As anyone in the industry can attest, building a life as a musician is not for the faint of heart. In the case of itinerant drummer and vocalist Darlin’ Brando, nee Brandon Goldstein, he’s moved across the country more times than I’ve moved my furniture. After a repeat stint in LA he’s back in Nashville […]
Now & Then: Silverada’s Living Proof and the reach of Against the Wind
Silverada’s Living Proof pushes the band farther from straight honky-tonk and closer to heartland rock without dropping its Texas country foundation. With keyboards taking a larger role and pedal steel no longer central to the arrangements, the record has a broader, more reflective sound. Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band’s Against the Wind makes a useful comparison because it also pairs a seasoned road band with songs about work, age, relationships and the consequences of staying in motion for years.Silverada’s Living Proof pushes the band farther from straight honky-tonk and closer to heartland rock without dropping its Texas country foundation. With keyboards taking a larger role and pedal steel no longer central to the arrangements, the record has a broader, more reflective sound. Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band’s Against the Wind makes a useful comparison because it also pairs a seasoned road band with songs about work, age, relationships and the consequences of staying in motion for years.Silverada’s Living Proof pushes the band farther from straight honky-tonk and closer to heartland rock without dropping its Texas country foundation. With keyboards taking a larger role and pedal steel no longer central to the arrangements, the record has a broader, more reflective sound. Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band’s Against the Wind makes a useful comparison because it also pairs a seasoned road band with songs about work, age, relationships and the consequences of staying in motion for years.Silverada’s Living Proof pushes the band farther from straight honky-tonk and closer to heartland rock without dropping its Texas country foundation. With keyboards taking a larger role and pedal steel no longer central to the arrangements, the record has a broader, more reflective sound. Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band’s Against the Wind makes a useful comparison because it also pairs a seasoned road band with songs about work, age, relationships and the consequences of staying in motion for years.Silverada’s Living Proof pushes the band farther from straight honky-tonk and closer to heartland rock without dropping its Texas country foundation. With keyboards taking a larger role and pedal steel no longer central to the arrangements, the record has a broader, more reflective sound. Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band’s Against the Wind makes a useful comparison because it also pairs a seasoned road band with songs about work, age, relationships and the consequences of staying in motion for years.Silverada’s Living Proof pushes the band farther from straight honky-tonk and closer to heartland rock without dropping its Texas country foundation. With keyboards taking a larger role and pedal steel no longer central to the arrangements, the record has a broader, more reflective sound. Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band’s Against the Wind makes a useful comparison because it also pairs a seasoned road band with songs about work, age, relationships and the consequences of staying in motion for years.Silverada’s Living Proof pushes the band farther from straight honky-tonk and closer to heartland rock without dropping its Texas country foundation. With keyboards taking a larger role and pedal steel no longer central to the arrangements, the record has a broader, more reflective sound. Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band’s Against the Wind makes a useful comparison because it also pairs a seasoned road band with songs about work, age, relationships and the consequences of staying in motion for years.Silverada’s Living Proof pushes the band farther from straight honky-tonk and closer to heartland rock without dropping its Texas country foundation. With keyboards taking a larger role and pedal steel no longer central to the arrangements, the record has a broader, more reflective sound. Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band’s Against the Wind makes a useful comparison because it also pairs a seasoned road band with songs about work, age, relationships and the consequences of staying in motion for years.Silverada’s Living Proof pushes the band farther from straight honky-tonk and closer to heartland rock without dropping its Texas country foundation. With keyboards taking a larger role and pedal steel no longer central to the arrangements, the record has a broader, more reflective sound. Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band’s Against the Wind makes a useful comparison because it also pairs a seasoned road band with songs about work, age, relationships and the consequences of staying in motion for years.Silverada’s Living Proof pushes the band farther from straight honky-tonk and closer to heartland rock without dropping its Texas country foundation. With keyboards taking a larger role and pedal steel no longer central to the arrangements, the record has a broader, more reflective sound. Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band’s Against the Wind makes a useful comparison because it also pairs a seasoned road band with songs about work, age, relationships and the consequences of staying in motion for years.Silverada’s Living Proof pushes the band farther from straight honky-tonk and closer to heartland rock without dropping its Texas country foundation. With keyboards taking a larger role and pedal steel no longer central to the arrangements, the record has a broader, more reflective sound. Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band’s Against the Wind makes a useful comparison because it also pairs a seasoned road band with songs about work, age, relationships and the consequences of staying in motion for years.Silverada’s Living Proof pushes the band farther from straight honky-tonk and closer to heartland rock without dropping its Texas country foundation. With keyboards taking a larger role and pedal steel no longer central to the arrangements, the record has a broader, more reflective sound. Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band’s Against the Wind makes a useful comparison because it also pairs a seasoned road band with songs about work, age, relationships and the consequences of staying in motion for years.Silverada’s Living Proof pushes the band farther from straight honky-tonk and closer to heartland rock without dropping its Texas country foundation. With keyboards taking a larger role and pedal steel no longer central to the arrangements, the record has a broader, more reflective sound. Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band’s Against the Wind makes a useful comparison because it also pairs a seasoned road band with songs about work, age, relationships and the consequences of staying in motion for years.Silverada’s Living Proof pushes the band farther from straight honky-tonk and closer to heartland rock without dropping its Texas country foundation. With keyboards taking a larger role and pedal steel no longer central to the arrangements, the record has a broader, more reflective sound. Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band’s Against the Wind makes a useful comparison because it also pairs a seasoned road band with songs about work, age, relationships and the consequences of staying in motion for years.
Now & Then: GA-20 with Charlie Musselwhite’s BLUES NOW and the reach of Hoodoo Man Blues
GA-20 and Charlie Musselwhite’s BLUES NOW is built around a simple idea: keep the band lean, leave room in the arrangements, and let the interaction between guitar, harmonica, and voice carry the record. That makes Junior Wells’ 1965 Hoodoo Man Blues a useful predecessor. The two albums come from very different moments, but both treat electric blues as band music first, with little interest in unnecessary studio polish.
GA-20 with Charlie Musselwhite – Blues Now
It’s chemistry. Matthew Stubbs and Charlie Musselhite have worked together off-and-on for at least 15 years, with Stubbs initially a sideman in Musselwhite’s band. Now, with Stubbs new role as lead guitarist for GA-20, the pair are once again tearing it up on their new album, Blues Now. Musselwhite himself, at age 82, has ascended […]
Greg Piccolo & Heavy Juice – Who Knows What the Future Holds
Tenor sax player Greg Piccolo is another in a long line of Roomful of Blues alumni who have gone on to great solo careers, along with the likes of Duke Robillard, Ronnie Earl, Curtis Salgado and Sugar Ray Norcia. Roomful of Blues has long been the gold standard for jump blues, which is a horns-heavy […]
Prodigal Father – a Premiere from Kevin Gordon
Kevin Gordon is as authentic as they come. His Southern stories are rooted in truth, though only he knows exactly how much. He brings those tales to life with a literary eye, set against guitars as gritty as the stories themselves. There are countless reasons a great song gets left off an album — which […]
Now & Then: Brand New Heartache’s A New Alchemy and the reach of In Spite of Ourselves
Brand New Heartache’s A New Alchemy fits into a long country tradition: two singers using harmony and disagreement to tell the truth about a relationship. The clearest earlier reference point is John Prine’s In Spite of Ourselves, a record that treated love as a conversation between imperfect people rather than a polished romantic ideal.
The Family – Delusions of Grandeur
Some records feel assembled; Delusions of Grandeur feels inherited. The Family is Dylan LeBlanc, his father James LeBlanc and James wife and stepson Angela Hacker and Bay Simpson. The album carries the unmistakable weight of shared history, where blood ties matter less than the lived experiences that shape every lyric and harmony. Recorded at Muscle […]
“Start a Band” – A Premiere from Bleu
LA popmeister Bleu doesn’t release a lot of his own music these days — he’s too busy writing and producing for television, film, and other artists. But personal experience provided the impetus for his new album: a tribute to two close friends he lost, longtime studio partner Ducky Carlisle and college best friend Alex Scutro. […]
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.