50 Years Later: Gregg Allman Steps Up As Captivatingly Soulful Solo Artist On ‘Laid Back’
There are those rare records so carefully wrought they neither need nor allow further embroidery and Gregg Allman’s first solo album, Laid Back, is just such an effort. But even as the now fifty-year-old LP is an exquisite, one-of-a-kind piece of work, its backstory sheds light not only on the creation of the album itself but also on […]
VIDEO PREMIERE: Eddie Berman Crafts Intimate and Textural Folk on “First of Spring (Keira’s Song)”
After being forced to record his last album, Broken English, remotely in the spring of 2020, the Portland-based folk-rock troubadour Eddie Berman thought that perhaps he’d record all his albums that way moving forward. “I had exclusively recorded everything totally live before, but the comfort and ease of not having to leave my family for […]
LISTEN: On “Making Out,” The Kindest People Hit Up Rowdy Garage Rock
The Kindest People is a four-piece indie/garage rock band from the mountains of Johnson City, Tennessee. The band combines slick, catchy melodies with a large variety of instrumentation in order to Frankenstein their own unique sound of rock and roll. Walking a line of modern pop sensibilities with a reverence for ’60s garage and 90’s […]
LISTEN: LEISURE Drops “Jungle-ish” Disco Grooves On “Still Rolling”
In a world preoccupied with instant gratification and overnight success, LEISURE has been taking the scenic route. The five members came together in 2015 on a spontaneous trip up New Zealand’s rugged west coast. At that stage, they’d independently spent years churning through the music machine’s tight jaws. Individually, the five are award-winning songwriters, producers, […]
Happy 76th Birthday Bob Weir
SONG PREMIERE: Old Californio Lay Down Jam-worthy Alt-country on “Destining Again”
Set upon the hard scrub granite slopes of the San Gabriel Mountains. Anchored in bedrock, bathed in dust, Old Californio defy easy categorization. Their country-folk tinged rock & roll; rooted, organic and expansive in spirit, traces its homegrown beginnings to a converted chicken coop garage on a forgotten street straight out of the imagination of […]
Connecticut’s Redscroll Records Keeps Southern New England Plugged In (VINYL LIVES)
In the heart of the great state of Connecticut, there is an unassuming building that houses one of the greatest musical assets the state has ever seen. Redscroll Records is an established safe haven for the state’s music nerds, quickly becoming a breeding ground for local and well-known musicians across a plethora of genres. Redscroll […]
55 Years Later: Jimi Hendrix Experience Goes Densely Ambitious With ‘Electric Ladyland’
As with The Beatles’ White Album and Bob Dylan’s Blonde on Blonde, it’s hard not to contemplate Jimi Hendrix’ Electric Ladyland (released 10/16/68) in the configuration of a single album. Excising the longest cuts on it as released fifty-five years ago would posit something of a retrenchment for the late rock icon after the expansive one-two punch of 1967 that is Are […]
Grateful Dead’s 50th Anniversary ‘Wake Of The Flood’ Deluxe Edition Yields Proof Of Band’s Idiosyncratic Work Ethic (ALBUM REVIEW)
The 50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition of Grateful Dead’s Wake of the Flood isn’t so hefty or cosmetically detailed as its predecessors, most of which consisted of three CDs with markedly enhanced cover graphics. But that only puts this two-CD package in line with the expanding range of the iconic band’s activities at the time it was released half a century ago. The Dead and its organization was conducting a sequence of events in a methodical manner quite similar to their most involved improvisations […]
Christone “Kingfish” Ingram Blisters Up Brooklyn Bowl With Dynamic Set (SHOW REVIEW)
The overarching feeling floating through the packed Brooklyn Bowl on Thursday night October 12th, was that the blues were in great hands as a younger generation of incredibly talented ax wielders were on full display for the sold-out crowd. Opening the night was Mathias Lattin, the 21-year-old Houston, Texas showman who sauntered confidently onto the […]