There’s beauty in simplicity, a sentiment perfectly illustrated in Prettiest Blue, the new EP from Appalachian folk duo The Early Mays.
THE EARLY MAYS: PRETTIEST BLUE EP | ALBUM REVIEW
ALBUM REVIEW: SERA — WHEN I WAKE UP
Magic, folklore, and mysterious worlds are brought to life on Welsh singer-songwriter SERA’s latest album, When I Wake Up. Pulling from a variety of influences, SERA challenges the pervasive concept that folk and Americana artists have to live in a perpetual melancholic funk or, in the alternative, reel out a slew of toe-tapping country jams. ... Continue Reading →
Off The Stage: Vance Gilbert
For most casual fans of music, the forty-five minutes that a band spends on the stage is all they can see. However, when the guitar cases are closed and the venue’s floor is littered with empty beer cans and trash, most bands load their gear into the van and return back to their normal lives.... Continue Reading →
Throwback Thursday: Live Show Review of Sierra Ferrell — Halloween 2019
It was pitch black outside as a light rain obscured the waxing moon. A stark chill was in the air, punctuating the eerie silence that blanketed all hallows eve in Crab Orchard, Tennessee. Across from the field that Byrd's Creek Music Festival calls home, there was a glow in the night. Inside a well-appointed... Continue Reading →
Premiere: “Monsters” by The End Of America
"Is the world slowly breaking?" ask James Downes, Trevor Leonard, and Brendon Thomas, who make music together as Philadelphia folkicana outfit The End Of America, in the chorus of their new single "Monsters," out officially on July 19th. It's a question for the ages and one that bears pointed significance in these perilous times in... Continue Reading →
Video Premiere: “Two Way Street” by Annie Bacon & her OSHEN
In the English vernacular, we often refer to the action behind an idea as a "two-way street"--loyalty, relationships, communication, they all seem to fit into that concept. In her new single "Two Way Street," Michigan-based singer-songwriter Annie Bacon contends that love doesn't always work that way. And that's true sometimes, isn't it? Often, we find... Continue Reading →
Premiere: “Paranoid Blues” by Elliah Heifetz
Folk music has traditionally mirrored what is happening in the culture at a given moment and is often as important as accounts recorded in history books. Appropriately, in his new track "Paranoid Blues," Brooklyn-based folkster Elliah Heifetz sings of the pervasive and festering fear emerging from every corner of society in this crazy period of... Continue Reading →
Video Premiere: “Silence, A Stranger” by The Arcadian Wild
In Nashville, you can't eat at one of our renowned restaurants, drink crafted caffeine at one of our beautiful coffee shops, or really, even cross the street without encountering someone who makes music. This is what makes sense in the Music City, where community connects around creativity. The Arcadian Wild has one of those classic... Continue Reading →
Premiere: “Rampages Eastward” by Red Steppes
"When I wrote ‘Rampages Eastward’ I was renting an old converted porch in East Oakland as a bedroom for $350 a month,” says Nika States, who makes music under the moniker Red Steppes. “It was barely 6'x8' with walls made of barred windows, freezing at night and stifling as soon as the sun came up,... Continue Reading →
Interview: Lisa LeBlanc
At a Lisa LeBlanc show, you won’t see four white dudes in cowboy hats gathered around a lone microphone plying the crowd with high lonesome wails. Indeed, Canadian banjo shredder LeBlanc isn’t your typical bluegrass or roots ambassador, and she has been turning the stereotypical idea of what that even is on its head for... Continue Reading →