The past few years have been ones of rebuilding and rediscovery for the Black Lillies and leader Cruz Contreras. In the months following the 2015 release of Hard to Please, the excrement hit the proverbial fan and Contreras found his band […]
Daptone Records’ legacy was forged by two outsized, transcendent talents. Sharon Jones and Charles Bradley were irrepressible forces to be reckoned with, bringing the retro soul style of producers Gabriel Roth and Thomas Brenneck to light with an incandescence that’s […]
The last five years have done a lot for Avi Salloway. He’s been a political and environmental activist, traveling the world to fight for social and eco-justice in both the Middle East and America. And musically, he spent four years […]
Anthem, the eighth album by jazz chanteuse Madeleine Peyroux, was conceived in the midst of the tumultuous 2016 presidential election and its dismal news cycle. While the unhinged political climate leaked into and inspired her writing and recording, Anthem isn’t […]
Last December, bassist/writer/generally accepted authority on bluegrass Jon Weisberger was the subject of a fairly lengthy interview on NPR titled “A Bigger Tent: A Frank Conversation about Diversity and the Future of Bluegrass.” Weisberger discussed diversity of race, age, gender, […]
The War and Treaty, husband-and-wife team Michael and Tanya Trotter’s onstage nom de plume, made their entrée into the music scene last year with their Down to the River EP. The seven tracks of Southern blues-folk moved the couple away […]
Live albums are such a touch-an-go proposition. For some (see: James Brown, Live at the Apollo; The Who, Live at Leeds; Kiss, Alive!), a live album can serve as a definitive statement that highlights an artist’s essence. Others (see: every […]
Celtgrass. If you Google the word, it takes nearly four search pages to find the term used for something other than We Banjo 3. The Galway, Ireland-based quartet coined the term for its blend of traditional Irish and American roots […]
When Hot Buttered Rum released “Country Tunes and Love Songs,” the lead single off the new album Lonesome Panoramic, vocalist/guitarist Nat Keefe said the band had “the memory of Tom Petty whispering in our ears.” The statement was certainly true […]
The concept of an artist with a multidecade career releasing re-recorded or “unplugged” versions of material originally performed to great success decades prior is too-trodden ground. It’s become a trope, an easy way for a legacy artist to cash in […]
