One of the things I like about debut albums from singer-songwriters is they frequently have a much richer collection of stories than happens once the pressure mounts to get new material out to fans to keep things fresh. Â That’s the case with the first album from Texas artist Parker McCollum. Â Entitled The Limestone Kid it’s […]
Mike Farris On A First Gig Playing a Drug Dealer’s “Club” and the Future of Live Music
Mike Farris reflects back on his first gig at a drug dealer’s “club” and offers his view on where the value of music, both live and recorded, is headed.
Monday Morning Video – Mike Farris
A week ago Sunday Mike Farris was walking on stage in sunny Los Angeles to accept a Grammy for Best Roots Gospel Album. Three days later he braved the cold and snow to play a small club in Boston. To say that he wowed the crowd would be an understatement. For more than two hours […]
Hazy Shade of Winter — A Special Boston Playlist
Here is the latest installment in our periodic series highlighting Boston and New England artists. (View the complete series here.) FEATURED ALBUMS Barnstar! (from the Signature Sounds Records release Sit Down! Get Up! Get Out!) I don’t think that it is possible to listen to Barnstar and not crack a smile. Every performance, even the […]
Tinsley Ellis – Tough Love
Tinsley Ellis came up as a hard-rocking guitar slinger in the mold of Stevie Ray Vaughan. He was always known as a great axe-man, but as the decades passed and his art matured, he also became an accomplished songwriter and interpreter of the many shades of blues. Kanye West might even be a little impressed with […]
Sons of Bill – Live at Bottletree Cafe, January 15th
The Sons of Bill played for an intimate and enthusiastic audience at Bottletree Café in Birmingham, Alabama. Ironically the next day they boarded a plane to England for a European tour, in which one of the stops in the UK will also be Birmingham. That should set the table for an intriguing linguistic study comparing […]
Joe Pug On Touring In a Hand-Me-Down Van and an Expensive Line-Item From His Music Budget
Joe Pug talks about the upcoming retirement of his tour van, earning his first $100 in music by playing Foo Fighters covers and the most satisfying day job he has ever had.
Screen Door Porch – Modern Settler
When I first listened to Modern Settler, the latest release from Wyoming band Screen Door Porch, I assumed the band’s core duo of Seader Rose and Aaron Davis had gotten some wanderlust and spent time traveling through the rural South. Â Turns out the inspiration was closer to home, and came from a cassette Davis discovered […]
Wood & Wire – The Coast
A few years ago some members of a couple of different Austin-based bluegrass bands got together for some late night jamming and out of it came one of my favorite bluegrass albums of 2013, the self-titled Wood & Wire. Â The boys are now releasing their follow-up album, The Coast. There’s an occasionally recurring theme that […]
Mayer’s Playlist for January 2015
ALBUM OF THE MONTH Fear and Saturday Night, by Ryan Bingham Bingham sets the tone for his latest album right out of the gate. “I’ve been carrying my troubles in this pack strapped to my shoulder,” he confesses in the opening “Nobody Knows My Trouble.” What follows are twelve songs that are filled with life […]