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Reflective and Redemptive: Matthew Perryman Jones with Nashville Ballet
This year, the Nashville Ballet\’s Valentine\’s program finds them teaming up with local singer/songwriter Matthew Perryman Jones for a reprisal of their 2013 collaboration, “… but the flowers have yet to come” as part of Attitude. The three-part performance also includes the Nashville premiere of both Graham Lustig\’s “Fanfare” and Christopher Bruce\’s “Moonshine,” the latter…
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The Isles Captivate with the Dusky Lull of "John James"
Three-part harmonies — when rendered well — are one of music\’s great pleasures. If those harmonies happen to be set against a captivating musical backdrop, then all the better. That\’s certainly the case with “John James,” the first track from the Isles\’ Embers debut. The Brooklyn-based trio members — Hannah Read (voice/fiddle/acoustic guitar), Tamsin Wilson (voice/acoustic guitar/dobro), and Megan…
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Five Questions: Rhiannon Giddens
From her gig with the Carolina Chocolate Drops to her gigs with T Bone Burnett (The New Basement Tapes and Inside Llewyn Davis), Rhiannon Giddens has always held her own. In fact, she\’s held so firmly, so fiercely, that she\’s been added to a lineage of singers that includes Nina Simone, Rosetta Tharp, Odetta, and…
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The Beautiful and the Bold: Lori McKenna, Trent Dabbs at City Winery
Like Mickey Newbury before her, singer/songwriter Lori McKenna writes sad songs. And, like Patty Griffin, she has the sad voice to back it up. In between, though, McKenna is one of the funniest performers this side of Kenny Rogers. After starting her set with the heartaching tale of a life lost that is “ The…
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Singers Gonna Sing: An Interview with Joan Osborne
Joan Osborne, man. Joan Osborne. She\’s a singer\’s singer… the kind who doesn\’t just love to sing, but knows how to sing. No matter the era, no matter the genre, any song she lays her voice upon is made that much more glorious by her presence. For the past couple of decades, she has proved…
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The Decemberists: What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World
Few artists have as sly and sardonic a musical wit as the Decemberists\’ Colin Meloy. That point is evidenced so clearly on What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World in which Meloy delivers a simultaneous acknowledgment and confession in “The Singer Addresses His Audience”: “We know, we know, we belong to ya. We know…
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Five Questions: Nora Jane Struthers
With her latest outing, singer/songwriter Nora Jane Struthers is shaking things up. Not only did she recruit a new backing band — the Party Line — but she also took cues from the records of Americana stalwarts Hayes Carll and Jason Isbell when she went into the studio. Those two decisions melded together in her…
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Caroline Spence Traces the Heartbreak of Leaving on "Trains Cry"
With a voice that blends the clarity of Mindy Smith and the country of Ashley Monroe, singer-songwriter Caroline Spence readies her upcoming debut, Somehow. The unassuming song cycle manages to strike a balance between feeling winsome and weary, pensive and piquant. It\’s a stunning effort, by any and every measure. That it\’s Spence\’s first record…
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Five Questions: The Stray Birds
A couple years back, the Stray Birds flew onto the folk music circle with their eponymous debut. The trio — Maya de Vitry, Oliver Craven, and Charlie Muench — came out of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, which is, by no obvious, account a hotbed for roots music. But the threesome found not only each other, but also…
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Gretchen Peters: Blackbirds
In 1914, Robert Frost wrote in his “A Servant to Servants” that “The best way out is always through.” A hundred years later, Gretchen Peters sees his bet and ups the ante just a little bit more by adding that not one of us gets out of here alive. Still, we all must pass through…