Eleese and Matthew Meschery of Brand New Heartache talk about the show posters hanging in their rehearsal space and the animal puppets that ride alongside guitar cables in their minivan. They also reveal why they strategically play shows near family and friends.
Bruce Cockburn: The Blood That Runs Through the Songs
Bruce Cockburn has spent a lifetime accumulating other people’s music. Some songs became warm-up rituals, others a welcome escape from singing his own words. A few arrived by accident, a guitar figure leading him toward a melody he suddenly needed to learn. On The Blood of Others, due October 16 on Sunset Blvd. Records, the […]
Mac Cornish on Borrowed Rehearsal Spaces and Her Biggest Blessings
Mac Cornish shares the story behind “Goodbye, Nebraska,” the first song she ever recorded and one which her father still brings up today. Cornish also talks about why food is the one thing never skimped on while on tour and recalls a favorite day job at a vintage store, a natural fit for someone who loves old clothes.
Jake Blount on a Chicken Named George and Why You Should Let Some Opportunities Go
Jake Blount talks about rehearsing as an apartment dweller, including renting rooms at Providence’s JamStage, where he might be playing in a room next to a dad band covering Linkin Park. He shares advice on staying hydrated on the road and discusses the benefits of a livable income stream outside of music. The fiddler, banjo player, and guitarist is pursuing a Ph.D. in Musicology and Ethnomusicology at Brown University.
John R. Miller on a New Year’s Eve Gig and Putting the Robots to Work
Nashville singer-songwriter John R. Miller remembers playing a New Year’s Eve gig at age 15, recalls time spent working in restaurant kitchens, and talks about one reason he started a career in music.
A Few Words with Abe Partridge
Café Wha? opened in 1959 in a MacDougal Street basement in Greenwich Village, and it has long been an early stop for artists still building their audiences. Bob Dylan first played the room in January 1961, Jimi Hendrix worked through multiple sets a night there as Jimmy James in the mid-1960s, and Bruce Springsteen did […]
Keb’ Mo’: The Breakdown and the Long Way Home
Keb’ Mo’ has been making music for more than half a century, but he still approaches a song like there is something left to figure out. Born and raised in Compton, California, he came up listening to Nat King Cole, church singers and the blues guitarists who traced the music backward toward Mississippi. At 21, […]
A Few Words with The Damnwells’ Alex Dezen
The Damnwells’ Air Stereo turns 20 this year. It’s not old enough to drink yet, but the band is throwing it a party anyway with two special shows. The first was at Lodge Room in Los Angeles on September 10. The second is at Racket in NYC on Friday, October 9 (get tix). I’m not […]
Miko Marks on Music’s Healing Power and Never Breaking a Guitar String
Flint, Michigan–born singer-songwriter Miko Marks takes us inside Redtone Records, the red-walled basement studio where she rehearses, in a house tied to the founding of East Palo Alto. She also recalls her first gig, a second-grade show with a $25 fee she never saw, and talks about the day job she still holds as social director at a tennis club.
Levi Foster on Luxury Road Food and Wanting to Be Johnny Cash
Singer-songwriter and guitarist Levi Foster, a Rustburg, Virginia native now based in Nashville, recalls writing his first song at 13 in the back of an I Spy book. He talks about framing houses with his dad and brother and living in his van when he first arrived, and shares the one thing he wishes he’d known when he started in music.