Singer-songwriter Chris Pierce recalls landing his first gig at age 7 or 8 after spotting a classified ad in the L.A. Times, and later working as a music professor during the pandemic. He also talks about stocking up on water while on tour, and the value of building and nurturing relationships in the music business.
Monday Morning Video – William Matheny
William Matheny’s new album, Material Witness, was released earlier this month. It’s great songwriting with real rock and roll grit. The title track gets the live-in-studio treatment for this week’s video — just Matheny and his band, no overdubs to hide behind. Matheny played NYC last night, a show I appropriated as my birthday party. […]
Now & Then: John R. Miller’s The Great Unknowing and the reach of The Poet Game
John R. Miller’s The Great Unknowing expands his country-rooted songwriting without leaving its working-class concerns behind. The album moves between acoustic character studies, honky-tonk arrangements, and louder electric passages, but Miller’s focus stays on people dealing with disappointment, economic pressure, and their own bad habits. Greg Brown’s 1994 album The Poet Game offers a useful earlier model. Brown also built songs from ordinary lives and local details, then allowed broader social concerns to emerge without turning the writing into commentary first and music second.
Readers’ Pick: John R. Miller – The Great Unknowing
You picked John R. Miller – The Great Unknowing as your favorite new release for the week of July 10, 2026.
The Hooters’ Eric Bazilian on Inflation and Street Gum Wisdom
Eric Bazilian, guitarist and singer-songwriter of The Hooters, recalls how the band’s early rehearsal space, a warehouse in a then-rough part of Philadelphia, became the birthplace of the band’s name and its first songs. He also reveals who between the band and crew gets the nicer tour bus when the Hooters are on the road.
Monday Morning Video – Austin Plaine
Some songs meet you exactly where you are — and then lift you somewhere better. Austin Plaine has a gift for that kind of winsome, quietly uplifting songwriting, and “Rise Above It” is a perfect example. It sits with the weight of hard-won experience before arriving at something that feels like grace. “Looking at the […]
Now & Then: The Rolling Stones’ Foreign Tongues and the reach of Berry Is on Top
The Rolling Stones have spent their career making their influences easy to hear, and Chuck Berry remains one of the clearest. Foreign Tongues connects through its guitar-driven arrangements, Jagger’s character-based singing, and the band’s preference for direct, rhythm-first rock and roll. Chuck Berry’s 1959 album Berry Is on Top offers a useful point of comparison because it contains several songs and techniques that helped shape the Stones from their earliest years.
Readers’ Pick: The Rolling Stones – Foreign Tongues
You picked The Rolling Stones – Foreign Tongues Price – Days Of Unrest as your favorite new release for the week of July 10, 2026.
Still in the Groove: Martha Reeves Keeps Searching
Photo courtesy Martha Reeves Martha Reeves has spent more than six decades giving people reasons to dance. Her voice powered Motown landmarks like “Dancing in the Street,” “Heat Wave,” “Jimmy Mack,” and “Nowhere to Run,” songs that still spill from radios and playlists with enough spark to lift a room. Now, as she approaches her […]
Ma Rainey – The Complete Paramount Recordings, 1923-1928
Editor’s Note: We invited Nashville artist and blues devotee Sophie Gault to dig into Ma Rainey’s Paramount recordings, arriving as a new box set on July 24. Sitting in the kitchen one summer night, you hear the sound of a muted trumpet leading into a song. It’s accompanied by a slight lingering static. While listening, […]