The Philadelphia Folk Festival, which has been around for 54 years, isn’t your grandfather’s folk festival. While there is still a smattering of venerable acoustic solo folksingers on its program like Arlo Guthrie, Bruce Cockburn and Tom Paxton, the festival has become a great platform for Americana artists of all flavors as well as for […]
David Ramirez – Fables
With raw emotion, David Ramirez delivers a collection of songs that shows the uneasy coexistence of a person’s true nature and best intentions. Each song on “Fables†is a candid vignette that demonstrates that the line between the two is unclear without honest examination. Relationships are explored with vocals and melodies that maintain harmony with […]
Mea Culpa! A Special Summer Playlist, Part 1
Mea culpa! So last year I made a commitment to myself to write a monthly playlist and publish it within the month for which it was named. I gave myself a hearty pat on the back when I met that goal. Thankfully, I didn’t set the same goal this year as I would have failed […]
Ana Egge – Bright Shadow
In New York, Chicago, San Francisco, you can still find dimly lit, low-ceiling basement clubs, surprisingly full even on a weeknight, where you can get a stiff drink and a soberingly good jazz band.  You can’t smoke in them anymore, but that smoky sound still comes from a singer whose voice seems earned from whisky and cigarettes […]
Elephant Revival – Sands Of Now
To listen to Elephant Revival is to hear everything you’ve ever heard in acoustic music and yet nothing you’ve ever heard in acoustic music. The Colorado-based quintet will bring you to the edge of your chair in a pristine listening room, trying to capture every nuance. Â They will force you back in your lawn chair […]
Mayer’s Picks: The Best of 2015 (So Far) the Songs Part 2
Everybody Talkin’ ’bout the All American, JD McPherson (from the Rounder Records release Let The Good Times Roll) Let’s just call this the dance hit of the year. One listen and you’ll know what I mean. You Got To Me, James McMurtry (from the Complicated Game Records release Complicated Game) On a given day I’d […]
FY5 – Eat the Moon
An hour north of Denver in a bend of the St. Vrain river sits a beautiful amphitheater and campground, home to Rockygrass and the Rocky Mountain Folks Festival, among other events. Â The far bank of the river is a cliff of Colorado red rock that positively glows in the afternoon sun. Â The river itself has […]
Shinyribs – Okra Candy
On various patches of land continuously testing the boundaries of wet and dry in the sea level portions of southeast Texas, southwest Mississippi and southern Louisiana live a breed of men thriving on the margins of humanity.  For a 2 week stretch they manage to semi-control their impulses enough to be trusted by others of their […]
Mayer’s Picks – the Best of 2015 (So Far), the Albums
Here, in no particular order, are some of my favorite releases from the first half of 2015. COMPLICATED GAME by JAMES MCMURTRY As he celebrates the release of his first album in six years, there’s a part of me that wishes that McMurtry was more prolific. Then I remember that it takes time to craft […]
Della Mae – Della Mae
The first time I drove CA 1 through Big Sur it was on a rainy day in a big, 80’s rental car with more of a rudder than a steering wheel. Â A few years later I had the chance to drive it in something much sportier and the difference was exhilarating. Â All those curves changed […]