummer of an album,” as it took coming back from a mental health crisis for the singer-songwriter to develop these ten tracks.  The Sydney, Australia-born, Nashville-based Swift had a major nervous breakdown, leading her to be […]

A lot can be conveyed through minimal movement. A simple raised eyebrow shot towards a comment can showcase a lack of trust, an involuntary smile can highlight the love between people, and an acoustic, lyric-driven ballad can encapsulate an entire life’s journey. The closest most of us will get to a conversation with an artist […]

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 […]

Tomboy is singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Maia Sharp’s tenth solo album. The album is a celebration of the true self, personal, and mostly uplifting, rather than mired in the depths of introspection.  There’s a rhythmic thread running through the album, with percussion a prominent element on most tracks. Sharp plays all kinds of guitars, keyboards, and […]

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. […]

Some things are best left alone. One of today’s top live bands, Tedeschi Trucks Band (TTB), had success revisiting the rock classic, Layla, but Mad Dogs & Englishmen Revisited (Live at Lockn’) just doesn’t rise to the same level as the 1970 original. Even with the presence of the original bandleader and co-producer Leon Russell, […]

The trio Tchotchke delivers a strong dose of art-pop that is of the current moment but touches on influences from the genre’s heyday, as Playin’ Dumb is far from ignorant. The NYC-based trio, comprising Anastasia Sanchez on vocals and drums, Eva Chambers on bass, piano, keyboards, and vocals, and Emily Tooraen on guitar and vocals, […]

David Byrne has always acted like an outsider, singing/writing about the mundane with an alien-landed-on-Earth, like fascination. On his newest album, Who Is the Sky? Byrne has a song titled “I’m an Outsider”. The smooth grooving jam could be about finding mystical connections deep in the mind or wondering what is inside an exclusive club […]

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 […]

Refreshing folk trio Big Thief has gone from one of the genre’s most beloved members to a global, experimental force. What started as raw intimacy has blossomed into daring, folksy ventures that are warm and inviting. The band’s true range emerged on their monstrous 2022 LP, Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You, the […]

The post-punk genre has been enjoying a revival recently, and the youthful band shame has been at the forefront of this exciting movement. With a natural knack for live performance and an undeniable discography that stamps them as a force of nature from the beginning, the London-based five-piece have become poster children for this new […]

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 […]

Two forces may be converging here. For years, Jerry Joseph & the Jackmorons fans have missed recorded versions of their favorite songs at live shows. Although in the liners, Joseph pointedly comments, “…we will never know…most people hate the studio versions of their favorite live songs.” Secondly, Joseph wants to maintain the momentum he garnered […]

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 […]

With Ride Into The Sun, pianist/composer Brad Mehldau returns to themes he introduced in the wake of his rumination on the COVID phenomenon, Suite: April 2020. That very same year’s revisitation of influence from the Beatles, Your Mother Should Know, presaged a rediscovery of his roots in progressive rock titled Jacob’s Ladder. The latter two […]

On her last few releases, Margo Price traveled west (Los Angeles, the desert) to find herself, primarily playing in the realm of 70s-tinged pop rock. Now, on her fifth studio album, she successfully returns to her roots, recording her first album in her hometown of Nashville, as Price’s outlaw-accented country sound rings heartfelt and true […]