Whenever times get tough, Bruce Springsteen summons the E Street Band. Turning up, tuning up, and rocking out like a celebratory army, the E Street Band has always been able to kick the daylights out of the darkness with a […]
Last time Bob Margolin went for a stroll naked, he got plenty of attention, and not just for his pulchritude. With just his voice and guitar, Margolin’s 2019 release, This Guitar and Tonight, took home a Blues Music Award for […]
Norway’s Malin Pettersen may be soft-spoken, but she’s far from timid. After a decade of making records, originally with the band Lucky Lips and recently as a solo performer, this deceptively fearless singer has mastered the art of using seemingly […]
“That early love lingering / Has gotta be the best damn thing,” Natalie Schlabs sings in “That Early Love,” the opening track of her sophomore album, Don’t Look Too Close. That track is a lush foray into optimism that savors […]
“Summer is gone,” laments Cordovas frontman Joe Firstman on “Afraid No More,” the fourth song his band’s new LP, Destiny Hotel. Given the autumn wind and the state of the world, it feels like a profundity. But Destiny Hotel isn’t […]
It’s not like Jeremy Ivey has high hopes for the future. “Hey tomorrow people / do you still blame the shit you do / on different colored people / who are not just like you?” he asks in “Tomorrow People,” […]
Damn! This album is so good, you’ll be smiling or crying or dancing with every song. You can feel the spirit of the Steep Canyon Rangers in every note they play and sing here, as if you were sitting in […]
It is hard to imagine a more perfect word to describe the pandemic experience than “sundowner,” the title of Kevin Morby’s latest album. Defined as “one who feels increased melancholy during twilight hours,” Morby became acquainted with the term upon […]
Setting aside the melancholy sounds of her debut, 2016’s I Am New, Cf Watkins offers her follow-up, Babygirl, a set of pop-sensitive tunes replete with airy melodies, accessible imagery, and an ultimately triumphant tone. The album opens with “The Tell,” […]
William Elliott Whitmore’s eighth long-player, I’m With You, is his first album of original material since 2015’s Radium Death. For fans hungry for more of the songsmith’s sparse acoustic fare, I’m With You is a welcome offering of rootsy and […]
