While there’s no obvious primer on the handling of ghosts, there’s enough of a common mythology to infer a few things — one of which is that some form of confrontation and/or appeasement is enough to make them go away. […]
Blues isn’t supposed to be mannered and reverent. It’s meant to be delivered from the soul, the bones, the dirt, the hands, the heart. It’s at its best when it’s dirty, raw, lowdown, at least just a little manic, unhinged. […]
The Damien Jurado canon is a deep well, but a couple of decades and nearly 20 albums into his career, treasures still emerge from it. The latest one from the prolific artist is also the first on his own label, […]
On the title track of Shay Martin Lovette’s second LP, Scatter & Gather, he muses on the magnetism of certain people in our lives. Whether it’s a partner, family member, or friend, there is a person, or people, who, no […]
To simply call his voice deep or gruff doesn’t do it justice. What emanates from Riley Downing’s vocal cords is a timeless reverberation, one that is soaked in the long, laboring days of a Midwestern life; the voice not of […]
The term “excelsior” translates to “ever upward,” which makes it an apt title for Johanna Samuels’ debut album. Excelsior! is all about growth and progression — personal, political, relational — not just lyrically, but in the heady mix of wistful-hopeful […]
It turns out that sometimes you can unring a bell. Look no further than Delta Kream, the new set of blues covers from The Black Keys, for proof of that. Since first embarking on a lengthy, well-publicized collaboration with producer […]
The Foreign Landers is a pretty good name for the married roots duo of David Benedict and Tabitha Agnew. He is from South Carolina; she from Northern Ireland. So, music from foreign lands is to be expected on their new […]
The act of prayer involves entering into a space where the world falls away and where the person praying attempts to become one, at least momentarily, with the Other. Prayer can be a trance-like state, a state of deep dreaming […]
Mandy Barnett was born to make this album. Every Star Above’s songs from the Great American Songbook — the same songs Billie Holiday performed for her Lady in Satin — are perfect matches for Barnett’s lush and sultry vocals, and […]
