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Pieta Brown: Freeway
Good art draws you into its world, fully and intentionally, to the point that, even upon completing your immersive cycle, you don\’t yet want to leave. Film and television have a lot more to work with, in terms of composing their own aesthetic universe, but albums, too, can create aural worlds unto themselves. Singer/songwriter Pieta…
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Kim Richey: Long Way Back
“I started off that record scared to death,” Kim Richey recalls of making Glimmer with producer Hugh Padgham back in 1999 in New York and London. A disastrous haircut, unfamiliar musicians, and oversized budgets didn\’t help matters. “I think we spent the first couple of days getting sounds in the studio with all the musicians…
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Billy Strings: Home
Though music journalists — and dictionaries — generally consider “song” and “tune” to be synonyms, real-deal pickers and players make a distinction: “Songs” have lyrics; “tunes” don\’t. In some bluegrass and old-time circles, though, the lyrics feel like afterthoughts, just easy ways to turn fast-picking tunes into sing-able songs whether or not anyone in the…
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Madison Cunningham: Who Are You Now
Though more prevalent with more years to their credit, neither talent nor wisdom can be exclusively tied to age. Sometimes artists come out of the gate fairly fully formed with enough of both to really make a statement. Fiona Apple certainly did, as well as Brandi Carlile. More recently, Jade Bird joined that list. And…
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Humbird: Pharmakon
Not everyone likes to be challenged by their music of choice. Some are content to put an album or playlist on and let it run its course as a musical backdrop to whatever forefront activity they are undertaking. And that is an absolutely fine way to listen. Others, though, like to lock arms with an…
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Inside the Making and the Movement of the Highwomen
When Newport Folk Festival\’s executive director Jay Sweet addressed the fans gathered at the Quad Stage at 5:35 pm on July 26 of this year, he said, “You\’re the first people anywhere to ever hear these words, \’Ladies and gentleman, please welcome the Highwomen!\’” The crowd erupted as Brandi Carlile, Natalie Hemby, Maren Morris, and…
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Jonah Tolchin: Fires for the Cold
Watching talented young musicians get off to a great start then continue to grow into the truest versions of themselves is a wonderful thing. Some emerge fairly fully formed, while others need a bit more time and space, as they roam through various genres and try on various styles. When Clover Lane came out in…
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Shawn Colvin: Steady On (acoustic)
Even amidst so many albums that we love, there are a few in each person\’s life that save us, soothe us, heal us, and hold us again and again for decades. Their timelessness is found mainly in the songwriting with a story-telling so deep and true that not even years can diminish the potency. Now…
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Ana Egge: Is It the Kiss
Great songs — honest songs — don\’t only give us a lens through which we can see their writers; they give us a look inside ourselves. They connect us to our own hearts, as well as each others\’, across time, space, and every other barrier imaginable. They teach us and reach us, heal us and…
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Spirit Family Reunion: Ride Free
String bands, very often, are far more concerned with their picking and plucking than they are with their writing and singing. That\’s a mood in and of itself, it seems. But there are a few old-time groups that fit all the pieces together. With their new release, Ride Free, Spirit Family Reunion shows themselves to…