Archive: 2026

Recently, rock music has seen its fair share of band members launching into wildly successful solo careers. Wednesday’s MJ Lenderman has become a beloved folk-rock figure, Geese’s Cameron Winter’s 2024 debut paraded his vocal acrobatics straight into the hearts of critics and fans alike, and King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard drummer, CAVS, is building […]

The octogenarian roots master and national treasure, Taj Mahal, is still going strong. He has a 22-date tour planned for the Spring and Summer, backed by his three-decade collaborators, The Phantom Blues Band (PBB). Surprisingly, they have a ‘new’ record to tour behind. Most of us thought this partnership reached its peak with the back-to-back […]

From the belly of the Black Country comes BIG SPECIAL, a spoken electro punk duo. Sending up a flare for working-class music and poetry from the West Midlands. The band exploded out of the depths of their hometown only a short three years ago. Yet their trajectory indicates something much larger than another simple addition […]

Late ’90s, Lund, Sweden. Ellen Birath hides in trees, humming Britney Spears, and makes a promise: “I’m going to be an artist.” At 11, she enters music school, discovers Queen and Freddie Mercury, and starts writing songs, stories, and poems shaped by a rich musical upbringing—from Billie Holiday to Pink Floyd. At 18, she moved […]

This fall, Liz Phair and Sleater-Kinney will embark on “The Flannel and The Fury” tour, a full US co-headline run that will span both coasts and points in between.  “The Flannel and The Fury is a nod to 1990’s alt-rock culture and the female-fronted bands who staked their claim to center stage in a male-dominated music industry,” says Phair. “Sleater-Kinney and […]

For a long time, the internet trained people to accept mystery as part of the deal. You clicked, the platform responded, and whatever happened in between stayed hidden. Algorithms decided what you saw. Payment systems delayed things without much explanation. Digital spaces worked, but often in that sealed, corporate way that asked users to trust […]

There are supergroups, and then there are real supergroups. The Highwaymen—featuring Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, and Kris Kristofferson—stand shoulder to shoulder with Traveling Wilburys as one of the greatest ever assembled. Today, only one Highwayman remains: Willie Nelson. As he turns 93 this week, it’s the perfect time to revisit the group delivering […]

Hiss Golden Messenger’s I’m People is the aural equivalent of comfort food. It’s warm, goes down easy, is simple at the core, and hits many of the right spots. The title alone suggests a universality, the common rhythms of life, the pendulum of emotions, and connection. As you likely know, Hiss Golden Messenger is the […]

If you are an ardent follower of Blue Note, you’ll recognize New Orleans-based vocalist Gabrielle Cavassa from Joshua Redman’s 2023 where are we, his first vocal album. She is not your typical jazz vocalist who swings and takes the stage with a commanding voice. She is intimate, subtle, and one who inhabits each lyric of […]

From the smoky quality of Patsy Cline’s vocals to Willie Nelson’s weathered, honest delivery, there is an authenticity to some voices in country music that simply can’t be faked. Though not nearly a household name (yet), the timbre of Emily Nenni’s twang is just as infectiously powerful. Across more than a dozen tracks on her […]

On April 26, Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit stopped at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts in Orlando, Florida, for a night of heartfelt Americana. The veteran singer-songwriter was backed by his five-piece band, made up of guitarist Sadler Vaden, bassist Anna Butterss, drummer Chad Gable, Derry deBorja on keys, and Will […]

Violet Grohl  has released “Cool Buzz,” the jagged and snarling new song from her recently announced debut album, Be Sweet To Me, due May 29th via Auroura Records / Republic Records. The track’s music video, directed by Niki Milan Houston, will be released this Friday, May 1st. “Cool Buzz” is about “poking fun at moral inconsistencies in punk guys who […]

BLUESTEM is a band based in Vancouver, BC. A five-piece band with 4 members from Manitoba that moved out west, bringing a fusion of alternative rock, indie rock, and post hardcore. Heavy, swampy, and sweet. In 2023, BLUESTEM released Endlessly, their debut EP that introduced the space-aged density this band seems to thrive in. The […]

San Francisco-born, New Orleans-based multi-instrumentalist Max Bien Kahn, who’s called the city home since 2011, might be best known as the tenor banjo player in legendary nouveau trad jazz band Tuba Skinny, with whom he’s been playing since 2012. Still, he’s collaborated with a host of local luminaries across the musical spectrum, playing with folks […]

As the great Willie Nelson turns 93 this week, it’s a perfect excuse to dig into some of his more offbeat moments—no small task considering his 70+ solo albums and decades of left-field collaborations. One thing Nelson shares with Snoop Dogg is a well-earned reputation for their extracurricular habits—Snoop has even joked that Willie can […]

“When I was a kid, I had honky-tonk music, I had rhythm & blues, I had zydeco, I had all the rock & roll stuff. It was pretty amazing,” Jesse Dayton told me back in 2016. “I think I’m a little bit of all of that.” For singer, songwriter, guitar player, producer, and actor Jesse […]

This past Saturday (April 25th) in Las Vegas, a (fittingly) gray overcast sky greeted the tens of thousands of black-clad/angst-inclined humans that descended in droves upon the Las Vegas Fairgrounds. Which, of course, could only mean one thing: the annual Sick New World Festival was clearly back in town! Indeed, after taking a brief hiatus […]