LEE BAINS III & THE GLORY FIRES If you haven’t seen Bains and company live then you’ve been missing something special. Well, perhaps special isn’t the right word; maybe cathartic? The quartet unleash a fury of rock and roll complete with blaring guitars, roaring vocals and enough energy to power a small town. Bains bounded […]
SXSW 2018 – The Scene
For me, the true harbinger of spring is the arrival of the SXSW Music and Media Conference in Austin, Texas. Or rather, spring begins for me when I arrive in Austin for SXSW. With upwards of 2,000 bands and more than 20,000 attendees from around the world, SXSW is the world’s premiere music conference. Even […]
Monday Morning Video – Play Ball with Josh Kantor
It’s that time of year – Opening Day is this Thursday. What better way to celebrate than a video from Josh Kantor, Fenway Park organist and indie music enthusiast. Here’s his take on the Replacement’s “Here Comes a Regular.”
Monday Morning Video – Deer Tick Go to the Bar
Feel like starting the week with some rock and perhaps a sing-along? Deer Tick have got you covered with the raucous “Let’s All Go the Bar.”
Mayer’s Playlist for Winter 2018, Part 2
Simple Scenes, Marie/Lepanto (from the Big Legal Mess Records release Tenkiller) It perhaps shouldn’t come as a surprise that Justin Peter Kinkel-Schuster (Water Liars) and Will Johnson (Centro-Matic et al) named their new project after a rural road sign that marks an intersection near two Arkansas towns (Marie and Lepanto). Tenkiller exudes a sense of […]
Monday Morning Video – Daniel Johnston & Friends
This week we’ll honor Daniel Johnston and his starkly beautiful “True Love Will Find You in the End.” Johnston has long been revered among musicians, as the many covers of this song attest. Here is just a sampling with performances from Wilco, Elizabeth and the Catapult, Spiritualized and Basia Bulat. We close out the collection […]
Mayer’s Playlist for Winter 2018, Part 1
Time Will Be the Healer, Glen Hansard (from the Anti- Records release Between Two Shores) Songwriting is arguably a numbers game. For many artists, the quantity of songs released is a fraction of those that are written. It’s a shame, really, as some quality songs can get left on the shelf gathering dust. For his […]
Monday Morning Video – Folk Alliance 2018 Video Companion
We’ll wrap up our Folk Alliance International coverage with a collection of videos from this year’s conference. Most of these performances are from the official performances that took place in hotel ballrooms but you’ll see a few from the late night hotel room showcases. This video playlist includes Colter Wall, John Gorka, Jaimee Harris, John […]
Folk Alliance 2018 – Say What?!
One of my favorite things about attending music conferences and festivals are the crazy comments that you hear along the way. Here are a few choice selections from this year’s Folk Alliance Conference. It’s my first time at Folk Alliance, I was wondering if it was because my background is tainted by that rock and […]
Folk Alliance 2018 – Mayer’s Picks, Part 2
Ruby BootsNashville by way of Australia singer-songwriter Ruby Boots was celebrating the release of her just released Bloodshot Records debut. She brought together an infectious enthusiasm with stellar songs, mostly about relationships, that matched catchy melodies with lyrical fervor. Una and Bob WalkenhorstThere aren’t many father-daughter duos in music. Then again, there aren’t many songwriters […]