Chicago, the rock band known for hits like “25 or 6 to 4” and “Saturday in the Park,” are joined by soul legend Al Green in this 1973 performance. Green sings his own hit “Tired of Being Alone,” with Chicago’s horns locking into the pocket behind him.
Now & Then: Margo Price’s Days Of Unrest and the reach of Van Lear Rose
Margo Price has never treated country music as neutral ground, and Days Of Unrest removes any remaining doubt. Released as a July 4 weekend protest mixtape, it puts her in conversation with the folk-protest tradition while keeping one boot in country music. The “Then” album is Loretta Lynn’s Van Lear Rose, a 2004 record that made plainspoken country songwriting feel newly urgent.
Readers’ Pick: Margo Price – Days Of Unrest
You picked Margo Price – Days Of Unrest as your favorite new release for the week of July 3, 2026.
Mayer’s Picks – The Best of 2026 (So Far), the Songs
Don’t Let Go, Fantastic Cat (from the Missing Piece Records release Cat Out of Hell) A scream-along-at-the-top-of-your-lungs anthem about holding on to your dreams. Nothing you can buy can save what you soldSo hold on tight to the light in your soulDon’t look down, baby don’t let… Don’t let go Suffer, Boy Golden (from the […]
Mayer’s Picks – the Best of 2026 (So Far), the Albums
Cat Out of Hell by Fantastic Cat Fantastic Cat’s third album is another classic, nothing but pure pop perfection. Four songwriters with distinct styles blend here in a way that shouldn’t work as well as it does — sharp and spirited in both lyric and melody. And credit where it’s due: any album title that […]
Get Into Trouble – a Premiere from Travis McKeveny & the Famous Doctor Scanlon Band
Travis McKeveny, a beloved NY musician, died in 2021, leaving behind two albums and a community that loved him as much for his friendship as his music. Just as important, he left behind a collection of songs and a blueprint for a third album he was ready to record. Shortly before the pandemic, Travis assembled […]
William Matheny on Tinned Fish and Not Making Artistic Compromises
West Virginia singer-songwriter William Matheny talks about Isaac Asimov, destination dining, and why every US citizen should be drafted into two years of mandatory customer and food service upon turning the age of 18.
Monday Morning Video – Eric Ambel & Sophie Gault in NYC
On July 19th, Eric Ambel and Sophie Gault play Groove in the West Village, and they’re bringing their own kind of heat — the kind you actually want. Ambel’s been running electric current through a guitar for decades, across a solo and production career that’s still going. Gault generates her own voltage, and it runs […]
Tift Merritt – Sugar
After the birth of her daughter in 2016 and her last full length, Stitch of the World, in 2017, Tift Merritt moved music to the backburner. She serves as a Practitioner-in-Residence at Duke University exploring the creative process. She also hosted a radio show called The Spark. Fans of Tift rejoiced last year with demos […]
Now & Then: American Aquarium’s New Ways to Lose and the reach of Tennessee
American Aquarium’s New Ways to Lose puts BJ Barham back in familiar territory, but with a wider lens. The songs still come from bars, back roads, family memory, and bad decisions, yet the focus has shifted from private wreckage to the social pressures around it. For a useful older reference point, Lucero’s Tennessee makes sense. Released in 2002, it helped define a Southern alt-country lane where punk urgency, country phrasing, and bar-band durability could sit in the same set without apology.