Like a superhero called to the scene of a crisis, The Mammals have returned with encouraging words of compassion and hope just when they’re needed most. While Mike Merenda and Ruth Ungar, the leaders of this unassuming collective, wouldn’t presume […]
There’s been something gnawing at me for the past few years whenever I’ve attended a concert that I haven’t quite been able to put my finger on. With the exception of seeing Steve Earle, where it’s guaranteed you’ll hear him […]
Outside the Thomas Wolfe Auditorium in Asheville, North Carolina, there’s a sculpture of a guy with a fiddle, a guy with a banjo, and a couple of people dancing. It’s cast in hard, cold metal, but the fixed figures appear […]
Mike + Ruthy, the songwriting duo behind politically charged band the Mammals, are reviving their former group with a brand new record and the ND premiere of their latest tune, “Culture War.” Now, more than ever, it seems like America really is in the midst […]
Upstate New York folk outfit Mike + Ruthy is reviving the band’s primordial musical form — the Mammals. The group brought political song work back to the American folk tradition in the early aughts, and there’s no better time than now to bring […]
I’m dedicating my first entry in this new video column to the Mike & Ruthy Band, since I’ll be premiering a new video from them each week for the next few weeks. This week, we lead with a special video […]
Married singer-songwriter duo Mike Merenda and Ruthy Ungar may have cut their teeth as two-fifths of seminal indie folk troupe The Mammals, but for the past decade or so, they’ve been making their way, doing their own thing. Now with most […]
