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 […]
Tony Joe White is still king of the swamp. Although no Granny-masticating lizards of the “Polk Salad Annie” persuasion loom large in Smoke From the Chimney, Tony Joe White’s latest unboxed swampthings collection, his signature bigfoot backbeat still tramples the […]
Troubadour Graham Sharp invites us onto his front porch as he spins out rollicking bluegrass stompers, emotionally intimate and spare folk ballads, and a scampering rocker for his solo debut, Truer Picture. On this solo debut for Sharp, whose main […]
Those first few shimmering notes on Sam Armstrong-Zickefoose’s album Spark in Your Smile are an invitation: Soon, you’ll find yourself in a musical universe that ebbs, flows, and gently rocks with undulating rhythms that can at times soften the blow […]
Leftover Salmon’s Brand New Good Old Days isn’t a sarcastic title. The album is fun and hopeful, with elements of bluegrass, country, rock, and jazz organically woven together, recalling classic Grateful Dead. Their cover of the iconic Soundgarden song, “Black […]
Say this for Miranda Lambert: The country superstar is not afraid to share the spotlight. Whether teaming with Angaleena Presley and Ashley Monroe in Pistol Annies or, more recently, cavorting with Elle King, Lambert seems to revel in collaboration. Maybe […]
She’s the one a few steps back from the spotlight backing her sister’s operatic tonsils. But when Ann Wilson gets through with her roof-rattling antics, Nancy Wilson steps into the light to wow the crowds with her guitar prowess. But […]
On his previous effort, 2019’s Forecast, multi-instrumentalist, composer, and producer (and a member of Bruce Hornsby’s acclaimed Noisemakers) John Mailander abandoned traditional acoustic folk and bluegrass song structures for a more exploratory, improvisational approach. The result inspired Mailander to begin […]
If you want something done right, you go to the experts. So if you want some vintage honky-tonk, you go to The Shootouts. Lead singer Ryan Humbert lives Americana music, even going so far as creating a 24-hour streaming radio […]
Amy Speace looks at the world with bracing clarity. She peers into the shadows and darkness of everyday life — death and loss, grief and longing — and embraces them, for she knows that we must pass through the shadows […]
