David Wax Museum @ Outside the Box Music Festival July 2013, Boston MA I was standing in the middle of City Hall Plaza on a sweltering July evening at the Outside the Box music festival. Never having seen David Wax Museum play before, I was unsure of what to expect. Before we left, my husband […]
Ghosts Along the Brazos – When It Rains It Pours
Some songs, and albums, take you to a particular time in your life, junior year in high school maybe, or the first summer of backyard barbecues in your first home. Â Others take you to an era, the 30’s of NY with early Duke Ellington, or Bakersfield in the early 60’s with Buck Owens. Â And some […]
High Cotton: a Tribute to Alabama
Riding around with mom in the back seat of the family’s 1980’s Buick, I distinctly remember the sounds of Alabama coming from the tape deck or Whistle 100, the local country radio station. I could sing every word of their Christmas album at 10 years old. And even my dad, who didn’t really get into recorded […]
Guy Clark – My Favorite Picture of You
Guy Clark has been one of the most revered songwriters for over forty years. Over the span of his career he has created a body of work using stories, vignettes, characters, and places in time; to create songs that personify the lens through which he observes the world. Many artists write songs with distinct lyrics, […]
Thursday Morning Video- Aoife O’Donovan “Red & White & Blue & Gold”
Ok folks, I got behind the 8 ball a bit on finishing up the full review of the new Aoife O’Donovan (Crooked Still) record. It’s called Fossils and it’s really good. I’ll post a full review sometime in the very near future. In the meantime, here is my favorite song from the record:
Mayer’s Picks: The Best of 2013, So Far (the Songs)
Elephant and Super 8, Jason Isbell (from the Southeastern Records release Southeastern) This list wouldn’t ordinarily include two tracks from the same artist but I’m gonna make an exception. These two tracks exemplify the range of Isbell’s songwriting talent, from the somber beauty of “Elephant” to the boisterous rock of “Super 8.” Alphabet City, Todd […]
Bakersfield – Review & Giveaway
Although we tend to think of the rebellion against the slick production values that Nashville country music is perhaps best known for as a fairly recent phenomena, it dates back over 50 years to a group of artists, and a Capitol Records producer, that called Bakersfield, California, home. Â The Bakersfield Sound eschewed the strings and […]
Photos that ROCK! Barnstar!
Barnstar! at the Outside the Box Festival July 15, 2013- Boston, MA C’mon! Besides being the name of their album, this is a phrase that you can often hear bassist Zack Hickman holler during a rollicking bluegrass solo. And as he pointed out, their name isn’t Barnstar, it’s Barnstar! This is fitting for a band […]
Slaid Cleaves Reinvents the Rocking Coffeehouse
Though “Club Passim” in Cambridge has a generally laidback vibe, it took the homey comfort of a prodigal son to turn it into a what a coffeehouse should be. Slaid Claves played his highly literate tunes in front of capacity crowd of about 100. Square tables, appetizers and friendly stories made Cleaves’ feel like a […]
Mayer’s Picks: The Best of 2013, So Far (the Albums)
This has been a great musical year and we’ve still got several months — and some highly anticipated releases — to go before it ends. Here, in no particular order, are some of my favorite releases from the first half of 2013. You’ll see that I’ve listed my favorite Boston releases as a group. Each […]