The term “hopeless romantic” is a bit of a misnomer. Being a romantic actually hinges on the idealism and sentimentality of hope — an assurance that magic between souls is possible. And yet the absence of romance can render this […]
Times are tough. Add up the challenges posed by systemic racism, economic inequality, environmental woes, and, of course, the pandemic, among many other ills, and the modern world can feel downright overwhelming. However, Carsie Blanton is on the case. Fiery […]
It doesn’t take long for Ashley Monroe to seize control on Rosegold. “There’s nowhere else that you would rather be,” she sings on album opener “Siren.” Okay, then. Monroe has good reason for her artistic confidence after the acclaim for […]
It doesn’t matter how much time passes, Teenage Fanclub are still masters of the pop song. They still always find ways to inject pure sunshine into our veins when we need it the most, and their latest, Endless Arcade, is […]
He’s the soul man behind the soul men, his guitar providing the curlicues that surrounded and supported a plethora of Stax soul artists. Immortalized by Sam Moore’s shout-out, “Play it, Steve” on Sam and Dave’s 1967 Stax hit “Soul Man,” […]
Todd Snider’s made a career of skewering our inflated ideas of ourselves and getting back to the bones of emotion and ragged humor of existence. He’s a reliable narrator to turn the world upside down in his lyrics, offering his […]
Like P-Funk stamped with a Meters imprint infused with the J.B.’s bombast and a Sly and the Family Stone vibe with a whiff of Jimmy McGriff, New Orleans’ Dumpstaphunk roars along, infused with the blood of funk royalty. Keyboardist Ivan […]
There’s beauty in simplicity. In a culture where art is called “content” and we’re constantly oversaturated and overstimulated by sounds and images, it’s easy to lose sight of that. Luckily Neilson Hubbard and his sterling new album Digging up the […]
If YouTube has taught us anything, which is debatable, it’s that there’s no shortage of dazzling instrumentalists in any genre you can imagine. Bluegrass-inspired musician Eli West is one of the talented artists you can find there, but what makes […]
Over 40 years is a long time to wait for anything, much less the sequel to an album. But when that album is Markology II, the first guitar album released by fiddle virtuoso and legend Mark O’Connor since Markology in […]
