Various and assorted assigners of labels are trying to lasso him with a cosmic cowboy lariat, but Sam Morrow won’t be attending the roundup. He’s too frisky to be tied down. Although he’s a Houston denizen, Morrow’s music doesn’t sound […]
Like most bands, Driftwood keenly felt the pandemic shutdowns that grounded touring musicians for most of a year. Coming right in the middle of promotion for their 2019 album Tree of Shade (ND review), the band found itself at a […]
The funny thing about dreams coming true is that the wanting never stops. Wanting to feel settled but wanting to chase every opportunity is sort of the conundrum of trying to “make it” as an artist, and really for anyone […]
Helmed by vocalist and bandleader Joey Quinones, SoCal outfit Thee Sinseers has been steadily cultivating its style over the past five years, an approach that blends ’60s R&B with smooth Chicano soul. The group makes the jump from singles to […]
Sam Evian’s latest record, Plunge, sounds exactly like how it was made, over bucolic winter days at his upstate New York studio, surrounded by musician friends, taking daily plunges in a cold creek in the snow, and letting the songs […]
Near the end of his fourth studio album, on a number called “Triumph,” Gary Clark Jr. urges listeners to “set the world on fire.” Clark himself has been doing that with his music since he emerged as a six-string prodigy […]
Kacey Musgraves excels at producing cinematic albums that track the vagaries of human existence in kaleidoscopic colors. On Deeper Well, her fifth album and the follow-up to her 2021 chart topper star-crossed (ND review), Musgraves produces another stunning masterpiece that […]
The beauty of Andrea von Kampen’s music is also responsible for its most frustrating aspect: that it makes no demands. Von Kampen’s deeply rooted plainsong is all too easily washed out in a digital era where distractions and doomscrolling force […]
Country music has a long tradition of women banding together: Trio, Pistol Annies, Our Native Daughters, and The Highwomen come to mind. A new sisterhood now carries that same spirit, combining the musical superpowers of Kelly Willis, Melissa Carper, and […]
Like Emmylou Harris, Gillian Welch, Alison Krauss, and Iris DeMent before them, the Nashville-based duo Paper Wings mixes coffeehouse folk with old-time and bluegrass — the haunting self-reflective introspection of Joni Mitchell and the haunting high lonesome sound of Bill […]
